Fanfic / The God Empress of Ponykind

I am the fire that burns in the heart of every stallion, mare and foal... I am the Morning Star, the Light in the shadows of the Immaterium and Beacon to all that wander it... I am the Anathema, the Bane of Chaos and Butcher of the Ruinous Powers. I am the God Empress of Ponykind, the most powerful being to have ever lived... And the Warp is mine to command.

— Empress Celestia

The God Empress of Ponykind is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic / Warhammer 40,000 Fan Fic by iowaforever.

Princess Celestia wasn't always the kind and benevolent Princess of Equestria she is known as: many centuries before, she was the God-Emperor, Eternal ruler of the Imperium of Man. Restored during a Chaos attack on the Imperial Palace, He was cast into the Warp and spat out in a different universe, having been turned into a (female) pony. Unable to return to the Imperium, the newly transformed Emperor begins to build a new empire, one untainted by the Ruinous Powers and populated by beings created in Her own image.

It’s now complete.

A sequel, titled The Warmistress of Equestria, has been published. It deals with Luna's return and her attempts to get accustomed to the changes in Equestrian society since her banishment, and whether or not her skills as a warrior are still needed. It has since been placed on hiatus.

Another sequel, titled The Empress Returns, details Celestia receiving a message from the Warp and making a fateful decision to return to the Imperium with Twilight Sparkle by her side to save it.

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God Empress of Ponykind provides examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: He was an Anti-Hero at best and a Well-Intentioned Extremist of an Anti-Villain at worst, but the Emperor/Celestia of this story is closer to The Hero than the actual Emperor of Warhammer 40,000 ever was.
• Agony Beam: Nightmare Moon does something like this to Celestia in their first encounter. Then she makes the mistake of letting her up, allowing her to fight back.
• All There in the Manual: Following the story's completion, the author has started a series of blog postings dedicated to Worldbuilding.
• Amazon Brigade: The Daughters of Manehattan.
• And This Is for...: Blackmane shouts out "For Icewind!" during the siege of Aesir Pass.
• Artificial Limbs: Discord rips off one of Luna's wings during his first fight against the sisters; Celestia replaces it with a cybernetic one.
• Art Shift: Sequences in the Warp are in bold text, with dialogue Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. They are also written in present-tense, to show how different it is from the real world.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The ponies of Equestria beg Celestia to become Empress after she defeats Discord, since no one prior had been strong enough to do so.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Luna's strategy during the War of Crystals. It leads to her running right into a trap.

