“Alright, Ahriman is going to cast ‘Doombolt’ onto your Khorne Berzerker Squad . On a nine normally, but because Ahriman is Ahriman, he adds one to his psychic tests. So on a eight.” Two dice fell from Vaughn’s hand and clattered to the table, one dice landing on a four while the other landed on a five. “Alright, it goes off with a nine!” He looked up at his opponent, smirking. “This’ll cause D3 Mortal Wounds to them, and their movement range will be cut in half, and they can’t advance. If only your army could deny psychic powers…” he readjusted his glasses, blue eyes glimmering with confidence.

“Oh, but we can!” Gordon declared proudly. “I use the ‘Scorn of Sorcery’ strategem for one command point, letting me negate your psychic bullcrap on a roll of four or higher!” Another dice roll. “And that’s a four! Denied!”

The two were stood across from each other, on opposite sides of the large table, which was covered by small buildings, and dozens of red and blue models. Gordon was the taller of the two, his blonde hair falling slightly past his ears and just barely touched his eyebrows, leaving his blue eyes with clear sight. He wore a dark grey shirt that had the words ‘I get enough exercise pushing my luck’ on it, and black khakis.

“Very well. Then I’m gonna use smite, and then I’ll Warptime away from you. On a four.” Vaughn rolled his dice again, rolling a six and a five. “Alright, D6 mortal wounds.” Another dice roll. “Aaaand it’s a one… so only one dies. For his final psychic test, Ahriman will cast warp time on himself. On a five.” Vaughn rolled his dice, and began to move one of his models away from a group of ten red and gold models. Unlike Gordon, who had some meat on his bones, Vaughn was slim, with arms like toothpicks and a blue vest shirt that hung loosely on his body. He readjusted his glasses as his green eyes scanned the table. The brown-haired man turned as he heard the sound of a door opening. “Ah, Kendall! Glad you could make it! Unfortunately, we started without you.”

“That’s what happens when you’re an hour late!” Gordon grinned as the newcomer removed his hat, revealing his black hair, cut short along with his beard. His hazel eyes went straight to the table, and he raised an eyebrow, putting a large case next to a nearby table.

“How did you lot manage to get this all set up, and get started, in an hour?” He asked, removing his coat and placing it over a chair. Underneath, he wore a plain grey shirt and blue jeans.

“Ah, the Shopkeeper had a few tables ready for Warhammer today. And as for our setup… I guess we were just quick.” Vaughn shrugged, rolling two more dice. “Alright, that should be my last smite. We’ll be moving to the shooting phase.”

“Well Kendall, you’ll have to sit this one out until I finish Vaughn off!” Gordon grinned, motioning towards a nearby table, which had a few empty cases, several books, and some food from a nearby fast food joint. “Or if someone else actually shows up. I’m kinda surprised we’re the only ones here…”

“Maybe we’re just early. Or this place isn’t as popular as we expected.” Kendall replied as he walked over to the table, carefully placing his carry case down. “How much research did you put into this place again, Vaughn?”

“Not much, to be honest.” He replied, pointing towards some of Gordon’s models, then to a small group of his own. “These Rubrics are gonna open fire on those berzerkers.”

“Ah, yes. Unfortunately, word about my shop has not reached very far. In time, I’m sure, there will be plenty of new people to play against.” A smooth and quiet voice reached the trio’s ears, and they turned to see a short man in black cargo pants, and a black T-shirt with the word ‘DOOM’ stretching across the front in dark red. His face was clean-shaved, with dark brown hair cut short and tidy. “I am pleased that you three found this place, however! Perhaps you would like to peruse my wares later?”

“Um… yeah, we’ll take a look one I finish up my turn, man.” Vaughn nodded, giving Gordon a glance. The shopkeeper smiled, and then went through the exit that lead into the main shop part of the store. Once he was gone, Vaughn turned to his friend. “Who talks like that? He sounds like he’s trying to make himself sound all… I dunno, was he going for suave?” He whispered, just in case the shopkeeper was eavesdropping or anything.

“Well, he failed pretty badly… what a nerd. Anyway, you were attacking something of mine?” Gordon shrugged, gesturing back towards the table.

“I noticed that your models were, for the most part, unpainted.” The shopkeeper spoke up from his counter while the trio looked through his rather small selection of Warhammer products. It was mostly space marine models, with very little of the other factions. “I have a… friend, who lives near here, who takes commissions for models. If you’d like, I can have him paint some of your models… if you’d like.”

