Warhammer 40000: Imperial Guardspony

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven and Epilogue
Chapter Three

Prologue

Dear reader, you're about to read my surely mediocre and probably badly-paced and poorly-executed and fluff-defying story about ponies and Warhammer 40000. Warhammer 40000 is owned by Games Workshop, and not me. Obviously. And we all know who My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to. Again, not me.

Prologue

"What of this system?" The Magos said, pointing at the starchart. The tech-priest pushed several buttons on his console. Their last foray into the unexplored portion of the Segmentum Obscurus was successful, and another system to explore was needed. The ship's commander noticed that, fairly close to the Cadia system, there was a single unnamed star.

"Nothing on record, my lord."

"Nothing on record, you say? This close to the Cadian Gate? That is very peculiar. Set a course, at once." He ordered, his synthetic voice echoing through the spacious bridge of the ancient vessel that he commanded.

The Unforgiving Truth was extremely old, by any standard. It had been a medium-sized warship in a forgotten era, and now its obselete armaments served the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet. It served this purpose well, housing all of the equipment and defensive capabilities they would ever need, and its expertly maintained superstructure was sturdy, even after what could have been over twenty thousand years.

"Course plotted, my lord."

"Engage Gellar field, initiate warp jump."

One week later, Equestria

Princess Celestia's near-defeat at the hooves of Queen Chrysalis had left her weaker than she thought, and more tired than usual, so she had decided to go on a vacation from her duties for a week or two, leaving Luna in charge. She decided it wouldn't hurt to stop blocking out the almost sub-conscious whispers of something called the 'Astronomican', whatever that was, for a while. She had been aware of it for her entire life, and had learned to ignore it long ago, but this period of rest had presented an opportunity to listen to it, learn what it actually was, something she had never been able to determine. She disabled the magical dampening barrier that she had cast to keep it quiet, and listened. It had several voices, each sounding almost angelic, and whispered about currents, rapids, storms... was it some sort of telepathic sailor's instrument? Celestia continued to listen, to observe.

Warp space, Segmentum Obscurus, Unforgiving Truth

"Magos, you may wish to see this." The tech-adept motioned for his captain to come to his console.

"What is it?"

"A report by the Administratum. It mentions the disappearance of any and all vessels of the Explorator fleet that have attempted to gain entry to this system. I advise that we turn back."

"No. We shall not turn back. We will succeed in deciphering the mystery of this system. It could be anything out there, keeping our fellow servants of the Machine God from returning. For the sake of our Quest for Knowledge, we shall forge onward."

"If you believe it is wise, my lord." The tech-adept did not doubt his Magos; there never was one that was unwise. This one could not be the first.

Outer reaches of unknown star system, four days later

"We have arrived at our destination, my lord." The tech-adept had to restrain the excitement in his voice. They had just successfully navigated to a system that had caused the disappearance of over a dozen vessels over the last few thousand years.

"Charge weapons, initiate scanners." The Magos ordered, "We cannot be careful enough. Something has prevented our brothers from returning." The Magos hadn't slept once during the journey, nor did he need to; he had removed such a need from himself long ago. He had spent his time with the astropaths and navigator, trying to find any trace of the missing ships. Nothing had surfaced.

"System has a single planet, my lord, inhabited. Pre-industrial technological level. No ships or spacecraft of any kind detected."

The Magos went to the navigator's station.

"Anything?"

"The Warp is very quiet here, my lord." The psychic mutant replied, "Too quiet. That planet's inhabitants are not emitting any signs of being Warp-sensitive, yet I detect the presence of a great many psykers, however paradoxical it is. Either we are not alone, or there is something wrong with that planet."

"Prepare a lander, take us into orbit."

Canterlot, Equestria.

Luna looked through her telescope once more. Was she seeing what she thought she was seeing? A massive object was high in the night sky. It was very oddly shaped, very much unlike any meteor she had ever seen. She went to alert her sister.

"Sister! Something has appeared in the sky. You must see it."

"Is it a meteor?" Celestia asked.

"No, sister. It is too oddly shaped."

"Then let us investigate."

Celestia tuned out the voices of this 'Astronomican' once more.

Unforgiving Truth, orbit over Equestria

"Auspex scans have determined that the planet's inhabitants are equine in form, and probably non-hostile. I advise caution, however. We have no idea where these psykers are, or in what form they take." The Magos briefed the three tech-priests, an astropath, and two heavily-armed servitors that were to accompany him in the Aquila lander. Once all were inside the craft, it was launched. A landing spot had been chosen directly outside what appeared to be a mountain city, one of the largest on the planet, which was quite scarcely populated compared to most Imperial worlds. The Magos' personal communications system was paged.

"The navigator has lost contact with the Astronomican, my lord." It crackled.

This was most worrying to the Magos. The Astronomican was an artifact of great potency, operable only because of the Emperor's immense power. Only in the far reaches of the galaxy were the whispers of the Astronomican weak, and they weren't even that far away from Terra. Something had to be blocking it. If this was a regional phenomenon, then it's very isolated, as neighboring systems mere lightyears away had no such issues. Something wrong with this planet, indeed, he thought. The lander swooped down, and the Magos had a good look at the city they were landing beside before doing so. It was fairly ornate, but not excessively so, and had an abundance of the color white in its architecture, which was strangely human-like. These xenos were not stupid, there was little doubt in that notion. The astropath was obviously experiencing discomfort.

"What is the matter, astropath?" He asked the eyeless, hooded man.

"These xenos must have some form of Warp immunity. It is not easy to focus here, and I am... experiencing discomfort." He replied. The Magos knew of only a few things that could cause a psyker issues just by being in close proximity to it; omega-level or lower Assignment Index individuals, or 'pariahs', and some forces of the Warp. It had to be the former, as the navigator had said, the Warp was quiet here.

"Pariahs. All of these xenos are pariahs."

"Pariahs, my lord? Are you certain?" The astropath was surprised at the suggestion. After all, pariahs were extremely rare among humans. These xenos were not humans, though. The Magos was reminded of the Tau race and their upstart empire, of which none were warp-sensitive, but none of them were pariahs to his knowledge. This did not, however, provide any explanation of the psyker presence here. The ramp of the lander opened, and its passengers disembarked.

Canterlot Castle

"Your Highnesses, some sort of metal bird has landed outside of the city, and some odd-looking creatures came out of it, also metal." A guard explained.

Odd-looking meteors and alien beings? This had been a peculiar day indeed. Celestia and Luna both flew into the night sky over Canterlot and toward this mysterious metal bird that sat outside the city. Two pegasus guards accompanied them, and they landed in front of the group of strange beings. Two of the beings looked like grotesque fusions of machine and creature, one had no eyes and a green robe that looked uncomfortable, and the others wore red robes and were heavily adorned with metallic constructs of some sort. All of the creatures stood on two legs. Celestia spoke first.

"Greetings. My name is Princess Celestia, this is my sister Luna. What brings you... space-people here?"

The red-robed mechanical creatures looked at each other for a few moments, and an eerie, not-quite-normal voice came from the one that was most noticeable, its robe was gilded with gold, and it was at the front of the group.

"You speak gothic, xeno?" The voice sounded as surprised as it did unnatural.

"I suppose I do. This simplifies things, doesn't it?" Celestia chuckled at the creature's surprise.

"It does, xeno. We are representatives of the Imperium of Man, and the Adeptus Mechanicus. What do you represent?"

"Well, I am the ruler of this land, the peaceful nation of Equestria. What is this 'Imperium of Man'? Do tell." Celestia replied.

"The Imperium of Man is a vast interstellar galactic empire, and the Adeptus Mechanicus are a group that serves its technological and information needs." He said this with a sort of tone that indicated that he was not happy- but not angry or surprised- that she had never heard of such an Imperium. He continued. "What do you know of the Warp? Of the Immaterium? Of psykers?"

"Psykers? You mean magic? Our people are capable of magic in many forms."

"How many among you can perform this 'magic'?" He interrogated.

"Around a third of us, the unicorns, the ones with horns and not wings." Celestia explained.

"But you and your sister, xeno, have both wings and a horn."

"I do, and I can perform magic, but that does not matter. What brings you here?"

"It matters, xeno." The creature said, threateningly, "Why is it that we can detect nothing of the Warp here, but an abundance of psykers? What have you witches done to our ships?"

"Your ships? I've done nothing to your ships, I'd never try to hurt your people."

"Then explain why our ships have disappeared on their way here!" He demanded.

Celestia recalled the whispering device that she had taken to be some sort of telepathic sailor's guide, the 'Astronomican'.

"Might it be related to some object, an 'Astronomican'?" Celestia asked.

"The Astronomican is what guides the Imperium's ships through the Warp! What have you done to it!?" The creature pulled something from near its waist, and pointed it at her menacingly.

"I've just tried to ignore it, by casting magic to block it from my mind." She explained calmly, "If I knew that I was hurting anyone, I'd have stopped."

"You are a navigator, xeno?" Again the creature's voice showed surprise. It lowered the weapon.

"I am aware of some of the nuances of navigation, but why does that matter?"

"Not a naval navigator, a Warp navigator! A psyker that can percieve the Astronomican!"

"I've never heard of this 'Warp'. Can you explain it?"

"The Immaterium, or Warp, is where Chaos breeds. We use it for travel, and even then it is extremely dangerous, and Chaotic beings, demons, and traitor Astartes besiege us constantly. Surely, as a psyker race, you know of it. Perhaps you have a different name for it."

"We have no knowledge of such a place. Chaos was banished from this land some time ago. Could we offer any assistance against this 'Chaos' that you speak of?" Celestia was vying for a diplomatic position that was in her favor, not this alien's. After all, this alien had a massive interstellar empire at his back. Offering help may be the only way to avoid being completely destroyed in some way or another.

"Assist us? Unlikely, xeno. Your citizens do not look like they're suited for combat of any kind."