• Badass Army: The Twenty Legions; Each one is comprised of one thousand ponies clad in heavy armor (based off the armor Imperial Space Marines wear), led by a Four-Star Badass, and capable of taking on an army three times its size.
• Badass Boast: See the page quote, delivered during the fight with the Windigos.
  • Also, her statement to Metamorhpa during the duel in Fillydelphia.
  "You are nothing! You are no more than a child lashing out against forces you could never understand! I am the Bane of Chaos, the Anathema, the Light of the Immaterium and Beacon for all whom travel its currents! I am the Empress of Ponykind, the mightiest being to have ever walked the land, and I shall smite you and purge your pathetic race from this earth for daring to challenge my power!"
  • Icewind to Sombra when the latter takes over the Crystal Kingdom:
  "You wish to take over the Crystal Kingdom's inhabitants? You may as soon as the last of my blood has been spilled!"
  • Later, Blackmane during the siege of Aesir Pass:
  "Know this, Servants of Sombra! I am Blackmane, Wolf Lord and loyal servant of Icewind and Equestria! My ancestors tamed this land eons before your kind even had a coherent thought! I have slain wolves and other beasts with my bare hooves, killed Diamond Dogs and minotaurs in service to my lord and my Empress! And you? You are nothing compared to a true warrior, and I will slaughter you and your ilk with nary an ill thought!"
  • Celestia gets another one during the Siege of Canterlot when fighting the Shadowbolts:
  "Did you really think that you pathetic wastes of flesh could stand against me? I forged this world from dust and breathed life into it. I commanded the celestial bodies, and they moved at my words. I defeated the Windigoes and stood in the face of Discord, and you think that your gods will grant you victory over me? Your gods lead you to destruction, and I am more than happy to deliver it."
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Justified in that she uses the powers of the Warp to maintain herself until Equestria has a breathable atmosphere.
• BFS: Celestia's power sword.
• Big Bad: The voice corrupting Luna, which turns out to be Tzeentch.
• Big Good: The other voice trying to counter the first one, which turns out to be the redeemed spirit of Horus.
• Bling of War: Celestia builds a suit of gold-encrusted Powered Armor for herself shortly after arriving in the new universe. Luna gets a silver version once she is old enough.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: How Nightmare Moon takes control of Luna's Legions. Except for a handful who are somehow able to mentally block her influence.
• Break the Haughty: The entire last quarter of the story is this for Celestia. In order, Luna becomes Nightmare Moon with a little persuasion/outright possession by Tzeentch, Celestia's failings as both a father and a sister are spelled out to her by Tzeentch in a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and it's all capped off with Luna regaining control just long enough for Celestia to use the Elements of Harmony on her and banish her to the moon. By the end of it, Celestia has finally realized just how many horrors could have been spared both Equestria and humanity had she looked past her own ego and considered that she might have been wrong about, among other things, how she handled situations with her sons and sister.
  Celestia: I have done so much wrong in my life, all because I thought I was never wrong.
• Breaking Speech: King Sombra delivers one to Luna during their fight in Chapter 13 before he Mind Rapes her with her worst fear; he tries the same on Celestia and gets burned alive for his troubles.
• Brown Note: Looking directly into Celestia's eyes exposes the viewer to the true scale of her power and majesty. She has found a way to mask the effect, but when unleashed it is enough to make a dragon uneasy.
• But Now I Must Go: The Emperor leaves the Imperium in the hands of the surviving Astartes and Imperial commanders before ascending into the Warp to fight the Gods of Chaos.
• Captain Ersatz: Luna's comparisons (especially when she begins to fall to The Corruption) to Horus have been pointed out, and several of the Legions are clear Expy parallels to the original Legions in the Great Crusade.
• The Cavalry: The Baneblades during the Battle for Terra (sadly offscreen), the Empress' Chosen during the changeling attack on Fillydelphia.
  • Luna and her Legions showing up to break Sombra's siege of Aesir Pass. Later, Celestia saves Luna when the latter's attack on the Crystal Kingdom goes south.
• Celibate Hero: When she takes over Equestria, Celestia states that she will take neither mate nor lover, much to the dismay of several ponies in the audience.
• Color-Coded Speech: Conversation in the Warp is done in color, to identify who is speaking: Celestia/ The Emperor speaks in gold, Tzeentch in blue, Nurgle in olive, Slaanesh in purple, Khorne in red, Isha in green and Horus in silver. Luna is not powerful enough to have a significant Warp presence, so her text is not colored.
• The Confidant: Philomena acts as one to Celestia.
