//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 - Fallen 
// Story: Kingdom of Friendship 
// by SkyFlare 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight stood alone in the cell that had once held her friends.  There was a large black smudge on the wall where she had been practicing her aim.  It was amazing what could be done with dark magic; she was able to make what she hit catch fire temporarily.  She learned it from a spell book; the spell was listed as “Dark Fire.”
She was beginning to feel more relaxed at her new home, once she had gotten over the feeling that she could be jumped and killed at any time.  She’d learned that Sombra was actually very civilized.  When they saw each other, he always greeted her with a polite nod and a surprisingly warm smile.  It was strange how safe she felt there.  She didn’t have any true obligations to the ponies there, and so she didn’t feel the fear of betrayal.
“Twilight.” Sombra’s voice spoke from the doorway in his usual calm manner.  “It is time to eat.  Would you accompany me to the dining hall?”
“Yes.” Twilight nodded and turned to face her mentor.
The pair walked down the long dark halls.  There was still a slightly ominous feel to the castle, but with time, like everything else, Twilight was beginning to adjust.  Windows were on either side of the hall, mostly due to Sombra’s opinion that they needed some decoration and stained glass windows were always nice for something like that.  It gave it a feeling similar to what Canterlot castle held for her, she wasn’t sure though, if it was intentional or by coincidence.
They soon arrived at a table that was large enough for the three of them and another seven or so guests.  What guests would show up there, of that, Twilight was clueless.  There were only three chairs at the time and one was full.  Vim sat at the far end, away from where Twilight and Sombra would be seated.  Twilight was receiving a dark glare from the other mare in the room.
“Ah, Vim, it is good to see that you have joined us.  I must ask though, it has been well over a week since we got Twilight to come with us.  When will you be removing your cloak?  It isn’t the most polite article to be wearing at the dinner table.” Sombra stated.
“My King, would you prefer me to distract your Twilight from her studies?  I feel that this is the best way for me to avoid interfering with her… learning.” Vim responded, in a very well-mannered tone.
“What’s she talking about?” Twilight asked, being the only pony in the castle to speak so casually.
“Soon all will be explained, but for now, Vim is right.  For now, your studies are the most important thing.” Sombra stated.  “Enough of that though, let us dine without such distractions.”
“All right.” Twilight took her seat directly to King Sombra’s right.
Twilight couldn’t get it off her mind though.  Throughout the meal, she kept wondering about why Vim’s face would be a distraction.  When they first met, Vim spoke to Twilight like she should have known her.
At the end of the meal, Sombra dismissed both Twilight and Vim.  Twilight was to continue her studies and Vim was to continue her “Project” as Sombra called it.  There were still secrets being kept from her, but what could she expect, it had only been twelve days since she first arrived at the castle.  
Twilight went back to her bedroom for the first time since she’d woken up that morning.  It was just as she’d left it, books were scattered across the floor covering everything from the most basic spells in dark magic to spells that were designed to instantly kill their target.  She grabbed all of them with her magic and dropped them onto her bed carelessly.  Something shook on her bedside table when the books bounced onto the bed.  A glass of water that she had forgotten about that was probably days old by that point.  She lifted it up with her magic and brought it to her mouth, after taking a sip she found it to be stale.
She used her magic to lift the liquid from the glass and she began to spin it around in the air.  Sombra would not say that this was training, but she was exhausted from only getting an hour of sleep collectively over the past two nights.  She laid herself down on the floor and began to make little whirlpools with the water above her head.  It was relaxing, unlike most of the other things she had been doing.
There was a knock at the door, breaking Twilight’s focus and making her drop the water onto her face, soaking her.  “Yes?” she asked with a grunt.
“King Sombra wants you to…  Why are you wet?” Vim asked.
“You distracted me.” Twilight groaned.
“Too bad, King Sombra wants you to go outside the castle and find the pony who has been watching this place.  He doesn’t like being spied on.” Vim continued.
“Fine.” Twilight growled, climbing to her hooves.
Vim left her alone in her room again.  Twilight thought about the fact that she was going to be leaving the castle for the first time in a while, so she decided to see how she looked.  Her mane was disheveled, sticking out in every direction possible.  Her coat was stained black in some locations due to miss fires with some of the more complicated spells.  Worst of all though were her eyes, they had black bags under them from sleep deprivation and the whites of her eyes were turning a sickly green.
“So this is what dark magic does to you?” Twilight asked herself.  “It isn’t like it matters though, it’s just appearances.”
