Following the defeat of Chaos. Kaldor Draigo, the edge of his sword, is assigned on a paticularly dangerous task to foil a nefarious plan of the dark gods.
Following the defeat of Lord Abaddon, Kaldor Draigo, the edge of his sword, is assigned on a paticularly dangerous task to foil a nefarious plan of Khorne, the blood god.
Of course, Draigo get's to work with a certain lavender unicorn. Much to his dismay.
While that, The Emperor, begins to plan for his next big thing.
A slap in the face to the dark gods, it will be. Takes place after "Splinter in his side"
The Emperor sat atop his throne, his eyelids becoming ever more heavy.
Why not? There isn't much going on as of now. He had given the order to the Grey Knights to destroy Huron hours ago. He was going to have to wait on their word.
He didn't sleep often. Perhaps as much as only a few minutes a day, but it was refreshing, especially for one who hadn't slept in 10,000 years.
Closing his eyelids completely, the god allowed himself to drift in a peaceful slumber that he had denied himself for all these millennia.
He regretted it instantly. He saw it again. Time and time again, he always saw it.
Pandemonium.
Far within the rapidly shrinking eye of Terror, one world remained unclean and malevolent.
A daemon world, dripping with the vile energies of the warp. Owned by the Dark god Khorne.
The Emperor saw this all from a bird's eye point of view. The legions of daemons and chaos space marines, The Blood God once again found use for many of his slain champions, and though hated to do it, used the vile sorcery at his disposal to make them rise.
Without doubt, an army this size would pillage hundreds of planets with ease before being stopped.
That was it. The blood they could spill would empower Khorne to once again make a move on the material universe.
That could not happen.
This all of course, faded when the Emperor woke up to find himself on his throne, with nothing of interest having happened.
Aboard his flagship, Lufgt Huron waited. He entertained himself by glancing over at the skulls that adorned his trophy rack. The skulls of several champions of the false Emperor who had been sent to kill him.
The doors were flung open and the mutilated remains of the hamadrya were flung into the room, followed by the severed heads and limbs of Huron's personal bodyguards.
"Welcome." Huron said as he rose from his throne and grabbed his axe, watching his foe enter the room. "I see the false Emperor has sent me another worthy opponent."
"Too bad it can't be said for the same for my case." The Grey Knight replied. "I give you one chance. surrender and your end will be quick and painless."
"You threaten me?" Huron asked. Amused. "Me? The greatest champion of the Dark Gods?"
"I threaten you. Do you know who I am?" The Grey Knight asked.
"Another champion of the false Emperor who is all to full of himself?"
"Fool. My name is Kaldor Draigo! And my name will be the last thing you hear! After I have killed you, tell your dark gods that I am coming for them next!" _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"I have received word from Draigo, sire." Cypher said to his master. "Lufgt Huron lies dead. His army shattered."
"Very good! I knew the Grey Knights could do what needed to be done against our arch-enemies."
"Grey Knights?" Cyhper asked. "You mean, you sent an entire team?"
"Yes.... at least two dozen of them to kill Huron."
"The story was.... it was just Draigo. He fought his way through Huron's entire ship and slaughtered every last one of the blackheart's men before finally killing the devil himself."
"Impressive....." The Emperor said. Deep in thought. He tapped the edges of his throne for a second before returning to the present. "Tell Draigo that I won't be needing him for some time. Make sure to tell him he did well."
"As you wish."
"Get me Luna." The Emperor whispered to one of the custodes. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Same dream?" Luna asked as she met The Emperor in his personal quarters.
"No. Not a dream. A nightmare."
"It must really trouble you if we are to speak in this much private." Luna said, observing the fact that there weren't any custodes in quite a few paces.
Something that could probably be put in the guinness book of world galaxy records
"Yes. Now as I heard, you have a talent of walking into.... dreams?"
"Yes. But.... are you positive this is something serious?"
"It may be a warning Luna. One does not have the same nightmare for two weeks in a row for no reason. I ignored a warning ten thousand years ago, I can not do the same now lest it destroys all we have accomplished so hard for."
"I see..... I will get started."
"Thank you. First, I think I should give you something though."
"What is it?"
"Your memories. You see, we can only verbally describe to you what Malcador was like. The primarchs may only describe to you what they can decipher of an ancient language. How about I give you memories back from your past lives?"
"Fine by me. Will Tia get this too?"
"Already done."
"Then give it to me."
The Emperor tapped Luna on the horn, and in that instant. Luna was flooded by the echoes of the past.
Her time on the golden throne, where mere hours seemed like eternity under the excruciating pain. Her second life, walking through the meadows of Equestria, meeting the two lost primarchs and conversing with them. Stumbling across what her past self would describe as an "ordinary, but somewhat small and colorful equine."
Discord's creation. His body warped into a monster until he became lost forever, no longer knowing who he once was. (This was ironically fortunate, had Discord remembered, he may have been a murderer as much as a trickster.)
Harmony's death and sacrifice. Splitting his soul into the six major fragments of the elements of harmony.
Malcador's actions of planting the elements of harmony in the tree which had been created by a massive combined effort of all who had dreaded chaos.
Malcador's frustration at his inability to harness the elements, and his final decision to die two times over just to defeat chaos. How he made a plan that would put even Vect's to shame.
Only to not even know, that his define prodigy would actually be prodigees. His soul split to breath them life. Yet his memories were lost. Until now.
"I took a deeper look into your birth. I am rather surprised to tell you that you don't have a father. I guess one could say you are your own father and your own self AT THE SAME TIME."
"It's a miracle I guess." Luna said. "Now should I take a look now?"
Deep within the rapidly shrinking eye of terror, was a single world.
A hellish world. A world where the air reeked of fire and ash, where the ground trembled and where massive portals to the immaterium hung.
Here sat the daemon legions of Khorne.
Their purpose was unknown, save to spill blood.
Who's? When?
For now, it was all unknown. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Luna practically jumped at seeing this.
"What can you make of it?" The Emperor asked.
"Nothing. Could it just be a simple recurring nightmare? I don't know. But all I can say is that I feel like it does mean something. But how?"
"There is only one being who may at all know what is it to come. I loath to do this, but only one being in the entire universe will know what is to come."
"Who?"
"Fateweaver. Greatest servant of Tzeentch. His location? Deep within the crystal labyrinth. I know but one man who may even come as close as to deducing these puzzles."
"Draigo?"
"Draigo. He managed to destroy the eternal city. Perhaps he may find a way to navigate this all. Get a hold of him. Tell him, that I will send him to the warp. He will navigate the maze and go to Fateweaver. And he MUST get the answers we need. Whether by force or by persuasion, I do not care."
"But in the realm of ch...."
"I know. He will need help. If any two other beings can grasp what Tzeentch is.... it'd be Twilight." Luna shook her head at this suggestion.
"You can't possibly be serious! You're going to send her to the dimension of the dark gods?! How do you...."
"I have faith in her abilities Luna, plus, she'll be with Draigo. What troubles you though?"
"What troubles me?! How do we know they will return to us in one piece? How do we know they will return at all?! How do we know that they won't be made into some plaything for daemons?! That's what troubles me. A million things can go wrong in this! And why is it that you think they'll be able to take this through so easily? We're not all gods here!"
"You know how I feel about being called that." The Emperor said giving a sigh. "Draigo is far from being a god, and he spent hundreds of years within the warp until he managed to break M'kar's curse."
"The point is, Draigo can take care of himself. I've seen him turn entire daemon armies into mincemeat. Twilight? What can she do besides from the fact make the first few daemons she meets wrinkle in disgust before devouring her? She has no idea what the warp even is like! The experience she has in combat is NOTHING compared to what will be needed of her!"
"I think it's time we changed that." The Emperor said.
Twilight let out a low groan, her vision was rather blurry. She could only make out large and dark shapes in front of her. Probably a dream.
"Awake..........just a second......"
"....all day....."
Twilight blinked. The figures were coming into better view now. They were all silver and gave off a slight shine. Armor?
Yes.
Reality slapped her like a lightning bolt as she found herself in a heap on the ground in a place she was unfamiliar with. She found it rather difficult to stand, and somewhat difficult to comprehend what the three things were saying. Her vision was still a black haze.
It took a while, but she finally made out the shoulder pad, the helmet, the armor. The two legs.
Humans.
Not just ordinary humans. The silver armor could could only mean one thing.
They were the Grey Knights.
"What happened?" Twilight mumbled as she struggled to stand. She realized she couldn't remember a single thing about what happened, save for being at sugarcube corner with Pinkie Pie, taking a bite into a cupcake.
"Nothing." One of them said. "Can you stand?"
"Yeah. Now seriously, what just happened?"
"First things first, promise me you will not reveal any details of what is it to happen."
"Yes! Now tell me what's going on here!"
"Welcome to Titan." The Grey Knight said. "You're wondering how we got you here? We slipped a sleeping draught in your food and had you taken here undercover. Rest assured, no one was injured within the task, though we will have to administer a few memory wipes on any witnesses."
"WHAT?! You mean you pretty much ponynapped me here an...."
"Calm down Twilight." A voice said. "There is no need to be afraid. You are safe here."
There was only one person who spoke with just a tone of reassurance yet firmness.
It was The Emperor. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So let me get this straight? You ponynapped me here in a place where nobody knows?!"
"That'd be putting it bluntly. There's good news and bad news." One of the Grey Knights said. "We had our agents place a sleeping draught within your food and the food of everyone around you. I recall you were at the place known as sugarcube corner. Rest assured, your friends and those within close proximity will find themselves in the local hospital with absolutely no idea of what had happened."
"So what's the good news?"
"That was the good news." The Grey Knight replied. "You want the bad news? Let me brief you on it. Khorne is planning something. Unfortunately, we don't know what. There is only one being in existence that can potentially know of this. His name, is Fateweaver. Chief Lord of change, second only to the architect of fate himself."
"You want me to go to the place of those chaos gods to fight daemons? Isn't that what you're for?!"
"No." The Emperor said waving the Grey Knight aside. "I need to get you in there, and to find out WHAT Khorne is planning. This will be no easy task. First, you will have to navigate the labyrinth of Tzeentch. I brought you along because I believe ONLY you have what it takes to deduce the maze and make your way through. You will promptly arrive within the domain of Tzeentch, where you will meet both him and his vizier, Fateweaver. You will ask Fateweaver my question, "What is Khorne's next plan about the material universe?". It is likely he will ask you to perform a task for him. Fulfill whatever he may ask of you, save for any that will harm you, Draigo or anyone else. When you have performed his task, he will give you two answers. Give me both, and I will see which one is truth and which one is false."
"Two answers?"
"You see, Fateweaver has two heads. One will tell you something plausible and likely. The other head will do the same. unfortunately, the two will contradict one another, and it will be difficult to tell which is which. That's why I need you to give me the answers so I may personally think on them."
"Okay.... but I am still not too...."
"I'll make you sure of yourself." The Emperor said. "Only you can accomplish this keep in mind. I will have Draigo accompany you. Though you will need to learn a thing or two yourself." __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"How in hell is this a good idea?!" One of the Grey Knights asked rhetorically to his battle-brother.
"The Emperor decided upon it, and that's final." His brother replied. "Never doubt him or his wisdom."
"Who said I am doubting him? He has ideas. He has wisdom. That equine? What does she have? She won't last three seconds within the warp!"
"And The Emperor wants to make it so she lasts for more." Someone else said over the vox. "She will be with us on Titan for some time before she departs will Draigo."
"The grand master won't like that."
"Aye, he won't like that one bit."
Draigo hated it as a matter of fact. Though he made no indication of this when the Emperor told him of his next mission, his mood for the days after were more than enough to tell everyone how he felt.
"This certainly will make my last journey in the warp look like a vacation." Draigo muttered underneath his breath as he took a look at Twilight. There was a lot he disliked all into one thing. The equine in front of him.
Weak. Poorly skilled fighter. Naïve. A color that looked a lot like a slanneshi cultist's clothes.
And let's add in "smartass."
Draigo took a look at Twilight who only stared back. Her facial expression were more than enough to tell Draigo that she was amazed of him.
Large. Shiny. Old. Silent. And perhaps.... a bit stabby.
No wait.... Very STABBY.
After record time fast introductions, The Emperor approached the two.
"You know of your task?"
"I do milord." Draigo said. "I will go to Fateweaver, and have him tell m..."
"Us." Twilight said.
"Us....." Draigo said seething with contempt. "Us..... what Khorne is planning."
"Good. Now you are aware that he may have an errand for you?"
"Yes milord." Draigo said. "I will be prepared to go and burn Nurgle's garden if that be his wish."
"Right. But never but yourself or your partner or anyone else in danger. Fateweaver will definitely cook up a damn good one to irk all of us with. Don't be afraid to return empty-handed. I may actually expect it considering what we're dealing with."
"Understood. But I promise not to disappoint milord."
"Good. The two of you will be training for two weeks before going into the warp. I will send you there myself. I understand two weeks is pretty much nothing..... but that's all I may spare for you. Good luck to both of you."
Draigo turned to Twilight who had a mix of a nervous and joyful grin.
Draigo politely excused himself from the briefing as he went out to think about the events of today. A purple talking horse with wings and a horn on Titan. By The Emperor's command. I have to go back to the warp again to acquire information from Fateweaver. And she get's to go with me. Is this punishment for all the times I used warp dust?
"Probably is." Draigo grumbled to himself. Hey come on, it was hilarious seeing Kar'voth as a bunny rabbit with a ridiculously high-pitched voice. Ha, off to visiting relatives in the eye of terror? Bullshit.
He recalled the first time when he battled Kar'voth, the bloodthirster had been all arrogant and full of himself, but despite his power, he nothing compared to the holy wrath of The Emperor.
Draigo mused about how he killed Kar'voth and was successful at even making a bloodthirster fear him. Those khornates that still had half a brain were wise to keep out of his way after that.
Speaking of khornates, who would be a good challenge for me? Kar'voth again? No. Too easy. Won't even as much as go in an 100 mile radius of me. Ka'bandha? Sounds good. Got flattened by Sanguinius during the battle of Equestria. Let's see if I can prove myself to their level. Angron? Maybe not a good idea. I hardly beat Mortarion with a few dozen brothers, this guy isn't a walk in park. An'ggrath? Would be a great fight. I'll probably win. If a mortal can do it, I can do it too.
Draigo decided he was done thinking about his kill-list and went on to check on Twilight again. The horse was learning well from the report of a librarian. They had been teaching her the various arts of daemonic combat via magic. Due to the fact wherever she drew her power from seemed to have a tendency to shred even the most power daemons with relative ease, it wouldn't be long before she could defend herself within the warp.
Draigo snorted at this. Her? He would love to see the equine battle a lord of change. She'd be left as a crater in the ground.
I probably shouldn't let her get under my skin too much Draigo thought.
"Is The Emperor still here?"
"No. He left to for Terra just moments ago. Had you come sooner and maybe I would have been able to get him to wait." The librarian said.
"Alright then. Let's see how our small equine friend fares in combat." __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Whoa.... what happened here?" Rainbow Dash asked as she got up from bed within Ponyville general. She had recalled having lunch at Sugarcube corner with the others.
"Mmmmm, cupcakes...." Pinkie mumbled dreamingly as she still was unconscious. "Chocolate........"
"Can somepony tell me what the hay just happened?" Applejack asked as she got up. "What in tarnation just happened?"
The five friends took a look around. Outside, a scout marine sat on probably the most awkward position in recorded history as he listened to their conversation.
"Good thing this cloak works." He grumbled as he hoped that the branch would support his weight. "Milord? They haven't caught on.... yet."
"Good. We'll be done sooner or later. Hope they don't put two and two together before then."
The scout gave his reply only to realize in doing so, he lost his balance.
"You hear something?" Rarity asked as she heard a thud and a grunt.
"Ah, probably just somepony making a mess." Applejack said dismissevly. "I wanna know what happened."
"I have complete faith in her abilities, why don't you?" Celestia asked as she walked through the long halls.
"We're sending TWILIGHT into the warp. The literal hell! Why shouldn't I be worried? How do I know she isn't going to get eaten by daemons or turned inside out by some unholy magic?"
