You are Twilight Sparkle. And you really, really wish Anonymous would stop just rocketing away like that. It’s not like he was hard to find, but it still rustled your jimmies somethin’ fierce that he’d just up and ditch you like that. A few quick teleports bring you to the edge of the Everfree and a cursory glance at the ruined trees tells you all you need to know.

You trot briskly through the forest, following the path of destruction left by the evidently enraged Space Marine. The deeper you get into the forest the more worried you become. You don’t know much about Dark Eldar, but this seems like a trap. You're so deep by this point that nopony would be able to help you if something happened. And of course Anon just barreled right into it.

After a few more minutes of walking you hear a great clamor in the distance. There was a mechanical growling that sounded like an engine and the clash of metal against metal. The sound picks up as you get closer and eventually is accompanied by the familiar howling of Anon’s Blastmaster. You slow your pace, if there's some kind of battle going on you would want to avoid getting caught in the middle.

But what if Anon needs help? Anon is your friend, if he's in trouble you need to help him! But what he told you about the Dark Eldar... you rather like your soul. And judging from Anonymous’s crazed, manic laughter in the distance, he probably didn’t need the help. Nor did you need the mental scarring you were sure to endure.

Finally the laughter and screaming stopped and you figured it was probably safe to check everything out. You begin to trot warily towards where you had been hearing the s- OH SWEET CELESTIA WHAT IS THAT NOISE?!

It's like nothing you've ever heard before or ever want to hear ever again in your life. It's as if you're hearing magic, and that completely impossible concept is threatening to drive you to madness. You drop to the ground and clamp your hooves over your ears but it doesn’t do anything, you can still hear the sound completely clearly.

Just as you think your eardrums might burst and your mind might break it ceases. That could only have been Anon, but you could never imagine how he might have made that sound. And quite honestly, you’d rather not know. After that noise you can’t help but notice just how quiet the forest is now. Even the wind stopped.

You decide that it’s been quiet long enough and head on in to see the aftermath. As you step into the clearing the first thing you notice is the sheer amount of BLOOD covering everything. Normally the sight of blood would terrify you, but here there’s just so much that... well your mind just seems blissfully unable to really conceptualize such a quantity. It’s just such an unrealistic amount. You saw it, you understood it was blood, but there was just so much of it that your mind couldn’t grasp the weight. Like how when you were stargazing you understood that there were trillions of miles between Equestria and the stars you were looking at, but it was just so big that you just had to settle for “Yeah, that’s a lot.”

Then you noticed in the very middle lied Anon on his back with an arm wrapped around Vinyl who was slumped on his chest. Sweet Celestia, even they were covered in the stuff! With Vinyl you couldn’t tell if it was hers or if she’d just gotten it all over herself, but with Anonymous it was different. It was quite evident that much of the blood covering him was his own. Mostly anyways. His armor is completely ravaged and you cab see dozens of gaping wounds in his exposed flesh.

The peacefulness of the two laying there is such a stark contrast to the carnage about them, and briefly the horrifying thought that they might be dead crosses your mind. You trot carefully through the clearing, doing your best to avoid all the chunks of meat spattered about. As you get near Vinyl perks up and looks at you, a smile crossing her face as she recognizes you. Immediately you feel relief. She pokes the unresponsive Anon with a hoof.

“Hey, Twilight’s here.”

You don’t hear anything and as you finally get over to the pair you gasp at the sight of the wounds covering Anon. He looked terrible from a distance but up close you wonder how he can still be alive. If he IS alive. Vinyl frowns and nudges Anon’s head with her hoof again.

“Hey, wake up.”

To your relief you hear an agitated grumble come from Anon.

”No.” he mumbles.

”Um, if you don’t mind my asking, what the HAY happened here?” you ask.

Anon just grumbles again and squeezes Vinyl a little tighter, seemingly intent on returning to sleep. You take a look at the various corpses littering the ground.

“Were these guys Dark Eldar?” you persist.

Finally Anonymous opens his eyes and sits up, Vinyl sliding down into his lap.

”Sweet Slaanesh, can’t you just let a man sleep?” he groans.

You stomp a hoof. “This is no time for sleeping! Infernus said there were BILLIONS of these things coming! If they’re already here-”

”Twilight, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but this is not billions. This is a few dozen.”

”Well what if they told the others? What if they’re on their way right now?”

Before Anon can answer you you’re all interrupted by shuffling and a voice.

”Step... away... from the... human.” a voice wheezes.

You turn to see a Dark Eldar warrior limping his way over, some kind of weapon aimed at the three of you.

”Oh fuck it all...” groans Anonymous.

”Hand... hand over the gems... human.” he says.

”And if I don’t?”

The warrior weakly rips his helmet off, pointing his weapon at you.

He grins wickedly. “I’ll kill your little friend.”

Oh come on! You weren’t even a part of this!

