Ponyhammer 41K

Inquisitor Icehorn had to make sense of what had just happened. They had just survived an event that no pony was meant to ever see, the annihilation of an entire star system. All of it, swallowed up by Pinkimenia. Millions of loyal citizens, thousands of heretics, and all forms of life in around the Mareison star; devoured into the abyss. This had not happened since the birth of the 5 elements of chaos, when Harmony was shattered and the rainbow streaked one had been mortally wounded.

Events were playing out that were beyond his understanding. Even the most archaic and forbidden tomes of his librarium were not mentioning just what had just happened or how. He stood there, surrounded by dozens of books he had cast onto the floor.

They had been in orbit of Atheneigh for nearly 2 days and Icehorn had not slept. Silver Scroll had never left his side, the mare helping him find references and reminding him every two hours that there was a vox communication request from the local inquisitional offices. He had to have answers for his abrupt return and for his lack of communication. The fibers of his sanity were being eaten away by the thought that there was some power within a week's travel at most from where he was that could consume a star system.

Finally Silver Scroll placed a cybernetic hoof onto his shoulder and Gillihone had to look up. His soft velvet orange eyes were thoroughly bloodshot from days of pouring over the ancient tomes. “Icehorn breathe,” was all that Silver Scroll said as she stared back with her delicate violet eyes through the indexing visor covering them. She raised her visor so that he could see her clearly now.

“I am 81.7% cybernetic, I need not sleep as the repairs to my physical mind and mental state are done actively while I am awake. You are not even 1% cybernetic, and have physical limitations. It is not a draw back but you must rest.” There was something in the semi-mechanical voice that Icehorn didn't always hear from his scribe adept companion. Compassion? No....something deeper than that.

“Thank you, my friend. I will respond to the local office of inquisitors once I have rested. Please inform them my arrival will be tomorrow morning,” he said, slowly walking away. His head was hung in defeat so low his horn nearly touched the metal clad floors as he walked towards his chambers. The heaviness in his hooves echoed through the mighty librarium chamber. Gillihone wrapped the door in a telekinetic shroud as his horn glowed and the mighty chamber closed. Silver Scroll had watched his every step, staring at the door until long after he left.

The adept resumed what she was doing, pouring into the research archives as she lowered the semi-transparent visor, the device glowing as it settled over her eyes. She was pouring through dozens of research files as she heard the vox caster blaring once more, indicating they had another call. The mare trotted over, sounding very different with cybernetic legs ringing out against the adamantium upon the floor of Whoovian's Box.

She pressed the button for voice only, “Hello, I humbly apologize for our lack of communication. We have had our hooves very busy attempting to make sense of what has transpired before we consult you. Please be patient as my master has gone for rest. We will be with you in 10 hours.”

The other end of the vox reminded quiet for a long moment. All that could be heard was the breathing of the individual on the other end. Silver Scroll was silent as she no longer required more than a single breathe a minute. “Acknowledged, whatever it is Icehorn has found had best be worth the annoyance.” The voice on the other end was a mare, barely keeping her rage contained and clearly beyond upset. There was a pause between them before a high pitched beep indicated termination of the call.

Silver Scroll turned around and sighed, “Ten hours right...”Like I will find anything in 10 hours we haven't found in 2 days! What exactly should I-...wait. Silver Scroll had an idea and began to read over the prophecy she had been infused with as they departed the encroaching edge of the abyss. Then something seemed to drain the warmth from the room. It felt as cold as the outside of the hull, the absolute zero of the void. She let out a breath to test and her exhale turned to ice as it came in contact with the scroll held in her hoof.

“I know you are here agent of chaos, reveal yourself and face the light of the twin sisters!” she boldly challenged as her flank opened and a large weapon slid into view. Looking like an over sized version of the standard Guardian Sister Lasgun except the energy it produced as it began to crackle and was clearly extremely more powerful. Her hoof glowed with energy as there was a click to release the safety of the cybernetic weapon. Silver Scroll was fully ready to unleash the fury of the twin sisters at a moment's notice.

The room grew colder and darker now as the only light was the projection of rainbow colored laser light inside the focus chamber pulsed ready to be unleashed. Silver Scroll's other flanked opened and revealed a double barrel looking punt gun except the laser sight guidance indicated it was rocket launcher. Two matching engines of the projectiles glowed ready to be fired.

Silver Scroll had many secret cybernetic implants into her body, ones that didn't reveal themselves until they absolutely had to. Even her inquisitor wasn't sure of all the cybernetics inside the mare. They had been planted over the decades waiting for the moment they would be needed. Though he may have experienced a few of them that were more, intimate.

“Don't fire upon me and I shall agree to reveal my presence, what threatens you; threatens everything, even me.” The voice had a weighty presence, as if it could change her fate with but a flick of the tongue, stealing away her very future.

“A truce? From a pony of chaos? Who got onto our ship without permission? How can I trust you?” The adept replied while considering her options very carefully. She knew that the best one would be to purge the room and let the void consume the librarium. Priceless volumes some one of a kind would be lost; but she would survive to rewrite them and the heretic would be purged.

