Chapters The Tomb World of Equestria
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The Tomb World of Equestria
Princess Cadance flew faster than Twilight had ever seen her flown before. Shining had thrown her and she had just caught the crystal heart and Spike, right before Sombra could get it. She flew down across the crowd of crystal ponies before putting the crystal heart in its' rightful place. The heart began to spin and it pulsed with harmonious magics. Sombra was saying "No" and "Stop!", trying to get his former slaves to listen to their former master, but to no avail.
She landed on the balcony just after an immense rainbow of light fired from the crystal palace, destroying the tyrant's essence and forever freeing the crystal ponies from his wrath. The shadow was pushed back and destroyed, and the last traces of Sombra,obliterated. Shining rushed up and hugged her, and she then turned to wave at the crystal ponies below. Twilight then teleported her way down to the balcony.
The six then engaged in a group hug whose combined force could have broken steel. "Girls!, we won!" Twilight exclaimed, "even though it happened....differently than I expected" Twilight said, slightly depressed. "Anyway, good job Spike" Twilight said. "I'm sorry you failed the test Twilight", Spike said sadly, looking downcast. Twilight sighed "Spike you saved the whole kingdom, I'm proud of you, I'm just worried" She finished.
"Don't worry Twilight, I'm sure Celestia will be happy with whoever saved the ponies" Cadance said. She then turned and started to speak to the aforementioned ponies below. She talked about how this is a 'new day' and how their lives will get better from here on out.
After Cadance had addressed the populace, the girls had said their goodbyes and started to make their way back to the train station. Rarity loudly voiced her dismay over the crystallization wearing off as soon as they neared the edge of the city. Just then, Pinkie Pie started spasming and bouncing around like she had eaten a pound of sugar, which she probably did anyway. She stopped and shook her head before turning to Twilight. "Wowee, there's gonna be a doozy soon, a real BIG one!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Twilight and the rest of the girls looked at each other with an expression of curiosity.
"Hey, we kicked Sombra's flank and saved the whole empire, I'm sure we can handle it" Rainbow added boastfully.
"Yeah, ah reckon if we can handle a hydra, we can handle anythin' else" Applejack added.
"Your right girls, I mean, what could be worse than what we've already had to deal with?" Twilight said cheerfully.
Twilight sparkle was about to find those words shoved so far down her throat. As if the universe had simultaneously facepalmed and bitchslapped her at the same time, she would soon learn that there were things worse than a corrupted tyrant king. Far below the earth, an ancient power of eons past was gradually waking from slumber.
The frozen southern pole (Winter Assault style) was as barren and totally lifeless as ever. The snowy desert that whipped and howled throughout the everlasting winters battered anything trying to survive into nothing, microbes barely survived here. The only inhabited settlements were up near the northern parts, clinging to the great pine forests that grew there. Under a large mountain dominating the surrounding landscape was an ice cave, glittering crystals that shined in the eerie polar day. Gradually, the ice gave way to cold slate and bedrock, the dark rock giving the cave a light-less feel. However, at the end of the cave was something that was certainly not crafted by the hands of mother nature.
It looked like a gate to a primitive culture's version of the underworld. It gave off a sickening feeling of unnaturalness dread. On its front were carved several symbols of unknown meaning Suddenly, a wave of energies pulsed through the cave and hit the gate. The gate lit up with a vibrant emerald glow and the door slid open with a metallic creak. Inside was an angular and alien metal crypt.
Past the gate...well it really did look like the underworld in some aspects. A slow and methodical thrumming reverberated throughout the cavern, the only sound in the place. Halls shaped by technology too mysterious for mortal comprehension lay barren and empty, rock dust piled several feet high in some corners. Insect-like constructs roamed the halls, doing nondescript efforts of maintenance and security. Then for the first time in eons, a pair of eyes sprung to existence in the darkness. It rose from its dark throne, millennium of dust sliding off of its metallic form. It took two great strides and came upon a rod of some sort, wrenching it from the ground. And with that, the tomb sprang to life, green lights flickering on. Doors that had been sealed shut millions of years ado slid open, releasing its skeletal occupants.
If he had a mouth, Lord Maldrakh the Undying would have had a wide grin behind his death mask right about now. He then gave wordless commands to several dozen Canoptek Wraiths to go form a scouting party to inspect the outside, as were the instructions given to all tombs. Then the true awakening began (open in new tab ). Thousands upon thousands of eyes lit up the black tomb, the awakened robotic warriors stepping out of their eons of slumber. Plasma generators buzzed to life with unnatural energies, powering up the light crystals. Destroyer equipped soldiers powered up their gauss cannons and grav-platforms, targeting optics buzzing with information.
From behind the lord's throne came several Crypteks, ready to repair and lead their armies. In cargo holds under the tomb were the massive ships, waiting to be piloted towards their brethren. Two massive Tomb Stalkers slithered to life, their hulking forms skittering in the lower sections. Several Ghost Arks and their Doomsday variants were lined up, ready to bring forth destruction. Maldrakh then surveyed his newly awakened tomb and beamed. The tomb then fully awakened, seven great pyramidal Monoliths flickered to life, their large gauss particle whip crystals and flux arc cannons glowed with destructive energies. The assembled Necrons then fell into line, unmoving from the gaze of the lords. He surveyed his mighty army, memories of wars past flickering in here and there.
