• Published 20th Oct 2013
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Strange Bedfellows - BRBrony9



MLP/WH40K Crossover- An Imperial Crusade discovers a remote planet and its unusual inhabitants, but it soon becomes clear they are not the only ones whose interests lie in Equestria....

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Standoff

Celestia's expectation turned rapidly to shock, and then to horror. She had expected to gaze upon her sister once the fireball had cleared away. She had expected to see her flesh and blood, her most beloved Luna returning from her second, and much shorter, banishment away from Equestria. Instead, she found herself staring at her old foe, a foe already believed defeated.

Queen Chrysalis.

There had to be some mistake. It had to be an illusion, perhaps something projected into her mind by the Daemon. She knew it could speak to her inside her own head; it had done so before. It was quite on the cards that it might be able to show images in much the same way. Illusory tricks seemed to be something of a forte of the creature, given some of the things it had tried while fighting Celestia down in Fillydelphia. That was what it had to be, surely. After all, Chrysalis was dead. She had been pounded by the human starship's most powerful weapons, a barrage that Celestia herself had watched from the bridge. It dwarfed anything that ponykind or any of its allies or enemies could hope to unleash without using Alicorn magic or something of a similar grade, and the ships had been firing dozens, maybe hundreds, of guns, each of which was designed to split a mighty starship open, to destroy the greatest war machines produced by the Imperium and her enemies.

Malaranth, however, did not appear to be taken aback by the apparent appearance of the Queen. That certainly lent credence to the theory that the Daemon was responsible for this apparition. That was the simple solution. The more unlikely, and more worrying, theory was that this was no illusion. This was no trick of the light or mental projection. That this truly was Chrysalis herself, somehow still alive against all the odds. If that really was the case, then...

'Ah, we meet at last, Queen Chrysalis!' Malaranth spoke, baring its teeth in what appeared to be an approximation of a warm smile. 'Imagine, the two most powerful creature in Equestria, facing each other once again...'

Celestia glanced rapidly between her two enemies. Malaranth yet again showed its strange ability to know about things which it had not yet encountered. It had never come across Chrysalis directly, yet knew her on sight from one source or another. Or perhaps, it was all in Celestia's head; the Daemon could be somehow reading her thoughts and using them to recreate a spectre of Chrysalis in order to distract the Princess from the fight that really mattered.

'Stand aside, creature!' Chrysalis answered in a suitably booming voice. 'My quarrel is not with you, but with her!' She glared in Celestia's direction, eyes blazing with hatred from her old foe. 'Do not stand in my way, or you will regret it!'

It was a convincing illusion, to be able to speak, but again that could be inside her mind. What could not simply be imagined was the blast of magic that erupted from Chrysalis's crooked horn and ripped through the sky toward the Princess. She managed to barely move out of the way, taken by surprise by the whole event and nearly caught in her confusion. She felt the heat and the movement of air as the magic passed her. That was definitely real.

'Such insolence would be quite refreshing, if I had not been hearing the same things from the Princess,' Malaranth commented. 'Come, Your Majesty. Consider the serendipity of your quest thus far. The sudden arrival of this fleet, infiltrating the Imperial craft...alas, it failed at the last, but that was due to unforeseen meddling, no?' Chrysalis turned with a snarl toward the Daemon.

'What are you babbling about, creature? Who are you?' she demanded. 'I have been denied my vengeance for too long to be sidetracked listening to you!'

'Perhaps you should listen, though, Your Majesty,' Malaranth chuckled. 'We could have a very productive arrangement, you and I. After all, it is no coincidence that you were able to achieve the first of your goals. It was merely bad luck that your mission did not succeed. Interference, as I said, from outside sources...' The Daemon looked around to Celestia.

'And what interest do you have in my plans, creature?' Chrysalis questioned, narrowing her eyes, slitted pupils boring into those of the Daemon.

