The dark brother of the bright student

A few weeks after the new archmage was chosen Fallen walked through the castle at noon as he heard Twilight calling. "Fallen! Bright! Come here you both got post!"

Fallen looked outside the next window at the sun to see what time it is. 'Just like expected.'

He walked to Twilight who was in the library of the castle. As he entered the library he saw Twilight with two letters and a letter for herself sitting in the middle of the room, facing away from the door.

Fallen talked to her. "It is from the princess, right?"

Twilight turned around as she heard him and looked surprised at him. "How do you know that?"

Fallen walked towards her and levitated the letter to him . He took it with his hoof, looked fast at the envelope of the letter and then back to Twilight. "Because since I am a high mage I get an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala every single year."

"How it comes that I have not seen one of the high mages at the last Gala?"

"Every high mage is invited but they normally don't go to the Gala. The only high mages that go to the Gala most years are Rain Bringer and Rising Light. You probably just didn't noticed them because they weren't wearing their cloaks."

Twilight raised her hoof to her chin and began to think about it. She remembered that she maybe has seen ponies that looked similar to a few of the high mages. "I guess that is possible."

Fallen opened his letter and like he expected it was his ticket to the Gala.

Twilight looked at Fallen for a short time and asked. "So you are not going?"

Fallen smiled about her comment. "At least you combination skills are improving. But this time you are wrong. I plan to go to the Gala."

Twilight was surprised first but then nodded. "Well I am going to leave earlier that day to help with the preparations for the Gala."

Bright walked inside the library and looked at Twilight. "You said there is a letter for me too?"

Twilight levitated the letter to her and Bright opened it and began to read. After she finished reading she jumped up and down. "Wuhu!"

Fallen watched his sister bouncing for some time and then asked her. "Do you care to tell what so exciting is? And stop this bouncing!"

Bright stopped bouncing and began to stutter. "Uhm...Uh... nothing..."

Fallen raised a eyebrow but said nothing.

Bright tired to just look back but she gave up quickly. "Ok. Fine. I tell you. Somepony invited me to go with him to the Gala."

Fallens expression didn't changed a bit. "Him?"

Bright just nodded and closed her eyes, waiting for Fallen to get mad and ask who him is but he only said. "Ok."

Bright waited for Fallen to say anything else but he just turned away and began to search through the bookshelves. Bright was confused. "Aren't you upset or want to know who that stallion is?"

Fallen shook his head. "You are old enough to handle things like this for yourself." He took a book out of one of the shelf and looked at the first pages but closed it again.

Bright nodded slowly till she asked another thing. "Then why did you threaten Mirror as I met him at the first meeting at your house?"

Fallen put the book back into the shelf and grinned a bit as he remembered this encounter. "Because he is way older than you and I have seen him talking like this with seven other mares that day."

Bright began to understand what he meant. "Ooooh."

After no pony said anything for a few secondsTwilight turned to Bright. "You should ask Rarity if she could make you a dress for the Gala."

Bright jumped and was super excited again. "You are right. I have to prepare for everything."

Bright was about to run hectically around as Fallen interrupted her. "Bright! Stay calm. You have three days left and if you want to run around do this in the arena or somewhere else but not in the library."

Bright stopped immediately and walked slowly outside the library where she started to run hectically towards the exit of the castle.

Fallen on his side looked through some more books but decided to go back to his experiments.

He went inside the laboratory and began to work on his newest experiment. He tried to find a spell to overthrow someponies mind and get complete control over the pony. He had problems to make progress since he had no pony to test the spell.

Fallen spent the next days with this experiment while Bright was getting more and more exited.

After three days, on the day of the Gala, Fallen wanted to prepare everything he needed this night. So he took his cloak and walked to his laboratory.

There he opened the locked shelf and took the necklaces out of it and put them in four small noble-looking boxes. He put the boxes in a small bag and walked out of the laboratory.

He walked through the castle as he saw Bright running beside him towards the exit already wearing her dress. "Bright why are you running?"

She stopped running to answer the question. "I am going to take the train to go to the Gala."

"I can take you with in my carriage. I will go in two hours."

Bright shook her head. "I am going to meet with the pony that invited me at the train station. In two hours would be too late and I am already late."

Bright turned away and ran away to get the train.

Fallen walked to the library to read a bit before he had to go to the Gala. He mainly just looked through some old history books.

After two hours he put the bag with the boxes on his back and put his cloak on. He walked outside to his carriage and stepped on it. He used a spell to summoned his shadow servants to pull the carriage and they flew towards Canterlot.

As he arrived he saw that many other ponies were on their way inside. He put his hood on his head so no pony could see his face. He entered the hall and looked around a bit. He began to walk around and many ponies stared at him. He could hear them whisper about his black cloak.