The lord then spoke in a metallic voice for the first time in eons, "We have risen"
The Tomb World of Equestria
Chapter 2: The Bloody Herald
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.
The Tomb World of Equestria
Chapter 4: The End of The Beginning
Princess Celestia stared incredulously and open mouthed at the metal skeleton before her. "It will save you the pain of a slower demise" It finished with It's cold and unfeeling voice. That's when she got angry, nopony, NOPONY openly threatened the sovereign rulers of Equestria with death and lives to tell the tale. Luna stepped up to the edge of the wall and started to address the creature.
"How DARE you!" Celestia, rather than Luna, said in anger, shocking the ponies around her "You kill my little ponies and you expect us to just 'surrender and die'!?" she said irately.
"I will give you one chance more to surrender yourself, primitive scum"
Luna glared daggers at the skeleton "We will destroy thee, abomination, and all of your foul kin!"
"So be it" it said tersely after a short pause before teleporting away.
Ambiance
It appeared at the mouth of the pass before gesturing towards the fort with its glowing staff. An eerie dark green fog then slowly crept its way low across the cold ground, blanketing it in an emerald haze. From the pass and onto the plain came an array of terrifying enemies. The most basic were six foot skeletons, at least a foot taller than a pony, and were armed with a weapon composing of a cylinder filled with green lightning, and an axe like blade underneath.
They appeared less complicated, probably being basic infantry, and moved around jerkily sometimes, signs of advanced age and corrosion present on some. The next were seven foot skeletons with bone white skulls, armed with either a double version of the lightning gun, or another . The rhythmic thumping of their feet reverberated harshly in their chests, further disturbing their racing hearts
They then got more threatening and varied, there were deformed skeletons mounted on hovering pads with two distinct variants. Small swarms of metal scarabs flew close together, perhaps twenty to each of the six swarms present. Giant floating spiders moved in among the formation alongside flying torsos, each with multiple limbs. Two arks, each of which looking like a black ribcage, flew down and turned broadside while both of them unloaded a squad of the basic ones. Then came a flash of green light and dark smoke, and what appeared shocked them to their souls.
A black, floating monolith appeared took position in the center of the line. A large, green crystal was at its top while four tri-barreled weapons moved around frantically. A glowing portal materialized at a doorway in the front and deposited several more troops. Then came something that made several ponies vomit. Bursting from the ground like tunneling monsters came several hunchbacked, clawed abominations. They were all wearing freshly dripping skin, blood and flesh falling to the ground like red rain. The jagged pieces of armor clinging to the flesh confirmed what had befallen the recon team. There were only about a few hundred of the enemies in total, but they made the royal soldiers look like nothing.
"Girls, use the elements!" Celestia said hurriedly.
The bearers came out of their shock/fear induced stupor and got into position. "Alright girls, we can do this!" Twilight said as encouragingly as she could while the elements began to power up. The black army stopped its march as the girls rose higher and higher into the air, a sphere of light forming around them. Then a great, twisting rainbow beam shot out and struck the force head on. A blinding light shot forth from the impact point, causing the ponies to look away. A thick white smoke then obscured the field, looking like an opaque wall of inky dust. It gradually dispersed and revealed.....
....Nothing, there was no damage done to the dark army whatsoever, other than burning grass. The leader was surveying his army, alongside a one eyed version of himself, with what appeared to be confusion. It then turned its head towards the fort and the shell-shocked ponies before uttering a single command.
"Exterminate"
Then everything went bright green.....
He was on the ground, he knew so because he felt the hard southern dirt below him. All he could see was opaque nothing, with flashes of light lashing out from multiple directions. All he heard was a high-pitched ringing that seemed to be getting worse by the second, and muffled thuds sounding off erratically. There was an ozone-like burning smell in the air, alongside some other things burning he didn't want to place a guess on. Suddenly, he heard rhythmic thumping, it sounded organic like a pony's trots, the beats were off but he just attributed that to the massive concussion. He opened his eyes to stare up at whoever had been approaching him. The last thing he saw was something akin to the face of death itself.
The Lord pulled his staff from the torso of the fallen pony, blood staining its previously green coat with a crimson smear. He flicked his blade dry, and then turned towards the battle. He then thought 'battle' was an inappropriate label at this particular moment, 'slaughter' sounded much more accurate. It reminded him of the purge of the previous primitives that had inhabited this world, although a lot less messy.
The ponies had been utterly devastated after the first volley, dozens of them perishing almost immediately. He still pondered what that strange warp sorcery was, but shrugged it off after a second or two since it had done no detectable damage to either their armor or inner workings. The remaining defenders had been pushed towards towards the transport craft area in the center of the open yard near the other gate, setting it up for a perfect killzone. Their efforts were being hindered by the psyker leaders however, they had set up an impressively large purple warp shield that seemed to shrug off gauss fire with ease. The psykers were in for a nasty surprise however.
