The Tomb World of Equestria

Another whack of an ax and a stubborn log finally gave way. The two pieces fell into a small heap with other similar pieces scattered around. While it might seem like a mundane task to an outsider, to the snow ponies, it was a means of survival. The winters were long and hard, the summers were short and lukewarm. Even though they faced many hardships, this was their home, and nothing would ever change that. Snow ponies had thicker fur and were generally bulkier than their Equestrian cousins. Their ancestors had been here since before the strife between the tribes and had adapted to the environment.

Ice Heart was finishing chopping up several blocks of firewood for her furnace. She was a pegasus with a white coat and a long brown mane, with an icicle superimposed over a heart for a cutie mark. She was an orphan and was currently single. She used her wing and wiped the sweat from her brow. The village was bustling today, it was late summer and the crops were good this year. Snow berries and valley lilies dotted stalls, and merchants from Equestria came to sell their wares. The grassy tundra (think outside Whiterun) was as beautiful as ever.

"Icey, Icey!" A youthful voice called out. A small green pegasus earth colt ran up to Ice "Hey Icey, hows it going?" The young one asked.

"Oh hi Blizzard, I'm fine, just finishing up cutting some wood for my fireplace" She replied cheerily.

"Okay, oh by the way, do you know anything about those rumors that everypony's been talking about lately?" the colt asked curiously.

Ice had heard from ponies that strange creatures had been sighted in the forest, they claimed they looked unnatural and metallic. The majority of sightings were of strange glowing and floating torsos, visible for only an eye-blink before vanishing.  Ice had dismissed this as just the cold getting to ponies, or just overactive imaginations.

"I'm sure its just rumors, probably some outsider or a hoaxer trying to scare everypony" Ice said dismissively.

The little one shrugged and cantered off back into the village. She wouldn't admit it herself, but she was a loner of a sort. She lived on a hill only about a two minute's walk away from the town, but she mostly kept to herself. The foals around town however loved her  and regularly visited her. Ice Heart then remembered she had a few southern sapphires to bring to the market. 'Equestrians go gaga for these things' she thought as she gathered up several of them. These sapphires were only found in the southern poles, and had a unique and ice-like sheen to them, Equestrians, particularly fashion designers, had a very high demand for them. She had these because of a lucky break during a cave mushroom hunt, and intended to cash them in.

Ice then walked down the path that led into Snowy Crook village. It had about eight hundred ponies along with several Equestrian trader stations. Several ponies greeted her on her way to the trader, to which she happily greeted back. Little fillies and colts played tag and generally fooled about, Ice had to chuckle when a basket of apples dumped onto the head of a confused Blizzard, much to the irritation of the owner. Ice then made her way towards the merchant's stall, a blue unicorn stallion by the name of Gold Coin if she remembered correctly.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" The stallion asked.

"I have some southern sapphires to sell, believe it or not I found them just lying there in a cave" Ice replied, giving him the small bag.

He inspected them and smiled "Uncut, barely any flaws, perfect blue to white ratio" He went on "I'll give you 350 bits for these" Gold said. Ice was very happy, that was more than enough money to pay for an extension to her cottage. She happily took the bits and turned to walk back to her home....

.....Right before an arc of green energy lanced out and struck about a few feet in front of her, sending her flying. Everything went black for a second, but she gradually regained consciousness. Her vision was blurry and the only sound she could hear was a piercing ring in her ears. Gradually, this was replaced with the death cries of ponies. She then looked at the scene that seemed to be playing out in slow motion.

Ponies were running and screaming, being killed by beams of green lighting. The beams seemed to burn away their very bodies, leaving a steaming pile of charred flesh. Those same beams were slicing through homes like a hot knife through butter. Fires were already spreading throughout the village, turning homes and businesses into flaming pyres.

She saw Blizzard trembling under a table and ran to him "Blizzard!, come with me!" She yelled over the noise.

Blizzard was shaking and crying "Mommy" he said, pointing to a corpse.

"Blizzard we have to go NOW!"

She picked up Blizzard and stood up, she looked around, her mind still barely comprehending what was going on around her before Ice's fight-or flight instincts kicked in. It was definitely flight this time, she spread her wings and flapped harder than she had ever done before. She bobbed and weaved under the lightning blasts before turning to look back at a safe distance on a cliff.

The sight that she beheld would scar both of them for life. Several dozen bipedal metal skeletons and several of those floating torsos, that were very much real, were killing or imprisoning all the ponies in the village. The ponies who had surrendered were rounded up in groups, while the ones who had chosen to fight were killed without mercy. They had strange weaponry that seemed to burn away the very air, not to mention the ponies, with green lightning. They were being led by a taller skeleton with a white skull, it had a larger double version of the lightning gun connected by a corded wire to it's back. It was apparently rounding up several terrified ponies. The white skull then noticed her and locked it's eyes with Ice. Those eyes...those green, unnatural eyes radiated.....nothing. No emotion, no remorse, no soul.

