The dark brother of the bright student

A week later Twilight found a letter for Fallen was in the mail. It had the seal of the council of mages on the envelope.

She wondered what the council might want from Fallen and walked to the dining room where Fallen was already waiting for her. "Has the letter of the council arrived?"

"Good morning you too, and yes." She levitated the letter to him.

He took it and broke the seal. He read it fast and burned the letter after he finished. "I need the dining room today for a meeting of the council." He burned the letter to ash.

Twilight was a bit surprised about these news. "That is a little bit sudden. Why do you get informed so late?"

"The mail was probably send to my old address first. It should have arrived a week ago."

He stood up and left the dining room to go to his laboratory, and Twilight followed him. "What about our training today."

"I think we have to take a break for one day."

"Can I watch the meeting?"

He stopped walking and turned around. "You have to ask the archmage when he arrives. But tell no pony else about this. The identities of the high mages are a secret and I think they want to keep it like that as long as possible. If anypony asked you who they are you say they are some normal mages and that they are here to talk with me, nothing more!" He turned away again and walked towards his laboratory. Twilight followed him again.

She nodded fast. She was excited to hear that she is going to meet the members of the mage council. "When will the first one of them arrive?"

Fallen shrugged and went inside his laboratory. He closed the door behind him before Twilight could ask any more questions.

As the door closed in front of Twilight she turned around and walked to the library where she found Bright, studying about magic gems.

Bright stood up to greet Twilight. "Good morning Twilight. What are we going to do today?"

Twilight tried to behave a professional as possible despite the fact that she was already excited about the meeting. "The mage council is going to hold their meeting in this castle and if they allow it we will watch it."

Bright didn't showed much enthusiasm. "I already know them all."

Twilight eyes widen and she stepped a bit closer to Bright. "Really what can you tell me about them?"

She shook her head. "I am not allowed to tell you their names till you met them personally but I can tell you that each one of the has a apprentice. Only Fallen, the archmage and one other high mage have no apprentice . The apprentices are going to wear the typical brown cloaks with masks. It is tradition for them to wear a white cloak and a blank mask when they are at the meetings."

Twilight sighed about so few information's but didn't asked any more questions."Well, I think we should go on with your magic lessons."

Twilight levitated some books about magical gems to them and they began with the lesson.

A few hours later Twilight and Bright heard some carriages landing outside of the castle. They walked to the doors of the castle and saw that Fallen was already standing there to greet the other high mages. He wore his black cloak.

Twilight looked at the place in front of the castle and saw six different carriages. All of them were pulled by royal guards.

The first was purple and was decorated with some mirrors. It had a color changing eye symbol on the front.

The second had a completely gray was covered in lots of strange symbols. Twilight recognized a few of the symbols as magical runes.

The third one was blue white and had a cloud like design.

The fourth was made of different parts. The base was made of obsidian, the walls of ice and the ceiling was made of some ever burning stones.

The fifth was white with golden and blue lines on it. It had some golden gems as decoration.

The last one was bigger than the rest and had a dark brown color. Torches with blue fire were attached to the carriage and it also had some golden decorations.

A brown stallion with black smooth mane and a long mustache came out of the first carriage. He wore a black cloak with little stars on it and as Twilight looked at it she thought she looked at the real night sky. He was followed by a mare in the apprentice clothes.

The stallion walked to Fallen and shook his hoof, then he walked to Twilight.

"It is a pleasure to meet you in person princess Twilight and you are as beautiful as they told me." He took her hoof and placed a kiss on it. "My name is Mirror Illusion. I am a master of illusion spells."

Twilight blushed at this kind of greeting. "Thank you for your compliment. It is a pleasure to meet you too."

"Well, I hope we can have a little conversation after the meeting."

He wanted to go on but his apprentice spoke up. "I think princess Twilight more has important duties."

Twilight remembered that she heard the voice before but couldn't remember where. "I have no duties today. I hoped I could watch the meeting with my student Bright Side."

