A Thousand Son in Equestria Part 10 (Trixie Hunting)

>It's strange. This is the third time you have fallen fully into slumber since regaining a body.
>You blame it on the unrelenting agony you had to suffer last night.
>You come to full wakefulness, still curled up on the kitchen floor.
>Derpy is asleep on your couch in the other room, so you fell asleep in the kitchen, as far from her as you can get.
>You can hear her snoring gently, and you smile a bit as you get to your feet.
>She was truly an artist when it came to baking. You had never tasted such delicious goods as you had when you tasted Derpy's muffins.
>Yours were not quite as masterful, but Derpy had happily give you some supplies. You could now feed yourself with delicious baked goods.
>You start moving over to where Derpy's sleeping, intending to wake her up, when you hear the sound of hooves hitting your door.
>You turn to answer the door, but before you can take a single step, your door crashes open, as a pastry-clad Pinkie Pie busts through it.
>She levels a brightly-colored cannon at you with a manic grin.
>"IT'S CUPCAKE TIME!"
>What.


>The cannon fires, and a storm of frosting covered pastries come flying at you, splattering against your armor as you stare dumbly at the pink party pony, who is frowning at her cannon.
>"None of those got into your mouth, did they Anon."
".....No, Pinkie. They didn't."
>Suddenly, there is a flash of grey as Derpy dives into you from the side, moving you not at all and leaving the Pariah pegasus clinging to your arm.
>"Anon, get down! Cupcakes are dangerous!"
>You glance down at Derpy, ignoring your returning headache.
"Derpy, you're...a little late."
>She notices the cupcake frosting coating you, then blushes.
>"Oh...oops."
>Pinkie, meanwhile, has been glancing around your house, and in to your kitchen, with a growing expression of anger.
>"Anon....have you been making muffins?"
"I sure have, Pinkie. Derpy here has taught me much about your species' culinary ar-"
>Pinkie glares at Derpy, who stares innocently back at her.
>"Derpy."
>"Yeah Pinkie?"
>"You fed Anon muffins. Before I could feed him cupcakes?"
>"Well yeah Pinkie, muffins are tastier than cupcakes anyway."


>Oh Gods Derpy what have you done?
>You can feel trembles in the Warp, all radiating from Pinkie.
>The pink pony's face is surprisingly calm.
>"What'd you just say, horse?"
>Derpy's eyes cease their wall-eyed stare, focusing on Pinkie with surprising clarity.
>"I said cupcakes are gross. Muffins are clearly superior."
>You are not good at precognitive warp powers, but something screams at you to get out of the way.
>You roll to cover behind the kitchen counter, as suddenly muffins and cupcakes start flying through the air like bolt rounds, Pinkie firing at Derpy from her cannon as your Pariah friend hurls muffins like grenades.
>You look over the corner as the two ponies battle with a fury that would make any Astartes drop his jaw in shock.
>And that's exactly what you do.
>One storm of pastry-filled war later, the two ponies lie exhausted on the floor of your pastry-caked home.
>Pinkie reachs over and taps Derpy on the shoulder with a hoof.
>"Truce?"
>"Truce."
>You come from behind the counter, marveling at the amount of frosting and breadcrumbs that cake the walls and floor.
>Even your armor is spattered with food.
>You realize you're going to have to wash it.
>You turn an impressive glare on the both of them, and they blush a little, embarassed.


"........................"
>"Hehehe, Anon, you aren't mad, are you?"
>You slowly wipe cupcake frosting off your helmet, giving you back sight in your right eye.
>You then set the frosting on fire.
>"Okie-dokie, you ARE mad."
>Derpy gulps. She hasn't said anything, scared you'll lash out at her.
"......I'm going to go wash my armor. When I get back, this food war of yours will be cleaned up."
>Derpy's face falls, and Pinkie's frowning.
"And then Pinkie can throw her party. Cupcakes AND muffins will both be welcome."
>Derpy beams at you, and Pinkie starts giggling.
>You keep glaring, and the giggles die down. Derpy salutes and takes flight, going to get some cleaning supplies, while Pinkie just starts licking frosting off your walls.
>You sigh and pick up Gebtah's bolter. Might as well clean that too.
>You step out of your house into the sun, fairly pleased with yourself.
>You remember when you would have turned minions inside out for giving you bad news.
>Now you're letting brightly colored alien ponies throw you parties.
>You have no regrets.


