"You may call me...Grogar." The large goat, obviously in service of the Ruinous Powers, declared to the assembled villains.

Chrysalis couldn't keep the shock from her voice. "The Grogar?!" It was a shared sentiment, Tirek and King Sombra holding the same knowledge of the first emperor, but Chrysalis barely heard them.

It made sense, if anycreature was capable of undoing what was done to her then it was him, but the fact that he served them unnerved her.

She could still feel it. The horrid sensation of her chitin and flesh being warped and twisted into unnatural shapes, all because she casted the summoning spell 5 seconds early.

Now, she couldn't help but feel that she and these others were being gathered for a sacrifice.

"Oh, I assure you. I am very real. And I gathered you all here as part of my plan for getting rid of Twilight Sparkle and friends. Once and for all." Grogar explained, complimenting the speech with a traditional evil laugh.

"But is it your plan?" All eyes fell to Chrysalis as she glared accusingly at the goat.

"I was tricked into following their plans as well..." Chrysalis contiued, pointing a hoof at the Star of Chaos dangling from Grogar's neck.

"...And the minute something went wrong....you saw what they did to me." Chrysalis concluded, earning shudders from the other villains as they recalled the Chaos Horror and imagined what they assumed such a thing would feel like.

"Hmph, you would do well not to compare my capabilities to yours. But if that's your concern..." Grogar closed his eyes. As he did so, his Star began to glow with the colors of the Warp.

A few seconds later, three Daemons: one that Chrysalis recognized as the one that taught her the spell, one that had blood red skin and a flaming sword, and one that somehow seemed pleasant and painful to look at at the same time, were pulled from rips in reality and sealed within the Star.

"There. The Daemons still amuck in Equestria have been sealed away along with the one who thought he could deceive me. Are you satisfied?" Grogar asked of the Changeling.

Far from it. The fact that he overpowered those beings so quickly only put Chrysalis more on edge, but she knew that if he was that powerful, there wasn't anything she could do.

Grogar took her silence as an answer. "Good. Now then, it is true that the Ruinous Powers are more concerned with destroying Equestria than conquering it. Which is why I will be relying on their assistance sparingly...rather than blindly jumping into the first opportunity to make a fool of myself."
Chrysalis was about to retort, but it was Tirek who spoke up first. "And why should you keep all their power to yourself?"

"Because I'm the only one who knows how to control the powers of Chaos rather than letting them control me. But don't worry, there is plenty of power to be had." With this, Grogar extracted some of his own essence and blew it like a dandelion towards Tirek.

The centaur greedily devoured the energy and immediately grew three times bigger.

Satisfied for the moment, Tirek retreated to having a private with the pegasus filly, who didn't seem to know who Grogar was.

Chrysalis was all but convinced that the pony was only present to be a sacrifice later...but the thought was immediately lost.

Just behind the centaur and the filly, Chrysalis saw movement. Whatever it was was gone before she could get a good look at it, but something about it's frame seemed familiar...she could've sworn she had seen three creatures of similar appearance after casting the summoning spell, though it was hard to remember...considering the state she had been in.

As Chrysalis turned from the possible hallucination, it would seem that Grogar was having a disagreement with King Sombra. "I don't do 'ours', I only do MINE! I will take back the Crystal Empire on my own! And I will destroy anypony who gets in my way."

Grogar merely smirked at the defiance. "Such confidence. Go. Try to take back your kingdom. I shall send you there myself. If you prevail, you may keep it."

It is at this point that the smirk disappeared. "But when you fail, you will submit to me."

Sombra was unimpressed. "And if I refuse this...deal?"

"Then I shall return you back to the darkness from whence you were summoned." Grogar replied.

"Fine." Sombra agreed without hesitation. "But this is a waist of time. I shall defeat all who get in my way. I shall crush those who defy me. I-" Any further monologuing was silenced as Grogar sent Sombra from his sight, and more importantly, his hearing.

The goat then looked to the other three. "I advise the rest of you to prepare to work together." And then he was gone.

Chrysalis and Tirek looked to each before the filly flew up to hover between them. "Well, working together sounds an awful lot like making friends. So you two are in luck because I know all about that."

Chrysalis was about to put the fear of the reaper into the foolish pony, but found it unnecessary as Tirek sent her flying with a flick of his finger. "Okay, you seem to be familiar with that pony. Would you mind explaining: What in the Hive's name is she doing here outside of chains?"

Tirek scoffed in amusement at the changeling's confusion. "Don't let her looks fool you. She's just as power hungry as you or I. Are you familiar with that incident 7 months ago where magic started to disappear from Equestria?"

Chrysalis' eyes almost popped out of her head. She had nearly had a heart attack that day. "Are you suggesting that filly had something to do with it?"

