Authors note: a double crossover I did with my AiE friend Sorcerer's 40k story for his birthday, Eris and Justy are his
The two of you step through the portal, crossing back into a physical plane after traversing the infinite nexus of reality.
You promptly fall to one knee and almost vomit.
"You really can't handle these portals, can you?" Anon asks.
"Screw you, *hrrk* Mister Mage Man."
Anon shakes his head and laughs before he helps you up.
The two of you look around the new landscape you found yourselves in. Well...perhaps "landscape" wasn't the best term.
There was charred and blasted land in all directions, small hills dotted the area with tall broken mountains off in the distance. The skies were a cacophony of rolling clouds and bursts of lightning that occasionally struck the ground somewhere far away. Bones stuck out of the ground at seemingly random intervals, and broken and batter weapons litter the abyss before you.
There was little doubt at where you were.
"Oh hell."
"Pretty much."
The two of you walked in a direction you had decided was South in search of anything interesting. Some would call you mad, but they had never spent an eternity of boredom in a city before. Watching fucking crabs battle would be acceptable right now.
Some of the other universes you had visited had been interesting enough, for the time you had stayed. But they had yet to scratch that itch you and Anon had left Equestria for.
The two of you walked up to the shore of what looked like a black river. Inside you could see thousands upon thousands of faces screaming in silent agony. The entire area had a low wail filling it.
Anon bent down and dipped a finger into the "water"
The water tried to stick to him as pulled his hand out. "Styx, it seems."
"Domo arigat-"
Anon holds up a single finger. "No, we're not doing that."
Spoil sport.
The two of your snap your attention over a nearby hill as four loud bangs echo over it.
"I hear voices over there." you say.
"Natives?"
"No clue..."
More sounds come over the hill. More bangs, the sound of steal clashing followed by a series of screams, and the unmistakable sound of transmutation magic.
"I think that's all of them, I'll go look around!" A voice calls.
You and Anon tense up and drop to your knees, trying to stay hidden. Your hand glides to David in preparation to pounce on whatever comes over that hill.
What does, however, is something you never expected to see again.
"She" by the looks of her hair, floated over the land, her eyes scanning back and forth.
A Draconeq-!
A Draconiqw-!
A Discord!
Her eyes grew wide as she twisted her head and caught sight of the two of you.
"Justy! Two more over here!" she shouts as she flew towards you.
Anon swore and tossed a crystal at the Girl-Discord...Which she promptly teleported back in front of the two of you, causing the spell inside to escape.
The two of you leapt out of the magical fire and ran at your attacker. She looked surprised that you were both unscathed. "And they seem tough!" she shouts.
You were about to join Anon in trying to swat the annoying pest when you felt the ground shake beneath you.
What you saw next was something you never expected to see alive.
He towered over every human you had ever known. The grey armor he was clad head to toe in gleamed in the non-present sun. He hefted a black great sword with glowing runes over his head. And he was headed straight for Anon.
A GREY!? HERE!?
NO TIME TO THINK!
He was almost on top of Anon when you jumped in between the two and threw out your hand to try to get him to stop.
"Praise The Emperor and strike down His foes!" you shout.
The walking tank plants his feet into the ground and skids to a stop mere inches away from you. All the commotion gets Anon and Girl-Discord to stop tossing spells at each other.
The Knight looks down at you. "One of His faithful?...Here?"
Your hand falls as he lowers his sword.
You see Anon's face contort into shock as he recognizes one of the little figures that dotted your old room now looming over him.
The Mini-Discord flies around the Knight and latches onto his shoulder."Hello, Justy? These guys were trying to kill me ten seconds ago?"
"Justy" turns to look at his companion before he casts his gaze back to the two of you. "Why were you trying to harm Eris?"
You glance back to Anon.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry. Misunderstanding." he says.
Eris eyes the two of you pensively. "How come you two weren't hurt by my magic?"
Justy snaps his head back to Eris and grips his sword harder. "Immune to sorcery?"
You didn't like the sound of that voice.
"Relax, We've been immune to magic for years."
He glares down at the two of you, his eye slits glowing mildly.
You take this time to glance over his armor, the only thing catching your eye being a white tabard.
