Twilight flipped to the next page. Blank.

“Mark of Chaos? What’s that, like a cutiemark?” She looked at her flank and the radiant pink star encircled by several lesser stars. Turning back to the book and turning back, the previous page became blank, only one line spanning the top.

You still have an assignment.

The pages began turning back on their own, whirling by chapter after chapter. “No! Stop, go back! What’s the Burning Mark?” Twilight hastily ordered, fumbling with the pages to get them to stop. She slammed a hoof down on the book to block the other pages and the flurry ended.

Svart Tal av Khaos - Black Speech of Chaos it spelled across the top and a wall of unintelligible text below. “Oh… right, but what about the others? What were those names?” she tried to turn back to the last pages but they fused together into a wood slab at her attempt. “Well… how am I supposed to learn a whole new language that looks and sounds like gibberish?”

The letters slowly illuminated and peeled, ascended from the page, emitting a shrill sound of a thousand whispers. Twilight quickly backed away, but was blocked by the wall as the floating symbols shot around her head. She frantically swatted at them but upon shattering in midair, they quickly reformed.

“No, no leave me alone! I’ll learn it another way— Aagh!!”

An orb of mystic text engulfed her head and rotated rapidly, whipping her mane about, emitting a low droning buzz. Her eyes strained and stung at the cryptic light show and her throat quickly grew sore. Thousands of voices filled her head, screaming and howling in their foul language. It felt like her head was being torn open.

“Make it stop! What’s this supposed to do? Hvordau denatuer!?” She momentarily froze. The orb disappeared.

’What did I just say?’ Twilight was flabbergasted at what she’d uttered. ’How did it do that? I... I understand it!’ Rubbing her eyes and with a pounding skull, she tried to remember the Equestrian language.

“Whoa... effective... but, ngaah... unpleasant.” she said, getting back on the cushion.

A deformed, fleshy clock suspended over the dresser squawked repeatedly, startling her. The arms both were at twelve and a loud metallic gnashing echoed through the room. Twilight looked to the origin of the sound. The helmet of the empty Chaos Warrior armor was now pointed at her.

“What the hoof is it doing?” She thought, already inured by several relatively benign scares.

Its leg components jerked clumsily, lurching one foot in front of the other, until it was in full locomotion toward her. She jumped aside as it tried to grab at her. She tried to run around it the long way, hugging the wall to the door; but the armor threw its gauntlet and grabbed her by the tail. It floated up and back to the armor with a handless arm outstretched. With the gauntlet back in place, the armor threw Twilight over its shoulder, wrapping its arm around her torso.

“Let me go!” she barked at it and knocked its helmet. It flew away from its body and shot back, slamming her in the face before resting over the opening in the chestplate. It tightened its grip, nearly crushing the breath out of her and took to the hallway.

Fluttershy managed to gather herself after some time. Her eye still hurt after a blood vessel had popped and she didn’t know how to take back what she said in her fit of rage. Her outburst was apologized for a hundred times.

“It’s so horrible. Sanity, conscience just… disappears, like the time one of my animals got rabies. Oh Celestia, what did they do to me?” Fluttershy explained sorrowfully. She was shivering, her teeth chattering, but everyone else was getting moist with sweat. “I mean, look at me!” She pulled at her mane and her hooves came off streaked red. “When did my mane get dyed!?” she cried, shaking her hooves at Rainbow Dash. “Oh, I’m just so sorry, Appl—Applejack!”

Turning around to apologize again, Fluttershy’s jaw dropped in horror at how far her friend’s ailment had gone, and so quickly. Rainbow Dash peered around and was grasped with the same dread. Applejack was lying nigh-lifeless. The only thing indicating her attachment to the mortal realm was the weak heaving of her chest, showing she was still breathing. Her expression was of sheer agony, but she was unable to speak due to her larynx being swollen beyond use. Sores and ruptured boils, leaking pus and blood cratered Applejack’s body like a checkerboard. Necrotic cave-ins exposed shriveled muscle and bone. Her coat and mane was grown over with green and brown mold and algae. Her body became disproportionate as some parts were deflated from necrosis and others swelled with fluids. Flies buzzed and crawled across her, some squeezing under the dying rings of flesh.

