The Dark Heresy Chronicles: Operation:Equus

Chapters

Prologue + Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Prologue + Chapter 1

The Dark Heresy Chronicles:
Operation:Equus
By: General Rex

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die. Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will.

Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. The Imperial Guard and countless planetary defense forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Super Human warriors of the Space Marines are to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium
There is only war...

Prologue...

Private Waltum P. Varmeer of the 75th Cadian Regiment stood vigilant at his post as he had been ordered, albeit a rather boring post, it was none the less what he had to do.

Night had fallen hours ago and he had drawn the short stick on guard duty, staring out into the bleak nothingness of the canyon view still showed no hostile signs.

The 75th Cadian regiment had been assigned to the Imperial fortress on planet Tillium V and were ordered to hold it until such a time they were no longer needed, these orders were months old of course, but High Command had decreed that they would stay no matter the conditions.

Command didn't tell lowly guardsman like Varmeer much, and he was ok with this, the little bit of information they were told was that they merely needed to occupy the facility and guard it until such a time when the 'something' they were protecting, could be moved, simple.

"Why does it always have to be so cold...?" He grumbled, rubbing his hands together for warmth.

Lately the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and unusual.

Weather phenomenon's were occurring everywhere, snowing being most frequent. Tillium V was technically a desert world, but over the four months he had been stationed here there had always been snow, hail or any number of precipitations attacking the occupying force.

Other than hostile weather and troopers getting antsy, the assignment was a much needed break; Varmeer whispered a quick prayer to the Emperor for this assignment.

Varmeer glanced down at his wrist chrono to check the time, happy to see that his shift was about up, and having spent nearly four hours out in the freezing cold, he was more than happy to get back inside and sleep.

As he began walking towards the access hatch, Varmeer stopped near the cat walk railing, deciding one last look through his photo-visor wouldn't hurt.

Looking through every vision type offered by the little device, he noticed no changes, except that the snow storm above had picked up in ferocity.

Turning his attention towards the snaking ground of the canyon, he still found nothing out of the ordinary, a few creatures lurking about, but nothing out of the ordinary.

As the snow storm began to blow and the wind howling angrily, Varmeer buttoned up his face coverings, sneering at the idea that anyone or anything would dare attack during such a blizzard,

'No sane being would try...' Varmeer told himself as he walked back to his nice warm cot.

The Dark Heresy Chronicles:
Operation: Equus
Chapter one
"Christmas in July"

Void side, Tillium V
Light Cruiser, Emperor's Fist
0630 hours (Terran Standard Time)

Admiral Kargon of the Imperial Navy and Leader of the battle-group charged with protecting Tillium V, watched as the Chaos ship slowly maneuvered out of the asteroid belt surrounding the planet, grinning sadistically at the damage already done to the lone ship from mines left strewn all throughout the belt.

Kargon turned, glancing at the holographic display of the planet and the enemy ships position in orbit. This was his world to protect, his only order was that no ship other than his could enter or leave the system, he hadn't failed in the months they had been stationed here and he would not start now.

"We have the enemies exit coordinates my lord..." came the voice of his underling Captain Tigrik, the Admiral turned to his bald pasty friend, his dark blue officers uniform crisp and well maintained,

"We can fire torpedoes at this range my lord and they would be unable to avoid them."

Shaking his head, Kargon rose from his command chair,

"Nonsense Captain, we need not waste good munitions on such an pathetic target..." letting his voice trail off as he decided which gun battery he wished to use, "It is but a small ship Captain... use a volley from the forward macro batteries, then finish those filth off with a lance shot straight through there miserable bellies" he said waving his hand as if to swat the small Chaos raider.

"Of course my Lord" Tigrik said walking over to the fire control station.

Kargon watched as the massive dorsal mounted macro batteries outside of the main bridge's central view window, slowly pivoted into position, minutes later a sudden flash of energy from the guns barrels erupted as they began lobbing their kiloton ordnance towards the smaller ship.

Four direct hits easily dropped the enemy ships void shields, leaving the enemy naked.

"Fire the lance when ready Captain" Kargon commanded, not taking his eyes off his kill.

A minute later, a bright flash of light erupted from the ships fore mounted lance laser cannon striking the chaos raider in the side.

Kargon watched as patiently, nothing happened at first, but seconds after the strike Kargon smiled, knowing the shot had flown straight into the ships magazine.

The whole bridge was suddenly bathed in a white flash, the whole crew watched as the chaos ship simply popped from the inside, splitting the tiny ship in half.

"Haha! Perfect shot Captain, my compliments to the gunnery teams, reward them properly with a ration of ale for tonight's meal would you?"

"Of course my lord."

Kargon nodded as he turned back towards the enemy ship remains, it had been over kill against such a smaller ship, but they were heretics and deserved nothing less than the most violent and painful exit from this realm.

He enjoyed rewarding his crew for their excellence, believing that the Emperor rewarded those who earned his blessing through acts of kindness, this time he believed a simply alcoholic beverage would suffice.

Kargon took a step from his command area, wishing to retire for the night.

Nearly at the doorway, the alarm klaxons roared to life,

"Incoming enemy vessels! Signs appearing from just on the other side of the planets moon sir!"

Kargon turned immediately and ran back towards his command chair,

"Order the Guiding light and The Truth to move forward and engage!"he roared.

Kargon turned back to his tactical display beside him and watched as the two blue markers, representing the others in his battle-group, blinked into existence and began moving from their ambush sites.

The Guiding light and The Truth were both frigate class ships, they were powerful and fast, the Emperor's Fist, his prize possession however was a Light cruiser, and truth be told had a large arse for a ship her size, but she carried the largest payload of weaponry her class possessed more than making up for her slower speed.

The Admiral continued watching the Tactical map as red blips representing enemy ships began appearing from behind the distant moon,

"Traitorous bastards waited for us to make the first move!" he grumbled as he continued watching the enemy.

"Captain, tell those fools in the Cadian Command that they have incoming Chaos forces, at least a battalions worth." He stated while watching smaller and faster moving blips begin to appear beside the largest Chaos ship at the enemies formation

Kargon worried little though for the shuttles, they were the 75th's problem, his job was to protect the planet from void borne problems. Kargon sneered as he thought of those useless Cadians planet-side being caught off guard, Emperor forbid they do their duty and finally have to earn their keep on that dust bowl of a world.

Remembering the order he had received months ago for cold weather gear though brought a smile to himself and he allowed himself a chuckle at their expense,

'What a fools... who uses cold weather gear on a barren rock?'

*** *** ***

Hours had passed as Kargon watched as the Chaos ships send hordes of fighter craft and small raider ships to attack him, his gunnery crews easily dispatching the raiders and his interceptor's living up to their names, never allowing a single enemy fighter within a hundred kilometers of his vessel.

Kargon assumed that if this kept up, the enemy would simply whittle down its small ships and be left with just the single cruiser it had, although horribly outnumbered, the Imperial Fleet out classed the enemy, two frigates and a light cruiser to a cruiser and a dozen raiders.

Obviously stalling for time, Kargon knew that the Cadians were most likely being overrun and not living up to their part of the defensive plan, the Imperial Navy would once again have to carry the Guard towards victory as he watched dozens more shuttles leave the massive cruiser and head planet side.

"Well Captain it seems we must make the first move if we are to save the day"

"Why my Lord when we have them right where they cannot bring their weapons to bear?"

"Because Captain... if they continue to harry us like this that means they are simply buying time, if we attack, we can stop the Cruiser from attacking the Guard forces."