"Obsidian"
Twilight was scared out of her bucking mind. The Elements themselves hadn't done an iota of damage to the dark army, unless you counted the greenery. The metal monsters then opened fire with weapons of bright, blazing energy, burning straight through the guard's armor and flesh with ease. Then those.....abominations wearing the flayed skin of their victims and the metal insects tore into the guard like they were tissue paper. The pyramid then blew open the entirety of the frontal wall of the fort while further devastating the troops. She and the girls had survived only due to the princess's magic shield. The countless horrors and weapons that these things could bring to bear was utterly impossible to comprehend.
"Princess, the unicorns are knocking some of these things out of the fight, but some just get back up, what in Tartarus are these things!?" A flustered sergeant shouted over the dulled sound of enemy weaponry impacting the barrier.
"I do not know, but we need to pull back to the transports and save as many as possible!" She hastily replied as she and Luna strained to hold the shield up. Twilight had seen her mentor use magic before, but never to this level. The amount of power she was exerting seemed to be capable of shielding all of Equestria! Twilight then looked towards the girls, they were fine, just trembling in absolute fear. Rainbow gave her a shaky grin exuding a single ounce of of confidence, in stark contrast with the near catatonic Fluttershy. Twilight then realized the direness of their situation, she could actually die here, and that a few things needed to be said if it was so.
"Princess!" Twilight said hastily, gaining Celestia's attention "I-If we don't make it out of this, I-I need to tell you that-!"
Twilight was then interrupted as a presence suddenly overtook her senses, her eyes opening wide. It seemed like a black miasma, clouding her magical perception in a dark shroud. The princesses could feel it to and were looking around frantically for the source of the disruption. They found it in the form of something out of a low budget horror movie. It was a pony, turned into one of them. The disturbing semi-grin the sick mockery of a pony was wearing made Twilight shiver in revulsion. It felt utterly unnatural, and it made her feel like she was going to throw up any second. The princesses started to back away and away further, but having very little impact on the effects.
As it slowly got closer, firing its weapons along the way, all the unicorn's magic flickered out, any attempt to cast a spell resulted in nothing but a shower of sparks. The barrier then started to shrink, guards unlucky enough to be caught outside were either partially incinerated or flayed alive by the clawed horrors scratching at the dome. The dwindling group hastily fell back to the transports, only to have them destroyed in a shower of wooden splinters a second later.
"Princess, what are we-" Twilight was cut off as she saw the two monarchs eyes glowing pure white, their horns sparking wildly. Seconds later, there was a bright flash and she saw nothing but colors.
"Cryptek, those two were extremely powerful psykers, were it not for us tying them down with fire and Obsidian we would have been severely outmatched" Maldrakh said as he surveyed the burned spot. "Place the death of those two at a high priority" He finished.
"Yes my Lord, and my name is Akan, leader of the enclave and master of plasmancy " the Cryptek said as Maldrakh walked off.
"I don't remember asking" The Lord replied as he walked away
Maldrakh observed as the Canoptek Acanthrites were already swarming into the burnt out fort from the Monolith's portal in droves. Their thermal cutting beams were busy disassembling it at a furious pace, it would be nothing but charred ruins soon. Already, Necron builder scarabs were busy raising fortifications to construct the starting point for the advance. Their current position on the world was the edge of the southern pole. Beyond this point were rugged mountain chains, sure to be difficult to cross, for the main infantry would need to either find a pass, or be slowly ferried by the ghost arks. Past that was a large rain shadow desert that marked the edge of Equestria, bordered on the western side by rocky badlands.
'We will purge this world once more' He thought to himself
The Lord casually looked over towards a pile of burned and dismembered corpses that had once been a full squad. A faint inkling of a memory then raced through his mind, however it was only a fleeting instance. He knew it had to do with the biological research that had taken place on this world, but as for what exactly....? He shrugged it off and continued on through the rapidly expanding base camp, figuring the organic material just brought up a random and unimportant instance. Maldrakh was unaware of the pair of green eyes observing the battlefield.
Find love, must find more love for queen. Queen hungry, hive hungry for love, more love. Sounds, sounds of killing and dying and pain and fear. Hiding place, rocky cliff, perfect view of valley. Black skeletons, amazing weaponry, killing many ponies. Ponies dying, so many dead, no love, only death. Bright flash, ponies gone, teleport, skeletons stop. Tall skeletons with weird sticks walk up toward burning dirt. Turns around and......SYMBOL, symbol of them on chest! Must tell queen, must tell queen, must tell queen!
Several hours later...
A dark storm cloud hung above the land, buffeting the jagged, rocky ground with great force. Every lightning flash illuminated a totally barren landscape compared to the rest of the world, with rising pillars of stone and great rift valleys. Among the flashes and pounding rain was a single black dot, weaving around any boulders in its way towards a great tear in the earth. A massive cave mouth lay before it, an eerie green glow emanating from the depths.
Inside was a disturbing and alien environment. Black and hardened insectoid secretions clung to the wall. Glowing cocoons hung from the high ceiling by the hundreds, their contents unknown. A constant chattering sound echoed throughout, sounding more like madness overcoming a mind than a living creature's movement. The lone changeling then worked its way deeper into the hive network.
