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The mimicking sun hung high in the Ley’s sky. The whole shimmered with aethereal clouds and was calm, the pure mirror face to the self destructive Immaterium. In the far distance, through the mists of magic, was the realm of the elven pantheon, gleaming spires of marble grey and white.

A few millennia younger than the Warp itself, the Ley had been engaged in a forever-war against the daemonic Immaterium since its inception, two immortal, indestructible realms battling for the mortal plane. One desired no more than to consume the lower world in fire and blood, to endlessly feast on the doom of mortals. The other sought to see the mortal world safe, and free of the daemons feeding on their every thought.

Celestia and her mother, Solianna walked through the courtyard of the palace of the equine realm. A grand ceremony had been held the other day—or however time passed in this dimension—for the arrival of the sibling princesses and they had four thousand years of catching up to do. All things in the yard were divine in nature, the sweet scents of the flowers and vegetation were soothing, and Celestia saw many faces she hadn’t seen for hundreds of years. The last couple of days was all so much, and a walk in the gardens was a good way to slow things down.

“The Ley?” Celestia said ponderously. “I thought it was merely the magic energy in the air.” The flow of magic was far different than in Equestria. In their old home, ley was the source of a unicorn’s power, a shapeless energy they focus through their horns to manipulate objects. By contrast, ley in this new domain was like blood in an animal; it felt natural, smooth, and life-giving.

“Much like the Immaterium, the Ley is its opposite dimension. Just as warp permeates the very soil and air of Sigmar’s world, Ley flows through Equestria and we have made a little headway into the Old World as well. That is why Discord could not stay here long, even after he was reformed. He is bound to the Warp.” Solianna’s head hung down slightly. “We did all we could to stop the Dark Lords from letting the Everchosen reach Equestria, but it just wasn’t enough.”

Her daughter nuzzled at her neck, desiring to bury that sadness. “You did all you could, mother. We are alive, that is all that matters right now.” It did seem a miracle. “Just how many of our old friends are here?” Celestia pursed her lips pensively, carefully choosing a name as if she could only ask once.

“Starswirl?”

“Yes.”

“Tyr?”

“Yes; and Woden, Freya, and Maiesta.” Solianna went ahead. “Those who are valued most to us are granted the gift of immortality. Their deeds are invalueble to resisting the dark lords. If they perish in the mortal realm, they don’t necessarily die. They are sent back to the Warp or in the case of our friends, here. For those abominations in the aether, it could take years, centuries to find a way back to reality. Have you ever heard a daemon prince die?” Her daughter shook her head. “Just as his body disintegrates, he laughs with a power to drive mortals mad, because he will return eventually.”

The concept didn’t sit well with Celestia, as she thought of the monster... her student, that she had raised in Equestria. Even if Twilight was slain and the End Times averted, the daemonic mare would still wander the hellish plains of the Warp, looking for a way back to real space, seeking revenge.

“Your father and I understand what you had to do.” Solianna said, causing Celestia’s ears to droop low. “The Changer is a liar, the likes of which few could fathom.”

“He promised that she would be sent to another world. And he pulled us in with her.” Celestia frowned.

A few things became clear, that she set herself up for an ultimate trap and likely provided the springboard from which the daemon would inadvertently launch itself into the dark gods’ hands. She felt her decisions were selfish, helping raise a prized student, just to keep it calm, and then ship it off to another world for other figures’ purposes.

“That is part of the reason why we had Discord bring you and Luna to us. The creature is truly more powerful than you and your sister are now, but here…” Solianna went on, grinning. “We will prepare you to face down oblivion itself and show you your true nature, as our children.”

Having listened to her father talk for heaven knows how long to someone else brought out a long-extinguished, childish urge in Luna, the desire to explore. She walked off and explored the palace alone for a while. The architecture was certainly similar to that in Equestria, each turn and hallway, and great windows offered a view of the realm below. Her father eventually caught up to her.

"Lulu, there you are! Don't run off like that," he said crossly.

"Our apologies, father, we-"

"Luna, you're not in Equestria. You don't have to do the royal 'we'"

Luna blushed. "I was wondering as to what we would do in our time here."

"Mostly we will be readying you and your sister." He draped his wing over Luna's back and they started walking again. "You were very brave against the Skaven, but they are not the worst of it. You will have to face down the force of the Immaterium in due time."

Luna knew this. And what had become of her sister's 'pupil'? She was probably with Archaon now, fitting her for armor and teaching her to kill mercilessly. It would be a war of the undying.

Immortality. One hundred years, a thousand years; time will tick on and so would they, but, “...Are we ever going to see home again?” The thought buzzed at the mention of their rule in the Empire.

Her starry-coated father tried to give an assuring smile, but uncertainty infiltrated it. “The future will yield great technology that will allow mortals to walk among the stars. Perhaps you will find Equestria then.

“That is many millennia away.” Luna sulked.

“And the planet is not going anywhere soon.” He draped a wing over her back. “Come. We must begin your teaching.”

“The Empire cannot be without us for decades,” Luna said. “Who will rule in our absence? What do we do about Karl Franz?”

“This is the Ley!” Tenebris chortled. “Completely separate from time and space. Years here may be only hours or seconds in the physical plain. Speaking of, there was a period when your mother and I couldn’t see you in the Materium.”

“It must have been during the time Mannslieb and Morrslieb were up together. The whole period is cloudy to me, like I’m remembering something somepony else did... Tia said I was forced into the visage of Nightmare Moon, and acted more selfishly.” While Luna could don the outward appearance of her dark self at any time, the twin moons being so close together in the sky must have forced a change, made some of that monster come out.

“Well, we don’t have a sun or moon here. Solianna and I created the projections in the sky just to simulate the passing of time. The little things count, you understand.”

