Chapters The clouds above had the fluffiness of a pillow overstuffed with feathers. Below them lay mountains that covered the earth like spines jutting from the back of some ancient beast. Through their recesses and pathways swept a soft summer wind, penetrating deep within the depths of the mountains to sweep about the mane of a new recruit to the Equestrian army.
It was a long, hard hike through the mountains outside of Camelot with the rest of Greyson’s battle group. At his side were soldiers as tired and frazzled by the beating sun and the hardness of the earth as he was, marching in a disciplined silence. If he remembered correctly, they numbered exactly one hundred, all armed and ready for combat. At the flanks of the group were the two leaders of the battle group, both veterans of war.
The tip of the formation was occupied by a battlemage who floated on a magical cloud, reclining in relaxation, an act of defiance against the struggling of the soldiers behind her. She wore a purple cloak studded with stars and a nonchalant grin on her face, which was shaded by a pointy hat. There wasn’t a single pony within the whole formation who didn’t utterly despise her.
The pack on his back was beginning to weigh upon him heavily. The sword at his side kept bumping into his side as he trotted, joining his equally loose canteen as another annoyance. His breaths came slower and longer each time he took one and he wanted nothing more than to stop. Even the gentle song of the birds was blending into an obnoxious cacophony that never seemed to cease.Though he understood the discipline the hikes were supposed to instill in him as a new recruit to the army of Equestria, he didn’t hate them any less.
As the minutes piled together into another hour, his eyes strayed skywards. For a moment, he lost himself in the sea of clouds above, and then he noticed something out of the ordinary.
He wasted no time in alerting his commanders to the oddity. “SIR, STRANGE OBJECT SIGHTED ABOVE, SIR!”
The entire group stopped to focus their attention on him. “What in Celestia’s name are you on about, boy?” The voice of the battle group leader was softer than usual, yet still punctually abrupt.
In response, the recruit raised his hoof to a black object tumbling from the sky. A hundred eyes followed his hoof to the oddity and a hundred hearts began to beat faster in a confused uncertainty. Each pony in the group felt the same, simultaneous sensation of mortal anxiety, as if facing down an enemy charge.
From the object’s trajectory, it was clear that it was going to land in the mountains close to them, perhaps a ten or twenty minute’s walk away from their location. One of the battle group leaders ordered the pegasi in the group to follow it, and for the rest of the ponies to follow them to the crash location. The mage had long since gotten off of her cloud and was following the events with a look of plain intrigue on her face.
Without delay, the one hundred ponies of the battle group filtered into the woods where they would meet their deaths.
**********
It had touched down within a lake deep in the forest.
Long waves from the force of the impact swept over the surface of the water. A number of pegasi hovered over the crash site, their golden armor sparkling in the sunshine. On the shore, the earth ponies and unicorns of the battle group huddled in a defensive formation, waiting for something to happen.
Several tense moments passed, then a figure emerged from the depths.
Greyson balked in confusion once it surfaced. From the hazy image of it that he could see from the shore, it appeared to be a hairless ape with pale white skin, dressed in a gigantic suit of black armor. Its head swiveled around for a moment and then it submerged beneath the water.
There was a moment of trepidation, then the commander barked a series of orders to his formation. The unicorns shifted to the backline and readied offensive spells, while the earth ponies drew spears and swords in a crescent formation. The pegasi above drew swords of their own, as well as bows and arrows, and retreated to greater heights as they waited for something to happen.
The commander strode to the shore, just in time to meet the creature as it surfaced on the beach. As it arrived, a protective barrier of magical shielding flickered over the front of the formation, wrapping around in a tight bubble. The cloudy, orange haze obscured his vision slightly but Greyson could still see through it well.
He felt his mane stand on end as he surveyed the mysterious beast before him. It stood many times taller than he was and its face showed no emotion. He had no doubt that it was intelligent from the armor it wore and the way it surveyed its surroundings, its eyes shining with a confused curiosity. He had no name to attach to the creature, yet the fear it stirred in him was all too familiar.
The commander tilted his head to the side in confusion. “So...are you a good guy or a bad guy?”
The creature stopped in its tracks, looking down at the commander.
It raised its hand to its head and there was a brief crackle as it activated something within its suit. Then it spoke in a flat voice with no humor. “To your kind, xenos, I suppose I would be a bad guy.”
Greyson felt an indescribable tension sweep over the formation. Before the commander could reply, the beast snatched the commander up in his hand.
“DO SOMETHING! HELP ME, HE-” His pleading was cut off as the beast slung the commander directly towards the shield at a blinding speed.
