In Silver Clad
Prologue: I. Everything that has a beginning…
"Don't go looking for snakes you might find them..."

Daring Do, explorer extraordinaire of Equestria, Professor of History and Curator at Canterlot Museum University, crawled through the cramped dusty passage on her stomach, keeping her wings pinned tightly to her sides to avoid damaging her delicate feathers.
Daring was annoyed. A three day trek through the Everfree forest had led her to the ancient fortress held deep with in its unnatural grasp. She had been hoping for the old citadel to be intact, like most ruins deep in the Everfree forest, but this one had collapsed in various places for reasons she couldn’t understand, forcing her to find alternate routes around blockages.
As she crawled, Daring lifted her gaze to an opening, and a what looked like a corridor on the other side.
“Finally, a little bit of room…” she said to herself as she dragged herself through the gap and dropped to the floor below.
Daring looked around the corridor, noting that it was more decorative than the other corridors. It must have been the passage way to the throne room or something of great value.
“The Demon’s Eye must be down here!” she said, her ears perking up as her wings extended in excitement.
Daring had been searching for the elusive artefact for years, ever since she had read about it. Every time she had chased down a lead, she had discovered it had be for naught, only leading to another riddle about the location. When Daring had searched out that location, she found she was starting from the beginning all over again.
From what she could gather from her fathers and her own research, the ‘Eye’ was part of the armour worn by a great demon that had attacked Equestria over one thousand years ago, before Nightmare Moon, before Sombra and even before Discord.
The Eye had been dislodged from the Demons armour during its final battle with the legendary ’Silver Stallions’ and King Hyperion. Forgotten or overlooked in the battle, the eye had disappeared from general knowledge and into folklore.
Daring had decided that if she could find it, she might be one more step to finding her true goal, the Silver Stallions themselves, and maybe, just maybe complete her fathers quest.
Daring began to walk down the corridor, but found herself unable to shake a foreboding feeling that see was being watched.
Daring had walked down countless corridors, escaped untold hundreds of predicaments and talked her way out of every bad situation she had with her more aggressive rivals, but this corridor pulsed with a strange energy that Daring felt down to her very bones.
Daring glanced to her left, looking at one of the huge statues placed at various intervals in the corridor.
With an inquisitive frown, Daring approached one of the statues, and realised it was actually a suit of armour. It looked as if it had been in the same place for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Not that that made Daring feel any different, an old suit of armour was hardly uncommon on her quests.
Daring frowned. This armour however, was nothing like any ancient pony armour she had ever seen, it looked far too big for any pony to ever wear. Even the biggest flesh and blood stallion she had ever seen would have room to spare wearing this suit of armour.
It looked strange, as if it were more advanced than anything she had seen. A high headdress arched up from the sides of the helmet. Two open, rectangular boxes that looked like vents where placed on each side of the back.
Huge armoured paldrons covered the shoulders, and a strange weapon Daring had never seen before was slung over its shoulder. What Daring’s experienced brain could not comprehend, was that the weapon looked years ahead of Equestrian technology, but the statue had been here for years…it was impossible.
Daring’s eyes where drawn to the strange symbol on the armours chest piece. A eye like orb with what looked like flame at the top and bottom.
Daring rubbed her chin. The huge suit of armour was covered in a layer of dust, and Daring could feel something urging her to wipe away some of the sandy covering.
Daring reared up and placed one hoof against the armours chest plate. She felt a little uneasy when the suit didn’t move. Surely, a suit of armour so old, and without a doubt empty, should of shifted under her weight. Daring gulped down the uneasy feeling, and stretched out her left hoof to the right side of the helmet.
Daring swept her hoof across and froze in fear. Her hoof revealed blue armour that was trimmed with gold, and not Equestrian made…and a dull, but glowing, green eyepiece.
Daring jumped backwards in shock and stumbled, thinking quick, she covered her mouth to stifle her scream, and waited for the obviously alive suit of armour to turn on her.
After the longest ten seconds of silence in Daring’s life, she realised the suit wasn’t going to move.