They walked in contemplation, both still not fully believing that father and daughter were together again. Was this a cruel dream they would both wake up from and find the other was never there, or was it finally real? Either way, they walked close together.

“Father, if Tia and I assume some greater power, would this not mean all the cults, churches, the rabidity of these religions and fear-mongering... would actually be legitimate?”

Tenebris sighed. “It’s something Starswirl and I had been talking about. Ignorance is incurable among the mortals, and they will always need to believe in something. Chaos tempts them with its promises of power, skill, or eternal pleasure, but it’s all lies. That’s why the Imperial churches are so powerful, to provide an alternative to Chaos. If man and ponies must believe in something, let it be you.”

“What do you mean, they got bored!?” Twilight shrieked. Everything she knew of psychology, mental processes, logic itself, was under attack.

“They didn’t get bored,” The Doctor said, tightening the absent-minded Applejack’s restraints. “They got word of a better fight and packed up to go to it.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense! You don’t just stop a siege for something like that! The resources, the energy the Orks spent attacking this place for two weeks, all down the drain! This is beyond stupid, this is... is... baahh!”

Whooves plucked at the taut ropes to inspect them. “But they don’t care. You know why?”

There could be no logical explanation, but Twilight had to ask. “Why?”

“Cuz dey iz da orkz, and orkz iz mayd fer fight’n an’ winnin!” he chuckled. “All we need to do is get everything and pony together and we are out of here. I think Applejack is finally coming around. She might actually beat this.”

The foetid mare had stopped snapping her jaw at the meat and was just moaning weakly through dusty eyes. Apple Bloom had been silent for a day and her eyes were beginning to look more lively.

She was in great pain, feeling like absolute garbage; which may actually be an improvement. “Uuuugh… Weh… Why am I tied up?” She looked up to her zombified sister, her voice gurgling through pus and phlegm. “Apple...jack? Wha- whut’s goin’ on?”

Whooves undid her ropes before she panicked. “It's okay. it was to break your condition.”

“Applejack, whut happen’d?” Apple Bloom pushed her sister, still fearful of her more dead than usual expression.

“Ahh… puuuhh…” she moaned. She grunted and twisted, snapping her four sets of teeth at Apple Bloom who jumped back in fright.

“Wha!... Sis?”

The potential meal out of reach, the entranced zombie returned her dead gaze to the small piece of meat just a few feet away.

Twilight put her leathery wing over Apple Bloom. “She can’t eat anything until her mind comes back. Until then, she has to go through this, okay?”

“And we’ll carry her out of here bound up if she doesn’t recover soon, just ASAP!” Whooves happily pressed on. “Twilight, you and our quiet friend there get everypony together and we are off!”

“Can we bring cous’n Braeburn?” asked Apple Bloom with a hopeful smile.

Whooves sighed and inclined his head in a negative. “Sorry, but we can’t have everypony and their grandmother with us.”

“Huh? Pleaaase!” the foetid filly pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Apple Bloom, but no means no.”

Apple Bloom hung her head sadly and sat a safe distance from her sister. At least she still had her.

Twilight put her hoof around Kivsin and they both vanished in a cloud of warp smoke. On the rooftop, she sheepishly peered over the edge to the river of mutants and cultists below, then the air above. “Do you think I can do it this time?”

Kivsin recalled their time practicing together, mostly bad times. “We have practiced much, and you are improving.”

“Mind if I get some help?”

“Of course, Master.”

“What did I say about that?” Twilight said crossly.

“Oh, uh… Twilight.”

“That’s better.” she smiled brightly.

They had practiced with their little system before; holding each other chest-to-chest, Kivsin would act as a counterweight, flapping in unison to help Twilight not flip over or commit some other aerial folly. Kivsin was always skittish, having been at the mercy of whips and chains for accidentally touching the slave handlers. Small acid injections, molten silver in the mouth, a day with the wyches, just a few examples of the Druchii’s many tortures. Twilight felt him quivering and muttering feverishly to himself.

“It’s okay; nopony’s here to hurt you.” she said.

He steadied a little and nodded. Twilight had always been good to him, even if he never knew it. She let him take some of her rations instead of taking it herself, letting him sleep at day instead of running him ragged with her enhanced wakefulness, never needing to sleep.

He helped Twilight to a moderate flying pace and let go. She was on her own and flew with all the grace of a falling refrigerator. Wonder flowed at the sight of the world whooshing by, the wind in her face and mane. Kivsin wasn’t enjoying it so much as each flap was followed by a wincing jolt of pain throughout his mutilated body. Hopefully, she could take his mind off of it.

“So, what did your old armor look like?” she asked.

“...Come again?” he replied curiously.

“You know, the Black Guard.”

“Oh, um…” The cogs in his mind slowly turned as he recollected. “Much like normal dark elf armor but more bronze trim, some red crystals, and a large gold crest in the forehead. Actually quite something to see.”

“Maybe Rarity could make you a suit.” Twilight wondered. “She’s going to work on something for everypony else. Did you have any weapons?”

A few fond memories trickled back, a pitter-patter of the thrill of battle and the cries of newly captured slaves. “Lightning claws, powered by warpstone. They could cut through anything!“

Twilight gave a thoughtful grin at the description. “Hmm... If we scavenge the battlefield, we can probably find some good metal. You’re going to look great!”

The streets of Mordheim flowed with the Blood God's wine after the siege, that of cultists, greenskins and even a few fallen giants and ogres. The great walls were battered but still stood, the green host gone to more thrilling battles. Gaggles of looters scavenged piles of bodies for goodies.

Twilight resisted the powerrful thirst and temptation to drink the ichor in the roads and dove into a pile of corpses to find some trinkets. After some digging around, she found something of interest.

