The Dark Ones

by Snake Staff

Calm Before the Storm

++Astropathic Choir Intercept ZY031, Kyne’s Fury 3.735.873.M39++
++Message to Inquisitor Tas Rovini++
++ Transcript Appended++
Thought for the Day: There are no answers. Only death.

My Lord,

Results continue to be mixed. On the one hand, the xeno continues to talk and give us valuable information on what happened to its world. On the other hand, I continue to observe that the process of doing so is destroying what is left of the creature’s psyche. I now fully believe that its mind, unable to immediately cope with the loss of its deity, species, and homeworld in one fell swoop, essentially disassociated the memories as a defense mechanism. Dredging them up is causing it to deteriorate rapidly. From our recordings, the xeno is now reliving the extinction event even when completely alone. Several sessions have ended without my gaining any useful information whatsoever from its deranged ranting. I am no xeno-psychologist, but I estimate it has no longer than perhaps a week or maybe two left before the process ends. At that point, what becomes of the creature will essentially be down to the xeno’s own mental strength and the Emperor’s will. It may or may not survive, retain its sanity, or retain any memories at all

Understand that I bring this up not out of concern for the creature’s welfare, but to allow you time to give me any final orders with regard to it. I intend to squeeze every last drop of useful information from the alien’s mind before it collapses into insanity or worse. As ever, my Lord Inquisitor, I await your command.

++Interrogation the Sixty Fourth++

Setting: Cell 59XBA. Cell continues to be lit at all times. Xeno is curled in a ball on the floor.
Twilight Sparkle: *nervous giggling*
Kylara: Hello? …Twilight?
TS: HI!!! [Here it once again used those wings to get directly in my face with astonishing speed.]
K: Emperor’s bloody arse!
TS: Hey Ky! How ya doin’?
K: I’m… I’m fine. Thank you for asking.
TS: No problem! That’s what friends are for! Did you come here because you wanted to hear some more stories?
K: I did.
TS: Great! I’ve got plenty! There’s the Mare in the Moon, an old favorite, there’s the Knicky Knack in the Everfree for the little fillies out there, there’s that one where Spike and I got attacked by a twelve-headed hydra on the way to Pony Joe’s donut shop, there’s-
K: I need the rest of the story! The one about your planet being attacked!
TS: Oh! Why didn’t you just say so?! Sure I’ll tell you that one! Now, let’s see… where was I…
K: You had just seen your brother place a shield over the capital city from a distance. You were standing on the pathway with your refugees.
TS: Thanks! Now, anyway, I saw that there was a big pink bubble over Canterlot. It reminded me of the one from Shiny’s wedding day! Except that didn’t turn out so well. I remember, when the changelings broke through, I-
K: Twilight, please focus on the events of the attack and not other anecdotes.
TS: Sure thing! So, I knew we still had to get everypony to Canterlot. I mean, we couldn’t just leave them in Ponyville, and where else could we take them? All the other cities are further away! Well, except Cloudsdale, but they’re more a part of our town and were along anyway! Fluttershy was really scared for everypony. She wanted to go looking for Spike and Rainbow Dash. But I told her that we had to make sure everypony else was safe first, or else they might all be killed while we were looking! She didn’t like that, but I managed to convince her to stay with the group. Then we started mountain climbing! Well, it wasn’t really mountain climbing since there was a path up through the area that the train tracks followed, but that’s not the point. But I suppose a pony could argue that any form of unpowered ascent up a mountain is, in a sense, mountain climbing, but-
K: Twilight.
TS: Oh, right! Story! So, up we went! I was taking the lead, like a good princess should. Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy had the back of the group. They made sure nopony fell behind or got lost. We marched up the pathway for a little while. I had a watch with me at the time, and when I looked at it I noticed something. It was past 8:00 at night by that time. But the sun wasn’t set! Even with the clouds blocking it, you could still tell that the sun was up by all the light around us. I remember getting really worried. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence weren’t in Canterlot. With Spike gone, I couldn’t send them any letters. What if something had happened to them?!
K: They rose and set the sun and moon, correct?
TS: That’s right! If they didn’t, then those things would freeze where they were forever! And that would be bad! [Her giggling was once again unnerving, but I am inclined to give her belief system some credence based on the fact that Equis III really has stopped having a moon and sunrise since whatever fate befell their leaders.]
K: Please go on.
TS: So, up we go! We had to go through tunnels in the mountain, and I remember being really worried about that. They were the perfect spot for an ambush. And then there were those fly-y thingies. I saw them firing down at Canterlot already, what if they strafed us? We’d be sitting ducks. I got really scared, but I had to put on a brave face for the other ponies. So I did what I could to light up the tunnels as we passed through, and kept a careful eye on the sky. But nothing happened! I dunno why, but everypony made it to the gates of Canterlot without being attacked. The gate guards were jumpy and paranoid. They thought we might be a trick. I yelled at them, but then Shiny made them let us in.
K: Who was “Shiny”, exactly?
TS: Shining Armor! My BBBFF! Captain of the Royal Guard! [So why wasn’t he guarding the royals?]
K: BBBFF?
TS: Big Brother Best Friend Forever!
K: Ah. Do continue.
TS: Shiny helped get the residents of Ponyville to at least some safety. We had to commandeer a couple of the nobles’ mansions to make everyone fit, but that’s ok because a lot of them were dead already! [Insert hysterical giggling here.]
K: What happened?
TS: There had been a murder spree in Canterlot over the last day or so. Nobles kept disappearing, or even turning up skinned. Prince Blueblood, Fancypants, Fleur dis Lee, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Rousing Speech, Center Stage… A lot of Equestria’s nobility had been eliminated in the past few hours. Shiny had no idea what was going on and the princesses were out of contact. [And yet the leader of the military forces wasn’t targeted by these assassins? Perhaps their information wasn’t as good as I thought.]
K: Go on. What did you do next?
TS: As the only princess on the scene, I was in charge. But Shiny knew the Royal Guard a lot better than me, so I let him make the plans and just added in a few bits here and there if I saw the need. I told him about what had happened in Ponyville. The murders and bombing had stopped since he put the shield up, so that was something. We were trying to organize defenses and maybe search parties when a pony ran up from the walls. He made us go look out through Princess Celestia’s magic telescope. I felt kinda bad about doing it without permission but Shiny said it’s what she would have wanted. That’s when we saw… them. They were coming.
K: Who were coming? Describe them!
TS: No… No… No…
K: Not again! Not now!
TS: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!
K: Damnit, out with it you xenos filth!
TS: NO!!! DON’T TAKE THEM!!! HAVE MERCY, PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!!
K: EMPEROR DAMN YOU ALL TO THE WARP!

