Rekindle

by Straightjacket

Artorias II: ....Will Fall to Darkness

Author's Note:

Alright guys, listen up. Rather than move onto the next chapter, I've decided to patch up the last few. I went through them, and all I did was facepalm.

Have fun. Praise the Sun.

The sound of doors slamming shut echoed through the hallway. Artorias stood at attention, his sword balanced on the point. Celestia walked by him, over to a balcony. The room was purple with a gold trim. In the middle sat a large sofa, next to a large fireplace. A dark mural full of stars hung on the wall. The room wasn't well lit, but it was still bright enough to see. Celestia's horn lit up, and her wings extended. Artorias wondered how he hadn't noticed them before. Slowly, the sun started to rise. Celestia beckoned him over. Artorias was hesitant. The scraps of the Abyss within him were no friend to bright places. He much preferred the dark, where his curse would leave him be. Nevertheless, he came as he was told. He shielded his face with a hand while stepping onto the balcony. What he saw took his breath away. A deep valley, surrounded by rivers, forests, lakes, and what looked like a small town sat in the center. He could see past the horizon, over endless plains and hills. If that wasn't enough , it was all bathed in the golden light of the sunrise. The mountains gave off a pale glow, and the rays of sunlight bounced off the water. The clouds stretched across a never-ending sky, which shone with a radiant orange. It truly was a monumental sight to behold.

"It-it's beautiful. It reminds me of home.....Anor Londo. If Solaire could see this......" he said. Celestia smiled.

"Alright, I suppose I can trust you." Artorias tore his eyes away from the scenery, looking at her with a confused expression on his face.

"Why? I've done nothing to prove myself trustworthy to thee."

"I don't think any-pony could react like that and still be evil." Artorias looked away, scoffing at the thought.

"You needn't look mad in order to be mad." Celestia frowned. He was putting himself down again, making himself out to be a monster.

"Why do you say things like that?" she argued, "Since you've arrived here all you've done is act like you're some sort of evil creature."

"I was at one point. I could be again. I'd rather not run the risk." An uncomfortable silence fell over the two. Artorias turned back to look over the balcony, and put his helmet back on to shield his face from the sun. Celesta shook her head. She looked at the figure standing on the ledge. As long as she lived, she would never understand what that "Abyss" did to this being. The way Artorias talked showed a detachment from the rest of the world. From what she'd seen so far, he saw everything with a subtle indifference.

"What happened before you came here?" Celestia asked, intending on breaking the silence.

"I was killed." he stated bluntly. Celesta didn't know how to react. It was an absurd notion. Surely he must be joking. How could he be here if he died over there? But the way he said it, so nonchalantly, made her already start to believe him. She blurted out a reply.

"What?! How?!" Artorias sighed. To be honest with himself, he felt no desire to talk about it, or even think about it. He waited a moment before speaking, and began recalling the events of what had happened.

"I was rampaging through the remains of a town, not in control of my body. The Abyss was. I slaughtered anything that moved. The Abyss had already turned the denizens into horrific monsters. But the sheer brutality of it was sickening. I strangled, I ripped, I shredded through bodies as though they were made of paper. One of these inhuman abominations even tried crawling away from my wrath, desperately trying to escape from me. My body screamed and roared, sending everything fleeing in a mad frenzy. I smashed down buildings, ripped through walls, and tore through solid stone in order to kill. Eventually, my body arrived at the ruins of a colosseum. There I met as swordsman who put an end to my misery, and to my murderous acts. I will never repay my debt, but I owe him my sanity."

Celestia was dumbstruck. His story was far worse than she could have guessed. The look on Artorias' face showed he felt guilty for his actions, but it was too much to take in at once. She began to feel faint. She sat down on her couch, trying to regain her composure. What she had been told was indeed a grave matter. Perhaps she had placed her trust in him prematurely. Artorias himself had even tried to persuade her not to.

"What you've told me, or rather, what I've heard, is that you're a potential threat to all of my subjects. You could snap at any time and slaughter everypony in your path. How do you expect me to respond to this? How would you respond to this?"

Artorias stood silently, pondering the matter. There was only one permanent solution.

"Lock me up. Chain me down. Until you can be absolutely certain that I'm not a threat to your subjects, keep me isolated from them. It's either that.......or kill me." With that, he took his sword and through it at her hooves. She looked up at him and started to argue, but he silenced her with a shake of his head.

"Just do it."

"......Very well." Celestia responded. "I can't honestly say I agree with this decision, but I'm not about to gamble with the lives of my subjects." Artorias nodded as Celestia went to the inform guards stationed outside what to do.

