The Darkness

The Prologue

The doors to the castle crashed opened, spewing onto the old marble flooring a lavender unicorn stallion. His star dust pictured flank bounced off the ground before making him flip over once and onto his belly. The stallion groaned in pain before snapping his eyes wide open.

“Damn't, Blitz!! Don't you dare-" The stallion tried to raise to his hooves. His efforts were soon thwarted when the lavender unicorn was pelted in the face by a purple and green scaley body. Catching it before it hit the ground; the unicorn would find that it was a little purple and green dragoness, his number one assistant, Barb. The little dragoness lay within his hooves, the only signs of life being the soft movement of her belly. He sighed in relief before snapping his head back towards the way he had came crashing into the Castle of the Ancient Pony Brothers, finding a cyan Pegasus just outside the doorway, his messy rainbow mane bellowing in the wind as he faced towards the raging darkness that was rushing towards him. The stumps where his wings had been, oozed blood freely, twitching ever so often in protest to the pain their master must have felt. With tearstained eyes the unicorn set the dragoness down as quickly as he could and began to scramble back towards the door.

“Blitz!!” The unicorn cried out with tearstained eyes, quickly scrambling to his hooves in an attempt to make it back to his friend. “I’m coming! Hang on!”

The once pegasus looked back towards his friend with a sad smirk saying. “Sorry Nerd…Guess this is where the awesomness that is me ends…Haha..." The stallion lowered his head slightly before turning back to face the darkness. "Later Dusk.” A blue aura engulfed the doors, slamming them shut just as the darkness was about to engulf Blitz.

Dusk slammed his hooves against the door, pounding away at it harshly as he called out the cyan stallions name. “Blitz! Damn it Blitz! You pig headed, egotistical, moron!!” When no sound came from the other side, Dusk fell to his hunches as tears flowed unrestrained down his cheeks. “Damn it...” A pink hoof gently gripped his own as it pulled him to his causing him to face the one that needed him now.

“Dusky…Come on…” Said the owner of a rather downcasted stallion, the usually curly mane upon his head now silky straight, flowing gently against his neck. “We need to go…Artemis is waiting…”

“B-But Berry…I…And Blitz is…His wings…and he…” Dusk stuttered before a the other hoof of the pink stallion found its way upon Dusk's shoulder, silencing him.

“I know Dusk…” Berry said in a somber tone. “I know…”

Dusk couldn't stop the next wave of tears that flowed down his cheeks once again, his pink friend quickly wrapping his hooves around the unicorn without hesitation. The tearful goodbye only lasted for a moment before both stallion's picked themselves up off the floor, Dusk placing Barb upon his back as he did so. He couldn't waist anymore time, dead friends or not.

The dreary atmosphere that was the Castle of the Ancient Pony Bothers did not help to calm him, but their walls , coupled with the magic he knew Artemis was pouring into the shield spell that was keeping the ‘Darkness’ At bay gave him some security. Though he knew it would soon brake, and that this was going to be their last stand.

The pair made their way to the inner chambers of the castle, stopping only to find a pair of spears pointed at their throats upon doing so. A pair of female pegasi sporting darker versions of the Solaris’s day guards armor. Leathery like wings flapped in defiance, as their cat like eyes took in the two ponies.

“Ebony…Ivory…Stand down…” commanded a regal like voice from behind them. A dark blue alicorn, his star like ethereal mane flowing gently in its non-existent wind, made his way in between the two guradsmanes, a stoic expression upon his features. Dusk looked up at the winged unicorn, his own expression moving from the fear of being impaled to unrestraint anger.

“I could have saved Blitz!!” He said pointing a hoof in the alicorn’s direction. “Why the buck did you just let him...Let the Darkness take him?!” Berry the pink party pony gave a worried glance between the two powerful beings, his heart sinking slightly as Dusk and Artemis stared darkly at each other.

“I am sorry Dusk Shine." Artemis began," Sir Blitz was a good friend and a noble stallion. Even in the end even I could see his friendship with you was above all else to him." Before Dusk could offer any kind of rebuttal the alicorn prince held out a hoof to silence him, "Despite all of that you would have only prolonged the inevitable.” Artemis turned to trot to the end of the room. “We have reached…a complication in your findings for our task, Sir Dusk.”

“What do you mean inevitable?" The lavender unicorn would ask. "And my findings had complications? B-But that can’t be right. I…I worked out every possible angle that I could to make the portal to work as it should. I know it’s not tested outright, but our scrying did convey that what we saw was indeed our world, forgoing the fact that we could only see the Ancient Castle only. That is most defiantly the past. I’m sure of it!” Artemis shook his head before turning to face the stallion.

“That is not the complication Dusk. The complication is that without enough unicorns to power the portal, it will not be able to work like we had intended to.” Artemis stopped in front of a large mirror, big enough for a pony, even one as tall as Artemis, to look at their whole body with ease. “Just two…That’s all that I can send before I believe that my powers will become unusable.”