"She'll be fine." Celestia replied. "Why wouldn't she be? I recall she had been present during the final battle against Abaddon."
"So what? We were on our own playground with thousands of astartes! She'll have one person to accompany her! One!"
"That one person doesn't get the name "edge of his sword" or "his hammer" for nothing. Draigo's power is second only to the primarchs."
"And so what? I wouldn't trust any of the primarchs with Twilight alone for more than a day in the warp!"
"Oh come on! You know they adore her greatly and treat her well. She'll be among friends with them."
"No. It's just that I worry for her safety. You and I both went off to take a look at this crusade the primarchs went on. We bonded with them, became fast friends with all of them. I recall camping in a cave for about 28 hours with Leman Russ telling stories around a camp fire as well as helping Sanguinius get his men to the apothecary. We know those men. We're friends with them. They know us, and they're friends with us. Even then, I would hardly be assured with even them being with Twilight. Now we'll be throwing her into the warp with a complete stranger! Can't you see why I have doubts?"
"You're worrying too much." Celestia said. "I don't recall you being worried when you sent Twilight to meet The Emperor or had her go meet up with the Blood Ravens again to collect artifacts from a captured vault."
"You're missing the point. It's not that I am worried about sending Twilight into a place we don't have knowledge about. If anything, we do know quite well on how the warp works with personal accounts from many. It's because of that I am worried. If the warp wasn't a place where all the most despicable beings in existence lived, then I wouldn't even bat an eye at sending her there."
"It'll be fine." Celestia said giving a loud sigh. "I am going to work on that new spell The Emperor gave me."
"You ever wonder what his real name is?" Luna asked. "Or does he even have one?"
"Oh, he told me he'll tell me someday." _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Tesseract labyrinth released it's prisoner as soon as Twilight gave the word.
Facing against her, was a chaos spawn of khorne, the monster bounded for her.
The purple unicorn did as she had been told. Stand her ground. Showing not even the slightest indication of fear for her opponent, she launched a magical bolt at her opponent. The attack tore off a small chunk of flesh, but did little than anger her opponent.
Bellowing in rage, the chaos spawn doubled it's pace, only for Twilight with her naturally quick movement, to evade and have her opponent hit a wall of solid admantium.
The Grey Knights within the ring all exchanged bets and watched with amusing looks.
"Perhaps our little xeno friend may be able to finish the beast." Someone commented as they witnessed Twilight send a ball of fire into her enemy, the flames scorched it's flesh, and made it bellow and shriek in pain.
"I'll say we'll need the apothecary after this." Someone else commented as Twilight hardly dodged the claws of the monster.
"Doubtful. I believe she has learned quickly and learned well. The Equestrian is skilled at magic, and learning whatever it put's it's mind too. As is the case here." A librarian said as Twilight sent a beam of magical energy to her foe, the spawn was deprived of one of it's claws.
"Maybe she'll end up as daemon food."
Twilight had stopped for a moment to catch her breath and her movements began to slow, the monster only doubled it's efforts as soon, it backed Twilight into a corner and readied itself to crush her against the walls.
It was about two paces from her when she casted her spell.
Massive jets of flame shot out of nowhere, incinerating the abomination into ashes. Many of the Grey Knights were taken back by this, some voiced their approvals, others clapped, and a few remained silent.
"Perhaps a good partner after all within the time you will spend in the warp?" A librarian asked Draigo.
Thought of the day: Purge the heretic, beware the psyker and mutant, abhor the alien. Hatred, fear and zealotry is the disease that kills the seed of reason that will spring into the tree of advancement.
"So how do you like it?" Princess Celestia asked The Emperor within his personal quarters.
"It's great. Majestic, bold, elegant and graceful." The Emperor replied.
"Perhaps. I'll just have to get used to walking like this."
"You will. I am sure. Did Luna learn the same?"
"She did."
"Ah, nice. Send her down, I would like to see it myself."
"So, I know you don't sleep a lot, but are you sure what is to happen will happen?"
"I am not. That's why I am going to have to ask the only being in existence who would. If this is a warning, then I will heed it. I took an Eldar named Eldrad as a joke, and it ended with ten millennia of suffering. I will not make the same mistake here."
"I am going to be honest. I have my doubts."
"Well, spill your guts."
"Are you sure Twilight is the best choice? I mean, why can't Luna or I go? Maybe even you if you're in the mood for adventure."
"Because, in the case of you or Luna, I need you here. If I lose any of you, that'd be a great blow to all that we have accomplished. As for myself, I am more likely to kill Fateweaver then get what I need to know. I am also really likely to get into a fight with Tzeentch which could have some extreme side effects on both the immaterial universe and the material universe."
"You need us here. Is it that.... you think Twilight expendable? That you don't need her? Please tell me that's only a hunch."
"It is. I would never risk any life without any meaning or conviction. I have my faith in Twilight she'll come through. I also have my faith in Draigo that'll he'll make sure not even the most powerful daemon would get their grubby claws on them. Trust me on this last part, no one is expendable. Not you, not me, not Twilight, not Draigo not even the most seemingly insignificant person in this great country we've built is expendable."
Celestia made a show of nodding to convince him that she agreed.
I do hope what he says is true. He did after all make many reforms that saved countless lives. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Isn't this so fun? We're doing everything by the book!" Twilight said cheerily to Draigo who kept an impassive expression.
If any one of the librarians gave her a manual on this, I am going to have his head. Draigo thought as he secretly seethed with anger. Why do I have to have to have her go with me? Why can't it be one of the siglites? Or maybe one of their own soldiers. At least we would agree on something.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Draigo said dismissively.
"I was impressed." A librarian said walking up to them. "I never expected you to be able to kill a chaos spawn with such expertise. It seems once again, The Emperor shows his infallible wisdom. So, when do you journey to the warp?"
"Soon." Draigo said. "Only a few more attachments and tweaks to my gear and we'll be ready. I'll see to it that not even a daemon primarch can stand before me."
I see you still haven't lost any of that ego. The librarian thought. Then again, defeating a daemon primarch does boost one's thought of oneself even with the help of several brothers.
"So, you ready for all of this milord? I don't doubt your skills or your power, but going to the Dark God's domain.... again? Many of us were ready to mourn, knowing that once you go there, you'll never come back."
"But I did come back. By the grace and will of The Emperor I came back. And it will be made so, that I will go the very domain of one of the gods themselves, and return unscathed, no small part done by The Emperor...." Draigo paused for a moment as if in thought. "Are you insisting that I back out while I can, librarian?"
"What? No, not at all! Especially if your orders were delivered personally by The Emperor himself, I am just saying, are you sure about this? Do you have any doubts?"
"Me? Doubts? When it snows here on Titan." Draigo replied. "Tell you what, I'll bring Fateweaver's heads back home if that's what makes you sure of my capabilities brother librarian. For let me tell you that I have a long list of powerful foes that not even a hundred astartes could defeat. Traitors like Huron, M'kar, Mortarion. I bested them all, and by The Emperor's will, I'll go kill Tzeentch if that's what his orders are."
Kill Tzeentch? Are you serious? Maybe you're getting too big for your boots. Defeating a daemon primarch once may be something most of us can only dream about, but killing a god? That's a task reserved only for The Emperor, let alone you, who almost died in his battle against Mortarion.
"Now then, you can stop doubting my capabilities or myself, and perhaps rest assured that I'll come home with that horse and with my mission fulfilled. A good day to you too."
What a simpleton. Draigo thought. He thinks I can't do something as simple as get infomation? Bah. I could maybe even defeat a daemon primarch in a duel, let alone get information from some warp spawn. I'll finish this and bask in glory once again. As I should.
With that thought, Draigo returned to his personal quarters where he had yet to finish some last adjustments to his weapons and armor. The supreme grand master sat down and went back to work. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"I see our honored guest has an affinity for libraries."
"Indeed. A clever and open mind. One of which many would of scorn at in earlier days, now a blessing, by the vision of The Emperor."
"Aye, let's not forgot we're talking about a purple horse with a horn and wings that stands about four feet tall. Earlier days? We'd probably be burying her corpse with bolters." (The last part was said over the vox lest Twilight hear them.)
"Sh.... let's not talk about that as of now. Their kind do have a distaste for violence."
"Well, she'll have to get used to the fact that chaos doesn't share their beliefs, nor do we as a matter of fact."
"Or the supreme grand master."
"Aye. Those two will be oil and water within the warp. I would pray, if only The Emperor would let me."
"He protects. Never forget that. He doesn't want to be treated as a god, but he still is a god. Our god. We may not end up venerating him as one due to his wish, but in our hearts, he will be our god. The only god that matters."
"Speaking of gods." Twilight said as she got a book. "So, I read there are many gods?"
"Aye, there's more than four." The librarian said. "Many of them are beneath notice, having no interest in our universe, some aren't even powerful enough to launch any attacks on us. Some I heard are actually benevolent. Humph, that's a first."
"You think I am ready?" Twilight asked as she flipped through texts regarding daemons.
"Come again?"
"You think I am ready for this? To go and solve an impossible maze?"
"If The Emperor think's so, I think so too."
He doesn't know..... Twilight thought nervously. Or maybe, he doesn't think I am ready. Oh, hush up Twilight, you know he does think well of you. You're own soul in it's self is a defense against the dark gods. He knows you'll do it, as does Celestia and Luna and The Emperor.
Twilight wondered in that moment, if The Emperor would protect her while she was within that hell.
Of course, her "protection" would come in the form of Draigo. Whom Twilight had a hunch that Draigo hated her guts.
"Morning Mr. Draigo!" Twilight said pleasantly. "Well, it's technically still night since we're on a moon and that it's always dark out. So good night then!" as "morning" began. Today was the day where they would journey into the warp.
"Morning." Draigo grumbled back. Drop the pleasantries. Why can't someone like one of the sigilites or someone of my choosing go? Why do I have to be stuck with the galaxy's biggest smartass?
"Draigo? The Emperor will be arriving in two hours. Get ready."
"Will do." Draigo said as he armed himself to the teeth and gave Twilight one last glance.
Why, just why? My lord, I know that you intend I return, but are you sure I will return mentally intact after THIS?
Twilight looked back at Draigo, the Grey Knight armed to the teeth. Nothing new there. Does cut out to be like the rest of his kind. Wonder how this will turn out, and.... hey, maybe the others might want to hear about this! Maybe I can even teach everyone a thing or two about the warp! I should probably keep a journal about this.
"You act like we're going to a funeral." Celestia said. "Can't you act cheerful for once?"
"You're going to hate me for saying this, but in a sense, we are going to a funeral. How do we know we will ever see Twilight ever again?"
"If Draigo is with her, I have full confidence of both of them returning without a scratch." Celestia said. "I saw that man kill two greater daemons by himself back on Equestria."
"Great. Did you forget that man is rather difficult to control? How do we know he won't decide that Twilight isn't worth the trouble anywhere and leave her at the mercy of daemons?"
"You treat Draigo like some treasonous backstabber who would betray anyone at a moment's notice. He may be difficult to control, he may have a pride the size of a planet, but he'll get the job done, and he will get it done with Twilight. I can assure you, that man will come back with Twilight."
Or they won't return at all. Celestia mused, yet said nothing. She had her doubts, but trusted what The Emperor believed.
"The Emperor protects...." Draigo muttered to himself as he grasped his nemesis halberd ever so tightly. He looked at Twilight, who wasn't even showing a hint of anxiety, rambling about a "new experience" and "new things to write about".
Yeah, you may get to write about how we nearly get our souls devoured, or some dreadful fate at the hands of daemons. Great topic. I am sure many people would want to read about that.
As if almost reading his thoughts, Twilight turned to Draigo.
"Just a journal. This is worth sharing when I go back home."
If you go back home. Draigo thought mirthlessly. Of course, I get to return to my favorite place in the entire universe. What a lovely vacation I will have, I am pretty sure my friends will want to hear about my experiences almost getting burned alive, brutally murdered or almost contracting Nurgle's rot.
The Emperor's arrival was soon heralded by the sudden hush. That once chattering room was now silent, watching the man on the podium, flanked by two majestic mares. A golden halo of light surrounded the trio, as The Emperor spoke.
"Many of you had voiced opinions earlier. If I am not a god, will I still keep you safe? Can I still keep you safe? Will the Dark Gods ever get their way on things?"
The room remained silent, many of the Grey Knights held their hands in a prayer like manner.
"Of course. I don't want to be called a god, no man who walks upon this universe has any right to that title, however, I can assure you my friends, whatever the misfortune, whatever the hardship, whatever our enemies are or who they are, I will tell you. I can lead you through, and I WILL lead you through. Whatever hardships we may come across, we will go through it together, we will finish it together. Now then, two of our own will now go on perhaps the most journey of our era. Into the warp, into the realm of the great enemy!"
The room was now filled with nervous chatter and a few prayers being uttered..... much to The Emperor's annoyance, who promptly waved his hands for silence.
"Will we let them journey there, alone? With no one to back them up in their dangerous quest? With no one to as much as even appreciate for what they're doing? I say not. I say this is perhaps among the greatest acts of courage in history of the entire galaxy! I wish these two with swift fortune and say death to who oppose them! Who's with them?!"
The room was filled with a deafening cheer as the unbreakable shield against the coming darkness offered their support..
Praise The Emperor! Death to the Dark Gods! Death to his enemies! Hail to Draigo! Hail to Twilight! The Emperor protects! Let him not find you wanting!
Behind this, Luna allowed a single tear to be shed, as The Emperor opened a rift into the warp, and both wished them good luck. The two promptly nodded, a few compliments and words of advice exchanged and they were off. The formerly dark skies of Titan exploded with a shower of red light as shockwaves flew across the planet.
Draigo and Twilight had entered the Warp, into the domain of the dark gods.
The Emperor sat down in his personal room. The entire place devoid of anything, asides from a massive desk and himself. From out of nowhere, he made a folder appear, with that, he opened the files allowing the first few photos to come out, each marked with a name in red marker.
Alexander the Great
Napolean Bonaparte
Ghandi
Martin Luther King Jr.
Jesus
Muhammad
The names went on. Every single one of them, a great contributor to society, to which then, The Emperor took out his final stack. Many names. All of whom he put to the side.
He finally came to his last one. It wasn't a photo.... rather a painting, or sketch.
[15,000 years ago, Terran time, 2500 years ago, Equestrian time]
"Greetings, my name is Sigmar, I am a traveler, I am very tired, starving and weak from my travels, will you help me?"
"Cut the act." The alicorn said narrowing her eyes. "You're no traveler."
"Clever." The hooded creature replied throwing off it's cloak. It stood on two legs and was dressed finely for a "traveler". It took about two seconds for Galaxia to deduce that this so-called traveler was actually a god.
Just like her.
"So why do you come here?" Galaxia asked Sigmar as he stood, watching the sunrise. "You've come for something. I know of it."
"I have. What that is, I know not yet." Sigmar replied. "Tell me about yourself, I am sure an immortal has tales to share."
"For a lack of a better term, I am a star god." Galaxia said recalling her birth. "Unlike the others, I was born perhaps, several thousand years ago, and I don't feed off of stars to live."
"I see." The Emperor said. "My story too goes back.... about forty thousand years. I was born when my people needed something that would battle the vile, fledging gods of chaos. They have grown to be a full threat, that the galaxy can no longer ignore."
"The fall of the Eldar is true then?" Galaxia asked.
"Sadly. Not many of them escaped destruction." Sigmar replied. "The fate of the galaxy rests upon our shoulders....."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. You know exactly why this world is sealed off from the rest of them, you are the only thing that can make that happen."
"Well.........."
"Anyways, I've devised a method to subdue these devils." The Emperor said holding out a seed, that glowed like a soulstone. "This is the seed that when planted, will grow into the tree of harmony. It's fruit will yield something that will defeat the dark gods, Isha has provided this to me, I searched far and wide for a place that chaos couldn't hope to reach. This is it. The only place that would ever be free of taint. I assure you, it costs nothing to plant a seed in the ground, but something else about it will."
"What is it?"
"I'll tell you later." The future Emperor said. "It's not time yet."
