The last black crusade

by ThatRarityIsaSpy

The Emperor's new clothes

Sanguinius stared at the ground. Celestia was dead. He had failed.
He had heard the Emperor tell him to ensure to keep that half of Malcador's soul alive.
He had failed.
He had listened to the importance, of her. The knowledge and wisdom that would be valuable to the Emperor.
He had failed.
And now, there was one thing left to do. To kill Abaddon.
Even that he couldn't do. His father disallowed him to engage the warmaster of chaos, fearing for his life. Why didn't Celestia at least receive a warning from Abaddon's power?!
Sanguinius once again realized. This was his fault. He should have at least told Celestia the true power of the despoiler.
He had failed.
He watched only as those who could, battled their way through the ranks of chaos.
He hoped for their best.
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Azrael tore off the head of the chaos space marine and flung it into the ranks of the enemy. It was strange really. He hardly even knew Celestia, even had some hidden contempts for the alien monarch and witch. Yet he couldn't help but feel sorrow gnawing at his heart and burning rage within. Abaddon will pay for this.
"Attack brothers! For tomorrow we die!"

Calgar led his men. Faithful, courageous and honorable cutting a path into the heart of chaos. With their brothers at their side, they struck terror into even the most beserk of the servants of the dark gods.
"The warrior who acted our of honor could never fail! We will not either!"

Dante clove his way past the countless chaos space marines flanked by his honor guard. He was intent on destroying chaos as he had done for the past millennia. When Celestia had been struck by the talon of Horus, he felt it too. He felt the same thing every other blood angel felt. Abaddon dies.
"No one who died in his service dies in vain!"

Gabriel was amongst the first to lead the charge tearing far ahead of even the White Scars and Ravenguard elements amongst their ranks.
"I FEEL NO FEAR FOR I AM FEAR INCARNATE."

Thule stood back with his heavy bolter. He uttered a small prayer to himself.
"The Emperor protects, let none find us wanting."
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Nothing made Tarkus and Cyrus more relieved in the world when they saw the random explosion of all chaos artillery positions.
Ehh? What?
They would of went off to investigate, had it not been the fact they saw a Custodes.
Wait what?!
"Custodes?! Here?!" Cyrus asked. "Then that could only mean....."
"He's hear." Tarkus whispered. "Among us."
The Emperor walked in plain sight within the ruined streets of Canterlot flanked by Luna and his personal band of custodes, the various astartes in Canterlot watched their god walk through the streets amongst them. Stopping to aid a trapped pony.
"My Emperor! I stand before you. I await judgement and retribution for any of my sins." Tarkus said throwing himself at the Emperor's feet. Cyrus soon followed, bowing so low he almost hit the ground.
"There is no need. I do not wish to be referred to as a god."
(Sure he made that edict about a year ago yet no one seemed to take it seriously until he said it himself.)
"As you wish." Cyrus said. "Milord, what have we done to earn your grace?"
"Everything. Cyrus. Everything. Come now, Abaddon is here. We come to finish the fight. We go now. Manus!"
"Right here."
"We go to aid our trapped brethren. We shall not falter."
"No. We will not." Luna said.
Cyrus and Tarkus both didn't have the hearts to tell Luna what had happened over the vox.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Abaddon waved his forces off. He was surprised at how so few men were able to punch a hole in his forces to allow the loyalists to gain an advantage.
To be fair, he hadn't exactly planned for about three companies of terminators, at least a dozen chapter masters and a single alien psyker with powers that outclassed even the best one to his knowledge.

Twilight could only watch as the forces of chaos fell back. She shook her head wondering how many members of the royal guard were remaining and how many astartes had died.
She listened to as Sanguinius and various chapter masters and captains discuss their next step.
Chaos had pinned down pretty much everyone except for this rather large army. The only problem was..... chaos outnumbered them. Four to one.
With most of their brothers pinned down, with the fleet in orbit unable to provide any support, an with a massive army of chaos that numbered almost 250,000 not too far off in the distance.
Needless to say, the situation was bad.
Fortunately, scouts had located and destroyed the site of Ahriman's dark sorcery. It was great relief that chaos would be deprived of reinforcements.
Unfortunately, reports of many great daemons of chaos have already been sighted. Emperor help them now.

"Understand that if you seek to destroy that chaos army, I am forbidden from engaging the despoiler." Sanguinius told everyone, much to Twilight and everyone else's dismay. Sanguinius was the only person would could defeat the chaos warmaster that was with them. Unless another primarch decides to show up, Abaddon would continue to be a grave threat.
"What do we do then? Our brothers have their hands tied, our fleets are cannot provide us with fire support, the imperial guard is defending Terra and reinforcements may be weeks away, what is there left?!"
"Do not doubt the Emperor. He will give us victory."
"I don't doubt the Emperor at all. But I am doubt we can win this battle, badly outnumbered and the only man who is capable of destroying our most powerful foe may not engage him."
"Who said we had to win THIS battle?" Twilight asked.
"Silence wit..."
"Show some respect."
"Listen, I am not from where you're from, but from what I've seen, you have some of the best soldiers in the galaxy here right with you! Draigo, the man who had braved the playground of the dark gods themselves! Dante, the man who with a little help saved the day just recently! Gabriel and Thule, they were there to kill a daemon that could have been as powerful as Abaddon! Azrael, I saw you lead just a few hundred men to save several thousand people. What's to stop you? There just a lot of ordinary mad men. But....."
"But....."
"They lack conviction. Your fighting for your emperor are you not? They are only fighting for.... well, some are fighting just for the sake of fighting, they can't win. They don't even want to win deep down. That's why we'll come out on top. Come on, there's no time to lose. We can't let chaos lick their wounds and get back on their feet."
"And a purple alien becomes the savior of the hour." Azrael muttered underneath his breath. "Come on then. We kill Abaddon and avenge the sigilite.
"Then we go. But we should rest first.... just in case...."
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The Emperor looked up. Luna could tell from his frown that something was wrong. He began to mutter and remained silent once again.
"My friends, I must depart as of now."
"WHAT?!"
"I will return. My orders are simple. At the outskirts of the crystal empire lie many of your brothers. Assist them. I will join you at the final battle. Until then......."
The Emperor disappeared in a flash.
"And we were just getting to the good part." Luna said underneath her breath. "Come on! Follow me. I know the way."