His grip on his sword tightens.
"Easy, boy. We're all friends here."
He tilts his head at your brash choice of words.
"Who are the two of you?" he asks.
You slowly relax from the tense stance you were in and lower the arm you had across Anon. "He's Anon and I'm Mous."
Eris flashes a shit eating grin. "Catchy."
"Why are you here?" The Justicar asks.
Anon steps forward. "We're...travelers. Our portal sent us here from the last place we were at."
Eris and the Justicar exchange a glance. "Yeah? We got pulled here from a portal of our own and dumped a few miles back." Eris says as she jerked an eagle talon thumb behind her.
The four of you are silent as the similarities of your situations begin to surface.
"I think it's time to compare notes."
After a few minutes of putting your heads together, you learned that Eris and the Justicar were in a less voluntary version of what the two of you were doing, jumping around alternate universes. You could feel for them, escaping one Tartarus only to be tossed into another.
Apparently they had been pulled out of their most recent Equestria and hit some sort of magical interference, stranding the two of them here.
And you two as well. Whatever this was interfered with any kind of portal or Waygate magics.
After you all shared your back stories, Eris pointed off in the distance. "Whatever is stranding us here is big, really big, and it's off in that direction."
"You know that?" you ask.
Eris narrows her eyes at your doubt. "I can feel it."
The two of you glare at each other until the Justicar cuts between the two of you and begins walking in the direction Eris was pointed.
"Eris can be trusted, Logician. She has never steered me wrong before." he says.
Hmph. Guess you're back to "Logician" now.
Eris slithers through the sky after her friend as Anon walks up next to you. "Something wrong?" he asks.
You continue to watch Eris from a distance. "Eris says she's the daughter of Discord. That means I don't trust her as far as I can throw her."
"But you trust that Justicar guy?"
You scowl. "Unlike her, lying isn't in his nature."
"What is?" Anon asks.
You shrug. "Decapitating Demons and Sorcerers."
Anon groans as he begins to walk after Eris and the Justicar. "Oh, great..."
-Anon PoV-
You were walking with your new associates through Tartarus, trying to fix whatever was keeping you here.
Well, you were sort of walking together.
Mous and that Justicar were a few feet ahead, with you and Eris bringing up the rear. You were still getting over the fact that one of Mous's tiny little figurines had seemed to come to life and was planning to kill you a while ago.
Eris was float-pouting next to you as you made you all hiked along.
"Is...something wrong?" you ask.
Her eyes shoot down to look at you. "Your friend up there is a prick."
Heh.
"Yeah, he's always kinda been like that."
"And now he's up their chatting up MY friend, probably trying to get him to try and kill me again." she says.
You glance up to her. "Think he has a chance?"
Eris meets your gaze and smiles. "Nah, not Justy. Me and him are tight."
You let out a throaty chuckle, seems like these two were bros of their own.
"Why does he have such a stick up his ass over me?" she asks.
You said you were Discord's daughter?"
Eris nods.
"Mous...got Discord killed back where we came from."
Despite her general attitude, you see Eris's face fall just a little bit. "What? How?"
"There was this cult that wanted to bring back Discord, Mous joined up and screwed up their plans right when He was gonna get summoned. Apparently that trapped him in our Tartarus where he got killed by the other big players in it." you say as you rub the back of your head.
Eris' face hardens. "Tch. Next you'll be telling me that he killed The Dogfather, too."
"No, that was me."
Eris did a double take at you. "Really?"
"Well, more imprisoned then killed..."
"How'd you manage that?"
"I punched him a lot."
Eris grows a smarmy grin. "I like you new guy. What did you say your name was?"
"Anon."
Eris extends a lions paw. "Pleasure to meat you, Anny."
You smirk as you shake her hand. "So I'm Anny now, huh?"
"Anny and Eris!" she flexes her arms. "Mages extraordinaire."
You roll your eyes and keep walking. She was more like Mous then either of them realized.
-Mous PoV-
You marched silently next to the Justicar. It was...a little awe inspiring. Being next to a figure that you had known for years and thought fictional. And now you were off to go probably fight something with him.
That still left questions, however...
"Justicar, may I ask a question?"
"You may." he says from under his helmet.