++Interrogation Ends++

++Thoughts++

While this session was not as productive as I was hoping for in terms of identifying the enemy, we did at least acquire new pieces of the puzzle. The enemy apparently had access to the xenos capital city well ahead of time, but either avoided targeting or chose to pass over the leader of their military, while destroying most anyone capable of mounting a political challenge to him. This suggests one of two things: either their intelligence is not so great as I had believed… or else they wanted the military command structure intact. If the latter, we must puzzle as to why. The Orks might do such a thing so as to generate a better fight. The Eldar might do it for the sadistic thrill of the act, or in accordance with bizarre alien designs. The Night Lords might do it because that’s what the voices in their heads told them to do. I strongly believe that the attackers chose to avoid killing this Shining Armor, seeing as how their intelligence was good enough to time the attack for when the most powerful psykers of the race were away from their stronghold and to continuously harry the xeno specimen’s party for as yet unknown reasons.

In related news, the fact that the xenos column was not attacked on the way up the mountain is yet another mystery. We know for a fact that the attackers had aerial assets in the immediate vicinity that were capable of attack runs on ground targets. Nothing in the description leads me to believe that these were shot down. And yet they chose to ignore a perfect chance to eliminate hundreds of enemy civilians in one swift stroke. We must consider why they did this. We can dismiss out of hand any high-minded humanitarianism, considering the unprovoked attacks already visited on this same group. Similarly, arguments that it was done purely for resource conservation fail in the face of local geography. I have seen that path with my own eyes, heavily damaged and worn though it was. Any army with even a small amount of aircraft could have turned that area into a killing field for the xenos. That they did not do this, in conjunction with their puzzling failure to eliminate the enemy military leadership leads me to one inescapable conclusion: they desired to make a fight of it. Victory in and of itself was not enough; they wished to win on very specific terms. This is highly valuable information on our enemy’s psychology, which we should not hesitate to use.

Though I do not yet know what happened next, I believe it safe to presume that there will be a battle very soon in this story. I will continue to press the subject for all available information until her mind gives out. And, as ever, I await your reply, Lord Rovini.

