++Astropathic Choir Intercept ZY023, Kyne’s Fury 3.729.873.M39++
++Message to Inquisitor Tas Rovini++
++ Transcript Appended++
Thought for the Day: By the manner of their death we shall know them.
My Lord,
We are finally getting somewhere of true and immediate significance in the debriefing of this creature. I am pleased to report that I was able to wring several more important bits of information from the xeno today, albeit with some difficulty, due to the ever-irritating mental derangement. The mental effects of this trauma, even so far removed from Equis III, are proving annoyingly resilient. And I worry that this creature’s willingness and/or ability to talk is close to reaching its end. Hopefully, they will be followed shortly by its wretched life.
++Interrogation the Sixtieth++
Setting: Cell 59XBA. Cell remains as brightly lit as ever. A human continuously exposed to this degree of lighting would have developed severe ocular problems by this point. Xeno is curled up on bed.
Twilight Sparkle: Don’t let them get me… Don’t let them get me… Don’t let them get me…
Kylara: Twilight? Are you alright?
TS: Huh? Wha- Oh… Oh, it’s you, Ky. Hi again. [The xeno stared at me for an abnormal period after this. It never blinked.]
K: Twilight, can you…
TS: Talk to you? YOU BET!!! [The manic grin on her face was more than a little unnerving.]
K: My thanks.
TS: Whadda ya need?
K: I still need to hear the rest of your story. Millions of lives are depending on-
TS: *incoherent screaming*
K: Twilight! [It took me three minutes to get her to cease screaming and rolling around on the floor. I worry that forcing her to recount the story this way may be unraveling what’s left of her mind. I suspect she maintains what little sanity she has by suppressing the memories.]
TS: Oh… Oh… Where were we?
K: Spike had been… taken, I believe, was the word you used?
TS: Yes… Yes… That’s right. [The manic grin appeared again.]
K: Do go on, please.
TS: Right. Well, my friends and I were scared, see? You know how it is. Everypony was freaking the buck out and Spike vanished. I wanted to go and tear the world apart until I found him, but as a princess I had a duty to lead. With Mayor Mare dead and Ponyville obviously compromised, I had to get everypony to safety. The safest place in Equestria… well, that’s obviously Canterlot! Everypony knows that! [Emperor, that grin sends chills down my spine. And I’ve seen the grins of men possessed – literally.]
K: Uh huh.
TS: So anyway, my friends and I and some other ponies managed to get the train started up. There’s a railway from Ponyville to Canterlot. Only a few hours ride. Fastest way of moving that many ponies. So we loaded everypony up into the cars. I would stand with the drivers up front to make sure nothing happened to them. Rarity and Fluttershy mingled with the passengers. Pinkie Pie took the coach. Rainbow Dash and some other brave pegasi flew around the cars. Acted as escorts and scouts, see? That way nopony could sneak up on us while we evacuated.
K: I see.
TS: Nopony could sneak up on us! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! [Random switching between laughter and sobs did not do much for my opinion of her mind.]
K: Please, continue.
TS: Yeah, so, we set off with all of Ponyville crammed into little train cars. Everypony was scared out of their brains, but they trusted me! After all, I was the hero! The princess! I’d see them there safely myself, then I’d go find Spike! Great plan! But then it was all dark!
K: What do you mean?
TS: Well, clouds don’t move themselves, silly! But suddenly there were a lot of dark clouds overhead, blotting out the sun! It was mid-afternoon or so at that point! I thought about trying to get some of the clouds out of the way, but then I remembered that would take a long time. There were an awful lot of them, you know?! So I asked some pegasi to go up there and take a look around! They didn’t come back! Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!
K: Are you… feeling alright?
TS: Never better! Why?
K: … No reason. Continue.
TS: So anyway, Rainbow Dash got all mad and stuff. Said she wouldn’t be cowering down here with us while the others were in danger. I tried to talk her out of it but she wouldn’t listen. So she went up there too. Hee hee hee. And she didn’t come back! Fluttershy was crying. And so was I, I think. I wanted to go help but I couldn’t just leave hundreds of ponies by themselves. They might have gotten lonely! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! So, yeah, we had reached the mountains where Canterlot was. Lovely place, really. You should see it sometime, Ky!
K: … I have seen it, Twilight.
TS: Really? Hunh. Guess it must have slipped the ol’ noggin! Hope you liked it!
[I honestly had no idea what to say here, with the obviously deteriorating mental state of the xeno, so I opted for silence.]