>There's a a small river near Ponyville, you decide you'll wash off in that.
>You give a few waves to your neighbor ponies, whose names you have not yet learned.
>The mint-green unicorn and her friend live near you, as well as Rarity, and a pony whose name you're almost sure is Roseluck.
>Most of them wave back, ignoring the pastry covering you.
>You assume they're used to it by now.
>You examine Gebta's bolter, idly picking off pieces of pastry as you walk, making sure it is still usable.
>The bolter brings you back to thoughts of Trixie. She needs to be stopped, and not just for your vengeance.
>With five rubric marines and a daemon bolter, she could cause Hell for ponyville's residents, the same ponies you swore you'd keep safe.
>But should you kill her? Will killing her break your oath?
>These thoughts are still running through your mind as you remove your helmet and run it in the riverwater.
>You hear a rustling in the bushes behind you, but ignore it. You fear no creature you have yet encountered in Equestria.


>You start taking off other sections of your armor and washing off the filth and frosting off your precious power armor.
>Some marines might be fine with letting their suits fall into dirt and disuse, but not you.
>You had a new body, a new suit, and a new purpose.
>Your armor would be as clean and as pure as your purpose.
>As you remove your breastplate and pauldrons, you hear the rustling in the bush get louder.
>Whatever's in there, it's quite bad at staying quiet.
>You ignore it and get back to washing, scrubbing at your armors surface with a rag borrowed from Pinkie.
>You remove your greaves next, leaving you in just your bodysuit.
>As you crouch down to clean that armor, you hear a soft *pomf* from the bush behind you, followed by frenzied whispering.
>Turning your head, you spot a pair of yellow wings rising out of the bush.
>The whispering stops immediately, and you raise an eyebrow before turning back to your washing.
>It starts up again.
>"Oh Celestia, Oh Celestia, I thought for sure he saw us."
>"I..I'm sorry. It just happens...I can't control it.."
>"This is just silly, if y'all like how he looks you sh-"
"I can hear you, you know."
>The whispering stops, and a yellow hoof slowly reaches out and lowers the wings.
>There is another rustling of bushes


>What in the name of the Dark Gods was that?
>You shrug.
>Xenos gonna xenos.
>You finish cleaning up your armor, taking care to scrub even the smallest crumb of cupcake and muffin away.
>As you scrub, you think. Trixie, Trixie, Trixie.
>It all came back to her.
>Was the daemon in your bolter controlling her?
>Was she willing to kill another pony so readily of her own initiative?
>Would killing a pony, even a malicious one, compromise the oath you made?
>You cared little for Celestia herself, but you were not a man to abandon your oaths.
>You never had been.
>Ultimately, it is unimportant. Trixie is a clear and present danger to Ponyville.
>She needs to be hunted down. Whether she dies or not is something you will decide once the threat she poses is dealt with.
>You start cleaning Gebta's bolter as you wait for the pieces of your armor to dry.
>You are going on a hunt this evening. You are going to take on the most dangerous game in Equestria.
>Five of your former brothers, a daemon weapon, and an aspiring unicorn sorcerer.


>You start putting on your armor, and ignore the bushes rustling as whatever pony tries to re-position themselves.
>The ritual of donning your armor soothes you. Returns your sense of purpose.
>You seal your helmet last, humming a short mantra to yourself as you lock your weapons to your sides.
>Checking to make sure everything is secure, you turn away from the river, marching towards the Everfree forest...
>And immediately fall into a pit
>A net tries to snap you up, but in your armor, you're far too heavy to be lifted, and it snaps with ease.
>Fluttershy appears at the edge of the pit, holding one hoof to her mouth.
>"Oh..oh Anon, are you okay? I was just tending some of my animal friends when I heard an awful noise! Oooh Anon, let me help you get out of that awful pit. I c-can take you back to my cottage, and fix you right up."
>She blinks at you in some sort of expression you can't really fathom.
>You stare at Fluttershy from inside the pit.
>You're still far above her in height.
>The pit only comes to your waist.
"Fluttershy."
>"Y-Yes Anon?"
"What the hell is this?"


