Warhammer: Equestrian Dark Fantasy

“There are other Realms besides our one, other planes where life exists, both material and immaterial. Celestia recently travelled to one of them, many many years after the banishment of the Prince of Daemons back to the Realm of Chaos. When she returned I asked her how her trip was. Her eyes were wide and I swear she was trembling a little. Later I found out she had borne witness to a grand battle rivalling her own against the Daemon Prince.  She can only refer to it by two words, names actually: Sigmar and Morkar.”

- Star Swirl the Bearded, Master Conjurer and Chief Archivist, Pre-Classical Era

Quote referencing the existence of other realms suppressed by order of Princess Celestia

(WH)

Six years ago…

Princess Celestia gazed up at the moon, following her ritual of tracing it across the sky after the setting of the sun. Such had been her custom for 980 years following the departure of her younger beloved sister Luna. Celestia was kneeling on a rug, which was spread out on her balcony outside her chambers. She was dressed in casual wear consisting of a white tunic with yellow button holes with parts cut in the back to allow for her wings, as well as white pantaloons that bore her Cutie Mark on the flanks which was the Yellow Sun itself.Her technicolour mane ever rippled, the power of the Elements of Harmony reflected within, as she stared up at that moon, the head of an alicorn seemingly imprinted upon it.

‘Luna,’ she thought, saddened when once again it would always remind her that she had lost her not long after losing the other important pony, or person rather, in her life.

And what both of them shared in common was that she had lost them through corruption. She had lost Erik through the tainting influence of dark, extra-dimensional powers, and Luna through her own feelings of bitterness towards those ponies with no appreciation for the night – the domain that she had once had charge over. Celestia sighed, seemingly torturing herself with memories of them both. She downcast her eyes briefly, before raising them back up towards the moon, and to a more curious sight.

Her saddened expression morphed to curiosity when she saw a comet sail across the stars above the moon. And not just any comet, either, but a twin tailed one. She studied it closely as it seemingly skimmed past the sky itself. Before she realised it she had stood back up and stretched her wings, before propelling herself off the balcony of her tower, beating her wings briefly before sailing away from Canterlot Castle, intent on following the path of the comet she suddenly felt herself drawn to.

Her flight from Canterlot gave her a breathtaking view of her realm as she followed the comet east, soon she was over the Foal Mountain and then flying between Fillydelphia and Baltimare, her unexplained determination to follow the twin-tailed comet slowly beginning to unease the Sun Princess. The comet itself appeared to briefly shine brighter and invitingly at her, beckoning her to continue following it.

Soon she reached the eastern coast of Equestria, the comet seemingly above her and shining it’s brightest, almost close to illuminating the land below it. The glare irritating her eyes, she looked downward across the beaches, to see another curious sight. A boat, a carrack rather, beached upon the shore. She sailed downward, beating her wings as she touched down on the sand.

‘I don’t recognise the design of this boat,’ the alicorn thought. ‘Curious.’

Celestia saw that the ship was more a wreck than anything else, the wood that made up the boat appeared to be old and slowly rotting with holes and whole planks of wood missing. The sails were tattered and full of holes and then there was the faint smell of what the alicorn recognised to be rotting flesh…

‘Rotting flesh?’ Celested internally questioned, alarmed.

She beat her wings and leapt up and onto the deck, her left hoof going through the wood…

“Ah!”

…furtherdriving the point home that the boat was a wreck. She looked up and saw that the deck was empty. Then slowly and cautiously she walked across the deck towards the hole and the wooden stair ladder leading down into the hold, the smell of dead flesh growing stronger and, for the first time in centuries, she felt a sense of dread weighing down upon her.

All this time, the comet above her shone it’s brightest.

Celestia carefully climbed down the steps of the ladder leading into the hold.

“NO!”

She almost screamed, and was horror-struck when she was greeted by the sight of close to several dozen hairless, monkey-like bipedals she recognised as 'men' dead, all dressed in filthy rags, all packed tightly against one another. The incessant buzzing of flies assaulted her eyes and ears, while the stench of slowly decaying flesh and voided bowels assaulting her nose caused her to recoil and almost lose her footing on the steps.

‘What…what could have caused such…such death?’ Celestia noted that there were no signs of physical injury upon them, nor disease.

But then she noticed many of them appeared to be extremely malnourished. She felt her eyes water when she saw smaller bipedals amongst them, many within their parents' arms. There were foals…children, amongst the dead, their expressions echoing peace and serenity as if they were asleep. Sleep that they would never wake from, ever.

