Iron Hearts: Book 5
Chapter 12
Last Stand
****
Canterlot City - city shelter access
"Dere she iz, boyz! Crakk 'er open!"
Orks raced through the streets in a green flood, shouldering heavy weapons and explosives while assault walkers lumbered along behind them.
Their target was a huge vault door set in the mountainside, made of solid durasteel and bristling with heavy stubbers. These defensive emplacements spat constant streams of fire over the advancing aliens, although they mostly just served to slow the advancing horde down.
Opposite the shelter, the Orks were digging in to break open the door after having spent the past few hours rampaging through the city. Lootas setting up their deffguns gripped bottles of fine wine while occasionally taking a swig, and Shoota Boyz sported shiny new gemstone trinkets stolen from pony homes and hung on their weapons "fer lukk." Gretchin fought over scraps of food near the back, while nearby Meks puzzled over the abundance of glitzy and obnoxiously pretty metals that had been collected for their salvage.
"Dere's sum REEL gud lootin in dere, I bet," grunted a Tankbusta Nob before he peered around a corner at the armored door.
"Oi! Izn' dere sum fightin' in dat uddah bildin'?" demanded another Ork. He pointed toward Canterlot Castle, which was wreathed with long trails of black smoke. "Why'z we owt 'ere?"
"Boss Grimgaw sed we wuz ta loot da uddah bildin's!" the Tankbusta growled back. "Dis 'ere iz da last bildin'! So git moovin' an brayk it so'z we don' miss da gud fightin'!"
There was a chorus of grumbles as the other greenskins picked up their rokkit launchas. Dozens of warheads, most of them painted to resemble grinning, shark-toothed faces, were all pointed at the armored edifice and then fired in a roaring volley.
Given that the target was at ground level, completely immobile, and far larger than a main battle tank, a strict majority of the rokkits reached their target and stitched a jagged line of explosions across its surface. The stubbers mounted on the exterior were mostly torn apart from the detonations, or at the very least had their targeters smashed.
As the dust cleared, however, it was clear that the rokkits had made little progress in actually breaking through the vault door itself. Several blackened spots now decorated the facing, but the Orks could see nary a dent as fiery blue glyphs flickered over the barrier.
"Awww, wot da zog!" complained the Tankbusta Nob. "Dat fing'z gonna tayk all day ta bust troo!"
"Shud we try da tankbusta bombs, Boss?" asked a younger Ork while he fit more rokkits onto his weapon.
The larger warrior considered the matter briefly, but then shook his head. "Nah, dat ting iz 'arder 'n any tank! Git da Meks down 'ere an' haff 'em mayk a bigga bomm!"
The other Ork saluted and then scampered off. The Nob turned and shouted to a Deff Dread lumbering by.
"Oi! Try cuttin' it wit da killsaw!" he beckoned over to the vault door, and the Deff Dread released a howling chuckle before spurting a puff of dark smoke into the air.
The Nob leaned back against a wall and sighed as the walker stomped up the path toward the wrecked plaza in front of the vault. While he found breaking into homes and stealing shiny things as entertaining as anyone, he really hoped there was some armed resistance on the other side of that door. When they had been sent into the destructive currents of the Warp Storm, they had been assured that there were spiky boyz waiting planetside. Vicious, cunning, and even harder to kill than the non-spiky versions, the Chaos Space Marines were the 'ardest of the 'ard, by some accounts. A good, solid fight if there ever was one. And they were definitely here on the planet, judging by the fact that there was a giant space ship literally eating their frigates in orbit.
He could only hope there were a few of the corrupted warriors SOMEWHERE around this city, because so far all he had seen were a few of the little horses, and he had been less than impressed. The ponies were shrimpy, shrieky, and obnoxiously fast; hopefully they would prove to be decent eating once they managed to corner and kill a few, but certainly nothing worth getting excited over.
"Oi, Boss, wuzzat?" asked a boy who was facing away from the plaza and pointing into the sky.
The Nob turned, and he squinted his eyes as he stared up into the sunlight.
"... Dat's jus' da moon," the Nob mumbled. The lunar satellite was slowly creeping between the planet and the sun, which seemed slightly odd, for some reason. He didn't quite remember the moon being out before. "It'z wun o'dose... urm... whatcha callem... uh-clips!"
"It'z an omen!" barked another Ork hobbling up to them. This warrior was much older, and bore the distinctive exposed brain-matter that marked him as an Ork psyker. "Da spiruts o'da follen haff spohken t'me tru da Great Green! Da uh-clips meens deff! Dis iz bad lukk!"
The other Orks glanced at each other uncertainly. Behind them, in the plaza, the shriek of tearing metal came from the Deff Dread as it tried to carve open the shelter.
"Well, not a lot we c'n reely do 'bout it," the Nob mumbled, "we'z kinda stukk heah fer now."
The Weirdboy was restless, clutching his copper-conduit staff. "I c'n heers 'em! Da uddahs! Wen da shaddah o'da uh-clips fallz, den deff comes fer da two-leggid wuns! Da hoss o' nyte! Dey say even da Gargants fall b'fore 'er!"
The Nob again glanced up at the sky. The moon was almost finished covering the sun now, and a vast shadow was swiftly moving over the city.
"... Den let deff come fer us," he snorted, "we'z got mo' boyz comin' in from Jokitt's ship. We'z gonna finish stompin' dis sitty, and den we'z gonna mayk a run fer da spiky fort. I ain't 'fraid o'deff, an' I shoor ain't 'fraid o'no hoss."
A loud crashing noise came from the building behind them, and the Orks whirled around.
"Boss! Up dere!" a Tankbusta pointed up into the darkened sky, toward a tall apartment complex that now had a long tear in the side of it.
This damage, surprisingly, had not come about from any of the Orks' looting and general havoc, but rather was from a Stormraven gunship flying too close to the structure and cutting through the wall with its wing. The transport spun slowly in the air as it tried to stay in control, its engines sputtering.
"Dat'z a humie flyah!" the Nob announced, raising his weapon. "A'roight, boyz! Tayk 'er-"
Before the Tankbusta Nob could say "down", the Stormraven lurched to the side and slammed its tail into another tower. The Dreadnought being carried on the back - quite visible thanks to its bright pink hue - was jarred loose and sent plummeting into the rubble below before the gunship started careening toward the plaza, completely out of control.
"... Nevah mind, den," the Nob mumbled, tracking the vehicle's descent with his eyes.
The Stormraven veered lower and then hit the ground of the plaza. It bounced and scraped along the flagstones, tearing an uneven trench behind it, until it struck the blast door of the shelter and finally stopped. The cockpit was severely dented in the impact, but the vehicle had survived the incident mostly intact.
The Nob cast a final glance upward as he chuckled. They were now in the full throes of a solar eclipse, and the moon seemed to have locked in place to deny Centaur III its star's sustaining light.
"Bad lukk, huh? Don' look loike bad lukk t'me." The Tankbusta Nob threw his arm forward toward the gunship. "A'roight, boyz! It'z lootin' tym!"
The Orks' excited, victorious roar of approval was cut short by an explosion of debris behind them.
"Oh, no you don't!" shouted Pinkie Pie as her Dreadnought crashed out of the ruins of a storefront. "Loot THIS, you greenie meanies!"
Pinkie's multimelta burned into the entrenched Tankbustas, cutting a molten swath through two of them. Her heavy flamer fired at the same time, washing over more of the greenskins and sending them flailing from cover.
Well, most of them, anyway.
"Whoa!" Pinkie twisted awkwardly to dodge a rokkit that blasted over her in a fiery spiral. She teetered dangerously for a moment, and then quickly twisted back the other way once her stance stabilized.
By that time, however, more Tankbustas were already surrounding her and preparing their anti-armor bombs. Pinkie swung her power fist into one Ork rushing toward her side, smashing it to a paste as she stumbled backward.
"Wait! Hold on! When I said 'loot this', I didn't actually mean it!" Pinkie protested, blasting her flamer in front of her to ward off the aliens. "Please don't blow me up! There aren't many Dreadnoughts left for me to borrow! Wink!"
In the ruined plaza above, the Deff Dread that had been scraping up the vault door lumbered over to the crashed Stormraven. It stopped just a meter away, tilting slightly to one side while the walker pilot decided how best to start carving up the vehicle wreck.
Suddenly, the access ramp to the gunship was torn off of its hinges and thrown across the plaza, having been nearly folded in half from a brutal impact.
The Deff Dread looked up from its work, and its hydraulic pincers reached for the opening of the passenger compartment.
The first thing that came out, however, was nothing but a floating black gauntlet that glowed an ominous shade of crimson.
Luna stepped out after the Iron Gage blasted the Ork walker onto its back, her ebony form encircled by an aura of seething red.
"BEHOLD, ALIENS!! YOUR DOOM-"
The alicorn's introductory threat was cut off by a loud yelp from Pinkie Pie, who was flailing wildly as she retreated from the mob of Tankbustas.
"Stop it! Go away! I don't know any songs relevant to this situation! Somepony, help!"
"Oh, blast," Luna pouted once she realized that nobody was paying attention to her dramatic entrance.
"Pinkie! Let's go, everyone!" Twilight shouted before she jumped out behind Luna, her flight pack carrying her over the larger Princess. "Luna, finish off the walker!"
Rainbow Dash and Breezy Blight blasted out of the Stormraven behind Twilight, although the pegasi were nearly knocked out of the way when Tellis emerged and shot past them into the air.
"FINALLY! It's been forever since I got to kill a thing!" the Raptor exclaimed as he built altitude above the ponies.
"It's been an hour!" Twilight retorted. Her harmonizer popped off her back as she shouted and activated blade mode.
"I can't hear you over the sound of BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!"
The nearest group of Orks was a mob of Lootas ransacking a nearby building and taking pot shots at Pinkie's walker as she tried to keep the Tankbustas at bay. Tellis launched himself straight through the wall, breaking through the non-reinforced structure with ease and then diving for the nearest foe.
"Well, they're pretty much dead!" Rainbow Dash shouted to the others. "Let's help Pinkie!"
"Did your suit depressurize when it was damaged?" Breezy Blight suddenly shouted over to Rainbow.
"Huh? I, uh... maybe?" the other pegasus asked uncertainly.
Breezy rolled her eyes as her helmet mouthpiece dropped open. "Whatever. Stay back and try to hold your breath!"
Breezy's flight pack lifted her higher while the Nurglite pony sucked in a deep breath, and she slowed her approach their target. Then she blew out a thick jet of noxious green fog, sweeping it over the Tankbusta mob.
The Orks started coughing and scattering, trying to clear their eyes and lungs of the vile poison. The toxic fumes also rolled into Pinkie Pie, but proved utterly harmless to her Dreadnought shell.
Twilight crashed into the struggling Orks, and the force harmonizer carved into one boy's back before she kicked away another. Arcs of hot magical energy whipped around her horn, lashing out at the nearest aliens and searing them.
As Rainbow and Breezy dropped in next to Twilight and started kicking at the Tankbustas, the unit Nob charged out of the fog with his choppa swinging.
Twilight fired a kinetic pulse forward, which just barely slowed the huge Ork enough for her to dodge out of the way. Then her visor glanced down at his belt, which held the magnetic, disk-shaped bombs that Pinkie had been so desperate to avoid.
"Dis iz da - KOFF! - Orks' town now - HRK! - hoss!" the Nob snarled between coughs while he surged forward again.
The force harmonizer sliced down to intercept him, but the hefty warrior struck the harmonizer cross with his choppa and knocked the weapon aside. Another chop hammered into Twilight's shoulder, cracking the ceramite shielding and flinging her across the street. He absently noted that the horn of her helmet was glowing, although that didn't seem especially pertinent as she skidded across the ground.
The Nob started to move after her, but caught sight of something bouncing at his feet. At first he thought it might be a grenade, but a lingering glance told him that it was just a fuse handle, like the ones attached to his tankbusta bombs.
Exactly like them, in fact.
The Nob looked down at his belt, and wasn't terribly surprised to see that the disc-shaped magnetic bomb he carried was armed and still attached to him.
"Well, zog."
Twilight curled up slightly before the Ork leader detonated, and then scrambled to her hooves.
"All right, we've got 'em on the run!" Rainbow Dash yelled, spewing shuriken into the backs of the retreating aliens.
"Twilight, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, flickering into view behind the Princess.
"Yes, thanks. Just a bit rattled. I'm fine." Twilight looked around, finding that the other ponies had joined in driving off the Orks that had been threatening Pinkie. Pinkie herself was sweeping her flamer over the running Tankbustas while the Apple siblings stomped all over a Loota behind her, and Rarity was firing her plasma gun over their heads while loudly criticizing the aliens' hygiene.
On the subject of Lootas, one of the Ork scavengers almost landed on Twilight after being flung from a window above. The purple alicorn yelped as the Ork bounced across the street, eventually slamming into an apartment wall.
