Chapter 1: My Little Renegade: Violence is Magic
Duty and honor to the Space Marine is the food and water of the mortal man. Sustaining him, strengthening him, none but those in this fraternity truly understand the sacrifice they make so that they can continue every day. But when they fall from that, they only fall in the eyes of their comrades. Brothers, guilt on what we have done is the canker within our hearts. If we truly wish to move on, we must remove it. But remember, as long as we keep ourselves from guilt, we will not be without allies. - Vestus Benedicto, Captain, Mantis Warriors, 10th Company
The demand upon our souls is beyond that of any creature in the galaxy. She gnaws at us, feeds on us, never-ending, never-ceasing. While you try to keep us from our goal I'll remind you once more. I'll have what I want." Le'ukras Armatharn, Archon of the Kabal of the Ninth Tide to Captain Benedicto
- Aboard the Vengeance Class Grand Cruiser Plight of Fury, Location: Gheist Rift, Segmentum Ultima +
Vestas Benedicto sat on the command throne of his battle barge Mantis Fury and stared into the endless abyss of space. He was an outcast, a traitor, a renegade, and nothing could compensate for what he had done. The Badab War had left a terrible shadow on the marines of the Mantis Warriors. When Chapter Master Khosian Neotera decided to side with Lugft Huron and his Astral Claws, he couldn't have comprehended how if would leave his chapter. His ears open to Huron's intoxicating words, he fought against the Imperium in a bloodied war that saw Huron and his allies defeated, the Mantis Warrior's world in the hands of the Carcharodons Chapter, and many of its battle brothers slain.
The Mantis Warriors were able to get the Emperor's Mercy from the loyalists after the war, but it left a terrible shadow on their honor. They were ordered to go an a redemptive crusade for their sins, and were forbidden for recruiting. Benedicto could remember the fighting on Zalax. How the other Captains sneered and looked at his marines as if they were the worst of filth. They sent their battered companies to the hardest fighting, breaking the bodies of the Mantis Warriors on the heavy defenses of the Black Legion.
Traitors once, traitors forever, said a Captain of the Carcharodons over the vox to the Mantis Warriors after his marines broke through the citadel that the Mantis Warriors broke open. Claiming all honors for the battle.
Benedicto himself was armored in the light jade of the Mantis Warriors. The yellow and black sigil of the Mantis Warriors was engraved on his right shoulder pad, and a cape of velvet sat on his back. He wore his gold-trimmed battle helm, refusing to take it off until he thought he could present himself to his men in the appropriate fashion. To Benedicto, the fighting at Badab was still fresh to them, and Benedicto, he could remember a battle in particular. One he would never forget.
The skies were afire, as Stormtalons and Stormravens zoom through the sky. A Land Speeder in the light green and yellow of the Mantis Warriors flashes inches overhead and pulls a sharp turn up, its multi-melta flash-burning the fuselage of a passing Stormtalon in the deep green of the Raptors. The Stormtalon explodes in a spectacular explosion, showering the sky and ground with burned and rent metal.
Captain Benedicto watched the event from a shallow trench dug into the muddy earth, marveling at the sight. A few close bolter shots snapped him back to reality. He glanced over his huge shoulder pauldrons through the dust and smoke to see a squad of jade Raptors moving toward his position. He looked back to his own squad. Battered, muddy, and battle-scarred, the squad of twelve Tactical Marines he accompanied had seen the worst the war had to offer. The yellow and green paint on his warriors was mostly chipped and burned off, and many had discarded their helmets after they became too damaged for continued use. Sargent Geras shuffled over to Benedicto, his un-helmeted head down careful not to expose himself to the enemy.
"Captain."
"Sargent."
Benedicto looked back over towards the advancing Raptors and was greeted by more bolter fire, more accurate, given the decreased distance between them.
"Brothers, hostiles at our twelve!" shouted Benedicto over the sounds of fresh bolter fire. The Mantis Warriors got to the mouth of the trench and returned fire to the Raptors. Brother Eurydice hefted his heavy bolter over the trench and sent chugging tracers into the oncoming squad. The Raptors displaced in the face of the Mantis' fire, the ones stopping or slowing to shoot falling to bolter fire. At once, the enemy squad dropped down to the ground, and before Benedicto could fathom why, new forms emerged from the smoke. The Space Marines behind the Raptors powered up their jump packs and sprang towards Benedicto and Squad Geras, chainswords revving.
Only the superhuman reaction time of the Space Marines allowed the Warriors to fire off a few shot at their attackers before they were among them. Benedicto pulled himself up after a Raptor smashed into him at a bone-shattering speed. He swung his power sword in a perfect right arc at the Raptor bearing down on him, and the assault marine was knocked back as his chainsword met the savage blow. Benedicto allowed no respite, springing toward the marine with a speed that only those with the Khan's blood flowing through their veins could manage.
He shot his plasma pistol at the assault marine as he jumped, the shot burning straight through his warplate just beside his navel. The marine grunted in pain, and before he could bring any of his weapons to bear, Benedicto's power sword opened the top of the space marine's helmet at the eye level. Benedicto side-stepped the falling corpse, looking down in disgust as the warrior's trodden-on brain got fowl muck all over his boot.
