Octavia’s winding tunes vibrated into the room from outside. Every note was crisp, clear, and would entrance the wildest beast.

“How long has she been freaking out?” Vinyl asked, watching the possessed noctral turn his head, round and round, bored of whatever invisible show he was watching.

“Twenty minutes.” he moaned.

He followed Twilight as she skittishly trotted around him.

“Think, think, think. How do we get apart again? I don’t believe this!”

It just didn't process that it had happened. Through daemonic magic, she'd possessed her assistant, mutating him into a hideous, horned monster. He couldn't touch her but she could touch him and felt him up, trying to figure out his mutated features. His red eye was just like hers.

“I c- I can’t stay in your head!”

Vinyl leaned on Kivsin’s back and felt his swollen muscles. She purred at his texture, his warm, rolling hills and ripples, and her Slaaneshi nature quickly took hold.

“I can get us a cocktail. Get us in the mood.” She said archly.

“This is no time to get high!” Twilight screeched, unheard by the white unicorn.

Kivsin spoke for her. “No.”

Let down, Vinyl brought her muzzle to his ear. “Yo Twinkle Hooves, you wanna say it yourself?”

Her cycle of panic was broken. She glared at her with fervent inquiry.

“I think the master is interested,” Kivsin said.

“Alright then.” Vinyl grinned. “His body’s yours, too. You can take control. He’s like a jacket. Just slip it on.”

Kivsin wrung his claws timidly as Twilight looked over her vehicle.

“How does this even work?” Twilight wondered. She sat in Kivsin’s lap, her back to his chest and peered back at his almost canine face. He grinned, a hundred daggers in his smile. “Sleeves, right.”

He spasmed and convulsed as hell itself entered his system. As his seizure slowed, Vinyl asked, “So, who am I talking to right now?”

Kivsin gazed in wonder at his claws, bent his fingers, and started gasping, unable to breathe.

“Twinkle Hooves, you in there? Breathe, you son of a bitch!"

He panged and contorted again and inhaled more steadily.

“Master, I’m sorry!” he said to himself. “The elves’ torture was thorough. Nothing works as it should...”

“Everything about you, it’s so painful...”

Her voice echoed in his mind like she was recovering from having every bone in her body shattered. “Oh Celestia, what am I?” His red eye looked at his claws on all his legs. “What did I turn you into?”

“Offer for a swig still stands.” Vinyl said offhandedly, then started back through the flaps of the room.

“Wait!”

Kivsin grabbed her tail and she let out an aroused ’ooh!’ then turned around with a falsely romantic look. “You wanna play that game?”

“The master would partake in a drink,” he said, sternly sticking to the first proposal.

“Then get your flank up!”

It felt so awkward, trying to manipulate these twenty rending fingers on his legs, and Twilight piecing everything she knew about herself back together.

“Just follow your orders.” he thought to himself.

The air was foul with the stench of concentrated perfumes, choking smoke, and sweat. The Tome of Corruption was a small place - about two dozen people were in at any one time. Some wrote stories, others smoked anything that could burn, and more drew incredible works of art on notepads and canvases. A woman of tight, light purple skin slowly and sensually danced around a small fire pit. Countless piercings hung on her body, passing under and through the smooth exterior. Her large crab-like claws snapped and clicked in a perpetual mating ritual. A masterfully woven banner, bearing the mark of Slaanesh hung behind a grey mare, a bow replacing her right foreleg, playing her warped cello that the daemonette danced to.

The bar was tended by a magenta pony hanging from the bottle and barrel racks. Thirteen arms sprouted from her back. A few shook a container and she poured an orange, foamy fluid into a glass and slid it to a customer. One man sat with his face on the counter, either in a coma or dead. A pink mare sat gloomy and when she received her hissing, black beverage, ingested the whole cup. A moment later, she spat it up empty.

“Woah Vinyl, who’s your friend?” Berry Punch mused.

“This 8.5 on the scale…” Vinyl said, leaning on Kivsin as she walked, “is Kivsin. Got his flank possessed by the most pussy ass daemon I ever saw.”

“The master is very upset,” he said.

“Nothing Berry’s juices can’t fix!”

In the seat, Twilight felt him keep glancing at the limp body in the chair over.

“Oh my gosh, I forgot to feed you for six days!” Twilight rebuked herself. “I’ve just been so caught up. I’m sorry.”

It felt strange to the bat, an attraction he couldn’t resist. “I’m not sure why, but the smell of flesh, it just…”

With a mind of its own, his claw grabbed the man by the arm.

“I think he’s been dead for about half an hour. You can get rid of him, if you want.” Berry said nonchalantly.

Kivsin put his claws to use, ripping the arm off and munching on it like a meat stick. Twilight couldn’t remember the time she experienced solid food, just blood. She ignored the reviled taste and feeling of the raw meat and tried to focus on the taste of the blood, from which she drew her sustenance. Vinyl already ordered - her usual, and the most alcohol-spiked blood available for Kivsin. The process sickened the possessed couple. Berry Punch chugged a couple of bottles, quickly got sick and vomited into a tankard. Vinyl happily took it. The second was sealed in a pressurized bottle because of the volatility of the alcohol. The draught fumed thick, grey fog from Warp knows what else was in it.

He finished off the hand, half-heartedly took it from Berry’s stringy arm and stared into the swirling red and black… black?

“Master, this might affect you too. We-“

“Drink it.” The troubled daemon in his head ordered.

Orders were orders. He quickly brought it up, but a blue aura around the tankard stopped him.

“Don’t take it all at once, big guy,” Vinyl warned, her horn aglow. “Anything I know about the shit Berry puts out, you can’t drink too fast.”

Berry chuckled maliciously and glanced at the dead man, missing an arm. The pink mare across the bar extended a slimy tongue and ran it over the span of his back. He swiped at it but they snatched it back.

“I knew it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

She eagerly came around his back and hopped up against him, hanging her forelegs over his shoulders and sliding her soft, wiggling underbelly against his back.

“Look at you, grown up big and strong. Where’s Twilight, servy-colt?”

“Somewhere within me, twisting my body in ways I-caah!”

Pinkie forced his mouth open wide and shoved her face in.

“Twilight! Yoohoo!?” she shouted down his throat. “Sorry about last night but you had to get out somehow!”

He shoved her back and massaged his aching jaw. “She does not want to speak with you!” he railed her.

He grabbed one of her tongues and wrapped it around her muzzle, tying a tight knot before her eyes. Pinkie sulked back to her place and attempted to free herself. Twilight giggled in his mind, a bit tipsy from the spiked blood. Kivsin was already chock full of pollutants and wasn’t affected much. The air suddenly felt stale and everyone felt a bit empty as Octavia finished her last song. The daemonette clicked her claws in applause with the rest of the patrons. The performer bowed her head in thanks and stood from her stool. As she crossed the floor, her sleek grey fur and one voluptuous flank were caressed and squeezed by the sexually wanting hands and hooves of the small audience.

“Here she comes,” Vinyl cooed.

Octavia teasingly kept her distance, going around her lover in a bubble and leaning back against the counter to watch a unicorn with a living, snake-like clarinet take the tiny stage. The game was over and she indulged in her partner when Vinyl jumped at her and lovingly forced their bodies together.

“I don’t think I will ever understand Chaos, master.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t see me and Pinkie Pie last night. Cannot unsee.”

“Think, think…” Nightmare Moon pondered in the bedchamber.

She poked her forehead to force her mind to work faster, to no effect. How to convince Celestia she had to stay and Luna had to go? The twin moons were rising together, first time they've seen. Luna, not her, was needed for the night duties. It bothered her so much that the moons moved on their own, independent of her whims. She stepped onto the hanging balcony, watching the sun set in one direction and Mannslieb and Morrslieb rising in the other. The serene purple and orange sky faded as the astral ball sank.

She raised her hooves to the bright grey and small teal orbs and felt her energy touch them. Like psychic fingers she gripped them, but they did not move at her pull, especially Morrslieb which she felt almost fight back. Harder and harder, she forced her power into it until her face reddened but, in line with the clockwork of the universe, the moons still rose at their own pace.

“My will shall not be denied!” she growled.