“Kivsin, look what I found!” she called. She sank her fangs into the body of a dead Druchii noctral, all blood leaving it for her and making it easier for Twilight to pry off it’s black armor. “Will this fit?”

Her assistant threw away a pair of severed arms he was clapping together and let Twilight slip the components on. A perfect fit. It was thin and form-fitting, flexible and made him look like a walking swiss army knife. Between plates shimmered chainmail and two-fingered claw blades stuck from the hoof plates. He looked intimidating indeed, but both knew this was only a preview for what Black Guard armor may look like.

Twilight had found a good suit from a fallen chaos warrior stallion, though she had to skin him to get it off as the metal was fused to his flesh. The ensemble was covered in deep cuts and split plates, in complete disrepair, but it was so appealing to Twilight for its spiky aesthetics. She couldn’t keep the helmet since it didn’t have a hole for her horn, or the other two at her temples. She hid a collection of souls among the armor, such a sweet delicacy the Doctor forbade her from. There had to be a way to consume them without causing her transformation.

“So, how does it feel?”

“Familiar, and… heavier than I remember,” Kivsin said, wriggling to get a feel for the suit.

“You need to rebuild your strength. Let’s go get Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie gnawed at her hooves in anticipation of the decadent champion’s thumb, whether it would go up or down at the grey cellist on stage. It hung out horizontally, still like a statue’s arm; a single twitch down could end Octavia’s life. The performer herself was blubbering under a composed facade. Her lips quivered and a bead of sweat rolled down her temple.

It rotated up. He enjoyed her song.

The mutant musician bowed, letting out an exasperated breath, and waddled off the stage. She and Vinyl exchanged a good luck kiss and the unicorn took the gem from her tie. The champion reclined in his plush throne and was approached by many gift-givers, offering pleasant distractions while the full-body-tattooed DJ materialized her equipment from the Warp.

Twilight and Kivsin approached the Tome of Corruption, a hulking slaaneshi chaos warrior standing watch at the entrance for only the champion’s followers to be let in. However, being friends of a couple of the only employees of the place, Twilight and Kivsin were let in, giving nervous smiles to the dark pink and purple monolith who glared back through six glassy eyes.

They weaved throught he patrons quietly so as not to disturb the flow of the room and draw attention. The floors and walls were flesh-like, perspiring. The air was rank with sweat and perfume.

A firm nudging broke Pinkie from the entrancing beauty of the champion. “Hey, Twilight! Ooh, cool, where’d you get that armor?”

“We went looting the battlefield and I found it,” the daemonic alicorn said. “We have to get back to the apartment and get out of the city. The orks are gone, and it’s safe now.”

“Oh, I can’t go yet!”

“Why not?”

“I’m doing some work on that hunk o’ man right there.” Pinkie glanced lustfully at the champion. His grey-pink skin tightly wrapped around bulging veins and his perfume stink made all who weren’t loyal to the Dark Prince dizzy.

Vinyl sharply inhaled the dust of the soul gem she’d crushed up and transfigured into her much louder self. She levitated the main cord for the speaker display down her throat and clipped it to her larynx. The wall of subwoofers buzzed idly, each a living, wide-mouthed face fervent to scream. Cables and wires, like metal tentacles, stabbed like syringes into her body through the music notes tattooed all across her. The distinction between mare and machine grew less and less until she looked like a flesh and steel plant, sprouting with warp-iron vines.

“Why!? We’re not supposed to be this close to these kinds of people!” Twilight whispered loudly.

“If Vinyl, Octavia and I do a good job, he’ll lift the debt they owe to the daemon lady for letting Octavia be a cello-pony-hybrid... thing. They’ll be free!”

Setting the incompetence of her friend aside for now, Twilight probed deeper. “So, what are you doing with him?”

“I’m replacing his stitches.” Pinkie rolled out a tongue around a bony needle and thread, looped through the hole, leading into her mouth. “He’s got his mouth pulled up in a smile and the threads are starting to get old, so he wants me to replace it!”

Berry Punch put away the last of her glass bottles so they wouldn’t shatter and Vinyl adjusted her mix table, feeling the warp-powered console talk to her to find an optimal setting. Her friend, Neon Lights was limbering up for a dance as dozens of multicolored bioluminescent pustules across his body shimmered. Twilight’s next protest was crushed under a whine of deafeningly loud voice.

”WAAAAAAAAAOOOOO! Lord Segestes of the Satin Skulls, welcome to the Tome of Corruption,” the DJ bellowed deeply. Her loudness drew blood from a couple of ears in the audience but they enjoyed the pain. She sounded hyper, confident, but the shadow of fear was present. ”Got myself a couple numbers that’s gonna rape your eardrums oh so good. Let all unholy followers of the Prince, come and hear the song of Slaanesh!”

The room shuddered as the first song roared out, crashing over the assembled patrons like a tidal wave. Twilight had to put her muzzle up to Pinkie’s ear just so she could hear her. “Just get to the apartment when you’re done!”

Pinkie nodded and a grey mare motioned for Twilight’s attention. Octavia pointed into her ears and made a sick face, signaling she couldn’t take the noise and could tell Twilight couldn’t either and gestured to follow. She wore a skimpy, sexy armor suit, hideously garish but common slaaneshi fashion. Twilight gave Pinkie one more glance and she waved her black, crustaceous claw.

Go on! I got it! she signaled.

It was an impromptu ballet, trying to navigate back out without bothering any of the dancing patrons. Twilight accidentally bumped into a sickly-looking cultist who, oddly enough, wasn't enjoying the noise. His face ignited in green flame at the agitation, flickering back and forth between that of a man and chitinous black insect. He barely managed to keep a human face. Outside was much quieter, but Vinyl’s living stereo could still be heard loud and clear through the walls.

