Warhammer 40k: The Harmony Crusade

Chapter 5Villains On Both Sides

Sorcerer Sonorious of the Thousand Sons growled as he kicked the broken hatch off of the front of his saviour pod. He walked outside, covering his eyes for a moment as the light filters in his helmet adjusted to the early morning sunlight. Arazakh and Mhotep followed him out, their blue and gold armour shining in the sun's rays. Sonorious surveyed the flat green landscape around them, taking note of the few trees and the large structures in the distance before turning to them.

“Brothers. We were lucky to escape alive. Evidently, Tzeentch has other plans for us”

“This is your fault” growled Mhotep, rounding in on Sonorious, “You assured us that they would not be able to perform a warp exit for at least thirty minutes, giving us time to take over!”

“It has been ten thousand years, disciple, technology has changed. Do not forget your place, Mhotep” snarled Sonorious, his hand going to his power sword.

“Stop, both of you” said Arazakh, “We need to think about now. What is our course of action? There is life here”, he gestured towards the large structures in the distance, “However, we cannot take on an entire planet by ourselves”

“Then that is not our purpose, disciple” said Sonorious, “Not yet anyway. We should perform reconnaissance on that settlement in the distance, find out what we can about the natives. Anything we can use to our advantage, we will use. Mhotep, I want you to go-”

“I don't think that is a wise idea, Sorcerer” interrupted Mhotep, scanning in the direction of the city with his binoculars.

“Why not?” inquired Sonorious.

“Because the locals have decided to do some reconnaissance of their own” replied Mhotep.

He handed the binoculars to Sonorious, “Over there, coming from just west of the structures” he instructed, pointing towards the targets.

Sonorious followed his hand towards the structures, “I think that's a city” he commented, looking at the tall buildings that now dominated the east side of the horizon thanks to his enhanced view. He swung his view down towards the approaching natives, just becoming visible as they moved towards them.

He had to hold back a snort of laughter. They were quadruped equines, galloping towards them. They were small, he could see that much. The front two were garbed in some sort of armour, short swords sheathed at their forelegs. Some had wings, and were flying above the main group. They looked about four feet tall, and each one was different from the last in terms of colour.

Sonorious lowered the binoculars and turned to his disciples, “From what I can see, they are primitive, their only visible weapons being short swords, which I doubt could even scratch our armour. They must be coming to investigate the crash”

“Then let's take them out” growled Arazakh, cocking his bolter and levelling it with the oncoming aliens.

“No” said Sonorious calmly, lowering Arazakh's bolter with his hand, “We cannot let our presence be known. While we are more powerful, there may be thousands, even millions more of them. Besides, I have good reason to believe the Imperials also landed on this world, and it is imperative that they do not find out about us. Especially those other space marines on board their cruiser, they cut through our daemons like they were no threat at all. They fight with the ferocity and strength of the original legions, yet I do not recognise them. I would not wish to go up against them in a fight. For now, we will make our escape, I will reflect and plan in the meantime. We shall come back when they are gone”

With that, the three traitor marines disappeared into the treeline behind them, slipping into the darkness and mystery that their legion knew so well.

The equines arrived minutes later, only to be baffled and confused by the strange object in front of them.

“Contact Princess Celestia in Canterlot, tell her she must come to Manehattan straight away. She might know what the buck this thing is...”

Princess Luna and her squad of guards descended through the dense canopy of the Everfree Forest towards the area of one of the known crash sights of one of those things from last night.

“Fan out” she ordered, “Search for evidence of the object”

Her guards drew their swords and spread out around her, some taking off to get an ariel view.

She knew some of them still did not trust her, and it bothered her. It had been two years. Two years! How long did it take for ponies to accept her again? Nightmare Moon had been banished by the Elements Of Harmony, and she had retaken her position by her sister's side, to raise the moon every night. She no longer posed a threat to them, and yet, despite two years of peace and countless public appearances with her sister, she was still pretty much in the same position she had been in when she had returned. She sighed. What in her sister's name would it take?

“Princess! Over here!” came one of her guards voices far to her left. She took off to see him hovering around two hundred metres away above a wreck in the dense foliage, it was almost unnoticeable. Then again, the Everfree Forest had that effect on everything.

She flew over to him and then downwards to the object. I was certainly not a meteor, she could tell that much straight away. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was made of metal and shattered glass, and there were strange objects sticking out the sides, reminding her of some of the wiring used by ponies experimenting harnessing the power of lightning, or “electricity” as they called it. A hatch lay open at the side, almost separated from its hinges.