Gore was flung everywhere as the commander’s body exploded against the shield like a ripe tic popping. His remains slid down and piled at the bottom of the magical barrier in a revolting heap.
The response was immediate and savage. Magical fire rocketed towards the creature as arrows streamed from the archer pegasi above. The initial barrage harmlessly slid off of the beast’s armor, even the arrows crumpling harmlessly to the ground.
The pegasi above let out battle cries as they zoomed forwards to meet the beast. The first to reach it were swatted aside like mosquitos, writhing and dying in the sand from shattered skulls and snapped spines. Those who hadn’t arrived were smart enough to retreat back into the safety of the shield.
Its head swiveled to face the defensive wall of the earth ponies and it simply strode towards them with a quick gait.
More and more fire from the unicorns within the backline poured into the beast, yet even though its armor began to show signs of heating, it still did not slow in its advance.
Greyson’s heart and head were pounding with anxiety. He looked frantically about to find something to focus on to stop his fear and found solace in the flanks of the mare in front of him. She had a round, plump ass and wore only tight cloth pants to cover her backside. She stood braver than the panicking ponies around her and had her eyes gently closed, waiting for the battle to progress. Greyson tried to copy her stoic calmness and fixated on her ass, trying to distract himself from the chaos with sexual thoughts.
As he stared at the seat of her pants, it grew wet with urine. He watched in a trance like state as the liquid spilled out of her clothes and pooled on the ground, her legs quaking as she emptied herself.
A series of hoarse yells struck his ears and he was yanked away from that sight. He looked about to see the remaining commander shrieking insensible orders out of panic. His voice was soon drowned out in a chorus of battle yells as the beast approached the defensive line, as the soldiers tried to drown out their fear in battle lust. Spears and swords were angled forwards to skewer the creature once it arrived.
Before a single spear had the chance to strike the armor of the beast, it stopped in its tracks and drew a massive hunk of metal from its side. The ponies cowered behind the magical shield and waited in an anxious, gut-churning trepidation for the beast to activate the strange piece of machinery.
The metal chunk suddenly erupted in light and smoke, emitting bangs so loud they ruptured Greyson’s eardrums. The first rounds impacted the shield with a gigantic, explosive splash that knocked the ponies closest to the shield to the ground.
The ponies further from the frontline were equally helpless. Trapped as they were underneath the dome of the shield, they had no option but panic or a forced stoicism. Greyson's own mind was torn between those two extremes.
Some ponies helplessly threw themselves against the walls of the shield, trying fruitlessly to flee from the sides. Others sobbed in fear and covered their eyes with their legs. Greyson swiveled his head around, uncertain of what to do. Looking to his left, he saw a young female recruit curled into a ball. He stared with glassy eyes at her sheer helplessness. All of their training over the last few months had led her to this, he realized.
Greyson himself shut his eyes and imagined he wasn’t there.
In his mind, he was back at his cottage with his wife in the foothills of Camelot. They were on a boat sailing down a gentle stream and her head was in his lap. He focused on her smile, trying to remember every detail he could about her face, about her piercing green eyes and the special way she laughed only around him. As he thought about her, his fear abated a little and a new determination crept into his heart.
He took a deep breath and exhaled, his eyes still shut tight. I have to survive this, he thought. Because I love her.
With renewed confidence, he opened his eyes to the sight of the mare’s flanks in front of him. He breathed steadily and focused on them to center himself.
The recruit next to him turned towards him, a young, trembling stallion. “I...I don’t want to die...” he said in a trembling voice.
“It’ll be okay son, the shield will hold. And if it doesn’t somepony will show up to save us.” He tried his hardest to sound sure of himself.
“I-I only joined ‘cause my dad did, I didn’t actually want to die...” His eyes bulged in fear as they darted about nervously.
Before Greyson could respond, the stallion embraced him and sobbed into his shoulder. He began to sob as well and hugged him back, praying to Celestia that the shield wouldn’t break before some miracle happened to save their lives.
With a tremendous boom, the shield started to split and his own bladder failed. An evil stench violated his nostrils as soldiers began to lose control of their bodily functions.
After two more hits, the shield failed.
The soldier hugging him died as a bolt round struck him. He watched the light fade from his eyes instantly, his jaw swinging open and his tongue bulging out in death. Bucking the body away, he screamed as he retreated.
He was joined by most of his fellow soldiers, though those few who didn’t retreat immediately gathered in a small pack and rushed the beast. It fired two shots into their group and killed all but a lone stallion. He tensed up as the beast approached him.
