All is Darke

Charger managed to catch up with Orion and Flicker, overhearing some of their conversation before they noticed.

"Argh. I wish I could fly, but that would only attract attention to us, and attention is the LAST thing we need after being chased by the shadowguard yesternight. If only I could walk faster!" Orion was fluttering his wings with irritation. He was itching to just fly ahead to the tower and finally be sure of his brother's safety because it was driving him up a wall.

"Orion, I'm sure Artie will be fine. He's a resourceful pony, and he's armed with more knowledge than probably the rest of us combined." She smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure by the time we get there, all you'll hear is the grumbling that his stomach makes when he's extremely hungry. After all, he probably hadn't had a bite to eat since one of my cinnamon buns in the cellar."

"What happened to Artemis? Is there something wrong?" The two abruptly halted their conversation as Charger barrelled in, so to speak. "Whoops. Should probably have called out to you guys before charging in here. My apologies."

"Its not a big deal, Charger. We were just talking about Artie and if he was safe." Flicker looked over at Orion as she said so, watching a hint of sadness flicker across Orion's face. "We got separated from him yesterday during the surprise attack by the shadowguard."

"Artemis missing? That can't be good." Charger turned to address Orion. "My condolensces. I'm sure your brother will be fine."

"I know. I still can't help worrying about that fool though. After we lost our parents to the war against the changelings five years ago, Artemis has been the only family I've ever had. Awkward and eggheaded, yes. But family nonetheless." Orion stared in the direction of the guard tower. "If anything happened to him, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. Don't tell him that though." Orion's tone of voice shifted to slightly embarrassed. "I have a rep to keep up with, after all."

"I won't say a word to anypony else." Flicker motioned zipping her lips.

"I promise as well." Charger nodded.

"Thanks, you two. You're some of the best friends a pony could ever have. Unless, of course, I could become friends with myself. Then I'd be the best friend I could ever have." The way Orion had said this with such a straight face was too much for Flicker to bear, and she broke out laughing. Charger allowed himself a small grin.

"What? Its true! I'm one of the most loyal, brave, awesome friends somepony could ever have!" Orion looked at his friends a moment longer before turning his head. "Oh whatever. Are you coming or not, slowpokes?" Orion's face had a ghost of his old smile on it as he jabbed at his friends. "I was planning to get there before nightfall, in case you were wondering."

When he turned and quickly sped up his walking speed, he could hear the sounds of Flicker and Charger as they hurried after him, Flicker still laughing gently as she went. "I'm never going to live this down if Artemis hears about it," he thought to himself. "Maybe I can convince Charger and Flicker to somehow not tell him." Shaking his head, he thought "Nah, that would actually make them more inclined to tell him. Maybe not Flicker, because she's nice, but Charger definitely wouldn't let this slip by. Oh well, just go with what life throws at you, I guess." Turnin his head back, he called out "My grampa Silas was faster than you two! Hurry up, Artie's probably waiting for us at the cellar!" He laughed outloud as he raced down the path that lead to the outskirts of Ponyville.

Autumn had finally managed to drag Mishap away from the Jokes and Gags shop after struggling with him for half an hour.

"Lemme go! I was just about to get a pack of their new stink grenades!" Mishap attemped to rush back into the shop and complete his transaction, only to be stopped by Autumn's golden-coated body every time.

"Oh no, you don't! The last time you went into the Jokes 'n Gags shop, my face got covered in itching powder! Do you realize how many days it took for my face to stop itching?" Autumn was determined not to let Mishap pass her by. The fate of Equestria (or at least her handbag) was dependant on her keeping him away from another gag.

"Look, I'm sorry the powder got in your makeup! I didn't know!" Summoning up a burst of magic, Mishap managed to surround Autumn's hooves with dissipating StickiGoo. While it wasn't permanent, it would keep her there for at least five minutes, just enough for him to finally acquire the stink grenades that he needed for his new pranks.

"How dare you! Let me out of here right now!" Autumn struggled against the goo but to no avail. "When I'm out of here, Mishap, you're going to be in for a world of hurt!"

"Thats a problem for future Mishap!" He quickly rushed back into the store and handed his bits over to the storekeeper, who handed him his lovely package of new toys. "Thanks mister!" Mishap called out to him as he rushed back out the door.