Her eyes glowed white and she raised her hooves again. Her horn hummed and strained with the power it had to channel. Finally, Mannslieb budged. It rose a little bit faster and Nightmare Moon lifted her hold on Morrslieb to focus on it. A great effort made it move little faster as she brought it to a twelve ‘o clock position in the sky.

She felt weak on her legs and admired her act. Morrslieb was left alone in its little corner of heaven with nothing but the pinprick stars to give it company. She returned to the bedchamber and assumed the position when Luna fell asleep, legs sprawled about the mattress and sheets over her head. She prepared to relinquish the shadows that gave her form over Luna’s body… but they didn’t leave at her command.

Briefly, she felt pensive. What was she to do if the little sister was not present but this monster of darkness? But then, she quickly came up with a legitimate excuse; the moons up at once forced Luna into this form. Now Nightmare Moon would have to pretend she didn’t hate Celestia with the passion of a thousand cursed suns a little longer.

The door began to creak and the corners of her mouth curled upward slightly in a malicious smile.

“Act two.” she whispered.

Octavia observed the beast climb the wall of the bar, digging his claws into the wood and quivering with the daemonic influence twisting his conscience. The already destroyed walls of his sanity were eroded yet further.

“Perhaps you could take me up, sometime.” she said wistfully.

Kivsin ignored her and continued his ascent. “Our souls are from the wild, and wings to reach the sky. Let the sun fall into the ocean, let the earth erupt in flame.” he extolled.

“Kivsin, snap out of it!”

He stopped abruptly, shaking his head as if to clear it. One of his claws nearly slipped from the wall before he realized what was happening and righted himself. “Master, may I ask why we’re up here?”

“I want you to fly us back to the school. I’m not going to get it any time soon.” she hiccupped.

She realized this when she nearly spiraled into a spear cache some time ago. He spread his wings, tattered with rips and holes at the bottom. Peering over the edge of the roof, it wasn’t a long drop but he still felt major vertigo.

“Waiting for liftoff, pilot.”

Kivsin clawed up the thick chimney as his senses caved again, Twilight’s daemonic influence coursing through his veins in a myriad of conflicting sensations.

“We leave in sleep, those who don’t know the final day is here. The very last and we leave at dawn.” Perching on the top, he scanned around for which direction to go in. “We raise our hooves and bodies to the peak, into the universe. Toward the stars we go.”

He beat his great wings once, and was launched into the air. Twilight laughed at the rush of flight, yet soon felt growing anxiety as they slowed in the air and started to fall in a falcon-like nosedive.

“You know what you’re doing, right?”

She felt his face curl into an evil smile. The ground flew up at them and his Twilight-controlled red eye shut tight, awaiting impact. She snapped his wings wide open and it felt like catching on railings, the force of stopping his descent. Twilight felt like she hit a rock floor as they rose above the buildings where daemons and pegasi flew freely. Kivsin rode on the air and didn’t have to flap much with his huge wingspan.

Twilight stared down on the city, a million torchlights and a light fog rolling through the streets. She felt the strength of his body pushing through the air and how close they came to becoming a pancake.

“You’ve gone crazy, you know that?”

“Crazy? Who’s crazy? I’m not crazy! Why are there cobwebs on my face!?” he babbled. “Blood! I ache for the taste of blood!”

He picked a lean pegasus out of the surroundings and flew straight up, high over them like a bird of prey. His face contorted into an expression of bestial, uninhibited hunger.

“Go get him.”

Kivsin curled his wings in and dove on his target, expertly positioning his claws to specifically clasp their neck and hind legs. By the time they looked up at the shadow that covered them, Kivsin smashed into him, crushing his throat to a fraction of its original thickness and driving them down to the floor of the roofs below. With his spine snapped at the neck, the pegasus was already dead. Kivsin flipped the body on its back and thrust his claws into its chest. He pried open the ribcage, stuck his claw between the lungs, and ripped out the heart, tearing it open and letting the hot red liquid pour into his mouth. The open vessels in its chest created a puddle of blood that he plunged his mouth into, sucking up the sweet ichor until the well ran dry.

“To the school, now.”

He scarfed down the heart eagerly, savoring the rich, chewy muscle, and took off again in a leap.

“Always hungry, just like the gods,” Twilight’s voice chuckled, looking at his bloody claws. “Can you make the trip more interesting? A few air tricks, maybe.”

“Former Black Guard are always full of surprises.”

“I broke that one, too!?”

“Broke what?”

“Nothing. Nothing. You still don’t know what ‘free’ means?”

“...Is it another language?”

“Nevermind. Show me what you got.”

“Calm down, calm down…” Rarity wheezed as she pieced the door to Lyra’s apartment back together. “Okay, what’s your situation? Your friend is an unstable giant metal beast that just absorbed a piece of super-heavy artillery and another juggernaut, you have to look after her and a zombified filly, and every bloodthirsty Khornate in the city is after us. Uhohohoho, I’m doomed!”

“You let ‘im out! Gimme my big brother back!” Apple Bloom demanded.

She pounded the quivering iron pony with all the fury her tiny body could muster, but Rarity yanked her away from a falling glob of hellcannon ammunition. Fluttershy swallowed back the foul tasting-energy as it dribbled from her lips.

“Apple Bloom, please be patient! Fluttershy, please, just release whatever you have in you.”

Apple Bloom glared fiercely at the steel giant as Fluttershy put her emotional sessions with the Doctor to use. She haphazardly sat, her head brushing the ceiling of the room.

“Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...” she whispered.

Rarity finally caught her breath. “See, Apple Bloom? She’ll get him back-“

“I can’t!” Fluttershy cried, her eyes wide and terrified.

Apple Bloom renewed her useless bombardment of the monster that had devoured her brother.

“What... what do you mean?” Rarity said, anxiety returning.

“Wh-when I try… th-th-the monsters appear.” She pressed the sides of her head. Her body rang from the impact of her sharp paws. “I can feel his steel… mixed with mine. It’s so cold...”

She shook like a washing machine, vibrating the whole room.

Apple Bloom climbed up and looked into the burned-out hole in Fluttershy’s chest. Red-hot pipes crisscrossed her body and a pair of bellows for lungs obscured a throbbing lava rock that was her heart.

“Get down from there, you’ll fall in!” Rarity said and pulled Apple Bloom to the floor. “Let’s see if I can cover that up.”

She winnowed through a pile of metal scraps, waste from the forging of her armor. A reasonable slab presented itself and she laid it over the hole. Fluttershy was at her maximum for metal intake so Rarity had to weld it on herself. She ran a charged finger along the crease, producing a brilliant shower of sparks and ticklish giggling from the iron giant.

“You… k-killed Big Mac…” Apple Bloom wept as the reality sunk in.

Fluttershy swiveled her eyes to the sobbing filly, but stayed still for the patch-up.

“N-no, he’s not. I mean, I don’t think so. I feel something, like maybe he’s alive. I’m so sorry. So sorry…”

Rarity bit her lip, preparing herself to break Fluttershy’s heart even further. “F-Fluttershy, listen... What you did out there, when you acted… different... we’re actually going to need... more of that.”

She jumped back against the wall, horrified and the metal plate only half-welded.

“W-w-w-” She couldn’t even start.

“Everything out there would do the same thing to you without a second thought,” Rarity quickly tried to explain. “Everypony is cruel, hateful, and murderous. You have to do it first before they do it to you.”

“No!” Fluttershy huffed, her voice choked with fear and disbelief. “Please, no! It hurts to be mad! I don’t want to hurt anypony!”

“It hurts worse to be dead! None of us will be mad at you, we won’t think badly of you and we’ll still be best friends. You need to kill things for survival, and know who not to!”

Just as the iron giant was about to retort, the door slammed open and Lyra and Cheerilee rushed in, shutting and locking it behind them.

“Phew, I think we lost them… Well, this is getting crowded,” The unicorn remarked, glancing around with distaste. “Pus ball, off the bed!”

Her hands began glowing with ominous, sickly green fire, and she fixed her baleful glare on Apple Bloom. The rotting filly scampered off, leaving a pool of bodily slimes on the linens.

Cheerilee stormed up to Fluttershy furiously, murmuring dark curses under her breath.

“Class was not dismissed, you truant…” She snapped her chains at her. Their pure chaotic energy stung like a real whip, sparking and scarring her body. “Rowdy, disobedient, rabble-rouser! You came to me to harness your anger, correct?”