It took him up in a large hand, uttering words to the unfortunate soldier that Greyson couldn’t hear. His legs swung about uselessly and tears of fear flowed down his face, then the beast squeezed the soldier until he was crushed. It nonchalantly tossed the remains to the side. They landed on top of Greyson, knocking him over as he fled.
Shoving the corpse off of him, he lifted his head up and looked about. His ears had been rendered useless, but the sight his eyes brought him made him wish that he had been blinded.
It was a sea of gore almost as large as the lake that it lay beside. The ponies who hadn’t been simply vaporized lay about as bloody, shrieking chunks of meat on the beach. Puddles of bodily waste studded the terrible display, a testament to the fear instilled in the soldiers before their doom.
Taking his gaze from the battlefield, Greyson saw several ponies dashing furiously for the treelines, only to be cut down by the horrific bullets of the beast. He tried to rise from the ground but found no strength to do so.
His eyes could not leave the beast. It was the center of his attention, an emblem of sheer terror, like something from a nightmare come to life. Even as he stared at it, its silhouette began to shine with an orange light. Suddenly, it shot up into the air and was thrown down headfirst.
The mage had finally entered the battle, realized Greyson. With her specialized knowledge of magic, there was a chance of the tide of battle being shifted, even if it was a slight one. For the first time since the monster had surfaced, he felt a smidgen of hope in his heart.
The unicorns who survived the initial barrage had joined her side, unleashing a torrent of magical energy into the beast as the mage charged a spell. The beast let out a groan and blood poured down its face as it withered and nearly crumpled under the onslaught.
“No, no, no, no, no…” muttered Greyson under his breath as the beast found the strength to raise its weapon.
More fire poured into the unicorns, several of them exploding as the other soldiers had. The ones who hadn’t been killed disappeared in poofs of light as they teleported away, leaving only the mage.
Her face was a mask of concentration as her spell charged. As the beast angled his weapon towards her, her eyes shot open, radiating with white light.
Buzzing fingers of lightning poured out of her horn and enveloped the beast. Greyson’s ears pounded once more as the beast let out a terrifyingly loud scream and began to charge through the lightning towards her. Its face began to blacken and warp under the electric assault, but still it moved forwards. An unbelievable sound was coming from its mouth and Greyson urinated at the horror of its deep, reverberating cadence.
Finally, it closed the distance and crushed the unicorn’s skull with a stroke of its hand. The beast sank to its knees and began to rub its face for a moment before standing.
His stomach churned and he struggled not to void himself once more. He shakily clambered to his legs and his mind raced as he tried to formulate a plan for survival. Before he could think of anything, the beast turned around and locked eyes with him, then began to stride towards him.
He meant to run, but instead he found that his legs had the stiffness of boulders. His head rose up to meet the gaze of the beast. Without speaking, it snatched Greyson up in an enormous hand and walked off into the woods.
Rainbow Dash twirled through the sky, a grin of delight on her face.
It was a beautiful summer’s day and she was making the most of it. Her wings closed to her side as she dropped rapidly, enjoying the rush of air pressing against her face. She opened her wings and swooped forwards, drinking in the sunlight drenched landscape beneath her. Everything was touched by the beautiful light of the sun, from horizon to horizon, and the entire world was…
Indescribably gorgeous.
Drunk on happiness, she laughed and began to climb again, trying to find her limits. She pushed herself into a rapid descent, folded her wings at her side and let out a yell as she shot down at a dizzying speed. Her heart still beating with excitement, she reclined on a tiny cloud and began to relax.
Her head lay back on her forelegs as her chest heaved with heavy breaths. She let out another laugh and stood up, looking down at the distant land again and letting herself feel awe at the sheer magnitude of the land that reached from horizon to horizon. With a deep sigh, she let the excitement of the last moment pass and relaxed within the depths of the sky.
Looking at the land again, her face fell as she saw pillars of smoke climbing far into the sky from the direction of Ponyville. Already forgetting the fun of the previous moments, she soared towards the disaster with no hesitation.
**********
The first thing she came across on her flight was a fleeing band of ponies on the outskirts of town.
She touched down on the dirt road slightly ahead of the group and observed them for a moment. Their faces were struck with a horror that she had only rarely seen before. Their eyes were wild and crazy, filled with panic. Several of them were covered in dried blood.
“Hey, what happe-” Even as she tried to talk to them, they shoved her aside.
After she tried and failed to engage one of the survivors, somepony stopped to offer a breathless explanation. The blue-coated stallion was out of breath and tears glistened on his face, his purple eyes swimming with terror.
“It’s...big…”’ he muttered breathlessly.
