Strange Bedfellows

by BRBrony9

A Thunder 'Cross The Land

Twenty miles from the city, the retreat came to an end. Vehicles slewed to a halt, tanks turned and pulled up behind hillocks and trees, gun barrels bristling and ready for action. Men leaped down from the rear doors of Chimera transports, taking up defensive positions as best they could manage on the sweeping plains north of Fillydelphia, the city they had abandoned. No swift victory here; the promised capture of the city would have to wait. The orders had come down to fall back, so that was what they had done, thousands of men and hundreds of vehicles, getting ground between themselves and the Daemon which had derailed the entire attack by its mere sole presence.

Those who had witnessed the orbital bombardment lay waste to the countryside had looked on with horror as the creature emerged unscathed from the hellstorm which had been unleashed upon the land. For many, the retreat order had come as a great relief; leave the fighting of that thing up to someone else. But others wanted to fight, felt it was the right thing to do, the only solution. Chaos had to be fought and defeated wherever it appeared and whatever its form, surely? Never mind that the orbital strike had failed; enough determination and grit shown by the men on the ground would be enough to overcome any foe. That was how humanity had been winning its battles for millennia; sheer manpower, throwing wave after wave of infantry at any problem until resistance finally buckled under pure weight of numbers and massed firepower. There was little finesse involved with most Imperial operations, simply because it was usually easier to just hurl entire regiments into the meat grinder until something gave than it was to come up with suitable alternatives. Sometimes, even a foe as great as this Daemon had been overcome in such a manner. It was mankind's speciality, because men were its greatest, and most disposable, resource.

There was concern among the ground forces as to what exactly was being planned, if not throwing them against the creature. Orbital strikes had failed- what other options did they have? They possessed no great minds who could fight the Daemon one on one in a mighty battle of wills, no Inquisitor with some sacred relic giving him impossible strength, no member of the holy Astartes who could take immense punishment and dish it out in even greater quantities in return. If they were not going to be the ones to strike back, then who would be?

So, with an air of confusion and fear reigning across the newly established Imperial lines, they waited, digging in as best they could. They had come equipped for a rapid assault and for city fighting, not for holding a defensive position out in the countryside. There were few sandbags on hand, though plenty of earth to fill them with. There was no razor wire, no mines, only personal entrenching tools and no heavy, cumbersome daily rations. They were not meant to fight a defensive battle, but if truth be told, none of that preparation would likely make any difference against the Daemon, and all of the men knew it. If it continued to pursue them, all they could do was to pray and rely on whatever plans that high command were making. Surely they were making plans, weren't they?

Princess Celestia had proceeded to Luna's chambers after her conversation with the Lord-Admiral. There, she had explained the situation to her sister; the attack on Fillydelphia had broken down. The arrival of the Daemon to the material plane had been keenly felt by the younger sister as well as the elder, and Celestia had explained that it seemed to be the most likely explanation for the disquieting feelings they had both been experiencing.

'So what is to be done about this creature, sister?' Luna questioned. 'You said the humans have already attempted to use their most powerful weapons on it, and they have failed. How do they plan to defeat it if their weapons do not work?' the younger sibling asked.

'There is a simple answer to that, at least in theory,' Celestia replied. 'They plan to use me.'

'You, sister?' Luna frowned.

'Yes.' Celestia nodded. 'I offered my aid to them if it became necessary. I believe they now deem that to be the case.'

'But sister, this creature must possess great power. It would not be wise for you to attack it alone,' Luna pointed out. 'No matter what the humans might desire.'

'They lack anybody of sufficient magical power...psychic power, as they call it. The Admiral believes that only one in possession of power that is of a similar nature to that of the Daemon will be able to face it down in combat with any hope of success. I see no reason to doubt them on that point, given that the same tends to hold true here in Equestria,' she pointed out, with memories of Discord and, poignantly, Nightmare Moon coming to mind, and the power of the Elements, still rendered useless by the missing link in the possession of Chrysalis.