Galaxia was for lack of a better term, a C'tan. Unlike the rest of the star gods, she wasn't exactly interested in cheating entire worlds of their souls or feeding off of stars, if anything, she made a few of the latter out of sheer will.
Even Sigmar was impressed at that.
The two became fast friends, she was the second divine being he had met, after the Eldar gods whom most, happened to be dead. With his list of allies ever dwindling, The Emperor knew it wouldn't be long before he would have to confront the chaos gods, to do it alone, was something that chilled his soul, yet for odd reasons unknown to him, he felt like it was going to happen.
The two gazed into the warp, it's birth, it's growth and how it became what it is, a dark miasma that poisoned and corrupted. They both hated it. Where Galaxia had decided to hide, Sigmar decided he wanted to kill this thing, or banish it forever.
A strange pair of friends, Galaxia refused to harm any being that got in her way, Sigmar was more than ready to kill at all times. Galaxia could build worlds and make them grow, Sigmar could tear them down in moments with his mind.
"So what's your plan?" Sigmar asked Galaxia as the two sat down by the Equestrian ocean.
"My children will soon be ready. Soon, they will spawn and fill this earth. Their souls, a candle in the darkness of the warp. Free of having to face it's dangers. They will be safe. Forever. This place will be the final bastion, a place where the dark gods would keep away. Your's?"
"They shall be my finest warriors." Sigmar said dreamingly. "These men who give of themselves to me." Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can beat them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines .."
Galaxia chuckled, wondering how this future-tense Emperor of humanity was going to wage his war. She was content on hiding here. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Well, it's time." The Emperor said. "You said yesterday you were certain even without you, your children may survive."
"Have you been waiting for this?!" Galaxia snapped. He had stayed with her for a long time, aiding in her hard job of building a race. Always wondering what motivated him to help. Was he going to murder her?
"I have." The Emperor said. "You're not going to like this at all."
Galaxia took a step back, expecting that Sigmar draw his sword and kill her where she stood. He made no such move, in fact, there was something about this. The way he addressed all of this.
He didn't like it either.
"I'll need you. There's something about you that Isha, Khaine, Cegorach and I all lack. Perhaps it's what allowed you to create a race immune to chaos out of thin air. The odds of you surviving.... I don't know. I don't want to know."
"If I refuse, will you attempt to use force upon me?" Galaxia asked. Perfectly recalling the time when Sigmar killed a dragon with as much as a glance. She certainly wasn't a fighter. There would be no way she could resist him.
"No." The Future Emperor said looking at the ground. "If I do that, then we've lost. There'd be no difference between myself or my enemies. I can only ask you. No. Beg of you. To do so. And I would gladly do so on my knees."
"No need. I'll do it." Galaxia said. He truly does do credit of his race. He's a god after all.
"Your actions will humble the most powerful god." Sigmar said as he prepared. "Good luck."
A single tear slid down his cheek. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You know what was most surprising? Galaxia survived losing a portion of her soul in the process. The better portion as a matter of fact.
Not for long though. She soon found she'd bleed out at one point. Perhaps a thousand years may need to pass before so, but she was on borrowed time.
Sigmar stayed for as long as he could, but he eventually had to leave to take care of his own business.
She had lived a life of almost complete solitude for thousands of years. Yet this new god showed her the way. She was content on teaching it. Life was better with friends.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [~1000 years ago Equestrian time. Post-Horus heresy.]
"Malcador.... Can you hear me?!" Galaxia shrieked at the top of her lungs as the human's heartbeat began to slow. He managed to cough up what seemed like a few liters of blood before getting back up in a sitting position.
"For now." The sigilite said looking at her swollen belly. "You know..... Harmony is dead. I saw him go down against Discord. The good news, Discord seems to have gotten some brain damage. Good for us."
"Aye, but what can we do now? You're injured, there's no way I am going to be able to battle him like this."
"Well, I am bleeding out anyways, and Harmony just gave his soul to the tree.......... that leaves one last candidate."
The immortal looked at Galaxia's unborn child. He was always special, he never had a father. Which led Malcador to have many speculations. He would be the savior however. That was the only thing he was certain about.
"He will do what needs to be done." Malcador said resolutely. "I will give my soul to him, he will know what has happened, he will gain great power from me as well. You think you can teach him the true way?"
"I'll do my best."
"Good. My fire will be going out soon. I must being."
Malcador had no clue that Galaxia, bleeding out from all this time, would not survive childbirth.
Her last words were heard only by The Emperor.
"I am a god. I can't die."
A stained glass painting would be the only thing left to mourn her.
But hope remained. Gods may not be able to defeat fate.
But could they cheat it?
The Emperor was intent on bringing Galaxia back. No matter the cost.
[You didn't REALLY think that he doesn't have his own stash of souls somewhere?]
"Why is there light when there is no sun?! And why is the sky purple of things?! And why does...."
"It's the warp! It's not supposed to make any sense! Realm of chaos.... anyone?"
"Well..........."
"Anyways, now do you know where we need to go? Cause I don't."
"You're the one who has been here before!"
"Yes, but the landscape does change.... hence chaos. Now the only thing on my mind is, we can only just walk in circles and hope we are going the right way."
"Are you serious?!"
"Unfortunately so. Hurry up and let's go." _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [An hour later? Who knows? Time doesn't exactly function normally.]
"I could of sworn we just passed that rock..... formation....whatever it is....."
And I could of sworn you said that about a trillion times. Draigo thought as he scanned the terrain. Different....... sorta......a lot....maybe? He had no idea. It was the warp, and it changed like crazy.
Damn dark gods and their great game.
"Draigo!" Twilight called out with a hint of panic. "Look!"
"Well, that's a familiar sight." Draigo said.
Standing in front of a familiar bloodthirster, was a large warp portal............ to where?
Probably wherever Khorne was putting his soldiers. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About time. Kar'voth thought as the warp portal finally opened after a long time of waiting. He was about to move a foot when....
"Kar'voth?"
Not again........
"Oh..... Draigo! Hi there pal! Friend......buddy? So how you doing?" The bloodthirster asked, gripping his axe tightly.
"Better question, what are you doing? Where does that portal lead?"
"Ummmm..... nothing.... totally not a daemon world in the eye of terror! Anyways, so I am going to visit some friends...... can I leave without....."
"Are THOSE the ones I threw into that massive pit of lava? Heard the eruption was rather violent!"
"AGAIN?! I mean.... nice..... alright..... I'll be..... goi...."
"Not so fast! Where can I find Tzeentch?"
"Tzeentch? Tzeentch? There! Now while you're off to kill him I am going to.... GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Wait..... there's more of you?" Sigmar asked Galaxia as she hustled some of her children into a safe spot.
"Yes...." Galaxia said looking up at the darkening skies, by rights, it should be afternoon. "We must hide, they'll be here soon."
"Tell me about them." The future-Emperor said as they hid inside a cave.
"They're dangerous. I can tell you that. They destroy everything they touch, they're mindless, formless, shapeless.... soulless....."
"More of the star gods?"
"Unlikely. I don't know what they are, that's the worst part." Galaxia said as her horn lit up to illuminate the cavern.
"Well, we can't just sit here." The Emperor said as his form began to slowly shimmer and change. "You know, the only thing that allows evil to win is for good to do nothing."
Galaxia took a step back as she gazed upon Sigmar. He was growing in size, it wasn't long before he was a few feet taller than her. Just seconds ago, he had been level-headed with her.... now....
His clothing had changed too. The simple clothes of an ordinary man were replaced, by a golden, shining suit of artificer armor, and he had a pair of massive claws in one hand, a large flaming blade in the other.
"Show me them." The Emperor said.
"You sure about this?"
"They can't be too bad now can they?" Sigmar asked. "Come on, what's the worst that's going to happen to you and me?"
"If you insist........"
"Come on, no reason to hide. We can do this."
The alicorn gingerly stepped up, to follow the giant as they exited the cave. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Emperor smiled to himself as he sat upon his throne. That was something worth thinking about. They had fought the being known as Nightmare, destroyed him, and shattered him into thousands of pieces, until he scattered into the area that would later be inhabited by the nightmare forces.
It had been to his surprise, an easy battle. It was there when he learned Galaxia's abhorrence to killing, as she stood far back, while he carved the great monster to pieces.
She would later have to accept, what needed to be done, had to be done __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"What I've put you through, I am sorry." Sigmar said to Galaxia, as he helped her up, her walk was now an awkward.... trot, like a crippled foal. Quickly, they exited the birthplace of the tree of harmony.
"Fine, fine. So long as those devils don't hurt anyone, anything's worth it. By the way.... there's something I need to tell you....."
"What?"
"Don't mind me saying, but you're human right?"
"Yes."
"You may be a god, but in the end, you're still human. A god amongst them. But a human no less. I watched humanity grow. Never have they created anything........... worthy...... lasting..... I've only watched them tear down what small accomplishments they made in seconds......... you told me the other day....."
"What is it?"
"Would you like to know the power to create life? You will need it. How are you going to make your finest warriors, to combat the dark gods, if you don't even know how to?"
"I never thought of that......"
"I know the way..... let me teach you it's secrets before you or I depart."
"I am not leaving if you're going to die." Sigmar said firmly.
"Relax.... I am a god.... I can't die even if I wanted to. I'll be back once again..... but can you promise me this.... that Equestria will be safe when I am gone.....?"
The Emperor felt a hand touch his..... he looked down to see that he was no longer helping an alicorn, but rather, a tall woman, divinely beautiful, as a god should be.
"I promise....." Sigmar said one last time, as Galaxia leaned over and whispered into his ear. "I promise....."
"Did I ever tell you, that you talk too much?" Draigo snorted as they approached the maze. Surprisingly, there were entrances... not just one. "You sure about this?" Draigo asked hesitating for a moment.
"Why chicken out now?" Twilight teased. "Come on! I'll get a spell working, and we can go then!"
"Chicken out? Me? Never! Let's go!"
[About 3 hours later]
"And..... well..... this is interesting." Twilight said.
"What is? Are we lost now?"
"No. But.... my spell didn't tell me about this........" Twilight said gesturing at the next obstacle.
A platform floated in midair.
That wasn't the strange part.
The strange part was, that was the "ground....."
And the floor..... was nowhere to be seen.
"So what happens here?"
"Lemee think about it." Twilight said as she paced back and forth.
Draigo sat down, and allowed himself a break. However... his easiness was easily shattered by the screeching.
A lord of change was right around the corner. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
You know, not all sections of the warp were actually dangerous. Some were calm (surprisingly) and "plain" (Also surprisingly), others were bastions of the dead, a few were dwelling places of minor gods within the warp.
The Emperor's avatar walked through this place, appreciating that there were still safe areas within the warp for the souls of the dead. Countless souls. All whom had given themselves to him. The least he could do is to ensure they would be safe.
"Come out already. I have something for you." Sigmar said as he approached a "meadow."
Galaxia appeared. Out of nowhere. Nothing odd there.
"More souls?" Galaxia asked mournfully. "You don't have to do this....."
"They deserved it." The Emperor said without a second thought. "The battle on Equestria left me with much to work with. Abaddon's included."
"You know how ha...."
"You didn't seem to have much trouble devouring Horus." Sigmar said sitting down next to the alicorn. "And to think that, that... that was such a tiny step."
"It's almost enough." Galaxia said. "But at what cost? How many have you fed to me? Be honest."
"Millions." The Emperor said with regret. "Yet, you and I both know well that such a fate is only reserved for the worst kind."
"I guess that's our difference." Galaxia said. The alicorn was tall for a pony, taller than Princess Celestia to give her full credit, though not much when compared to The Emperor.
"I'd do anything for a friend." Sigmar said. "I'd kill a billion more if it meant to speed anything up. Yet when they offered themselves to you... I knew you what type of person you really were...." A single tear slid down his cheek.
"Don't blame yourself. You die and everyone else dies with you. A thousand psykers a day was nothing, and as you said, most of them deserved it."
He wasn't exactly sure if she was mocking him, or forgetting what she just said just to make him feel better. Either way....
"I suppose." Sigmar said. "I see it's almost done."
"It is." Galaxia said. "All these eons, and I can finally return. Perhaps see my children."
"What of Luna and Celestia? You'll go see them first?"
"No. They're all important to me. I just however wish Malcador would be there. He died a hero... and he may be gone forever. As goes for Harmony."
"Too bad he never knew you had twins." Sigmar said. "Listen, I must go now."
"Take care of yourself. And them."
"As I've promised." The Emperor said as he left the warp, and went home.
I promise.
The Emperor really hadn't mentioned this to anyone. He hadn't exactly destroyed Horus' soul....
No, he would put that to better use. Galaxia would have needed it. He would have needed it. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"HURRY UP!" Draigo said as he heard the sounds of a lord of change approaching.
"I think I got it!" Twilight said.
"Well?!"
"Easy!" Twilight said. She walked over to the hole. And fell up.
"What the...."
He hardly had time to question the logic behind that, then again, this was the domain of Tzeentch. He too found himself sailing upwards, no "upside-down" as he looked at the "ground."
Odd.
He would be lost for words when he saw the twisting tunnel ahead. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tzeentch sat within the center of his stronghold.... brooding.....thinking.......planning...... besides him, a particular lord of change sat next to him, mumbling incoherently.
Tzeentch was peeking at the pair whom had intruded his domain, and to be fair, he was impressed.
A mortal that had managed to figure out a way into and through his maze? Now that's rather impressive.
Draigo continued to follow Twilight. The maze was getting on his nerves now, he had probably hit at least three invisible walls, all of which Twilight could see, and he? He couldn't. That made him rather mad.
"What's that sound?" Twilight asked rather sharply.
"I don't hear anyth......" Draigo turned is head up. Rumbling.
Holy shit.
The area of the maze behind them suddenly began to twist, turn, change shape and at points, even vanish in a fashion akin to a demented rubix cube.
"RUN!!!" Draigo yelled at the top of his lungs as he sprinted forward with Twilight.
Twilight stopped after what seemed like eons of running as fast as her hooves would carry her. Finally getting a chance to stop, she sat down and began to breath so heavy, it was loud enough to wake the dead.
Draigo leaned against the wall and peered down a corridor, gingerly peering down the hallway to see if there was anymore changes in the landscape.
Good. They won't be pancakes just yet.
"How goes navigating?" Draigo asked as he once again peered down the hall.
"The whole thing changed!" Twilight said. "Lemee try and find a route!"
They were going to be here for a while........... _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So what is this?" Sigmar asked looking down at the massive pool in front of him.
"It is the past. It is the present. And it is the future. It's the well. The Well of Eternity." Galaxia said peering into it. Contact killed Greater Daemons almost instantly, as much as gazing into it could easily make them insane(r), yet Galaxia stared down into it, watching the strands of the future.
"So.... why have you brought me here?" The future-Emperor asked as he too peered down the well. He did little to hide his distaste. It felt poisonous just to be within a few dozen mile radius, let alone staring into it.
"Because, I gazed into it and saw the future, or more accurately, the futures. You're futures."
"Tell me about it."
"If you embark on your great crusade to reunite humanity, you will lead them to greatness, and something tells me, why stop there? Why not lead EVERYTHING into greatness? But if you do this the way you're planning, you may want to reconsider."
"What do you mean?"
"You see, if you use the knowledge I gave you, I can assure you, you will rally a good portion of the galaxy in a short time, and then, for ten thousand years, progress will come to a halt, many lives will be lost, and you will be facing your toughest battle.... however...... don't use the knowledge I gave you, and it may take TWICE that time for you to finish your conquest. I see no other routes into the future."
The future-Emperor nodded his head. And made his choice. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It may not have been about 9 months after the battle of Equestria, but the numbers of the astartes had nearly swelled by 300%..... mostly scouts for rather obvious reasons.
You know, sitting on a golden throne for about 10,000 years does give you lot's of time to think about stuff. Like..... "Okay, so I got things like Tyranids, Necrons, orks and chaos knocking on my door. How do I solve this?"
A. More cannon fodder with flashlights to charge bolters. B. See Men of Iron C. Find primarchs.... (oh wait....) D. Speed up process in which it takes to make an astartes, using my own knowledge and wisdom, so that where that other guy messed up big time, I do it correctly.
