Herds of Chaos
I don't own MLP or Warhammer
Garet had a good idea of when a situation was truly PUBAR and this was definitely it; seven unicorns in front of them, presumably magically skilled, and his comrades screaming behind the wall to their backs.
Twilight Sparksworn licked her fangs, enjoying the extra shiver it sent down the spines of her griffon prey, "So, before we get to dinner, are any of you feeling particularly brave or suicidal?" Twilight asked toyingly.
"Stick it up your rear, Sparksworn," Barson growled out, clutching his long barrel almost painfully tight but not daring to raise it.
Twilight's eyes narrowed as she focused on him. "I remember you. Yes, you were with that scouting party three months ago," she recalled thoughtfully. "What was it again? Burton? Barstand? Barson!" she recalled with a smirk as Barson growled in his throat. "Yes, that was it. I never forget a face I haven't killed. Would have caught you too if that griff-hen hadn't taken the shot for you," Twilight mused with growing sadism as the griffon tensed. "You know, I never bothered to find out: What was she? Your mate? Your sister? Daughter maybe?"
"...I'm going to kill you, Sparksworn," Barson swore in a low, cold voice.
"I'm trembling," Twilight mocked as she glanced down at the griffon on the wall, the one she had pushed back, "Your face I don't know; which is strange, given your behavior. I thought I would have seen you close to the forest at least once. Are you new?" she asked with a head tilt.
"...Yes, I arrived here only a couple days ago," he informed, the unicorns snickering at his misfortune.
"Hmm, what an interesting coincidence the Lord Draconequus presents," Twilight mused, her grin growing wider, "Might I have your name, griffon?"
He had no reason to answer her but also no reason not to. If nothing else, he was stalling. "Garet Razoraw."
"Razoraw?" A mare with a blue mane and coat repeated in surprise.
"Why does that name bang a gong?" Twilight wondered curiously, stroking her chin.
"The Neighing Falls," Garet answered tonelessly, knowing what they were recalling.
"Oh?...Oh! Ohohoho!" Twilight declared with a laugh of recognition, "Yes, now I remember: Terton Razoraw. Your grandfather, I suppose. Oh I remember him. I remember him well," she repeated to herself, purring almost like a great feline beast. "The Cookie of the Griffons. That's what we call him. Nearly drowned all of us here in that flood he caused," Twilight revealed with a chortle. "Don't worry though, no hard feelings. A shame he never took up the offer to join Chaos."
There was a tense, heavy silence over the two groups as that statement sunk in.
"...What?" Garet questioned, slowly scrunching his brow in confusion.
"Oh, he never mentioned? Yes, a Herd-Lord offered him the chance to join the forces of Chaos. Ahh, he timed the refusal so perfectly with that dam going off," Twilight recalled fondly.
"Good times," A white coated and pink maned unicorn said with a swoon. "Never knew a griff that could be that...dramatic."
"You're all insane!" A random griffon yelled out in panic.
"I'm sure ponies thought the same thing when we were on the other side of the dinner table, before our Master made us the hunters," Twilight mused idly with an overdramatic sigh. "Enough about history though. But before we dig in; Garet, was it? How about it? Would you like to join up with Chaos?" Twilight offered with a fanged smirk.
"Twilight?" The surprised inquiry came from a beige mare with a purple stripe through her blood red mane.
"Hush, Moonlancer," Twilight instructed in only slight annoyance.
"...Why, in the name of Avialon, would I ever join you?" Garet asked in legitimate bewilderment.
"Oh, you know, the usual: Power, a whole new world of food, freedom of fear, freedom in general, and getting off our dinner menu permanently," Twilight explained with a wave of her hoof. "You get to live longer too, but no promises on immortality. That was part of the exclusive package deal for us ponies."
"Can we hurry this up? I'm getting hungry," a mint green mare requested with a scowl.
"Then eat on this!"