'But what if they only want you to fight the Daemon because they believe you will fail against it?' Luna asked. 'If they want to remove you as a potential threat to their fleet, then what better way to do so? That way they do not have to sacrifice any of their forces in an attempt to defeat you.' Luna could not bring herself to say kill. The thought of losing her sister, not just for a thousand years but for good, was one that the younger sibling could hardly convince herself to think about even in passing. Her long years on the moon had taught her more about love and family than she had perhaps learned during the rest of her lifetime, and the biggest thing she had learned was how precious it was, and how you should do anything to hang onto it, to protect the ones they loved, even at the cost of sacrificing yourself, if it became necessary.

'I have thought about that possibility,' Celestia assured her sister. 'But I do not believe it would be the case. If I were to be defeated by the Daemon, then they would still have to deal with it themselves, and they have shown that their weapons are ineffective against it. I do not know how much of a threat it might pose to their ships in space, but it most certainly poses a grave threat to their forces on the planet, otherwise they would have already taken care of it.'

Luna nodded slowly. 'That may be the case, I suppose. But I would urge caution nonetheless, sister, both because of this Daemon and because of the humans that wish you to fight it. I will come with you.'

'No,' Celestia replied swiftly and firmly. 'You must remain here.. You will be in command while I am away, and, if necessary, you will take the the crown and become sole ruler of Equestria.'

'Do not talk like that, sister,' Luna pleaded. 'Do not go, if you fear you may not return. Do not do these humans' bidding for them.'

Celestia accepted that the pony military could never stand against the Chaos forces, which was why she had stuck with the tentative alliance, building up trust with the Imperium, but in the process also being keen to demonstrate her own personal power, without overtly threatening the humans. Just enough to let them know that she would not simply roll over and let them take the planet, and that she had the power to back up that confidence. She needed them, but they, as far as she could tell, did not really need her. Captain Soren, the first Imperial officer to make contact with her all those weeks ago, had practically admitted that humans were an expansionist, greedy race who were out here on a mission of conquest, far from their home planet. They were not necessarily seeking resources, but merely power, stability, and control over what they deemed to be their galaxy. Once the Chaos forces arrived, their intentions changed, but what Celestia did not know was how long their new purpose would last before they reverted to their original plan of conquering whatever lay before them. She did not relish the thought of having to fight the Imperials; after all, Lord-Admiral Marcos seemed to be a man of honour, at least on the surface, and he had lived up to his end of the bargain so far, even going as far as to provide specialist cleanup teams to aid Canterlot's recovery from the fallout.

The Chaos forces and their Daemons, however, were anything but honourable. They had murdered and despoiled their way across Equestria, butchering anything and anypony which lay in their path, regardless of whether it was a threat to them or not. Vicious brutality on such a level was all but unknown in Equestria, with even the greatest villains of its history stopping short of such atrocities, with the possible exception of Chrysalis and her Changelings, who had been happy to rape and murder their way through the occasional village when conducting a raid, but nothing on the scale unleashed by the human Archenemy. Manehattan, the largest city on the planet, had been virtually wiped out, emptied of its entire population, save for a few thousand who had survived in the surrounding countryside. Hundreds of thousands of innocent ponies had seemingly been slaughtered en masse, with no regard for any of the norms of warfare which Equestria knew.

If all that had been carried out by what amounted to the rank and file of the Chaos armed forces, and this Daemon represented the elite, the commanders manipulating the strings behind the scenes, the ones responsible for such barbarism, then what did that suggest about the fresh horrors that the creature might unleash upon the land now that it was here in person?

