Darkest Hours in Equestria

When the APC halted, Twilight nodded as the ramp lowered down and everyone quickly hopped out of the APC as they found themselves looking at a clearing made within the Everfree forest. The base was a mash-up of trenches, barriers, bunkers, comm arrays, and tents of all sorts while Guardponies marched around in tight patrols. They quickly trotted away from the APC as it sat idly in the base before it soon was turned off and as Twilight lead her squad towards the main command bunker that sat in the middle of it all.

As they entered into the dark bunker depths, Twilight turned to Applejack who she had made second-in-command, as she told her, "Keep everyone right here. I should be back soon."

"Be careful, Twilight." Applejack replied as she looked at the others and said, "Alright, its gonna be awhile before she returns, Let's make ourselves comfortable now."

She left them as they were, knowing full well that Applejack could handle the squad and the somewhat troublesome Steeltrix, as she descended down a flight of steps and came into a large war room. Ponies of all ranks went to and fro as they worked their plots off to see the campaign made successful. As she descended down some more stairs, she saw another pony similarly dressed like Commander Draco and she approached him as she stopped and snapped to attention before the figure. The Pony, a mare, realized she was behind her and turned as she said, "So, the Squad Mane 6 has arrived here at Base Echo-Foxtrot. Welcome."

"Yes, ma'am." Twilight snapped off a salute that was quickly returned as she asked, "What is our orders, ma'am?"

"You will be attached with a platoon of the 325th Krieg Guardponies as you try and push the Tyranid ponies inside the forest. Your main task is to destroy all forms of hives and to kill as many of them as you can. We have yet to find their main base but we will soon. And by the way, I am Commander Sylver. I will have a copy of your orders copied to your data-slate. Until the next wave of our ponies comes back, you will mainly stay at base and stay out of trouble. Dismissed!" The Commander mare said as she nodded for Twilight to leave.

"Yes ma'am!" Twilight snapped before she did an about-face and quickly made her way back to the surface, to where her squad awaited her. As she came through the bunkers main entrance, she found her entire squad staring at Applejack at the position of attention and as she looked at them up and down, she almost mistaken them all for professional Guardponies.

"What's our orders, Twi?" Asked Applejack as she looked expectantly at Twilight while the squad didn't so much as flinch.

"Our order's are to join up with a platoon from the 325th Krieg Guardponies and wait until the last wave of ponies get back. Then, we are to destroy the Tyranid nest's and structures and wipe out any forces we see until we find their main base, which could be anywhere." Twilight answered as she checked her data-slate and read off of it. "Well, follow me to our new home... and from the looks of it, we won't be living in some dugout."

Everyone trotted behind her in semi-perfect formation as they trotted past other groups of Guardponies, all who look like they had seen some wear and tear since the start of it all. Some had what looked like armor that had been eaten away in area's and some had what looked like prosthetics on arms that were red from something vile taking the original limbs away.

They reached the 325th Krieg Guardponies camp area and as they slowly walked into their tent that they owned, She noticed that most of these Krieg ponies seemed a tad bit like Steeltrix, although as she looked at some, they were so focused on their weapons she was surprised they weren't talking idly. She entered last and as they sorted themselves out, Steeltrix once again had himself closest to the entryway and she saw he was looking at the Krieg ponies himself.

"What do you make of them, Steeltrix?" She asked him as she looked at her data-slate at what was on it.

"They seem quite a bit like me, jus focused on war-making and very little else... Well, talking to them can wait for sometime. I think my lasrifle needs some more attention." Steeltrix said as he soon sat on his cot and took his rifle out as he began to clean it and make sure it was in tip-top shape.

And there he goes yet again... Trying to set an example of soldiery foe everyone else in the squad... When will he learn that not everyone, save maybe these Krieg ponies, will ever be the best soldier? Twilight thought as she watched the others put stuff away and tidy the tent up a bit.

****** *****

When she heard the sounds of trotting hooves approaching the base, herself and everyone else got out of their tent as they wanted to see how bad it was. They reached the edge of their small compound base and as they looked at the approaching ponies, Steeltrix muttered next to Twilight, "Holy Celestia...." and it was the first time she had ever heard him say anything of her name.

The Guardponies were looking worn down from the fighting within the Everfree forest. She saw APC's with melted armor, ponies carried on stretchers with missing limbs, and she saw what looked like a two-legged walker called a Sentinel slowly taking up the rear with its fair share of melted armor plating. The ponies slowly staggered in and she watched as medic's from their unit come over and quickly take away the injured ponies as Applejack suddenly said what every pony was thinking, "What are we walking into?"

"So you are Mane 6, eh? Just a bunch of meat for the meat grinder.... Shameful."

The voice startled them all except for Steeltrix who turned around and said, "Oh really? I don't see even a scratch on you. You must be new yourself because every other pony here has some form of combat on them, scars to replaced limbs."

"Oh, so you're the wise guy of the group." The Krieg pony wore red uniform with grey armor and he had a normal lasrifle on his battle-saddle. He looked like a grizzled veteran of campaigns but as she looked him over closely, he didn't give off the same air as a veteran.

More like a cryfilly greenhorn.

But just as Steeltrix was about to say something else, a commanding voice behind the Krieg pony barked out, "Kawolski! Get back to your quarters, now!"