Returning his attention to the melee, Benedicto ran back into the fray and thrust his sword through a warrior that was about to decapitate a Mantis Warrior who fell, surprising the marine with an anguished howl and a meaty crunch as Benedicto twisted the sword inside the near-dead warrior. Before he could see his reaction, Benedicto was beset by a new foe, who used his jump pack to smash into Benedicto, sending him sprawling in the mud for the second time. He shot his bolt pistol at Benedicto at the ground, and his armor splintered at the torso as the explosive shell was just barely deflected. Benedicto swung his sword out of instinct and was able to deflect a chainsword strike. He tried to get up quickly, but a swift kick to his helmet brought him down, one of his eyepieces shattered at the blow.
Benedicto was able to turn just in time to see the deep-jade marine raise for another swing. Benedicto had dropped his sword when he was kicked, and it was too far for him to reach. He could see the marine's sword go down in slow-motion as he tried to bring his pistol up. The marine stopped mid swing and was hurled violently to the side, a red rain misted the air and Benedicto's muddied torso. He looked over to see the marine dead, a red gash across his lower back deep enough to put his arm into. A hilt was lowered toward his face and looked up to see Sergeant Geras holding his power sword by the blade near Benedicto, and his chainsword in the other, still revving and spattered in the gore of it's latest victim.
Benedicto nodded his helm in thanks, and took the sword from Geras as he helped him stand up.
"Need any more assistance Captain?" Asked a grinning and bloodied Geras. The captain looked around at the rest of his squad. He counted eight of his slain, a poor showing. He saw the rest of the marines take up their previous positions at the mouth of the trench. Unceremoniously tossing the Raptor's bodies out like so much scrap.
One marine peeked over the trench, and his helmet was blown out in a red slush as the mass-reactive of the bolter round detonated his head on impact. Benedicto swore and went to the end to the trench. In the melee, he had forgotten about the tactical marines that had advanced, and the remaining survivors were beset by new foes who stood at the top of the trench and fired down on the bloodied survivors. Benedicto launched himself towards a marine, swinging his sword as he went an severing the marine's legs in the process. He brought his plasma pistol to bear on the second marine, but an explosive impact on the side blew open his armor plate, and he fell to the muddied ground once more. Out of the side of his eye, he could see the Raptor who he had crippled pointing his bolter at the fallen Benedicto.
The sounds of immediate gunfire faded as the Raptors eliminated the last Warriors. A blood-stained marine in olive power armor walked over to Benedicto, behind the glowing red eyepieces he could feel the hate burning through them and his own reflected in them.
"Captain, sector 4 is cleared of all traitors," said the Raptor through his vox. "We have eliminated all but an enemy captain, further orders?" A second passed, and the Raptor raised his head and aimed his bolter at the disabled captain. Benedicto waited for him to-
The pain he felt in the millisecond of consciousness made him black out immediately. Benedicto was thrust in a night world or searing pain and darkness alike. He spent ether an eternity, or a minuet, in this state of limbo before he could feel himself miraculously rising out of unconsciousness. As if in a dream, Benedicto was rising in the muddied trench, the Raptor's around him oblivious to his survival.
Benedicto's barely functioning mind put the pieces together. He had somehow survived the shot, and descended into the Battle Haze while unconscious. The Battle Haze was a unique gene-seed mutation to the Mantis Warriors, where a marine will descend into a state where they make extremely fast movements in battle and become massively stronger.
But it came with a price, once a marine descended into the Battle Haze they couldn't go back. Their vision becomes extremely tunneled, and spend their lives in a catatonic state.
Benedicto could see the Raptor closest to him, and he hadn't picked up his weapons, but that was fine. He could kill him with or without. He jumped at the warrior with such speed that he didn't even notice, and knocked him to the ground. But almost an instant later, Benedicto rose, the meaty tube of the Raptor's neck in his bloody jaw.
The other Raptors turned towards their brother's demise, but could barely raise their bolters in disgust before Benedicto was upon them. He smashed his fist into the exposed Raptor's neck, and broke it instantly. The other tried to bring his gun around in the unexpected situation, but it looked to Benedictio as if it were flowing through syrup, and he simply yanked the bolter out of his hand and shot him in the head. The other Raptors were horrified to see this walking dead marine slaughter their brethren with such speed, and attempted to exit the trench to get a good shot on the monster, but Benedicto could only feel a burning hatred for those who killed his own, and they never got the chance.
Benedicto emptied the rest of the bolter's clip into the sergeant who foolishly charged him, and swung the empty bolter in a perfect right cross, breaking the ceramite on the next marine's helm. The bolter shattered against the speed and strength of the attack, but Benedicto's hands quickly finished the job and he stared at the other marines that managed to put some distance between him.
"Die abomination," said one of the marines as the opened fire. Again, the world moved through syrup, and Benedicto walked passed the shells that would have been perfectly accurate, but they had not factored in the unnatural speed that those with the Battle Haze possess. The marines had no time to react to their demise, as Benedicto finished them fast enough. As Benedicto stood over the last body of the slain, he fell to his knees, and the sank to the ground. Hearing a few muffled voices before he blacked out.
"Captain, we have reached our destination." The voice of a tech-adept shook the captain out of his flashback, and he proceeded to read the information on the terminal of their chosen planet.
In the Gheist Rift, a desolate band of warp-realspace overlap, the fleet chose to evade capture and look for a suitable base of operations. Explorator fleet reports from M40 detail a single system close to Imperial-held space, but was deemed uninhabitable by the explorators due to strange energy readings coming from their primary star, and unusual planet rotations. The explorators feared the star would become a warp-star, but recent long-range scans from the Mantis' fleet show that the star is standard, and some of the planets are ripe for habitation. The planet chosen was a life-sustaining world, with a strong atmosphere and regular amounts or oxygen content. Scans show a 80% similarity to Terra, which surprised most of the fleet, expecting barren orbs and warp-ridden plains.
