//------------------------------// // Barred Entry // Story: The Descent into Madness // by FenrisianBrony //------------------------------// Applejack was not, and would never claim to be, a psyker. She had met a few in her time, not many given the Tau’s lack of psychic ability, but here and there a few had crossed her path. Interesting people for the most part, crazed individuals for the rest. Nor was she a unicorn, that was obvious. She couldn’t control the world around her with unseen forces, nor could she sense the unseeable on the currents of an inaccessible realm, be it the warp or whatever unicorns drew on. She had never overly wished that she was or wasn’t able to sense those things, but as she stepped through the webway portal she thanked everything she held dear that she was oblivious to the unsung song of reality. Pain rolled over her, palatable even to her, and greater than anything she had thought possible. It wasn’t her pain though, when she cried out it wasn’t in agony, but pure sorrow. Whatever being, or beings were causing this feeling, Applejack vowed she’d put a shot in their head to end their suffering. Applejack collapsed to her knees, the battlesuit spasming as her mind fought against its presence, trying to shield itself from the sensations overwhelming her, finding entry through the crystal needle in her spine. She barely made out Spitfire, Lightning and Scootaloo following her through, but if they felt the same pain she did they showed no sign of it. They were probably used to it, Applejack thought, her own mind slowly starting to push back against the intrusion. “This ship can be an interesting experience for those new to Commoragh,” Rainbow mused as she stepped through the portal after the group, Gilda right behind her. “My apologies, Applejack, but I’ve found a forewarning actually makes the sensation worse, makes it last longer. It will pass in a few moments.” Rainbow offered a talon to Applejack, but she batted it away, rising on her own and glowering down at Rainbow. “What…is it?” she managed through gritted teeth. “The feeling?” Rainbow scoffed. “You won’t find a Dark Eldar ship that isn’t steeped in pain and suffering. Humans use their Gellar fields to force their way through the warp. Dark Eldar ships rarely need to enter that realm, we are far above that, but on occasion we must scrape against it. A cocoon of pain around every ship is enough to give those who dwell in the warp something easier to feed on. By the time She Who Thirsts is aware of the intrusion, the ships are long gone.” “We is it?” Applejack scoffed. “Y’all still remember what colour yer blood is Rainbow? Yer got four legs just like me, even if they are all mangled. Y’all ain’t anything different.” Rainbow scowled, turning away from Applejack, allowing her to actually look around the ship for the first time. It wasn’t a large vessel from what she could tell, certainly not one of the capital ships that had darkened her skies with their presence, but it was big enough to fit them all in without being claustrophobic. Various doors led off from the main area which they were in, Applejack assuming some were rooms while others she decided not to try and guess at. This was a personal ship, not a war ship, any weapons it had would likely be for self-defence, rather than open war. “Kas,” Rainbow’s call cut Applejack’s investigation short, a woman appearing almost immediately. She was clearly human, the ears gave that away, but she was garbed in a Dark Eldar racing suit, Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark emblazoned on the right and left hip, such a colourful mark looking out of place on the outfit. “You called, Mistress?” the woman asked, her voice smooth as she bowed her head slightly. “Y’all have a slave?!” Applejack roared before anyone else could say a word, rounding on Rainbow and towering above her. “Stop shouting, Applejack. Your tone is making threats which we both know are empty. Kas is mine, yes. She has a better life than most within the Commoragh though, don’t you Kas.” “Much,” Kas nodded. “Far better than the other prospects in the city, I couldn’t be happier.” “Y’all are programmed ta say that,” Applejack snorted. “How much has she broken ya to say that? She beat you? It ends now, ya hear? Ah’ll make sure she doesn’t touch you anymore.” “And why would I want that?” Kas asked, a smile spreading across her face that was equal parts predatory and sincere. She walked towards Rainbow as she spoke, slowly running a finger along Rainbow’s back from her tail to the base of her neck. Applejack’s eye widened within her helmet as the pieces clicked into place. “Y’all are like that?” “We’ll are like that,” Kas smirked, adopting her own version of Applejack’s drawl, Rainbow chuckling and shaking her head. “Lay off her, Kas. Go set the course, I’ll be up to fly us out in a minute,” Rainbow smiled at Kas, looking at Gilda and gesturing for her to go with Kas, before looking back at Applejack and the others. “Applejack, there’s room for your battlesuit here, pick any room except the locked one. As for you three,” she paused as she looked at Scootaloo, Spitfire and Lightning individually. “I’m sure you can find a room to your liking.” With that, Rainbow turned and headed after Kas and Gilda, leaving the four alone once more. As soon as she was out of sight Applejack turned to face the others, her battlesuit opening to allow her to speak face to face with them. “She has a slave and they're sleepin’ together?” she asked in amazement. “With her