Daring swallowed and stood, walking closer to the suit. She waved her hoof around in front of it, but received no response.
Deciding that she needed to find the artefact and get out of the ruin a lot faster, Daring set off, sporadically glancing over her shoulder every few steps. It didn’t help her paranoid feeling when she past another three of the same suits.
Before Daring reached the end of the corridor, a scroll appeared before her in a flash of light.
“Ack!” Daring yelped as her vision became starry.
After blinking away the glare, Daring picked up the scroll.
“A note from the Princess? What could she want?”
Daring’s eyes floated across the wording.

Daring,
I need you to return to Canterlot immediately. The Liber Daemonica has been taken.

Princess Celestia.

“Oh…Oh that’s not good…” whispered Daring as the felt icy talons begin to worm their way around her heart.
Daring rolled the scroll back up and placed it in one of her saddlebags.
“Guess I’ll be making a return trip…The Eye can wait...” she said to herself as she turned to head back the way she came.
"Why did I agree to sign that contrac-"
A faint noise floated through the air. A barely audible light scrape of cloth against stone.
Daring frowned and closed her eyes, she had imagined it…she must of. She looked towards the end of the corridor she had been head up, and could see the faint glow of light from around the corner.
With a frown, Daring began to creep forwards. After several tense moments, Daring reached the turning at the end of the corridor.
Peeking her head around the corner, Daring could see an huge archway, the flames of lit torches casting flickering shadows. There was somepony, or something inside the room.
Two more of the statues stood at guard before the doorway, these ones free of dust leaving their blue and gold armour visible to the world and their green eye pieces glowing brightly.
Daring gulped and took a step back.
Daring knew she should leave, answer Celestia’s summons and get as far away from these strange beings as she could.
Daring’s curiosity however, had been tweaked. She had to know what was in that room.
Turning back and following her tracks, Daring searched for an alternative way into the room.
Daring looked up to the ceiling, and saw another passageway, the bridge connecting it to the opposite wall long fallen, but the rubble had been cleared.
Maybe that was why I didn’t notice it the first time…she thought.
With a few flaps of her wings, Daring landed softly on the ledge, fully expecting to be greeted by one of the huge guards.
The pathway was clear, obviously not been used for hundreds of years, and the same flickering light lit up the opening at its end.
Voices drifted up from the chamber, some resonating with a metallic echo.
Realising that she was in an observation balcony for the chamber, Daring dropped to her stomach and began crawling towards the opening.
The voices got louder, along with the sounds of stone scraping metal. Daring edged her head up as much as she dared to look down upon the gathering. She made a sharp gasp when her eyes revealed the sources of the voices.
Five armoured stallions, bigger than any pony Daring had ever seen stood around an old stone table.
Two more of the same guards Daring had seen earlier stood at the end of the chamber, with the same glow coming from their eye pieces.
A cloaked stallion wearing a dark, golden helmet that reminded Daring of the ancient Athanatoi stallions from Marediterranean, except this helmet was like the armour they all wore, years ahead of the current Equestrian armour. The pieces of visible armour underneath the dusty white cloak where the same faded blue as what Daring decided to refer to as the ‘Guards’. He ‘held’ an ornate staff in his right hoof, the other placed upon the table.
“The time is upon us, we must act.” he spoke. Daring frowned at the voice. It was as smooth as velvet, and as deep as a chasm in the forest outside. What pulled Daring’s curiosity however, was the rough mechanical grate.
“ACT!?”
Daring jumped as a red armoured stallion slammed his hooves down on the table, leaning towards the cloaked stallion.
A wild black mane hung across his white fur, mad red eyes glaring across the table.
Daring felt something inside her lurch as she saw the skulls of various races chained to the armour, including some still wearing the helmets of the Royal Guardsponies. Daring caught glimpses of wiring embedded into the back of the stallions head, disappearing into the neck piece of the armour. Daring looked over the battered wings on the stallions back, the white feathers looked stained with red, and even the wings had dirty chains and skulls threaded through.