"Not something..." Tirek answered. "...everything. And she had tricked Twilight Sparkle and her friends into investigating my possible involvment, since stealing magic is my thing, and trapped them in Tartarus. She was thwarted by the honor role students at Twilight's 'School of Friendship', though if you ask her to tell you, she'll say the Tree of Harmony itself undid her plans. Hmph, kids. But enough about that. What the hay happened to you?"

Chrysalis took a step back. It was obvious what Tirek was talking about.

"Yeah, I'm curious too." Said the filly, who had recovered from her involuntary flight. "I mean, I know changing shape is kind of your thing, but that seemed...wrong."

Chrysalis sat on her haunches and let out breath she hadn't realized that she had been holding. "How much have you two been told of Grogar's...power?"

"You mean the ruinous power he referred to?" Tirek asked.

"Yes, but it's not ruinous power. He was referring to the ruinous power, The Ruinous Powers of Chaos Undivided. From what I understand, they are the foil of the Elements of Harmony, representing Despair, Hatred, Ambition, and Desire." Chrysalis explained.

This got the other villains attention...through Chrysalis quickly de-romantisized them. "And trying to use that power backfired horrendously. Grogar's right, sparingly is the only way to use such power, if at all. You can't trust the Dark Gods."

She could tell that they weren't as excited, but they were still curious. "Did you just say...Dark Gods?"

"Yes. I wasn't told much. Only that each of these Gods represents one of the Ruinous Powers. Considering we're talking about villains as arrogant as us, if not more so, I doubt that they're any more impressive than Twilight Sparkle and her friends...though if I ever get my hooves on Tzeentch, I'll make sure he knows exactly what that felt like." The others didn't need to know what 'that' was, they could still the cracks as her bones broke and reformed.

"Zeench? Hmm, I don't know of anycreature that would have a name like that." The filly stated.

"Indeed. Not even the beings of my homeland had such names." Tirek replied.

"Well whatever he is, he's the Dark God of Ambition. He's also known as the Archetect of Fate or The Changer of Ways. He claims that every plan is his and that all living things have a part to play in his schemes...and he's the one who sent that Daemon to give me the spell that rebounded on me and transformed me into that thing." Chrysalis snarled in anger.

"Interesting. Your personal history with him aside, I think I can stand to admire this 'Zeench'." Tirek stated.

Chrysalis arched an eyebrow. "Actually, considering how your plans all revolve around increasing your muscle mass, I'd say you're more aligned with Slaanesh: The Dark God of Desire."

Tirek thought about it, and shrugged in agreement.

The three villains contiued their conversation, completely unaware that they were being watched.

Grogar narrowed his eyes at Chrysalis. Her experience had changed her, for better or worse was yet to be determined.

"You didn't need her, you know?" Spoke a voice behind the goat.

Grogar turned to face the Heads of the Hydra that came up behind him. He knew them by the names of their fathers: Alpharius and Omegon. They always called each other by one or the other, and always acted as though Grogar spoke to the wrong one if he didn't keep up with the trading of their names.

They only way to tell which one was which was the different colors of their armor, though knowing the Alpha Legion, there were probably days when they traded armor instead of names and days where they traded armor and names.

"Maybe not Alpharius, but then again. She may be exactly what we need for our plans." Grogar replied.

"Hmm, it's possible, I suppose... also, I'm Omegon." The astartes replied.

Grogar rolled his eyes. 'Omegon' was wearing the blue and green armor today while Alpharius wore the green and blue, and even these differences to the armor weren't so great, as the green was a bluish green as the blue was a greenish blue. In fact, the only true difference was that one of them appeared to be a set of loyalist armor while the other sported a set of horns and Chaotic symbols...the armors were repainted daily.

"So, would any of you care to place a wager on how long it takes the ponies to defeat Sombra?" Grogar asked.

"You know..." Began Alpharius. "...I don't think they will." Concluded Omegon.

Grogar couldn't keep the surprise from his face. "You actually think that fool has a chance?"

This got a laugh from the Space Marines. "Oh no no no, we just wonder..." Omegon started. "...what chance has a master of fear..." Continued Alpharius. "...against one who has no fear." They concluded.

Author's Note

Oh boy, plans within plans have set into motion. But who are the puppets, and who are the puppeteers?

So, next chapter is going to be Sombra's attack on the Crystal Empire, and as stated before: I plan to keep the Elements in this story for a few volumes more.

Also, I'm going to try and get the next chapter out this weekend... and go on a 2-4 week hiatus.

The reason: while I won't spoil the series finale, I will say that I, as an individual, found it wanting, and thus: intend to write an alternate ending that I will post the day after the series finale goes public.

So if the next chapter doesn't drop for awhile, you know why.

Also, shoutout to The Reaper of Valhalla: one of my FanFiction.net readers.
The FF app is bugged, and thus: any PMs I try to send will go through, but will never be read.

So, in reply to your review: Thank you for your support and I appreciate the lengths you went to in order to get the most out of my story.

Okay, that's all I got, see you next time.