Corruption of Dawn

by LordLycaon

Broken Light

The ponies of the Crystal Empire were, for lack of a better term, completely freaking out. The dreaded King Sombra was literally at the city's doorstep, and was making his way towards the palace with dark ambition in his twisted eyes.

"Don't worry, ya'll!" Applejack called down to the panicking Crystal Ponies below the palace balcony. "The Crystal Heart's on its way as we speak!"

"I don't know if they believe you," Rarity whispered to the farmpony.

"Ah don't know if Ah believe me," the blond mare admitted. She looked up at the horizon. Sombra was slowly encroaching upon the Crystal Empire, his villainous laugh echoing throughout the air. "Come on, Twi. What's takin' ya so long?"

-o-

Twilight groaned in exhaustion as she finally reached the top of the staircase. Sombra never said anything about more stairs! About halfway up, she had started to think that maybe it was an endless stairway. Thankfully, it wasn't. She looked out a nearby window and saw that she was now apparently at the top of the Crystal Palace. She could see Sombra's smoky form drawing nearer and nearer. She then scanned the rest of the room she was in. In the center was the crown jewel of the Crystal Empire itself: the Crystal Heart floated daintily, suspended by its own power.

Twilight smirked a victorious grin as she approached the great gemstone. As soon as she stepped within a circular emblem on the ground, however, the floor began to darken. She rushed inside as a wall of black crystal surrounded her and the Heart. She was basically trapped in there. She scowled as she grabbed the Heart with her magic, its original purple light having become much darker. She then teleported out of the ring of dark stones. As soon as she exited, the crystals responded to her use of dark magic by receding back into the floor.

She returned her focus to the Heart once again. She then looked out the window and saw Sombra in the distance. He was now much closer than before. She held an unsure expression. Should she really do this? Is this really the only way to prevent that horrible future? Could she really believe in Sombra?

She shook her head. Now was no time for doubt. Sombra had promised that he make sure that nopony would hurt her. He promised to teach her all that he knew. Her desire for knowledge drove her now. She took a deep breath and cast a teleportation spell, exiting the palace and appearing in front of it, facing Sombra with the Crystal Heart held by her magic, and all the Crystal Ponies gathered behind her at the shining tower. The dark king was dangerously close now. He was so close, in fact, that he had returned to his physical form. He looked exactly like he did when Twilight spoke with him in her vision.

"Hello, Twilight Sparkle," he greeted her in that gravelly voice of his. "You have my Crystal Heart?"

"It's right here," Twilight replied as she hovered the Heart directly in front of her.

Meanwhile, upon the balcony, Twilight's friends stared in shock at what was happening. "What is she doing!?" Shining Armor shouted.

"It almost looks like she's about to give Sombra the Heart," Applejack said with a look of fear and panic.

"Maybe she has some kinda plan or something?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "I mean, this is Twilight we're talking about. She's always got a plan, right?"

"Twilight!" Pinkie shouted down to her friend. "If you have some kind of plan or something, say 'yes'!" Twilight gave no response to Pinkie's cry. The pink mare shrugged. "Well, I tried."

The severely weakened Princess Cadance watched as Twilight faced Sombra. "Come on, Twilight," she whispered. "Do something. Please."

Twilight looked back up at the balcony where her friends had gathered. She looked away immediately, facing Sombra again. She dropped the Crystal Heart at his hooves. "It's yours," she said. "Now please… make me your student."

Sombra eyed the Heart with a wicked grin. He laughed victoriously as he raised his forelegs and brought them down with thundering force upon the Heart, utterly shattering the ancient relic. This earned many horrified cries from the inhabitants of the Empire. Sombra smiled at Twilight. "As agreed, child," he said, "I shall make you my student. You shall be my protégé, Twilight Sparkle. All of Equestria will soon be humbled by our combined might."

Slowly, Twilight knelt before the dark unicorn, and rose once again. Her eyes were now like Sombra's, and her horn was just as curved and burned red. "I'm honored to stand by your side, King Sombra."