Glowing crystals lit its way as it passed the central complex. It mimicked the sky above past the hundreds of feet of rock, with a giant circular light crystal high above, providing not only light, but nutrition to the changelings. At the very end of the complex was a large stone door, covered in holy symbols. The lone scout then burst into the room from one, obviously winded from nonstop flight.
The female being reclining on the large stone throne jerked backwards in surprise, slamming her head against it in the process. After rubbing her head, she adopted a fierce scowl, starting to reprimand the drone before it unexpectedly zoomed in front of her face. This caused her to slam her head yet again into the cold stone, cursing loudly.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE MAKERS DO YOU WANT!?" Queen Chrysalis roared, glaring intensely at the oddly unperturbed and giddy drone. It then lowered its head as its horn began to glow a vivid green. Chrysalis grumbled and sighed, proceeding to touch her horn with the drone's, entering a trance like state. Her expression while in the trance slowly transitioned from confused, to surprised, to jaw dropping awe. As she broke the link, the drone's simplistic brain shut down from mental stress and it expired.
Chrysalis had her mouth open in awe, almost not believing what she had seen. However, she began to shake slightly, a smile creeping across her face. She began to laugh, quietly at first, but it then progressed into an insane cackle that echoed throughout the chamber. She flew down from her throne, sending out pheremonal signals to the hive.
A Changeling Hive had an interesting, yet simplistic social order structured in tiers based upon breed. At the bottom tier are the drones, little more than expendable and mindless workers who did menial tasks such as scouting, maintenance, and mating if they were royal drones. At the next tier came the generic changelings, such as nurses for the young and soldiers for taking prisoners and defense of the hive, they could think more freely than the drones, but not as much as the next tier could. The nobles are the highest tier below the queen, they gave consensus to her and elected the next one for ascension should the current one die. A Changeling Queen is, obviously, the leader of a hive and makes all of the important decisions.
The thousands of members of first two tiers soon assembled in the center of the main area of the hive, forming in front the temple. Chrysalis then cleared her throat before addressing her hive. "Changelings, THEY have finally come" she said , as the hive erupted into a roar of chattering and insectoid babble. She calmed them down before proceeding to speak again.
"We have waited for this day ever since the Old Times, and that day is here!" Chrysalis said triumphantly as she flew into the air. "The prophecy of the Makers will be realized, with them we shall all rise up from the earth and claim what is ours!" She said with a zealous flair, her speech reaching a crescendo. "For too long we have been driven underground, forced to eke out a meager parasitic existence, with our great gods at our side, we shall rule!" Chrysalis finished as the changelings burst into cheers, the Queen pheremonally ordering messenger drones to contact the other hives. Chrysalis then turned and bowed to the symbol above the altar, with the other changelings following suit.
The Tomb World of Equestria
Life
Oh how I would delight in extinguishing every last bit of it. Life grows as a creeping parasite in a once perfect void, infesting every surface and twisting it to its will. Life has truly become the object of my eternal hatred. Life is my polar opposite, really the opposite of all of my brethren. And what truly is life you may ask?
Chaos
Life is pure chaos, convulsing and undulating hideously and pointlessly in this once perfect emptiness. The torchbearers of life ironically undid our foes, a pity that they birthed their own destruction in a fruitless attempt to enhance their meager power. Now their hideous deities seek to spread their corruption here. Pure life versus pure death, a fitting showdown, no?
Death
And what is death?
Order
Oh there exists not a purer order in all of creation than the absolute tranquility of death. A pure black abyss that devours the abomination of life in its unfathomable maw, and I am its greatest bearer. Destroying the poisonous tendrils of life gives me the satisfaction that I am bringing this universe closer to peace than any self-proclaimed pacifist ever could. Life is also delicious, for it produces souls for my brethren to feast upon. A pity that life will sprout back up no matter what we do to it, it must be harvested to keep it in check.
Those poor shadows of life turned me loose on their enemies, ones whose lives were a delight to snuff out, planet by purged planet. Their feeble weaponry could not harm me, nor their spawn's meddling. The shadows joined me in everlasting death, bringing more order and void to this galaxy. We were shattered by them, but it matters not, we exist on.
And so long as I exist, death will have a bearer, to shroud the galaxy in its' majesty once again. One to bring the scythe to the wheat of life. One to cleanse and feed on the souls of this scourge.
One to bring the night
The Tomb World of Equestria
Chapter 3: A Meeting of Life And Death
10 Days Later...
The ponies had complied at the first round of questioning. Geopolitical details, cultural values, and more were all obtained from the groups of captives, major geography was done before with scanners, able to show more general information. Those that were not compliant (not many) or far too insane were thrown to the Flayed Ones to sate their eternal hunger.
The ponies that had died in the attack and the living captured were respectively dissected or scanned. Interestingly, they all had a current of warp energy running through them, the unicorn psykers having the most, concentrated in their heads, the pegasi having a medium amount built up in their wings, and the earth ponies having the least, but still some in their muscles.
