Starting Over : The Rough Years

Spectra walked through the hallway of the highschool with a large smile and eye patch on his face. Spectra had achieved his dream. He was now a professor in archaeology and worked at the highschool as Professor Speed. He had a fairly large amount of students, most of which showed great enthusiasm to learn. Others showed none at all. Spectra knew right from the beginning that there would be students like that.

Spectra reached his room and entered. Inside there were students sitting on desks chatting, until he entered the room.

"Morning, guys."

He received mixed responses.

"G'mornin', Prof."

"Hello, sir."

"Hey."

Spectra walked over to the front desk and placed his bag on the table, giving the row of students a glance. In the first row sat his son, Tenebra. In the row behind him sat Applebloom, and the back row contained Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, chatting away as if Spectra wasn't in the room.

"Diamond, Silver! Pay attention!"

The two fillies groaned and turned to the front. Spectra grinned and turned to the gigantic chalkboard behind him, using his magic to pick up the piece of chalk and start drawing.

"Today it is my task to teach you about an ironic topic, considering almost everypony in Ponyville remember them."

He lowered the chalk and turned to the class. On the board he drew up a sketch of a unicorn with fangs. Next to the sketch was a wall of text.

"The Darkane. I'm meant to tell you about their past, but I believe the basics are known by everypony here?"

Everypony nodded, except Diamond Tiara, who was talking to Silver Spoon once again. Spectra sighed and smashed his hoof down onto the floor, with a magic boost. He sent a shock wave rippling through the room, alerting Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

"Because of you two, I believe I WILL go through the basics."

The fillies groaned and Spectra smirked. He turned back to the chalk board and read off what he wrote.

"The Darkane are a breed of unicorn born from the chaotic energy of Equestria. Back when Discord was in control of Equestria instead of the two alicorn princesses, the land was always chaotic. When the princesses took control, all of the chaos got diverted and collided with the landscape, creating Ghastly Gorge."

Applebloom raised her hoof. Spectra turned and nodded to her.

"Yes, Applebloom?"

"Was the creation of tha Darkane the princesses fault?"

Spectra shook his head and turned back to the board.

"It was nopony's fault. The Darkane were ruled by a king who thirsted for power. They opposed the princesses to try and take the kingdom for themselves. They were armed with a horrifying ability. They had retractable fangs for which they used on their victims. They bit into their victims necks and drained them of blood, gaining their special talent."

Spectra chuckled and picked the chalk up, drawing another sketch.

"They are similar to another species, The Sky Dwellers, in blood lust. The Sky Dwellers, which we have already covered, were what....Dinky?"

Spectra pointed to a unicorn filly with a light violet coat and slight gold mane.

"The Sky Dwellers were a race of warrior pegasi."

Spectra winked and nodded to the filly.

"Correct. The Darkane were similar to The Sky Dwellers because they were a race of warrior unicorns, bred for combat. Although Darkane were born in Ghastly Gorge, any unicorn can become a Darkane. All a Darkane Drone had to do was use a certain spell on a unicorn and he would forget all about his past life and become a Darkane. Buuuut....."

Spectra dropped the chalk and looked up to his chalkboard, which now had a picture of a pegasi.

"There is only one Darkane in existence to have been born naturally. Who that is..."

Spectra turned to his class and smiled.

"...is kept a secret."

Spectra chuckled and turned back to the board, continuing to write.

"Anyway, 10 years ago the Darkane rose to power. Their king, Cruor, was out to get me for my power."

Spectra lowered the chalk and revealed a picture of him fighting Cruor.

"You see, to fully explain this I must tell you of my power. A very long time ago, I attained Princess Luna's friendship. In return, she gave me the Alicorn's Blessing. An ability that gives ponies amazing abilities based on their personalities. My ability was protection. Each ponies ability is different. Anyway, Cruor was told of the previous king obtaining the power of Star Burst, Luna's old coltfriend. He had the same power as me."

A colt raised his hoof.

"Yes, Pipsqueak?"

"I thought you said everypony had a different power? Then how do you and Star Burst have the same power?"

Spectra frowned and groaned.

"Well, you see, I am Star Burst."

Everypony gasped and Spectra nodded.

"I'm the reincarnation of him. Before he died he cast a spell enabling him to return as a different pony. He came back as me."

There was silence for a few seconds, before a loud resounding "Woah!" echoed through the room. Spectra smiled and turned back to his board.

"Cruor was after my powers. He actually had them for a short amount of time. Until me and Dark-Red united and synced, then we kicked his flank."

He raised a hoof to his eye patch and sighed.

"Unfortunately, one does not simply have their mind and soul in perfect harmony without a price. That's how I got this."

Spectra lifted the eye patch, revealing his dark red eye. He lowered the patch and looked to his flank.

"It's also why my cutie mark is half red."

Spectra looked back to his students.

"Right, so when I defeated the king the Darkane didn't show themselves again. All I have left of Cruor is his team of assassins. The Umbra Triad."

Spectra grinned and tapped the chalkboard with a hoof.

"I want all this on paper by the end of this class."

