Warhammer 40000: Imperial Guardspony

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.