and with Gilda,” Lightning grimaced. “But that’s really what you’re worried about? We’re all on her ship now, if she decides…” “Decides to what? Kill us?” Applejack asked. “If she wanted to, she’d have done it already. She’s a monster, not an idiot. We don’t have a choice but to follow her, but we do have a choice what we do when we return to Equestria.” “Simple, we make sure everyone knows exactly what she did,” Spitfire spat. “We make her pay for her crimes.” “No,” Applejack stomped her foot. “No, we cannot do that, as much as she deserves it. She’s right about one thing, and that’s the Elements of Harmony. She is loyalty, and even if we can replace that, which ah promise ah will attempt as soon as we get back, she is an element bearer. That will never leave, the image that comes with that is something that helps hold Equestria together, can’t put that snake back in the box. If everyone found out what we know…ah don’t think the country would survive that. Friendship is magic, we have to keep that magic alive.” “But everything she’s done,” Scootaloo murmured. “She’ll just…get away with it?” “Ah promise that ah will do everything ah can to work out how to get loyalty into the hooves of someone else, someone more deserving,” Applejack looked at Scootaloo. “As soon as ah do, ah’ll make sure she knows that she’s not welcome. She’ll see sense, she’s got to. She’ll keep it quiet and disappear. We just have to bide our time, all of us. You understand?” “Fine,” Spitfire scowled. “But she ever gets out of hand, I’m bringing the hoof of Celestia down upon her.” “Ah ain’t sayin’ it ain’t well deserved,” Applejack sighed. “Just promise me that y’all will wait, try ta do this quietly.” “I promise that then, for you, not her,” Spitfire nodded. “Me too,” Lightning agreed. “Yeah,” Scootaloo’s voice was soft as she headed for a room, disappearing inside. Applejack went to follow her, but Spitfire held out her leg. “I wouldn’t, if I were you. Scoots is complicated…we’ve been chatting a lot since she broke from Rainbow’s control. She needs a lot of alone time. Give it to her, ok?” “Will she be ok?” Applejack asked. “I don’t know,” Spitfire admitted. “I’m not a shrink, when we get back to Equestria I’ll make sure she sees one. The best.” “Thanks, Spitfire. For everything,” Applejack smiled. “And the trust, it means a lot.” “We got to trust each other, stand together against the monsters, eh?” “Yeah, something like that.” *** The journey took two days, Rainbow, Gilda and Kas sticking to the bridge and their room, while the others stuck to the lower deck, keeping to themselves as much as possible. The first they knew of reaching their destination was Rainbow descending to meet them, a panel in the rear of the bay opening, revealing the landscape beyond. Applejack couldn’t describe it, even as she looked at it. Everything swam in and out of focus, patterns that should not have been able to exist twisted in and out of existence right before her eyes, her bionic going crazy as it attempted to quantify what it was seeing before Applejack turned it off with a thought. “This is the webway?” she asked to no one in particular. “If Aun’Vesa only knew.” “It would probably burn out his mind,” Rainbow shrugged indifferently. “Come on, time is wasting, the Black Library awaits.” With that Rainbow exited the ship, Gilda following close behind her. It barely took Applejack anytime at all to climb into her battlesuit, the needle sliding back into her spine through the socket in place there. It was still strange to her, the implant only having been given to her a few days before her fight with Rainbow, but she had to admit not having to go through the pain of the needle sliding in and out whenever she left her suit was a welcome upgrade. Following after Rainbow and Gilda, Applejack followed Rainbow, rounding the ship and laying eyes upon the Black Library of Chaos. Like the webway it was impossible to quantify, both huge and insignificantly tiny, shifting and yet imposingly immobile. Applejack had no idea how they would go about entering such a building, but Rainbow strode forward confidently, heading towards the fortress stroke library. “Guardian!” Rainbow called as she walked forward. “I am Rainbow Dash, Swooping Pegasus, Succubus of the Lightning Fang, a leader of the Triumvirate of Half Formed Hope, the Element of Loyalty. By these titles do I request access to this library as was once given, so that I am my compatriots may return home!” For a long time, there was no reply, Rainbow’s face darkening as she spoke again. “Guardian! I am Rainbow Dash, Swooping Pegasus, Succubus of the Lightning Fang, a leader of the Triumvirate of Half Formed Hope, the Element of Loyalty. By these titles I request access to this library as was once given, so that I am my compatriots may return home! I know you can hear me! Respond!” Again a long wait followed her call, Rainbow’s eyes darkening and her teeth grinding against each other before she spoke again. “I know you can hear me, Guardian! I am Rainbow Dash and I demand entrance to your webway portals! Answer…” “We hear you, Rainbow Dash, Succubus of the Lightning Fang, a leader of the Triumvirate of Half Formed Hope, the Element of Loyalty.” The voice was soft, Rainbow whirling around to come face to face with an Eldar Harlequin. She was not the Guardian that Rainbow had seen when she had first walked the halls of the Black Library, and was garbed for war in the esoteric, over the top way of so many of their kind. In one hand was a lithe power