"Well, at least someone's having fun with this," Twilight groused before she turned around and headed back to the gunship.
Luna was standing atop the mutilated Deff Dread, staring at the vault door that served as Canterlot's shelter.
"Is everyone all right?" Twilight asked as she approached.
"We are," Dest replied as he exited the gunship. Gaela followed behind him with Spike sitting in the crook of her arm.
"Bit of a rough landing though, eh Lord?" Daniels mumbled, following the others out.
"I consider it a slight improvement over my usual performance to only destroy the vehicle rather than the passengers," Dest retorted, causing the mercenary to wince, "perhaps piloting gunships regularly is something I should look into."
"All right then, what's the plan?" Poison Kiss asked, her visor shifting between Luna and Twilight. "The Princess is waiting for us, yeah?"
"Right!" Twilight said as she trotted up to the massive vault door that protected the shelter.
After a few silent seconds, she awkwardly turned toward Gaela. "So, uh... should I knock, or...?"
"Hold on. I'm decrypting the security engrams," the cyborg said as her helmet disengaged, "however, the Stormraven is no longer a viable evacuation option. We may have no choice but to locate Lord Serith and seal the shelter entrance."
"You mean it's not sealed now?" Daniels asked.
"Negative. There are charges placed high in the mountainside to bury the entrance in case of an invasion scenario. I am uncertain as to why your sovereign hasn't already used them."
The giant locks of the door started to grind open as Gaela secured remote access, and everyone backed away from the vault. After a few seconds the massive blast shields slowly started to slide apart.
Almost immediately, the barrel of a lasgun poked through the opening.
"Whoa! Hold fire, hold fire!" Daniels shouted. "Do we look green to you!?"
"A-HEM!" Poison Kissed cleared her throat loudly as Rot Blossom ducked her head.
"Your fur is green, not your skin. Doesn't count," the mercenary assured them, "now hush."
The lasrifle was quickly pulled away, and a few extremely relieved pony guards stepped through the widening entrance to the shelter.
"Oh, thank Celestia!" moaned one of them. "The Orks damaged all the exterior sensors, so we didn't know what was going on! I thought we were done for!"
"Nay, thy salvation hath arrived!" Luna declared proudly as the Iron Gage slapped away the wrecked walker. "Inform Sister immediately! We shalt bolster thy defenses and hold the alien at bay until such time as the Warsmith has cleansed them from the void!"
The pony guard blinked repeatedly. "Inform Princess Celestia? But... isn't she with you?"
Twilight's eyes widened. "What? You mean she isn't here? Why isn't she here?"
"We don't know! The plan was for her to teleport here with her other guards and the Trademaster after luring the Orks into a trap!" the guard insisted as his compatriots nodded rapidly. "It's been hours since we got all the citizens in here, but we haven't heard from them!"
"A mass teleport?" Twilight mumbled to herself. She felt her heart stop as she remembered why she herself had been neglecting that particular spell. "HORSEAPPLES! The mana surges!"
"Oh, dear. That would mean..." Kiss stared pensively at Canterlot Castle. The structure was wreathed in smoke and dust, and more than one of its high towers was clearly on fire.
Gaela offered the structure a disinterested look before she addressed the pony soldiers. "Have any of you seen Lord Serith? Is he among the evacuees?"
The equines stared at her in confusion. "Who?"
"Creepy magic Iron Warrior," Rainbow Dash clarified.
"Oh, right! That guy from the unicorn conscription!" recalled another guard. "No, I haven't seen him, and he definitely isn't in here. Was he in Canterlot?"
"Apparently," Gaela grumbled before she turned to Twilight. "Serith's armor signum is still inactive. Under the circumstances, we must assume that he is at the only remaining nexus of resistance against the Orks: Canterlot Castle."
"Well that's convenient," Spike remarked.
"Indeed. However, there are several hundred Orks still ransacking the city. It won't take long for the greenskins that we drove off to get together more warriors and stage a counter-attack."
"Pft. What's a few hundred Orks to us?" Rainbow Dash scoffed, displaying a level of casual confidence that nobody else shared.
"And more coming, if the auger readings are correct," Gaela grimaced, "we have Landas making planetfall."
Twilight hissed and tried to restrain profanity.
"I thought you said the fleet was handling the Orks in orbit!" Rarity complained.
"We're prioritizing assault craft headed toward the fortress," Gaela said simply, "Warsmith Solon sees Canterlot as a strategic objective. That view is unlikely to be shared amongst the rest of the fleet."
Twilight failed in her quest to restrain her verbal frustration, releasing a muffled litany of hay and feather-related curses.
"You know, usually I find it pretty funny the way Shmithy's army basically treats him like a joke," Pinkie Pie admitted as her walker stomped up behind the others, "but now that it's affecting me personally, I feel that it's a serious problem."
"We should advance on the castle," Gaela said firmly, "quickly, before I harm someone on our side."
"W-Wait! You're leaving?" asked the guard pony. "What are we supposed to do? What if the Orks come back before you do?"
"Aye, that is a concern," Luna noted as her helmet peeled away from her face, "We shalt hold the shelter against the foe! Sparkle, take thy team to rescue Sister and her remaining defenders and bring them yonder!"
"Whoa, by yourself?" Rainbow Dash asked. "You're pretty awesome Princess, but there are a lot of Orks out there."
"Ah'll stay," Big Mac said calmly, surprising the others. Not so much that he'd volunteer to fight on defense rather than on assault, but mostly because he spoke without responding to a yes-or-no question.
"Phage Squadron will also remain, if that's okay," Kiss offered, "I don't think Princess Celestia will be terribly pleased to see us riding to her rescue anyway."
"And I should probably stay because I'm not going to be super-useful charging into the castle," Spike said, pointing toward the shelter, "also, you know, I should make sure our folks are okay, Twi."
"Very well!" Luna proclaimed, glancing over to the guards. "Every pony with an armament is to barricade themselves within the shelter, to secure for us a line of withdrawal! Sparkle, We leave the rest to thee!"
"Right! Come on, everyone!" Twilight said, rushing down the street.
"We'd best hurry," Gaela agreed, "before Lord Tellis gets bored and wanders off."
Almost immediately after she finished speaking, a huge, armored body leapt from the apartments above and landed on the ground in front of Twilight. The purple pony yelped and stumbled to a halt, almost running straight into the Iron Warrior.
"Are we ready? I say! Jolly good!" Tellis said, standing ramrod straight with his hands clasped behind his back. "Cheerio, lass! Blimey! Marmalade!"
Everybody that had been rushing into the city screeched to a complete halt. Not so much at Tellis saying bizarre things, which was actually a somewhat refreshing change from the usual, but rather at the fact that the Raptor Lord now had a tiny black top hat sitting on his helmet and a monocle resting over one of his visor lenses. No doubt the accessories had been scavenged from the apartment above, as they were both clearly designed for a creature some one-sixth the size of a Chaos Space Marine.
Rainbow Dash immediately broke into giggles and collapsed onto the ground. Daniels snorted, but tried not to draw attention to himself. The others were less amused.
"Why do you do this?" Dest asked listlessly.
"Because you sissy weirdoes keep holding Goddamn committee meetings between every combat," Tellis growled, twisting around, "I have to find SOME way to amuse myself while you're all wasting oxygen. Let's go!"
Posh dude's got a point. We could do with a little less gab and a little more stab, ya feel me? noted Vel.
"I don't want to hear that from YOU," Dest grumbled under his breath as he ran after the others.
****
Canterlot Castle
Delgan's breath heaved as his blades sliced through the air, their glowing edges followed by crackling arcs of light and the scent of ozone.
Time and time again the edges bit into Ork flesh and dug through hardened bone. Delgan struck like a viper, lashing out at each new opponent with stunning speed and ferocity to carve each Ork apart before shifting attention to the next opponent.
But there was always a "next" opponent, and endurance was not the man's strong suit. His lungs burned from exertion and his arms ached from the pounding of Ork choppas against his bracers. The ground ran red with the blood of the greenskins and their corpses created a veritable carpet beneath his feet, and still the aliens rushed - happily, yet! - to the ends of his swords.
At the Trademaster's sides, ranks of Royal Guards, Mages, and Sunsworn spat fusillades of lasfire and magic missiles into the aliens, trying desperately to keep the flow of combatants slow enough so that Delgan could not be surrounded and overwhelmed. Every once in a while, presented with an advantageous opportunity, a Sunsworn would charge forward with knife or bayonet and attempt to spear one of the Orks in the back. Although this was enormously helpful to Delgan, it left the reformed warriors dangerously exposed, and several human corpses were scattered among the Orkish ones with their white robes stained red.
At the head of the formation, however, was the defenders' main point of strength, and obviously the only reason they hadn't been overrun.
The Kaion Heavy Battle Automata was like a stubborn rock standing against a river, parting the tide of attackers around it. Its claw swung furiously and nearly without direction, tearing green flesh and puncturing slipshod armor with ease while the Tau burst cannon spat storms of blue flares into the Orks between swipes. The Orks fought back hard, pounding against the heavy walker with power klaws and heavy mauls, but the combination of daemonic power and reinforced armor withstood the constant battering.
"INCOMING ASSAULT WALKER DETECTED," the Kaion said in a tone that bordered on glee, "ALL LESSER FOES ARE ADVISED TO G.T.F.O." Lumbering through the smoldering entrance to the throne room was a cackling Deff Dread, its main sensor eye locked on the opposing walker.
The automata fired its dark lance into the ground in front of it, vaporizing an unlucky Nob and boring a deep hole in the flooring that sent cracks seeping through the surrounding flagstones. The Ork foot soldiers quickly parted before the automata, which gave the mechanical warrior the opening it it needed.
"Unit 9! Hold position!" Orchid Flair barked as the mighty mechanical warrior surged forward.
"NEGATIVE," the Kaion replied while the Deff Dread unleashed its skorcha. The flames parted uselessly around the Kaion's battered hull, and the automata crashed headlong into the other walker. "DESTROY. I MUST DESTROY MORE! MORE KILLING! MORE DEATH!" Its claw-arm grabbed onto one of the Dread's close combat arms and ripped it off, tossing away the limb like the trash it resembled.
"Okay, fine, but can you kill more where we want you to, at least?!" Orchid shouted in frustration. She was tapping the buttons on her control anklet, but it was having no apparent effect upon the machine.
The Deff Dread swiped its killsaw into the Kaion's legs, and an agonizing shriek came from the contact as the whirling buzzsaw tore through one such limb at the knee-joint and severed it.
The Kaion howled, its voice losing all aspects of pleasant or feminine tone in its sudden expression of daemonic fury. Orks nearby stumbled to a halt and covered their ears in pain, and the mages each felt a fiery tingle crawl down their horns in psychic sympathy.
"Bloody AI!" Delgan cursed before he lanced both power swords through a Slugga Boy's neck. "Flair, get that machine back into formation!" He raised an arm to block a choppa against his shield bracer, and then turned with the blow to slice off another Ork's arm.
"Kaion, back up!" the unicorn shouted desperately. "We're being surrounded! Return to formation!" She hammered her hoof uselessly against her control band, the buttons flickering.
The automata ignored its supposed masters, hammering its claw into the Deff Dread again and again and tearing long gouges into its face plate. The Ork walker clamped its pincer claw onto the daemon walker's dark lance, tearing the cannon free in a burst of colorful gases. The sundered wires and cables from the cannon whipped about like angry tentacles, grabbing onto the Deff Dread in retaliation and holding it fast.
The Kaion screeched furiously, and its mechanized claw lit ablaze with Warpflame as it plunged deep into the enemy walker.
"PURGE THE ALIEN!! THE ORK MUST DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!!" the automata howled. Its claw ripped the pilot straight out of the Deff Dread's core, threw it on the floor, and then stamped it to a bloody paste under a massive leg.
"SWEET, GLORIOUS DEATH!" cheered the machine reverently while its burst cannon started spinning up again. The heavy walker started turning in a circle, gunning down the Orks surrounding it and laughing all the while. "I AM YOUR REAPER, GREENSKINS! DEATH INCARNATE, MOLDED IN STEEL AND FIRE! I WILL CLEANSE THIS WORLD OF YOUR FILTH!"
A sudden clanging noise came from the automata's back as a tankbusta bomb was slapped onto its back. The machine halted.
"OH, YOU CHEEKY MOTHERFU-"
The explosive detonated, tearing open the walker's daemon core. Hot shrapnel and a pulse of corrosive psychic energy poured over the room, scything down several Orks and knocking Delgan off of his feet.
The Trademaster spent several seconds getting his senses in order while he lay sprawled on the floor, his head spinning. Spots of color danced in his eyes, and a scream of pain and rage that wasn't his echoed within his thoughts.
By the time he had sorted things out, he could hear the ponies screaming while the Sunsworn shouted more of their proclamations about light and justice and whatnot. His vision was still obscured by smoke and dust, and he could feel blood welling up in his throat.