'A great deal, Your Majesty,' Malaranth chuckled. 'A great deal...my name is Malaranth the Infinite, and my master foresaw just such a thread of fate as this. He anticipated what great power you could obtain.'

'Your master?' Chrysalis sneered. 'I bow to no master, nor to any mistress!' She looked over at Celestia, as the Princess floated at a safe distance, though still easily able to overhear their conversation. 'Celestia learned that once before, and she will learn it once more today!'

'I am sure,' Malaranth nodded, twirling its staff idly in his clawed hand. 'But would you rather fight both of us? Or would you prefer to have an ally on your side? After all, my master and I have foreseen your rise thus far. It would be an exaggeration to say we have masterminded it ourselves- that was your doing, Your Majesty- but we have hewn the strands of destiny, shall we say, to aid you.'

'Lies!' Chrysalis snarled. 'Why would you do such a thing? Who is this master you prostrate yourself before? You are a Daemon, yes? From some other dimension? So which of your dark lords do you obey? Tzeentch, is it?'

'Most perceptive indeed, Your Majesty,' Malaranth replied. 'Clearly the knowledge you have gained extends beyond that of your Imperial foe. Alas, your pronunciation is lacking, but it is difficult for any born outside of the Warp to speak our tongue correctly. You are correct, however. That is my patron, yes. The Changer of Ways, and he and I are both very interested in you and your kind. You and I desire the same thing, no? Power. Power is what you seek, and power is what we crave. We love the fickle nature of it, how easily it slips from one's grasp, how it can build and build and build, yet how it can be snatched away cruelly by those who decry it, those who believe that power corrupts, yet are all too willing to take on the mantle themselves after overthrowing their rightful masters...'

'Get to the point, Daemon!' Chrysalis snapped. 'You are going to make me some kind of offer, hm? To offer me assistance if I in turn will do your dirty work for you? Is that the long and short of it?'

'In a crude manner of speaking, yes,' Malaranth replied. Before he could continue his sentence, however, he was interrupted by a forked blast of magic, a twin-pronged golden arrow from the blue as Celestia resumed her attack, striking at both of her enemies at the same time in the hopes of catching them off guard as they engaged in conversation, usually a most incongruous thing to be doing in the middle of a warzone, yet seemingly commonplace whenever this Daemon was involved. He had a rather loquacious tongue and a propensity to use it, and Celestia was tired of hearing him talk.

It seemed clear to her now that this was indeed the real Chrysalis. Despite what she had seen with her own eyes, despite what the human bridge crew had agreed with, and despite what their sensors had confirmed, Chrysalis had not been killed by the immense barrage; all of that firepower, all of that energy, had proven to merely be a fantastical light show.

Celestia could offer a guess as to exactly what had happened afterward. The vast debris field left by the destruction of the Emperor's Judgement provided Chrysalis with somewhere to hide. The Imperials had promised to conduct a full and thorough search of the debris, in order to recover Chrysalis's body and her crown- a small additional favour requested by Celestia. She claimed it was a touch of vanity on her part, recovering a trophy from her deceased foe, her symbol of authority, in order to publicly display it to her own populace. In reality, she knew that Chrysalis was wearing the Element of Magic, and its recovery was still crucial. As Celestia looked up at her now, she could see that the Queen was indeed still in possession of the diadem which rightly belonged on Twilight's head, not on hers.

Evidently Chrysalis had been able to evade detection; either that or the humans had not bothered to comb the debris after all. She could have easily disguised herself as a human member of the ship's crew and then floated dormant, just another frozen corpse so far as the search teams would have been concerned. Perhaps she felt the time was right to strike, or perhaps some body recovery team had been about to collect her. For whatever reason, she had remarkable timing, to come in like a comet, streaking down from the sky in the middle of the battle for Canterlot. She was heedless of the potential danger of flying down into such a maelstrom, and that was a sign of either arrogance or, perhaps, a supreme confidence in her abilities and her power.

That confidence was clearly displayed when her shield sprang up, and easily deflected Celestia's attack. Malaranth teleported away, and Chrysalis laughed.

