The dark brother of the bright student

"You threaten them with what?"

It was the end of the weekend and Bright was back for her trip to Canterlot. Fallen told what happened that day at lunch and Bright wasn't very happy to hear what he said to the foals.

"Stop shouting Bright and as I said I told them to be quiet or I would chain them in the arena for the night."

Bright sighed. "I know that you hate it when somepony doesn't followed your orders but they are foals. "

"I don't care what they are. I told them twice to not go inside the arena and they did it. I was nicer than they deserve by warning them a last time."

Spike walked inside the dining room and saw that Arachna wasn't here eating. "Fallen where is Arachna? She didn't come to breakfast and now she is missing lunch."

Fallen just went on eating. "She is dead. She died last night."

Bright was shocked to hear that. "I am sorry for you Fallen."

Fallen shock his head. "You don't have to. She already was older than I ever expected her to be. Also, she was just an experiment after all. Now if you excuse me I have some work to do."

He stood up and walked to his laboratory and Twilight and Bright ate the rest of their lunch together.

As some days later, Twilight ad Bright began with their lesson for today they heard somepony knocking on the door.

Twilight walked to the door and opened it. The pony on the door was a mailpony and he had a letter in his hoof. "Letter for princess Twilight."

"That is me." She took the letter and the mailpony flew away. Twilight looked at the letter and it had the flag of the crystal empire on the envelope.

She walked back to the library, she opened the letter and read it while she walked. As she arrived at the library she jumped in excitement. "Oh this is so exciting!"

Bright looked up from her book and asked Twilight. "What is so exciting?"

"My brother and Cadence are coming for an visit in two days and they going to stay for two days!" Twilight jumped around. "These are the most exciting news ever."

Fallen walked out from behind one of the bookshelves. "Can you please be excited somewhere else, I am trying to read."

He walked back to his book and Twilight calmed down. "Oh sorry. They also wrote that they want to meet you two too."

Fallen just murmured something and went back to his book while Bright jumped up "Yay!"

Later Twilight prepared everything for the visit like preparing a room and telling the others about the visit.

Two days later Fallen was waiting in the arena for Twilight and as she ran inside the arena she immediately said "Fallen can we please skip training today. I don't want to look like I was ran over by a train when my brother and my sister-in-law arrive."

"I almost forgot that the prince and the princess of the crystal empire are coming to visit you."

"So, it is ok that I skip training today?"

Fallen walked to the weapon and began to think. He mumbled a bit to himself before he turned back around and looked at Twilight again. "Fine, but you have to learn harder the next days. We are already more than a week behind the trainings plan. I want you to finish your training one day."

"I will do my best. Oh and I wanted to tell you that the others are coming in a few hours too. I don't know if he comes to but I told Fluttershy to invite Spirit too."

He simply nodded and Twilight left the arena. Before she was outside Fallen called after her. "I will go to my laboratory later you find me there when the guests arrive." Twilight nodded and left the arena completely.

Before he went inside to he turned back to the tables with weapons and began to check each one of them. After he checked them he went to the castle. He made his way to his laboratory and spend the next hours preparing everything for the next experiment.

Twilight and Bright were in the library and Twilight wanted to begin with Brights next lesson as they heard a carriage landing outside.

Twilight quickly walked outside to greet Shining Armor and Cadence and Bright went down to the basement to get Fallen.

Cadence and Shining Armor left the carriage and the guards that dragged the carriage flew away. Twilight ran to them and hugged them both. Shining Armor laughed a bit. "It is nice to see you too Twili."

Twilight let go of the two with a big smile on her face. "I am so happy that we can spent a whole day together, the others should come in a few hours too."

As she said that Bright jumped out of the castle with a huge smile on her face followed slowly by Fallen.

Cadence was the first that said something. "You must be Bright Side the new student of Twilight. It is nice to finally meet you."

Bright smiled even more. "It is nice to meet the famous princess and prince of the crystal empire."

Both of them were surprised by being called famous but Cadence quickly responded "I am happy to hear ou high you think of us. So what happened around here?"

Cadence, Twilight and Bright began to talk about everything that happened in the last months.

Shining walked to Fallen and shook his hoof. "You must be her brother Fallen. Twili wrote about you in her letters but she said she couldn't say what your job is and Cadence told me that she knows it too. They only told me that you are a really good mage, so can you tell me more?"

Fallen nodded a bit. "I am high mage and master of dark magic. That is also the reason why I am the only pony who is allowed to talk about it."

"So you are a high mage. I bet you are impressed by the abilities of my sister."

"After everything I heard, I am disappointed. She failed every test I gave her."