"Fall back!" Delgan demanded, pushing himself to his knees. He grabbed onto one of his power swords lying right beneath him, and then spotted the other one laying nearby.
He reached for the second blade, only for a heavy, ramshackle boot to fall on it first.
Delgan's other arm snapped forward, piercing the Ork's abdomen before he had even gotten a good look at the warrior. The alien grunted in pain, but the Trademaster lacked the leverage in his current position to make a lethal blow. The Slugga Boy lowered his pistol and fired.
"BOSS!!" Orchid Flair screeched as she watched Delgan lurch back onto the ground. She was suddenly pulled back by a pair of Royal Guards and dragged toward the doorway to the next room. "No! Stop! We have to help him!"
Sunsworn carrying flamers stepped up as the ponies rushed past them, spraying burning promethium in a wide fan to ward back the alien advance.
"Wait! He's still alive!" Orchid pleaded as she was pulled along. "Stop! You cowards!"
Delgan groped blindly for his sword as he squirmed on the ground. He wasn't sure how badly he was wounded. His vision was blurred and his other senses clouded.
Nonetheless, the sound of the double-doors closing off the next room seemed unusually loud in his ears.
He felt himself being picked up from behind, and was vaguely aware of the hiss of a hydraulic piston near his head as a power klaw closed around his torso.
"I hope Flair survives to bill the Princess," Norris Delgan mumbled before his chest was crushed.
****
"Move that shelving! Hurry! Everything you can move goes in front of the doors!" Farian, self-proclaimed first of the Sunsworn barked orders to the frantic ponies. The humans shifted into new positions behind makeshift barricades and decorative suits of plate armor.
Near the back of the throne room, Princess Celestia sat with a blanket draped over her back. Her gaze was on Orchid Flair, who was sobbing angrily while tearing off her now-useless control band.
"Farian," Celestia said, barely keeping the tremor out of her voice, "how bad is it?"
The man shook his head. "Well, we-"
He didn't even get time to finish speaking before the doors being barricaded were smashed off their hinges.
"Contact!" screamed a Sunsworn with a flamer before he immediately blasted the entrance with fire. Orks howled in pain while they struggled to get through, but a barrage of fireballs from the mages built the intensity of the inferno even higher. The warriors pushing through the entrance were incinerated, while most of those waiting to follow were pushed back from the wall of flames.
Not all of them, however.
"WAAAGH!!" The Sunsworn with the flamer was cut down by a wild spray of bullets as a huge, metal-clad Nob stomped through the firestorm.
"Drive them back!" Farian demanded, drawing a two-handed power sword.
Lasblasts riddled the Nob's mega armor, but the Ork laughed off the assault as he looked over his potential opponents. His shoota rattled wildly, spraying ammunition over the wall of the throne room, but the Nob was barely even paying attention to the weapon.
"The light shall banish your blighted kind to the hells where you belong!" Farian cursed as he vaulted forward, his sword glowing a fierce yellow. The blade stabbed into the frontal torso plate of the Ork armor and sunk deep into the greenskin's chest, eliciting a furious howl from the alien.
It did not, however, kill it. The Nob seized Farian in his power klaw, and then fired a burst from his shoota directly into the man's chest, nearly tearing him in half.
"Farian! No!" Celestia cried. Her horn sparked with power, but it immediately sent a surge of intense pain shooting through her skull. She had used far too much magic too quickly, and was still exhausted from her earlier desperate efforts.
The Nob snorted as he tossed the bloodied body away. "Ain't dere any spikies 'ere? Dey sed dere wuz spikies." Lasblasts and the odd magic missile hammered into his armor as he plodded toward the large, white horse, but he ignored them with ease.
"Stay away from the Princess, savage!" barked one of the mages as they summoned a barrier.
The Nob recoiled slightly as the dome shimmered into place in front of him, although it also cut off the barrage of incoming lasers. His power klaw clamped shut and crackled as its energy field engaged. "Wun mo' wall ta brayk," the alien said with an amused snort. He reared his arm back, and the unicorns squeezed their eyes shut.
Nothing happened.
After several seconds without an impact, Celestia blinked. "What? Wait, this is..." The unicorns opened their eyes again, staring in confusion at the Ork. He was still in striking position, with his klaw reared back and ready to punch. But he wasn't moving.
A long, hollow-sounding sigh came from behind the ponies, and a chill crawled down Celestia's spine.
"Orks. What a tiresome species," Serith said as he stepped into the throne room.
He was entering through a rear hall that led deeper into the castle, and an armored equine with a very distinctive hat and cape was following behind him.
"What's going on?" Trixie asked after she entered and looked about the room. "What's with all the Orks? Trixie thought we were done with them!"
"Serith?!" Celestia asked incredulously. "What are you doing here? The guards said the castle was clear!"
The Iron Warrior ignored her, walking up to the Nob calmly. "You wished to face a Chaos Space Marine, greenskin? You now face a Chaos Space Marine."
The Nob released muted grunts and his body quivered, trying desperately to move against the force that had immobilized him.
Serith stopped next to the Ork, and then held both of his hands around the alien's head, as if he were preparing to grab and crush its skull.
"I'm glad that I could help."
A strange green mist poured from the Nob's eyes and mouth, evacuating the Ork's body and seeping into Serith's gauntlet. A moment later the Nob collapsed heavily onto the floor, his massive armor landing hard enough to leaving cracks in the tiling.
Trixie was more timid in entering the throne room than Serith, in part because she had some respect for Equestrian royalty, but mostly because there were injured and dead people laying all about the room. "What's going on? The Orks left over from the war actually managed to get into Canterlot?"
"No. These are no 'survivors'," Celestia said grimly, staring at Serith's back, "the Nethalican has failed. The Orks are pouring out of the Warp to pillage this world, as they had planned. And now they've taken Canterlot."
Trixie gaped in shock and horror, but Serith kept his eyes on the doorway as he raised his hands again.
Furniture started to move and slide across the floor, seemingly of its own accord. The door that had been broken down lifted itself up back into place, and was then propped up and reinforced by shelves, chests, and anything else that wasn't attached to the walls or floors.
"That shall keep them at bay. Briefly," the Sorcerer said, flexing his armored fingers. He didn't have his force halberd with him, and was regretting its absence.
"Trixie doesn't understand. The Nethalican DID work! You confirmed it!" Trixie exclaimed, racing to the Sorcerer's side.
"Indeed," Serith mumbled, "and yet... here we are."
"Wh-What do we do?" the entertainer asked nervously.
"We fight," Serith said, his voice lacking its usual cruel humor, "but it will not be enough. We will perish here."
"Is that all you have to say?" Celestia asked through clenched teeth. She pushed herself up, her legs shaking underneath her.
"It is," Serith replied simply, turning around. At seeing her glare intensify, the Sorcerer continued. "What would you have me say then, Princess? Would you have me explain the Orks' presence? I cannot think of such a thing. Would you have me tell you we will survive, and overcome? I will not utter such banality. Or perhaps you desire an apology, Princess? For attempting to salvage your world and giving you false hope?"
"I would ask for a hope to replace it," Celestia said tightly, "some option besides 'fight a battle you can't win.'"
"I have nothing," Serith spat, walking toward the alicorn, "my greatest secrets, my mightiest sorceries, all have been spent on the Nethalican. Countless souls and an ocean of psychic energy expended to fuel its dark power. Everything was brought into play exactly as I had designed." His voice built higher and higher as he approached the white alicorn, and the Mages nervously clustered more tightly around her.
Serith stopped, and his head twisted about to stare at the Dead Nob on the floor. "And these... these idiot VERMIN... they come along and simply ignore it."
Serith gripped his hand into a fist, and suddenly the Nob's dead body was slammed hard into the floor. The damaged tiling caved in completely, and several of the ponies jumped back in fright.
"Plans within plans," Serith growled, levitating the Ork into the air with an upraised palm, "ancient lore beyond that of any other in this pitiful fleet." He flung the hand to the side, and the Nob went in the same direction, nearly smashing a hole in the wall. "Near-limitless knowledge granted by fell bargains and sacrifice! A wellspring of psychic might beyond the capabilities of even my former Legion of Sorcerers! All of it, USELESS before the STUPIDITY of the Ork race!"
Celestia felt her Mages quivering around her, but she herself was perplexed, not frightened. She hadn't spent much time around Serith, but she definitely felt that he wasn't the sort prone to temper tantrums.
"And now I've damned us all," the Sorcerer said bitterly, once again lifting the Ork body up into the air with a gesture. "Not just you feeble equines, not just the mortal slaves, EVERYONE. Lord Sliver, Warsmith Solon, Dark Magos Kaelith. Souls that have fought and survived ten thousand years among the blight of Chaos and the endless war will all be ground to dust beneath the boots of ORKS, of all things. Every voice that spoke in opposition and mistrust of my power will be vindicated, and then silenced."
His gauntlets glowed brightly, and psychic hoarfrost glimmered about his arms as the dead Nob shook in the air.
"Serith..." Celestia began, her voice trailing off immediately. Clearly the Iron Warrior was feeling regret and - could it be? - actual guilt for these circumstances. She was honestly stunned to receive any real outpour of emotion from an Iron Warrior other than contempt and cold fury.
"Useless!" Serith roared, causing the Nob to create another crater in the flooring. The wounded humans and ponies scattered about the throne room cringed away, hearing the Sorcerer's anger pounding in their ears.
"Pitiful!" Serith snapped, throwing one arm to the side and flinging the corpse across the throne room again.
Then he raised his arm above his head, and the much-abused body trembled and spun in place in mid-air. "Weak! Pathetic! Worth-"
"HEY! Knock it off!" Trixie barked right before she bucked Serith in the leg.
The Iron Warrior actually staggered from the blow, windmilling his arms comically as he tried to stay upright. Trixie hadn't even struck him that hard - certainly not as hard as she could have managed in power armor - but he seemed completely stunned by the impact.
"Useless? YOU? Don't give Trixie that hay! And not now, when we really need you!" the unicorn barked, slamming a boot onto the floor.
"Well, actually, we REALLY needed you like ten minutes ago," Orchid Flair grumbled. One of her elastic leg bands suddenly slipped loose and then magically wrapped around her muzzle, silencing her.
Serith turned around to face the ponies, and then immediately had Trixie rear up and plant her forelegs on his waist so she could stare up at him.
"Did it look like any of our 'mighty, wise mages' were about to finish off that Ork there? Do you think any of us would have made it this far without your help? Snap out of it!"
"Then what is to be done?" Serith asked bitterly. "We wait within these brittle walls for the green tide to spill within and finish us off. The spells within this place have failed; I have felt them. Your sovereign is exhausted, your city is pillaged. Tell me, Lady Trixie, what would you have me do?"
There was a pregnant pause while Trixie let herself drop back to the floor. That pause was interrupted not by any brilliant epiphany, but by a sudden, heavy banging against the barricaded doorway.
"There is hope," Princess Celestia said, "Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony are coming. They will see off this menace."
"That is absurd for a great many reasons," Serith said, "not the least of which is the presumption that Sparkle could challenge the horde herself." The hammering against the door intensified, and the furniture leaning against it began to shift unsteadily.
"We must have faith in the bearers of Harmony," Celestia insisted, "the power of friendship will deliver us from this evil."
"Do you seriously not understand how ridiculous you sound right now?" Serith countered. The sound of Orks shouting orders came from the next room as the doors continued to splinter under their efforts.
"Look, when you get right down to it, we're just going to keep fighting here like you said," Trixie said, "we're just saying, you don't have to be all mopey about it."
Suddenly the banging sound turned to a loud grinding noise as oversized buzzsaws started tearing through the door.
"They come," Serith said, turning his helmet to face the doorway. Strings of swirling blue power surrounded his arms, and the blood-red lenses of his helmet flared brighter. Trixie gulped and levitated her helmet onto her head.
The doors came apart under the assault of saws and mechanized pincers, and soon long, metal limbs were reaching through the open doorway to knock aside the objects beyond it.
"It's no good! They have assault walkers!" exclaimed a guard. "Without the automata-"
"Silence," Serith said, raising a single arm toward the doorway.
As a pair of Killa Kans made their way step by step through the barricade, the Iron Warrior reached out with his mind, taking hold of one machine's shuddering, unstable mechanisms and unmaking them with pure will. As it kicked aside a massive bureau, its knee joint suddenly came loose, spilling bits of metal onto the floor while the rest of the machine wobbled unsteadily.
"Trixie's got the other one!" Trixie exclaimed, using the same spell as Serith while targeting the other enemy.
The Kans started unloading their weapons into the immediate vicinity, mostly shredding the mass of furniture still blocking their path and lighting it on fire. The limping Kan began to stumble while its big shoota fired about in wild arcs, and eventually the heavy machine gun shook itself free of its mounting and bounced away onto the floor.
That was, however, rather underwhelming in comparison to Trixie's effort.
