The stink was back, stronger now. It was familiar and made Twilight remember the cart, the madpony, and his berserk and sudden attack on her.

Waking up was sudden and before she even knew what was going on, she was sitting upright on a wooden floor. Little stains dotted the space with large flies zipping around them. She patted herself down, hoping to find that everything was still in the right place. She still had her lavender-colored fur, and her hind legs were firmly attached, but her horn felt very cold. She reached up to touch it, when the floor suddenly jerked up and crashed down again. Twilight slammed into a wall with a dull thud. When she opened her eyes, she took a better look around. High sides lined the space, smooth and pitch black. It was dark inside, but there was a slit at one wall. She went up to the hole, peeked out and saw two ponies pulling the box she was in down a moonlit path.

“Hey! Hey, you guys! What’s going on?” Twilight whispered loudly, but winced when a sharp banging noise rang out.

“Quiet in there!“ an otherworldly voice yelled, the sound resonating ominously in the space. Twilight jumped back, scanning the ceiling but saw nothing, deciding it must have come from outside.

Going back to the space in the wall, Twilight looked again down the path they were traveling. The flora appeared distorted, twisted and waving at awkward, unnatural angles and directions. There appeared to be a clearing up ahead through the light fog with what looked like several small lights drifting in the air. The hauling ponies proceeded slowly, no doubt under great strain from the load of a cart much larger than them.

“The Dark Gods speak, and I respond in kind,” the voice said in the silence of the night, surprisingly calm and subservient. A black rope lashed out from above and struck the right pony in the flank, producing a sickening crack. He grunted and flinched as drops of blood trickled from the wound. Both ponies picked up the pace.

’Dark Gods...?’ Twilight thought. ‘He works for them? Oh, no no no no no no.’

She started looking around desperately for some avenue of escape and made her way to the opposite end of the space, pushing against the doors. At first they didn’t budge, so she started throwing her weight at them to break them open. The loud banging alerted the cruel voice.

“I said quiet!” it shouted shrilly. Twilight didn’t let up, believing just a couple more slams ought to get it open and she’d run. She didn’t know where she’d go, but anywhere to ‘postpone’ the Gods’ plans seemed worth it. “Enough!” the voice yelled, producing a ghostly echo.

The cell heaved to a halt and Twilight was thrown back from the doors by the force. Chains from the harnesses on the towing ponies rattled for a while after. There was a loud thump and the sound of rustling grass. Twilight followed the position where the sound seemed to be coming from through the walls, breathing heavily from her bombardment of the doors. The sound of chains and a lock at the back gave her an idea.

‘As soon as he opens the door, I’ll bolt. Even if I have to jump off its face I’m getting out of here,’ Twilight thought. A grinding, metallic snap and the end of the incessant noise was her cue. From the front she began running to the back, then sprinting. “Don’t stop, don’t look back and keep running...” she repeated to herself as the doors flew open.

The tall figure standing in the opening was blackened from the bright moonlight glare. Just as Twilight jumped from the back edge of the cell and saw the path behind the figure, she felt her flight arrested sharply, and a great pressure on her neck. The pressure increased to be very painful and she found herself dangling by her neck, struggling for breath, legs still scrambling in a running motion.

Twilight managed to stop her legs and look down at the figure, now easier to see with its face glaring up. Its face was shrouded as its head was wrapped in a worn brown hood and a bandana-like cloth of the same color over its mouth. It had long fingernails, digging into her neck, nearly drawing blood. Spiky, black torches, levitating at its sides were bound to it by chains. A book with an eight-pointed star embroidered on the cover hung from its neck by a chain-link leash and rolls of paper, written all over in a strange language flowed over its shoulders and wound around its arms, growing short, onyx-like horns and shards.

Lowering Twilight down to eye level, the masked figure began pulling down the cloth covering its mouth. A maw of jagged wooden splinters opened and a light slowly grew from within. Noticing her choking, it grasped her with both hands on her body and pulled her face closer to his. The wooden teeth started bending outward, toward her. Twilight was struggling to get free, even pounding the abductor’s arms at angles that snapped and buckled at the impacts but she felt herself slowing down and uncontrollably letting up as the light brightened. Her limbs grew numb and finally lost feeling. Its face seemed to be getting even closer now and despite the numbness, Twilight managed to turn around to see her own face, lifeless and drifting away with a white ethereal smoke streaming from it.