• The Corruption: The voice in the back of Luna's head; it constantly tells Luna that Celestia is keeping her sidelined to take all the glory for Herself, and that Luna should take away some of Celestia's power. And Luna has started listening to it. Fans have speculated that the voice is either a renegade daemon, a surviving fragment of one of the Chaos Gods, or one of the Chaos Gods Faking the Dead.
  • It ultimately turns out to be Tzeentch, who claims he and the other Chaos Gods all let the Emperor defeat them in order to get rid of him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Several:
  • During the assault on the Imperial Palace, Abaddon rips through a group of Grey Knights, Custodes and Imperial Guardsmen with ease; Once resurrected, the Emperor returns the favor.
  • Celestia and Luna's first fight against Discord; he dodges most of Celestia's attacks before No Selling the last one. He then proceeds to rip Luna's wing off, forcing the two sisters to retreat. The second fight is reversed; Luna depowers Discord and Celestia petrifies Discord with the Elements of Harmony.
  • Celestia's Army versus the Diamond Dog horde.
• Death of a Child: Among the dead in the Siege of Manehattan are numerous foals including an unborn foal ripped from it's mother's womb and sacrificed to the Chaos Gods.
• Defiant to the End: Dawn Sparkle. See Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
• Demonic Possession: Luna, as of Chapter 13.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Emperor kills the Four Gods of Chaos... until it turns out they let him win in order to fake their deaths, though they're all quite weakened.
  • Celestia and Luna killing the Windigos.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In Celestia's hallucination while under Sombra's spell, this is Horus' fate after he suffers a brutal beatdown from an alternate version of the Emperor. It throws Celestia into a minor Heroic BSoD.
• Disney Villain Death: Celestia cuts off Metamorpha's wings, then drops her off the citadel in Fillydelphia.
• Dual Wielding: Luna Dual Wields two short swords in combat.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: One of Luna's complaints once the voice starts convincing her Celestia is against her; Celestia admits that being The Empress means she gets all the glory and Luna doesn't, but she doesn't do anything to remedy the problem.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Commander Icewind, wounded and cut off, charges right into the heart of the Crystal Ponies' forces, killing many before he is overwhelmed. When Sombra tries to scavenge his armor the Self Destruct activates, taking out the entire Plaza.
  • Dawn Sparkle duels Nightmare Moon in single combat during the Siege of Manehattan. She's just a normal pony versus a Mad God, and she manages to land a few hits before being cut down. Sadly this is all offscreen.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Crystal Kingdom Shock Troopers; they can outmaneuver and defeat a fully armored Legionnaire with ease, but once pinned or otherwise unable to move, they die easily.
  • The Shadowbolts (formerly the Black Ravens) are apparently this to Nightmare Moon.
• Emperor Scientist: The Emperor/Celestia spends most of her time after being turned into a pony creating lifeforms to populate her new home.
• Everyone Can See It: Shining Armor and Cadence. Celestia picks up on their mutual crushes right away, and in the last chapter Twilight casually asks them when they're going out.
• Evil Chancellor: Sombra was this to the Crystal Kingdom.
• Face Death with Dignity: Nurgle accepts his (possible) death a lot better than the other Chaos Gods.
• Faking the Dead: Tzeentch, at least, who claims the other Chaos Gods are as well.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Luna is technically Celestia's daughter, but Celestia insists Luna call her "sister" due to Celestia's bad experiences with her sons. This is used to create doubt in Luna's mind by Discord and the voice in Luna's head.
• Fighting from the Inside: Luna does this during Celestia's fight with Nightmare Moon (with help from the spirit of Horus of all people), retaking control long enough for Celestia to use the Elements of Harmony on her.
• Forced to Watch: Dawn Sparkle is forced to watch as Nightmare Moon's army burns Manehattan and slaughters its citizens.
• Forced Transformation: Tzeentch does this to The Emperor, combined with Gender Bender, at the end of their fight. The Emperor/ Princess Celestia is pissed off at first, but gets used to it after awhile.
• Foreshadowing: During their first encounter, Discord mentions to Celestia that he saved someone in the Warp. It later turns out to be Horus.
• Framing Device: Most of the story is a flashback, framed as Celestia telling a young Twilight Sparkle (later joined by Cadence and Shining Armor) about where she came from and how she took over Equestria.
• Gender Bender: Tzeentch does this to The Emperor, combined with Forced Transformation, at the end of their fight. The Emperor/Princess Celestia is pissed off at first, but gets used to it after awhile.