>She gets visibly flustered, her cheeks turning red, until she squeaks and runs away.
>You put one hand on the ground in front of you and hoist yourself out of the pit, brushing dirt off you as your rise.
>You can hear whispers from the bushes.
>"Ah told ya that wasn't gonna work."
>"Well maybe if you had actually helped!
>"Ah ain't interested in 'im. I'm just enjoyin' the show."
>"Oh haha, laugh it u-"
"I can STILL hear you."
>There are two short eeps, and then rustling, and then silence.
>You sigh.
>You have to remember, strange as they are, they're still your friends.
>For all you know, that was same strange xenos welcoming custom. You must remember to dig pits around your home the next time you hear approaching guests.
>Now it's back to business. Trixie, to be precise.
>You break into a jog, hustling towards the Everfree Forest. Her psychic spoor will be easy to track, and when you find her, you will make her pay for your brother's fate.
>You will make your decision about sparing her later. Vengeance first.



>Your gait brings you into the edges of the Everfree, and you start running.
>You can already sense Trixie on the air, and you aim your charge in that direction.
>You can feel the adrenaline pumping into your body, and you embrace it
>It feels good, in a way that makes you slightly guilty, to be out here, in the wilds.
>Here you can unleash your strength, your anger, your desire for vengeance, without fear.
>You can't hurt anyp0ny out here, and you don't have to worry about what reactions they might have if they see you unleashed.
>You start building up a core of psychic power, shining like a beacon in the warp as you race for Trixie.
>You want her to SEE you coming.
>You want to feel her fear as she realizes that you are coming for her.
>Eldritch lightning crackles around you, an unnatural wind wrapping around you like a cloak as you barrel through the Everfree, a red-and-gold storm.
>You bash aside thin trees and hurl through deadwood like a bullet as you near Trixe's essence.
>You can feel her now, a tight knot of psychic power, anxiety, and...fear.
>She's arguing with someone, probably your daemon bolter.
>You plunge onward, into the forest, as you hear her bark psychic commands into the warp
>The first of your tainted brothers steps from the Everfree's darkness, and a hail of bolts lights up the night as they make their way towards your face.


>You lift a kine-shield and hold your charge as the bolts detonate on your shield.
>The warheads detonate in the air as they meet your will, filling the night with light and sound.
>You lift your arm and send a twisted fork of lightning and telekinetic power spearing through the rubric marine's chest.
>The blast lifts him like a ragdoll, and he drops his bolter as your spell bores through his shell and obliterates the mindless soul powering him.
>His lifeless corpse drops to the forest loam, and you lift it, inspecting his armor.
>It is Mammon, the most stoic of your brothers. He was a poet and a scholar before the rubric. In another life, he might have been a teacher.
>You drop his corpse to the ground and take off again into the night. Your hunt is not yet done.
>Trixie's fear has intensified, and you can sense her calling out more frantically to the rubric marines.
>You can sense their essences converging on you, and you smile.


>They cut through the jungle like armored blue phantoms, making no noise as they approach you, leaping deadwood and raising their bolters to fire at you from the wood.
>You draw your bolter and force sword, and wait for them to close.
>Bolts explode upon your shield, surrounding you in smoke, fire, and shrapnel a the marines surround you in a hail of bolter fire.
>You advance on the closest rubric, a husk who's name was once Abasi.
>He fires his bolter at you in a quick burst of fire before darting aside as you swing at him with your sword.
>He dives beneath your swing, and you fire four shots from Gebta's bolter at his rolling form. The bolts pierce his armor in the neck, chest, and leg, the force of their explosions throwing him prone in mid-roll.
>You lean over him and fire a final shot into his helmet as he lies prone, your attention already elsewhere.
>You point your sword at another Rubric, Hanif, as he bursts from the wood, his bolter stitching a line of fire towards you.
>A gout of warpfire roars from your sword, engulfing Hanif and burning his soul to cinders, even as his armor runs under the heat.
>A short series of impacts stagger you as Soteck fires a burst of bolter fire into your side. Two bolts get through, and you can feel the blood drying on your armor from the injury.
>Another impact, this time, from your back, as the shell of Khaldun tackles you from the dark of the wood.