The figure paused and its features retracted to what could barely be called normal. It jerked its head up, as if searching the sky for an invisible threat. The night was still and silent; there was nothing spying on them but the deformed vegetation. From Twilight’s view, she collided with her limp body and was thrown back into the cell by her captor.

“Very well.” It spoke with a reluctant, yet servile tone.

It slammed the doors shut and reapplied the chains and lock. Twilight felt chilled to the bone and curled up into a quivering ball, her sanity dangling by a thread from shock and fear. The cart rocked as the figure ascended the cell. Another loud thwack, grunt and lurch forward indicated motion again.

As the carriage came closer to the light-littered clearing and Twilight finally organized her gnawing thoughts by urgency of assessment, she could begin to hear the sound of crying, screaming, chanting and ghostly howls and moans. The lamentations soon became ubiquitous, sounding diverse in age, young and old. The cell lurched to a halt again.

Once more, a thump, rustling grass and the tumblers of a lock. Twilight scuttled for the furthest corner of the cell from the door, fearing another wrenching experience. The final snap of the lock, the unraveling of chains made her wish for the most obvious but unlikely, to simply disappear.

Twilight paused for a moment, then facehoofed. ’Of course; why not just do that?’

She tried focusing energy through her horn for a teleportation spell, but the chilly feeling on her forehead intensified to being painfully icy, and nothing happened. The figure had, at this point, entered the cell and took her up by the mane, dragging her out kicking and shouting in pain from the rough handling. It threw her out of the cell, hurriedly re-scaled it and drove off.

When Twilight opened her eyes from the impact to the ground, she noticed several tents, dozens, hundreds, as her head swiveled in amazement. This reaction quickly died as new horrors came to view. All around were terrible amalgamations as one only saw in nightmares. Guillotines, hellish devices, and crimson-soaked blocks with axes lodged in littered the area - many of which were being prepared for use by horrid creatures. Shrunken, dried heads and skulls of all manners of creatures were mounted on the surrounding tents. Twilight looked aghast as her fellow Equestrians were held in cages, gibbets, pens, and, thankfully, and blood trickled from the feet of iron maidens.

Beings of motley appearance inhabited most of the camp. Many had several mounts, eyeballs dotting their bodies, horns growing in unnatural places, and their flesh contorted and twisted to look like they were sculpted by the blind, in a dark room, with a dull knife, out of a block of swiss cheese.

However, the dominant creatures were almost all alike in form, walking tall on two legs and carrying things in weird multi-jointed appendages, who varied in general appearance. They all dressed as warriors, but few were uniformed.

Those apparently on the lowest rungs of their hierarchy had a lot of bare skin and random metal plate armor; those looked to perform the more menial tasks, from sacrifices to maintaining the camp, and always obeying the bigger, more frighteningly decorated ones - these were clad in full-body armor suits. Their standard garb seemed to be red, blue, green-rusty and leaking fluids from every crack, and pink, elaborately decorated, but they all deferred to those dressed in black and trimmed in bronze. The eight-pointed star was everywhere, engraved on armor, tattooed on flesh, branded on ponies, and hanging from every tent-side. The frozen sensation held, apparently now suppressing the sight of the stars rather than the failed teleportation spell.

One such hulking soldier approached Twilight. It stood over her, both glaring at each other. It looked a lot like the epicenter figure in the nightmare two nights before, but smaller in stature and the horns on its helmet looped around the front instead of over its head. Her mind screamed at her to run, to get away, but she was rooted in place by fear. The tall figure reached for a sheath at its belt, and with a steely rasp, withdrew a long, serrated sword, lined with rending iron teeth.

Twilight’s eyes widened even further and she shot up on all fours - but the figure did not move to strike her, instead pointing the blade toward the back of a procession of ponies leading before a large tent. Guessing the being’s request, she gave a fearful nod and turned around, gingerly walking to the back of the line.

She yelped in surprise as a rough kick from the armored figure nearly sent her to the ground once more. For good measure, the warrior shouted at her in a guttural, incomprehensible tongue, and Twilight immediately picked up the pace, wincing over her stinging rear.

The line moved in a predictable pattern. From the back it was too difficult to hear, but there would be a couple distinct yells, a murmur, and the line would move forward again.

As time went on, curiosity broke Twilight’s silence. “Uh, excuse me.” she asked the pony in front of her. “What does this line lead to? Why is everypony here?”