You look over your shoulder, Eris and Anon were laughing about something a ways behind the two of you.
"How did you...get mixed up with her?
No words escape the Justicar as the two of you continue to walk, his face underneath his helmet a hiding his thoughts.
"Eris assisted me in escaping from the Tartarus I was sent to, she is my...friend. She was a great help when we fought The Dogfather, and the only reason I was able to defeat Tirek." he says.
Now that's something you didn't expect to hear...
Justicar turns his head to you. "Why is it that you do not trust Eris?"
You face your eyes forward. "If Eris is actually related to Discord, then her father was planning to invade my home and turn it into something...bad."
You imagine all the ways Eris could screw you over.
"I just have trouble seeing the proverbial apple falling far from the tree."
Justicar turns his head to you. "Eris has proven herself trustworthy, Logician. I have never had a truer companion."
You slip your hands into your pockets. "I suppose I should trust the word of a Grey Knight."
"How is it that you know of me? Ever since I arrived on the horse-xeno world I have found none who knew of the Imperium." he asked, more curiosity in his voice this time.
"Oh, um, I belong to a chapter."
That got his attention. "Which?"
Fuck.
"Uh...the Angry one?"
Justicar stares forward for a moment lost in thought before slowly bringing a hand over his face.
The four of you come to the mouth of a wide chasm, an unnatural purple glow softly resonating from deep inside.
"Well, that looks promising." Anon says.
Eris flits between the three of you and points into the chasm. "Whatever is keeping us here, it's down there."
A chilling laugh echoes through the chasm. "Ah...those dulcet tones can only belong to one being..."
Eris reared back. "Grogar..."
"What's a Grogar?" you ask.
"He's a ram necromancer, really bad dude. He got sent to Tartarus way back when for trying to raise an army against Princess Platinum." she says.
She sounds worried.
"Little Eris...now so wise in the workings of Tartarus and its occupants. Tell me, how are you here? Word spread that you died with the rest of your misbegotten family ages ago..." the voice says.
Eris remains stone-faced in her contempt for the voice assaulting you all.
"Nothing to say? You should know that I can see you now...such interesting companions you have brought..."
Shit, he could see you?
You start glancing around until you see a small black bird at the edge of one of the chasm walls.
"Up high! Left side!"
Justicar raises his gun arm in an instant and releases a single shot at the bird, sending a steady rain of feathers down over your group.
"Oh...you shouldn't have done that..." Grogar mocks.
The ground beneath you starts to rumble, forcing the three land bound of you to take a knee while Eris danced her way through falling rocks. The lands of Tartarus are ones of almost constant violence and bloodshed, millions upon millions of warriors were consumed under its soil.
The first hoof of a buried ram burst through the ground, it's fur mottled and broken in places. Behind it rose the limbs and bodies of hundreds more, of dozens of different races. The dead continued to rise and block your passage into the chasm.
"Now I must utilize more eyes then you can kill to keep my sights on you..." Grogar hisses.
As the last rose from its grave, they turned to look at you will hollow eyes and slack jaws.
"But perhaps I should simply dispose of you instead."
-Music-
Well, this sucks. Bunch of zombies blocking your way out.
"Uh, anyone got any ideas here?" Eris asks.
Justicar readied his great sword as you and Anon reached for your own weapons and spells.
"Guess, snake eyes."
Eris floats back to your group. "Fight an army of zombies and then go try and hit the biggest magician in Tartarus?"
"We have dealt with worse, Eris." Justicar says.
Anon digs some crystals out of his pouch. "Yeah, what happened to "Eris the Grand Wizard?" back there?"
"Can you serve as the point of our spear, Justicar?"
He drops down into a fighting stance. "None shall stop us."
"Alright, stay close and don't let 'em get behind you." you say to Eris and Anon.
You bring David to bear and crouch down low. "And be careful."
Alright...you could do this.
"Whenever you're ready, Justicar."
With a twitch, Justicar explodes towards the undead horde. You follow a moment afterwards, spells arcing overtop of you as you joined the fray.
Zombies couldn't hold a candle to real fighters, you found out. They were slow, stupid, and easy to push over.
Even the Changelings had put up more of a fight then this.
