Arms of Arceus

Twilight Sparkle wished she had been able to spend more time studying the Whismer evolutionary line in Equestria. She hadn’t had time to unlock the system behind their abilities, but she had built some theories. Through those theories she believed she could create similar effects with magic, and given her group’s current situation, she saw no loss in testing them. The soundproof barrier she had created was powerful enough to keep out the music from up above, but the Noise Marine’s arrival revealed the flaws of her current spell.

Three marines arrived through the doors dressed in bright yellow armor with half of the chest exposed. On their shoulders was a black fist that had been painted over with some dark, hateful rune. They screamed in unison as they aimed their weapons at Twilight’s shield. Their first blasts crashed against the barrier, the noise from the sonic blasters echoing harmlessly through the air beyond, as if some creature were whispering incoherently. The ponies had just finished applying their makeup when the enemies struck. Their faces were now chalk white with purple tear drops painted below the eyes, and bright red lipstick that reached the dimples of their cheeks. To Pinkie’s slight dismay, she had been the only one interested in wearing a red, rubber nose. Tired and unused to such numerous, unrelenting foes the group had been caught off guard. Twilight quickly began enchanting her friend’s armor with the soundproof spell when the marines changed strategy.

“They’ll break through any moment now,” Twilight said as she began enchanting Pinkie Pie’s armor. She was the only pony other than the princess herself to be unprotected from the sound. “I was so rushed I forgot to tell the others, but we won’t be able to talk with this spell. It blocks noise from going in, and coming out.”

“You know, I think I have an idea,” Pinkie Pie said, holding her hoof up to halt her friend’s spell work. “Shield yourself, Twi. Let me cheer these guys into submission.”

“Pinkie, your current shield protects you from physical damage, but not from sound vibrations. If you’re struck…”

“I’ll move super fast to keep these guys from hitting me. Besides, I think I can get us to the top quicker if my voice can reach the enemy.”

“Ok, but be careful, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight Sparkle said, a feeling of unease washing over her as she reluctantly gave into her friend and enchanted her own armor.

The Noise Marines focused their blasts on a single spot, combining their sonic vibrations. Four seconds later the shield had been torn open and battle had been joined. Rainbow Dash and Applejack ran to meet the enemy, instinctively dodging attacks as they closed the distance. The sonic blasts from the noise marines shattered the ground around the ponies, but with Twilight’s spell to protect them, no single blast was enough to damage. Even so, the protective measures left the group unable to communicate with words.

Rarity turned to Twilight Sparkle and tried to speak, her voice only audible to herself. Twilight frowned apologetically, pointing to her ears and shrugging. Even with its drawbacks, as a sonic blast struck her from the side she was grateful that the spell was at least successful at its primary function. As the ground below them started to crack and give way, the group was forced to charge forward. Seven more Noise Marines emerged from beyond the doors, their weapons much larger than those of their allies. Pinkie Pie ran to meet them with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Fluttershy close behind. She pulled a mega phone from her mane and began yelling into it at the top of her lungs, shaking the mountain and forcing their enemies to their knees. The sheer volume of Pinkie Pie’s shouts enraptured the Space Marines, overloading their senses and allowing the group to quickly knock them onto the crumbling parts of the platform. It gave way as the ponies charged into the mountain, heedless of the fate of their enemies.

The inside of the mountain would have been completely dark, if it hadn’t been for the eerie runes carved into the walls. They reflected the runes painted on the marine’s armor as they glowed with a vile, pink light. They failed to illuminate the stone of the cave walls, and seemed to forcefully draw the eye to their unnatural perfection. The ponies could see the runes pulsating in time with the stone beneath their hooves, and they could feel a powerful, dark energy flowing through the tunnels.

Pinkie Pie resumed her yelling as the group approached the second platform, but now her voice had to contend with the brutality of the daemon possessed amplifiers. Despite the awful noise, Pinkie Pie cheered on her friends as they mimed their plan together. Rarity pointed at the amplifiers and glided her hoof through the air to signify Rainbow Dash flying through them again. There were daemons rallied round there, preparing their defense of the amplifiers as hundreds of cultists surrounding them fell to the ground in agony and ecstasy. They licked their lips and smiled at the auditory stimulation, while one with a chaotic staff stood ready to face the Rainbow Dash’s charge. Their faultless skin pulsated with the same energy that the entire mountain now gave off, glowing faintly in time with the amplifiers as they drew on whatever power had been summoned here. Rainbow Dash addressed Rarity and pointed at the sorcerer daemon. She glided her left front leg through the air as her friend had before slamming her hooves together to signify being shot down mid-flight.

Rarity countered by pointing at her shielded armor, then pointed to the rest of the group and mimed a charge. The others nodded while Pinkie Pie continued to cheer against the brutal, daemonic music. Sweat dripped from her brow as the stress of her fight against the music began to take its toll. Her friends nodded to let her know they would put an end to this as quickly as possible. With a silent war cry, the ponies charged the daemoninc lines. The daemonette warriors met them first, their unholy blades glowing with the light of their god. Lightning flashed as Rainbow Dash tore through the air in the direction of the amplifiers. The deamon priestess struck her full in the face with a blast of pink lightning, knocking her to the ground amidst her friends as they battled the enemy.

As Rainbow Dash picked herself up from the ground she momentarily heard the music playing and Pinkie Pie cheering before her shield regenerated and the noise disappeared. It was deafening, and she worried for Pinkie Pie’s hearing as she made her second attempt. Flying past the lightning the priestess conjured, Rainbow Dash flew in circles, gaining speed as she went. The tornado she created tore through the overstimulated cultists and threw them in all directions. A couple of cultists hit the priestess, knocking her from her feet. With all the righteous fury she could muster, Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew past the daemonettes fighting her friends and destroyed the amplifiers. Refusing to quite she gathered speed and dashed to the final platform at the mountain peak. Leaving two sonic rainbooms in her wake, she reached terminal velocity as she arrived. A moment later the daemonic sound that had rent the peak vanished, adding to the explosion from the amplifiers on the second platform.