>You can feel the weight of Khaldun trying to bear you to the ground, and you grimace.
>You warp from beneath him, reappearing right behind the falling rubric marine.
>He hits the dirt, and you place Gebta's bolter on his neck, emptying the sickle-shaped magazine into the back of his head.
>Soteck fires another volley of bolt-rounds at you, and you form another kine-shield, deflecting the rounds.
>You hold that position for half a second as Soteck empties his own weapon into your shield. The explosions light fires in the Everfree's foilage, and you hear animal sounds as they flee in fear from the light and sound.
>Soteck runs out of ammo, and you flick your wrist and exert your will. Your sword flies from your hand like an arrow, piercing Soteck's empty eye-lenses and nailing his body to the tree behind him. He drops his bolter, body limp.
>You recall your sword to your hand and sheathe it.
>Twelve seconds from first contact.
>These ponies have made you sloppy.
>You idly levitate bolter ammo to you as you examine the wound in your side. The bolt rounds have left a meaty hole in your side, and pierced your armor. You grimace in annoyance.
>You don't think repair cement is easily available in Equestria. Nor do you think ponies know much about healing Astartes.
>You remind yourself that you are not finished, as you put away Gebta's bolter and pull your power sword out again.
>Trixie is left
>Only Trixie
>She sensed it all, as you snuffed out her rubrics one by one.
>She is panicked, her fear soaking into the Warp like blood in the water.
>You resume your charge into the forest.


>You crash through the trees and bushes, closing in on Trixie
>Already you can here her mumbling and ranting to herself as she argues with your daemon-bolter.
>"Trixie didn't want this! Trixie never wanted this! She just wanted to humiliate Twilight Sparkle, and now there's a monster after her thanks to you! Trixie wishes she had never found you, accursed thing!"
>You burst from the treeline as Trixie finishes.
>She shrieks upon seeing you, trotting backward and leveling the daemon bolter.
>You notice a hastily drawn pentacle in the dirt of the clearing, and chaotic flares of warp magic in the air.
>Trixie must have been trying to make contact with the warp at the daemon's instruction. She was clearly not succeeding.
>"Stay back!"
>Your attention snaps back to Trixie.
"You don't know how to fire that thing well enough to stop me, even with the daemon helping you."
>You take a step.
>"Trixie is WARNING you, stay back!"
>She fires the bolter, and a screeching, living bolt round goes clawing through the air, missing you by a mile and slamming into a tree.
"See? Drop the bolter, and maybe I will let you off easy."
>That isn't going to happen. You know it, and she knows it.
>Her eyes flicker over to the weapon, then at you, and then back to the weapon.
>She seems to be having some sort of internal dialogue.
>"T-Trixie accepts. Just...save Trixie!"
>She's not talking to you.
>Trixie's eyes seem to dull, and her head lolls for a second before coming up, piercing anger evident in her eyes.
>The bolter in her magical grip morphs, changing shape into a dark-bladed force sword, a dark mirror of your own.
>Trixie smiles, her teeth jagged and pointed, and she leaps at you.