Celestia bowed her head sadly, and was about to step backward out of the hold when the sound of muffled infantile wailing was heard and her eyes moved towards the bow side of the hold. She stepped back down off the stairs and, as best as she could, treaded over and past the bodies until the crying could be heard beneath another body.

Using her magic she telepathically moved the body of a man to the side to see the crying baby wrapped in thin cloth, still in its dead mother's arms. Celestia's face softened, and no longer did the stench of death bother her when her eyes and those of the infant briefly met, its crying temporary ceasing. The alicorn smiled softly, but it faded once the baby begun to cry again.

“Don’t cry, little one,” Celestia said soothingly. “Allow me to take you away from this terrible place.”

She lowered her horn and it glowed with a light gold colour as she magically lifted the infant from her mother’s arms and it hovered before her. She briefly noticed the colour of the baby’s eyes were green.

‘The same colour as Erik’s.’

“My…son?”

Celestia froze, immediately recognising the language as Breton. She then looked down to see the baby's 'dead' mother's mouth move, as if panting. Her eyes then opened, revealing dull, brown irises. Her hood fell back to reveal her dirty, matted brown hair. Celestia was silent, and watched with pity as her eyes glazed upward and she slowly raised her weakened arm.

“W-where is m-my son? I cannot see…where is my son?” she said panicking in what Celestia perceived to be the Bretonnian tongue.

Taking in this knowledge, Celestia felt her conviction and self-determination return.

“He is here,” she kindly addressed the stricken woman. “He is with me.”

The mother gave a weak smile, “Oh, t-thank the Lady. Have…we reached Avalon? We p-prayed to Manaan to grant us safe waters. I…beg for forgiveness for having t-to travel with t-these filthy…f-filthy peasants…”

Celestia felt saddened upon hearing what this mare thought of the corpses of the dead lying around her.

The mother’s smile faded, “I-is this truly Avalon, my Lady? The Misty Isle?”

Celestia sighed, “Yes, you have arrived.”

“And who are you? Are you a Damsel of the Lady, here to welcome me?”

“Yes, I am the One who welcomes those who have made the pilgrimage,” Celestia played along, to ease this mare’s passage. “Your long journey is over.”

Tears were streaming down from the mother’s eyes, “I-I wish to beg for my son’s l-life. H-his birth is c-cursed. He had been touched by the Fey, and the Enchantress wanted to take him away because of…it. That-that’s why I made the pil-pilgrimage…to beg for forgiveness for m-my sins…for my son…”

She then reached for Celestia, desperate for contact.

“Surely the Lady does not want my son’s life. P-please, f-forgive me…”

By this time the colt had stopped crying and was now sleeping peacefully, still being levitated by Celestia’s magic. Celestia stepped forward and lowered herself before the mother, allowing her to touch the side of her face.

“There is nothing to forgive,” Celestia told her, now smiling lightly. “Your child is safe. He will not be taken from you. Raise him well.”

The mother was smiling again, her tears now of happiness.

“Oh…thank you….thank…you…”

Celestia’s smile faded as the mother’s hand fell limply from the side of her face. There, the mother drew her final breath and expired, her final moment a happy one with the belief that she had reached friendly shores, that her son was safe from whatever fate she wanted to spare him from. At least, that was what Celestia believed were her last thoughts.

(WH)

Soon the carrack burned, courtesy of Celestia and her magic. Celestia silently watched the timber that it was made of slowly blacken, as it was incinerated. The baby was still floating magically beside her; Celestia drew him towards her so that she was able to cradle him with her wings, curving them under and outward, kneeling down on the sand. The alicorn stared deeply at the dozing man foal.

‘These men…they must have accidentally found their way into Equestria from…the other realm,’ she ruminated mentally. ‘How, though?’

Her expression was once again sad upon realising that this little foal was the only survivor.

“I’m so sorry, little one.”

She looked back up at the burning carrack, then closed her eyes as she concentrated on magically levitating it off the sand and back into the water, pushing it so that it drifted back out into the sea. She then looked back down at the man foal, only to see he was awake again and reaching a tiny hand towards her, as if trying to grasp her magically flowing hair. Celestia smiled and moved her left pointer finger above the foal, allowing him to grasp it gently.

“Welcome to Equestria.”

Her breath caught in her throat when she could suddenly sense…power within the foal. Incredible power.

