From Beyond The Veil Of Consistency

Equss was dying. There was no way of sugar coating it, the world as its natives knew it was ending. The gods of the sun and moon had fallen to the whims of eldritch deities that looked down upon them with non repentant disgust, calling their being and very way of life an utter abomination beyond compare.

Equestria and Draconia lay dead and forsaken, their great machinations lost to the iron legions of The Father of Dragons, everyone having migrated west under the orders of The Treacherous Warden to form a new nation, a nation that would built underneath her heel in a land we had yet to strike.

But some good had come from this. Equestria a land of ponies and ponies alone grew closer to their brother and sister races, joining together against the storm we had wrought, though their new nation would be totalitarian and cold, putting the good of the many above the few, they would at least have each other. But it would not last, for if, no when we won everything they knew and loved would cease to matter, for they would all become one with us and live forever within our void.

Yes...Equss was dying, and we were bored.

Yes, we were bored, the Blackmarch moved slowly but consistently across the majority of the world, tearing away at whatever it could find, but when the bulk of your forces happen to be unenhanced shambling corpses you end up having to deal with problems like decay, heat and humidity rotting them away, not to mention the carrion eaters that roamed the wild picking off some of our horde every once in a while meant that areas such as the Changeling Hive and The Crystal City-State had survived more due to their climate than any tactical genius on their part and they were such minor targets that we couldn't spare the resources to send anything beyond a force meant to keep them occupied.

This would have all been much easier if we could send our component souls out there to deal with the issues themselves, but that was a terrible idea for many reasons, the main one being what would happen if they died. Each component was not just some powerful minion, they were an extension of our being, aspects of our psyche, they were us, hence why we always refered to ourself in plural whether grammer allowed it or not. To lose something like that was, as we had stated before, extremely unpleasant to put it the least, the idea of having parts of our own mind no matter how vast it might being pulled out one by one was in all honesty horrifying. Though we could build ourself back up as we had stated to Celestia before the process always left its mark. As a fragment of our mind the loss of a component soul would lead to a fundemental change in psyche, for all intended purposes if our prime soul or any of our components died we would survive but it would mark the end of us as a distinct entity with a new personality in our place.

Ordina was a a clear example of this effect, with Mania as her only remaining soul she had rebuilt herself as a twisted and broken lord, this along with how it had taken thousands of years for us to adapt to only having one soul and another few for us to actually focus on Equss again lead to us to hide our components in safe locations and lead the forces from there until everything was in place, no matter what we would not go through...that again.

We leaned back into what was left of Celestia's throne and let out a calming breath. There is no need to panic we assured ourself. What happened in the past won't happen again, we'll make sure of it after all we Lords often used less than our full power just for the challenge. That small bit of information was enough to calm us, our thoughts drifted back through the ages reminiscing about the days when Creation was the realm of the Ancient Lords...

On a distant world orbiting a distant star a pantheon ruled from atop a great mountain, there they watched and toyed with the mortal realm they had taken from their Primordial parents, here on their world they were the beginning and end of all things bowing only to their brother and king Zeus, bound by a pact of non-aggression the gods did not know war for thousands of years. Their world was far from perfect being run by impotent and jealous children but at least they weren't in a constant state of turmoil.

But that soon changed when their court was graced by a strange visitor, her skin pale as fresh snow, almost all of it covered by red robes twisting and writhing in unseen directions hurting the eyes of all but the greatest of the court.

Immediately she was surrounded by soldiers, all of them with their weapons bared and the desire to kill burning in their eyes.

"Oh, do put those away dearies, someone might get hurt" immediately the soldiers eyes blanked and they dropped their weapons before moving out of her way "Oh how kind of you all" she chuckled. Her hand reached out and small bags of gems appeared in each soldiers hands "Go buy yourselves something pretty." making her way down the hall towards to the hall and bowing to the god sitting upon his throne.

"You are either the bravest being to grace this world, or a fool beyond compare to march into my realm and remove my guards." His statement bore no malice or anger, only the mild amusement that an deity who has seen stranger things, "Tell me, why are you here? What god do you serve?"