Oh and a few other like things like...
"Make plan to Troll chaos gods. Also involves me getting my fetishcrush friend back."
"I hate the Orks. I hate the Tyranids too. Maybe I can get them to fight each other."
"I hate Necrons. I also hate the void dragon on mar..... uh oh."
"Maybe fighting everything in sight isn't such a good idea... try to be reasonable for once.... inquisition is now banned from everything."
"Acquire GOOD weapons for the Imperial guard. Pulse rifles anyone?"
"Acquire xeno tech. Phase drives anyone? Cypher mind explaining how you get around?"
The Emperor mused on quite a few subjects for a while, until he decided to gaze into the immaterium, taking careful note of Twilight's and Draigo's progress. Well, they aren't pancakes, insane, terminally lost, turned inside-out yet so that probably meant they were making progress. Good.
I am bored. Tzeentch thought. Time for maybe.... a TWIST?!
Bad joke is bad. Even to the changer of ways.
Maybe.... oh yeah right. By rule? (Law? Dumb thing he made up because it fitted being the persona of a god? I dunno.) he was going to force the pair entering his fortress into a quest so they can talk to fateweaver.
This gave him an idea.
He waved his hand. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
"It's changing again!" Twilight screamed as Draigo came bolting towards her. The place was shifting quicker than a ship going through the warp.
Despite their best efforts, the two were promptly swallowed by a massive rift in the "ground". They promptly found themselves facing a certain two-headed bird-looking daemon and Tzeentch, who gave himself the appearance of one of his greater daemons.
"Welcome mortals." Tzeentch said shifting form into a wizened old man. "Welcome to my home."
"Tzeentch...." Draigo spat out.
"Draigo... I see.... the destroyer of the eternal city. Bravo. Only to have it rebuilt. Tell me hammer of the Anathema, why don't you join someone who....."
"Join you? I'd rather slay you where you stand." Draigo said.
Gosh, the ego this guy has. Twilight thought. Threatening gods?
"And you.... I typically don't allow your filthy kind in here." Tzeentch said, his human form gave a wrinkle of disgust at Twilight.
"Filthy?"
"Aye.... but.... let's dispense with the pleasantries, I know why you're here, by law, you have to do a task for me to get to speak with Kairos.... Now before me, stands one of the greatest warrior of the anathema and one of his lapdog (in this case, horse) scholars....... what should it be? An entourage of my most powerful daemons? Or perhaps, a riddle? A question about the warp? About the universe? About the dimensions? Ha.... no. That's too boring..."
Oh boy....
"Let's have some fun with this." Tzeentch said. "Speaking of fun..... I know where just to go........"
Draigo bit his lip at this statement. In a flash of light, they were teleported outside a massive palace he knew all too well. Tzeentch's last words echoed in their minds.
"Rarity would have LOVED this." Twilight said as they strolled past the mountains and mountains of treasure.
"Good thing she wasn't here then." Draigo mumbled to himself, watching the few unfortunate souls within their prision, toiling and polishing the mountains and mountains of priceless trinkets.
"So I take it the idea of the game is not to touch the gold?"
No? Really? Draigo thought to himself, saying nothing. He allowed himself one last glance at those trapped within their own greed. One look of contempt for their avarice, and one final look of pity, for this is their damnation.
"Look at that those....." Twilight said as they trudged past lines of gold statues. "Wow...."
"Is that wow to how well made they were? Or wow to how many fools touched and will be damned for all of eternity?"
"Both.... I guess...." Twilight replied, the last part being of a surprise. Then again, everything here was supposed to kill you in some way or another.
Or worse.
What seemed like hundreds of miles passed, each sharing the same eerie motif. Surprisingly, it wasn't very long before they reached a long bridge and the sound of water flowing.
Only it wasn't water. It was wine. Deep, rich wine that smelled so sweet, so savory, and so good.......
Twilight slapped herself. Get a hold of yourself! There's something wrong about this.....
Indeed there was. For just a few paces ahead were the throngs of mortal men and women, gulping at the river. Desperate in their thirst..
Some were dead.
Some were everywhere.
Twilight felt like vomiting, despite all the food, despite the rich lakes of wine. She allowed herself a glance at the closest table, a carefully prepared feast that she desperately wanted..... just one bite.....just one sip!
Twilight once again slapped herself. She took a look at Draigo, who walked ahead, calm and set. He was on a personal mission from his god. This was not going to stop him.
"Keep going...." Draigo said. "Hurry up...."
"Yes... yes..." Twilight said running up to catch up with the astartes.
"Don't stop." Draigo said. "Every moment you hesitate is another chance that you decide to go do something stupid."
"I don't think that...."
"You should have stopped at I don't think." Draigo said. "You're not thinking here. Neither am I."
Twilight scoffed at this. "What the hell do you mean?"
"You're in the palace of Slannesh, being manipulated by Tzeentch. The best we can do is not THINK about that and do our best not to play. I am not thinking at all. I am set on one thing. That is to continue going through this hell until I finish my task at hand. If you let yourself be lost to them, I am not going to have any qualms of leaving you behind."
"Me? Lost to them? Good one."
"Just because your soul is protected in the material universe doesn't mean the same here. It's the realm of chaos. Anything can go wrong, lest whatever powers behind it isn't so good at a little game of tug of war. With souls."
"You know... are you always like this? You've been doing nothing but negative ever since. Do you think something's going to go wrong?"
"Yes.... I do....." Draigo said remaining emotionless. Best not think of last time.
Twilight only gave a small "humph" and continued walking forward, looking ahead, never to turn her head or allow her attention to be diverted. She was going to need this for the next part.
Draigo braced himself as they entered the literal mobs of daemonettes. He saw through those disguises....... those masks..... but Twilight didn't.
Strange. He could see through them. Twilight couldn't. They tried to get as close to him as possible. They kept away from Twilight.
Twilight saw amongst the crowds.... and began to feel a small tingling within her body. Stallions.... lot's of them. divinely handsome, beautiful, flawless. Yet..... why were they keeping away from her? She was lost in this thought. Being lost, she hadn't exactly noticed that the gap between her and Draigo had widened considerably.....
Draigo glared at the Daemonette.
"Keep away from me monster." He hissed lethally. The illusion gave a look of an offended lover and walked away. The daemon within only sneered and left with a look of scorn.
They don't know much about you. A voice in the back of Draigo's head spoke up. With that, he felt the small wave of anger creep into him.
These jackals don't know me? They offend me...... perhaps I should enlighten them? The Emperor's holy light should be enough to light this darkness.
That's when he saw another mortal traveler walking up to one of the Daemonettes....
Time to save some wretch's life. Draigo thought to himself as he drew Titansword. Poor fool. He'll be mincemeat before long if get's within about three feet of any Daemonette.
Twilight saw him. The stallion of her dreams. He didn't even notice her! "Hey!" She called out as she galloped after him.
He still didn't notice. Or more like.... pretended not too. He only turned around and gave her a slight wink.
The blood rushed to her face.
Twilight smiled to herself.
"I will catch you, and we can have some fun." Twilight whispered to herself as she went in hot pursuit. Her prey only seemed to run faster. Much faster. All thoughts of continuing on escaped her mind. She just had to do this! Had too!
The thought of having that same stallion stand over her began to make her get that same sensation again. She wanted him so badly!
This thought made her pick up her pace. But definitely, not her reasoning.
"You wanted to ask me something?" The Emperor asked as he sat down with Celestia in his personal chambers.
"Yes. I took a look at what.... well.....you've been doing...."
"Go on."
"And... it says that the number of astartes has begun to increase rapidly. Is there a reason for this? We did defeat chaos after all."
"We did defeat them. But how long we can keep them locked in the immaterium... that I do not know. For all I know, 10,000 years later, they'll be back. Best be ready now..... but obviously, there's a larger reason. What if I told you there's a larger threat that's coming to us as we speak? A threat that this entire galaxy is too underprepared for?"
This got her undivided attention and her astonishment.
"Something.... a larger threat?"
"Chaos is limited. The dark gods have only so much power to work with." Sigmar said pouring himself a cup of tea. Sipping it nonchalantly. Something was off. "In short, they will be starved and they will be desperate in reclaiming their power. Something that I'll take steps in making sure that 10,000 years later, they won't come back. Ever."
"But what if there's something that's unlimited? Something that numbers are completely irrelevant? Something that is now a larger threat then the ork hordes, the knavish Eldar, the ever-so expansionist tau. Something that is so dangerous... so powerful that it is almost unaware of our existence? This is what I have begun to fear. You are aware of many of the major battles that have occurred in the eastern fringe?"
A rhetorical question. Celestia continued to listen.
"Tyranids. I assume you've heard of them. Celestia, I don't fear chaos. I don't fear the dark gods. But what I do fear is Tyranids. Not just any old Tyranid. The Tyranids. Limitless."
"Can you imagine an army that is endless in number, and every death means nothing to them? Destroy thousands, and they'll be back in a heartbeat. This is the Tyranid swarm. Something that even the dark gods will retch in disgust at. Are you aware of the shadow in the warp? Had the Tyranids entered the eye of terror or the maelstrom, they may have been able to cause even the power of the dark gods to go haywire. This is something that even the most powerful of my warriors, my sons, the primarchs themselves have even grown to fear."
"Leviathan, Behemoth, Kraken. They are nothing. Nothing compared to what is to come. The entire eastern fringe will be devoured, then the galaxy, and then maybe, the universe. The Tyranids have already destroyed at least a dozen galaxies, stripped them of life. The hivemind rivals those of my primarchs. Which is why I have forbidden them from engaging with Tyranids. What if they were to adapt to the power of a primarch? A primarch? The greatest warriors in the galaxy? Then they'd be truly unstoppable. This is why the astartes recruitment has increased, why I toil endlessly to improve the geneseed. If the new astartes legions cannot stop them. Then nothing can... and it's not just us who have lost. Everyone, and everything."
Celestia nodded understanding how dire of a threat the Tyranids are.
"I have a plan. Like usual. To execute, I am going to need someone else. Surprisingly, it's not you.. or Luna. Let's just say Khorne's invasion will provide me with not just an opportunity to lock him in the imatterium forever, but to also secure a victory. Permanently. And even hope against the Tyranids." ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Damn it!" Draigo shouted as he tossed the dead body away. He was too late. The traveler lay in pieces, torn apart by the daemonettes. All he could do now was get up and continue.
Draigo instantly cursed himself for allowing to be distracted. Over the life of one pointless fool, he had allowed himself to stray away from the Emperor's orders. This was unacceptable. He had to get together.
Just then. He realized he had lost Twilight.
This was going to hell real fast. Literally. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Twilight just realized it.... she was surrounded by daemons. Hundreds of them, wanting to tear her apart. Worst part was? She had lost Draigo.
"Oh no...... no.... NO!"
The first daemonette ran at her with blinding speed. Twilight hardly had enough time to put up a shield spell, but luckily, she was able to keep herself from the claws of the daemon. Looking around, she wondered if there was an end to this crowd.
And here, Twilight wondered. Does the Emperor truly protect?
"Bloody idiot." Draigo muttered to himself underneath his breath, cursing Twilight about a few dozen times. He contemplated on leaving her behind so he may complete the mission.
No. His conscience told him. It would not be a victory if Twilight is lost.
Yes. The voice in the back of head said. Leave that damn equine behind. She's just a ball and chain anyways.
Draigo wondered where exactly those voices came from.... he knew he was thinking and all.... but that soundly rather loud. Turning around... he heard the voices again.
Find her. Find her. Find her! FIND HER.
The calmness of the Grey Knight was shattered, as he went on a frantic sprint to locate his missing partner. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Luna watched the whole thing unfold. "Please.... help her." She kept speaking.... "Help her.... HELP HER DAMN IT."
At the same time, she could hear it too. Slannesh's voice. Telling Draigo to leave Twilight behind, with his every step onward adding to her frustration.
Words failed to describe her joy when Draigo went off to go find Twilight. She smiled to herself as the Grey Knight went off on his search.
Please no, please no! Please no! Please no!! Twilight screamed on the inside as her shield spell slowly faded to nothing, the dozens of daemons that surrounded her all grinned wickedly, wanting nothing more than to tear her to shreds.
"Cease resisting......."
Thoughts of her family rushed into her mind, as she imagined her final moments, being shredded to tissue paper by these despicable monsters.
"Cease resisting...."
All those good times with her friends invaded her brain, she wondered how they'd react to find out she had died a horrible death, being torn apart by daemons.
"Cease resisting..."
She thought about Princess Celestia, and how disappointed she would be over the fact that she had allowed herself to be tempted by a daemon, and how mournful, to learn her faithful student died such a painful death.
"BACK TO THE ABYSS, DAEMON!"
Draigo almost jumped out of his skin. The form of Twilight suddenly floated quite a few feet in the air and was filled with a bright glow.
"What the hell....."
Without warning, a massive explosion shook the very foundations of Slannesh's realm, shaking the earth. Until then, Draigo opened his eyes, surprised he was still in one piece. And to top it all off, there was Twilight, standing there, looking around as if she had no clue what just happened.
"What the hell was that?!"
"I have no idea!"
Well, at least all those daemons are dead. Draigo thought as he looked around. For how long, that's the question.
"We best get moving." Draigo said, not really liking to be the guy who had to point out the obvious.
"Yeah, let's go."
By the throne, what was that? Perhaps.... she is more powerful than we thought her out to be?... No, she's stronger than I thought her out to be..... this might make this a bit more bearable. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"And I say! You are Princess Twilight Sparkle?! By heaven! It sure is an honor to meet you! How about this, you see, we've just been making a few breakthroughs in scientific research, and we need a mind as good as yours to help us! How about that?"
"No, Twilight." Twilight muttered to herself, as she kept walking, pretending not to hear what the.... whatever he was, just said.
"Lord Kaldor Draigo? Hammer of the Emperor? Brother, would you like to lead an eternal crusade against the dar...."
"Go away." Draigo said flatly. The.... Daemon? Thrall? Projection into the warp? Just vanished in a snap. Strange.
Things really don't make sense in here. Hey, maybe I can explain it!
"Twilight Sparkle, how would you like to be the first to try and research the war...."
"NO!" Twilight said. That timing couldn't have been better. Seems whoever is behind this can get into our heads.
"Haven't given into temptation yet?" Draigo asked as they walked past more people giving them compliments and handing them positions of honor.
No reply. Just the evil eye.
"Whatever. Let's keep going......." Draigo said slowly as a bunch of men ran up to him, asking for him to lead yet another false crusade. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Because this is the warp, and the warp can be described as "MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE" we can assume that while Slannesh is busy pleasuring his/her/it's self while keeping watch at what's going on in it's domain.
The form of the Dark Prince grinned to itself, smiling, and coming up with a plan that would entertain him.
"News Cypher?" The Emperor asked as his personal messenger returned from his task.
"It is true. Every last detail of it." The Dark Angel replied. "A damned world, cloaked in eternal darkness. The five portals to the warp, the daemonic armies, I've seen it. It..... it... my lord, does it not offend you? Does it not offend you that our enemies, though defeated, dare insult us like this?"
"Of course it does. But.... we can have our own little way of exploiting the dark gods, much as they did exploit us. Now, then... which amongst my sons is closest to Terra?"
"Rogal Dorn."
"Excellent. Call him here. I need to speak to him. Also, have Manus to return. I have a task for him..... oh... yes.... what news from Equestria?"
"Nothing. We've managed to keep the disappearance of Twilight quiet..... those Equestrians sure are good at withholding information. The official records on the planet says that we don't exist. That all other sentient beings aside from the ones referred to as "pony" have little to no clue that we even exist."
"Very good...." The Emperor said to himself. "I see Celestia has a few tricks up her slee...hooves...."
"I depart now milord." Cypher said as he disappeared mysteriously as he had come in. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"This place is quiet... too quiet...." Twilight said as they passed through the beach.
"Well, the last two places were too loud." Draigo replied. "So.... what's the point of this?"
"You tell me.... hey.... I should add this to my journal!"
Why.....
"And in what seems to be the last part.... we are met with....."
"Twilight...."
"Met with...."