“Put something on, Applejack!” Rarity barked, holding a bump on her shoulder. One eye was half-closed and sleepy, the other bugging out wildly. “That’s no way to present yourself under the Great Raven’s eye!”

The door to the room suddenly burst open, drawing all their attention. Four large figures walked in arguing amongst themselves, but broke upon seeing the cages. “Blood and bile!” one filthy figure exclaimed, rushing over to Applejack’s cage and dripping bodily fluids across its path. The ponies shrunk back from the miasma of filth surrounding it. “This is too soon!”

Tentacles, what were once intestines, slithered from a large corroded hole in its abdominal armor. One strip was wrapped around a rusty key and fit it into the lock. The others threw the door open and it reached in to get Applejack out. Entering the space, a blue figure adorned with a bird motif, crystal eyes embossed on its armor, stopped before Rarity’s cell.

“How could you care for such a creature, Feytor? It’s an expendable tool, nothing more.” it said cynically.

Feytor glared angrily back, holding a limp, dying Applejack in his arms. “Grandfather Nurgle loves all his children and those blessed by his refulgence, Melekh. Though he is god of death, I need this one alive.” He tilted his head to the side until it fell over on his shoulder, held by a string of skin, revealing a large nest of flies lining his throat. They flew into Applejack’s mouth, ears, and under flaps of detaching skin. Coursing through her body, they looked like a thousand rats running around under a moldy carpet. He lifted his head back upright, “That should keep her alive until she receives Nurgle’s mark.“

“By the Daemonette’s eye, there you are!” a brilliantly adorned pink figure mirthed in glee at the space next to Pinkie Pie. He reached in and shook an invisible hand.

“Ohmigosh, you can see him!?” Pinkie bleated. He turned to her and she was unnerved by his tight pinkish-purple skin, veins pulsing underneath, whiteless eyes, and fang-lined circular mouth.

His voice was velvet, and sounded innocent as a child. “I’m surprised you can. Why, any friend of his is a friend… of… mine...”

A long, black tongue rolled from his mouth and maneuvered in the pink pony’s direction. She was not only unafraid, but uncontrollably drawn to it, mesmerized by the fluidity of its motion, its shimmering sheen. Just before making contact, a crimson and brass-clad figure took him by the shoulder and spun him around.

“Like the pleasure-seeking whelp you are, Styrkaar, you forget the task at hand at the slightest opportunity for gratification!”

“Peace, Haargroth; we have time,” he said as he retracted his tongue, “She’s just getting into it…” He started making erotic motions, passing a talon-nailed hand down the khornate’s chestplate.

Haargroth grabbed Styrkaar by the chestplate and pulled him face to face, “Bring her to receive the mark or I’ll take her head and yours!” He shoved him back and took Fluttershy’s and Rainbow Dash’s cages by handles on their tops. They were violently swung about as he exited, heading toward a large yurt.

“Fine, then.” Styrkaar huffed dejectedly as he pulled a key and unlocked Pinkie’s cage.

“Hey, where are we going?” she asked, bouncing around him.

“To get some work done. It’ll be like going to a beauty parlor.” he responded.

“Ooh, great! Ya know, I know a couple of spa ponies that work in Ponyville. You’d love that place and he would too!” she said, pointing and following the imaginary friend. Feytor and Melekh had already left along with Applejack and Rarity. Styrkaar led Pinkie out, holding the door for their invisible companion.

An elliptical Chaos star covered the door, the arms twisting and bending with raw eldritch energy. The armor suit approached the door with a capitulated Twilight over its shoulder, long since given up on trying to break free. An eyeball at the center of the star opened and stared at them. After a moment, the door cracked out of its frame and it entered.

The room was full of arcane devices. Torture, maiming, and sick pleasure were a few of their employments.

“One step closer to freedom, Kandor. On the platform.” a low voice said. The hollow suit nodded and carried Twilight to it, passing the origin of the voice. She looked up and saw Archaon following close behind.

“I’ve had an evolution of thought, and decided to abandon the assignment. It stifles linguistic diversity.” he said.

“So... so the whole ‘attack of the magic letters' thing was pointless?” she asked sorely.