“So glad to be out of there,” Octavia sighed. “Vinyl always thinks she can drown out her flaws with volume.” She sat on a pile of powder sacks, kicking up a fine dust, and let her tense body loosen up. “If she messes this up, I’ll kill her. I have to get out of this city!”

“Hey, I’ve always wondered,” Twilight said, looking up towards the dark architecture of the surrounding buildings. “What is Mordheim, exactly? Why is there a Chaos city in the middle of the Empire?”

Octavia looked around at the howling, mewling heretics and mutants going about business like all was right with the world. She winnowed through her memories of books she’d read that Vinyl had called her a big nerd for.

“Hmm... well, it used to be an Imperial city; home of the Sovereigns of Sigmar, even, cursed be his name. A comet was going to pass over the city at one point, rumored to herald the second coming of the Imperial god. Hundreds of thousands flocked here, choking the streets and starving the place of food and sanitation. Their suffering and desperation made many start worshiping the Dark Gods for relief. Soon daemons walked the streets as free as men.

“The comet didn’t just fly over, it hit the city, killing thousands and the Imperial Inquisition burned the rest to the ground to purge it of Chaos. The rock left a wealth of wyrdstone, and treasure seekers came after to strike it rich. Mordheim was reborn in greed and the concentration of wyrdstone energy drove everypony insane, worshiping Chaos. The Empire was going through a civil war at that time, so they didn’t have the power to destroy it again. Ever since, heretics and mutants come here. It’s home to us, now.”

A sure smile crossed her face. “If Segestes likes our songs, we can leave! We can go anywhere, maybe even the Wastes!”

“What’s in the Wastes?” Twilight asked.

“The Northmen, people born and raised under the shadow of the dark lords. Their followers of Slaanesh must be so handsome.” Her hoof absentmindedly drifted to between her legs and she lost herself, imagining such men. “So handsome…”

Twilight was off put by Octavia’s sudden self-pleasuring and got up. “So uh, you have fun with that and I have to go get Rarity.” Octavia didn’t even notice her words, grunting and panting in her blasphemous act.

Inside the bar, Pinkie Pie leaned herself against Segestes’ throne and readied her needle while a blue and white-maned pony babbled ‘Perfect teeth, HA! Perfect teeth!’ on the other side who held his mouth open. The greasy, frayed threads were removed, slipping out of a dozen holes in his lips. Minuette pulled the cheek back into its smiling position and Pinkie, moist with cold sweat, maneuvered the needle to the rim of the first hole.

This has to be perfect. she thought.

The stitch passed through the first dry hole with ease and the tug of the string on his lip made him tense marginally and ease back; the pain was a great pleasure. Pinkie needed something to steady the nerves. Vinyl had long since passed out drunk at the bar and the eyes of the champion’s followers were on her.

“Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile. Yes I do. It fills my heart with sunshine all the while. Yes it does. Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile, from these happy friends of mine…”

Segestes chuckled amusedly. His gauntlet passed down her mane, body, and ended at her flank, squeezing it tenderly. The mare huffed a bit and her long tongue twitched at his cheek. She looked into his eye and grinned seductively.

’I like where this is going.’

“What do you mean, you’re coming with us?” Twilight said, bewildered.

The Tzeentch cultist collected the essentials from her room, transfiguration books, food, bits and bobs, and her mutant starfish in its tiny cage.

“It’s destiny.” Lyra monologued. “He spoke to me, told me that this was the path I’m to serve. He didn’t specify, but that’s His genius! We aren’t meant to know what His plan is for us because we’re his pawns.” She stepped aside to allow Rarity and her little sister to pass. She mimicked a puppet, hanging dead on its strings. It looked so, as her arms twitched as if they weren’t her own. “We’re all cogs in the machine of His plans, and I love it!”

Rarity had a smaller but agreeing grin. Her things were packed. The only thing she really had was her fashionably horrifying armor and a mouthy sister. Everyone but Twilight and Kivsin, now separated, had to drape themselves in sheets or cloaks to avoid detection by the Crimson Hand’s sentinels. Twilight was definitely suspicious of Lyra, someone so willing to be a tool for an uncaring god like Tzeentch, but all cultists were crazy in this way. It would be nice to bring along another old Ponyville resident. As everyone left, Lyra summoned her magic and lit the apartment on fire. It burned beautifully as she stared into the firestorm, mezmorized.

“Every step brings us closer.”

A brown earth pony stared annoyed at a daemon alicorn under the shadow of a giant metal pony with a bladed horn between her eyes, blanketed in curtains. To Twilight, it all seemed so surreal, but there they were, with the Doctor sorely glaring at her. A tall, dark archway loomed over them. Above were the floors of the living blocks with flimsy wooden stilts that looked more like a million chopsticks supporting the structures off the lower levels.

“What do you have to say?” he said.

Whooves impatiently waited for Twilight to say it. Fluttershy didn’t feel right, being apologized to, and being outside the safety of the closet where she couldn’t hurt anyone. Her nerves had grown numb to the pain of the evil entities her unstable body absorbed, but her fear of how she acted could be read on her like an open book.

Twilight relented. “I’m sorry for leaving you with a chaos apostle, Fluttershy.”

The daemon engine smiled a little, her first in weeks, and it hurt. “It’s okay. Y-you were only t-t-trying to help.”

“‘N look where that got you ‘n Big Mac.” Braeburn growled. “Stuck together like some Flankenstein with you in charge.” He spat to the ground in disgust, the acidic wad burning into the soil.

Fluttershy was still so destroyed over what she’d done to Applejack's brother. A simple mistake, a bump together in the road, and her fluctuating form had devoured that juggernaut like a cell.

“I’m sorry…” Fluttershy sniffled for the thousandth time.