Maldrakh was currently running diagnostics on the Tomb ships from a console on his throne, and the results so far were not very good. He then checked the reports from the wraith scouts, over the past ten days they had spotted only three other smaller settlements and a village in a mountain pass, they were going to move out soon. The Spyders had recently recovered his wrist-mounted Tachyon Arrow, and the Lord had eagerly equipped his new secondary weapon to his left arm.
After turning off the console, he suddenly remembered he had stashed something long ago for safekeeping. Maldrakh made sure he was alone, and reached into a hidden compartment inside of his throne, typed in a code, and retrieved a flat, black necrodermis square. On this square was a holo-pict of....his family......before. He remembered flashes of his children, love, and life He stared at it for a long time, "If only I could join you someday" he said forlornly. The Lord then hung his head down low, before slowly returning the square to its hiding place
However, Maldrakh then noticed someone walking towards his throne and stop, without looking up,he said "What do you need Cryptek?" he mechanically sighed.
"My lord, we believe we have found a viable specimen with the gene" the Cryptek said.
Maldrakh looked up before replying, "Are you certain?"
"Yes, I am one hundred percent positive" the Cryptek replied.
"Bring it in" the Lord ordered while thanking fate that the biological experiments had worked.
After a few minutes, the doors to his throne room opened and two crypt warriors, plus one earth pony, entered. They made their way to the throne before the warriors dumped the pony in front of Maldrakh, then turned and left. The pony was male and had a black coat and a silvery gray mane, he also had several scars across his face, and his mark was that of...nothing. The Lord was interested, usually the adults had those strange picture marks on their hindquarters. The pony looked up with a surprisingly unnatural and familiar aura before speaking.
"What do you want?" he said in an emotionally dead and cold tone of voice.
"What is your name, pony?" Maldrakh asked
"Obsidian Arrow, now what do you want?" Obsidian deadpanned.
Maldrakh was slightly amused by his nature, it reminded him of other Necrons. "You posses the pariah gene, and that makes you very useful to us" he said
"What is the 'pariah gene'?" Obsidian asked, confused
"The complete and utter severance of a being from the warp, and any psychic, or as you call, magical power" the up until now silent Cryptek replied "With you being the greater of two levels, a pariah, which means you have a space of negative magical energy surrounding you, basically an anti-magical shield of a sort".
Obsidian then looked down to his flank then back to the lord "Guess that explains why my damn cutie mark never showed up"
For the first time since even before his transformation, eons of waging war for the whims of the deceitful C'tan, and sleeping for millions of years, the Lord was speechless "What is a.....'cutie mark'?" he said after a long and confused pause.
"A cutie mark magically appears when you find your special talent in life, dumbass" Obsidian stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world
"Silence!" Maldrakh said as he stood up "I will not tolerate your insolence fleshbag!, so help me I will turn your skin into a spare cape!"
He sat back down and observed the pony, expecting to find a shivering wreck begging for mercy. However, he saw a pony not even slightly perturbed. "Was that supposed to scare me?" Obsidian replied with a dark chuckle, his voice growing louder , "I had to raise myself after my parents abandoned me in the woods, suffer through starvation that made me look like a walking skeleton and run from giant predators in the wild for a few measly berries" He continued,
"Got tortured by sadistic bandits, I later killed, over a few measly bits, then was ostracized from that buckhole village because everypony thinks I'm some crazy freak, and then this damn crap!, so if you think you can scare me, you can go buck yourself and die you metal assed freak !" Obsidian concluded loudly as he slumped down on the floor, steaming.
Maldrakh then observed the ball of repressed emotions and rage in front of him, and made his decision
"Obsidian, I do not consider you a freak" Maldrakh said plainly
Obsidian did a double take and opened his eyes wide before stuttering out, "W-what?" he said in shock as Maldrakh stood up.
"I see only a mortal being who has endured many hardships, I also see a mortal being blessed with the potential for greatness, for power" Maldrakh began as he slowly walked forward "I knew loss and other hardships more than you could imagine, I can grant you an end to this mortal suffering".
"I can harness the true potential within you and make you something more than you are, a new form and new power to forever end your miseries, I have but one thing to ask of you Obsidian Arrow, join me, and I will make that power a reality" Maldrakh finished as he reached his hand out towards the ebony stallion.
Obsidian stared at his hand for a long moment before firmly placing his hoof in and shaking it "I'm half doing this because I want that power,and half because you'd probably force me to do it anyway, or maybe kill me" He said coldly.
"I said those exact same words once, child" Maldrakh said, chuckling
The Cryptek and Maldrakh then started to lead the stallion out of the throne room. Their destination was the workshops where the Cryptek enclave repaired,reactivated, and studied the ancient and powerful technologies of the Necrons. Their journey was a relatively short one, and they entered into a large, cavernous area. Various Tomb Spyders and Repair Scarabs were assisting the Crypteks of the tomb, about five of them in all including the one next to him. The group then made their way over to a black altar below an assortment of vicious looking operating arms, next to it was a pool of silvery-blackish liquid necrodermis. The Cryptek then ordered Obsidian to lay down on the operating table.
