All is Darke

*I apologise before hand for the crappy torture scene, I didn't want to turn this into a gorey grimdark.

Artemis was running for his life from mythical creatures when he awoke and found himself surrounded by his friends. "No! Not the scrolls! Anything but the scrolls!" He sat straight up, looking around wildly to see if there were still any creatures trying to eat his saddlebag. When his eyes adjusted to the artificial lighting, he found Flicker staring at him overhead, looking concerned.

"Artie? You alright?" Her voice, while graceful as ever, was noticeably tinged with concerned.

"Ah. I'm fine. Just a nightmare. Well, a couple of them anyway." The tension immediately went out of Artemis' shoulders. He was safe now, and there were no scroll eating demons trying to steal his saddlebag. As the rest of his body returned to reality, he suddenly remembered how hungry he was. "There wouldn't happen to be anything to eat, would there? I'm famished."

Flicker smiled, then walked over to the kitchen and brought back a bowl of steaming hot soup. "Eat up. There's plenty to go around. You can thank Charger for the water and Autumn for making sure it didn't boil over while I got some vegetables and herbs."

"Thanks" -slurp- "guys." -slurp- "I don't know what I'd do without you." Artemis inhaled the stew within a minute, and his face looked up hopefully at Flicker as if in askance for more.

"Oh, no you don't mister." Flicker scolded him gently. "If you eat too much at once, you're going to get indigestion. Slow down a bit. Drinking water wouldn't be a bad idea either." She offered him a glass.

After gulping it down, Artemis noticed that there was somepony missing from the room. "Hey, where's Orion?"

Charger turned his head away while Mishap buried himself deeper into his newly acquired "Practical Pranks" scroll that came with the stink grenades he had bought earlier today. Flicker's face was downcast.

"Hey, come on now, guys. What happened to my brother?" Artemis started to develop a worried look on his face. What if his nightmare had come true? "Guys?"

"I'm sorry, Artemis..." It was Autumn who finally broke the silence. "Your brother distracted a regiment of shadowguards to allow us to escape safely. It's been five hours since. I think...he might be captured. Maybe even dead." She lay a hoof on his shoulder.

Artemis was in shock. "Wh-what? That can't be true. It CAN'T." He looked around wildly at his friends. "HE CAN'T BE DEAD. ITS JUST NOT POSSIBLE. HE'S ALIVE, I KNOW IT." Struggling to get up from the bedside, Artemis reached for his sword.

"Artemis, what are you planning on doing?" Flicker was shocked. She had never seen Artemis act this way. Even when he was in his angriest moments, he still kept an air of sweetness and composure. She'd never seen him go off on a rave like he did right now.

"I'm going to get my brother." Artemis found that he couldn't pick up his sword as his magic was still weak, and cursed. "Damn it all." Dragging himself up from the bed, he started hobbling determinedly towards the door until Charger's brown barrel chest stood in his path. "Let me go! I have to save him!" He attempted to move past Charger, but was stopped everytime.

"Look at yourself. You're tired, battered up, and you're not thinking straight. You want to assault a shadowguard command post in that state? It's suicide!" Charger stood resolutely in his path. He refused to let his friend face certain death.

"I have to try!" Artemis collapsed on the floor, tears forming in his eyes. "I have to try..." Suddenly, he was overcome with grief. Orion, his only family left in the world, was captured and possibly dead.

Without thinking, Flicker embraced Artemis warmly. "It's going to be alright, Artemis. Your brother is a tough one. But you need rest. How else can we go to rescue your brother if you're still battered up and exhausted?"  She hugged him tighter, trying to transfer some of her happiness into him.

Being enveloped Flicker's warmth, Artemis' panic and sadness slowly drained out of his body. In her arms, everything looked like it was going to be alright. He was safe. "Yeah... you're right Flicker. I'm in no shape to attack the shadowguard. Maybe with a few more hours of rest..." Artemis felt his eyes grow heavy as he fell into sleep once more, this time with blissfully warm dreams.

Flicker continued to hold him, even as he slept. Cradling his head like a baby, she started humming an old mare's song that her mother sang to her when she was just a filly. Artemis' face looked at peace as she did.

After staring for a couple minutes, Charger yawned himself. "We should all get some rest. We're going to need energy if we plan on getting Orion back from the shadowguard." He chose the nearest couch and promptly drifted off to sleep. The others murmured their agreement and followed in suit, Autumn staring at the outline of Flicker and Artemis before her eyes shut.

Flicker felt her own eyes grow heavy after a while. She tried to resist, but Artemis' body just felt so warm. "Well, maybe a short nap wouldn't hurt." she lay Artemis' head down on a pillow and lay down near him, but not close by. The last thing she could see was Artie's face dozing peacefully before her mind entered the dream world.

It is midnight now. Orion awakes to the sound of hooves walking down the cold metal corridor leading to his cell. The door opens to reveal the shadowguard that had first spotted him, followed by a tray of tools that were covered by a red liquid... blood?

"What do you want? Why was I brought here?" Orion kept his defiant gaze towards the guard, making himself sound tougher than he actually felt.