Fluttershy painfully nodded, holding her legs as they dripped liquid fire from the gashes. “Ye... yes.”

“Then we’ll resume where we left off.”

Rarity stepped back, and let the display of cruelty go on.

“Brown colt, hourglass cutiemark. Brown colt, hourglass mark.” Kivsin repeated as his eyes scanned in different directions over the market square from a roof. He had counted at least two scraps down in the streets already between the seemingly-suicidal vendors and polyglot populace, but—

“There he is!” Twilight exclaimed, spying Whooves and Applejack taking part in a shop raid. “Go in after them, but don’t scare them.”

“Scare them?” Kivsin blurted madly.

“No!”

“Scare them!?”

“I said don’t scare them!”

“Yes master, SCARE THEM!”

Twilight lost control of the beast. He jumped down as Applejack threw herself through the window of the shop and shambled at the owner, her mindless instinct taking hold. He thrust a knife into her neck but, being already dead, she bore down on him and took a huge bite out of his skull. Whooves took what they needed for when they eventually left the city.

“That’s all we need.” he said, checking the shelves one more time. “Applejack, let’s go before the other people-“

A creature that immediately made Whooves think of a fury daemon screamed in through the window, scattering papers and small items in its wake. The possessed noctral spotted the Doctor and sounded a mind-shattering howl.

“Applejack, help!” Whooves shouted, but the pony had already entered her zombified trance and just kept feasting on the unfortunate shopkeeper.

Kivsin blasted forward at the doctor, who in his fear had backed himself into a corner, and with a crash they both went down to the floor. The noctral fixed his blood-encrusted claw around Whooves’ throat, his lips parting to reveal rows of jagged teeth festooned with bits of heart muscle. His breath burned the Doctor’s face and it looked as if he’d just bite his head off on the spot.

“Stop right there!”

The anger in Twilight’s voice made Kivsin shrink back in fear.

“Say what I say.”

Whooves coughed as the monster took its claw away.

“Doctor Whooves,” Kivsin repeated unsteadily as Twilight spoke, “Don’t be frightened. He won’t hurt you.”

The Doctor tried to maneuver around him, his gaze flicking wildly between the bat-pony and the door.

“Wait, please! Twilight is in here.” Kivsin tapped his head.

Whooves stopped and stared in confusion. “W...what?”

“I don’t know how it happened so quickly or how long I could do this, but... I-I’ve become a daemon, or at least gotten the powers, and possessed this noctral. I want you to meet Kivsin.” He shook his hoof and put on a bloody smile. “I wanted you to meet him before, but I just never got around to it. He’s actually a lot smaller than this and used to be part of the Black Guard in Naggaroth. Isn’t that incredible?”

Whooves couldn’t quite process it. “Twilight, you did this?” he probed, his voice hovering between curiosity and firm rebuke. “Are you in control?”

“No - Kivsin’s body’s been so destroyed from torture, everything he does is a nightmare. Can you separate us?” The fused couple were discouraged as he shook his head. “But the daemonancy book didn’t have anything on separation.”

“What have you been doing with daemon magic?” Whooves asked, a bit angrily.

“I’ve been experimenting, going to school and learning about it. Is something wrong?”

“You need to stop this.” he said slowly.

“Why? Chaos has the answer to every question, for every problem. Kill it!”

“Look at yourself!” Whooves exclaimed, squeezing Kivsin’s face. “You’re a daemon in a pony-bat! Rgh, you’re going too far. Have you asked him what he feels with you turning his brain inside out?”

Kivsin stood back and allowed the Doctor to rise shakily to all fours. Several moments passed in silence, before Twilight’s voice sounded in his mind once more.

“What does this feel like?”

He felt small, microscopic, as the pressure of the attention of two ponies came bearing down on him. The great black holes of their eyes drained his soul and stole his breath. An axe of dull molars and muscle to the skull cleared his thoughts.

“Doc, run! Ah got ‘em pinned!” Applejack grunted.

Kivsin kept her axe from clocking him again and held her by the lower jaw as she tried to sink her cavity-riddled teeth into his face. He positioned his hind legs just right and bucked her off with a crack of her ribcage. The caustic ooze her skin excreted burned his claws. Yellow pustules and inflamed veins set his claws on fire.

“He’s not dangerous, Applejack!” Whooves said, putting himself between them. “Twilight’s trapped in this body!”

Kivsin slapped his claws together, popping the blisters and waving his hands to get the fluid off. Applejack rallied her posture and scrutinized the creature, as the bat-pony kept an eye on that organic axe of a leg she hobbled on. The teeth moved like a segmented insect back up her leg and her skin stretched back down to rebuild her hoof.

“Whut ‘n tarnation are ya talki’n bout?” she said. This thing doesn’t resemble Twilight at all, save the wings and fangs. “What are ya tryi’n ta pull?”

“Just keep repeating after me.”

“In the wayfarer place, you had a heart attack and died. Your heart still isn’t beating.” Kivsin said slowly, his expression still wary.

Applejack held her chest that hadn’t made a beat in a month. “How’d it happen?”

“I tried to scare you and you said, ‘t’aint scary, sugarcube’. Then bam!”

It slowly sank in, ever so slowly. “Then… who’s this colt, here?”

“Introduce yourself. All formal, and such.”

“Ex-Black Guardspony Kivsin, ma’am.”

“Now don’t be talki’n like that. Y’all maki’n me feel old. How’d y’all git smushed together?”

“The master wanted to know if she was a daemon, so she attempted a possession spell and it worked. She is very troubled now, and it may be taking a toll on me.”

“Well, shoot! Twi, What’s it look like in there?”

“I can’t see on the inside; I look through his left eye.” Kivsin spoke for her. His red eye spun and swiveled randomly. It felt so icky in the socket, like someone stuck a fork in the back and was getting ready to just pop it out.

“How did you get mixed up with a Guard?” Whooves came in, wary of the nature of such individuals.

“I bought him at the slave market to help me with my research and homework. He’s so broken, he can barely think for himself. It’s almost like keeping a pet.”

Whooves got sorely cross. “Who’s been giving you homework!?”

“...Miss Cheerilee. She runs the schoolhouse we go to.” Kivsin said cautiously.

“Let me see your apartment.” Whooves demanded, sounding very disappointed and apprehensive.

“Take us there.”

Whooves was brusquely swept up under Kivsin’s foreleg and lugged out of the store.

“What are you doing? Let me go!” Whooves berated him.

“Taking you to the master’s apartment.” Kivsin responded flatly.

With a sweep of his large wings, they rocketed into the air.

“Ah guess a’ll have to find mah own way!?” Applejack shouted after the shrinking pair. She summoned the cloud of flies around her. “Go follow ‘em.” And they did, buzzing off after the three.

A quivering, clawed paw paced itself on Cheerilee’s hoof.

“How do you feel, Fluttershy?” she gently asked.

The iron mare barely resisted the impulse to create bloody ribbons out of the teacher and tie them around her nails.

“Pretty good.” she rumbled.

Cheerilee looked into the big blue saucers in her head and the red railroad tracks that crossed them.

“I’m so thirsty.” she said dryly. Wisps of black smoke poured up from her mouth.

“Rarity,” Cheerilee called around her.

“One moment.”

Rarity wiped a bloody cloth across Fluttershy’s bleeding mane and wrung it into a large bucket.

“Here you are, dear.”

She raised it to her and she swiped it out of her hands. The blood hissed and boiled as it ran down Fluttershy’s tongue. She threw it down and reached behind her for Rarity, who hastily jumped back.

“Where are you? Where are you!?” she snarled.

Cheerilee slowly ran her hoof along the mark of Khorne on the iron palm.

“Stay focused, dear. You’re very ill right now, I can tell. There are some nasty things flowing through you, your hide and mind. Such a hateful, volatile mixture. Absolute chaos that can be unleashed. Let’s calm down, now.”

The sound of air rushing into Fluttershy’s billowous lungs created a wind everyone could feel. A steam-like hissing rang inside her. Her painful smile steadily sank and she started to whimper. Rarity reached up and put her hand on her cooling shoulder.

“Can we be done? Please?” Fluttershy stuttered.

Cheerilee’s only response was, “Rarity, again.”

Her bony hand still on Fluttershy’s shoulder, Rarity sent another jolt of electricity through her.