He had brown fur, an hourglass cutiemark, and spoke in a light Trottingham accent. He turned his head to answer, keeping to a barely audible whisper. “They’re looking for somepony. It’s the only reason they’re sparing us for now. They think one of us is something they keep calling the ‘Fourth Trea-’”

His mane suddenly parted down the center of his head, even the underlying flesh splitting open, exposing his bare skull, and teeth lining the sides of the fissure. The cavity somehow screeched lightly, and he in turn grunted in pain. Twilight recoiled back in shock.

“Oh my gosh! What is that?” she asked, barely keeping her voice down.

He managed to recompose himself, but was still twitchy. “I…I think it’s just daemonic possession. Nothing I haven’t faced before. I am surprised, though, to see humans again after being here for so long.” Twilight blinked in confusion, but chose not to question him about what ‘humans’ were for now.

“Are you going to be ok?” she inquired, trying in vain not to stare at the slowly closing crevice.

“Yes, I think so.” he responded, “But uh, I don’t think it likes the conversation. Something else?”

Twilight started, then cleared her throat sheepishly, taking her focus away from his head to look him in the eyes. “Uh... well, who are these guys?”

“I’ve seen them before, on one of my exploits to the Old World.” The brown pony answered. “They’re the Hordes of Chaos. Kind of reminds me of that Discord fellow that messed with your town a while back. Their ultimate goal is to bring about the End Times; the unmitigated rule of their gods over all creation. Their leader, the Everchosen, is considered the will of the gods made manifest. He lost one of six artif-“ He winced as his mane began to shift and crackle, “Lost…something very important for him to do his job, and evidently thinks he can find a new one here.”

“Wait, so Artichoke is somewhere here!?” Twilight quaked.

“Shh, it’s Archaon.” The brown pony corrected her, “I actually had the displeasure of seeing him before his coronation. H-How do you know his name?”

Twilight cringed at the question. “Uh, I…heard the soldiers talking about him.”

“Oh; that’s not good for them. In both the Empire and the Wastes, saying his name without rank is tantamount to blasphemy. Sorry, but I feel I need to ask; what’s that on your horn?”

“What?” Twilight asked, dumbfounded.

“Well, that right there...” He reached up to touch her horn and as soon as he made contact, at what sounded like the clink of a hoof to metal, he froze in place, pupils dilated to black saucers and the beast inhabiting his head freaked out.

His skin split open again, much wider and deeper, fracturing his entire skull in half, both sides waving up and down while a ghastly shriek emitted from his shattered larynx. Veins and muscles spasmed and swiped between the halves of his head. Several adjacent ponies in line were repulsed by the sight. Many wore expressions of terror and others tried to flee but were forced back by the soldiers. Twilight was also rendered immobile by this event but could fully see the freak show before her and was overwhelmed with fright.

The surrounding Chaos troops took action and separated them. The earth pony’s head snapped back shut, and he yelled out, flabbergasted, “What the bloody hell was that!?”

“I-I-I don’t know!” Twilight shouted, shaking her head in confusion.

Two soldiers stepped forward before he could say more, black steel gauntlets clamping around his body as they proceeded to drag the colt away from the line despite his protests, muttering to one another in their dark language.

”Exorcise the daemon, we will need an unoccupied sacrifice.”

Twilight was thrown ahead, behind the next pony from the back.

It was impossible to make sense of the incident, or why she wasn’t taken away also but Twilight knew she was linked to all that happened - especially after remembering the gathering of the four leviathans.

The prevailing voice directing the line soon became understandable as the distance closed. It would ask for a name, do something that produced various glows of light and decide where they went. Labor, Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Undivided, or the pit.

Twilight was now close enough to the front to see the figure heading the categorization. It wore a black full-body robe and hood and carried a large book, passing a finger across each page as if reading it. Textual scrolls rolled from broaches on its neck and a luminous blue haze steamed from under the hood, obscuring its face - if it even had one.

For some reason, there was a chaos warrior in line carrying a familiar yellow pegasus in bonds. When it was its turn, it approached the reading arbiter.

“Name.” It asked throatily.

“F-F-Flutt…” The pegasus’ voice became more raspy and high-pitched until she broke down crying.

”Despair only when death comes for you!” The warrior declared.

