Macharius

"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."