“No.”

The word was a simple one, spoke in a calm and cold tone, with a surprisingly squeaky voice, and yet it managed to carry a powerful punch behind its simple declaration.

It echoed across the cavernous frozen throne room, once grey stone pillars now iced over with permafrost, a pale white, ice and snow coating the stone floors and walls. Icicles hung down from the steel chandeliers that hung on heavy chains, iced over, and casting pale blue lights from glowing blue crystals where candles would normally be. At one end of the throne room was a pair of heavy steel metal doors, massive and reinforced with steel knockers, frozen shut in a thick layer of ice. Upon the floor, covered in snow and cracking ice, a dark blue carpet ran from the heavy doors, to up a small set of stone steps to a slight elevation at the other end of the room, and to the feet of the steel throne that sat at the opposite end…

It was huge. It’s back towered up halfway up the wall with spikes jutting all along the edges, sticking out like thick cylindrical icicles. Near to the top of the throne was a large, pale blue crystal embedded into the steel in a diamond shape white mist slowly leaking out from its edges, rolling down the sides of the throne and across the floor, curling around the seat and covering the floor in a fine layer of white mist. The Throne itself was the only object in the room that remained unfrozen, with thick and heavy arm-rests, and a wide seat with a soft fluffy blue cushion upon it, upon which sat a tiny colt who didn’t even take up the width of the seat, sitting with his cute little butt on the cushion.

The colt was… unusual to say the least. He was a small thing with a pale-blue coat, short messy white mane, and a little tuft of a tail. He had a tiny horn sticking up out of his head, as well as a tiny set of wings, sticking out of his back… His Cutie Mark was strange, small on his flank but intricate, looking as like a six-pronged star made out of grey steel, encased in ice, with icicles hanging from the bottom. More interesting than his Cutie Mark however were his eyes, eyes that held no irises, no whites, and had only one overarching color, that of a deep dark blue… the slightly reflective orbs glowed softly in his sockets, white mist pooling around them, occasional wisps leaving his eyes and disappearing into the air…

Despite the grandness of his throne and comfy cushion, all the colt wore upon his body was a small black cape, tied at the neck with simple black strings, a tiny black hood pulled up to frame his face. He sat calm and proper on hid haunches absolutely dwarfed by the throne, and once again uttered words, freezing and cold, squeaky and young, packing power behind each one.

“It is out of the question.”

“We have no other options left brother!” Came the impassioned response, a burning voice at odds with the calm and cold, slightly distorted, eldritch and raging, the strange voice matching its bearer who stood on the dark-blue carpet, a foot away from the steps of the throne, looking up to the small colt with a passionate glare and bared teeth.

The stallion was large, as large as Celestia, with a blood red coat and thick black mane, falling about his shoulders. Black wings jutted from his back, in contrast with the red of his coat, and a vicious black horn curved up from beneath his mane. His eyes were a burning red and slit like a reptiles, his mouth was filled with sharp fangs, and upon his flank was an image as intricate as the one upon the colt’s. His Cutie Mark was a six pronged star made of black iron, with what looked like barbed wire wrapped around it, the whole thing consumed in burning flames…

His hooves were covered with black metal hoofguards, and his chest was covered by a black metal plate. Stark, crude, and jagged, with a diamond-shaped ruby seemingly rammed into the center with the metal later molded around it, some errant streams of black iron crossing over it. Then at his tail, long and braided with strips of black leather, hanging from the end was a vicious steel hook, made to catch, pierce, and tear instead of cut, a weapon of torture instead of war…

This stallion stood with his black wings spread, his body drawn up, his entire form aggressive, and as he looked to the small figure on the throne his eyes blazed with an internal fire, and black mist rose from the feathers of his wings, razor-teeth bared as he looked to the colt, before speaking once more, flames spurting out of his mouth as he raged.

“We have no one left! None remain still to us who may challenge Equestria!” He spoke, desperation clear in his words.

“A natural threat will arise. It is inevitable.” Responded the colt calmly with his cold squeaky voice, unflinching at his brother’s screaming.

“THREAT?! Have you seen the quality of our THREATS lately brother?! Shall we run down the list!?” Shouted the red-coated pony as he began to pace back and forth across the throne, stomping his hooves and cracking the ice as he strode, eyes blazing.