“Sorry, dear. This is for your own good.”

Fluttershy sputtered and writhed and her rage mounted again. She thrust her claws at Rarity and barely caught her between two of them, sinking into the wall. She pulled one to and held her in place with the other.

“Back to me.” Cheerilee said coolly.

Fluttershy pondered her options for a moment and yanked her claws out. Rarity fled for her life to the other room where Lyra was messing with Apple Bloom, lighting her on fire and letting her panic for a second or two and quickly snuffing her out. Rarity shocked her assailant, like touching a doorknob after walking on a carpet.

“Ow! What?” Lyra jerked around.

“Stop torturing the poor thing.” Rarity stated, staring firmly into the unicorn’s golden eyes.

Lyra pouted, clearly wanting to go back to play with her helpless toy. “Why should I? It’s funny.”

“Because her big brother is part of that.” Rarity pointed to the calmly raging juggernaut in the other room.

Lyra’s eyes widened, then she gulped. “Apple Bloom! Hey, Sorry about that, heh. You know I was just joking, right? I’d never let you burn to a crisp.”

Rarity solidly punched her on the shoulder and hesitated in petting Apple Bloom’s smoldering hide.

“Try not to mess with anything, and just shout if she tries anything.”

“But ah was shouti’n every time!”

“Oh…” Rarity mentally berated herself.

“My own church. This is more like it.”

Nightmare Moon was only slightly impressed at the large chapel seated low among the residential buildings. Its windows glowed with torchlight against the nighttime darkness, reflecting on the lunar decor.

Her carriage was surrounded by a throng that wished to see their god enter the house of faith. The wicked Celestia and weakling Luna were reluctant to be worshiped like a deity, but the nightmare loved, indeed craved such attention. The carriage creaked to a halt before the majestic doors and a guard, riding in with her, opened the door of the wagon.

Nightmare Moon stepped into the evening air. Its natural scents brought fond memories of screaming villagers and invading dreams. She paid no mind to the on-looking ponies. They were ants to her. No, less. They were the dirt and cobblestones her steel-clad hooves walked on. The entrance was opened from the inside and all were relieved to see her grin fractionally.

A multitudinous thousand candles burned in anticipation of her arrival. Wide archways gave the illusion the building was larger on the inside than outside. A small choir chanted a doleful prayer upon the central stage.

All this light, it offended her senses. She swiped a wing through the air, blowing a chilling wind that extinguished half the candles. All fell silent and there were a couple short screams from the plebs, god-fearing and tense.

“Better.”

“Quaint.” Nightmare smirked.

The greeters parted to her desire to go down the columns of seats where many gazed on her. She was in her own self-absorbed bubble where no one else existed but her and who she talked to. Each one her eyes fell upon frightfully looked away and she came across a stallion, trying to bottle his misery, poorly though. His head spun as she stopped at his row and lowered her head to him. So close, his face burned.

“You miss her, don’t you?”

The grey stallion turned to her. The familiar scent of his fiancé’s favorite perfume permeated Nightmare Moon’s breath, a citrusy aroma mixed with the smell of blood. She spoke in a way as to expel as much air as possible in his face.

“If it makes you feel any better, she was quite delicious.”

She rose again and left him with his face to the backrest of the row ahead and moved on to the platform where the preacher would deliver his fiery sermons to the wanting. Her ears turned to the sound of light bells. A nobly adorned individual, rattling a chain of skeletal fingers and holding an equine skull under its wing proceeded to the podium at the center of the platform.

“Princess, if you could follow me.” Nightshade almost pleaded, trying to maintain a composed facade. Half the evening he planned was already ruined.

He hovered by a hallowed box seat high behind the stage. Its bulk was marble, chiseled with craters and studded with pure black onyx stones. Nightmare Moon took her place, resting on an array of embroidered pillows and got an excellent view of the church and the hundreds of eyes between her and the stage.

The vicar positioned the skull on the podium accordingly, seeming to ignore the presence of the goddess of the church. A race once loyal but now split in between Sylvania, the Witch King, and the Lunar Cult, the noctral preacher opened his text and cleared his throat.

“In dedicatione deae Lunae in morte.”

As the oration played, Nightmare Moon sat with her ego soaking up the words, the praise. She only half listened though, the rest of her facilities concentrated on what to do with Celestia. Earn her trust to let the evil half rule during the Storm, or try to lock Luna away in this living prison of jealousy and hatred, giving the solar diarch no choice.

She juggled and processed the possibilities, before catching sight of a small black silhouette coming around the front corner of the main room. A little blue colt, marked with scars of those condemned to a terrible fate, was led in chains.

“On all other nights, sacrifices to Her had their bodies purged in flame.” The preacher echoed, “But tonight, She may take it directly.”

Nightshade breathed a sigh of relief to see Nightmare Moon smile and stand in her box.

The speaker looked up to her and pointed a righteous hoof. “She hungers to punish and devour the unfaithful!”

She lightly jumped from the box and her sweeping wings blew everyone’s mane wildly. The colt stumbled over himself as he was enveloped in the shimmering mist of Nightmare Moon’s mane. They both were concealed under the magic aura.

“Little foal, tell me why you were unfaithful on Nightmare Night?” she whispered, faking concern in her voice. "Why did you leave no offering to me?"

“I-I was going to,” The blue colt stammered. “I was on my way even with my offering, but I was beat up and it was stolen.”

“Stolen!” she said with mock surprise - Nightmare Moon honestly believed him, but she didn’t care much and wouldn’t be kept from her snack. She undid his chains. “It is still a crime, unfortunately, child.”

He sobbed to the floor.

“What is your name?”

“S-Silent Spring,” he choked.

“Do you have any family? Friends? Where are they?”

“3846 Heldenplatz. My dad is... is...”

She nodded. “I’ll let them know that you weren’t taken in anger. That you’re part of the moon, now.”

She pulled him close and let him hug her leg. She rubbed her muzzle to the crown of his head and let the sweet lies set him at ease.

He felt an intense, humid heat encase his head and suddenly something wet run down his face. Before he could react, he was surrounded in darkness and felt something clasp around his hind legs followed by being beset all around by soft, moist walls, squishing him.

Nightmare Moon raised her head and lunged down, snapping her teeth over the foal’s hind legs and pulling him into her esophagus. In one gulp the bulge in her throat slid down. Her powerful muscles carried him through her ribcage and a small wave of pleasure buzzed through her torso as he squeezed into her belly. She felt him gasp in the acid fumes and quickly perish.

“Oh, it’s good to be back…” she sighed, rubbing the lump in her abdomen.

She swiftly sprang back into the air, leaving the misty cover to vanish where she left, and returned to her sacrosanct box.

“Retribution delivered!” the preacher bellowed. “Let this be an example of the fate that awaits you if you betray your faith!”

Nightmare Moon returned her thoughts to scheming. She was able to think more clearly on a full stomach.

Kivsin pressed the pump of a syringe, borrowed from Vinyl’s arsenal of drug injection equipment, into a test tube.

“Careful.”

“I understand.”

His darkened blood filled the tube halfway, and he placed it in its holster. Over a steady flame, it rested and they waited for it to boil.

His foreleg tingled, signaling Twilight was attempting to use them again. She grunted and hissed as she burned with the toxins in his system. Her energy slipped into his leg like a sleeve and the index finger twitched and flexed up and down.

“Pointer finger, ow. Middle, ring, thumb.”

Trying to raise the arm, Twilight was on the brink of screaming.

“Log.”

Kivsin used his other claw to open a drawer and lay out a notebook, quill, and ink.

“Day two. Motor control is slightly better. Fingers, manageable. Arm, intense pain persists.”

Kivsin’s claw-writing was worse than a foal. Twilight told him to just use his mouth and he jotted it down, bird feathers tickling the roof.

She lowered his arm. “Ah! Hah…hah…How do you put up with this all the time?!”

“Years of living under it and experiencing worse every single day.”

“I swear I’ll never drink your blood again.”

“What do we do about the Doctor’s warning?”

Whooves had made her return most of her books to the library, and told her quite stringently not to go to the schoolhouse until further notice.

“We keep experimenting and looking for a way to get me out. Oh Celestia, what if it never wears off?”

“I could always dispose of myself. Daemons can’t inhabit the dead.”