"Bring us closer to the designated planet. I want more information." The captain sat back into his throne, he rubbed his head as a arcing headache spread through his cranium. The mechanical augments from his eye through the back of his skull gave him quite the head pains.
- Equestria, Location: Golden Oaks Library, 4:32 AM Terra Time +
Spike was woken up with a start, as another stack of books, reports, and papers fell over as the whizzing purple pony passed by them with amazing speed. He rubbed his eyes and tried to close his eyes again, but was awakened as the same happened a minuet later.
Well, I guess I'd better get up, before Twilight runs me over. He got out of his bed and looked out the window, Celestia hadn't even raised the sun yet, and Twilight was still causing a ruckus downstairs as if it was one of Pinkie's parties.
"Twilight, we might as well throw out your bed, because by now its just a waste of space." Spike frowned as his joke went unanswered, and he reached out and caught Twilight as she tried to run past him.
"Spike! What are you doing! You know I have a very important experiment I'm working on! The princess herself is coming to Ponyville to see it and I only have nine hours, thirteen minuets, and forty seconds to get everything prepared!" She said all of this very fast, and her bloodshot eyes and disheveled mane showed that she hadn't slept the previous night, again.
"Twilight, you need to calm down! I haven't seen you sleep in three days, I'm sure it'll be fine." He spoke with a cal reassuring tone, but apparently that was exactly what not to say.
"Fine, FINE! Spike, we could be discovering a whole new dimension and you think it'll be FINE?" She got her tail out of Spike's grip and trotted down to a drawing board strewn with equations, spells, and observations. "
"Spike, I don't think you grasp how bis this discovery could be. We could find a whole new detention that could help us explain, well, ANYTHING! We could even come in contact with," She turned back to Spike with a deranged smile. "Extraterrestrial life!" She turned back to her board and Spike went down the stairs to make some breakfast for him and Twilight. When he was finished, the sun was starting to rise, and Twilight was face-first in a pile of papers, snoring very loudly. Spike sat down in a chair and watched the snoring Twilight.
Well, you can't say she doesn't deserve a little rest here and there, he thought to himself.
A few hours later, Twilight was up and running again. This time, the library no longer looked like a blast-zone, and was now resembling how it normally looked, albeit the metal ring device in the middle of the room being a little out of place. Twilight was adjusting the ring like device when the door of the library was opened, and the rest of the Mane 6 walked in.
"Heya Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie as she hopped through the door.
"Hi guys!" said Twilght, turning her attention to he friends to greet them before returning her work on the device.
"We reckoned we'd come over to see how the big experiment would go," said Applejack. "We heard that Princess Celestia was coming down to see it too." Spike walked over to them as Twilight was too busy to even talk to her friends.
"Sorry she's a little, antisocial, at the moment. Its just that this experiment is really important, and this device has to be very exact. She's been working on it for a month."
"We understand darling," replied Rarity, and Spike's eyes glazed over her. "But, what exactly, is, it?" she asked cringing at the ugly runes inscribed along the side.
Spike snapped out of his trance with the shake of the head.
"Well, Twilight was looking through some of her books when she found one from Canterlot about trans-dimensional magic. Knowing Twilight when she finds a book she hasn't read yet, she discovered that, in theory, she could use runes in this book and spellwork to contact different dimensions. " The ponies had confused looks on their faces, and Spike sighed as he gave them the simple version.
"She's trying to contact another world with this weird ring," Spike said, and the ponies collectively oooooh-ed.
"Is she trying to get to the Cake World?" asked Pinkie Pie. "L'd love to go to the cake world!"
"Come on Pinkie, I do you really think there could really be a 'cake world'?" asked a skeptical Rainbow Dash. "If anything, I bet there's a world full of monsters, and I can totally kick their flank!"
"Oh, please, no monsters," replied a timid Fluttershy.
"In reality, it could be all of those," said Twilight as she walked over to them. "For all I know, it could be a world of party cake monsters." Dash quickly placed her hoof over Pinkie's mouth to silence her endless stream of questions to Twilight as her imagination went wild with visions of cake monsters.
"What are ya gonna do with this here contraption?" asked Applejack. "Well, Iron Bender made me this ring out of some of the best metal in Equestria, and I took it upon myself to put the runes on there and a few other things the book said to to, and it says after I preform the spell, the ring will become a portal to the other dimension. In fact, the book gives instructions to actually portal to different dimensions.
But it says that this was only attempted once, and the overall results were unknown. But it does state that it managed to 'damage' the other dimension in the process, but it doesn't state the kind or severity of the damage. Or the dimension contacted, or the nature of the damage to the demension, or-" She trailed off into a ramble of more variables.
"Can you say that last bit in non egg-head speech?" asked Dash.
"We can go there but we might break something," replied Twilight dully. She turned back to the ring. It was standing vertically to the floor, about seven feet tall, and hooked up to various machines with numberless cables.
"As soon as the princess arrives, I'll be able to turn it on, and we'll be the first ponies to see something beyond our own world, maybe other life." A silence fell across the ponies.
"You mean, aliens?" asked Dash.
"Yeah, aliens." replied Twilight, staring at the cold metal of the ring.