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

Artorias sat in a cavern, surrounded by rocks crystals. He wasn't chained up. The reason for this was that the caves were impossible to escape, or at least that's what the head guard-pony wanted him to believe. He scoffed at the idea at first, but then they covered his eyes with a blindfold and had him walk in for what it seemed like an hour. Then the wall sealed up behind him. The guard said to not worry about food, it would be teleported in. He sat against the wall, pondering his situation. Had the Abyss fully left his body? No of course not, it reacted to the sun that very morning. The problem was whether or not it was enough to turn him into that monster again. The odds were against it, but Artorias refused to take any chances. He scratched at the floor, moving the dirt around with his finger. Before he knew it, he realized he had drawn a small picture of Sif on the ground. He laughed at the memory of his old friend. It was a hollow, empty laugh, almost devoid of emotion entirely.

Artorias spent the next couple of months of his time in Equestria here. The guards would warp his food, consisting almost entirely of fruits and vegetables, into his cell. Artorias wasn't a vegetarian, but he ate what he was given. He was given a few books on random subjects, but the days still seemed to stretch on like years. Granite Grindstone came by during the first few days of his imprisonment, wanting to formally thank him for his help in the battle. They struck up a conversation, and were soon good friends. At Grindstone's request, Artorias was allowed a weekly chess match against him. This was partly for their enjoyment, but it was also a method to test Artorias' intelligence and strategic capability. His life became one of routine and repetition. Celestia came from time to time to give him progress reports on the ongoing research regarding his condition, and to simply see how he was doing. About four months later, (according to Grindstone), Celestia came in with what she claimed was "good news."

The wall slid open. Artorias didn't even look. Rather, he remained focused on a book about the founding and history of a town called "Ponyville". Celestia and another pony walked in. This one was purple with a white mane, and it was wearing a lab coat. It had a mark similar to the one all the other ponies had, only this one was a magnifying glass over a star. Celestia walked over to him and began giving an explanation.

"Hello Artorias. This is Dr. Dawn Sparkle. She's a doctor who specializes in identifying and classifying different types of magic. She's the very best at what she does, so we'll have very trustworthy and efficient results. She's going to pin down the what kind of mutation the Abyss has done to your body. Also, she personally asked to help you, so please be polite."

Artorias began to greet the pony, but he then noticed the look on Sparkle's face, one of absolute glee. He wouldn't be surprised if she had started drooling on the spot. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Celestia.

"Care to explain why she's staring at me like I'm an all-you-can-eat buffet?" Celestia smiled. Inspector Sparkle, hearing this, squeaked in embarrassment and looked down.

"U-um, sorry!" she said nervously.

"Dawn can be, well, enthusiastic about learning new things. I told her what I wanted her to do and she just about fainted in excitement."

"How shocking." Artorias deadpanned. Celestia bent down and whispered into Dawn's ear. She listened intently to what the Princess told her. She even had a scrap of parchment out taking notes. While he was watching the exchange, Artorias remembered the the Pendant he found in his armor. They had let him keep it, because to them it was just a random piece of junk, but It was best that he handed it over for the procedure. He retrieved in from the cloth he kept it in, holding it out to Celestia. A moment passed. Before the Princess could even react, Dawn had it in her own magic field, looking at it from every possible angle. She began muttering under her breath, which Artorias assumed was a massive sequence of questions far beyond his sense of comprehension.

Celestia and Artorias waited on Dawn to finish her little "investigation." Artorias looked back down to the book he was reading. Celestia, on the other hand, was now trying to convince the young protege to hand over the necklace. Dawn, finally realizing the situation, turned beet red and gave the Pendant to her.

"Sorry, I got a bit carried way...."

"You're telling me." Artorias though to himself. Celestia started giving a brief summary of what was about to transpire.

"While looking at traces of your energy, we noticed that it contained an almost exact match to that of King Sombra, the mad and tyrannical ruler of The Crystal Empire, a kingdom to the north of Equestria. He practices dark magic, and is becoming a burden on his subjects. Luna and I were going to put and end to his rule before she.........made a turn for the worse. Anyhow, understand that normal dark magic is harmless. We have necromancers to see over funerals and such, and they are well versed in its use. Sombra, while he was still sane, became obsessed by the dark arts. He researched almost everything he could find, wanting to learn all its secrets. During one of his experiments, he managed to give it a solid form. That of a crystal. However, something went wrong, and it latched on to Sombra, driving him insane, and giving him a powerful desire to spread this new form of darkness. Now, a normal pony's dark magic is in a dormant state. Sombra's aura was corrupted by the crystal he made, causing it to warp and twist into something beyond comprehension. Dawn here is going to compare your magic aura to a sample of one of Sombra's crystals. If it's dormant, you'll be free. But if even any part of your aura has been corrupted, we'll have to forcefully thresh it out. It......won't be painless."

