Machariusby Cobra of EnglandChaptersHeresyFaceoffEscape, part 1Escape, part 2TasksTrixieHeresy"Bird, left flank!" "Tracking... Fire!" The gun roared as the shell sped across the war-torn battlefield of Vraks Prime and right into the head of a Lord of Change, affectionately renamed by the Imperial Guard soldiers that it was fighting to "Bird". The materal form of the Greater Daemon shattered into a gruesome shower of various demonic limbs as it was banished to the Warp. "Keep moving, the Kreigan zombies can't have all the fun!" the tank's commander, Major Voss roared over the vox and the Macharius rumbled forwards, seeking new prey for its armoured maw. The war had been raging for sixteen long years when it should have ended in ten. The once thriving armoury world had been reduced to little more than a flat sheet of earth, occasionally punctured by the occasional abandoned trench or wrecked tank. Yet the fighting had continued for sixteen years with no end in sight. Voss and his crew of veterans had been there for fifteen of those sixteen years, blowing up, shooting and in some cases driving over the bodies of the traitors. All in the name of the God-Emperor, of course. The Macharius crested a ridge and was revealed with a gruesome but spectacular scene. On one side stood the forces of the Emperor in all their glory, the Death Korps, Red Scorpions of the Adeptus Astartes and the mighty Baneblades, all locked in a great battle with the traitors. On the other side stood a perverted reflection of the Emperor's armies. Where ordered ranks of Guardsmen stood on one side, on the other there stood a shambling horde of cultists. Where the Space Marines stood in all their glory, their debauched brothers, the traitor marines stood in shadow and blood. And while the mighty orchestra of the Imperium's tanks pounded the enemy, the traitor's own tanks were able to respond in kind. Voss failed to notice the glowing purple and blue that was racing towards the tank, silhouetted on the ridge. Schult, the gunner, did not. "Look out Sir!" Voss looked up to see the gigantic Doombolt racing towards his tank. "Liutz, reverse, reverse!" The collossal tank began to reverse, but not fast enough. "Oh shi-" Voss was overcome by a haze of purple and blue as he and his crew were catapulted through the Warp to Emperor knows where. Tzeench smiled, a rare occurrence in the last few millenia. There had been very little to do other than watch Nurgle accidentally give Typhus the Zombie Plague, Khorne get billions of his own followers killed and listen to Slannesh gasp as she found something new to use as a implement of pleasure. Abbadon's crusade had been bogged down for a while, the Tyranids were so boring they could almost be Malal's ultimate weapon that he had apparently created before his demise and the other races were little better than the Nids. Even his schemes in the various other galaxies had gotten boring. Sure, throwing a guy from industrial-age Dunwall into the stagnant Reaper galaxy was fun to watch but other things had accomplished little. Even his new project, "Fallout" was less interesting. He was beginning to grow bored. And boredom was not something the god of change should have to put up with. In passing, he noticed a small group of souls that have recently passed into his domain along with an Imperial tank. "Hmmm..." he mused to himself "I may have thrown various beings from other galaxies around, but how about the Arena? Now all I need is a world of friendship..." He made a tv guide appear on the wall as he began to look through the vast network of other galaxies out there. "What to choose... Reaper? No, I dumped that Eldar and Stormtrooper there, the last thing they need is more Imperials... Reaper and Fallout? Too dangerous... Warcraft? No, they would rule the world in a few days with that giant armoured beast of theirs. The wierd animal headed world? No... What's this? World of peace, tranquility, friendship. Non-warp based magic, no or very little violence or death, no humans. Two demi-god rulers. Sounds like a bad advert for a holiday. I should give the others a heads-up about this place. No, wait, it's my new playground. Let the others slaughter themselves. Abandon my followers to Kairos and let him take over. Or should I give them to Empy? That would screw the others big time." Tzeench's current form morphed into that of a Imperial Inqusitor before he sent a message "Kairos, you're promoted to god of change, etc, until I finish my holiday. Which may be never. Otherwise, continue with all my present schemes." "Just a little bit of memory adaption... A change in warp currents... And we're done." Quite a crowd had gathered around the strange metal object after it had materialised in Ponyville's main square with no explanation whatsoever. Even Twilight couldn't find a explanation in that massive library of hers. Voss groaned as he got to his feet before he was promptly sprawled on the floor again after hitting the turret roof. "Inquisitor Shane? Liutz? Schult? Byrzan?" He shouted out into the tank. "Here Commander." Liutz groaned from the driver's seat below him. Schult sat up below him and said "Here but shaken." Byrzan yelled "Same as Schult but I'm a bit stirred down here." "Alive but I'm not in any shape for kicking Commander." The Inquisitor's voice echoed through the tank. "I'm not picking up any vox traffic." "Berner, weapons!" "All still active Sir and loaded. All gunners accounted for." "Good. Now where in the Emperor's name are we?" "Commander, the auspex is picking up a large number of heat readings from outside." "Schult, get a visual." The Macharius's massive turret began to turn. "Commander, the crowd is separating. They appear to be horses like the Rough Riders use. And judging by the lack of humans, I guess they are the dominant xeno." "Xenos!" The Inquisitor spat. "Ammo?" "500 stubber rounds, 300 heavy bolster rounds and 35 battle cannon shells." "Enough to purge the place?" "Here? Easily Inquisitor. The planet... Frankly, Inquisitor, we're in a bad situation here. Even if we cleared this small village, they will put up a fight. We don't have enough ammo to purge the entire planet." "I see. I still think this is some Warp Trickery!" The last two words echoed out of the tanks loudspeakers. "Twilight, what's warp trickery ?" "I don't know... The Warp, or at least what we know of it, is a plane formed of the emotions of everypony. Other than that, I'm stumped." "Great. Not even the egghead knows what this thing is..." A loud rumbling came from the metal object. "Twilight... I think... I think we woke it up... And it's angry!" The metal object sped forwards, nearly crushing Fluttershy. "Everypony, back away from the metal creature..." Rainbow Dash, as brash as ever, flew over the creature before shouting "It's harmless! Look!" RD continued flying over the creature, doing the occasional trick. The Inquisitor spat. "These xenos think to provoke us. Voss, deal with it." "Yes, Inquisitor!" "Schult, on my command, fire at the largest mass of xenos, once Voss has dealt with the flying thing." A hatch opened on the top of the creature, straight into Rainbow Dash's face. Everypony could see Rainbow Dash's limp form laying on the creature's back, a strange pony in a black uniform, a sword in one of its hooves... "That's a hand!" Twilight burst out. The figure turned to look down the hatch. "Inquisitor, we've got intelligent xenos. And judging by the fact I'm not riddled with bullet holes or psychic energy, they appear to be defenceless." A loud voice, equal in volume to the Princess's voices when they were enraged, spoke from the tank. "Schult, open fire!" The ponies scattered as two large projectiles impacted near where they were standing. Several ponies were caught by the blast. The doctors from the hospital swiftly carried them away. "Inquisitor, these xenos mean us no harm! I think." "Voss, you are coming close to heresy. For now, I will take your advice. Liutz, drive towards the train station over that way. Berner, Byrzan, provide covering fire and crowd clearance. Let's see how these Princesses like a true god!" Faceoff"Just keep driving Liutz, I don't care if there's a train in the way! Schult, blast it! We must be in the city at dusk." the Inquisitor roared from the commander's chair. "May I ask, Inquisitor, why dusk?" Voss asked from outside the tank, where he was busy dragging the winged pony that had crashed into the hatch onto the front armour plating to be used as a trophy of war in the coming attack on the city. The Inquisitor declined to answer. "That Inquisitor sure knows a lot about this world despite the fact he apparently has no idea where we are..." Voss idly mused. The wierd rainbow coloured flying pony thing was soon attached to the front of the Macharius. At that point, Voss noticed the odd train that Shane had been talking about and he waved to the driver. Schult was fully aware that the xenos appeared to be pacifists and that the train was no doubt full of them, wondering about the delay. "Hurry up Schult, I haven't got all day! Blast that train already!" the Inquisitor yelled, obviously impatient. "If you want something done, do it yourself..." the Inquisitor slammed the firing mechanism into place and the train was soon little more than a pile of smoking wreckage. "Keep driving!" Schult wondered where they had gotten a Inquisitor from. He was sure that the only Inquisitor on Vraks was Hector Rex... Liutz slammed the tanks gear into full throttle as the tank began to continue its journey up the mountain towards the city. "Dusk as you requested Inquisitor." "Good Liutz, continue driving to the palace. Save your ammo, we'll need it to deal with the two princesses." "Oi, Bird-face! When you reach the palace, do you mind blasting a particular alicorn for me?" The strangely familiar voice echoed through the Inquisitor's mind. "And why should I do that?" The Inquisitor mentally shot back. "Does kinship count for nothing these days? Look Tzeentchie, we're both relatively powerless. I'm stuck in a stone wall under that stupid castle, my parasites have forgotten their creator and the fail safe was diverted to your galaxy. Sure it took