(Connorcooper: Let me break for a moment for a disclaimer there is some... rather a scene in this if that has a lot of gore descriptions just wanted to give a quick warning before we start)

(ERROR CODE>>>>>>5>>>>>>6>>>>4>1>>)

"Keep moving!" Sunset ordered while two other ponies ran behind her in the ditch as the rain poured down ontop of their heads.

Sunset stopped hiding behind a large piece of rubble that was once a building, the two ponies echoed her action while she carefully leaned forward to peek behind. Sure enough, there was a patrol right in the way of the main route back to their hideout, the towering form of the crystal guard looked around. At one point were ponies, but they had been twisted by the magic of King Sombra and ripped apart only to be put back together by him.

The green-eyed helms looked for anyone who wasn't serving the empire, Sunset slowly reached for her sidearm as one of the crystal guards looked in their direction. However the attention of the guard was taken by the sound of a pony yelling, the yellow pony watched as a small group of pony survivors was thrown forward. These guards spoke in a strange language that sounded like jumbled radio chatter however only the guards could understand it.

"Ma'am we gotta help them," One of the ponies behind her spoke up as Sunset held out her hand and shook her head.

"No... it's too late for them," Sunset whispered back with her hand out as the dark crystal guard began to separate the group.

The trio in hiding watched as a transport craft roared overhead to where the patrol and captured survivors were, sunset could only watch as the group cried out as they were separated while the crystal guard put collars around the necks of those who were being thrown into the transport. As they filled the transport the leading crystal guard spoke in that disordered language and pointed to the ponies they didn't take.

It didn't take a genius to what he ordered, she had seen this more times than she liked.

The wounded and elderly ponies that weren't taken were then opened fire upon by their captors, one of the ponies behind her raised his rifle but Sunset grabbed the barrel of his weapon and shook her head. While she stared at the young pony in front of her she used a hand signal to order them to take the alternate route to the hideout in which they hesitantly nodded and began to crawl beyond the sight of the dark-armored creatures.

Following behind she gave one last look as the crystal guard began to cut into the bodies of the dead to harvest them, getting down she followed after her troop. Going through an old sewer tunnel the three ponies crawled through Faust knows what and ended up in the main waste system, hopping down on the concrete path. The two ponies under her command waited for her while she moved a piece of metal to cover the hole in which they came through.

"Ma'am?" Sunset turned from her task to the pony.

"What is it Blaze?" Sunset asked.

"Was there no way we could have helped that group?"

Sunset sighed while she looked up at the young stallion.

"There wasn't anyway. Too many guards. Maybe if there was one or two but a whole squad and the fact they were extremely close to base?" Sunset shook her head. "They were already dead before we even got here. At least they didn't run into one of the failed,"

As Sunset said the other of the ponies shivered grabbing his arms at the mention of those things.

"Come on enough messing around we're behind as is," Sunset ordered while the two ponies followed after her.

The sewer system was a maze but luckily the three had done this song and dance over a hundred times to the point where they could do this with their eyes closed. Sunset knocked on the door to the hideout in a pacific pattern in which a small eye slot was pulled back and one look from the pony behind it and it was closed. Sunset looked behind the trio as the door was unlocked and the familiar face of Big Mac greeted them, he gestured with his head to come in. Not without a second though the three rushed in as the giant pony shut the door and locked it back up.

Sunset was greeted by the sight of other survivors all crapped up in such a small place for a large amount of ponies here, despite this they were all working. Some worked on weapons, while others tended to the wounded, and others were fixing salvaged equipment.

Blaze and his comrade were dismissed by Sunset to get rest, while they went to drop off their findings and get some food sunset took off her bag and walked over to the command chamber. The sound of buzzing radio chatter greeted her while Vinyl nodded at her while the former DJ was listening to comm chatter. Going over to the map table, Sunset put down her bag in front of the ponies who were discussing a plan, Rainbow Dash gave a smile upon seeing her friend.

"You got the package?" Sunset nodded pulling the large canister from her bag and rolling it over to the one-winged pony.

Stopping it she held the canister in her hands and opened it pulling out a piece of yellow paper and putting it down before the group. The paper had a jumbled mess of letters but this was until Starburst leaned in his horn glowed with a revealing spell as the paper while some leaders faded and were rearranged into a code.

Looking over the words Rainbow Dash cursed while Sunset looked up from the coded page.