"I would assume by your distaste of this 'Chaos' that you have nothing that can fight it directly. We have in the past, perhaps we can help."

"I suppose you are correct. Your people have both psyker ability and Warp immunity. We may be able to make use of your psykers in our fight against the evil that is Chaos."

"I am sure most unicorns would be honored to fight these demons with you."

"I must confer with beings higher than myself, and must depart. I have no guarantees about this. I must warn you, xeno: do not block our Astronomican again."

The creatures stepped back into their craft, and it lifted off again, bound for their ship. Celestia wondered what he had meant by there being no guarantees, and why he kept refering to them as 'xenos', as the ship soared ever higher into the night sky. She listened to the whispers of the Astronomican. Somehow, they made more sense to her now.

Aquila lander craft, low orbit

The Magos was surprised that these 'ponies'- approximately a third of which had natural psychic ability- had banished Chaos from their world. They had to be quite powerful to do that. Dangerous, too. This 'Princess Celestia' did not seem like an enemy, but a potential ally, something the Imperium had in short supply. Everything else in the galaxy wanted them dead, but these ponies, this powerful psyker race of ponies, didn't. They wanted to help them. This had to be thought about and discussed with the Administratum. As much as they were potential friends, they were potential enemies.

Chapter One

Twenty years later

Blinding Flash departed his parents' house. He had just turned eighteen the previous week, and was happy to be free of almost all of the limitations imposed by his parents beforehand. He had arranged a meeting with his best friend, Torchlight, in the center of town, by the fountain to catch up on recent events. Upon arrival at their intended meeting place, the dark orange unicorn mare with a red mane that he had known for his entire life looked like she had something to say.

"Hey, Flash! I've got an idea!" Torch was beaming with excitement.

"Oh no, what is it this time?" He sighed.

Torchlight always had an innate talent for setting things on fire. This was not inherently bad, but there was an issue in the fact that Torch had problems controlling her conjured flames from time to time, and it was rather often that she had burned something down, or set somepony on fire, or something like that. Incidentally, most of her ideas involved fire in some way.

"We should sign up with those Imperial guys, fight evil, explore the galaxy!"

This was the stupidest thing he had ever heard come out of her mouth. The Imperium of Man was not a safe employer; the ponies that had joined up with them almost never came back. The ones that did had been serving the humans for over ten years, and hardly ever talked about it. The Imperial Guard, as it was called, had a rather large base outside of Ponyville, and on occasion groups of their soldiers would go through the town, asking questions, making sure nothing bad was said about them. Nothing ever was, they were seldom even spoken of amongst the residents. They learned long ago that speaking badly of them was an act that made ponies 'disappear'. The soldiers stationed at the base were from a land named Cadia, far, far away. They claimed to be here to offer protection, should demons try to invade Equestria. That didn't really make sense to Flash; demons had never come here, in any form.

His mother had told him that these people were extremely powerful, and capable of destroying them all if they wished. Why they did not was a question he often asked of his mother, and for a long time she had said nothing, but eventually revealed an answer. Princess Celestia had been imposed upon by this Imperium to offer her subjects- specifically unicorns- in great number as tribute to their Emperor in exchange for their continued existence. Celestia had refused, repulsed by the offer, and threatened these humans with something that was so unimaginably terrible to them that they accepted a counter-offer made by Celestia. One to allow Imperial soldiers in Equestria, to recruit unicorns willing to fight with them, and to preach their religion non-forcibly here. His mother had told him that this was an offer the Imperium was very reluctant to accept, but Celestia held her mysterious bartering chip, and eventually prevented a massive interstellar empire's efforts to press them into their servitude, instead becoming not-so-friendly allies. The details of this bartering chip were said to be known only to the Imperium and Celestia, and some said it was only a legend, and that the Imperium had been friendly from the beginning. Flash wasn't sure what to believe. If the humans were so powerful, what had stopped them from just killing Celestia and nullifying her threats? After the dust settled, Equestria still existed, and that's what counted. Torchlight's voice dragged him out of this state of thought.

"Well? What do you think?"

"That's a stupid idea, Torch. Honestly, do you think it's all fun and games fighting evil? The ponies that have come back have come back different. Changed by what they had to do, what they saw. I don't think we want to be a part of that. Besides, we aren't fighters."

"You must be joking! It's such a noble cause! Helping an alien race fight evil! Whether or not you're joining with me, I'm going."

Torchlight couldn't do this. She wasn't capable of fighting, she had never done so before, and neither had Flash. And certainly, going against an evil so powerful that even the mighty and massive Imperium of Man couldn't stomp it out was a very, very unwise decision. Blinding Flash was a calculating, logical pony; he only took actions he knew to be the best for all parties involved, not taking unnecessary risks like Torchlight had just suggested. It was often that he was the voice of reason amongst them, with Torchlight lacking any of her own, it didn't usually work.

"No, Torch, I can't let you do that. You'll get yourself killed!"

"You can't stop me!" She teased, and began trotting off. Flash groaned in frustration, and saw only one way to save his friend from an inevitable death; go with her. This could well be the stupidest decision he'd ever made, it was reckless, idiotic, and most of all, dangerous. He caught up with the mare.

"Fine. I'll come with you."

"Great! I'm signing up tomorrow. You'd better go get ready."

A stupid, reckless idea. Flash decided to take advantage of his remaining time in Ponyville to visit the town's librarian, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was about twenty years his senior, and was very smart. She knew everything there was to know about, well, anything. When he had asked her what Celestia's bargaining chip with the Imperium was, she said she did not know. Flash wasn't sure about that, however; Celestia was Twilight's mentor, and friend. Twilight had talked about joining the Imperial Guard, but wouldn't leave her friends behind, and it was no question whether she would stay or go. Entering the library, he was met by Spike, the pony-sized dragon living in her home.

"Hey, Flash. What brings you here?"

"I'm here to see Twilight, is she around?"

"No, she went to Sugarcube Corner, she'll be back soon, I think. Why do you want to see her?"

"I have some questions about the Imperium."

"The Imperium? Those guys are nasty. Last time I ran into them, stay started shooting at me. I didn't do anything to make them mad or anything, either."

"Maybe you intimidated them. You are a dragon, after all."

"Maybe, maybe."

The door opened, and Twilight came in.

"Oh, hello Flash. Are you here to check out a book?"

"No, I'm here to ask you some questions."

"Ask away, I'm happy to answer."

"So, Torchlight has decided to join the Imperial Guard, and I've decided to go with her and make sure she doesn't get killed. I was wondering if you knew anything more about them."

"Ah, the Imperial Guard... those people don't always treat ponies well. There have been a few... incidents. Disappearances, notably. The only advice I can give you is to be careful around them. I don't know if they're entirely trustworthy. It is, however, a very noble goal to assist them. They claim to have need of unicorns' psychic powers in several ways, though I'm not quite sure what those ways actually are."

"Thanks, Twilight." Flash left the building, and went to pack.

Chapter Two

Blinding Flash and Torchlight sent off their last- hopefully temporary- goodbyes. Torchlight was still stoked, and Flash still thought this was a huge mistake, one that they'd make together if at all. After all, that's what friends are for. They read over a pamphlet of recruitment guidelines together. It read that applicants must be unicorns of adult age with magical ability that was measurable, preferably high, and that no belongings were to be carried with them when they signed up. Torch was excited to see that they were both eligible, and Flash rolled his eyes.

"I was hoping it wouldn't say that." He muttered.

"Cheer up! This'll be an adventure like no other! We'll travel to lands that our ancestors wouldn't dream of, and we'll be fighting evil all the while!" Torchlight was almost explosively excited, to Flash's annoyance.

Flash's parents were accepting of his decision- they had promised full freedom in all decisions he was allowed to make. They were surprised, and his mother was very concerned, but still approved, making him promise that he'd come back. The promise was made, and he had departed. He had every intention of holding on for the whole ride if it meant that no harm would come of either Torchlight or himself.

Torchlight's relationship with her parents wasn't always the best. Whenever she had caused trouble as a filly her parents would have to pay for any damage done. And the fact that she was a self-proclaimed master of fire at the age of five- one that practiced often- didn't help matters much. They had consented to her volunteering to serve the Imperium, happy to know that the 'master of fire's' power would be put to good use instead of burning down the house.

The pair arrived at the entrance to the military base after a rather short walk. The complex smelled peculiar, even from the outside, and had very high walls and a gate, which they approached. There was a gatehouse, through a window of which stood a human male, who eyed them warily. Torch and Flash looked at each other, and Flash nudged her in the side with his hoof. Torch stepped forward and cleared her throat.

"We are here to volunteer." She said simply.

"Volunteer, huh?" He said. He disappeared from the window, and the gate opened, revealing the inside of the base. It was rather large, with three mammoth vehicles sitting outside a building with an equal number of large gates. Several humans were inspecting them. The two ponies were still glaring curiously the tanks when the gatekeeper motioned for them to follow. They did.

"What are those?" Torchlight asked the man.

"Leman Russ battle tanks. Built to last, and built to destroy." He explained.

"Why are they here?" Flash was uneasy.

"Just in case demons show up, or something." He laughed, then turned serious. "I'm not here for chit-chat. Get in here and tell these people what you're here for. They can help you." With that, he opened a door and motioned them in, then went back to his post.

The building had a glass window with a hole in it inside, through which a human female could be seen. She raised her head at the two new arrivals.

"Ah, not every day we have xenos in here. State your buisness."

Flash blinked, and wondered why she had referred to them that way.

"We're here to join." Torchlight said, trying to be formal and composed, neither of which the excitable mare was very good at.

"You want to join the Imperial Guard? You're sure? There's no quitting once you've committed." She was completely serious.

"We're certain. We want to help you guys fight evil and stuff!" Flash facehoofed. That had sounded utterly stupid.

