Darkest Hours in Equestria

One day earlier...

She watched as the ponies in tannish armor walk around her with a purpose. She didn't know where she was and she was scared of what they were going to do to her. She watched as one approached her and she scooted as far as she could against the wall as she tried to stay as far away as she could from the pony, who was anything but a normal pony.

At least as normal as they can get.

"Do not be afraid, my friend. I am not here to harm you. I have come here to bring peace to this land." Said the one in cream colored robes as he held a hoof out to her.

"I just want my friends!" She screamed as she covered herself.

Before the Tau pony could touch her, something blew up nearby and she squinted her eyes shut as there were screams and roars of rage and she heard loud explosions and felt something wet splatter her body. She heard footsteps nearby as she stayed curled up in a fetal ball and she felt hoof's drag her and she screamed as she kicked out at her assailants but she was slowly dragged into a cage and locked in it and she cried as the Chaos Cultist ponies followed the Chaos Khorne ponies, the more perverted forms of the heroic Ultraponies.

*** ***

She felt the air thicken with heat and humidity as she slowly uncurled from her fetal position and looked around. She saw a dark room, with a blood-red candle in a nearby corner. She looked around and squeaked slightly as she saw all of the cages around her, most of them occupied by bloodied, beaten ponies. As she watched the imprisoned, two ponies in big, scary spiked red armor with ugly crests of horns came from the darkness around her as they took one cage and lifted it high as they peered menacingly into the cage, their eyes a sickly green. They snarled to each other as Fluttershy watched in horror as they soon took the captive away from the dark place she was in. And as they soon left from her visible sight, she looked around and then looked over at the pony nearest to her.

"Hey! What's going on?" She asked as she looked around, hoping the pony was still awake.

But when she looked back, she saw the huge chunk of the pony was missing and that the pony was dead. Horrified, she shook her head and sobbed as the cage continued to spin around on its chains.

"Is there any pony still alive?" She asked into the pure darkness around her, not knowing whether she should even ask the question.

She heard thunderous hoof steps and watched in horror and wide-eyed terror as she saw a pony in massive armor, this one purple in color, as the pony put his face up against the bar's and shouted, "Shut up you filly!"

She squeaked as she hid herself and she noticed that the mouth of the ponies helmet was in the image of a snarling, howling mouth filled with sharp teeth. The pony shook the cage up before another in blue armor came forward and yanked the pony away as this pony shouted, "Hey! She's not to be touched! She is a sacrifice for the Dark Gods!"

The one in purple looked at the pony with what seemed to be a cold, hard stare before he trotted away and the pony in blue armor came forward, his helmet having a curved blade where his unicorn horn was suppose to be and his ears were covered in striped metal.

"What am I doing here?" She asked as she shook uncontrollably in the cage.

"You are to be a sacrifice for the Dark Gods. You shall become the catalyst that allows the Warp to come into this world." The pony said in a grainy, robotic voice.

"S-sacrifice?" She stuttered and as the dark pony seemed to gaze upon her squirming body, she shook her head as she said, "No... No, I don't want to die! I don't want to die!!!"

"I'm afraid it's too late now, my young mare...." The pony walked away from the place as she screamed out, "NO!!!" from her cell before she slowly stopped and began to bawl and sob in the cage.

But as she watched with tear filled eyes as the pony walked always, there was a sudden explosion that rocked her cell and tore open a hole in a nearby wall as shrapnel pierced into the blue Tzeentch pony and as he staggered from the sudden explosion, several ponies in green flak armor with tan uniforms came running in as their weapons spat ruby-red beams all over the place, striking walls, chains, Cultist ponies, and the larger Chaos ponies.

She watched in sheer fright as one of the beams hit the lock to her cell and as the cell lock melted under intense heat, she went over to the door and pushed it wide open and when she realized freedom was at hand, she rushed out of the cage as she landed with a almost sickening splat!. She quickly got up as she ran towards the nearest home just as the Chaos ponies and the Cultist ponies began to fight back against the assaulting ponies.

She jumped out of a nearby hole as she landed in what was mud and as she looked around her at the ensuing battle, she didn't know where she was but she knew she would have to find her way back home or maybe even to Canterlot to find help. So, with the assaulting ponies still batting the Chaos pony forces, she fled the area as she ran towards the distant image of Canterlot, still perched atop it's mountain top. She ran into a trench as she sought shelter when a nearby barrage of red beams lanced around her and as she pushed herself up from the floorboards, she could only see the bodies of dead ponies scattered around. She cried as she got up and galloped away and as she bolted through the trenches, she could barely see what was going on through tear streaked eyes.

That's when she ran into some pony and as she looked up in sudden fear, she saw a familiar face in a tan uniform and green armor, carrying a weapon in his hooves.

"Flash!" She squeaked in surprise and he looked at her in surprise as he asked her, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know but those ponies want me as a sacrifice! I wanna go back to Twilight and the others!" She bawled at his feet, something that made Flash look at her in shock and surprise as he looked around before he picked her up and as she cried on his back, he galloped away from the trenches and away from the fighting.

And then, for the first time since the war had reached her, Fluttershy fell into a sleep that was undisturbed.

**** ****'

Twilight moaned as she rubbed her face with a hoof and her body ached and stung in places. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself back into the hospital at Canterlot. She groaned as she sat up from the cot and as she looked around, she didn't see Rarity, Pinkie Pie, or the Crusaders as she looked around to see Steeltrix in a nearby cot, and he soon groaned as he looked over at her and asked, "Is this heaven?"

