Chapter 7
“Captain, Lord Inquisitor Blueblood wants to talk to you.”
“Very well, put him on.” Sigh.
“Yes, sir. Putting him through now.”
Blueblood’s face came into view, and Thunder could immediately tell his name was lying. His face was most definitely red, and that was impossible without red blood. Why was he angry again? Oh, yeah, something to do with the planet. Thunder couldn’t honestly tell what the problem was. All he’d done was trick Blueblood into going to an obviously Chaos-ridden planet, then sending down a strike team, almost getting them killed, then admitting to Blueblood he couldn’t honestly see what the problem with the planet’s appearance was. He couldn’t! It was so beautiful, with its corruption apparent to anyone who looked; the beauty of Chaos everywhere turning the water into blood, covering the sky with fumes and fire, and turning the populace into beasts with tentacles for legs, hundreds of bloodthirsty and blood-red eyes, and other disgusting limbs.
Suddenly, Sierra barged in through the access hatch. She was covered in wounds, most extremely deep, probably from the crew that had been corrupted. There was also much more blood that wasn’t hers covering her and her sword. The pegasus stared at Thunder, in his newest, ascended form, granted to him by Discord himself. His hooves had enormous claws, his face had more eyes than bare patches of hair, his mane had transformed into a beautiful mass of writhing tentacles, and his entire body now represented Chaos Incarnate. He was beautiful. The pegasus stared at him, then whispered something. He heard it, but couldn’t recognize it at the moment. He’d check the cameras later. Then she lifted her sword and charged, her pistol firing the whole time. Thunder laughed maniacally as a crew member jumped up from behind her and dragged her back down into the darkness below. He heard the screams of crew members dying, then the sound of hooves running away, probably to the shuttle bay in order to get away. She wouldn’t. Thunder kept right on laughing, as Blueblood began to speak.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” he yelled. “You’ve been corrupted, and you can’t even tell!”
“Of course I can tell, Oh Your Exalted Idiotness, but I simply don’t care. Don’t you see? Can’t you see how beautiful Chaos really is? That Queen has blinded you to the truth with her lies and trickery, Blueblood! Now you only see darkness where ther is light and light where there is darkness! Chaos could deliver you!” Thunder then began talking in the melodic language of Chaos, and Blueblood clapped his hooves over his ears, before cutting off the connection. Thunder was left talking to a blank screen.
“Call the Champion. Tell her we have a ship full of enemies, and she has a new ship full of friends. Tell her that we’ll keep some of them alive for her to take care of in her…particular style. Then, disable the enemy ships. I’m sure the demons would like to experience the thrill of ripping their opponents limb from limb.” Thunder started laughing, as the Celestia, soon to be renamed the Discord, turned about and brought all of its weapons to bear against the unnamed Inquisition ships.
5 hours earlier
The Thunderhawk shuddered as it entered the atmosphere. Sierra barely noticed at all, she was so focused on the planet they were about to land on. The planet, as she had predicted, was obviously corrupt. Just by looking at it she could tell. Its atmosphere was filled with fire, it's mountains were all volcanoes. It's seas were blood-red, and most likely actual blood, knowing Discord. On the surface, she could see enormous beasts of Chaos lumbering around, ripping apart anything they came across, even fellow servants of Chaos. Thunder had just explained to the Guard how he was planning on doing this thing. He would probably be buying time for them by distracting Blueblood and keeping him from taking over the ship with some sort of legal B.S. His plan was genius, but she couldn't help but doubt its possible success. It didn't matter right now, however. She would just have to wait and see. The best possible thing she could do right now was complete her side of the mission. Since Rainbow Dash had another mission of her own, Sierra was left in charge. She had under her command three tactical squads, her own flight squad, a scout squad, and a Dreadnought, a massive 12 meter tall bipedal machine, which contained the body of an almost dead Royal Guard. Instead of one of its arms, it had a massive Drake flamethrower, and its other arm was simply a massive fist, designed to punch through anything.
Sierra continued to look out the window until the dropship touched down, and the bay door slowly lowered, revealing the reason they were here: an enormous concrete base, with strange, obviously demonic, vines growing up the walls. it had an army of demons protecting it, and they rushed the Thunderhawk as soon as it touched down. The Dreadnought was the first out, its flamethrower spraying its holy fire through the enemies, and its fist crushing and throwing dozens of corrupted ponies. It began to advance, clearing a path of dad cultists. Sierra steeled her heart and mind against the corruption of Chaos and led her squad and the others in a charge, following the Dreadnought and protecting its vulnerable back. Her sword slashed left and right, beheading some enemies, and disemboweling others. But they just kept on coming. By the time the real threat arrived, they would be exhausted from fighting the cannon fodder. She was just beginning to see the problems with the plan when the dropship gunned its engines, jumping up into the air. It seemed to hang there for a moment, before it turned its deadly arsenal of Dragonfire cannons against the enemy. it destroyed most of the force, before the strange vines on the building lashed out at it, forcing its pilot to take it back into the upper atmosphere. Then, as if by miracle, they arrived at the front gate of the base, mountains of dead bodies behind them, and more cultists crawling over the bodies of their fallen.
The Dreadnought lifted the enormous gate, let them through, then dropped it behind them. On the other side, Sierra could hear the dreadnought turn, shout a curse at the cultists, and start up it flamethrower. She heard the screams of dying cultists, and muttered a prayer for the soul of their near dead companion, knowing that it would not survive the encounter. Then, she turned and surveyed her strike force. half of the ten scouts were dead, and the three tactical squads had lost one member each. She was struck with pride that none of the members of her squad were dead. Then, she lead her force into the HQ, fully prepared for a slaughter.
Contrasting with the outside, the inside of the base was lightly defended. The demon in charge had probably thought that the enormous army outside would stop an attacking force. They would have been right, had it been any organization other than the Royal Guard.
Sierra's strike force made easy progress, only having to deal with the odd cultist as they made their way to the target. They reached the stairs and hoofed it down to the bottom floor. When they reached it, they found hundreds of demons hooked into the walls of a room with one wall bare of anything except for a gigantic screen. The strike force followed Sierra cautiously to the screen, then formed a semicircle behind her. One of the scouts stepped forward and began pressing buttons on the console at the base of the screen. After a couple minutes of adjustment, the screen popped on, static all over it. After twisting some knobs and playing with the buttons, the scout finally got the static to clear out, and something appeared. Not what they were looking for, but still good. The screen showed the bridge of a Chaos warship, sickeningly biologic looking, with walls that were covered with demons, which were fused to the metal. Screens filled the room, showing twisted creatures, and other creatures writhing in pain as their bodies shifted to accommodate their twisted souls. On the screen was the Commander of the Chaos forces, the Chosen of Discord, and the Ultimate Champion of Chaos. It was the most twisted pony ever to be born, a pony that tortured not just her enemies, but also her friends.
On the screen was a pink pony with a pink poofy mane and a perpetual smile. Deep in her eyes, however, Sierra could see pure insanity.
On the screen was Pinkamena Diane Pie, former Element of Laughter laughing as she watched the horrible scene of Captain Thunder turning to Chaos.