The Dark Ones

by Snake Staff

Progress

My Lord,
Per your orders, we have continued to try gentler means but added a greater sense of urgency to it. Banking on the creature's emotional bond to myself and our species, encouraging it to feel guilty if it fails to aid us with knowledge, seems to be an effective approach to this matter. By playing it thus, we shift the topic away from giving it more knowledge about ourselves and why it continues to be banned from leaving its cell. We will keep this method up until and unless it seems that this approach will do us no more good. Torture will be the last step, if necessary. My latest attempt at communication with the xeno proved more fruitful than the last – I have several insights on the nature of this enemy that may beset our Imperium. Without further ado, the transcript:

Setting: Cell 59XBA. Cell continues to be brightly lit. Xenos is sprawled over the cot. Expression comparable to a bored human.
Kylara: Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle: Kylara? Can I help you?
K: Twilight, I need your help. Now.
TS: Yes?! What is it? [She sat up very quickly at this point, and seemed almost worried in her tone.]
K: Twilight, listen closely.
TS: Yes?!
K: Millions… No, billions of lives could depend on what happens in these next few minutes. [Her eyes widened and her ears flattened when I said this, signs of fear among her kind.]
TS: What can I do?!
K: The enemy you faced…
TS: Them... No… No… No… No No No No No-
K: SNAP OUT OF IT!!!
TS: Yes… You’re right…
K: You need to be strong, Twilight. For all our sakes. For the sake of my people.
TS: Yes… Got to….
K: For me. [I actually took her hoof in my hand when I said this, degrading though it remains.]
TS: Yea… Of course, Ky. What can I do?
K: What you faced… We don’t think that was the end of it.
TS: T-There are more?!
K: I have reason to believe as much, yes. Listen carefully, Twilight: My people have millions of worlds. Billions of humans on each of them. All of them people like me. Like you. [A disgusting but necessary lie.]
TS: Y-Y-Yes?
K: I have reason to believe that the same ones who destroyed your world want to do the same to ours.
TS: NO! … Not again…
K: Yes, again. Now, I want to save these people. Do you?
TS: How can you even ask that?! Of course I do!
K: Then I need you to reach back. Back to when this all started. I need to know everything about what happened. Can you do that?
[She was silent and staring at her hooves for some time before speaking again.]
TS: Yes. Yes, I’ll help you.
K: Good. I’m here for you. Now, please begin.
TS: A-A-Alright…. It s-started with Z-Zecora… She lived in the E-E-Everfree Forest. Where nopony else lived. Where thousands of wild magical c-creatures lived. Where all the weather… ran itself. [She said that as if it were the strangest thing in the universe.]
K: Go on, please.
TS: Right… Right… She only came to town ever s-so often. When she didn’t show u-u-up for a few days, we didn’t think anything weird was happening. She did that from time to time. B-But then a week passed… then two… then three… And nopony had seen hide nor mane of her. Applebloom was really worried… Applebloom… Applebloom…
K: Stay with me.
TS: Yes… Anyway, Applebloom was really worried. She w-went out into the forest by herself. She wanted to see if everything was alright. She came running back… Said that Zecora’s cottage was broken open, but nopony was there. Nothing was taken. The rest of us… Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and I went in to have a look. It was true. We spent hours looking through the Forest… I used all the magic I knew… But we couldn’t find her. I sent a letter. To Princess Celestia, through Spike… Told her what had happened… Had to sleep for the night. The next day… the next day…. the next day…
K: Focus!
TS: The next day… The Apples… It was horrible! Sweet Celestia, it was horrible!
K: Tell me what happened.
TS: They were dead! Skinned! Their pelts were… their pelts w-were in the town square! For everypony to see! Everypony… Granny Smith… Big Mac… Applejack… E-Even little Applebloom. Dead! Skinned! And somepony threw displayed their hides in the town square!
[She entered a prolonged period of hyperventilation at this point, going on for several minutes before I managed to calm her down.]
TS: Mayor Mare called a town meeting… I contacted the Princesses… Celestia, Luna, Cadence… Told them everything that had happened… They were f-f-far away… Diplomatic mission… Said they’d be back immediately…
K: And this meeting?
TS: Mayor Mare said we h-had to do something. We gave them a funeral… Best we could. Then everypony packed themselves in the town hall… Stationed guards outside… My friends and I, w-we searched for who had done this while we waited for the other princesses… Spent all day looking… Most of the night… Came back to the hall… Mayor Mare w-w-was skinned! She was skinned like the Apples! Nopony knew what had happened… She was alone in her office… Contacted the Princesses again…Tried to rally the ponies… Keep some order… Didn’t keep a close enough eye on him… No No No No NO NO NO N-
K: SILENCE! [I should mention at this point she was openly weeping as she spoke.]
TS: SPIKE VANISHED! THEY TOOK HIM!!! THEY’LL TAKE ME!! THEY’LL TAKE US ALL!!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
[She continued on with repeating that word for a full hour. I gave up trying to get her out of it about fifteen minutes in and simply allowed her to tire herself out.]