You watched as Justicar swept his blade in wide arcs, bisecting zombies and forcing those in front of him back further. "Come feel the bite of my sword!" he shouts.
Anon was slowly advancing behind you, tossing crystal spells at startling speed into the horde. Zombies ran from one barrage, only to be caught in another as it fell.
Eris, true to her pedigree, was teleporting around the enemy ranks and either transforming improvised weapons into snakes or sending their wielders hundreds of feet into the air to come crashing down to the ground.
All in all, a good fight.
You bobbed and weaved through zombie swipes as you brought David across the muscles in their legs. They weren't going to get far without those.
You looked down the chasm and saw that the light at the end of it was closer than before.
"Keep it up! We almost have them!"
Here's hoping Grogar isn't thirty feet tall...
You throw the zombie against the wall and drove David into its neck, a hand on its chin keeping the pressure steady. You saw David halfway through the neck until you were able to get enough leverage to simply rip the decomposing head off.
"Making the world a better place, one zombie at a time!" you shout as you toss the head behind you.
You run up to the others as they finished off their own assailants.
"Everyone in one piece?" Anon asks.
You all nodded the affirmative.
The soft purple light was more intense now, spilling out from a cave at the rear of the chasm.
"Why do the bad guys always hide in creepy caves?" Eris asks.
"Because not even Tartarians want to look at their hideous asses." you say.
Justicar starts towards the cave opening. "Let's go, everyone."
There were no guards inside the cave, making sure you made good time. As you descended into the cave, you saw the purple glow intensify. At the rear of the cave, above the purple glow, stood a figure.
He came up to your chin on his own, with his horns shooting high above you. Around his neck hung a band of golden disks, red velvet connecting them together. He turned his decrepit head to face you with his glowing red eyes. "Ah...my guests have arrived. Please do come in."
The four of you ready yourselves.
"Bringing violence into my home? Such rude manners..."
"Take down whatever is keeping us here and we'll leave."
Justicar shuffles his stance. "We cannot allow such an abomination to live."
Grogar laughs. "It seems that there some...Discord in your little group."
Dammit Justicar, you were lying.
"What's with the light show?" Anon asks.
Grogar turns his head back away from you. "The Well of Souls...The dumping ground for all the damned that Tartarus proper has no room for."
He continues to rant. "Originally constructed as a means to keep Tartarus from overflowing, it will now be the centerpiece in my plan for escape...once I gain its power, of course."
Humph.
"Forget caves, why does every bad guy want to eat the dangerously old power source?" you say.
Grogar ignores you. "Now I can't just have you four ruining my plans...something will have to be done."
His horns glow and cause the cave to shake.
Out of a side passage come two more zombies, you had wondered why you didn't see any Minotaur's outside and now you knew.
Grogar turned to face you with his minions. "Surrender and I will grant you an eternity in my service."
Not bloody likely...
Need a plan.
You turn to Anon. "Got anything that can pop that glowing zit of his?" you whisper.
Anon nods. "If I can get close enough,
"Justicar, think we can hold off those guards?"
He nods.
That just left the Grogar...
"I've got Horn-head." Eris says.
Justicar turns his head to his friend. "Are you certain you can take him?"
Eris smiles even as sweat beads begin to dot her brow. "Come on Justy, who do you take me for?"
"If you four are done romanticizing..." Grogar jeers.
His guards begin to trudge towards you as his horns glow. "We can begin..."
Eris rocketed up into the air to intercept the spell Grogar was casting at you as Justicar began grappling with his guard.
You and Anon rush the other, it shrugging off a crystal spell that Anon threw.
The ex-minotaur raises its club high over its head and brought it down with a crash that echoes through all of Tartarus.
The smoke clear to reveal the club partially embedded in the ground.
Oh you have always wanted to do this.
You run up the club and onto the length of the minotaur's arm. You bury David into its shoulder as you swing around and grab a hold of the fur on its back. The minotaur releases its club and scrambles as it tries to pry you off of it.
"Hang on!" Anon shouts.
"The hell do you think I'm doing!?"
Anon throws several crystals at the guards midsection, sending it reeling back from the resulting explosion of force.
You almost fall off as the guard loses its balance and teeters over the edge of the Well.
