"Once upon a time..."

     "You can't be serious. 'Once upon a time'? Seriously?"

     "What? It's hardly ever used anymore. Oh fine, I'll tell the story differently."

    "Thank you."

     "A long time ago, the multiverse was in balance. Us yins and yangs lived together as brothers, sisters, and siblings."

     "My dark siblings could go outside without fear of being attacked."

     "My light siblings didn't go outside and attack without cause or mercy."

    "Until two brothers were born from the fruit of the tree of feelings."

     "The elder was born from the light and positivity of the tree's golden apples."

    "And the younger was born from the darkness and negativity of the tree's darker apples."

     "Whenever a yin and yang are born, it is our responsibility to attend the birth and give them some of our power."

    "As Yin it was my responsibility to balance out the yangs by giving them some yin."

     "As Yan it was my responsibility to balance out the yins by giving them some yang."

     "That way, we would not fear the two going out of control."

     "But I messed up...I'm sorry..."

~~~~~~~~~

     Nightmare grunted as he pushed himself up. His vision was fuzzy and red, a familiar feeling. He hissed as he touched his right socket to find marrow on his hand. Looking up, he saw the culprit behind his wound, a polar bear monster. He froze. Something was wrong, he couldn't see anything on his right.

     "Oh shit. You just blinded him dude. How the hell are we supposed to explain this?!" He looked to his right, a fuzzy silhouette of a familiar fox monster.

     Nightmare froze and felt a spark of joy, this could be enough to prove the bullying to his brother. Without a care for what his attackers were planning, he got to his feet and made a mad dash to the tree where his brother was resting.

     He had crashed right into Dream when he looked to see if his tormentors were following him. He looked to his brother who at first looked angry and annoyed until he saw the marrow dripping from the deep claw marks over his eye. Nightmare thought he'd be able to explain everything, but when he saw the worry in his brother's eyes he broke.

     Choking out a sob, he hugged his brother tightly, burying his face into his chest and cried, telling his story in broken parts.

     He normally hated crying and showing weakness to his brother. His tormentors were clever and knew how to twist what happened into a version that made them the victims so Dream often believed them over Nightmare but this time, after seeing what they did to him Dream would definitely believe him from now on!

     Right...?

~~~~~~

     Dream left to confront his tormentors a while ago so Nightmare decided to stay back at the tree and guard his mother while also getting used to his new partial blindness. It made reading a little trickier so he pulled up his hood and closed his eyes. A small nap wouldn't hurt.

~~~~~~

     They did it again. When Dream confronted them, they cried and apologized profusely. Said that they didn't mean to hurt him that badly and pulled some stupid lie. They said that Nightmare had attacked them so they acted in "self defense".

     So here Nightmare sat, fighting back tears while Dream screamed at him about how disappointed and disgusted he was with him. It seemed like he could never win.

    "How sad, not even your own brother believes you."

     Nightmare flinched and looked around, trying to locate the voice.

     "But don't worry child, I do and I want to help you." The voice paused for a moment when Nightmare looked up at Dream, deeply confused. Dream only looked back at him confused and disgusted before turning and walking to his side of the tree.

    "I am not of a physical body, not anymore at least. They can't hear me. I am one with your apples."

     Nightmare looked down. 'So you know the truth? But only I can hear you?' Nightmare let out a quiet laugh. 'Wonderful. The only other person who can profess my innocence is a fucking apple.'

     "I can help you prove yourself. You see, when someone consumes the apples, they will speak the truth and all will listen. All you have to do, is eat."

~~~~~~

     Nightmare refused the voice's advice for a while at first, but the more and more injuries he found himself returning to the tree with and the stronger his hatred got, the more he considered his words. Today he finally snapped after Dream said something to him while screaming at him again.

     "Everyday I have to come to the tree and listen to the horrible things you did and said to Zane, Roxi, and Logan! When will you finally have enough?! I'm sick of your sadistic shit! You're not the kind little brother I used to have!" Dream clutched his skull as he teared up. He loved his brother, but it was becoming more clear to him that Nightmare was an inconsiderate bully.

     Nightmare looked down, pulling his hood up and over his face to hide his tears. Another day, another beating, another screaming session.

     "In fact, I don't have a brother anymore! My brother is dead, all you are is a shell he used to be! Go away! I hate you!" Dream stormed over to the village, tears in his eyes as he sobbed.

     Nightmare was numb, a fresh wound opening up in his nonexistent soul. Dream was partly right. He felt like he was dead, he didn't feel like himself anymore. He approached the tree and took an apple from his side and ate it.

     In his desperation, he couldn't stop himself from picking more and more until he finally felt that he ate enough. He felt different. 'They must be working.'

     With that, he walked away from his empty side of the tree towards the village, ignoring the screams of the villagers.

~~~~~~

     They were dead. All of the miserable monsters who made Crush suffer were gone. But his brother stood in his way, preventing him from getting to the others. But Crush just smiled, a crushed and broken smile. "How sad. Do you not remember me brother? I only killed the ones who hurt me."

     Dream stared back with a mixture of shock, disgust, and anger. "They did nothing to you! You're just a heartless monster! And I can't allow you to hurt innocent people anymore!" It all made sense now, it must've been the yin inside his brother. Yin...that's the cause of evil in the world. And if he wanted to rid the multiverse of evil, he'd have to rid the multiverse of all of its yins. Every last one.

~~~~~

     The twins both landed good hits on each other, but with the power of the negative apples on his side, Dream couldn't win. So he escaped to the tree to find that all of the black fruits were gone, Crush had eaten them all. So he did what he had to and ate every golden apple from the tree and fell to his knees, gasping in pain as large golden wings made from light sprung from his back. He couldn't help but wonder how Crush went through this.

     As quickly as the pain came, it went leaving Grail to stand with a newfound power and soul. And as he reunited with Crush, he couldn't bring himself to kill his little brother. Not yet at least. But with his newfound power, his soul summoned a weapon to put Crush down until he was ready to go through with his plan.

~~~~~

     It was a form of tranquilizer gun, he thought it'd at least knock Crush out for a while but here he was. Forced to watch as Crush was stuck in place, fighting against the weight holding him down and watching horrified as his lower body turned to stone.

     It was growing up his body quickly. Letting out a laugh he pointed out to Grail, his arm freezing in place as it turned into stone. "I see where your priorities are 'brother'."

     And then there was silence as Grail fell to his knees again, hissing as he touched a gash on his cheek that Crush left. He stood up and caressed Crush's cold, stone cheek for a moment before returning to the village, welcomed by the inhabitants' cheers of victory. He had a lot to do before Crush returned.

~~~~~~~~

In case y'all are confused, Dream and Nightmare both took up new names after they ate the apples.
Nightmare became Crush and Dream became Grail.