Lord Rovoni, though this evidently caused no small amount of mental stress to the xeno, this account tells us many valuable things about the enemy and their capabilities. The attackers obviously had done some reconnaissance prior to their opening gambit, understanding as they did the xenos psychology. It further seems to confirm my earlier analysis that they prefer stealth and terror attacks. The initial attacks served the purpose of demoralizing the enemy, as well as removing one of the potential obstacles in the form of one of the bearers of these Elements of Harmony. Notice how they then forced their targets to gather together for protection, then demoralized them still further by slipping through their security to graphically execute the local leadership within the very walls where they thought themselves safe. If war comes, we must alert our fortress commanders to always have bodyguards on hand and ready to fight.
Next, our mysterious invaders presumably acted to cut off communications, removing this “Spike” from the field and nullifying the link he provided to the distant rulers. Imperial communications should be ready for a repeat of such decapitation and isolation strategies in the event of war. Our astropaths, the precious psychic links that tie our worlds together, must be carefully guarded on any worlds that may be beset by this foe in the future. Their ability to observe and rapidly respond to xenos activity indicates they have some method for spying on their enemies. Granted, this could be simple benefit of high technology against primitive alien scum showing its hand. On the other hand, underestimating an opponent's capabilities is foolish, and countermeasures must be considered.
Though we do not at present have the exact specifications of the security measures the xenos took, it seems reasonably probable that the attackers had some means of either obscuring themselves from vision altogether or else a method of teleportation. The “Warp Spiders” of the Eldar have been known to possess the ability to enter and exit the Warp at short range to teleport. It is true that these beings are more associated with the Craftworld Eldar than with the outright piratical brand, but who are we to say that the technology is not shared between the various branches of that xenos filth? The Eldar are ever fickle, untrustworthy, and unpredictable, and the Emperor's servants must be diligent.
While the stealth and terror elements of this attack certainly fit with the modis apparendi of the Night Lords Traitor Legion, they tend to spurn the sorcery that would make such precise teleportation as demonstrated possible. And it seems doubtful that they would be able to slip past the xenos defenses totally unseen to kill one target and abduct another without massacring others along their way. Wanton butchery, not subtlety was ever the method of the VIII Legion, even in the days before the Great Heresy. And why they would choose to do so in any case is vague, though minds clouded by the Dark Gods cannot be called rational. Another factor worth considering is that the xenos buildings were not built for Astartes-scale beings, which would make such a stealthy approach even more difficult.
My earlier theories of daemonic incursion now seem less and less likely in my own mind. While certain daemons have been known to exhibit comparable behaviors, particularly on hive worlds or starships, they do not do so in number sufficient to overwhelm a world. Particularly not a world as filled with psychics as Equis III seems to have been. If daemons overran the planet, there should have been a far more active offensive on all areas of it over the course of hours. Simply put, this does not match the profile we have of Chaotic incursion, though as always the irrational and unpredictable nature of the enemy remains a formidable puzzle to wrestle with.
Finally, the possibility of some as of yet undiscovered enemy being the cause of these attacks must be considered. If this is the case, then we must know more about them. I hope to interrogate the xenos creature on what happened next tomorrow. I will send you anything more I learn, as always.