Twilight Sparkle faced the doorway when she reached the bottom of the stairs in the crystal palace. Spike stayed up (not touching anything) and kept an eye outside as she opened the door that was there, but it was persistent. It dodged her attempts at trying to get to it until she had to use the trick that Celestia taught her, making the door fly open. Inside she found herself back in Princess Celestia's palace.

What am I doing here, she thought to herself. Trying to piece together everything was touch for her. As her thoughts continued, she heard a voice all out to her. "What are you doing here, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia said, busy with the scrolls, writing them each and rolling them up before moving on to the next one.

"I don't know, I was in the palace one minute—"

"And now you must go!" Princess Celestia said. "You have no right to be here after you failed your test Twilight Sparkle, and I don't take kindly to failure."

"But… but if I failed your test, what's going to happen?"

"Why does it matter? You won't be able to continue your studies anymore after what you did! After I trusted you with this test, you fail it and all of Equestria, even your friends, Shining Armor, and Cadance. Everypony now knows what you did… and I don't want a failure as a student, not anymore!"

Twilight felt her tears escape her eyes. Hearing from the alicorn that she was trusted as her faithful student for so long was enough to break the damn, but when she was told about how her friends and everypony else saw her as a failure everything collapsed around her.

"Twilight, if your done with your worthless flank being in my castle, then you are dismissed!"

"Princess, please, I'm sorry!" she cried out, "Just give me another chance and I won't let you down! I've looked up to you for a long time and you taught me so much! What am I going to do now! Where will I go?"

The alicorn just looked at her stoically before she ordered some of her guards into the throne room. "Take this worthless unicorn to the Everfree Forest. From now on, that will be her new home! She no longer exists to me!"

The white, armored unicorns grabbed hold of Twilight by means of their magic and escorted her (while she screamed apologies at the Princess) and set her inside a carriage before flying off. The last thing that Twilight saw before she left the castle was a stained glass window similar to the ones of her friends and her defeating Discord, Nightmare Moon, and the defeat of Queen Chrysalis—though this one was of King Sombra and her, with him on top and her below him in a defeated manner.

Back in reality, she was catatonic, eyes a shade of lime-green with her irises red. Everything that was shown to her made her heart break but her emotions go into a rage. Rage… that was something she felt. Rage and hatred for everything that she knew was a lie, everything that she had worked so hard for. Her thoughts went back to the time when she went crazy because of worrying about sending in her Friendship Report late to Princess Celestia; her friends just brushed her off.

Another memory came up: back in Canterlot when she tried to tell everypony that the Cadance that was with them in the wedding was a fake, but she was ignored by everypony. Everypony ignored her…

All her friends, her brother, the Princess, even her number one assistant who she took care of since he hatched from that damn egg! As she stayed in the same position, a voice came into her head, one that sounded familiar.

Is that what you want, Twilight? To be known as a failure all your life?

Princess Celestia… why would she do it? I would have done what I could to show her I was able to pass. To be able to still be her student! She does hate me, doesn't she? She would abandon me and have someone else as her student would she?

What about when the wedding happened, after you saved her life?

She never apologized for me being right. That stupid stallion, my so-called "brother", never apologized either. All he cared about was making sure his precious gem of wife was pampered and given the right wedding. If he wasn't preoccupied with that wedding, he would have listened instead of telling me not to come to the wedding.

And what of your friends, what do you feel about them?

Eyes still the same green with red irises, her friends stood before her, all glaring down at her and belittling her for what she did, even taunting her say she wasn't a friend to them. Next was Shining Armor, who told her the things she didn't want to hear, even from her parents.

Why did you have to ruin everything? Shining Armor

You big meanie-pants, everything's always your fault! Pinkie Pie

One after another, each of them gave harsh words to Twilight, words that burned deep into her memory and stung at her heart until it was on the verge of breaking, even with Celestia's words to her (about not wanting her to be her student, and being turned into stone by her like Discord) made her defenses break; everypony that she loved—her family, friends, her brother, her foalsitter—all turned their backs on her.

As they all faded from her like ghosts, the word turned into a black void. Twilight Sparkle sat alone in the abyss, tears cascading down her face while the shadows leaked out from beyond the door towards the young filly. Sombra looked at her with astonishment. Astonishment because of her ability to handle dark magic so well and learn it so quickly from the Princess; he saw great potential in her…

It had to be done. Looking at the still-crying filly, a wisp of purple gently stroked her cheek while she just continued to weep, knowing that she was all alone in the world, everypony abandoning her and leaving her for dead. Not even so much as batting an eyelash. As her heart began to darken, her anger grew stronger and stronger. King Sombra took notice of this and caressed her mane, stroking it like she was a loving kitten. "Twilight Sparkle—" he began but she cut him off.

