Appledash’s autobolter bucked as the last of the cultists went down. She thanked the Goddess-Princess that these cultists made such poor soldiers. Their sheer weight in numbers alone had been enough to cause Appledash and her battle sisters serious problems. No wonder the forces of Chaos used these fools to soak up bolter fire. They had numbers on their side, but were pretty much useless for anything else. Their defense of this particular redoubt had been particularly fierce, however, and she hoped to find out why.
“All right, ponies” she shouted. “Check to see if any of these heretics are still alive. We need answers. And keep an eye out for any that might have hung back. We don’t need an ambush on our hooves.”
The Sisters of St. Twilicorn had been called in to investigate rumors that a Pinkameana Party Cult had sprung up in the lower hive levels of Mane VI. While most of the rank and file Battle Sisters were assigned to simple investigation and extermination, many of the elite units, such as Sister Superior Appledash’s Celestian Squad, had a special purpose. Any Chaos cult needed a source and rumors indicated that impetus behind this one was the cursed Book of Par'tayz, a book sacred to Pinkameana, Chaos goddess of pleasure. Appledash’s squad had been assigned to locate the book and hand it over to the Inquisition for destruction.
“Sister Superior,” one of her battle sisters shouted. It was Twixie, an Earth Pony like Appledash. “We’ve got a live one here.”
Appledash trotted over. The cultist was wounded, but alive. With luck, she’d remain alive long enough to give some answers. Like many followers of Chaos, her cutie mark reflected her corrupted worship of the Ruinous Powers. A balloon with strings radiating out from it was imprinted on her flank.
Approaching the cultist, Appledash shouted, “Where’s the book? Where’s the Book of Par'tayz? Tell us where it is and we’ll give you a quick death. Perhaps in the cleansing flame of friendship you can repent of your heresy and grant yourself the Princess’ forgiveness.”
The cultist chuckled weakly. “You’ll never find it. It’s in the one place you’d never think to look.” She slowly pulled something out of the ragged cloak she wore. It was a cupcake. A rainbow cupcake. It had been partially crushed, but there was enough to do what she intended.
“Somepony stop her!” Appledash yelled.
But it was too late. The cultist stuffed the poisoned confection into her mouth and swallowed. “Cupcakes for the Cupcake Throne!” she yelled. “Death to the False Princess!” She began to convulse. Seconds later, she was dead.
There were no other survivors. Appledash cursed her luck. There were times when she and her sisters were a little too effective at rooting out heresy. “Listen up, everypony,” she called. “These cultists were defending this place pretty hard. Let’s take a good look around and see if we can find anything useful.”
“At once, Sister Superior,” the others called.
The building was extensive and searching took some time. They encountered no other individuals. It was possible that some of the cultists had fled, but Appledash couldn’t be sure. If they did, then any evidence might have disappeared along with them. She wondered about the cultist’s warning that the book was somewhere they wouldn’t look. Perhaps she had been lying, but perhaps she had been taunting Appledash and the others with knowledge that would only make sense in hindsight. They cleared the hab-block and moved onto the next. The place was oddly deserted; even without the cultists, there should have been other ponies in a place this overpopulated. She wondered what happened to them.
Several hours later, one of the sisters, Flutterpie, indicated that she had heard something. Indicating silence, Appledash approached the building that the soldier had indicated. Readying the autobolters built into their armor, Appledash and Twixie bucked down the door and joined their sisters as they charged into the building. “Surrender in the name of the Princess!” Appledash yelled. The attack came to a screeching halt as they found themselves looking into the readied weapons of a squadron of Big Macrines.
Librarian Carmel Corn led the squad of Big Macrines in their search. The Thunderhooves Chapter, with their long and zealous prosecution of the war against Chaos, had been assigned the task of locating the Book of Par'tayz, rumored to be located on the planet Mane VI. A quiet insertion with a small force was deemed the best way to get him and his squad in. Merely encountering a book of Chaos could corrupt a regular pony. Alerting the population to the presence of such an artifact could cause ponies to take an unhealthy interest in finding it themselves. Remaining ignorant of the existence of Chaos could serve as a bulwark against its nefarious influence.