Bright walked besides Twilight and nodded. "We hope the archmage will agree and it is nice to see you again Mirror." She held her hoof towards him.

Mirror shook her hoof. "Yes it is nice to see you too."

As he took her hoof he got an angry glare from Fallen and Mirror let go of her hoof and walked by. He started to talk with his apprentice.

Twilight truned confused to Bright. "Why did he walk away after Fallen looked at him." Twilight looked first to Fallen and then to Mirror.

Bright chuckled a bit. "The first time we met he greeted me similar to you. After that Fallen and Mirror had a little talk and Mirror didn't dared to talk to me like this again."

"Oh. I think that makes sense."

Twilight saw the next pony coming towards them. It was a light gray stallion with a short brown mane. He wore small glasses and a completely gray cloak. His apprentice levitated a big gray case.

He shortly bowed before Twilight and said. "Greetings princess Twilight Sparkle. My name is Formulas. I am a master rune mage."

He walked to the place where Mirror and his apprentice were and took out a feather and a scroll and started writing.

The next high mage was a light blue mare with an white mane and she wore a wore a white cloak with a cloud design. "Hello princess Twilight. My name is Rain Bringer. I study weather magic. Normally my assistant Storm Carrier would be here too but he is ill at the moment."

Twilight shook her hoof. "It is nice to meet you. I hope you assistant will be ok soon."

She nodded and turned to Bright. "It is also nice to see you again Bright. We haven't seen in a while."

Bright smiled at her. "The last time I saw you was three month ago."

Rain smiled back at her. "Well I hope we can talk a bit after the meeting."

"Sure."

Rain smiled and walked with her apprentice to the other two high mages.

This conversation made Twilight a bit curious. "Is she one of your friends Bright?"

"Yes, she is the youngest member of the council but is already two years longer a part of it than Fallen."

A big red stallion with a gray blue mane came out of fourth carriage. He wore a ice blue cloak with flames on it. After he greeted Fallen he walked to Twilight and bowed before her. "It is an honor to meet you, princess Twilight."

"It is an honor to meet you too. May I ask what your name is?"

He stood up. "My name is Ice Eruption. I am a mage of the elements, I hope it is ok that I have to go now. I have to set some things ready. Apprentice follow me."

He walked away and Twilight looked to the next one. It was a white stallion with a dark blue mane. He wore a completely white cloak. He had no apprentice. As he hold his hoof towards Fallens, he just responded with an growl.

The white unicorn sighed and walked towards Twilight.

He bowed before her and said. "It is wonderful to meet you princess Twilight. My name is Rising Light and I am a master of light magic. It is nice to meet you again Bright."

Bright smiled at him. "Fallens behavior towards you still hasn't changed"?"

Rising shrugged. "Seems so I still don't understand why he keeps this behavior."

Twilight was curious what happened between Fallen and Rising. "Where did you know Fallen from?"

"We used to be friends but one day he said that he has no friends anymore and it seems like he began to hate me. I don't know why." He walked to the other high mages.

Twilight saw the last mage. Twilight assumed he was the archmage because he was the last one left. The archmage was very old. He had a pale blue coat and a white mane. He had a long beard and wore a purple cloak with blue lines on it.

The archmage walked to Twilight and Bright. He bowed his head a bit. "It is nice to finally meet you princess Twilight. My name is Arcanus I am the archmage and master of arcane magic. I would bow properly but at my age that would be a bad idea."

Twilight bowed her own head. "It is a honor to meet the archmage of Equestria, but what do you mean with finally?"

"After Celestia made you her personal student she told me everything about you and your studies. I watched you career and hoped that you could become my apprentice and probably my successor after you finished your studies, but as you see this isn't how things went."

Twilight was very surprised. "Wait. You mean if I didn't became a princess, I would maybe be your apprentice?"

Arcanus nodded.

Twilight tried to stay calm at this compliment about her magic abilities. "It is an honor to hear how high you think about my abilities."