• Glory Hound: Kaldor Draigo is described as this; Luna when under the influence of The Corruption.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: As Luna starts listening to The Corruption (Tzeentch) more and more, another voice tries to speak reason to her, only to get pushed aside. It ultimately turns out to be Horus' spirit, who helps her retake temporary control during the showdown between Celestia and Nightmare Moon.
• God-Emperor: Celestia combines this with The High Queen once she defeats Discord and takes over Equestria.
• A God I Am Not: Played with; Celestia is still uneasy about ponies worshipping her, stating that she fears becoming just like the Gods of Chaos, but she is much more lenient towards those that do worship her than when she was the Emperor.
• Heroic Willpower: How Silverlight and the Loyalist Lunar Knights are able to resist Nightmare Moon's corruption.
• History Repeats: What happens on Equestria is reminiscent of the Horus Heresy. Princess Celestia forges another empire, using well-equipped and empowered soldiers to expand Equestria's borders and defend the realm... and to balance it out, Luna, Celestia's most trusted commander and daughter/sister, betrays her under the influence of the Ruinous Powers, some of the Equestrian Legions turn Traitor, and Celestia is forced to fight another civil war.
  • Celestia's Equestrian Legions have traces of the old Space Marine chapters in either their traditions or names. The Artic Wolves are reminiscent of the Space Wolves chapter, as one example.
• Hold the Line: The Arctic Wolves have to do this when Sombra's forces lay siege to their fortress of Aesir Pass, in order to keep them from advancing on Equestria.
• Ignore the Fanservice: The Emperor ignores Slaanesh's attempts to seduce him before running her through with his sword.
• I Let You Win: Tzeentch claims he and the other Chaos Gods did this with the Emperor as part of a plan to get rid of him.
• It Runs in the Family: Shining Armor mentions how it's tradition that every eldest child in his (and Twilight's) family always joins a Legion. Usually the Daughters of Manehatten, but in his case, well...
• It's All My Fault: Celestia feels this way about Luna's fall as well as the Horus Heresy. Horus forgives her, even taking some of the blame by pointing out that it was his decision to rebel instead of seeking a better alternative.
• Just Between You and Me: The Emperor gives what amounts to mini-sermons about why the Chaos Gods suck before he kills them.
• Kneel Before Zod: Sombra, after he takes control of the Crystal Kingdom.
• Kill It with Fire: Celestia loves to use Warpflame in combat. It's how she kills King Sombra.
  • Playing with Fire: She also has more mundane uses for Warpflame, such as removing mold and debris from a wall.
• Lady of War: Celestia.
• Mind Probe: Celestia uses one during her fight with Queen Metamorpha to reveal that she and her changelings were actually created by Discord For the Lulz.
• Mind Rape: Sombra's magic is capable of this, projecting a pony's worst fears into their minds and rendering them incapable of fighting back. Luna sees a vision of Celestia taking absolute power before essentially banishing her, while Celestia sees an alternate version of her fight with Horus, where Horus never fell to Chaos but rebelled to stop the Emperor from becoming too much of a dictator (The Emperor brutally kills Horus while Celestia is Forced to Watch).
• A Mother to Her Men: Dawn Sparkle, who expects this from anypony in a leadership position. In fact, this is the reason she refuses to accept Nightmare Moon's offer of servitude — she knows that Nightmare doesn't care about protecting Equestria.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Luna has a moment like this at the end of Chapter 13. Doesn't save her from being possessed by The Corruption.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Celestia kills Sombra, allowing him to ascend to Daemon Prince and pull the Crystal Kingdom into the Warp.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Alt!Emperor delivers one to Horus during Celestia's Mind Rape, brutally killing the Primarch while she is Forced to Watch.
  • Celestia suffers one when Tzeentch nullifies her defensive spells.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Dawn Sparkle's one-on-one fight with Nightmare Moon.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Celestia, having a brief ego trip when she puts her old armor on, flips out when Twilight runs in on her unannounced. She comes around with a minor My God, What Have I Done? moment, but it's our first cue that there's more to Celestia than we know...
• Outside-Context Problem: Discord, due to not acting like a normal Chaos Daemon. Not even the Chaos Gods know what he is or where he came from.
• Pet the Dog: The Emperor releases the Eldar Goddess Isha after killing Nurgle. Why he did so is not yet fully understood.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: See Wham Line.
• Religious Bruiser: All of the ponies in the Empress' Chosen Legion; Word of God describes them as having similar zeal as the Word Bearers.
