A Thousand Son in Equestria Part 16 (Not even in Death)

>The night was full of stars.
>The sky was full of souls.
>You rise from the lifeless husk that was your corpse, marveling as the currents of the Warp flow through you.
>You glance below you, and spot the great beacons of Luna and Celestia's soul energy, and the bright spots of your friends.
>Equestria's Great Ocean, it's peaceful sea of souls. So calm. So stable.
>So weak.
>Your soul, a burning star in a vague manlike shape, flickers as you swim through the Warp.
>You were not destroyed, turned into so much raw matter.
>You had not been consumed by the daemon swarm.
>That left only one option.
>The only thing that a soul of your calibur could aspire to after death.
>Daemonhood.


>There were no daemons in Equestria's Great Ocean.
>No competition.
>The souls of ponies, happy and at rest, whirled around you in the endless Sea, ignoring your presence.
>You could FEAST here. You could reap them, unmolested, uncontested, until your soul was transformed into the greatest of Daemons.
>WIth such a bounty of peaceful, Equestrian dead, even GODHOOD would not be beyond your reach!
>Already, you can feel the influence of the Great Schemer upon your soul. Under Tzeentch's guiding hand, you could become among the greatest of his daemonic heralds.
>A Lord of Change. Anonymous, subject to none but your own will. Free to enact your plans on the rest of the known multiverse.
>And all it would require would you to devour the souls of the ponies you have sworn to protect, and leave them open to the depredations of the Warp.
>You shudder involuntarily, your soul-form drawing in on itself, shedding a pair of great blue wings you had unknowingly grown.
>You can't afford to think like that. Not here, not now.
>You needed to help your friend.
>You had to get Applebloom back.


>You concentrate, still shuddering, until your soul shrinks and compresses into a manlike form, a crude, featureless approximation of your mortal shape.
>There...you could focus now. Stay focused. Stop thinking about the pony souls. So many souls....
>You growled to yourself. You didn't have time for this.
>APPLEBLOOM didn't have time for this.
>You turn your gaze upward, towards the Breach.
>You can feel it, like an irritating scab that you cannot help but pick at.
>The hole the foolish Xenos tore in the Warp where he traveled here.
>The hole, behind which, lay Chaos.
>The hole in which daemons clustered in their infinities, struggling to widen the hole and escape into Equestria.
>The same daemons that would tear your soul to pieces if they got their hooks into you.
>You cannot afford to join them.
>You cannot avoid them.
>Applebloom is with them.
>So you must go through them.
>You focus your will, the energies of the Warp responding eagerly to your call.
>Here, beyond death, reality is thought and emotion given form.
>And you would armor yourself in that reality. Cold, star-blue warplight flickers around you, the physical armor that was your desire to protect your friends. A shaft of white light grew in your soul-hand, the loyalty you held for them.
>You glance one last time at the free souls, banishing thoughts of ascendance from your mind.
>You look up at the Breach.
>And you leap.


>Light, life, matter, time, space.
>All streamed past you as you hurtled through the Warp, where all those things are one and all are meaningless.
>Seconds became decades became eons became minutes as you sped towards that ruinous hole in the fabric of Equestria.
>You watched the pony souls shy away from you, confused, as this strange man-shaped ball of light and power and will flew past them.
>You saw the Breach, a writhing, shifting worldscape, a viewing portal for Things That Should Not Be to look upon Equestria.
>And you dove into that Breach, a wordless roar echoing from your soul to the daemons beyond it.
>As you travel through the Breach, you feel Equestria's Warp drag on your soul, a thin, wispy barrier between you and the Hell beyond.
>The Hell where daemons lurked.
>The Warp, where the greatest of the Emperor's Angels feared to tread.
>They meet you in the air, a surging, endless horde of raging daemons, all clawing to be first to devour your soul.
>You form a blade of willpower and hate, and you bat the first of them, a Bloodletter, from the air.
>The next comes for you, and you dispatch him.
>And the next.
>And the next.
>And the next.


>You cannot win.
>You know it.
>They know it.
>Their numbers are without end.
>Their legion does not block out the sky, it IS the sky.
>All the rage and despair and desire and cunning of the entire Universe exists here, in all places at once, and right now, it wanted nothing more to rend you to pieces and descend upon the world behind you.
>And you can't let that happen.
>Daemon blades, formed of pure fury, rend at your armor of love and loyalty.
>The thin claws of desire deflect your sword of willpower.
>Thin tendrils of despair rake your soul-form up and down as you desperately fight off the daemons.
>You cannot take much more. Soon they will rend away your emotions. Then your memories, until nothing of you remains.
>Then, when nothing of you remains, Tzeentch's children will come, and they will remake you.
>You will be a Lord of Change, but not as the Anonymous you are now. You will be a new creature, devoid of love, of memory, of the joy your friends have brought you.
>You can't let that happen.
>You desperately call out into the Warp, your mind screaming into the endless infinity of madness and unreality, hoping against hope that something hears you.
>That she can hear you.
>Or barring that, that HE can.
>APPLEBLOOM!
>A talon formed of lust stabs you in the stomach, and you recoil as the memory of your mother's face is torn from your mind.
>APPLEBLOOM, I AM HERE! I AM ANONYMOUS! I HAVE COME FOR YOU!