“To expect consistency from Chaos is to expect a bloodletter to mate with a daemonette.” Archaon chuckled.

Twilight scowled back, “What’s so funnYYYYYY—“

The suit vaulted her over its shoulder onto the platform, landing her right side up. Before she could do anything, two large iron claws sprung up from the surface and gripped her torso, holding her in place. Another came up and clenched itself around her neck with almost choking force. The suit stood at attention beside the stand.

“One thing about this world that has driven me to insanity, even by Chaos’ standards…” Archaon strode to a fire pit. With her head held still, Twilight could only follow him with her eyes, “Is that your kind thinks so naively; so sure that things will turn out well in the end…” he said, reaching for an iron rod hanging over the edge, “But let me tell you.“ He pulled up the iron rod. Orange-hot coals fell off a white glowing head, hissing with heat.

“You and your friends are going to help me unleash Warp on earth.”

He swung the end of the rod in front of her face. A Chaos star was fixed on the end, braced away from the rod, a hole in the center. She glared at it in trepidation, following it as it swung.

The door opened again, and Archaon turned expectantly. Haargroth and Melekh, carrying cages with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity came in. They threw down the cages and the occupants were dazed by the shock.

“My lord.” Haargroth said with deference, kneeling on one knee with Melekh. “We are here to claim our steeds to ride with you to the world’s ending.”

“Good,” Archaon intoned. “Where are Feytor and Styrkaar?”

“It’s very difficult for Feytor to move quickly, having contracted every disease in the universe, sir.” Melekh said.

Just then, garbled yelling came from the hall, “My lord! It’s almost passed on!” Feytor plodded in, carrying a deformed pony-shaped blob pulsing full of flies, soaked in pus, bile, and blood. “My lord, I must administer the mark of Nurgle immediately or it will be useless to us!”

Archaon looked at the near-corpse in Feytor’s arms. “Quickly, then.” he said. Feytor ran through the flaps into the other space. “You two, add their marks.”

Haargroth and Melekh stood and took Fluttershy, Dash and Rarity toward the adjacent room. Dash was staring at Twilight with surprise, and Fluttershy was still recovering from hitting her head on the cage. Styrkaar entered with Pinkie Pie bouncing at his side. Archaon simply motioned him on to follow the others.

“Hey, Twilight!” Pinkie called with a wave. “Swell place, isn’t it? The girls and I are gonna get body art and it looks like you’ve got something special lined up for ya!” Twilight was rendered mute by the claw’s tight grip on her neck. She could only look back in confusion and apprehension.

“This star was forged with iron from the Armor of Morkar the Uniter, the first Everchosen of Chaos.” Archaon said, tapping his chestplate, “Your Burning Mark ought to be exactly like mine.”

He parted the mane around Twilight’s horn, exposing the collar still around it. Hand on the latch of the collar, he maneuvered the branding iron so the hole went around her horn, her forehead glistening with sweat. Twilight squeaked, panicking, waving her legs at him but was held too far away by the claws and couldn’t muster a scream. Archaon pinched the latch and the collar popped off. Just as the first sensations of a splitting headache began rushing in, Archaon thrust the white star down.

“He is lucky he got the best magic user in this land.” Melekh said, looking at the silhouette of a large figure bearing a rod down on the shadow of a pony, thick, smoke-like clouds billowing from the contact point. A loud whistling sizzle, followed by screams of excruciating pain permeated the space.

“Oh I khould dew vetter, eef eet woult earn your shavor.” Rarity drooled, teeth becoming misshapen. Her coat appeared abnormally stretched, bulges jutted around her body, her horn had shifted to a temple, bent forward and an especially tapered swell began protruding from the other side.

“So long as she doesn’t use magic like a coward. By sword and axe the slaughter takes place, not through some... light-show!” said Haargroth, throwing a bucket of water on Rainbow Dash, soaking her wings through. She squealed and shivered from the cold sting. “Can’t fly with wet wings,” Haargroth boasted, as if to prove some intelligence.