Tigrik looked baffled by the order, but like a good naval officer accepted his lower grasp of the tactical situation and gave a sharp nod and walked towards the flight control station, giving the coordinates they would head towards.

As they began moving, the enemy raiders began to break off, moving to the flanks of the engagement,

'What foolhardy plan is this? Leaving their only power alone for his superior fleet to destroy? Traitorous fools...' Admiral Kargon thought, knowing full well that the raiders could only harass them, 'Any attack would be suicide, no man, traitor or loyalist would order such an attack'

Kargon scoffed at the idea of being taken down by such a pathetic foe and ordered the helmsman to increase speed, his large prize dead ahead in the shape of an enemy cruiser.

*** *** ***

Awaiting the ships to get into position was tedious work, taking hours for them to float into a firing range for the macro batteries.

"Alright Captain, have the prow gunners load the torpedoes, and have the macro gunners on standby to fire the second I give the order."

"Yes my Lord"

Minutes later, Kargon noticed a green alter rune blink to life on the arm of his chair meaning torpedoes were prepared for launch,

"Fire the first salvo, wait thirty seconds and then fire all macro batteries."

"Of course my Lord"

Just as the Captain moved to fire control, the proximity Klaxon rang out,

"My Lord! The enemy raiders have us on intercept course!"

Kargons eyes widened as he realized their plan,

"Have The Truth and Guiding light break off and handle them! We will gut this attack here and now!"

"Yes my Lord!" Tigrik yelled.

Kargon felt the Macro batteries fire, the whole ship vibrating from the four large guns.

Now Kargon merely had to wait patiently as the kiloton ordinance did its work.

The shots flew straight and true into the enemy's massive armored prow, the explosions impacted and the torpedoes seconds later.

When the debris cleared, Kargon spotted a large section of the prow armor had been obliterated, opening up both the ships shields and the armor to his next move,

"Fire the lance!" Kargon roared.

"My lord, the frigates report the enemy raiders are ignoring them and are on a direct course with us still!"

"Fire the lance Captain!" Kargon demanded a second time as he watched the enemy cruiser slowly begin shifting to conceal the breach.

A bright flash of light erupted from the Emperor's Fist prow, impacting exactly in the weakened hull, the shot seemingly stopping the enemy ship cold.

"Scans report the enemy cruiser's engines have been crippled, they are nearly dead in the void my lord!" Tigrik cheered from the gunnery station,

"What are your orders against the enemy raiders?"

"Turn to port immediately."

"Yes my lord" Tigrik replied, moving towards the helmsman's area.

"We are underway my Lord. One enemy vessel stands before us, what are your orders?"

Kargon pondered his next order carefully, wishing to follow up his perfect victory with another bold action for the scribes to record for his memoirs; he rested his head on his hands as he gazed at the incoming enemy raider.

"Ram them."

Kargon hearing no reply turned to his adjutant, Tigrik stood wide eyed at Kargon as if he jested.

"That was an order..." Kargon growled, Tigrik composed himself and gave a sharp nod,

"Very well my lord" Tigrik said, turning to the helmsman to set a new course.

Admiral Kargon watched as the tiny raider ship continued its course with the superior vessel, realizing far too late that the Imperial vessel was not going anywhere, it attempted to correct its path, far too late of course as the Emperor's Fist impacted the ships starboard side splitting it in two causing a massive tremor to be sent through the Imperial ship.

"One down... three to go" Kargon gave a devilish smile as his gunnery crews began firing with everything they had at the oncoming enemy vessels; none spared the Emperors wrath.

Planetside, Tillium V
>N/a< Fortress, outer defensive cat walk
0800 hours (Terran Standard Time)

Private Varmeer watched the horrifying scene unfold, enemy forces had begun raining artillery down on the fortress position and the rockcrete cat walks didn't look like they would hold at this rate.

"Keep up the fire men!" roared the Sergeants voice, the large man of course pointing at the traitor forces repelling down the canyon walls onto sections of the exposed cat walks.

Varmeer took aim and fired a few shots from his las rifle, the red flashes of light making little noise and almost no recoil as they exited the guns barrel and struck a traitor in the back, causing the man's body to hang limply from his repelling line.

"Good shot Private! Keep firing!"

Varmeer paid the Sergeants general praise no mind and continued firing, the enemy trying to fire back and missing horribly from their exposed positions on the repelling ropes.

Suddenly a massive explosion rang out throwing Varmeer and his comrades to the ground.

Varmeer shook his head of the ringing in his ears and glanced up to see a group of chaos worshippers being pouring through a door behind their position, somehow having managed to outflank them.

Varmeer turned and fired into the breach, downing two cultists and immediately sought cover just in time as the cultist weapons fired, peppering his position with bullets.

Varmeer heard a grunt next to him, his Sergeant having taken up a position next to him, firing off shots from his las pistol at the traitors, screams of pain telling him the shots were true.

"Private!"

"Yes sir!" responded Varmeer,

"Lob a grenade on my count!" ordered the Sergeant,

"yes sir!" he replied, grabbing a metal cylinder in his hand, the Sergeant grabbing one of his own, arched his arm back and lobbed the grenade into the breach, Varmeer repeating the action.

Varmeer heard the traitors shout a series of curses but were quickly silenced as the frag grenades exploded, shredding them.

Turning back to the main canyon behind him, the immediate threat now dealt with, Varmeer noticed the main traitor force had not let up, bad weather and all, this did not look promising.

Suddenly a deep boom shook the entire facility nearly throwing Varmeer from his feet again, confused he looked around for another outflank from the enemy, there was nothing though.

Hearing a loud roaring noise, Varmeer turned out towards the canyon skyline to see a large shuttle raced off towards the heavens, a sudden chirp over the vox radio brought him back to reality,

"Attention! The enemy has captured the Artifact! All Imperial forces pull back to the shuttle bays and prepare for evac!" radioed a voice on the other end.

Varmeer stared at his Sergeant who simply, shook his head defeated and motioned for the squad to retreat, he had never seen the 75th fail, a great feeling of sorrow over whelmed him as they fled from the chaos horde.

Void side, Tillium V
Light Cruiser class, Emperor's Fist
0815 hours (Terran Standard Time)

Kargon ran a hand through his thinning hair, watching flashing red warning runes begin blink on his control panel.

The Emperors Fist had taken out the enemies raiders, some managing to ram themselves into the sides of his ship, doing more damage to themselves than the Emperor's Fist, one raider though had managed to embed itself ships large rear, the damage causing all manner of problems for the Kargon and his crew, the lights flickering for a moment to object to how the ship was being treated by her masters.

"Thrice cursed chaos dogs!" Kargon roared as he watched the enemy Cruiser slowly begin to pull away, the Imperial ship though unable to give chance and more than beyond the ship's weapon ranges.

Unable to make good speed, Kargon could only watch on his tactical display as the enemy vessel escaped.

"Damn! Captain! How fair are our sister ships to the enemy cruiser?"

Kargon turned to see Tigrik compose himself and move to his side,

"They are holding sir... but some of the enemy raiders had overloaded their plasma drives, causing the ships to explode and cause major damage to Guiding light, and The Truth has lost all but one of her engines, we cannot pursue the enemy my Lord."

"Damn!" he cursed again, the enemy raiders had been dispatched but the lone enemy Cruiser taunted him as it slowly pulled towards an area where it could make a jump into the warp.

"Get me those coordinates Captain, before we lose her and the Artifact!"

Without responding, Tigrik had began ordering the navigations officer to plot out their course, a minute later Kargon watched Tigrik return to his side, shaking slightly,

"I... I'm sorry my Lord"

"What? Did we lose them?"