"Right... right," the woman began, then reached downward and produced two sheets of paper and two pens, "fill these out."

The form asked for name, age, weight, height, coat color, mane color, and other general information, but it also asked about magical capabilities. Torch and Flash were known to be talented at their respective types of magic. Blinding Flash's talent was nearly self-explanatory; he was very good at light spells. He had used one to disorient a manticore to allow another colt and a filly to escape from it, earning his cutie mark, a gray-blue sixteen-pointed star, matching his white coat and short gray mane. Torchlight's cutie mark was earned during an exceptionally cold winter, during which even after the last of her family's firewood had burned away, Torch's fire magic had kept the family warm, prompting the appearance of an image of a flaming trio of logs on her flank, complimenting her dark orange coat and long red mane well. Both ponies noted their abilities, and also mentioned their other abilities such as telekinesis. Flash had been trying to learn to teleport, though he could only go about three meters. He noted this as well.

The two turned in their forms, and after an appraisal from the secretary that seemed to go on for tens of minutes, they were told to report to the spaceport. A guardsman was summoned escorted them there, and they left. The short journey across the base was in silence. When they got there, they were instructed to await transport to a ship in orbit. There was an hour to burn, so they each took advantage of what time they had to ask another waiting guardsman questions, which he didn't seem to like answering. Like other guardsmen they'd met, he was from Cadia, which was where he told them they were most likely to end up. When asked about his opinion of ponies in general, he stated that he'd volunteered for the assignment here, and that he had no strong opinions about them other than that they were heathen xenos, which, he explained, logically made them enemies. No further questions were asked by the duo, and the three of them sat in silence for a while, until the guardsman asked them what they thought of humans.

"We don't have any personal reason to dislike you, but you seem to dislike us well enough." Flash answered, flatly. The man narrowed his eyes at them.

"This is true..." He began to reply, but paused in thought, "but I have no personal reason to dislike you, either, do I?"

"Well, do you?" Torchlight asked, with renewed interest.

"No, nothing at all. I'm Briggs, corporal Briggs. What are your names, horse-witches?"

"Horse-witches?" Torchlight said, sounding it out, then giggled, "I'm Torchlight, and this is Blinding Flash, but you can call me Torch and him Flash."

"You ponies have such odd names..." He muttered.

"Why would you volunteer to stay here if you didn't have a good impression of us?" Flash asked.

"It's better than the front, that's why. Here, there aren't cultists trying to slit your throat and sacrifice you to Khorne in your sleep, no demons trying to destroy your brains and devour your soul, or any genestealer cults to deal with. All of those things happen on Cadia and its surrounding systems very often. This place is exempt, for some odd reason, which is why I volunteered to safeguard this peaceful, if heathen place." The man finished his lengthy explanation with a sigh.

"But now I have to leave. My term of service is done here, it's time to return to Cadia."

"Say, Briggs, what usually happens to unicorns like us?" Flash asked.

"I've only ever fought alongside one unicorn unit before, about five years ago. After the order was sent to withdraw from the area, they were sent against a horde of demons, almost as if they were a distraction. I heard that none of them escaped alive, but that they had managed to, to our surprise, destroy the entire horde. It wasn't easy for the brass to admit it, but they were essential to winning that battle. My perceptions of them have been mixed ever since."

"Mixed? Mixed how?" Torch was intrigued by the story.

"Mixed in that these xenos- the ones I'd been taught to be willing to destroy, and not to treat like another human- had saved my life, and that they might be just as worthy of recognition as any human." Flash noticed then that Briggs had been speaking in a very low voice, so that nobody else could hear him, as though he wasn't allowed to say that. Briggs sighed again.

"I'm not supposed to think that. It's treason."

"Treason?" Torch had lowered her voice as well. "Why?"

"It's complicated, you wouldn't understand."

A huge metal machine landed on a flat circular pad nearby.

"Well, that's our ride." Briggs said, picking up a duffel bag containing things he owned, "It anyone asks, we never talked."

The waiting guardsmen and ponies, twelve in all, boarded the vessel, which almost immediately took off. The ponies watched in amazement through a viewport as the ship climbed into the upper atmosphere, where even the most daring pegasi wouldn't dare venture. Before they knew it, they were in space, approaching a massive, oddly shaped vessel. Their view of the vessel grew and grew, until it took up the entire viewport. A moment later, the vessel was inside the other, and landed. The landing ramp dropped, and two guardsmen were awaiting the new arrivals. They harshly instructed the ponies to follow them, again refering to them as 'xenos'. They were lead to a large room, which contained dozens of ponies, all in a queue of some kind, waiting their turn for something. The two were instructed to get in line by one of the many guardsmen in the room, all armed with their peculiar-looking weapons.

Torch tapped the pony in front of them. He turned around, the cream-colored unicorn looked nervous. "What are we waiting for?" She asked him quietly.

"I-I don't know." He replied, simply, and turned back around.

The time went by torturously slowly, and minutes turned into an hour, then into two before it was their turn. Flash went first into the chamber before them. It looked like some sort of testing area, a few items strewn about. A black-clothed human wearing a talisman with a red 'I' and a skull emblazoned on it was visible in the corner of the room. He regarded Flash with what he took to be great dislike, even hate.

"I have been assigned to judge you xenos' abilities, and classify accordingly. Now, demonstrate, xeno!" He almost spat the word 'xeno', as though he hated the word. Not just how it sounded, what it meant, what it represented. Flash felt nervous, and decided to demonstrate his magic as well as he could.

He began with a light spell, a great flash that lasted a whole ten seconds, during which Flash moved across the room. He looked back at the man, who simply stood with the same look on his face. Flash summoned a beam of light from his horn, aimed it, focused the light to a point, and increased the power of the light, blackening the surface of the wall of the chamber. He decided to use his telekinesis next, and focused his power on a rock nearby, almost half his size, clearly there for demonstration, and lifted it. He looked back at the man, who still held the same steely, hateful expression, and threw the rock at the wall of the chamber as hard as he could, breaking it in half.

"That's enough. Proceed. You will recieve your evaluation results soon enough." Flash left the chamber, having strained himself quite a bit, he was tired. He entered a room again filled with ponies. This time they were waiting in small circles. Guards stood at all exits and entrances.

Torchlight was waved in by the peculiar man in black clothing, and asked to perform her magic. She loved performing, especially with her fire. She started with a spell that summoned a sheath of fire around her entire body, then released it in a short-ranged puff of fire. She took aim at a wall and shot three small fireballs across the room, each hitting the same spot. As a finale, she walked in a circle, spreading flame in her wake. She extinguished the fires with ease, and was asked to leave the chamber as well, finding Flash pretty quickly amongst the ponies in the room.

"That guy was weird." Torch remarked.

"Yeah, he was. It was like... he didn't like ponies at all, or that he hated us for some reason. Why do these humans seem to hate us so much if they're supposed to be our allies?" Flash was unsure of what that assessment was all about.

"Why did they ask us to perform magic? They already know what we can do, we wrote that down for them when we signed up."

"Maybe it's to make sure we weren't lying. Well, we'll find out soon enough, if what that guy says is true."

"What happened to Briggs?" Torch changed the subject.

"I don't know, but he probably has duties to attend to, or something. This ship is awfully big. I never thought I'd go into space, or even into the sky, for that matter. It's a shame we can't see outside." Flash said. The ship was so massive that they had no idea in which general area of the ship they were in. Knowing how long it could be before the results of their mysterious test were given, the two waited together.

Chapter Four

The flamer-wielding guardsmen and the inquisitor, with his odd flame-spewing weapon, took a large load off of Torchlight. She wasn't the only one that could destroy the swarms of plague flies anymore. What was a large load, however, was that Torchlight had to face the bitter truth of the matter; all of the ponies in their unit except for her best friend were dead. Killed by Nurglites, a fate oft-considered to be worse than death. Torchlight was entirely silent as the group rushed through the corridors, fighting with great vigor and speed, the slow minions of the plague lord stood little chance. The intercom had just brought news that demons were detected on all decks, and that self-destruction was the recommended course of action.

Flash was relieved to see that Briggs was still alive, and that Torch hadn't been hurt. What weighed his thoughts heavily was the loss of the ponies with which he had trained and learned over the past few days. The small band of seven was well-equipped to deal with these demons and wretched abominations; they had two ponies with good magical ability, three humans with flamethrowers, and two humans with laser weapons. As they went, the demons were unable to withstand them, each of the group members was filled with fury, himself included, and scores of demons fell before them as Briggs led them onward through the corridors to what he called the 'summoning pit'.

"How much farther, Corporal?" The commissar asked, panting between words.

"Through that door!" He called, pointing to a doorway up ahead.

They bunched in front of the door.

"Ready!?" The inquisitor shouted, "Go!"

The door opened, and what they saw was the raw stuff from which nightmares were made. The floor was covered in some sort of pus, blood was everywhere, and decaying corpses lined the walls, pinned by chaotic energies. In the center of the large room was a massive, grotesque creature, with its entrails bulging from holes in its gut. The terrible, repulsive, gut-wrenching stench that had punctuated the entire ordeal peaked in intensity. Along the sides of the room, five... humans, they appeared to be, clad in a sickly-green armor that oozed with terrible contagions. They were what had only been alluded to in the ponies' training, as if the Imperium was ashamed of it- Plague Marines. They had been kneeling before the greater demon, but immediately stood, and picked up their weapons. The gag-inducing demon let out a disturbingly hearty laugh, and began lumbering toward the group in the doorway.

"Strike these foul beasts down! In the Emperor's name!" The inquisitor charged, drawing a long, straight blade with a hilt that glowed blue, and moved with extreme speed toward the nearest Plague Marine. The two guardsmen with flamers rushed to the front of the group and began their spray of fire at the greater demon, which was slowly, but steadily, approaching, the flames licking its unnaturally diseased skin without significant effect. Flash put up a magical shield to protect those around him, which did not include the inquisitor.