Feytor was already looming over Applejack’s bloated, near-lifeless corpse after setting her down on a rusting, corroded table. Three tentacles slid out from his armor. “Buboes, phlegm, blood, and guts…” they approached Applejack’s flank and opened, lined with teeth at the end. “…boils, bogeys, rot, and pus. Blisters, fevers, weeping sores…” They attached on each apple of her cutiemark, biting hard and pumping something into it, “…from your wounds the fester pours.”

The sizzling in the first room stopped. The pony on the platform was dropped into the smaller armored figures’ arms, limp as a ragdoll and all three departed.

“If you could step up here, and we can begin.” requested Styrkaar. Pinkie bounded up onto a counter, folded down from the wall, decorated with celestial and crustacean-like images.

“Ok, so…” Pinkie started, “how about a clown face, or confetti, *gasp* oooohh, I know! A—“ Styrkaar pushed a handful of white powder to her nose and in her rambling, she accidentally inhaled it. She quickly went silent, eyes instantly dilated and dropped numb on the counter.

“Now then, let us begin.” Styrkaar drew several chemical vials, knives, spools of thread, and needles from his belt.

Haargroth carried Fluttershy’s cage to a large cauldron of red liquid. She started shuddering at the sight, “No…no, NOO!!” she screamed, batting her wings frantically, bashing against the inside of the lock of the cage. Haargroth suspended her over the vat, “No, please! Not again!” she pleaded.

He looked into her eyes, streaming with tears, “Why do you despair? Rejoice, being in the Blood God’s service.” She shrieked as the cage dropped into the liquid and gargled on it as it rushed into her mouth. Bubbles continued to break the surface a long time after she’d gone under.

“G-g-get her out! Sh-she’ll drown!” Dash chattered.

“She’ll be fine!” Haargroth blasted back, “You, now!”

He took up Dash’s cage and toted her to where Melekh simply observed Rarity’s shifting form, stroking his chin. Some breaks appeared in her skin, bone protruded from several split lumps. She jerked and rolled, groaning in pain as her uncontrollably growing bones clattered on the steel floor of the cage.

“Make room, shape-shifter!” Haargroth bellowed, shoving Rarity near the edge of the table. “Hold her down, sorcerer.” he said. No response; he turned to Melekh. He was still staring at the writhing Rarity, whispering something to himself. Rainbow Dash contemplated what may be in store for her as her friends had been affected so badly. “MELEKH!” Haargroth furiously shouted. Melekh snapped to him in surprise, stopping his whispering. Rarity stopped rolling and just lied still, whimpering.

“What?” he exclaimed, irritated.

“Force down the pegasus…” Haargroth said firmly.

“I am not some animal handler!”

“Need I remind you of who will take her?”

Melekh yielded, coming closer, and Haargroth snapped the lock off the cage. Seeing an opportunity, Rainbow Dash lunged for the loose door, hoping to blow past them. Reaching the edge of the opening, she slipped on the water and tumbled out, landing sprawled on her stomach. She tried to stand up but felt some downward force pinning her to the surface. Melekh held his hands over her with a pulsating haze emitting from his palms. Haargroth unsheathed a small dagger and put it to Dash’s cutiemark.

“What’s that?” she asked nervously, unable to see the blade.

“Remember, it’s a mark. You’re not cutting her leg off.” Melekh warned.

“I like cutting the limbs off.” the blood knight grumbled.

Dash was suddenly awash with fright, “Cut my leg off!? What’s he doing, you bozo!?“ She futilely struggled under Melekh’s influence.

“Silence!” demanded Haargroth. Slapping his gauntlet over her mouth and infuriated by resistance, he viciously plunged the dagger into the cloud of her cutiemark.

The mouthed tentacles detached from Applejack’s cutiemark, dripping coagulated ooze, leaving three large black buboes in a triangular formation, connected by inflamed veins. Another set grew over her other flank. The flies poured out of her body, back into the recesses and cracks of Feytor’s armor. He rolled her over and looked into a collapsed hole in her chest at a deflated, mold-coated pair of lungs and a swollen, plaque-encrusted, leaking heart.

“Beating but not breathing... excellent. Styrkaar, how is the pink one?”