Every head, pony and griffon, shot upwards to see a lone griffon standing on the battlements. His left wing was gone, a profusely bleeding gash where it should be. A dagger was lodged in his stomach and nearly all his armor had been ripped off. A large bite could be seen missing from his leg on the battlement. He had a mad gleam in his eye…and a barrel of gunpowder raised above his head, which he promptly threw at Twilight.
While the others all had wide eyes, Garet and Twilight only raised an eyebrow in identical manners at the shouter.
Just before the griffon was dragged down screaming by two ponies, he was able to see Twilight effortlessly catch the explosive container less than a meter from her face.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Twilight commented dryly as she turned her attention back to her captives.
In fairness, everypony there was fully expecting Barson to pull up his long barrel in a last ditch effort to shoot the barrel, hence why he gained two deep lacerations on his talon for his efforts.
They didn't expect him to drop it before the spells were even cast by two separate unicorns. Nor did they expect Garet to leap forward to grab it, pointing it at the container before he even hit the ground.
"Clever griff," Twilight admitted with a scowl as she hurled the barrel forward, throwing up a shield.
*Bang!*BOOM!*
"Fnord it all," the lavender chaos mare growled as smoke covered the immediate area. She felt several presences swoop by her in the obstructive fumes as she heard more screams and spell fire. Two in particular stuck out. Dropping her shield and conjuring a sharpened construct of magic, she lashed out and hit two griffons as they tried to get by her; one deep in the side and the other through the skull to pierce the brain.
With a pulse of magic to part the smoke, she was pleased to see her sisters in battle killing and restraining the rest with conjured chains and ropes. She turned in time to see how many had gotten pass them. Less than three dozen griffons had made it over the wall and now eight had escaped.
Her horn glowed a deep, dark purple as she fired a small, concentrated beam of mana. It hit her target, the rear most griffon and left his corpse smoking on the ground. She fired again and then there were six.
Her keen, far seeing eye took aim at the back of Razoraw when her senses detected that she was being watched. A glance over confirmed that it was Barson Underclaw, glaring at her…with Garet Razoraw's pistol in his claws.
*Bang!*
Twilight winced as she felt the bullet ricochet off her neck armor. "Very clever griffs," Twilight growled the correction to herself as she powered down her horn, realizing they were too far out of range for proper aiming. She glanced up, seeing a few pegasi soaring over head to give chase.
"Ugggh, Twilight..."
The Discord-worshipper turned to the voice and her eyes widened a bit. A pink coated and violet maned mare stood there with something between a grimace and a grin, clutching her eye with blood oozing out heavily, "Masochist Star?" Twilight asked in slight alarm.
"Lord Discord obviously likes you more than me," Masochist said with a wince as she pulled down her hoof to show the bullet wound that had destroyed her right eye. Thankfully, that was all it had done, having exited out the right side of her head.
"...I'd dull the pain if I didn't know you were enjoying this a little," Twilight commented dryly, "Lyra! Get over here and make sure Maso doesn't bleed out before her regeneration kicks in."
"At once, O Fearless Leader," Lyra answered with some snark, getting a magical slap to the back of the head in reply. This only made her snicker as she trotted over to the bleeding mare. "Well, that ain't growing back for a long time, I know that much," the mint mare joked, getting a grin from the one eyed Masochist.
Twilight rolled her eyes as Moonlancer came up to her, "She's going to be alright, right?" Moonlancer asked in mild concern.
"Oh yeah. Assuming she can keep her hooves from playing with it, she'll grow a new one in a few decades," Twilight answered dismissively, "I grew an ear back in a month once. Damn diamond dog."
"You got bit by a diamond dog?" Moonlancer asked with an amused smirk.
"In defense, it was already dead. The body just spasmed from being hit by magic and next thing I know my mane is all bloody and one of my ear feels like it's underwater," Twilight defended with a scowl.
"So, what do we do with the rest of them?" Moonlancer asked, cocking a head at the rest of the griffons.
Most were dead, but a hoofful were merely crippled.
Twilight said nothing as her horn lit up...
