Petty cruelty was not enough to vent the icy inferno of rage Artemis was harboring inside, and his thoughts would not stop their race around his mind. At this discomfort, the Lunar Prince looked around his room to his luxurious bed, and shook his head at the thought of laying down, and placed his helmet next to his other regalia on his nightstand. He turned towards his balcony instead, and swiftly strode out into his beautiful moonlight. After opening the doorway and shutting it firmly behind himself, Artemis looked up at the source of the streams of gossamer light that streamed down to him like a waterfall.
Overhead was his charge, his duty, his companion, and source. Brilliantly the white orb overhead shone, and in this direct moonlight, Artemis' short mane billowed and glittered much more fervently. Being the Aspect of the Moon made him feel a tie to this heavenly body, like a rope connecting every fibre of his being to the sky above. His sky. His Moon. His night.
The tall blue alicorn closed his eyes and slowly exhaled through his nose, letting himself be engulfed by the void above and the brilliance of the moon. His Moon.
Artemis felt a twist of rage bitter this bath of serenity, and all the stresses and overwhelming pressure crashed on him, making his shoulders sag , tail and main drooping slightly. Nodding to himself, he decided that it would be necessary to repeat his ritual of sorts that he had started since returning from banishment.
Taking another breath, the Prince of the Night closed his eyes and spread his wings. He gathered all of the stresses, all the tension, all the pain and focused it forwards. The emotions trickled and slid towards his horn, and Artemis had to flex his mental fortitude to corral this cloud out of the tip of his horn, using force of will and mental training he had gained in the dreamworld to push.
Without flapping his wings once, the tall blue alicorn lifted into the air, as if the ground fell from beneath his hooves. Wind began to gust around his suspended form, and shadows danced from his flashing and blazing horn. The air in front of him crackled and distorted as it heated and swirled.
At last, Artemis opened his eyes, now glowing like miniature versions of his Moon overhead, and the azure fire around his horn turned black, looking more like a shadow rather than fire. In the center of the bubbling air pocket in front of him, a single black speck appeared. Looking like pitch black sand, the particle floating and swirled with the twisting of the air, until it locked in place with a grunt of effort from the alicorn.
Artemis nodded inside as his spell began to work, and pushed harder against the cloud in his mind, funneling more to his horn and compressing it. A tiny quaver of rage was forced out the end of his horn, and the black speck was joined by another of it's kind, blacker than the space between stars.
After this, the next speck came easier, as did the next, until a tiny stream of black sand coalesced in this roiling pocket of vacuum that Artemis was emptying. The black particles stuck to one another, and after a small amount of this powder had been exuded, their structure and shape became definite, like the top of a pyramid as small as a river pebble. Artemis strained as his spell to push the air away for forming a pocket of vacuum quavered to a breeze that blew past, but this was easier than blinking compared to the strain of emotionally purging into solid magical form. The pyramid stopped flaring, and continued to grow straight downwards in the square structure of a crystal, blacker than a moonless night.
Artemis continued to burn this emotion as fuel to form the solid magic in front of him, pouring out immense energy into a crystal. Feeling a sag in his endurance, Artemis directed the next of the black powder to taper down to form the bottom of the crystal. As the single particle point formed, he relaxed and stopped pouring out magic.
Turning the black crystal over in the vacuum, Artemis also ended his telekinesis and let the air rush back around the newly completed gem. With a hiss and a snap, He smiled as the particles stayed together and didn't blow away, as they would have if air touched an unfinished jewel. Hefting the pure magic crystal in his telekinetic grip, he judged it to be around a kilo, which was nothing to be scoffed at. Each grain of pure magic holds more energy than a blazing bonfire.
In terms of size this gem was as thick as a potato and twice as long, making it the size of a sandwich he had seen at a local restaurant. “Why am I thinking of food? Am I hungry?” Artemis mused, bringing a hoof to his stomach, which gurgled slightly. “Guess so, but that will have to wait.” His mood was already much better, but there was still the better part of the cloud to deal with.
Pushing thoughts of food aside, Artemis focused again on the crystal he held, lining it up with his horn as he tilted and turned his neck in an exact calculation of placement. Looking up with his magically enhances vision, he spied the tell-tale darker spot on the white disk of the moons surface, and aimed his horn and crystal directly towards it. Glancing again to sure his aim, a quick and brilliant flash of magic sent the crystal hurling into the night sky at unbelievable speed, hurtling towards the dark speck on the surface of the moon. After a few moments, Artemis furthered his magical vision, and looked closely at his target.