Gordon felt a bit dizzy all of a sudden, but it quickly passed. “You know, maybe having the main man of my army all super painted wouldn’t be that bad… what do you guys think?” He looked back to his friends, noticing that both of them were frowning.

“Yeah… that sounds kinda good… I’ll go grab my model. It’ll be a good test for this guy.” Vaughn said somewhat slowly, before heading back into the game room.

“I’ll grab yours for you, Gordon.” Kendall nodded, rushing after Vaughn. After a moment, the two returned, Vaughn carrying a robed model with a horned staff, while Kendall carried two red models, one with an axe and the other in bulky armor, with spikes adorning it.

“Ah, I see… these will look nicely once they’re painted…” the Shopkeeper took the models from them, examining them carefully. “Excellent priming as well. Luckily for you three, I just happen to have my own painted models of these three… and I’d even be willing to lend them to you.”

Gordon paused. Something didn’t feel right here… why would he lend a bunch of strangers his models? ‘But he’s been nice to use so far, so maybe he’s trustworthy enough.’ His worries seemed to all just slip away, and he nodded. “Sure! Let’s see how they look!”

The shopkeeper grinned, before ducking down under the counter. He reappeared soon after, holding three identical models as the ones he had given them, only they were all beautifully painted. Gordon grabbed the Khârn model and began to examine it, a smile spreading across his face as the others took theirs.

“Daaang, these really are well done!” Gordon said, giving an appreciative nod. The gold lining was expertly done, and the exposed arm of the model was perfectly done.

“I’m glad you like them… and good luck, on your journey…” the Shopkeeper grinned. Gordon paused, but that dizziness came back, much stronger than before. He staggered backwards, almost dropping the model as he noticed his friends were in similar states.

“What… what’s happ...en...eughh…” Gordon collapsed, and darkness swallowed his vision.

Gordon jolted awake as his body slammed into the ground, and he could hear water rushing into… wherever he was. As he looked around, all he could see was sand, the light from the night sky dulled somehow by the water. In a fraction of a second, he realized he was at the bottom of a body of water. He went into full panic, realizing that whatever was still giving him air was quickly filling with water, and within five minutes, it would completely flood. Gordon went into motion almost immediately as adrenaline flooded his system, fingers curling around the weapons in his hands as he began to run forwards, his powerful legs throwing him forward towards a sudden slope going upwards towards the surface about thirty meters away.

Despite being underwater, Gordon found himself rushing up the incline barely a minute later. In the back of his mind, he briefly wondered why he didn’t just swim up to the surface, but a sudden throbbing pain in his head banished that thought. Within another minute, Gordon breached the surface of the water, legs stomping forward as water poured out around his left arm, and he finally came to a stop. Oddly enough, he noticed as he calmed down, he found he wasn’t breathing very hard, despite running faster and harder than he had ever really done in his life… oh, and all the red lights dancing in his vision.

“Glurg… gggthe hell is this…?” Gordon gurgled, and stopped as he realized just how strange his voice sounded. In fact, it didn’t sound like his voice at all. Red text scrolled across his vision in a language he shouldn’t have been able to understand, yet he was able to read it as easily as if it were the English language. Still couldn’t understand it, though. It looked kinda like Latin. “Why do I… feel so different?”

He raised his left arm, and noticed several things. The most notable being that he was holding a massive axe, the whole thing being longer than he was tall. The axe head was an almost bloody red, with what looked like small decorative red skulls inlaid into the thing, surrounded by a bronze trim. Dozens of jagged and likely razor sharp teeth jutted from where the blade should have been, and it looked almost as if there was some kind of engine on the other end.

The second thing he noticed was the mass of silver chains wrapped around his unusually muscly arm, which clinked and clanked together as he moved his arm. Speaking of his arm, he noticed that it had way more muscles than it usually did. In fact, he was pretty sure no one naturally was this buff, and… was that a pipe sticking out of his arm?!

He dropped his arm only a second after he had lifted it, stumbling backwards in surprise. He glanced at his right arm, noticing immediately the dark red and bronze armor surrounding it, as well as the large gun in his grip. It reminded him immediately of a plasma pistol from Warhammer, although there was the skull of some four eyed creature built into the back and stretched over the plasma coils, which were glowing a pale blue.

As he took in this information, something in the back of his mind clicked, and he realized where he had seen these exact weapons before. He turned back towards the water, and looked down at his reflection.