“Don’t say that! We’ll find a way.”

She used his claw to scratch his head. She went at the one spot that filled him with a dog-like bliss. Even his leg started thumping rapidly.

“The Doctor was right. What have I done?” She relinquished control of his leg, despairing her condition. “Where is he, anyway?”

“He is still working with miss Applejack around this time.”

The blood-filled vial began to boil and in a flash, exploded. Shooting glass pattered off Kivsin’s hardened hide and he shielded his face with hands that were pierced by many shards.

“What the hoof is running through you!?”

“Doctor? Miss Applejack?” Kivsin called through the door.

There was only the sound of starved zombie-like moaning. Applejack was definitely there.

“Perhaps their situation is delicate--“

A pressuring thud and smoke blowing through the door dislodged it and it creaked open on its own. Kivsin poked his head into the acrid fumes. Applejack was lunging herself at a hunk of meat, herself tied to a bedpost so she just kept falling over. The smoke streamed from Vinyl’s room along with tired murmuring.

“Hurry!”

Kivsin blew the smoke clear with his wings and found Vinyl’s door blasted off its hinges. Vinyl lay haphazardly, her horn fading with leftover magic from a backfired spell. Pinkie Pie was on the opposite end of hell’s music room, unconscious, with a struggling Whooves tied up in her tongues and in her lap. A shrinking magic light hovered over Whooves’ heart before flickering out.

“Help him! Now!” Twilight ordered.

Kivsin quickly closed the distance and began unraveling the slimy tongues from his limbs and mouth. He dripped with Pinkie’s drool and pressed his throbbing chest.

“Thank you!” he gasped. “Oh god, I can’t take her anymore!”

“What do you mean?”

“You two have to keep her away from me. Chaos is making her think she loves me!”

He hopped out from between Pinkie’s legs and she immediately felt his absence. She sleepily hugged the empty air in front of her, like a dog having a nightmare for it’s lost bone.

Vinyl slowly stirred, rubbing her burning horn. “Shit… how long have- Tavi! ”

She sprang to life. Prying Pinkie’s mouth wide open, she stuck her head in.

“Tavi, you okay?”

“I would be, if you didn’t let her ingest me!” a miffed accent bubbled up.

“You walk too slow. Don’t’ worry, I’m commin’ for you! Just stick your hoof up her throat.”

Pinkie’s belly jostled and soon Vinyl saw a sticky grey hoof poke out of the depths.

“Kippy, led me a hoof?”

Left to use his own damaged brain, he grasped Vinyl’s hind legs and shoved her into Pinkie’s waiting maw.

“Why?!” Twilight yelled in shock and disbelief.

“She said, ‘I’m coming for you.’ So…”

Pinkie couldn’t breathe with the mass in her throat and instinctively swallowed. She smiled as Vinyl slid down and joined her friend.

“What the fuck was that!? Get us out of here!” The white unicorn’s scream was muffled by the soft walls of Pinkie’s stomach.

“Just one minute!” Whooves interrupted. “What were you trying to do to me?”

“Nothing…”

“Vinyl, tell him!” Octavia nudged her.

“I promised Pinkie I wouldn’t.”

“Then I guess we’ll leave you in there.” Whooves said. “She could be up in a few minutes, or hours. ”

Her stomach groaned and started to roll around them.

“Fine! Jeez. She wanted your soul, Doc. If Slaanesh tries to hook you two up, it’s got to be! You can’t deny him…her. Hell, is Slaanesh a boy or a girl?”

“We’ll talk about it later! Whooves, get us out!” Octavia shook and pushed out against the tight skin.

Pinkie rested her claw on the two ponies, murmuring in what was now more of a digestive nap than a coma.

“Yummy pony goo for tummy...”

“Kivsin, reach down there before that happens.”

He pulled her jaw down some with one finger and maneuvered his claw, then his leg down her throat until he was shoulder-deep. Pinkie’s muzzle rubbed against his neck and her tongues tasted him in her warm, wet chambers.

He felt some mane, and gripped Vinyl’s head. She in turn held his wrist. Placing his other claw against Pinkie’s chest, he pulled Vinyl up. The stomach tentacles around her mandated extra force. Her face soon popped up and Kivsin grabbed her with the other claw and she slid out with an audible pop as her hind hooves exited Pinkie’s mouth. He reached back in for Octavia, finding her hoof and pulling up.

“Talk to the Doctor for me.” Twilight said nervously.

“Doctor, the master would like a word.”

He was still shaking off the black spittle from his coat.

“It’s so confusing which one of you is talking or who I’m talking to.” he snickered.

“What if I… sold my…”

He trailed off as Twilight lost her nerve.

“Sold what?” Whooves asked.

“Sold my… rrrrgh my soul! ”

His face paled. A fear crossed his face that would make Twilight apologize a billion times if he could hear her.

“You didn’t."

Kivsin managed to get Octavia out of Pinkie’s gullet and she hugged him with her one foreleg.

“I’m sorry, Doctor.”

Twilight was screaming penitence but Kivsin only transferred her words, not trying to convey her emotion. The Doctor paced back and forth. His second worst nightmare scenario had come weeks ago.

“Oh god, this is bad... Okay... But all is not lost. Alright, you haven’t turned evil, that’s good. Curious, what did it look like?”

“Black. Like an evil sun.” Kivsin said.

Whooves felt a bit lighter but still trotted about, pensively thinking. “Black sun, black sun... It wasn’t your soul, it was a beacon! Archaon could know exactly where we are now! Tzeentch, you clever bugger, tricking him into thinking it was Twilight’s soul. He’s probably waiting for you to come running to him, but eventually he’ll find out what it really is and start tracking us. Why, Twilight? Why did you think selling your soul was a good idea!?”

“Chaos promised--“

“You fell for it. Promises, promises! Never believe anything Chaos says, or else you’re just a puppet to them.”

Vinyl threw a foreleg around the Doctor. “Hey, you’ve been able to trust us this far.”

She licked his cheek with a forked tongue and tried to mount him. Whooves adeptly pushed her on her back.

“I never trusted you, but now I know to really keep away.” he rebuked.

“If Applejack can’t stop herself from going zombie-brained, you can stay with us, Doctor.” Twilight said through her slave. “If we get separated, Kivsin can protect you. Oh, you should see him when he goes after somepony to eat their heart and through him, their blood tastes sooo much better.”

Even Kivsin’s eyes fluttered as he recalled the fond taste of flesh and blood.

“Vinyl, Octavia, do not tell Pinkie Pie you told Twilight or she will go ballistic.”

“You’re gonna have to give me some incentive, Doc.” Vinyl said lewdly. Her electronic voice played a saucy song as she helped Octavia balance and levitated her cello into place where she gripped it.

The grey paraplegic could read Vinyl’s plan in her eyes and both glared on Whooves lustfully.

“No. Oh no, no, no.” he blared. He wouldn’t have any of that.

“Why not?” Vinyl moaned. “You don't know the good times the Prince of Pleasure brings.”

The two Slaaneshis circled him, looking for areas on his body they’d want to ravage and he skittishly trotted out.

“So I’ll move our supplies to your apartment?” he breathed to Twilight. He moved a little closer and whispered, “And uh, look out for these two?”

Kivsin’s red eye looked to them, drying each other of the saliva and the way they touched each other, wrapping the cloths and bed sheets around themselves looked like the beginning of some bizarre ritual.

“I put a new lock on my door. Not even Pinkie Pie can crack it now.”

Whooves sighed with relief. “Now I have to get Applejack back into the right mind.”

The door closed behind them as a small, spontaneous orgy began.

The bloated zombie in the other stolen room thrashed against its restraints. The slab of meat just a foot beyond her snapping mouth mocked her. She moaned with the infinite hunger of Nurgle’s undead. Her eyes were rolled back, diseased yellow balls running with red capillaries. Her mind was gone, replaced by only two thoughts in this state - eat, and infect.

Twilight felt much the same insatiable thirst for meat in Kivsin. Her daemonic influence, warping his mind depended on her emotions. Too happy, sad, angry, and he’d slip.

“Take it, quick. It’s still wet with blood.”

“What I do to bring her back is just get it far away enough that she- what are you doing?”

Whooves was off put by Kivsin snatching up the meat and stuffing it in his own face.