those stupid alicorns a while and they had to use a whole bunch of "Element of harmony" artefacts which in my book counts as cheating. Just lend me a bit of power and we can face them two-on-two. And you've disrupted the location of the element bearers that they can't touch us. (Starts singing 'You can't touch this')" "Malal...?" "Took you a while although I'm called Discord here. Fits their stupid naming philosophy... Anyway, I'll meet you in the plaza. Those alicorns are about to feel what it's like to be out matched. Tzeentch could feel his power being sucked away by his idiot brother. The tank and crew arrived at the city to find no resistance as they smashed through the train station. The city was deserted as the tank rumbled through the wide streets towards the castle plaza. The plaza appeared to have been the scene of a battle. All across the plaza laid the prone forms of various ponies, unicorns and pegasi. In front of the castle stood the two princesses, judging by their size and opposite them what could only be described as a spawn which was obviously Malal. "What madness is this, Discord?" The white alicorn shouted out. Discord laughed. "You see Princesses, chaos always finds a way. My brother over there, has accidentally dealt with the elements of harmony and just so happens to be quite probably be the best magic user in every known galaxy. Mostly because he invented it. Come on Tzeentch, lets show these mere Demi-gods what Chaos undivided can do!" The Inquisitor rose from the tank hatch and stood at the front of the turret. He didn't notice Voss walking closely behind him. Voss raised the gun to the Inquisitor's head. "In the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind, I charge you with heresy and I find you wanting. The punishment is death." Voss pulled the trigger, sending a las-bolt into the back of the Inquisitor's head sending him sprawling off the turret. The body dissolved and swiftly reformed into a massive, horned raven by Discord's side. "You brought Imperials with you?" Discord facepalmed. "I needed a ride, didn't I?" At that point the two alicorns noticed that Rainbow Dash was strapped to the front of the tank and she let out a cry "Who would dare harm my little ponies?" Voss climbed into the tank and yelled "Mexican standoff!" Soon enough the three factions were locked in what was quite possibily the most epic Mexican standoff in history. On one side stood two gods of Chaos, on the other stood their polar opposite. And stuck in the middle, the crew of Macharius 201, named Golden Horn, faced down both of them with nothing but the fire in their bellies and the prayers on their lips. "Voss, I never signed up for facing down gods!" "Neither did I Schult- they may be gods but we hold all the power." "What do you mean, Voss?" "They are evenly matched in terms of power. Our tank could tip the balance either way." Voss peeked out the hatch. "And they know it." "What do we do Tia, we can't win in a straight fight against Discord and the raven!" "We have to persuade those humans, I think they're humans at least, to attack Discord." "What! You've seen what they've done to Rainbow Dash!" "What were you thinking Bird Brain? Now we have to persuade the Imperials to sit this out or side with us rather than those stupid alicorn sisters over there!" Discord waved a claw towards them. "Otherwise we could have easily defeated them!" "Calm down, they are Imperials. They will sit it out. They have to pick between xenos and heretics. They won't be able to decide." "All crew, for the first time in the history of the Imperium, we are having a democratic vote on something. We've got two xeno god-ruler things and two chaos gods. We can't kill both. So I will let you decide!" "I'm all for killing chaos, same for my loaders." Schult said. "Same down here. We have fought Chaos before but not these xenos. Better to kill the enemy you know than the unknown factor." Liutz shouted. "Liutz, turn Golden Horn towards the horse things. Schult, turret to 10 o'clock, angle 4 degrees, low velocity, short fuse, high explosive. And ready the H-K-M rack as well, you can never be too sure when dealing with daemons." Discord smiled as the tank turned towards the alicorns. "See, birdie, I told you they'd kill the xenos." "No you idiot, look at the..." The turret guns fired. "Turret." Tzeentch finished. Tzeentch flew into the air and away but Malal wasn't so lucky, instead being knocked out cold by the blast. "Er, Voss, those two xenos don't look too happy..." Voss looked out of the turret to see the two fuming horned-horse things trotting across the plaza towards them. "Liutz, reverse, reverse, reverse!" The lumbering tank slowly began to reverse before a psychic barrier formed around the tank, preventing it from moving. "Seriously Voss, this is a new low. Captured by psyker horses? Even the time you added all those ork totem poles and drove straight out of the ork warcamp was more logical." "Shut up Schult, these xenos have a democracy or something like it. They will give us a trial. And I get to use a legal defence I haven't used since those Tau found our tank in the middle of a ruined Tau city." "Oh... I think we may have just outclassed them by a shot longer than Sgt Telion's when he picked up a lascannon." Voss grinned. "Exactly." Voss groaned as he woke up in a cramped cell. He saw a pony in some form of feudal-plate standing in front of the bars. "You're awake. And I have some..." Voss pulled his las-pistol out and proceeded to shoot the horse in the face, killing it instantly. "No you don't have any questions. Because you're dead." "And what do you say in your defence?" Princess Celestia, the judge, asked. "We were only following orders." Voss said. "That's your brilliant defence? It has never worked. Ever!" Schult whispered heatedly in Voss's ear. "And how do you plead?" "Guilty." Voss spoke. This caused quite a stir among the assembled crowd of ponies. "What are you doing Voss, we're going to be cryoed, executed, shot, imprisoned or tortured!" "You'll see, Byrzan, you'll see." "As you have pleaded guilty to the murder of 24 ponies, psychological harrasment of the town of Ponyville and torturing Rainbow Dash, I hereby sentence you to death." "Except you can't." "What?" Celestia looked puzzled by this. " Y'see, you can't sentence us to death for two reasons. One, being representatives of a foreign power, we have diplomatic immunity!" Voss gestured at her. "Do they have diplomatic immunity?" Rainbow Dash asked from the witness box. "No, as they are not part of a formal embassy!" Celestia shouted at the assembled crew. Several ponies cheered at this. "And, we are POW's. And according to the Kor'san Convention, you cannot execute POW's. You can only hold them until the war ends." "We are not at war with you." "The Imperium is at war with everything that is not the Imperium. You are not part of the Imperium and you are a xeno, therefore the Imperium is at war with you. We merely fired the first shots you are aware of." Voss said. "So therefore we must be held in a POW camp. And as you do not have a POW camp available, this world counts as our POW camp. Trump that." Schult finished, catching on to Voss's plan. The room descended into outrage as Schult finished. "They have just legally beaten me in my own court." Celestia sighed to herself. "Sister, can they do that?" Luna asked. "Unfortunately, yes." The whole room turned towards Princess Celestia, the ponies with horror and the Guardsmen with slight disbelief. "But, as they are not citizens of Equestria, they have not the protection of her laws." Luna spoke. Voss turned to his crew. "Run!" Escape, part 1"Keep running you fools! We have to be out of the city before the angry crowd tears us apart!" "Voss, they are trying to kill us anyway!" "Just keep running!" The group of tankers raced through the corridors until they were hopelessly and utterly lost. "Great, Voss. Just great. Now how do we escape the castle of murderous xeno psyker ponies?" Bryzan moaned. "We cheat." Voss pulled out a long red bandolier covered in demo-charges. "Voss, you'll kill us all using those!" "Death is a reward for a lifetime of service." Voss piously quoted as he set a demo charge next to the wall. "Everyone back up... Voss has armed demos." Litutz warned. The crew backed up as Voss pushed the detonator. The wall exploded with a crash, revealing a garden that wouldn't be out of place in a Hive-Spire. Voss and his companions had no taste for the apparent beauty of xeno art however, and after a brief search discovered the only ways to go were either back into the maze of corridors or forwards into... "That's a lot of guards." Voss facepalmed. "Thank you, Captain Obvious Schult." "And look where our tank is." "Let me guess... The middle of the guards?" "Well done Commander." "There goes our escape route. Even the Chaos gods don't punish someone who helps them." Bryzan moaned. "Any of you up for a little heresy?" Voss asked. "Yes... Wait, what?" Schult replied. "Heresy? Voss, we're soldiers of the Imperium. We fight heresy, we don't commit it!" "Schult, to all intents and purpose, the Imperium has abandoned us. We're somewhere beyond the Halo Stars and the chance of any help appearing is impossible. The only power that hasn't shot at us just so happens to also have travelled with us a short way and not given any of us a third eye on our backside, a tentacle in the armpit or otherwise mutated us. We also know who he is." "I see no other option. I agree with Voss." Bryzan said. "I second this." Liutz added. "Any votes against?" Voss asked. No one objected. "It's settled. We hide out here until either the guards leave or Tzeentch gives us my tank." Tzeentch swooped low over the Everfree forest, looking for the beacon of sorcerous power his magical senses had detected. After a few minutes of flying over the darkened forest, Tzeentch found what he was looking for. A seemingly long ruined castle sat nestled atop a small rocky outcrop on the other side of a chasm that spanned the gap between two mountains. It appeared to be uninhabited but appearances were deceiving. Still, Tzeentch's magically enhanced senses couldn't detect any