//------------------------------// // EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE! // Story: Order and Chaos // by The_Master //------------------------------// Canterlot Mordecai sighed, "You fools, you have no idea with what you are dealing!" The blue one seemed to have dissaproved of this course of action(Well no shit genius), her form tensing as she prepared to do battle. The others didn't seem to share her eagerness. The leader stayed her with her hoof. "Now sister, we must pick our battles carefully. We do not know what he is capable of." He knew he had to escape. Mordecai looked around the tall marble throne room for the door. And there it was! It was right, behind... everyone in the room. Shit. "You filthy xenos will never have me!" he bellowed, and he took off directly at the center of the group. His thick metal boots pounded on the ceramic tile floor as he barreled towared the entrance. The group responded immediatly, the blue pegasus with a rainbow mane to boot shot off at him, headbutting him in the gut. By the gods Mordecai had never seen anything so fast! Regardless that the horse just glanced off the thick ceramite plates surrounding his body, Mordecai felt as if he had just been hit with a bolter shell. He stumbled, but not enough to break his charge. As he was about to crush the group underfoot, the blue one that mystified him so threw up a defensive ward of blue energy. Mordecai collided with the barrier, bringing around a resounding crack that could be heard throughout canterlot. It had sounded as if the very earth had been torn asunder. The smoke from the blast cleared, and Mordecai was still standing. Well, standing would be generous. He had been brought down to a knee, his massive shoulder pauldron had protected him from most of the damage, but no armour in the world would have softened such an impact. Mordecai was stunned for the moment, and a moment could prove fatal. While most would prefer not to admit it, space marines, chaos or otherwise, were still human. Geneticly enhanced, nigh invulnerable super humans, but humans none the less. Despite what the commisiars may tell you, he still could pull a muscle, he could still overexert himself, and evidently, he could still break his shoulder. Mordecai tried to shake off his daze and rise, but as he did so a golden yellow aura surrounded his body, levitating him and rendering him powerless. He whipped his head around, trying to find the source of his incarceration. His eyes fell upon the stark white leader, seemingly generating the field from her horn. "Wha-what did you do!? These are no warp tricks! What sorcery is this!?!" The blue one spoke up, "Mere Telekinesis barbarian," she said, "a simple enough trick to stop a beast such as thee." Mordecai was furious. "Unhand me, allow me to leave this instant!" Threads of pain shot through his arm and torso. "And simply release you upon the hapless citizens of the empire that we had laboured so hard to raise? I think not. You will be imprisoned, untill we can decide your fate and learn more about you and your kind." "You will do no such thing!" "And pardon my confusion, but who may we ask, is going to stop us? The big bad wolf in spikey armor? You don't seem to be going anywhere fast." That smirk proved she was just mocking him now. The white one spoke. Her voice was smooth, yet resonated with centuries of wisdom. The voice of a mother, a leader. If the xeno wasn't female, she would have reminded him of the emperor. "Where would you suggest we keep him? I have a hard time beliveing that our regular cells will hold him." "Do we still have the old manticore cages?" "Indeed we do, perhaps you would like to escort him there?" "I think I shall." and the aura surrounding him changed from a golden yellow to a moderate cobalt blue. Mordecai reached for his bolter, biting his lip at the grinding pain of his shoulder, hoping that a few well placed rounds could free himself. Only to his shock did he find that his bolter was gone! Along with his chainsword and bolt pistol, and a few grenades! "WITCH! WHERE IS MY EQUIPMENT!?" "We took the liberty of consficating it while you were unconscious." Mordecai just crossed his arms and grumbled, wincing at his broken shoulder. No amount of shouting and posturing was going to free him so he might as well conserve his energy. Genocide was going to have to wait. As they descended into the bowels of the castle, the tension between the pair grew. The musky darkness was only broken by the occasional torch lining the walls. His shoulder had reset itself, it would be a few days before he was back to full capacity, but chaos had its regenerative benefits. It was a surprise in itself that the tunnels were capable of accomodating him. Mordecai was allowed to walk now, his heavy boots echoing off the granite floor, making everypony aware of the eerie silence. Finally it was the heretic knight's turn to break the silence. "You never told me your name." The group stopped, the four gaurds and luna staring at him. "If I am to be imprisoned here, I should at least be allowed to know my captors name." ". . . Luna." she said. This took him by surprise. "Liar! You jest with poor gullible Mordecai!" "Tis a lie! We most certainly do not kidd thee!" Mordecai's mind drifted back, long ago. Even before the horus heresy, when his legion was known by a different name... "What would provoke the notion that we would jest about our own name?" Luna asked. "Tis nothing really, just a memory." The gaurds groaned as they sat through this session of old english and trudged on. "It matters not, we have arrived." Luna said. Mordecai looked around the massive chamber, the walls lined with dungeon cells. They were not built to look fancy, just a 12x12 by 8 ft tall hole dug into the wall with a bed, sink, and curtain that which he assumed hid the lavatory facilities. There seemed to be several hundred lining the room. The room itself, was wide enough for someone to do doughnuts in a baneblade on it, and tall enough to accomodate a warhound titan if it crouched. Mordecai was appalled that the whole room was underground. Parts of the room itself, seemed to be occupied my multitudes of different torture devices and cages, one of which had to be the "manticore cage" they referred to earlier. "Big dungeon." he remarked. "Your deductive skills are astounding, mortal." Luna snarked back. He decided to leave out the fact that chaos made him immortal too and he was roughly ten thousand three hundred and seventy two years old, and just get on with the tour. "Here is your cell." Luna said. Mordecai entered the cage and sat on the bed, they evidently had stocked it with the same basic furniture that decorated the other cells before he got here. He looked up at Luna and spoke, "Why do you try so hard to uphold order? All things fall into chaos eventually." "The universe is a two sided coin, while the nature of chaos is to throw the universe into disarray, it is the natural order of all that inhabit it to resist chaos and impose order." "Chaos can never die, the struggles of so many will perish with time." he retorted. While chaos will always be there to conquer all existance with its madness, order acts as an equilizing force, and order will always be there to resist it. Ironicly, it is always the same chaos, the same threats that deem to overthrow us, while those who impose order are always aging, dying, and being replaced by others to bear the heavy cross. Always changing, the force that resists change, And stagnant is the force that seeks to uproot it." Mordecai fell silent. Luna giggled softly to herself. "No matter, we will return tomorrow to check up on you and fate willing, decide your sentence." And with that, Luna left Mordecai alone. there was a lamp next to a small table at the end of the bed, providing him light in the dark dungeon. Mordecai pondered the alicorns words and wondered. "What side am I truly on?"