The inquisitor moved with such speed that even the super-human Plague Marine he attacked first hadn't the time to react. The man's sword cleaved right through the armor at the shoulder, cutting the thing in half from shoulder-to-waist.

Flash left holes in his shield through which the group could fire. Briggs and the commissar fired their weapons at the Plague Marines as well, but they couldn't penetrate their armor with them. Torchlight sprung into action, summoning, with all of her magical might, a small ball of green fire. It left a shimmering trail as it passed through Flash's barrier, and struck the nearest Plague Marine, blasting a hole in its midsection about the size of a pony's head. The monster before them could not take such damage, and it fell. This left three Plague Marines, which opened fire on the fast inquisitor. Flash saw him get hit almost ten times before he struck the next Marine, again cleaving it in half, this time vertically. The inquisitor began to slow down only as he was cutting into the next Marine, and he fell to the ground.

The demon was right outside the shield now, unfazed by the flames . It raised its massive, rusted, plague-bearing blade, and smashed it down on- and through- the barrier. One of the guardsmen was hit, and was killed instantly.

"Fall back!" Briggs shouted as the demon prepared to swing again. The remaining five of them quickly escaped through the door, and the demon followed. They outpaced it by far, but they'd have to get rid of it. Flash turned around, and focused a tight beam of extremely intense light on the horned, grinning head of the creature. It began to smoke, then to burn, then to cut. It kept coming as the beam cut slowly through the demon's hide, down its chest, through its swollen belly. It stopped then, and fell in half in a grotesque fashion, releasing a number of smaller creatures they knew to be Nurglings. Torch was way ahead of the rest, and toasted them with ease. This left one Plague Marine. It had no ranged weapon, but it did have an axe. It didn't do much good before their torrent of magic, lasers and fire downed it. They slowly entered the room.

The inquisitor was dead, there was little doubt. The guardsman with a flamer that remained began torching everything, the walls, the bodies, everything. Once the summoning pit was purged by the cleansing flames, the ship rocked a bit.

"What was that?" Flash asked to nobody in particular.

"We've dropped into normal space!" Briggs exclaimed, "We've reached Cadia!"

*****

The ship's crew was almost entirely lost, and only two ponies escaped; Torchlight and Blinding Flash. The ones that did survive were all entirely insane or terminally ill, but the three humans and two ponies that were not were found to have been together throughout the ordeal. Each one of them was debriefed, and the ponies learned that they'd be joining another unicorn unit, one that had been stationed on Cadia for five years. They were relentlessly and pointlessly tested for the taint of Chaos, but were eventually cleared. Briggs and the guardsman with the flamer as well as the commissar were not seen during these trials and final training sessions on Cadia. It was learned that Abaddon's forces were mobilizing yet again, for a fourteenth Black Crusade. Cadia was continually reinforced, as they prepared and trained for the coming onslaught.

Chapter Five

The two ponies, with their quite traumatizing ordeal still fresh in their memories, entered the barracks of the pony unit they'd been assigned to. There were now fifty-seven ponies stationed here, and with Torchlight and Flash adding to this number, fifty-nine ponies were accounted for. Three squads. Not much, but these were seasoned unicorns, some of them had gone through dozens of battles, or so they heard. They were greeted by a tired-looking unicorn.

"Hey, you're the survivors, those two ponies that escaped that ship alive after the Nurglites came." He said.

"Yeah, that's us." Flash said. Torchlight had only spoken when talked to since the incident, and it was obvious that she was not excited to be here anymore.

"You two are really lucky to have survived that. You know how often that happens to ships like that? Particularly the ones carrying unicorns? Really often nowadays. Almost every fifth ship gets hit, and usually there are no survivors. It's not always Nurglites, either. It's as though they're all working in unison to take out the ponies before they get here. I'm sorry about your friends in your unit, it's always hard when they die, but in this line of work, it happens a tad bit often."

"Thank you. I'm Blinding Flash, by the way. This is Torchlight. She's... lost her enthusiasm."

"I'm Tin Kettle, Tin for short. It's not unusual for ponies to get demoralized like this, it happened to me once, but then I figured it out- find something to fight for, avenge your fallen brethren on the battlefield, that's all you need to fight for. Torchlight, you know why you're here. You knew that ponies would die. You knew that you had to be ready, and now it's time. Abaddon's forces are mobilizing, and we're going to hit them with all we have, and we will win. You get me?"

Torchlight nodded slowly, "I do."

"Good! Settle in, but don't get too comfy, we're going on cult patrol in two hours." Tin walked away then, to talk to his other colleagues. Tin was a well-adjusted pony, one to be learned from. He wasn't going to wallow in despair if his friends fell, he'd just fight harder. To the bitter end, they both thought, and at precisely the same moment, they both thought of what they'd do if the other were to die. Tin was right. Avenge your fallen, make their foes pay, make their friends' sacrifices worth it.

*****

The two chimeras were loaded full with ponies and men. Three squads were to report to the undercity neighborhoods and investigate activity of the Imperial citizens there. Cadia was heavily military-oriented, and screened its troops and citizens often. After all, being so close to such a large gap in reality, the Cadian Gate, there would be some seepage of the Ruinous Powers' influence, more than usual, here.

Their squad, of ten instead of twenty as it was on the ship, disembarked the machine and began their sweep, as instructed by the commissar, they'd split off into two groups, five ponies in one, one with a vox caster, and the other with four ponies and the commissar, who was lucky enough to be issued a smaller, more valuable vox set from a forgotten era. The Imperial citizens were giving them a wide berth, almost as though they were feared, or at least respected. During their training, Flash and Torch had been told that their magical abilities were considerably powerful, and were the entire reason they were allowed to be in the Imperial Guard in the first place; each unicorn was an independant weapon system, capable of using a wide variety of devastatingly powerful spells, like Torchlight's 'super-ember' as she called it, which was proven to be powerful enough even to go through Astartes power armor, and Flash's light beam, which was proven to be capable of cutting through Great Unclean One hide.

Cult patrol was boring, and nothing notable occurred while they were out. The commissar said that they were lucky this time; the number of cults springing up grew alarmingly after Abaddon's forces mobilized. When they'd come through the Cadian Gate was not certain, but the Imperial battlefleets Gothic and Cadia had been mobilized in response, assembling near the Eye of Terror. Flash and Torch wondered what roles they'd play in the war about to be waged, as support troops, using their magic to produce powerful long-range blasts of ice, lightning, fire, plasma, or anything else? Or as front-line troops, using their magic to take down scores of foes simultaneously with focussed beams of light, fireballs, or just plain magical blasts? They'd have to wait to find out, but at least they'd have a chance to talk with their fellow unicorns, learn something from them.

*****

The ponies were in small circles, a few of them playing games with human playing cards, some of them chatting, some resting, some doing nothing. Torch and Flash were among the last group, not knowing what to do to pass their time on Cadia. Flash could already tell that this was not what Torch had in mind when she suggested this. They walked over to one of the talking groups.

"Hello." Torch said, cheerful for the first time since their encounter with the Nurglites.

"Hey, aren't you two those survivors from that ship that got hit?" One of the ponies asked. They'd been getting that a lot recently.

"Yes, we are. What's going on?"

"We were just swapping stories. Where are you two from?" Another pony answered.

"We're both from Ponyville. I'm Torchlight, this is Blinding Flash, we signed up together. But it seemed like a better idea at the time."

"Yeah, it always seems like a better idea when you're safe on Equestria. But we've got a whole mess of Chaos stuff to deal with coming out of the woodwork any day now, it's only a matter of time before we do what we signed up to do: kick demon flank. I've been with this bunch nearly a year, but some of us are from a while back, but most of us don't live too long, given the rediculously dangerous assignments they'll give us every so often, be it raiding a cultist concentration, or investigating a Space Hulk, something always goes wrong. It's almost like they don't care what happens to us, you know?" The first pony said.

"Well, it's clear the inquisitors, whoever they are, don't like us." Flash said. The ponies' eyes widened.

"Don't talk about them. Last time somepony did that, they hauled him off, never saw 'im again." The other said.

"Huh..." Flash knew that the Imperium only let unicorns serve it because Celestia insisted that they allow volunteers to help them, and since they seemed to hate aliens so much... they hated them too. They were disposable to them, but useful enough to keep around. Had the Imperium just killed them all if Celestia hadn't intervened with her mysterious threat? The answer was now evident: yes. Like Briggs had said, they were logically enemies.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." Flash began walking away, bringing Torch with him.

"Torch! The Imperium doesn't place any value on our lives at all. We have to find a way back to Equestria if we're going to live through this, and soon." Flash whispered. Torch thought about it for a second, then nodded slowly.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded. A commissar almost immediately entered the room.

"Cadia's under attack, get going, we're being shipped to the front lines within the hour!"

Torch looked at Flash, and both of them nodded, then went to get ready.

Chapter Six

They boarded the Valkyrie gunship, and as it took off, they were all amazed by what had just happened while they were preparing. It was just after sunset, everyone had their attention to the sky, which was flickering with the immense battle already unfolding in orbit.

"Hope they haven't landed yet..." Torchlight said, worriedly. She did not want to face demons anymore, she didn't want to face anything. She did, however, want payback. Payback for the fallen.

"Of course they've landed! Why else would we be going somewhere? We've got confirmed traitor Astartes in a Kasr, about ten minutes out. Intelligence confirms them to be of the 'Violators' chapter. We can expect sonic weaponry and perhaps daemonettes." The commissar responded.