inhabitants so he swooped in and landed on top of what appeared to be the main keep. Inside he found two highly unexpected objects. One was a collection of highly magical shards that appeared to have been somehow enchanted with the power of the moon and darkness. "A artifact of Sithis's making? Shards of his armour or weapon?" He idily mused. The second object was far more interesting. It appeared to be a battered diary with a black hand clutching a moon prominently displayed on the front. "Hmmm... I think I will absorb the shards first, see what effect they have." As he picked up the shards with his magic and brought them closer together, they began to radiate darkness towards him. When they touched his skin, he blacked out as they began to work their magic. "Voss, you've been praying for well over a hour. If old Bird- Face was listening, he surely would have come." "Do you want it, Schult?" "Want what?" "To clean this bloody mess up, that's what!" Voss snapped. "We have no hope of recovering the Macharius or fighting through that many guards." "Voss." Schult placed a hand on Voss's rumpled uniform's shoulder. "The patrols are getting nearer. Several of the crew have deserted, all those who joined after our promotion. Me, Liutz, Bryzan and Thraki remained behind. This isn't like you, old friend." "I know... It's just I feel so helpless without my armoured behemoth of destruction. I've grown comfortable to never ending war, never sure which day would be my last. We all wished for peace. Yet when peace is found, we long for something familiar, war. It's a never ending cycle for us. We have to break it." Voss sighed. "And the only one who can is gods knows where." "Voss. We have to go." Liutz pressed. "I know. But where to?" Thraki, one of Schult's loaders, stepped forwards. "Voss, I noticed a rather large expanse of wilderness on the ride up. If we head there, we might find old Bird-Face." "And how exactly are we going to get out of this frigging castle then, Thraki?" "The same way we reached here, of course." "Thraki, we're on top of a very large mountain. And the only way off is guarded. We're stuck here Thraki, accept it. None of your optimism will help us now." "Voss, you remember the cliff on Xylemi XIV, do you not?" "Yes, of course I do! Wait, are you seriously suggesting..." The others stared at Thraki with everything from shock to disbelief. "Permission to execute Thaki on grounds of insanity." Bryzan rumbled. "Permission not granted. It's the only way out of this mess. Bryzan, you think the ropes are long enough?" "No. This is insane. How do you think the ropes are long enough for a 300 and more foot high cliff?" "Link them together." Thraki added. "Then we'll have to go down one at a time. It'l be too slow." "Free-climb." Schult suggested. Bryzan shook his head. "That's even more insane." "What do we do, steal some pegasi? I want off this damn xeno mountain. It's climb or nothing." "There are those pegasi guards circling around the bottom of the mountain, you know." "Then we climb at night." Voss said. "Are you both insane?" "Byrzan, did you forget those goggles I pilfered from that supply truck?" "Night vision?" "Exactly. Inquisition issue too, judging by the badge." "You stole from the Inquisition? Are you cra... It doesn't matter. As long as it gets us out of this mess, I don't care." Escape, part 2"Have you located the remaining prisoners yet, Shining Armor?" "No Princess Celestia. The castle has been searched from top to bottom with no signs of them other than a hole in the wall near the gardens." "Is there any chance they have left Canterlot?" "Unless they can climb a sheer cliff, then no. I have Pegasus guards running patrols round the base of the mountain while the earth ponies hold the gates and I'm using the unicorns to lead search groups throughout the castle." The alicorn and smaller unicorn continued to walk through the corridors until a thought hit Celestia. "Captain, if you had to escape from a situation like this, what would you do?" "Wait until nightfall before sneaking out through either the sewers or a postern gate." "And you have all of those guarded?" "Of course my Princess." "Continue your search." The climb had to be the most terrifying thing Voss had ever done. 300 foot or so of sheer cliff, no harness or grapple line. In the dark. With a 20 mph wind. The others seemed to be in similar difficulty above him. Thraki was leading the party of exhausted climbers, finding footholds and marking them. Handhold, foothold. Handhold, foothold. The cycle continued to repeat itself as the party crept down the cliff. "How you holding up back there?" Thraki shouted over the din of the wind. "Like I've been slow-roasted by feral orks!" Byrzan replied. "This isn't even a tough climb. Back on Sparatus IV I used to climb the sides of the ruined hives to look for stuff worth scavenging." "Just concentrate!" Voss yelled as Schult narrowly avoided taking a dive straight off the cliff by catching onto a rock that jutted out of the cliff. "Relax, I've done this a lot." Thraki responded. "Keep moving, fools! We don't know how long the night will last." Liutz shouted into the bickering above him. Voss sighed and kept climbing. Handhold, foothold. Handhold, foothold... About three quarters of the way down, they hit a problem. A large piece of the mountain had broken away a long time ago, leaving 15 meters of open air between the Guardsmen and freedom. Thraki had lowered himself to the ledge that Voss was currently resting on. "So what do we do now?" Thraki sighed and stared wistfully at the ground below. "Come on Voss. There must be a solution!" "I'm sorry Thraki. I... I can't think of any." "Well that's just great. I'm going it alone Voss." "You're deserting?" Voss stared incredulously. "I'm sorry Voss, but you led me to one hellhole too many for my liking." Thraki walked over to the edge and took out a long rope. He proceeded to hammer the rope into the rock-face using his shovel. "Goodbye Commander." Thraki began to climb down the rope. Voss could see it beginning to strain under the weight of Thraki and his gear. Soon enough, the rope snapped. "Thraki!" Voss's cry of despair echoed into the night as one of his friends plunged into the inky blackness of the night and certain death. Schult and the others increased their pace as soon as they heard Voss cry out. They found him staring out into the abyss, a look of hopelessness etched onto his face. "Thraki fell?" Schult asked. Voss nodded. "It's all my fault. All of this, everything, is my fault!" Voss whispered. "Thraki is dead, the others are captured by those xeno gods and the only one who can help us has forgotten us!" "Who said I'd abandon my own?" A mocking voice spoke out of the darkness. "It just took me time to get everything... Sorted." The voice laughed. "Anyway, I'm your ticket out of here. A god never abandons his apostles, after all. Besides, Thraki would have killed you all if he hadn't tried to desert and failed miserably." "Well move us then!" Liutz yelled at the shadowy voice. "impatient Imperials, as per usual." The glow of pink and light blue surrounded the huddled guardsmen, and they vanished into the night. "Ah, Celestia, it's nice to see you, to see you nice!" Discord's infernally cocky voice reb through Celestia's mind. "I'm not in the mood for games Discord. Tell me about your brother." "Don't call me Discord, call me Malal." "But you are Discord." Celestia asked, puzzled. "Discord is a title that is adopted by the most chaotic being in this land. As the old bird-face is more powerful and chaotic than me, he got promoted. And now I have even more motive for revenge against him!" Discord or Malal laughed again. "Well Malal tell me about your brother." Celestia asked. She really needed some rest. "First you have no idea how lucky you are that you drew Bird Face rather than the others. Brass Skull would have levelled the world in hmmm... Two days? Grandfather Sore would have you all choking and dying of every known disease. And they are the lucky ones. And as for the Mince of Pleasures... Well you would become a world where nothing is not allowed in the pursuit of pleasures of all kinds. But Bird Face is the most dangerous by far. He is the great manipulator, the changer of ways, god of time, ambition, hope... And sorcery. I wouldn't be surprised if he has already got Voss and co in his cult. He is more subtle than the others. He has made plots that are so intricate that they can destroy armies, fleets, stars. Sure the Elements can beat him, they are above him in the hierarchy of magic. He knows this. He will do anything possible to eliminate one of them. Kidnap, blackmail, proxies, threats. Assassination. Dreams. Psychological warfare. Torture. He would even steal the Elements themselves. The worst thing is, you can't warn those Element Bearers. That would single them out. He can sense weakness and fear like a Diamond Dog. Keep everything how it is. Make changes subtly. Different patrol routes. Garrisons. Say something about... I dunno...Me? Can you let me out of this statue now? It's so boring in here I'm being driven sane." "I'll have to pass on that Malal." "Fine. But any more advice gets me out of here, alright? I'll even help you fight him!" "Only if I have no other options." ======================================================================= Voss woke up and groaned. He opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings. The room was made of black marble in a bad condition, with cracked tiles on the floor. He sat up and noticed his friends lying sound asleep elsewhere in the room. He also noticed the strangest thing he had ever seen. It was in the shape of a horse but instead of hair was covered in black feathers over his skin. It's mane and tail were made of flickering blue and pink flames and it boasted the symbol of Tzeentch on its flank. It also boasted flaming wings that were currently folded up and three unicorn horns on its face, one on its snout while the others were above the eyes like bull horns "Ah, Voss. Your awake." "I noticed." Voss said dryly. "You would. I have a offer for you and your crew." "Then wake them so we can all hear it." The