Tigrik nearly jumped out of his skin at the question, he simply handed Kargon a data slate which he snatched and began looking over the display, the small device's words slowly causing a great anger to boil inside him, a large ornate I covering the screen and black bars eclipsing the enemies escape vector.

"Daaammmnnn them!!" he roared, hurling the screen across the room.

The Inquisitional I flickering in and out on the tablet sized screen for a moment before finally dying from the Admiral's violent reaction.

Kargon could only scowl at his tactical display as he watched the red blip of the enemy Cruiser finally disappear from his tactical display.

Chapter 2

Dark Heresy Chronicles:
Operation: Equus
Chapter 2
“A is for AHH!”

Planet Side, Gliteram Prime
Market District, Solomon
1200 hours (Terran Standard Time)

“RUN FOR IT!”

As he ran for his life, Solomon didn’t even notice he had barreled through a crowd of people, hearing confused responses and then a unified “AHH!” coming from over his shoulder.

The odd looking group of people following his lead and sprinting as quick as they could, Solomon didn’t stop to ask or check to make sure they were keeping up, the more that slowed down, the greater his chances they would catch a bullet for him.

Peering over his shoulder he saw the same two angry looking men he was trying to outrun, level large guns at them, a very loud barking sound emanating from them a clear sign they wouldn’t be talked down.

“What’d you two do this time!?” a female voice demanded from just behind him.

“Who? Us? Uh…” Solomon asked.

“We didn’t do anything! We bought a drink, a guy said we should leave and of course we said no” a man stated.

“How did you say no though is my question!” demanded the female.

“We… may have… insulted his mother”

“What!?” she screamed.

“He asked for it! He touched my new coat, these aren’t cheap you know!” Solomon whined.

“Guys their catching up!” warned a muffled male voice from near group’s rear.

“Why does everyone you piss off Solomon, have a frakkin’ bolter!”

It was a good point, many times in his career he had managed to insult, offend and generally screw with the wrong people, all of them somehow armed to the teeth with large firearms, mostly all bolter weaponry, but not stopping to count the exact times, he only concluded that this was something he should fix, later.
As he turned the corner, a piece of the rockcrete building corner exploded next to him, the bolters explosive ammunition both terrifying him, and annoying him, the terror overriding his need for such a weapon,

“AHH!”

“God you’re all such little girls, we can take them!” claimed the groups other female member, “Comon lets kill them and nobody will mess with us anymore!”

“Fine Azura, you stop and fight them! We’ll keep running!” said the man to his right,

“Not if you guys aren’t! I won’t be left behind, that’s my job Carver.” said Azura.

The group turned the corner and made with all haste to their shuttle, hopefully escaping these lunatics.

“Give us our satchel back!” demanded someone from behind them.

“What satchel?” asked the lady behind him.

“Uh…”

“What did you steal Solomon!” she demanded,

“Ok! Fine we stole something, but it was for a good cause Ocenyou!”

“What cause!?” demanded the now very angry woman,

“The fancy kind!” he replied, suddenly gaining a much needed burst of speed that outpaced the sister of battle’s reach.

Glancing into the satchel for a moment, Solomon saw his prize, a large gold encrusted crown, it was totally worth breaking a man’s arm and nearly killing a noble’s body guard for it.

A contact, which was fancy for saying a drunk guard, had let slip that they were transporting a rare crown for a slumming noble, Solomon felt that he must liberate it in the name of himself, pulling his confused friend Carver with him and telling him the bogus story of how they had impugned his honor and he had simply responded accordingly, the penal trooper had believed every word of it like the idiot he was.

“Almost there guys!” warned the muffled voice at the group’s rear.

Solomon noticed that they easily outnumbered the nobleman’s guards and were just as well equipped except for the difference in weaponry, but they had just repaired their gear and were far too cheap to waste their precious bullets, especially when running was what they were better at.

As the group plowed through the shuttle port, shoving random locals and assorted privateers aside, Solomon maneuvered himself towards their docking area; glancing to the side he noticed one of their missing group members.

Solomon noticed Barek was sitting at a table with a bottle of wine and looked like he was trying to woo a pretty girl, hearing the commotion though he noticed Barek only gape in confusion as they sprinted past him,

“What the hell, we’ve been in port no more than an hour?!”

“No time Barek, we got Sol’ trouble!” Ocenyou screamed.

“What!?” he yelled, quickly stealing a kiss from the woman and grabbed his bottle as he sprinted to catch up.

“Alright what the hell happened this time…” Barek demanded, his question cut short by the sudden barking noise and bits of the wall exploding near him, “Never mind! Leg it!”

As Solomon and the others finally entered the wide open shuttle area, he noticed the final member of their party, an average sized man with arms the size of small cannons, standing at the bottom of the shuttles ramp typing away on a data slate device,

“Oh hey guys!” came the figures muffled helmet voice, waving at them, stopping only when he heard the gunfire behind them causing him to shake his head,

“More local problems?”

“You could say that ‘Scrat’” Ocenyou replied, Solomon didn’t stay to hear the rest of the conversation as he leapt for his seat on the shuttle and buckled in.

More loud barking sounds hitting the shuttle gave Carmine the incentive to man the controls.

“At least were safe in here” Solomon sighed, relieved that he had managed to make it without anything bad happening.

The sound of the engines slowly spinning to life told Solomon the danger was now behind them, a small cry of shock from his left told him over wise.

Slowly turning he saw his brown haired, slightly chubby faced friend Carver staring out the window of the shuttle pointing at something and whimpering.

Squinting to get a better view, Solomon began flailing his arms and screaming too, Solomon noticed everyone except Carmine follow suit and voice their concerns, loudly.

“AHH!” they screamed as Solomon watched the team of guards lower a very familiar tube weapon, reaching in a satchel and producing a needle pointed rocket,

“Wait… where the hell did they get a RPG launcher?” Solomon asked, no one else paid his logical question any attention.

“’Scrat’! RPG 9 o clock!” Ocenyou cried.

“Um… it’s only ten past noon though” Carmine replied, answered suddenly seeing the RPG launcher, “OOHH!” he said and suddenly began tugging at the shuttles controls trying to get it air borne.

“Damn it Carmine get us out of here!” cried Barek.

“Woohoo you guys are finally gonna die!” Azura’s cheered.

“Yo! Ding bat, if we die… you die too!” Carver pointed out.

“Oh… damn… GET US OUT HERE!” she screamed loudly just as the the shuttle suddenly lurched and bucked as it gained altitude.

“Common common common!” chorused the group, as Carmine strained his massive arms trying to lift the shuttle into the air.

Slowly they cleared the hangar bay roof just as the RPG warhead flew towards them, Carmine hit the throttle controls and the whole shuttle jumped as it surged forward to safety.

“Phew…” sighed Solomon, turning to see everyone else share his relief.

“Yay! We're not gonna die!” Azura cheered, the energetic lady assassin only causing Solomon to roll his eyes,

“Shut up!” they chorused,

A sudden flash of light beside them caused Solomon to watch as a large shuttle slowly drifted towards their previous landing pad, its rear engine on fire,

“Sucks to be you” Solomon admitted as he placed his arms behind his head, a loud boom! telling him that those guards would never bother them again.

Solomon watched as the small craft made its way into the planet’s atmosphere, slowly heading high and high towards the looming figure of their mother ship just ahead awaiting their arrival.

Ship side, Gliteram Prime
Raider vessel, The Fortunatus
1247 hours (Terran Standard Time)

Watching as the shuttle docked with the small Raider class vessel, a tall figure donning a black cloak and a large suit of black and gold armor stood on high looking down into the landing bay watching his specialist squad returning from another successful mission, which astounded him to no end.