-o-

Shining Armor, Cadance, the newly arrived Spike, and the remaining Bearers of the Elements of Harmony all stared in complete horror at what they had just witnessed. Twilight had just surrendered to Sombra. None of them in even their most horrible nightmares ever thought that they would see this day.

"Did that… just happen?" Fluttershy asked fearfully, hoping she was just having a very, very, very bad dream. "Th-there's no way that just happened! Twilight would never give up so easily!"

"This has to be some kind of illusion!" Shining Armor claimed in disbelief. He would never be willing to believe that his little sister would just go and give the enemy their only means of stopping him.

It was then that Twilight apparently disappeared from Sombra's presence. The group heard the sound of one of Twilight's teleportation spells behind them. They all turned to see Twilight charging dark magic through her horn. "I won't let it happen," she said a she launched a beam of dark power across the point where the balcony connected to the Crystal Palace, causing the balcony fall from its perch. The non-flying ponies and the weakened Cadance screamed as they fell, while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew down as fast as they could to help them.

As she fell, Rarity desperately tried to focus her own magic. Her horn glowed as she did so, hoping beyond hope that what she had in mind would work.

Twilight stood over the edge and watched as her friends fell. Before they hit the ground, however, they were all enveloped in a flash of blue light and vanished from her sight. She frowned at this. She recognized that spell. 'Rarity's cleverer than I gave her credit for,' she thought to herself. But teleporting that many ponies at once must've taken a lot out of her. She can't have gotten far. With that, she turned and made her way out of the palace. She would be the first to welcome her new mentor back to his rightful throne.

-o-

The train station outside the Empire was quiet, save for the snowstorm that was blowing through. The dull noise was suddenly interrupted by a loud pop and a flash of light, through which a group of ponies and one baby dragon fell to the ground. Everypony groaned as they got back up off the ground and shook the snow off their bodies.

"What just happened?" Spike asked.

Between heavy breaths, Rarity replied, "I managed… to use… a teleportation spell… I brought us all back to the train station. I thought we should… get back to Canterlot… as soon as possible…" The white mare then collapsed, but was quickly caught by Rainbow.

"Easy, Rarity," the blue pegasus said. "You're exhausted."

"Just a… little tired is all," Rarity stated with assurance. "I'll be fine… just need to rest a bit…"

"Ah think Rarity had the right idea," Applejack said in a reasonable tone. "We otta head back and warn the princess about all this."

"I'm not leaving my sister!" Shining refused angrily. "Sombra must've cast some kind of mind control spell on her! We need to save her!"

"Shining," Cadance said, getting her husband's attention. "Didn't you see that look in her eyes? I don't think she's under a spell. Either Sombra's manipulated her, or she's always been like this." After that, there was silence. Until Pinkie Pie spoke up.

"Am I the only one still wondering what she meant?" the pink pony asked. "She said 'I won't let it happen.' What's that supposed to mean?"

"M-maybe Sombra threatened to hurt us somehow if she didn't give up," Fluttershy suggested.

"Well, whatever the reason," Rainbow said with an angry tone, "I'm gonna make sure she regrets it! She's a traitor now. There's no worse kind of pony if you ask me!"

"Let's not jump the gun here," Applejack recommended. "Let's all get back to Canterlot. Ah reckon we're in for some trouble ahead." Everypony silently agreed and boarded the train that had brought the Mane 6 and Spike to the Empire in the first place. Before leaving, Spike looked back once at the once beautiful city in the distance.

"I'm sorry, Twilight," he muttered in shame as he stepped onto the train. He couldn't help but feel that this was somehow all his fault.

Comments

[LordLycaon]

5152650 The comments or the story?

[SpiritofPonies]

I thinks this story is great i myself, is writing a twibra story and love to read the ones others make. I like how you don't use too much time with twi getting to know sombra. A little advice: try not to go too fast because if you do then it will lose its gripping effect. So basicly remember you have time and don't rush books.

Keep up the good work

[jack the reaper]

Well shit hit the fan quikly