Looking closer, this speck was not merely dark, but black. Blacker than the space between stars. Peering even closer, the Lunar Prince saw the crystal he had just formed impact the top of this area, which, upon closer inspection, was a vast mountain of black. This was formed by a massive pile of black crystals, countless the same size as the one he had just sent, but some much larger. Artemis looked away from these, knowing that he had formed them while he had been banished to the moon, when he hadn't been blasting massive craters with his pent up magic. The smaller crystals had been formed since his return, frequently at first, up to every day in the first few weeks, but as stresses lifted and he returned to familiar schedule of ruling he needed to purge like this much less often and only when large issues or confrontations arose. This whole deal with Solaris was a particularly stressful and emotional conflict, and very dearly deserved a purge.
At this, Artemis shook his head and yet again tried to reign in all of his negative emotions that stormed around his mind. Finding them less than cooperative, and personally not possessing an abundance of patience, he simply pulled together all of his feelings on this fiasco with Solaris, and pushed them forwards, not minding if he lost a few non-annoyed emotional experiences with the rest, though he doubted there would be many from this horrific problem.
Yet again, the Lunar Prince closed his eyes, his horn flashed, and he departed the ground. Opening his eyes again, the brilliant white illuminated all around him except his now blackened horn-fire. The gasp of air from the space in front of him was accompanied by a grunt from Artemis as he strained further.
Black particles started materializing quicker and accelerated faster in frequency of appearance as Artemis was already warmed up for this arduous task. A flicker of jealousy at Solaris' mastery of such complex arcanum, as well as jealousy for the bliss that the two white alicorns wore on their faces made dark green particles appear, though they dyed black upon joining this slightly larger crystal's structure. Hate of Solaris' theft, his lies, his scheming manipulations formed a few deep blood red grains to appear, but they matched the black hue of the crystal as they joined the structure, looking like all the other rage-inspired black particles.
This crystal was half again as thick as the previous one, as well as greater in length and mass by the time Artemis felt that he was nearing the end of this supply of emotion. Tapering off with the last of these particles, Artemis felt much lighter already, though he knew this wasn't a healthy way of dealing with his problems. Forgetting and destroying the emotions didn't let him deal with them, and this has stunted his emotional recovery from banishment. What he truly needed was to talk through these issues and find a way not to storm up inside at the least incidents.
Artemis knew this to be true, but it was simply too difficult to come out of his shell and talk through issues with the royal adviser or counselors, and he had no intention of looking for an outside psychiatric counselor, though he knew they would doubtlessly help some.
'But they just don't understand! Nopony knows or could understand the loneliness and anger that festers inside you on the moon! I mourned for the victims of the Stalliongrad massacre until long after their grandchildren's grandchildren had died! Nopony feared griffons anymore, but I still remember the blood that coated their claws as they cut the wings off pegasi for trophies! I wept for the crystal ponies for centuries after Sombra's name was forgotten! Nopony is scarred by the past like I am, none of them lived through it!' These thoughts spawned a few more black specks as Artemis pondered his issue.
'They just don't understand, living for less than millennia like me. Only Solaris knows how it is, but I'll be damned before we start heart-to-hearts after this! But nopony else understands immortality and it's drain on the spirit. Perhaps Dusk will, but it would be a few eons before he grew into anywhere similar the experience, if he can become an Aspect, like so many alicorns have failed to before him. But nopony knows... I am the only pony who understands...' Artemis blinked at the last of these thoughts, as they didn't bring about sorrow in him, but hope. The trickle of black powder stopped, and try as he might, no more emotion would follow.
'Why do I feel hope at such a dismal thought. I can't just talk to myself, I already do that to no effect. But who would have a different perspective on my life, since I am the only one to have lived it?' A spark flashed in Artemis' eyes as the hopeful thoughts found their root. 'Her. If she is another version of me, she will know. We may not be mirrors of each other, but if we both did such similar things at the same time, she must have very similar experiences. She will know how I feel! And she will have to have a different point of view, being female. Of course! I must find her!'
At this bubbling surge of emotion, a white speck formed, which Artemis guessed to be hope. Seeing positive emotions leak out, he tried to stop the flow, but instead a pink particle appeared. He did not know what this was, but this caused butterflies in his stomach as another appeared. Then another and another, until a stream floated out in a cloud around the crystal. This beautiful yet foreign feeling did not leave him when he formed the solid magic, but seemed to bubble up and froth like a wellspring. The more he thought of that mysterious mare of his dreams, the more he felt this way, and the more pink particles swirled into existence.
Taking a breath to steady himself, he looked at the growing cloud and wondered what to do with it. 'Might as well add it to the crystal, so it won't blow away...' Artemis nodded, and willed the ambient particles towards the structure. But when the first pink speck touched the black crystal, rather than turn black like the other particles, this stayed the same bright and lively pink. As another touched, a small patch around these pink newcomers began to lighten, turning to a dark reddish color, but not blood red like hate. As a few more joined the structure, the entire end of the crystal lightened, the tip around the newcomers tinting to a brighter red.
