//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Ahriman's Answer // by SuperSaiyanDiclonius //------------------------------// Ahriman cursed his luck. The Word of Hermes had needed a full month to be repaired, and he had to barter with another warband to get those repairs enacted. He knew. He did everything to keep from collecting suspicion, but he knew. He knew that they knew. There is only one reason a warband as wounded as his would not join forces until their strength returned. They had a prize at hand, and still had the strength to seize it. Damn Eldar, they crippled us for exactly this reason. Ahriman grit his teeth in frustration. He wouldn't have long to claim his prize before he would have to defend it, and he didn't even know what he was looking for. He returned to the ancient book. It spoke of an eye within an eye. An anathema to the galaxy itself. And of all things, equines! The book made countless equine references that Ahriman could only attribute to this new Warp Entity's Avatar... perhaps it could be tamed as one then. The vox emitter in his chambers crackled to life. "The repairs are complete my lord, we are ready to disembark." Came the voice of Ignis. Ahriman reapplied his gauntlet and helmet as he made his way to the Navigator's chambers. "Get us under way Ignis. Our host will not be far behind." Warsmith Aries watched the sons of Magnus vanish into the Warp before turning to address his lieutenants. "Prepare the fleet. The Severed Heads are going to war." The Eye of Terror was far more approachable now that Cadia floated around it as an asteroid field, and surprisingly few of the lingering Warpspawn hazarded their ships as they flew through. The Word of Hermes sailed through the Warp, carefully following the book's guidence. "Are you sure about this?" Ignis asked, nervousness plain in his voice despite his transhuman disposition. "This twenty thousand year old prophecy may be a twenty thousand year old trap to destroy you." "The time for doubt has passed Ignis. If you wished to leave me to my fate, you should've joined the Severed Heads. You're still welcome to take an escape pod if you wish...but your death will be certain." Ahriman stated, gesturing towards the not-space outside. Ignis said nothing further as the ship drifted into place. "Engage." Commanded Ahriman. A Warp Jump within the Eye of Terror was exceptionally rare to the point of being unheard of even to Ahriman. Yet, these were the instructions laid out...and they were not the instructions that put Ignis on edge. "Disengage." Commanded Ahriman. And as he commanded, the Gellar Field, the force field that kept the Daemon's of the Warp from invading a ship in the midst of a Warp jump, was taken offline. "Interesting. I never knew such a thing was possible." Warsmith Aries mused as he watched the footage from his probe. "These sorcerers are always coming up with new tricks." Snarled one of Aries' lieutenants as he flexed his clawed fingers. Causing lightning to shoot from the two foot blades as his jump pack snorted in anticipation. "Calm yourself Zarax, your Raptors will have their blood. Bring us into the same position and prepare a Warp Jump. Ahriman knew something would be different, but he hadn't expected it to be bloodless. The Fel energies of the Warp trickled into the ship at a snail's pace. The human serfs and crewman had barely any side effects. Those that did fell into fits of laughter or were startled by something far less frightening than was common in the Realm of Nightmares. For Ahriman himself, he felt something...probing. Yes, something was probing his mind. "Get me a visual! What is out there!?" Ahriman shouted. His confusion serving well to mask his almost mortal-like excitement. The shields meant to obscure the view of the Warp was removed from the windows of the ship. In place of the violent miasma of color and nightmare inducing creatures, Ahriman found something utterly ridiculous, cheese sandwiches chasing a flying pig with the coordination of a wolfpack. But as they passed out of his field of view, he saw something else. Within the Dark purple field of childish delusions was a planet, a planet shielded from this 'Lesser Warp' by a rainbow colored forcefield. And upon its surface, Ahriman realized he was facing the continent mentioned in the book. "This is it... the Realm of equines... Equestria." 5 years have passed since the trio of villains known to the tabloids as the Legion of Doom were defeated and turned to stone. In that time, the Royal Sisters who had ruled Equestria for a thousand years had retired and bestowed leadership of their peaceful lands to the eldest sister's protoge, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Twilight had proven as exceptional a leader as her teacher had expected, but the strain of ruling a country had chased the Alicorn to stay up just a little bit later to chase some of her old passions. While most of these precious few hours were spent reading, tonight's guilty pleasure was stargazing. Twilight smiled to herself as she traced her favorite constellations. "...ilight, hey Twilight!" Came the familiar voice of Twilight's adopted younger brother. "I'm out here Spike!" The young Dragon emerged. It was still wierd that Twilight could look him in the eye without lowering her head now. Spike was now as tall as a grown stallion with an ever expanding chest, and was strong enough to hoof wrestle Applejack competitively. Yet, he was still as gentle a soul as he had ever been...if a little overprotective. The Dragon groaned as he realized what his sister was doing. "Seriously Twilight, you could barely keep your eyes open during the last meeting. You need your rest." Twilight rolled her eyes without turning from her telescope. "That had nothing to do it. Even though he's made leaps and bounds since we first met, Chancellor Neighsay is still insisting we need to exclude certain creatures from certain activities. I mean, half of his argument was all the hazards of Kirins turning into Niriks without mentioning any of the ways we can prevent them from turning in the first place. I get that his heart is in the right place, but he's more skittish than Fluttershy was when we first met her. He's just afraid of everything without reason." Spike sighed. "Yeah, fair enough. Heh, maybe we should send him to Ponyville to learn about friendship, it did wonders for you." "You're not wrong, bu-" Twilight lost her train of thought. The Ursa Major constellation was missing a star! "Huh!? What the hay!?" "Woah! Been awhile since you've said that, what's wrong?" Spike inquired. "Either I'm going crazy, or an entire star just disappeared!" Twilight exclaimed as she began adjusting her telescope. "Huh, that can't be right. You sure there's not a bug on your scope?" Spike asked while coming to inspect the lense. Twilight smacked his talons away. "Knock it off, nothing's on the lens. Wait a sec, there's somethi-" Twilight stopped dead. She stared through the telescope, and stared at the night sky with her naked eyes to try and understand what she was looking at before returning to the telescope. Spike sensed the tone shift. "Twilight, is something wrong?" "... it's... it's a..." Twilight tried and failed to explain the impossible sight. She had adjusted her telescope to try and find the missing star, only to realize something was in front of it! Two massive spacecraft beyond anything the Young ruler had ever imagined surrounded by a few smaller vessels that were still larger than Ponyville. Before Twilight could believe her eyes, bright flashes emanated from the larger of the two vessels and something shot forth from the flashes... towards the planet. Twilight brought her eyes from the scope again, this time seeing the small meteorites as they rocketed through the night sky. "What the!? What are those!?" Spike shouted as he saw the meteorites shoot over their heads and beyond the city of Canterlot in the direction of the Everfree Forest.