The horrific music was gone, and the silence would have been deafening had Pinkie Pie’s desperate cheers not been shaking the mountain. Lightning flashed through the sky, fired from somewhere on the final platform, and the group gasped as Rainbow Dash fell. Her shield flickered in and out of existence, the edges of her wings and muzzle singed. Shocked out of her desperate focus, Pinkie Pie stopped her cheering and ran to catch her friend before she hit the stone floor. The tornado petered out and dissipated, and the mountain began to crumble. As falling boulders crushed the daemonettes and hundreds of bodies were thrown from the top of the mountain, Twilight teleported her group back to the summit.
Like a building being demolished by internal explosions, the mountain fell in on itself. All around the ponies lay the motionless bodies of the cultists and chaos space marines. Rocks fell around them as the friends gathered around Rainbow Dash. She slowly rose to her feet, her body slightly charred and her shield now completely gone.

“Are you Ok, Rainbow?” Pinkie Pie yelled.

“I’m fine, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice unsteady but still confident.

“What?” Pinkie Pie yelled again, her face full of concern and confusion. Reading Pinkie’s lips and the emotions on her face, the group realized she had gone deaf during her shout off against the possessed amplifiers. Twilight lowered the soundproof barriers around the group as they gathered to comfort her, tears smearing their makeup.

“What is this?” came a soft, snake-like voice from the shadows of the crumbled mass of rocks. A woman had appeared before the ponies. She wore a long black robe that covered every inch of her pale skin, leaving only her hands and face exposed. Long black hair fell across her shoulders, and four runes were patterned throughout her dress, each one glowing with a different light. They radiated dark concepts: murder, decay, deceit, and lust. Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack took defensive stances as Fluttershy led Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to the back of the battlefield to guard them the best she could.

“Four equine creatures dare stand against a Sorcerer Champion of Abaddon? I don’t know what sort of mutants you are, but I serve the Gods of Chaos, and the mighty Despoiler of Worlds! Do you have any idea what I went through to build that monument? What I had to sacrifice to transform that mountain into a pillar of chaotic energy? I’m surprised the blue one still lives after being struck with the monument’s dark power. Regardless, I will make you suffer for destroying my work!”

“Your work?” Twilight Sparkle said, her voice shocked and confused. “Your work is abominable! Why would you ever subject yourself, or anyone else, to such awful things? I… I just can’t understand it. What were you even doing?”

“By Lord Abaddon’s command, I was performing a ritual. When combined with three other rituals being performed simultaneously on this planet, my ritual would have turned Cadia into a Daemon World. And you ruined it.”

The witch walked toward the ponies casually, closing the gap slowly and forcing the group to back away from her. She stopped in her tracks and took a long, hard look at the ponies. As she anylized her adversaries her mouth slowly lifted in a smile.

“You do have such pure hears,” she said, as a dark plan began to take hold in her mind. “I know! I’ll use you as the centerpieces for my next grand exhibition. That should appease Slaanesh enough for the god to support Abaddon’s ambitions.”

Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter the words the sorceress raised her left hand and fired a brutal bolt of lightning at the group. Acting on instinct, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity cast barrier spells simultaneously. The lightning struck Rarity’s first, cracking it slowly as the unicorn poured all of her willpower into keeping the barrier in place. Applejack charged the Chaos Witch as Rarity’s shield broke and Twilight’s power was put to the test. The witch raised her free hand and the corpses on the ground began dragging themselves to their feet, heedless of their shattered bones and torn bodies.

The zombies lunged at Applejack; their strength multiplied in death many degrees higher than it had been in life. Applejack called upon every reserve of strength she possessed as the things tackled her, beating at her shielded armor with broken fists and exposed bone. She crushed limbs and sent creatures flying, but despite the power of her kicks the fallen only pulled themselves back to their feet and charged again. The Earth Pony wasn’t the only target of the undead. The shambling horrors charged her friends, mercilessly beating at Fluttershy’s and Pinkie Pie’s shields as they stood over Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus tried to rise, but after a sonic double rainboom and being blasted out of the sky by dark magic, she struggled just to stay conscious. Twilight Sparkle kept her barrier spell in place, slowly pushing it back and forth as she tried to reach the witch with her magic. Rarity turned and began blasting the zombies from their feet, defending her friends as best she could. The witch laughed insanely as she dueled with Twilight, adding lightning from her right hand to beat back the alicorn’s assault. Then, without warning, explosions and fire rocked the area.

The witch was the first to be struck. A massive artillery shell crashed into the ground at her feet, incinerating her mid-laugh as if to spite her very existence. The hordes of zombies fell next as more bolts crashed to the ground among them. The ponies finished off the horrors beating at their heels, blasting them apart or crushing them with furious hooves. Even Rainbow Dash had joined the fight, pushing her exhausted body beyond its limits as she refused to fail her friends. When the dust had cleared, they turned to look at the source of the artillery. Before them loomed the massive form of a daemon engine, its blood red bull’s head staring down at the Equestrians with hateful fire in its eyes.

“What is that?” Twilight Sparkle asked, her voice almost too weary to show fear.

“I don’t know,” Applejack said as she stamped the ground in determination. “But it looks meaner than a milky-eyed rattler, and I don’t think it wants to play tag.”

The massive daemon engine held its glowing power sword aloft as it prepared to strike. Gathering their remaining strength, the friends braced themselves as the violence of this strange new universe bore down upon them with all of its hateful might.