Staring back at him was a red and bronze behemoth. The green lens of his helmet stared coldly at him from his reflection as two massive horn-like protrusions jutted up from the sides of his head. Like his chainaxe, they looked like they had small red skulls lodged into them, surrounded by a bronze prison. On both sides of his head they bore the image of a pair of jaws clamping down on a chaos star. Most of his armor was red with bronze, with the only notable parts being the crotch guard, which displayed a screaming Daemon skull, his knee guards, which also bore skulls of unknown origin, and the vents of his armor’s backpack, which, again bore skulls, though these were clearly human.

Staring back at Gordon was, very clearly, Khârn the Betrayer, greatest mortal champion of Khorne.

And the greatest mortal champion of Khorne promptly began to scream.

After a good five minutes of screaming, Gordon finally started to calm down, though internally his mind was racing. ‘How did this happen?! WHY AM I A SPACE MARINE?! WHERE AM I?!’ It was while his thoughts were racing that he noticed a very small horse staring up at him. This wouldn’t have caught his attention normally, except this tiny horse had large green eyes that were clearly terrified, it’s coat was grey, and it had a dark blue mane… also it had leathery bat wings.

“A-are you… o-okay mister…?” She asked meekly, her voice squeaking with clear signs of early puberty.

“I AM-“ Gordon stopped himself, realizing that, for one, he was still screaming, and two, the tiny horse just talked to him. “No… no I am not okay. How are you even able to talk?”

“Uh… school?” The horse tilted her head in confusion while her wings began to absently flap.

“... But you’re… okay, why do you have wings?” Gordon asked, deciding not to dwell on that answer too much, instead focusing on the other confusing part.

“Because I was born with them.” The child replied once again, giving as little information as possible.

“Ah… okay…” Gordon nodded, deciding to look into it later. “So… where are we then?” He decided to change the subject.

“Ponyview Forest… were you born from the Midnight lake, Mister?”

“Uh… well, no, but… I don’t really know how I got there?” Gordon replied, trying to rationalize how he woke up underwater. “You didn’t see me fall in there or anything?”

“Nnnnope. And I’ve been out here for about thiiis long!” She stretched out her hooves as if to quantify the amount of time she’d spent watching the lake by the gap between her hooves.

“I...see. You know what, believe whatever you want. Where’s the town you came from, kid?” Gordon asked, deciding he wasn’t going to get very far talking to what was obviously a child.

The child’s wings sprang up to her sides in a display of excitement, “Oh! It’s not far from here! Follow me, you’ll love Shroudville!” She spun around and began galloping away on her tiny legs. Gordon began following after her, his newly enhanced legs allowing him to easily catch up with her, and he noticed a distinct mechanical whirring that followed every step he made. It did take him a moment to keep himself from outpacing her though.

“So what’s your name, kid?” Gordon asked as he lightly jogged next to her.

“Apple Snatcher! And yours?”

“Gordon.” He replied, choosing not to comment on her odd name. He’d likely get an answer similar to the ones regarding her wings. “So why’s this town called Shroudville?”

“Because it’s shrouded in the Princess’ night, safe from harm!” Apple Snatcher excitedly replied. “And they thought it sounded neato!”

“Okay… who’s the Princess?” Gordon asked, unable to really see the child horse past his massive shoulder pad. “Let’s just say I’m not familiar with this place.” He briefly considered that he was perhaps processing this information a little too easily, but it was better than him freaking out again and screaming about every little thing this tiny horse told him.

“That’s okay, most outsiders forget that our Princess is the Princess.” The girl began to slow down and change her voice. “Many moons ago, Princess Luna, Watcher of Dreams, Vanquisher of Nightmares and Mother of the Night! She raises the moon, like her sister raises the sun!”

This made Gordon pause. “I’m sorry, what? You have people… or, horses, here that have control of the sun and the moon? That’s crazy!” He exclaimed, quickly falling back in line with Apple Snatcher while he tried to process this information.

“Why?” The child tilted her head, looking to Gordon with curiosity. “It’s been like that for foreva!” She stumbled over the last word, her face contorting when she heard it herself.

“Uh… because the Moon is a giant rock, and the Sun is a giant ball of flaming gas many times bigger than the entire planet?” Gordon answered, feeling weird about having to explain something like this, even if it’s to a child. “Not to mention that the planet rotates around the sun…”

“Really!? It’s that big?” Apple Snatcher stopped in her tracks to stare up at Gordon, awe sparkling in her saucer plate eyes. “That’s like… bigger than my Dad!”