"I would be a liar if I deny it."

Twilight smiled at him. "There is something I wanted to ask you archmage."

"What is it?"

"Could I watch the meeting of the high mages with my student Bright?"

"That is possible but I have to ask you to be absolutely quiet. No pony is allowed to talk at the meeting besides the high mages. The only exception is if one of the mages ask you a question."

"I agree to this conditions as well as my student. Right Bright?"

"Yes, I will not say even a single word."

"Perfect." Arcanus walked back to Fallen and talked a bit with him.

After a short time Fallen gave every mage a signal to follow him. They walked to the dining room and sat down. Twilight and Bright stood a few steps away from the table to watch them but not disturb anypony.

Arcanus began to speak. "It is good that everypony could make it. As always we will start with talking about progress everpony made with his experiments and studies. As always you may begin Formulas."

"Well then," he levitated the case that his apprentice was carrying on the table, opened it and took out some scrolls. He started to read the first one. "Experiment No. 542. Goal: Finding the exact effect of different numbers of degrees in the angel of triangles in runes. Test No. 001 ..."

He was interrupted by an groan from Mirror Illusion. "How often do we need to tell you that you don't have to tell us everything in such detail. Just tell us what you found."

Formulas just shook his head. "I will do everything like it is ask in the protocol. So where was I? Ah right Test No. 001. Standard rune, one degree shift from the left base angle to the right base angle..."

This goes on for some time. Each mage talked about their newest findings of magic. Then they reached Fallen.

"As always, I take my right to only talk with the archmage about my findings."

Formulas stood up. "Why are you still not telling the rest of the council about your findings?"

"As I say every time. These information are way too dangerous. We already have enough problems with idiots that try to use dark magic. The fewer ponies have knowledge of dark magic the better."

Formulas grasped. "Are you implying that we would abuse this knowledge."

Mirror knew where this would go and interrupted them. "Stop it Formulas. It is his right to not trust us. Now can we please go on?"

Arcanus nodded. "I agree with Mirror. We had this discussion often enough. Fallen you will give me a copy of your protocols after the meeting as always. Now to the next point. Has anypony heard anything about magical emergencies?"

Formulas spoke first. "The ponies in Manehatten still have problems with the rune vandals. I analyzed the runes and I came to the conclusion that they are probably in possession of the missing spell book that was stolen from the Canterlot library."

Arcanus thought for a moment. "We should send our magic hunter. They should be able to track them down."

Every other high mage nodded.

Arcanus looked at Formulas again. "You will take care that the local hunters are informed about their mission when you arrive in Manehatten."

"Yes, archmage."

Arcanus looked back at the rest. "Well than if there are no more problems. Than this meeting is over."

The high mages stood up and turned to their apprentices.

Mirror walked together with his apprentice to Twilight. "My apprentice wanted to talk with you and since the meeting is over she is allowed to take off the mask. She said you would remember her."

The apprentice stepped in front of Twilight and took her mask of.

"TRIXIE?"

"So, it is true. You became a princess. Trixie... Um I mean... I am surprised. I thought I could show you that I am better than you by becoming a high mage. Looks like you are better again."

"Thank you..." 'Why is she speaking normal?'

"But this isn't why I wanted to talk with you. I want to challenge you to an battle of master mages."

Mirror looked at Trixie. "Didn't I tell you to not challenge ponies who hasn't any fighting knowledge."

Twilight interrupted him. "Actually, Fallen taught me a little bit about fighting."

Mirror turned to Fallen and spoke to him. "So the arena is your work Fallen."

Twilight on her side talked to Trixie again. "I agree to your challenge."

Fallen stood up and shook his head at Twilight. "You are a foolish idiot. How can somepony become princess and at the same time be dumb enough to fight a duel against an illusionist."

Twilight looked confused at Trixie who had a big grin on her face. "Why am I an idiot? I learned a lot about fighting."