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that my sister is a bad mage?"

"I say that for having a cutie mark in magic she learns really slow." Fallen smiled a bit.

Shining began to get angry. "Are you saying that you are better than her?"

"I beat her in a duel without that I even had to try and I am teaching her in fighting for some time now. The time she needs to learn one lesson is the time that I need to learn to every spell in a spell book."

"She told me about her training but she didn't said anything about a duel with you or that you are so much better than her!"

"She probably didn't wrote about it because she was embarrassed by her own filature."

Now Shining Armor got even more angry and began to speak louder. "If you are so good, than you have nothing against that I challenge you to a duel of master mages!"

The three mares heard Shining and stopped talking. Twilight and Bright gave each other a worried look. "Oh no."

Fallen gave Shining an evil grin. "And I already thought I would have to challenge you. We can go in my arena for the duel."

Shining Armor looked at the arena and back to Fallen and then at Fallens crystal hoof. "No we will fight on the open field."

Fallens grin disappeared. "Looks like you are smarter than you sister. But I think there is a reason why you are the captain of the royal guard."

Shining looked at Fallen from top to bottom. "We will fight with magic only and no transportation abilities."

Fallen nodded and began to walk to the right position.

Shining did the same and as they stood at the right positions they got ready to fight. The three mares watched everything and they all agreed that they had a bad feeling about this.

"Three, Two, one. GO!"

Shining Armor immediately created a barrier around him. Before any pony had a change to wonder why he did this he began to shoot pieces of the shield at Fallen. Even Twilight was surprised by this unique magic. No one of them has ever seen Shining Armor fighting.

The flat projectiles flew directly at Fallen. Fallen on his side sent a shadow on the ground. The shadow fast flew forward on the ground towards Shining Armor while Fallen used energy blots to destroy Shining Armors shield projectiles.

As the shadow reached the ground beneath Shining, crystal spikes began to grow where the shadow covered the ground.

Shining Armor had to deactivate the shield and jumped to the left side. He didn't saw that Fallen already sent a shadow there so he could let a big crystal grow out of the ground. The crystal hit Shining Armor in mid air and he fell to the ground. He tried to stand up but was hit by an paralyzing bolt, shoot by Fallen.

Fallen walked over to him. "The duel is over."

Fallen deactivated the paralyzing spell and Shining Armor tried to stand up. As he stood he felt a pain in his side and nearly fell to the ground again.

Cadence ran to Shining Armor to help him but she stepped on a crystal spike on the ground. "Ouch!"

Fallen stomped on the ground and the crystals went back in the shadows and the shadows flew back to Fallen. "I am sorry about this princess." Then he turned Shining Armor again. "Prince Shining Armor, I must say I am impressed. You did better than the most ponies I have fought and I have to apologize for my behavior earlier. It was a part of my little test for you. Sure Twilight told you that I do things like this sometimes."

Cadence walked to Shining Armor and helped him stand up. "Yeah, she wrote about your strange tests. I have to apologize for my behavior too. I shouldn't have got so angry."

Fallen nodded and Shining Armor nodded back, even if Shining Armor still didn't trusted Fallen. Bright and Twilight walked over to them too.

Bright walked to Shining Armor and spoke to him. "If you want I can heal you wound. I know a lot about healing magic."

Shining Armor nodded and Bright began to cast the spell on him. While they were busy Fallen contacted the shadow beneath him. 'Bring the blood of the princess to my laboratory and put is in the last empty vial in the shelf.'

A little part of his shadow split up and flew over the ground away. It carried a little bit of Cadences blood.

After Bright was finished with the healing spell they heard some ponies coming in their direction.

"Hey Cadence, Shining Armor!" They turned to the ponies and saw that theses ponies where Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Fallen watched them all talking greeting and talking. After some time Twilight asked. "Where are Spirit and Fluttershy?"

"We don't know darling. But they probably have a good reason why they are late."

They went on talking and Fallen began to look out with his magic. He looked at the fears of Shining Armor and Cadence. He wasn't surprised by their fears but he still made sure to not forget them.

After some time they made their way to the dining room. They all set down and talked about some random stuff. Spike was already preparing lunch while they waited for Fluttershy and Spirit.

After a few minutes Fluttershy and Spirit Wood came inside the dining room. Spirit had a bandage around his back. Spirits Timberwolf Bite walked beside him.

Spirit began to explain. "Sorry for being so late I had a little... accident."

Bright looked at him with an concerned face. "What happened? If you want I can try to heal you."

"No no, you don't have to I already put some medical plants on it! And also I don't want to bother you!"

"It wouldn't bother me but if you don't want. Maybe you should sit down, Spike is about to serve the food."