TS: Now, where was I? Oh yeah! We were starting to climb the mountain when one of our pegasi came back and said somepony had been awfully naughty. They’d torn up the tracks ahead of us! So we had to hit the brakes! It was close, but with a bit of magic everything worked out in the end! The train didn’t go careening off the side of the mountain with everypony still inside! Hee hee hee! So I had to get everypony out of the train cars again. We had to walk the rest of the way to the city!
K: I see.
TS: Yep! But that’s when I saw those… fly-y thingies.
K: Fly-y thingies?
TS: Yep! I could see Canterlot in the distance. With a bit of magic magnification, I saw some weird thingies swooping in and out of the clouds above it! They were firing something down at the city. Inconsiderate of them, wouldn’t you say? But somepony was firing back, and eventually they went away. I saw one of BBBFF’s shields go up! It was pink, just like at the wedding!
K: These things. Describe them.
TS: BBBFF…
K: Twilight… [I knew this creature well enough to see something coming.]
TS: BBBFF!!! NO!!! NO, DON’T TAKE HIM! PLEASE, NO! HAVE MERCY! NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
K: TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT!
[It was, naturally, of little use to attempt to reason with the xeno in its utterly irrational flashbacks. Ten minutes of trying availed me little. Recordings indicate it continued alternating between begging for mercy and fits of hysterical laughter until it passed out from exhaustion hours later.]
++Interrogation Ends++
++Thoughts++
Firstly, here are the new pieces of information on the nature of our enemy. As before, they enemy appears to have had a strong information network in place, accurately plotting the train’s intended destination and heading it off, forcing hundreds of civilians to make a dangerous trek up a narrow path to presumed safety. They would make easy targets for a massacre by ground troops. The same information network allowed them to locate and eliminate any xenos that breached their cloud cover, which was presumably artificially made. Eldar holo-projection, perhaps? Or maybe they had some way of manipulating the existing weather control system?
We have confirmation on aircraft of some sort, though the exact details have yet to be determined. These craft seem, at least thus far, would to be more for strafing and dive-bombing than high altitude attacks, as indicated by the xeno’s comments on “firing back”. Nothing we found in their civilization indicates any proficiency with antiaircraft weaponry. This tells us that the xeno most probably spoke of retaliating with psychic energy blasts, none of which could be expected to accurately hit or damage aircraft very far above the xenos’ collective heads. We can thus assume that the enemy makes use of such variety of craft for preliminary airstrikes on fortified positions. Canterlot, from its ruins, was one of the best defensive locations in the xenos nation, and would have been difficult to attack conventionally without at least softening it up first. We thus learn that the attackers are at least somewhat reluctant to commit to open battle on a defenders’ terms. This is valuable information for us to pass to our commanders. We may also presume the existence of some sort of fighter analogue, which is presumably what eliminated trespassing xenos flyers above the clouds.
This reluctance to commit to a straight attack right off the bat is well within the established combat doctrines of both the Eldar and Night Lords. Neither xenos nor heretic is willing to give open battle, slinking, faithless curs that they are. They know that they cannot stand to confront the Emperor’s wrath face-to-face, and thus hide in the shadows like the cowards they are whenever they can. The Eldar are, at least from my limited experience with their kind, more likely to employ outright airstrikes than the Traitor Astartes, but one should not underestimate the willingness of the foul heretics to do whatever it takes to win.
I believe that, with this new evidence, we can safely discount the theory of a daemonic incursion. Daemons are not known to employ aircraft, having little patience for softening up an enemy before attacking. In any case, it is doubtful that they would have had the time to do so, as they can generally only maintain a foothold in the Materium for a few hours at a time. By this point, the xeno describes the attack as having continued for days. Any daemon army would have overrun the planet or else have been pulled back to the foul hell of their Dark Gods by then. I do not know whether I should take comfort in this new knowledge that the Warp's progeny were not directly behind this or not.
On the subject of the xeno specimen. My Lord, I feel our subject is breaking down rapidly. While the information I am getting continues to be plausible and of some strategic and tactical value, the creature’s mental state cannot be relied upon for much longer. Indeed, it may already be unwittingly feeding us false information via inaccurate or damaged memory. If I keep dredging up its past, I believe it will soon lose all grip on reality. If this becomes the case, even torture will do us no good whatsoever for the purposes of acquiring further information. Speaking as a woman who has tried on more than one occasion, one cannot gain knowledge from a mind that no longer meaningfully functions. I must again request you orders, Lord Rovini. How do I proceed?
Your servant,
Interrogator Kylara
++Message Ends++
Good chapter again. I look forward to see Twilight and her future allies go and buck these wretched Dark Eldars into next week.
I wonder if Twilight gets to meet some Grey Knights sooner or later?