“We have hidden like rats for years, Imhail, and now you want to ‘act’?!"
Someone’s got anger issues…thought Daring, I wonder who ‘Khorne’ is…?
Daring heard Imhail give a distorted sigh.
“So simple minded, Skarax. That is why you are simply the muscle.”
“Watch your tongue. If we were not allies, sorcerer…”
“But we are, World-Eater.” came a voice Daring could only describe as ‘colossal’.
A gigantic, battle worn, pale metallic green machine stomped out of the shadows on two legs, and took it’s place at the table. A black, stylized eye in the center of its body stared out at the room.
The robed stallion, ‘Imhail’, turned to the colossus and bowed his head.
“Azakael, we should act now.” hissed the robed stallion, turning to the gigantic machine, “We know where our lo-”
“Regardless, Imhail.” spoke the one that had been called ‘Azakael’, waving on its his colossal arms, “She is the one that leads us. We do not act without her leave.”
“Why are we letting a xenos command us!?” shouted Skarax, “Lord Angron would of let me take her skull years ago!”
“Because she could end us with but a faction of her power.” answered Azakael, “The winds of the warp here are not Imhail's to manipulate.”
The red armoured stallion grunted and turned away.
“Who needs your sorcery…it’s the cowards way.” he answered, picking up a blade and stone. The World-Eater sat down and began sharpening a blade he pulled from his armor.
Azakael turned to Imhail, who simply shrugged.
“Merrok?” asked Imhail, gesturing to the table.
Daring took a sharp breath as another stallion in dirty, dark iron armor walked up to the table. This stallion was enormous, even bigger than the other stallions, but stood only half the size of Azakael. He wore different, bigger and more boxy armor and a tusked helmet. A giant hammer was slung over his left shoulder, and a box like device with two barrels at its end bolted to its right front leg. Like Skarax, he too had skulls chained to his armour, most impaled upon spiked racks at his back.
Daring frowned at parts of his armour, marked with black and yellow warning chevrons.
“The citadel they call ‘Sky-Reach’, will fall. I have observed and found the weak points. It cannot stand before our combined might.”
Merrok spoke with the same deep, metal grate as Azakael, but unlike Azakael’s noble sounding voice, Merrok spoke in a monotonous rumble.
“Merrok, are you certain the gates will fall?” asked Imhail.
Daring frowned harder and shifted her weight to get a better look at the group.
What could they want in Sky-Reach Prison?
“The entire wall will come down with the correct amount of force in the right place.” answered Merrok.
“Heh, if there’s one thing you know, it’s siege craft. Eh Iron Warrior?” called Skarax from where he sat. Merrok’s helmeted head turned to the red armoured stallion.
“More than you…World-Eater.”
“Just get me through the breach, I’ll get us through the guard.”
“If she discovers that you have planned a strike with out her consent, she will not be…humoured.” warned Azakael.
“Pah!” spat Skarax, “She’s like you, relies too much on sorcery. Where’s the joy in that? Where’s the honour?”
“Not all problems are solved by force, son of Angron.”
A sickly whisper drifted through the air, and Daring saw a pale green armoured stallion carrying a battered old scythe. The stallion wore a tattered and dirty white cloak, its hood covering his helmet. The armour rusted and rotted in various places, wiring and cable hanging from openings, and Daring swore she saw a centipede crawl across the left shoulder paldron and disappeared down a hole in the armour. Her stomach lurched in disgust just from setting eyes upon him.
The stallion gave a wracking cough, shuddering through his frame.
“Ephesius.” greeted Azakael.
“Glad you could join us, Doctor.” said Imhail, “I assume your work is complete?”
“My…” Ephesius made a gurgling cough, “…My work never ends, Imhail. One in a thousand are compatible…one in a hundred survives the first stage…not even half survive the following procedures. We cannot build a legion from the equestrians. Too much work, not enough time.”
The voice made Daring’s skin crawl, deathly ill would be an understatement to describe the stallion.
“How many of those…zombies did you create in your ‘quest’?” rumbled Merrok.