After some time he heard the first ponies that recognized him as an high mage and in a few seconds the first noble pony walked towards him to speak with him. "I couldn't help but recognize that you sir are wearing a high mage cloak. May I ask what your name is high mage?"

Fallen growled. "My name is nothing of you business."

"Sir I must say that I will not tolerate such behavior. Even if you are a high mage. Do you know who I am?"

Fallen looked at the pony and walked away. "No and I don't care."

He made once more sure that no pony could see his face and walked a bit around again. 'Where are they?'

He searched a bit more till he found them. All four alicorn princesses. They were at the buffet. 'All at one place. Perfect!'

He walked towards them. As he was behind them he coughed to get their attention. They turned around and Celestia was the first one who recognized his cloak. "Hello Fallen, nice to see you at the Gala for once."

As she said his name he looked around to make sure that nopony heard his name. After he was sure he bowed short and spoke. "It is a pleasure to meet you all princesses and a great opportunity too!"

The princesses looked confused at him and Twilight asked him. "An opportunity for what?"

Fallen laughed a bit. "You probably know that I wouldn't come to the Gala without a reason. The reason why I am here is to give you this." He took his bag and levitated to each of the princesses one of the boxes. "It is a gift to thank you for giving an dark mage a chance."

Each one of them took their box and opened them They all took the necklaces out of the boxes and looked at them fascinated. Cadence was the first on that said something. "They look really lovely. Where did you get such beautiful necklaces?"

Fallen grinned a bit. "I made them completely myself. Even the crystals are made by me."

Celestia smiled at him. "These are beautiful gifts. I have to thank you."

They all thanked him for the necklaces but Fallen had to tell them about the little extra. "Naturally I have made a little extra. When you wear them and use your magic they will glow in the shape of you cutie mark. A little trick I found by studying magic auras. Maybe one of you want to try it?"

Twilight put on the necklace and used a simple light spell and, as Fallen said, inside the crystal a star shaped exactly like Twilights cutie mark began to glow.

They all looked at it for a short time. Fallen waited for them for a short while till he spoke again. "Well that is all I wanted to show you. I wish you a good rest of the night."

They all thanked him again and he walked away. He wandered around till he saw his sister standing alone at a table. Fallen walked to her. Bright saw him and smiled. "Hi Fallen."

"Please don't say my name so loud. I don't want that everypony knows what my name is."

Bright held a hoof in front of her mouth. "Sorry. Why are you even wearing your cloak? If you simply put on something else no one would recognize you as a high mage."

"Because I am here in business. I had to take care of something as high mage so I will make sure to look like one."

Bright looked at him for a moment and then responded. "If you think that is necessary. So how was the night till now."

"It went exactly like I planned it. What about you? I thought you are here with somepony. Where is he?"

"He is getting me something to drink."

Fallen nodded. "Well then I will walked around a bit." He wanted to walk away as he heard a familiar voice coming from behind him. "Hey Bright I got the drinks! Who are you talking to?"

Fallen turned back around and saw Rising Light. They stared at each other. Fallen with anger and Rising with fear. Bright looked between them back and forth.

Fallen was the first who broke the silence. "Rising, I didn't expect to see you here. With my sister."

Rising responded in a nervous tone. "And I didn't expect to see you today at all."

Fallen stepped a bit closer. "May I talk with you under four eyes, archmage?" Rising could hear the hate in Fallens voice.

They walked a bit away from the most ponies and Fallen began to talk. "You know that I hate you."

Rising prepared himself for everything that could happen next.

Fallen went on talking. "But this is something between us two. If my sister wants to spent time with you I can do nothing against it."

Rising first just stared at Fallen and then he took a deep breath in and out.

But he became nervous again as Fallen began to walk closer. "But I have to warn you. If you hurt my sister in any way I will gladly accept this opportunity to show you what I learned about dark magic. Am I clear?"

Rising nodded and Fallen grinned.

Rising walked back to Bright and Fallen began to wander around the Gala again.

As he walked through the garden he heard somepony talking to him from behind him. "Dark high mage. I want to speak with you."

Fallen turned around and saw who spoke to him. It was prince Blueblood. "Prince Blueblood. What do you want?"

"I want to know why princess Celestia told me to not bother you anymore!"

Fallen growled. "Because you annoy me with your permanent asking to show you dark magic."

Blueblood grasped. "How dare you to speak like this to me! I order you to do as I say and show me dark magic or I will commend the guards to put you in prison!"