He had only formed one kill team previous to this squad, and they had become great heroes of the Imperium, but these people were far from them.

The figure began walking along the cat walk towards an exit hatch having seen that his ‘team’ was still alive and having business elsewhere to handle and quickly departed.

*** *** ***

Carmine put the shuttle down in their allotted landing bay aboard the large raider vessel, noticing a small black human shaped figure watching them from the rafters, he ignored it as he shifted his attention back to landing the small shuttle.

Swinging the small craft around, he noticed a group of soldiers moving towards them, a very unhappy woman leading them.

Muttering a cruse under his helmet, Carmine set the shuttle down and unbuckled himself and unfortunately turned the helmets exterior sound systems on immediately being bombarded by the arguing voices of his peers.

“No, No. That is not what happened! I told the gentleman how repulsive he was and then he became upset…” The snooty and pompous voice of the blue tinted psyker unmistakable from anyone else.

“It didn’t even occur to you that it was a woman did it?” came another male voice, this one sounding far more serious, obviously the groups Arbiter, the man wearing a large set of fully enclosed carapace armor, his tall, black armored form creating a rather intimidating figure.

Carmine sighed and began walking towards the rear, everyone completely ignoring him, they usually did when they were in the midst of arguing.

Ocenyou, the groups nun and scholar, was reading a tome, next to her sat Azura, the lady ‘assassin’, who everyone really believed was just a crazed, emotionally disturbed woman rather than a sneaky cut throat, was asleep snoring rather un-lady like.

Carmine who was unanimously voted shuttles pilot, since most the group were too lazy to save themselves let alone save the whole group, hit the activation rune on the wall to lower the ramp, waiting patiently while it lowered.

Carmine turned to gather his bags, but as he turned he saw everyone already standing and filing in behind him still arguing over past exploits, Carmine pushed past them and let them face the angry guards alone.

“How was I to know that such an action would cause such a hostile response? Most females would be more than gracious for a touch from me.” Solomon claimed arrogantly.

“Son, you have a lot to learn about women if that’s how your greetin’ them” came the suave voice of the hive world nobleman, Barek, the groups pistoleer expert and average rich privateer.

“Psshh” was the only response from Solomon, the groups blue tinted, bald, Astropath, the man believed he was second only to the god Emperor himself, only just.

Carmine grabbed his duffle bag and headed back towards, the exit, the team already filing out the back and forming a group at the bottom of the ramp.

Carmine walked out to see Solomon opening his arms welcoming the guards,

“We return victorious!”

The woman leading the guards stomped towards Solomon coming within inches of his face,

“An entire mining facility and a space port successful destroyed, and you call that successful?!” she screamed.

“Well, technically we didn’t blow up the space port…”Carver mumbled, Carmine to this day still wondered about that man, no one knew what he really did for a living except that he liked knives, a lot.

Carmine could have sworn he saw smoke coming from the woman’s ears as she pushed the psyker aside and came face to face with Carver,

“How is it not your fault!? The reports claim that the rocket clearly destined for you, impacted a shuttle carrying fuel and munitions, which then barreled into the stations stock of fuel!”

“That’s just unfortunate luck ma’am, I mean who in their right mind puts fuel and munitions in the same transport?” replied Barek, Carmine nodded his approval at the intelligent statement, however telling a angry woman in a suit of powered armor, was not.

Carmine prepared for the flood of curses and possible broken bones from the lady, the abuse though never came, only the sound of someone clapping.

Carmine glanced past the woman, a tall, average looking man in a black armored bodysuit with scruffy looking head of brown hair was slowly approaching them flanked by an angry looking woman and a bald man trying to contain his laughter, both dressed the same as their leader.

“I think they did a great job Canoness Raveria, and of course you should expect such interesting tactics from this group, they’re here because of their… unique approach to such situations” The clapping man said grinning at the woman, the praise though sounded more like an insult Carmine thought, but he wouldn’t deny the fact that they were bad infiltration operatives.

The angry Canoness simply sighed and shook her head in disappointment, she motioned for the Sister Ocenyou to accompany her, Ocenyou quickly shoved her way to her mistress and ran to catch up with Raveria.

Carmine turned to see the clapping man standing in front of them grinning still,

“The High marshal wishes to speak to you all after you have cleaned up and refitted, see you all there at sixteen-hundred hours” the man said as he began walking away, Azura quickly moved to the small group and put her arms around the leader and the bald man, both removing her arms in disgust.

“Sooo…” Carmine stared, turning to the group, “what now?”

“I say we celebrate another job well done Carmine, and then get cleaned up and meet the High Marshal” Solomon suggested.

“Solomon. Brilliant” Titus replied, removing his helmet and slowly moving to follow Solomon towards the bar

“Well let’s go before something or someone… important finds us” Carver added as he jogged to catch up to the pair.

Carmine watched the three leave, he glanced over to the side to see Barek examining his bottle of port and then race after the group too.

Carmine sighed and wondered what he should do, finally deciding that a nap wouldn’t be a bad start.

Underway, destination unknown
Raider vessel, The Fortunatus
1600 hours (Terran Standard Time)

Having finished her lengthy discussion over the operation, and about how her studies on Xenos and Warp phenomenon, Sister Ocenyou went about finding her team mates, which didn’t take any book smarts to know that they wouldn’t be on the bridge like they should be, so she started heading towards the bar in the lower crew decks, the usual place she could count on them being.

Ocenyou would have rather continued studies with her mistress, but “duty calls” her mentor had said, practically shoving her out of the library to meet the High Marshal.

Strolling through the halls in her church robes instead of her power armor left her with a vulnerable feeling, she had lived without the armor for most her Inquisitional career, but ever since having it she wore it whenever it wasn’t being cleaned and maintained, like it was now.

Hanging her head and sighing in shame, Ocenyou slowly began the arduous trip towards into the bowls of the ship.

*** *** ***

After what seemed like ages of wandering the ships labyrinth of halls ways, Ocenyou eventually found the elevator taking her to the barracks level, once there she only had to follow the smell of hops till she heard the roar of laughter and the clanging of metal mugs.

Entering the ‘establishment’, if it could be even called anything but a hole in the wall was hard, the smell was atrocious and the place looked like one would require a full medical examine if you touched anything.

Sucking it up though and trying to ignore the disgusting place, Ocenyou pushed forward holding her nose and approached the table where her loud mouthed and immature comrades resided.

“Heeyy… Bar keepsh” Carver said, slurring his words horribly as he waved his empty bottle around, “I… I want another! *hiccup*”

Ocenyou shook her head in disgust, the thought of having to associate with these, heathens, made her want to cry.

Looking at the penal trooper, who of course had no real name as far as they were concerned, simply used the name a banker had used to address him years ago, the name stuck and she went with it, the alternative meant trying to actually care about him, and making it easier if he died, to forget him.

She noticed him drooling slightly; she cringed and turned to the only collected man in the bunch of them.

A hand waving at the corner of her vision snapper her back to reality to see someone had handed her a pint and were having a conversation with her, Ocenyou shook her head and turned to Barek.

“So…” Barek asked, “you alright Ocenyou?”

“Oh... oh ya I’m fine Barek” she replied sheepishly.

“Well alrighty then. Let’s go meet the High Marshal and see what all the fuss is about.” Barek said pounding his fists on the table and moving towards the exit.

“Fine…” Solomon whined, Carver and Titus having already started leaving just as Barek had gotten up.

“Comon guys, we had our fun, now we get back to earning our keep.” Carver stated, his speech and balance completely restored somehow, “Coming Sister?”