The Princess arrived later, the trumpet salute from the Canterlot Guard projecting her arrival to all nearby. The Princess greeted Twilight and her friends, before Twilight gave her a running commentary on the ring's mysterious purpose and how she had come about ordering such a big experiment.
"Twilight, I know you would only ask for me in person if it was a big matter, and it certainly seems that it is. But are you sure that it will work, and if you are, are you sure it is safe?" asked the Princess to Twilight.
"Princess, as your prized pupil, you can count on me to have factored all of that in to my planing, and you have nothing to fear," assured Twilight.
"That's not all I'm fearing," said the princess gravely. " What you discover here could change Equestria, for good or for ill, I cannot know." Twilight shared worried looks at her friends, and for the first time ever, considered not doing an experiment for knowledge.
"Well princess," said Twilight after a moment's silence. "We'll never know unless we try, and that is one of the most important things you have taught me." Celestia nodded, and Twilight moved towards the ring.
"Ladies, and princess, I would like it if you moved beyond the white tape to observe the experiment for safely purposes, and the wall too." Twilight had erected two makeshift walls with a glass strip, one for observers, and one for herself unless something went wrong and things become dangerous. Celestia and the ponies trotted behind their barrier, and Twilight walked over to her own.
Come on, don't get nervous, you're just doing the most important experiment you've ever done in front of you best friends and the leader of all of Equestria, no big deal, right?
She exhaled shakily and began the spell. The runes on the ring began to glow, and the background of the ring wasn't clear, and started to morph an gyrate. She looked at the spell on a just to her right, an began reciting the words of the spell. But as soon as she started to speak, the sound like a gale of wind erupted from the ring, and the inside turned a glowing white. As soon as the incantation was complete, the gale stopped, and the ring was still white. No that wasn't right, it was white, but she could see reflections, and angles, as if it were structures. She looked more, and saw that not all of these organic looking structures were white, but shades of grays could be seen. The rings entrance to the dimension were surrounded by more of these organic structures, acring downward around the ring's entrance as if it was at the epicenter of these structures.
Twilight and the other ponies were in awe at this amazing looking dimension, but their looks of amazement soon turned to horror. Out of the void, areal blots blocked out the eerie light of the structures. Looking like sharp, angled ships, they were painted a chipped brown with a grey trim, and were bedecked with spikes and chains. Among these flying boats, things were moving. They appeared like Diamond Dogs, as they stood on two legs, but were slimmer, and were wearing spiked and form-fitting armor. Their heads were spiked and flowing, and their eyes were piercing green dots. In the same colors as the boats, they carried slender rods with them, as they went about their business on the ships, the closest to the portal, who were only about thirty yards feet from the portal, finally noticed Twilight and the rest of the ponies.
Twilight felt her heart stop as the beings stopped and stared at the equine intruders. Before Twilight regained her wits, the other things started to bustle around, grabbing their rods and aiming them at the portal. Before anything else could happen, Twilight ended her magic to the portal and the others disappeared, only showing the back of one of her bookshelves.
Twilight slumped to the floor, her brain trying to come up on what just happened. The other ponies behind her were similarly stunned. After a minuet of silence, Applejack spoke.
"W-what was that Twilight?" asked Applejack in a shocked voice.
"I, don't really know, but if it was anything, it was-"
"Alien life," interrupted Celestia.
"A-aliens?" asked Rarity in amazement. Pinkie Pie had stopped hopping after the portal opened, and Fluttershy had her head buried in her hooves and hair at the sight of the aliens.
"Twilight," asked Celestia as she walked out from the barricade. "You have observed, what is your data?" Twilight snapped out of her shack and went over to the many machines she had set up to record this experiment, ripping off the reports as she went. She read all through the numberless reports in a heartbeat.
"Princess, from what I can gather, we didn't contact the dimension we we're trying to. The book describes it as 'hitting a ball in a hole, it doesn't always land where you want to too' and we missed. That's all I know."
"Do you know why?" asked Celestia.
" No princess, the book describes no known alternate dimension, but it says that the spell is a, um 'hit-or-miss.'" Twilight wish she had a better term, but the princess nodded and turned towards the door.
"Girls, you know what you saw, and I want nopony, nopony at all, to repeat what she saw here. I want this thing destroyed as soon as possible. And now I must be going, I must talk to my sister." Celestia calmly left the library, and the distant sound of many pegasi flying away could be heard after. The rest of the ponies regained their senses, and trotted over to Twilight where they began they're barrage of questions and commentary.
"What were those wretched creatures? Absolutely no sense in style," said Rarity with a huff.
"Rarity, we could really care less what they were warin'. Those are aliens, and we should be concentrated on what they want with us," replied Applejack.
"It doesn't matter what those things were, but if they were lookin' for a fight, I could totally hand it to them," said Rainbow.
"Those things were awful, just awful. They had spikes all over and a bunch of other things on their boats. I just hope they don't come here." said a worried Fluttershy.
"Guys, I don't think it matters about what we saw now. But what we need to do now is figure out what to do with this." The ponies looked at the ring, looks of amazement now replaced with fear.
"Princess Celestia told us what to do, so... What are we waiting for?" asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight walked over to the ring, starring at it.
"Waiting for them I guess," said Twilight while the others looked in amazement.
"What do you mean? i mean come on, the couldn't be really..."
"Why else would they be there? I mean did you see any houses? Or any place they could inhabit!? No, no no, they use it for transportation, they were using it to come here." Twilight said hysterically, pacing around the ring. The other ponies shared apprehensive looks, but Rarity mustered up the courage to comfort her friend.
