Pain. Everything was pain. My body was in agony, from my extremities to my very heart. My soul was aflame as well. What was over was over. For eight years, the Horus Heresy has destroyed my Imperium. Worlds had burned as the archtraitor himself had pillaged them as an afterthought of his passing. Or perhaps, it was not so much as an afterthought as a warning: “Soon, Terra will be likewise.” Now there was peace. Why did I not feel it? I had killed my most favored son. He had nearly killed me. Soon, I suspected, I would be dead. I would die, because every organ in my body had been shattered by Horus. I was barely able to strike him down when the final moment came. Heh, it was oddly fitting a death for the Emperor of Mankind, was it not?
Then there was light. From behind my eyelids I could see and feel the warmest light that I had experienced. Impossibly, the physical pain seemed to fade. Was I in heaven? Why would I be there? I had done more in my life deserving of hell than any human being. I did not even believe in either. There was the warp, certainly. But the dead were barely conscious of their continued existence there. Was I still alive? I opened my eyes.
“Xenos!” I cried as I saw the face staring down at me.
The face blinked. It was long, equine. It was pastel colored in a way that defied the laws of reality. The sheer existence of such bright color almost disgusted me of the world. Colors that bright were colors of the warp indeed! This was no daemon, certainly for I could sense the foul evil stench of those, but it was certainly chaos affiliated. The abhorrent creature was poking my golden plated armor with its hoof, tracing the fine inscription. It had a horn protruding from its head, like the Unicorni of old mythology, and eyes far too large for its head.
“Away, thou foul aberrant!” I roared, lashing out with my arm.
The Xenos hadn’t the time to flinch when my fist connected with its skull. There was a sound of rending flesh as the force of the impact removed the Xenos’ head from its shoulders. The removed cranium spun away comically sporadically spurting blood, bone fragments and brain matter flying from where I had crushed it. The body collapsed as gravity embraced it. The enemies of man would not be victorious this day, for I was the Emperor! I was dimly aware of screaming. The blow was pathetically weak on my part.
I stood, strangely free of the agony that had racked me but a few seconds earlier. Coming to my full height, I looked down towards the source of the screaming. Several terrified Xenos stared up at me with their disgustingly large eyes, rooted to the spot by terror. Almost all were garishly coloured. I dwarfed them by a great magnitude. They barely came to my knees. Several were weeping. These were strange, evidently spineless creatures. Creatures such as these were part of the reason for the Great Crusade. Creatures as pathetic as these ones did not deserve to live. They scattered. Watching them, I noted that they were running into a small village.
The village eerily reminded me of villages from the Medieval period, roughly twenty-eight millennia before I founded the Imperium of Man. It was hard to remember. However, this village deferred from the grey, depressed towns of medieval Europea. It was just as disgustingly colourful as its inhabitants, lacking all of the simple grandeur of Imperial architecture. Six of the creatures stood in my path.
My eyebrow quirked up at the sight of these creatures. Fear radiated from them, yet they stood their ground, stony faced. Naturally, fear was to be expected. One simply cannot see the Emperor of Mankind and not feel awe. This was not pride speaking. It was truth. Few men could bear to look upon me. They claimed behind my back that my armor was “too shiny”, and I “too glorious.” It became, at one point, disturbingly close to worship, which I abhorred and still do. The Cult of the Lectitio Divinitatus was something that I had been trying to exorcise for some time. I was not to be worshiped. Nothing was to be worshiped. I was no god.
I noticed that these creatures wore pendants. I make a correction. Five wore pendants, one wore a…what were they called. I hadn’t seen one of those in millennia. Ah, yes! It was called a tiara. Disgusting implements of inbred nobility, it was an attempt to assert command among those who were unworthy of it. The creature that wore the tiara had both horn and wings. I finally noticed that these creatures had marks upon their haunches. Ritual tattoos? If that was the case, these abominations had far more to worry about than before. Ritualism was and is disgusting.
“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. Surrender, and we won’t use the Elements on you,” Her voice quivered, and I could sense that she was unused to the usage of threatening. But, I could sense some power…radiating from her. It was well spring of psyker energy potent as a Librarian’s.
I do not know why, even now, but I spoke, “The Emperor of Mankind does not surrender. Thou shalt kneel to us, and die painlessly. If thou refuseth to bend the knee, we will destroy thou and purge thy kind from the face of this world in a torrent of fire and agony.”
I should not have given them the honor of hearing my voice. Only my sons and Malchador had ever truly heard me speak. Certainly, many soldiers had heard my commands upon the field of battle, but I had never spoken to them specifically. I know not why I spoke to these foul creatures. All xenos had to die. They were eternally the enemies of man, from the barbarian Orks to the arrogant Eldar. These were no different.
“Girls, formation!” The so called Princess ordered.
Warp energy began to bleed off of them. It was not like Horus’ though. The opposite, in fact. It was almost…pure. This was thought that rattled me to my core. I had seen many things come from xenos, yet they had one thing in common. Their magiks always stank as putrefying flesh of rotting impurity. Yet, this signature almost felt human. This was an abhorrent consideration. I had spent two centuries killing creatures as these, yet these were a dimension apart.
Disgusting.
A rainbow beam of energy lashed out from the creatures, whose eyes were now glowing. The beam struck me in the chest, having no effect. My body simply absorbed it, empowering me. I saw their leader’s eyes widen.
“Twilight, why isn’t it working?” Cried a white colored Unicorni. She had a highborn accent. How strange.