Ice flew north as fast as her wings could carry her with Blizzard crying on her back. She had to tell the world, she had to warn them of these,these death machines! She had visited Equestria once before a trade run and had been to Canterlot before to sell some wares.

A half hour later, the emotional toll finally hit her. She landed on an outcropping and they both cried her eyes out, her home and friends were all destroyed, dead or captured. After twenty minutes, she collected herself and flew onwards, already seeing the mountain chain that separated the lands of Equestria from the snow pony lands. She had a mission, and she would find some way to avenge the dead and destroy whatever those things were, and make sure this young one was safe. However, she noticed a peculiar... buzzing noise that seemed to be getting louder.

"Are you well my lord?"  a Cryptek asked. Lord Maldrakh was brooding on his throne.

"Yes Cryptek, I was just thinking" Maldrakh responded "I could have sworn I had forgotten something...ah!" Maldrakh exclaimed and got off of his throne.

"What is it my lord?" The Cryptek asked

"My artifacts, I have my Resurrection orb and Lightning field" Maldrakh replied, "But I forgot about one, my Phylactery!"

Lord Maldrakh then made his way down to the forbidden archive, and sure enough the Phylactery was there. He picked it up and equipped it. Several hundred miniscule repair scarabs waited inside, waiting until the lord was injured. Then an elite crypt immortal approached him and transferred the data from an attack on a settlement near the tomb.

"Interesting species, those ones with the horns seem to be some sort of psykers, kill any we encounter from now on" The Lord ordered. He then noticed in a video recording that one of the ones with wings had escaped. He ordered an attack swarm to deal with it, then he started to make his way back to his throne. However, he noticed several of the quadrupeds were being led inside, surrounded by warriors.

"Cryptek, why are these inside my tomb?" The lord asked

"Information and biological assessment" the Cryptek droned back

The lord looked at the small group before him. There were nine of these creatures in this group, all huddled together and trembling with fear. The Lord scoffed at such a mortal reaction, he felt no fear anymore.  He then walked up and made his presence known to the creatures.

"What are you creatures called, and your variants?" Maldrakh asked in his metallic voice

"P-p-ponies" one male answered shakily "Earth ponies, unicorns, a-and pegasus ponies" He finished, pointing to a member of each group after every word. The Lord looked and saw one of the psyker subspecies among the group and grabbed her.

"P-please don't kill m-me!" she said sobbing with fear, the others doing the same

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you psyker" Maldrakh said in fake shock to the unicorn "He is"

The unicorn looked over towards where the lord was pointing and paled with shock. Shambling out of the darkness was something even other Necrons were repulsed by. The warriors then backed away from the Flayed One. It had yet to get a victim and had no skin to wear, something that the lord was about to remedy. The Flayed One seemed almost happy as the lord threw the 'unicorn' to him. He grabbed the pony, who began to scream in terror as she was dragged away into the darkness. Then screams of unimaginable agony rang throughout the tombs as she was skinned alive and subsequently used as a torture plaything. He then turned back to the crying ponies with a jovial tune.

"I trust you are going to tell me what I want to hear?"

Princess Celestia was having a very good day so far, by her standards anyway. There were only a few brain dead snobs and pampered nobles spouting nonsensical garbage. Even better, she had invited the girls,Spike, and a few actually nice nobles over for a banquet in honor of their success with Sombra. She and Luna would be holding this in the royal dining room. They were due to arrive any minute now, and the two sisters had already made their way to the table. Right on cue, the six ponies and baby dragon walked through the door, the nobles were already seated.

"Girls, Spike, it is so nice to see you again" Celestia said happily

"Yes, hello again" Luna said

They bowed "Likewise Princesses" Twilight said happily, the girls doing the same.

They all got seated and the food came out almost immediately. The appetizer was several flowers in garlic and other seasoning. Spike got a plate of small emeralds, his smile started to rival that of Pinkie Pie's. They all talked about how the girls had gotten the information about the heart, held the fair to keep the happiness, and eventually stopped King Sombra.

"Oh, and on the way back, my Pinkie sense picked up a real big doozy!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily.

Twilight laughed "Pinkie, we already said that whatever it is I'm sure we can handl-"

*CRASH*

Everypony whipped their heads around to find a broken window and an equally broken pegasus. They all gasped in horror, she was critically injured. Several large gashes crisscrossed her body, leaking lots of blood. Her eyelids were black, an obvious sign of massive sleep deprivation and trauma. One wing was bent at a painful angle, making flying extremely difficult.

In a tight grip was an unconscious green pegasus colt, he had only a few cuts and bruises. The mare then turned towards the guests in clear pain.

"Heeeelp meee" she wheezed out before passing out.