Flash and Torch were equally aware of what a Slaaneshi presence involved. Beings not immune to the Prince of Pleasure's influence could expect to be subjected to their primal desires and more contrived, twisted desires, those of bloodlust, masochism, sadism, and a slew of other distasteful things. Immediately, they feared for their commissar. His mind was unshielded from these influences. He would not return the concern, as they meant nothing to him, as they'd realized recently. They were in squads of ten to eleven this time, mounted in six Valkyries. The entire unit was to be dropped into the Kasr, isolated from the other units, into the maze-like structure the Cadians had built for the dual purpose of habitation and urban warfare. Until the drop, they needed only to wait what seemed to be an insufferably long time, even though it was only ten minutes.

*****

The Valkyries flew closer, in a chevron formation. This was broken up as, to their surprise, anti-aircraft fire arced through the air toward them, prompting evasive action. The co-pilot could be heard.

"Incoming fire! Valkyries four and three have reported damage, and Valkyrie six is down- make that six and four-"

The cabin rocked with great intensity, interrupting the co-pilot and prompting the commissar to stand.

"Grav-chutes, now! Open the ramp!" He said, the ponies obeying without question. Donning their modified grav-chutes, they went, one after another, out of the Valkyrie. The commissar went first, to encourage the rest to follow, and they did.

Deploying their chutes, Torchlight and Flash watched as a lascannon hit sent their Valkyrie careening toward the surface. They watched, paralyzed in shock, as it spun downward and impacted a tall building. They took the time to observe the embattled city. It glowed with fire, and from their height they could discern explosions and tiny red beams of lasgun fire, as well as tracers from other weapons. The landing was rough, but none of them were injured and grouping was good. They managed to meet up almost immediately. Leaving the rooftops, they entered the streets below. Dead and dying littered the streets, indicating that any fighting here had since ended, at least for now. They saw a pair of Chaos Marines on the ground, one of them writhing. Each had extreme wounds, yet one clung to life.

"The pain... yes! The pain..." The mortally injured marine rasped through his ancient helmet, then laughed maniacally.

The commissar raised his laspistol to his head, and ended his pathetic, hedonistic life.

"How could this city fall so quickly to such beasts?" The commissar asked, rhetorically, of course. Continuing through the streets, they saw a hastily-constructed shrine to the Prince of Pleasure, with several Marines armed with peculiar-looking weapons gazing upon several Imperial citizens trapped in cruel and unusual traps, laughing in unison, taking heinous pleasures from watching these poor people in pain. They somehow failed to notice the approaching unicorns, and they opened fire with their armor-piercing spells. The torrent of fire, light and other energies burned, sliced, and destroyed the squad of Violator marines with ease. Nothing else in the Imperium could do that as easily, Flash thought.

Continuing through the streets, they encountered up with a storm trooper squad. They didn't seem to be the most friendly of sorts, but they had a similar goal: to secure the Kasr. These 'Kasrkin', as they were called, had been dropped an hour earlier, and had run out of special weapons with which to eliminate special targets. Their dust-off never came when they called for it. The commissar heard one complaining about it, and shot him dead. Nobody else said anything else about it, and the storm troopers- now five in all- came along with the ponies. Even their own, they cared little about, Torch thought.

Both of the ponies had come to realize the truth in the matter: they were on one of the 'dangerous assignments' the pony at the barracks told them about. The least safe, moderately important, smaller ones. They would not be getting out of here easily. The commissar and storm troopers began to act strangely.

"I wonder... if..." The commissar trailed off.

"What is it, commissar? Are you alright?" Torch asked.

"Wha- of course I am. Nothing. It's nothing."

"No, no, finish the thought, commissar." the storm trooper sergeant urged, staring intently at a writhing, dying man down the street. Flash felt a need to stop whatever was happening before it happened.

"Enough. Let's get moving." Flash interrupted.

"What did you just say?" The storm trooper sergeant scoffed, "you, xeno, ordering us? Don't try that again, or I'll... kill you. Yes, kill you... and savor your death." He drew his knife, as did the rest of the storm troopers. The commissar, however, stood, motionless for a moment as the ponies nervously watched as the knife-wielding storm troopers drew closer, then proceeded to raise his pistol toward the ponies, than quickly turn around and shoot the sergeant in the head. His clarity of mind was intact, at least for the moment. Flash was relieved that they didn't need to kill him, at least.

"Back in line, fools! You don't serve whatever demonic force is here, you serve the Emperor! You are lucky to still live, given the great evidence of taint you demonstrate. There will be no second warning! Now, get back in line!" The storm troopers looked at each other for a moment, and sheathed their knives.

"Yes, commissar!" They chanted in unison.

This was only getting worse, Flash thought, as they continued down the streets.

Chapter Seven

Neither Torch or Flash cared about the Kasr anymore, they just wanted to go home. They had no way home, of course, and would somehow have to escape the city alive. The Imperium's training was very clear about retreat: retreat, you get killed. The only way out was to somehow survive this mission to extraction, something that would likely never come. All of the ponies were still alive, and the four storm troopers had returned to their senses, for the most part. Both had an uneasy feeling that this was going to change, and would do so quickly. The group was in a two-by-seven configuration, moving through the narrow streets and alleys, full of potential ambush points. Their constant fear of ambush was justified mere moments after entering an alleyway.

An extremely loud sound assailed all of their eardrums, causing some of the ponies and all of the humans to fall. Flash and Torch immediately put up their sound-proof barrier spells, and looked for the source of the Blastmaster attack. It was immediately evident that some ponies- and all of the humans- were unable to shield themselves in time, and fell, their eyes and ears bleeding, screaming in agony. Torch found the Noise Marine, perched on one of the rooftops, firing down at them with his sonic weapon. She focused all of her fury into a blast of fire, and in a hellish, fiery explosion, he was gone. They deactivated their barriers then, and focused on their wounded. The commissar knew what to say, even though he could no longer hear.

"Take those that can still hear, leave the rest of us here!" He urged. It was difficult, but when the commissar and the two surviving storm troopers began to push the remaining ponies away, they complied. Half of the ponies were left, three of them had died, as had two of the storm troopers. They left three injured humans and two ponies behind.

Just running through the streets proved dangerous. Their anti-vehicle training came into effect as, after the ponies, without any commander, had stopped to rest in a building's second floor, a Chaos Predator began to roll by. Flash promptly cut it in half with his powerful beam, and the rest of the ponies melted it down with magical blasts of fire and other energies. That small victory had infused the broken ponies with a hint of morale and sense. They'd just taken out something valuable and ancient, the Ruinous Powers wouldn't have a chance to re-stock their Predators any time soon. The ponies began bickering about what they would do next.

"We have to leave the city, we have to leave now!" Tin Kettle was in their group, but had remained unnoticed by the two, who thought it fortunate that he had survived.

"No, we should wait right here, they'll come get us!" Another pony said. Tin gave him a harsh look.

"No human, nopony, is coming for us! We're trapped here! We're going to die if we stay here!"

"I agree. I vote that we head for the spaceport." Flash piped up.

"Good idea. The problem is... we can't fly anything!"

Torch slapped him in the face. "Stop being so negative! We've got to do something!"

"His mare-friend's right, you know." Another pony said. Flash had never thought of Torch that way, not ever. It just wasn't the kind of relationship they had. He laughed about it, despite the grim circumstances. Torch did the same.

"Okay, fine. we'll go to the spaceport. Maybe some human there will help us." Tin said, and they were off again.

Moments of walking in the streets later, they encountered a group of Slaaneshi cultists, armed with wicked blades and crude firearms. The ponies acted with surprising discipline, putting a communal barrier between them and the cultists as they attempted to close the distance to cut them to pieces, then cut them down in droves with their spells. So much death, Torch thought. Flash could not believe just how bad this was. The city was lost, overrun by the Lost and the Damned. Something caught his eye- a fiery streak of something falling from the atmosphere directly above them, then another... and another...

Moments later, the ponies were surprised to see one of the objects impact the ground in an intersection ahead with a great noise. It was an oddly-shaped blue-painted pod. It opened, its numerous doors falling with metallic clangs as it revealed its contents. Ten Space Marines exited the pod, two of them aimed at the ponies for a moment, then lowered their weapons. The ponies rushed toward them. A helmetless, towering figure clad in the power armor of the Space Marines stopped them.

"Halt, xenos! Where is your commissar?"

Tin took a speaker role. "He was wounded by a sonic weapon, he told us to leave him behind."

"Is that so, xeno? How can I trust you?" He revved his chainsword, an obvious threat. Flash spoke up.

"Hey! We're on the same side here. We're both here to kill the enemies of the Imperium!"

"You may be correct, but do you have any idea how many times the Imperium's agents have been decieved by creatures such as you? Have you any idea?"

"You've got to trust us!"

"I don't have any obligation to trust you, xeno. Now, I must know, why are you here?"

"We were sent here to kill demons and Violators, that's all we were told."

"A fool's errand, no doubt. They want nothing more than to be rid of you xenos filth." He turned around, "move out! The sorceror must not be far!"

As the Ultramarines passed, the ponies just stood there, awestruck. The Space Marines had hammered the point home. Staying on the Imperium's roster was almost certainly a death sentence. Flash began to run after the Marines, but Torch stopped him.

"I have an idea. If we help them, maybe they'll help us!" Torch had brilliant ideas sometimes, and this was one of them. Torch beckoned to the others, "come on! We'll help them kill the sorceror, whoever he is!"

The five ponies decided to follow the Marines through the buildings, because simply following behind them would make them noticeable. They stalked, always just behind the Marines, out of sight, until they found their target.

Chapter Eight

A/N: Five days since an update? Oh well, have some story. -IncoherentOrange

Chapter Eight

The ponies stalked the Marines, and even if they had been noticed, the Marines didn't seem to care. Their quarry was a 'sorceror', probably of the generic Chaos variety, but no ordinary threat would warrant the deployment of a Space Marine squad into an embattled Kasr, the ponies knew that much. But, indeed, what made this particular sorceror so important? Flash and Torch both knew what a sorceror could do to his opponent's mind, these Marines were no exception, while the ponies were such an exception.