"YEEP!" the armored unicorn squealed as her horn flashed a bright pink and her spell yielded to a mana surge. The Killa Kan started shaking as it advanced on the defenders, and its exhaust pipes whistled as the puffs of dark smoke they normally ejected turned to hot jets.
"No! Wait!" Trixie gasped, her horn shuddering within her helmet. "Trixie can't-"
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the Killa Kan exploding. The walker tore itself in half, and the killsaw on its close combat arm went flying straight into its partner. A ferocious shrieking came from the contact of metal on metal, and the remaining walker spun on one leg before collapsing onto its side.
"Git 'em, boyz!" cheered the Ork leading the charge into the throne room.
"Concentrate fire!" shouted a pony guard as the Orks started shouldering through the entrance. A flurry of lasbolts and solid slug shots filled the entryway, and the first few greenskins collapsed while trying to vault over the debris in their path.
"No, I mean literally!" the Royal Guard shouted while his lasgun ran hot. "Concentrate and make fire!"
Trixie and the mages responded as ordered, and a series of flaming orbs pounded the entrance, laying down a carpet of fire in front of the remaining warriors.
Another mega-armored Nob stomped through the flames, immediately focusing on Serith and bringing his shoota about. A spray of bullets sawed across the flooring and over the Sorcerer, bouncing off of his armor.
"Your plate is no defense against me, alien," Serith growled. Tendrils of black lightning surged from his hands and into the Nob, curling around its mega armor and cooking the warrior inside.
As the Nob fell, another half dozen Orks scrambled to take his place, braving the firestorm and lasers while firing blindly with their sluggas. Serith cut them down one at a time, either scorching them with dark lightning or tearing the souls directly out of them in a haze of green mist.
"Hey! You! The Sunswords!" Trixie barked as her hat floated off toward a group of the robed humans.
"We're SunSWO-"
"Not important!" Trixie barked as her fireburst launcher lobbed another swirling fireball into the doorway. "Guns! Here!"
The hat glowed and stretched, and the Sunsworn recoiled when it spat three plasma guns onto the floor at their feet.
"Wait, how-"
"Magic! Now quit asking useless questions and use them!" Fireball after fireball screamed into the breach, feeding the inferno that sought to cut off the throne room from the rest of the palace.
The Sunsworn were soon adding to the flames with a storm of plasma bolts, which were dramatically more effective in putting down the encroaching warriors than mere lasguns. Orks were cut down as fast as they could enter, braving the fire only to be incinerated by plasma.
Serith grabbed hold of another immolated Ork who was running through the inferno, flailing its arms desperately. Again the Ork's life energy seemed to seep from his skull and drain into Serith's gauntlets, and the alien fell limp underneath the Iron Warrior's touch.
As his opponent crumbled beneath him, however, Serith hesitated.
"Something is wrong. These Orks..." A sudden rumble reverberated through the castle, and bits of masonry started falling from the ceiling.
"We can overcome them! Do not surrender hope!" Celestia cried.
Serith turned toward the others even as the fusillades of laser and plasma bolts screamed past him. "These greenskins are not assaulting us. They're fleeing."
Another heavy explosion shook the walls around them. This time they could hear gunfire coming from the next room that was obviously not aimed at them.
That firefight, though, was soon drowned out by a horrendous, predatory screech. The sound sent most of the ponies onto the floor reflexively, covering their ears.
"What sort of monstrosity have the Orks unleashed against us NOW?" Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing.
"On the contrary," Serith retorted, "that monstrosity is one of ours."
"It is!" Trixie shouted. "ID signums confirmed! Sparkle's here!" She paused in-between reports of her fireburst launcher. "Trixie never thought she'd be so happy to say THAT."
The wall separating the throne room from the entry hall cracked deeply as something struck it from the other side, spilling chunks of stone onto the floor. A second impact ripped through the wall entirely, and a pincer claw emerged from the breach.
"Another Killa Kan!" howled one of the defenders as the light assault walker shouldered its way into the opening.
Before it could, however, the war machine was tackled from behind. The impact broke the walker through the breach in the wall, spilling both the Kan and its assailant into the throne room.
"Pinkie Pie!" Celestia exclaimed. The identity of the second walker was quite obvious even without glimpsing the scorched decal of balloons on its shoulder; nobody else in the 38th Company would pilot a bright pink combat vehicle.
"As if I could miss THIS party!" the Dreadnought chirped before it tore the Kan's close combat arm off. Pinkie took a moment to steady herself over the smaller walker, and then finished it off with a blast from her multimelta that punched straight through the Killa Kan and burned a trench through the floor.
Orks seemed to explode from the new hole in the wall in a panicked frenzy, only for two huge, armored bodies to jump into them and tear them down. Tellis blasted aside the smaller greenskins as he vaulted forward, using his flight pack despite the cramped quarters. He landed on the unit Nob, slamming the warrior to the floor.
Dest followed behind the Raptor, his fingers having grown to curved scythe blades. The possessed driver was like a whirlwind, shredding the green warriors left and right in bloody, sweeping arcs.
More Orks came from the next room, and more armored bodies followed after them to mow them down. Applejack hurled greenskins aside with long sweeps of her tusks while Rarity and Twilight charged straight through with their blades singing against the air. Gaela was close behind Twilight, her power axe cleaving through the aliens that were recovering from Applejack's charge. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came in after them, well behind the main crush of fighting, while Daniels followed as the rearguard.
"Princess!" Twilight shouted, her breath heaving. "We're here!"
"Hey, white horse!" Tellis shouted after her, still straddling the Nob. "What's your favorite organ?"
Celestia stared at Tellis. Her eyebrow twitched.
"We don't have time for that!" the purple alicorn griped.
"Man, nobody ever wants to play this game. You're no fun." Tellis punched his claws down into the struggling Nob.
Celestia's eyebrow twitched again. "Why is he wearing a top hat and monocle?"
"We don't have time for that, either!" Twilight shouted, rushing up to her mentor. "Are you okay? We got here as fast as we could!"
The larger Princess shook her head, finally tearing her gaze away from Tellis. "I'm so glad to see you, Twilight. The situation is dire."
"Where's Mister Delgan?" Rarity asked, scanning over the injured people and ponies watching the new arrivals in slack-jawed amazement.
Celestia paused, working out how best to break the news to the Element of Generosity. She needn't have bothered.
"He's dead," Orchid Flair muttered bitterly, "you probably have some of him on your boots after rushing through here like that."
Rarity froze up, stunned.
"Unfortunate," Gaela interjected blandly, "the Warsmith would have preferred his extraction." Then she nodded toward Serith. "However, our main objective is you, Lord."
"I'm flattered," the Sorcerer drawled, "and just what, exactly, do you intend to do now that you've recovered me?"
"We're going to head back to the shelters," Dest growled as he kicked aside an Ork corpse, "the other Princess is holding the vault door."
"What? But what of the wounded?" Celestia asked, glancing about the room.
"They are not mission objectives," Gaela replied in characteristic monotone.
"You can't be serious!" the white alicorn retorted angrily.
"Lady, we are ALWAYS serious!" Tellis shouted back before taking a moment to adjust his monocle.
"Not to interrupt, Lords, but what's the status on those Ork reinforcements?" Daniels asked. He was covering near the entrance hole, peering through the dust.
Gaela sighed and put a hand to the side of her head. "Give me a minute."
"So, what are you doing here, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked as she approached Serith. Her helmet disengaged so that she could stare up at the Sorcerer suspiciously. "Nobody but Solon knew where you were, and then we find out you're in Canterlot, of all places."
"The Warsmith knew? Interesting," Serith mumbled, not answering the question.
"If you MUST know, Serith and Trixie were simply perusing Canterlot's royal library," Trixie interjected, "it was nothing suspicious."
Princess Celestia did a double-take. "The royal library? You aren't permitted in there!"
"The royal library is only open to those with the Princess's personal sanction," Twilight's eyes narrowed, "how did you even get in?"
Serith said nothing, but Trixie cocked her head to the side. "The guard waved us in and said everything was fine. What do you mean we're not permit..." Trixie trailed off as her eyes widened, and then she laughed. "Oh, I get it now! Ha! Classic Serith!"
"May I assume that's also why my guards inexplicably forgot about your presence when the castle was being evacuated?" Celestia griped, glaring at the Iron Warrior.
"An unfortunate, but necessary consequence of my incursion," Serith admitted, "but really, it's your fault for thinking you could keep me out in the first place."
While many ponies - and Tellis, for some reason - glared at Serith silently, Gaela finished uploading her auger scans.
"We have a problem," she announced, "or rather, we have some six hundred problems, along with armored problems and substantial heavy problems. The Ork Landas touched down on top of our escape route. There's a whole other army between us and the shelter."
"Fffffffffff..." more than one person tried desperately to suppress profanity at the news.
Dest groaned, clasping the front of his helmet. "Then how are we to extract the Sorcerer? Putting aside for the moment all the OTHERS Sparkle wishes to save, can we sneak Lord Serith out of the city somehow?"
"And to what end?" Serith asked with a dusty snort. "I imagine that the Warsmith thinks I might correct some flaw in the Nethalican. Adjust the storm so that it might seal off this assault. I can do no such thing. If the Orks will sail through the fury of a Warp storm, then nothing will stop the green tide."
Another bleak pause settled over the throne room.
"Well, look on the bright side!" Tellis said happily, thrusting one arm into the air. "We may be about to die painfully against an enemy with no hope of escape, but at least our deaths will give succor to the Blood God Khorne, and fuel another whole legion of bloodthirsty daemons!"
"Um, that isn't actually a bright side to anyone else but you," Fluttershy noted.
"Ah. Well, then." Tellis turned around and started plodding back the way they came.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Rainbow asked, rounding on the Chaos Lord.
"Gonna go die like the badass killa I am," Tellis said while the wings of his flight pack spread out behind him, "surrounded by screaming aliens and drenched in the blood of my enemies." Daniels quickly stepped out of his path to let the Chaos Space Marine pass.
"No way! There are too many of them! You'll never make it out alive!" Rainbow Dash protested as Fluttershy gasped.
"Yeah. That's what I said," Tellis replied, sounding slightly confused, "besides, I have a feeling you guys are just going to talk for the next half hour again instead of killing stuff. Screw that noise."
Rainbow opened her mouth to protest some more, but she was drowned out by the ignition of Tellis's flight pack. The Raptor launched himself into the entry hall and then raced for the exit, a laugh echoing from his vox grille.
"No! No way!" Rainbow Dash shouted as her own flight pack started to warm up. "This isn't happening! I'm going with him!"
"Rainbow Dash, no!" Twilight shouted, reaching out to the speedy pegasus. "We have to stay together!"
Rainbow lifted off into a hover. "Sorry Twi, but I can't leave him! I'll come ba-"
Then her flight pack spat out a cloud of black smoke and sputtered noisily. A moment later, it cut out entirely and dropped her onto the ruined floor of the throne room.
"Dang it, Gaela! Stop doing that!" Rainbow shouted angrily.
"I didn't do anything," the Dark Techpriest insisted, "you've simply damaged your armor beyond its ability to function normally."
Rainbow growled in frustration as she stood up, sparks blasting from her impulse jets.
"Well, we're still stuck in a castle, completely surrounded, our best and most annoying fighter is gone, and Dash would have flown off with him if she wasn't already too banged up to be helpful," Daniels summed up, "kinda wish I'd stayed on the farm..."
Celestia furrowed her brow and turned toward Twilight. "The Elements of Harmony. They are our last hope."
"The what?" Daniels asked.
"Oh, right! Those are around here, aren't they?" Applejack asked. Then she paused. "So... how exactly is that gonna work, here? Can we purify the Ork horde or somethin'?"
"We can do much more than that," Serith said calmly. Immediately he had everyone's attention again. "The power that your artifacts contain is enough to see off this army. I can provide the catalyst that will doom the Orks if you will provide the necessary energy."
The ponies stared up at him for a few seconds.
"You don't seem very enthusiastic about saving us all," Trixie noted.
"It is but a temporary reprieve," the Sorcerer sighed, "even your artifacts and my most powerful sorceries cannot stem the flow of greenskins from the Warp. This planet will be theirs, and our resistance merely delays the inevitable." His voice took on a bitter tone again as he continued. "I can cast away a thousand Orks to Hell, but it is still useless, a mere gesture of defiance before the swarm that will extinguish us."
"I'm fine with a temporary reprieve," Dest volunteered.
"All right! Harmony time!" Pinkie cheered. "This is perfect! I've been looking for a good accessory to complete my giant, armored killing machine!"
"Follow me," Celestia said grimly as she turned toward the castle interior.
Twilight turned to Gaela as the others followed her mentor. "Let's get the wounded further inside, into the basement. The mages and Royal Guard can protect them there. Then we should set up a new barricade. I don't know how this is going to play out, but there's no sense in letting ourselves be surrounded."
"Oh, let me help," Fluttershy interjected, "I may be able to get some of them back on their hooves. Erm, or feet."