“We are sorry, Doctor,” he said between bloody bites, “but we hunger.”

“Don’t indulge yourselves. The addiction will get worse. The key is moderation.”

Whooves poked Applejack with a stick, waiting for the absence of the meat to register to her. Soon, her eyes rolled back down and noticed the rope around her neck. She sighed.

“Happen’d agin, didn’t it?”

Whooves nodded sadly. Applejack clenched her body and secreted acids onto the rope. It snapped quickly.

“Whut put me under this time?”

“Just something that fell out of our bags.” The doctor fabricated.

Kivsin spoke with confusion, “Wasn’t it Vinyl and-“

“No,” he said over her with a small, twitching smile. “It was hanging out the bag.”

He glanced to their tiny supply cache. Some jars of food, bottles of blood, and bound bundles of hay, all tied in burlap bags.

“Right, secret.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

“I wonder, Why d’yall call ‘im ‘Kivsin’? Whut kinda name is that?”

“The master enjoys the sound of the name of the country, Kislev.”

Whooves amusedly shook his head. “Named after a country full of axe-toting gun nuts, brilliant. It’s amazing how you’re all taking this.”

“Taki’n whut?

“All that’s happened. A month ago you were reading in a library or bucking appletrees, not a care in the world. Now one of you is a zombie, another is a daemonic vampire and steed of the apocalypse, one’s a giant metal killing machine, one’s a really tight hugger, and two we have no idea where they are. It’s Chaos. It softens your minds, renders your emotions numb to gruesome killing and tragedy. Twilight, you said it yourself; ‘you should see him when he eats ponies’ hearts.’ They must taste great to you two.”

Applejack ran her hoof across her bald head. “Ah do miss mah mane. Where do ya suppose Rarity ‘n Rainbow Dash are?”

“Wherever she is, Chaos is wrecking havoc on her memories. They already made her forget what she looks like, maybe they can make her forget who she is.” Whooves pondered it a bit more. “They wouldn’t let her go down. They’d make sure she’s somewhere safe and, forcing shapeshifting on her, she could be anypony, anywhere.”

He noticed a strange silence - no, not silence, but absence of a familiar sound. Fluttershy’s incoherent murmuring.

“Did anypony check on Fluttershy?” he said, walking to the closet.

“Oh, no,” Twilight gasped.

“Um, Applejack, due to certain changes in The Doctor’s state of living in this space, he will be moving into the master’s domicile.” Kivsin hastily forced out and gathered a couple of bags of supplies.

“Oh, uh. Alright. It’s gonna git a little lonely.” Applejack sighed.

The closet door’s creaking made Twilight squeak and hell was unleashed from round the corner.

“Where. Is. Fluttershy?”

“You love me, don’t you?” Fluttershy rumbled. Her paw ground around on Apple Bloom’s head and the filly almost lost herself in fear of the angry blue eyes boring holes in her skull.

“Mhm.” she murmured fearfully.

The edges of Fluttershy’s mouth curled up a bit. “That’s fantastic! We just couldn’t be friends if you didn’t, now could we?”

The rotting filly shook her head.

“There are many who don’t love you.” Cheerilee said.

Apple Boom squeaked as Fluttershy held her pet tighter. A few of her decayed bones snapped.

“Who? Why? I’ll… I’ll kill them!”

“Orkz don’t like you when they don’t like Chaos. The Empire hates you. Elves and dwarfs despise you. They want nothing more than to see you dead.”

“No... nooo... noooo...” She muttered darkly, a dangerous edge to her voice.

“There is a way, though. Kill them, and they will love you for setting their souls at peace.”

Fluttershy smiled. “I’ll make them. They’re going to LOVE ME!!”

She jumped up to all fours amidst a cacophony of noise, but Cheerilee raised a hoof to stop her.

“In time; in time.”

“Is he still mad?” Twilight couldn’t see the Doctor as he was on Kivsin’s right.

The entranced noctral carried some sacks on his back, balanced by his wings. He glanced at the fuming Doctor with the neck of a bag in his teeth. Both walked in silence, penetrated by him thinking out loud once in a while, rearranging his plans.

‘Yes.’ Kivsin thought back.

He kept his attention down the dark, sharply protruding hallways and came upon their apartment door. He bit his own claw, enough to draw a drop or two of blood and stuck his slightly reddened finger into the lock. It growled, clicked and the door creaked open.

Whooves plopped his bag beside the desk and pulled at his face, a million problems running through his brain.

“I just… I can’t believe you.” he started. “You lost her, left her in the care of a Chaos missionary. Do you have any idea what will happen to her!?”

“We’re sorry--“

“She could be turned on us! She could be taken away! Rainbow Dash might have a better chance than her, and she may not even know who she is anymore!” He paused his assault to think again. “The warp eating her memories could make her think she’s anypony! But who… who would they disguise her as?”

“Lift.”

The pegasus nurses slowly raised the corners of a large blanket, holding Soarin, still covered in open wounds that had finally stopped bleeding. The medicinal water soaked through the cloth and he grunted as his limbs were stingingly pushed to new positions.

“Careful!” Spitfire said. She hadn’t left his side for days. Her mane was a matted mess, and black bags framed her eyes in rings.

They lowered him onto a stretcher and let the wet blanket fall around him. The carriers started with their load into the halls while a couple of nurses patted Soarin with towels, soaking up the moisture. Spitfire anxiously walked by him, watching his every aching breath.

The hospital was working tirelessly with all the casualties of battle. Wounded soldiers screamed and jerked on the tables and beds. All smelled of blood and tears and madly babbled the horrors of witnessing the fury of the Warp. All but one room was occupied which was reserved for the “returned” lieutenant. Medical technology had gone backward. What were once IV’s and heart monitors, bone saws, biting gags, and religious trinkets now waited for a poor victim.

“Just a few stitches, a night to finish drying off, and he’s yours, general.” said the surgeon with a rehearsed smile, something to calm the friends of the injured. “I’d recommend a week for the stitches to settle and an hour of prayer every day to speed up the healing. Alright, everypony I don’t need, out!”

The room steadily emptied to surgeon Cauterize, two nurses, Spitfire, and a sweatingly nervous Soarin. A nurse placed a rubber biting block in his mouth and he looked back at her with ‘what is this for?’ written all over his face. Her chuckling told him learning would be painful. Both nurses put their weight on his hooves as the doctor poked a string through the eye of a needle and tied it securely.

An axe cleaved through his leg as the doctor stuck the needle through one of the canyons of torn skin on the afflicted limb. His attempts to twist and pull away were easily thwarted by the cruel surgeon’s subordinates.

“All that time in the warp made you soft?” Cauterize said. “You used to not even flinch.”

Back and forth between the edges, the thin metal splinter wove and the unicorn surgeon tugged on its trailing string to bring the flaps together. A pair of scissors levitated to the string, surrounded in his own green aura and snipped it near the skin. Cauterize tied a large knot in the ends so they wouldn’t slip through the holes the needle had punched.

“One down, six to go.”

Soarin’s teeth squeaked against the block, his eyes watering in pain.

A few firm knocks sounded at the door and Cauterize almost missed his mark as he winced.

“Requesting permission to enter, General Spitfire.”

“Granted.”

A light green pegasus entered, wearing a sharp blue uniform, buttoned down with gold beads, patterned with vicious lightning bolts.

“What do you want, Lightning Dust?” Spitfire said, a bit uncomfortable with another pony in the room, especially her.

“I just wanted to see if it was true, that Soarin came back. Looks like the troops were right.” She read the contempt streaming from Spitfire. “Ma’am, I fully intend to serve my probation, but how could I have known? When I’m back in action, I will divert every resource of my squadron to find her and return her to the Rig, or bring her down.”

“You got to see him. Get out of here.”

Lightning saluted somewhat angrily and trotted out.

Spitfire’s longing hoof touched Soarin’s and it comforted him a bit as Cauterize worked at sealing the gaping cuts.

“Twilight?” Celestia stood up.

Somehow she was in the palace of Canterlot, untouched by the siege chaos had laid against it. The halls were free of the severed heads and organs that the unholy legion threw through the windows. The stained glass was intact, and an eerie orange-red light reflected in. She ran over to the unicorn on the balcony, looking out on the world below.