“Oh… yah, lets go” she said, composing herself after letting her mind wander again back to her studies, she saw they were waiting for her at the exit, she raced to catch up, nearly falling in a pool of vomit on the floor which caused the others to laugh at her and then leaving, she sighed and ran after them.

*** *** ***

Ocenyou and the other four team members finally found the bridge after a lengthy and sobering journey, having gotten lost a few times as always.

She saw Azura already standing near the High marshal, harassing one of the terminal operators with a quill, the High marshal turned to face the group and nodded,

“Welcome, I read you’re after action report, it was very… exciting.” He said in his usual monotone, never letting showing a sign of emotion unless it was truly dire.

“Wait who wrote an a report?” everyone asked, Ocenyou wanted to know too, feeling a sudden drop in temperature, Ocenyou slowly turned to see the others glaring at her, she smiled but she shook her head,

“I didn’t do it.”

“Yea, sure… tryhard…” Azura muttered.

The sister corrected herself and stood at attention, her hands clasped behind her back, Titus being the only other who showed any respect, the others simply stood around, bored looks on their faces and general disrespectful behavior.

“Where is ‘Scrat’?” she asked.

“The Guardsman will be joining us soon, but you all may brief him later” the High Marshal said as he turned to a large circular table, a green holographic image appeared showing an image of a solar system.

“This is your next assignment.” he said, an image of a large planet close to the systems sun, “A few weeks ago, a large Chaos force attack an Imperial fortress on a world known as Tillium V, they absconded with a very important artifact that had been under direct observation by members of the Inquisition. The fleet escaped after a clash with our ground and naval forces, the enemy fleets primary ship was crippled, but using their own ships to disable the Imperial forces, managed to escape.”

“I’m assuming that’s the system they moved to?” Titus asked, the High Marshal only produced a data slate and began typing on the device,

“No. Any images you see now are products of interference from The Fortunatus’s proximity to a viable warp entrance.”

Ocenyou turned to the other members; they all looked just as confused as she,

“Excuse me my Lord? It doesn’t look like any interference I’ve seen…”

The High Marshal turned to her, staring at her for a moment and then back at the map,

“You all will be deployed at an unknown and unspecified area in the void, no planets or habital systems will be in reach of your shuttle.”

Ocenyou arched an eyebrow at the High Marshal as she watched him move around the table so he was facing the team directly,

“Uhhh… sir? This sounds like a load of Inquisitional grox shit. Dropped in the middle of nowhere, in an unknown system with planets that you will show but won’t acknowledge and an unknown sized chaos fleet in the system with us… any clues as to how the frak we are supposed to accomplish this?”

“That I leave to your discretion Arbiter, Dismissed” the Marshal ordered, turning back and leaving them.

Ocenyou turned to see everyone wide eyed and gaping at their, encounter, with the High Marshal.

“Sooo… what?” Barek asked,

Ocenyou moved closer to the holographic image of the system, she noticed none of the bridge operators tried stopping her while she examined the image.

“Barek, it looks like this is the area they tracked the ship too, but why wouldn’t the Marshal just tell us that?” she asked,

“Cause he’s having a case of warp insanity? Who the frak knows Ocenyou…” Azura groaned as she continued harassing random bridge crewman.

“See any Imperial presence in system?”

“Doesn’t look like it Titus, all the information is locked to the highest degree… doesn’t even look like the High Marshal had the whole picture…”

“Imperials sure do love their secrets don’t they…” Barek grumbled.

Ocenyou looked around for more information she could make out from the image, the layout though had a simple name and only rotation cycles giving them a proper time table for events, the times matching almost perfectly with standard Imperial time.

“Uhhh… guess we break for now?” Carver suggested.

Ocenyou turned to see most the group already leaving, shrugging and expressing their annoyance at the situation.

Ocenyou copied down what notes should for later study on the planet, the image disappearing suddenly as she went for her quill, she let out a heavy sigh and pushed herself away from the table and started strolling back to her quarters as she thought about what could be so important about the world that the High Marshal himself was only told half the story?

*** *** ***

The High Marshal walked with due haste to his quarters, the sudden lack of information on his current mission bothered him to no end, he didn’t enjoy sending any team he formed into a situation without proper knowledge.

He walked through the doorway seeing the ships primary Tech priest still examining the intelligence packet he had been sent on this system,

“Anything progress Master Quintus?”

The tech priest sighed and turned to face him,

“Nothing yet High Marshal, my master has taught me many ways of deciphering Imperial encryptions... but these are… ancient, I personally have never seen such technology. Whomever in this organization that sent this did not want…”

The Priest stopped mid sentence, the Marshal turned to see a glowing image of a planet above the small circular device,

“What is this?”

“I-I don’t know Marshal… I touched nothing. It’s as if the machine spirit was only to share its secrets at a certain time.”

The Marshal ignored the priest and moved closer to the image, information began blinking to life on every possible question to be had about the world, the High Marshal stood awed by the information he began reading,

“Tell the Lieutenant and his team that I require their presence here immediately, they will brief Alpha squad on this new information.”

“Yes High Marshal… may I be so bold as to ask… why not only have the Lieutenant and his team perform such a important mission? Alpha team lacks the… subtlety that the Lieutenant’s team possess.”

The High Marshal turned to the Tech priest,

“Exactly why they are necessary. This new… information, has changed how we are to approach this… bring me all text our librarium has on this image” the Marshal demanded.

The tech priest said nothing but his footsteps evident of his departure.

The Marshal took a seat and admired the image,

“Very interesting” he muttered as he squinted his eyes and glared at the eldric symbol, six distinct colored dots surrounding the rune,

“Very, very… interesting”

Chapter 3

Dark Heresy Chronicles:
Operation Equus
Chapter 3
“Chicken Little”

Location Unknown, Unknown World
???? hours (Terran Standard Time)

Running for their lives away from the angry looking stallion was starting to get trickier than the small yellow filly planned.

“You fillies get back here!” cried the angry stallion,

“We might wanna run faster!” cried the orange Pegasus from behind her.

“Well I would if Sweetie Belle wasn’t getting us lost!” she retorted,

“I could have sworn this was the way we came…” the white unicorn said, the Apple Bloom only sighed.

The morning had started out good enough, She and the other cutie mark crusaders had planned another adventure to earn they’re cutie marks, in photography. However it seemed no matter whatever they photographed somepony got upset, this time it was a brown stallion with an hour glass mark leaving some stall made of glass and metal.

As they maneuvered through the crowds and side streets of Ponyville, Apple Bloom had noticed that sweetie belle had somehow gotten them lost in their home town of all places.

“How can ya’ll be lost Sweetie Belle, ya’ll live here for Pete’s sake!”

“Uhh…” replied the little unicorn,

“Don’t answer Sweetie Belle just find us a place to hide!” cried the orange Pegasus at the groups rear.

Apple Bloom noticed Sweetie Belle looking around very lost for some reason, then she pointed to their right, everypony saw it was her sister Rarities shop.

“We can hide there!” she cried,

“Ya’ll think Rarity will mind?” asked Applebloom.

“Who cares?” Scootaloo yelled.

With that Sweetie Belle lead Apple Bloom and Scootaloo into the shop and took cover behind anywhere they could.

Applebloom watched as the stallion walked up to the window, peering inside searching for them.

“Whatcha lookin’ for professor?” a mare asked from outside,

“Just some fillies taking pictures of…” suddenly the stallion’s voice was cut off by the sound of somepony coming down the stairs. Apple Bloom glanced around the counter seeing the stallion quickly leaving the store front.