"You fully know why you're here. But just because I'm feeling nice, I'll humor you." The guard dragged a chair towards Orion and sat facing him. "Spit it out. You saw something at the ruins. I want to know what it was. Or else..." his gaze wandered over to the tools that were next to him and smiled cruelly. Orion hid a gulp.

"I didn't see anything at the ruins, alright? I thought I might find some treasure by exploring the place, but it was completely empty, apparently looted from long ago." Sweat started to form on Orion's face, and not because of the room temperature. He wasn't sure what this guy wanted, but he looked like he meant business.

"Thats...a shame. That wasn't the answer I was looking for." Reaching over to the tray, the guard picked up something that resembled a cattle prod. After examining it for a couple moments, he flipped a switch. Suddenly, sparks appeared at the end of the prod. "This is such a beautiful piece of equipment. Top of the line, in fact. Shame to see it go to waste." The guard violently jabbed it into Orion's stomach, causing 50,000 volts to flow out the end into his body.

"Argh!" Pain blossomed from Orion's stomach, the heat spreading quickly through out his body. "M-make it stop!" He could hardly spit the words out from the intensity of the shock treatment, which almost froze his nerve system.

The guard complied, switching off the power for the rod but keeping the point in contact with Orion's coat, which now had black scorch marks on it. He sighed. "Unfortunately, my orders are to keep you alive, so I can't go as far as I would usually go. However, that doesn't stop me from keeping you as close to death as possible." Reaching for a dial on the prod, he casually doubled the voltage that would be spit out from the end. "Have I jogged your memory yet?"

"All I did at the ruins was open a door in the ground that lead to some aging wine casks, alright? I didn't see anything worth mentioning." Orion hung his head, feeling the effects of the prod intensify then slowly fade.

"Oh, but I want to hear it all." Switching on the prod, the guard jabbed it deeply into Orion once again, this time in the shoulder. The only sound that emerged from Orion's mouth was an unending scream of pain. "Mmmm. A beautiful symphony of torture. What other melodies can I elicit from this one...?" He said menacingly, reaching towards the tray for a scalpel.

"Artemis."

A light shines onto Artemis' eyes. He groans. "Another five minutes, mom. Please?"

"Artemis, wake up. We have to get going."

"Noooo, not to the doctor's, he looks at me funny." Artemis, still half asleep, struggled to get away from the hooves that were trying to shake him awake.

"Artemis, your brother is still in trouble! We have to get going now!"

Eyes flying completely open, he finds himself staring face to face with Autumn. She giggled. "You're finally awake, sleepyhead. I was starting to get worried about you."

Resisting any urge he had to quickly get up and bolt away, Artemis mumbled something under his breath.

"Hm? I couldn't quite hear that." Autumn looked at him with those smooth, amber eyes of hers.

"I said, can you move back a bit? You're really close to my face..." Artemis was blushing slightly. Again.

"Oh. whoops." Autumn moved back to hide a blush herself. She hadn't realized how close she'd gotten to Artemis. "Sorry about that, it was just really hard trying to get you to wake up."

Artemis, with his eyesight adjusting, looked around the room. "Where is everypony?"

"They're in the tower itself, trying to look for any weapons that could help us when we go to that command post." She sighed. "I'm afraid we haven't had much luck."

"We won't be needing any weapons. I've been studying an illegal scroll on how to imbue parchment with spells so that anypony can cast the spell inscribed on it. It only has a limited number of uses, but I think I can enchant enough combat scrolls for everypony to use." Gesturing to the stack of parchment and ink wells in the corner, he asked "Could you please bring me a couple sheets of parchment?" Artemis started drifting off in a daze, focusing only on the parchment in front of him and the incantations he had to perform. As he started, a blue light emanated from his horn and lit up the room in an eerie glow.

Flicker, Mishap, and Charger arrived back in the cellar to find Autumn rushing back and forth, arms covered in magically glowing blue ink. Artemis was in the middle of a parchment whirlwind, chanting strange words under his breath that came out as blue characters of moonscript and imbued themselves onto various parchments as he directed. It was an almost eerie sight to see their friend work so much magic.

"A-Artie? What are you do-" Flicker was promptly shushed by Autumn, who was gesturing to remain silent. Flicker quickly stuffed the words she was going to say back down her mouth, choosing now to gaze in amazement as Artemis 'worked his magic.' Deep inside, her heartbeat raised a tick again as she stared at him working, eyes open and alive with life, his mouth curled at the ends in a half smile. She'd never seen anything like it her entire life.

Charger and Mishap stood there, gazing in wonder as more and more magical parchments left the whirlwind and entered a neat pile that Autumn was currently organizing between fetching more paper for Artemis and making sure he didn't run out of ink wells. Well, Mishap did anyway. Charger stood there, appreciating the show of magic while his face showed no emotion. If one could not read his thoughts, they would never know that he was actually deeply impressed at his friend's ability, for it may very well turn out to be what they need to defeat the shadowguard.

By the time Artie was finished, there were four stacks of magical scrolls, each amounting to about 30. Exhausted, he fell back into his chair and would have dozed off right there had Flicker not shaken him gently awake again.