*WOOOOSH!*
"AAAAHHHH!" The griffons screamed as they were set on fire. It was not a quick death for most, the fire burning away their feathers and boiling a few unlucky souls in their own armor.
"There we go, freshly grilled griffons," Twilight said with a smile, "Girls, eat up. Tinglespine, could you show Lancer here the finer points of dismembering Griffons? I better go check on the fort."
"Oh, yay! I've always wanted to teach somepony that!" Tingle cheered in genuine delight as she turned to her fellow mage. "And by the end, you'll know if you like meat on or off the bone!"
"Is there that big of a difference?" Moonlancer asked skeptically.
"Depends on if you like the bones or not," Lyra answered with a grin as she wrapped some bandages around Masochist's eye socket. "Now, don't play with it or I'll break your legs."
Twilight rolled her eyes fondly as she teleported into the fort.
What was left of it, anyway. The walls still stood, covered in soot and blood. Her fellow ponies had done a wonderful job of rampaging through whatever the fire didn't burn.
She took a moment to take it all in. Pegasi sored through the sky filled with smoke and ash, the ground was covered in corpses and blood. Ponies were looting for anything useful or eating into their defeated enemies. The griffs were all screaming or crying as their souls were sent off to their weak beaked god.
And, in solemn cases, some of the ponies were tending to their wounded.
"Warwitch Sparksworn!" She hummed as she looked up towards the hissing bark.
It was a batpony, a nightcrawler, with claw marks on his underbelly and a cut over his right eye. Not deep enough to need removing the eye, for one of their kind at least, but he'd be half-blind for a good year or so.
He stalked up to her, breath panting through his needle teeth. "Nocturn Fang of the Night Bane Herd," he greeted with a nod of respect.
"Twilight Sparksworn of the Bright Herd," she returned needlessly. "You lost many before we arrived."
"Then many will meet with our Great Serpent tonight," he stated without pause. "Tell me, Sparksworn? Did "he" get away?"
"Who, Nocturn?" Twilight inquired with a raised eyebrow, her lips in a flat line.
The nightcrawler leaned in, his remaining golden eye gleaming bloodthirstily with half of a snarl on his snout.
"The Swordgriff with the stench of destiny in his eyes," Nocturn Fang stated in a deep growl.
"...Razoraw ruined your infiltration, didn't he?" Twilight questioned with narrowed eyes.
"And his longbarrel friend gave me this," Nocturn stated, putting a hoof over his slashed eye briefly.
Twilight smirked slowly as her eyes sparkled. "They live, Moonbred. I feel that Lord Discord yet has plans for this young griffon, so hunt Razoraw at your own folly...but his friend, Barson Underclaw? The chimeric liege has no interest in him as things stands," she suggested coyly.
"Barson Underclaw. I'll remember the name. Thank you, Warwitch," he said with a nod before turning to trot off and take to the air, soaring over the battlements.
Twilight chuckled darkly under her breath, "The wheels of fate and chaos are truly spinning now, Lord Discord," she murmured fondly.
"Have fun, Sparksworn?"
Twilight turned to see a unicorn stallion covered in lighter dark armor than earth ponies. His white coat was strangely unblemished for a pony just done with a battle, but his beautiful blue mane indicated he was one of her more vain comrades.
"Always, Lavish Greaves. If I get a bite to eat before the bones are picked clean, it'll be a perfect day," she answered with a small, toothy smile. "So, what's the result look like?"
"Besides the Batponies, we only had one casualty: some idiot managed to fall into the fires from the battlements," Lavish explained with a smoother voice than most.
"I take it he wasn't fireproof?" Twilight asked sarcastically, getting an unamused look from the pony. "And the loot?"
"Plenty of melee weapons and crossbows survived or otherwise salvageable, along with a good deal of the firearms too," Lavish continued with a hum. "Plenty of griff delicacies, if you're into that stuff. We didn't even bother taking count of the armor, since it's all heading to the forgers anyway."
