Decided to do a small collection of doodles to tell the backstory for everyone’s favorite odd pair of bat brothers, Damion and Victor Bates.
 
1- During their break from skating, famous figure skating champions, Vienna and Ruben Bates celebrate the birth of their second son, Damion. After picking up 4 year old Victor from home with his babysitter, Ruben brings him straight to the hospital to surprise him that his little brother has arrived a few days early. Victor immediately attaches to the tiny ball of fuzz and promises his parents that no matter what happens, he will protect his little brother and be the best role model he can be for him.
 
He takes this promise very seriously when the boys are young. Showing Damion all the best ice cream shops, the best candy stores, toy stores, how to play hide and seek, cleaning up his injuries whenever he tripped and scraped his knee, Victor took care of and watched out for him. During family outings, Ruben and Vienna were at times rushed by fans and repeatedly asked when they’d return to competitions. Over and over, the two said they will return to the ice when both their boys were in school at good ages. Their sons came first, and they didn’t want them to feel forgotten because of their careers.
 
2- Unfortunately, as the years passed by, a hasty return to the ice to defend their title and champs quickly became Vienna’s and Ruben’s concern. With fast paced training to return to the rink, they made it to their first and last competition of the season. During a spin, Vienna slid too close and sliced Ruben’s face with the blade of one of her skates. The boys witnessed this and were mortified to see their father get hurt. After getting needed medical attention, the final scores were up, and they were…… not pretty.
 
Vienna and Ruben decide to take this loss as a sign to move on from skating and try more relaxed careers. While Ruben pursued the job in fitness instruction, Vienna was targeted to be a model for her graceful appearance an near flawless fur. While it was all fine and dandy that they got jobs they were happier with, the brothers decided to reclaim their family’s title as champion skaters. After weeks of sneaking out to skate in the local ice rinks, the boys get their marks and find they have amazing talent for the sport. And thus, their start began!
 
3- With the help of their parents as coaches, Victor and Damion spent the majority of their teenage years as so far the youngest colts to be competing in the sport and gaining the highest scores. With rising fame, they acquired a manager to help them through it all. While at first, he was very trustworthy and help the boys through the somewhat scary parts of traveling town to town without mom and dad to hold their hands all the time, the sneaky Griffin made bets on the brothers without their knowledge, only to get more money with each competition they won.
 
When younger skaters than the brother entered and started gaining more and more attention and scores around the time both had reached around the ages of 20, it seemed as though the brother’s fame was going to be short lived.. While Victor was somewhat okay with this, Damion was more determined to make sure their name stayed at the top. Victor told his little brother many times, they had their run, but maybe now is a good time to take a break from the ice and have calmer, normal lives like every other ponies. Victor had started to grow a little tired of skating as a main career, and wanted to do it more as a special side hobby whenever he wanted, rather than for sport. Being younger, and more driven by the praise he got from strangers, Damion was more adapted to this life of skating for competition. However, Victor made good points that the only reason they did this was for their parents. It was time they lived for themselves. Damion couldn’t argue with that logic…… at least… until their manager made a plan…. Fearing that money would stop coming his way, their manager took Damion aside and persuaded the naive skater to sabotage the competition so they’d win. Sneaking into the rink at night, they were going to dull the blades of the other skates. Victor, having heard them talking, followed them and catches them before anything could be done. He tells Damion he is disappointed in him for even thinking this was a good idea, that he taught him better than to cheat his way to win. Damion leaves with Victor after the older brother quickly fires the manager and threatens him by telling him to stay away from the brothers for good.
 
4- Unfortunately, word spreads that the brothers were caught sabotaging the skates before the championship. While they themselves didn’t do anything, the manager spread rumors like wildfire, and they were too easy to believe when security cameras caught the two leave the rink. Vienna and Ruben are BEYOND furious with their sons about the news, and in a swift and really hasty decision, send the two to Basic Training for the Royal Guard as punishment and to teach them discipline. Victor is beyond angry, not just with the manager for spreading these lies, but with Damion as well. Although he won’t say it outloud, Damion can tell that Victor blames him entirely for their careers ending in the worst way. Slandering their names as the Bates’ Boys that cheated to win. While not everypony believed this, it was still a known rumor that made it hard for them to show their faces without getting questioned.
 
Entering the guard, Victor holds in every desire to yelland possibly be physically rough with Damion. He promised to always take care of him and never harm him, and he intends to keep it, however angry he might be… When the start of their training as guards started, Victor focused his anger in different ways. Mainly thinking on the fact the two were betrayed by a Griffin… A form of hybrid creature that is driven by greed, an untrustworthy being that had the balls to cross them the way they did. Because of this, Victor became convinced that any mixed blooded being was not to be seen as a friend, but as a possible threat. He shows this boldly when on their first day of training, they see that joining their ranks is a weird pawed pony with feline behaviors, and a pegasus with traces of dragon in his blood. Dragons… even worse.. Although they were allies to Equestria, the fire breathing monsters still had a history for being violent, hording, village burning, blood thirsty creatures.
 
Victor undoubtedly aims his anger at anypony to match the hybrid description, while Damion learns as he grows to be more mature and do things fairly, putting other’s welfare before his own wants. However, he finds himself powerless against his older brother from attacking other ponies as his focus of rage. Including the squad Damion befriends behind Victor’s back…