You pry David out of its shoulder and quickly jam it into its eye, hoping over its good shoulder and kicking off its head as you jumped off it and landed on the floor.
Anon sends another blast of force at the raging zombie and gives it the final push to send it screaming into the Well behind it.
The sounds of battle draw your attention to the other side of the Well. Justicar was dancing around his opponent, dodging blows from its twin axes. With a twist of his arm and a flick of his shoulder, his sword cleaves through the arm of the guard, sending it flying off into the corner.
This sends the minotaur into a frenzy, causing him to swing his remaining axe with wild abandon and pushing Justicar back.
Anon tossed a single crystal at the minotaur, blinding it in the light of the sun. Justicar capitalized on his distracted opponent and drove his sword through its midsection, firing rounds from his gun arm into its face for good measure.
He yanked his sword out as the two of you ran up to him. "Thank you." he says.
A shrill shriek echoed through the cave.
Eris had been holding her own against Grogar and keeping him away from the three of you for as long as she could.
Now, Grogar's spell was bearing down on her. "Anytime you guys want to help is fine!" she shouts.
Justicar rockets past the two of you again to try and help his friend.
He raises his sword high over Grogar...only for it to be stopped a magical aura.
Justicar did not falter, however. Not with Eris in danger. Both his hands gripped his sword as the runes on it glowed brighter then the sun as he tried to bury it into Grogar's neck.
"Anon, get that spell ready!" you shout.
You ran up to the necromancer and grabbed him by the horns, your magically immune hands tearing through his aura like wet paper.
Grogar's blood red eyes went wide as you twisted his horns and tossed him stumbling further into the cave.
Justicar rushes over to Eris as she falls to the cave floor and Grogar starts ranting again.
"Insolent whelps! I am the terror of the old world! I will rip your flesh from your bones and transform all of you into my persona-*gak*!" Grogar chokes on his words as your fist connects with his jaw.
"You talk too damn much."
Metallic stomping sounds from behind alert you to Justicar's mood. You step out of his way as he silently walks up and kicks a still dazed Grogar into the wall.
As Grogar lands in a heap, Justicar stomps up and slams his sword straight through the necromancer.
You flinch as he does.
Eris floats up and wraps herself around Justicar's shoulder. "Not so tough now, are you horn-head?"
Grogar weakly lifts his head and smiles at the pair. "That which is dead may never die, worm. Like the tides, I will return to swallow you all whole..." he spits.
"Is that so?" Anon asks as he walked up behind all of you.
Anon jerks his head over to the Well. "Justicar, would you mind hoisting our friend over the Well for me?"
Justicar nods and silently walks over to the still swirling Well, hoisting an impaled Grogar over its magical surface. "What will this do?" he asks.
Anon fiddles with a crystal in his hand. "Punish the guilty." he says as he tossed the crystal into the Well.
The crystal shatters, releasing the spell inside against the Well's own magics. The magic swirled around the surface for a moment before sinking below it.
Silence settled into the cave Before sll at once, the Well of Souls exploded.
The souls that were kept inside of the Well began to rocket out, igniting Grogar in their wake. Moans of the damned echoed through the cave as their torment in the well was ended, but another noise soon overtook them.
Grogar screaming.
As the last soul escaped from the Well, you saw their handiwork firsthand.
Grogar was a husk now, most of his flesh had been seared off by the energy escaping, leaving only bones and a bit of fur in its wake.
"Toasty." you say.
Justicar whips his sword to the side and flings Grogar's corpse into the wall.
Eris's face perks up. "Justy, that interference is gone. I can feel the portal magic building up for another pull, too."
"Guess this is goodbye." Anon says with a small smile.
Eris rushes forward to hug him around his neck. "Thanks for the help, Anny!"
She glances your way. "You too, grumpy."
Eris and Justicar started to glow a bit.
You turned to Justicar. "May the Emperor forever light your path."
He nods. "And you, brother marine."
You smile at his words as the both of them vanish in a flash of light.
Anon digs into his pouch and produces another crystal. "Ready to get going ourselves, dude?"
"Someplace without necromancers, if you please, Ensign."
Anon rolls his eyes and opens the portal, walking through it with you soon behind him.