'Is that the best you can muster, Celestia? Where is your sister, hm? Has she abandoned you in your hour of need? Or did you have to banish her to the moon again?'

'Chrysalis! You had your chance to leave this planet,' Celestia replied. 'You had your chance to be something more. You failed. Why not abandon your quest? Listen to me. We may be enemies, but this Daemon, these creatures...they have invaded this planet, and this planet, like it or not, is your home as well as mine. We can put our differences aside long enough to fight and defeat them.'

It was a plea that Chrysalis, no doubt, would say smacked of desperation. Celestia would never offer a hoof to the Changeling Queen, not after all she had done. Not unless the Princess were truly desperate for assistance. In a way, she was; the Imperial forces were more than capable of, eventually, overrunning the Chaos ground troops. But the flood of Daemons, and their mighty leader, posed a different question, to which Celestia and her sister so far had not been able to find an answer. Loathe as she was to admit it to herself, Celestia had to accept that Chrysalis was now more powerful than she was. Something had empowered her, and she seemed to be getting increasingly stronger between meetings. It seemed that Twilight was correct. What she had been told by the Queen, and relayed to Celestia, seemed to be the case. Chrysalis's plan, exposure to more and more beings, was indeed growing her power, and the crew of the Imperial flagship had perhaps supercharged her. According to the Lord Admiral, the crew complement of the Emperor's Judgement was one million, four hundred thousand and fifty. If Chrysalis had been able to siphon off love energy from all of them, then that would be a huge boost to her power over what was available to her on the planet. Depending on the range of her magic and abilities, if she and her drones could obtain love from all of the other ships of the fleet as well, then it could increase her power tenfold.

'Now you wish to be friends, Celestia?' Chrysalis chuckled. 'How delightful that would be, hm? It would be as though we were fillies in elementary school. We could frolic in the grass and pick the petals from daisies. Or perhaps I could kill you instead!' she snarled, unleashing a blast of magic. Celestia swung to the side, flapping her wings.

'Think about it, Chrysalis!' Celestia urged. 'You can fight me all you wish, but if this Daemon and its Lord are stronger than you, then like it or not, you will fall under their sway, or you will die trying to resist them. You said it yourself, just now. You do not bow to any master.'

'Yet you wish me to obey you?' the Queen laughed. 'You are as delusional as you are conceited.'

'I do not wish you to obey me,' Celestia answered. 'We would fight as equals to banish this threat, and then, if we must, we shall fight each other once more. If you kill me but you fall to this Daemon, what will you have gained?'

'Nothing, you are quite correct,' Chrysalis replied. 'But if I kill you, and kill this Daemon as well? I will gain everything! Everything, Celestia. All that was once yours, and so, so much more. Can you even imagine? You don't know what it's like. You do not know what is truly out there, do you?' She laughed happily, as though they were the two proverbial fillies she had just mentioned, imagining what they would be when they grew up. 'You have not seen the reality of what I have seen. Every human I touch broadens my horizons. Every human my drones touch expands our collective knowledge. Everything you may have heard about their Imperium, their empire? It's all true, and more. So much more, Celestia! And it can all be mine!'

Celestia shook her head. 'You're the one that is delusional, Chrysalis. You are but a single Changeling, and you want to conquer the galaxy? You could not even conquer Canterlot, but you want to take millions of worlds?'

'Yes! And each one that I bring under my control will bring me more and more power! And the more power I obtain, the more worlds I shall take.' Chrysalis licked her lips in anticipation. 'Imagine the glory I shall bask in, when the entire galaxy is under my sway!'

'And how do you plan to get there, when the ships you controlled have been destroyed?' Celestia asked her.