Spirit and Fluttershy took a seat and Bite walked behind Spirits seat and lay on the ground.

Spike walked inside the room and placed some food on the table.

They began to eat and everypony began to talk to each other. After some time Shining Armor turned to his left to talk with Fallen. "I understand that you don't really think that my sister is a bad mage, but could you tell me what you really think of her."

Fallen simply replied. "I think she is a smart mage with a lot of unused potential."

"No. I didn't meant what do you think of her as a mage I meant as a pony."

"She is learns fast and doesn't give up so easily but she still has to learn much about the dark sides of the world."

Shining Armor sighed. "This isn't what I meant either." Shing Armor made the impression that he was getting frustrated.

Fallen stopped eating and raised an eyebrow. "I fear I can't follow you."

"I meant what do you think of my sister as a mare around your age?"

"This is what you meant? Well ,nothing. I have better things to do than think about such things. May I asked where you got this idea."

Shining Armor rubbed the back of his head. "Well, Twilight wrote about you that you are a very powerful mage and that she is very impressed by you, so I thought that she was interested in you."

"I think you are reading way to much in what your sister writes!"

"Yeah you are probably right."

Now Fallen remembered something. "Twilight told me that the new natural dark crystal was found in the mines of the crystal empire. May I asked where exactly it was found?"

"It was strange to be honest. The dark crystal was the only one in a big wall of light crystals. Another strange thing is that the light crystals around and behind it were enchanted with an unknown spell. The mages told me that whatever this enchantment does, we shouldn't dig into the crystal."

"That sounds interesting maybe I should visit the mines one day to look at this phenomenon by myself. "

Shining Armor nodded. "I already asked Celestia if she could send a high mage but she said that they are all too busy. Maybe you could visit the crystal fair."

"I will think about it." They went on eating and Fallen stayed silence for the rest of the time.

After everypony was finished with eating Twilight said that she had planned something to do for all of them but Fallen said that he had some work to do and that would probably take till evening.

So the rest walked away and Fallen made his way to his laboratory.

At the laboratory he walked to the shelf with the vials and the book and took both of them out.

He placed the blood vials on one of the desks and opened the book. He searched the right page in the book.

"Ah, there it is. Blood crystals. I hope it works with Alicorn-blood too." He took out the four moulds he prepared for the blood and filled each one with the blood from the different vials.

After that he began to cast the spell. It took him hours till he was finished. The result where a white, a dark blue, a pink and a purple crystal. He put each in one of the prepared necklaces.

He looked at the four necklaces one last time before he put them in a black box and placed the box and the book in the shelf. He looked the shelf and toughed over everything. 'This nearly finished only a few things left to prepare before I can go to the last phase.'

Fallen spent the rest of time working on some smaller experiments.

At the dinner Fallen walked to the dining room and the others came back. Twilight said that she had planned something only for the mares for after the dinner.

After the dinner, the mares left to go to another room. And the three stallions and Spike where alone. None of them knew anything to do so Spirit asked. "So, what now?"

Spike to a stack of cards from somewhere and asked. "How about a poker game?"

Everypony nodded and Spike explained the rules for them.

They started playing poker. Spirit began to talk a bit. "I bet twenty. So you two battled this morning?"

Shinning Armor was next. "Yes and I raise to thirty."

After that it was Fallens turn. "I call. It wasn't much of an battle but still the best I had in this town."

Spike placed the next card on the table.

After some time of playing Spirit began to louse many chips to Fallen and Shining Armor. They had the same amount of chips , but Spirit was nearly out of the game. Then Spirit stood up. "I am sorry I must change my bandage Bite will continue for me!"

The Timberwolf walked to Spirits seat and sat down. The wolf used his mouth to put some of Spirits left chips on the table. For the nest rounds Bite manages to stay in the game for a few rounds more.

After some more time playing, Fallen decided to end this game and went all in since Shining Armor then needed to do the same. After they all placed all their chips in the middle of the table they showed their hands. Fallen had three Ace on the hand.

He smiled as he saw that Shining Armor jut had two 9 and two 8.

Then he saw that Bite had a complete Royal Flush. The Timberwolf took all the chips to his side and Spike took the card and put them away.

Then Spirit walked in the room and looked at the table and said only one thing. "I won't even question that!"

The mares entered in the room a few moments later and Twilight yawned "It is really late. I think it is time that we all go to bed."

They all said good night and went home. Cadence and Shining Armor went to the room that Twilight prepared for them.

Fallen decided to go to bed too. He walked to his room and lay down on his bed. He looked to the side and looked into the dark flame.