Quirking his brow at this new behavior, Artemis added more particles quickly, and saw the entire crystal start to lighten, and the closer end to the pink dyed to match this pink. Adding more and more, a smile broke out across his face as the entire crystal lightened to this brilliant pink, and Artemis had no idea why, but didn't feel like stopping.
More and more pink flowed out and Artemis felt like he would never stop, but a fevered thumping from behind him broke his attention. As he felt his hold on the vacuum slip, Artemis quickly coalesced the rest of the particulate into the crystal and sealed it, immediately aiming and firing it towards the pile on the moon. Shaking his head and resting his hooves back on the deck of the balcony, he turned and opened the door to his room, and was startled by the figure of Dusk Shine almost falling out on top of him.
“HeyArtemiswhatisgoingondidyounoticethathugeammountofmagicjustnow!” Dusk spouted as he stumbled forward, obviously having been standing up on his back hooves to bang on the door. Artemis stepped back a bit and nervously chuckled at the wide-eyed alicorn that was now righting himself.
Mentally facehoofing, Artemis chided himself for forgetting Dusk would totally notice such a massive energy spike of magic when he was a few doors down from Artemis' rooms. Normally, the only ponies who would notice this disturbance would be asleep, being Solaris and the handful of master unicorns at the university, but Dusk was much more attuned to magic than any of them, and since he wasn't several leagues away in Ponyville, Artemis should have guessed he would notice.
“Aheh, umm, yeah...” Artemis fumbled, trying to think up an excuse. “I was just doing some, uhh, star magic, making some new constellations. Yeah.” He cracked a wide and guilty smile, which caused the lavender alicorn to frown.
“Come on, I am on, like, red alert danger sense with the whole Night-terror Solaris thing, so you can't do that to me!” Dusk shouted, a vein standing out on his neck as he stomped a hoof.
Artemis frowned at this, but didn't complain as Dusk had evidently taken his lie. “Sorry, I was just stressed, and I was blowing off some steam.” Artemis was glad this was less of a lie, but still didn't want to explain the entire situation right now, since he felt a burning drive to meet the mare on the other side of his dreams.
“Alright, but warn me next time. And no dark magic! If I feel dark magic coming from this room, I will assume you are being attacked and will blast your room out of the castle to a safe area!” Dusk shouted, less fierce this time, and breaking his threatening look with a wide yawn.
“A thousand apologies, Dusk, I will not disturb you again.” Artemis admonished the slightly livid alicorn, as they both walked back inside.
“And I was about to get to sleep, too...” The sleepy prince mumbled as he walked towards the door, which was still flung wide. “Oh, and sorry about your door, I was too sleepy to close them, and, ah leave the lock intact.” A sheepish grin was flashed as he skipped around the corner to avoid any retribution from the owner of the suite.
Artemis couldn't help but smile at this, and muttered “Dusk, don't ever change...”. He closed the doors and repaired the lock, rousing the two door guards from their magically induced sleep. “Well, maybe change a little.” Artemis smirked.
~~~
Artemis rolled over yet again on his large round bed, twisting the sheet further around his hooves. He grunted, and gave up on trying to settle his racing mind with sleep, as the two seemed to be at odds with each other. Standing up, he kicked a hoof to untangle it from the sheets that clung to it.
'Maybe a stroll on the moon would help. At least then I could examine that pink crystal further, and maybe clear my mind a bit.' Artemis mused, and nodded to himself as he turned to his large closet. Opening the door, Artemis lit the lamp inside and gazed at the back of the large room. Ball outfits and armour suits of different types hung around the sides, but he ignored them as he went to his target. Using his magic, Artemis brought the large mirror out of the back of the closet, and set it in the middle of his bedchamber. Walking around it, he admired the wrought black iron that framed it in the shape of a pair of alicorns. These two iron figures were standing on their hind legs, with one hoof each curled to their chest as the other was hooked around the back of the frame. There horns met in the middle of mirror at the top, making the form of an 'A'.
Sighing and smiling, Artemis squared with his reflection in the mirror, and walked towards its surface, horn glowing. As the tip of his horn reached the surface, rather than click against solid mirror-glass, it instead pierced through like the surface of a pool. The strange feeling of the mirrors magic was welcomed like an old friend to Artemis, since he had used this artifact many times over the eons to check on his charge from up close.
The length of his horn already through the surface, Artemis closed his eyes and pressed his face through the liquid surface. Upon opening his eyes once more, he was not greeted by his dim bedchambers, but instead the brilliant white expanse of the moon's surface, stretching endlessly in all directions he could see.