"Affirmative. Douglas, assist," Gaela commanded.
"His name is Daniels," Celestia said over her shoulder as she headed out.
The other Elements of Harmony followed Princess Celestia into the hall, although Twilight immediately noticed that Rarity was lagging behind. Her gait was hesitant and unsteady, as if her legs were failing her but her armor was keeping her upright as she walked.
Twilight stepped up close to the unicorn before glancing about and whispering to her. "Rarity? Are you okay?"
Rarity jerked her head up suddenly, as if suddenly noticing the other pony. "T-Twilight? I... hahhh..." her voice hitched and stuttered, and Twilight realized with some alarm that Rarity was apparently suppressing tears. Considering that the fashionista had her helmet on, she wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't said anything.
After a moment, Twilight realized why Rarity was so upset, and her heart sank.
Norris Delgan.
The man's demise had been mentioned and accepted so quickly that Twilight had completely forgotten that one of her friends considered herself close to him. Rarity had barely made a peep about the Trademaster's death even while Rainbow Dash had been willing to make a loud, showy, suicidal attempt to try to save Tellis. Obviously, Twilight had seriously underestimated Rarity's bond to the merchant lord.
"I'm so sorry about Delgan, Rarity," Twilight said as her head dropped, "do you, uh... need a minute?"
Twilight heard a deep, shuddering breath come from the other mare's vox grille. "No," Rarity said firmly, "we don't have a minute. If we let up now then we could ALL lose our lives." She trotted forward, and her gait became more certain even as a loud sniffle came from within her helmet. "I won't dishonor Norris's fate by moaning about it like a coward. He wouldn't stumble or hesitate if it had been me in his place!"
"I'm inclined to think that's more due to his lack of empathy than his strength of character, but either way I'm glad you're still with us!" Twilight said with a grim nod. "Equestria needs us more than ever!"
"Yes, darling," Rarity agreed, her helmet turning to look at Dest.
The Iron Warrior was carrying an injured pony under each arm, and Twilight swore she could hear him mumbling something under his breath.
"But Equestria also needs THEM," Rarity continued sadly, "and we keep losing more of them."
****
Canterlot City - shelter entrance
Constant gunfire and chains of explosions tore through the edge of the plaza in constant sequence, hammering the artisanal stonework and shredding the corpses of those Orks that had already fallen.
A storm of shadows circled the area, shrouding the occupants in darkness beyond the gloom of the eclipse and shielding them from the ordnance arrayed against the vault. Cannons pounded the space blindly and long, rattling bursts of machine guns fire pelted the stonework endlessly, all to very little apparent effect. The magical shrouding did not hinder the warriors within the storm, for their targets were picked out in shifting brackets provided by ruby-tinted visors, and their aim marked by equally convenient uplinked crosshairs. Streams of heavy bolter rounds sawed back and forth down the stairs into the city proper, cutting down Orks by the half-dozen. Smaller bolt shells followed the suppressive fire, blasting apart the alien soldiers with greater precision. Wasps the size of a man's thumb swooped out of the swirling shadows and descended on the survivors trying to crawl their way to the plaza, chewing viciously on the Ork's thick hide while plunging their stingers into their alien victims again and again. And whenever the Orks managed to build any momentum for their charge, usually behind an assault walker acting as spearhead, their efforts would be met by a jet of toxic gas and deadly lances of crimson power.
Yet, as the green bodies piled higher and wreckage tumbled from the plaza's steps into the crumbling streets below, the defenders knew their position couldn't hold.
"Where the hay ARE they?!" Breezy Blight said between heavy, gasping breaths. Every few seconds she would raise her right foreleg and snap off a few bolter shots to dispatch another Ork, but the pegasus was clearly exhausted.
"I don't think they're even coming!" Rot Blossom said before she reared up and kicked out at a struggling Ork boy. "Why would they? You can see how many greens are in their way!"
The warrior was flung back, but barely managed to keep his footing. Before he could retaliate, however, a jagged knife stained with Ork blood and other ugly fluids shot up into its jaw, being carried within a magical aura.
"Don't falter!" Poison Kiss demanded as she pulled the knife free with her magic. The Ork slumped to the ground, and she stepped up on its back before loosing her boltgun onto the charging greenskins below. "We are Nurgle's children, and we SHALL endure! What is an Ork before the might of Chaos? What threat are these savages before the weapons of the Warsmith?! Stand fast, I say!"
Big Mac remained silent and impassive, standing in place behind a fallen column as he showered suppressive fire onto the attackers. Behind him was Luna, suspended in the air on feathers of pulsing blue crystal. Magical power of inky black and bleeding red swirled about her and maintained the storm of shadows, while the Iron Gage hung above her with its fingers sparking.
Every time Luna would sight an armored vehicle, the ebony gauntlets lashed out and hammered the enemy walkers with beams of blood-colored power. Armor plating buckled and pilots were cooked or pulverized inside their cockpits. A lucky few were simply blown up, quickly and fairly painlessly, spilling hot shrapnel over the warriors trying to use their armored vehicles for cover.
"WRETCHED ORKS!!" Luna roared at the horde. "HOW MANY OF THY BROTHERS MUST DIE BEFORE THOU YIELDS?! HOW MUCH SUFFERING SHALT THOU ENDURE FOR THE SAKE OF-" a rokkit broke through the shroud of darkness, twisting toward Luna as if it were following her voice. She yelped and tried to evade, and the explosive slammed into Luna's wing, tearing open the casing.
The Princess of the Night dropped unsteadily to the ground, and she heard an angry snarl echo in her thoughts.
"Princess, not to be a bother, but I don't think the Orks are listening to your speeches," Kiss said, reloading her boltgun.
Luna growled, summoning ever more magic power to her. The mana surges pushed her magic ever higher, and unlike the other ponies she drank hungrily from the wellspring of power rather than trying to control and tamper it.
Long, sweeping beams of crimson light bled from Luna's eyes, cutting across the Orks below in a blazing slash across their defenses. A dozen fell in an instant, although those with heavier armor withstood the attack.
The stream of heavy bolter shells stopped a moment later, followed by an ominous clicking sound from Big Mac's gun.
Suppressing a frustrated groan, the stallion's servo arm started shifting awkwardly to load his spare ammo box as the depleted case dropped onto the ground.
"Here guv, lemme get that for you!" chirped Kiss, appearing next to him. Macintosh was surprised, but said nothing as the unicorn magically unlatched the munitions box from his armor. A shell detonated behind the ponies as she worked to reload his weapon, and Big Mac winced as hard shrapnel screeched against his armor plating.
Kiss jerked her head slightly as a scorched stone broke against her helmet, but otherwise ignored the blast. "I just wanted to say, you've been a huge help down here, and me and the girls are just tickled you decided to hold the line!" She locked the ammunition box into place opposite the heavy bolter. "The Princess is great and all, but she can make for difficult company."
"BRING US THY WAR MACHINES, SAVAGES!! WE SHALT GRIND THEE TO DUST BENEATH THINE OWN WEAPONS!!"
The other ponies flinched at the sound of another Deff Dread exploding, and Kiss finished setting the belt of ammunition into Big Mac's heavy bolter.
"There you are, then! Cheers!" Kiss said brightly as Mac's munitions indicator turned green and cleared him for firing.
Before he could return to the combat, however, a message came over the vox for him and the mares defending the shelter.
"Phage Squadron! Princess Luna! What's your status?" asked Twilight.
"Engaged in heavy combat!" Luna replied even as she summoned another swath of fire to strike at the Orks. "However, the foe shows little sign of faltering, and the Orks art truly without number! Where art thou?"
"We're stuck in the castle still! We've been cut off!" Twilight explained, much to the disappointment of the other ponies. "But we may have a solution! We're going to use the Elements of Harmony!"
Luna paused briefly. "Will they work against a foe such as this? The Orks art more akin to savage beasts than creatures of true darkness." A flurry of bullets cut across Luna's chest, and the alicorn growled before returning her attention to the fight.
"Serith has an idea. We're going to use the Elements to power one of his spells. He says he'll be able to purge the city."
"We can do that? Why haven't we been doing that?" Kiss mumbled.
"STORMBOYZ INCOMING!!" Breezy shouted as the roar of rocket engines surrounded the equines.
Static briefly crackled over the vox before Twilight's voice came back. "Listen, it's going to take some time to cast this spell, so we need you to hold out as long as you can to draw some troops away from the castle. The Orks are already gearing up for an assault. But if things get too dangerous, withdraw into the shelter without us! We won't be coming until the spell is complete... or not at all."
Luna's Iron Gage caught a Stormboy on his descent, gripping him around the neck and slamming him into the ground with lethal force. The other gauntlet slugged another shock trooper as soon as it made landing, removing the Ork's upper torso from its pelvis.
Big Mac snarled as slugga rounds started flying all around his head, and the stimulant injector in his chest released its chemical cocktail into his bloodstream.
"Roger that, Princess Sparkle!" Kiss shouted as the stallion charged furiously into the Stormboyz. "Do hurry, though! Much as I love Grandfather Nurgle, I'm not ready to room with him just yet!" Her horn flashed as the vox cut out, and a shroud of magical gloom seeped from the joints of her armor. The magic wrapped around her knife, and a dark green slime started to collect on its edge.
"Time to make some people very, VERY ill..."
****
Canterlot Castle - Hall of the Elements
Twilight dropped her helmet onto her gorget and then shook her mane loose, feeling her hair settle into its usual style for the first time since she woke up. Not that her mane was really on her mind at the moment.
On a pedestal above her was a tiara capped with a star: the Element of Magic. The tool of their salvation. In theory, at least. "Explain to me exactly how this spell of yours is going to work, Serith. I don't want any surprises."
The Sorcerer stepped behind the Elements of Harmony as the rest all donned their magical accessories. He was opening the metal-bound book that was always latched to his belt, and when he replied to Twilight he sounded fairly distracted.
"This ritual will tap into the psychic connection shared between the Orks that forms and empowers their mob mentality. Using this connection, I will force my own spell upon the entire local horde at once, and extinguish their minds."
"That sounds horrible," Rarity mumbled as she tried to adjust the Element of Generosity so that it sat just right on her gorget.
"Mass murder usually is," Serith drawled.
"Seems really convenient, too," Rainbow said suspiciously, "you can really just wipe out all the Orks in the city with one spell?"
"Life and death are but biomechanical conditions, and the psyker can act as the switch between the two. Such are the teachings of Chaos," Serith explained, "that said, this affair is intensely draining, and it would normally require hundreds of psykers to flood the Orks' minds. But, if nothing else, you equines have 'magic' power to spare."
"And what of the mana surges that derailed the last large spell we attempted?" Celestia asked.
Serith paused briefly as he considered what she might be talking about. "... Ah. The excess power rolling through the Warp is no hindrance to me. Humanity's psykers have always struggled against the instability of the Warp and its desire to devour our minds. The current conditions are no particular challenge to us."
"Also convenient," Applejack said as she slipped on her Element and then replaced the hat on her head.
Pinkie Pie's Dreadnought was empty and parked in the corner of the room while she attached the Element of Laughter around her neck. "So how long will it take until it's nappy-time for the bad guys?"
"Impossible to say. I have never attempted this enchantment." The Sorcerer sounded tired, as if he was only answering their questions and attempting to save all their lives to humor them. "But it will not be quick."
"You do realize that the Elements were never intended to be used this way, right?" Celestia asked as she walked up to Serith and stared directly into his visor. "They are a bulwark against evil; a shining light in the darkness. Not a mere magic battery."
"I'm sure that given enough time, I could think of a more irrelevant objection to our current strategy," Gaela drawled, "but that's time we don't have. The auger sensors over Canterlot haven't been scrapped yet, and they're detecting two groups gathering around the castle. The rest are breaking off, mostly to help attack Lord Tellis."
Rainbow Dash flinched. "Well, then let's hurry up and do this!"
"Indeed," Serith mumbled, gesturing to the space behind him, "come here and tap into the power of your artifacts. It is time to begin."
The Elements of Harmony lined up shoulder-to-shoulder behind the Chaos Sorcerer, and each one calmly reached inside them for the power the linked them to their respective Elements. Motes of light floated off their fur as the Elements began to glow, and sense of calm and inner warmth suffused them.
That pleasant sensation was completely ruined the moment Serith began chanting.
The Elements winced as the light suffusing their bodies shifted from a warm yellow to a sickly green, and cracks started to appear in the flooring around and under Serith. Those cracks deepened and spread, curving into a circle and eventually completing a rough, jagged Chaos Star in the stonework in the center of the Hall of Elements.
Serith held a hand out, palm open, as his other hand held the book, and a constant stream of bizarre whispers left his vox grille. None of the words meant anything to anyone else in the room, yet there wasn't a pony within earshot that didn't feel their stomach turn at the sound.
"I can't believe things have actually come to this," Celestia groaned while green light pulsed from the Chaos Star.