“Nightmare Moon, had a thousand years to plan vengeance and then got her flank kicked by a farmer, dress-maker, cowardly pegasus, arrogant tomcolt, insane party-animal, and an introverted bookend!”

Steam began to rise as the ice began to turn into puddles where his hooves hit, his eyes beginning to glow a deep and vicious red…

“Discord? Got out for less than twenty-four hours before getting put back in a concrete suit, and then he was RELEASED, REFORMED, and REDUCED to a giggling prankster at Celestia’s beck and heel!”

Shouted the stallion as cracks began to form in his coat just above the hoof-guards, spreading up his legs as a fiery orange-red blaze shined from the cracks, his wings beginning to turn from black to dark red on his body.

“Chrysalis? She, of all of them SHE underestimated the power of love, after all her planning and guile and gloating! She had the elements, her changelings overran the streets, so she turned her back on the PRINCESSES, and the ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, let miss and mister perfect have a snuggle moment, and got her entire invasion blasted back by SAPPY ROMANCE!”

Fire burst out along the cracks in his legs, embers began to spark up from his wings, as fire poured from his mouth with every word, and the heat around his body melted his pacing path into the ice.

“Sombra? DISINTIGRATED! Buck it he may have had the personality of a wet clam but he was ambitious, ruthless, and tactically minded! He was our best chess piece brother, our only one left, and now he’s gone to! BEATEN AND BESTED, JUST LIKE THE REST!!!”

Shouted the stallion, before stopping his pacing and whirling around to face the colt fire bursting from his wings, flames pouring out from his fur, embers and sparks jumping from his body across the room, iron metal sizzling, popping and bubbling against his chest and hooves.

“But that’s not the worst part! A thousand battles a thousand pawns, let them fall like flies! BUT LET THEM LAST MORE THAN A DAMNED DAY!!! IT WAS QUICK!!! ALL OF THEM GONE IN MOMENTS!!! OUR BEST PLAYERS OUR MOST ANCIENT THREAT’S GONE!!!!!” He boomed.

And in that booming his mane burst into flame and the entire room glowed red beneath his rage, flames shooting all across the room, melting the ice in a flash, turning the icicles and permafrost walls to boring grey stone, flashing the ice into water, that sizzled and steamed around the stallion, up to his knees now on the floor.

The water level bobbed just beneath the top steps of the throne, sloshing softly… The Colt continued to sit on the throne, both himself and the throne untouched by his brother’s flame, and looked down calmly to his brother with cold non-expressive eyes… simply glinting slightly as they reflected the light from the pony’s flames…

“…”

The raging red pony blinked, and then lowered his head, closing his eyes. His wings snuffed out in an instant, turning back to black. His mane fell back down to his head in a black mess, and the cracks upon his legs disappeared. His fur faded from red to black, and he breathed in deeply, before breathing out slowly, a plume of smoke pouring from his lips as he sighed out the anger, the black and acrid poison rising up from his figure as he raised his head again, opening his eyes to look to his brother…

His eyes remained unchanged during this transformation, as did his Cutie-Mark. The black iron metal had bubbled and boiled but not shifted position. The surfaces of the hoofguards and chest piece had changed pattern, but not function. A few new metal strands in a few new places crossed over the red ruby, old once moved and melted, the armor itself still black, jagged, and crude…

The now black alicorn stallion stood with a new-found calm, black mist curling off of the feathers of his wings, as he looked up to his brother on the throne, and looked up to his brother with a no longer angry but frustrated gaze, speaking with a voice no longer distorted and a mouth no longer filled with razor-sharp monstrosities, but the herbivore teeth one might expect from anypony.

“Brother I know why you are wary, I know how it appears. It has always been our lot to fail. But never this quickly. Our oldest most powerful threats, Nightmare Moon, Sombra, and even Discord, fell. Pathetically fell, in short order, before they could truly act as a threat. Don’t you see my brother? Celestia has changed the game. By giving those mortals the Elements of Harmony she has created a truly terrifying force for peace! Far beyond its own knowledge! One of the mortals has even ascended, and leads the others! It is a weapon that we have nothing left to defend against!”

“...”

“Please… Cryon, my Brother…” Spoke the now black-coated stallion, bowing his head and letting his wings drop by his side as he continued.