figure laughed. "It's for your ears only. You accept, you become immortal greater daemons in my new pantheon of advisors. You decline, you stay as you are." "What's the catch?" "The catch is you must all turn into forms like my own. Forms this world accepts rather than my orginal three horned raven." Voss only deliberated a moment before he said "Deal, Tzeentch. I will be damned for it, but we have a deal." Tasks"Do you think your friends will react well?" The raven-feathered alicorn asked his newest second-in-command. "I don't know. They already know they can't go back. Their bodies and my Macharius were the only things stopping them from breaking down. Now they're both gone, they will grab on to anything. Or anypony." Voss laughed at this worlds wierd way of speaking. Other than the seemingly hundreds of puns on horses and their variations, he also found himself unable to swear. Voss was almost unrecognisable as Voss in his new form. A alicorn like Tzeentch but with one horn rather than Tzeentch's three, he had a mouldy yellow-green coat and mane but like all who served Tzeentch had the pink and light blue mismatched eyes. The mark of a scythe resided on his flank. "May I query why I look like I'm about to fall in a grave?" "You are my herald of Death. The others have similar responsibilities. Famine, War, Conquest. The four horses and the of the Apocalypse. The vast majority will not know who you are but you will strike fear into those learned about such matters." "Sounds good." Voss stretched his wings. "I guess we have sorcery as well?" "You have learned well. The horn acts as a focusing device, increasing the accuracy and lethality." "Should we wake the others?" "I will come to that in due time, but first you must track down two beings, a unicorn by the name of 'The Great and Powerful' Trixie and a griffin named Gilda. I believe they might be helpful in our cause." "And what is that cause?" "My brother Malal, who these ponies know as Discord, was defeated by powerful artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony. With the power these artifacts provide, Celestia and her sister could beat all of us..." Tzeentch didn't look pleased at the prospect of being trapped in stone. "Then we must strike before the Elements are assembled!" Tzeentch chuckled. "Once a soldier, always a soldier. That is what Malal and someone called Nightmare Moon tried. We need to be more subtle. The Elements have one key weakness; they require a bearer which personifies it's quality. If we cannot break the Element, break the Bearer. The Elements only work when all are used at the same time. Remove one and the chain collapses. Or remove the quality and the element cannot be used." "Then where are these Element Bearers and which should I eliminate first?" Tzeentch shrugged. "Firstly, I don't know where the Bearers are. Which is why after you have recruited those two, I will unleash Famine, War and Conquest to infiltrate the towns around Canterlot, looking for possible Bearers. As for the second, try to seize Magic. After all, cutting of the flow of magic when you are God of it should be easy..." Tzeentch laughed. "And after I have recruited those two?" Voss/Death asked. "You will infiltrate by more subtle means. Death also has control of dreams and the night. Unfortunately for you, a certain princess also claims these as her domain. I can not help you against her, Voss. She is on her own territory and is experienced with these matters. However, suprise must count for somthing and simply sneaking a few dreams in here and there in the right places can do wonders while being virtually undetctable." "Can you wake the others?" Voss stared at his comrade's pony forms. "Sure." Tzeentch's three horns began to glow light blue and a thin beam reached out from each horn connecting Tzeentch's mind to the mind of the others. Liutz awoke first, a massive blood red stallion with the mark of a sword on his flank. He stared for a while before asking himself: "Why am I a horse?" He looked up to find Tzeentch and a... Alicorn that he presumed to be Voss staring at him. "And so my herald of War awakens." Tzeentch intoned. Liutz's gaze shifted to Voss. "You made a deal with him, didn't you?" Voss cringed slightly. "Immortality, sorcery and the resilience of a Greater Daemon, in exchange so we could serve better. Seems fair?" Liutz found himself nodding before he rose from his hooves. Schult woke next, and shrugged like it was no bother. He was a pale white unicorn, with the mark of a bow and arrow on his flank. Bryzan didn't even notice. He just got up, flexed his wings, and said something about "Showing those damn flyboys." He was a jet-black pegasus with the mark of a pair of scales. "Now that we're all awake, I will brief you on what you have to do. Schult, you have the callsign and name Conquest, Liutz, yours is War, Bryzan has Famine, and Voss is Death. Take these." Tzeentch levitated several micro-beads out form somewhere into their ears. "You'll need them later. For now, Death, you're off to the Philydelphia marshes where you will find a certain Trixie. Recruit her to our cause before coming back here where I will then send you to the Outer Hoof Isles, where Gilda is currently hiding out. Bring them both back quickly. Byrzan, there is a farm to the north of a town on the other side of this forest. Fly a few circles until some Pegasus gives chase. Lead her here. Liutz, Schult, you'll help me with setting up a few bits of equipment Ahriman has sent me. I might even invite him along, since he's run out of places to break into. Move!" TrixieIt had not been a good day for Trixie. Chased out of Fillydelphia for no reason whatsoever into the stinking marsh and forced to leave her wagon behind. How could the Great and Powerful Trixie be a great wizard when she had no place to call home? She continued walking along the causeway, silently moaning about her losses. She hated this place. The mosquitos, the humidity, the simple depressive mess of the whole marsh. There was nothing for her this side of the causeway. Maybe she would have better luck in Dracostan. Or, at least, she hoped she would. Few walked this road anymore. After the opening of the Equis Pass, none saw the need to travel for days through the bogs and marshes when they could just take the pass and shorten the journey by days. It had not earned the nickname of 'The Lonesome Road' for nothing. That was why Trixie almost leaped straight off the causeway when the pale yellow-green alicorn strode out of the fog. "Trixie Lunamoon?" the alicorn asked. Trixie could only nod her head in bewilderment while wondering why an alicorn was walking the Lonesome Road. "I have come to make you an offer on behalf of my... Commander." Voss couldn't really call Tzeentch his boss or leader, so he settled on commander. "Trixie is intrigued by this offer. What is it?" Trixie wondered what could command a alicorn. Most were royalty, after all. "The usual. Revenge on a certain Twilight Sparkle," Trixie hissed at the name. She simply couldn't accept that Twilight was better than her. "in exchange for your... Services in our cause." "And why should Trixie listen to your offer? Trixie has tried to get revenge many times against the hated Twilight Sparkle, and as much as Trixie is loath to admit it, Twilight is more powerful than Trixie." "Because my leader can teach you proper magic. Not any of this fancy unicorn manipulation of things, but magic in its pure, unrefined, raw power. Sorcery." "Can you prove this sorcery to Trixie?" "No..." Voss admitted reluctantly. "Just follow me and I will show you somepony who can." "The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your most generous offer." "Follow me." Voss led Trixie off the causeway into the marsh. "Trixie wishes to know who you are" "I am Voss. You may have heard of the carnage wrecked in Ponyville and Canterlot. That was me and my crew." Trixie smiled. So this alicorn had already damaged Ponyville? Good. "Trixie thinks you and her will get along fine." The mouldy-looking alicorn continued leading Trixie through the bog until they found themselves standing on a rock platform dominated by a massive statue of a three-horned unicorn. "And now we wait." "For what?" "For Tzeentch to open the portal." Byrzan was enjoying being able to fly. Seeing the world from how the flyboys saw it. He could understand their rivalry now. Ground-pounders looked so insignificant from up here. He smiled as he noticed the first of the green blobs finish eating their ways through the apples. And, sure enough, there was the rainbow Pegasus that they had chained to their tank. She began to talk to the orange pony before she flew straight in his direction. "Well, welcome to Round two of the torture races..." He flew off in the direction of the forest, the rainbow Pegasus following close behind. Rainbow Dash had to admit, the black Pegasus was good. Not as good as herself, of course, but still good. Currently they were flying through a mass of clouds, the black Pegasus taking ever more risky moves to try to lose her. She dodged left after he kicked a cloud at her face before he suddenly dived out of the pile of clouds straight towards Ponyville. Byrzan was panicking. "Schult, any Thunderbolts? Manticores? Hydras? Mauruders? Hell flying things? Any help?" he yelled into the micro-bead. "Just get back here you fool! The Thousand Sons will deal with her." Liutz replied over the vox. "Since when did we have Thousand Sons?" "Since now." "Fine" Byrzan turned from his orginal destination towards the castle. The black Pegasus suddenly changed course towards the Everfree. Rainbow Dash, caught unawares, went speeding past before correcting herself. She continued to persue the other pegasus, eventually gaining all the ground she had lost before she caught sight of a castle. At appeared to be in the same place as the castle that they had defeated Nightmare Moon in, yet it was fully rebuilt. She only wondered for a few seconds though, because a flaming bullet sliced through her wing. She screamed as she began to try to glide down. Byrzan turned and grabbed her between his legs. Can't let the captive die, can I? He thought to himself as he flew into their fortress.