"Young'uns sure are full of energy these days. I remember when I was just like that fella, runnin' around everywhere and pulling practical jokes." A smile broke out on the storekeeper's face as he reminisced the old days. He sighed with satisfaction as he started reading his newspaper again, thoughts already wandering back to his greatest prank when he was a colt, the giant rubberband ball escapade.

Back outside the shop, Autumn finally managed to break free from the StickiGoo. In his haste, Mishap hadn't done quite as good of a job as he could have, meaning the goo he summoned lasted only for one minute instead of five. As Mishap rushed back out the door, he skidded and ran in the opposite direction  of Autumn, who was now chasing after him.

"If I get my hooves on you, Mishap, there's no telling what I'll do to you!" Autumn yelled out in an uncharacteristic vengeance.

"No thanks! I'd prefer you'd keep your hooves to yourself, thank you very much!" Mishap struggled to keep ahead of Autumn. While he was a competent runner from all the times he escaped the scene of a prank, Autumn was well toned from running practices for the annual Running of the Leaves race that happened in Whitetail Woods. He quickly turned a corner only to narrowly miss running into Orion, who had been racing ahead of his friends as they headed towards the guard tower and - hopefully - his brother.

"Hey, watch where you're goi- Mishap? What in the hay are you doing here?" Orion was immediately confused as Mishap dove behind him and took cover.

"Hide me! Fast!" Mishap covered his head in his hooves as he hid behind Orion, hoping that Autumn wouldn't notice.

"Mishap! You can't hide from me now! I'm going t-" As Autmun rounded the corner, she spotted Mishap hiding behind a stallion's legs. "Hah! Found you!" Then Autumn finally realized who the group of ponies were. "Oh....erhm. Hello, everypony. What's going on?" She hoped that her hair hid the fact that she was extremely embarrassed to her friends. "How could I let Mishap rile me up so much? I let my friends see such an unladylike side of me." Autumn thought, wanting to bury herself into the nearest hole and stay there forever.

"We were just on our way to the usual place to see if Artemis was there." Orion was still regarding Autumn in a strange manner, like he would regard a mystery vegetable that he had found in his dinner.

"Is something wrong between you and Mishap?" Flicker looked concerned; Autumn was not usually one to lose her composure over things.

"Oh, no. Mishap just played a little prank on me and I mayyyy have taken it a bit out of proportion." If there was a shade of red deeper than the one she already had, Autumn's face turned that color.

Charger shook his head. "You really ought to take some Zen lessons with me. They help ease the mind and calm the soul." He paused for a moment, contemplating his next words. "I could teach you some basic breathing exercises if you want. They can help calm the hottest anger within minutes."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really interested in that sort of thing." Autumn could feel her face slowly returning to it's normal color. Wanting to avoid any further discussion on the topic, she asked "Did something happen to Artemis? Why would he be at the usual place?" She was surprised by the tone of concern that had entered her voice as she spoke. "I can't seriously be worried about that brainiac, can I?" She shook the thought away.

"Well, you see..." Orion's voice trailed off, leaving it for Flicker to fill in.

"When we got attacked by the shadowguard yesternight, Orion got separated from Artie. We're not sure where he is, but Orion says that Artemis would probably be at the storm cellar if he's still safe." Flicker explained. " I hope he's safe too," she added under her breath.

"Oh, Orion... I'm so sorry. I guess I shouldn't have asked." Autumn's face was downcast; she hadn't intended on causing Orion any pain from remembering his brother's absence.

"Don't be. You deserve to know. After all, you're his friend just as much as you are ours." Orion had a small smile on his face, indicating that he was fine.

"I hate to interrupt, but we've got company." Charger tilted his head towards some shadowguards that were further down the road. They were holding up posters that had pictures of the six friends on them and asking ponies who were passing by whether they had seen these individuals or not.

"Shadowguard! How did they figure out who we were!?" Orion was immediately alert. He didn't expect the shadowguard to be actively looking for them after the little treasure hunt disaster. After all, the only thing they'd done was stay up past curfew, right?

"Guys, don't look now, but I think they've spotted us." Mishap whispered, glancing over to the jokeshop. Inside, they could clearly see the shopkeeper pointing in their general direction to a couple more shadowguard that had entered the Jokes 'n Gags shop.