The implication of the prince's words were not lost on Dusk, his face contorting from horror to anger at the drop of a hat. “But…but you’re a bucking alicorn! Your power…YOU MOVE THE MOON FOR SOLARIS’S SAKE! HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE ENOUGH!?”

“MY POWER IS THE ONLY THING KEEPING THE DARKNESS FROM DESTORYING US!!” Artemis countered, his Canterlot voice shaking the very room they were in. Dusk cowered in front of Artemis as the alicron of the moon towered over of him. It only took a moment for Artemis turn away from the unicorn. “Sir Dusk…I am sorry. The best I can do is send two of you…and only two before my power’s black out completely. Anymore and the portal will collapse. You would be trapped inbetween worlds to be lost in-“

“-The life stream…” Dusk finished. “Yes…I…I know…I read all the books on the subject…” Dusk hung his head down, as he ears folded back on his head.

"I am sorry...this is the best I can do for us...for you, my subjects." Artemis said softly.

“Dusky. It’s now or never." Berry finally chipped in. placing a hoof a Dusk's shoulder once again. "You and Barb have to get out of here and do what you do best. You’ve seen what that thing can do. You’re the only one smart enough to come up with a way to stop it.”

Dusk looked towards his pink friend, sadness within his eyes. “B-But…what about you…I can’t just…”

He was silenced by a pink hoof covering his mouth. “Dusky…Please…Knowing that at least one of my best friends are safe…That’s enough for me. I’m scared yes…but I’ll be happy knowing that you’re out there doing what you can to save us. I have faith in you Dusk.” He released his hoof form his mouth. “And…even if you don’t find a way to stop it…I’ll…I’ll know that you gave it your all instead of just being a mister moapy pants all the time. You will find something though…You are the smartest, brightest, cleverest, keenest, and shrewdest-“

Dust couldn't stop the smile, sad as it was, from escaping his lips. “Ok…I get it…I won’t let you down.”

Berry moved his hoof away and smiled sadly. “It’s not me you have to worry about letting down…”

Dusk gave him an odd look before speaking. “W-What do you…?” The castle shook, causing all within to tumble to the ground. Debris began to fall from the ceiling as the ‘Darkness’ began to puncture though the shield that Artemis had erected.

“It’s now or never Dusk Shine!” Artemis yelled as he released a dark beam of light towards the portal, a flash of light forming within the mirror, forming the doorway of light. Dusk looked towards the portal before levitating Barb into his hoof, holding onto her as tight he could. He made his way towards the opening of the portal, stopping only to turn and face Berry and Artemis.

The former party pony gave him the best smile he could muster as the Moon Prince yelled. “GO! NOW YOUNG DUSK! OUR FUTURE LIES WITH YOU IN OUR PAST!”

Giving them both a determined nod, that the stallion jumped, disappearing into the vortex of light before Artemis released the magic, his horn spent of all magical power. The dark blue alicorn watched as the ‘Darkness’ slowly oozed its way into the castle from all around him. The alicorn of the night lowered his head in a defensive stance. Beside him, Ebony and Ivory stood close, their spears at the ready, as did the Berry Bubble, a feral snort escaping his nostrils.

“I am sorry my subjects…”Artemis said softly. “I wish I could have done more to protect you…”

“Don’t sweat it Arty!” Berry said as he inched back. “We just saved the world…you know…in an indirect sort of way! Sort of like Son Neighku’s father did in the one Neighga comic when he sent his son to another world before his planet exploded! That part always made me cry…like a lot!”

Artemis couldn’t help but smile lightly. “Yes…That was a good story if I recall. A bit overdramatic in the magical department later on but I enjoyed it all the same.” Artemis closed his eyes as the space between him and the darkness diminished. “It is up to you now Dusk…And…For the future…you cannot fail…”

~

Dusk landed with a crash on solid hard ground, having spent what he felt was an eternally inside something that made his feel like his insides was being torn apart, only to be put back together. Hopefully in the right order. The lavender stallion tried to get to his hooves, only to find that his body did not feel he should get up this very second…or this very hour if his limbs could help it. His eyes instead glanced around the room he currently occupied. It was very identical to the one he had just been in before, minus the four others who he had been with and the threat of a never ending darkness to worry about…at least not right now.

If he could have cheered he would have.

“We made it thorn…We made it…” He said weakly as he pulled the little dragoness in closer, very glad that she had been unconscious for the whole of their venture. “I’ll just…rest here a moment…and then…and then…we save all of Equestria. Like we always do…” Hot tears pooled down his face as the weight of the day slowly lured him into deep slumber. Any other day, he would have said that spending the night in the most dangerous places in the world in one of the oldest castles in he had ever seen in his life to be the most craziest thing he could have ever done.

Tonight though, with hooves wrapped tightly around the little dragoness, tonight would be the most peaceful sleep he could have ever wished for.