"What is it Rainbow?" The pony asked her friend and the remaining element of harmony sighed.

"You are aware that the Eastern hideout was compromised not so long ago Sunset," Rainbow Dash asked to which Sunset nodded. "So you heard the rumors that Sombra's favorite enforcer had created a new biological weapon,"

"Yes," Sunset nodded.

"This confirms the rumors to be true... the Eastern hideout was grounds for this new weapon to be tested," Rainbow pointed to the piece of paper. "An entire hideout converted in minutes,"

Sunset stared down at the map where the Eastern hideout once was, giving a sigh Rainbow looked back up to sunset with a worried look on her face.

"You know what this means Sunset," Looking at her oldest friend, Sunset nodded. "Look Sunset I know you just got back but you know we need to act quickly before this weapon is completed,"

"No one is going to volunteer for this Rainbow..."

"I know but we only have a short amount of time and I didn't wish to burn this bridge. If he is able to finish this weapon then this war is all but over and all those lives would have been wasted for nothing," Rainbow remarked. "Our family... our friends,"

"Rainbow... ma'am," Sunburst held Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

"I'm fine," Pushing Sunburst's hand off the former daredevil looked up at Sunset. "Think you can handle this Sunset?"

Sunset shrugged.

"Out of the frying pan..."

'...and into the fire'

Ever since Sombra's return he had crushed the kingdom that Princess Cadance had built and with the help of his enforcer, the two built a new kingdom on top of the remnants of the old one. That was before Sombra with his newfound ally created an army that had conquered the entire world in the span of a few hours, with thousands if not millions dead in the early hours of a single day.

Sombra unleashed horrors onto the world without a second thought leaving the only true safe place to be for those who survived the world's shortest war would be in the very heart of Sombra's empire. Sunset recalled these past few months as the remaining surviving ponies had created an entire tunnel system using the sewer system that was below the remains of the old Crystal Empire. However, during the expansion of the tunnel system, a group of them unknowingly mined their way into the Crystal Palace's wine cellar.

Ever since this happened there had been debate about using the tunnel to use it and assassinate Sombra and his Enforcer, yet with the few numbers they had along with the fact that Sombra was far too powerful for any pony to match in magical power. Not to mention the enforcer, Sunset had heard such horrible rumors about Sombra's champion experimenting on ponies, dragons, and many other species.

None of them were pretty but here they were in a desperate effort to stop all this now, after countless months of suffering they were going to have payback. Sunset lifted the cover to tunnel slightly to look not spotting any guards roaming the wine cellar, pulling the cover she and a handful of her fellow survivors crawled out all with a bag full of explosives. This mission wasn't going to cost them their lives but the entire stock of their explosive supply if they failed today but high risk meant high reward.

The highest reward: Freedom.

"Remember stay out of sight don't get caught and if you know you about to I don't need to tell you what you need to do now do I?" The ponies shook their head to which she gave a satisfied nod.

"Good, now then Sandbar you take your team and have the south wing. Trixie you take yours to the west wing. The rest of you are with me, we are dealing with center mass," The group nodded while she held up her watch. "Set your watches for twenty minutes and if you are not here we will leave without you and you'll get a very close seat to the fireworks,"

"Ready? Sync,"

Pressing the button to start the alarm the group dashed forward as they left the wine cellar and into the kitchen where yet again no guards waited for them. Not surprising since Sombra's personal chiefs were most likely already asleep which made this even better, though the kitchen they entered the dining hall and into the throne room. Sunset had been in the crystal palace long before Sombra's second return and the last time she was here it didn't have these... decorations.

The crystal throne had been twisted by Sombra's dark magics but that wasn't what caused her unease, for there were statues.

At least she hoped they were statues.

Even though these statues were the twisted mangled bodies of her friends, froze screams in silence as countless crystal spikes emerged from their chests, and their limbs shattered into pointed ends.

Who was Sunset kidding they were her friends or at the very least what was left of them.

Sunset held her muzzle as she could feel tears well up in her eyes at the sight of Twilight's remains with a look of horror on her face as she held her broken arms up in a futile attempt to protect herself. She shook her head, there was no time to mourn for their dead friends now the mission wasn't going to stop for them.

Splitting up at the throne room, Sunset, and her team exited the place that once held hope in it's very wall to venture deeper into the lion's den.