'There are more ships up there,' Chrysalis pointed out. 'They are just watching and waiting. You do realise, don't you, that once their mission is complete, the Imperials will destroy you. Whatever is left of Equestria will be wiped out. It's in their nature,' she explained. 'If I could share with you the knowledge that I possess, you would see it to be true. They do not permit other species to survive, not if they pose any kind of potential threat. And you and I pose a potential threat to them, Celestia. They know this. Did you know that they have pony prisoners up there? Oh yes, Celestia, and not just prisoners. They are dissecting ponies to try and learn the secrets of our magic. They have some of my children as well. Perhaps you are partially correct. Perhaps we have a mutual enemy, but it is the Imperium of Man.'

Celestia had to admit that she was not entirely surprised to learn that the Imperium were apparently torturing and killing ponies. She knew that they had a somewhat adverse reaction to magic; apparently it conflicted with their belief that such things were heretical, yet it had proven most beneficial to them. It had saved their entire fleet, after all. The Imperials had fought and died alongside her ponies to protect Equestrian cities, to save Equestrian lives, however, and she could not simply throw that away; she certainly would never do so on the words of Chrysalis, a hated foe. Perhaps, years earlier, Celestia had made a mistake in turning the Changelings away. Maybe she had been afraid of the potential of the Queen and her power, but if that had been the case, then right here and right now, she was being proven correct. She should have been afraid.

'Whichever course you choose, Chrysalis, you will end up dead,' Celestia assured her. 'Either by my hoof, or through the actions of the Imperium or of Chaos. Do not be deceived by the words of this Daemon. It does not care one iota for you or your kind.'

'And neither do you,' Chrysalis sneered. 'You have proven that time and again. You want to eradicate us all. You want to wipe out my entire species, don't you, Celestia? You want to commit genocide to correct a slight, or perhaps merely to prove yourself right in your decision all those years ago. I told you before, and I'll tell you again now. You missed your chance. We could have been allies, yes. We could have even been friends. But that ship sailed long, long ago, and now, I'll speak the truth. You were right to be afraid of me.'

'Perhaps you were both right to be afraid of each other.'

Malaranth reappeared, floating above both royals. 'Consider that you are undoubtedly the two most powerful beings to live on this planet. If you were to work together, with my help...imagine what you could both accomplish! I have approached you both with offers of assistance. But together...together, we would form quite the unstoppable trio!' The Daemon chuckled effeminately. 'I heard what you said, Your Majesty. The Imperium is indeed your true enemy. They have tried to exterminate you, and Princess, they have used you for their own ends. Queen Chrysalis is quite right. Once they have achieved their goals, they will turn on you in a heartbeat. It is always the same when it comes down to it. They will murder you in cold blood just because you are a different species to them.'

'And how, pray tell, is that different from you?' Celestia asked Malaranth.

'Because I have come to uplift you. To aid you in seeing the truth. Our true enemy is the Imperium,' Malaranth replied. 'Not you.'

'Tell me you do not believe this, Chrysalis,' Celestia pleaded. 'This Daemon wishes to destroy you, and you are here alone against thousands of its kind.'

'Alone?' Chrysalis chuckled, a sinister smile on her face. 'I am not alone...'




From the east, they suddenly came. A black mass on the horizon, cresting the mountaintops, heading straight for Canterlot like a storm cloud. But it was no storm; it was a mass of Changelings, thousands of drones. Perhaps it was all that remained of the entire species, or perhaps it was merely an attack force. Evidently those aboard the Imperial ships which had been destroyed were not the last of their line- nor had the jungle Hive destroyed by the Equestrian Navy been the last hideout of the creatures. It had been empty; these drones must have been holed up somewhere else, somewhere equally difficult to discover, biding their time and waiting to be summoned by their Queen for one purpose or another.

The city's air defences, tied up with both Daemons and enemy aircraft, were caught by surprise at the sudden arrival, unable to react effectively even if they had been aware of the attack. There were too many drones to be effectively engaged, and as soon as they crested the mountain peaks, the Changelings began to spread out to minmise the effectiveness of any high-explosive rounds that might be hurled their way as they dove in, coming down on top of the city like a swarm of locusts.