"Yes but illusionists are some of the most dangerous fighters. It is to late anyway. You already agreed. Now come, the rest of the high mages are allowed to follow and watch. I will take care that no pony breaks the rules."

He walked outside and the rest followed him. They all walked outside to the arena and Twilight and Trixie walked in the middle of the arena. While the high mages and bright took a seat on at the arena bleachers.

Fallen walked with Twilight and Trixie to the tables with weapons. "Twilight, since you are the challenged one you can choose her weapon and your own and you are allowed to forbid transportation abilities."

Twilight levitated the sword and shield she used during her training. "Trixie, you can choose every weapon you want and transportation abilities are allowed."

Fallen gave Twilight an disappointed look. "Will you ever learn to not underestimate your opponent."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

Then Twilight saw that Trixie took a Rapier from under her cloak. The rapier looked like it was made of glass and because it was so thin it was nearly invisibly.

Trixie smiled at Twilight. "What did you expect from the great and powerful Trixie? That Trixie would come unprepared?"

'That is how I remember her.'

Fallen walked away. "Get on your positions. I will start to count down when both of you are ready. Let's see how long you will stand Twilight."

He walked to the other mages on the seats. He watched the two mares walking the their positions. Arcanus talked to Fallen. "You didn't taught her about fighting other specific mages."

Fallen nodded. "She may not understand it but she still is at the basics. This foolish princess has no idea what she gotten herself into."

Ice Eruption just shook his head. "She didn't even pass basic and still she tries to fight an illusionist. Either she is brave or very incompetent. By the way, Fallen you did great work with your arena. It is nearly as good as one of my small ones."

Fallen nodded again.

Bright was confused about Fallens disbelieve in Twilight possible victory. "Why should this Trixie be a problem. I can understand that she can't beat one of you all, but Trixie is just an apprentice."

"Because Twilight is about to fight against the devious kind of mage and she doesn't even know how to fight normal mages."

Twilight and Trixie signaled Fallen that they are ready and Fallen began to count down. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two one, ZERO."

Trixie immediately rushed forward to hit Twilight with her rapier. Twilight blocked the attack with her shield and Twilight tried to attack Trixie with her sword. They fought for some time till Trixie used a spell to create a smoke explosion.

After the smoke cloud disappeared Twilight saw Trixie coming from one side and a bunch of paralyzing bolts from the other side. Twilight created a barrier for the bolts and placed her shield toward Trixie, but close before the bolts hit the barrier, the bolts and Trixie switched places and Twilight had to jump to not get hit in the back by Trixies rapier in the back.

As Twilight tried to understand what happened she saw that the ground began to glow. She quickly flew up to not get blinded. She shoot a rain of bolt randomly to the ground.

As the ground stopped glowing she saw that there were now ten Trixies. They began to shoot at her. Twilight knew that she needed to figure out which the real one was.

She flew to the ground and created a energy wave on the ground. As they hit them no one of them responded to it. 'If none of them is the real one where is she?'

She got an idea Twilight conjured a smoke cloud and let it fly around. On one place it met resistance. "There you are!"

Trixie became visibly and began to cast a big spell.

Twilight waited because she feared that Trixie has planned something big.

Tirxie shoot a big bolt that took the shape of a giant dragon. The energy dragon flew directly at Twilight. Twilight created a strong barrier and hoped she could block it.

As the dragon reached her it just went through her. 'This was just a distraction!'

Twilight saw that Trixie about to cast another big spell. Twilight shoot as fast as she could a paralyzing bolt at her. The bolt hit the goal and Trixie fell to the ground. Twilight walked to her.

Then Twilight saw Trixie vanishing and heard laughter from behind her. "Oh you thought that was me. I am sorry to disappoint you."

Twilight turned around and saw Trixie standing in front f her. Trixie began to stab Twilight with her rapier and on such an high speed that Twilight had problems to block every attack.