It plunged her head into the book to silence her. The stiff pages turned a bright red and instantly melted into a viscous fluid, kept from flowing off the book by apparently magical forces. The pegasus’ struggle only intensified, having her nose and mouth submerged. After some time her resistance was allayed and she appeared to pass out from suffocation, giving a final twitch of a hind leg. The warrior lifted her head off the book and the pages solidified.

The librarian was still passing his hand across the pages as if nothing had happened. The pegasus’ face was soaked red, wide-eyed as if having seen an unspeakable horror, mouth agape. Seeping in anywhere it could, the fluid entered her head around her eyes, into her mouth, and nose. Twilight remembered how Khorne’s drink acted the same way, flowing against gravity.

“I think you know where to take it,” said the librarian. The warrior trudged off, carrying the stupefied mare.

Time went on, the line kept moving, and finally it was Twilight’s turn. She stood before the librarian who, from that angle, clearly had no head, let alone a face; just a blue mist flowing under the hood. It kept reading, not even looking at her.

“Name.” it asked.

“Uh…” she feared what the librarian’s reaction would be. “Twilight Sparkle?”

The librarian’s finger halted over the book. Its hood twisted in her direction and it slammed the tome shut, throwing a cloud of dust from the pages. At the same time, some distance away, a guillotine blade slammed down and near it, shouts of confusion and anger were heard.

“Where did the brown one go!? Find him! The sacrifice must be completed!”

“Follow.” The librarian instructed.

It pivoted around and glided into the massive yurt structure. Two armor-clad warriors moved to Twilight’s sides and pushed her forward and up the platform to the entrance. She squealed in fear as to what she might see inside, pushing back fruitlessly against the force of the armored wall behind her. She clenched her eyes shut as she passed through the entrance flaps. The flaps seemed alive as they caressed her body in an almost pleasurable fashion, reminiscent of Slaanesh’s gift of renewed control. Once the sensation was over, she noticed the air churning and blowing unnaturally. There was a sound like a heap of steel shifting.

“Have your draconian ways finally borne results, librarian?" a low, mighty voice said.

“Have faith, lord, for I may have something.” another voice, similar to the librarian’s said in return.

Twilight couldn’t parse out a word of the strange language and, hearing no aggression, opened her eyes. The yurt was larger on the inside than it appeared outside. Oversized weapons and masks of a strange nature hung on the walls, which were oscillating inward and outward like lungs. Miscellaneous items, treasures, weapons, chests, armor, and skulls were flotsam about the space. Three large figures sat around a table with a map of Equestria on it and small flames in the northern areas. They glared back at her. She was disturbed by the strange nature of the yurt and staring masks, many looking like real faces.

“Bring it before me, that I can make judgment.” The other voice ordered.

Twilight could barely contain her anxiety as the librarian lifted an arm toward her at the iron man’s words and started battering the warriors behind her with her hooves, trying to get between them and escape. Despite the rattling and echoing of their armor at the purple mare’s blows, they stood unphased, blocking the exit. She felt an upward pulling motion on her coat that quickly got stronger until she was airborne and floating toward the table, seating the steel figure on the other side. Twilight continued to kick and flail about, squeaking in fear but trying to avoid screaming, to counter the levitation but to no avail. The librarian lowered his arm and she fell to the floor just before the table, shaking the fixtures from the crash.

“Leave us.” It said, its voice vibrating Twilight to the bone.

The warriors, librarian, and those also at the table stood up and silently marched out the back way, carrying off what they apparently brought in. She was tempted to say ‘Please don’t leave me alone with him,’ but feared a backlash. Both exits showed large hallways and other rooms, defying the external size of the yurt and sealed shut into a seamless wall following their leave.

Twilight remained tensed up with anxiety as the table began sinking into the wood floor. As it sank, her view of him was no longer obscured. He appeared exactly as in the nightmare; great in stature, wearing pitch-black armor, embroidered in red, a chainmail coat underneath. A third, glassy eye beamed from the forehead of his helmet and the omnipresent eight-pointed star hung on a necklace around his neck. Flowing behind him, a great, dark purple mantle hung down to the ground. His helmet was iconic. Two beady little yellow lights glowed from the eye holes and the horns, like tusks of an elephant, arched upward.

The instant the table had completely disappeared into the ground, he quickly leaned forward, bringing his face closer to hers. She cocked her head back, not wanting to be so close, staring into his luminous, unblinking eyes. They maintained a long silence, each second to Twilight seeming like an eternity spent in fretfulness.