Ephesius gave a wet chuckle.
“A few…I think I culled them all…But you know how things are if you get…distracted.”
Daring frowned.
Zombies!? What kind of stallions are these?! What do they want with Sky-Reach? Why do they need a Legion!?
“Humored? Perhaps she'll be wondering why you babble on and on and on about something you have no control over.” came a voice, a female voice.
Daring lifted her head as high as she dared to observe the newest arrival, and saw a much smaller pony wearing a dark blue cloak with strange symbols upon it. Daring couldn’t see her face, it was covered by a helmet shaped like a demonic birds skull, and the exposed parts of her body were covered in a blue and gold armour like Imhail and the ‘guards‘. The mare’s tail caught Daring’s eyes. It looked as if it was changing colours, shifting between spectrums into colours Daring couldn’t comprehend.
Daring could tell it was a mare from her voice.
Daring frowned. Whoever this mare was, the giant stallions in the room all silenced at her entry. The colossal blue, or was it green?, automaton was the first to address her.
“Mi’lady…Your presence is-”
The mare waved a hood dismissively.
“I do not have the patience for your grovelling. Why has an attack on Sky-Reach been planned?”
“We think it is time for our master to be released, it has been too long!” said Imhail.
“There’s no ‘we’ in this, sorcerer.” snarled Skarax. Merrok grunted in agreement.
The mare sighed, sarcastically.
“Really. There is a reason I havn’t ordered you to Sky-Reach yet. That reason is returning in a few days. When that situation has concluded, then we attack Sky-Reach. He has waited over a millennia, I’m sure he can wait a little longer.”
“You would dare speak that way about our master!?” screeched Imhail, raising his staff,
“It is an insult that you used your power to wipe his name from our memories when you first approached us after Canterlot!”
“…and you shall do what, Imhail?”
Imhail froze. A magical aura covered his form, holding him in place.
“Remember, your powers here are nothing compared to what they are in your universe. You will always be two steps behind me.”
Daring decided she had seen enough. She had been summoned by Celestia, and had a story for her new book. She would leave this little encounter out however, and let be a bad memory.
After she had reported it to Princess Celestia of course.
As Daring turned, her back hoof dislodged a rock and sent it cascading down the to the chamber in the loudest noise she had ever heard.
Daring flattened herself against the rock as silence enveloped the chamber like water flowing from a breached dam.
“What was that?” came the voice of Imhail.
Daring swallowed.
“Probably nothing. Rocks fall all the time in here. Not scared are you sorcerer?” Skarax answered.
“You dare!?”
“Send the Rubric.” said the mare.
Daring tensed.
She heard the rhythmic stomp of hoof steps. Daring guessed it was those silent armoured stallions she had seen standing at the back of the room.
Daring knew that they could not climb up to her hiding spot, if she remained quiet then she would be safe…
*KA-BLAM!*
Daring let out an involuntary squeal as the rock above the exploded. The noise of whatever had done it made her ears ring. What ever it was, it wasn’t magic.
Without realising and out of fear, Daring jumped to her feet.
She turned her head, staring down at the strange stallions and mare that held the gathering. They looked back at the Pegasus with a look of shock, surprise and growing anger on those not wearing helmets.
“Uh-oh.” she managed to speak.
“No! Nononono!! Get her!!” screamed the mare, her voice becoming frantic, “She can’t tell the Princess of this!”
The red armoured stallion was already charging before the mare sentence had finished.
“Khorne calls for your skull!” he bellowed.
Daring turned and ran. She heard something coming to life in a grinding metallic roar behind her, and knew what ever weapon the stallion carried would only offer her a very messy end.
“Come back here!” roared Skarax.
“Oh yeah! Like I’m going to do that pal!” shouted Daring over her shoulder.
Skarax howled in rage, and began to charge.
Daring realised, despite his size, Skarax was faster than her. A lot faster.
She could feel the stone beneath her begin to shake as the giant stallion got closer.
Daring jumped to her left just as a roaring metal axe smashed into the floor.