“Is it a dragon?” Dash briefly thought of leaving to go find Twilight, or maybe even Celestia, but dismissed the thought.
“It’s as strong as one and it breathes fire-or if it isn’t fire, it sets things on fire.” spat the pony. “I-I have to run, but it’s not that far from us. Just go towards the screaming.”
Before she could ask anything else, the pony galloped away.
A moment passed as she listened for the promised screaming and surely enough it came. Followed by the screams were impossibly loud blasts that reminded her of a sonic rainboom.
Are they being attacked by evil pegasi? she thought to herself. The idea was crazy to say the least, but she was sure she could fight them off.
She took flight again and soared towards the sounds of battle.
It only took her a brief moment of searching before she came upon a garden of equine annihilation. The broken bodies of dead ponies littered the bloodsoaked ground. Mares and children had not been spared, lying dead alongside their husbands and fathers. Picnic cloths fluttered in the wind, baskets of food strewn across the grass.
The Ponyville annual family picnic gathering , she recalled with a start. She had meant to attend it with Scootaloo, but decided to ditch it to slack off as she usually did.
If I had gone to this, would I have?... she pushed the thought from her mind.
She descended into the wave of mangled bodies, frantically searching for any survivors.
At first, she found nothing. Whatever beast had been responsible for the horror unfolding before her was an artist of death that left no survivors, or so it seemed.
It was the bodies that disturbed her. She was no stranger to the site of massacres and bloodbaths; there were more than enough terrifying creatures within Equestria to ensure that her innocence had been long since stripped from her. However, these corpses were like nothing she had seen before. They weren’t burnt or hewn by some blade or claw, but appeared to have popped , like pinatas full of guts.
She briefly thought of Pinkie Pie. Would she find some humor in comparing the bodies to meat pinatas? As Dash walked around in a daze, her hoof brushed the decapitated head of a colt and she vomited on the ground, the terror of the scene finally penetrating into her mind.
At once, she heard a weak cry for help and trotted towards it.
The red-coated mare was so soaked in blood that Dash couldn’t tell if red was even the original color of her coat. The tattered remains of a sundress drenched in feces and urine hung off of her frame. She weakly tried to sit up as Dash approached her. Once she was close, she muttered something incomprehensible.
“What was that?” asked Dash gently.
“run...it’s close…” whispered the dying mare.
She suddenly noticed the looming presence of a massive beast which lurked in the middle of the bloodbath. It was a strange, hairless creature that stood on two legs. Dash quickly looked it over and balked at the size of its armor and at the sheer quantity of blood it was drenched in. Yet, despite the violence the beast had clearly participated in, it showed no sign of bloodlust in its grim, stern face.
Clutched in its right hand was the tattered body of a stallion wearing the armor of an Equestrian soldier. The creature wordlessly raised the body in the air and locked eyes with Dash.
“Did you do this?” Dash tried to control her voice but rage was beginning to overtake her. She shook in fury and a sea of red obscured her vision. Her ears flattened instinctively and she bared her teeth at the silent, gore soaked sentinel before her.
Anger pulsed through her, intertwining with her essence and driving the mere concept of rationality from her mind. If this was the creature responsible for the massacre, she knew that she didn’t have the self control not to kill it outright. A brief thought of what Celestia would think of her for the act killing crossed her mind, but she pushed it out.
Let her be angry. she thought to herself. I’ve held back before, but this is...this is too much.
Dash realized with a start that the stallion in the beast’s grip wasn’t dead. The beast whispered something in the pony’s ear and the pony parted his bloodstained lips to speak. “I...I am Greyson, the, uh, ex-ee-nose herald of this As-tart-ees.” Greyson coughed. “He comes to bring justice to foul...ex-ee-nos scum...such as you…”
His composure collapsed and he began to sob and writhe in the beast’s grip. “H-HELP ME! HELP-”
The Astartes remained silent, allowing Dash a moment to speak. She restrained her fear to produce a steady, confident tone, hoping to comfort the stallion. “Greyson, it’s going to be okay. I’ll save you.”
A little bit of the panic left his face.“Just don’t go easy on him.” Some confidence had returned to Greyson’s voice.
“I won’t.” She puffed her chest out and took a moment to think of something threatening to say to the monster.
Before anything came to mind, it threw Greyson at her with the speed of a cannonball. She barely had time to jump out of the way before Greyson splattered into a pile of shattered bones and guts on the ground near her.
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” The words leapt out of her mouth like embers from a raging fire.
