Artemis, Baroness, and Eris - Fighting Shadows

Artemis + Baroness + ???

>Artemis stirred in his sleep.
>Something was trying to draw him to wake, but he resisted.
>It was midday, prime sleeping time after all.
>The noise boomed in his room again, finally forcing him to open his eyes and blink blearily.
>With a yawn he straightened and attempted to locate the source of the noise.
>His eyes adjusted fast enough to show that nothing was amiss in his room.
>But he could still hear faint noises... and it sounded like they were coming from beyond his chamber door.
>As he rose to his hooves the door shuddered and burst inwards.
>Several things were revealed in the next few seconds.
>A red covered Baroness flying in the door.
>A large dark silhouette moving in the door.
>Two prone hooves laying outside.
>Artemis reacted instinctively, millennium old training kicking in.
>A blue field caught Baroness and put her on his bed.
>She wasn't moving.
>Artemis teleported his sword to him and held it towards the shadow moving towards him.
"Hold fiend!"
>It didn't stop moving.
>Instincts told him to hold his ground, but he had to keep it away his guard.
>With a determined expression he galloped forward, swinging his sword wide to force the shadow back.
>To his surprise it just seemed to slink around his weapon.
>Artemis swung again and again, only for the shadowy figure to continue dodging in completely impossible ways.
>With each swing the figure moved a step closer, forcing him a step back.

>Too soon his hoof met the edge of his bed, telling him that he had no more room to retreat.
>He swung his sword out at the serpentine figure only for it to move close to him, passing through his sword as if it weren't there.
"What?!"
>He squeezed his eyes shut as something wrapped around his neck.
>So this was it.
>This was how the grand Prince of Equestria fell.
>"Haaaaaiiiiii Artiiiiiii~"
>Wat.
"Wat."
>Artemis opened his eyes and only saw shadow in front of him.
>Which didn't make sense.
>He had perfect dark vision.
>He flashed a light spell at the tip of his horn and wasn't at all surprised when the shadows formed into Eris' face.
>Somehow.
>He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed slightly.
>But only slightly.
"Eris. Why are you here, why are you a shadow, and why are my guards not moving?"
>Eris' form resolved into its normal, physical form as she grinned at him.
>"I came for a visit of course! But your guards didn't want me to come in so I told them that you'd let me in but they said you were asleep so I said that we should wake you up and when I went to the door they pulled out their swords so they obviously wanted to play fight so I play fought with them but they didn't stay dead when they died to I put them to sleep and then I came in here and you wanted to play fight too but I wanted to give you a hug first so I turned into shadows and here we are!"

>Artemis' eyes began to glaze over at the beginning of her sentence, but he heard the most important bits.
>His guards were safe.
>And Eris, apparently, didn't have evil intentions.
>Or at least bad ones.
>Maybe.
>He sighed wearily.
"I appreciate the gesture Eris, but I must rest during the day. I have responsibilities to attend to tonight"
>She just smiled brightly at him and raised her lion paw.
>"Oh, I can make it night so that you don't have to rest!"
>A blue glow wrapped around her fingers.
"Eris. No. Please"
>The bright face turned dejected and she looked down.
>"All right fine. I'll just go then"
>Artemis froze.
>He couldn't just release a dejected draconequus upon the world.
>A thought came to his head and he grinned.
>It was a terrible trick to play, but he would do what he had to do.
"You know. I'm certain that Celestia is awake. She would most certainly be more appreciative of a visit!"
>The draconequus brightened up at that.
>"That's true. I can just visit with her. Thanks Arti!"
>With that Eris unwrapped herself from about his neck and jumped into the air with a poof.

>With a tired sigh Artemis made his way back to his bed.
>Which was now covered in what appeared to be hot-sauce.
>That could be dealt with later.
>He leaned over Baroness and began focusing his magic on her, unweaving the spell Eris had cast.
>Baroness began stirring almost immediately.
>Her eyes opened see a Artemis' face hovering over her own, only a few inches away.
>In his room.
>In his bed.
>"Ahh!"
>A punch sent him reeling as her face turned red.
>"This isn't proper my Lord!"
>Artemis just sighed and facehooved.

END.