• Rousing Speech: Dawn Sparkle gives one to her Legion at the beginning of the Siege of Manehattan.
  "Remember, you are Daughters of Manehattan. You helped to defeat the Diamond Dogs. You stood against Discord and the Changelings. And now these traitors want to come and destroy what we hold most dear. Well, they will try. And if today is the day that Manehattan falls, then let it be known that we fought to our last breath, and they did not get the satisfaction of our surrender! Let’s show these traitors that they cannot march upon Manehattan that easily! Siege Units! Fire at will!"
  • Celestia gives one to her forces just before the Siege of Canterlot.
  "Take heart, my Legions! The enemy before us is numerous and strong, but the division of Chaos runs deep and can be broken! Smite the enemy with bolt and sword; show them no mercy, for you shall receive none in return. Do not allow the deception of Chaos to make you weak and cowardly! Fortify yourself, and know that our stand here will see the breaking of Chaos in Equestria, and your children shall see dawn return to this land! Now, my comrades! For Equestria!”
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Celestia and Luna lead their armies from the front.
• Shout-Out: When the Emperor is taken by the Warp, he is described as A leaf on the wind.
  • Sequences in the Warp are based off of the Dreaming from It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door.
  • To relieve Luna of her boredom in Chapter 6, Celestia tells her a story about a colt, his friend, and a nice mare from the Inquisition fighting against Genestealers.
  • The current commander of the royal guards is named Steel Rain. He's... a bit too enthusiastic about Deep Striking Pegasi.
  • Commander Icewind's reaction to being surrounded? "Oh good; for a moment I thought we were in trouble."
  • Dawn Sparkle's husband is named Dusk Shine.
  • During the God Emperor's battle with the Chaos gods, he tells them that he may be outnumbered, but they are outmatched.
• Shock and Awe: Although not as common as Warpflame, Celestia also utilizes lightning in combat.
• The Siege: Sombra's forces assaulting Aesir Pass.
  • Nightmare Moon's Traitor Legions attacking Manehattan.
  • The Traitor Legions assaulting Canterlot shortly thereafter.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Becomes apparent after Celestia becomes Empress; The Diamond Dogs are disorganized and easily outclassed, the Changelings are better organized but fail to do any lasting damage, Sombra is defeated, more or less, but pushes Luna further away from Celestia, becomes a Daemon Prince, and pulls the Crystal Kingdom into the Warp, and Nightmare Moon butchers two Legions, sacks a major city, and tortures Celestia with an Agony Beam. All of this happens within her first appearance.
• Something Only They Would Say: Celestia notes that there is only one being of Chaos who would ever refer to her as "Emperor" when she realizes Nightmare Moon is Tzeentch.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Celestia understands Philomena's chirps as if they were normal speech.
• Take That!: Several Creators Pets from 40K are dispatched during the Siege of Terra: Marneus Calgar and most of the Ultramarines are killed offscreen, and Kaldor Draigo is quickly killed when Abaddon breaks into the Throne Room. The Emperor also admits that Draigo is less than optimal when compared to other Space Marines, and most of the other Astartes Commanders think he's a whiny Glory Hound.
• Time Abyss: Celestia is over 4 billion years old by the beginning of the fic.
• Title Drop: Celestia several times, usually in her Badass Boasts. The priest she meets just before the Siege of Canterlot also drops it when saying its what she could have appointed herself upon taking the throne.
• Took a Level in Badass: King Sombra defeats Luna in a one-on-one duel, taunts Celestia, and then ascends to become a Daemon Prince.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Commander Firefly and Commander Dawn Sparkle; they start off hating each other until Celestia threatens to kill them if they don't learn to cooperate. They don't hate each other as much anymore, but they still see each other as rivals.
• We Have Reserves: Nightmare Moon doesn't mind having her Traitor Legions wiped out, as she finds Daemons more useful.
• We Need a Distraction: Firefly uses one of her fellow Western Rangers, Surprise, to distract a group of Diamond Dogs so Firefly and other legionnaires can free prisoners. Things go wrong when Surprise forgets to lose the Diamond Dogs before heading back to help Firefly...
• Wham Line: "Or Maybe it's because everything has gone exactly according to plan, Emperor".
• Wolverine Claws: The Crystal Kingdom Shock Troopers (Sombra's Elite Mooks) have these as their standard weapon. Several members of the Traitor Legions also adopt them.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Icewind holds off Sombra's army long enough for Fell-Hoof to escape back to friendly territory. He gets killed in the process.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Queen Metamorpha styles her changelings as this. Celestia's Mind Probe proves otherwise.