Heresy"Bird, left flank!" "Tracking... Fire!" The gun roared as the shell sped across the war-torn battlefield of Vraks Prime and right into the head of a Lord of Change, affectionately renamed by the Imperial Guard soldiers that it was fighting to "Bird". The materal form of the Greater Daemon shattered into a gruesome shower of various demonic limbs as it was banished to the Warp. "Keep moving, the Kreigan zombies can't have all the fun!" the tank's commander, Major Voss roared over the vox and the Macharius rumbled forwards, seeking new prey for its armoured maw. The war had been raging for sixteen long years when it should have ended in ten. The once thriving armoury world had been reduced to little more than a flat sheet of earth, occasionally punctured by the occasional abandoned trench or wrecked tank. Yet the fighting had continued for sixteen years with no end in sight. Voss and his crew of veterans had been there for fifteen of those sixteen years, blowing up, shooting and in some cases driving over the bodies of the traitors. All in the name of the God-Emperor, of course. The Macharius crested a ridge and was revealed with a gruesome but spectacular scene. On one side stood the forces of the Emperor in all their glory, the Death Korps, Red Scorpions of the Adeptus Astartes and the mighty Baneblades, all locked in a great battle with the traitors. On the other side stood a perverted reflection of the Emperor's armies. Where ordered ranks of Guardsmen stood on one side, on the other there stood a shambling horde of cultists. Where the Space Marines stood in all their glory, their debauched brothers, the traitor marines stood in shadow and blood. And while the mighty orchestra of the Imperium's tanks pounded the enemy, the traitor's own tanks were able to respond in kind. Voss failed to notice the glowing purple and blue that was racing towards the tank, silhouetted on the ridge. Schult, the gunner, did not. "Look out Sir!" Voss looked up to see the gigantic Doombolt racing towards his tank. "Liutz, reverse, reverse!" The collossal tank began to reverse, but not fast enough. "Oh shi-" Voss was overcome by a haze of purple and blue as he and his crew were catapulted through the Warp to Emperor knows where. Tzeench smiled, a rare occurrence in the last few millenia. There had been very little to do other than watch Nurgle accidentally give Typhus the Zombie Plague, Khorne get billions of his own followers killed and listen to Slannesh gasp as she found something new to use as a implement of pleasure. Abbadon's crusade had been bogged down for a while, the Tyranids were so boring they could almost be Malal's ultimate weapon that he had apparently created before his demise and the other races were little better than the Nids. Even his schemes in the various other galaxies had gotten boring. Sure, throwing a guy from industrial-age Dunwall into the stagnant Reaper galaxy was fun to watch but other things had accomplished little. Even his new project, "Fallout" was less interesting. He was beginning to grow bored. And boredom was not something the god of change should have to put up with. In passing, he noticed a small group of souls that have recently passed into his domain along with an Imperial tank. "Hmmm..." he mused to himself "I may have thrown various beings from other galaxies around, but how about the Arena? Now all I need is a world of friendship..." He made a tv guide appear on the wall as he began to look through the vast network of other galaxies out there. "What to choose... Reaper? No, I dumped that Eldar and Stormtrooper there, the last thing they need is more Imperials... Reaper and Fallout? Too dangerous... Warcraft? No, they would rule the world in a few days with that giant armoured beast of theirs. The wierd animal headed world? No... What's this? World of peace, tranquility, friendship. Non-warp based magic, no or very little violence or death, no humans. Two demi-god rulers. Sounds like a bad advert for a holiday. I should give the others a heads-up about this place. No, wait, it's my new playground. Let the others slaughter themselves. Abandon my followers to Kairos and let him take over. Or should I give them to Empy? That would screw the others big time." Tzeench's current form morphed into that of a Imperial Inqusitor before he sent a message "Kairos, you're promoted to god of change, etc, until I finish my holiday. Which may be never. Otherwise, continue with all my present schemes." "Just a little bit of memory adaption... A change in warp currents... And we're done." Quite a crowd had gathered around the strange metal object after it had materialised in Ponyville's main square with no explanation whatsoever. Even Twilight couldn't find a explanation in that massive library of hers. Voss groaned as he got to his feet before he was promptly sprawled on the floor again after hitting the turret roof. "Inquisitor Shane? Liutz? Schult? Byrzan?" He shouted out into the tank. "Here Commander." Liutz groaned from the driver's seat below him. Schult sat up below him and said "Here but shaken." Byrzan yelled "Same as Schult but I'm a bit stirred down here." "Alive but I'm not in any shape for kicking Commander." The Inquisitor's voice echoed through the tank. "I'm not picking up any vox traffic." "Berner, weapons!" "All still active Sir and loaded. All gunners accounted for." "Good. Now where in the Emperor's name are we?" "Commander, the auspex is picking up a large number of heat readings from outside." "Schult, get a visual." The Macharius's massive turret began to turn. "Commander, the crowd is separating. They appear to be horses like the Rough Riders use. And judging by the lack of humans, I guess they are the dominant xeno." "Xenos!" The Inquisitor spat. "Ammo?" "500 stubber rounds, 300 heavy bolster rounds and 35 battle cannon shells." "Enough to purge the place?" "Here? Easily Inquisitor. The planet... Frankly, Inquisitor, we're in a bad situation here. Even if we cleared this small village, they will put up a fight. We don't have enough ammo to purge the entire planet." "I see. I still think this is some Warp Trickery!" The last two words echoed out of the tanks loudspeakers. "Twilight, what's warp trickery ?" "I don't know... The Warp, or at least what we know of it, is a plane formed of the emotions of everypony. Other than that, I'm stumped." "Great. Not even the egghead knows what this thing is..." A loud rumbling came from the metal object. "Twilight... I think... I think we woke it up... And it's angry!" The metal object sped forwards, nearly crushing Fluttershy. "Everypony, back away from the metal creature..." Rainbow Dash, as brash as ever, flew over the creature before shouting "It's harmless! Look!" RD continued flying over the creature, doing the occasional trick. The Inquisitor spat. "These xenos think to provoke us. Voss, deal with it." "Yes, Inquisitor!" "Schult, on my command, fire at the largest mass of xenos, once Voss has dealt with the flying thing." A hatch opened on the top of the creature, straight into Rainbow Dash's face. Everypony could see Rainbow Dash's limp form laying on the creature's back, a strange pony in a black uniform, a sword in one of its hooves... "That's a hand!" Twilight burst out. The figure turned to look down the hatch. "Inquisitor, we've got intelligent xenos. And judging by the fact I'm not riddled with bullet holes or psychic energy, they appear to be defenceless." A loud voice, equal in volume to the Princess's voices when they were enraged, spoke from the tank. "Schult, open fire!" The ponies scattered as two large projectiles impacted near where they were standing. Several ponies were caught by the blast. The doctors from the hospital swiftly carried them away. "Inquisitor, these xenos mean us no harm! I think." "Voss, you are coming close to heresy. For now, I will take your advice. Liutz, drive towards the train station over that way. Berner, Byrzan, provide covering fire and crowd clearance. Let's see how these Princesses like a true god!"
Faceoff"Just keep driving Liutz, I don't care if there's a train in the way! Schult, blast it! We must be in the city at dusk." the Inquisitor roared from the commander's chair. "May I ask, Inquisitor, why dusk?" Voss asked from outside the tank, where he was busy dragging the winged pony that had crashed into the hatch onto the front armour plating to be used as a trophy of war in the coming attack on the city. The Inquisitor declined to answer. "That Inquisitor sure knows a lot about this world despite the fact he apparently has no idea where we are..." Voss idly mused. The wierd rainbow coloured flying pony thing was soon attached to the front of the Macharius. At that point, Voss noticed the odd train that Shane had been talking about and he waved to the driver. Schult was fully aware that the xenos appeared to be pacifists and that the train was no doubt full of them, wondering about the delay. "Hurry up Schult, I haven't got all day! Blast that train already!" the Inquisitor yelled, obviously impatient. "If you want something done, do it yourself..." the Inquisitor slammed the firing mechanism into place and the train was soon little more than a pile of smoking wreckage. "Keep driving!" Schult wondered where they had gotten a Inquisitor from. He was sure that the only Inquisitor on Vraks was Hector Rex... Liutz slammed the tanks gear into full throttle as the tank began to continue its journey up the mountain towards the city. "Dusk as you requested Inquisitor." "Good Liutz, continue driving to the palace. Save your ammo, we'll need it to deal with the two princesses." "Oi, Bird-face! When you reach the palace, do you mind blasting a particular alicorn for me?" The strangely familiar voice echoed through the Inquisitor's mind. "And why should I do that?" The Inquisitor mentally shot back. "Does kinship count for nothing these days? Look Tzeentchie, we're both relatively powerless. I'm stuck in a stone wall under that stupid castle, my parasites have forgotten their creator and the fail safe was diverted to your galaxy. Sure it took those stupid alicorns a while and they had