The world was on fire. All was consumed in its ravenous grip, sending a reverse rain of cinders into the sky. The waterfalls and rivers ran red, carrying mutilated heads and bodies in their current. A fog of mold and pestilence blew across the land, rotting and eating away at all it touched. Geysers of magma erupted from cracks in the planet and raw ley energy poured out with it. The ponies of the burning kingdom shambled about in chains, blinded or broken, with the invisible fingers f the warp spearing their minds, they danced in dark worship and the streets of Canterlot flowed with the blood of evil sacrifices.

Celestia witnessed hell itself.

“Did I do a good job, Princess?” Twilight asked, beaming with anticipation for her teacher’s response.

“Twilight… what is this-“

She bumped into an invisible barrier, holding her back from the lavender magician.

“Princess?” Twilight said again.

Celestia looked on with horror as a second solar goddess walked past, smiling warmly at the unicorn. Twilight looked up, her expression mirroring that of the milk-white alicorn beside her.

“Who are you!? Stop! ” the confused Celestia barked. The imposter ignored her and draped her feathered wing over her faithful student.

“It’s wonderful. Perfect.”

“Twilight, get away from her!”

She didn’t hear or see her banging at the shield, trying to break it with the fullest might of her magic that would have felled a Chaos mammoth.

“This is why I chose you,” The imposter canted. “The moment I saw you when you were a filly, I saw the future of the world.” She scanned her hoof at the apocalypse-ravaged Equestria. “This couldn’t have happened without you.”

Twilight rested her head on fake Celestia’s shoulder as the real diarch relinquished her assault on the barrier in exhaustion. The imposter held Twilight like a daughter and, adding insult to injury, glanced back at her.

“Wake up, Celestia.”

Its face shifted, slowly twisted and burned.

“Wake up, Tia…”

Its necklace buckled and creaked into a golden mark of Tzeentch, burned into its chest. A wicked raven glared at Celestia. Its black eyes sucked out her soul.

“It’s your turn.”

Dancing flames engulfed her body, instantly killing her nerves and she fought in vain to put herself out, rolling, slapping her legs. She dove into the bloody waterfall, bringing a hissing end to the flames and it carried her to the streets below. The current swept her around, her charred flesh banged against buildings, dragged on the ground, it tore her skin apart.

The last thing she saw, for a split second, was an axe blade whistling to her neck.

“Tia, wake up!” Nightmare Moon shouted.

The sleep-sweating alicorn jumped up, panting like death itself had stabbed her heart. She skittishly looked around. Nothing was on fire, and her fur was still a divine white. The subtle rays of sunlight began to pierce the blinds. Nightmare and an entourage of religious officials to commemorate the changing of shifts looked on her nervously.

“What a nightmare you must have had,” she said with false concern.

“It was worse this time… so much worse.” Celestia buried her face in her hooves.

“Perhaps you should tell Shining Armor, and Cadence.” Nightmare Moon stood at the center of the room, the place for their dressing and undressing of their ceremonial armor.

“We must.” She lethargically joined beside her sister’s alternate state and the parishioners started their task.

As one piece of Nightmare Moon’s suit was removed, a respective part of Celestia’s armor was put on in precise unison. The Emperor’s words that wearing heavy armor all day was exercise in and of itself held true - both princesses had put on a bit more muscle mass after six years lugging and carrying their ensemble’s weight. It became easier in time, and they felt naked without it.

“I miss the real you, Luna. This shell of darkness almost looks like it’s taken over.”

‘Take a step closer, and I’ll really take over.’ Nightmare Moon hatefully thought, before giving a sigh in agreement. “Hopefully, I will be normal again as the moons separate their orbits.”

“We mustn’t speak of hope here. It strengthens the ruinous powers.”

Celestia tilted her head back slightly as the chestplate was put on. It’s high collar brushed her chin before it was latched in place and fell lower. She tilted forward to let a golden sun be fixed behind her head and Nightmare Moon’s similar lunar ornament was taken off. As the last pieces of the Mare of the Moon’s protection were removed, her dark energy left it, reverting back to their nobler shapes.

“We should wait for Shining Armor to get here. I cannot bear to tell them more than once.” Celestia sighed.

“Where you must pause, I will carry on, sis-“ Nightmare Moon forced herself, “sister…”

“Thank you. What if, in the end, we must face her?”

Nightmare Moon put away her hatred of Celestia. Serious matters beckoned. “If we cannot hope for the best, we must simply want it; want that she doesn’t turn to the darkness.”

“You weren’t there, Luna. I watched her grow up, surrounded by friends and family. All the letters about friendship and love she sent. It may all be meaningless now.”

“It may seem cold, but I don’t share your care for her. If you cannot, I will.”

The wind whipped at the Doctor’s mane as he hung upside down by the tail, high above the streets of Mordheim. The tugging feeling was more ticklish than painful.

“Do you see her, Doctor?” Kivsin yelled over the wind in their ears as they flew, Whooves’ tail firmly in his hind claws’ grip.

“My eyes aren’t even open!” he shouted back, afraid to see the far off ground.

‘Take us down.’ Twilight ordered.

The mutant bat-pegasus raised Whooves and held him by the middle in his claws.

“You couldn’t just carry me like this?”

“We need eyes in all directions.”

Kivsin’s claws dug holes in the flat roof he landed on and Twilight couldn’t help but wonder as he put Whooves down.

“Doctor, is it possible to become a daemon this quickly? All the daemon princes take centuries to get their rank.”

Whooves settled himself from all his blood rushing to his head while being upside worn. “Hm… I think it’s because the gods have a schedule to keep. Archaon needs his horse, and time won’t let him wait a hundred years.”

A green glow beyond the roof caught their attention and, nearing the edge, they gazed on a massive crater, smack dab on the surface of the city, hundreds of yards in diameter. Dozens of entranceways, emitting the alien green light that reflected off the black sky dotted the impression. It was usually bustling with thousands of people, mining and toiling to extract the massive wyrdstone deposits down below, but now it was walled off around the rim.

Skaven ratmen scurried about, improving fortifications to the hastily-built compound. The teeming masses of chaos cultists battered at the walls to reap the stone from the mines, but the Skaven held them back. Jezzails with their warplock muskets blasted into the crowd and giant rat ogres were used like attack dogs on leashes, roaring madly at the rioters to scare them back.

“The siege has begun.” The Doctor muttered.

“What?”

“They’re fortifying the compound in case the Orkz get past the walls. We have to find Fluttershy. She can’t get caught up in this.” Kivsin hovered over him and picked him up. “How hard can it be to find a giant in a place like this?”

As Kivsin rose to go around the crater and avoid gunfire, the surprise of a chorus of shattering wood and iron threw him off balance.

Flame and fury descended upon the compound.

“I’ll make you love me! After you’re dead, we’ll all be best friends IN HELL!!”

Fluttershy shook off the rubble from the gate and slashed her claws at the Skaven below her, cleaving clean through them like swatting ants. Jezzail bullets pinged and ricochet off her. Their tracers lasted long, advertising where they were among the fortifications.

The rioters poured in after her, along with a maliciously grinning Cheerilee, Rarity, so sorry for what had to be done, and a rotting Apple Bloom, who wouldn’t leave her brother’s side. They used the chaotic crowd as a meat buffer to watch their friend wreak havoc.

She got to work with the hellcannon, its daemonic mouth forming at the end of her hoof, and fired a flaming shot into the walls of the compound, blasting it apart and sending rats flying into nearby buildings. A rat ogre charged her, slamming her off her hooves and both were wrapped in a rolling melee.

“Baby steps,” Cheerilee canted. “Then to the front.”

A large bat pony swooped down, dropped the Doctor among the onlooking trio and darted for the two grappling giants.

Rarity gasped, “Doctor!”

The brown earth pony staggered to his hooves from the abrupt drop. He was suddenly entangled in vines of bone from the armored unicorn, brushing him off and helping his balance. Rarity took off her helmet and knelt slightly to eye level.

“Rarity, where have you been all this time?”

She chuckled. “Oh, being kidnapped for a while, used as a money farm. For the longest time I couldn’t even go outside because of this disgusting little starfish I needed to help me breathe-”

“Ah! … What are these?” he yelped at her bony fingers as they retracted to “normal” length.

“Many things happened to me in those weeks, including the making of…” She posed, showing off her bird-like suit, “This. It felt almost like home to work at my talent again.”