"Twilight....."
"WHAT?!"
"We're here." Draigo said looking grimly at the massive structure ahead. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was said that Slannesh liked visitors and intruders. More souls to corrupt, all the better for him.
The case with these two would be no different. The evil god grinned wickedly as he wondered what he would have in store for them.
Calling the palace a place of untold splendor, grandeur and perfection would be the understatement of the eon.
The impossibly beautifully polished marble floors, the solid gold statues of Slannesh and other mortals, the flawless mosaics of.... stuff.
While Twilight allowed herself to be filled with awe, Draigo only looked ahead into the long hallway that would lead up to Slannesh’s throneroom.
This is all fake. Every bit of it. There is no beauty in the finest creation, if it causes any form of unhappiness. This.... this place should be burned.....not awed at.....
Would Rarity be impressed or what... Twilight thought as she looked at the decor... and the.... workers?
Most of the daemons here were dressed not to unsimilar to a housemaid or a butler... many of them were even mortal... those who had lost their souls to Slannesh.
Another fate worse than death that lurked in this hell..... hidden as a beautiful place of everlasting joy.
“Stand aside.” Draigo said emotionlessly at the two daemons guarding the throneroom.
“Foolish mortal.... you do not give us orders!”
The Grey Knight made a slight hand motion, and slammed the two daemons into each other, before tossing them onto a heap at the foot of a pillar made of silver.
“And you do not stop me from my quest.” Draigo replied as he grabbed Titansword, ready to smite the doors open.
“You sure you want to do this?” Twilight asked. “You know... I heard it’s really dangerous in there.... The Emperor said he wouldn’t be disappointed if we returned emp....”
“Be quiet. I will return to him with what we know, even if I am not in one piece... and we will lock chaos out of the universe forever, even if I don’t get to see it happen.”
“But he said if anything threatened our liv....”
“You were willing to go this far too. No point in turning back. If you feel like it, go home. I don’t see how you can be of use anyways.”
“Well, I’ve never!” Twilight pouted indignantly. “I am staying!”
“I see you have another task for me.” Rogal Dorn said entering the throne room of Terra. “What shall it be?”
“It’s going to be a difficult one nevertheless.” The Emperor said, dressed in his artificer armor, ready to kill. “You are aware that I’ve sent Draigo and Twilight to give me information regarding what Khorne is planning?”
“Aye. I’ve heard the two are going to go storm Tzeentch’s fortress, and then somehow get him to let those two speak to Fateweaver...... like he’s going to tell the truth.”
“A believable lie, and what will happen.” The Emperor said. “Fateweaver isn’t the only one who can gaze into the flow of time.... unfortunatly.... he’s the only one who can get the most accurate image.”
“But accuracy or not, sometimes things never turn out as they should.....right?”
“Yes and no. Fate has it’s machinations.... but fate... good, we will leave it be. Lest it spell misfortune, we must do all we can to beat fate.... or better yet, to cheat it.”
“I see...... I suppose this will be regarding Sanguinius and Ferrus Manus?”
“No. Not at all. Many millennia ago, before you and your brothers were born, fate took away a being with power that easily rivaled my own, and worse yet, was on our side of this conflict. She was also the one who gave me the basics on how to create life. Her knowledge taught me how to create the geneseed for the astartes legions, and the genetic template for you and your brothers.”
The Emperor stopped for a moment to order the custodes out of the room. They didn’t need to hear this.
“Her name is... Galaxia. By all rights, she is a C’tan. Yet she was born much later, and had no interest in destroying life, rather.... creating it. We both had an agenda, good thing both of ours matched up correctly...”
“So what are you saying?”
“You know, my original plan was to invade the warp, and destroy the dark gods one by one using my power and the power of all our pyskers.”
“With all due respect, that is a bad idea if I ever heard one.”
“I know it is. But how were we going to destroy our sworn enemies? The dark gods? What was the only way to ensure they’d never return to blight the universe again? We already have way too much problems. Orks, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Hrud.... etc.”
“Galaxia taught me how to truly a life. A death that could have been avoided was always a death in vain.” The Emperor said contemplating at the past. “I have no intentions to leave billions dead on a death or glory crusade. No.... I have an idea. We’ll lock the chaos gods out of our galaxy... but to do this... I’ll need to bring Galaxia back.”
“So.. you want to revive a god?”
“Yes... but Dorn, I need you to perform a very difficult task, one that will test your very humanity. There are many planets that deserve punishment.... many governors who are corrupt and lived on the suffering of others, many evil men who kill for pleasure, many who have sold their souls for power, at the expense of others... round up as many as these men as possible.... if possible, there are even entire planets containing such vile beings....”
“What is your plan. Just tell me.” The primarch said rather annoyed at this point.
“Galaxia will need to feed off of souls to properly return. Find me the unrighteous... their places of dwelling... and their souls. But whatever planet, whatever hive city you may come across.... if there are 50 righteous.... I will spare that place.”
“What if there are 40?”
“Then I will do it for the sake of 40.”
“But what if there are 30 righteous?”
“Then I will do if for the sake of 30.”
“What if 20?”
“Then I will do it for the sake of 20...”
“What if there are ten beings.... still noble and pure?”
“Then let it be done, that I will spare billions of devils for the sake of ten righteous individuals. You are wondering why we don’t move them? This plan must be kept a secret. No one must learn of it. Only you, me, and your brothers.”
“What of Celestia and Luna?”
“They already know. Now get to your task Dorn. I would like to tell you, it’s not easy to decide who lives and who dies when their your own people.”
"Welcome..... champions of the Anathema." Slannesh warbled sweetly as the pair entered. The throneroom of the dark prince was garishly decorated, as were the attendees and the entertainers.
The two said nothing. One because she was too lost in the grandeur of one room, the other, because he was busy strangling a mortal thrall that got too close for comfort.
"Your impudence and silence offends Slannesh!" One of Slannesh's followers shrieked. A member of the Emperor's Children. Man did Draigo hate those guys, it didn't help much that said astartes grabbed one of the deamonic weapons and made a run for the two. Draigo retaliated by bowling him over with his shield, and crushing his skull, all the while, earning a demented (by this, I mean extra demented) laugh from Slannesh.
"Ah.... Kaldor Draigo, Hammer of The Emperor, The edge of his sword, the gauntlet of his fist. His personal champion after his sons. Your reputation I see, is well earned."
"If you know my name and my titles, then you know why I am here. Give me those steeds and we'll be out...."
"Or what?" Slannesh asked mockingly. "You really think I am just going to give you one of my steeds so you can go off and ask Tzeentch your questions? No way. Most who chance upon my domain never leave with their souls, lives or at all. Yet you two.... you and your incorruptible brothers are ever so difficult to destroy and harder yet to corrupt, and that.... that filthy little beast can resist the touch of the warp....."
That's the second time I've been called that. Twilight thought.
"So... what's it going to be then?" Draigo asked... somewhat rhetorically.
"I smell a threat. Draigo, you of all people should know that I can't exactly be slain by your methods.... ho no. Unless your Emperor, himself decided to barge in here, which I've listened to his conversations, he thinks he has too much to lose. You hear that? Your god is a coward!"
"He is not!" Twilight retorted. "He would never choose to go on any wild battle that loses too many lives...."
"The Emperor in his wisdom, values all our lives..." Unfortunately, hers too. Why did he decide that giving me the most annoying horse in the universe was a good idea for a partner? "You dare insult Him? Come, give me three... no ten of your best champions. I will separate their heads from their shoulders... All of them.... if you believe we are all "cowards". The righteous, the honorable would never allow the stain of cowardice upon their greatness."
Threatening gods, allowing himself to get mad over a god, then making challenges he won't win. This guy.... Twilight thought. I wish everyone had nerves of steel like him.
Slannesh had an idea.
"Perhaps. I think I might just give you one my steeds. For a price. Let's see if you can be of any amusement."
“So... one of us has to tell a joke?” Twilight asked.
Slannesh shook his head almost pitifully.
“No... something more entertaining....”
“Give me ALL your best champions, I will best them all within the ring of honor. All at once if you please.”
“Too easy for you. But I have just the idea for a little game.” Slannesh said as he snapped his fingers.
Twilight looked around. She was.... in an area from what looked like a massive stable.
“You see Twilight, my steed is rather elusive. You will have to go find him.”
Oh brother.
Time to start looking. This couldn't be so bad right? Well, this stable is only MILES in size.
Draigo looked around.
“Tell me good knight of righteousness, what matters more, the needs of the many or the needs of the few?"
"The needs of the many."
"How far will you go to find your prize?"
"To hell itself."
"Then go there!"
Draigo soon found himself surrounded by daemons. Time to do what he does best. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rogal Dorn looked at the planet from high orbit. Everyone upon the bridge looked at him. Waiting for his orders.
"News Cypher?"
"Those who are found wanting shall not return." The man on the vox said.
"I see." Dorn said looking at the planet sadly. He felt the weight of a hand go on a shoulder. It was Cypher. Man was he fast.
"We have our orders milord. There are millions of souls down there. Too many have been found wanting. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
"I assume you overheard our conversation?"
"I overhear everything." Cypher replied. "His trust is something I value."
"It's something we all value." Dorn said pointing out the obvious. "Commence Exterminatus."
The bridge was promptly cleared by order of the primarch. Just him and Cypher.
"You spent 10,000 years faithfully serving The Imperium despite being branded a traitor. You were busy sabotaging and undermining the ranks of chaos while I spent all my time buried within an ancient temple, trying to figure out some alien language.... my question is.... why?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's far easier to serve chaos. To serve yourself. Why... would you remain loyal to the Imperium, even indirectly, though we had believed you to be a traitor?"
"I was an outcast everywhere I went." Cypher said. "At first, I considered to join Luther and his men. The Emperor spoke to me that night, and told me that the duty of redeeming my brothers would fall upon me. I am upon eternal watch, never leaving his side."
"Your loyalty is something that anyone could treasure. To think despite the fact the lion hated you, you still returned his blade to him."
"And here I am, tasked with the honor of delivering the Emperor's will. I truly am His voice now. But of course... not just his voice."
"You are his assassin too. But you've done more than that have you?"
"Aye, a quick sojourn to the eastern fringes of the galaxy." Cypher shook his head. "They really are endless."
"You think we can win?"
"Who knows? We defeated Abaddon because Equestria was able to restore The Emperor back to health. Only Equestrian crystal shards are able to seal portals to the Immaterium permanently. Yet... what good will they be when we fight the Tyranids?"
"Hopefully Galaxia has a solution. My father does hold her in high regard."
"Well... a C'tan that's technically not a star god, born WAAAAY after the rest of them, gives life to planets instead of feeding off of them, and hid an entire planet within a pocket section of the warp, and made an entire race that would be instrumental in defeating chaos. Let's not forget the part regarding how the genetic data used to make geneseed was obtained from her."
"And now, we seek to improve our geneseed. Perhaps Galaxia knows how."
"Maybe that's why The Emperor wants her back so badly."
Twilight quickly ran the moment she heard the din of battle. Who knows what Slannesh might have lurking in these dark corridors? Without Draigo, she would be ill-equipped to deal with any large numbers of daemons or mortal thralls of the dark god.
Turning a corner, Twilight quickly caught a glance of the shadow, something equine in nature and shape. She bolted that way immediately, wondering where Draigo was.
Titansword flashed once, and separated the upper-halves of the daemons from their bodies. Draigo, grimly looked down at his slain foes, turning around to check whether or not they were all dead.
The moment he turned around once again, he heard small footsteps which quickly grabbed his attention, but to his surprise, no one was there.
“What we did.... was it really all worth it?” Dorn asked himself as he had a tech-priest give him a rough estimate on how many people died.
“We had performed Exterminatus on at least eight worlds now sire.” The captain said promptly entering the room.
“Thank you.” Dorn said half-heartedly. “May I see a casualty report?”
“Just a second.”
The primarch sat down and began to think to himself. Could this be really worth the trouble? Sure, the ends perhaps may justify the means but would resurrecting a god via having her feed of billions of souls.... was it really a good idea? These actions too would probably empower Khorne a bit as well.
Dorn hated the idea of sending people to their deaths, no matter what the reason was. The battle with Perturabo at the Iron Cage taught him that... but that was different. His Imperial Fists weren’t exactly the worst kind of degenerates or criminals, and that was on the heat of battle against the arch-enemy, there was something about their deaths that made had small comfort to it. They had died with honor. Perhaps they should have drafted the populations of these planets as conscripts and sent them to battle Orks? Good idea... but then again, whatever Khorne was planning to do might have already happened had they they done something like that.
Apparently Galaxia was going to be needed in the fight with Khorne too. Humph.
What would happen if Galaxia CAN’T improve the geneseed? What then? Even then, The Emperor always had a plan B (except in the case of Horus) perhaps the raw power of a god would turn the tide of the battle? After all, if The Emperor had given them guys in cardboard boxes armed with laser pens, the Primarchs still probably could have managed to conquer about a few thousand worlds. Give them about a few hundred thousand astartes each, they’re about going through planets like copy-paper.
But if Galaxia truly valued life as The Emperor had described her to, would that mean she would abhor taking arms?
“Damn!” Twilight shouted to herself as she saw the shadow move again and again away from her. It almost seemed to be taunting her, telling her to pick up the pace. Turning yet ANOTHER corner, the wily steed/daemon/creature/whatever it was always seemed to be a step ahead. Hell.... she hadn’t even seen it yet!
And the worst part was?
She couldn’t use magic. She quickly turned another corner.
Draigo looked into the eyes of his foe. Mighty Slannesh himself had come to bar his path.
“So this is your last test? To defeat you?” Draigo asked. Somehow, he was almost amused by this. He really did see this one coming.
Slannesh gave no reply. Only looked around curiously as if he didn’t understand what he had just said. Draigo felt his temper began to rise.
“What? Don’t understand me? Do you understand this?!”
Titansword was once again pulled out.
Only this time.... Slannesh gave a look of fear, and quickly ran, mouthing words of which made no sound.
“You fear me.... this will make this all the more amusing.” Draigo said as he gave chase. “Today, I get to serve my Emperor, as a bonus, I can slay a god.”
Galaxia gave a small sigh as she felt herself feeding off the souls of mortals. She couldn’t help it really. She wondered exactly now, what kind of dirty work Sigmar must have gone through to get this much. With luck, it might just be enough.
First Horus. Then Kurze. Then Alpharius. Then countless chaos space marines, rogue psykers, daemons.... okay. Let’s face it. She didn’t mind devouring THEIR souls.
But what of this flow of the dead.... what happened now?
Probably another one of the deeds that Sigmar definitely wasn’t too proud have.
#Thunderwarriors.
She wondered whether or not, the true purpose of bringing her back to the material universe really was to defeat the Tyranids.
Twilight turned her shoulder to see the form of Slannesh coming right after her, with one MASSIVE blade that he should not be capable of holding. (This is the warp, screw logic.)
It was actually perfect too. Right as she had turned the corner, she had ran into him. At first, she wondered if the god was going to decide now was another time to mess with her with some “joke” or if she was going to get murdered brutally and painfully. It seems the latter of the two was the right one as now, she found herself at the mercy of the mad god, right in his realm.
It seemed to her that Slannesh had wanted to say something. Twilight did try and say something..... you know... he is a god after all, and MAYBE being polite might get you somewhere. But... no. Just mouthed a few words, and came running after her with a sword. All she could do as of now is run, and hope that he doesn’t catch up.
Her enemy moved fast. WAY too fast for her liking.
Beads of sweat formed on Twilight's head as she tried to dodge the Dark Prince's attacks, each time, she made it just barely from having her head detached from her shoulders, the maze-like design of these stables having saved her more than once, unfortunately... he always seems to find her.
She eluded him once again, hiding behind what would pass for crates. Her purser trudged by, unaware of that she was almost on top of him at one point.
Draigo cursed to himself as he lost Slannesh again. Damn. So much for getting to kill a god.
He couldn't have gotten TOO far. The Grey Knight doubled his efforts in looking for the Dark Prince, wondering how fitting it would be to find him, and kill him in the most painful way imaginable to man EVERYTHING.