"Alright, stay calm." Taking charge of the situation, Orion took in their surroundings. They were in a generally empty alley with no other ponies around and very close to the outskirts of town, with little to no buildings in between. Without any buildings to hide in, their only chance was to try and sneak past the guards. "Mishap, can you cast an illusion spell on the five of us?"

"Can cows say moo? This'll be a cinch!" As discreetly as possible, Mishap surrounded the friends in a purple haze. When the spell was over, they all appeared to be normal earthponies with different mane and coat colors than their actual selves.

"The spell will only last for a couple minutes." Mishap panted under the effort of maintaining the illusion. "I never tried using it on this many ponies before."

"Then we better move fast." Orion caught a nearby road that lead straight towards the mountains. "Alright, here's the plan. I'm going to walk near those shadowguards guarding the path. When I give the signal Mishap, break my diguise. I'll head off towards the mountains and distract them while the rest of you can slip past. Meet me back at the guard tower, alright?" Orion prepped himself for the task ahead, making sure his wings felt ready to fly. "You ready, Mishap?"

"I'm always ready. Just go for it!" Mishap gave him a friendly shove, but Orion could tell that he was only doing this to cover up his worry.

Nodding, Orion and the group of friends started towards the exit, Orion a bit faster than the rest of them. When he reached the outskirts, he started whistling fairly loudly, signalling Mishap to drop the spell.

The shadowguard were taken aback when one of their prey had suddenly appeared in front of them in. "Oh, what the hay!?" Orion exlaimed in mock surprise. Turning to face the shadowguard, he said "Send my best regards to your captain, gentlemen!" Giving them a mock salute, Orion quickly took off and flew straight for the mountains.

"He's going to escape! After him!" The shadowguard broadcast the message to all his comrades before taking off after the 'fugitive'. "He's heading towards the mountains, cut him off!"

"Aye, sir!" fourteen other shadowguards followed after him in fast pursuit, half of them breaking off and heading west to enact a pincer maneuver.

"This one will make an excellent specimen for my 'experimentation'" The guard in the lead shivered in excitement. He could almost taste the fear this pegasus would have when he brought out his "toys" for interrogation.

Far below, on the ground, the group of friends had managed to get past the outskirts of Ponyville and were now heading towards the guard tower under the cover of the trees. Mishap finally couldn't hold his spell anymore and the haze burst apart, showering the nearby trees with purple sparks of light. Despite his exhaustion, he managed to make one joking remark. "Please, no need to hold your applause! I know that my presence can shock you to silence sometimes!" He took a half bow and waited, with no applause forthcoming. "Sigh. The work of an artist is never appreciated" Bringing himself back up to a standing position, he was promptly splashed with cold water from the river. "Pbbbft. What was that for!?" Mishap glared at Charger, who was holding an empty bucket in his mouth ((author: don't ask where he got the bucket, it will remain one of this fic's unknown mysteries))

"I thought your head might be getting too big from the heat and decided to cool it down a bit." Charger, as cool as ever, kept a straight face while Autumn snickered in the background.

"Serves you right, Mishap! That's for the StickiGoo you got me with earlier!" Autumn had a huge grin on her face as she said this, which in itself looked so hilarious that the entire group broke down laughing except Charger, even Flicker.

When they had finally stopped laughing, Flicker suddenly was overcome with concern. "I hope Orion will be fine. Those shadowguards sure looked big. and mean. and scary. an-" She would have continued on if Mishap hadn't shoved his hoof into her mouth.

"I think we get it, Flicker." After removing his hoof, he stared into the woods. "Instead of worrying like this in the woods, can't we worry about Orion at the cellar? You know, where there's furniture? and books? and other stuff we could do?"

"Mishap's right." Charger looked up at the clouds with suspicion. "With the shadowguard looking for us, we're not going to be safe anywhere in view of the clouds. We'd best get into the safety of the tower before figuring out our next move." With the voice of undeniable reason, he started trotting down the path. "Coming?"

Flicker, Mishap, and Autumn soon followed after Charger, their outlines quickly becoming lost in the shadows of Whitetail Wood.

Far up in the clouds, Orion was too busy dodging attacks from the shadowguards unicorn units that were on the ground to be thinking of anything else but escape.

"Get him! We must bring him back to Commander Silverfang for interrogation!" Behind him, a group of eight shadow guards were giving hot pursuit. Orion briefly wondered what happened to the other seven until one of them had slammed into him.

