[Progenitors] Cero and Serene

I'm thinking of making a series about my headcanon for the ancestors of the various pony species...and maybe a few of the other species, too. These two amazing designs were adopted from and respectively, and I must say, I've absolutely fallen in love with these two pones.

These two are Cero and Serene, ancestors of Starswirl the Bearded (and in turn, in my headcanon anyhoo, Twilight Sparkle) and among the first unicorns to walk the newly created world. They were the leaders of a small, united band of unicorns that was unfortunate enough to get itself caught up in the middle of a Windigo strike during a territory skirmish with a flock of pegasi. Serene escaped with her life to bear Lux, the peacebringer, while Cero was unfortunate enough to get himself frozen. He is the only one of his herd remaining in suspended animation, buried and comatose until he is excavated. But that's a story for another time.

Cero is definitely a pony of actions rather than words, as he speaks very little and tries to do as much as possible, often working himself to the point of exhaustion. He protects his own adamantly and is suspicious on principle of anyone outside of his herd, even other unicorns (in-fighting was not uncommon, when the winter months sapped resources). His magics are mostly offensive spells, which are somewhere between dark magic and the kind of magic that exists in Celestia's kingdom, this being before the time when unicorns were taught how to use their skills responsibly.

But his deepest love is of philosophy, and he often questions the role he was put into and why it's so important. While he isn't quite to a point where he could trust or care about the other races, he tries to understand their thinking and why they act the way they do. He even based some of his own battle tactics on those he has faced in combat, such as the raw power of the hoof from the earth ponies, and the fleet movements of the pegasi. If you catch him in a speaking mood, he might regale you on his own musings. No idea what my headcanon voice for him is gonna be.

While Cero was from the cold mountain ranges, Serene was born in the valley to the leader of her herd and his mate, who unfortunately passed due to complications in childbirth. When her father was killed in battle, Serene took to the helm and led the others with a kind of compassion and dedication that was incredibly rare in those times. She happened to meet Cero when his herd migrated into the valley in hopes of finding food, and, after an uneasy truce, the two bands came to find their union was beneficial to both groups.

Serene's skill set complimented Cero's quite nicely; whereas he was a master of offensive spells, she specialized in shielding spells and protective magic. The two trained together constantly, and over time they'd fallen pretty hard for each other. Cero, understandably, resisted at first given the considerable age gap, but after Serene pretty much told him she didn't give a rat's ass, they settled into a rather happy relationship. Her personality complimented his well, too: where he is singularly driven towards his goals and more action-oriented, Serene tended to stop and think about things and depended on every member of her group to get a job done. She acted as his second-in-command, relaying his orders to the others and staying by his side in combat. I imagine her with Jennifer Conelly's voice, specifically as 7 from 9. She just has this great contained passion in that role (sorely underrated performance, in my opinion) that works great for this character.

i just really love age difference pairings you guys