She sighed and rested up against the counter,

“That was close…”

“What was close?”

Apple Bloom slowly looked up to see a very well groomed white unicorn pony with a purple mane staring down at her,

“Are you girls alright? Why are you all hiding in my boutique?”

“Uhhh…” was all Apple Bloom could manage while she wracked her brain for a good excuse, “We uhh… we was lookin’ fur things ta… take pictures of!” Apple Bloom beamed nervously, telling herself it wasn’t a whole lie, the crusaders had planned on coming here, eventually.

“Well I am sorry girls but I am far too busy right now and have I have no time for games” Rarity explained.

“Oh, ok Rarity… we’ll just come back later” Apple Bloom whined trying to make it sound believable.

*** *** ***

The Cutie Mark Crusaders left Rarity’s shop and headed back to their club house, having escaped and lied to enough ponies for one day.

“Taking pictures is hard work…” Scootaloo sighed,

“Yah, who knew you could get so much exercise being a photogra... photo… taking pictures!” said Sweetie Belle smiled.

Feeling defeated, Apple Bloom plopped down on a pillow, her arms and legs stretched out behind her.

“We’ll never get our cutie marks if ponies are constantly yellin’ at us” Apple Bloom said receiving a nod from the other fillies.

The group sat for awhile pondering what to do next, Scootaloo had begun working on her scooter and Sweetie Belle was humming the CMC theme song while she looked at their map of Ponyville.

Apple Bloom lay there staring at the camera she had borrowed from Twilight, remembering the bookish pony saying there were plenty of things to photograph in Ponyville.

“I’m bored” moaned Scootaloo.

“Me too…” added Sweetie Belle.

Looking around Apple Bloom noticed her friend’s unhappy faces and then felt her stomach growling,

“Let’s get somethin’ tah eat, I can’t think with mah stomach growlin’ like this.

The she saw her friends nod their approval, so they loaded back into the wagon and headed over to Sweet Apple Acres to try to find something to eat.

*** *** ***

Applejack heard the door to the house screech open, she poked her head around the corner to see her little sister and her friends walk towards her in the kitchen.

The little fillies each took a seat around the table, they looked really discouraged so, taking pity on them served them what was supposed to be her lunch, and began asking questions as to how their latest crusade had gone.

“It’s horrible Applejack” cried Scootaloo, “Nopony wants their picture taken, it’s always ‘I’m too busy’ or ‘Hey that’s private!’ or ‘get out of my face!’…” Scootlatoo sighed.

Looking a bit shocked Applejack took a seat at the table looking at the three fillies, “Well shoot girls, ya’ll can’t just be goin around takin any ol’ ponies picture without them wantin’ one, it’s just rude”

“Well then what can we take pictures of sis?” asked Apple Bloom

“Well uhh… uhh…” Applejack said as she seemed to puzzle over the problem. The crusaders watched the older pony purse her lips as she scanned the table as if looking for answer written on it, “Well… ya gotta camera righ’?” she asked,

“Yah?” replied Apple Bloom.

Continuing to think the front door suddenly flew open making a loud creaking sound and she heard somepony rushing inside Applejack watched her older brother Big Macintosh run into the room.

“AJ!” the earth pony called, “they… some critters got into the barn and ate some of the crop!”

“Wha’!?” Applejack exclaimed and immediately took off to the door, Big Mac just behind her.

*** *** ***

Apple Bloom watched the pair depart and looking at her friends, they all nodded and bolted after the ponies.

Catching up to the older ponies, Apple Bloom noticed her older sister gapping at something in the barn, Apple Bloom scooted past them and saw the horrific scene, apple cores and other half eaten plants were strewn all over the floor.

“Dagnabbit!” she hollered, “Big Mac… wha… what happen’d? How’d them varmints get in the barn?”

“I dunno AJ” Big Macintosh responded, “I was pullin’ back this here cart of apples when I saw this”

Examining the scene for a moment, Apple Bloom turned to her friends, they nodded to her apparently having the same idea she did and quickly Apple Bloom snapped a picture, the flash causing Aj and Big Mac to turn around,

“What’d ya do that for?” AJ asked.

The cutie mark crusaders all looked at each other and smiled,

“Because we’re… Cutie Mark Crusader news reporters!” the fillies yelled.

Apple Bloom turned to see Scootaloo getting their wagon towed behind her scooter ready, Sweetie Belle and she both piled into the wagon and Scootaloo took off back towards Ponyville.

Apple Bloom glanced back at her slowly shrinking siblings, AJ and Big Mac staring at them, an eye brow raised and mouths slightly open in confusion.

Location Unknown, Unknown World
????(Afternoon) hours (Terran Standard Time)

From her vantage point in the tree home, the light purple unicorn watched the other citizens of the small town go about their lives happily and content, this brought a smile to her face.

“Hey… hey twilight you home?” came a voice from the trees interior,

“Yah I’m out here Spike!” she yelled, still looking at the peaceful scene.

Hearing someone approach her, Twilight turned to see a small purple dragon with green spikes lining his back,

“Hey Twilight you know what happened to our camera? Rarity said something about Apple Bloom and her friends having it.”

“Yes I lent them the camera for their ‘crusades’” she replied holding up a hoof indicating quotes, Spike shook his head,

“Chances are we’ll never see that camera again…”

“I’m not worried about it, besides we barely use it as it is”

“What’s got you in such a good mood” he asked, raising an eyebrow,

“I don’t know… just… just seeing such a peaceful scene just… I don’t know it’s just nice to see.”

“Hmm… well it’s not like Ponyville is ever anything but peaceful ya know” Spike explained,

“I know but it’s still nice to see” she said as she walked back inside the tree library.

“So what’s on the schedule today number one assistant?” Twilight said looking around and walking over to her pet owl who was asleep on his pedestal, smiling at the fluffy bird and nuzzling him gently so as not to disturb him.

Clearing his voice with a cough and grabbing a scroll from behind his back, Spike started listing the day’s duties,

“We have to visit the Sugar Cube Corner for the cupcakes you were bringing tonight, visit the writing supplies store for more quills and ink… uhh… oh yah and pick up your telescope from the repair shop… sorry about that again” spike said blushing a bit, Twilight simply smiled at her friend, remembering the whole incident of dropping it out the window, somehow.

“It’s no problem Spike; at least it’ll be ready for the star gazing tonight”

“Yah… about that. Did you ever send out those invitations?”

“Of course I did… right?” Twilight’s eyes suddenly grew and she raced over to the desk and began hurling papers and books away to find underneath a large book were her invitations for tonight,

“Oh nononononono! I forgot to mail them out yesterday!” Twilight said frantically looking around for some way to fix this, “Quick spike, what time is it?”

“Um… like one something. Why?”

Quickly Twilight grabbed the invitations in her mouth and raced to the door, nearly knocking Spike down as she opened the door with her magic and saw just the pony she needed.

“Hey Ditzy!” Twilight called out to the gray colored mail Pegasus,

The mail pony looked at her and smiled, her cocked eyes staring at her and the sky,

“Could you to deliver these right away? They’re for a get together I’m having tonight”

“Oh… ok, what’s going on Ms. Sparkle?”

She didn’t usually speak to the mail pony, a friendly nod and smile every now and again but she knew her name only by reputation alone, she figured Ditzy knew her the same way.

“Oh just a star gazing event tonight. nothing special, but I was hoping to send those invitations out yesterday, do you think you could help me out?”

Wrinkling her nose for a second thinking hard the grey pony smiled and accepted the task, “Hey Ms. Sparkle…”

“Oh please… cause me Twilight, Ditzy.”