To Twilight's shock, the moment she poked her head out of her hiding spot. She came face to face with the form of Slannesh again. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"What's this?" Rogal Dorn asked as his fleet passed through another planet on the "Needs-to-be-Exterminatused-for-Emprah's-plan" list. Right in front of him, was a sizable chaos fleet.
"A chaos fleet!" The captain of his ship said. "Orders milord?"
"Break their formation! Do not let them escape!" The primarch ordered as the alarm was sounded. "Captain.... what is it?"
"It's an Iron Warrior warband!"
The Primarch nodded for a moment, closed his eyes for about a good few moments, and then, the two snapped open, like two burning flames in a pit of two dark voids.
"Aim the prow right for the enemy flagship. RAMMING SPEED!"
The captain meekly obeyed.
[About ten minutes later]
"Where are your dark gods now, traitors?!" The Imperial Fist taunted as he flung the corpse of an iron warrior right out of an airlock.
"BLOOD FOR THE.......... oh shit."
The Iron Warrior was promptly picked up by a single massive hand, another one came out from the edges of his blurred vision, and grappled itself around his face.
The last things he felt was the pain of having the organic fibers of the neck area being ripped off, and his own screams of agony.
[Another ten minutes later]
"Iron without right?! HAMMER THEM WITH THEIR DEAD CORPSES!" An Imperial Fists captain said as he picked up the corpse of a dead Iron Warrior, and flung it straight at the largest mob of chaos space marines, knocking them all down like ninepins. The moment they stood back up, they were promptly shredded by bolter fire. Not a single Iron Warrior was fated to leave this battlefield.
"Lord Dorn, the entirety of the chaos fleet is either retreating or has been annihilated, we may commence Exterminatus in fifteen minutes."
"Belay that order." The primarch said as he into the eyes of a severed head. "That's enough bloodshed for a day."
More souls that will be sent screaming into the Immaterium, not to be devoured or tormented by the dark gods of which they serve, but by a "benign" power that awaits a new life.
"If this power truly was so benign, how could she accept the lives of others so she may live?" Dorn asked himself as he walked past the carnage that had taken place. "True... true... The Emperor accepted the souls of others... but that was for...."
The betterment of others.
"So... if we bring her back, will it be worth all this trouble? Today, billions have died. I have killed more men than I care to count today. Is this really all worth it? Is what we seek to bring back truly a god? Was what I had formerly believed, that The Emperor has no equal.... was this all false? If that's the case.... how powerful is this entity.... if it requires this much sacrifice?"
He didn't exactly want to think about it. But he did. And it only grew worse from there. For some reason.
He began to think of the entity referred to as the "Void Dragon."
The thought stuck with him for a long time. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
There was a burning in Twilight's lungs as she tried to take a look back through her blurred vision, the banging of her heart did little to help her.
Turning around to get a clear view, she realized that Slannesh wasn't too far behind. She tried to put on an extra burst of speed, but soon she felt as though she was deep in water.
Before long, she tried to catch another glance.... and hit a wall.
In her dazed state, she saw Slannesh approaching with a wicked grin.
Draigo allowed himself a small laugh as he cornered Slannesh. The god wasn't even going to put a fight? This was going to be interesting. He decided... perhaps it'd be more fun if he used his combat knife. Perhaps... why not be sporting?
Twilight could only watch in fear as Slannesh drew a long skinning knife... but... something whispered to her. Until it wasn't a whisper anymore.
OPEN YOUR EYES.
Draigo lunged at Slannesh... only to be sidestepped and hit a wall. Angrily, he looked back up to chase his foe. He was only slowed when he heard a small whisper.... or rather... a quiet scream.... wait what?
OPEN YOUR EYES. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dorn wanted to sleep. He badly wanted to as a matter of fact. But every time he closed his eyes.... he would descend into the realm of nightmares.
He found himself standing at the top of many bodies. Bodies of friends and foes alike. The planet's sky had a familiar hue to it. Red.
Why he was trampling on the corpses of his enemies, he needed no explanation. Why he also found himself on top of many of his allies.... that made him wrinkle his face in disgust at himself.
This was a dream right?
Dorn got off said mountain of corpses, and for reasons unknown to him... began to walk in just no particular direction. Wandering as one could say.
He met several rather familiar faces. His brother primarchs. Leman Russ, Sanguinius, Ferrus Manus, many great heroes of the Imperium, Draigo, Lysander, Logan Grimnar. Many unsung heroes of the Imperium and a force of..... Eldar. Don't forget the wizened man in the brown robe. And one last person he knew not the name of. A tall woman... slightly shorter than an astartes with a pair of angelic wings... who's hair flowed like the swirling galaxy itself.... who's form shifted from human to equine.
That was when he met the unfamiliar faces. The faces of the enemy. Yet.... he knew their names.
The Nightbringer. The Outsider. The Deceiver. The Burning One.... the hateful star gods.
He never heard the war-cry, but he did find himself charging... screaming... waving his weapon at the enemy. Hundreds of thousands of necron warriors rose to bar his way. None succeeded in doing so.
They say Primarchs never felt fear. Whomever They happened to be, was wrong.
Oh so wrong.
He never really saw anything. Just a swirling dark mist. It spoke. It's voice.... was... scaring.
Hail to thee children of thee earth...... Today is your last...... Children of Sol....... The Old Ones are dead..... The Eldar are dead......The Dark Gods are dead....The Tyranids are dead...... in the end... there is only Mag'ladroth.... in the end.... there is only I....
He sure did open his eyes after that loud of a scream. Sorta.
Draigo blinked once more as the image of Slannesh began to fade away, and in front of him was Twilight, huddled against the wall, terrified as if she saw Khorne.
Twilight too could not believe her eyes as she looked straight at Draigo, who’s very face wore an expression of disbelief, as if she was not what she seemed to be, or as if he was scrutinizing something.
From the material universe, Luna allowed herself a triumphant “YES!”.
“What the devil.....” Draigo asked. “You......”
“Were Slannesh!” Twilight said. The truth dawned on her as it did on him.
The apothecaries took another look at Dorn, who’s face was covered in sweat. He was more nervous than a cornered rabbit facing off against a pack of hungry wolves.
“Milord... your condition is rather strange. Perhaps... some form of petty illness that somehow afflicted you?” “Impossible.” Another apothecary commented. “His physiology should not allow that.”
“Yes... but his is also different from our own.... perhaps a work of poison then?”
“I am fine.” Dorn finally breathed. The first word he’s said, ever since they found him sitting on his bed, with a million mile stare.
“What’s wrong milord? Has someone poisoned you? Are you not feeling well?”
He didn’t exactly lie. But all he said was he felt “a little bit sick.” Not exactly being dishonest, but definitely the understatement of the century.
The primarch in golden armor allowed himself a small sneer of contempt at the tyranids as he tore apart their entire army with nothing but his bare hands. Their disgusting bodies might as well as have been wet paper against the demi-god’s strength.
From a far away, the primarch heard the bellow of more creatures. Larger, smarter and more dangerous than the last. He allowed himself a small break, sitting on a rock amidst a pile of slain bodies, and a cool drink from a canteen. The water, sweet to his tongue.
He looked back at the rapidly approaching monsters, grabbing his sword, the Imperial Fists Primarch waved forward his men, his brothers arriving to join the fight.
It really was no contest. The Tyranids were shredded like meat through a grinder by the fury of the combined armies of The Emperor, millions upon millions of faithful comrades and battle brothers, their numbers ever swelling by the moment until it looked like if one managed to number all the sand on the seashore, said person would have numbered them.
The bellow of the Swarmlord did unnerve some of them, yet did little to break their formation. The beast may have broken a single company before it was buried in blurs of armors of various colors.
From the distance, Dorn spied his brothers battling multiple swarmlords and other likewise vile creatures of the Tyranids. He found himself laughing in victory with his men as the body of a hierophant bio-titan came crashing down unto the earth.
A loud bellow issued, and Dorn found that his celebration was short-lived. A massive host of chaos was headed their way, the two armies clashed, neither giving any quarter. The corpses began to pile up.
Rogal Dorn spied his treacherous brothers and various chaos champions. He humored himself by fighting Perturabo, enjoying every satisfying moment of driving his sword through his brothers eye. He looked up to see his brothers too were victorious, some were singing, others looked victorious and proud upon the corpses of the arch-enemy.
About three seconds later. There was that familiar war cry.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH”
No one hesitated to throw themselves at the green tide. It took a longer time, but in the end, they found that they were several meters above the ground, all trampling on the bodies of the fallen.
Dorn spied a few familiar faces, one of which was Twilight Sparkle, that purple alicorn he had met not too long ago. She was tending to an injured astartes. Dorn made sure to give her his appreciation.
Though no sooner had he reached Twilight, he found nothing.
Dorn was about to say something.... something... but he turned around to see the celebration of his brothers... and couldn’t help to... but he abandoned the serach to join in with their joy. In a massive ditch, there were various slain bodies.
Khorne. Tzeentch. Nurgle. Slannesh.
Not just them.
Gork. Mork. The Hivemind (Um.... what?)
But as the recurring theme followed, this was also short-lived, as on the horizon was the mechanical whirring sounds of the necrons.
He found himself fighting alongside Eldar, Tau and Orks. The last one being rather out of place, the first two being understandable. The combined might of the forces began to drive the Necrons back. He watched with amazement as a brilliant golden light hit the form of the Nightbringer, sending it into a massive trench amongst it’s own forces.
The battle ended. There was no songs being sung, no cheers of joy. He turned to see that he was in a pile of bodies, for every dead necron, there was a dead battle brother. Dorn could only hang his mouth open in shock. He saw Vulkan lamenting over a dead Salamander, Leman Russ cursing angrily yet... powerless, Guilliman shaking his head in regret, The lion, sitting down on a rock, his eyes betrayed how tired he was, and how hopeless he felt. Manus, Sanguinius, Corax, Khan. All of them, either nursing their own wounds, looking hopeless or mourning the dead.
He hardly cared about what was going on around him. Just the loud voice.
The Dark Gods are dead. The Orks are dead. The Tyranids are dead. In the end there is only Mag'ladroth, in the end, there is only I.
The once massive legions of astartes looked so pitifully few now. Perhaps only hundreds left at best, only the greatest champions had ever hoped to live. And here the faced, a massive five headed entity with human-like faces yet whose red eyes burned soulless. Who’s massive form and body made even the bravest space marine quiver in fear.
That was their enemy. He was only one.
He didn’t care to know who made the battle-cry, but all he saw was what few brothers left ran at the monster, all obliterated by a black light of destruction, only skeletons left in their deaths.
He saw his father’s closest friend, Malacador the Hero battle the monster first, golden tips of light, resembling the sun’s rays firing from his fingertips, the earth shuddered with his every step... yet he accomplished nothing.
He saw the elements of Harmony, all gather together to fire the power artifacts, the beam even worked yet despite the fact it hit the void dragon head on, it hardly even drew his attention.
He saw the one he hated, Discord attempt to do something.... whatever it was... he failed miserably.
He saw the avatar of khaine try to do battle with it, he saw as a blackstone fortress tried to destroy it, he watched as they tried to drop Cyclonic torpedos on this one entity, and how it did nothing.
He could only stare in terror, listening to the bells who tolled, as the dragon opened it’s mouth, and the flow of black fire consumed him and all who stood with him.
Yet in these final moments, Dorn saw his father The Emperor, and Galaxia, both side by side, facing the void dragon.
He allowed himself a smile before he experienced the closest thing to dying, even closer than the first time.
“Damn.... you fools managed to deduce my trick....” Slannesh angrily spat out. He had lost and he knew it.
“Give it up then.” Twilight said curtly. “We’ve had enough of your games.” Yeah, nearly getting killed is no game after all.
“Take your prize and be gone.” Slannesh said as the steed materialized in front of them. The pair were more than happy to leave, the moment they set foot outside, they found themselves facing Tzeentch.
“Wasn’t that fun?” Tzeentch asked as he, in the form of one of his greater daemons, threw his hands up and laughed, full of mirth. “Now then....”
“Fun?! You sent us there for your amusement?!”
“Duh! I couldn’t lose in this! Either Slannesh loses one of his prized possessions, or you too die horribly!” The god laughed. “Alright... that was a good laugh. You two earned it. Go see Kairos now. Then.... Get out.”
The Emperor smiled as he saw the two step through the portal.
“Now tell me what he told you. Both things. I can figure it out.” ______________________________________________________________________________
“Twi!” Applejack said as she embraced her friend. “Ah was so worried about you!”
“No need!” Twilight grinned. “I was simply away...”
“For like four days!” Rainbow Dash commented. “We thought you were lost or something!”
“What? Me? Lost? Never!” Twilight said, trying not to hide her surprise that four days had passed. It seemed like years within the warp.
“So... where were you anyways?!” Pinkie Pie asked. “WERE YOU ON A TOP SECRET MISSION THAT THE UNIVERSE’S FATE DEPENDED UPON.”
Thankfully, the speed of which she spoke was more than what her friends could understand... though Twilight could make out “Top secret mission”, best course of action was to avoid the question here.
“Yeah..... now who wants lunch?”
“ME!” Pinkie Pie said as she dragged her to sugarcube corner.”
It was safe to say Twilight was pretty tired, but oh well. She got a nice bed rest for about almost a week. However, a few days later, she was woken by someone was knocking on her door, and man, did that someone sounded like he or she was going to knock the door down.
And of course.... it just happened to be Rogal Dorn. She promptly invited him inside lest they draw too much attention.
Twilight glanced over her shoulder.
5:30 AM. This has to be...... yeah. It probably is important.
“I see you’re well.” Dorn said. Surprisingly, he was only wearing a coat.
“Eh..... yeah.” Twilight said. Seeing him not wearing his power armor was like seeing him naked. But this, she got over rather quickly.
“Okay. You and all your friends.... The Emperor has need of them.”
“Please tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with what that daemon said.”
“It has everything to do with what that daemon said.” Dorn said. “Your elements are a powerful weapon against chaos. And.... probably the only way The Emperor can use to get on the planet without having his army being shredded by the warp storm.”
“How’s this going to work?” Twilight breathed.
“Using his power, he will teleport you unto the planet. There, you will have to find any good spot, fire your elements upon the warp storm. Once that is all good and done, we will begin our attack. There should be 9 portals to the immaterium. 8 of which, we can destroy the regular way. One of which, will require your elements. Got it?”
“Good. I’ll get everyone else....”
“No need. I told them all there is to know. And another thing..... You have anything thing that might help with nightmares?”
Strange, he seemed to be the type of guy that'd give nightmares.
"Oh.... when can we get out of here?" Fluttershy asked nervously the first moment they landed on Pandemonium. A blasted hellscape of a world, where oceans of fire dominated the landscape.
"Don't worry." The Emperor's voice rang. "I doubt you will come to harm... especially since you have your elements with you. They should deter the majority of the daemons."
"Daemons....?"
"Aye...." The Emperor said. "Daemons. Stick together."
"So... how does this voice thing work anyways?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Think of this as a piggyback ride.... save for the fact I am not actually with you. But I am. I can see what you six see, and I can speak to you, though physically, I am not beside you. Now then.... I got some bad news."
"Ah... bad news?"
"Yeah.... we're landed you in the wrong spot. The good news is, you aren't too far from it. See the highest peak?"
Gulp*
"Yeah."
"Get to it. As far up as possible. Then... fire your elements into the skies. The warp storm will be cleared, and the Imperial Fists will land. Good luck. I will stay with you for as long as this takes." ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"You know, why couldn't have he gotten himself down and blew up this world or something?" Rainbow Dash asked. "With all those techno, big ships they have up there, why not do that exterminate thing they do."
"Exterminatus? Well... The Emperor mentioned that'd it wouldn't work on daemon worlds. Also, the warp storm means he and his men can't get through, but we still can.... safely."
"Ah... speaking of safety and all..... THERE'S A BUNCH OF THEM CHAOS SPACE MARINES!" Applejack said.
Everypony quickly threw themselves down behind a mound of earth and hoped that they wouldn't be seen.... well, everyone except for Pinkie Pie who couldn't wait to get a peek.....