Styrkaar was returning the tools to his belt and looked to Feytor, obscuring Pinkie. “Still a work in progress, not quite there yet.” He glanced at the red vat Fluttershy had been submerged in. The liquid was no longer around the top, which earned a curious eyebrow from the pink figure. “Wasn’t the level higher when you put her in, Haargroth?“

Haargroth ignored him, focusing on carving radial arrows around the circle. Styrkaar went over and peered into the tank; the liquid was well over halfway down and there was no sign of a leak in the cauldron. The ring of the cage could be seen poking out of the top; he reached in and pulled it out, gasping at what he saw. A reflective red mass sat up, saturated, dripping with the red fluid.

“Put me back.” She whispered angrily.

“Oh, no…” Styrkaar muttered, “You’ve been in there long enough, and… did you… drink it all? It’s not supposed to be drunk!”

“Not all, just please put me back. I’m sooo thirsty.” She stammered out, motioning toward the nearly empty vat.

“The weakling is right.” Haargroth said, licking his bloodstained dagger and resheathing it, “You’re done. And what did he mean when he said you drank the blood you were supposed to be initi—”

Fluttershy let out a piercing screech, startling Styrkaar so much that he dropped her cage on the floor. She started thrashing about in the cage, making it jump around.

“Put me back! I’ll die of thirst!” she screamed; Styrkaar kicked the cage to silence her. Fluttershy hit her head on the bars with such force, it knocked her unconscious. Haargroth released Rainbow Dash’s mouth and an episode of wailing and whimpering ensued.

“Finally, some music!” Styrkaar said at her lamentations.

Melekh heard the door in the adjacent room open. “Who is there?” he called, keeping his hands over Rainbow Dash, “You had better have purpose for interrupting us.“

“FOR SIGMAR! FOR THE EMPIRE!” the silhouettes called out from the other side. A series of deafeningly loud pops and bangs erupted and the flaps were punctured by invisible forces, one of which lined up with Haargroth. A large hole appeared in his forehead and he collapsed over Rainbow Dash, nearly crushing her under his weight. Melekh’s hands burst with light but was also instantly felled, falling over Rarity, being punctured throughout his back by her protruding bones. His hand fell in such a way, the crystal eye in his palm shone before Rainbow Dash’s eyes, entrancing her. Styrkaar and Feytor advanced on the assailants, holes punched in their bodies by unseen penetrators all the while.

DIE, UNHOLY SPAWNS! the assailants roared. THE SPECTERS OF DEATH HAVE COME!

Styrkaar howled in agonizing pleasure as he was hit again and again. Feytor couldn’t feel a thing. “MAY NURGLE’S ROT TAKE YOU ALL!” Feytor garbled, storming into a room full of smoke and sparking flashes.

“Burn! Burn with the fires of change! The false god is dead!”

The shrill voice was on the very edge of her hearing and faded away as Twilight’s senses rushed back to her, bringing only pain. A blunt, throbbing force pounded in the side of her head, and putting her hoof to it, it gave way, sinking into her cheek like a pillow. She felt hard, broken shards in the screaming area that started to move. This worms-under-the-skin feeling intensified the miserable sensation until, in one large pop, apparently along the length of her skull, the movement stopped and a flare of relief jolted through the area. Twilight sighed in content and wondered what in Equestria happened.

She managed to open her heavy eyes, brought her hooves before her and gasped at the sight. The fur around her hooves had receded to just below the wrist joint, exposing a bony surface like a stallion. Bewildered by this, she slowly clapped them together and small sparks flew out from between. Curiosity stirred and she rubbing them together, creating red sparks that turned to yellow then white then blue as she sped up. A cloud of black smoke coalesced around her hooves and before finally coming together. A loud metallic grinding drew her attention and the ethereal display fizzled out. She sat up to find the source of the noise, to see she was in her old but now defiled chamber.

Blast marks and small, smoldering craters covered the walls and floor. An image flashed in her mind, bringing on a splitting headache, of a unicorn furiously firing bolts of lightning and energy at a chaos warrior, deflecting it with its shield.

The dresser appeared severely burnt on one end, several drawers scattered around. A large crack in the mirror was slowly mending itself.