to use a whole bunch of "Element of harmony" artefacts which in my book counts as cheating. Just lend me a bit of power and we can face them two-on-two. And you've disrupted the location of the element bearers that they can't touch us. (Starts singing 'You can't touch this')" "Malal...?" "Took you a while although I'm called Discord here. Fits their stupid naming philosophy... Anyway, I'll meet you in the plaza. Those alicorns are about to feel what it's like to be out matched. Tzeentch could feel his power being sucked away by his idiot brother. The tank and crew arrived at the city to find no resistance as they smashed through the train station. The city was deserted as the tank rumbled through the wide streets towards the castle plaza. The plaza appeared to have been the scene of a battle. All across the plaza laid the prone forms of various ponies, unicorns and pegasi. In front of the castle stood the two princesses, judging by their size and opposite them what could only be described as a spawn which was obviously Malal. "What madness is this, Discord?" The white alicorn shouted out. Discord laughed. "You see Princesses, chaos always finds a way. My brother over there, has accidentally dealt with the elements of harmony and just so happens to be quite probably be the best magic user in every known galaxy. Mostly because he invented it. Come on Tzeentch, lets show these mere Demi-gods what Chaos undivided can do!" The Inquisitor rose from the tank hatch and stood at the front of the turret. He didn't notice Voss walking closely behind him. Voss raised the gun to the Inquisitor's head. "In the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind, I charge you with heresy and I find you wanting. The punishment is death." Voss pulled the trigger, sending a las-bolt into the back of the Inquisitor's head sending him sprawling off the turret. The body dissolved and swiftly reformed into a massive, horned raven by Discord's side. "You brought Imperials with you?" Discord facepalmed. "I needed a ride, didn't I?" At that point the two alicorns noticed that Rainbow Dash was strapped to the front of the tank and she let out a cry "Who would dare harm my little ponies?" Voss climbed into the tank and yelled "Mexican standoff!" Soon enough the three factions were locked in what was quite possibily the most epic Mexican standoff in history. On one side stood two gods of Chaos, on the other stood their polar opposite. And stuck in the middle, the crew of Macharius 201, named Golden Horn, faced down both of them with nothing but the fire in their bellies and the prayers on their lips. "Voss, I never signed up for facing down gods!" "Neither did I Schult- they may be gods but we hold all the power." "What do you mean, Voss?" "They are evenly matched in terms of power. Our tank could tip the balance either way." Voss peeked out the hatch. "And they know it." "What do we do Tia, we can't win in a straight fight against Discord and the raven!" "We have to persuade those humans, I think they're humans at least, to attack Discord." "What! You've seen what they've done to Rainbow Dash!" "What were you thinking Bird Brain? Now we have to persuade the Imperials to sit this out or side with us rather than those stupid alicorn sisters over there!" Discord waved a claw towards them. "Otherwise we could have easily defeated them!" "Calm down, they are Imperials. They will sit it out. They have to pick between xenos and heretics. They won't be able to decide." "All crew, for the first time in the history of the Imperium, we are having a democratic vote on something. We've got two xeno god-ruler things and two chaos gods. We can't kill both. So I will let you decide!" "I'm all for killing chaos, same for my loaders." Schult said. "Same down here. We have fought Chaos before but not these xenos. Better to kill the enemy you know than the unknown factor." Liutz shouted. "Liutz, turn Golden Horn towards the horse things. Schult, turret to 10 o'clock, angle 4 degrees, low velocity, short fuse, high explosive. And ready the H-K-M rack as well, you can never be too sure when dealing with daemons." Discord smiled as the tank turned towards the alicorns. "See, birdie, I told you they'd kill the xenos." "No you idiot, look at the..." The turret guns fired. "Turret." Tzeentch finished. Tzeentch flew into the air and away but Malal wasn't so lucky, instead being knocked out cold by the blast. "Er, Voss, those two xenos don't look too happy..." Voss looked out of the turret to see the two fuming horned-horse things trotting across the plaza towards them. "Liutz, reverse, reverse, reverse!" The lumbering tank slowly began to reverse before a psychic barrier formed around the tank, preventing it from moving. "Seriously Voss, this is a new low. Captured by psyker horses? Even the time you added all those ork totem poles and drove straight out of the ork warcamp was more logical." "Shut up Schult, these xenos have a democracy or something like it. They will give us a trial. And I get to use a legal defence I haven't used since those Tau found our tank in the middle of a ruined Tau city." "Oh... I think we may have just outclassed them by a shot longer than Sgt Telion's when he picked up a lascannon." Voss grinned. "Exactly." Voss groaned as he woke up in a cramped cell. He saw a pony in some form of feudal-plate standing in front of the bars. "You're awake. And I have some..." Voss pulled his las-pistol out and proceeded to shoot the horse in the face, killing it instantly. "No you don't have any questions. Because you're dead." "And what do you say in your defence?" Princess Celestia, the judge, asked. "We were only following orders." Voss said. "That's your brilliant defence? It has never worked. Ever!" Schult whispered heatedly in Voss's ear. "And how do you plead?" "Guilty." Voss spoke. This caused quite a stir among the assembled crowd of ponies. "What are you doing Voss, we're going to be cryoed, executed, shot, imprisoned or tortured!" "You'll see, Byrzan, you'll see." "As you have pleaded guilty to the murder of 24 ponies, psychological harrasment of the town of Ponyville and torturing Rainbow Dash, I hereby sentence you to death." "Except you can't." "What?" Celestia looked puzzled by this. " Y'see, you can't sentence us to death for two reasons. One, being representatives of a foreign power, we have diplomatic immunity!" Voss gestured at her. "Do they have diplomatic immunity?" Rainbow Dash asked from the witness box. "No, as they are not part of a formal embassy!" Celestia shouted at the assembled crew. Several ponies cheered at this. "And, we are POW's. And according to the Kor'san Convention, you cannot execute POW's. You can only hold them until the war ends." "We are not at war with you." "The Imperium is at war with everything that is not the Imperium. You are not part of the Imperium and you are a xeno, therefore the Imperium is at war with you. We merely fired the first shots you are aware of." Voss said. "So therefore we must be held in a POW camp. And as you do not have a POW camp available, this world counts as our POW camp. Trump that." Schult finished, catching on to Voss's plan. The room descended into outrage as Schult finished. "They have just legally beaten me in my own court." Celestia sighed to herself. "Sister, can they do that?" Luna asked. "Unfortunately, yes." The whole room turned towards Princess Celestia, the ponies with horror and the Guardsmen with slight disbelief. "But, as they are not citizens of Equestria, they have not the protection of her laws." Luna spoke. Voss turned to his crew. "Run!"
Escape, part 1"Keep running you fools! We have to be out of the city before the angry crowd tears us apart!" "Voss, they are trying to kill us anyway!" "Just keep running!" The group of tankers raced through the corridors until they were hopelessly and utterly lost. "Great, Voss. Just great. Now how do we escape the castle of murderous xeno psyker ponies?" Bryzan moaned. "We cheat." Voss pulled out a long red bandolier covered in demo-charges. "Voss, you'll kill us all using those!" "Death is a reward for a lifetime of service." Voss piously quoted as he set a demo charge next to the wall. "Everyone back up... Voss has armed demos." Litutz warned. The crew backed up as Voss pushed the detonator. The wall exploded with a crash, revealing a garden that wouldn't be out of place in a Hive-Spire. Voss and his companions had no taste for the apparent beauty of xeno art however, and after a brief search discovered the only ways to go were either back into the maze of corridors or forwards into... "That's a lot of guards." Voss facepalmed. "Thank you, Captain Obvious Schult." "And look where our tank is." "Let me guess... The middle of the guards?" "Well done Commander." "There goes our escape route. Even the Chaos gods don't punish someone who helps them." Bryzan moaned. "Any of you up for a little heresy?" Voss asked. "Yes... Wait, what?" Schult replied. "Heresy? Voss, we're soldiers of the Imperium. We fight heresy, we don't commit it!" "Schult, to all intents and purpose, the Imperium has abandoned us. We're somewhere beyond the Halo Stars and the chance of any help appearing is impossible. The only power that hasn't shot at us just so happens to also have travelled with us a short way and not given any of us a third eye on our backside, a tentacle in the armpit or otherwise mutated us. We also know who he is." "I see no other option. I agree with Voss." Bryzan said. "I second this." Liutz added. "Any votes against?" Voss asked. No one objected. "It's settled. We hide out here until either the guards leave or Tzeentch gives us my tank." Tzeentch swooped low over the Everfree forest, looking for the beacon of sorcerous power his magical senses had detected. After a few minutes of flying over the darkened forest, Tzeentch found what he was looking for. A seemingly long ruined castle sat nestled atop a small rocky outcrop on the other side of a chasm that spanned the gap between two mountains. It appeared to be uninhabited but appearances were deceiving. Still, Tzeentch's magically enhanced senses couldn't detect any inhabitants so he swooped in and landed on top