Skarax roared and wrenched the free, blood tinted spittle landing on the floor. The wild red eyes turned to focus on Daring, and the explorer knew she couldn’t talk her way out of this situation. She could see it in his eyes. A raw, unbridled blood lust that only hers could slake.
Thinking quickly, Daring swept her hoof through the grit and sand, sending it towards Skarax’s unprotected eyes.
Skarax howled in rage and stumbled slightly, giving Daring the chance to scramble to her hooves and run.
Daring started to throw a cocky salute, until a dagger the size of her leg embedded itself into the wall next to her head.
“Time to go!” she yelped, ducking to avoid another.
“Your skull is mine!” screamed Skarax, still trying to clear his vision.
Daring turned and ran, and had only made seven steps when a third dagger sliced through her back leg.
“AHHH!”
Daring stumbled, but grit her teeth and ignored the pain as she continued to run.
Daring got back to the ledge looking down into the corridor, and was unsurprised to see the statues shaking off dust as they came to life. Daring turned and began to run as best she could with an injured leg.
Daring spread her wings and glided to the floor, landing awkwardly to avoid putting pressure on her injured leg.
Just as she was about to reach the doorway, the wall in front of her exploded as a giant metal fist punched through, and the old stone work crumbled as the gigantic Azakael pushed through.
“It will be over quickly.” he rumbled, “Do not make this harder for me.”
“Sorry big guy! Got too much to do before I punch my ticket!”
“Then you leave me no choice.”
Azakael opened the claw like appendages on the end of one of his metal arms.
“Uh-oh…”
Daring dropped to the floor just as the palm of the claw barked three times, stitching the wall behind her with powerful projectiles and blowing chunks from the stonework.
Azakael's arm turned for him to look at it as Merrok followed behind him, silently rising his right leg with machine-like precision towards Daring, the double barreled box pointing directly at her head.
Daring was already running, straight towards Azakael.
“Merrok, the bolters!”
Merrok pulled back his leg.
"I know." he growled, and hefted the hammer, "I wonder..."
Daring dived to her right to avoid the hammer as it smashed the slabs into fragments, and pushing through the pain, darted beneath Azakael’s legs, and headed down a random corridor. She could feel cold air as she ran, and could see the sunsets light ahead of her.
As Daring got closer, something moved out of the darkness before her. The battered blade of the scythe sliced through the darkness, the horrifying form of Ephesius following it.
“This is as far as this goes, Pegasus. I’m going t-” Ephesius paused as a cough shuddered through his body, and Daring fought the urge to vomit after a thick phlegm like substance fell through the grill of his helmet.
“…I’m going to enjoy dissecting you.”
Five more shapes crawled out of the darkness behind him, five creatures that looked like pegasi, but their wings arching up, melding with a strange machine pack on their backs. The ends of the their hooves ended in hawk like talons, their sharp featured helmets reminding Daring of birds of prey…if those birds existed in her nightmares.
The group looked to be uneasy on the ground, as if they were desperate to be out in the open air.
They snarled at her, scratching the floor with their claws, red eyes glowing a demonic red against dark brazen armour.
One of them, standing a little more a pony should, inched closer to the Death Guard Apothecary. Its head twitched to the right, a short, low screech cascading through its vox-grill.
“Kill this one? Yes?” hissed the horror.
“Not yet, Nivark. I’ll find something more worthy of a hunt for you…how does the element of loyalty sound?”
Nivark hissed and slunk back to the shadows with his brethren.
Daring turned as the voice sounded behind her, and saw four of Rubric standing still and silent behind Imhail, the hulking form of Merrok behind them.
All of their weapons levelled. Daring swallowed.
"You are troublesome." said Imhail, "..and you know to much."
“H…Hey…guys…I’m sure we can talk about this…”
“All is dust.”
Daring’s eye’s widened as the ghostly whisper bled into her ears. In the same moment, Daring realised that they were going to fire on her. She dove backwards into the twilight, spreading her wings.