Another flash; the unicorn had its horn rammed into the warrior’s shield, smoke escaping from where the shield contacted its forehead. The warrior smashed the unicorn off against a wall hanging mirror.

Head throbbing from the hallucinations, she turned to a corner of the room, nearest the door. The empty suit of chaos warrior armor stood in shambles, heavily dented, burnt and scarred all over. It now carried a large shield in one hand with a small hole punched in it, a star burned around, and a dull iron mace in the other.

Once more the vision returned. The unicorn scrambled up atop the dresser and jumped at the warrior viciously. It intercepted the mare in midair, smashing her aside with a large club to the face and throwing their unmoving body away.

The cushion to her side abruptly burst with a balloon-like pop. Twilight jumped back at the flurry of feathers, tumbling off whatever she was sitting on. Another metallic crunch. She followed it to see that the armor had turned to face her new position, crouching perfectly still behind its battered shield with its mace at the ready.

She’d fallen off the mattress, apparently, and was surprised why it hadn’t produced the joy-buzz it had before; even more so that she seemed longer than the mattress, as it was twice her size not a minute ago.

Getting back up, a tuft of mane fell across her face. As she brushed it back, a faint sizzling sound started and her hoof quickly grew hot. She cringed at the sting and remembered the supposed ‘Burning Mark’.

She rushed to the mirror which, along with everything else in the room, appeared somewhat smaller. The mirror was now at eye level. Coming upon it, Twilight was shocked by the creature looking back.

Her mane had darkened to an inky black and there were only a few pink highlights left. Seeing her body in the reflection, despair quickly took hold. She appeared much larger than what seemed like minutes ago, standing much taller, but quaking in desolation. An arrow, charred black on her skin, pointed down between her eyes. She noticed the collar was still gone and used her magic to part the mane around her horn.

There it was, a large eight-pointed star burned into her forehead, centered cleanly around her horn. She felt her breath shorten and a sickening mixture of sadness and nausea well up. She sat down before the dresser and threw her head down on the surface, facing the tattered suit. She heard an airy whoosh as her head hit the surface and a tugging feeling at her sides, but didn’t care to look.

“Why despair, mortal?... *gasp* Rejoice in the part you play.” A gurgling voice echoed from everywhere.

The cornered armor began to quickly shudder and rust over, the red and gold colors turning all manner of sickly greens and browns. Its parts rattled, dropping the shield and mace.

“You shall accomplish... *gasp* great things under us.” it said, shambling toward her in a ghoulish gait.

Twilight panicked. Without thinking of it, her horn spontaneously lit up and a fuchsia barrier, lined by various symbols and text of Black Speech, enclosed her. The suit stopped before the shield.

“Come, now... *gasp* Let Grandfather Nurgle see the friend of his child.”

It pulled a circular object from its belt. Twilight crawled back but the dome kept her under. It flung the ring at the dome and a hole opened, retreating from it. It clamped around her horn and the dome shattered in fading shards. An icy sting ran through her forehead as the suit approached.

“Be still...” It said, slapping a slimy glove on her shoulder. “I mean... *gasp* no harm to a future lieutenant... *gasp* of the Storm of Chaos...”

“L...Lieutenant?” she stammered, repulsed by the decaying, suddenly friendly armor.

“Ah... *gasp* I’ll let the Everchosen tell you, but that is not... *gasp* why I am here.” It held her other shoulder, speaking in a disturbingly paternal tone. “Look at you... *gasp* what changes have been made in only... *gasp* six hours! And the damage you have done to Kandor’s shell before he did you in.” it exclaimed, swiveling a finger in a large hoof-shaped dent in its helmet. “I wasn’t... *gasp* expecting this!” it said, reaching to her side. The tugging sensation returned and Twilight finally turned to see it. In its hand was a bat-like wing. She could feel its fingers running through the grooves, examining its structure. Twilight flushed with fright and both wings responded, shooting out and up in a flight-ready position.

The suit wheezed in laughter, returning to the corner where it first stood. “Embrace these gifts... *gasp* bestowed upon you and the others... *gasp* I am most eager for you to meet my new herald. *gasp* She is beautiful...” A violent seizure overtook the suit. Trembling violently, the rust and molded paint shed off and the dents and scars popped back to shape.