Warmistress of Equestria provides examples of:

• Ancestral Weapon: Anlindē receives her father's spear just before departing on her mission.
• Badass Boast: Anlindē and Luna trade them in Chapter 4. First, when Luna finds and tries to arrest her for using the Warp:
  Anlindē: “I will not be treated like some beast! I am Anlindē, Seer of the Clan Elynia, devoted leader of deer, and I will erase you from existence for your intrusion!”
  • Then, when Luna No Sells her attack and prepares to actually start fighting:
  Luna: You may be a powerful mage, deer. But I am the Warmistress of Equestria, sister of Celestia, Empress of Ponykind and Forger of Worlds. And I shall make you suffer for threatening my subjects.
• Big Bad: Tirac. Scorpan is his Dragon
• Big Bad Wannabe: Lord Talon Hoof styles himself as a serious threat, but he's an Unwitting Pawn to Scorpan and his master Tirac.
• Broken Ace: Present-Day Celestia is a far cry from the confident warrior queen we saw in the first fic.
• The Cameo: The Mane 6 get a brief one in Chapter 3, walking past Anlindē and Galas when the two arrive in Ponyville to identify the Lost.
  • A ponified version of Gabriel Angelos, named Angelus, is mentioned in a discussion between Scorpan and a fellow Shadowbolt; apparently, he's Fluttershy's father
• Combat Pragmatist: Sleight-Hoof. Luna approves, at least in battle; not so much in sparring.
• False Flag Operation: The deer have apparently done a few of these over the years against the griffons and ponies, in order to keep them busy fighting each other and their attention off of the deer.
  • The Traitor Legions and their griffon co-conspirators take advantage of this trope as well — they send a "pony" assassin after the Griffon King and a griffon assassin after Celestia, in order start a war between Equestria and the griffons that the Traitor Legions can take advantage of.
• Handicapped Badass: Justicar Echo, who is blind, is also one of the Night Guard's best snipers.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Celestia disguises herself as Nightmare Moon in order for the Mane 6 to use the Elements of Harmony on her so she could free Luna. Luna calls her out on this,, but Celestia does admit that what she did was wrong and means to make amends.
• Manipulative Bastard: Scorpan is playing his supposed allies in order to advance his own agenda at their expense.
• Necromancer: Grogar. He scours battlefields looking for fresh corpses to add to his army (one of his more recent "acquisitions" being the recently murdered Griffon King).
• No Social Skills: Luna, added on to her Fish out of Water/Stranger in a Familiar Land status; she is incredibly serious and formal in her speech patterns, and she takes several comments as insults until someone explains further.
  • She gets a little better over time, learning how to bond with her troops.
• Poor Communication Kills: The author points out that Anlindē and her group could have just told Luna or Celestia that they're on a mission to save the world, rather than just assume they know best and work alone.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Tirac is currently stuck in the Warp; Scorpan's engineering of a war is to give him the strength to escape.
• Shout-Out: Many of the Traitor Legionnaires are named after G1 villains.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Luna; she is a general from a time where Equestria's safety was less than assured, and now that she has returned one thousand years later she is unsure if her skills are still needed.
• The Unfavorite: Sleight-Hoof, due to his lack of magical prowess and him being chosen by the Night Guard.
• Unwitting Pawn: Talon Hoof and the griffon general Blackwing are being played by Scorpan.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Luna towards Celestia when the latter reveals that she disguised herself as Nightmare Moon in order to free Luna.
  • Anlindē is on the receiving end of one when the Seer Council blames her for getting the deer too involved in the conflict between Equestria and the griffons, as her fight with Luna coincided with a griffon assassin trying to kill Celestia.
• Would Hurt a Child: Scorpan tears through a family of griffons (including children) in order to get enough blood to contact his master. Worse, he tells his victims that they should thank him for their deaths, as it advances the final victory of Chaos.