of what appeared to be the main keep. Inside he found two highly unexpected objects. One was a collection of highly magical shards that appeared to have been somehow enchanted with the power of the moon and darkness. "A artifact of Sithis's making? Shards of his armour or weapon?" He idily mused. The second object was far more interesting. It appeared to be a battered diary with a black hand clutching a moon prominently displayed on the front. "Hmmm... I think I will absorb the shards first, see what effect they have." As he picked up the shards with his magic and brought them closer together, they began to radiate darkness towards him. When they touched his skin, he blacked out as they began to work their magic. "Voss, you've been praying for well over a hour. If old Bird- Face was listening, he surely would have come." "Do you want it, Schult?" "Want what?" "To clean this bloody mess up, that's what!" Voss snapped. "We have no hope of recovering the Macharius or fighting through that many guards." "Voss." Schult placed a hand on Voss's rumpled uniform's shoulder. "The patrols are getting nearer. Several of the crew have deserted, all those who joined after our promotion. Me, Liutz, Bryzan and Thraki remained behind. This isn't like you, old friend." "I know... It's just I feel so helpless without my armoured behemoth of destruction. I've grown comfortable to never ending war, never sure which day would be my last. We all wished for peace. Yet when peace is found, we long for something familiar, war. It's a never ending cycle for us. We have to break it." Voss sighed. "And the only one who can is gods knows where." "Voss. We have to go." Liutz pressed. "I know. But where to?" Thraki, one of Schult's loaders, stepped forwards. "Voss, I noticed a rather large expanse of wilderness on the ride up. If we head there, we might find old Bird-Face." "And how exactly are we going to get out of this frigging castle then, Thraki?" "The same way we reached here, of course." "Thraki, we're on top of a very large mountain. And the only way off is guarded. We're stuck here Thraki, accept it. None of your optimism will help us now." "Voss, you remember the cliff on Xylemi XIV, do you not?" "Yes, of course I do! Wait, are you seriously suggesting..." The others stared at Thraki with everything from shock to disbelief. "Permission to execute Thaki on grounds of insanity." Bryzan rumbled. "Permission not granted. It's the only way out of this mess. Bryzan, you think the ropes are long enough?" "No. This is insane. How do you think the ropes are long enough for a 300 and more foot high cliff?" "Link them together." Thraki added. "Then we'll have to go down one at a time. It'l be too slow." "Free-climb." Schult suggested. Bryzan shook his head. "That's even more insane." "What do we do, steal some pegasi? I want off this damn xeno mountain. It's climb or nothing." "There are those pegasi guards circling around the bottom of the mountain, you know." "Then we climb at night." Voss said. "Are you both insane?" "Byrzan, did you forget those goggles I pilfered from that supply truck?" "Night vision?" "Exactly. Inquisition issue too, judging by the badge." "You stole from the Inquisition? Are you cra... It doesn't matter. As long as it gets us out of this mess, I don't care."
Escape, part 2"Have you located the remaining prisoners yet, Shining Armor?" "No Princess Celestia. The castle has been searched from top to bottom with no signs of them other than a hole in the wall near the gardens." "Is there any chance they have left Canterlot?" "Unless they can climb a sheer cliff, then no. I have Pegasus guards running patrols round the base of the mountain while the earth ponies hold the gates and I'm using the unicorns to lead search groups throughout the castle." The alicorn and smaller unicorn continued to walk through the corridors until a thought hit Celestia. "Captain, if you had to escape from a situation like this, what would you do?" "Wait until nightfall before sneaking out through either the sewers or a postern gate." "And you have all of those guarded?" "Of course my Princess." "Continue your search." The climb had to be the most terrifying thing Voss had ever done. 300 foot or so of sheer cliff, no harness or grapple line. In the dark. With a 20 mph wind. The others seemed to be in similar difficulty above him. Thraki was leading the party of exhausted climbers, finding footholds and marking them. Handhold, foothold. Handhold, foothold. The cycle continued to repeat itself as the party crept down the cliff. "How you holding up back there?" Thraki shouted over the din of the wind. "Like I've been slow-roasted by feral orks!" Byrzan replied. "This isn't even a tough climb. Back on Sparatus IV I used to climb the sides of the ruined hives to look for stuff worth scavenging." "Just concentrate!" Voss yelled as Schult narrowly avoided taking a dive straight off the cliff by catching onto a rock that jutted out of the cliff. "Relax, I've done this a lot." Thraki responded. "Keep moving, fools! We don't know how long the night will last." Liutz shouted into the bickering above him. Voss sighed and kept climbing. Handhold, foothold. Handhold, foothold... About three quarters of the way down, they hit a problem. A large piece of the mountain had broken away a long time ago, leaving 15 meters of open air between the Guardsmen and freedom. Thraki had lowered himself to the ledge that Voss was currently resting on. "So what do we do now?" Thraki sighed and stared wistfully at the ground below. "Come on Voss. There must be a solution!" "I'm sorry Thraki. I... I can't think of any." "Well that's just great. I'm going it alone Voss." "You're deserting?" Voss stared incredulously. "I'm sorry Voss, but you led me to one hellhole too many for my liking." Thraki walked over to the edge and took out a long rope. He proceeded to hammer the rope into the rock-face using his shovel. "Goodbye Commander." Thraki began to climb down the rope. Voss could see it beginning to strain under the weight of Thraki and his gear. Soon enough, the rope snapped. "Thraki!" Voss's cry of despair echoed into the night as one of his friends plunged into the inky blackness of the night and certain death. Schult and the others increased their pace as soon as they heard Voss cry out. They found him staring out into the abyss, a look of hopelessness etched onto his face. "Thraki fell?" Schult asked. Voss nodded. "It's all my fault. All of this, everything, is my fault!" Voss whispered. "Thraki is dead, the others are captured by those xeno gods and the only one who can help us has forgotten us!" "Who said I'd abandon my own?" A mocking voice spoke out of the darkness. "It just took me time to get everything... Sorted." The voice laughed. "Anyway, I'm your ticket out of here. A god never abandons his apostles, after all. Besides, Thraki would have killed you all if he hadn't tried to desert and failed miserably." "Well move us then!" Liutz yelled at the shadowy voice. "impatient Imperials, as per usual." The glow of pink and light blue surrounded the huddled guardsmen, and they vanished into the night. "Ah, Celestia, it's nice to see you, to see you nice!" Discord's infernally cocky voice reb through Celestia's mind. "I'm not in the mood for games Discord. Tell me about your brother." "Don't call me Discord, call me Malal." "But you are Discord." Celestia asked, puzzled. "Discord is a title that is adopted by the most chaotic being in this land. As the old bird-face is more powerful and chaotic than me, he got promoted. And now I have even more motive for revenge against him!" Discord or Malal laughed again. "Well Malal tell me about your brother." Celestia asked. She really needed some rest. "First you have no idea how lucky you are that you drew Bird Face rather than the others. Brass Skull would have levelled the world in hmmm... Two days? Grandfather Sore would have you all choking and dying of every known disease. And they are the lucky ones. And as for the Mince of Pleasures... Well you would become a world where nothing is not allowed in the pursuit of pleasures of all kinds. But Bird Face is the most dangerous by far. He is the great manipulator, the changer of ways, god of time, ambition, hope... And sorcery. I wouldn't be surprised if he has already got Voss and co in his cult. He is more subtle than the others. He has made plots that are so intricate that they can destroy armies, fleets, stars. Sure the Elements can beat him, they are above him in the hierarchy of magic. He knows this. He will do anything possible to eliminate one of them. Kidnap, blackmail, proxies, threats. Assassination. Dreams. Psychological warfare. Torture. He would even steal the Elements themselves. The worst thing is, you can't warn those Element Bearers. That would single them out. He can sense weakness and fear like a Diamond Dog. Keep everything how it is. Make changes subtly. Different patrol routes. Garrisons. Say something about... I dunno...Me? Can you let me out of this statue now? It's so boring in here I'm being driven sane." "I'll have to pass on that Malal." "Fine. But any more advice gets me out of here, alright? I'll even help you fight him!" "Only if I have no other options." ======================================================================= Voss woke up and groaned. He opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings. The room was made of black marble in a bad condition, with cracked tiles on the floor. He sat up and noticed his friends lying sound asleep elsewhere in the room. He also noticed the strangest thing he had ever seen. It was in the shape of a horse but instead of hair was covered in black feathers over his skin. It's mane and tail were made of flickering blue and pink flames and it boasted the symbol of Tzeentch on its flank. It also boasted flaming wings that were currently folded up and three unicorn horns on its face, one on its snout while the others were above the eyes like bull horns "Ah, Voss. Your awake." "I noticed." Voss said dryly. "You would. I have a offer for you and your crew." "Then wake them so we can all hear it." The figure laughed. "It's for your ears only. You accept, you become immortal greater daemons in my new pantheon of advisors. You decline, you stay as you are." "What's the catch?" "The catch is you must all turn into forms like my own. Forms this world accepts rather than my orginal three horned raven." Voss only deliberated a moment before he said "Deal, Tzeentch. I will be damned for it, but we have a deal."