“Alright… Twilight, I can deliver those invitations for you, no problem” Ditzy said,

“Thank you Ditzy” Twilight finished and began trotting off,

“Hey Ms. Sparkle er... Twilight?”

“Huh?” the light purple unicorn responded, “What’s up?”

“Could… Could we join you all tonight?”

“Sure… Whose we?”

The mail pony looked really nervous for some reason; Twilight was hoping she didn’t look angry,

“Me and my daughter, Dinky. We don’t get out much and I’m always looking for a reason.” She said, blushing a little,

Twilight giggled which caused the mail pony to blush more, “Yes you may Ditzy, you were nice enough to take my invitations, we’ll be meeting on the big hill north of town” Twilight finished with a smile.

“Alright. Thanks Twilight!” Ditzy said with a smile, “Alright back to work.” giving the lavender pony a salute and then bolted off to continue her work.

Entering the library again Twilight saw spike pacing around the room, “Alright Spike, lets finish those chores and get ready for tonight. We have more guests coming.” Twilight said already heading out the door,

“Wait Twilight!” he said, racing to catch up.

Location Unknown, Unknown World
????(Nightfall) hours (Terran Standard Time)

As she approached with her wagon and Spike in toe and Owlowiscious on her back. Twilight saw her friends had gotten her invitations. Spike and she had spent the entire day getting things ready, getting the telescope and other things and she even rented a few binoculars harnesses for everyone to use.

“Good evening Twilight” said Rarity sitting with Sweetie belle,

“It’s ah real nice night tonight Twi’. Sure glad you thought of this, especially after how great the last time we did this turned out.” Applejack said with a nod, Apple Bloom standing right beside her smiled at Twilight.

“Hey Twilight!” came a voice from just down the hill, all the ponies present looking at the interloper, “Whose that?” Applejack asked pointing with a hoof to the random mare,

“Oh it’s…” Twilight started,

“That’s Ditzy, she’s a bit of a feather brain but she’s a nice pony” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “I didn’t know she had a kid? Why’s she here?”

“Well I-I invited her. She was nice enough to deliver my invitations to you all so I thought if she wanted too she could come.”

All the ponies nodded, not ones to turn a pony away just because they didn’t know her. Ditzy finally made it up the hill, a basket in her mouth and a small purple unicorn filly on her back, Twilight raised an eyebrow at where a Pegasus would get a unicorn daughter but stopped herself before over analyzing the situation.

“He-Hey ladies. I brought muffins” she said, digging at the ground shyly; something Fluttershy had a tendency to do when she was nervous.

“Oh thanks Ditzy. And this must be…” Twilight asked,

“I’m Dinky!” the lavender filly blurted out, everyone started giggling at the sudden outburst,

“Welcome Ditzy, Dink, lemme be the second here to thank ya’ll for joinin’ us” Applejack smiled.

“Yes thank you for coming” Fluttershy murmured with a smile, the other ponies followed suite welcoming the grey mare and her filly.

Twilight was so happy to see everypony be so nice to Ditzy. After the greetings, Spike and Owlowiscious had set up the telescope and distributed the binoculars to everypony. The fillies took turns using the telescope and the older ponies sat around talking and gazing up at the heavens.

“Where’s Scootaloo, Applebloom?” Twilight asked, confused as to see they were a crusader short.

“She couldn’t come, something having to do with our picture takin’” Applebloom said rolling her eyes, Twilight raised an eyebrow at the little filly,

“Did you get any good pictures?” Twilight asked,

“Kind of… we’re hopin’ tomorrow to get better ones!”

“What of…” stopping herself when Applejack began motioning with her hoof across her throat to keep quiet,

“Oh, I mean… that’s great girls.” Twilight beamed nervously, Apple Bloom gave her a confused look and then turned back to Sweetie belle who had started conversing with Dinky.

Pinkie pie had raided the wagon for the cup cakes, saying something about eating the ones she was going to bring. Rainbow was using her tortoise as a head rest while she lay on the ground looking at the sky, the other ponies were in small groups discussing the day’s matters, and Ditzy was talking with Fluttershy.

With Spike resting at her side and Owlowiscious on her back, Twilight happily sat just looking up at the night sky.

“Twitchy Twitcha” Pinkie Pie yelped.

Twilight glanced over at the pink pony and saw her tail begin to frantically shake, the whole group jumped at the outburst, knowing Pinkie Pie’s pinkie sense were not to be taken lightly, and began looking around for the imminent falling object.

“Hey look, shooting stars!” cried Rainbow Dash, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief that it was nothing dangerous, but a sudden realization hit her.

“What shooting stars? There isn’t supposed to be any…” Twilight started, but stopped herself when she noticed where Rainbow Dash was pointing.

In the distance red flashes of light began shooting across the sky.

“Wow that’s not somthin’ ya see everyday girls” Applejack said.

Twilight was very confused, she hadn’t read anywhere about there being a meteor shower anytime soon.

Moving towards the now abandoned telescope she tried getting a closer look,

“Is-Is something wrong twilight?” Fluttershy asked,

“I’m… I’m just looking, that’s all.” Twilight replied. Looking at the objects, Twilight saw they were large shapes with a fiery tail, not like any meteors she had ever seen.

“This is awesome Twilight. There’s so many! Scootaloo is going to be so mad she missed this.” Rainbow announced.

Twilight continued looking through the telescope trying to get a better image; she began to use her magic to adjust the end of the telescope.

Suddenly Twilight’s vision began to flicker, she reeled back, shaking her head and blinking her eyes frantically, but nothing worked.

She began to see flashes of something, images of a person she thought, but they were too quick and sporadic to actually make out anything coherent.

“Twilight, are you ok?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight began to lose her footing; the images began flashing quicker, and began becoming much clearer. Twilight started groaning and fell on her rump as she grabbed at her head, trying to end the spell.

“Twilight, you alright? You’re getting all sweaty.” Rainbow asked,

Ditzy began moving to the purple unicorn but stopped when she began seeing a blue and green aura begin to seep from her glowing horn.

“Uhh, is it supposed to do that?” Ditzy asked, slightly afraid and worrying for the unicorn that looked weaker by the second.

“Twi’. Twi’!” yelled Applejack as she raced to Twilights side, her eyes forced shut by something. Twilight was scared, she had no idea what was wrong with her but she couldn’t stop the magical energy.

She clamped her eyes shut as images began to flood into her mind and finally overtaking her vision.

*** *** ***

Applejack looked around at the other ponies; they were all just as shocked at the scene as she was.

“Rarity help her!” she asked,

“I… I don’t know what to do Applejack. I have never seen Twilight so focused on a spell before” Rarity said looking at Twilight’s face, sweat forming on the poor unicorns brow and her eyes clamped shut in concentration.

Applejack watched Spike and the fillies begin to back away from Twilight, everypony looking real worried about her, more so when Twilight’s horn began to ooze a green and blue aura, the magical energy slowly spilling onto the ground.

Looking on with confusion and worry, Applejack was completely lost on what to do, Twilight began to groan louder, her hooves jabbing at the sides of her head,

“Make it stop!” Twilight cried, tears running down her cheeks as gritted her teeth.

“Alri-Alright Twi. Just-just hold on!” Applejack said trying to reassure her friend, but she knew nothing about how unicorn magic worked.

“Somepony help her” Fluttershy bleated.

Applejack stared at her friend and when she tried to approach her, she could swear the grass was, hissing at her, she backed away and glared at the patch of earth, seeing the plants being too slowly move towards Twilight.

“Twitchy twitcha-twitcha twich!”