Twilight walked all the way to the door and stopped.  This was her first time getting to step out into the sunlight in twelve days.  Night had occurred twice during that time period, only to let the ground cool and give plants and animals a break from the sun.  This would be her first time to see the sun without it being through a stained glass window in days, and it could also be her last time in just as long of a time.  She had to savor the moment.
The door slowly crept open as green magic tendrils gave it a push.  The sunlight nearly blinded the unicorn at first, making her flinch and turn away.  The sun used to be so welcomed to her, it meant a chance to see her closest friends and it meant a new day and a new adventure.  The sun was a symbol of her happiest memories.  Now all that ball of burning gas meant was a chance to go blind from its cursed light and memories of a world she didn’t care to remember.  She felt so much bitterness toward her past, but she didn’t know why.  There was nothing that the light held for her that she couldn’t find in the dark.  The dark offered her the power to do anything that she wanted and more importantly it offered her comfort.  When you work with the dark, nothing from it can scare you and nothing from it can hurt you.

“I can’t believe it…” Vim muttered to herself holding back laughter.  “I’m rid of her, finally.  After all that I did for King Sombra, he went and tried to replace me.  I’ll show him who the better apprentice is though.  Using that Keyblade that he hid in this castle, I’ll…”
Vim’s voice trailed off as she reached an old alter in a hidden room of the castle’s basement and found nothing on it.  The keychain was gone.
“All I wanted was a chance to prove myself!  With that Keyblade I could have done just that.” she growled.  “I don’t give a flying feather about that Celestia forsaken Keyblade.  I’m going to give Twilight a one way ticket to Tartarus either way.”
Vim threw her cloak to the floor revealing her smoky grey coat and black mane.  A blood red streak ran through her mane and tail.  She liked to maintain her appearance and so both her mane and her tail were finely brushed.  Her eyes were purple with a bright green around them instead of the usual white, similar to Sombra’s eyes.
There was a bright purple flash as she teleported and Vim vanished.  She reappeared on a cliffside, looking down at Twilight as she hunted for the spy while hiding in the shadows.
“You fit in perfectly Twilight.  You hide from the light simply because you are too scared to face it.” Vim shot out a blast of purple magic into the hillside causing an avalanche.
The rocks plummeted down toward Twilight, catching her off guard.  She was trapped like a rat when one boulder landed on her tail, pinning her to the ground.

A cloud of black smoke ascended from the ground in front of Twilight, blocking her eyesight.  A pair of solid white glowing eyes appeared in the smoke, staring out at Twilight.  She struggled, trying to move away, but with her tail under a rock, there wasn’t much that she could do other than use her magic.
She prepared to cast a dark fire spell, but right as it started to form, a magic brace flew to her horn.  She couldn’t move, she couldn’t use magic, but there was still something that could save her.  There was always a way, there had to be.
“It can’t end like this.” Twilight said to herself.  “I won’t let it!” 
Twilight began to slowly lift off of the ground and the brace on her horn shattered.  She lifted a rock with her magic and cut her tail so that she could get off.  She still had a bit more left over than Rarity did that first night.
“Do you really think that you can scare me?” Twilight asked the smoke.
“How… how did you do that?” a voice called from the smoke.
Twilight smirked, recognizing the voice to be that of Vim.  With a dark laugh, she sent a dark fire into the smoke, causing it to ignite.  She could hear Vim screaming in pain from within the burning smoke, but it was necessary to prove that she was not to be trifled with.
“Say that you are sorry.” Twilight smiled.  “I have all day, but considering that you will burn to death in only a few minutes, you don’t.”
“I…” she could faintly hear from the fire between the blood curdling scream.  “Sorry…”
The fire immediately died out leaving a burnt mare sprawled out across the dirt.  Twilight turned around and walked away, returning to the castle to get some much needed sleep.  She didn’t care about Vim; she meant nothing, not to her and not to Sombra.  It was clear the hate that Vim had for her, every time that their eyes met, she could feel Vim’s hatred.
Twilight looked back to Vim and saw her on the ground, an expression more horrible than anything Twilight had ever imagined before.  She looked as if she had been petrified mid scream.  An overwhelming force of emotion hit Twilight like a train.  The unicorn fell to the ground and covered her face.
“Twilight my dear, what is the matter?  Why do you cry?” Sombra asked.
“I… I can’t do it.” Twilight sobbed.  “I thought that I could… but I can’t.”
“Are you referring to Vim?  She’ll be fine; you just lost your temper.  Considering what she was trying to do to you, it is more than acceptable, it was beautiful.”
“How could I...” Twilight cried back.
“I’ll heal her.  Just come back to the castle with me.  It’s stress; just take a chance to relax.  I know that I’ve been pushing you hard, maybe too hard.” Sombra smiled comfortingly, helping Twilight up from the ground.