A weapon flew out of the darkness to land next to her, a bolter. Much larger than a standard pony bolter, it was a bolter that only the greatest of Celestia's warriors could wield. The Mailed Iron Shoes of Celestia. The Night Mares of Luna. The bringers of love. Soror Equinus. Super soldiers of the alicorn princesses that were designed and engineered to be the perfect ponies. This one bore a symbol upon its recoil butt. A purple star surrounded by 5 smaller white stars, cracked across the center as if broken. The mark of the Traitor Princess, Twilight.

Silver Scroll noted the agent of chaos was a Night Mare of Luna, an angel of destruction, an avatar of Twilight. She stood there and tensed up, her miniature multi-laser and twin anti-tank rockets would have to score a lucky hit to penetrate the armor. She holstered her weapons into the cybernetic hide and back under her long duster cloak. The room grew much darker with the charging chamber's rainbow glow of her mini-multi-laser “Fine, Heretic. But at the first sign of corruption or betrayal....” Silver Scroll couldn't finish the sentence as a rubineigh stepped out. The armor was completely sealed and a sickly purple light shone through the eye holes, as the cracked symbol of Twilight's cutie mark was etched across the chest of the mighty mare. Heavy boots sounded as though they might crack the ship hull with each step. The armor clad entity had a hallow echo coming from the armor as though it were not all there.

“There will be none. I am bound to my word, little adept mare,” she stated bluntly. Her breath rolled out from her helmet’s vox grill, coils of purple-violent icy vapors drifting towards Silver Scroll. The Mare of Metal walked across and picked up her bolter, shaped for her hooves it looked like a toy in there. She stood on her hind legs and holstered the weapon against her flank. “You felt it in your mind? You had a prophecy spill forth didn't you?”

Silver Scroll only nodded. She had agreed to this meeting, her hooves were damned at this point unless this meeting showed otherwise. Icehorn was a moderate, neither radical nor puritanical. He always saw the benefit of it, so long as you stayed in the light of the Twin Sisters or found Cadance's love and forgiveness at the end of the journey.

“Good, then you know that the time has come. Are you prepared to hear what I have to say from Ruby Rubikorn herself?” the massive genetically enhanced mare spoke.

“Go on and stop wasting my time!” Silver Scroll shot back with as much venom as she could put into her robotic voice.

“We stand with you. We are not traitors by nature and you know that, as heretical as it is to have that knowledge. Pinkimenia has already made an attempt upon Rubikorn herself. When the time comes, we ask that you tell your inquisitor; save us. Restore that which was and save Twilight's Legion of Fate to be restored as the Legion of Magic. Tell him Rubikorn is left with one choice, repentance. The other entities of chaos do not see it yet. But Twilight does and the alicorn princess herself must retake mortal form to prove it to her friends in chaos.”

With that the rubineigh turned and stopped her hoof. The mighty horn upon her head appeared from nowhere, softly glowing as a rift into the warp opened. The mare stepped through the portal of raging red and oranges that swirled and threatened oblivion. She was stepping right into the depths of the warp, well past the Discordia used for travel.

The lights in the room came back on and the familiar hum of the ship's power cells echoed back into existence. Silver Scroll looked around, the presence of the chaos mare was gone. No one would have guessed an angel of destruction from Celestia's hooves themselves had been here, much less one of fallen Soror Equinus. What had been said however was certainly heresy. Would she be able to act upon it? Silver Scroll looked up to the ceiling, where there was a mural of the Twin Sisters, circling around the cutie mark of Cadance,

protecting the princess of love. The mighty castle floated above and there were no words that came to mind.

“Cadance, Luna, Celestia; I need thy guidance. Was this your intention or is there something I am missing? Please...answer me,” the cyborg mare called out, her voice sounding as close to natural as it ever had. She heard her voice and was startled by the sound of it. It had been nearly three decades since her wound required the replacement of her vocal cords with the vox box, yet here she spoke and it sounded as though she were whole again.

An unfamiliar voice, one she could swear upon her cybernetic implants she had never heard before, spoke to her with the authority of a goddess. “Yes, you will know the answer when it is time. When you hear my voice; do as it says.” Something crept into her mind now, peace. Her turmoil abated and everything seemed to rest in the cool peace of night itself. One word came to mind as Silver Scroll started towards the edge of the chamber, “Luna...yes my princess as you command.”

Silver Scroll could not be certain it was Luna but the voice screamed of the vox recordings she had heard as a foal of the great princess who slept upon the sunlight side of the throne of twin sisters. It had to be her, speaking directly to her. Right? Not the warp creating an elaborate illusion? This was madness itself. Silver Scroll needed space out of this librarium, somewhere she could find peace and discern what she could possibly tell the Inquisitor when he woke. How was she not going to be shot for heresy? Claiming divine revelation from an Alicorn Sister herself? Conversing with a traitor Soror Equinus? One that belonged to the most hated of all, the traitor Twilight's Legion, the fallen alicorn. This was going to take some careful wording to not finally feel the .54 Flank Buster's final judgment piercing her mind and ending her existence.