“He’s…too pure? Wait, what? How could he be to pure this is impossible. Nothing that kills could be good enough to absorb the elements. No! No! No! No! No!” She kept repeating the words, twitching slightly.
It occurred to me how odd it was that I could understand them. Why did they speak low gothic? It was nigh impossible that they could have the same language as humanity. It was utterly inconceivable. I was now utterly certain that the chaos “gods” were having a laugh at my expense, as they had been during the Horus Heresy.
“ I have to go get Celestia!” she cried, rushing towards a building in the shape of a tree.
I shrugged and continued, drawing my sword, Worldslayer. It was the brother weapon to Horus’s mace, Worldbreaker. There was a certain comfort as I looked upon the Aquila upon the pommel, and the high gothic inscription upon the blade. I almost smiled as I read the words.
“Per Ignem Puritas”
“Purity Through Flames.”
That's rather dark.
One bit of feedback, though. Since it is this dark, why have the pony who gets their head torn off be a unknown red-shirt?
I can't believe I'm about to say this, but that moment would have far more impact if you gave just enough info for us to recognizance the pony. Especially if you have it be Cheerlee or any other fan-favorite.
Heck, if you want grim-dark levels that rivals the source... Pick one, so to speak::
Whelp, I love it so far!
Pump these out like bolters upon the battlefield!
Kinda funny that the emperor is "pure" yet his methods and his way of thinking are just as fanatical as the very worst of suicide bombers.
I myself have ponderd about this subject a couple of months ago when i was in a REALLY big Warhammer 40K phase, what would happen if the emperor after his Death somehow wound up in Equestria? Or rather, how would it be if he was somehow reborn in Equestria? The opportunities are just endless.
It's nice to see that somebody else have considerd that "what if" situation.
welp Equestria is fucked
4101078 There is no good or evil in the real world. The Emperor simply doesn't have a shred of chaos in him, therefore the elements deem him pure.
are the elements of harmony more of a shield that defend since it doesn't kill?
I don't blame the emperor for reacting the way he did, think about it in the beginning when humanity was young and naïve believing in prosperity, hope for friends and allies that was torn out by there many variety of intergalactic neighbors and chaos's in the most horrible of ways that it killed and burn most of there trust and hope after so long I don't blame him or his people for not trusting so easy that mistrust and reacting in violence is not born from nothing and the corrupting chaos's and it many forms make things more complicated.
Very good so far! One thing: Malcador is spelled without the H.
4101078
Well his goal is 'pure'. Pure humanity that is
It is kind of weird to describe him as 'fanatical as a suicide bomber'. I mean he doesn't believe in religion and punished worshiping him as a god.
He simply wanted to see his race survive. In the 40k universe everything is at war with everything. There isn't a force in the universe that doesn't want humans torn to meaty little chunks for one reason or another. Some are more deserved than others. Like Tau or Eldar. But when you have Nids, Chaos, DE, Orks, Necrons, Humans themselves. All wanting to see the end of your species. You can't exactly just sit back and hope that things work themselves out.
continue the story, emperor's command it!
This won't end well...
4100987 Thank you for the suggestion. I will name the deceased next chapter...and a bunch of others.
4101385
Happy to have helped.
"One does not see the Emperor of Mankind and not feel awe"
Boromir would have been so proud of you if you had added a simple in that sentence.
Anyway. An awesome read, keep the good work up, and I fav an like this awesomeness of yours.
You had me here.
Huh, a fic where a character from 40K, the Emprah himself no less, gets sent to Equestria and reacts as they would in their world. Neat!
Also, I'm guessing Lyra was the poor soul who got decapitated by ourgood friendBELOVED GOD EMPEROR. PRAISE THE EMPEROR AND STRIKE DOWN HIS FOES.Edit: Read second chapter, nvm.
HA! Hell no she isn't anywhere near that strong! Keep in mind that, while on the Golden Throne, Malcador fended off the entirety of Chaos and all of the Dark Gods. Twilight is nowhere near that powerful. Even with the Throne as an amplifier.
Honestly, one of the dumbest moments in all of 40K was this. The Emperor is a perpetual so powerful that, even if vaporized, he would pull himself back together and get up again. So, after being mortally wounded, he should have sent a psychic message telling all ships to drop out of the Warp. Then, he should have finished himself off (or had Dorn do it) so that he could, you know, regenerate and get up again a few minutes later. But NOOOO, he had to go and inter himself on the Golden Throne! Hindsight is a bitch, eh Empy?
Sorry to sound like a dumbass, as you were probably using google translate but the "em" at the end of the word "Ignem" is second declension Noun ending and it also signifies that that it is feminine and therefor should be "im", it also is not a Latin Noun to begin with so the "Per" sould be somewhere in front as it is Accusative singular and have the "im" ending along with "Ignim". Also the "as" at the end of "Puritas" signifies that it is a verb, which in Latin it most certainly is not.
Kind of simplified Emprah. The pinnacle of human evolution and knowledge starts outright killing ponies because they are xeno, Emprah was above shit like this.
You realise the emprah didnt want to specificly kill all xenos, just if they were assbag
I really don't think it would matter agaisnt the big E, but TWilight is at Magnus' level in terms of raw power
4216795
you misunderstand what the golden throne is for, it guides the astronomicon and in that specific case keeps the webway closeed, it doesn't do shit to the chaos gods, those guys are more worried with brutallizing each other. Also, Twilight is at Magnus' level I.e she can use magic at the scale of solar systems.