He was unfazed and turned to the motley group of misfits. He’d made his position on going with the group clear. Nurgle wouldn’t have his children separated. The Doctor was losing control. All these subtle voices, Braeburn, Lyra, Vinyl and Octavia, pulling the girls in the wrong direction.

Three cursed zombies, three celebrating Slaaneshis, three Tzeentchians, two of Undivided, an earth pony, and a giant metal rhino would leave the City of the Damned. Chaos had put together quite the mismatched mob.

“Right! Everypony, get yerselves together!” Nurgle’s stallion commanded. His distasteful gaze cast on the Tzeentchians. “Hey, Birdbrains!” he barked, catching Lyra, Sweetie Belle, and Rarity’s attention. “Y’all know a way outta here without goi’n through the gates?”

“Now why can’t we just go right out the front door?” Lyra asked sarcastically.

Braeburn wasn’t amused. “Cus without somepony important backin’ us, we gotta pay in lives ‘ta be let through. You wanna pick up the tab?”

Lyra picked up her halberd and sighed that he was no fun. “Follow me. There’s a tunnel that leads out under the walls. It’s pretty well-traveled, actually.”

Vinyl ecstatically climbed onto Pinkie’s back. “Then what are we waiting for? Tavi and I are sick of this place!”

The little band emerged onto the street. Fluttershy bore a weakly-entranced Applejack on her back. A large monster like Fluttershy wouldn’t be widely noticed in a place full of ogres, trolls and giants twice her own height and twisted by chaos in similar fashions.

The corrupted Cutiemark Crusaders trotted together, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trying to cheer up the sad orange pegasus whose adoptive sister was still missing.

The pennants of Cloudsdale fluttered sharply in the nimble wind. The warriors of the holy city stood in battle positions atop its mighty white walls. Cannon crews poised their wicks, ready to ignite them to send deadly shot into the enemy ranks. Governor-General Spitfire scanned through a looking-glass down onto a writhing horde of black-armored devils.

The Dark Elves.

Their black armada dotted the slimy sea like a pox, stretching beyond the horizon. The flagship, a fortress-city ship, a Black Ark was like a tick, fanged mooring hooks biting to the coast, letting out its toxin of Druchii warriors and lizard-riding Cold One Knights in dense columns. Noctral bat ponies flew like vultures over the host, keeping their distance from Cloudsdale’s guns. At least a dozen reaper bolt throwers were aimed up at the city, but held their fire.

“Why don’t they shoot?” Spitfire muttered.

“Why don’t we?” Soarin leaned on the parapet, looking down without a glass.

“You look down there and tell me we should go against that.” Spitfire handed him the telescope and he got a better look. His curious demeanor was crushed.

He looked to the open maw of the Ark where a royal palanquin was being carried down the platform. Soarin focused the telescope, picking up a brooding grey unicorn with a red horn on the throne. His ink-black mane flowed over a crimson cape and from emerald green eyes, a dark purple haze blew out like steam in the wind.

“Spitfire, who’s that?” Soarin passed her back the telescope and Spitfire gazed on the dark unicorn. She gritted her teeth.

“Sombra.”

A carrier pegasus was always on hand in combat situations, carrying her favorite weapon; a Nuln long rifle. It had several thick braces around the woodwork and along the lengthy barrel. Spitfire propped it up on a rest stock, peered through a well-crafted scope rested atop the back of the weapon and put the crosshairs over Sombra’s head to account for bullet drop. He was at least half a mile away, but the eight-foot long weapon was made for such a distance. She synced her breath, aiming specifically for the eye. The tip of her wing caressed the trigger and she made final adjustments.

“This is for Fire Streak.”

A sharp crack pierced the air, the scope suddenly became fogged up and the butt of the gun punched spitefully at her shoulder. She kept staring through the scope, waiting for the result to appear. She saw some red, that of his cape, then his mane, then his horn aglow. A crackling telekinetic aura held a tiny piece of hissing-hot lead inches from his eye. He looked unphased, unimpressed or even surprised.

He didn’t even glance back at the shooter as he turned the bullet around. The shot shook briefly and disappeared from view. A second later, the front section of the musket scope exploded, showering glass onto the ground and Spitfire dropped it reflexively. She rubbed her eye; it hurt greatly from the scope jumping back at her face and would likely gain a nasty bruise, but thankfully no glass had shredded it.

“General, are you hurt?” A captain came to her side, speaking worriedly.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Pack up my musket and keep on alert. I want a hundred messengers sent to Altdorf and all across the Empire. King Sombra is on the southern edge of Norsca with a massive Dark Elf army.” She turned to her lieutenant. He was in no condition to be here, covered in stitches from recent surgery, but insisted to show he was committed to rebuild himself and his relationship with her. “If he’s not going to attack, we should go back to the inner walls. We need to spend every day retraining you.”

Soarin gave a salute. “Yes, my general.”

As he turned to follow her into the air, a thunderous headache gripped him. Images of a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane getting the life beat out of her scarred his vision. The perpetrator cast a transfiguration spell on the bloody, half-dead mare, giving her Soarin’s appearance.

Spitfire came back to steady him as a wave of nausea crashed up his throat. “Are you okay?” she said.

“I th- I think so...” he muttered as the hallucination faded. He felt like upchucking, but the feeling mockingly lingered at the top of his throat.

“Work through it, Soarin. Let’s go.”

“Everything’s going to hell.”

Shining Armor laid his head on his cluttered desk, the events of the past few weeks bearing down on him all at once. His sister was a hellspawn destined to bring about the end of the world, his wife was a permanent living crystal, Discord’s daughter was running around the capital doing gods know what, and the princesses were missing. Word of their absence was being contained by the Imperial Inquisition, but If they didn’t return soon, Shining would surely have to endure Emperor Franz’s wrath.