"And yet, things could easily get much worse before they get better," Dest pointed out, "besides the front entrance, what other access points are there into this place?"
Celestia frowned. "There's a rear entrance, but it's barricaded. There WERE two side entrances on either side of the castle as well, but when the Orks tried to blast their way in those gates they tore down the walls and ended up burying them instead."
"Your fortifications were so weak that they foiled the Orks' assaults?" Gaela asked. "That is SO close to being impressive."
Celestia scowled at her. "Well, that won't work for the main hall. The doors to this room WERE enchanted, but it seems it was dispelled along with every other magical effect in the castle when I stopped the miscast ritual. And if the Orks are at all careful, then they can break through the rear barricade as well."
"Then we'll collapse the rear access before they can get through. Do we have any explosives?" Gaela asked.
"Trixie can handle that!" Trixie volunteered.
Gaela looked doubtful for a moment, but then shrugged. "Fine. Take a few of the imbeciles in white with you. The rest of us will protect the throne room."
"Good idea!" Trixie turned toward the remaining Sunsworn, of which there were only nine in any sort of shape to fight. And even of those, two were clearly already wounded and only on their feet thanks to the stimulants and brief medical attention Fluttershy had offered them.
"Okay, Trixie will take you, you..." she pointed out two men nearby, and then paused. "And you, in the back. The big, hunched-over fellow with the mask on."
She pointed to another Sunsworn, and the others turned to look at him. He was indeed much broader at the shoulders than the others, and his head seemed to sit lower than it should. No-one could see his head either, as it was covered by both his hood and a paper mask with a smiley face drawn over it in black marker.
"Proceed quickly. The xenos are already working to breach that entrance," Gaela snapped.
"Right! Follow Trixie, expendable minions!" the unicorn shouted as she rushed out of the room.
"Please don't call us expendable," mumbled one of the cultists.
"It doesn't matter!" said another. "We must succeed! For the Goddess!"
"A'roight! Le's blow sumfin' up! Fer da sun hoss!" bellowed the larger cultist as he stormed out after the others.
"Huh. Weird accent on that guy," Daniels mumbled.
Dest took one of the plasma guns from the remaining cultists, and then beckoned out the front exit. "Come. We must delay the greenskins as long as possible."
"Can't we help too?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Do we seriously just have to stand here feeding Serith's thing while everyone else is fighting?"
"If any of you perish, then we all do," Serith said blandly, interrupting his mumbled chanting, "you will remain here."
As the other fighters walked into the next room, Gaela paused and glanced back at the Elements of Harmony. "You can link up your visors to our power armor readouts if you wish. It will give you some idea of how the combat is faring."
Twilight and Pinkie couldn't put their helmets on, but the others quickly started making adjustments to their visor settings to do just that.
"Oh, thank Celestia," Rainbow Dash sighed, "Tellis is still alive."
"Your sovereign has very little to do with that," grumbled the Dark Techpriest as she stepped toward the exit.
"Be that as it may," Celestia interrupted, causing Gaela to pause, "thank you, Techpriest. I know it may mean nothing to you, and that you may hold me in the greatest contempt. I know that you would have let me and my people die without batting an eyelid if you didn't have another reason to be here..." she took a deep breath. "But you are here, and you may well suffer greatly to save my little ponies. Thank you."
Gaela was silent for a few seconds longer, still facing toward the doorway. "... You're welcome," she grunted. Then she left, closing the door behind her.
"Consarn it, this's depressin'," Applejack grumbled.
Princess Celestia turned toward the Elements of Harmony, nodding sadly. "I know we are in dire straits. But to falter now would be to render every death up until this point a vain, useless gesture."
"Ah meant bein' tied up to Serith like this," the farmer clarified, "feels like there's spiders crawlin' around mah brain or somethin'."
"I'm sure you can endure," Serith drawled. Glyphs of red and green light flickered into view around the Sorcerer before vanishing just as quickly and inexplicably.
Twilight flinched as an explosion came from somewhere else in the castle, wishing she could have her own visor up. Why did the Element of Magic have to be a tiara while the others were necklaces? Was it really so hard to imagine that an Element bearer might want to wear some other kind of headgear at the same time?
A series of gasps, coming from all of her friends except Pinkie Pie, only emphasized her conundrum.
"No! NO!!" Rainbow Dash shouted as her Element grew brighter. "Tellis!"
In the corner of her visor, at the bottom of a set of three small graphs that showed the heart rates of Gaela, Dest, and Tellis, the latter pulse began to fluctuate wildly as red indicators blinked over it.
"Tellis? What's happening?" Fluttershy asked, connecting her vox to the Chaos Lord. "Please, come back! We need-"
Then the vox line went dead and the pulse graph went flat.
****
Canterlot City, five minutes previous
"Blood for the BLOOD OW!" Tellis grunted in pain as a large choppa bit into his arm, staggering him as he drew his claws out of a different Nob.
The saw-toothed axe shrieked as it sawed through the outer armor and started tearing into the flesh beneath, but Tellis threw that arm up and knocked the weapon away before lashing out again. His lightning claws slashed across his attacker's face, and the Nob spun about before Tellis plunged his other claws through the back of it's head.
Tellis kicked behind him a split-second later, staggering yet another assailant. Then his flight pack ignited, launching him upward and scorching the Orks that had been trying to surround him.
"This would be so much better if I remembered how to work the dirge player," the Chaos Lord admitted as his pack cut out above another mob of Orks. Bullets crisscrossed the sky in a web of hot metal, and sparks crack off of Tellis's armor as he descended on a fresh unit.
He landed knee-first on a boy's head, and then rammed his shoulder into another. With momentum on his side, the Iron Warrior's claws started ripping through the Orks in long, crackling arcs, slicing through armor, weapons, and flesh alike as he charged through the crowd.
For Tellis, this was his moment of bliss, his meditation, and the only time when his mind truly felt at peace. Blood positively coated his armor, and the daemonic spirit within crowed in delight as it drank from the accumulated gore. Power surged through its circuits, fusing the breaches and filling the cracks in the ablative layers. Electricity ran through the fiber-bundle layers, sending surges of warmth up the Iron Warrior's arm.
Two, three, four strokes of his claws. Four more Orks sent flailing to the ground as blood splashed in wild, fantastic arcs. And where those four fell, eight more ran up to replace them, raining their crude pistols and blades upon his daemon armor.
Tellis jumped again, and a stream of almost solid lead cut under him and nearly hit the Orks he had just left. Lootas. Tellis laughed as he fell upon his new victims, his claws stabbing and slashing at the xeno warriors. This was the BEST.
And yet...
There was something curiously monotonous about the fight. Not that it was boring in any way; his hearts were pounding away like jackhammers, and the constant fall of choppas all around him sent jolts of pain rushing up his spine like lightning shocks. But somehow, he knew it could have been more satisfying. It's like there was something missing. An empty space next to him waiting to be filled.
"Man, I wish the girls were here to see me murdering guys," Tellis said, heaving a sigh before he wrapped his arm around a Mek's head. He twisted his shoulders sharply, snapping the Ork's neck.
Yes, it seemed obvious now. Having had the company of friends for the past several weeks now left him feeling discouraged without them. Maybe he should have tried to bring them along?
Tellis shook his head as he kicked off of a Loota's face and then landed claws-first into a Nob. That wouldn't do. Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy would be overwhelmed too easily. They'd die. It felt strange to think of this as a regrettable outcome considering Blood For The Blood God, but it was.
Tellis rammed an Ork boy into a wall and then spun around with one arm outstretched, shredding the warriors surrounding him on the other side. He released a tremendous, ear-rending screech as he fought, and those nearby Orks not busy trying to collect their guts off the floor cringed away from him.
And then the wall behind him exploded.
Tellis was thrown to the ground amongst the Orks, but he leapt to his feet in short order and whirled around, hammering his lightning claws into the new opponent's stomach.
It was a good maneuver, but it probably would have done him some good to check on what the target was, first. That way he might not have ended up with his claws stuck in a Mega Dread.
"D'oh!"
The enormous Ork walker grabbed the Chaos Lord with its combat claw, and with a short puff of steam blasting from the actuator, it snipped Tellis in half.
"GAUGH!! My legs! I NEEDED those, you green bastard!" Tellis collapsed face-down as blood poured out onto the ground below him, mixing freely with the Orkish gore that he had been so enthusiastic in spreading. His lungs started weakening, and the alerts flashing over his visor started to fade from his view.
This was okay. Good, even. Khorne cared not from where the blood flowed.
"Tellis? What's happening?" asked Fluttershy desperately over the vox.
But maybe Tellis himself cared. Just a little bit.
"Please, come back! We need-"
The Mega Dread stepped on Tellis's upper torso, crushing what remained of his body and silencing his vox.
The Mad Angel was no more.
****
Canterlot Castle - servant quarters
"Okay! This should do it! Right? Probably!" Trixie looked around at the empty bunk beds that normally belonged to the castle's staff of maids, cooks, and cleaners. They were empty now, of course, and many of the bed frames had been piled up against the back door to form a secondary barricade.
A Sunsworn walked up to a massive stone column in the center of the room, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah, this is load-bearing, all right. How are we going to knock it down?"
"Trixie is sure there's a bomb in here, somewhere," Trixie said as she levitated her hat onto the floor.
A loud banging noise came from the hall beyond the barricade, along with the sound of a buzzsaw ripping through masonry.
"Looks like the Dark Techpriest made the right call," said a Sunsworn hefting a plasma gun, "let's blow the place and help hold the front entrance!"
Trixie's horn lit up as she activated the portal in her hat, and the fabric started shifting and distending as she searched the armory beyond.
As the unicorn was busy working, the burly Sunsworn glanced about at the others, and then stepped up to the man with a plasma gun. "Oi. Lemme haff da glowy dakka."
The Sunsworn raised an eyebrow as he stared at the fellow cultist. "The what?"
"Yer... uh... plaz-mah gunn. Gimme."
"Oh, sure thing... uh..." he made to hand over the weapon, only to pull it back as he trailed off. "Wait, what's your name again?"
"Grumgaff," the cultist said immediately. The other Sunsworn recoiled in shock. "No, wayt! It'z Steve! Oh, zog it!"
"That's an Ork name!" the Sunsworn shouted, startling the others. "You're an Ork! INFILTRATOR!!"
The Kommando moved just as the cultist turned his plasma gun on the cunning double agent, knocking the weapon to the side where it discharged and blasted a hole in the inner wall. The Sunsworn was thrown back, and managed to regain his footing just in time for the Kommando to drive a stabby choppa into his chest.
"What in the world?!" Trixie gasped, still in the midst of magically digging around in "her" armory.
"Get down!" the other Sunsworn shouted, firing a burst with his lasgun as the Ork grabbed up his victim's plasma gun. Spears of hot light cut into the Kommando's back, but the infiltrator shrugged off the damage before he turned on the remaining human.
"Hurry and finish the spell!" the Sunsworn growled, continuing to pour lasers into the foe. Soon there were plasma bolts flying back as the Ork returned fire. True to form, the plasma shots were largely inaccurate even at a few meters, but with the considerable difference in strength between laser and plasma guns it would only take one lucky hit to finish the human.
Trixie screwed her eyes shut in concentration, and then her hat stretched wide open before it finally dropped a large metal object onto the floor. It was an egg-shaped bomb, roughly the size of Trixie herself with a control box on one end.
"HWAURG!!" Trixie flinched when her remaining bodyguard fell to the floor, much of his body disintegrated.
"Nuffin' can stop da WAAAGH!" the Kommando roared as he turned the plasma gun on the pony.
Trixie exploded into a puff of smoke, and the Ork recoiled before he started looking around the room for his target.
He spotted the unicorn emerging from behind a bunk and making a run for the exit, and he fired a plasma blast to intercept her. "No ya don'!"
Trixie halted in surprise as the shot went wide, burning a blackened furrow into the floor. A second shot sailed over her head while she was still standing in place, and a third shot hit the floor in front of her, sending a plume of vaporized flagstones curling around her helmet.
"You know, you're kind of rendering Trixie's hololith redundant, here," Trixie complained as another plasma bolt flew into a wall.
The Ork heard a sizzling noise behind him, and he whirled around just as a combat knife, magically accelerated and wreathed in flame, plunged into his arm. Trixie stood behind one of the servant bunks, her horn aglow as more weapons scavenged from the fallen Sunsworn floated around her.
The Kommando snarled, brushing aside the pain from his new wound; one of many severe burns, at this point. He could hear his brothers at the barricade now, hammering against the door and ripping it apart with mechanical saws. "Yoo looz, hoss," he growled, turning his plasma gun on the unicorn with his good hand.
His glowing, sparking plasma gun that was spewing smoke out of its flex-sheathing.
The weapon flashed as he pulled the trigger again, and the Kommando howled as the plasma gun was consumed in a white fireball, taking his hand with it. The Ork stumbled backward onto his rear, both of his arms now smoldering and useless.