"Shame we have different proportions than the beakies!" A stallion, passing by while pulling a griffon corpse with his teeth, grunted out with a strained grin.
"Certainly would make armor easier to deal with and alter," Lavish agreed as the two glanced at the stallion briefly.
"Anything else I should know?" Twilight asked with a bored look.
"Your father is outside," Lavish answered bluntly.
"That's...WHAT!?" Twilight yelled in shock, her eyes wide. "Why would-!? Lead with that kind of information! Discord take me, get your priorities right!" she snapped before running out of the fort, leaving an amused stallion behind.
Twilight ran as fast as her legs could carry her, completely forgetting to teleport. After exiting the conquered outpost, she stiffened as she saw a figure down by the river…a stallion, nearly as tall as Herd-Lord Celestia herself. He was covered head to hoof in bronze plate armor with spikes along the spine. Every edge and every gap glowing with a burning light beneath the armor. The horn piece for his armor was a burning red dagger upon his head. And the eyes of his helmet were a blazing symbol of Chaos, flames snorting from his nostrils and the grass he touched setting itself alight with fire that did not spread.
Twilight teleported the rest of the length, standing before him as he looked down on her expectantly. "Father," she greeted with a smile.
"Twilight," he returned with a nod, the praise hard to hear over the flames crackling in his voice. "I trust everything went well?"
"There was a minor issue, but we took the fort with little trouble," Twilight assured before scowling. "Some escaped."
"Good," her father said in a dark voice as she looked surprised. "The Herdlord has a task for you," he informed evenly.
"She does?" Twilight asked curiously. "I thought I was to be assisting my fellow Chaosmares in cutting support to Talongrad?"
"Plans changed," he informed before looking over his haunches at the forest. "I brought your pet."
Twilight leaned to the side and raised an eyebrow as something walked out of the forest. "Spike? What are you doing here?"
The beast gave no answer as it came up to the ponies. The purple scales were twisted and gnarled over its waddling and roundish quadrupedal body, just smaller than Twilight from shoulders to haunches. However the long necks of its dual heads more than made up for the height difference. Both heads had a fairly normal dragon shape to them, but had distinct oddities. Its right head had an overgrowth of green horns with too many teeth sticking out of the jaw at crooked angles. It also had four eyes; blue and green on the left side, blue and grey on the right.
The left head looked tamer until it opened its maw, revealing its entire mouth and even the wide throat was filled with needle-like teeth. Six eyes donned it: a grey on the left between two blues while the other side had a green, a blue, and the bottom one was gouged out. The small leathery wings were covered in small holes and green spines.
The chaos drakeling let out an affectionate growl at its Mistress, standing by the two equines.
"As I said, the Herdlord has a task for you. Now," Her father repeated pointedly.
Twilight's eyes hardened in determination and understanding before she nodded to the dragon. "Do it," she ordered.
The thorn-head made a squawking roar as the maw-head reared itself back and let loose a jet of sickly green flames, engulfing the unflinching mare in them.
All Twilight saw for a moment was the unnatural flames wrapping all around and over her. In that fire, she swore she heard a distant, deep laughter.
Just before it stopped, the flames vanished to reveal a great and steamy darkness.
Twilight just smirked to herself in the humid shadows, almost amused when a pair of deep purple eyes opened in the darkness, staring directly into her own. "You wanted to see me, Teacher?"
End of Chapter
New chapter! Hope you all enjoyed this new step in this dark world I've created. Garet and Barson got away with others, but that's far from the last those two have seen of ponies. And now we've met Chaos!Spike and Chaos!Night Light.(based on Warhammer Total War Chaos Dragons and Chaos Knights respectively)
Next chapter we get to meet the Sorchess herself, Herdlord Celestia! And we'll see what she wants of Twilight exactly.
Fun fact: Nocturn is the only OC pony introduced here. Everypony else with a name is a chaos version of canon characters. Have fun guessing who is who. I'll make a list later.