"Obsidian" Maldrakh said as Obsidian looked up at him "Now, you shall join us in everlasting death". Obsidian's eyes shot open, but before he could protest, a mask was affixed to his face.
Ice saw nothing but black, a swirling mass of indiscernible darkness floating around her. Then a small white light broke through the haze, then another as she opened her eyes. Her gaze came to rest upon a white curtain, thick and heavy looking. A large bed and several beeping medical monitors surrounded her. The telltale smell of disinfectant was the final detail she needed to make a confirmation. 'I made it' she thought as she closed her eyes and sighed tiredly. However, her moment of personal reflection was broken as the curtains were slid aside and parted. A pink unicorn wearing a nurse hat, probably doing her morning rounds, was apparently checking up on the patients. 'Wait...PATIENTS!'
Suddenly, her eyes shot open in realization. "Blizzard!" she exclaimed anxiously, catching the nurse's attention. "Oh my, you're awake!" the nurse said, startled. She turned and ran out of the enclosure quickly, probably to get a doctor.
"No wait, is he safe!?" Ice yelled after the mare. She got no reply, and in her jumbled state of mind, she tried to get up. Pain was all that greeted her as she groaned, it lanced over her body as she finally got a good look at her injuries. Bandages covered a good portion of her body, from the neck down she looked like some sort of mummy. One of her wings was in a cast, the other was heavily bandaged. She also had several visible stitches. During her self-assessment, a golden brown unicorn stallion trotted quickly into her enclosure.
"Ah, Nurse Pharma Ceutical told me our mystery patient had finally woken up" he said cheerfully. "First things first though, who are you?"
"My name is Ice Heart, is Blizzard okay!?" she said worriedly
"You mean the little colt?, well he's right as rai-" he nearly finished before a young voice interrupted her
"Icey, you're awake!"
Ice turned her head towards the sound of the voice, she gasped and her jaw hit the floor. What caught her attention was not only the A-okay Blizzard, it was the ponies around him. Blizzard was right next to none other than Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. Next to her was her sister, the returned mistress of the night, Princess Luna. Further still, in front of the rulers of the heart of Ponykind were the six famed Elements of Harmony, defenders of Equestria. Everypony, including Ice, knew their names by heart, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle and Pink-.
A pink blur shot in front of her face and started speaking at breakneck pace, causing her to jerk backwards. Ohmygoshomygoshyou'reokaynowthatssuperduperandwowyourlittlefriendherelovestopartyalotandwhywereyouallbangeduplikethatand-HMMPHMH! An orange hoof blocked the pink pony's mouth before she could talk any more.
"Sorry bout Pinkie Pie, she can get mighty rambunctious" The orange pony chuckled out as she pulled Pinkie away from the bed.
"Icey!" Blizzard called as he scrambled onto the bed, breaking her out of her celebrity induced trance. He rushed over and hugged her, causing Ice to wince slightly,she smiled and embraced him anyway. "Hey kiddo, I'm glad your alright too" Ice said as she hugged the little colt closer.
"How long have I been out?" Ice asked tiredly, looking up.
"The young one was awake within a day, you however were unconscious for ten days, due to blood loss and trauma" The doctor said, "Also, may I ask why two gravely injured snow ponies were this far north?"
Then it all rushed back to Ice in an instant. The screaming, the dying, the horrid black skeletons, and the destruction of her home. She remembered the metal bugs, and how they tore into her like a swarm of biting locust. Ice began to hyperventilate and tremble slightly, before a heavenly voice called out to her as a hoof was put on her shoulder. "My little pony, you are safe now, please calm yourself"
Ice turned to see the princesses smiling warmly. "Now, can you tell us how you were wounded, or why you are here in first place?" Princess Luna asked curiously
"I-we are from a village in the south, it was just any other normal day and then," Ice started, as her voice cracking .
"Then, some kind of Tartarus spawned, two-legged, metal skeleton monsters came out of nowhere!" Ice choked out, "They started killing or capturing everypony for no reason, and they used some sort of lightning magic that burned everything it touched!" Ice cried out as Blizzard hugged her tighter "Then just after I saved Blizzard and escaped, some kind of swarm of metal insects started tearing into me, I don't even remember how I made it here!", "And the worst part", Ice said as her voice took on a silent and terrified tone "The worst part was their eyes, there was no emotion, remorse, pity, or anything behind those soulless green eyes".
Ice then began to console the whimpering form of Blizzard. The assembled ponies were all either in tears or wide-eyed with shock. Twilight turned towards the princesses to see that they were completely speechless. Before Twilight could voice a question, two guards burst into the room. They both turned to the monarchs, "My princesses, there is trouble at the southern border!, Iron Rock was attacked by some unknown force, and no survivors came through the pass" one said. The Princesses eyes opened wide, the miners of Iron Rock had recently sent a shipment of gems and ore not even three days ago.
"Girls, we will need to leave soon to deal with this threat, we will be bringing along the elements" Celestia said, "We do not know what these things are, or what they are fully capable of, so I need you to be careful" She said concernedly.
The girls looked at each other and nodded "You can count on us" Twilight said surely.
Luna then stepped forward "We will also take a retinue of our Night Guard sister, and head to the Southlands with you to help deal with this threat" She said.