"I got him, I got him!" The shadowguard clamped down, forcing Orion to begin a rapid descent.

"Don't let him escape! We must scour him for anything he knows!" With the other fourteen pegasi bearing down on them, Orion swore, trying as hard as he could to get away from the guard that was still holding on to his neck. He didn't even see one of the shadowguard pull a sack over his head until his world suddenly turned dark.

"Hey, get this thing off of me!" Orion felt himself getting weaker by the moment. "You dirty bastards, you lined this thing with chloroform!" His struggles grew weaker and weaker as his mind started to shut down. Finally succumbing to oblivion, he dropped like a stone through the air and was caught safely by the magic of the shadowguard magic division.

"Commander Silverfang will be pleased with this one. Get him to the command post." The unicorn ponies activated their teleportation spell and mass transported all the shadowguard to their temporary home in the region, leaving only scorchmarks on the ground where they had previous stood.

Even in his semi-coma, Artemis could feel his brother's consciousness winking out. "Orion..." Barely after uttering this word, he fell into an even deeper coma, haunted by a nightmare where his brother had been killed by the shadowguard. A tear slid down his cheek, lending his face a sad appearance even in sleep.

The group of friends finally managed to make it to the tower. As they descended, Autumn caught up with Charger. "You don't think Orion was captured, do you?"

"Don't worry about Orion. He's one of the best fighters I know. He wouldn't be caught so easily." Charger said this with complete confidence, but in the back of his mind wriggled a small worm of doubt. "What if he really did get captured? How could I face Artemis again if he isn't captured as well?" As he approached the door, he heard a noise he was familiar with many times. "Guys, I don't think we have to be worried about Artemis anymore." He quickly opened the door and switched on the lights to reveal the battered, unconscious form of Artemis knocked out on the couch. He was infinitely more dusty and disheveled in appearance than he was yesterday, and his stomach was growling like an angry bear.

Flicker rushed forward, examining Artemis' body for any wounds. When she found none, she let out a sigh of relief. "He's perfectly fine, everypony. Just a little battered up and hungry." By coincidence, his stomach growled to affirm the fact. Everypony laughed. "I'll get to making some food for the rest of us. I'm famished." After hearing the rest of the friends' general agreement, Flicker headed towards the stove and started cooking up whatever she could with the ingredients at hand.

"Mind if I help, Flicker?" Now that Autumn knew Artemis was safe, she needed something to do to keep herself from worrying about Orion.

"Not at all, Autumn." Flicker gave her a smile. "Would you mind getting some water from the well by the tower that we could boil? I might be able to whip up some stew.

"I'll get it." Without another word, Charger climbed up the stairs with a bucket in mouth to fetch the water for Flicker.

"Oh, well in that case, can you watch this while I go look for some extra ingredients?" Flicker gestured to the pan of vegetables that were frying on the stove. After Autumn nodded, Flicker took up a basket and headed out to look for herbs, but not before stopping by Artemis' sleeping form. "I'll be back soon, Artie. Try to wake up soon, alright? I'll cook a whole big dinner for you and everthing, just please. Please wake up again." Flicker quickly exited the room, some tears running down her face to see one of her friends in such a state. "I'm sorry, Artemis..."

Back at the command outpost for the shadowguard, Orion awoke to find himself secured down to some strange mechanical device. "Let me go! I've done nothing wrong!" He yelled without much success, his voice being met with vibrations as it bounced around the room. "Damn it." After struggling against his bonds for a few more minutes, Orion gave up. "I'm sorry, bro...looks like I let myself get caught. I hope you're not stuck in here with me..." Orion sat with a defeated look on his face, not sure of what to do anymore except fall asleep and wait until his capturers decided to speak with him again.

Commander Silverfang had all the monitors in the command center be switched to the the camera feed coming from the surveillance camera in the new prisoner's cell. Something about this one caught the commander's eye. "Hmm. Send in a guard with some porridge. I wouldn't want our captive to starve." He gestured to one of the guards standing nearby to relay the message to the head chef. "Now, my dear pegasus, I hope you rest well, for it will be the last of it that you have for a while..." A wave of displeasure once again went through the commander for what he was about to do, but his desire of self preservation won out over his morals. "Send in the torturer. We begin the process at midnight."