My Fire Warriors: Mont'ka is Magic

Shas’O Var noticed a couple things when he first entered Twilight’s library, one of the obvious points is that besides the few glares the Tau received when they entered, these equines didn’t seem to care that there were obvious aliens in their mix. Sure a few gave the Tau strange looks when they walked past to swap books, but neither faction seemed particularly bothered about the other. Var also noticed Twilight rush over to some very, unique, looking ponies and apart from give strange looks and a few hoof gestures toward the commander, the six just broke into some conversation. Probably directed at him and the other Tau present. Valar had found some corner on his own and was presently telling some interested looking pony-horse to go away. After a pause, it did but looked rather upset. Var found himself drawn to this pony for some reason, it looked more, well, real. Than the other ponies, she seemed like she noticed the Tau more than the other ponies did. It had a mint green looking coat with the same colour hair, only with one white strip in her hair. The mark above its leg was some sort of bow thing. When she noticed Var was watching her drift away from Valar, she looked to the commander. He quickly looked away. The pony quickly bounced toward the commander as he looked for a fire warrior to run to. None seemed to be in running distance. Var was trapped.

“Hi! My name’s Lyre! What’s your name?” The mint pony asked. Var could feel his breathing pick up, he had been through so many wars and killed so many. He had nearly died a few times. He had seen the eye of the warp on Tyranious VI against the Chaos legions and had survived years of torture from Dark Elder. HE hadn’t faltered, hadn’t fallen after all that. But this, pony. Scared him. Before he could even think of an answer, the pony began a bombardment of questions. One she seemed to repeat a lot was:

“Can I see your hands?” Var looked questionably toward the mint equine and then back to the party, a few ponies were looking at the couple but still no fire warriors seemed present.

“I see no harm in that.” Var replied, that was a mistake and he knew it. He put a hand up and pulled the black glove of and unstrapped the wrist guard he had on and let it drop to the ground. Noticing that, he still hadn’t retrieved his helmet, none of the others had either from what he could see. Looking around he did find the lost helmets pretty quickly, they were piled up in a line near the top floor where the fire warriors had sat when Var first arrived in the library. Holding up his free hand the pony looked at the blue skinned four fingered hand before her. She instantly smiled with her mouth wide open and her pupils growing considerably larger. Var flinched and began praying. What too? He didn’t know. Just anything that would listen. When he got to Khorne, he realised he should stop. Var found out quickly that his entire arm had been forced down and the mint pony had climbed onto it and was inspecting his hand and moving his fingers around with magic.

“Why do you only have four fingers?” Lyre asked. Var tried to move his arm back but the pony forced it back.

“That’s how Tau are born, are you disappointed?” Var asked, screaming inside, looking drastically for another fire warrior. When he noticed one appear from a stairway going down that Var hadn’t noticed before. He saw something unsettling. The fire warrior had what looked like a plasma ball painted on his chest. Var pulled his arm back quickly, probably pulling something and began to walk over to the other Tau, not seeing the mint coated pony follow, staring at Var’s hand.

“What is? That?” Var asked, pointing at the paintwork. The fire warrior just shrugged and pointed down the stairs he had come down. Of course, the only fire warrior Var is saved by had had his tongue cut out. The commander smiled.

“Hey, Lyre.” Var asked, feeling a weight on his arm, the pony looked up with bright eyes.
“This here is one of my warriors, I have business to attend to, but you can ask him all the questions about hands and such as you think of them. He’s a bit shy, so don’t worry.” Var said, Lyre instantly let go of Var’s arm and jumped onto the other Tau who flinched but didn’t fall, holding the pony asking questions faster than the sound of the words actually arrived. The mute fire warrior just mouthed ‘why’ to the commander.

“Don’t disgrace your armour without my consent next time.” Var replied and walked down into the basement.
There he found a pink coated pony with white hair, a small paint brush in her mouth painting something onto Sven. Most of the fire warriors were in a line, the rest already had markings, all but Tyrion who saluted when Var entered and Aloh who had stayed near the door for most of the time Var was upstairs. The pony spat the brush out when she noticed Var walking slowly down the stairs.

“Ah it is ze great commander zes aliens have been speaking of. Have you come for ze cutie mark?” The pony asked.

“Ah no, a word with my officers if you would. EVERYONE OUT!” Var said, voice raising toward the end. The pony basically ran out of the room, and the other Tau followed, one asking: “Can we do this upstairs?” Followed by a: “Ya”. Eventually, it was only Sven and Tito left.

“Commander-“ Sven began, Var raised his gloved hand, hiding the other.

“What’s a Cutie Mark?” Var began, his voice low. Sven stepped back, Tito folded his arms, it was Tito who replied.

“Si commando, a Cutie Mark is what these ponies have on their flanks, showing of their skills si? It is like a sept, but, personal.” Tito said, his accent strong as ever.

“So you thought it would be a good idea to get one yourselves?” Var asked, Sven just looked down, Tito looked happy and proud. Looking at his. “What is your’s anyway Tito?” Var asked, the Tau looked up.