"Please be careful, they killed so many" Ice said worriedly.
Rainbow Dash looked into her eyes "Don't worry, we'll be okay, I mean we just saved a whole ancient empire ten days ago" She said in a hopeful voice
The two monarchs then hurried out of the room, calling servants to ferry orders to and fro and preparing their departure. The girls looked at each other, "Pinkie", Twilight said anxiously as they walked forward, "this may be a bit more than a doozy".
Iron Rock Village, Population 1,223 0
"That bad?" Maldrakh asked the Cryptek anxiously. The Lord was currently walking through the devastated streets of the mountain village. His army of deathless warriors had recently destroyed all the of the pony settlements in the immediate proximity of the tomb, and his engineers had begun to raise dormant constructs and build fortifications. Slave camps had already been set up, and the captured ponies were forced to preform several menial tasks such as clearing debris or helping with construction, those that were not compliant were made examples out of by the Flayed Ones.
"Yes my Lord" The Cryptek droned back "While the upper levels of the tomb fared generally well, the lower sections had no such luck, we currently have only 720,267 total combat units available, the other 2,961,924 are either damaged or currently unreachable due to rocks, It should be resolved over the course of a few weeks piece by piece." the Cryptek continued, "Four out of our seven Monoliths have some type of major damage, one of our two Tomb Stalkers has major damage to it's internal systems, and the other has its' weapons nearly non-functional", "As you know, eight out of our ten tomb ships were severely damaged by geologic shifts and will take at least a month to repair", "Thankfully, one Shroud-Class light cruiser and one Jackal-class Raider suffered only moderate damage, they should be combat operational in three or more weeks" The technomancer then walked off to oversee the repair constructs.
Maldrakh was worried, he knew that his forces had vastly superior technology and eons of experience, but there were still grounds for concerns. This was not a large Tomb World to begin with, even before the Great Sleep, and he barely knew how many of the living there were. These upstart primitives of Equestria learned about from captured merchants, while generally peaceful, had a very large standing army and a very experienced border defense force, one such fort uncomfortably close.
The ponies in this village had a local guard force that had actually fought back before inevitably dying, and demonstrated the fighting capabilities of their species. The earth ponies buck could knock a warrior's torso off (he loved the looks on their faces when they crawled right back into the fight anyway) if hit hard enough in the right place, and could even damage an Immortal . The pegasi dive bombed and harassed his forces from above while somehow manipulating clouds to fire disruptive bolts of lightning. And the unicorn psykers could conjure searing bolts of warp energy that acted like small plasma bolts.
His thoughts were interrupted by a breaking sound a few feet in front of him. A metallic hoof had just come down on a charred skull of a pony. The owner of the hoof hoof was an unholy fusion of life and death. It looked like a pony covered in necrodermis plating, although looking vastly different from a warrior's body. The face revealed its' teeth, which were locked in an emotionless grimace. Mounted on both sides of the pony's body was a small gauss blaster, and embedded in its' chest was a special retractable phase spear. The Pariah then turned it's attention to the lord and bowed.
"My lord, the last of the living have been exterminated", The former-living droned.
Maldrakh looked on with pride at his new personal bodyguard. After his conversion, the Pariah's abilities were put to use to defend the lord from psykers. "Good, good...set the engineers to work constructing a new forward base" Maldrakh ordered. The once-pony then trotted off to relay commands to his subordinates. Maldrakh then turned around to face an uncloaked Canoptek Wraith, it had a very important scouting report judging by the large amount of data it contained. The Lord then transferred it to himself and played back the video recording in his head.
From on top of a small cliff, the Wraith observed a force of over two hundred armored ponies in a large fort. Ones with slightly more decorated armor were directing the rest into square formations, probably based on regimental organization. Out of the sky to the north came two large chariot transports, bearing two interesting occupants. When they landed, he got a clearer look. They both appeared to be some sort of hybrid between all three variants and were wearing silver and gold regalia, probably the famed princess sisters. The high-ranking soldiers bowed and started to speak to the apparent rulers. Behind the hybrids came six ordinary ponies, probably servants. Then from the large transport that had accompanied the blue one, another group of twenty ponies emerged.
They had gray fur, bat-like wings, and yellow cat-like eyes, and were clad in dark blue armor. 'How many types of these ponies are there?' Maldrakh thought to himself. The commander finished talking to an officer, who then gave an order to an assembled squad of about ten ponies, the Wraith observed them as they started their way towards the mountain path on a probable scouting mission. The Wraith then turned around and started back towards the village as the video cut out. The Lord then checked what particular units were available in that area to intercept them, and mentally smiled.
Sergeant Black Shield was officially and undoubtedly freaking the buck out. At first, the scenic mountain vista and calming atmosphere helped ease their tensions slightly. That ended when they came upon a charred husk of a pony, mouth frozen open in a scream, and judging by the position of the body, had been running away from something. Along the road, they came upon similar charred bodies and rocks that had unnatural grooves and clean holes burned through them. The privates were trembling but the three sergeants held firm and rallied the group further. All of them including Black stopped dead in their tracks when the next group of bodies greeted them.