"Bloodfathers." The Emperor said to himself.
"What are those?"
"The closest thing Khorne has that can be comparable to having sorcerers." The Emperor said. "They are skilled warriors, every one of them. Made even better with their psyker powers. Rest assured, they won't ever try and use their magic to kill you for fear of tempting Khorne's displeasure, but by no means try to get close to them. Hurry.... move!"
Everypony promptly ran as fast as their hooves could carry them to the highest peak of pandemonium. Eluding various daemons and chaos space marines along the way.
At the highest peak of Pandemonium, was a brass throne. Upon the brass throne, was the mightiest champion of Khorne. The Daemon Primarch Angron. At the bottom of his throne, stood various champions that the Blood God once again found use for.
Angron could smell the scent of an intruder... or intruders. The daemon Primarch grinned wolfishly. Turning to the flesh hounds at his throne.
"Seek out these intruders. Tear them apart."
Behind him, Angron took a look back to see the nine massive portals to the immaterium. From them, legions of chaos space marines poured forth.
"And I say... those chaos space marines have no sense of fashion whatsoever!"
Try Slannesh. Twilight thought as she listened to Rarity complaining.
"Ah don't think it's any of their fashion we should be worried about.... I think it's their pointy things and bolters."
"How could they try and kill for fun?! What would their mothers think of them?!"
"I think their mothers would probably be terrified of them.... for obvious reasons."
"And....."
"Pinkie?"
"I just got a pinchy knee!"
"That means something....."
Rainbow Dash didn't get to finish her sentence. She only had her mouth open as she heard the roar.
An entire pack of flesh hounds were almost upon them. They did the only thing they could do.
"Is it me or has the number of chaos space marines and daemons been increasing since we've been approaching the mountain?!" Rainbow Dash asked.
"CURSES!" The voice of Sigmar rang out. "Those simpletons may not be as stupid as they look! Be careful when you go up! I doubt that followers of Khorne might try to be sneaky, but don't count on that!"
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah.... I know... just try and get up on that mountain as fast you can! There is no time to dilly-dally!"
"I don't like this Twilight!" Applejack said as she turned around. "Is it me or is there even more of them now?!"
"IF ONLY I COULD FLY!" Rainbow Dash said. Surprisingly, no one saw them......... yet.
"We're almost up there!" Twilight said. "We go up there and we're sa......"
She stopped talking and running right them. Not coincidentally the flesh hounds did too.
Twilight and her friends soon fond that they were staring at a massive daemon.
Angron sneered at the pathetic lot in front of him.
"You really didn't think we found out the moment you came here? Your very presence is like waving a flag."
To their horror, they soon found out that the entire way down the mountain was covered by thousands of chaos space marines and daemons. To their front was Angron, rising from his throne and grabbing a hold of a massive axe. To everyone and every pony's surprise.... Angron didn't just jump and mutilate them all in one blood multi-colored mess. No.
"Listen beasts of the false Emperor.... my offer will not be made again. You are unworthy of my wrath. You and all your pathetic kind. Raised in paradise.... using the pretentious and lazy ways of magic and sorcery to tend to your needs.... hiding behind the armies of The false Emperor for protection. Go home. You and your kind sicken me. You belong as some toy to young children, you live your lives as such. Leave. If The Emperor is as mighty as they say he is.... why doesn't he come down here personally and fight?"
You know.... he had a point there. But.....
"You dare look down upon us you filthy brute?!"
"Don't think I can't buck a few big guys like you! Why... you think picking on those smaller than you makes you a big tough warrior?"
"You should be ashamed of yourself!"
[Unintelligible retorts made by Pinkie Pie]
"Alright tough guy, I think I can take you on!"
"Princess Celestia, Luna and The Emperor entrusted this task to us. We are not afraid of you! We have the elements right here! It is you who should be afraid!"
"Me? Afraid? Even now, you humor me.... if you so wish for death. Then come to me. I will give it you."
"Hurry, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash screamed as they tried to further scale the mountain.
"I am trying!" Fluttershy said as she ran up as fast as she could, Angron hot on their heels.
"DUCK!!!!"
The massive wave of fire shot out from the daemon's mouth, scorching a few bits and pieces of manes, but thankfully, no one exactly became roasted horse meat. Much to the annoyance of Angron, this only make the six run even faster away from him.
"You may run cowards, but you can't hide!" Angron screamed as he jumped for them, landing a perilous few feet away.
Twilight looked down at Angron. Nothing.... nothing... compared to this.... monster. To think he used to be a living breathing creature.... well a normal one that is....
She quickly snapped out of thought about how evil Angron could be when she saw that he was almost on top of Rarity. The white unicorn was fast, but not quite fast enough to escape.
"If one of you dies.... you are die!" Angron screamed as he raised his axe.... just within reach of Rarity.
Thinking quickly, Twilight sent a magical bolt right into the daemon's face.
Had it been any psyker of similar power to Twilight, Angron may have thought it tickled. Yet the mysterious magic that Equestria seemed to use.... it was like throwing a jar of acid into his face and it stung like hell. It sure did buy Rarity time to escape, but only managed to piss Angron off even more. If that's even possible.
"Your chance for a quick death is over! I will devour you all! Bone by bone.... entrails by entrails!"
He was met with another bolt aimed to the face, but Angron, preparing for this one quickly raised his arms, still hurt, but wasn't like having acid thrown in your face.
Everyone continued their mad dash to the top of the mountain. Hearts pounding and throats burning.
All the while, with the mad roars of Angron approaching ever closer.
"All companies accounted for sire." The Captain said to Rogal Dorn. "Additional support companies have come from the Grey Knights, The Exorcists and the Ultramarines."
"They stand no chance." Dorn said to himself as he looked down at the daemon-infested planet below. When the warp storm is lifted, the forces of chaos will be ants to our mighty boot."
"It will be a pleasure to cut out one of the last malignances in this galaxy." Kaldor Draigo said walking in.
"Lord Draigo I presume? It's quite an honor to meet you."
"Honor's all mine Primarch." Draigo replied. "Who doesn't know of the great Rogal Dorn, defender of Terra?"
"That'll be enough." Dorn said looking back downon the planet. "They stand no chance."
"Who? Twilight and her companions or the forces of Khorne?" __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"It's over! I got you now!" Angron said standing over Twilight.
"No you don't!" Twilight replied, sending a beam of magic at the daemon and dodging to one side.
Exactly what Angron wanted.
Taking his fist, he smashed into the side of the mountain sending down a cascade of Rubble. Right on Twilight.
The alicorn was lucky. She was able to dodge most of the rocks. Save for one, which caught her by a wing. A sitting duck for the World Eaters Primarch.
"Now die!" Angron roared as moved to get in position. Only instead, he was met with a cascade of rubble. Applejack had collapsed a few loose chunks of earth and it sent the primarch back.
"Twi! We have to use our elements now!"
"But we're not at the top of the mountain!!"
"We're never going to git up that mountain with that monster chasing us! We have to do it now and hope it works!"
"Bu..."
"He's coming back up!"
"NOW!" Applejack said.
Twilight clenched her teeth. Gingerly, she channeled the power of the elements. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So..... what the hell?" Dorn asked.
"An opening within the warp storm."
"Excuse me?"
"An opening. Not cleared. An opening. Like an eye in the storm."
"What could this mean? The elements.... sorta worked?"
"Maybe it's just in the process."
"No.... it's not." The voice of The Emperor boomed within the conference room. "They need your help. Use that opening. Now! It's debatable on how long it will stay open. Quickly!"
No one needed any second bidding. In a flash, the sounds of clanging metal roared across every hanger.
The phrase "it's raining men" could have never been taken so literally as it did in the moments following.
Twilight watched in awe as thousands of drop pods fell from the sky, many smashing into the massive army below and scattering their ranks, others landing to them a bit too close for comfort. She allowed herself one last smile, before collapsing back down from exhaustion.
"We did it!" Rainbow Dash said. "Alright! Go me!"
"Ah thought you said, WE did it." Applejack said rolling her eyes.
"Um.... girls..."
"Well... fine! WE DID IT. GO US!"
"Um... girls?"
"Now that's more li..."
"EVERYONE. THEY'RE COMING UP!"
About a hundred or so Khorne beserkers were coming right there way, accompanied by various daemons, heavy vehicles and blood fathers. This was going to hurt.
For them.
From out of nowhere, dozens of scout marines suddenly materialized in front of them, armed with grenade launchers, sniper rifles and enough bolters to make any Ork looter even more green in envy. The large group of Khornates were cut down by a literal rain of sniper fire and grenade explosions.
"Get her out of there!" One of the sergeants barked. Two scouts promptly lifted the rock trapping Twilight.
"Hurry, that hole in the storm won't last. Get up there! Quickly!"
"Space marines!" The chaos champion spat angrily. "Kill the loyalist dogs!"
"Chaos traitors! Purge the enemy!"
"Blood for the blood god!"
"For The Emperor!"
"CHARGE!"
Angron looked up at the ponies attempting to reach the top. Spreading his wings, he was about to go for the ponies when he felt something tugging at his foot.
A blood father.
"What is it?" Angron asked angrily.
"Milord.... pursuing them would be folly. After all..... aren't we all here to shed blood? Let the pets of the false Emperor send in his army. We will have so much blood for khorne, that we can call in more of our brothers."
"You forget that if we let them go, The Emperor's full might will be upon us!"
"All the better, more blood for the blood god right?"
"You better hope you are right witch." Angron said. "Blood for the blood god eh?"
Angron lifted his foot, and squashed the psyker.
"I always hated pyskers. Regardless." Angron said as he flew to the portals. He was being watched.
"Foolish khornates!" The sorcerer spat out. "They've ruined our last chances at summoning our brothers!"
"Give it a rest. We lost anyways."
"Not another lecture on your vision Spara!" The sorcerer said to his other partner. "We go then. Magnus will want to hear this."
The two sorcerers disappeared. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Blood fathers?" Dorn asked to himself as he stabbed the psyker to death. "Annoying bastards."
"They're fast." Draigo said as he skewered one with Titansword.
"And can predict your moves." The primarch muttered. Not that it mattered. NO ONE could take the full force of a primarch.... or Draigo.
"I think we've almost just about won this battle." Draigo said.
"What about that?" Dorn asked, seeing Angron send his axe sweeping in an arc, sending dozens of astartes flying in various directions.
"I'll deal with that monster." Draigo said as he grabbed Titansword. "May I?"
"All yours friend. Leave the rest to me." Dorn replied as he grabbed a chaos space marine, and flung him into the oceans of lava.
Angron looked at the battlefield from a bird-eye's view. The loyalists were now converging upon the portals, quickly overrunning most opposition.
Damn. He'll have to lead them personally now.
As much as Angron wanted to dive into the fray and kill as many of the damn loyalists as possible, he wasn't as insensible as most people thought him out to be. Those portals go down, they can all forget about living. And being dead..... well.... no more blood for the blood god.
He never actually fought Blood Father's personally before, only heard tales about them from the Emperor. But boy.... they are annoying as hell. Dangerous though? To a primarch? Never.
Dorn gave an annoyed snort once again as the Blood Father teleported out of harm from the bolter fire, closing the distance between them and the devastators.
Dorn never met an even more annoying enemy. Running to the front lines, he gave the order for his devastators to stop firing. He would handle this one himself.
The dozen or so Blood Fathers, using whatever foul magic at their disposal, quickly teleported in front of him all menacing him with their weapons.
Never feeling as much as an ounce of fear, the primarch swung his blade, decapitating the closest khornate.
Slightly harder than those idiots who only screamed "Maim! Kill! Burn!" It would only take a few moments for him to kill all of them. Their abilities aided them not.
A temporary setback, but it was now time to get back on track and destroy those foul portals.
"Alright girls! Quickly, we have to get to the portals!"
"On it! Why don't we split up?"
"What? Why?"
"Because.... well.... in case something goes bade.... we don't ALL die......"
"What do you mean?"
"You see, we can stick with them space marine guys. But what if.... we're with them and we all get killed one way or the other? If we all split up, all of us dying at once.... that chance lessens...... I dunno.... should we split up?"
"They'll be trying to kill us..... they know we are the only ones who can close that darn thing..... so.... maybe.... if one of us falls.... at least the rest of us will be safe."
"I don't think that will be necessary......" Twilight said looking down from the mountain.
"Why?"
"Let's just follow that......"
And right down the mountain, was the largest thing any of them saw. Standing 150 meters tall and bristling with weapons, was an Emperor-Class Titan. Marching towards it's targets. The portals to the warp. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From inside a Emperor-class Titan, The Emperor of mankind stood on the bridge as they walked within firing range of the portals.
"Target locked. Ready to fire."
"Destroy them!" The Emperor ordered. In just a few moments, the full might of the Titan was unleashed upon the chaos portals and the many thousands of chaos space marines and daemons that stood by them.
Yet one still stood. The final portal to the damned immaterium, protected by some unholy barrier still stood. It would be easy prey as of now, the many thousands of chaos space marines and daemons had all been consumed by one massive ball of fire.
But just as the Emperor gave his orders to attack, Angron landed right in front of the portal, barring it's path. Only to make matters worse, out of nowhere, did many thousands more of chaos space marines and daemons pour forth. Bloodthirsters within their ranks.
"We're done here." The Emperor said. "I'll take care of this personally."
He opened a hatch. And jumped out, all the entire 150 meters. Landing with a great thud.
"Milord....." A Blood Father said to Angron. "The loyalists are everywhere!"
"Then shoot everywhere whelp!" Angron said kicking the Blood Father into a mob of loyalists, knocking them over like pins at the bowling alley. He turned back to face the armies of his father.
"Warriors of Khorne, ATTACK!"
Nothing.
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?! WARRIORS OF KHORNE, ATTACK!"
Still nothing.
Angron for a second wondered what the hell was up. Only then did he look up, to see The Emperor, standing right on a ledge looking down upon them, surrounded by his army.
"You're time is up Angron." The Emperor said. "All of you."
That threat.... most of the chaos space marines and daemons had heard many times over. Though this time, the good portion of them pissed themselves from fear. Many of them weren't afraid of a "dead god" "corpse-emperor" or "dead-emperor" but.... the fact that he was alive and well.... that was pretty scary.
But Angron wasn't so easily scared. And as loud as he can, he roared. The roar... like the sound of khorne's rage made into manifest.
"ATTACK!"
The armies of khorne once again returned into their berserk state and began to rush the loyalists with their beserk primarch leading the charge.
And that was all Draigo needed, seeing Angron alone. What was only better was that Angron charged a path straight into the heart of the loyalist formation. Even if he lost, he knew that he'd probably be safe.
Seizing this golden opportunity, Draigo bounded for Angron while he was busy tearing apart some unfortunate squad.
And for Dorn, the fact that the traitors were now without their greatest warrior meant they'd be easy prey. He decided to maybe test how far his power could go.
Step 1: Punch a Bloodthirster in the chest.
Step 2: Watch it sail all the way back into the portal and share a good laugh.
Step 3: Watch some of the most bloodthirsty warriors in the galaxy piss themselves in fear. Share another good laugh.
With a single roar, Draigo launched himself at Angron, catching the Daemon Primarch off guard.
Despite his deep astonishment, Angron parried Draigo's blow was relative ease. Even then, the Primarch still had quite a hard time comprehending on how much idiocy it took a simple mortal to decide to challenge him... HIM Angron, in single-combat.
To this mortal's credit, he was putting up quite a good fight. From things as it seemed, Angron was fighting the man known as Kaldor Draigo, Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights chapter, Hammer of The Emperor, second to perhaps none than the primarchs.
The thought of this sent ripples of joy in the warped mind of Angron. Finally! A worthy challenge. He was going into enjoy fighting and killing him, something that even Mortarion could not accomplish.
"You will die today Daemon." Draigo said. "I will send you screaming back into the warp."
"Bold words knight of the false Emperor... show me deeds."
"I've already defeated a Daemon Primarch.... you lot are like the rest of the traitors. Cowards! Weak! Honorless!"
"Cowards? Fools? Honor less? Face me then, without interference from your friends. Let's see who remains standing!"
"Very well! All of you, back off. He's mine."