‘I can sense the Winds flow around him,’ Celestia thought, feeling a mixture of alarm and amazement. ‘Light. Shadows. Life. Death. Fire...they all breeze past him…such raw potential…’

She then frowned when she found herself drawing upon her knowledge of the other realm.

‘Only the alicorns, and the Asur of Ulthuan from the other realm can tap into every lore of magic. Not Men.’

She should be wary that such power was embedded within this little human foal; that was on par with the Asur, or the High Elves, that existed within that other realm; further, she should consider what his mere presence could mean for this realm, especially Equestria. However, Celestia just smiled in spite of herself, cradling the foal in her arms now. Somehow, just holding the little man colt in her arms now, it just felt right, for lack of a phrase. She felt unfamiliar feelings stirring within her; feelings that she had never felt even once during her millennia of existence.  That the hole that her loss of two of her most precious ponies felt like it was slowly being filled, if only for a while.

Celestia’s eyes widened in realisation, ‘Is this…what they call ‘maternal instinct?’

She then remembered the Comet that had she found herself chasing after. She looked up to see it flying in the night sky above her. Eyes still wide, she struggled to make her mouth work.

‘You wanted me to be here this night?’ she mentally asked the forces that be. ‘You heralded the Barbarian himself, didn’t you?’

She then narrowed her eyes as she beat her wings and ascending into the air, cradling the baby protectively against her bosom.

‘Any other ponies looking upon you right now?’

(WH)

Considered to be a little tall for his age, Shining Armour was a white-coated unicorn colt of seven years whose short mane was a combination of sapphire and cerulean blue. Lying on his bed within his room, inside his house within the residential section of Canterlot he couldn’t sleep. He twisted and turned in his bed as light shone through the window upon him. He groaned into his pillow; sure the stars were shining their brightest tonight and were pretty to look at, but he had school tomorrow; and that test on the basics of unicorn magic he had been preparing for all week.

He sighed even louder suddenly when a loud, piercing wail cut through the air; the kind that could only belong to his newborn filly sister. He put up with the crying for about two minutes before he tore the blankets off himself, revealing that he was wearing plain light blue pyjamas,  and slowly climbed out of bed, just missing stepping on one of his textbooks that he had just lazily dropped on the floor before going to bed earlier after some last minute study.

Out the corner of his eye past his window in the distance he noticed a twin-tailed comet sailing across the sky. Dismissing it, he opened his room door, he stepped into the hallway and slowly stepped towards the nursery. Just as he was about to gently open the door the filly’s cries stopped. Opening the door slowly, he peeked in to see his mother, Twilight Velvet, sitting on a rocking chair next to an empty cradle, smiling and gently rocking a bundle she cradled in her arms.

The young unicorn mare turned her head towards the door, still smiling, “I know you’re there, Shining.”

He opened the door, blushing lightly from embarrassment.

“It’s way past your bed time, you know,” Velvet stated.

“I-I know,” Shining said. “I heard the filly crying and…and I thought something was wrong.”

Velvet regarded him for a few moments, before replying warmly, “You’re a good big brother.”

Shining smiled sheepishly and looked down at his feet, turning even redder. Velvet giggled at the sight of her firstborn colt being flustered.

“Come over here and say hello,” she motioned him over towards her.

Shining did so, stepping over towards his mother, and his little sister. Shining couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he took his second glimpse at Twilight Sparkle.  She was almost a spitting image of her mother, except that her coat was a pale mulberry purple and her mane was a mix of sapphire blue, violet and rose. She was quietly and peaceful, a far cry from earlier.

“H-hello, Twily,” Shining quietly said, deciding to be creative with her name. “Remember me from the hospital? W-we met after you were…y-know..”

He smiled even wider when she opened her eyes and looked at him.

“I promise I’m gonna be the best big brother there is,” he declared, keeping his tone done though.

He and his mother thought their hearts skipped a beat when Twilight, at first appearing like she was going to cry again, suddenly emulated his smile. Velvet looked lovingly up at Shining.

“I know you will be,” she said.

She looked past Shining’s shoulder and out the window, past the Royal Castle to see in the distance what appeared to be a two-tailed comet sailing downward across the sky.

(WH)

Golden-armoured and plume helmed Royal Guardsman Stalwart Sentry was a vanilla-furred, blue maned and brown-eyed Pegasus pony stationed on the eastern wall of the Royal Castle in Canterlot; where behind him were the royal gardens. And for the past three minutes he had been watching the two-tailed comet sail across the sky with fascination, gripping his spear tightly.