This is strange since this fits no known Xeno or Imperial group. It is my belief that Twilight somehow released this enemy.
No shrines so not Chaos.
Eldar would have no reason to wipe out an entire race of colorful pastel ponies that have no interest in galactic travel, and would only requiring talking to them to get what they need. (Not to mention they don't flay their victims)
Dark Eldar sound plausible but it took them too long and their source of slaves would last longer by raiding then just taking the whole planet (And why leave Twilight?)
Tau aren't even in the right part of the galaxy.
No sign of Nids.
I don't think Hrud would just leave Twilight.
Imperial factions would have notified the imperum, and also don't flay.
Orks are too messy and not patient enough to flay.
So it has to be an ancient evil Twilight revealed or it is Twilight possessed.
4593093 Aren't you forgetting the Necrons? The skinned corpses fits the MO of a flayed one and it was probably Necron Night Scythe ships attacking Canterlot.
There is still the story's picture, the helmet with horns.
Dark Eldars do their deeds for fun, for their personal enjoyment. Seeing Equestrians are rather powerless and defenceless, and have no reinforcements to call, they might want to make it last longer than a raid on an Imperial world with more proper defences, weapons, and Imperial Guards, Space Marines and stuff ready to come in with a SoS.
Looking more and more like Dark Eldar now, I still think the Necrons are a possibility, after all they have the technology to make these artificial clouds and launch airstrikes, and I am unaware of any Dark Eldar possessing such technology. But this style of warfare seems to fit the Dark Eldar more, since if it was the Necrons they would at this point be launching all out warfare on the ponies, but I still wonder what the Dark Eldar would have to gain from taking every animal on the entire planet, when they could have launched continues raids for longer and larger benefits instead.
Well....
Imohtekh the Stormlord, Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty, is called the Stormlord for a reason.....
4593839 the stormlord also leaves at least one of the leadership alive to spread the word of what it did
I'm thinking the bug things were Necron Tomb Blades. Also the none committal to a protracted fight would say the tomb is just waking up and that at the time of the attack on Cantorlot the tomb master computer was running the show.
For those saying nids I cannot see it. Aside from a few one off terror critters, nids are all about hit hard, fast and overwhelm. Also nids don't control the weather, the necrons possibly could.
Tyranids have Venomthropes.
Necrons may have nano-beetles to form clouds.
Dark Eldars have still advanced, warp-using technologies, so they surely must have sort of veils, shrouding clouds or things like that.
4592822 Grey Knights only deal with those who possess knowledge of Chaos, which seems unlikely here.
4594075
They deal with chaos and with all who, willingly or unknowingly, are trying, or going, by their actions, to bring chaos into the material universe. Which may involve xenos.
And the fall of Equestria, of 3 princesses and of 5 bearers of the Elements of Harmony, for all we know, might be the opening of another gate for the Empyrean inhabitants.
I'm just suggesting.
Edit : Official books also state Grey Knights went against Orks once, beheading a Waagh without being seen by the Imperial Guards in campaign.
4592822 I dont think Twilight will leave the ship alive.
Sad but at this point death will be a mercy.
4593363 Forgot to mention them but Flayed one's aren't careful enough to properly skin them, they rip off the flesh and wear it on themselves.
Twilight Described them as flying not gliding, and Night scythes would have fought to destruction and likely would have never stopped fighting.
Also Necrons would never have even left a breathable atmosphere and would have killed Twilight Sparkle.
4595280
The story's synopsis may imply different things will happen.
4601174
The problem with drug therapy is that the Imperium has no knowledge of pony biology, nor any backup specimens. If they had more ponies to go around I'm sure there would be ruthless medical experimentation to see how they react to human drugs, but as is they might accidentally give Twilight something that kills her, making the whole endeavor pointless.
And thanks for the fav! I'm sorry you found it repetitive, but we're nearing the climax now, so hopefully you'll enjoy the next few bits better.
I haven't finished yet, but it's Necrons, right? Strafing fighter craft (theirs cant hover, in game turns), ability to control the weather, and the desire to wipe out all life forms on the planet?
Fits the Necron modus operandi pretty well..
Why does that sound like a suspiciously specific denial?
4664546 It does, doesn't it. Still, I still can't see how cyborg zombies can be as stealthy as they could. Zecora I could understand, but how did they slip into Sweet Apple Acres or the town hall? An animal or whatnot would have seen them
.....okay guys here is a plan...we take a brain...put it in a pc....and put cleverbot next to it and then we will see what happends
Well, seems that Twi is not getting better anymore. Unfortunate, but inevitable when in the custody of the moronic imperials.