Twilight tried to attack on her side but Trixie parried the attack and Twilight lost her sword and shield and got hit by the rapier. The paralyze spell started to work and she fell to the ground.

Fallen ended the duel. "This duel is over and the winner is high mage apprentice Trixie!"

The mages talked a bit about the duel and then walked down the stairs to the entrance of the arena and they saw Spirit standing there with his Timberwolf and a unknown zebra.

The zebra talked to Spirit in another language that Fallen didn't understood. Spirit answered him and the zebra talked back again. Some of the apprentices began to whisper about the language.

Twilight stood up from the ground of the arena and grasped as she saw Spirit. She quickly walked over to him. "Oh I am so sorry I almost forgot about you Spirit."

The council walked over to them and Fallen spoke to them, completely ignoring the zebra, Spirit and the Timberwolf. "So you have forgotten other things besides everything I taught you about fighting too?"

No pony said anything for a while till Spirit talked to Twilight. "Anyway Twilight if you don´t have time at the moment we can come later."

But Twilight quickly answered. "No! No! No! It´s ok!"

Mirror spoke to the zebra. "I think we should let you alone with your guests for a moment. Apprentice follow me." The council left the arena and talked about the duel a bit with Trixie who left the arena with her master.

After some time the high mages saw the zebra, Spirit and the Timberwolf leave.

Twilight followed a short time later and saw Mirror smiling at his apprentice. "Well done, but you still leak of patience. You need to plan more steps ahead. If the last trick didn't work you would had no more spells prepared."

Fallen looked disappointed at Twilight. "You did even worse than I expected. I think Celestia was wrong when she told me that you learn fast and that you always listen to your master."

Twilight let her head hang. "I am sorry, I thought I already learned enough to fight against another mage."

Rain spoke to Fallen. "Come on Fallen, don't be like that. She did not so bad for her first battle against a illusionist."

"I am already nice. If she was my apprentice I would let her train for the whole week, without a break and only give her only one glass of water to drink after such an shameful defeat."

Fallen turned away but as he was about to go he was stopped by Arcanus. "Before you go maybe you can show me and the other high mages around in this town. This is the first time that any of us is here."

Fallen shook his head. "I am sorry archmage. I have to check on my newest experiment. Ask somepony else."

"Fallen I still need your protocols."

Fallen stomped on the ground a shadow minion came out of the castle and gave Arcanus a small stack of paper. "I am in my laboratory. Don't disturb me unless it is necessary."

After Fallen was gone Twilight stepped to the rest of the council. "I can show you around if you want."

Arcanus nodded. "I would like to see the town and I still want to talk with you a bit princess Twilight."

Formulas spoke up. "I am sorry but I have to go, as soon as I am back in Manehatten I can sent out the magic hunters."

Ice Eruption bowed before Twilight and spoke. "I am sorry your highness but I have to go too or my apprentice and I are late for training."

The two high mages walked away and went inside their carriages together with their apprentices. The guards began to pull and flew away.

Mirror Illusion smiled at Twilight. "I would love to spent more time with you princess."

Rain Bringer smiled too. "I will stay too. Bright and I still have some things to catch up on."

Rising turned around and attempted to walk away but Mirror stopped him. "Don't say you have to go too. Normally you are the last one that left."

Rising just shook his head and went on till he saw that somepony was in his way. It was Bright. "You are not going to go away. I haven't seen you for so long!"

"I have some experiments to do and you know that Fallen wouldn't like it if I stay any longer."

Bright made a sad face. "Oh please."

"Fine." Rising smiled weakly at her and he walked back to the rest.

Twilight began to show them around the town. After the tour Twilight, Arcanus and Mirror talked about magic. Mirror left first after he noticed that they both will talk about nothing else but magic today.

Rain, Rising and Bright spent the rest of the day talking and wandering around the town.

The apprentices stayed at the castle and looked through the library.

Fallen spent the rest of the day alone and tried to finish the experiment and mastered the new spells he found in a ancient dark spell book.