Flash nor Torch really understood how they could be immune to the Warp's corrupting nature, while still being able to draw upon energies similar to those of the Warp at a whim, remaining untouched. Spell backfires never caused ponies to lose their minds or pledge allegiance to some crazed god of Chaos, while even some of the most talented of human psykers, were not entirely immune to such influences, or so they'd been told. They also told them that they were special in this regard, and valuable because of that trait, as well as unicorns' inherent psyker abilities that could be made manifest as many lethal energies, which could, in turn, be used to tip the scales in the Imperium's favor in a battle, at least in theory. This was their purpose. While the humans did not like the ponies at all because of how they were aliens and such, they were a valuable fighting force, one that did not require much trouble to aquire. They were powerful and cost-effective. They were expendable, used to cause the most damage with almost no priority placed on their safety or in insuring that they return. Flash now knew why only a few ponies ever came back to Equestria; the others were all dead, because the humans sent them to die.

Bolter fire rang out, and the lead Marine could be heard shouting. "There is our quarry! Strike it down in the name of the Emperor!" Crazed cackling, frenzied shouts, and firearms were heard.

The ponies took it as their que to assist, and took to the rooftops to gain a height advantage. What they saw did not look good for the Marines. Their target sat in the middle of a flat area, surrounded by cultists that were now swarming toward the Marines. While they were holding their own against the tide of cultists, the sorceror had surrounded himself with some sort of shield and teleported to an undetermined location, and a squad of axe-wielding Chaos Space Marines were heading straight for the Marines from behind. Without their help, they didn't stand much of a chance.

"Take them out!" Flash shouted, and the five ponies began their rain of spells upon the approaching crazed warriors, cutting them down with ease. The Marines, meanwhile, had managed to take out every last one of the cultists in the square. The ponies entered the street then. One of the Marines had been killed, and nine Chaos Marines lay around ten meters from the nearest Marine, all dead. The Marine sergeant looked at the ponies, his expression clearly one of distaste.

"Why are you following us, xenos?"

"We did just save you from those guys, didn't we?" Torch pointed a hoof at what remained of the Chaos Marines, "we want to help you. Now, where do you think the sorceror went?"

"Your help is unnecessary, begone."

"No. We're not going to die for no reason, we're not going to just fight random groups of madmen and monsters and go out that way, and you wouldn't want to either. What we're going to do is help you in achieving your goal, to do something that will make a difference. We can help you if you could just get over the fact that we aren't human! Let us fight together, for the good of all!" Flash interjected. The Marine sergeant looked down at him, and smirked.

"Very well, xenos, if a fight worth fighting is what you seek, come, our quarry has likely fled to some other concentration of this cult." The towering armor-clad man led the way through the streets.

It was very reassuring to know that they were on the Marines' good side, as they would be powerful allies to have, and probably their ticket to relative safety in the form of their extraction that they knew was actually coming, unlike theirs. These warriors were some of the most prized and skilled men in the entire Imperium of Man, they didn't deploy them for no reason, no, they were deployed against big targets, big priorities.

"What's so special about this particular sorceror?" Torch asked the lead Marine, who was the only one who spoke, for the most part.

"The 'Lord of Suffering', as this foul creature is known, plans to open stable portals into the Warp through which fearsome Demon Engines can come. Such portals are extremely difficult to create, and this sorceror is known to have done so at least once before. We are not going to allow this to happen again," he answered.

"If we can. He just teleported away last time, what's stopping him from doing so again?" Flash asked.

"Nothing, we will strike when he is vulnerable."

"When is that?"

"When conducting sacrifices to whatever dark power he serves, that is when. We believed to have caught him at such a point at his last appearance, but we were proven wrong. Next time, this traitor shall not escape."

"Why did you let us help you?" Flash prodded, though he immediately regretted asking, until a response came.

"You showed us that you have courage, that you know honor. Those who bear such traits shall become my allies, xenos or not."

The ponies thought of his words carefully, mulling them over in their minds. What was valued by some was not valued by others in the Imperium. This Space Marine valued courage and honor over what species his allies were, while most of the Imperium treated them as tools, implements to be sent against their foes, little else. It did matter to them that the ponies were heathen, non-human creatures with little more purpose than as weapons. So Briggs was not the only one who valued the ponies as allies, who thought they were worthy of being judged on what they had done, as opposed to what they were as a species. The group forged on, minor skirmishes always ending in flawless victory, the combination of Marine and unicorn being nearly unstoppable.

Chapter Nine

A/N: I have returned, and I am happy to serve you all up some pony and Warhammer silliness once more.

Chapter Nine

The town hall was where they found their quarry. His minions included scores of daemonettes and cultists. With shield spells, powered armor, bolter and magic, their foes fell in great number, the daemonettes included. Their great speed seemed hindered by the unicorns' presence, and their psychological effects on the Space Marines were moot. The sorceror cackled through his tainted, ancient armor as he performed his final ritual, at the same time shielding himself from the combined fire of the squad.

"You... are too late!" the sorceror yelled before teleporting away. The ground shook, and began to open before their very eyes. From this chasm rose a huge frame of chaotic energy. The remaining ponies were frightened, while the Space Marines held their ground, awaiting orders. There was no way to destroy the portal with what weaponry they had, and daemon engines would soon be pouring from the hole in normal space.

"By the Emperor!" the Marine sergeant exclaimed, then held two of his fingers to his comm-bead. "Requesting emergency extraction."

"What do we do now?" Torch asked.

"What we do now, xeno, is leave this place. There is naught we can do to stave off this invasion just now," the sergeant said.

"What about the others? The other ponies?"

"They are already dead, xeno. There was no plan for you to live through this mission, either," he said, plainly.

"Will you kill us?"

"We have no reason to do so. You xenos have shown no quarter to the foes of the Imperium today, and even though you are sent to your deaths, you carry out your duty, like any good servant of the Imperium. You are not our enemy today."

Torch didn't really understand what that meant, but she accepted it. The Marines wouldn't be killing them just for surviving. She was grateful for that. The group retreated through the streets, eventually arriving at their destination, a large courtyard. More cultists and several daemonettes followed them through the streets, and the next few minutes was spent holding them off, waiting for the Thunderhawk to arrive. When it did, the group hastily boarded, and departed for orbit. Through the rear porthole windows, the ponies could see the Kasr's fate; destruction by massive orbital bombardment. The ponies were too tired and shocked to express anything. None of their friends had escaped, but the two ponies that had signed up together, trained together, and three others, were still alive. The five equine survivors of this battle. Those blessed- or cursed- with survival against all odds. Their company was dead. Probably to the last pony and commissar. What was there left for them? The answer was all too simple; revenge was their only desire now. That and to go home.

The spacecraft docked, and the ponies were silent as they were led to a decontamination and debriefing, at which they only spoke when spoken to. They were just too tired. Afterward, without even a medical examination or ever being asked if they were okay, they were put off-duty until something for them to do could be found. Soon after, they were sent to one of the ship's massive munitions bays to load ammunition with their telekinesis. The ponies were having difficulty keeping awake, and their constantly diminishing strength was soon evident to the munitions master, who sent the ponies to get some rest. Ponies were treated slightly differently when compared to a typical guardsman, as per the conditions of the Imperial-Equestrian agreement. Ponies were not subject to summary execution outside of battle unless sabotage or other hostile actions were evident. The munitions master wished them gone and dead, but he'd have to settle for the former.

Torchlight, Blinding Flash, Tin Kettle, and the two ponies they knew now as File Keeper and Zap Apple. When asked about her heritage by Flash, who knew all about Ponyville's founding, she said that she was an anomaly in the family, sometimes even shunned by her kin just for being a unicorn and not an earth pony, claiming she'd never know the 'earth pony way' that they had lived by for generations. She joined up so she could do something her family might be proud of. File Keeper, on the other hand, was a mail clerk in Manehattan who lived a fairly normal life, too normal for his taste. Why he signed up was obvious. However, just like the rest of the remaining five, they did not want to be there. Not anymore. After their meet-and-greets, they all retired to open bunks, hearing the sounds of battle as the Battle Barge fought with the rest of the Imperial fleet.

The Battle Barge was still in orbit fighting when the ponies woke up. The battle had been raging for almost a full day now. Upon waking, they were informed that they were to be transferred, grafted, into yet another unicorn unit stationed on a troop transport that would be arriving shortly. The journey to the transport was perilous, as attack craft strafed the thick armor of the Battle Barge to no avail, and Imperial interceptors were intent on taking them down. With escort, however, the shuttle craft made it through the line to the waiting transport vessel, where they were immediately debriefed and sent to the barracks, their full complement of one hundred having made it here. They were all new arrivals. The Five, as they now called themselves, made small talk only amongst themselves. They didn't want to see more of their friends die, so they concluded not to make any more. It was a time of despair for them, as they were briefed for their next deployment, to a ground war being fought outside of a major city on the surface.

Soon, they found themselves in a landing craft, also filled with around two hundred guardsmen. The hundred and five ponies aboard were separated into units of twenty-one, and not a single one of the Five remained together. Torch and Flash both despaired as their best friend was to be thrust into battle without the other. The others had similar mindsets, and all were dispondent as the craft entered the atmosphere of Cadia, landing to disgorge its cargo of man, material, and pony. It was time for total war.

Chapter Ten

A/N: Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of drive to continue this story any farther. The next chapter will be the last. Edit: I mean after this one, sorry. -IncoherentOrange

Chapter Ten

The ship landed, and the squads of ponies and men recieved their orders and positions. The groups passed a large battery of Basilisk self-propelled guns, their massive cannons booming over the din of the fighting taking place less than a kilometer away. The ponies marched until they reached the battlefield. Hordes of demons, clashing with hordes of men and heavily armored vehicles. It was the horrors of war embodied. The demons were largely those of Khorne, by far the most direct and most vicious of the forces of Chaos. The pony groups split up then, each to a different part of the line. They raised their magical shields as bolts of eldritch flame were hurled at them, and returned fire with various spells. It was time for payback.