“Norse?” he said suddenly, the wind of his voice blowing her mane back. She recovered from the blast and looked at him quietly in confusion. “Bretonnie?” he said again.

Twilight’s confused expression remained, not knowing what he was saying.

“Kislevite?…Hochgotik?...Guótài?” he said, one after another. She still couldn’t understand and afraid he’d do something if she didn’t answer, had to say something.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“Ah; Low Gothic, then. I would have expected a more noble tongue from one who could even be a possibility.” he said, easing himself back into his iron throne. “And you’re the first of your kind I’ve seen with one of these.” he reached out an arm toward her. She backed up at the nearing gauntlet. “Come here that I can see.” He ordered, his eyes turning red and the soft breeze about him intensifying.

A hundred voices whispered in Twilight’s head, just below her ability to hear it. They were unintelligible but somehow induced a feeling of reassurance and calmness. She reluctantly stepped forward and the wind died down. He touched the sides of her horn and examined the object around it.

“A collar of Khorne,” he mused, “Negates the power of magic. One so small would usually be used on developing flesh hounds. Why would you be wearing one and not the others?“

“I woke up with it in a cart, I guess.” Twilight answered. “It made somepony... he said he was ‘possessed’, or something; his head split open and he freaked out!” she spun her eyes in different directions to simulate the motion.

He winced at her statement, and clenched his hand on the arm of his seat. Twilight saw the tense reaction and wondered if she’d said something wrong. A moment later, a warrior and a shorter, decrepit creature, vaguely shaped like the other two came in through an emerging split in the wall. The warrior stood by him at attention.

”Stuntak has found him. Keep your eyes out for him; and slave, show her to her quarters...” the seated superior said.

“Ja, Herre Archaon.” the warrior acknowledged in his native tongue, nodding his head. He exited through the front, the wall opening and sealing behind him.

Twilight was startled at the sounding of ‘Archaon’ as she assumed ‘ja’ to be ‘yes’. “Y-you’re the one they told me about!” she exclaimed, scuttling back.

Archaon raised a brow under his helm and asked, “Who are they?” he held his hand out to stop the squirrely thing from taking her away.

The whispers grew to speaking chatter, placating her again, “One was, uh... red, really angry, yelling all the time, and obsessed with this red drink of his. The pinkish one, I don’t know how to describe him but just perfect in every way like you wouldn’t believe.” she caught herself starting to drift in thought. “There was this big rotten thing, just a sorry sight to see. Sores and blisters everywhere, and his gut was wide open! Little monsters treated it like a playground.”

She wrapped her hooves around her stomach, being sickened from remembering the image. “And I think the last one’s name’s Tzeentch, a big raven guy with a bunch of eyes.”

Archaon abruptly sat more erect, clutching the star on his necklace. “And you somehow didn’t lose your soul upon seeing the Prince of Excess?” he asked.

“No. He said he ‘summoned’ it, whatever that means to do.”

Archaon leaned to the mewling corpse slave. “A being summoned by the gods deserves slightly better accommodation. The spare room, then.” he said to the creature, taking his hand away and letting the small creature seize Twilight by the forelegs. She struggled to break its grip but it twisted her around on her back and started dragging her off. Fighting to be released, and every attempt to cast a spell failing, she lashed out to Archaon.

“Where is he taking me? What are you planning? What are you doing to everypony!?”

He ignored her question as she was towed past. “I refuse to speak in your inferior language for long, so learn the language of the Wastes.” he stated simply, reaching over to pick up the book the librarian had left beside him. He dropped it on Twilight’s abdomen as she passed and the weight knocked the breath out of her. Winded, she promptly stopped her verbal barrage and simply flailed weakly as she was dragged into another opening in the wall, which shut firmly the second they passed through.

“She’s met the gods.” he mused. “Few other than I have had such an opportunity; but those of this world, so small.” he banished the thoughts. “The gods do everything for a reason, and they must have a plan. She must be the one, there’s clearly a connection.”

Normally, Archaon was the last being this side of the Warp who needed reassurance in these matters. Still, however, he couldn’t keep a few of his doubts about the whole situation from nagging at him.

He paused, then sighed and shook his head. This insane world was already beginning to wear on his nerves.