“Get up, honey.” Cadence cooed. She put a heavy hoof on his back, shimmering in the torchlight.

Shining’s spirit was nearly at its end. Her hard, cold touch didn’t help any. “What’s going to happen next? Am I some kind of unholy thing? Will I get a debilitating curse?”

What could Cadence say? ‘Finding out the filly you grew up with for most of your life is a creation of the Chaos Gods is part of growing up’, or ‘Maybe if you’re lucky, Twilight will only eat your soul and not torture it for all eternity.’

A saving grace came to break their miserable silence. A shouting that sounded frantic, panicking, got closer and closer until pink slime started pouring in through the cracks in the door. It flowed in, enough to reform into a hysterical four-legged pink blob with a propeller beanie.

“Make him stahp! Meik him stahp!” it cried, stumbling towards the reiksmarshall.

An inquisitor burst in after her, dressed in holy garb, shaking an ornate whittled Ghal Maraz in his hand. “Gaze upon the icon of Sigmar’s power, monster and wither under His light! Wither! The power of Sigmar compels you!” Screwball screamed in agony as her melting body started to boil and further lose form. Her eyes couldn’t leave the hammer, the icon of Chaos’ destroyer, like a moth plunging itself into the flame.

“Inquisitor, that’s enough,” Shining commanded firmly. “You’ve served Sigmar well this hour; now return to your normal duties.”

The inquisitor stopped his litany with gasping breath after pursuing Screwball. “But- Reiksmarshall, the daemon must be destroyed!”

“I will take care of it. Go. Now.”

The inquisitor hesitated before slowly bowing his head, and departed.

“Tank you! Tank yuu!” The solidifying blob hugged Shining Armor but he pushed her off when she was firm enough. She acted as if she wasn’t just dying a minute ago, and bounded back out the door, giving the inquisitor an atomic wedgie before flying over his head.

Reformed or not, how good was Discord’s word that he and his little ball of sunshine were here to help? Not much. Shining Armor had to refocus. He read over his schedule for the day.

3:00 p.m. Mercenary review: Captain Babs Seed of the Cutiemark Crusaders

Something, anything to clear his mind and his plate.

“Another mercenary to find Twilight?” Cadence sighed. Shining had reviewed a hundred mercenary groups; Voland’s Venators, The Bandoleros Gringos, Braganza’s Besiegers, and Ricco’s Republican Guard. It wasn’t that they were incompetent, or bad at what they did, but that they just didn’t give a damn about the job they were paid for. “I’d love to see one of these kinds of people, but... are they really as dangerous as the elves say?”

Shining smirked. “Whatever the elves say about the Empire, it’s only half that bad at the least. It’s actually about time to go to the mercenary camp to see them.”

“And I’m sure the elven administration can wait on the Crystal Princess and the Prince.”

They ran to the wood, Rarity helping a bleeding Lyra to stay upright, Fluttershy barely able to hold Applejack in her teeth. The dense mists of Sylvania’s dark forests shrouded them from the Crimson Hand’s eyes, but Vanga himself would pursue them to the ends of the Empire to get his juggernaut back. Melting Fluttershy down wasn’t out of the question and sift through her molten ramins for Big Mac, his mount. The trees loomed tall and branchless, reaching up into the fog like ancient monoliths of a long lost age. Their bases perpetually smoldered, coursing in veins of glowing cinders, but never burned.

Fluttershy had managed not to weep at her pain for a while but after being chased all over by bloodthirsty men, hell-bent on taking her life, she couldn’t help but bawl. Two bat-winged ponies swooped down, guided by the sad beacon. Applejack kept making the motions like she was moaning, but a rope was tightly fixed around her neck, closing off her windpipe so she’d stay quiet. It wasn’t like the already-dead mare needed to breathe, anyway.

Few by few, the rest found their way together. Pinkie Pie coughed up Octavia, who was too slow for survival’s taste and Vinyl was happy as ever to be out of that gods-damned city. Her experimental magic hoof-cannon swung over her back. Braeburn and three fillies trotted through the mist. He removed a spear that had pinned Apple Bloom to his chest.

“Everypony still in one piece?” he said, receiving several nods and other affirmatives in return. “Then whut’s the plan? Y’all keep goi’n ta this Whooves character, here.” Braeburn cast a suspicious look at him. “He doesn’t look like a follower.”

The fact that Whooves wasn’t rotting away, covered in blood, or mutated beyond recognition wasn’t a good camouflage. He was sweating bullets but his psychotic soulmate drove between Braeburn and him.

“He doesn’t need to answer to you.” Pinkie shook her head. “He’s still trying to find himself, is all. He's, uh, still choosing.”

“Really? Well how ‘bout the Plague Lord?” Braeburn entreated.

Whooves had no such plans for any mark. “Uh, I’m thinking Undivided. All the benefits and nothing gets left out.”

“Ah can give you the mark ‘a Nurgle right now.” Braeburn spat on his hoof, covering it in a fuming sludge. “Just three stamps on the flank and yer part ‘a tha’ family.”

Whooves backed away as Braeburn took a step closer. Pinkie Pie quickly stepped between them, clacking her claw threateningly at the pestilent stallion.

“He doesn’t want it.” she said firmly.

Braeburn put his hoof down, instantly rotting the grass under him. “Suit yerself. Where y’all headed?”

“West.” Whooves said curtly. “Just west. Rarity, do you have the maps?”

The three-horned unicorn levitated several pieces of parchment to him from her burlap bag and helped Lyra to wipe her face; erecting an intense firewall to hold the khornates back devastated her and she bled from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

“Back in the dirt and mud for less than an hour, and we already have wounded,” Rarity grunted.

“Alright,” Whooves started. “We must be just north of the city, so...uh...” Braeburn’s lethal stench filled the Doctor’s nose as he came alongside to study the map as well. “Do you mind if, uh...”