About fifteen bodies were scattered around a circular and open clearing in the pass. This time, the ponies had apparently died painfully and gorily. All of them were completely skinned and their bodies torn apart,nearly unrecognizable as belonging to a pony. Several soldiers pitched over and vomited at the bloody sight. Gradually, they recollected themselves and slowly moved forward. Black noticed that the earth here seemed disturbed in a way, as if digging had been going on, but paid it no further attention,there were several large mines and gem quarries throughout the area.
16 minutes earlier...
Twilight and the rest of the girls exited the large carriage behind princess Celestia. A chilly blast of southern polar air greeted them, they had scarves and light coats however. The girls then looked around to find themselves in a large border fort. This was the first time Twilight had ever seen actual soldiers in full combat armor, completely different looking than the ornate dress armor of Celestia's guards. The commander of the fort, signified by his decorated helmet was discussing tactics with the two monarchs while the troops ordered themselves into formation.
"Commander, what is the situation?" Celestia asked tersely
"Last night, we heard what appeared to be very faint sounds of fighting or a commotion of some sort in the town, but couldn't be sure your highness, due to the mountains blocking the sound" He said "We couldn't investigate due to the border crossing laws, so we decided to leave it alone" He paused as he sighed "This morning however, thick smoke could clearly be seen rising and we then contacted you"
Celestia looked towards the distant pass and a worried expression grew across her face. "We need to asses the situation as soon as possible, we can't send in pegasi due to the strong headwinds coming up from the mountains, so I will need you to organize a small reconnaissance team to scout the first part of the pass"
"With pleasure your majesty, Black Shield! I need you and your squad" He started as he moved towards a sergeant. Celestia then turned her attention to her sister. "Let us hope that this foe is just another pack of dimwitted monsters, and not an organized force" Celestia said as she looked towards the mountains.
"And if they are not and we have a pitched battle on our hooves, my military expertise and Night Guard will surely aide us" Luna said hopefully. Luna had been an excellent military strategist during the dark days, and had won many seemingly hopeless battles. Celestia then turned her attention to the girls. "Here are the elements, I fear we will have to use them soon", she said as she levitated a familiar blue chest and retrieved its contents,they quickly adorned their individual jewelry.
"So from what Ice Heart said, the monsters were basically bipedal skeletons made out of metal" Twilight said, "So could we be facing some mad and powerful unicorn using magical golems of some sort?"
"A good theory Twilight, but a unicorn that powerful would have attracted my attention already, and nopony besides an alicorn is powerful enough to animate that many-"
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
Everypony in the fort stopped and froze like a block of arctic ice. Faint sounds of more screams could be heard through the echoes off of the pass walls. Those screams had undoubtedly come from the scouting party. Celestia looked at the commander, he was mumbling to himself despondently as he stared at the pass. Everypony's thoughts were interrupted when a low thudding sound began to materialize, they were the sounds of a marching force. As it got louder and louder, the troops ordered themselves into defensive positions within the fort. The girls were terrified but moved with Celestia and Luna to the top of the stone wall.
The thudding reached a crescendo before abruptly halting. The silence was broken by a small echo off of the walls of a being walking. The silhouette of a tall and dark figure then emerged from the entrance, it was too far away to make out any more details other than it's bipedal nature. Suddenly, it raised a staff of some sort into the air and slammed it on the ground. A green flash and an eerie chiming sound occurred as the creature vanished. The assembled ponies tensed up as the same flash appeared several yards away from the formation.
The girls gasped at what rose up as the green energy cleared up. It stood at a solid nine feet, easily two and a half feet taller than princess Celestia. It had an ornate, yet slightly tattered cape and wore a mask over its' face. Its mechanical body was skeletal in appearance, a metal spine of a sort rising out of its back and over its' head. The staff it had used earlier had a large, wide blade at the top, with a glowing tube in the center. The most unnerving part was the eyes, just like Ice Heart had said. That was not light, just a pale mockery of it. Real light exudes warmth and safety, this light was cold and unfeeling. It drove an icy spike through the hearts of the defenders.
After several tense seconds, the being spoke in a tone to match it's eyes, looking at Celestia. "Surrender and die"
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The Tomb World of Equestria
*STARTUP SEQUENCE ENGAGED*
*******RETRIEVING ARCHIVAL RECORDS******
********WORLD DESIGNATION: AKANT'AR*****
POPULATION: 3,000,000+ [ARMOURY/RESEARCH WORLD]
MAIN FUNCTION: BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION & LIFE EXTENSION RESEARCH [LIFE EXTENSION DISCONTINUED]
LORD: MALDRAKH THE UNDYING
COLORS: DARK GRAY AND LIGHT YELLOW TRIMMINGS
WARGEAR: SLIGHTLY ABOVE BASIC EQUIPMENT, 2 TOMB STALKERS, 10 TOMB SHIPS, 1 [DATA REDACTED]
NOTABLE PERSONNEL: SMALL CRYPTEK ENCLAVE
CURRENT STATUS: BEGINNING THE GREAT SLEEP [MAY OUR EMPIRE RULE ONCE MORE]