The Astartes suddenly dashed towards her with a blinding speed. Dash yelped as she quickly flew in the air to escape its reach. Within the same instant, the beast drew a massive blob of metal from its hip and Dash suddenly discovered the source of the booms from earlier.
She arced gracefully in the air as she dodged the bolter rounds, one almost clipping her wing. Swooping back down, she delivered a fierce kick to the head of the Astartes.
It barely acknowledged the blow and grabbed her hindleg. Before it ravaged her, she twisted free and went for another kick, twirling around to strike it in the chestplate.
Their homicidal dance dragged on for several minutes. After many more blows against it, she ultimately realized her sheer weakness in comparison to the beast. Despite her strongest efforts, it didn’t seem remotely injured by her kicks and was even more motivated to fight.
There was a moment of fear and helplessness in her mind. Dash imagined this monster ravaging her friends, imagined the fear that Fluttershy would feel if she was before it. She considered flying off to warn the citizens of Ponyville about the black-armored threat and then considered the ponies it would slaughter before help arrived.
In that moment, she knew what she had to do.
More rounds shot past her as she flew and she grinned to herself every time one missed. Despite her elation at having survived for so long, a deep seated sense of panic tainted her actions. She knew deep in her heart that if she didn’t end this quickly, it would end with her death and the deaths of countless other ponies.
She was now so far in the sky that the monster below was a distant pinprick within the landscape. Even at that height, an occasional round flew past her. She tried to ignore the arcing rounds from below and focused her mind and body into one being. A deep breath entered her nostrils and she knew what to do.
She threw herself into a rapid descent. Her wings became a blur of sheer motion and sweat flew off of her body from the utter exertion of her task, forming a contrail that hugged her body closely. A feeling of determination suddenly blossomed in her heart and grew into a furious storm as her speed increased.
Throughout the land below, the rainbow streams of a sonic rainboom flowed through the windows of houses and filtered their way through the branches of trees. In the homes along the outskirts of Ponyville, windows rattled in their panes and ponies took cover from the sudden sensation of sound blossoming in the skies.
Another rainboom followed quickly after, their contrails blended together to form a dazzling contrail of lights. All across Ponyville, ponies stopped in their tracks to stare in gape-jawed amazement at the kaleidoscope of color that was blossoming across the heavens.
There was no longer a divisive concept in her mind between her and the blanket of utter speed she was enveloped in. The line dividing the pegasus and the motion of the pegasus was so blurred to her that she no longer felt like a pony moving quickly, but had transcended into something else entirely, something raw and primal and speedy .
Dash’s mouth opened to emit a roar borne of fear and euphoria. In a swift moment, she switched her position before she impacted her target, rotating her body so that her right hindleg was extended outwards, her head pointed towards the sky and her back towards the ground.
In the second before impact, her roar became something else entirely and she let out a sound that she never made before. It was the sound of pure, unrestrained exertion, the triumphant yell of an athlete at the absolute limits of what her body could achieve.
The Astartes had no time to dodge or even ponder his predicament before the impact came.
Her right hindleg struck the Astartes in its chestplate. Bodies flew from the clearing and tree trunks snapped as the force of the shockwave radiating outwards. Her entire form rocked with an incredible force and she rocketed across the clearing before coming to rest in a ditch.
The chestplate of the Astartes buckled and shattered under the force of the impact and the beast shot backwards with a force harder than it had ever felt against him, its body bouncing off the ground many times over before impacting a boulder and finally going still.
In the second before Dash reached unconsciousness, she saw Celestia herself descend into the clearing and knew she was safe at last.
There was something about its eyes that set Twilight off.
They weren’t quite as hard as the creature’s skin, nor as worn and beaten as its armor. Rather, there was something else about them that sent chills of unease down her spine. It was a dragon’s gaze towards a diamond, a robber’s glance towards a purse. It was far from a primal glare of hatred, but came from a place much deeper, colder and calculating than she could even imagine.
In a word, it was a glare of contempt and it terrified her.
The beast was restrained in long loops of magically reinforced chains that had originally been enchanted to restrain massive dragons. Even considering their purpose, the monster had struggled against them greatly, even cracking the magically infused iron of the lower layers before it had given up on escaping.
However, even with its legs and arms restrained beyond a question of a doubt, Twilight still felt uneasy being in its presence. Pushing her fear aside, she formulated yet another question for her interview with the beast. She knew that Celestia had bestowed a great honor on her for allowing her to be the first pony to speak with the creature since its capture, besides the Princess herself of course.
And a creature it was. The beast before her had slaughtered the entire 104th recruit battle group and had committed a horrific massacre against the citizens of Ponyville. Its track record of destruction was unrivaled by all but the most severe threats to Equestria. A desire burned in Twilight’s heart to discover what the captured monster’s motivations possibly could have been.