Artorias didn't really need to consider the matter. The days in prison were long and rather stale, and whatever pain Celestia was speaking of paled in comparison to what the Abyss subjected him too. This was his opportunity; he'd be a fool not to take it. He nodded his head at Celestia, finally turning around to fully face them. This also meant the scar on his face was in full view of Dawn for the first time. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at, but when she did, it horrified her. She couldn't even speak. Artorias looked down, obviously a bit upset by her reaction.

"Come on Sparkle! You should know better than to stare!" Dawn cleared her throat and began her examination. The nervousness caused her to start sweating. Her horn lit up as she scanned Artorias with a high-density laser. One arm down, and no signs of corruption. So far, so good. The other arm went without a problem as well. She began to relax. Both legs were fine, and so was his torso. Only his head was left. She was almost completely sure of his well-being now, and started on his face, starting with the normal side. All was well. When the last part was being checked, she began to give a sigh of relief, but it halted in her throat. His damaged eye was practically pouring with corrupted magic. Dawn started to panic.

"Oh dear. ohdearohdearohdear. This is bad, very, very bad." she whispered to herself.

"Dawn, what's the matter?" Celestia replied, also whispering, "Did you find something? Is any of the magic corrupted?"

"Princess, you don't understand. This is the large amount of dark magic I've ever seen before. To make things worse, it's incredibly dense, and it's all corrupted. This is terrible. He could fall under its power at any moment." Her horn flickered as she changed spells. Artorias' magical aura became visible, taking the form of a white cloud surrounding his body. However, the area on his face that was corrupted gave off a thick black fog, concentrated thickly on his bad eye. Celestia gasped, and she and Dawn started whispering to each other again. Artorias became restless. He wanted to know what was going on, and he didn't like them hiding their conversation from him.

"What? What is it?!" he said, his tone rising as he moved forward, towards both of them. Dawn cowered at the angry creature in front of her. Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder, trying to calm her down as she addressed Artorias.

"Unfortunately, your body is filled with corrupted dark essence. You were right when you requested to be imprisoned. As of now, you are a much bigger threat than Sombra. The dark aura contained just your eye is a massive amount greater than Sombra's. To be quite frank, I believe you've broken every record we've ever had within a space no larger than a-" She froze as a cold chill went up her spine. A sense of foreboding came over her. Dawn, backed into a corner, absolutely terrified.

"No, it can't be. Not you. Not now." She looked towards Artorias. "This would be Sombra." A black fog poured into the room, part of it coalescing into the shape of a very large unicorn's head. It spoke in a deep raspy voice, laughing at the trio in front of him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes indeed, I am King Sombra, the one she just finished warning you about, Artorias. But don't worry, I won't be here for long. I'm just dropping by for a visit is all. You should show more respect to your guests Cely. On the off hand, I've been looking for some new test subjects, and your new toy here is just what the doctor ordered. I would have used poor Princess Loony, but I'm afraid she's a bit, unavailable."

"SILENCE!", Celestia bellowed angrily. She had attempted to use the Royal Canterlot Voice to intimidate him, but it had no effect on.

"Oh Cely, you've become so mean. I'm hurt!" Sombra mocked. "I suppose I'll take my leave now, but first, I'M TAKING YOU BACK WITH ME!!!" He lunged at Artorias, entering his body through his eye socket. Artorias howled in agony. Never in all his life, even under the spell of the Abyss, had he ever felt so much pain. As his mind was thrown into havoc, he lost control of his body once more. He felt the fear rising up within him as realization dawned upon him. He fell to the ground, writhing as Sombra entered his mind. When the pain stopped, he was sitting against the wall, barely able to breathe. As his mind slipped back into darkness, a cold, evil laugh filled his head, echoing through his conscious.

"No...please....not again." And then everything faded to black.

Comments

[Straightjacket]

5070150

Essentially, the Dark is the Abyss. Humans were born from the Dark, and Lords from the Flame. The Lords see the dark (Abyss) as a threat to their power and seek to eradicate it. On the off hand, humans have a very little amount within each of them. So little, in fact, that they actually help the Lords keep their power intact. However, in large quantities, it's a massive threat. Artorias was sent to stop the spread. He was consumed by it.

I'm terrible at explaining this. Just watch Vaativydia's take on it.

[Xerxes]

I always figured the Abyss was what resulted from the corruption of Humanity. Kinda like how the Witch of Izalith created the Flames of Chaos by messing with her soul.