Tasks"Do you think your friends will react well?" The raven-feathered alicorn asked his newest second-in-command. "I don't know. They already know they can't go back. Their bodies and my Macharius were the only things stopping them from breaking down. Now they're both gone, they will grab on to anything. Or anypony." Voss laughed at this worlds wierd way of speaking. Other than the seemingly hundreds of puns on horses and their variations, he also found himself unable to swear. Voss was almost unrecognisable as Voss in his new form. A alicorn like Tzeentch but with one horn rather than Tzeentch's three, he had a mouldy yellow-green coat and mane but like all who served Tzeentch had the pink and light blue mismatched eyes. The mark of a scythe resided on his flank. "May I query why I look like I'm about to fall in a grave?" "You are my herald of Death. The others have similar responsibilities. Famine, War, Conquest. The four horses and the of the Apocalypse. The vast majority will not know who you are but you will strike fear into those learned about such matters." "Sounds good." Voss stretched his wings. "I guess we have sorcery as well?" "You have learned well. The horn acts as a focusing device, increasing the accuracy and lethality." "Should we wake the others?" "I will come to that in due time, but first you must track down two beings, a unicorn by the name of 'The Great and Powerful' Trixie and a griffin named Gilda. I believe they might be helpful in our cause." "And what is that cause?" "My brother Malal, who these ponies know as Discord, was defeated by powerful artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony. With the power these artifacts provide, Celestia and her sister could beat all of us..." Tzeentch didn't look pleased at the prospect of being trapped in stone. "Then we must strike before the Elements are assembled!" Tzeentch chuckled. "Once a soldier, always a soldier. That is what Malal and someone called Nightmare Moon tried. We need to be more subtle. The Elements have one key weakness; they require a bearer which personifies it's quality. If we cannot break the Element, break the Bearer. The Elements only work when all are used at the same time. Remove one and the chain collapses. Or remove the quality and the element cannot be used." "Then where are these Element Bearers and which should I eliminate first?" Tzeentch shrugged. "Firstly, I don't know where the Bearers are. Which is why after you have recruited those two, I will unleash Famine, War and Conquest to infiltrate the towns around Canterlot, looking for possible Bearers. As for the second, try to seize Magic. After all, cutting of the flow of magic when you are God of it should be easy..." Tzeentch laughed. "And after I have recruited those two?" Voss/Death asked. "You will infiltrate by more subtle means. Death also has control of dreams and the night. Unfortunately for you, a certain princess also claims these as her domain. I can not help you against her, Voss. She is on her own territory and is experienced with these matters. However, suprise must count for somthing and simply sneaking a few dreams in here and there in the right places can do wonders while being virtually undetctable." "Can you wake the others?" Voss stared at his comrade's pony forms. "Sure." Tzeentch's three horns began to glow light blue and a thin beam reached out from each horn connecting Tzeentch's mind to the mind of the others. Liutz awoke first, a massive blood red stallion with the mark of a sword on his flank. He stared for a while before asking himself: "Why am I a horse?" He looked up to find Tzeentch and a... Alicorn that he presumed to be Voss staring at him. "And so my herald of War awakens." Tzeentch intoned. Liutz's gaze shifted to Voss. "You made a deal with him, didn't you?" Voss cringed slightly. "Immortality, sorcery and the resilience of a Greater Daemon, in exchange so we could serve better. Seems fair?" Liutz found himself nodding before he rose from his hooves. Schult woke next, and shrugged like it was no bother. He was a pale white unicorn, with the mark of a bow and arrow on his flank. Bryzan didn't even notice. He just got up, flexed his wings, and said something about "Showing those damn flyboys." He was a jet-black pegasus with the mark of a pair of scales. "Now that we're all awake, I will brief you on what you have to do. Schult, you have the callsign and name Conquest, Liutz, yours is War, Bryzan has Famine, and Voss is Death. Take these." Tzeentch levitated several micro-beads out form somewhere into their ears. "You'll need them later. For now, Death, you're off to the Philydelphia marshes where you will find a certain Trixie. Recruit her to our cause before coming back here where I will then send you to the Outer Hoof Isles, where Gilda is currently hiding out. Bring them both back quickly. Byrzan, there is a farm to the north of a town on the other side of this forest. Fly a few circles until some Pegasus gives chase. Lead her here. Liutz, Schult, you'll help me with setting up a few bits of equipment Ahriman has sent me. I might even invite him along, since he's run out of places to break into. Move!"
TrixieIt had not been a good day for Trixie. Chased out of Fillydelphia for no reason whatsoever into the stinking marsh and forced to leave her wagon behind. How could the Great and Powerful Trixie be a great wizard when she had no place to call home? She continued walking along the causeway, silently moaning about her losses. She hated this place. The mosquitos, the humidity, the simple depressive mess of the whole marsh. There was nothing for her this side of the causeway. Maybe she would have better luck in Dracostan. Or, at least, she hoped she would. Few walked this road anymore. After the opening of the Equis Pass, none saw the need to travel for days through the bogs and marshes when they could just take the pass and shorten the journey by days. It had not earned the nickname of 'The Lonesome Road' for nothing. That was why Trixie almost leaped straight off the causeway when the pale yellow-green alicorn strode out of the fog. "Trixie Lunamoon?" the alicorn asked. Trixie could only nod her head in bewilderment while wondering why an alicorn was walking the Lonesome Road. "I have come to make you an offer on behalf of my... Commander." Voss couldn't really call Tzeentch his boss or leader, so he settled on commander. "Trixie is intrigued by this offer. What is it?" Trixie wondered what could command a alicorn. Most were royalty, after all. "The usual. Revenge on a certain Twilight Sparkle," Trixie hissed at the name. She simply couldn't accept that Twilight was better than her. "in exchange for your... Services in our cause." "And why should Trixie listen to your offer? Trixie has tried to get revenge many times against the hated Twilight Sparkle, and as much as Trixie is loath to admit it, Twilight is more powerful than Trixie." "Because my leader can teach you proper magic. Not any of this fancy unicorn manipulation of things, but magic in its pure, unrefined, raw power. Sorcery." "Can you prove this sorcery to Trixie?" "No..." Voss admitted reluctantly. "Just follow me and I will show you somepony who can." "The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your most generous offer." "Follow me." Voss led Trixie off the causeway into the marsh. "Trixie wishes to know who you are" "I am Voss. You may have heard of the carnage wrecked in Ponyville and Canterlot. That was me and my crew." Trixie smiled. So this alicorn had already damaged Ponyville? Good. "Trixie thinks you and her will get along fine." The mouldy-looking alicorn continued leading Trixie through the bog until they found themselves standing on a rock platform dominated by a massive statue of a three-horned unicorn. "And now we wait." "For what?" "For Tzeentch to open the portal." Byrzan was enjoying being able to fly. Seeing the world from how the flyboys saw it. He could understand their rivalry now. Ground-pounders looked so insignificant from up here. He smiled as he noticed the first of the green blobs finish eating their ways through the apples. And, sure enough, there was the rainbow Pegasus that they had chained to their tank. She began to talk to the orange pony before she flew straight in his direction. "Well, welcome to Round two of the torture races..." He flew off in the direction of the forest, the rainbow Pegasus following close behind. Rainbow Dash had to admit, the black Pegasus was good. Not as good as herself, of course, but still good. Currently they were flying through a mass of clouds, the black Pegasus taking ever more risky moves to try to lose her. She dodged left after he kicked a cloud at her face before he suddenly dived out of the pile of clouds straight towards Ponyville. Byrzan was panicking. "Schult, any Thunderbolts? Manticores? Hydras? Mauruders? Hell flying things? Any help?" he yelled into the micro-bead. "Just get back here you fool! The Thousand Sons will deal with her." Liutz replied over the vox. "Since when did we have Thousand Sons?" "Since now." "Fine" Byrzan turned from his orginal destination towards the castle. The black Pegasus suddenly changed course towards the Everfree. Rainbow Dash, caught unawares, went speeding past before correcting herself. She continued to persue the other pegasus, eventually gaining all the ground she had lost before she caught sight of a castle. At appeared to be in the same place as the castle that they had defeated Nightmare Moon in, yet it was fully rebuilt. She only wondered for a few seconds though, because a flaming bullet sliced through her wing. She screamed as she began to try to glide down. Byrzan turned and grabbed her between his legs. Can't let the captive die, can I? He thought to himself as he flew into their fortress.