Before she could speak, the monster spoke to her. “Tell me xenos, do you feel uneasy in my presence?”
Twilight took a few steps back instinctively. “Yes, very much so actually.”
The captured Astartes locked eyes with her and Twilight shivered. “I have devices known as hexagrammic wards embedded in my armor to terrify the psychic essence of witches such as yourself.”
Fascinating , thought Twilight. The beast had some form of technology in its armor capable of projecting fear into the minds of what the creature considered to be ‘xenos’. What civilization had developed such a curiosity?
Her thoughts were interrupted as it spoke again. “Every aspect of my body is a weapon against your intent. Proceed with this interrogation as you will, but do so with knowledge of that, witch.”
Twilight spoke as softly as she could in consideration of her fear. “I don’t want to hurt you and I’m not going to torture you. Nopony wanted to hurt you when you came here.”
She took a moment to think. It was obvious that the creature was very intelligent and not the monstrous, witless brute she had expected from hearing reports of its actions since landing in Equestria. She decided that there had been a misunderstanding of absolutely unfathomable proportions at some point between its arrival and its slaughter of hundreds of ponies. Nothing came to her mind as to what it possibly could have been, but it was up to her to find out.
The Astartes showed no trace of emotion in its face, as per usual. It did not respond to Twilight’s statement and merely gazed catonically into the distance.
A few more moments of awkward silence went by. “So...what are you, exactly?”
“I am the Emperor’s blade and the death of his foes.” It was technically an answer to her question even if it wasn’t the one she wanted.
“I meant, what race do you belong to?”
It spoke with pride booming in its rumbling voice. “I am an Adeptus Astartes, of the human race.”
Twilight felt a little bit more hopeful now that the Astartes was starting to open up to her. “Do you have a name?”
The Astartes closed its eyes and after several tense moments, reopened them. “To you, I am death.”
Twilight’s mane erupted in goosebumps. From any other creature, the remark would have been an almost childish threat, but something about the beast before her was simply off in a way that made her want to curl up into a ball.
Not to mention its actions before being captured.
Pushing her fear aside, she continued. “Okay, death , since that’s what you want me to call you apparently.” She cocked her head to the side. “Are you working for somepony-I mean, somebody? What exactly are you, even?”
“I am His blade and the death of His foes. I am an Adeptus Astartes, the pride of the human race.” Death spoke its response rapidly with no pauses and no emotion.
She looked up into the monster’s face, words failing her. It was strangely devoid of any hair or fur, whether by its biological nature or some kind of modification she was uncertain. Deep, aged wrinkles lined its face and uncountable scars lay within its flesh. Its fresh wounds from electrocution were the most prominent. Its lips were drawn into a perpetual, judgemental frown and she had no words for the utter hate that radiated from its gaze.
It truly was a warrior, she had no doubt of that fact. Even if its deeds before its capture weren’t enough to demonstrate that, the creature was bound into a suit of gigantic, black armor as tattered and worn as its wearer. She knew from her own experiences the effects of indoctrination on soldiers in a war, and this one had been fighting for Celestia knew how long.
The armor on the outside was a pale reflection of the one it wore within, she realized with a start.
“I just want to know...why...” She tried to keep the trembling out of her speech, yet it crept in regardless.
“Why I killed so many?” said the Astartes in its cold, monotonous inflection.
Twilight began to speak, but the words caught in her throat as she remembered.
Remembered the blood, remembered the gore. Remembered the limbs torn into pieces, the fragments of skulls strewn about like autumn leaves. Remembered the blood soaked craters in the ground where innocent ponies once stood. Remembered the thick, ashy columns of smoke that poured from the ruins of Ponyville on that cursed, disgusting day when it arrived.
She bit her lip and tried to hold the tears back, but they came out anyways. “Why did you hurt them? What did they do to you?”
For the first time since their conversation had began, Death changed its facial expression as its lips curled into a tight sneer. “They existed and they were xenos. What other reason is there? And they were weak, regardless.”
Twilight looked up into the face of the Astartes once more. Her brow was furrowed downwards in anger, hot bolts of rage forcing her legs into a steady trembling. Once again, she tried to speak, but could only grind her teeth in anger. She closed her eyes and turned her head away as sobs swept through her body.
Death shrugged as well as it could through its restraints. “It was an enjoyable slaughter, I’ll admit, watching their bodies pop and explode under my bolter’s fire-”
Twilight shrieked and slapped the Astartes in the face over and over again, pounding its head with her hooves until she could no longer move and sank to the floor in exhaustion.