Your servant,
Interrogator Kylara
++Message Ends++

Comments

[DenyTheWitch]

Dark Eldar, it has to be Dark Eldar

[Fallenmoon]

I"m thinking Necrons Still lead by the unholy combination of Trazyn the Infinite and Illuminor Szeras,Trazyn you be able to take Celestia, Luna and Cadence in one fell swoop with minimal fuss and would stage a last stand to get what was left of the canterlot defenders for one of his displays and Szeras would simply take everyone and everything else. The Dark Eldar would cleanse a planet, they would keep the populace in terror for years or decades using small hit and run raids. My only real question, where's Discord?

[Mad Maudlin]

4601894

I'd love to see what would happen if she tossed out "We had a Chaos God who made it rain chocolate milk".

[Fallenmoon]

To quote Yoda "End well, it would not."

[DenyTheWitch]

4601894 But Necrons would have no need nor would they have any desire to prolong resistance, they're all about results, part of the transformation, they wouldn't just leave shining armour around so there would be a fight. And Trayzn would be no exception, he wouldn't need nor want the ponies command structure to remain, since the stronger the resistance, the more chance of them damaging his display.

And yes, where is Discord?

[Fallenmoon]

Would Discord be a Chaos God himself or a Greater Deamon?

[Dragolord19Delta]

I say... It was Twight. She finally went around the curb and Fell to Chaos.

[Black Hoof]

4602509
Yes. One morning, Twilight woke up to realize there was not enough milk left in her library. Then she communied with the Chaos gods and ran out of the library, bellowing :
"MILK! MORE MILK FOR KHORNE FLAKES!!"

[PrismShift]

4601816 I agree. Attacking a world like Equestria, especially in this drawn out manner, is just sadistic. And since I cannot think of too many resources the planet could provide to most 40k factions I have to opt this is a pleasure raid of a small but powerful Cabal. Attacking the ponies would A.) provide unique slaves from the few I imagine they'd take alive (something tells me pony-souls could nourish a feeding eldar for awhile as they seem so unguarded against vile torture) and B.) for the 'lols' as Equestra is a fairly weak world that praises values directly opposite of the Dark Ones. Oh, 3.) The story is called the Dark Ones and we know it's a 40k crossover, not a Metro 2033, so that's another point for Dark Eldar.

My guess is mandrakes have been carrying out silent, swift attacks on the ponies to sow terror until the Cabal(Kabal?)'s main force could strike and raid- the bombardment Canterlot is facing right now.

[Dragolord19Delta]

4602648
No someone destroyed a book.

[thefluffyone]

4601894

Replace Trazyn with Imotekh the Stormlord and I think we may have it.
Imotekh is notorious and unique among the Necrons for engaging in psychological warfare as well as literal warfare.
Thus, making the seemingly all-powerful deity rulers of the ponies disappear would be a major blow, as well as the murder and skinning of nobility and the Element bearers. Also, Imotekh is proud, and wants the galaxy to know when he was the cause of something, which is why he tends to leave a survivor, usually a high ranking one, to spread the tale. The fact that the survivor may have been broken to the point of insanity may not have crossed his mind.

And as for Illuminor Szeras? Like I and other's have said, that megalomaniac genius is always on the look out for more test subjects.
And this could be an easy substitute for Eldar subjects, as they are his most favored subjects.

[Goggari]

4602102 Discord is Malal

[theunbalancedone]

Anybody else starting to wonder if this Lord Rovini that these messages are being sent to is even receiving them? I just get the impression that Kylara is just sending out requests for further instructions and is getting no responses. Of course that's assuming this is something new that may be a legitimate threat to the Imperium.

[Snake Staff]

4606808
While I usually like to keep people guessing, I'm just going to come out and say that this is not true. You're only seeing one side of the correspondence, but Kylara is getting messages back from from Inquisitor Rovini. For example, at the tail end of "Reversal" Kylara asks for orders, and at the start of "Progress" notes that she has received them.

[Rakaziel]

4602076 Except is he wants Shining Armor for his collection.

[DenyTheWitch]

4608216 Then he could just abduct him, keeping him alive in the middle of a battle increases the risk of Shining armour becoming damaged or killed, not to mention makes it even more difficult for him to take Canterlot.

[DenyTheWitch]

4602873 That's a good point
But for the insanity, Imotekh also likes to cripple his opponents, he could very well have left Twilight psychologically tortured on purpose.

[darklight731]

I feel like this enemy will be something new, or at least different. The way they act is odd.