"Nope... I can still feel pain." She muttered to him and he sighed as he slowly got up and looked around the room himself. He looked to the next cot to him and she heard his jump and gasp as she leaned over to see Fluttshery in a cot, bandages all over her and having bruises in some places.

"What happened to her?" She whispered when she heard walking hoofsteps and looked up to see Flash Sentry slowly trot over and sit down at the foot of her cot.

"Are you alright?" He asked her as his hoof reached for hers.

She let her hoof be held as she sighed and said, "I wish I knew for sure... Why is Fluttershy here?" She looked over at her sleeping friend.

"Well, I found her in a trench near the Chaos ponies base and I managed to get her back here with her. They had to bring you in after we won the battle... Sweet Apple Acre's is under our control again." He said as he looked down.

She thought something was wrong the way he looked down and asked him, "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Well, we just got word that the Crystal Empire to the north, which some of our forces managed to get to, has become under siege by none other than the Eldar ponies. Those of us not being used to stop the Tyranponies in the Everfree Forest are being shipped off to help the Crystal Empire... I'm one of them as is my entire squad... I just don't want to leave the place you are because I'm afraid of what may happen to you."

She was touched by his sweetness of wanting to care for her and she said to him in a soothing voice, "I know I may not look like it but I'll be fine. I have the others looking after me plus I have Steeltrix, who seems to be more willing to die for equestrian than everyone else combined."

"Hey I heard that!" Steeltrix snapped from nearby and both Flash and Twilight giggled as she continued, "It's going to be alright for me and my group. You just worry about yourself."

Flash nodded as they watched the Apothecary come back and as Flash got off Twilight's medical bed, he said to her, "See you around?"

"See you around." She answered as he soon trotted away and out of the medical room while Steeltrix said, "Oh bother, does this mean we have to go into the Everfree forest now?"

She shrugged her shoulders as best as she could as she looked around before saying to him, "I just wonder if we'll win this war at all."

**** ****

Twilight groaned as she shrugged the uniform on and she soon shrugged the flak armor of the Guardponies onto her body before she strapped on her battle saddle and as she watched her friends put on their armor, she contemplated about their new orders that had just arrived.

Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare were both being ransacked by he Orkish ponies while Apple Loosa was being converted into a Necropolis by the nearly-undying Necrontyr ponies. The Tau ponies were currently residing in Van Hoover while the Eldar and Dark Eldar ponies fought around the Crystal Empire and Crystal mountains. And almost lastly the Tyranid ponies were creating havoc in the Everfree forest and Cloudsdale and as she thought about the Badlands, she could only assume that the Chaos ponies were over there.

As for where her group of soldier were heading? Well, it wasn't toward the Crystal Empire since half of their entire force was headed that way along with a small company of Ultraponies. They were headed with everyone else into the dark Everfree forest to tangle with the Tyranid ponies and from what the picture she saw told her, they were all ugly was could be for ponies. They were covered in fused bone plating, almost like how insects are, and had a mixture of claws, bone-blades as Steeltrix called them, and bio-weapons that could shoot superhot plasma and the worst acid that can melt through armor, flesh, and all.

She watched as Big Macintosh, their groups heavy trooper, as he shrugged on his battle saddle that was equipped with a rocket launcher and she looked over at Applejack, who was armed with a lasrifle like most of them. The only one that wasn't armed the same way was their medic, Fluttershy, who had a las pistol instead of a lasrifle. The Cutie mark Crusaders had been given las carbines, since the lasrifle's were just a little too big for them and though she wondered why they were still in the service, she could only assume that they had done something just to get their cute marks or attempt to get their cutie marks.

She watched as Steeltrix sit on a cot as he fidgeted he twirled what looked to be a sickle and as he tossed it into the air, it gracefully twirled in graceful arcs as it came down and he caught it mid-fall as he sheathed it next to his bayonet. She also noticed he had what looked like two grenades on his battle saddle and she wondered where he had found those but decided that she wouldn't rebuke him for it.

Knowing what he had done, it wouldn't surprise her if he would use those to bail them out of a particularly bad fight.

Suddenly, a techpony trotted in, mechadandrites waving like grass in the wind and servo-arms whining as the pony carried something in his servo-arms and she saw it was a standard Guardpony flamethrower.

"Which of you would take the task of carrying this weapon?" The techponies voice was mechanical, a sign he was truly becoming a machine more than a pony.

"Ah... um... Alright, ah' geuss ah' will take the flamethrower." Applejack said in a drawl as she put away her lasrifle and the techpony put the tanks on her battle saddle as she was given the gun, connected to the fuel tanks by a fuel line.

"The procedure is complete. You may go back to duty, Guardpony." The tech pony trotted away as he left the barrack room.

"Alright, lets get goin' I guess." Applejack shrugged as Twilight nodded as she said, "Alright, lets move out and get to the Everfree forest. The Tyranid ponies need to have no ground bases so they can stop creating more swarms of Tyranid ponies."

Everyone filed out as they left the bunker-like barracks and as they approached a nearby Chimera APC, Twilight waved them in before she entered herself. And as the APC began to rumble away from the barracks in Ponyville, it slowly rumbled along the dirt road as it headed for the foreboding woods of the Everfree Forest.