Death laughed. It started as a chuckle from deep in its throat and worked its way up into a full blown, haughty fit of laughter that heaved its chest and brought a smile to its face.
“Xenos weakling, you do not know what I have experienced. During my times in war, I have been scorched by foul magics of the Warp. I have been assaulted by dozens of thick, muscled Orks at a single time, and have felt the bite of their crude axes in my flesh. I have lived through the rending claws of Genestealer hordes and the acidic sting of their blood. My bones have stood strong under the impacts of heavy caliber autoguns and the fiery imprints of heavy lasgun fire.”
The Astartes laughed once more before speaking. “But for all I have experienced in the maelstrom of combat, that is the most PATHETIC blow that has ever been delivered against me! You are a weakling as sure as any.”
“You killed children .” spat Twilight. “The smallest you killed weren’t even the size of your boots.” Her anger felt like a volcano that threatened to erupt and she fought to contain it.
Death offered no response and simply stared her down.
“And...you hurt my friend, too.” Tears trickled their way down Twilight’s face as her anger turned to sadness. “She loved flying more than anything. And because of you, she’ll never fly again. You may not have killed her, but you took that from her.” Twilight paused for a moment to sniffle. “Even if that was the only thing you did, I would never forgive you for it.”
“She was a competent warrior, possibly the only one your kind has.” snappily retorted the Astartes. “The fact that she was able to disable me was unexpected and impressive.”
“Killing people doesn’t make you a warrior,” spat Twilight, her voice infused with livid rage. “Even the weakest ponies you killed were warriors in their own ways.”
The Astartes said nothing and stared her down with his blazing glare of pony hate. Twilight readied herself to speak with it again, but suddenly the beast began to convulse.
Then it began to speak with such force and anger that Twilight could barely discern the meaning of its speech. After a brief and terrifying moment it sank motionlessly into its chains and ceased to move.
Twilight wordlessly walked out of the chamber as she shook with grief and anger.
**********
She found Celestia standing on a balcony nearby, overlooking the vastness of Canterlot. As she approached, the alicorn turned around to face her.
“I see that you’ve been crying.” Celestia gently laid a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s a cruel, insidious creature, I know.”
“Those are two words for it.” muttered Twilight.
“It’s important for you to understand the true nature of its intent.” said Celestia.
“I just wish it had never come here.” Twilight was taken aback at the bitterness she felt in her words.
“You’re not the only pony to feel hurt because of its actions. But we have to understand it, in order to fight threats like it better in the future, should another one arise.” Her words were a calming wave that brushed away the storm in Twilight’s mind.
Twilight looked up into her face. “How?”
Celestia solemnly bowed her head and spoke in a low, steady voice. “I know of a way, to penetrate the inner recesses of its mind and discover its true self. But it is a dangerous magical undertaking, one that even you are not ready to handle. It is something I must do on my own.”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Celestia. “While I do this, I trust you with the realm of Equestria.” Her horn glowed to produce a scroll sealed with a blob of golden wax. “While I’m gone, if any pressing matters require my action, this scroll gives you the authority to act in my name, legally and politically. Take very good care of it.”
Twilight took the scroll from her, concern and worry twisting into her face. “Celestia, what are you going to-”
Celestia wordlessly turned around towards the chamber where the Astartes was imprisoned and began to walk.
“How long will it-” yelped Twilight.
She turned around to Twilight once more. “I do not know.”
Before Twilight could ask another question, Celestia entered the recesses of the chamber.
**********
Celestia stood in front of the Astartes, the alien murderer of her people.
Was that fear she could see in the eyes of the beast? For the first time, it seemed to have been struck by uncertainty. It subtly writhed in its chains and Celestia could feel the desire to escape emanating from it. Stronger than that was its desire to commit violence against her.
“What plans do you have for me now, witch?” it uttered in its rumbling, deep voice.
“I have to understand.” stated Celestia plainly. “And since your words reveal nothing, I will try something else. Something that even you cannot resist.”
The Astartes grinned defiantly. “Finally, the torture comes. I have awaited it since my imprisonment.”
Celestia stared down the Astartes, her purple eyes sparkling with the little light that shone into the chamber. The time for words had long since departed. With that fact in mind, her horn began to glow with the start of a spell.
The Astartes writhed and screamed, as if being in the mere presence of magic was contrary to the essence of its being. In its armor, geometric patterns began to emerge and spin above its surface. They shattered into fragments of light and dispersed into nothingness.