Trixie dropped the levitation around her weapons, and then telekinetically hurled the bomb across the room and into the Kommando's chest. The banging at the barricade was getting louder, now, and she could hear eager Orkish chatter coming from behind it.
"Well, Trixie supposes she doesn't have to worry about you disarming the bomb," she said while she set the timer to a mere thirty seconds, "seeing how you've been 'disarmed' yourself!"
The Kommando groaned as the timer beeped. "Dat pun wuz worss den da burnz."
"Shut up! Trixie saves her 'A' material for shows, not missions!" the entertainer barked before she turned and galloped out of the room. "Have fun exploding, loser! Trixie WINS!"
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
Gaela paused in her fusillade as an explosion came from deep within the castle, followed by a heavy rumbling that rolled through the rest of the palace structure.
"The rear hall has collapsed," the Dark Techpriest said, spearing a Shoota Boy through the head with her servo laser, "this room is now the principle point of access to the ritual."
"Splendid," grumbled Dest as his plasma gun sizzled in his hands. Flares of bright green cooked entire Orks at once where they touched xeno flesh, although the possessed driver was careful to moderate his bursts.
The volleys of plasma bolts were joined by the crack of lasers, the rattle of a heavy bolter, the whine of Gaela's ion blaster, and the understated hum of Daniels' rail rifle as they methodically cut down the Orks pushing into the room. Their opponents were mainly Shoota Boyz, and the xeno warriors sprinted through the flames and debris in an endless trickle of reinforcements, racing for whatever scant protection they could find against the defenders' more powerful arsenal.
Yo, can we get some close-combat action going any time soon? I prefer my Orks rare, not well done. Vel asked.
A counter-charge at this point would be counter-productive, if not suicidal. Be silent, Dest retorted.
Is this one of those "tactics" things you mortals are always going on about? Booooring.
A crash boomed through the hall as a huge armored form shouldered its way through the doorway. Claws snapped open and shut and saws shrieked as they ripped through stone and shoved aside twisted metal, and the Orks trying to push their assault forward cheered at the sight of more armored support arriving to help them.
Ah. Okay. I see where you're coming from, now. I don't want none of that.
"Deff Dread!" Daniels snapped, ducking back behind a column. "And Lootas behind it! What've we got for anti-armor?"
Gaela's body shuddered as a big shoota's barrage cut across her armor, stitching a line of ricochets over her chest plate. "I have a melta bomb," she noted before blasting one of the Lootas rushing into the room.
"And who's going to place it?!" the mercenary shouted.
"I will," Dest said.
Oh, and NOW you want to be a badass?! When we're facing down a Bloodthirster's weight in heavy metal? I will NEVER understand you crazy semi-mortals.
"Aim for the leg assembly, Daniels!" Dest shouted, adjusting his plasma gun's aim.
The glittering green blobs and the bursts of shrieking, armor-piercing slugs converged on the clanking joints at the walker's hip. Great washes of sparks and shrouds of vaporized metal blasted from the leg's connecting axle, and every step the Deff Dread took to bring its claws to melee range started eliciting a horrendous screech from the damaged limb.
"Almost got it," Daniels breathed as he reloaded his rifle and then leaned back out of cover.
The report of a deffgun firing rose above the rest of the noise of combat, and a veritable beam of bullets sprayed across the line of defenders. Daniels and one Sunsworn who happened to be standing a little too high at the moment were reduced to bloody shreds as the storm of ammunition ripped through them, and the rail rifle tumbled onto the floor, blood and bits of cracked carapace armor spilled over it.
Dest growled as his own weapon started burning the palms of his gauntlets, and its flex sheathing started to spark dangerously. "Techpriest!"
"Here!" Gaela shouted as she tossed her melta bomb to the Iron Warrior.
"Just like old times," Dest rumbled as the Deff Dread reached lunging range.
Dest leapt forward and dropped into a roll, bouncing between the Deff Dread's legs as a pincer snapped shut above him.
He surged to his feet the moment he was behind the walker, and then immediately ducked again as the war machine swung around, trying to swat him away.
"Pathetic," Dest snapped as he circled around the walker and jumped at its back, "no Astartes Dreadnought would suffer such a humiliation!"
The Deff Dread swung left and right, trying to dislodge the Chaos Space Marine, but the rear of the walker was covered in piping and cables, supplying plenty of hand holds.
Gripping his target with one arm, Dest placed the melta bomb right on the rear of the engine, twisting the handle and arming the weapon. Then he kicked off the Ork vehicle, landing some two meters away in a crouch.
The Deff Dread flailed about for a moment and then exploded, its entire hull vomiting a massive fireball up into the ceiling.
Unfortunately, while Dest was outside the strict radius of the explosion, one of the walker's arms was flung straight into him, smashing the driver onto the floor. His armor shrieked as he was pushed along the ground, and eventually he came to a stop after rolling into a broken-down cabinet.
Dude! Get up! Get up now! Vel shouted frantically, as if the Iron Warrior might have been planning to lay there and play dead.
Dest pushed himself up, but was immediately swallowed in flame as a pair of Burna Boyz unleashed their weapons on him; clearly the Orks had been further reinforced while he was busy dispatching their armored support.
He pushed on through the pain and fire, driving his claws into the nearest Ork while howling in rage. His vox grille distended into a fanged maw, and Warpflame danced around his body to mix with the burning promethium fuel that had drenched his armor.
He drove further ahead, his senses dulled and his visor breaking down. His fingers, grown into scythe-like blades, ripped through Orkish flesh and bone as he advanced, swinging furiously in a manner far more befitting a Berserker than a pilot.
After four more xenos died underneath his claws, however, his talons shrieked against a metal shell that they could not pierce.
No, wait! Do-over! C'mon!
A fantastic impact struck Dest in the abdomen, and his armor and bones alike buckled as he was thrown hard into a wall. The masonry shattered against his back, and green flames danced in his vision as his life spilled onto the floor below him.
Dude! Duuuuuuuude!
His visor was still flickering and returning false images, but Dest was fairly certain he glimpsed a suit of mega armor standing over him before a power klaw closed over his head.
****
Rarity gasped as another of the pulse bars went flat. A moment later, it disappeared.
"Huh? Did something happen?" Pinkie asked, smiling nervously. "... Are they okay? Girls?"
"No, no, no, no..." Applejack squeezed her eyes shut as she chanted the refrain over and over. Daniels didn't have power armor to provide them with his vital signs, but the sinking feeling in her gut told her everything she needed to know.
"Hurry up and cast the bucking spell!" Rainbow Dash snarled as tears pooled within her helmet. Serith didn't reply, and simply continued his chanting.
"Is it Gaela?" Twilight asked desperately, trying to hold back a hitch in her voice. "Is... Is she...?"
Rarity sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Well. Sh-She... isn't quite-"
A beep from her visor marked the last bar going flat.
Rainbow Dash released a wordless wail of anguish, pounding her greaves into the floor. Applejack slumped to the ground with a sob.
And through it all, the Elements of Harmony glowed ever brighter.
****
Gaela's back slammed into Celestia's throne, smashing the seat apart as blood arced up through the air.
Her right arm came apart completely after she landed, spinning away in pieces. Her power axe bounced down the steps, far out of reach. Not that she could have held it at this point.
Her sockets crackled dangerously, and fluids leaked from her shattered optical. There was a lot of other leaking going on from what was left of the rest of her body, but that didn't seem like something to reflect on in her final moments.
Something seized her head, and Gaela was pulled up to stare at an Ork Nob. Probably. Her vision was going dark very rapidly.
"Da... rk... G-Go-"
Her head was twisted off, and the curse died on her tongue.
"Oi, dis iz a noice wun," the Nob mused as he looked over the Techpriest's severed head. With a happy grunt, the massive Ork reached over his shoulder and jammed it onto one of the spikes jutting out over his armor.
"Gud lootin' heah!" another Ork cackled as he picked up the blood-spattered rail rifle on the ground. There was something written on the side, but the message was mostly obscured by the remains of its previous owner.
"Oi! Step up, ya gits!" barked another Nob as he hoisted a maul. "Gaffta's boyz sez da bakk way iz brohk. Dere'z still sum mo squishies in heah!"
"Den let'z git da ress of 'em," chuckled the Nob in mega armor.
****
Rainbow Dash wasn't feeling completely clear-headed at the moment, but when she heard the sound of hefty footsteps coming down the hall her senses snapped into focus and she jolted upright.
"They're coming!" the pegasus snarled as her targeting auspex came alive. "I'm going to kill those green freaks!"
"Ah reckon ya got a point, Dash," Applejack said through clenched teeth, pushing herself up, "there ain't nothin' 'tween us and the greens, now. No point in sittin' here."
Celestia looked alarmed as the other ponies nodded in silent agreement. She couldn't see the expressions of most of them, but Twilight and Pinkie both seemed to be shifting from expressions of stunned sorrow to incandescent rage. Even Fluttershy was standing up and priming her grenade launcher.
Sucking in a deep breath and bracing herself, Celestia fed power into her horn. A cascade of pain wracked her mind, but she managed to fend off a threatening surge of magical power before a barrier of golden light formed around her and the Elements of Harmony.
"Wh-What? Hey!"
"Princess?"
Celestia shook her head as her horn sparked. "We must complete the spell, or all is lost! I will hold them off as long-"
The door to the Hall of Elements was smashed out of the doorway as a Nob punched his way into the room. It seemed they were out of time to prepare.
Serith groaned. "This is it, then," the Sorcerer groused.
"How much longer until the spell is complete?" Celestia asked, clenching her teeth while Orks poured into the room and started spraying bullets into the barrier.
Serith shook his head and let his arms fall to his sides. "There is no time. We have failed," he hissed, "... again."
"Then let us OUT!" Rainbow shouted as ammunition rained against the barrier.
"Princess, please," Fluttershy said, her voice surprisingly firm in the face of being overrun and murdered. "We have no choice. We have to fight."
As the others tensely debated their immediate fate, Twilight's mind was elsewhere. Specifically, her attention was on the lead Nob, fixed on a single grisly trophy mounted on his shoulder. Gaela's head. Taken as a trophy.
Because that's all that people were to the Orks. Just targets to offer brief amusement with their deaths. Trophies to be gathered and shown off. There was no significance to anything their enemies did, no ultimate goal of all the Orks' warfare, because warfare WAS the objective. Gaela and everyone else in Canterlot had absolutely no importance to them beyond something else for them to bash for fun.
She hadn't really explored the concept too deeply before, but now, when faced with her decapitated friend's skull mashed onto a spike, she found it absolutely INFURIATING.
Deep within Twilight's heart, something dark was suddenly borne of the connection between creatures that she called friendship. Twilight knew hatred. Pure, burning, white-hot hatred of the sort that consumed souls and drove worlds to extinction. And she embraced it.
A loud CRACK came from the Element of Magic when a fracture appeared over the face of the gemstone. Despite the noise of Ork guns and guttural laughter, Serith and the other ponies heard the sound quite easily. As they did the whispered growl that came after it.
"Die..."
"Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked, stepping away.
"Die."
"What are you doing?" Serith asked, the first inklings of true confusion and fear leaking into his voice.
Twilight's eyes blazed a solid white, and purple lightning exploded from her horn as she suddenly floated above the floor with no aid from her flight pack.
"All of you! JUST!! DIE!!"
What happened after that would later be disputed by the other ponies in the room. In part because the events happened more or less simultaneously, and also because the raw psychic energy spilling over from their dear friend caused a few spontaneous hallucinations and brief blackouts.
First, Celestia's barrier popped like a soap bubble. Not because it was pierced, but because Twilight had just sucked its constituent magic energy up in an instant. Every bullet flying at the ponies and Iron Warrior turned to water and was blasted away, and the Orks' guns turned molten in their hands.
The lead Ork, the Nob that had so earned Twilight's personal ire, was ripped straight in half, mega armor and all, from crown to pelvis. Two more Orks behind the first simply combusted. Another was compressed into a space roughly the size of a golf ball. The last had his heart turned into stone while the rest of his body remained flesh and blood.
In the space of two eye blinks, all the Orks in the room were dead.
"T-Twilight?" Celestia asked, her voice trembling. "Twilight! What's going on?!"
Twilight didn't hear her. She didn't see her mentor either, as she looked around the room. Everywhere she looked she saw streams of energy: souls, radiation, stray thoughts, daemonic observers. She saw Serith's spell writ large across the floor, saw its intricacies and inefficiencies, and saw the holes in it.
Great arcane circles spun around the tip of her horn as she straightened the patterns and filled the holes.
The Elements of Harmony fed power into Twilight like a river, and she sucked up every spark. Two random daemonic spirits that just happened to be nearby - immortal souls older than time itself - were suddenly obliterated completely as their energies were unwound and dragged into the pool. Twilight gathered thrice the amount of power needed for Serith's machinations, and then she pushed it all into the enchantment. She dipped her mind fully into the crude psychic social consciousness of the Orks, and then she unleashed the Sorcerer's evil upon them.
