The Legion of the Damned

Centurius could feel where his limbs should be, yet there was a simple emptiness. Iphoan's hypothesis had proved correct and once again he questioned the decision to combine the mentally unstable Librarian with the metal half of a Tech-Priest to navigate the warp safely.

"My turn again?" he grumbled to himself inside the dark reaches of his armour. The Legion had a set of 'watches' with each Marine staying awake for a few years before letting his soul's warp energy rest once again. "Fine, let's see what advances these pathetic equines have made since I was last awake. Hopefully their bastardised version of High Gothic has been replaced with bastardised Low Gothic instead...

Centurius activated his optical sensors, bathing his soul in the warmth of light that came through them before the filters kicked in. He stared out at the same throne room, only this time there were two thrones." Ah, so the other ruler has returned from whatever lengthy sojourn she went on..." And both were occupied by the respective rulers. It hadn't suprised Centurius in the least to discover that the white horse was immortal. It seemed to be a thing among leaders. The God-Emperor, the C'tan, the Ruinous Powers, the Hive Mind, Gork and Mork. All were immortal or otherwise lived for a long time. That continued here.

He turned his attentions to the large crowd of horses that crowded the other end of the throne room and was suprised when he saw another horse possessed of both wings and horn. Unlike the bright white one and the dark blue one who seemed to reflect day and night, the sun and moon, this one was a garish pink that reminded him of Slaaneshi cultists or Noise Marines. That sonic weaponry of theirs was one of the few things that would kill a Legionnaire now they were nothing but souls trapped in metal prisons.

All the horses appeared to be talking or somehow clutching glasses of what he presumed was amasec or wine, as the nobility called it. A party. He spotted the pink one seemingly dancing with a white horned one, before they performed what would count as a horse version of a kiss. Make that a pre-wedding party.

A pain blossomed where his head would have been, if he had a head. Instead, it manifested itself as a faint tingling in his soul, a feeling something was messing with reality, absorbing raw emotion. He shut his optical sensors down, aware that visual distraction would only hinder his efforts.

Looking with his mind instead of his body, Centurius let his thoughts wander into the localised, calm, warp that pervaded the planet, feeling for the disturbances that would signal the usage of sorcery, or as these horses called it, magic.

The disturbance was easily found, whoever was using sorcery wasn't very skilled at hiding their mind from others within the warp. The next issue was whether to simply leech the memories from the users body, attempt full telepathy or simply dominate the sorcerer's unshielded mind.

Not being in a subtle frame of mind, Centurius elected to simply eject the mind currently occupying the body, take it over and deal with any unforeseen side effects.

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Celestia smiled at Cadence as she and Shining Armour. It was good to see family like her finally finding that special somepony, especially in Cadence's case, being the alicorn of love.

That was when the spike happened. A powerful aura of magic, more powerful even than that the Elements produced, suddenly entered the room. Celestia winced, it was like somepony was trying to rip her mind from its rightful place inside her head.

Several of the less-magically powerful or wilful  unicorn nobles collapsed under the sheer magical weight of the force applied.  Then the feeling vanished from Celestia's mind and she quickly followed the magical spike back to its source along the paths of magical residue that it would have left behind.

She only followed it a short way before she was sure of it's orgin: the 'Leader' statue. Flinging her mind back to the here and now, she opened her eyes to find Cadence lying on the floor in Shining Armour's hooves, gently sobbing.

Yet another mystery about the statues to be solved. Twilight would be arriving soon, hopefully she could assist in this investigation. I may need to modify the tests a bit...

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I have you now, Leech daemon. You may have fooled the horses, yet no daemon has fooled the Emperor's Finest.

Centurius opened his mind up to his other Brothers, awake or sleeping.

"Brothers, a daemonic threat has foolishly revealed itself to me. All of you are to remain on watch until I deem the threat has passed...

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The magical spike roared over the lands around Canterlot like a tidal wave. Unfortunately, Twilight and her friends were on the train when the magical wave erupted, right in the blast zone.

For Twilight, as powerful as she was, it manifested as little more than a mildly painful migraine. For Rarity however...

For Rarity the side-effects of the magical spike were somewhat catastrophic- in everypony's opinion, not just hers on fashion.

She not only fell unconscious, ruining her mane completely, but the cuts under her coat that had been caused by the Diamond Dogs reopened and started to leak a strange, multi-coloured liquid that wasn't blood, but... Something else. Something far worse.

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The spike woke many Legionaries from their long rest, and the warp residue that was soon littered throughout Canterlot began to slither towards the statues, seeking to rejoin the most concerntrated part of the warp nearby- which happened to be the Legionaries sealed inside their armour. The warp energy, unable to rejoin the pockets of warp energy contained inside the Legionaries, contented itself with coiling over their armour like snakes.

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In space...

Why do you resist me, foolish mortal? I know there is something there, some last bastion of un-ravaged lands and planets...

"You will not have your way with me, foul daemon!  Back to the warp with you!"

Oh but I will. It's only a matter of time...