They walked into the castle’s main corridor and made their way to the throne room, where Sombra stopped.  The two of them stood in the dark room which only became darker as Sombra pulled the blinds over the windows with his magic.  Twilight could see him look at her and smile.
“Twilight, there is something that I would like to ask you.  Will you be my queen?”

Spike clenched the keychain tightly in his claw, looking up into the night sky.  The Heartless hadn’t attacked since Twilight went with Sombra.  And Vim, Spike knew that there had to be a way to get to her, if only he could bait her out of hiding.  Odds were that Vim would be sent to handle any disturbances long before Twilight would.  Vim was trained in dark magic and terrifying.
The young dragon’s thoughts were interrupted by a knocking at the library door.  Spike slowly walked down to the first floor of the library from the balcony to greet the guest.  He was hoping that it would be Rainbow or somepony who could help him save Twilight.  Instead, upon opening the door, he saw two ponies, a stallion and a young colt.  
“Sorry, but the library is closed until further notice.” Spike said preparing to close the door, but it caught the stallion’s hoof.
“Is this the residence of a miss Twilight Sparkle?” he asked.
“It was…” Spike answered under his breath.
“It was?”  the stallion asked back.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the colt added.
“She isn’t here right now.  That’s why we’re closed.” Spike told them.
“Please do not tell me that it has anything to do with the Heartless.”
“What do you know about the Heartless?” Spike asked.
“Twilight saved Note here and I from a fairly large one out in the Canterlot library last week.  Princess Celestia wanted us to find her and make sure that she was all right?  Where is she?”
“She went with King Sombra… to save us… to save me…”
“King Sombra?  As in The King Sombra?” the stallion asked.  “But that’s not possible he’s-” before he could finish the thought a unicorn member of the royal guard teleported into the middle of the conversation.  “Yes, Veil?” the stallion asked, redirecting his attention to the new pony.
The pony didn’t speak, but instead pointed one of his hooves toward the sky.  Another dark orb was starting to form, meaning that the fight wasn’t over.
“What’s that you’re holding?” the stallion asked Spike.
“It’s just a keychain.” Spike answered staring up into the orb.
“Mist Valley!  Maybe he can use it just like Twilight!” the colt shouted.
“We can only hope, Note.” Valley replied.
“Use it like Twilight?  What do you mean?”
“He is referring to the Keyblade.  Twilight is a wielder of an ancient weapon that is able to fight the Heartless.”
“If I kill enough Heartless, maybe I can get Vim to try and find me.” Spike thought aloud.  “How do I use it?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Valley answered, “but you don’t have a great deal of time to find out.  They will be here in about fifteen seconds judging by that dark cloud.”
Spike turned to his left and saw a massive dark cloud moving toward them, but instead of being in the sky, it was on the ground.  It took him a few seconds to realize that the cloud was actually dust being raised from the ground as an army charged toward Ponyville.  Dots of yellow were dispersed throughout the dust and dirt that flew through the air.
Spike felt something in his claw move and he looked down to see a long sword like object in his grasp.  It had a full guard that encircled his claw.  The blade was as long as he was tall with a green fire design at the end.  The keychain that he was holding before was clipped onto the end of the weapon.
“You can fight them young dragon.  That is a Keyblade.” Valley stated.
“Whatever you say, and my name is Spike.”
Spike ran toward the Heartless and swung his Keyblade.  It instantly destroyed one of the Heartless that it hit; another was knocked backwards into a group.  The dragon frantically swung his weapon trying to hold off the seemingly endless hordes of Heartless.
The Heartless just kept on charging into the town, but Spike kept knocking them down.  One after another they fell and burst into a dark smoke.  There was nothing he couldn’t do, he felt invincible.  He looked back to the new ponies and saw a glimmer of hope in their eyes.  He was able to protect them; he now knew how Twilight and the others had felt when fighting against Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the changelings.
“Stay back!  I won’t let them get to you!” Spike shouted toward them as the Heartless began to part in the middle.

“Vim!  Get up!” Sombra shouted at the half fried pony.  “I don’t have time to waste with your incompetence.  Despite all of your extra training, Twilight still beat you; you are only still alive due to either her mercy, or her hesitation.  Both are qualities that I will surely make her forget soon enough.”
Vim tried to speak back to him, to apologize for her actions and for her loss, but all that came out was a crackling noise.
“Something is wrong in Ponyville.  The Heartless are dying and I want you to stop it.” Sombra’s horn lit up and Vim’s burns seemed to melt away.