"I don't want this… I want to be alone! Why would they do that? Tell me! I would have tried harder, I would have gotten better!"

"Is that what you want? To get better at magic, even more than you already know?"

"I do. I don't want to be alone anymore. Back at the wedding in Canterlot none of them showed concern for me or where I was! That tells me that they never cared for me to begin with. All the things I went through them—the Gala tickets, the wedding, the teasing comments like "egghead"—it was because I was the laughing stock and I was just being used to get what they wanted!"

"How would Celestia feel about you using dark magic? Would she allow you to continue?"

Twilight Sparkle sniffled a little and was silent. She could see her mentor berating her and scolding her, even going as far to turn her into stone like what happened with Discord! The rage in her heart grew stronger and stronger; Sombra could see it and continued, hoping that her defenses would break. "If they were to know about you using the same magic your mentor uses, would they still be your friends and family? Would they have still accepted you for what you are?"

Her eyes still the same color; she sniffled again and ground her teeth together. "No… they would hate me just like Princess would. They would betray me again just as they had before in the past."

"But I wouldn't, Twilight Sparkle," he said, "If you stayed with me, I would never betray you. I would make sure you're never alone."

She looked up to him as a creepy smile slowly formed on her face. "You would?"

"Yes," he nodded, "and you're ability to use magic like mine fascinates me so. So much so that if you're willing to learn me about I can teach you. Even more than Princess Celestia would."

Twilight's thoughts returned back to the memory of when back at the wedding. She tried to get everypony to listen but they wouldn't. In a last attempt for salvation, she turned to Princess Celestia…

You have a lot to think about…

Those words stung her heart hard. If she returned back to Canterlot with failure in her hooves, Princess Celestia would demote her as her star pupil, but not King Sombra… no. He would always be there for her and teach her dark magic that would make her stronger than she already was; stronger than when she defeated that Ursa Minor, and sending Trixie away.

Trixie… That would be the pony Celestia would chose as her replacement for the failure, and of course, she would be more than happy to learn from the most prestigious alicorn in Equestria… just so she could boast about it (like she's done in the past) and get Spike taken from her by the blue unicorn. Looking up at Sombra, whose eyes glowered with dark energy, he stayed silent waiting for Twilight's respond. In her silence, her heart grew dark and darker. The green color of her eyes got stronger, wisps of purple mist formed at the corners of her eyes as she looked up at her new mentor and bowed at her hooves as if he were Celestia.

"Twilight Sparkle," King Sombra began, "if you were to be taught by me, I could teach you so much more, more than what you already know. Even an Ursa Major, or even Discord would look at you with fear. Is that what you want?"

Her eyes glowed with the energy of dark magic, he could feel it. Yes, he thought to him, let go Twilight, let go. More and more the thoughts of abandonment from her friends and family plagued Twilight as her heart was covered in tendrils of darkness. King Sombra chuckled more to himself as Twlight began to break.

"You wouldn't abandon me like they would, would you?" she asked.

"I would never turn my back on you, Twilight. If you stay with me, all you have to do is cast them away from your life."

Her horn illuminated a red hue. Twilight could feel the shadows swallowing everything… and she could feel the strength from them. The power was incredible! Such a thing like this, it would be exhilarating to be able to use this power to take down her enemies. They would be like insects to her! One last thought was thought back to everypony she knew, and in an instant they formed cracks on their body before breaking into pieces like from a fragile mirror, falling into shards and leaving the lavender unicorn alone in the dark void.

Then she chuckled…

She laughed, the laugh getting louder and more psychotic; the purple mist from the dark energy of the magic stronger and stronger. "They never cared about me. I don't need them anymore, not anypony." She turned to King Sombra and knelt before in a way that was to be expected. "Please, King Sombra, teach me everything I need to know."

"In time, my apprentice… in time you will."

Back in reality, she still stood by the door a voice called out to her. She looked back up with her green eyes and looked up to where the baby dragon was, a scowl appearing on her face.

"If that dragon gets in my way, I'm feeding him to a real one, see how he likes it. But maybe later I'll invite him to dinner; right now I need to find something that my master wants. And I need to find before those other idiots do."

Eyes still the same she began to trek back up the stairs to find what she needed. Then, she would be on her on.

Note: Well, there's the first chapter or prologue, whichever you want to call it, for this story. I haven't decided yet if I want to continue this story or not. This is just something an artist on the DA drew two pictures of and wanted people to make a fanfic based on it. If he ever gets to see and read this, I hope I do him (and you and others) proud of making this story. But my experience with MLP, even though I'm a brony too, is limited and getting everything to sound right to other bronies and pegasisters is important to me, so criticism is highly appreciated!