"Come on darling, don't jump to conclusions. We barely know anything about these aliens, they could be using this, thing, for anything."
"Like a cake factory, or a party place, or a toilet, eeeewwww," Pinkie went on to list more possibilities but Rainbow silenced her. Rarity put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"See dear, we don't know anything about them."
"Yeah, you're right," said Twilight silently. "We don't know anything about them."
"So I guess I better learn about them." The ponies exchanged horrified looks.
"Twilight-" they started.
"Spike! I need all my books about extraterrestrial life, space anomalies," Twilight listed many subjects in quick succession as Spike scribbled it down. Twilight started running around, grabbing things and rearranging them.
"Girls, as much as I would love to stay and chat, I have a lot of studying to do, so I must ask you to leave." She used a spell to slowly push them towards the door as they tried to protest.
"Twi I-"
"We should really think about this-"
"I think you're overreacting-"
"We didn't even find the party dimension yet-"
Twilight stuffed them through the door and gave them a deranged 'Twilight's nervous' smile and slammed the door shut.
Chapter 2: My Little Raiders: Pain is Magic
Your greatness,
Is that really how you talk to the leader of the Rising Ninth?
Forgive me your excellence. The creatures the have pierced the Webway, they may be connected with what you seek.
I already know this,
Forgive me again, my lord. The ships are ready to raid. They wait for your sovereign word.
That they do. The Tide rises.
The Tide rises indeed my lord.
- Equestria, Location: Ponyville, 6:40 PM Terra Time +
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat at a small restaurant near the library, waiting for their purple alicorn friend to stir from her incessant studying and take a break with them. Three weeks had passed since the experiment, and they hadn't seen or heard from her since.
Spike, however, was keeping the poor princess alive by running for food, supplies, and copious amounts of ice cream for her ever since she had barricaded herself in the library. Dash had asked Spike to take the message to Twilight that they wanted her to take a break and come to dinner with them, but had not heard back from her since. They were sitting expectantly for their friend to round the corner, but their hopes were dashed when they saw he lone figure of Spike panting towards them.
"Hey guys," said a wheezing Spike as he sat down. "Twilight says she's sorry she can't make it, but she's too busy studding about the aliens."
"My, it seems that she's working hard to be gone for so long," said Fluttershy worriedly.
"She just has to drop it. The Princess even said drop it! Why is she working for nothing?" asked Rainbow.
"You know Twilight, she'll study anything. I just hope she doesn't get too worked up."
"If you think she's working hard, look at me! Twilight sent me to get ice cream four times today, and I had to be back in five minuets, five minuets! The ice cream place is on the other side of town. And lets not mention the ink-"
"She just needs to calm down. Take a breather. Those aliens don't have anything with us." The group sat and ate a silent meal. After they were done, the said a few short goodbyes and went on their way.
Spike took the short way back to the Golden Oaks Library, no doubt that Twilight would be needing something soon. When he got back and opened the door, Spike turned around and saw what he thought was a paper tornado. Twilight had stacked papers of reports and speculations about the aliens, but she was running around so fast that she was knocking the giant stacks over.
"SPIKE!" screamed Twilight over the din. "The Princess sent a message with two royal guards, Canterlot is being ATTACKED!"
"We need to leave NOW!" shouted Twilight. Spike was reeling. Canterlot under attack?
"Who is it? Chrysalis?" asked Spike urgently.
"We don't know. Guards are getting the others and taking them to Canterlot already. We need to go NOW." Spike looked around for something he could use, but Twilight was a blur out the door, and Spike ran after her. Two royal guards were landing a small chariot at the front of the door.
"Princess Twilight, get in." they said, and Twilight and Spike got in the back. The guards barely wasted the time for them to get in properly before they took off and sped towards Canterlot. Spike was lurched backward as the chariot took off and took a few minuets to get himself in a sitting position and not in danger of falling out.
In any other circumstance, Spike wold marvel at the sights of Equestria in the sky, but today's current situation set him on edge. Twilight was no better, she was glancing around at the sky and at the ground, nibbling at the edge of her hooves. Spike knew that the aliens were on her mind. She had talked about the possibility of them entering Equestria in the many sleepless nights she spent speculating, but overt hostility never came up too much.
Calm down Spike, its probably the Changlings or something. But even that was a cause for concern. Without the Element Bearers there at the start, or Cadence's and Shining's love, the Changlings might be winning.
As Canterlot came into view, things weren't good, even a mile away from the city. Small objects could be seen flying around and in the city, and small flashes of light indicated fire and explosions. Spike saw the small blips darting around with surprising speed, he had seen things like that back at the wedding.
I guess Chrysalis got bored after all this time. thought Spike smugly. But as they neared closer to the city on the mountain, the things he thought were changlings weren't small like they were, nor were they black. They were a sand-colored brown.
Nor were they unfamiliar to him.
Spike was unprepared to believe that aliens would attack Equestria, but the zooming figures around Canterlot didn't lie.
"They can fly? Without wings?" said the guards as they saw the situation. As they neared the city they veered around one of the mountains to keep themselves out of the sight of the attackers. As the went around the mountain they came across a transport node that was cut through the mountain from the city for transporting goods via pegasi, but today's business was not as usual.
Ponies were strewn about on benches and crates, covered in bloodied bandages and moaning in pain. Nurses and royal guard medics attended those in need, but the sheer amount of wounded was just too much.