“The wards are broken.” uttered Celestia in words barely louder than a whisper. “And now, what you hide will be revealed to me.”
The Astartes silently watched her with wide eyes brimming with trepidation. As it watched, long strands of magic weaved out of Celestia’s horn. They coalesced into the shining, golden image of an alicorn that hovered over Celestia’s body. The Astartes gave frantic praises to the Emperor as the magic wrapped its way around his body and the light entered him. Both his and Celestia’s body fell limp as the spell worked its way through them.
**********
She had never known a feeling of rage such as this.
Celestia balked at the mental storm before her. She floated as an ethereal ghost within the chambers of the Astartes mind, a satellite encircling a gigantic storm of utter fury that writhed in the soul of the beast. At once she understood the massacres it had committed against her people; if she had been struck by a force of rage such as this, she would have done the same thing.
The maelstrom of energies before her began to condense and she found herself in the center of a massive courtyard. The sky above was a piercing blue studded with the occasional cloud. Before her was a massive statue of iron. The statue was of a creature in a hooded cloak, dressed in a huge suit of armor. At the base of the statue read the words The Emperor, our Lord and Savior .
For all the anger the creature had, she sensed something that she would never imagine the creature to be able to feel. It was pure, utter, unadulterated love towards its mysterious Emperor. Suddenly, the love she felt towards her own subjects felt like a fleeting emotion in comparison. Even in sensing the love which the Astartes felt towards the Emperor, she felt inspired to fight for the Emperor for a brief second before her own willpower crushed the thought.
Yet even as she beheld the statue, the sky above darkened into a fiery red.
A storm of horrors poured forth from it; gigantic beasts for which she had no name. There were large, muscled creatures with dark green skin and scuttling bugs that stood as tall and as large as castles. Bizarre skeletons with black bones buzzing with green electrical currents clambered from the ground and many horrors besides these were visible to her.
Within the storm, she could see caricatures of her own subjects. They were without doubt ponies, but their mouths were full of fangs. The remains of newborn children hung off of their bodies and they charged with the rest of the horde towards the iron statue.
Suddenly, Celestia became aware of a presence behind her. She turned to see the Astartes, his face lined with a grim seriousness.
His mouth opened to bellow a war cry:
“FOR THE EMPEROR!”
The Astartes threw himself into the storm. As he fought, the monsters withered and died below his blows. Great wounds were delivered into his flesh, yet he fought on through his ghastly injuries. The green, muscled beasts died under his blows, the bones of the electric skeletons cracking and dying as he fought. Even the ponies were ripped into shreds by the hands of the Astartes.
Yet no matter how hard it fought, the iron statue of the Emperor began to shed chunks of metal under the assault. For all the might of the Astartes, it could barely stem the tide of horror flooding towards the iron statue.
Is this the inside of its mind? pondered Celestia.
She suddenly acquired the why she had been searching for.
It was brainwashed so thoroughly that it saw nothing but threats around it. From every corner of its mind was this strange sense of paranoia towards everything, all in the name of protecting its Emperor from the evil terrors assaulting it. The mere concept of acknowledging something not of its race as anything less than a mortal threat to the survival of the Emperor was impossible for this creature.
Celestia briefly entertained the notion of attempting to show the beast that not everything was a threat, but quickly dismissed it. For all that it had done, there were few beings on the surface of the planet that would accept it, and she had no faith in her own ability to sway the creature’s mind. She sighed. Given this level of brainwashing, eternal rest was the only remaining option for the creature.
Before she could ready herself to exit the creature’s mind, it turned towards her. It was the raw essence of its willpower manifest before her as a psychic ghost, she realized. The will of the Astartes was a fire to which she was a mere ember in comparison. She pushed back with all of her psychic might, but the willpower of the beast was so great that her defenses crumpled and collapsed under the assault. Her lips moved to utter a warning to it, but before she could do so, she felt her psychic tether to her own body snap.
She had only one chance to regain her physical form and she threw herself at it with all her might. Rapidly casting a spell from the essence of her soul, she attacked Dionnis's tether to his own body, severing it as well. When that process had completed, she felt the mind of the Astartes falter as it filled with an utter uncertainty. They fought for a moment in the void before she managed to dispel the presence of the Astartes. There was a desperate moment of scrambling as she tried to find a physical form to connect to; in a moment, she fixated onto the nearest one and her perception of the psychic plane faded as she returned to the physical plane.
When she awoke, she found herself standing before the beast again.
She looked at the raging creature, struggling as it was in its mighty bonds.
With a spell from her horn, she sent it into a deep slumber and left the chamber to never return again.
*end*