Many times had he used this magic portal to spend time wandering his Moon, as he found it relaxing to be near to his charge. He felt his aspect flare when he was in contact with it, as if he could do anything, and right now, Artemis felt like trying.
Closing his eyes, he imagined the pile of magic crystals, and his horn glowed as he disappeared. Opening his eyes made him dizzy as his entire field of view was filled with the void-black crystals, seeming to suck the light away from around it, and starving his eyes of sight. He quickly shook his head and closed his eyes, turning to look behind him before reopening them. White ground and starry black horizon met him, and Artemis nodded as he confirmed he had not gone blind.
The blue alicorn then turned his head back towards the pile, looking up at the top, partially to keep the anchor of night sky in his vision field, and partially to locate the mysterious pink crystal he came searching for. Spotting a tiny pink mar atop the vast mountain of black, he spread his wings and took flight, fixing his gaze on the spot. A few powerful flaps landed the Prince atop the pile with a gut twisting scrape and whine of shifting gems. Looking down at it a few meters away, the pink crystal seemed to glow, and seemed to almost leak its color into the nearby black stones. Upon a closer inspection, they gems touching the pink one were changing color, tinging pink from its contact apparently. Artemis lifted the pink stone to make sure it wasn't the light playing tricks on his eyes, but even with the original removed, its neighbors remained halfway pinkish.
“I will never understand how I do half of the things I bumble into doing, but this I know not even what I have done, much less how.” Artemis chuckled to himself, pulling his eyes starward. His gaze fixed upon the blue marble and Equestria's dim shadow below, and all of the magical adventures he had recently experienced flowed through his mind. His eyes lit up and he carried the pink crystal as he madly dashed down the slope of the black mountain, only to stop short and blink. He face-hoofed and magically opened the portal leading to his mirror, inwardly groaning that he had forgotten that this end could be opened from anywhere on the moon. Hopping through the shimmering glass, crystal in tow, Artemis went to work.
Artemis stretched his mind and latched onto the feelings he had followed in the dreamworld, seizing them as a compass arrow. Splitting his mind, he locked the direction as he simultaneously conjured up the scrying spells he had learned long ago. He sectioned that part of his mind off as well, pushing “direction” and “method” in their two little compartments of his brain to the side. Next he wove a connection to the crystal laying between his hooves, attaching the immense reservoir of power to his will, then cordoned off this as another part of his unfathomably complex plan. He strained, his mind concentrating entirely on three different complicated and difficult mental activities, and started a fourth. With all his remaining might, he wove his will into the ancient enchantments that Mother and Father had crafted in the mirror that stood before him, their final gift to him. The world sagged around him as his mind flexed beyond the limits of any mortal being and most others as well, and he locked the weave in. Then, in a supreme press of will, he brought the four sections of his mind together into one, and combined them all in the center of his being.
Flaring white shined out of Artemis' chamber, brighter than a thousand suns, and ephemeral wind emanated at gale force. In the center of this inferno of magic, a greenish-purple-eyed alicorn struggled to walk into the mirror before him. The pink crystal was flooding raw magic into him like lightning, and each step caused reality to slightly buckle and sway out of his way, making for a difficult process of locomotion. Struggling internally and externally, tears streamed down the Lunar Aspect's snout as he felt himself be ripped apart by the maelstrom of his spell. 'Just... one... step... more!' Artemis screamed into the deafening cacophony, making no noticeable noise but still pressing himself further.
Artemis had reached the blinding surface of the mirror, now in magical overdrive as universe-shaking power was pumped into it in a great torrent. His horn leaned out and touched the mirror, only to click against it, as if it were ordinary glass again.
“No!” The wide-eyed alicorn screamed, all of his hope catching in his throat at this apparent failure. “It can't be!” All of his terrible need turned to dread as he could not enter this blazing portal. Closing his eyes, more tears came, but for a different reason than the pain-induced ones. Despair wrenched his heart and his mind started to shake at its foundations.
“No. This will work.” His eyes opened again as he whispered this final decree, and despair and dread vanished from within him. Confidence and perseverance he had learned from ponies like Dusk and his brother bolstered his efforts, and iron bands of will braced his faltering heart.
Once more, Artemis pressed his horn into the blinding portal, and upon clicking against it's surface, pressed on. Where before he could barely walk in the terrible cataclysm, he now pressed his hooves firmly into the stones beneath his hooves and pressed forward with all his might.
Like glass, the resistance broke, and the Lunar Prince triumphantly cheered as he stepped out through the portal.
Back onto the moon, white and barren as he had left it.
“No...” the lonely alicorn whispered.