She cast a quick spell over it, checking it was not radioactive and that it had cooled enough to allow her inside. It came back positive, and she poked her head inside. The first thing that caught her eye was the sparking, glowing object attached to the inside wall of the object, suspended above what looked like a row of mangled seats, complete with harnesses. They looked like something you would find on one of the cloudcoasters at the Cloudsdale Festival. She stepped inside, looking around, tailed by two of her guards.

On the side was written, strangely enough, in perfect Equestrian: “Hammer's Retribution Saviour Pod 03-01” she read. But this isn't of Equestrian manufacture, we don't have the technology, and neither do the any of the other races of Equus she thought to herself.

“What to you make of this inscription?” she asked one of her guards.

He stepped up, “It isn't anything I recognise, and I have no idea what a 'saviour pod' is. As for the Hammer's Retribution, it certainly doesn't sound friendly, it sounds like the name of a weapon or a ship. If I may be frank?”

“Of course. Your guess is as good as mine Corporal”

“I think it's aliens ma'am. This isn't anything Equestria has ever seen before, and came from the sky. I don't see what else it could be, unless the griffons or the dragons underwent a massive technological revolution overnight”

“I'm tempted to agree with you, but the idea of aliens is just so... alien. However, there is no other reasonable explanation, but this is just stretching the boundaries as it is. Perhaps this will tell us more” she said, moving to the glowing object. She reached out towards it with a hoof.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained” she murmured.

“Princess, I don't think that's-” he was interrupted as her hoof made contact with the object, and the glowing screen lit up in a flash of light, and Luna looked on as seemingly random streams of digits raced past on the screen. “What in Equestria!?” she exclaimed.

She jumped back and all the guards raised their swords as a flat, monotone, female voice rang out from nowhere, “Imperial Inquisition Lunar-class cruiser Hammer's Retribution aft bay saviour pod 03-01”

“Who is that? Show yourself! Why does your vessel class include my name!?” Luna shouted out in a random direction, and her guards formed a protective circle around her and the pod. However, the voice continued, when she realised it was coming from object behind her.

“Pod hull integrity sixty-four percent, liquid fuel depleted, successful landing confirmed. Previous occupants: Inquisitor Emerson Hallaman, Vindicare Assassin Levin, Callidus Assassin Umbra, biometrics confirmed. Please place identification on the scanner to gain access to this terminal”, the image on the screen changed, becoming a blank blue with a green bar moving up and down, and the words 'place identification here' appeared in the middle.

“Assassins? That doesn't sound good” commented one of her guards, “But I don't know what an Inquisitor is”

“Best we find out what we can” replied Luna, “Umm...how do I do this?”, she tentatively placed a hoof against the screen.

The thing beeped for a second, before the voice rang out again, “Unrecognised. Please try again”

Luna, annoyed, once again placed her hoof against the glowing screen. “Unrecognised. Terminal shutting down”

“No, wait!” Luna cried out, but the thing had already gone dark, leaving the inside of the pod in shadows. She groaned in frustration, and turned to her guards, when it hit her. Her mind started racing, But it's been ten thousand years! she reasoned, It would certainly explain the language similarity, and the odd ship name, but it's been too long! They could be here by accident... Images, forgotten for ten thousand years, sprung into her mind, a ship, ripping a hole in time and space as it entered the warp. A man, eight feet tall, stood in shining armour, a large sword in his hand. A golden double headed eagle on a banner over a smoking battlefield... I must consult my sister, perhaps it is time to bring Him out of hiding...

She shook her head, “We must leave, I need to inform my sister of these developments. There are aliens in Equestria, the evidence is irrefutable. I will have a science team return at a later date. For now, we must go, and you must not breathe a word of this to anypony, not even your families, under penalty of treason. Do you all understand?”

A chorus of “Yes, ma'am” echoed from her guards.

“Very well then” she said, emerging from the pod and spreading her wings, “Let us go”

The team flew out of the forest and up into the clouds, over Ponyville and towards Canterlot, unaware they were being watched.

Vindicare Assassin Levin tightened his finger on the trigger of his Exitus Rifle as he watched the group of flying equines through his scope. He had seen them emerge above the canopy of the forest from one of the crash sites, and they were currently heading towards the settlement Umbra was near.

“Umbra, take cover. You have inbound airborne xenos heading to your position. I don't know if they have spotted you or not” he said to her over the comlink.

“Got it. Taking cover” she replied, ducking under a nearby bridge after checking none of the xenos were around.

Levin continued to watch them as they soared over the town and up into the cloud layer, heading over the town and towards that massive city hanging off the side of a mountain in the distance.

“You're clear” he told her.