“Yeah, it’s really big. So I find it really hard to believe that someone can move the thing…” Gordon chuckled. He noticed that the trees were beginning to thin, and that in the distance, he could make out houses. Small, one story houses crowded together with thatch roofs crudely stitched together by inexperienced craftsmen.

The closer they got, the more detail Gordon noticed, such as the fact that each structure only had two oval holes making up the windows with nothing but wooden doors to cover them with. Doors with so many gaps he wondered why they even bothered. And the worst part was the foundations- if there was an even house on the block, he couldn’t for the life of himself tell, as they were all slanted or warped.

On top of that, there were very few locals about. Gordon only counted three foals younger than Apple, and an elderly pony sleeping on a bench. At least, he hoped she was sleeping very, very stiffly.

Gordon reflected briefly on how he could see all of that so clearly, and within so little time, but decided to put it to the side as he and Apple Snatcher approached.

“This is where you live?” Gordon asked the filly, unsure if his disbelief was coming across. “It looks like it’s about ready to collapse!”

“That’s okay, Princess Luna will make everything better! That’s what my sister says!”

“Your sister, huh?” Gordon replied, moving forward, blinking away a bunch of what he assumed to be targeting runes in his eyesight. “What’s she like?”

“Oh, she’s the bestest night watcher ever! She once beat up a nasty Hydra with a toothpick!”

“A toothpick?” Gordon asked incredulously. “Are we talking about the same creature here? Big, lots of heads, nasty snake thing?” Gordon didn’t believe her claim for a second, but if Hydras really existed in this world, he would rather know how to avoid them in advance.

“Yup! My sister tells it better than I could!” Apple replied, already sounding winded.

“Well why don’t you introduce us?” Gordon asked, before remembering that he was currently a massive armored Space Marine with skulls hanging from and decorating his armor. “Or… maybe warn her that I’m a bit scary looking first?”

“You’re not scary looking, Mister!” Apple Snatcher assured him. She led Gordon further and further into the town until she steered them towards a single story hut with wooden walls and a thatch roof. It was shabbier than the rest of the town, clearly portraying that of a less than fortunate residence. Apple headbutted the door, and called out, “Muuum! I met someone who’s-! Hey, are you lost, Mister?” She abruptly turned to Gordon halfway through what she was saying.

“Um… I guess so, yeah.” Gordon nodded, steam hissing from the skulls adorning his backpack every so often.

“He’s lost!” She finished, shouting once more into the rickety house. “Can he stay here!?”

“Maybe for one night, dear, but we won’t be able to-“ Another horse walked out of the building, her coat a similar gray to Apple’s, but with a bright green mane and tail. Like Apple, she too had leathery bat wings stretching from her back, using them to open the door. As her orange eyes spotted Gordon, however, she stopped mid sentence, her eyes widening. For a moment, no one spoke, the mare quivering in place while Gordon dug his axe into the ground, before waving innocently.

“Um… hi?” Gordon began. “I’m Gordon.”

The mare let out a small ‘Eep!’ before grabbing Apple Snatcher and rushing into the house. Gordon frowned, but could hear her hushed yey frantic whispering inside the house.

“Apple! Why did you bring a minotaur like… like that into the village?! He’s certainly not the peaceful type!”

“He’s just lost, mum! He’s also really nice!” Clearly the child had never heard the term ‘stranger danger’. Or maybe she was just absentminded.

“A...are you sure? I-I mean… he… he’s wearing skulls on his armor… are you absolutely sure he’s not gonna hurt the village?” Gordon frowned underneath his helmet. Is this mother weak-willed or something? She’s giving in to her kid pretty quickly.

“He’s not bad, mum! He’s very, very nice!”

“W-well, I guess he hasn’t killed anypony here yet… b-but will he even fit in our house? He’s really tall…” the mother said, peeking out of the doorway at Gordon. “And we don’t have enough food for him…”

The kid returned to the front of the house, hopping excitedly in place. “Mum says it’s okay to come in if you can!”

Gordon nodded. “Thanks, Apple.” As he began moving towards the doorway, picking up his weapons as he did. He heard Apple Snatcher cry something out, but before he could ask, he felt something sharp pierce the unprotected skin of his left arm, and pain flickered up into his brain. Oddly enough, he was more focused on the beginning of a very painful headache rather than the injury, as he turned to find an angry looking bat horse at the other end of the spear, covered in rust covered silver armor. On each side of her stood two other horses in similar armor, moving to surround him. One was bulkier than the other two, and was covered in a dark red coat, with a purple mane, while the other bore a velvet coat and a blonde mane.