"Ha! Serve, that's a good one, I serve no one but myself." She turned away to look at the rest of the pantheon, glee shining in her eyes "And I'm here because I have seen a glaring error in how you run things around here." That definitely got the pantheons attention.

"And what pray tell would that problem be? I have worked hard to make sure this pantheon of mine is stable under my rule,"

"Ah, but that's where your problem lies your majesty," he heard whispering into his ear, his head snapped to the left to see the strange maiden hanging from the tip from his throne, "To prove my point answer this question, which of you in your little rogues gallery?"

The look in his eyes made it clear what he thought: What a foolish thought, I am the king of the gods, none are above me!

"We thought so," she responded "You know who is the most powerful, but that's all you know! " she suddenly appeared back in the middle of the room. "You don't know who is the bravest, or the strongest or even the most beautiful!" The female portion of the gods eyes drifted to eachother as envy began to take hold "I came here to give this crown," a small but ornate crown formed in her outstretched palm "To the fairest goddess on this planet, but none of you can tell me which one that is! Oh now what shall I do?" At this point she was one inexplicable fainting couch away from becoming a particular white mare we used to know.

"Oh dear that is but a simple question with a simple answer, clearly I am the fairest of us all, so I believe I shall take that crown now," she gingerly placed the crown upon her head.

"Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder," another said "and to my eyes you are about as fair as an in-bred goat!" she wrenched the crown from her sister's head, then another did the same, then another, soon weapons were being drawn and soon the gods and goddesses were up in arms against eachother over which goddess deserved the crown.

"What have you done?" the king of the gods roared, his voice becoming only a drop in the great ocean of noise that was now his court.

"Who, moi?" the stranger replied false confusion creeping across her face "I did nothing, all I did was point out some cracks after all my comment about command was completely true, now if you'll excuse me I must be off, stuff to do, civilisations to collapse. All that good stuff."

The king face hardened he slowly rose from his throne "At least tell me your name...So I may engrave it on your tombstone!" He hand struck out, a pulse of glowing energy zipping through the air towards her only to pause in mid air and fall to the ground in small sparkling shards.

"Well, since you asked so nicely I'll tell you *ahem*"

The world seemed to be washed away in a wave of light leaving him in a realm of impossible colours and lights bending a twisting at impossible angles. At the centre of it all was a great bird of prey composed of ever shifting smoke and embers, its countless wings extended seeming to stretch on forever.

"I am the forge of passions! The flame of war! The spirit of rebellion and collapse! All nations great and small shall one day fall and be cloaked in shadows of my wings!" her voiced boomed across the chaotic expand mixed with the sounds of crumbling structures and fading screams. "I am Pandora, Ordina's wrath." she concluded, the realm vanished and the king of gods found himself back in his throne everyone still in conflict as if he had never vanished, maybe he never had and it had all been a mad delusion of his, it had to be otherwise he would have to accept the reality that-

"You are so unimaginably puny to someone, and yes I can read your mind." She said bringing the king's potentially mind shattering train of thought to a cataclysmic end leading to the destruction of many small rail-side villages. "Now I'm sure you have a lot of questions in that little head of yours but I must away, my brother will be stopping by soon and as much as I love him I'd rather not be in this part of reality when he does buh-bye!" and with that she was gone leaving the king of gods with only his thoughts to comfort him.

Their world was burning. Many gods had died and many more were injured sending to the house of the dead so many fallen souls, the gods had failed their mortal subjects and of those that had survived many more of the gods were struck down by those they had promised to guide as their people raged against the heavens and like many worlds before them Ordina had brought chaos even with only a few choice words.

Then the moon bled, its surface taking on a deep crimson shade that reddened the skies around it as from the void beyond a great serpent descended winding through the sky on its path to the earth. His scales shimmered and writhed and twisted covering every square inch of his body in black, all except him head where only flaps of skin and a skull welcomed those who gazed upon it, all who's eyes were filled with vastness felt inside them a rage, a great burning flame of anger as resentment burst through the great wall of thought and scorched the lands and toppled their kingdoms.

"Rage...Gods sing the rage of the void and the disgust of its masters, if you will so happily accept the chaos of your kin then you shall embrace it, anger wrath and all,".