'I am not going because they want me to,' Celestia replied. 'I am going because it must be done. Consider the alternatives. There are only two. Either the Imperials abandon us, break the alliance and flee, leaving the planet to the Daemon and its followers, in which case we will have to fight it anyway, along with whatever else it is able to unleash on Equestria if it is allowed to take root here. The other alternative, based on what we know about the Imperium of Man, is that their fleet will attempt to destroy all life on this planet, hostile or otherwise, to try and deny it to their Archenemy. If that happens then I believe I can destroy their ships, but I do not know if I can destroy them fast enough to salvage anything on the surface.'

Luna listened to her older, wiser sister explain her reasoning, and as usual, she was correct. The Imperials feared Chaos above all else; this Daemon seemed to be a kind of anathema to them, sending their forces into an immediate retreat almost as soon as it was sighted, according to the information Celestia had relayed to her from the Lord-Admiral. What they feared, they would not hesitate to destroy, and if there was no other alternative left to them, they might indeed resort to destroying the planet, or the biosphere, or whatever the most extreme method available to them might be. That included ponies. Luna knew that, apart from Celestia's control over the sun, ponies possessed no means of taking out the human ships so long as they remained in space, which meant she had to stay alive at any cost to have any leverage over them. But if she did not fight the Daemon, then who would?

'Let me go in your place, sister,' Luna replied. 'Equestria can function without me It did so for a thousand years. But without you...you are their figurehead. I am just a princess, but you are The Princess. They need you. I need you.'

'No, Luna,' Celestia replied. 'You must stay. You are not yet fully recovered from your wounds. I will not let you risk your life against this Daemon in such a state.'

'But I am supposed to just sit by and watch you risk yours?' Luna cried, raising her voice to her sister in a rare showing of anger and dismay. 'I am fit and well, sister, I am recovered and you know I am. Please, do not be so stubborn as to do this alone. Perhaps this creature cannot defeat you. But perhaps it is special, perhaps its powers are different. It is not from this planet. Perhaps you will be vulnerable to it. Take me with you, or at least take Cadence, or Twilight, or Shining Armour, or anypony who can fight! Take the whole army!'

Celestia shook her head. 'The army would be more a hindrance than a help, Luna. Twilight is not yet recovered either, Shining has duties here as Guard Commander, and Cadence is not as well trained in using her magic for attack as you or I. I must go alone.'

Luna sighed, looking down at the stone floor of her chamber, the rich carpets long since torn up and burned by the Chaos occupiers. 'Then at least promise me you will not continue the fight needlessly. If you fear the Daemon is too strong, then flee. Either that, or call for aid. I will come.'

'The humans will be monitoring the fight, I am sure,' Celestia replied. 'I will instruct the Lord-Admiral to relay a message to their communications team here at the palace if I make a pre-arranged signal. I promise I will call for aid if I need it, sister, and if necessary, I will abandon the fight. But somebody has to confront this Daemon, one way or another, and I will do what needs to be done.'

'I know you will, sister,' Luna nodded. 'You always do. That is why the ponies love you. Just remember that they love you because you provide for them and care for them, and if you are gone...then perhaps the will to rebuild our very civilisation will go with you.'

The sensors of the Emperor's Judgement closely tracked the progress of the Daemon. It had proceeded onward across the plains, to the spot where the Imperial forces had halted initially, some eight miles outside of the city of Fillydelphia. There, it had halted, for reasons unknown to any of those aboard. The Magi of the Ferrus Terra could offer no explanation either. Perhaps it merely recognised the spot where its quarry had halted, and for some reason, symbolic or pragmatic, had decided to stop at the same location. There it had remained, giving the ground forces something to be worried about, some some time, before turning and floating back toward the city itself. There, it remained, hovering above the rooftops like some sentinel, keeping lookout for an unknown sight that it wished or expected to see.

The gunners in orbit stood by their guns, awaiting any possibility of receiving commands to repeat their performance and send down another barrage in an attempt to snuff out the Daemonic presence below, but no such orders came through. Instead, high command issued orders to the ground troops to stand by, with the possibility of another rapid push forward into the city should the Daemon be removed as a threat. How exactly that might come to pass was not made clear to the commanders on the ground. It did, however, become clear soon enough.