“Beautiful, ain’t it Trooper?”

Stalwart turned his head suddenly to see his annoyed looking supervisor, Sergeant Bronze Shield; a grey coated, brown maned, golden-eyed and largely muscled Earth Pony that, despite his name, wore the same kind of golden armour Stalwart wore.

“Sergeant,” Stalwart stood to attention, smiling sheepishly. “Err….yeah, just admiring the view, sir.”

His smile faded instantly when Bronze leered in, eyes narrowed with ill humour, “And afterwards some sneaky piece of horse apple could have been admiring your corpse just as he pulls the blade from the back of your neck.”

Stalwart paled slightly and swallowed, immediately getting his meaning, “Y-yes, sir.”

Bronze stepped back and sneered, “Really, try not to embarrass yourself on your first night watch in Canterlot, Sentry, I…HEY…”

His head shot up to see a familiar looking silhouette descending upon them. Sentry followed suit and gasped when he recognised it to be Princess Celestia herself. Following the impulse to suddenly salute, the two Royal Guardsmen straightened their backs and stood to attention behind the wall’s battlements just as Celestia touched down in the garden below them, cradling something in her arms.

Without turning to face them, Celestia asked with a smile, “Isn’t it time for the changing of the guard, Sergeant Bronze Shield?”

The Earth Pony looked up at the position of the moon, eyes lighting up with realisation.

“Ah, yes your Highness,” he responded.

“Carry on, then,” Celestia said. “Sergeant, Trooper Stalwart Sentry.”

Walking away from the wall through the garden towards the exit leading into the keep, Stalwart watched her leave, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“S-she knows my name?” he asked.

“Of course she does, Trooper,” Bronze stated gruffly. “She knows every pony.  Especially her own Guardsponies.”

(WH)

To the Far East, within the edge of the Griffon Kingdoms in one of the numerous coastal cities still burning, Claw-Brother Alek Bloodied Talon of the Temple of the Axefather, grunted as he put his left talon down on the chest of a lightly-armoured loyalist soldier. He forced his single-headed battle axe out of the soldier's chest, blood spraying upwards and onto Talon's face.

The cities had been in a state of constant turmoil following the end of the Succession Wars a month ago. The Wars finally saw an end to the Kingdoms' monarch and the rise of the nobility as the joint-ruling Hierarchs.

The brown-feathered, red-eyed and moderately armoured griffon let out a piercing war cry, stretching his bladed wings out as he swung his axe and took the head off another loyalist, spraying blood and scattering feathers all over. He then kicked another loyalist into the wall, sinking his right talon into his gut and disembowelling him before bringing his axe down on his neck, more blood spraying out and all over before the corpse slid down the wall onto ground.

Ever since he was a chick, Bloodied Talon revelled in the violence he was exposed to; as should any good member of the Temple of the Axefather, the sect of still devout worshippers of the Gryphon’s God of War. Though the Hierarchs themselves refused to acknowledge the Axefather’s existence, stating they did not believe in old-fashioned deities, they still enlisted the Temple’s aid in rooting out the disposed Kings and his loyalists, knowing that all they had to pay them in was the opportunity to spill blood in the name of their so-called Axefather.

Talon inhaled, then exhaled deeply, opening his eyes and revealing the two dozen loyalist corpses surrounding him and the house they had been holed up in, the sounds of battle echoing throughout the city as his brothers and sisters hacked apart any loyalist they could find. He smiled, happy with himself with the knowledge that he had definitely pleased his patron God.

It faded, however, and he briefly appeared panicked when he noticed a bright, shining light in the sky just above the moon. A twin-tailed comet that the Temple Elders had told him, as a chick, that in another realm it heralded the greatest and most dangerous of the Axefather’s foes, and that to see it in this realm would give rise to another.

Talon’s panicked state gave rise to determination, and rage, as he beat his knife-edged wings and took off into the air above the burning city, giving him a good view of the carnage his kind were inflicting. No doubt they would be too busy revelling in the bloodshed to notice the twin-tailed comet, and that it would down to him to return to the Temple and alert the Elders that that sign of hard times for the Temple, and indeed the Eastern Griffons Kingdoms  as a whole.

With steely resolve, Claw-Brother Talon  grunted, “Praise be to Kharnath – the Axefather.”