"This is bad." Arven said as he met with Gabriel. "I am afraid everything that damn witch has told us is all too true. Abaddon WILL flee cadia in one year with his forces and make war upon holy Terra itself."
"Then we must do our duty." Angelos replied. "One year from now, Abaddon will not only invade Terra, but Equestria itself. Macha had told me the Emperor himself values the life of every last pony."
"It seems his compassion is not limited to just mankind." Arven said. "But I was told that we would have to remain here and defend this planet. For it even Terra falls, all is still not lost."
"Aye, everyone must contribute. If only the Emperor would tell me his plan so I may carry it out."
"In time he will." Arven replied. "Though..... I am still unsure if whether or not we should kill Discord."
"If Twilight believes he has been reformed, then so be it." Angelos said. "He may be a jokester at heart, but I never appreciated anyone of his "jokes"."
"But to give him credit, he did retrieve the elements." Arven replied.
"Perhaps. But one year from now, he will be defined, and we will see what kind of man really is under that flesh."
"Hm...... the tree of harmony?" Solomon asked. "Now let's see here......."
"There's more by the way. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna gave us essentially a field manual on this." Spike said coughing up more letters.
"Got it." Solomon said. "Spike, may I have a question?"
"Sure!"
"Do you have any idea how that..... that thing you do works?"
"As in....."
"I'll just call it.... "a method of delivery"." Solomon said. "I seen you breath puffs of fire at letters and that sends them to the receiver?"
"Yeah! I can do it with anyone actually! Of course, there are limits. It's a spell Princess Celestia put on me so that I can send notes to her at any time I want!"
"I see....... I am interested in this.... do you think you have an idea on how it works?"
"Oh heaven no. But Twilight would!"
"Very well then, I have to get back on finishing my reading on these notes. Thanks for helping sort it out by the way."
"No problem!"
"So.... one year from now, a few hundred thousand scary guys are going to come out of nowhere and invade Equestria?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yep." Thaddeus replied shaking his head. "At first, I wanted to punch that witch in the mouth for making those "lies" until we received a message from one of the primarchs that everything she had said was true."
"Yikes..... So tell me more about Abaddon...."
"If you see him, it's probably too late to run." Thaddeus said. "His power is unimaginable. Only the Emperor may best him in combat."
"So what exactly are we going to do? A few hundred thousand chaos guys are coming to Equestria and..."
"I don't know." Thaddeus said. His own words filling him with dread.
"Cyrus. Our chapter will need more men." Thule said to captain of the tenth company.
"Understood. I will work my fastest to get able-bodied battle brothers out."
"Yes. Understand we only have one year to prepare. Luckily, Equestria isn't without it's challenges here and there so we don't need to waste time on finding a good place."
"Yes. I will have my sergeants take the initiates to places like Changeling hive or deep in the Everfree. We will find much hunting that can be done."
"Good. We got one year to do this. Every new initiate must be battle ready by then. The chapter, the imperium and perhaps the galaxy will be counting on us."
"To death then?"
"To death." Thule said grinning. "We'll make it out. I am sure of it."
"I agree. The Emperor protects...."
"Let none find us wanting."
"So where are going to test this?" Diomedes asked looking at the chainsword tipped with the shards of harmony.
"No clue." Martellus said. "We're just going to have to hope it works...... the worst case scenario is I wasted a few tons worth of the stuff."
"Hey, not like we lost much." Diomedes said. "When your average pony is both unaffected and interested in the things used by the vile forces of chaos, then it's easy to get materials at no loss."
"Sure. I am going back to work."
The Emperor moved his eyes around in his skull of a head and had in a long time, an actual look of his body. Broken, shattered.
He had one good hand, that was sorta-alive looking which he could move to a degree, another bony one that had no flesh. He had no feet, hardly any functioning organs say for his brain and the ones repaired by Luna and Celestia. He hoped they'd finish his throat so he may speak again without the usage of his mind.
The two sisters toiled on. Celestia working in the day, Luna at night. He watched as of now as Celestia stood blasting through her horn a wave of light that sent waves of ease through his body, and kept the pain at bay. They had recently took shifts upon finding out that when they weren't repairing his body, he was in pain. Severe pain that was unspeakable and incomprehensible to even gods.
The Emperor sat back and listened.
Listened to as Guilliman argued with the high lords of Terra with his new plans.
Listened to as Russ celebrated with his chapter.
Listened to Dorn making plans to reunite his legion.
Listened as Jonson spoke with a certain man who wished to make amends. That certain man had teleported his way in, days ago, repairing the lion's blade and surrendering it to it's rightful owner.
He listened as all the others planned the defense of Terra, the defense of Equestria and the final purging of chaos. He listened to the joyful crowds who listened to the news of his potential return. And he listened to the whispers of how Malcador was either a hero or a traitor.
He listened to Titan, the Grey Knights were celebrating the return of their chapter master AND the return of Malcador,
Interesting really. Malcador was either a hero who even after dying TWICE and having to remake himself into two peices the second time, returned to the Imperium to faithfully rebuild it or he was either a treasonous coward who sacrificed his humanity to save his own soul. (Extra-zealous inquisitors and the sisterhood went here.)
The Emperor didn't mind at all that Malcador was in two. He loved him (or in this case, "they") unconditionally. For after all that had happened, he still came back ready to do what needed to be done.
He wondered how good Celestia and Luna could help manage the Imperium once this was all done. He was still in need of a regent...........................