With a dazzling flash of light, something else appeared in the sky near to the city. In contrast to the mottled grey and blue palette of the Daemon, which resembled that of a corpse, the new arrival was a brilliant, pure white. Most of the ground forces could not make out what exactly had appeared at such a distance, and most would not have recognised it if they had. But some commanders and vehicle gunners could peer through their magnoculars or thermoscopes, and get a much clearer view. Those who had fought at Manehattan recognised their former saviour.

Princess Celestia spared a glance down at the city of Fillydelphia It seemed to be intact, mostly, with little visible damage to the majority of the buildings. The factories of the National Armoury appeared to have suffered hardly any external damage, though what they might be like inside she could only guess. She returned her attention to the sole reason for her presence above the city.

The Daemon had already turned to face her. It was reptilian in nature, a cross between a lizard and a bird, though its slightly hunched appearance gave it a passing resemblance to Discord, another so-called Lord of Chaos who had, eventually, been overthrown and imprisoned. It had feathery wings, slit-like eyes and a scaly coating on its wiry body. It was slender and smooth, like a snake, and considerably larger than Celestia, towering above her, but mere size did not intimidate or impress her. The Daemon held a long, crooked staff in its right claw, a shape not entirely dissimilar to that of Queen Chrysalis's horn, with some kind of glowing crystal or orb embedded into it at the top. It was clad in ragged robes that hardly seemed worth the effort of wearing, and its rows of serrated teeth were bared in her direction.

'I have been expecting you,' it hissed, its voice surprisingly lilting, almost sing-song, not the deep baritone that might be expected from such a large creature, yet still carrying clearly across the sky between them, or perhaps it was partially being played inside of Celestia's mind. 'Either you, or the other one. One of you had to come, of course. There was no other choice. You are the one they call Celestia, yes?'

'That is correct,' Celestia replied, her wings beating steadily. 'And to whom am I speaking?'

'It would take many days for me to state my true name,' the beast replied. 'Even if I did, you could never comprehend it, nor speak it yourself. Your kind will know me as Malaranth the Infinite.'

'Your name and whatever titles you choose to give yourself do not scare me, Daemon,' Celestia retorted. 'I am Princess Celestia, sovereign of Equestria, and you are in my land. I suggest you leave.'

The Daemon chuckled, a dainty sound. 'I am afraid that will not be possible, Princess. Not until my Lord Tzeentch decrees it. Which, of course, he may do at any time. After all, everything is always changing.' To prove its point, Malaranth was no longer a lizard creature before her, but rather some kind of anomaly in space and time, a swirling vortex of blue and black, lacking a mouth yet continuing to speak. 'Everything is always changing,' it repeated, 'whether or not an individual is aware of it. You would be surprised how much even the smallest of changes can divert the course of history from its original strand and its original destination.' Malaranth changed back into its true form, stroking its chin as if pondering some great philosophical question.

'If everything is changing, then why not change yourself and leave?' Celestia asked. 'Otherwise I will have to make you leave by force.'

'I am prepared for that eventuality, of course,' the Daemon replied with another chuckle. 'It would be interesting to match wits and skill with you. I must admit to being somewhat fascinated as to why you refer to your psychic powers as magic. I know the Imperials here also share that curiosity.'

'You can call it what you wish, Daemon,' Celestia answered it directly. 'We call it magic, and I can give you a practical demonstration if you desire. I will ask one more time. Leave this place and do not return.'

'That will not be, I'm afraid,' Malaranth flapped its wings once. 'As I have explained, I am here because Lord Tzeentch has decreed it. It has long been written, and although everything changes, some things also stay the same. It was my destiny to be here on this day. It would take far too long to explain why, even to one such as yourself who cannot die of old age. It may not kill you but I am certain it would bore you.'

'This Lord of yours, why does he wish you to be here?' Celestia asked. 'What purpose do you hope to serve?'