Grudgingly, every loyal astartes backed off slowly, watching the battle between daemon and knight slowly unfold. Many of them would know that Draigo was stronger.
But few of them knew the true story of the battle between Draigo and Mortarion. Had Draigo not received help from at least over a dozen battle-brothers, the battle would have ended badly.
What no one was watching was a Blood Father on a hilltop conjuring up some foul sorcery with his powers. No one except Twilight.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
"That warcry is your last!" Dorn retorted as he decapitated the chaos space marine. He felt someone was trying to shoot him the in the back. Cowards. That seemed to have been something in common with chaos space marines.
The Primarch turned around as another bolter hit him in the back, his armor hardly scratched. Covering the entire distance between him and this lowly worm in just a few strides, the Primarch tore the weapon from the traitor's hands and beat him to death with it. Every blow was exaggerated with every grinding syllable of his words.
But eventually, Dorn would kill his victim. When that was done, the Primarch still had the rest of a bloodthirstiness of his own to sate. He decided he would quench it by fighting the two bloodthirsters that were giving his Imperial Fists trouble. But if he was right, they would be hardly any problem with him.
"DIE!" Draigo screamed as he sent a savage blow at Angron's chestplate, the foul armor buckled and scratched, yet little harm was done to the Primarch, who retaliated by trying to crush the astartes with a massive blow from his fist. The fight continued to rage on with the carnage around them. Neither fighter or army giving each other any quarter.
Draigo jumped away from the blow of Angron's axe. He retaliated by chopping at Angron's feet, forcing the Daemon back.
Unwittingly, he had turned his back to a Blood Father who had armed himself with a rather powerful Kai gun.
Draigo heard the sounds of foul warp energies escape from the barrel of a kai gun.
He couldn't turn around. If he did, Angron would kill him easily.
He couldn't continue to face Angron. If he did, he would be shredded by the blast.
He was in trouble now. All he could do was brace for impact and hope that the two things wouldn't kill him. Time went to a standstill.
But of course... as the old saying goes... The Emperor protects.
The Emperor saw the blast headed for Draigo. Using his might, he slowed down the arrow of time. Turning to the nearest tool at his disposal, Twilight, he flung her towards the two.
Twilight was already aware of what she had to do. Using her magic, she teleported Draigo.
Right on top of Angron.
But that was all. The moment The Emperor stopped performing his magic, the kai blast hit Angron, knocking him off his feet. Twilight, then charged up a spell, killing the chaos space marine in one shot.
"Treacherous Chaos Dog! DIE!"
With that, Draigo aimed Titansword down at Angron's head. But.. Angron was able to move just enough so he would have been decapitated by the blow. Perhaps somewhat ironically, the blow caught him in his back, sending flat on his stomach.
"BACK TO HELL MONSTER!" Draigo breathed as he drove Titansword deep into Angron's back, killing him. The moment this was done, The Grey Knight allowed himself to be carried away by his comrades. He was tired. The very presence of Angron sapped his strength. He needed to rest.
Death to the enemies of The Emperor.
"Looks like all those chaos fellas are all dead." Applejack commented as she watched Dorn punt a chaos space marine into the warp portal.
"Indeed my friend! This is a good day! The dark gods will never trouble us too greatly anymore after this! Now you know what to do right?"
"Yeah!" Twilight said as she caught up with them. "We fire our elements at the portal, then you go in and close it from the inside... and you somehow make it out......"
"I have my ways." The Emperor chuckled. "Now then.... fire!"
The rainbow colored beam lit up the dim planet of Pandemonium. Every astartes watched the elements at work with fascination. There would be many tales about this day for eons.
As the portal stopped spewing out daemons and chaos space marines. The Emperor walked over to the portal, intent on entering and destroying it from the inside out.
But then... as soon as he was about a few meters away from entering. He stopped as if he hit an invisible wall. He tried thrice to enter the portal, and thrice did some invisible shield keep him out.
"Damn Dark Gods! They prevent me from entering their domain!"
"This is terrible! That mean we can't close this final portal!"
"Why not just freeze those six in stasis and leave them there?"
"Wait what?!"
"No way!"
"We are not doing that! There has to be some other way!" The Emperor said instantly vetoing the idea.
"We can get maybe an army of psykers and march them into the warp?"
"Aye... and who's to guarantee they'll come out alive? Even if we managed to send in an entire army, it's debatable on whether or not they'd actually succeed."
"Well... maybe we go to that planet Equestria and dump a bunch of Equestrians in there.... that might work right?"
"No guarantee they'll come out either." Dorn said. "We have a serious problem on our hands.... Father... allow my brothers and I to go in. Perhaps we can defeat them all together and seal the portal?"
"I would never make such a foolish risk Dorn. The reason I called you back was to secure a future. Without you nine, that task may as well as be impossible."
That was especially true when we consider things like the Tyranids that were approaching........
"We'll do it." Princess Celestia said as she teleported into the midst of them.
"Aye..." Luna agreed. "You wanted a powerful user of magic? You got two."
"What?! You?! You of all people should know that you cannot be lost!"
"And wasn't it you that valued lives over all else? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If the two of us were to die so that trillions may still live without fear of chaos...."
"But..."
"No buts.... and come on... all this time we've been apart... it turned out all of us were still alive... maybe not in one piece.... but all of us were alive... wasn't that the important thing in the end? And of course.... we know you have a plan..."
"I don't!" The Emperor said genuinely. "If you go in there... there's no telling what will happen! There might not even be a way for me to get you out!"
"Well.... I can say now... and I bet Celestia can too. That doesn't matter anymore. Just closing this portal.... we would just like to make one final request."
"What?"
"Please... keep Equestria safe. We know you can. Goodbye Sigmar... it was good knowing you." Celestia said as she and Luna disappeared into the warp.
"Stay alive...." Sigmar said as he continued to stare at the portal that refused to allow him in.
"Hello Celestia."
"Sister... is that you?" Celestia asked in the darkness. "I am afraid I can't see anything."
"No..... what?" Luna asked. "I can't see anything either."
"Oh... how silly of me. Hello Luna."
"Who are you?" Both of them asked at the same time. Unable to see where the voice came from, though it was as if it was all around them.
"I am Malcador. I am you. And I am not you at the same time. You see.... I am who you two once were. And Now... I am back."
"Well... okay.... so where are we?" Celestia asked. "I thought that gate led to the warp."
"It did. But we are not in the warp again. Heed my advice.... the two of you would not survive in the coming battle. Powerful as you two may be... the might of a god will crush you to dust."
"Gee thanks for the encouragement." Luna said sarcastically.
"But there's a plan.... now that I am back... there's just something I am lacking..... I need you two...."
"Okay... what now?"
"We need to be one. The three of us... we have to join again. Only then do we have a chance at winning. Don't worry.... we'll all still be alive... you just have to trust me."
"Well... if you really are us... or was us.... I say I do trust myself." Luna said chucking. "Alright... what do you need?"
"Just your consent. Here we go. Understand this will be perhaps the most difficult thing we've ever done."
The explosion that heralded the arrival of Malcador in the warp tossed many daemons like rag dolls. Then he materialized in the warp, a simple man in a brown cloak who stared fearlessly at the armies of daemons and even at mighty Khorne himself who perched a top his throne of skulls.
Take a wild guess at what kept the portal open.
Malcador watched as the armies of daemons charged at him, he hardly made a gesture before what can be described as the power of the stars themselves shot from his fingers and obliterated hundreds of them at the same time.
"So... this is how Sigmar must feel." Malcador said to himself. He felt invincible. He could kill many of these Daemons with a glance, a simple wave of the hands and he would destroy them... nothing remaining in the end. Nothing could stand in his way.
And this was true. Nothing Khorne had would even as merely as delay him. Bloodcrushers were melted, Bloodletters were scattered like leaves on the autumn wind, even the most powerful of all of Khorne's bloodthirsters and daemon princes provided little more than a delay.
The power of Celestia and Luna together... now imbued with Malcador... It truly was a fearsome thing.
Of course... so was Khorne.
The blood god began to rise from his throne and grab his axe the moment he realized his armies were being shredded apart. He would have to settle this.
There were many times... when one can say we get “drunk” off of power. That is exactly what happened to Malcador. And boy... did he pay the price for it.
The sheer embodiment of Khorne’s rage was like the most powerful hurricane, it picked him up and sent him flying as if he was a leaf, hitting one of the brass walls of Khorne’s fortress.
Malcador retaliated, with a mere gesture of his hand, he sent a brilliant bright beam straight at the god of war. There was the small chink of armor cracking... and Khorne’s wrathful roar. He really pissed him off now.
The axe of Khorne could destroy entire planets with a single sweep. One reason why Khorne dared not to use it. Picking up the blade that An'ggrath left behind, the god of war leapt from his throne and walked towards Malcador, the only noises coming from him were his footfalls and the growls and cries of pure rage.
When Malcador sent his second blast which shattered a tiny section of Khorne’s shoulder plates, the war god went from a slow march into a blazingly fast sprint, i n just a fraction of a moment, he was ontop of Malcador.
The combined power of three extremely powerful beings hardly held him off, but the shield that surrounded Malcador held against the axe blows... but they protected him. For now.
The psyker relentlessly pounded Khorne with blasts of energy, drawing his power both from harmony and from the warp. For all their power though, the most that was done were cracks and fractures in the war god’s armor, not a single wound upon the angry god.
The shield finally broke into several pieces, sending one rather forceful attack into Khorne’s face, Malcador backed off to high ground, watching the god rage insanely (extra insanely as he would later describe) over being hit in the face with a power blast. A single scorch mark accounted for the damage on his war helmet.
Khorne leapt straight up the ledge and sent his axe crashing down. Malcador avoided the blow easily and sighed in relief when Khorne got his axe stuck on the brass walls of his fortress. Seizing an opportunity, the psyker hit Khorne again in the back, causing the armor to splinter and crack.
Khorne abandoned his axe, whirled around, and punched Malcador in the gut, sending him flying several hundred meters, crashing through a few tons worth of skulls.
“Damnation.” Malcador muttered as he got up again, blood trickled from his mouth and nose and his brown cloak stained in a few areas. Khorne was more powerful than he thought.
“BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD. SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!”
“What the?”
“AS LONG AS MY TOWER OF OFFERINGS REMAIN IN PLACE, I AM INVULNERABLE.”
“Huh?”
“The skull towers! Destroy them!”
Malcador turned his head right at the massive chair.....
“My offerings huh?” Malcador muttered to himself, watching the many skulls that piled underneath it.
Pain was something that Khorne, while being adapted and suited for, he wasn’t too used to. There never had been any being that had been able to cause him pain before.
But when Malcador destroyed... even just a relatively small portion of the skulls underneath his throne, the feeling that shot through Khorne burned and stung.
So... this was what mortals called pain. It certainly has been a long time.
Malcador sent another blow at the skull throne, and another bolt of pain shot through Khorne. He looked up to see the psyker slowly causing his throne to crumble.
That was the source of his pain.
Malcador heard the roar... well... he would of even if he was a few bajillion light-years away. All he could see however, was the form of Khorne almost on top of him, flying towards with blinding speed.
But... instead of being hit and probably killed outright. It would be Khorne who would be on the receiving end of any form of injury.
Somewhere... something hit Khorne, the blow sent him sprawling into a wall.
“Galaxia.” Malcador said as he watched the alicorn descend from the red sky.
“Good to see you too.” Galaxia chuckled. “I think I got here just in time?”
“You did.” Malcador said.
“Good. Listen... Khorne draws his power from fighting... us going against him head to head will only result in us losing rather badly.”
“So... you got a plan?”
“I do as a matter of fact.” Galaxia said. “I’ll keep him occupied. You... smash this thing and he’s gone. Good luck.”
“Good luck to you too.”
“Oh... and Celestia and Luna... are they well?”
“Right here.” Malcador said touching his heart as he turned around to continue laying siege upon Khorne’s throne. The alicorn smiled for a moment, before turning to face the god of war.
“Hello Khorne.” Galaxia said mirthlessly. “It’s been a long time.”
Khorne climbed out from the hole within the wall, growling and snarling unintelligibly. He ran straight at Galaxia, who sidestepped him fairly easily and watched him run into another section of the wall.
The blood god once again turned around to face Galaxia, doubling over in pain. Turning his head to see Malcador continuing to destroy his throne. But the moment he did so, he was met with a powerful blast of magic from Galaxia, tearing apart sections of his breastplate.
“Your fight is with me murderer.” Galaxia said. But Khorne certainly wasn’t listening as he bounded for Malcador. The psyker turned just in time to get out of the way from Khorne’s frenzied attack.
Only to realize. That wasn’t an attack. His intent was to get his axe.
He lifted the axe blade high above his head.... and brought it crashing down upon the ground.
The warp trembled and shook the entire realm of chaos. Within the fortress, fissures popped out from the earth, threatening to swallow the three fighters.
“This is not good!” Malcador said as he pulled himself out from the fall into a pit of lava.
“I agree!” Galaxia replied as she watched Khorne recover enough to scream and hiss again. The Blood God hit her, sending the alicorn flying back a few paces.
“That hurt...” Galaxia wheezed as she felt blood trickle from her brow. The wound healed quickly but Khorne was quicker as he bounded for her.
She had an idea left.
Teleporting, she sent the two of them right in front of the skull throne.
Khorne swung his axe for her......
and she teleported out of the way. The axe blade hitting the skull throne.
Khorne hadn’t even had time to understand the true consequences that this action would yield. The last thing he saw was Galaxia and Malcador teleporting themselves out of here... the last thing he felt was an unspeakable pain and the ground shaking.
The last thing that any viewer would have seen was the realm of chaos slowly collapsing and falling apart.
That viewer was of course, The Emperor of mankind.
"The portal is opening!" Someone announced as the mysterious energies of the portal started to spin and churn. With a loud crackle and snap, a single being was thrown out. A man in a brown cloak.
"You look well." The Emperor said as he flicked his wrist, causing Malcador to stand upright.
"Too bad I don't FEEL well." Malcador replied as he stood up. The battle with Khorne was evident. "But... the realm of the dark gods is doing much worse."
"Good." The Emperor replied as he watched the portal crackle and snap once again and out came an alicorn, who's mane and tail reminded everyone of the swirling mass of the galaxies themselves. "Hello Galaxia."
"Good to see you too." The alicorn replied as she stood up properly. "It's been too long."
"It has. Glad to have you back in the land of the living... I am sure you know them." The Emperor said as he made a flick with his wrist, sending Twilight and her friends sailing right towards Galaxia.
"Indeed I do. The element bearers... how could I not?" Galaxia asked rhetorically, smiling benevolently at Twilight.
"But... let's get off this hell now." The Emperor said. "I long for the smell of clean air and touch for untainted earth."
Draigo sat down on the hill, smelling the Equestrian breeze, the sweet smell of the air sent shudders of delight down him. Normally, the grey knight would probably be concerned if something like this happened. But... of course... this Equestria. There wasn't anything that he really needed to be concerned about.
"Hey." Twilight said as she landed down beside him. "That was... quite the ride."
"I agree." Draigo said.
"So... you all better now? I don't know much about daemons, but..."
"That was Angron. One of the Daemon primarchs. Just yesterday, he was probably one of the most powerful beings in this galaxy. Now... he's not coming back. Ever." Draigo said with glee. "And to think.... he was defeated by my hand."
"Hey... I helped."
"Well.... yes... I never expected him to try something like stab me in the back though."
"The Emperor did mention that most people who serve chaos are inherently cowards, turning to dark and evil powers to protect themselves and rob the weak... those who remained clean..."
"He protects them. Just like he did with me. I saw him send you hurtling towards me so you could help. It was The Emperor that helped me.... that helped everyone."
"He is a god." Twilight said as the pair watched the Equestrian sun set.
Rogal Dorn tossed and turned in his sleep. Sleep.... what a beautiful thing. Not any more. Every time he closed his eyelids, he could only meet nightmares. One foe that even he, a Primarch, one of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy could never hope to defeat.
The gods are dead. The Tyranids are dead. The Old ones are dead. In the end.... there is only Mag'ladroth, in the end... there is only I.