Torchlight's group found itself moving closer and closer to their opponents, at the commissar's orders. They were getting dangerously close, but the unicorns were just as deadly as their enemies at such a range. The group unleashed torrents of fire and ice as the legions of Bloodletters charged at them. Torch wanted to burn them all, so burn them she did.

Flash's group took a more strategic approach, the commissar ordering them to use their longer-ranged spells to eliminate threats to the Imperial side's tanks. Flash strained his eyes, focussing his light beam on larger demons and possessed war machines, but he soon realized the sheer size of the opposing force. They were outnumbered, badly, and the Imperial line was slowly being pushed back. The commissar soon ordered them, too, to move into the thick of the battle. As they did so, the artillery batteries laid down a creeping barrage on their front, blasting the demons asunder. An all-out charge was ordered, and the two friends soon found themselves side-by-side once more, the heat of combat spells and Chaotic fire singed their manes and coats, even through their shields, as they charged to meet their foes up close.

Then came the Defilers. In the developing swirling storm of fire and lightning, numerous of the monstrous walkers approached the line, firing their battle cannons with little regard for shot placement. They wanted to crush things, nothing more, nothing less. The ponies didn't notice them, even as a battle cannon blast sent several ponies flying, until they were right upon them.

The ponies focussed their spells on the machine-demons, and the Bloodletters managed to close the short distance, their warp-spawned blades breaking through the weaker unicorns' shields, the Defilers swinging and smashing all the while. The Imperial line was crumbling, and at least two dozen of the forty-two ponies in the immediate area were dead. The commissars too had fallen, and some of the remaining ponies tried to fall back, only to be cut down by their own side. They had no allies in this battle. The remainder intensified their shields and redoubled their efforts. Flames, beams, ice and plasma, all energies imaginable were issued from the unicorns' horns, blasting with great efficacy war machines, Bloodletters, Bloodcrushers, all of it. But there were too many. Far too many.

They hadn't heard the drop pods land, but the Assault Marines were a pleasant surprise. The jet-pack-bearing enhanced warriors arced over their heads, landing right in the middle of the line. They got to work. With surprising speed, they attached melta bombs and cleaved at the demons. The now-familiar sound of bolter fire rang out from behind them, and torrents of explosive gyrojet projectiles flew at the abominations before them. The Imperials had regrouped, and pressed a counter-attack, spearheaded by Space Marines and battle tanks and supported by another creeping barrage. The ponies followed the line, already so very weary and tired. Many of them had lost friends, even family, but neither Torch or Flash felt the same. They were too tired of it all. It was difficult to accept, but in this short time as soldiers of the Imperium, they'd lost what many would define as the characteristics of a pony. Instead of helping a noble cause and making allies and friends, they were slaughtering and getting slaughtered by the dozens, and for what? So an evil empire could stop a more evil one? They just wanted to give up. There was no noble cause to uphold here. No underlying good side. The Imperium would toss them aside when they needed them no longer, and Chaos would do the same. There was no hope. Still, they trudged on. The demonic forces soon regrouped and pushed back again. The ponies, leaderless, followed just behind the front line, slinging what magic they could manage. They were just too worn out when the lines were pushed back past them, and more ponies fell before the endless horde. The rest, numbered no more than ten. The Space Marines and tanks were gone, and, mixed with the infantry, they retreated.

"I'm sorry!" Torch shouted over the perpetual din of warfare as they fell back. "I should never have done this!"

"I know," Flash replied. It was all he could say to his dear friend, who, even after all of this, could not be charged to bear the blame. "I know."

As they looked back at the charging horde, what looked like five thunder bolts struck the ground, leaving behind five monstrous Chaos Space Marines. No ordinary ones. They wore larger armor than the ones they'd seen before. Chaos Terminators. Each one, armed with grisly, spiked weaponry, fired into the fleeing guardsmen, downing many. The remaining unicorns raised their shields, deflecting many of the attacks. Flash had an idea. He charged his flash spell. He'd blind them to buy them time to escape. He poured all of his effort into the spell. He had to make it last long enough. He inadvertently paused as he concentrated. Torch stopped as well, and summoned a swirling inferno around her friend, to keep their assailants at bay. The spell was completed, and in a massive blaze of directional white light was sent in a one hundred and eighty degree arc in front of him. The demons, blinded in every way from both the light and Equestrian energies, went into frenzies, slicing at each other and anything else within reach. Flash passed out from exhaustion. Torch acted quickly, taking the fallen stallion with her telekinesis back toward allied lines, her mind taxed greatly as she kept her shield activated and extended around her friend as well. She stopped when she could discern what remained of their forces in the distance.

The Imperium's remaining forces were in terrible condition. A mere few, damaged battle tanks, only a few Basilisk pieces, and one massive vehicle with what looked to be a gigantic rocket strapped on top of it remained amongst the scattered infantrymen. Upon completing this evaluation, she collapsed. They had lost this battle, there was no hope in fleeing further. They were going to die. There was nothing more to it. Her vision faded in and out, as did her sense of hearing. One moment she could see the gigantic rocket-wielding vehicle raising its huge weapon, and could hear shouts as the demonic army continued toward them.

Another moment later, the missile could be seen activating its massive engines, and rocketing into the sky. Torch knew what it was going to do. She raised her shield once more in a final effort to survive, finding one to already be in place. She looked at Flash, whose horn was glowing dimly. He smiled weakly at her. The missile streaked toward the surface. The demons were mere meters away now. This was to be their final moments. It was time to make them count. Both ponies, with renewed vigor, rose from the cratered ground upon which they had been laying, and took a battle-ready stance for what they thought would be the final time.

Chapter Eleven and Epilogue

Chapter Eleven

The missile struck, and the ponies lay under what could be described as destruction in the purest of forms, shielded only by intense concentration and magic. By sheer force of will they survived, standing in a brand new crater, which was devoid of anything else, and strained quite far past their limits.

What remained of the demonic horde- a discouragingly large amount- still came closer over the lip of the crater, bellows for blood and killing permeating the air, which stunk of burning fuel, bodies, and nearly everything else imaginable. Torchlight and Blinding Flash stood between their own shattered forces and their insatiable, bloodthirsty adversaries. Battered, singed, and bruised, but not weakened of resolve, the ponies stood fast.

Just in front of the horde, they could see five red bolts of what looked like lightning strike the ground. What appeared at the point of impact were five massive Chaos Terminators, one of which wielded a very large sword with what looked like faces on it, along with a wicked claw-like appendage attached to his gauntlet, which also included a twin-barrelled weapon. His appearance was ornate, and simply screamed importance. He didn't wear a helmet, and the other four Terminators were armed with large weapons and strange-looking gauntlets. They fired at the ponies, the doubly-thick magical shield holding the attacks at bay. Both unicorns aquired the special Terminator as a target. If they were going down, they might as well take this guy with them.

As the began to focus their spells, they felt a series of small tremors. A glance behind them explained the source. Space Marine Drop Pods in a steel-blue grey color. They opened, revealing their contents. Strange-looking Space Marines, heavily equipped with both peculiar and ornate weaponry, emerged from the pods. With chants of loyalty to the Emperor and death to his enemies, which could be heard over the approaching demonic horde, they proceeded with their attack. The unicorns fired their initial salvo of powerful armor-piercing spells, only for them to merely slow the special Terminator. To support their attack were the efforts of the odd Space Marines, whose strange weapons belched stranger flame, not like demonic flame, regular flame, or magical flame, but something else. It simply burned away the charging Bloodletters without mercy. The entire tide was halted by the efforts of merely a trio of squads consisting of these elite warriors.

Neither Torch nor Flash wasted any time. The Terminators had re-directed their attacks toward their new assailants. One of them fell victim to a strange blast whose point of origin was obviously another one of the Marines' weapons. The Terminators did not appear shaken, and instead quickened their pace. Between the Marines and the Terminators stood Torchlight and Blinding Flash. They would be first to engage the massive Chaos warriors. So they steeled themselves for close-range combat, Torch throwing up a wall of fire, and Flash focussing his light beam. They walked through the fire wall and the continued attacks of the ponies' reinforcements, and shrugged off Flash's beam.

Mere meters away, the ponies were defended only by a shield and whatever else they could devise as an effective attack after their previously-effective spells were rendered useless. The two ponies looked each other in the eyes, then nodded. Focussing pure magical energy to their horns, they broke into a gallop, closing the distance between them and their foe in the blink of an eye. Each unicorn's horn glowing brilliantly, they struck the warrior at full tilt, feeling their horns piercing the armor, and the magical energy discharging into their target, and then struck the hard metal of their target's armor on their foreheads. They were knocked back by the impact, and remained conscious for several seconds longer, long enough to see the great warrior felled by their attack. They'd made it count. They'd made a difference.

Epilogue

The fourteenth Black Crusade was over, though the circumstances of its decapitation and subsequent retreat are quite fuzzy to almost all parties involved. Abaddon the Despoiler had died, but nobody knew what happened that day, on some embattled corner of Cadia. Nobody but the Inquisition, of course. The other Imperial belligerents of that battle 'vanished without a trace', as per their policy in regards to deploying their trump card- the Grey Knights chapter of Space Marines.

Neither Torchlight, the excitable, fire-wielding unicorn mare, nor Blinding Flash, her loyal and unwavering stallion friend, ever returned home. To Equestria, the fates of these two would never be known, and interest in their fate would fade in time. For the Imperium, however, the case was simply a number, like so many before then. Of the two hundred and fifty-four members of the Imperium's armed forces executed following that pivotal battle as per the Inquisition's order, two ponies were counted among them. An unceremonius end, but in a vast galaxy, of what was likely quadrillions of life forms, forgotten heroes were only too common.