Hearing this Applejack turned to Pinkie Pie, the pink pony’s tail suddenly started twitching much more frantically,

Applejack turned skyward and saw what had been few were now dozens of shooting stars, all headed towards the skyline and disappearing at the horizon.

“What’s happening guys?!” Dash said, grabbing her tortoise, Tank, and backed away from the meteors direction.

Turning back to the scene Applejack saw the weird oozing magic had begun changing the ground from its normal green color to a vast array of weird and bizarre colors, even the plants began to change, a patch of dandelions next to Twilight suddenly began to grow spikes where their normal soft seeds would be; everypony stepped away from the scene terrified.

“It stopped! My tail stopped twitching!” Pinkie pie exclaimed gleefully, Applejack looked to see her pink friend grabbing her tail for comfort.

“Hey… hey! They stopped!” Dash cried, Applejack turned to Rainbow and saw her pointing a hoof off to the distance, the sky was empty again.

Seeing the sky clear Applejack turned to Twilight who was still on the ground, but the magic was beginning from Twilights horn began to recede, the ground returning to normal. Applejack ran to her friend’s side immediately to offer aid.

After a few minutes she saw the unicorn’s eyes open, everypony letting out a sigh of relief that Twilight was alright.

“Wha… What happened? “Twilight muttered,

“Well first you were all argh! And then you were all glowly and your horn changed the dirt and the flowers went hisss! And then my Tail twitched and everypony was like oh no!” Pinkie pie blurted out, playing out the whole scene with her hooves.

“Wha... what do you mean? All I remember doing was adjusting the telescope and…” but as Twilight spoke she began shifting her eyes from pony to pony, Applejack saw how confused Twilight looked.

“Twi… you… how can ya’ll not remember what the hay happened? Ya’ll were talkin’ to us and everything.” Applejack exclaimed,

“Huh?”

“Twilight dear, Are you alright? Did you lose control of your magic?” Rarity asked, holding Sweetie Belle close.

Twilight looked around and then looked down at the ground; she sprang to her hooves and looked at the ground seeing a strange symbol.

Looking at the symbol Applejack could see a dot had formed around where Twilight had sat, a long wavy tail formed at the top and a smaller one on the opposite side, both forming a sort of crescent moon.

“Wha…” Twilight suddenly started looking at the ground and then turned away towards town, “I have to go…” Twilight said as she raced off towards Ponyville, Spike and Owlowiscious frantically picking up their supplies and heading after her.

Apple Bloom pushed through the group of ponies and snapped a picture of the symbol; Applejack didn’t stop her, too worried about Twilight to care.

“What do ya think it means Applejack?” Apple Bloom said turning and looking up at her.

“I dunno Apple Bloom, but somethin’ tells me ain’t nothing good gonna come of it.”

*** *** ***

Twilight had raced home as fast as she and immediately set Owlowiscious to work unloading their things and Spike prepared to write a letter,

“Dear princess Celestia, I am having Spike write to you now over a very grave and serious matter. Tonight I witnessed a random meteor shower; however the objects in the sky were not Meteorites. Also it seems when I attempted to use my magic during this event I became...”

Twilight stopped for a second thinking of how to describe the scenario, suddenly stomping her hoof to the ground and continuing,

“I became incapacitated, and formed a strange symbol on the ground with strange magic. When the event ended I did not recall any of it prior to using a simple spell. I am scared and in need of guidance. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” She finished and immediately had Spike seal the letter and in a green burst of fire send the message on its way.

Twilight didn’t have to wait long for the baby dragon to start coughing and belch a green flame, the flames receding to reveal a regal scroll with a response from Princess Celestia and began to read it aloud.

“My Dearest, most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. After reading your letter I am truly baffled by the event and I am very glad to hear you are well after the fact. I have a Carriage coming for you in the morning Twilight, I want you to get a good night’s rest and tomorrow we will figure this out together. Luna has shown interest in the event and has said she will aid in any way she can. Please do not worry yourself Twilight, we will figure this out. Your friend, Princess Celestia.” Spike finished reading aloud.

Twilight nodded and understood the princesses would help her get to the bottom of this.

“Alright Spike, let’s… let’s try to get some sleep. Tomorrow we’re going to Canterlot to solve this” Twilight explained, letting out a small yawn and feeling sleep probably wasn’t a terrible idea.

Twilight waved goodnight to Spike and hobbled off to her bed up stairs, Owlowiscious fluttering past her to take his spot near Twilights desk.

*** *** ***

As the night grew later and all the lights of the quiet equine settlement had long since been extinguished for the evening, Twilight lay in her bed tossing and turning, her eyes squeezed shut and her face contorted in pain.

Twilight found that a pleasant night filled with dreams was too much to ask for.

Deep within her mind, nightmares and strange images appeared to her, one scene though stood out in particular.

Twilight glanced down to see that her body was smaller than she remembered; she figured she was no more than a filly again.

Afraid and confused, Twilight frantically searched her surroundings for any glimmer of hope, anything she could use to keep back the encroaching darkness.

As Twilight watched the boundary of her small circle of light slowly grow smaller, Twilight noticed a familiar object just on the out skirts, still within the light.

Twilight raced for the object, her breathing heavy and frantic as she saw the boarder of the circle slowly moving towards the object, she worried she would be too late.

Within feet of her prize, Twilight leapt at the object, snatching it up just as the circle enveloped the spot.

Backing towards the middle, Twilight noticed the circle closing in on her with greater speed.

Twilight found the brightest spot in the lights center and nuzzled her Smarty pants doll, the old doll still just as new as it had been as a child.

But as she watched the circle move closer, Twilight saw Smarty pants slowly begin to fall apart, her mouth fell open in horror as she scrambled to hold the stuffing inside the poor doll.

Twilight grabbed the now withering doll in a tight embrace and watched as the darkness was now merely inches away, causing her to closer her eyes and hold onto her doll tighter.

Moments passed and Twilight could still make out the faint traces of light, she opened her eyes, seeing that Smarty pants was still together, but barely, a single thread held the shambling toy together.

A cold shiver went down Twilight’s spine, her eyes growing wide and tears beginning to develop as she slowly began to turn away from smarty pants unwillingly, her gaze finally stopping as she was forced to look into the dark abyss.

Twilight fell as she heard footsteps approaching her, but none like she had ever heard before.

A tall figure slowly began advancing towards her, its outline faintly distinguishable from the black surrounding it.

Against her will her head slowly raised up towards the top of the figures outline as it stepped closer towards the light, its features still cloaked by the darkness but Twilight felt sure she didn’t need to see the rest of the creature as a pair of glowing red eyes stared at her.

Twilight was petrified, her body unable to move even if she wanted to. She tried calling out, but only a small whimper escaped her lips.

The creature leaned in towards her, its face concealed by a red hood.

Twilight wished the nightmare would end as she willed with everything she had to close her eyes but to no avail and her struggling only causing the figure to smile at her, its mouth filled with razor sharp fangs and its tongue similar to a dragon.

Cowering beneath it's gaze, Twilight paused for a moment, seeing that the creature had stopped approaching her she looked up to see it throw back it's head and begin to laugh manically.

Suddenly remembering, Twilight glanced down to see the darkness still slowly advancing towards her again.

Quickly she looked down at smarty pants as the the final string began to slowly fray.

Twilight turned back to see hundreds of eyes staring at her now, all different shapes and sizes but all staring at her, they looked like a dragons eye but the pupils were far smaller and much more alien.

Twilight curled up as tight as she could grabbing Smarty pants close and using the doll’s remains to shield her from the sea of eyes, but no matter what she tried, nothing could shut out the laughter.