"Artie, What is this...?" In truth, Flicker was a little frightened. Being a simple pegasus, she never really felt the need to attend the traveling magician's shows or the magic demonstrations held at the arena by the shadowguard in order to instill more fear into the citizens. Seeing so much powerful magic being wrought in at the same time was a quieting experience for her. However, she also felt a more complicated feeling deep inside that she couldn't explain. It felt like admiration, but went a little deeper. She pushed it away from her. Whatever it was, she didn't want it to ruin her friendship with Artemis.

"Oh, Flicker. You're back." Artemis smiled wearily. "As you can see, all I did was work a little magic that I had learned from an illegal spell which I had no idea whether it would work or not..." He stopped midsentence as he noticed Flicker's face growing stern.

"You didn't know if it would work?" Flicker asked quiety.

"Well, urhm..." Artemis quailed under her gaze. "Not one hundred percent sure, yes..."

"How could you put yourself in such danger! What if something had happened to you? We already lost Orion, I don't want to lose you too!" Flicker was near tears and so flustered that she didn't even notice her hidden feelings leaking out.

Artemis flinched. This wasn't the reaction he had expected at all. "Well, ah, uhm...I'm sorry for worrying you." He looked downcast. "Its just that I really want my brother back. I'm willing to risk my life to some magical mishaps if I can give us a better chance of doing it..."

Flicker calmed down a bit. "It's not fair to put him on the spot like this, Flicker. He just lost his brother to the shadowguard. I would be willing to try dangerous stuff too if it meant I had a better chance of saving somepony I cared for..." Suddenly, she hugged Artemis. "Promise me you'll never try something like that again, ok?"

"I promise." Artemis' response came muffled as his face was buried in her mane.

"Uh, ahem. If you guys don't mind..." Autumn cleared her voice a bit. For some reason, it made her feel really uncomfortable to see Artemis' in Flicker's embrace like that.

Suddenly realizing what position she was in, Flicker pulled away and stared at the wall. She silently scolded herself for acting so spontaneously.

Artemis, still recovering from the surprise hug, suddenly coughed as well. Turning to face the rest of his friends, he walked over towards the scrolls. "You're probably wondering what these are for." Aftering seeing affirmative nods from Mishap and Charger, he continued. "Seeing how I'm the only one that possesses a weapon-"

"That we have no idea where it came from." Mishap finished the sentence. "I think we're all thinking the same question: where did you get that sword? Where were you yesternight after you escaped from the shadowguard?"

"Listen, some crazy stuff happened to me yesterday. I want my brother to be here when I explain it so I don't have to go through it more than once. Is that alright?" Hearing no objections, Artemis continued. "Well, seeing as how we have no weapons to equip ourselves for the fight against the shadowguard, I took the liberty of enchanting a couple scrolls with combat spells so that we have some means of defending ourselves. If you would see here." Artemis picked up a stash of scrolls. "These scrolls have been separated by color. There are fifteen blue scrolls, ten red scrolls, four green scrolls, and one purple scroll. Blue scrolls are one shot scrolls; once you use it, its finished. Red scrolls are charged with two uses, green are charged with three, and the purple scroll is charged with five. I've given you all a basic set of spells to choose from, from fireballs to lightning and even air blasts. The only instruction you need is how to aim it and how to activate it."

"All you have to do is concentrate your mind on what you want the target to me and say the command word. As all of the runes are written in moonscript, I've also added an Equestrian translation that you should be able to read just fine. I'll show you." Taking out a blue scroll that he had imbued just for the occasion, he chanted the word "Ice". Suddenly, the bookshelf was encased entirely in an icy shell.  The scroll had burned to ash in Artemis' hooves after it had been used. "You see? It's simple. We don't have any time to practice though. You're going to have to get good at it in while we rescuse Orion."

Using more of his magic, Artemis stuffed the scrolls into saddlebags and gave one to each of his friends. "Are we ready? Then lets go rescue my brother!" Heading out the door of the cellar, he thought. "Just you wait, 'rion. We're coming for you. Hold on a little longer."

Orion was half unconscious. He didn't know who he was or why he was there. His entire reality was the onslaught of pain. His eyes had shut long ago, for the blood wouldn't stop dripping into them. Another shock of pain - this time in his lower back. His entire body tenses and recoils, his throat unable to scream any longer. He felt more small cuts along his legs and chest as that damned scalpel continued to slice through skin as easily as scissors could cut through paper, but no longer felt the energy to resist. All he could do is sit and wait for the nightmare to end.

The guard held a look of crazed bloodcraze on his face. "Yes, yes! More blood! I must make a masterpiece of this one!" His deranged laugh echoed down the hallway towards the guards keeping watch outside, who shuddered. Any pony who could laugh like that, they concluded, was clearly out of his or her mind.

Commander Silverfang was in his study when he felt an urge to stare out into the night sky. Though barren, it provided a certain measure of peace to his conflicting soul.

"If only somepony could rescue me... take me far beyond this miserable reality out into the stars." He stared long and hard into the night, thinking of home and duty.

Little did he know that his redemption was close at hand as five ponies appeared on the doorsteps of the command post.