Equestria, in which the Imperium saw little use in keeping as any real ally following the shattering of what could have been Chaos' final attack of any significant measure, began using not just many of the unicorns that volunteered to assist the Imperial cause to assist the Golden Throne's insatiable need for psykers. Instead every single one of the unicorns was taken directly to Terra, where they would serve to feed the appetite for life that the Golden Throne seemed to bear. No being in Equestria knew anything about it, and this would continue for as long as their ruler, a one Princess Celestia, remained alive. They were well aware of the creature's influence over the Astronomican. She had threatened it with destruction, psychically linking any hostile action toward the planet of Equestria's ruler to the fate of the Astronomican, assuring its destruction at her whim. If she died by their hand, the Imperium would too. So they would not take that risk, and instead siphoned the foolish inhabitants of the world for the Emperor's continued survival, kidnapping when necessary to reach quotas. The two empires co-existed tensely for long afterward, a waiting game of sorts for both sides.

The End

Chapter Three

Names were gradually called out, and their corresponding pony each, eventually, got their testing results. Flash examined his sheet. At the top, in what he'd assumed to be some sort of ancient language, it read 'index-unicornis proficiendi'. Unicorn proficiency index? They sorted them out? Flash was rated six point five, Torch rated eight, and the scale was out of ten.

"Whoo! I did good on it! Uh, what does this mean?" Torch's thoughts spilled from her mouth.

"There has to be a purpose to it. Maybe they'll tell us." Flash was worried. What would happen to unicorns that didn't do well? Did he do well enough?

A booming voice broke the chatter of the ponies, each of which were discussing their results.

"All those with scores of five or lower, report to left chamber. All others, report to right chamber. Now!" The voice was highly authoritive, and all ponies complied.

*****

The two ponies were never told about what had happened to the low-scoring ponies. Whenever they asked, they were ignored. It did not sit well with them as the high-scoring ponies- about a hundred of them in all- were instructed on the various horrors they were to fight 'in the name of the Emperor' against. They described the most awful of beasts, and went into specifics about how to kill them, how tough they were, and how to deal with a swarm of them. Torchlight was bored by the theory lessons, while Flash doubted their usefulness in a real fight. They were not, to their knowledge, to be issued any equipment other than a 'vox caster' in each of their 'squads', and that they'd have two 'commissars' with them to 'encourage them'. It was all fishy to Flash, but he took it in, and adhered to it. Several older unicorns gave magical demonstrations and lessons in combat and defensive magic, and most of them learned quickly. It had been several days, and nothing had been seen of the other ponies, or of Briggs, for that matter. But by now they knew that this ship was huge, its crew numbering in thousands, and that about three hundred ponies were on board when this evaluation took place, which meant that two hundred of them were unaccounted for. Had they been sent back to Equestria? Somewhere else? Flash wondered this as he sat through the theory and magical accuracy training, along with their attempted pressing of the 'Imperial Cult' on them. He couldn't think about anything else. He couldn't think.

*****

The ship was huge. Torchlight wondered why the Imperium needed any help at all, with such a powerful ship. And if she estimated correctly, there were hundreds, no, thousands of ships, just like this one, prowling the cosmos. She noticed that, unlike the crew and guardsmen aboard, they had not been given any tasks to perform while they were there, most of the time was spent learning. It was boring. They'd already told them that demons are evil, demons are dangerous, shoot the demons with the magic, bye-bye, all of that. It was all so boring now. She wanted to do something good, make a difference, to help. After all, anything beat just waiting on this dinky ship for a week or two until they got where they were going. They'd been told that they were travelling through the Warp, where demons lived, but that these demons couldn't get us, and that we couldn't fight them from here. It was so confusing, and still boring. Unable to find any higher-ranking human willing to give her an assignment, she had no choice but to wait.

Three days later

A great thundering could be heard, startling the idling ponies. A klaxxon blared, guardsmen moved, assembling to their posts. The ponies were called to assemble as well. Neither Torch or Flash knew anything of what was going on, though someone had been yelling about a 'gellar field'. What the hay was a gellar field? Standing in ranks, with commissars at the front, they were briefed on the situation by the senior officer in charge of their training, a cold, calculating individual that valued results over anything else.

"Something has been detected attempting to force its way through a small part of our Gellar field. Normally, we would drop out of the Warp, but our Warp drive has been locked, sabotaged, meaning we have a traitor aboard, a heretic. We have no way of getting out of the Warp. Due to the focused nature of the force attacking our Gellar field, it is likely that we are being directly attacked by a major Ruinous Power. So, we must prepare ourselves for a demonic incursion- in force- onto this vessel. Active patrols, now!"

Torch and Flash were, thankfully, in the same group, consisting of twenty unicorns and two humans. The signaller pony donned his bulky vox set, and they were off. What they had been training for, waiting for, was about to happen, and Torch was anything but scared, she was excited, somehow. Flash was less than enthusiastic. Demons were not a laughing matter. They served their patron god of Chaos, and did so with ruthless efficiency, and in great numbers. The commissars were completely fearless, they only saw a challenge to overcome, and attempted with all of their will to bestow this belief on the others, through enthusiasm and threats alike. It was mostly effective, and most of them were ready to get down to buisness, to kill some demons. Minutes passed as the wary group proceeded through the ship.

An intercom blared. "Demonic presence detected on decks 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. Divert security forces, enforce countermeasures. Biohazard procedures advised."

Flash looked around, and just as the nearest commissar started to say something, he noticed on the wall, in numerals: XIV. They were on deck fourteen.

"They're here! Give them the Emperor's wrath!" The commissar said.

"Where, sir?" Flash asked him, looking around. Then he noticed it. It was a terrible nauseating smell. On of decay... of pestilence. A swarm of flies was headed down the corridor, the commissar pointed to it.

"Plague flies!" He shouted. Torchlight came to the front.

"I've got this!" She said with pride, and, with effort, summoned a great fireball that left nothing in its wake intact down the corridor, incinerating all of the flies. A series of noises alerted them to the presence of numerous bloated humanoids on the other end of the corridor, each holding a nasty-looking projectile weapon of some sort. Flash charged his horn, the commissar in front raised his weapon, but it was too late. The beasts opened fire, a ball-shaped green object hit the commissar and one pony, felling both. Flash let out a fierce cutting beam, as did two other ponies, slicing the beastmen apart before they could fire again. Their attention turned to the fallen, but the other commissar, the one standing at the back of the group, shouted for them to move on. They did, leaving the unnaturally fast-decomposing bodies behind, moving to look for the source of these Nurglites. Nurglites, the force of Chaos they hoped never to face. Of the four Chaos gods, the ponies were most susceptable to the ailments caused by the plague lord. While Tzeentch and Slaanesh could not rend their minds and the demons of Khorne could be fought in a direct fashion, Nurglites struck with sickness, not sorcery or force, sickness, which was unhindered by the fact that the Warp had none of the usual symptoms on unicorns.

Ahead, in the corridor, they saw the black-clothed man that had tested them, holding a weird-looking weapon that spewed flame at the Nurglings in front of him. He noticed our approach, and spun, weapon at the ready.

"Ah, xenos. Perfect. Have you come to assist me?"

"We have, inquisitor." The commissar spoke.

"Good. We must find the source of these demons and take the only course of action we can- destroy it." The inquisitor now led them down the corridor, with the group stopping multiple times to dispatch clouds of plague flies, trade shots with plaguebearers, and avoid pools of pus and slime that marked the demons' path. Their mission was going well enough so far, but several ponies had fallen to the plaguebearers, and an attempt to outrun a swarm of plague flies 'forced' the inquisitor to close a door on a pair of ponies that had fallen behind, leaving them to the plague-ridden insects. Their group now numbered thirteen. Way too many have died. Flash thought. Torchlight had completely lost her air of enthusiasm, and the ponies were now concerned with getting out of this mess alive and healthy.

The group was going through an automatic door when it suddenly closed, and in the two-wide arrangement that left only the inquisitor, the commissar, Torch, and Flash on one side of the door, the rest on the other. From the other side of the door, noises were heard. The noises of hooves banging on the metal door, which the commissar could not open for some reason, then thundering footsteps. Yells saying that their spells were ineffective. Then the screams. Screams echoed through the ventilation shafts above, and the four listened in horror as they heard the rest of their unit slaughtered, so close to them, with nothing they could do about it. After a moment or so, the pounding on the door stopped, and, with an unnatural fury, something began to bash on the door. It was immediately evident that it would not hold for long.

"Get moving!" The inquisitor was hardly fazed by the event, Torch and Flash immediately and blindly obeyed him, and they were running down the hall. It was a dash through the now plague-ridden halls of the ship, until they crossed a corridor and heard lasgun fire coming in their direction. They skidded to a stop.

"Hold fire, guardsman! State your name, rank, and situation." The commissar ordered, and they stepped around the corner. Three Imperial guardsmen were standing there, two of them holding large, obviously-heavy weapons with a tube feeding something from a backpack into them, with tips glowing with flame, and the other holding a standard-issue lasgun. They stood at attention, and through his helmet, they heard the one with a lasgun acknowledge the commissar.

"Corporal Briggs, sir! This is all that's left of our unit." He gazed at the two ponies.

"Well, our horse-witch friends are safe and sound, are they?"

"These two, yes. Explain the situation, corporal." The commissar said.

"Thank the Emperor for these flamers, we would have been rotting corpses by now if it weren't for them." Briggs remarked, and the two wielding flamers stepped forward, and one of them nodded at the ponies.

"We've found out where they're coming from, but we were ambushed and had to fall back here." Briggs reported, "It's just this way, I think we can take them, the seven of us."

"That's the spirit, corporal! Forward!" The commissar shouted, and they bounded down the corridor, making best speed.