“Get away from my family…”

The sun and the moon battled over the skies of Equestria, tendrils of shadow and flame grappling and tearing through each other in an effort to reach their source. The war lasted for many rotations, the flames of the sun drawing ever closer to the pale surface of the moon as the shadows wilted away. And yet, despite its looming defeat, the Moon struggled against its fate, shadowy projections flying across the sky in desperation against the inevitable.

But as the flames dominated the sky, a Cerberus leapt to the heavens, it’s blood red skin almost immune to the flames that licked at the beast as it tore through the fire, pushing it further away from the moon as if the beast were its loyal pet. As the Cerberus protected the moon from the sun’s attacks, a whirling tornado leapt into action, carving a path through the flames with wild abandon, carving a red path towards the sun, which the moon’s shadows happily followed.

And while the Moon’s loyal creatures tore at the Sun, a golden snake circled around the pale white sphere, it’s mouth whispering secrets that would break the mind if they were understood. And as the snake completed its circle, surrounding the moon, it’s fangs sunk into the surface of its prey. Poison began to flow across the celestial object, dark and inky blue veins spreading across its face. And as the Moon was consumed by this poison, the booming laughter of insidious gods echoed across the sky-

Celestia gasped as she jolted out of sleep. Her magenta eyes shot open as her breathing became noticeably labored. The only thing she noticed for the longest time was the cold sweat that matted her white fur and clung her blanket to it, while her pink mane was ragged and unkept like she hadn’t showered in months, nearly exposing her skalp.

She sat in her bed chamber for the longest of times, panting and unable to coherently think, so she just sat there. This had been the first time in months that she had what her sister once called ‘prophetic visions’. To Celestia though? They were the bane of her existence, the only curse in her seemingly perfect life.

“G-guards, summon General Ironcrest!” Celestia croaked through her dried throat, loud enough that it made her own ears vibrate at her pitchy voice. She heard shuffling outside the door of her dark room as a pony ran off.

“Understood, your Highness! Cliffhook just went to fetch him!” One of the guards replied from beyond the door. After at least ten minutes which the Princess used to compose herself, the door opened, and a gray-coated mare with a dark blue mane stepped into Celestia’s room, her glowing yellow eyes scanning the room for hostiles. She fluttered her leathery wings over her golden armor as she saluted, her hoof smacking into her helmet.

“General Ironcrest reporting, your Highness!” She declared, slitted eyes staring directly at the Princess of the Sun.

“General,” Celestia greeted with a curt nod. “We may have a problem. I don’t want to bother you with the war effort, but I have reason to believe that a threat is rising. Something on the scale of Discord or King Sombra, and it has me deeply concerned.”

Ironcrest flinched at those names. “At a time like this? The war may be in our favor, but if we have to deal with something like those two as well, it’s very likely the Rebels will take the opportunity to turn this whole war around.”

“Which is exactly why I called you here. I need you to send scouts across Equestria to look for anything… out of the ordinary. You don’t need to use our military scouts if we can’t afford those, but maybe from the militia. We can’t have the public in a panic either, which makes their job harder, but…” The Princess gave a tired sigh. “And we may need to negotiate with my sister for a truce if it’s as bad as I think. I’ll discuss that with the Arch Mage and my advisor in the morning.”

“A truce would be a bad move for us, but I will defer to your wisdom, your Highness.” Ironcrest nodded. “I shall send whatever scouts we have available to all corners of Equestria, and will reveal this threat for what it truly is.”

“Thank you, General Ironcrest. I will take your words under consideration when speaking with Flashfreeze.” Celestia said with an earnest smile. “That’s all, General.”

“Understood, your highness. I shall take my leave then.” Ironcrest saluted again, before trotting out of the room and closing the door behind her.

“I truly hope that it was just a bad dream…” But with her track record, it wasn’t very likely.

Author's Notes:

Welcome, Ladies, gentlemen, and xenos alike, to the reboot of Warriors of Chaos! Things are gonna be so much better, you’ll think my original version of the story was completely horrible!
This story is also gonna be very different, but similar, as now I’ve got a co-writer! BP’s link is in the description, go check him out!

Anyway, see you in the next chapter!