“I’m sorry!” she cried out.  “I’m so sorry!  Please forgive me for failing!”
“Only if you get out of my sight and prove to me that you aren’t a waste of eleven years of my time!” 
“I promise.” she cried back before stepping through a portal to Ponyville that she conjured.
She never felt more comfortable than when she was passing through one of the portals.  Despite the fact that most ponies find the dark to be cold, Vim found it warm and comforting.  She felt the dark embrace her, making her feel like everything was going to be all right, forget all of the pain that she knew.  The darkness wrapped around her and formed a new cloak for her to wear.
When she exited the portal, Heartless went for as far as the eye could see on either side of her. They had left a path down the middle, allowing for the problem that Sombra had mentioned to come to her.  All she needed to do was wait for it to arrive.
Within moments, she could hear the sound of dirt being thrown into the air as something ran at her.  Soon she was able to make out the form of a small, bipedal creature.  When it was finally close enough to see, she noticed that it was Twilight’s dragon, Spike.  He seemed different this time though, stronger and less fearful of the dark.  In his claw was…
“A Keyblade?” Vim shouted upon noticing it.
“Vim!” Spike shouted before sliding to a halt.  “I don’t want to fight you.”
“Too bad!  I don’t have much of an option here!” Vim yelled, summoning her own Keyblade and making the first move of the fight.
A quick forward thrust was made toward Spike, but he swung his blade up, knocking Vim’s into the air.  She quickly recovered her Keyblade and tried to slam it down onto his head, but he managed to jump out of the way just in time to avoid being hit.
“Please!  Listen to me!  I know what’s wrong!” Spike pled.
“Then you know that you can never understand my pain!” Vim grabbed Spike’s legs with tendrils of darkness from the ground.
“You’re right.  I can never understand your pain because I haven’t felt anything close to it.” Spike replied.  “I’ve only ever really had one pony that I called family, you had three, and all of them are dead.  That doesn’t mean that you’re alone though.  I’ll be your friend.”
“I don’t need friends!” Vim was on the verge of crying as she struck Spike in the chest with her Keyblade.  “They make you weak, the make you care.”

“Twilight, how was your rest?” Sombra asked as she stepped into the throne room.  “Have you thought about my offer to make you my queen?”
“I don’t know yet…” Twilight said quietly, still confused about what was being asked of her.
“Take your time, don’t be afraid.” Sombra stated, and Twilight’s eyes widened as she heard the voice again. 
“Take your time.  Don’t be afraid.”
“What’s wrong?  Did I say something strange?” Sombra asked, noticing Twilight’s expression.
“No.  It wasn’t you.” Twilight stopped speaking.  “That much I know for certain.” she added under her breath.
“Well, as I said, there is no need to rush.  Unlike my last offer, this one will be long standing.  I understand the magnitude that goes into a decision like this.” Sombra stated.
“May I go for a walk, my King?” Twilight asked as she looked down to the floor.
“Of course, you needn’t ask my permission to do so.”
Twilight nodded and turned away from him.  She slowly walked toward the door and left the castle.  The sky to the east had an orb floating in it, just like the one from above Canterlot.  Twilight dismissed it, it wasn’t her problem anymore; she didn’t have any reasons to care.
She walked out into the darkness, passing by mounds of fallen rocks from her earlier confrontation.  There were puddles scattered on the ground, implying that it had rained while she’d been asleep.  Twilight looked down at one of the puddles and saw that her reflection looked even worse than it had before.  Her mane was matted, and stained black; her guess was that the stain was not from mud, but from her extensive use of dark magic.  Her pupils were almost slits instead of the circles that they should have been.
There was no apparent reason for it, but she felt her spirit being crushed.  She fell to the ground and simply gave up.  An endless emptiness overwhelmed her, making her just want to close her eyes and quit moving.
“And don’t forget… You are the one… Who will open the door… To the Light.”

“Everypony needs friends, especially somepony who feels as alone as you do.” Spike told Vim, after taking a second to recover from the pain in his chest.  “If you need proof, just look at her.”
“Don’t you ever compare me to her!  I am stronger!  I have more resolve!  If I’m going to kill somepony, I do it!” she shouted, the purple smoke flowing from the corners of her eyes.
“But do you like to kill?” Spike asked.  “Don’t answer now though.  I already know what you want to say, but you will only say what you have to say.”
“You don’t know anything about me!”
“I know that Midnight Vim wasn’t your first name.”
“Shut up!  You don’t know me!”
“Yes I do.” Spike dropped his Keyblade.  “I think that I might even know you better than you know yourself, Twilight.”