“Alright, moving out” she said, swinging out from under the bridge, jumping onto a nearby cart and vaulting onto the roof of a nearby house. She had a much better view of the town from here, and she could see what she guessed was a market area filled with xenos. It's too exposed she thought, I may have to use my polymorphine to get in closer. But I need a DNA sample from one of them...

“Levin” she said over the comlink, “The town is set out in such a way that I can't get near them to find out information without being spotted, and there are loads of them. You were right about them preparing for something. I can see a large podium being put up in the centre of town, with a massive banner. Strangely enough, it's written in perfect Low Gothic”

“What!?” came Levin's incredulous reply.

“You heard me. Whatever these things are, they speak the language of the Imperium”

“That can't be right. What does the banner say?”

“It says 'Welcome Princess Celestia', they must be readying for a visit from royalty or a ruler”

“This is very strange. Could it be coincidence that they know our language, or is there something else going on here? Anyway, we could use this to our advantage, attack the xenos, give a show of power or capture the leader, show who's in charge. Do you see know anything else?”

“Not without getting a DNA sample and morphing on down there”

“Very well, go. I will stay on lookout”

“Thanks Levin, I will be out of contact for a while”, with that, she turned off her comlink, and swung from the roof into one of the open windows of the house she was standing on.

She looked around. She was in a bedroom, there was a bright purple bed in the corner, and there was a dresser and mirror in front of her, with a wardrobe to her left. Surprisingly human-like she noted. She creaked the door open and stepped out onto the second floor landing, still no sign of any of the xenos. She crept down the hallway, her feet not making any noise on the wooden floor. She checked the two other rooms on the second floor, and satisfied they were empty, drew her needle pistol and started on down the stairs.

Her pistol extended out in front of her, she came to the bottom of the stairs. She froze as her augmented hearing picked up some faint breaths coming from the room next to her. She poked her head round the corner and saw one of the creatures sitting in a chair facing away from her. It had white fur and a pink mane, and one of those horns she had seen on some of the them.

Hoping that like their language, their nerve anatomy was also similar to a human's, she crept up behind the creature and clapped it on either side of the head, where it's temples should be. Umbra said a quiet thank you to the Emperor as it fell unconscious, dropping the book to the floor.

The assassin took a needle from the sheath on her arm and slid it slowly into the alien's back, drawing a blood sample, being extremely careful not to get any blood onto the aliens's white coat, where it would easily be noticeable.

She managed to withdraw the syringe and shook it, making sure the blood mixed in with the polymorphine already inside. Once satisfied, she backed away back up the stairs, and jumped out the window she had come in by. She landed silently on her feet and looked around quickly, making sure none of the creatures were around. Luckily, they were all still preoccupied in the town. She dashed into the nearby treeline, where she removed her weapons and armour, and stowed them in a nearby bush. She took the needle and stabbed it into her neck, pushing down on the plunger and sent the polymorphine, along with the foreign DNA, into her blood stream.

She cringed as the warp energies and drugs contained within the substance began to mould her form, reshaping her bones and flesh and making fur and hair sprout all over her body. With a final excruciating crack, her bones set into place as the drug finished it's work. She carefully stretched out her new limbs, testing out their flexibility and already visibly annoyed by the lack of hands and fingers. She craned her neck around and looked over herself. She had a black coat, the same colour as her armour, and a dark blue mane. She noticed she also had a mark on her flank like the other equines did. It was the image of two crossed swords over the golden aquila of the Imperium. She hoped it didn't look too suspicious, and Emperor forbid it if any of them asked her about it.

She carefully trotted up to the nearest path and continued along it, heading directly into the town. Thankfully, she wasn't drawing any suspicious looks from the natives. They disgusted her, she hated whenever she had to draw on these disguises to infiltrate somewhere, because it meant she often couldn't kill straight away. She preferred it when she could just drop down on a target, slit it's neck and move on, without any of this horrible polymorphine business.

She moved on through the market area, listening in on snippets of their conversations to see if she could pick up any information. She gathered that the xenos were called ponies, and that this town was called Ponyville (Dear Emperor she sighed in her head). The ponies with the horns were called unicorns, the ones with wings were pegasi, or pegasus for single, and the ones without either appendage were called earth ponies.

From viewing the stalls, she gathered they relied on a currency called bits, and that they all had very simple jobs. Most were farmers, shop owners, construction workers, and apparently some of the pegasi had jobs controlling the weather (What!?). Apparently, the males of the species were known as stallions and the females were known as mares, and the marks on their flanks were known as Cutie Marks, which made Umbra want to throw up, draw her sword and murder all of them, even more than she did already.