>That...you were not expecting that.
>To willingly give a daemon weapon free-reign in your mind was...well...stupid, to say the least.
>You desperately parry a wide slash from possessed-Trixie, before slashing out yourself.
>Her daemon-sword blocks your blow and repels it, her strength augmented by a daemon's will.
>You are thankful that at least this is not a full-fledged possession, else you'd be fighting off a full-fledged Bloodletter instead of a possessed pony sorcerer.
"Let her go, Kaddath' Sar'Gos. I bested you in the Warp and bound you into a weapon. You have no hope of defeating me here. We both know it. Do as I command. Release her."
>Trixie snarls wordlessly, her tongue flickering like a snake's.
>She lays into you with a staggering series of blade-strikes, the masterful blade-skill of a bloodletter daemon clear to see in it's host.
>You parry and dodge desperately, avoiding the bite of the daemon blade as best you can.
>She pauses for a moment, and her blade glows. You stagger in agony, as the blood in your wound begins to flow again, drawing up towards the blade.
>You lash out with your sword, striking her blade.
>Her riposte opens up a burning line in your arm.
>You stagger back, and Trixie moves in again, bringing her blade up to impale you.



>You block the stab with your arm, wincing as her blade pierces the meat of your forearm, it's tip stopping less than an inch from your faceplate.
>She snarls in anger, hooves stomping petulantly as she struggles to withdraw the blade from your arm.
>You reverse the grip on your force sword, and punch her in the face.
>The blow sends Trixie sprawling, her jaw broken.
>She tumbles to a stop at the base of a tree, unnmoving.
>You grunt in surprise. Either ponies were tougher than humans, or the daemon-sword was augmenting her toughness. That blow would have snapped a man's neck.
>The daemon sword trapped in your arm shivers, and you hear the fevered whispers and apologies as Kaddath' Sar'Gos realizes that his host is out cold, and that he is at the mercy of his former master.
>You ignore the daemon's words and pull the sword from your arm, grunting as your blood spills out of the wound, before coagulating nigh-instantly.
>You think of what to do with the daemon-blade. You can't destroy it. Breaking it would release the daemon within it into the Warp, into Equestria's clean and peaceful Immaterium.
>You cannot allow that.
>As you debate, the sword shifts back into a daemon-bolter, begging you to wield it again.
>You cock your arm back, then turn and hurl it deeper into the Everfree like a football. Augmented by your telekinesis, the bolter goes tumbling through the air, disappearing from sight as it travels.
>You turn and look at the battered Trixie.
>She's still unconscious.
>At your mercy.
>Will you kill her?


>Your eyes narrow at you look down at the unconscious unicorn.
>She defiled the bodies of your brothers.
>She threatened to kill ponies under your protection, and tried to force you to kill Twilight Sparkle.
>She wanted to learn about the Warp, and from this half-constructed spell, she was trying to summon a daemon.
>You lift your blade.
>She is a cancer, a stain on the otherwise perfect world you've found here.
>You will end her here and now.
>She shifts in her unconsciousness, and you hesitate.
>No. You are better than that now.
>Your friends forgave you of your sin. They befriended you.
>If they can forgive and befriend, why can't you? Is that not the essence of the magic of friendship? The same magic that purified you and resisted Discord?
>You lower your blade, and place one hand on Trixie's unconscious head.
>You ruffle around in her thoughts, leaving a compulsion there. When she awakes, she will seek you out. You will settle things then.
>You turn, and leave the armored unicorn on the forest floor.


>You make your way out of the Everfree, thoughts wandering as you walk.
>You left an enemy alive.
>You had never done that before, not even in the days of the Great Crusade.
>But is she really an enemy, Anon? Or a friend you havn't made yet?
>You examine that thought for a bit as you casually make your way over a tripwire strung across the street leading back to your home.
>Another net tries to lift you in the air and fails. You don't notice.
>You make your way inside your home, noting with pleasure that it is clean of cupcake icing and breadcrumbs.
>A letter lies on your kitchen table, along with a massive cake, a platter of cupcakes, a basket of muffins, and one sandwhich.
>You open the letter, skimming it quickly. You've been invited to a homewarming party by Pinkie Pie, with Derpy providing party assistance. The food is an apology.
>You set the letter aside, still thinking about Trixie.
>You idly remove your helmet and set to the food, taking a bit out of the sandwich first. Some sort of gigantic medicinal pill lies between two leaves of lettuce, and you idly note a curious numbing effect in your fingertips before your enhanced kidney filters the substance out.
>Must be another pony ritual, you think as you pick up a muffin and make your way to your sofa.