'Merely to keep you from interrupting his plans. There are contingencies for that, of course, everything is mapped out. But it would be so much more convenient if you were to be persuaded to change your approach, either peacefully or by force.' The Daemon's wings flapped again, perhaps in anticipation of a coming battle.

'What are his plans? Perhaps I will agree not to interfere,' Celestia suggested. 'I care not for your quarrels with the Imperium.'

'Do you not? That is odd, considering you have formed an alliance with them,' Malaranth replied pointedly. 'Why would you do such a thing if you did not share at least some of their aims?'

'My only aim is to protect my citizens and their homes,' Celestia replied angrily. 'Your kind have invaded our land, not just from the stars but from the very fabric of reality itself. Now there is another of you. Why?' she demanded. 'What do you want here?'

'The same thing that Lord Tzeentch wants everywhere,' the Daemon explained. 'Change. Change, no matter the cause or cost. Change that may alter a single fact, or cause mighty empires to fall, or to rise. Change is the ultimate, the alpha and the omega. Everything changes, Princess. Everything changes.'

'Meaningless,' Celestia pointed out. 'Change is the natural order of things. Entropy. Why would you or your lord need to physically be present to make it happen? Just let the universe run its course and your lord will be happy enough.'

'You misunderstand, Princess. Natural change is pleasing enough, but my Lord Tzeentch is change. The denizens of this universe may believe they are living their lives according to random fate, or according to the will of their own gods and leaders. But in reality, they are dancing to the tune played by my Lord behind the fabric of their existence. Neither you nor I are immune from that fact. Things were set in motion many centuries ago which led to this moment in time, this exact course. For mortal men...or ponies...the upset of one's schemes may come as a deep shock, may cause anger or pain or suffering. But for my Lord Tzeentch, a failure is but another form of change.'

'Then accept that change and leave this place!' Celestia repeated her demand to the Daemon. 'If it does not matter to your lord, then go back to where you came from. I am sure he will have other orders for you to carry out elsewhere.'

'On the contrary. My orders were broad and general, and this moment in time was always destined to be, the result of a million other different changes over the years,' the Daemon explained. 'But one does not simply abandon the task decreed by Lord Tzeentch. If a plan fails due to outside interference or some natural phenomenon, then so be it. But to fail to even try and carry it out would be a dereliction of duty of the most egregious nature, and would result in a rather...unpleasant end to one's career, and one's life.' The Daemon chuckled grimly. 'That is why I cannot simply allow you or anyone else to meddle unrestricted with the plans of Lord Tzeentch, or with my own, through which I carry out his will.'

'Then I shall have to force you to leave,' Celestia replied. 'If you will not change your mind, then I shall change it for you.' IT seemed there was no prospect for any more negotiation. The Daemon, though it has spoken eloquently, would have to die.

Celestia's horn flashed, and unleashed a beam of pure energy, aimed like an arrow straight at the heart of the creature, or at least where she assumed its heart would be. A thunder rolled across the land.

Comments

[OneAmongOthers]

Titans of might and magic clash in the ultimate struggle.

[Booster Spice]

I still think Discord played along with Starlight banishing him from the school. She probably didnt even use power equivalent to a secondary Hellbore. This guy, its all the change and illusion. Even if you want to have a chance of your attack intersecting with him, you got to aim where he going to be where it connects, as Lord Teench says?

And what does Lord Teench say about mysterious cupcakes appearing mysteriously?

Nothing else, just a cupcake. Right there. Totally unpredictably.

[BRBrony9]

10148673
I imagine Tzeentch would be very pleased with such an unpredictable event changing the course of history!

Never thought to include Pinkie's random powers to this story- curses! Maybe in the next one.

[RDDash]

And then Equestria achieved change due to Celestia dying. Tzeentch is pleased.

[sykko]

Celly, don't argue with one of the thralls of the indecisive squid, all you'll get is a migraine.