And then, with a feeling of the deepest, most sickly satisfaction, she felt them die.
****
Canterlot City - city shelter access
"The shelter! Get in the freaking shelter!" Breezy Blight shouted before vomiting another stream of gases in a wave in front of her. Green fumes mixed with green flesh as bullets rained against the vault door, briefly obscuring the combat beyond.
After a moment, Rot Blossom came limping out of the combat, her head wobbling back and forth dizzily. Blood oozed along a trail behind her, and her bolter had evidently been ripped off at some point. Which didn't matter so much since they had long since run out of ammunition anyway.
"C'mon! Hurry!" Breezy shouted.
Kiss lanced a Nob through with a spear of luminescent green magic, and then turned around into a gallop.
She didn't make it very far before another Ork lunged at her, smashing his choppa into her leg and tripping up the unicorn.
Kiss quickly levitated a pair of discarded choppas up off the ground to defend herself, but the moment she turned her head toward her assailant he struck his axe blade against her visor.
"Bloody thug!" Poison Kiss yelled as her lens cracked and her targeters vanished. Even so, several choppa blades descended on the Ork at once, digging into his thick, waxy hide. Kiss ran as soon as the alien staggered, her armor servos squealing against the extensive damage it had suffered so far.
A Nob in mega armor went sailing through the air across her path, and the unicorn barely ducked in time to avoid getting clipped by its flailing limbs. The hefty Ork hit the ground and bounced away, eventually slamming into a Deff Dread wreck.
"Hey! You two coming?" Kiss shouted over to the final two defenders as she retreated.
Big Mac snorted angrily as bullets shook his armor, and he turned to slam his weight into another Nob. The Ork gave way from the impact, and Mac shifted enough so that he could get in a back kick.
His augmetic leg struck the Ork like a cannon shell, and yet another alien warrior went sailing over the plaza.
"Macintosh!"
Luna's voice briefly shook Big Mac out of his enraged trance, though it was difficult to hear the Princess over all the gunfire and Ork battle cries.
"Proceed to the shelter with all haste!" Luna demanded. Her Iron Gage swung forward again and again as the Orks swarmed toward her, sweeping them aside ALMOST as fast as they were replaced. Her horn flashed constantly with bolts of red, searing away more of the green horde and keeping them from surrounding the Princess.
Big Mac was momentarily distracted by her call to fall back, and was brutally returned to reality as a deffgun ripped into his side. Bits of ceramite and shards of living metal scattered onto the ground, and he was completely bowled over before another two mega-armored Nobs rushed at him.
One of the Orks reared its power klaw back, only to be smacked aside by a crackling black gauntlet.
"Macintosh! Stand! Please!" Luna gasped as she shot the other Nob with a blast of crimson magic. It staggered, but its own armor proved too strong for the attack. Lesser Orks were swarming over her completely now, grabbing onto her flight pack to hold her down and seeking chinks in her armor for their blades.
A different Nob charged up to the Princess of the Night, pushing through his underlings as her weapons and attention were elsewhere. He clamped his power klaw around Luna's neck plating, and the hydraulic piston hissed as the pincer blades dug into the ebony sheets of adamantium.
Then Luna flinched. Not because there was an alien warrior trying to pinch her head off, but because she felt a surge of horrible magic wash over her. The hateful wave of energy sent a chill down her spine, and she could feel the daemon within her armor similarly unsettled.
And then the Orks died.
They fell in droves. Not like puppets with their strings cut, but rather as if each individual Ork had suddenly lost its will to live and simply stopped. Most of them staggered about for several steps before keeling over, and a few that had been caught mid-charge actually continued running even while their weapons slipped out of their hands. A mega-armored Nob stomped over Big Macintosh as its eyes went blank, and then it kept going until it tripped over the stallion and fell over him. The Nob attacking Luna slumped forward and leaned against her breast plate as he died, his klaw still wrapped tight around her neck.
After a few seconds, the last echoes of blazing gunfire had faded, and the plaza was still.
"... Huh. Area secured," Poison Kiss remarked, "bully!"
"... Eeyup."
****
Canterlot Castle
Trixie shuddered while she trotted back to the Hall of Elements, still feeling the cloying energies of the sorcerous ritual clinging to her horn. The sensation was intensely uncomfortable, but undeniably preferable to getting hit with bullets.
This comparison was increasingly relevant as she approached the central hall, stepping around the many green corpses scattered around the floors.
Trixie ducked under a silent Killa Kan and then hopped over the fallen halves of a mega-armored Nob that was behind the doorway to the Hall of Elements.
"Well, I guess we won!" Trixie said brightly as she entered the room. "... Uh... we DID win, didn't we?"
Her confusion was understandable. The other power-armored ponies had their helmets off and were in varying states of extreme distress. Pinkie Pie was curled up into a ball, her hair having spontaneously turned straight and limp. Fluttershy was hugging Rainbow Dash as the latter mumbled miserably to herself. Rarity was sniffling as she re-did her makeup. Applejack had her hat tilted down over her face. Twilight was outright sobbing as Celestia draped a wing over her back.
Only Serith didn't seem to be completely miserable. He stood stock-still in the middle of the room, on top of the flickering Chaos Star on the floor with his arms at his sides. He stared forward at nothing, apparently oblivious to the turmoil around him.
Applejack glanced up at Trixie, blinking away tears. "Yeah. We won. They're dead." Then she scowled. "At least 'til the NEXT tin boat full o'green filth shows up lookin' fer a good time. But fer now? Sure. We beat 'em."
Trixie glanced about the room, and she cringed when she noticed a particular head mounted on an Ork's trophy spike. She could guess what everypony was so sad about now.
"Well, Trixie hates to be the bearer of more bad news, but the Sunsworn that helped Trixie didn't make it. Kind of a funny story. Did you know that Orks are masters of disguise?"
Rainbow Dash let out a wordless growl, and Fluttershy jumped away before the blue pegasus bucked out at a decorative statue and smashed off its leg.
"... But Trixie will save that anecdote for later," the blue unicorn mumbled, walking gingerly up to Serith, "so, are we moving out now? Trixie's pretty sure the city is clear. Hay, Trixie wouldn't be surprised if you brain-blasted every Ork on the continent."
She stared up at Serith, who continued staring forward.
Trixie took a moment to remove her helmet, and then frowned up at the Sorcerer. "Hey. Hey, Serith? You awake?"
The others turned toward the Iron Warrior in confusion, and Twilight took a shaky breath as she looked over the Chaos psyker. She hadn't really been focusing on the Sorcerer since completing his spell and recovering from channeling enough magic power to turn an army to dust, but now that she thought about it, Serith hadn't said a thing since she had done so. Was he stunned speechless? Or had she somehow accidentally knocked him out?
"Serith! Yoo hoo! Don't ignore Trixie!" the blue unicorn groused, banging one armored hoof against Serith's leg plating.
The leg buckled instantly, and Serith teetered over onto the floor. Trixie leapt back in surprise as the Astartes armor crashed against the ground and came apart, as if it were an empty suit of plate mail.
Which it was, apparently. The arms and legs of the armor suit bounced away from the torso piece, splitting apart into their component segments. Serith's helmet rolled across the ground before the gaping equines, offering them a glance as its obviously hollow interior. Eventually it bumped into Twilight's hoof and stopped.
"... What?" Trixie asked, trembling in her suit as she stared at the empty pieces of armor. "What... what just..."
The other ponies didn't know what to say, and were just as shocked as Trixie was. None of them had the slightest idea of what had happened to the Chaos Sorcerer.
"Well, then. That's it," Applejack slumped back onto the ground, her armor cracking the flagstones with its weight. "Serith's gone. Ah dunno how, but he's gone. It's over."
Trixie started backing up slowly, shaking her head and looking increasingly horrified. "But... he couldn't... he didn't..." She stumbled and fell onto her rear before tears started welling up in her eyes.
"Solon said he needed Serith to stop the Orks," Rainbow Dash said with a bitter snort, "so, what now? He's dead. They're all dead. Orks win."
Princess Celestia pursed her lips anxiously as she watched her ponies fall deeper into depression. She had been as shocked as everypony else to see Serith collapse like one of the decorative armor suits in the hall, but she was also far more pleased at the immediate survival of her capital city and its citizens.
"We must not lose hope," the white alicorn declared, "even as the humans fall, we will not let their deaths be in vain. There IS a way to overcome this threat. If the Warsmith has a plan, then let us hear it; we may be able to manage without the Sorcerer."
Applejack looked up at her, doubt clouding her eyes. "Ya really think so? Ah mean..." she trailed off as her voice cracked.
"I realize that we have been wracked by loss, ponies," Celestia said grimly, "Tellis. Daniels. Serith. Delgan. Dest. Farian and my Sunsworn. But they all fought and died to give us a chance to strike back, to overcome. We have done so here, in Canterlot. We can do so again. Harmony WILL prevail."
The other equines hardened their expressions and dried their tears, nodding silently to their sovereign's words of encouragement.
All except Twilight.
"Why?"
Celestia blinked, and glanced down at the smaller alicorn. "Why? Why will harmony prevail?"
Twilight's eyes were fixed on Serith's helmet, and she stared at her reflection in the gleaming crimson lenses. "No. Why was it them? Why is it the humans that die for us?"
Celestia glanced at the other Elements of Harmony, but they looked just as confused as she was.
"Why is it that Chaos fights and suffers?" Twilight demanded, staring up at her mentor with a rather unsettling expression of determination. "In every battle, no matter where it is or what's at stake, they're always there, dying! Why? Why did Gaela and the others come with us?! Why did THEY have to die defending Canterlot?"
Celestia took a step back uncertainly.
"Why have they lost some three or four thousand lives for us ponies? What did we do to deserve that?" Fresh tears crawled down her cheeks again as Twilight placed a boot on Serith's empty helmet. "I wanted to save Canterlot, but... why did it end like THIS? This isn't their planet! This isn't their war! Why do they keep dying?!"
Celestia took a calming breath as her student and fellow Princess stared up at her adamantly.
"They die because that is the path they chose, Twilight," Celestia said softly, "because they embarked on this twisted, bloody journey, even knowing that it would consume them." The white Princess gestured to the pieces of Serith scattered on the floor. "The sapien magic-users know full well that they risk a most horrible fate each time they use their powers. The cultists know that they've consigned themselves to being the pawns of the Dark Gods. Even the mercenaries, little more than fodder to their commanders, have selected this path knowing well where it was likely to lead. Yet still, they march eagerly to battle. This war is no accidental calamity thrust upon them, as it was to us. They came to this planet to kill, conquer, and plunder, and to perish for that cause if need be. They chose war. That is why they die."
The other Elements of Harmony were nodding sadly, but Twilight was unsatisfied.
"Then what about US?" she demanded. "What can we do? Is this all the use we are to them? Magic batteries for their dark rituals?"
"Not anymore, we're not," mumbled Rainbow Dash as she bumped aside Serith's left gauntlet.
Celestia shook her head. "We can make use of their sacrifice, Twilight. We can finish their struggle. We can ensure that their power, terrible and tainted as it is, serves a higher purpose." A sad smile crossed her muzzle. "It was you, Twilight, who first proposed such a thing. Back when my fear had overcome my judgment and I thought this was impossible."
Twilight Sparkle looked down again, her eyes darting over to the Chaos Star ripped into the floor. Green arcs of energy still crackled softly along the impression of the rune, and it still radiated an impressive amount of psychic power left over from the recent ritual.
"No," Twilight decided, "that's not good enough." Celestia wasn't the only one quite surprised to hear that rebuke.
"But... what are we supposed to do?" Fluttershy asked nervously. Honestly, Twilight was starting to scare her.
"Life and death are but biomechanical conditions, and the psyker can act as the switch between the two," Twilight quoted Serith's earlier assurance as her eyes narrowed, "all you need is power."
Celestia's eyes bulged. "What?! Twilight, no!"
"Chaos has the means. We have the price," the purple alicorn said as her horn started to glow, "once again."
"Twi, are you serious?" Rainbow Dash looked like she didn't know whether to be enthralled or horrified.
"Twilight, wait!" Celestia pleaded as her student's aura built higher and higher, sucking in the ambient mana in the room. "You have no idea how dangerous this is! Even if it were possible to bring them back, the Elements just aren't that powerful!" Bits of shattered masonry and scattered bullets casings started floating at random all around them, caught in the intense magical power swirling through the room.
"We'll see," Twilight hissed as her eyes again went solid white. The Element of Magic flashed brilliantly, spewing motes of magical light like a fountain. The Star of Chaos came alive with green fire, and Trixie could swear she heard deep, throaty laughter coming from somewhere nearby.
Fluttershy gulped. "Twilight... good luck."
"Sit tight, girls," the purple Princess said as the stone under her hooves started to ripple and deform just from its proximity, "I'm going to go get our friends back."