Not noticing the remains of Twilight turning it's head to where Sunset left.

"Ma'am I don't like this," Blaze whispered while Sunset planted one of their explosives behind a support beam. "It doesn't feel right,"

The young stallion's eyes darted across the empty halls.

"Ja, I agree with the lad. This doesn't feel right where are all the guards?" Task Mask asked while other members of their team took a second to register the former mask maker's words.

Sunset couldn't shake the feeling as she waved to the group.

"We all know this could be a one-way trip. If this is a trap let's go out while doing as much damage as we can," Sunset ordered to which the uneasy troops followed her orders.

Checking her watch they had fifteen minutes.

Hauling ass they rush down the halls ready for anything yet still none of the corrupted crystal guards were to be seen, the group went deeper down the massive hallways. Taking a turn the group came to a hall with many doors, if Sunset could remember correctly this was once the guest chambers of the palace.

However, she doubted Sombra had any willing guests to fill these chambers...

She was half tempted to try and steal one of the beds but shook the thought as her troops ran to the supports to place more explosives. While she planted one of her last few explosives her attention was grabbed by a sound, her team must have heard it for they stopped to turn where they heard the sound.

A door...

At the very end of the haul was a door where they heard the sound, Sunset wouldn't lie as she couldn't help but feel something was off about that sound however she and the rest of her team went to the door. Every part of her screamed at her not to open it but her curiosity kept pushing her as she held the door handle and slowly pushed in letting the light within pour out into the dark hallway.

The moment she saw what was inside she wanted to turn away...

But she couldn't.

She knew that Sombra's enforcer had a lab of some kind within the crystal palace but she hoped to never see it, yet here she was now staring down at the literal definition of suffering. Ponies, Hippogriffs, Abyssinians, and every other species of Equis were in this very chamber all having their entire bodies desecrated and tarnished by medical equipment turned into tools of torture.

Bodies were taken apart and ripped open with strange metal equipment being stuffed into them.

In one corner was a pony his limbs removed from his body along with his head and spine, however, tubes and wires connected the pony's removed body parts to it's torso moved as if the pony was still breathing. Another corner was missing the entire right side of her limbs and her beak was all replaced by a mess of tubing that pumped a strange liquid into the griffin Sunset noticed the griffin's left claw cleaned the chair she was strapped to.

Other flayed displays litter the room, a large hole in the center of the room held a pool of a dark red liquid with pieces of flesh and bone floating to the top. Only heaven knew how deep that pit was and how many bodies filled it, Sunset backed up not realizing she had entered the room.

Sunset's eyes darted to a diamond dog having it's body stitched with three others in what seemed like a cruel attempt to copy Cerberus, while she looked at large tank vats filled with an orange liquid and the mangled flesh of what was once a living body with black crystals and metal growing from the masses. Snapping out of her trance Sunset felt her back hit something causing the unicorn to turn behind her to look upon a massive cage that held no light within.

"Can't stop... wouldn't stop," A deep voice echoed from the cage. "I need to... I need to... I want to- AHHHHHHH!"

The voice screamed as Sunset shivered at the sound of the voice, however, she couldn't help but feel sorry for this creature that was suffering before her. Slowly she walked forward to the charge and peaked in giving a dim light spell to see what as within the cage before.

"This is not life... not life... not life!"

Sunset gave a silent gasp at what she saw, for there in the room was a massive metal creature made of what could best be described as contorted metal and stretched flesh. It wasn't even standing in it's cage only sitting on it's clawed legs, the creature had its back to her not noticing the spell that allowed her to see it.

"Terria! TERRIA! I HAVE FAILED! FAILED! FAILEEEEEEED!" The creature cried out holding what she assumed was it's head over what she could guess was a hunch caused by whatever experiments were performed on it. "I must get out! I must get out! I must ki-"

"Ma'am we need to go," Blaze grabbed her shoulder with a whisper but this caught the creature's attention as it stopped crying out.

The two ponies noticed this as the creature slowly turned it's large form to them, Sunset's eyes widened as she saw the creature's 'face' and when she did her heart skipped a beat. The soulless eyes of the twisted helmet stared down at her, while she and her comrade attempted to run upon recognizing the beast within.

The hellbane

"MUST KILL!" The giant creature burst through the bars of it's cage.