The clatter of the locks on the door caused the cyan mare to cease pacing around the cell. It banged open to reveal a gaily dressed figure slightly obscured by the lantern light outside, which beamed into the dark room. It was carrying a limp yellow and pink maned pony under one arm.

“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked to no one in particular.

“Another playmate.” The warrior mocked, walking past the cages.

“Oh hi, Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie yelled from a cage across from Rainbow Dash. She snapped her head over and spoke to some invisible entity next to her. “Well she’s my friend! She’s really nice and I bet you’ll be instant pals when you meet!”

Her head slowly wilted back and her eyes started shrinking and drifting in different directions.

Rainbow Dash tried to bring the pink pony back to focus. “Wouldja please stop talking to your imaginary friend? And why are you still so happy? This isn’t exactly a summer camp where you can make friends willy-nilly. We’re obviously prisoners for Celestia-knows-what and they’re probably gonna do to us what they’re doing to everypony else!”

Pinkie wrapped her hooves around the bars of the cage and shot back, “He’s not imaginary! He’s right there. Can’t you see him?” She pointed at nothing beside her.

“I can see him, darling…” Rarity said in a stupor from the next cage over, leaning weakly against the bars. “He’s so handsome and suave.” She made minor twitches and jerks, waving her hoof into Pinkie’s cage.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “You’re both losing it.” and went over to the side of her cage where the warrior was opening the door to the adjacent cell.

It threw Fluttershy in carelessly, her fall barely cushioned by the scant hay on the floor. Rainbow Dash saw her eyes fixed open and turning pink at the edges as if she hadn’t blinked in a very long time.

“Jeez, what’d you do to her?!” she asked as the warrior closed and locked the door.

“I didn’t do anything. She’s another special case.” It glanced at Fluttershy for a moment. “She is looking better already.”

Rainbow dash looked to Fluttershy to examine her more closely. Her coat was slightly darkened; a more golden yellow instead of its lighter shade, and a bright red color was appearing in expanding blotches on her mane.

“Oh, man...” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“And this one…” the warrior said, tapping another cage with an orange pony in it, shivering and breathing heavily. “…Is doing just fine. She’s been blessed by the Plaguebearers.”

“Ah hardly call gett’n nicked by one of them slime covered swords a bless’n.” Applejack scowled and showed a small festering cut on her neck. A fit of violent coughing overtook her, and she covered her mouth with a hoof and found a few red droplets on it afterward. She moaned and threw her head down on the hay padding as flies began to land on her.

The warrior left the way it came. “Rejoice in your afflictions.” The sounds of the outside instantly silencing as the door shut.

“We’ll show you!” Rainbow Dash through the door. “We’ll find a way out of here! Right, Pinkie?”

Pinkie was rolling around on the floor, laughing. “Stop tickling me!” she gleefully pleaded to no one. Rarity was also giggling at her spontaneous merriment with a slightly dreamy expression.

Rainbow Dash sighed in dismay and turned to check on Fluttershy again who was now, somehow without being noticed, standing up with her face pressed between the bars of her cage on Applejack’s side. Her face was wickedly stretched in a nightmarish smile.

“Hey, Applejack,” Fluttershy whispered loudly, “Can I have some of that?”

“Some - uh, what?” Applejack asked sluggishly, lifting her head. She froze as she saw Fluttershy staring at her with piercing eyes, now reddened around, and a wicked grin. Her mane was now completely bright red and her coat further darkened to a brasslike yellow.

“That red stuff on your hoof.” she answered quickly. Applejack checked the hoof she had coughed on. The drops were smeared and blackened. Her confusion mounted.

“Why...?” Applejack looked at her in askance.

“I’m just really thirsty and that looks awful good right now.” she said, her left eye twitching spasmodically.

Applejack looked dubiously at her friend, then glanced at her soiled hoof. “Ya know what this is, right? Ah don’t think you want none... You sure you’re all right?”

“Oh, I’m fine. That big guy was really nice.”

Rainbow shook her head. “He just threw you in there like a sack of-”

“So if I could just have a little bit.” Fluttershy went on.

“No!” Applejack said in disgust, “That ain’t right, Fluttershy. Ah’m gonna clean this the first chance ah git.” Another bout of coughing ravaged her throat and more droplets trickled onto her hoof, bigger now with some whitish substance mixed in.

“I’ll clean it for you. Just scoot over here aaaand-” Fluttershy stretched her hoof further, straining her skin on the bars.