>You hear a roaring in your ears, as the memory of your first muffin is ripped away by a cackling daemonette.
>You howl in hope and despair, knowing that you are damned but unwilling to surrender.
>GIVE HER TO ME, DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU, YOU OMNIPOTENT COWARD! GIVE HER TO ME!
>The roaring grows, and you see her, finally.
>Applebloom, trapped in her daemonic form, chained to a shifting stone in the Warp by links forged of sacrificed souls.
>Daemons, red and wrathful, prowl around her, howling in her ears and shouting at her in rage.
>The daemon-filly shakes, confused and scared, as she is forcefully introduced to her peers for the first time.
>That shaking is what does it.
>TZEENTCH! KHORNE! NURGLE! SLAANESH! DREAD GODS OF CHAOS!
>You chant as you draw in warp-energy, enriching your soul and making the daemons howl as their hunger grows.
>And nothing more. They surge around you in a cloud, a moving, shifting wall of flesh between you and Applebloom.
>HEAR ME, DARK GODS! HEAR ME, YOU BASTARDS! I WILL NOT BE DENIED HER! HEAR ME, CHAOS, AS I GRANT YOU YOUR WAY INTO EQUESTRIA!
>The daemonic howling becomes quieter, and the whirling and clawing of the daemons slows.
>They hear.
>And as they hear, so do the Gods.
>HEAR ME, AS I GIVE UNTO YOU THE PIECE THAT WILL WIN THE GREAT GAME!
>The daemons roar at once.
>There is a dread flashing as the fabric of the Warp twists upon itself, unable or unwilling to bear the malevolences that travel through it to your location.
>The fabric of unreality itself twists and screams as it warps.
>The strain on your soul is too much for you to bear.
>You scream in agony, holding up your arm to Applebloom.
>And then.
>Blackness.


>You awaken, suspended in an endless void.
>You start and stagger, looking at your limbs, horrified you'll see feathers and talons, or your armored ha-
>Just near-featureless shafts of light.
>You're still dead then.
"Of course you're still dead, silly-filly! Ooooh, that's what your...friend down there says, isn't it? I love that phrase...I might use it from now on...."
>You turn your head, your psychic sight taking in a light that blinds it immediately, screaming at the rest of you not to look.
>To look is to invite damnation.
>You turn your eyes back to the blackness, desperate and afraid.
>It is only a splinter, barely a fragment of IT'S attention, but it is enough to drive you mad.
"Oh, please...dear...look at me. I could give you so much if you just looked. Anything you wanted! I could give you daemonhood! I could give you Equestria....I could give you those ponies, that cute one, Celestia. You could...mmm....ride them to your hearts desire. Anything you ask..."
>You feel something, a finger, or a talon, or a tentacle, trace its way along your shoulder, and your soul is filled with the most mind-numbing ecstacy and agony that it has ever known.
>It stops, and you beg for it to return, even as you scream that you never want to feel it again.
"Just tell me your scheme. Your key to the Game."
>SEND ME BACK, AND SEND APPLEBLOOM WITH ME.
>The thing behind you tsks in a disappointed voice.
"I'm not going to move against that big red idiot over something...well something as meaningless as you...silly-filly. Oooooh, I do like that."
>The voice fades with a masculine, feminine chuckle.
>You shudder as another presence makes itself known.


>The smell of rot and corruption fills your senses as something bloated and monstrous heaves into view, just at the edge of your vision.
>You do not even have a physical nose, and this is still the worst thing you have ever smelled.
>The concept of rot and decay and despair itself, distilled into a simple smell.
>A booming, jovial voice distorts your soul-form as the....as the God-splinter talks to you.
"That's a brave and crazy thing ya did, Anon. Never thought I'd see such devotion to family from one o' HIS boys."
>The thing chuckles, the same sound that a dying star makes upon implosion.
"I gotta tell ya, Anon, I'm real big on family. But yer a smart one, I bet ya knew that already. Such love, such devotion, it touches me, it really does. But I wonder....is it worth going so far? Losing so much? Yer life, and now even yer soul? Do ya want ta spend eternity as one of them bird boys? Still knowin' pain, knowin' yer alone?"
>It's subconsciously mimicking Applejack's drawl.
>That is it's way, to introduce maximum despair in it's converts, even as it offers them the greatest love they've ever known.
>But you know love already.
"Jus' tell Father Nurgle yer idea, that whole thing about the Game. We can go to the Palace, discuss it over lunch. What do ya say, Anonymous? Pardners?"
>The air displaces behind you as a hand the size of a mountain moves near you.
>YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT.
>It chuckles.
"Whatcha want ain't important, boy. You'll never get it. I'm offerin ya a chance to fill the whole in your heart when ya fail. No pain, Anonymous. Never again. Just love, endless and total."
>AND FALSE.
>The thing laughs, and fades away.
>A familiar presence replaces it, followed by the sound of hands clapping.