“Wait!” Twilight yelled, rushing to the suit. “What happened to my friends?”

“We have plans for you all.” It garbled, fading silent.

Red and gold reemerged on its figure. Twilight was still buzzing with questions. She lifted its floating helmet back to look inside the chestplate for the voice, finding only hollowness inside. The helmet slammed down on her head, still looking in the torso. Even the suit seemed to panic, frantically grabbing at Twilight to get her head out of its neck segment. It managed to shove her back and quickly took up mace and shield. Twilight was scared back as it started rapping its shield with the mace, jumping at her aggressively until she was cowering against the wall.

Eventually it stopped and laid down the shield. It grabbed her mane, pulling her to the door, struggling against her resistance due to her increased size. It threw the door open and dragged her out kicking and shouting from the tension. Once in the hallway, it threw her to the ground and brusquely motioned her to stay.

Twilight rose back to her hooves, and watched tensely as the suit approach a door next to the one she’d been dragged from. The hall was wider than she first remembered, with a door to the left and four on opposite sides down the other way.

It struck the door once with its mace and a faint yelp squeaked from in the room, followed by incoherent babble which turned to a vicious snarling and scratching at the door. The suit appeared to ignore this and unlocked it. As soon as it cracked the door open just slightly, a large blur of yellow and red bashed the door open and tackled the suit to the ground. Twilight flinched at the surprise and glared at the gold-colored pegasus, mane apparently weighed down with some red liquid, looming over the grounded armor bearing an expression of unnatural rage. The suit threw her off toward Twilight, leaving a red streak from her mane as she slid across the floor. A bout of feverish shivering seized the pegasus and her expression turned from anger, to pain and sorrow. Twilight recognized the fearful whimpering, as only one pony could sound like that.

“Fluttershy...?” she whispered, bowing her head down. The pegasus shot up and threw both forelegs around her in a tight embrace. Her mane whipped around and splattered them both with the red fluid.

“Oh, Twilight!” Fluttershy bawled, red tears streaming from her eyes. “What’s happening to everypony?” She pulled a wad of mane down before her face and started twisting it, red trickled to the floor. “This! It comes from nowhere! I wrung out my mane so many times but it just gets soaked again from nothing. When I woke up in that room, my mane and everything in there was dry, but now…” She led Twilight to the room and was aghast at the inside. Everything, walls, floor, fixtures, even the ceiling were dripping bright red.

“Goodness...” Twilight muttered, unknowing of what it truly was.

“I’d fall into spells of such random anger and just toss about for a while and come to a minute later. At one point, when I woke up, I was just… bigger. Like you! And uh, sorry for the…”

Twilight remembered she was still smeared with the substance dripping from Fluttershy’s mane and tried to wipe it off, to no avail. “Why aren’t you covered in it?” Twilight asked.

“My coat soaks it up like a sponge.” Fluttershy sighed. She let her mane drip on her coat and each drop disappeared between the hairs. Extending a wing, she wiped Twilight clean, the material soaking into the appendage.

“That’s, um... interesting.” Twilight said, actually unsettled by the conduct of this kindness.

The suit had gotten up and already opened another door. Out stepped a white pony, twisted and contorted in form, bones jutting out in all directions through her skin. Two glowing horns, bound by a collar of Khorne each, protruded from the sides of her head. Long, jagged teeth had grown through her lips, the bottom row piercing the top lip and vice versa. She proceeded uneasily, twitching her head back and forth and small sparks of barely controlled magic arcing from her horns. She tried to make light of her appearance and fake a smile but, straining her lips against her teeth, could not.

Another chamber opened. The suit motioned for the occupant to come out, nothing. In frustration it slammed its mace on the floor with such intensity a shockwave rattled the floor and rang in their ears. Rainbow Dash emerged, easily recognized by her multicolored mane but bore no significant deviations, save greater size and a severely dimmed, dark blue coat.

“Hey, guys.” she said, jittering. “Uh, Twilight. Those wings may look cool, but they’re too small to fly with.” By her tone, Rainbow Dash seemed very nervous about something, covering her flanks with her wings. Fluttershy expressed the pangs of pain and mounting anger. The steady dripping of her mane accelerated to something of a faucet tap.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, what are you hiding there?” She hissed and darted before her. “You got your mark, didn’t you? Let’s see it.”