Spike tried not to look at the ponies deformities and injuries, but he beheld those who lost limbs, or shook and twitched around as if having a seizure. Unhurt pegasi and royal guards took the less wounded or younger ponies on their backs and flew down to the outlying villages near Canterlot, and guards stood sentry with pikes and crossbows at the ready, twitching at any sudden movements with wide eyes.
They exited, and their chariot was boarded by wounded ponies who were sent away.
"Whats happening? Where's the princess?" asked Twilight to the guards.
"The attack is too sudden, we've almost been wiped out. The Princesses was trapped in the castle and hasn't been able to be freed." Twilight looked over at Spike.
"Spike, you know what we have to do," said Twilight with a serious tone.
"Twilight are you crazy?! You can't go out there! You'll be killed!"
"Spike, if we can get us somewhat closer to the castle, I light be able to teleport us in. Its the only hope we have of saving the princesses." Spike looked at Twilight in sheer terror. Wondering what he could say to keep his closest thing he had to a family alive. But he couldn't saw Twilight, and walked with her out of the dock towards the makeshift barricade erected by the guards. Spike had one more look at safety before they entered the chaos of the city.
As the stepped out into the light, the sight already was horrifying. Brown blurs were the enemy in the sky, screeching sounds accompanying them after each pass. Blood spattered over Canterlot's white architecture brought bile to Spike and Twilights throats. But worse were the corpses. Some were clearly dead, ripped open like a small animal before a timberwolf. Others had almost no noticeable wounds upon them except small red spots on their torsos, the others had faces of horror and pain, their bodies wracked in painful poses and some still twitching, as if alive.
It didn't take long for Spike to vomit today's breakfast all over the pavement. After steadying himself, he followed Twilight as they made their way to the castle. Most of the attacking force was barely seen other than large blurs shrieking and small objects hitting the ground so hard it made holes in the pavement. On the way, Twilight peaked out from a building and saw huddled ponies behind a short barricade, one of them saw Twilight and tried to make a run for it down the road, but one of the blurs slowed just enough for a figure just like the ones seen through the portal to be visible to be on top of some slanted and spiked, thing.
It stopped and turned the object it was in top of towards the fleeing pony, a rod like the weapons used by the other invaders on the bottom of its vehicle. It let out a splintering sound out of the barrel, and razor-sharp spikes shot out at extreme speeds and embedded themselves within the pony. She immediately dropped to the ground in mid-gallop, the puncture wounds spreading across her chest. She let out screams that made the hair on Twilight's neck stand straight up, and shook uncontrollably. She went silent within a few agonized seconds, but her passing left something cold and dark within Twilight and Spike's hearts.
The murderer watched the spectacle, laughing all the while under it's full-face helm. After the pony expired, the creature bolted off as fast as Rainbow Dash could manage.
The pair were able to make their way to the castle with quite a few close calls, but were able to get to the gate, which had been blown open, but no sign of the enemy. War was not native to Equestria, no recent conflict besides the changling attack had actually required violent action. Twilight had studied past pony wars and the way that they were fought, but this enemy had broken into the defenses, killed the defenders, and even breached the castle, but no intruder was inside. It seems like this foe just wanted nothing more than to massacre the defenseless ponies in the city like the one they saw on the road.
It made no sense.
Twilight teleported Spike and herself straight past the ramparts and gate to the main hall. The enemy had indeed been here, as the corpses of castle guard would have the believe. Twilight side-stepped over a few corpses or ponies until she made it to the throne room. She looked at the front of the door to find other corpses among the mix. Bipedal creatures, almost exactly as they had seen them in the portal, were draped over the ponies they had slain, their rod weapon knocked to the side. Their armor was no longer as brown as it used to though, as huge charred black holes in their torsos told Twilight how they died.
So the princesses were alive for some time at least. She looked at the door, no doubt barricaded if there was anypony inside. She thought about ways to get in without being blasted to shreds. After thinking a bit, she lifted her hoof and knocked at the door. Spike nibbled at his claws, expecting the door to open and Twilight to get blasted into the next life.
To their surprise, the door creaked open and a guard poked his spear and head out, and opened the door the whole way when he saw Princess Twilight and Spike. The throne room was more or less the same, the windows had been barricaded and strengthened with magic just as the door had been. Luna and Celestia were sitting on their thrones, their faces bleak and hopeless.
"Star Ray, please refrain from opening the door again, we don't want to make it easier for them to get in here." said Celestia with a blank voice.
"As you with," replied Star Ray.
"Twilight, as you have seen, Canterlot has fallen to what came through that portal. I don't know if it brought them here or what, but I need you to help get the innocents within the city to safety. I know this is putting your life at risk, but your friends have already made it and are being briefed on the situation. They arrived just before the enemy started using their flying boats, so none of them are hurt." Twilight breathed an inner sigh of relief when she heard Celestia say those last words.
She trotted over to a small room and opened the door where she was greeted by the sight of her friends standing in a circle around a map of Canterlot talking to a burly unicorn in armor.
"The refugees we know about are here, here, here, and here," said the burly pony, tapping places on the map with a levitating stick. "The guards have been all but wiped out, and we cannot go out there to rescue them. The princess does not expect you to accept-"
"We'll do it!" said Rainbow Dash.
"Dash! Have you even seen what they've done? We can't go out there, we'll never come back!" replied Rarity.