“Ah’ve had mah share a trips round tha countryside. Ah know mah way round here.” he replied. “We follow tha’ River Stir till we hit tha’ road, then stick to tha’ woods ‘n follow tha’ road west.” Whooves just handed him the map, and moved to get away from his gagging fug. He was on the precipice of puking.

“Ah’m flattered, Doc. Let’s move out, everypony! We move at night, rest at day. This is vampire territory!”

“Wahooo!!” Vinyl hurrah’d. She, Pinkie, and Octavia dashed ahead, playing with each other like puppies, nearly vanishing in the fog.

“Maybe I should have waited.” Cadence griped. She looked out the carriage window into the camp of the Dogs of War. Mercenaries of all colors and creeds, their dignitaries and spokesmen all around. Here, the burgomeisters of the Empire bought such warriors to defend their lands, usually sending them straight into harms way since dead mercenaries don’t require compensation. A thousand eyes looked on the carriage, knowing big money was rolling by.

Cadence was pleasantly relieved to see they weren’t all savage barbarians, just most of them. The representatives of Ricco’s Republican Guard were clad in gleaming gold armor, and blood-stained bandannas around every forehead. Even the fat ogres and conniving goblins were a few among the soldiers of fortune. On a sign for the Atalcani Fellowship it read, ’Cutprice cutthroats you can afford!’ The Fighting Cocks, Leopard Company, The Marksmen of Miragliano, and the Grudgebringers, all were a sight to behold.

“You work with these people all the time?” Cadence asked her husband.

“Yeah. You need to know how to speak their language, and everypony here talks money.” Shining said.

“Which of them are the Crusaders?”

Shining shrugged. “I don’t really know. It’s the first I’ve heard of them. We’ll know when the carriage stops.”

Surely enough, it did. The Reiksguard allowed the royal couple to step out and Cadence was quite offended by the dirty smells of the camp. They were before what appeared to be a tiny, mobile cathedral tent. Before the ornately-woven entrance flaps, a very piously-dressed orange-brown mare bowed her head to the Reiksmarshall and Crystal princess.

Babs was older, stronger, wiser, and never let the Crusaders die out after being swept from home. The Cutiemark Crusaders had grown to draw thousands of members from across the Empire, Kislev and Bretonnia where ponies had nestled into as well. Their holy crusades brought the end of many Chaos cults within the Empire, earning them recognition as purifiers and heretic seekers. Members had their flanks branded with the scar of the Celestial Church so no other cutiemark would ever grow. Thus their ultimate crusade, serving the gods Celestia and Luna, would never end.

The Empire’s many tongues didn’t penetrate Bab’s thick Manehattan accent.

“Reiksmarshall, Princess Cadenza.” she greeted.

Shining shook her hoof with an illegitimate smile. “Captain Babs, I assume?”

“The one and only.” she exclaimed pridefully.

A couple of Cadence’s crystal guard halted a stallion from the Venators mercenaries. He grinned slyly with yellowed teeth.

“Hey, beautiful!” He called to Cadence. She ignored him with a deepening grimace. “How about we go to the market and get you some polish? Really make you shine—” An angry magic blast from the princess threw him on his back.

Babs blew her bangs out of her eyes. “We might wanna get inside, before they try to figure out how much you’re worth in gold.”

“Yes, please.” she replied gratefully, glancing around the camp with distaste.

The interior truly spoke of ‘God’s house on earth’, kept at a level of light to mimic the dawn, just when the sun and moons were at opposite ends of the world. The church’s iconography was everywhere, mirroring its mad, murderous devotion to its pantheon. The banner of the Cutiemark Crusaders hung at the back most wall, a yellow pony, sized up from the original filly, with a flaming sword in one hoof and a ram’s horn in the other and at its lips. Along the bottom edge was a phrase in gold yellow thread.

For the Founders.

“You’ll never find a more holy place in this camp ‘a knuckleheads.” Babs started. “You ever heard of the Wings of Hayte, chaos cult?”

“No.” Shining answered.

“Thank us you haven’t. The Crusaders put them down before they got big enough to spread their heretical garbage. The Sons of Odovakar, the Raven Host, and a dozen others, all laid to waste by my troops.” Babs saw that she had caught Shining’s interest as the corners of his mouth creaked up.

Babs darted to three members of the Crusaders, an earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn to show off their equipment. “Our gear is top of the line. While the other merc groups are all infantry or cavalry, we’re more like a private army. Earth ponies provide the muscle, pegasi are our eyes, ears, and light troops, and we have some of the best battle mages outside the College of Magic.” Each soldier displayed his weapons and armor as directed. Hoof and wing blades, a mace at the earth pony’s tail, each was a versatile armory in his own right. The demonstration of their tools and prowess went well, and come the end, Shining was most satisfied. “Do they not cease to impress you?”

“No, they don’t.” Shining chortled. “Do you do search and capture?”

“Sure! So we got the job?”

“If your cost doesn’t bankrupt the military.”

“To serve is its own reward. Who’s the target?”

“Her name’s Twilight Sparkle. Purple coat, black mane, bat wings, and probably bigger than any stallion you’ve got. She’s probably travelling with her friends, six in all. I want them and anypony else with them here with minimal injuries. This is immensely important. They are critical parts in the Storm of Chaos. Twilight, she... it’s important to me that she’s brought to me. Alive.”

The Crusaders were not dissuaded, Babs herself giving a shrug as if talking shop. “Any idea where she might be?”

Shining drew a blank. “She could be anywhere, really. Empire or Wastes.”

Babs blew her mane out of her eyes with a look of disbelief. “You’re kidding... You have no idea where she is?”

“I just need eyes out there. If there’s the slightest chance she can be found, I have to take it.” Shining was in no mood to have his capacity questioned.