>You turn and kneel on your insubstantial legs.
>The thing, the conduit between you and your God's will, chuckles in a voice that is every voice and none.
"Well done. Well planned. I am pleased."
>WHAT IS THI-
"The only way that my...brothers and I may communicate with you without shattering your soul into a million pieces. A little trick I learned from the Deciever."
>WHO, MY LORD?
"You'll meet him soon. Or not."
>A smile plays across lips that become a beak that become a writhing storm of eye-tipped tentacles.
>YOU KNOW WHY I HAVE COME?
"I do."
>It's voice has grown cold.
>YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT?
>Instead of answering you, it places a single talon upon your head, and you SEE. >And for the briefest of nanoseconds, you hear your God, unfiltered.
>For the briefest of instants, all creation is open to you. You see Equestria as it was crafted. You see the infinite multiverses, billions of iterations of Equestria scattered across them. Billions of Anons, as like you and as unlike you as milk and cheese, as oil and water. You watch the end of everything, and the beginning of it all, and in it you see the face, and the will, of Tzeentch.
"LOOK. LOOK UPON INFINITY. ALL THE SANDS, ALL THE STARS. EVERY POINT AND POSSIBILITY, EVERY DECISION, EVERY SCHEME. ALL OF THIS, ALL KNOWLEDGE, ALL POWER, ALL MAGIC, WOULD HAVE BEEN YOURS TO STUDY AND COMMAND. IT STILL WILL BE. THIS AND MORE I GIFTED TO YOU UPON YOUR DEATH."
>The claw releases you, and you shudder, unable to even scream, as the conduit speaks once more.
"And you rejected it."
>You feel your soul shrivel in fear as the conduit smiles once more.
>Clapping, soft and feathered, fills your senses.
"I am proud, Anonymous."


>You find yourself unable to speak.
"You don't need to. I know everything you are thinking and everything you ever will think. One man will say that such is the stuff I am made of. He will be right, and wrong, and it will drive him to madness when he learns the truth."
>You shudder again, trying to organize your mind, before a feathered claw takes hold of your face, the thumb a squirming tentacle.
"Listen, and listen well. You will gain what you seek. When you go before him, demand what you desire. He hungers to bring war to the creatures you protect. You will grant him what he desires, and he will do the same for you."
>The conduit smiles again, this time from a thin-lipped beak.
"You will sacrifice much for this, Anon. Some you will know when you make the deal. Some you will find only later. You will give us our foothold, even as you struggle to keep your paradise lost in the Warp."
>Does that mea-
"You will fail, and you will succeed."
>But how-
"Come now, Anon. Telling takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it? Your watch will not end, fear not."
>It's smile splits it's face, until a gibbering horror is all that faces you. Madness drips from the lipped tentacles that spill from it's face. Only His will allows you to retain your sanity.
"After all, you said it best."
>The conduit's hand pushes you away.
"Not even in death, does friendship end."
>It chuckles darkly, the laughter of a child, the screaming of a dying woman, the chirping of birds, and the hideous howling of a dog.
>Then it is gone.
>And fire lights up the dark.


>The chant of war fills your ears as you slowly turn.
>This one you will face head on. You cannot show fear.
>One smidgen, one iota of fear, and you will be erased.
>A throne of skulls, miles high, rises before you, heaped with the dead of every battle, of every dispute, of every war.
>A God, A Titan clad in armor crafted from blood and fire and hate and murder.
>It reclines, violence in every twitch, in every movement it makes with it's eyes and it's limbs.
>You look upon violence and bloodshed and glory itself.
>The Blood God.
>Know no fear.
>GIVE HER TO ME.
>The Titan's eyes shift down at you, two blazing suns set in a blood-smeared helmet.
>The corona flares, and suddenly she is there, stumbling towards you, desperate to find one of her friends.
>You run to her, wrapping your glowing arms around her as she desperately tries to sob on your incorporeal shoulder.
>The Blood God speaks.
>The rattling of swords in their sheaths, the staccato burst of gunfire, the explosion of bombs and shells as they impact the hard earth.
>All are the voice of Khorne.
>You know his will immediately.
>He knows your reason for being here.
>Khorne knows the reason and will of all who seek battle, as you did with the daemons. As you did when you died.
>He gives you His terms, like a general to a defeated foe.
>And you deny him.