Free from it's confinement Sunset and Blaze narrowly dodged a swing of the enforcer's hellish creation, snatching at Task Mask in which he held the artist in one of the beast's massive metal claws and flung him around. While the hellbane threw Task Mask about the creature fired wildly burning spikes from it's other claw toward the other soldiers not caring if it hit any of the still-living subjects of it's master.

Sunset grabbed Blaze's arm and the two ran forward as the Hellbane ripped through the remaining member's of Sunset's team. Rushing forward while clenching the young stallion's arm the two ran down the hallway of the crystal palace with the giant metal beast running after them.

"COME BACK! COME BACK! NEED MORE! I NEED MORE BLOOD!" Roaring those words, the hellbane slammed the still-living task mask into a wall while still running.

The hellbane used the body of the pony like a toddler running down the wall with a paintbrush.

Quickly the two ran into a spiral staircase with the hellbane slamming itself arm first into the doorway that was too small for it's large size.

"BUCK!BUCK!BUCK!BUCK!" Blaze cursed as the creature fired hot spikes wildly from it's spot luckily not being able to hit them, rushing down the stairs Sunset looked at her watch.

Five minutes.

"COME ON BLAZE WERE ALMOST THERE!" Sunset shouted not able to hide her terror from what was happening.

"RAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Her heart pumping wildly Sunset kept running as the hellbane's roar echoed through the staircase as they entered the main hallway to the throne room. Not stopping for a moment the two survivors rushed down the hallway and rammed into the doors into the throne room expecting to regroup with the remaining team.

Like another stroke of bad luck Sunset and Blaze ran into something just as bad if not worse than the hellbane.

The broken petrified remains of her friends from before stood over the lashed remains of the other teams dripping with fresh blood from their pointed sharp limbs. Their entrance had not gone unnoticed as the creatures snapped towards them with the looks of frozen horror they still had on their faces. Unnaturally twitching the remains stared at the two before the remains of Cadance screamed like a banshee and the crystal remains rushed at them on all fours.

Rushing wildly at them Sunset and Blaze bolted for the door to the dining room, it was so close the moment sunset reached for the door know she felt Blaze's arm go limp. Turning her head behind her she stared down at the severed limb of the young stallion in her grasp. Shaking she attempted to look up at what had happened to the young pony but was tackled into the dining room through the doors by Twilight's remains. She didn't have a chance to go for her weapon as the creature once known as Twilight raised back her pointed limb and shot it forward at Sunset's face.

"Stop," A voice boomed causing the creature to freeze in place like it was a statue only an inch away from stabbing her left eye.

Staring at the remains of her friend who was about to kill her Sunset could hear heavy footsteps and a tapping coming towards her.

Her heart still racing and her lungs burning she attempted to look up.

However, she could only see a single pair of clawed metal boots walking toward her.

"You earlier than expected," A voice spoke to her in an amused tone. "Usually you come in the late morning,"

With the sound of a heavy tap, the creature on top of Sunset quickly crawled off of her as Sunset's 'savior' walked over to her. She then saw the being who loomed over her, none other than Sombra's enforcer, donned in his black armor and his countless 'trophies'.

Salem...

Holding a cane in his hands, Salem stared down at Sunset though his horned helmet.

"Whatever will I do with you sunset my old friend,"

Quickly stumbling to her feet Sunset walked back with her handgun out firing wildly at Salem who only stared at her while the bullets fired didn't seem to harm him. Tilting his head at her Sunset attempted to reload her weapon but suddenly felt a sharp pain hit her wrists, blood was spit at her feet followed by both her hands.

Looking at the bloody stumps Salem gave a chuckle while turning to an empty space.

"You know that toy wouldn't harm me, Malo," Reaching out Salem his hand on something invisible to the pony while he looked to Sunset who whined at the loss of her hands. "Quit your winning your not a filly anymore Sunset,"

Salem reached for her however the dining room was crashed into by the hellbane.

"KILL! KILL! KILL-!" The enforcer tapped his cane on the chest of the hellbane causing electricity to roar through the giant as it fell onto the floor not moving.

"Damn it Titus you know it's rude to interrupt to burst into a room like that," Salem scolded the monster as if it was a child however Salem turned back to Sunset. "Now then were where we? Ah! Yes,"

Sunset backed herself into a wall trying to use her arms to shield herself from Salem's wraith.

"No! Stay away!"

"Sunset I'm not going to hurt you my friend," Salem said with a friendly tone in his voice while reaching for her.