Rainbow Dash backed up, “Uh, yeah, but it’s not... um…”

Fluttershy moved to pry Rainbow Dash’s wing from its concealing position. The struggle quickly degraded as Fluttershy’s aggression escalated. The only thing that prevented it from turning violent was a puff of pink that pushed them apart, bearing a smile so wide, as to be the stuff of an unsettling dream.

“Good morning, everypony! Wasn’t that night at the spa amazing? Whatever that stuff was my artist gave me, it sure helped ease the muscles but at the same time gave me a feeling you wouldn’t believe!”

Her eyes were dilated to such a degree, they were merely black discs centered with a bead of white. Somewhat tightly, her skin was drawn over her head. A fissure down the back of her neck was held shut by sewing string, masterfully looping back and forth in a strong bond. Her mane hung perfectly flat and straight down, as if brushed untold thousands of times.

“Look what he gave me!” She turned and showed in the place of her cutiemark, a symbol of curves and dyed different shades of pink, blue, and purple. “It’s just like the one the artist had, and I like it!”

“It’s really creative, Pinkie.” Fluttershy said after calming down.

“Oh! And check this out!” Pinkie reached into her mouth and pulled out a long black tongue. She kept trailing out more lengths of it for some time before it finally came to an end. She took up the end and twirled it around her head, wrapping in itself, piling higher and higher atop her head, until it formed a large slimy turban, blue saliva streaming down her face. “Tada!” she yelled, waving her forelegs in a jazz-hooves fashion. She glanced over their expressions expecting looks of amusement and wonder but was met with faces of revulsion and disgust. Seeing she’d failed to impress her friends, removed the headpiece, crammed it back into her mouth, and swallowed the knot whole.

A loud crash and cloud of orange dust swept through the space. The suit stood by a fallen door, broken off its corrosion-disintegrated hinges. Inside, the room hosted a miasma of decay and malady. Every metal surface was coated with it, shedding rust like a red snow. Flies and maggots filled the air and covered a throbbing blob in the center, riddled with countless sores, boils, rips in the flesh and necrotic patches. The flies swarmed to the mass, stuffing it with their number until the makings of limbs grew out and its deflated neck and head swelled to normal proportions.

“Applejack, you feeling alright?” Rainbow dash asked, approaching the doorway.

“I-I can’t feel much a’ anyth—” in mid-sentence, her jaw tore from her head, ripping her weak cheeks like wet tissue paper. A swarm of flies burst from her exposed throat, caught her jaw and maneuvered it back into place. The torn skin melted back together. She struggled to stand, dragging a pile of entrails leading from the floor to her torn abdomen.

“How are you gonna walk with… that?” Rainbow Dash asked, backing away from the stench.

“It ain’t really a problem. I done figured out a way around it, and more.” The sagging intestines wrapped around the other organs and lifted them back into her abdomen, holding shut the flayed strips of skin. “Ya see that, Rarity? Who needs magic to do stuff with their mind now?”

Rarity scowled back. The suit struck the wall to get their attention and motioned them all to follow. Applejack trailed last, teetering on each step.

“So where do you think he’s leading us?” Pinkie asked Twilight.

She remembered the episode of the suit being green and ‘friendly’.

“Promotions?” Twilight responded. Pinkie burst out in laughter.

Chains restraining and arms pointed upon them, a voice started on the other side of a majestic doorway, decorated with heavenly, prophetic images. The two alicorns held their stoic, strong composure, even as the two-legged soldiers at their sides held wood- and iron-framed muskets trained on their heads, watching for the slightest slip-up.

“On suspicion of consortium with the Ruinous Powers and seeking the ruin of the Empire of Man, but allowed continued life by the will of His Most Imperial Highness, Emperor Karl Franz von Holswig-Schliestein the First, Grand Prince of Altdorf, Count of Reikland, Protector of The Empire, you are brought before Him to speak your proposal, self-proclaimed Princesses Luna and Celestia. Bring them forth!”