Fallen eyes began to glow with dark magic. "You dare to commend me and threaten me." He grabbed Blueblood with his magic at the neck and dragged him around the corner where no pony could see them. There he grabbed him at the throat with his crystal hoof and hold him against the wall

He eyes began to glow even more and dark clouds began to surround them. "You dare to speak to me like that and acted like I should obey you! Celestia probably didn't gave you my warning. I never want to hear anything from you again. If you dare to talk like this to me again I will make sure that it was the last thing you ever said!"

Blueblood nodded in fear. Fallen lowered Blueblood to the ground. As he let go of Bluebloods throat completely. The prince fell on the ground and began to cough. Fallen lowered his head to him. "No pony will hear of this conversation or death is the last thing you should fear."

Blueblood looked up to him, his eyes still filled with fear. He nodded again in panic. Blueblood stood up and walked away as fast as he could.

Fallen made his way back to the garden were he watched other ponies. After some time he closed his eyes and began to meditate.

Then he heard a voice from above him. "Hey Fallen I didn't expect to see you here!"

He looked up and saw that the voice came from Rainbow Dash. She landed in front of him and he told her why he was here. "I just came to give a gift to the princesses and now I am only staying out of politeness. But at last I could take care of something else too."

Rainbow nodded. "Nice for you. Well then I have to go now."

Fallen nodded and Rainbow Dash flew away.

Fallen walked a little bit around till he was in the big main hall again. He saw princess Luna, standing around alone at the buffet.

He walked to her. "Princess Luna, I see you are already wearing the necklace. It is nice to see that you like it that much."

Luna smiled at him. "This it is an understatement. It is beautiful."

Fallen took a drink from the buffet and took a sip from it. "I just wonder how it comes that you have time at night to spent it at the Gala."

Luna nodded short. "I used a spell to warn me if a pony needs help in his dreams but fortunately this night is quiet."

"That reminds me. I wanted to ask if it is a problem that I make experiments with my dream."

Luna shook her head. "Certainly not, as long as no harm is done to any pony."

"I am glad to hear that. I know how it is when somepony is making had work even harder."

Luna smiled and nodded. "Then you don't have to worry."

Fallen took another sip of his drink and watched other ponies in silence. After he finished his drink he bowed before Luna shortly. "Well it was a pleasure to talk to you but I think I have to leave the Gala now."

"Then I wish you a good rest of the night."

He walked away and left the building. He walked to his carriage and stepped on it. The carriage, pulled by shadows flew away and Fallen began to think about the night. 'That really couldn't go any better. Now the only thing that I need is time.'

He arrived at the castle after a few hours and walked inside. He walked through the empty floor. 'Maybe Bright is already back.'

He walked to Brights room and knocked on the door. As no answer came he opened the door and looked inside. Bright wasn't there yet but something else caught his eye. It was the light crystal that Twilight cleaned from dark magic at their first encounter.

It glowed stronger as he stepped closer. 'She kept this crystal so long now. I wonder why.'

He reached up to it and tried to touch it. But immediately a he touched it with his hoof it burned his hoof. Fallen moved his hoof away and looked at his hoof. There was now a small burn mark on his hoof. 'Curse on this light magic!'

He looked at the light crystal for a short time and decided to let it where it is. He left the room of Bright and walked to his room to go to sleep.

The next days were completely normal for Fallen. He decided to study the history book in Twilight library more.

One day he took his book from the locked shelf of his laboratory and took it to the library because he found something that didn't fit with the information of his book.

He laid both books on a desk and began to look for the differences. After some time he decided that he needed some of his old notes, so he went to his laboratory but he forgot to take his book with him.

As he came back to the library he saw Twilight reading his book. "What are you doing there?"

Twilight startled as she heard him. "I was just reading this book."

Fallen took a step closer. "How much have you read?"

"Only something about a Teno Dark. Is he related to you in some way?"

Fallen grabbed the book and closed it. "That is none of you business. Don't dare to ask anything about him ever again!" His eyes began to glow with dark magic.

Bright walked through the flours of the castle as she heard her brother. She began to ran towards the library. She saw Fallen with the glowing eyes and immediately tired to stop him. "Fallen calm down and tell me what happened."

For some time Fallen just stared at Twilight with an hateful expression till he took a deep breath in and out. "She tried to read the dark book. If you excuse me I have to work."

Bright stood in his way. "Maybe you should tell her."

Fallen just growled as an answer.

Bright didn't move away. "It is better if you tell her now than having her find out without you knowing it. I will go now to the lesson with Spirit. Twilight already told you about that."

Fallen sighed and nodded. "Fine."

He turned to Twilight and began to walk to one of the seats. "I will tell you a story of my family. You should sit down it will take a while."

Twilight walked to another seat and sat down.