"We are not friends!"

"Sunset you wound me..."

Sunset looked down at her watch and saw it.

Five seconds...

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

With that sunset closed her eyes as she could hear the explosions and flames blast around her.

Followed by the discharge of a deafening roar taking her, Salem, and the monsters.

Then came the silence.

...

...

...

"Well played," Sunset opened her eyes to Salem's voice, as she did so her body screamed at her with pain filling every vein in her body and burning every nerve. "I'll be honest you always get me with the whole blowing of the palace bit. I'll give you that,"

Sunset's eyes watered while she gave a muffled scream, she could barely make out what was happening around her while her body was bound to a large slab with small creatures biting into her making the pain worse. Salem looked at her behind his helmet as his stitched cloak covered most of his form save for his helm as he spoke to her like someone would do with a friend.

"You know- Ach... hold on man I forgot how long it's been since I was last in this damn form," Reaching for his helmet Sunset watched in horror as a clawed hand emerged from Salem's cloak, unlike the armored hand that he hands moments ago.

The red and black scaly flesh grabbed his helmet but unlike a solid metal, Salem ripped the helm from his face as if it was sinew, revealing an eyeless muzzled face with a sharp smile and twisted horns coming from his head. Clenching his clawed hand Salem 'looked' up at Sunset who stared down at him horrorified.

"That's better good to be back in the form father had intended for me,"
The creature that was Salem said in a twisted voice. "I had fun in our little game Sunset just like in the old days right? Back when Sombra thought he was in control,"

Laughing cruelly Sunset looked around noticing others like herself trapped in similar states.

"Brother, are you done yet? Father is having us wait for you," Salem's smile turns into that of annoyance.

"By the pit... I'm coming you oversize gecko," Salem shook his head while turning back to Sunset. "Sorry, I gotta go Sunset, the old man calling in a rain check perhapsnext time we can do another matrix game themed around zombies wouldn't that be fun?"

Salem turned to leave Sunset along with the countless other equestrians that he had picked for his collection, walking over to the giant creature who stared down at him with annoyance. The former Chimera smiled up at his fellow kin causing his sister to glare at him.

"Oh come on you're just jealous dad allows me to keep some for myself," Salem stated causing the reptilian to hiss.

"The only reason Father accepted you as one of us is because of what you did to that disgusting body of yours,"

"Are you sure that is the only reason? I mean I did give him this universe too soooo... sounds to me your jealous six-ei-,"

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT!"

"Childern..."

Both stopped at the voice that spoke.

Salem and his kin bowed their heads to the being before them while the king red-shifted in his throne.

"Son don't antagonize your sister and daughter don't grow envious of your brother's accomplishments,"

With a nod, the two rose up while the sister glared at Salem whose smile returned.

"Salem I saved you a seat..."

Taking his seat Salem sat down with a smile on his face while Malo his ever-loyal companion sat on his lap as the king raised to his kingdom of crimson.

"Sons, Daughters, Subjects, let us feast!"

With those words, the entire table reached for the countless souls of Equis trapped on the cruel table.

Author's Note

A dark twist, but hey HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Man 4,000+ words damn!

Plus I didn't want to put this up there for a disclamer because I have so much to say about this what if chapter.

Then again I wanted to do a ITD Halloween special last year but I didn't get too far into the story at the time and well here it is a dark what if on Salem, in where he might have implanted the wrong thing into himself in this timeline which caused him to... well let's just say SCP has it's own version of a daemon prince.

Speaking of Warhammer, I thought it would be a sad fate to make Titus into a hellbrute but almost ironic in the sense though I imagine him being more like a combination of a hellbrute and a word bearer's Mhara Gal.

Before you ask yes the 'dark crystal guard' where inspired by death troopers and night troopers from SW, but in the whole timeline they're ponies who were infected by a modified strain of SCP-217 (the cloakwerk virus), SCP-008 (the zombie virus), and SCP-409 (the contagious crystal) with a hint of Sombra's dark magic.

I saw Malo being the only one surviving mostly unchanged, mostly being more like Albedo from Overlord. Mostly because I think that Salem and Malo's bond was so deep that he would never harm her no matter how twisted he would become. But hey that's just me...

Man I had so many ideas I couldn't fit them all in this one-shot but hey! I had fun either way and I wish you all a very safe and fun Halloween!!!