Daring decided to for go her usual quip, and focused on getting away from the stallions behind her…until something slammed into her back leg and tore across her wing. Four more of the shots, multicoloured flames trailing behind them, scythed past her head.
Daring screamed as she realised one of the projectiles from the weapons had only grazed her side, but the wounds burnt as if she had been set alight. The burning even reached into her very being.
Daring began to spin from her wing injury.
“No! Nononono!!” she cried, desperately trying to fight the pain to straighten herself.
“It’s not going to end like this!”
Daring aimed towards the river, if she could reach that, she could crash land and let the current carry her downstream.
“This is unfortunate Daring, I was quite fond of your stories.”
Daring’s eyes widened and her pupils turned to pinpricks as the voice of the armoured mare sounded next to her.
Daring looked down to see the mare was standing on a metallic disc, strange symbols burned across its surface, making the explorers eyes hurt.
Daring lifted her head, just in time to see the mare lift a hoof, and twisted her body away from the strange mare, just as lightning erupted from her hoof.
Daring fell into the water, just like she wanted to, but her vision grew darker, and the rushing water became her lullaby.
The armoured mare watched the brave explorer get carried away downstream.
“You’ll live, run and tell her...but your far too late to stop what is coming, Daring.”
The mare turned the disk, and moved back to the fortress, settling into the courtyard of the ancient citadel.
The Chaos-Space marines walked from doorways, the ground thudding with each step.
The Raptors, free from the confines of the hallways, leapt into the sky, taking up perches on ruined pillars.
“Well…?” she hissed, the fury in her tone evident.
Azakael turned.
“Forgive us, mi’lady.”
The cloaked mare let out sigh.
“I wonder if he is ready to be released if you cannot stop one single pony.” she said.
Merrok turned to Azakael and tilted his head slightly, responding to something only they knew of.
“If Skarax had not rushed in, I could of destroyed her!” snapped Imhail.
“With sorcery!? Sometimes you need actions instead of tricks!”
“Your simple-minded attack was what caused her to ru-”
“RRRAAARGGH!!”
Skarax dove forwards, Imhail reacting quick enough to block the chainaxe in its descent.
Skarax growled and pushed harder, while Imhail’s eyes began to glow with blue light.
“Enough.”
Ephesius hooked his scythe beneath Skarax’s chainaxe and lifted the World-Eater effortlessly from the Thousand Sons sorcerer.
"Why!?" screamed Skarax, pounding the cobblestone with his hooves.
"This is not the time for your petty squabbles." rumbled Merrok, hauling Imhail to his hooves.
"Petty!?" screeched Imhail, "This imbecile will be the end of us!"
"Elios will re-join us soon, Skarax will have his attention focused on that Slannesh worshiping bastard then." answered Merrok, "Providing the idiot hasn't discovered the ultimate pleasure in his mis-guided quest..."
“Are you quite finished?”
The group turned to the mare.
“Look at you. Your like a bunch of school fillies. You failed. Accept it. Don’t fail again. It begins tomorrow. I will not tell you the location, so do not ask for it. Carry on with the plan. The time is close, I can feel it. Soon your master will be unleashed, and Equestria will tremble before us.”
“What of the elements?” asked Imhail, “They could prove…problematic.”
The mare chuckled.
“The elements are gone, you need not worry about them. I know of a certain amulet that will increase my power tenfold. I will break the former bearers like water on rocks, just incase."
“You know that amulet is possessed, it corrupts and drains the soul of its user.” said Imhail.
“Not if I tame the daemon within, which will be an easy feat for me.”
"Is it necessary it break them?" asked Merrok, "It could be a waste of time."
"I don't want any loose ends." answered the mare, "They could still bare some residual power and I don't want them ruining my plan."
“What of the Gr-”
“The Silver Stallions," she hissed, "...are an Equestrian legend. Nothing more.”
The mare turned, sweeping her hoof across the assembled Chaos marines.

“The gods smile upon us brothers, our time is now.”

Author's Note

I'll probably end up going over this chapter at some point. But here it is for now.