That was the last thing he heard as order was brought upon his world

"Ah, Apophis," we muttered to ourself "We always had to keep you away from the others what with you trying to kill anything that wasn't a member of your legion." a smile crawled over our face as we thought of the being we had once been, grand and vile reveling in the destruction of the mockeries of our realm and reaping from the charred husks of countless worlds the souls of the fallen, and now. Now we had spent months doing what would have once taken us an hour at most. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

That train of thought came to a screeching halt when we head someone yelling at us. In front of us was unicorn, a stallion weak tired and clearly in need of something to eat, but his armor indicated that he was, or at least had been a high ranking member of the guard, most likely a noble that had inherited the position. "Monster!" he yelled, "I have fought through legions of the dead and traversed the hostile landscape of this terrible realm you have claimed as your lair so that I may bring the justice you have for so long evaded!" he swung the lance he was carrying in wide waving arcs as if trying to intimidate us. "What say you devil?"

"We say no." we replied flatly.

"Yes! Prepare to fal-" he had stood up on his rear legs to a stance of what was supposed to be bravado but really just made him seem foolish, he stopped mid sentence and looked up at us with incredulity "No? What do you mean no? I have fought thro-"

"The legions of the dead, you made that very much clear the first time" we rested our head upon one of our hands. "But really, why should I bother? We have no real reason to try, we have vanquished your gods, torn down your homeland and taken your greatest heroes as vessels of my being." We stood to our full height and spread out our wings to cast as large a shadow as possible upon him. "What chance do you have against us?"

He stood there for a moment, fear apparent in his eyes, but that fear quickly vanished as he looked at us with a smug smile. "Oh yes, truly you are a great being," he began, his words dripping in sarcasm, "So great in fact, that you just sit there on your throne and wait for your subordinates to do everything for you, truly a great being is what you are."

We stood there, our face impossible to read, while he just stood there, finally we chose to speak. "Your right."

"Then face me in battle and prove yourself worthy of being a vile legend!" he twirled his lance again to punctuate his words.

"Oh no, we don't plan on fighting you." we began to walk to a nearby hill and look out to the world beyond, "What I meant is your right, we've been too careful to slow. We should be out there reaping the souls of the fallen with our legions." We cleared our throat and sent a message to all who could hear me We have been slow for too long, go out, charge them, burn them kill them! Do not stop until everywhere south of the Crystal City-State is wiped clean of the taint of life! our thoughts we flooded with inquiries about the ones who were travelling west to escape, we told them to leave them be, we would return for them later.

We spread our wings and prepared to travel North-West where the crystal ponies had holed up.

"You can't just leave!" the stallion yelled. "Not till I have vanquished you, I have travers-"

Yes, yes we know. we waved our hand and a small ornate throne formed on the earth where we placed the wearied warrior, the moment he came into contact with the surface of the seat it lit up, holding him in place and causing his eyes to glow. "Now, we'll come back for you later, for now just relax and watch the end of your world."

We burst into the skies above piercing the clouds that chocked the skies of the Wastes and made our way for the last northern stronghold of Equine civilisation.

Far above the stars and moon lit the sky in their pale light, but here no one would have known for in the north the frigid grip of winter never loosened and the skies were ever grey. Everywhere, except for a city.

In the frozen wastes of the north a great light shone deep within the great frozen expanse. There in all its glimmering splendor was the Crystal Empire, or was we preferred to call it, the Crystal City-State as it was a much more descriptive name. The areas of earth that had not been paved over with radiant crystal bore short and verdant grass. Just beyond the greenery to the west of the city's edge we could see our forces, standing stock still waiting for the chance to bring death to the Crystal Ponies, but for now the city was shielded from the violent storms and our creations by a large polygon mesh of magic.

Well Armor, its nice to know you took my advice to heart. We thought to ourself as we floated above the storm casting our mind out to see what state the city was in.

Despite everything that we had done to their land the population seemed to be happy, which was understandable, if they fell then the other beings who may or may not still be on their continent would fall with them. Which is why we decided to go straight here instead of taking out the western nations like Neighpon which had been able to hold out for the time being.