>Rage is improper when describing the heights of anger the Blood God is capable of.
>It does not do it justice.
>His fury rages around you like a firestorm, a maelstrom of hate and disgust and rage as his fury stirs the Warp itself.
>And then he is done.
>Cool and composed, His conduit sits on its throne of skulls and speaks once more.
>The demand is less harsh, but it will amount to the same in the end.
>Unless you stop it in time.
>You are their only true link to Equestria, with Discord locked away.
>And so he makes you an offer you cannot refuse.
>Not if you wish to save her.
>You nod your head in acceptance.
>The Blood God rises. You think you see....something that ISN'T contempt flicker in it's eyes for a moment.
>Then it reaches down a hand, grasping Applebloom by her back armor.
>She gives a soundless 'eep' of surprise, before the God hurls her away, out of His domain.
>To the breach.
>You look up, ready to conclude your dealings.
>Only to watch as his massive boot descends.
>And leaves you in darkness once more.


>You float in that darkness for a while, insensate, lost.
>Confused.
>You had agreed to the deal. You had signed away much, endangered what you had sworn to protect, all to see her safe.
>And the second half...why are you still.
>You start as you feel something.
>You feel a tugging on your soul, a wrenching as the darkness draws around you and pulls you downward.
>Down.
>Down.
>Down.
>You can feel....the rock pressing against your spine.
>You can feel the dirt underneath your armored fingers.
>The wind whistling through your close cropped hair.
>You can hear...faint murmings as sound returns, as your hearts beat once more.
>You can feel a pair of lips against your own.
>And is that.....is that a tongue!?
>Your eyes open in shock


>Dark blue eyes meet yours, set in a dark blue face.
>The owner of those eyes gasps, her wings flaring upwards as her eyes meet yours.
>She draws her mouth away, blushing, as you hear several loud gasps in your ears.
>"AAAAAAANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!"
>A pink blur slams into you as if fired from a cannon, grasping as much of you as she can reach in a tight hug.
>"Anonyou'rebackIknewyou'dbebackI'msogladIalmostlostitbutyou'rebackIgotLunaandCelest-"
"Pinkie"
>She stops nuzzling your bare face for a moment.
>"Hmmm?"
"I'm....It's good to see you again. Too see all of you again. But please. I don't know what you're trying to say."
>"Oooh, you shoulda just said that earlier! Luna here brought you back! She used CPR!"
>Celestia giggles from somewhere behind Pinkie.
>"So..THAT'S what they call it these days?"
>You turn and look up at Luna, who's still blushing. Her wings look unhealthily stiff.
>You just had a showdown with a daemon army and a conversation with four Gods.
>You don't have time to even be confused at this shit anymore.
"Princess Luna. We need to talk about what you-"
>"No time for talking! It's party time! We need to celebrate you getting better!"
>Pinkie zips off of you in a hurry, sprinting back towards Canterlot Castle.
>Luna turns and watches Pinkie Pie go, then spreads her wings, shouting at you in a painful voice.
>"WE WILL ASSIST THE PINK ONE IN HER PARTY PREPARATIONS!"
>In a blast of black smoke, she's gone too.
>You sigh and struggle to your feet, hand clenched to the new scar on your abdomen.


Twilight stares at you in shock.
>"I...I can't believe that actually worked! Pinkie was losing her mind when the Princesses couldn't get you back, Anon! Then Princess Luna said she was going to try...well, that CPR thingy! She said it worked on her once."
>Princess Celestia starts giggling again.
"You know, not too long ago, I told your sister that YOU were the crazy one."
>Celestia keeps laughing, struggling to hold back tears.
>"You...you'd be right...but we're both a bit crazy!"
>She finally composes herself, before trotting close to you and giving you a short hug with her wings and hooves.
>"Applebloom came back before you did, Anon. I don't know what you just did, but I felt...something. Thank you. You protected us when we needed it, and you sacrificed something important to do that."
>She pulls away, grinning again, before looking at Twilight.
>"Now come on! Let us make our way to Pinkie's party. That mare knows how to bake a cake."
>The Princess and her student begin to trot off, and you lean down to grab your helmet before following.
>You think about the Breach, and the barrier. The barrier that kept the daemons out. The barrier that kept Equestria safe from physical alien invasion.
>The same barrier you weakened to pull Applebloom back into this reality.
>And you smile.
>You smile, because in your hearts, you know that if time were reversed, you would have done it over again.
>You will sacrifice anything, pay any price, to keep your friends safe.
>Let fate do what it will.
>You had conquered death to protect your friends. You had negotiated with Gods and daemons.
>With a little hope and friendship, there was nothing you could not face.