sword, while mounted on the wrist of the other was a bulbous pod, one Rainbow recognised as the Harlequins Caress. The Harlequin had appeared directly behind Rainbow, in between her and Gilda, and yet none had seen her arrive until she spoke. Rainbow felt her hair stand on end as she looked over the warrior but continued on undaunted. “And? Will my request be answered?” “Request? Or demand, you gave cry to both, Rainbow Dash,” the Harlequin pointed out. “Request,” Rainbow replied instantly. “I wish to return home. I was allowed once, I wish…” “You have never set foot in the lost Craftworld,” the Harlequin interrupted her. “I have, the last time I was here, garbed in the armour of a Swooping Hawk, I walked the halls and entered the portal home,” Rainbow snarled. “Rainbow Dash did that yes, Rainbow the Swooping Hawk, the Swooping Pegasus. You are not she, Succubus Dash. Entrance is not granted to you.” “I am the same,” Rainbow snarled, taking a step closer. “I am the Swooping Hawk and the Succubus, the light and the dark of the Eldar kind. You will allow me access.” “Or what?” The Harlequin cocked her head to the side, her half-mirrored mask reflecting Rainbow’s own anger back at her without the Eldar needing to change her voice at all. “Will you strike me down as you have done others? Ilithia? Ale’ri? Juhani and Tar’nek, Goge and Spitfire and Lightning? Or the many others beside them?” “I have killed many, I had killed many when I first entered these halls,” Rainbow spat. “Do not tell me that the Eldar of the Lost Craftworld do not kill or strike those who oppose them.” “Never with rage, never for pleasure,” the Eldar spoke softly. “The way is barred, Succubus Dash.” Rainbow saw red at the words, letting out a screech as she dived forward, a pair of knives suddenly in her talons as drugs flooded her system, time slowing to a crawl. As she prepared to strike the Harlequin, she turned her head, looking at Rainbow with an impossible speed, before simply turning to the side, never raising her weapons as Rainbow missed her by a hair breadth. Twisting in mid-air, Rainbow came at the Harlequin again, slashing and stabbing with her knives, each time the Eldar simply weaving around them faster than Rainbow thought were possible. After what felt like an hour, but in truth was a handful of blurred seconds, the Harlequin raised her sword, the casual action catching both of Rainbow’s blades and pulling them from her grasp. Enraged, Rainbow let out another screech, rage filling her voice as she unsheathed Ravenous from her back, the mighty swords power field surging into life as she slashed down at the Harlequin. Again the Eldar raised her sword, but this time the effect was not the same, the two fields clashing, before the great sword over powered her thinner weapon, snapping the blade in two as it continued towards the Harlequins head. Then it stopped, the Harlequins other fist wrapped around the blade like it was nothing, the Harlequins Caress humming as it generated a field more powerful than either of the swords. Rainbow hesitated at the sudden halt of her sword, and that was when the Harlequin struck. Dropping the hilt of her destroyed sword, she punched forward, simultaneously closing her other hand around the sword. There was a flash of light as Ravenous, a sword from the Blood Ravens own Chapter Master, enhanced by Dark Eldar science, exploded, before the Eldar’s punch impacted Rainbow’s chest. Rainbow felt bones break, impossible forces snapping at least two of her strengthened ribs, sending her cartwheeling across the floor. Before she had even come to a halt, the Harlequin had flipped over her, catching her in her hand and effortlessly lifting her from the ground, the Harlequins Caress mere millimetres before her face, deactivated once more, but ready to spring into life in a heartbeat. A tiny movement of her thumb pressed against Rainbow’s windpipe, constricting it and the voice box that lay beyond for just as instant, but rendering Rainbow mute instantly. The whole fight had taken six point three seconds from start to finish, the others looking on with slack jawed awe as Rainbow was defeated with seeming ease. The Harlequin regarded Rainbow for a moment before letting her go, dropping her to the floor and returning to where she had first appeared. “The council of the Lost Craftworld is willing to extend you entrance to our halls once more, on one condition,” she spoke loudly now, the webway seeming to darken at her words. “There is a world, ruled by Exodites in the east of the galaxy. It is soon to be beset by forces of the Great Devourer, a tendril of the same Hive Fleet that once devoured the planet of Hannibal. You will go there, all of you, your fates are tied now, the skeins have foreseen it. That world is not to fall, when it stands secure once more, you shall be permitted to enter our halls, and return home. A portal awaits to take you there.” With that, the Harlequin disappeared. Not teleported away or slipping away in a conventional manner, simply disappearing as if she had never been there in the first place. A split second later a new tunnel in the roiling mass of the webway opened behind the ship, Rainbow rising unsteadily to her hooves, massaging her throat, her voice still robbed of most of its power, coming out in almost unhearable whispers. “On board the ship!” Gilda roared in her stead, reading Rainbow’s attitude in a heartbeat. “We have a world to save before we can go home. Hope you’re all ready for a fight, we all know how Tyranids are.”