//------------------------------//
// Names in the Dark 
// Story: Warpony 40k 
// by Luckythebrony 
//------------------------------//


Chapter IV


Names in the Dark


Segmentum Celest Pegusian Gate

Orbit above Pegusa

2345 Imperial Standard


Capital City burned.   A storm of hellfire and Discord corruption covered the buildings and streets. Cries of the innocent ponies of Pegusa could be heard piercing through the air, and throughout the charred streets, as they were butchered or much worse.  Guard pony corpses covered in boils and noxious sores, burned in unconsecrated funeral pyres, as heretic ponies chanted unhallowed blasphemy’s to their Dark Gods.  Twilight walked down the road and looked inside an artillery ravaged building, the brittle ash form of a mother hugging her foals in the ruined home.  Righteous fury welled in her heart. She wanted to know who or what was causing this appalling vision and kill it. No, obliterate it, desecrate it. She looked up and saw the maelstrom of warp energy that covered the sky, filling it with the unholy violet light of the warp. Her gaze traveled back down then out and locked on the corpses of her Sisters, flayed and lazily strewn across the blasphemous effigies to the Dark God.  The lifeblood of their now lifeless bodies seeped out from gaping wounds, anointing profane shrines to Discord.  At least, she thought they were lifeless. That was until the head of Applinia turned to her and stared her with eyeless sockets; the cadaver spoke in a gurgled, broken half-speech, 

‘H-how, Twiilliighht?’  It asked, softly of her.  Twilight stood in horror, blood began to ooze from the corners of her nonexistent eyes, as if she were weeping, ‘H-h-how c-coouuld you let th-thissss h-h-happen?’  Twilight reared back in abhorrence and disbelief,

I did this?  Impossible I would never!!  Her thoughts went as wild as the fires that raged around her.  This is some kind of trick...of the Ruinous powers!!

Ohhh look at you, a voice echoed through the vision. It was masculine, but gentle in its cooing, such an observant pony.  A figure started to emerge from the fire.  At first it seemed like another Librarian in their informal robes. However as the shade approached, Twilight began to notice outstanding differences.  First the body shape, height, and muscle tone suggested it was a stallion.  Second, in place of the chapter emblem, or any other markings of the Imperium, there was an azure reptilian eye, wreathed in unholy flame on his chest, the eight pointed star of Discord in the background.

‘Heretic!’  She cried, and attempted to summon her magik powers.  Her eyes became glowing orbs of the purest silver, and energy began to crackle at the tip of her horn.  The sorcerer stood fast a twisted smile became visible from the shadow of his hood, elongated fangs glistening in the raging fires around them.

‘Now, now,’ he stomped his hoof, and she felt her power and strength fade rapidly, ‘My master needs you alive of course…otherwise, I would have shattered your mind long ago.’  He moved to her comrades’ mutilated corpses and sighed, ‘They don’t have to die you know.’ His hooded head turned to face her. She scowled back into blackness that greeted her,

‘Of course not! You made this hell yourself!’ she made to charge the stallion, but he just smiled and scoffed at the measly gesture of dominance. With another stomp of his hoof, chains covered in gore and blood erupted from the ground and bound her hooves to the spot.

‘Me?!?’  He acted, as if hurt by the statement, further mocking the unicorn, and feeding to her already boiling rage, ‘No, no you misunderstand! I came to put a stop to this future,’ he approached her cautiously, even he did not fully understand the Librarian’s powers, ‘for you see we have a common enemy.’  He circled her tauntingly, like a vulture to carrion, just out of hooves reach. He came close enough to her, that if she could move, she would have ripped his smug satisfaction clean off, and heaved it into the void.  ‘My master, the Lord of Change, and the Master of the Immatirium, Tzeentch, wishes to aid you in your coming struggle against his enemies, The Lord of Skulls and The Grandfather. To you, they are known as Khrone and Nurgle. Under the guise of Discord Undivided, which trust me it is very much so divided, their Champions are the one who seek the destruction of your Imperium through their Black Crusade.  Though I cannot truthfully say that I wouldn’t mind if their campaign was a success, it is not the will of my master, who has other plans for you mortal ponies.’  Twilight had no choice but to listen, as the daemon rambled on. Secretly, she actually took into consideration this deal with the devil, though she kept her emotions masked.  ‘So do we have a deal?’  He smiled and stuck out a hoof, in doing so, the spell of binding which held her in place was released so she could return his gesture.  Instead she just stared at him, then looked down to ground as if hanging her head in defeat.  This only made the sorcerer’s grin widen as he hoped that this powerful magikster would side favorably.  Then she began to laugh and his grin broke into a frown.  It was, at first, a little chuckle. Then it was an outright chortle, as she looked up, her eyes once again full of the silvery power. She possessed her bonds broken, she sent out a shockwave of pristine light which knocked the mage on his side, sliding across the ash-laden ground.  She approached him, with the unbridled power of the Immaterium flowing through her.  He was afraid now. She could sense it and she lowered her head and pointed her horn straight at him. She took in a deep breath as she made to unleash her attack,

‘It is the duty of the faithful to purge the Heretic!!’  Her cry echoed, as she unleashed her magik assault.  The stallion was absorbed by the light and she was blinded before its awesome and terrible beauty.  When it was finished, and the pulsing energies had faded, she opened her eyes and observed that the pony was gone, as was all trace of him, accept a lone scorch mark where he once laid.  Then his laugh filled her mind again,

And soo your choice is made…awww too bad. I was hoping not have to kill you…  The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once.

‘Face me in your mortal form! And we will see who dies!!’  She challenged to the void as the nightmare began to warp and fade. This resounding laughter and an empty blackness was all that remained. 

She shot up in her bed and looked around.  She was in her personal quarters on the Element.  Her sweat soaked her bedding and her tunic.  Her twin hearts where beating rapidly her pulse racing. She tried to calm herself, but her whole body trembled as she breathed deeply.  This was not first vision she had of late, but it was first where she had been addressed by something tangible.  It infuriated and exasperated her, to a point where a flicker of her uncontainable energy caused a glass vessel holding her water to shatter, crashing to her chamber floor.  She walked over to the spot, glass crunching under her hooves. She did not cringe from the pain, her face stayed twisted with anger. A little of her blood began to swirl and meld with the water pooling on the floor.  She decided to make a blood oath,

This will not be my outcome in the galaxy!  She finally thought, I will never be a pawn for the Ruinous Powers! I will end these visions, She slammed her hoof against the floor, causing her blood flow a darker red into the water.  Then I will end the heretics causing them, purging them from all know plains of existence.  Her determination was set now, though her thoughts raced as she cleaned her hooves and bound them with a few strips on linen from her tunic,  

How are they piercing my own defenses?  She thought, Is he truly powerful enough to kill me in my mind?  She rarely doubted her abilities, after her first century passed and she did not the like feeling, although all this could just be because of our proximity to the Eye.  Truthfully, she did not know, but she was apprehensive at the thought. Besides she was going to find out soon enough.