“NO!” Applejack shouted back. “You might catch what I got anyhow, and it’s a dosey-”

“YOU GIMME IT OR I’LL RIP YOUR WHOLE LEG OFF!” Fluttershy snapped, forcefully pushing between the bars, swiping at Applejack who hastily shuffled against the furthest wall of her cage, gazing in terror at the beast that had suddenly replaced her friend and tried to wipe the stain off in the hay.

“What the hay’s gotten into you!?” Rainbow dash grabbed Fluttershy’s tail in her mouth and pulled her from the bars. The pegasus tried to claw her way back toward Applejack but, owing to her hooves, had little traction.

Rarity kept giggling and repeating to herself, “All according to plan… haha… just as planned.” Pinkie played patty-cake with her friend, oblivious to the scene.

As Fluttershy thrashed and snarled more intensely, there was a faint popping sound, like a grape getting squished. A pool of red massed on the bottom of her eye and started to run down her cheek. She stopped struggling and Rainbow let go of her tail, believing her mad fit was over. Fluttershy touched the wet spot on her face and looked at the red stain on her hoof - and then she began vigorously wiping her face with her leg, licking off the drops of blood in a near-frenzy.

“Ugh...” Rainbow dash cringed.

“Man you must have been thirsty, Fluttershy!” Pinkie said, still making patty-cake motions.

Having wiped her face clean and failing to find any more of the ichor, Fluttershy shivered and collapsed. A moment later she started to cry.

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry...” she sobbed, burying her face in the hay.

The skinny creature threw Twilight into a fair-sized room and the book in after her, as it had fallen off. Finally out from under the heavy tome, she tried to make a run for the door before the creature closed it but was met with the heavy frame slammed in her face and the sound of a lock engaging.

“Darn it!” she yelled, banging her forehooves on the door in frustration. “Held captive to face Celestia knows what kind of treatment, a bunch of lunatics running around Equestria swiping up almost everypony they can find, and this thing…” She grabbed at the collar on her horn and tried pulling it off to no avail, “…jamming my magic so I can’t even do anything!” She angrily kicked the book and it thundered on impact, flying across the room, seemingly by its own accord, hitting a large mattress and flew open. Twilight, intrigued by this behavior, walked over to the book, admiring the surprisingly well-furnished room.

Luminous stones built into the walls provided light and an archaic dresser, much like the one in her library, spanned much of one wall, though it was too tall for her to get to many of the drawers or mirror. An empty suit of Chaos Warrior armor stood in a corner next to the door; it wasn’t on a frame, but the parts levitated in the proper order. Torn up, ragged bear pelts covered the floor, many of them dried out and shriveled. Beside the mattress there was a smaller, gilded cushion. On the mattress there was a symbol similar to the kind tattooed on the pink and purple warriors, embroidered on one end.

She stepped onto the mattress, but was immediately shocked by the blast of sensations that surged through her she touched it. Though it felt unnaturally pleasant, she didn’t trust it and nudged the book to the cushion, which was still comfortable and didn’t bliss-zap her when she sat down. The book’s letters shifted and morphed in self-translation. Across the first page it read “Liber Chaotica – Complete Edition by Tarok, most pious servant of Chaos”. In the table of contents, she could make out the words “Equestrian Hunt” wondering if it was recently added. It was near the end of the book that the chapter began.

2523 I.C. The Old World quaked at the return of the hordes of Chaos. Within one year of his coronation, Archaon, Lord of the End Times, Chaos Incarnate, The Anointed, Favored Son of Chaos, Scourge of the World, Herald of the Apocalypse united the Tribes of the Chaos Wastes under the banner Chaos Undivided. This freed the followers of the gods from thousands of years of civil slaughter between rival kingdoms, renewed the alliance with the Chaos Dwarves, subdued to compliance the ork tribes of Warboss Grimgor Ironhide with the aid of the king of the Kul, Vardek Crom, maintained partnership with the Dark Elves in their joint pursuit of the destruction of the arch enemy, the Elves of Ulthuan. He launched the first Storm of Chaos, sixth great incursion, into the Empire to usher in the glorious End Times, when the Dark Gods rule over the Old World, all is consumed by the unholy power of Chaos, the Empire is freed of their false gods, and the temples of Sigmar burn.