“She has taken so much from us… I understand but there is not an ounce she has not bested or controlled… How long until she turns her sight to the Everfree my brother? What then? How long until she takes the last bastion of violence and chaos in this world?! If she takes that then… then…” Spoke the pony, his voice trailing off as he squeezed his eyes tight, red bloody droplets pouring down from them, streaking down the black fur of his cheeks as he took a shuddering breathe in, then breathed out slowly… Before the moisture sizzled away from his cheeks, turning into red mist as he opened his eyes, a determined look to his orbs as he brought his gaze up to meet his brother’s.

“There must always be a threat my brother. Always. And we cannot wait for another to arise. If we do not act now then we may never get the chance to do so. And then this will have all been for nothing.” He spoke, looking straight up to the colt, Cryon, as he stood, tall and strong, breathing steadily with a coat of pitch-black, waiting for a response.

The small colt, Cryon, continued to look down at his brother for a few moments… And then stood up from his haunches onto his tiny legs.

“Pyrus… You are right.” He spoke in his calm squeaky voice, as his horn glowed white, and he raised up his front-right hoof. With a wave of his hoof the gigantic steel doors swung open at the end of the hallway, and a burst of freezing wind soared into the room, flash-freezing it within the second, every ounce of water frozen once again into solid ice, so thick upon the floor that it could easily have been a skating ring.

The black-coated stallion looked down to his hooves now stuck in the frozen wasteland, and narrowed his eyes, growling slightly in annoyance as his coat turned from black to red, and his teeth elongated and sharpened once more, giving him a razor mouth… He looked up with a slight glare to the creatures responsible for his current semi-frozen state, as they hovered in front of his brother’s throne…

The Windigos had been defeated long ago, and it was a defeat they had never recovered from. The three winter spirits had been reduced from their stallion forms to the forms of colts, much like the one they served, crafted from wind and ice with glowing eyes of carved cold, they stood on an invisible field of air before their master, small, gaunt, starved, with their forms brittle and weak… but nonetheless dangerous wielders of frost and cold…

Cryon looked at them for a moment, and this horn glowed white, his eyes lit up with a powerful deep blue glow, and in a-

FLASH!

The Windigos were gone, howling through the air and night, the steel doors slamming shut behind them as they exited, shattering the ice that had formed around the doors and cracking much of the ice throughout the room with its force.

The now once again red-coated stallion shivered as they passed him by, and growled deeper, cracks starting to form in his frozen legs once more as embers began to dance on the ends of his wings and-

POOF-

Pyrus blinked, and turned his head back from the now shut doors to look down in front of him, only to see Cryon, the little colt, staring up to him. Cryon spoke, with no change in inflection or tone.

“The evidence cannot be denied. As dangerous as your proposal is, it is indeed the only valid option left to us. I am sorry I was being stubborn.” Spoke Cryon, perfectly calm, before standing up on his hind-legs, and stretching up his front-hooves towards Pyrus.

Pyrus blinked again, and then smiled softly down to his brother. His wings stopped sparking, black mist once again rising from them as the cracks in his legs faded away, and his coat turned from red to black once more… He lowered his head down to Cryon, closing his eyes as the teeth in his mouth shrunk from their razor-state to their chewing form… Cryon hugged his brother’s head, as Pyrus softly nuzzled his very literally little brother… … The two stayed that was for a few more moments… Before Cryon unwrapped his hooves and stepped back, looking up to Pyrus as the stallion raised his head back up, opening his reptilian eyes.

“Very well. Let us search for a subject.” Spoke Cryon simply, and Pyrus nodded his ascent. Cryon turned and trotted across the ice calmly, his horn glowing white and engulfing the double-doors, opening the steel behemoths once more, as Pyrus with a-

CRACK!

Pulled his front legs out of the ice, then used them to help heft his back legs out calmly, shattering the ice into deep pockets where he’d been frozen. He then turned, and calmly followed his little trotting brother to the doors stepping out a few steps behind Cryon… as the steel doors were enveloped in white once more, and slammed shut behind the pair…

Author's Notes:

(Was this what you were expecting? Yes, no, maybe? Anyways, the focal point of our story has not yet made the scene, and shall indeed be making the scene when he hops up onto the scene, which is the next time. In the meantime, feel free to either send me hate comments which will depress my mood and make me want to end your existence, or love comments, which will make me happy and drive me to do a better job. I may be biased on which I'd prefer. In any event, be well, hope this was worth the read at least.)