We directed our gaze downwards and saw the perfect means to put things into place, below us was a group, six unicorns, all mares and dragging behind them what appeared to be a mobile stage, from this we deduced that they were probably some travelling theater troupe that had planned to seek refuge with in the city. A great black cloud descended upon them masking their presence from the outside world.

Though she tried to hide it Cadance was clearly tired, her head held slightly lower than before, her stride a little shorter and her pace a little smaller, but that was to be expected. Everything and everyone she had ever known was gone, her aunts, her friends and the unicorn that had been like a sister to her, all of them were gone. But she wouldn't just curl up in a corner and wait for the void to claim her.

No before her was her nation, her people, her ponies and as long as they lived Equestria lived. As she walked along the borders of her demesne she saw a group of weary and tired mares dragging a stage behind them slowly making their way towards the border. Stopping her thoughts she ran towards them and with a flash of magic created a small opening for them, the group trudged through the gap before finally stopping for what appeared to be for the first time in days.

Cadance ran up to the resting group. "What were you doing out there? Don't you know Sator's forces were out there?" equal parts concern and anger comprised her tone.

The leader, an earth pony mare with a dark blue coat and silver mane and matching tail rose to her hooves and bowed before her. "We-we had nowhere else to go..." her knees shook as she struggled to stay standing "Everything's...Gone." She whimpered on the brink of tears.

"Its okay, you're safe now." Cadance conjured blankets and distributed them between the group who grabbed onto them for dear life. "To be honest you may have picked the perfect time to arrive. Your stage performers aren't you?" The group all gave signs of agreement "Well, I would be honored if you performed for us at this year's Crystal fair." She began to walk away but stopped and looked back at the tired mare. "Silly me, I almost forgot to ask, what is your name?"

The leader bowed "Star Seeker, Your Majesty."

The Crystal Fair the figrative heart and soul of the Crystal Empire and its culture, booths and tents lined the streets selling delicious pastries and crystal corn-on-the-cob as well as other traditional goods were arrayed around the grand spire that was the Crystal Palace home of the Crystal Heart, the literal heart and soul of the Crystal Empire and its culture.

Just in front of it the theater troupe had everything in place, the stage was set, the backdrop in place, and the performers were all dressed in red flowing robes and harlequin masks. The crowd gathered and awaited their performance. They began to dance twisting and weaving around each other, colours dancing off their flowing robes as they waved through the air. The crowd was filled with sounds of amazement.

"I hope the performance is to your liking Your Majesty." Star Seeker said to Cadance.

"Oh its simply amazing, and please call me Cadance."

"Well then Cadence, just wait, things are about to get more...Intersting."

Confusion was clear upon Cadances face until she turned her gaze back to the stage. The dancers...They turned and bent and wove in ways that were impossible for equines, colours unknown and without name dance from their robes, coats skin and eyes. Nothing of it made sense and the air felt saturated with a great sense of wrongness. Or at least that was what Cadance saw, the regular ponies saw little as the image seared into their minds.

"What...Have...You...DONE!" Cadance's horn flared as her magic wrapped around the troupe leader.

"You like it?" she replied with a smug grin, "Just something Leviathan composed while on her campaign to the east." she looked at Cadance ,once again confused. Star Seeker rolled her eyes and continued "Really Cadance? Its only been a few months don't you remember dear old Annie?" the princess' eyes widened as our voice changed. "Now you must be wondering why we're here, well other than to kill you all. You see we found an interesting bit of information in Tiamat's memories." we reached out to Cadances mind, one mental push and her magic faltered enough for us to break free, another one and a memory entered her mind. A single sentence:

"If the kingdom is filled with hope and love, then those things would spread all across Equestria. But if hatred and fear take hold..."

"No..."

Sparks of purple-black lightning arched across the sky, the shield lying between the City-State and the frozen wastes of the north flickered before finally dying to reveal a pale twilight sky, there suspended in the air wings flared, wearing gleaming silver armor covering a grand dark starry expanse shaped in a human form with starry hair flowing in an ethereal breeze was us.