The Grand Principality of Middenland, the Empire of Man:

The first Storm of Chaos had been underway for little less than one year, and Archaon’s legions, supplemented by the tamed Ork tribes were on the doorstep of the City of Middenheim. Valten, the supposed incarnation of the false god Sigmar, assembled a host of men to retaliate from Bretonnia, Kislev, and other Imperial provinces and met Archaon’s army on the outskirts of the city. Vardek Crom had fallen in Sylvania, battling the undead forces of the Vampire Counts and was unable to aid his liege. His body was recovered and buried at the Keep of Skulls. The legions met in glorious slaughter and Archaon and Valten eventually fought in duel. Valten struck and felled Archaon’s mount, Dorghar, Steed of the Apocalypse, with the dreaded hammer of Sigmar, Ghal Mahraz. Though Archaon ultimately slew Valten, he himself was blindsided by the subjugated Warboss Grimgor, and the Ork fled yelling “Grimgor is da best!” The damned Greenskins turned on his army, and the Everchosen abandoned the field with the remnants of the Gods’ followers to the Wastes.

Losing Dorghar, the fourth treasure of Chaos, Archaon nearly lost his title of Everchosen and barely managed to retain dominance of the tribes and kingdoms of the Wastes. The Dark Gods, blessed be their unholy names, sought a new steed for him. The Changer of Ways found just that and more in a place through the Warp known as Equestria. The Lord of Change discovered the one he believed to be apt for the position. A unicorn filly named Twilight Sparkle caught his attention with her early mastery of the magical arts and perspicacity for knowledge and planning. Tzeentch observed her development through early life and in one incident, he chose her to propose to his counterparts in the far corners of the Warp. A simple letter, not sent on time to the princess of the realm, sent her quickly spiraling to insanity. This incident sealed his decision as she seemed madly obsessed that all things must occur just as planned, though it would take persuasion of the other three powers to make a final decision. Archaon received a vision from the Great Sorcerer with vague details to locating “a replacement”.

He passed into the Equestrian realm with two thousand soldiers by warp portal in 2525 I.C. After searching for only three days on this new world, Archaon reached, plundered and took captive the population of the errant’s resident town Ponyville. Holding off on burning the town until he was sure she wasn’t there, a cultist, hoping to find riches of his own but last to search the town, found her unconscious in a tree library and in mid transit to Archaon’s camp and unaware of the part she was to play had to be stopped from extracting her soul by a message from Kairos Fateweaver. For possibly damaging precious cargo, the cultist was struck down shortly after dropping her at the camp. Awaiting scrutiny by the chief librarian, Twilight encountered the hated one, the Dimension Traveler, who escaped sacrifice to the Dark Gods. Before her, five of her associates were found and judged earlier in the screening.

Three of them were spared a terrible pre-fate; one succumbed to the Red Thirst and Black Rage, and the other would contract the first stage of the greatest of the Plague Lord’s gifts, Nurgle’s Rot.

Twilight stopped and wondered what was happening to her friends, virtually disregarding all previous words that had been pushed to the back of her mind by the whispers. The next page was a list of the names and fates of the ponies of Ponyville, but only a few names were displayed, most faded away from the page.

DAY THREE PRISONER REPORT- JUNE 21 2525 I.C. – PONYVILLE – FATE PENDING

Thunder Lane- labor

Vinyl Scratch- Slaanesh

Octavia- Slaanesh

Bon Bon- pit

Rainbow Dash- Vardek Crom the Conqueror

Applejack- Feytor the Tainted

Pinkamena Diane Pie- Styrkaar of the Sortsvinaer

Rarity- Melekh the Changer

Fluttershy- Lord Haargroth the Blooded

Lyra Heartstrings- Tzeentch

Big Macintosh– Khorne

Golden Harvest- labor

Derpy Hooves- Undivided

Berry Punch- Slaanesh

Mayor (title stripped)- Tzeentch

Cheerilee- Tzeentch

Snips- pit

Snails- pit

Cake (Mr and Mrs.)- labor

Diamond Tiara- pit

Names not given. Referred as Cutie Mark Crusaders- labor

Spike (purple drake?)- showing rapid mutations

Twilight wondered who bore the names by her friends’. She remembered the name Vardek Crom, the last thing Tzeentch said before sending her back and new words began to burn onto the page.

Twilight Sparkle- To receive Eternally Burning Mark of Chaos, June 22, 2525 I.C.