The decaying filly interrupted her catwalk. “Hey, I remember you!” she beamed. “Ah tried ta sell you apples that one time!”

The uncomfortable memory returned to Whooves. Her persistence to get him to buy those red and green baubles was something to be admired. Now, she stood before him, a bloated, fungus-caked…thing.

“Oh, yeah…” he backed away. The fuchsia-colored mare, just as Twilight described her, was his focus. He skirted around Apple Bloom, bounding ungainly over the scar-covered body of a dead Skaven in the process. “Miss Cheerilee, I presume?”

A welcoming, lingering voice bounced out from under her dark hood. “Hello! You know Rarity?”

“Friend of hers,” he said, getting straight to the point. “Fluttershy is also with me, and I’m taking her home.”

Like the teacher she was, Cheerilee flipped through the rolls of parchment nailed to her body and ripped out one in particular, along with a quill.

“Like a parent, finally come for their child. Just sign the late release form and she’s yours.”

‘Never trust a Chaotic.’ Whooves sighed, then glanced at Rarity’s bony fingers. “Rarity, could you sign? I’m not very dexterous with my mouth.”

“Of course, dear.”

She took the quill and it instantly screeched to life. The feather’s follicles hardened to hundreds of teeth that poked and tried to bite her hard fingers. She immediately dropped it.

“It’s a bloodletter quill!” Whooves exclaimed.

Cheerilee snatched it from the ground, shrugging. “Sorry, I thought you would be more formal. It is customary to sign in blood.” She put it away and brought out another quill.

Whooves took it between his teeth and scribbled down his name. Hopefully, his non-human identity wouldn’t be recognized. The feather tasted foul of bodily filth and he spat it into her hoof.

“Thank you very much.” she said, shaking off the pen of spittle.

Kivsin touched down by the Doctor. A few of his organic black carapace plates were cracked. The only thing that stopped Rarity from losing it was that the creature had dropped Whooves with them.

Cheerilee looked into his red eye with casual interest. “Twilight. Enjoying daemonhood?”

Kivsin shook his head. “It hurts us both.”

Fluttershy stomped up behind him as the skirmish quieted, a wicked grin devouring her face as she plucked out heavier weapons that cut deeply into her skin. She was painted in Skaven blood and yanked up the possessed couple, cradling them like a big bunny.

“You helped me… So you love me, right?”

Kivsin took one second too long to answer.

“Right?”

He frantically nodded. “With all our heart!”

She released her grip, and the bat-pony dropped to the cobblestones, gasping.

“What did you do to her?” the Doctor angrily asked Cheerilee.

“I made her better,” she lauded eerily, “But she’s not done yet.”

“Yes, she is.”

A trickle of blood rained on him. He looked up at Fluttershy, looming over him like a steel umbrella. The heat radiating from her felt like a steel mill.

“Done? What do you mean ‘done’, Doctor?”

“Let’s calm down now, Fluttershy, okay?” Cheerilee said happily. “The fight’s over.”

The juggernaut snappishly looked around, seeing no living rats. There must have been more to fight, more to kill, blood to drink, but all the rodents had been slain by the rioters.

She shivered like a washing machine. Her smile sank down and down. She looked at the blood on her hooves, the Skaven bodies shish-kebabed on her horn. Finally, Fluttershy collapsed, wailing with pitiful remorse. “P-p-please, g-g-get them off.”

Kivsin picked up the charge, slipping the bodies off the bladed protrusion between her eyes. Fluttershy was forced to listen to and feel the sliding of their blood wetted corpses as one by one, they were removed. Rarity couldn’t bring herself to help at the thought of her touching these giant rats. She gawked at Kivsin, how Cheerilee called him Twilight. She wrapped her hand into a looking glass again.

“Show me Twilight.”

Lightning arcs popped and crystallized, showing a different angle of Kivsin, working. She viewed a flowing form of equine-shaped flames rushing through him. They both moved in perfect unison, like the fires were sharing his body. The pain of his insides being brushed by the light showed in how he twitched and gritted his teeth.

She stepped nearer. “Twilight?” Another glance at her hand to verify. “Are you in there, dear?”

The daemon was getting tired of explaining. Kivsin turned his head completely around, and Rarity nervously drew back a step as his right eye fixed upon her.

“The master will be with you in a moment.”

Apple Bloom tugged on Rarity’s chainmail skirt. “Can we see mah sis, now?” She pouted impatiently.

Rarity jumped away. “Please don’t touch me!” The filly’s touch rusted a few chain links to a flaky orange dust in seconds. “Applejack? No, no. Not until you find Sweetie Belle.”

“What?” Apple Bloom’s sunken eyes puffed up a bit.

“I won’t be left alone while that bloated, rotting meat puppet you call a sister is happy again.”

The marble eyes of her shoulder pads glowed bright and almost seemed to stare at Apple Bloom with Rarity’s eyes. The filly backed away from her cruelty, bumping into Cheerilee.

“A teacher is always there to help a filly.” she said and patted Apple Bloom on the head. “You can locate us, Rarity?”

She shook her looking-glass. “I will be at Lyra’s, when you have her.” And with that, she departed, stepping gingerly around the blood-soaked charnel house of a street.

Cheerilee gently tugged Apple Bloom’s moldy tail, urging her to follow through the gates of the compound that widened as it was ripped apart by the crowd. Its makeshift towers were toppled, crashing in plumes of ash and dust.

“So, where are your friends?” Cheerilee asked.

“They’re with Pox, a pony we met a week ago. Ah’m not sure where he brought ‘em.”

“Pox? Well, they’re in good hooves. He’s great with the young ones. His name used to be Braeburn, but the warriors of his clan kept calling him Pox, so it just stuck.”

Apple Bloom’s sagging, deflated heart almost literally melted.

The world did not exist. He didn’t even thank the ground for being the only thing in existence his hooves acknowledged. The Reiksguard stallions barely kept up with Shining Armor as he bounded through the streets of Altdorf, ignoring all around him save his destination.

His legs sent shockwaves of pain up his body every step, his lungs were on fire but he didn’t care. He was almost there. The crowds parted to the reiksmarshall’s one-stallion stampede.

Across a large open street corner, Shining got his bearings for where he was. His guards caught their breath as well. The Princesses’ and Emperor’s palaces were visible atop their hills on opposite sides of the city. Shining spotted a thin, cloud-white, almost crystalline tower, just barely managing to peak its very top over the buildings around him. The guards didn’t notice for a few seconds that he’d taken off again.

The Elven district. Their inhabitants tried to make it as much like Ulthuan as possible. White brick was laid tall and tapered thinly to their roofs. The layout of the district was such that the center could be seen from any major street and there towered their representative headquarters. A citadel of immaculate white, blue, and gold, Shining Armor bolted for it and stopped before the guard elves at the sides of the door. The blue-eyed unblinking pelts of white lions bit their shoulders and paws wrapped around their waists.

They glanced at the panting, sweaty stallion and his equally exhausted guard, then at each other, not knowing what to make of him.

“I am…Reiksmarshall Shining… Armor.” he huffed. “Most pious servant of… Celestia and Luna, the saviors of… Ponykind.”

One promptly opened the door and both stood aside. He careened in, the stench of his perspiration offending the elves. A few knocked-over elven officials later, came stairs and more stairs, winding up the central tower. He persevered up, his passion holding back the fatigue just enough to move briskly. A pair of guardponies were statues at a regal door. They saluted at the imperial warlord. Their armor bore much resemblance to the soldiers of the old Crystal Empire but was more streamlined and clearly influenced by elven uniform fashion. The reiksguard finally caught up and drew alongside him.

“I demand to see her.”

“Yes, Prince.”

Prince... haven’t heard that title in a while. Shining thought nostalgically.

The reiksguard saluted their Crystal Empire counterparts and took post beside them. One opened the door with a wing and Shining Armor jumped in.

All across the elegant room were glaring white and rainbow reflections of the light that poured in through the windows. It was as if there was a giant glass prism on the plush sofa where the light bounced from.

“Cadence?” ‘She has to be here, she has to be!’

The lights shifted and he heard the faint scraping of crystals.

Author's Notes:

Sorry it took so long but things have been butts with proofreading. This is actually the first professionally proofread chapter in the story.