“So we’re doing this raw. Gonna have to get Spotlight and Lantern Light in the field. Get all the pegasi scouts active...” Babs formulated her to-do list. Shining Armor and Cadence smirked, pleased at her professional, flowing train of thought.

“Shining...” Cadence whispered. “Are you sure this will work?

“Not in the slightest, but they’re a start.” he murmured in reply, giving a firm nod to reassure her. “Besides, I trust them better than anyone else here with finding Twiley... and that’s saying something.”

Cadence inclined her head knowingly, the play of prismatic light on her frame almost masking her thoughtful expression. “Yes... I trust them, too, though mostly because they’re... our best chance, now.”

Shining didn’t miss her brief pause, knowing she would have liked to say ‘hope’ but keeping in mind such a concept was more dangerous than comforting. Instead, he set his expression into one of resolve and replied simply:

“Our best chance.”

The Ley’s artificial sun gazed down on the dimension. The grand circular arena was largely empty save for two gods of night, two of day, and a draconequus with tin foil hat, shaped like a duck perched atop his head. Discord looked down from the royal mother’s and father’s box on the two princesses below, eager for some playful revenge.

“Aww cmon, Tenebie, it’s fine! I’ll go easy on em.” he said.

“It’s just that—”

“It’s fine!”

“But—”

“It’s fine-It’s fine-It’s fine-It’s fine-It’s fine-It’s fine-It’s fine!” Discord drowned him out while he teleported down to the sands, leaving the immortal night king sighing into his hoof.

“Fifty years, Tia.” Luna took a moment to reflect their time in the Ley. Fifty years of study, training, time with friends thought lost a thousand years ago. And of course, their parents, supervising warily on their next exercise. Luna sifted her hoof in the sand. “And how long do you think it has been in the mortal realm?”

Celestia was lost in her own thoughts and inspecting her sword but managed to respond. “A few days, perhaps?”

Tenebris and Solianna held hooves, channeling a universe’s energy into the arena and formed a grand illusion around their daughters. A cold wind blew from somber grey clouds. The smell of a million burning torches filled their senses as Celestia and Luna observed tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers and knights marching in vast columns across the grassy field under a forest of spears and halberds.The illusion of Shining Armor came to their side and before Discord flashed out of sight...

“Psst. I’ll be the bloodthirster when you get there.” the draconequus whispered. And *pop*.

“The troops are in high spirits.” Shining said confidently. High above them, a giant gryphon circled. “Looks like Franz is wondering why we stopped.”

“Nothing, nothing.” Celestia said. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Who here’s still got ‘tha need ‘ta sleep?” Braeburn asked.

Most raised their hooves; Twilight and Fluttershy kept theirs down. Not needing to sleep, to fervent followers of chaos, was a blessing. Eternal activity to perform acts of worship and killing. It was what made chaos warriors so dependable; they never tired.

“I haven’t slept in weeks... But I’m never tired,” Fluttershy stammered. “I miss dreaming.”

Twilight was a little more happy about it. “It’s let me get a lot more study time, and I can spend the nights with Kivsin since he’s nocturnal.”

The zombified Applejack moaned lazily in Fluttershy’s paws, gurgling up internal waste.

That evening, it was a forced march, Rarity whining and complaining all the way of exhaustion and hunger.

The forest was alive with the sounds of Sylvania, land of the vampires. There was the occasional undead scream in the distance, or half-destroyed, wiggling zombie corpse that Pinkie would swallow like a snake and digest in just a few minutes. Braeburn saw these as an abomination, a sham of the beauty of Nurgle’s zombies.

Whooves made the mistake of falling behind slightly, and Pinkie Pie loomed over him.

“You didn’t tell anypony about what happened with you, Vinyl and me, right?”

’Oh, bullocks.’

“N-No, of course not!” He trotted ahead, back to the shielding eyes of everyone else.

The light of day at length glowed through the opaque air. The large saddlebags Fluttershy carried were emptied and a tiny camp was erected quickly with the magic of the four unicorns. Applejack was securely staked to the ground and Fluttershy, Twilight, and Braeburn would keep watch for whatever might wander to them.

Pinkie Pie peeked around through the flaps of her tent. The sleepless wardens were nowhere to be seen. She crept with the utmost stealth, avoiding the forest litter of crunchy leaves and noisy earth.

To her dismay, Kivsin was standing guard before the Doctor’s tent. She had to see the Doctor again. It had been so long since they were together privately. Ever so silently, she slipped in the rear side. She snuggled up at the brown stallion’s back, letting her warmth and soft body keep him asleep until she wanted him awake.

She licked his cheek. “Doc... Dooooc...”

He stirred, smiling from the warm embrace that enveloped him. He opened his eyes and found a lumpy black claw around his chest. Pinkie felt him suck in a breath to call for the noctral just outside, but like any other time, she kept his mouth shut with her tongues.

“Please don’t ruin it.” she cooed, pulling him powerfully against her coat. She looked into his frightened eyes and sighed. “You still don’t know how to say it?”

’But I don’t love you and you don’t love me!’ he screamed in his mind.

“When was the last time we were alone together?” She rolled him onto his back, stomped all over his torso like a cat kneading a pillow and curled up on him. “Mind if I keep you company?”

'Yes, I do!!'

“Sweet dreams, Doc.” Pinkie yawned. Still holding his mouth shut, and heavy body weighing him down, Pinkie drifted off, laying her head on his.

The Doctor sighed with aching lungs. Kivsin was just on the other side of the tent flaps, not fifteen feet away. So close, but so far...

’Well,’ he mentally shrugged, ’I survived the last time.’

Author's Notes:

I understand I totally lost my shit from like chapters 10-14. I'm trying to keep on track.