He heard a collective groan from the students as they flipped open their books and began writing. Spectra chuckled and opened a book he had been reading for a while.

~After Class~

Tenebra exited the classroom with a smile on his face, heading straight towards his locker. As he walked, a certain student noticed him.

"Hey, Tenebra!~"

Tenebra frowned and sighed at the all to familiar voice.

"What do you want, Tage?"

The orange coated, yellow maned pegasus filly leaned in from the side and began walking along side him. Tenebra didn't hate her or anything, but she had a habit of getting on his nerves a lot of the time. She's almost on par with Pinkie Pie, which Tenebra assumed to be impossible.

"I just wanted to know how class went today. Your dad is a good teacher."

Tenebra laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah, unlike the other teachers here my Dad actually knows how to handle the students. Guess they must be afraid of him. Can't blame 'em."

They reached the lockers and Tenebra opened his one, placing his books inside. Tage opened hers just because Tenebra did. Oddly enough, hers was right next to his. She was still wearing that massive smile on her face.

"So?"

Tenebra closed his locker and leaned against the lockers nonchalantly.

"So what?"

"I'm still a rock star."

Tenebra rolled his eyes and waved a hoof, signalling for her to continue.

"So how was your class?"

"Oh."

Tenebra laughed and leaned away from the lockers with a smile.

"Dad taught the class about the Darkane. They're a race or something that tried to take over Equestria."

Tage just continued smiling and blinked. A few seconds passed and not either of them spoke. Tage kept that smile on her face and Tenebra was just kicking at the dirt.

"Hey, little brother!"

Tenebra was both disappointed and relieved, which became visibly obvious at his sudden frown.

"Hey, Rose."

Rose flew right up to Tenebra and landed next to him.

"Ready to head out? Dad won't like it if you're late for your lesson with Twilight and Mom will be furious at me for letting you be late."

Tenebra chuckled lightly and gave a small smile to his sister.

"Sure, Rose. See ya later Ta-"

Tenebra looked around for Tage only to not find her anywhere. He groaned and facehoofed.

"Just. Like. Pinkie."

Rose laughed and nudged Tenebra. He looked to her and nodded with a determined look.

"Race ya!"

Tenebra broke out into a full sprint and heard a groan behind him as he exited the highschool.

"Not again!"

~

Later That Day~

It was near sunset and Tenebra was in the library of Twilight Sparkle, the towns librarian and an old friend to Tenebra's family. Twilight was watching Tenebra as he stood in front of her, horn sparking and preparing a spell. Twilight nodded to herself, having high hopes for him.

"Good Tenebra, good. Just a bit more."

Tenebra nodded and concentrated harder. He was trying to perform a spell Twilight had assigned him to learn, the Aqua Apparition spell. In his previous classes with Twilight he had learned and acquired many spells, one of which being a teleportation spell. However, he had not yet mastered it and could only do short distance teleports.

Tenebra scrunched his face as the spell got to the difficult bit. In front of him appeared a small, growing glob of water. It eventually grew to the size of his head. Twilight was now nodding vigorously with a large smile upon her face.

"You're doing it, Tenebra! Just a bit more!"

Tenebra went all out, and began exerting more energy than he had. His horn sparked massively, sending him falling back on his flank and the water glob dissipating. Tenebra closed his eyes tight and thumped the floor beneath him in anger.

"Damnnit!"

He sighed and opened his eyes to reveal Twilight holding a hoof out to him. He accepted the hoof and stood up, anger still present in his eyes. Which unlike his sister or father did not turn a shade of red. Twilight smiled at Tenebra.

"Cheer up! You're still doing way better than a lot of ponies your age!"

Tenebra grumbled under his breath. Twilight frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?"

Tenebra looked at Twilight with anger.

"What's wrong with me?"

Twilight was slightly taken aback by this.

"Nothing! Why would you-"

"Why does my Dad have powerful magic and I don't?! Why does Rose have powerful magic AND I DON'T!?"

Twilight gasped and backed off slightly. Tenebra was fuming and huffing in frustration.

"T-Tenebra, your father has explained how he got his powers. And with Rose well, most of us didn't even know Rose had any powers until she was a little older!"

Tenebra started breathing slower, clearly still angered.

"I'm sorry, Tenebra. I don't know what more to tell you then to keep trying."

Tenebra stopped huffing and breathed out. Without a word he walked past Twilight and out the door to the library on his way home.

Along the way ponies waved to him for a greeting, but he ignored them. Even Vinyl Scratch had said hello to the colt and still he ignored.

"Stupid me. Stupid magic. Stupid....everything!"

Tenebra halted and punched the nearest thing, which was a bin. He recoiled in pain and looked at his hoof. Blood dripped from a small cut in his skin.

"Aw ponyfeathers. That hurts."

He started walking on three hooves and began sucking on the cut, trying to make it go away.

Tenebra stopped in his tracks, hoof still in mouth. he noticed something weird. Something....odd.

He pulled out his hoof and looked to the cut. Blood began oozing once more. He placed the hoof back into his mouth and sucked once again. His eyes grew wide as he made a realization.

Blood tastes awesome.