"We need to try, who knows how long it takes them to realize that we're here and come in?" asked Applejack
"And how long will it take them?" Replied Rainbow.
"Um, I think I'll just, stay here, if you decide to go..." said Fluttershy in her quietest voice ever.
"We won't force you," promised Rarity as Fluttershy sank down a wall.
"Even then guys, how are we gonna do this? They're everywhere."
"Just let me think..." replied Twilight. She wracked her head for ideas. She remembered the rods the aliens had been using. There were a few outside the door. Maybe if they could learn how to use them...
"Got it," said Twilight at last.
Your excellence, the savages have been eliminated.
Good, search the structures. There may be tastier morsels yet.
Yes my lord. Wh-what?
What is the matter sybarite?
M-my lord. A r-report came in from the p-portals on the ships. The w-webway portals are...not working.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT WORKING?
M-my l-lord. T-the p-portals are n-not opening t-the veil. There is n-no sign of m-malfunction but they are u-unresponsive.
If they're not working, than that IS a sign of malfunction is it not?
Y-yes of course my l-lord.
Your insolence disturbs me greatly sybarite. These savages, they have pierced the Webway, and rendered our own portals nonfunctional.
H-how my l-lord.
I cannot know, their technology level is laughable, no more than brute beasts. But the smell of the warp is upon them. No doubt warp-spawned trickery aids them in their society, much less how they accessed the webway.
We must punish them further not to upset the lords of Commorragh.
How a species so crude could fashion such a city on the side of a mountain. If you look past the barbarism, it is almost amazing. Retract my last order. Plant charges at the bottom of the city, have all Raiders and Ravager return to our position with all personnel and to wait for my command to open fire with Dark Lances on the base of the city. This will send a clear message to those who oppose the Rising Ninth.
Yes my lord. What about a base? Where must we go?
Take our troops and captives to that large forest. It will be big enough to shelter our cargo and numbers. Then we will make an example of this planet that few in Commorragh can match. I can almost hear the other Archons begging for at least one of our captives.
Yes my lord.
"Ya think we can use these things?" Asked AJ fumbling with the rod in her hooves. Twilight was having trouble using it too, but she tried to mimic the pose that the aliens made with her hooves and pulled back on a small piece of metal. Rarity jumped a mile after high-velocity splinters ripped through the top of her head.
"Oh, no. My hair.." She moaned. Twilight levitated the gun with her magic and depressed the trigger again, sending splinters into the ceiling.
"Well, we know how the work and what they do," said Twilight as she then instructed them how to use the weapons.
"Only me and Rarity can use this thing efficiently, don't use it while running. If Dash flies than she might have a better chance but You and Pinkie will have to stop and steady yourself when you fire. Twilight noted how the unusual pose of holding the weapon caused one to lose balance and fall onto their muzzle.
"We'll be fine sugarcube, you just worry about yourself." The six went back into the throne room where the princesses were residing.
"We're ready princess." said Twilight, holding her gun at the ready. Celestia and Luna noted the strange weapons but didn't speak.
"We're going to complete our mission and we'll come straight back and leave. We need everybody to be ready." Celestia nodded silently and unsealed the door and let them pass outside in the world of chaos and destruction.
"The Archon is a idiot and a fool if he thinks he's going to keep us from taking our share in the raid." said a helmeted Kabalite in his native tongue. He and his small group had taken to conveniently forget Archon Armatharn's order and to take what they wanted on the raid. So far, the native brutes had failed to produce any object in their history worthy of a Eldar's attention, but the shackled ponies shuddering in fear next to him showed that any slaves had value. He had taken a looking at the xenos when the raid commenced. Much more colorful and pastel than any xenos he had seen in his long years of raiding. They were more intelligent than other xenos that at least resembled them, he didn't remember mon-keigh horses building cities on the side of mountains.
Very picturesque, very picturesque indeed. Shame they were going to destroy it one day. The Kabal had nothing to gain from destroying the city, but the Archon had told all troops after the raid commenced that the sight of the city falling would be wonderful. He wondered if this had anything to do with the Archon's latest order.
The Kabalite had wandered through the ruins until he made his way to the gates and rampart of the castle that stood higher than any other buildings in the city. The gates were wide open and deserted, blood stains showed where the defense had fallen and had been taken captive. The prospect of looting the largest building in the city was irresistible. He and his companions moving at an unnaturally fast pace for those casually walking, dragging their captives behind them.
The architecture of the castle was flowed and natural, much of the furniture was made of gold and other precious metals. The other Kabalites went to grabbing gilded weapons and spears from walls, examining them. But the other one was looking for bigger bounty, as he surveyed the upper upper balcony, he smiled under his helm as he saw more ponies standing at the top of the stairs, holding splinter rifles with their hooves and levitating them with colored bubbles.
He didn't know if he should laugh or shoot, but the orange one fumbling with a rifle in her hooves sent a barrage of splinter shots into the ceiling. The other Kabalites shouldered their own weapons and shot back at the intruders, barely missing the ponies taking cover behind the railing. The Kabalites were outnumbered and in a poor position for a firefight, but the aliens couldn't pull the trigger effectively, much less shoot accurately at a target.
The floating guns returned fire with much more accuracy, and were able to bring down a arrogant kabalite as he made his way up the stairs. This time he did laugh at the sight of his underling tumbling down the stairs as he shook with spasms. A flash of blue flung down from the balcony and he could just barely see the form of a winged blue pony before he was struck in the helmet so hard it broke. He hit the ground, his head too concussed to act. But not for long, weakness was for petty humans, but before he could rise, he was struck again by the same blue streak. He wondered in his trauma-induced state how a mere pony could move so fast. Similar smacks and the impact of a head on the floor signaled the fall of his comrade.