We had come, though our truest form would never walk the earth we had come, we would speak with voices of a thousand realms, through our deeds we would drag Creation back into the void that had birthed it. In that moment death had fallen upon the Empire that stood united as many and marched as legion. For we were Sator Ni'Mad, First among the Lords, consumer of worlds, slayer of gods and the last song that would be sung by Creations dying breath.

For we were Sator, and we had come.

We won't lie, we laughed, we laughed for we had won, the Crystal Heart would drive what few survivors were left on this continent into a madness from which no mortal could escape and give us the power we needed to break free of Amica's chains.

Speak of the devil and he shall come, yes that was how that saying went. For at our greatest moment victory was grasped from our hands as we were struck down from the west by none other by our dear sister Amica.

Words were not exchanged for now it was clear that whoever lost would be destroyed by the other. We burst from the earth burning swords in had as we dashed across the horizon towards each other.

The sky and earth roiled as the sounds of the battle between my legions and the those of the Crystal Empire blared out below. Amica stayed on the defensive, twisting the earth and snow to block our path briefly enough to try to strike at us with a two handed battleaxe and bursts of magical flames. We would blink from one point to another around her, staying in one place just long enough to deliver minor cuts and scrapes rather than the devastating wounds that Amica aimed to deliver, even as the Cyrystal Ponies were each claimed one by one by our legion and the snow began to melt from the energies we threw at each other the tide of battle did not change.

Then we made a mistake, our teleportation just off point, our location too imprecise and our reflexes just too slow. That was all she need, with a victorious cry she embedded the blade of her axe into our spine and pouring the power of the sun into it, burning layers away from our vessel and only stopping when we fell to the ground below like a rock.

She stood above us, axe in hand, contempt clear in her eyes as we slowly lifted ourself up. "I must say Sator, you have gone much further than I had expected," she said as she paced around us "But I'm afraid this has to come to an end. Anything left to be said brother dearest?" We felt it, a small pulse of energy, that was all the assurance we needed.

"Don't...Move." Amica only had a moment to register what we said when the Heart released a pulse of magic that spread outwards, past the snow and frost to the rest of the continent, saturating the air with the dark energies it accumulated as the continent was plunged into madness. We reach out and drew in the souls and power towards us, floating in the air as our dark form rose into the air. We drew back a hand, glowing with power and slowly moved it through the air creating a trail of dark magic like a whip. We drew our had back again.

"Wait. What are you doing? STOP!" Amica tried to flee but before she could even move, our hand shot forward fast enough for a great boom to be heard. The whip of magic followed splitting Amica's vessel in half and erasing whatever was left, then it continued, through the north, through Canterlot Mountain, through Ponyville as it scarred the landscape. The great snake of power stopped only when it passed straight through its target shattering it into a thousand blackened peaces.

The Tree of Harmony, Amica's prime and only soul was destroyed. We gave one roar of triumph as we vacated our vessel

The Veil shattered, our bonds were broken, to the mortals below it would have seemed as if the stars were moving impossibly fast as for the first time in ten millenia we moved through the void surrounding Equss. We were free! Nothing could stop us now! From this point onward now and forever we would drink our fill of the souls that Creation had to offer, the Blackmarch would finally begin anew once we finished up with the evacuees to he west. That had been the plan, but we had to forget about a detail, a large detail.

"Oh Sator! How nice of you to stop by, tell me how has REAPING THE SOULS OF THE LIVING been for you?" We were massive, large enough that the inhabitants of Equss saw our wings as the night sky, but Ordina...Ordina was immense her mouth alone was big enough to swallow us whole, and from the look in her eyes she very much intended to do so. "Now then about that bet of ours."

"Bet? We've broken free, we've won, the Blackmarch has been a success!"

"Yes deary it was, congrats on that by the way. But, those weren't the terms, you bet that my dear Discord wouldn't survive your little campaign..." her maw curled up into a disconcerting smile "And I don't sense any draconequss souls in you, now do I?" we flew as far away as the Shimmering Void would allow, and considering it was an endless space outside reality that was a long distance. "Oh why are you running? I just want what you promised me."

"Stay away from us you chimeric wretch!"

"Come one Sator! GIVE YOUR SISTER A HUG!"