They were not only after the ponies, but instead showed themselves willing to attack anything in their way, Imperial, Equestrian or Chaos alike. It mattered little to them, and it seemed all they wanted was to fight. Chrysalis clearly had some plan, either pure vengeance or something more intricate, but it added another dimension to the fight for Canterlot. No longer was there just a single enemy force for the defenders to deal with; now they had to defeat two.

Everybody was taken by surprise at the Changeling arrival. There had been no warning, only a brief few minutes since Chrysalis appeared on the scene. Her arrival had been reported to the headquarters from ground units, relayed across the city where possible, but she had arrived alone. Nobody had expected her to be suddenly joined by thousands of her minions. The surprise was even greater for the Chaos ground and air forces; they had never encountered the Changelings before, never had to face them in battle. At first, many Chaos troopers thought that they were friendly, just another sub-variety of Daemon being unleashed on the city. Their expressions soon turned to confusion and horror as they found themselves under attack by what they had imagine to be friendly.

In the headquarters, deep inside the palace, the arrival of the Changelings sent shockwaves through the command staff. Princess Cadence was adamant; she had to get out there and help Celestia. With Luna gone, and now Chrysalis returned as well as the Daemon, Celestia would surely be overwhelmed, she argued. Shining Armour and Major Barritt argued against it just as vehemently; she was needed to protect the palace. If the shield went down, there was nothing to stop the enemy from bombing the place to rubble, or the Changelings rushing in en masse, overrunning the HQ and massacring the civilians. That would be a disaster, and most likely lead to the loss of the entire city to one or other of the enemy forces.

It was a dilemma that could not be resolved easily. The Princess could, perhaps, handle herself against two foes, but if not, then she was in serious danger, and by extension, so was everypony else. Even if they held the city, losing Celestia would be a crippling blow to pony morale, and to any realistic chance of holding what remained of Equestria together. Cadence had her own direct responsibilities in the Crystal Empire, and Luna was too divisive a figure to act as the true, sole leader of Equestria in the absence of her sister. Many ponies held her responsible for her own actions as Nightmare Moon, even if Celestia didn't, and though there was no true overt resistance to her reintegration into society and the ruling structure, there was a large undercurrent that would surely lead to the splintering of Equestria if she were to take power. Of course, that relied on her actually still being alive.

Finally, with Shining Armour's pleading, Cadence agreed with her husband. She would stay and protect the palace, and the Imperials would shift more resources into trying to defeat the Daemon and, now, Chrysalis as well. With more troops being funneled into Canterlot, and the bulk of the Chaos armour being systematically wiped out by orbital strikes in the valley below, the tide would no doubt turn soon enough in terms of the ground war. But unless someone, or somepony, could defeat the two hostile leaders- three, counting the Sorcerer Lord Parthax- then all of that might be for nought.

Just as the fight below, so the fight in the air rapidly turned into another melee, a three-way standoff with great power being unleashed on all sides. Chrysalis was clearly not content to listen to Malaranth's words or accept his offer of an alliance- she did not trust him any more than she trusted Celestia. She split her attacks equally as a result, and proved to be a worthy foe indeed. Malaranth had kept an even keel fighting Celestia, finding that neither of them could break through each other's defences. But Chrysalis fought with an entirely different approach, and a different form of magic, and moreover, she was more powerful than Celestia.

'My, Your Majesty, how you have grown!' Malaranth chuckled as it deflected a blast from Chrysalis, unable to stop it entirely. 'Are you sure you will not take me up on my offer? Imagine how powerful you could become with the whole Imperium open to you.'

Chrysalis replied with a laugh, teleporting away from a shot from Celestia and firing off a ball of magic at her in reply. 'Once I defeat you both, then I will be free to pursue my own aims once more! I do not need your help, Daemon!'

'Ah, and yet, Your Majesty,' Malaranth replied quickly, 'You have already been the recipient of it.'

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