Anon glares at him through his battered faceplate and you feel the tension build. Then with a dull thud, the Eldar warrior drops to the ground, a rock wrapped in an azure magical aura floating where his head had just been. You look back at Vinyl to see a scowl on her face.

”Nopony threatens my friends.” she growls.

---

You are Anonymous and SON, YOU ARE PROUD. You give Vinyl another one armed hug as the Eldar warrior groans from where he lays on the ground.

”Good girl.” you say to her, giving her mane a light rustle.

She beams up at you from your lap at the praise. You lift her off your lap and place her on the ground and get wearily to your feet. By Slaanesh you ached everywhere, you had never felt so weak. You thump over to the fallen Eldar, your steps heavy and unassisted by your dead power armor. You grab the Eldar by the throat and hoist him up and toss him back against a tree, forcing him into a sitting position. The Eldar looks up at you, his eyes taking a while to bring you into focus.

He growls at you. “I’ll tell you nothing, human.”

You tear your ruined helmet off and look at the gems still miraculously untouched and smile.

You look at the Eldar and smile at him as well.

“I never said I wanted you to talk.”

But you need to know what he knew. You needed to know if Feanor knew here you were. The Eldar grins at you.

“But you need to know, don’t you? Need to know if your little pets are safe?”

You ignore him and turn to Twilight and Vinyl.

”Head back to town, I will interrogate the Eldar and see what he knows.” you tell them. The xeno behind you scoffs as you say this.

Twilight steps forward. “Let us help you. We are unicorns, I can just use that spell I used to look into your memories.” she says.

You look at her sternly. “No.” you tell her.

”What? Why? We can help!” she insists.

”My mind was one thing, I may be Slaaneshi but I’ve not lost my humanity. A Dark Eldar is completely different. These are the creatures who created my god, I will not allow you to taint yourself with this monster’s memories.”

Twilight hesitates but seems to follow your reasoning. She knows what she saw in your mind, she won’t be so eager to look into something worse.

”Alright, we’ll go back to town and tell Infernus about the Eldar. Y-you... won’t hurt him will you?” she says the last part nervously.

You sigh at her. “Of course not.” you tell her.

”Pinkie Promise?”

... What?

”Pinkie... promise?” you ask uncertainly.

Vinyl rolls her eyes. “It’d take way too long to explain. Just tell her yes so she’ll leave you alone.”

Twilight glares at her.

”Alright alright, Pinkie Promise.” you relent.

Seemingly satisfied, Twilight relented.

“Alright,” she says. “we’ll see you back at Ponyville.”

”Later Anon!” Vinyl chirps as she and Twilight trot away.

You watch them go and finally turn back to the Eldar.

”Like I said, human, I will not speak.”

Again, you ignore him. Instead you just chuckle.

”What’s so funny?” he growls.

”I’m sorry,” you say, still chuckling. “I’ve just been a little out of sorts since I came here.”

”Sorts aren’t all you’re out of.” he remarks.

”You know, I can’t even get a decent meal around here.” you continue on. “These ponies dine only on flowers and grass, no fit food for Astartes.”

”I’ve little interest in the fair of beasts,” the Eldar spits.

”And neither do I!” you say. “It’s simply been ages since I’ve had a proper meal. I haven’t eaten anything since before our raid on your city.”

The warrior scoffs again. “And what care of mine is any of this?”

”Oh, none at all, none at all. Just trying to make conversation.”

”Must I continue to repeat myself, human? I will not speak!”

”You know, I keep hearing you say that, but you sure are doing an awful lot of talking for someone who isn’t going to talk.” you remark.

The Eldar bristles at your words and goes silent.

”That’s better!” you say.

You mock sigh again. “Ah, but I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly hold any kind of conversation anyways with this insufferable hunger.”

You open up the pouch on your belt, pulling out a soulstone. You hold it out so the Eldar can see.

“I know that something like this would sustain your kind for ages, but to me it’s little more than a treat, it does nothing for my body.”

The Eldar’s eyes fixate on the soulstone and you see them fill with a maddened desire. You grin as you slip the stone back into your pouch and you laugh as you see the yearning in his eyes. Your laugh grows and your lips pull back in a grin, exposing the jagged fangs that make up your teeth. What color existed quickly drains from the Eldar’s face as he beholds them.

”How familiar are you with Astartes physiology?” you ask conversationally as you walk over to him.

A look of terror overcomes him as you approach, eyes never leaving your teeth.

”I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” he whimpers, finally understanding.

You kneel down and place your hands on either side of his head and smile at him.

”I told you,” you say. “I don’t want you to talk.”

You rear back and open your mouth wide, showing off your whole set of jagged fangs. The Eldar screams and you lunge forward. With a dull, wet crunch the scream ends. For over an hour, the only sound audible within the clearing is the tearing of flesh and the crunching of bone.

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