He could hear the noises of the ponies on the stair come down, and he thought he could hear them speak Imperial Gothic as the came. He had some serious brain-damage.
"Woah, did you guys SEE that? That was AWESOME!" said the blue one.
"Thanks Rainbow, but you could have gotten killed! That was an extremely reckless thing to do." replied the purple one.
"What else Twi? We we're gonna get killed if we didn't do somethin'." said an orange one.
"I don't know about you, but I was having a blast up there." said a hopping pink one who appeared to be holding a splinter rifle with her, hair?
"Well, we got to of those monsters, where's the other one?" asked a white one.
"It's over there, I knocked it out cold." gestured a blue one towards him. As the ponies went towards him, for the first time in his long life, he feared what a creature could do to him.
After the last alien had been disposed of, Rainbow and Pinkie were on the floor looking up at the surviving alien that the found feigning unconsciousness. Rainbow had tied him upside down on the ceiling from a chandelier, but not before Pinkie had painted his sand-brown and grey armor a variety of pinks and rainbow colors and gave his helmet a large clown face complete with a smiley-face in whipped creme.
"That'll teach 'em not to mess with us," said Rainbow Dash. As the others admired their handiwork, Twilight was drawn to the doors by whimpering sounds outside them. When she opened them she was shocked to see ponies shackled to the door. She signaled to her friends and they managed to get all of them unshackled.
"What happened? Are you all ok?" asked Twilight.
"We were in hideouts and safehouses, until those, things, came looking through the buildings, we couldn't do anything to defend ourselves." replied a shell-shocked mare.
"We'll I guess we don't have to look for them anymore," said Rarity. Twilight listened as the ponies recounted their stories, but she was drawn off when she looked into the distance and saw the alien's boats far out in the sky, aiming at the city. Twilight looked at them with a calculating mind and wondered what their purpose was. She could see them far away from the city, but the possessed powerful and much longer aim projectile weapons than they did. Could it be possible that they were going to shoot the city? The thought about it for a little while and her thoughts went to Canterlot's location. It was on a mountain, therefore, there was no solid ground supporting the city.
Her eyes widened when she realized their intent.
"You need to get out," said Twilight urgently. "You need to fly out, take who you can with you, and you need to do it now."
"Why?"
"No time, all the pegasi need to get ponies on their backs and fly...away, anywhere. NOW!" Shouted Twilight as she ran back to the princesses.
The door was smashed open by Twilight's spell as she and her friends ran into the throne room.
"Princess, we need to leave, I think I know what they're going to do but we need to go. Even if I'm wrong." The princess didn't respond, but swiftly commanded the guard to evacuate.
"You'll have to take your comrades on your backs, its the only way," said Twilight. The rushing ponies broke windows and flew out, some with friends on their backs. As the other ponies and princesses worked out who would be on who's back, the princess walked over to Twilight.
"What did you see? What are they doing?"
"They're flying around the outside of the city, I think that they're going to blow up the-" A large explosion shook the floor and the ponies stumbled.
"That," said Twilight.
My lord, the plasma detonations have gone off.
Yes, this will show those savages that all they build, all they think grand, will crumble.
From the Raider, the plasma detonations were blue-grey mushrooms on the base of the city. Archon Armatharn smiled under his helmet. The assembled fleet of Raiders and Ravagers then opened fire upon the base of the city, their dark lances searing and blasting away what little support the city still had to the mountain.
With a large crumble the furthest points of the city began to fracture and fall off as the city as a whole slowly rumbled down the mountain. As the last of the supports or installments inside the mountain severed themselves from the city, it fell full force towards the ground with the force of an earthquake. The sound of the impact as the broken remains of stone and marble sounded much louder than the initial explosion. Amatharn smiled again as he saw the aftermath, and envisioned how broken the beasts would feel. The fall left dust clouds from the impact up too the mountain, and a few structures inside the mountain were a wreaked ruin, leaving the mountain scarred.
Amatharn waited for the rest of the troops to rejoin the main group before leaving full speed to the large jungle to their back.
Things were going to get really fun, thought Amatharn.
The ponies proceeded to get out of the window when they got the chance and take flight, but what they saw was much worse than what they imagined. Black beams from the aliens hit the bottom of Canterlot, causing the city itself to fall from the mountain. The city itself was crumbling as buildings shattered and the ground broke from the impacts of their weapons.
Dash and Luna narrowly avoided falling rock from the mountain, and AJ and Pinkie had to hold on tight to keep from falling off. As they tried to fly away from the splintering mountain, one of the Royal Guard with another on his back didn't look up as a large rock fell from the mountain above. The rock hit square on the pegasus' neck, impacting his armor and his head falling limp. The unicorn passenger had avoided major damage, but he reached out to Twilight as the guard lost altitude. Twilight veered toward him, trying to catch his hoof, but she was just an inch short. She watched, tears forming in her eyes as he fell screaming towards the crumbling remains of Canterlot.
She looked back to to the direction she was flying. What kind of creature could do this? Thought Twilight as grief clouded her mind.
And a mile away, floating just outside a small forest watching the ponies go, a green drone watched the spectacle of Canterlot's demise with blank lenses.