“I dunno senor, that nice pony said it suited me, called it a taco si?” Tito replied. Var nodded. Sven was still backing up against a wall, looking down in shame. Var smiled a bit.

“What do you think mine would be Sven?” Var asked. The human looked to the commander and opened his mouth to speak, before a cough caught everyone off guard. Var shrugged and turned seeing Twilight. She looked upset.

“A word please. Commander?” She asked, Var nodded and the other two left the room. Then an orange pony with some strange hat on walked in, she had three apples as her, ‘cutie mark’.

“Howdy.” The pony said, nodding her head. Twilight spoke up.

“This is Applejack, the owner of the farm your squad will be staying at. I just thought we should have a conversation together, thought you would like to meet the pony who will be looking after your troops.” Twilight said.

“Yes I would, thank you Twilight.” Var replied, the horned pony made no move to leave.

“So. You’re Applejack, Twilight has said a lot about you.” Var said after a pause, crossing his arms.

“That ay am partner. So, how many of you aliens will I be expecting?” Applejack replied, straight to the point. I like her, Var thought.

“Well there are thirteen of us altogether, three will be staying with Twilight here, so. Ten.” Var replied, Applejack nodded.

“I can hold that many, now, they will need to work on the farm like everypony else on mah farm. To pay off their stay, you understand?” Applejack replied. That accent though.

“I can agree to those terms. Now, food will be interesting, since we eat meat. I have made an agreement with Twilight here where we will hunt. I don’t suppose you would feel too happy with us storing it so most of it will be done where we hunt. About the working though, there is one in our number by the name of Valar, keep an eye on him because he WILL try to get out of work, he’s a pure diplomat and very, very, corrupt. So don’t hold back with getting him to work. The others should be no trouble.” Var said. Applejack nodded.

“I guess I shall be seeing them later tonight then, I better get back to mah farm to prepare. They can start work tomorro’.” Applejack said, turning to leave.

“We can’t do much of tomorrow, it seems your Aun found one of our tanks which also appeared in this world with us. It doesn't work, but we found a dead pilot and a couple of her helper drones. I would rather us get at least a drone working and bury the dead pilot before anything else. Then the day after we have a dragon to fight.” Var replied. Applejack looked confused but nodded eventually.

“Ah understand, where do you wanna bury him, or her?” Applejack asked.

“He, and we were hoping to do it where we landed, outside that forest nearby. Don’t take this the wrong way, but Tau burials are usually attended either by the squad the Tau belongs to, with family. Or just left on the field like so many others. Since he has no family nearby and we aren't technically his squad, it will have to be use doing it. Just us though.” Var replied.

“Ah see, but what do ya’ll mean, ‘leave them on the field’?” Applejack asked.

“You see Applejack, we come from a universe torn apart by war, sometimes we have to retreat and don’t get to bury our dead, and the amount that die each fight it would take years to sort the dead and bury our own.” Var said, Applejack suddenly looked unsure about something. “But the Tau, we, try to be a peaceful race. You will have no trouble with my warriors I promise you, if they do, come straight to me." Var added quickly, Applejack nodded and left. Twilight looked to Var.

"That were pretty well actually." She muttered.

"Yes, I believe it did." Was all Var said back.

"Is that true, do you really leave your dead sometimes?" Twilight asked. Var nodded.

"Sometimes we have to, remember, most of the races are a lot more cruel and evil than us. Your world is lucky it was us who came here, any other race would start killing everything on sight. Thinking about it, ironically it would only be Chaos who would be fairly peaceful, only when they realized they had no escape. And eventually they would destroy this world. Maybe the Elder would be fine here, but they are untrusting at the best of times." Var replied, Twilight nodded, then opened her mouth to speak again, but Var got there first. "I was also telling the truth when I said it is best that only us attend this burial. For honours sake if nothing else. Do you mind if a couple fire warriors borrow this, lab, down here tomorrow as well. Those drones can make a lot of noise and I would rather them be down here, safe. So if we do get them working again we can program them to not alert us to pony presence every time they see one. Or worse."

"Worse?"

"Well, shot at you. Obviously." Var grunted, Twilight just nodded.

"Of course, if you need help, just call me. Good luck with them as well." Twilight said eventually. Var didn't know if she replied 'of course' to letting them borrow the lab, or was trying to be sarcastic to the shooting thing.

"We will probably need that luck, none of us are engineers. But we can try at least." Var replied, Twilight nodded and went up to the party. Var decided to follow. The music had obviously changed since and he caught sight of Aloh near some random pony and most of the Tau now walking around with Cutie Marks. Tito was eating something that looked like his Cutie Mark, a 'taco' and a few others had rainbow circle food items. The fire warriors actually looked to be enjoying themselves. The mute fire warrior could easily be seen running from Lyre with absolute fear on his face, she was laughing with her horn glowing. What looked like a whip of some kind in her magical grasp. Var didn't want to know.
This was turning out for the best. All things considered, Ethereal knows they all needed a break. However long that may be.