Finally, she witnessed several instances of the unicorns using what they called 'Magic', which they used to do things such as levitate and carry objects. She very well knew that this meant all unicorns were psykers, and although they did not appear very powerful, it would be wise not to underestimate them. After all, there was only one psyker in their group, and that was Astropath Dyreson, who had little combat training compared to other psykers in the Imperium. What she wouldn't have given to have had a Culexus Assassin on this mission...

However, she still hadn't gotten any information on the xenos' military, if they even had one, or what they were actually all preparing for. She couldn't exactly go up to one of them and ask, it would be too suspicious, especially since they wouldn't have ever seen her before.

She continued on past the market and towards the centre of town, where she saw a group of three ponies talking next to the podium. One was a white unicorn with a purple styled mane, another was an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and was wearing some kind of hat, and the last one, who she figured was the organiser due to the clipboard and quill levitating in front of her, was a purple unicorn with pink streaks running through her mane.

She approached the group and sat down on a nearby bench, just within earshot of their conversation.

“-Haven't seen Fluttershy anywhere” said the purple one.

“She's probably just taking care of her animals” replied the white unicorn, “She might've been out when you stopped by earlier. You should check again later”

“I will, it would be really nice if she could get her bird choir to sing again. But that still leaves Pinkie and Rainbow. I haven't seen either of them since I asked them to help out this morning. Pinkie must have done something since this podium and all the festivities were up when I got here, but I haven't seen her otherwise-”

“Hi Twilight!” yelled he pink one, scaring the purple one and making her topple over.

Umbra blinked and rubbed her eyes. Where the hell had that pink one come from!?

“Lan' sakes girl” said the orange one with an accent, “How many times do we have to ask y’all not to do that?”

“Well it's been around one thousand four hundred and fifty-six times now, so another four thousand five hundred and forty-four and we'll be good!” replied the pink one happily.

The purple one sighed as she stood up, “Well, anyway, I wanted to thank you for your help Pinkie, and I was wondering if you could help me and Applejack set up the rest of the tables and chairs and move all the food over”

“Yeah that's fine, I'll get started on that straight away!”, she shot off in a pink blur.

Umbra rubbed her eyes again, What is with these aliens?

“But that still leaves Rainbow” said the white unicorn, “She still hasn't cleared the sky”

“S'okay” answered the orange one, “The visit isn't until tomorrow. If she did it now, new clouds would just move in. Sides', y’all know she ain't lyin' when she says she can clear the sky in ten seconds flat”

“Well, I guess as long as she gets out of bed in time to do it, I guess you're right” replied Twilight, “Anyway, thanks for the decorations Rarity and the food Applejack, now you two go on, I'll finish up here then come help”

Rarity and Applejack trotted off, leaving the purple one alone. Umbra took her chance. She slid off the bench and made her way over.

“Umm, excuse me?” said Umbra.

“Oh, hi there!” exclaimed the purple unicorn, turning to face her, “Can I help you?”

“Uh, yeah, um... I'm... new around these parts, can you please tell me what is going on?” By the Emperor this was hard.

“The princess is coming to visit tomorrow morning, and we're getting everything ready now so that everything is ready when she comes. I'm surprised you didn't know. What are you in town for?”

Shit. “Um... I'm here to visit some family” replied Umbra quickly. Not bad Umbra, not bad.

“Where did you just come from?”

Holy fucking shit! “I just came from...Baltimare!” Umbra lied, reading it off of the back of a conveniently-placed crate behind the unicorn which read 'Baltimare Shipping Co.'

The unicorn scrutinized her closely, “Hmm, I thought you had more of a Stalliongrad accent, but okay then! I'm Twilight Sparkle, if you need anything else just let me know!” said the unicorn, before turning around and cantering off in the opposite direction.

Damn, that was too close thought Umbra, as she trotted back from the podium and through the market, I'm not going to get much from them without raising suspicions, but at least now we know when that princess is coming down!

She made her way back to the treeline and to the bush where she had hidden her stuff. Luckily, it was all still there. She felt like she needed to decontaminate herself in a vat of acid after speaking to those filthy xenos. She grabbed the polymorphine antidote, and after a bit of fumbling with her hooves, managed to inject herself.

After she (excruciatingly) turned back to her original form, she donned her armour and tuned back in to Levin's frequency on her comlink.

“Levin? You still there?” she asked.

“Still here. Very bored though. I take it you got what you needed?”

“Not much, just some basic information and confirmation of that visit, which is happening tomorrow morning. But we still don't know enough to launch an attack. I think an interrogation might be in order”

“You may be right. Go set up a place to stay, I'll find a couple to capture. We'll question them about it. You said they spoke Low Gothic?”