While the ponies of the galaxy could not be trusted with the knowledge such a book granted, there was much to be learned for those who had the strength of mind to resist corruption. While the exact contents of the Book of Par'tayz were unclear, many such books contained information on blasphemous rites, details on rituals, even true names for daemons. While the Thunderhooves were dedicated to the eradication of Chaos, they saw the wisdom of using many kinds of weapons against their foes. It was a closely guarded secret that could get them accused of heresy if anypony found out.
Pinkameana was the youngest of the Ruinous Powers, and, because of that, was the weakest. Though younger than Slaughtershy by only a year, this could be enough of an advantage for them to win through. Though it was unrealistic that they could actually destroy one of the Chaos gods, but the Book of Par'tayz could contain information necessary to help defeat her and her minions some other way. If nothing else, it could be kept out of the reach of innocent ponies.
“Anything, yet?” he called.
“Nothing,” said Brother Pumpkin Pie. The others quickly echoed him.
“Move on then,” said Carmel. “Cross this sector off the map and let’s head to the next one.” He was growing worried. This wasn’t the first deserted hab-block that they had searched since arriving. There had been no sign of life in this section of the hive since they had arrived. There had been noise off in the distance some time earlier, but it had been indistinct and Carmel wasn’t sure what had caused it.
Brother Sure Shot waved over to Carmel. “We have motion outside. Can’t tell what it is, they’re using cover, but they’re coming this way.”
“Everypony prepare for possible hostiles,” called Carmel. “Let’s set up a warm welcome.”
The Macrines took up positions just in time for the door to break down. A group of armed mares poured in, one of them yelling, “Surrender in the name of the Princess.”
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Carmel called, “Hold your fire! These are Battle Sisters!”
The stunned silence was broken as one of the Macrines called, “Hold your fire! These are Battle Sisters!”
Appledash couldn’t believe it. Big Macrines? Here? As Byzantine as the workings of the Celestial Empire were, she wasn’t sure that the other force could have shown up in the exact same place as them without some sort of warning from her superiors.
“Hold your fire, girls,” she said. “They’re Big Macrines.” Turning to the soldiers, she continued. “What chapter are you and why are you here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” said the Macrine’s leader. “I am Brother Carmel Corn, Librarian of the Thunderhooves Chapter of the Big Macrines. We seek a Chaos artifact rumored to be somewhere here on Mane VI.” Though they both served the Princess, until he knew more about these Battle Sisters, he didn’t see any reason to tell them everything.
“Sister Superior Appledash,” said Appledash. She didn’t quite trust this. Something felt fishy. “The Sisters of St. Twilicorn. Our order is putting down a Pinkameana party cult. We’ve been sent in to find the cause and destroy it.”
Carmel considered the information. Could he trust them? Were they both seeking the same artifact? If so, their purposes here seemed to diverge concerning the fate of the Book of Par'tayz and the Sisters of Battle were well known for their zeal in the fight against the Ruinous Powers. His chapter's frequent work along the edges of heresy could prove problematical if the Battle Sisters chose to take the information to the Inquisition. However, the Sisters of St. Twilicorn were rumored to be of a more ‘progressivist’ bent than most. He took a gamble. “We seem to have similar purpose. Perhaps we can help each other. We too fight the Party Cult. We seek the Book of Par'tayz, so that we may take it back and study it.”
“What?” yelled Appledash. “You would use such a blasphemous tome? That tome belongs to the Inquisition and should be destroyed, not studied.”
“Any information that could help us defeat the Ruinous Powers should be studied, not blindly destroyed,” countered Carmel. “Perhaps we can hand over the book once it has been thoroughly studied, but to simply pass up a possible weapon would be inexcusable.”
Appledash was about to offer a rejoinder, but Sure Shot, still on lookout called back. “We have company, and I don’t think we can count on a squad of Battle Sisters this time.”
“We will deal with this later,” Appledash said, scowling at the Librarian. Even the suggestion that they use such a tome was blasphemy against the Princess. But that could wait. Even if she couldn’t take it out on the Librarian, she could certainly take it out on cultists.