“Yep, speak it and write it. Don't get caught, and be careful of the ones with horns, they're low-level psykers from what I've seen”

“Got it, send me your co-ordinates when you've found a suitable place, and I'll bring them”

“See you there” said Umbra, terminating the link.

Levin sighed and got to his feet, holstering his rifle. He hated interrogations. He liked assassinations, preferring to leave all the questioning to the Inquisitors.

He scanned around, looking for any isolated singles or groups he could capture. He noticed a couple of them walking up the path away from the town, towards his position. One was a cream colour with a pink and blue mane while the other had a light green coat and a cyan mane, and had a horn.

Levin ducked behind the hill and waited for them to pass. He checked around for any more of the xenos, and seeing none, he emerged over the hill, coming up behind the pair. He drew his pistol.

“-I know what you mean Lyra” said the cream one on the left, “She can be too obsessive, you know she tried to rope me into working with Applejack for catering”

“She's a nice pony Bon-Bon, but just because Twilight is the princess' student, doesn't mean that-”

THWACK

Levin pistol-whipped her over the side of the head with the butt of his pistol, knocking her unconscious.

“What the-” started the other one. Levin knocked her unconscious as well. “I've got a couple” he said to Umbra over the comlink.

“Sending you the co-ordinates now”responded Umbra. Levin groaned as he received the co-ordinates and started to make his way there, carrying the two aliens over his shoulder.

It was noon by the time Princess Luna and her squad of Night Guard arrived back at Canterlot Palace. Her squad split off from her to go to the barracks while she carried on up to the throne room where she knew her sister would be.

The doors of the room swung open to let her in, the guards saluting as she cantered in.

“Leave us” she ordered them breathlessly. The guards saluted again and left, leaving Luna and Celestia alone. The

“Luna, what is it? What did you find?” asked Celestia worriedly.

“Sister...” she gasped, “I... I... The...”

“Calm down sister, what happened?”, she walked towards Luna, putting a wing around her shoulders.

“It's... it's...” she looked up at the white alicorn, her eyes glazed over, “It's finally happening. Mankind has returned to Equestria”

Celestia reeled back in shock. She certainly hadn't been expecting that. “Are you sure?” she asked urgently.

Luna shook her head, recovering from her dream-like state, “Positive. Those meteors were pods from one of their craft, and were inscribed with perfect Equestrian. They came from an Imperial Inquisition Lunar-class vessel named Hammer's Retribution”

Celestia pushed on, “Do you know if there are they here on purpose?”

“I doubt it. They came in saviour pods, implying they abandoned their ship. They are also now wandering somewhere in the Everfree Forest, not exactly the ideal place to land”

Celestia considered for a moment. “Very well. Luna, go get some rest, you'll need it. Later, I want you to take a squad of Night Guard to Manehattan. I just got a communication that another one of the pods crashed there, and I need someone to investigate. In the meantime, I will talk to Him, see His views on the matter”

“Are you sure that is wise? You told me you hadn't talked to him in at least a two years since I returned-”

“Don't worry about it, He would want to know, and anyway, He will probably want to do something about it anyway, maybe even deal with it personally”

“But what about your visit to Ponyville tomorrow, it's located right next to the Everfree Forest and the humans, or whatever were in those pods, are still running amok”

“No, the visit will go ahead. I have worried tortured Twilight enough by cancelling my previous three visits when they already had everything prepared, and I have no doubt cancelling again would cause her a mental fit. However, I will bring several squads of Day Guard with me, and have them on lookout just in case. I will also send pegasus scouts into the Everfree to look for them”

“Very well, I'm going to rest, I will see you later, sister”

“Sleep well, Luna” said Celestia as she watched the blue alicorn trot out of the throne room.

Celestia waited until she was sure she was alone, and then flared her horn and directed a beam of light at an area of wall next to her throne. A part of the wall larger than Celestia dissipated into thin air, leaving a dimly lit marble tunnel around one hundred metres long.

She calmly walked into it, sealing the wall behind her. She quickly trotted down it, and gently opened the mahogany door at the other end using her magic.

“Princess Celestia” came a voice, “It's been too long”

Celestia looked over to where He was sitting.

“Indeed it has, but I bring news. Mankind has returned to Equestria”

“What!?” He boomed, rising from His seat, “Are they Imperial?”

“From what my sister has told me, the vessel was of the Imperial Inquisition, a Lunar-class ship named Hammer's Retribution”

“The Imperial Inquisition... yes, this complicates things. Find them, and bring them straight to me”

“Of Course” said Celestia, bowing her head and backing respectfully out of the doorway.