The pony cringed as he scampered away and a Krieg pony, wearing a cape of black fur along with the other ponies uniform and gear, approached Twilight's squad as he said, "Forgive me if he bothered you. Kawolski likes to try and haze the new ponies attached to us. I am Lieutenant Apollo "Firespitter". I am commander of this detachment of the 325th. It is nice to have the Princess Twilight Sparkles and her squad attached to our unit." And as the pony looked at Steeltrix, he gave the biggest grin as he said, "And you must be the famous Steeltrix your friends talk about! I hear you were like us before the war, always thinking of violence."

"Yeah, but now at least it's used for good now. Before, it made me a pariah." Steeltrix said with a small smile and Apollo laughed as he said, "Ha ha ha! You'll feel like family here in the Krieg ponies! We can't help but like war, even when people die from it."

Apollo walked over and put a hoof around Steeltrix as he said, "Well, you all should get ready. We got the next wave shift so you best be prepared for what we will be facing."

And as they all followed Apollo back into to their tent, Twilight was very worried that something bad was going to happen to them all when they went into that Everfree forest.

**** *****

When the Krieg ponies went out to go into the Everfree forest, she counted around 8 Guardpone squads all together with maybe 4 Chimera APC's and at least 4 Sentinels. At least one Guardpony in each squad of the Krieg ponies was equipped with a flamethrower or another weapon called a meltagun that shot a very intense beam of super-heated plasma from its nozzle and would turn anything five feet from you into nothingness, and everything else from that into ash and burned corpses.

Her squad was in one APC and as she manned one of the side sponsons equipped with a flamethrower and as she looked around the little sponsons firing view, she almost wanted to just watch the other Guardponies dismounted next to the other Sentinel walkers, which all had flamethrowers mounted on them and looked and walked like chickens.

"All units, we are nearing the area which the Tyranid ponies are. Prepare for immediate contact and prepare for a swarm of them." Came the voice of Lt. Apollo over the APC's radio and as she looked over at Steeltrix, he nodded to her as he said to everyone, "I don't know what these ponies are like but we shouldn't ever think we'll be in control with them. From what I hear, they are Hive-mind creatures, so they are going to be straight up animals."

There was a sudden bump as the APC went over something and as everyone gave a grunt from the sudden movement, Lt. Apollo came on again as he told them, "Aright, here we go!"

And that's when everything seemed to go off at once.

She heard lasrifle's firing everywhere as she heard flamethrowers spewing liquid death all over the forest and soon she could see fire licking everywhere. The screams of Meltaguns could be heard as well but she also detected another sound: scream that horrified her and chilled her very soul as she saw shapes galloping all around them, not clearly armed but she knew these had to be Tyranid ponies.

"Chimera's! Set up a wall for our Guardponies to use and whatever you do, do not panic and try to fall back!" Shouted Lt. Apollo over the radio as Twilight saw shapes leaping towards the APC and she sprayed her flamethrower mount around as the flames were spewed out like a fire house did with water. She heard screeches of unfamiliar creatures and watched as the area was bathed in so much fire, nothing should have survived.

That's when the huge Tyranid creature called a Carnifex came smashing through the tree's. It was so huge to Twilight and she gave a very audible swallow as the creature smashed into a nearby APC and flipped it over as she watched the armor buckle beneath the creature's mass. It was an ugly creature with an elongated head with a wide, fan-head crest of pure bone, it's jaws filled with sharp teeth and eyes that were devoid of anything except for this hive-mind. It had two arms with gigantic bone-swords that sliced any pony in half wherever they were swung and it had two other arm's as those held a bio-weapon that was like a cannon, buckling and punching through the armor of a Sentinel. It's entire body was covered in bony plates that seemed to shrug off all of the attacks from the lasrifle's but seemed to be taking some hurt from the Chimera's autocannon and heavy flamers and as she aimed her heavy flamer, she heard everyone else firing the APC's side-mounted lasguns.

She could see also the Tyranid ponies skittering around the Carnifex, actual creature that looked like ponies but they had a bone-blade for a tail, had a skull with a jaw of sharp teeth and at least six beady-eyes, and had an extra pair of limbs on their back with bone-blades affixed to them.

"Hormogaunt ponies!" Someone shouted over the radio and she heard screaming in the background as she watched the Carnifex take a sudden shot from an autocannon to it's jaw and as bone shards flew everywhere, she saw it's jaw had been severely damaged when she heard the APC door open and she turned to see Steeltrix covering Big Mac as he hefted his rocket launcher.

Big Mac aimed the bulky weapon as he paused before the weapon let out a roar as the rocket screamed out of the launch tube and delivered a blow to the side of the Carnifex's head. She saw an explosion of blood erupt from the head as the rocket punched through the bone plates and erupted right in the cranium and as the bit's of brain and blood splattered everything, the huge creature wobbled slightly before it fell over, making the ground quake beneath it's huge mass.

She couldn't tell from how many of the Guardponies outside were dead but as she looked around through her small viewport, she could only assume 50% of the group was gone. And then, suddenly, the radio crackled as Apollo shouted over it, "All units! Fall back! I repeat, fall back to base Echo-Foxtrot!"

And just like that, the APC ground itself over dead corpse as everyone that was alive fled the area before more of the Tyranid ponies could swarm over them.

****** *****

On the way to the base, it was somber inside the APC. Everyone was silent, unwilling to speak after so much had happened and all Twilight could think about was the ponies who had died out in the forest, never to be recovered again for any form of cremation or burial. It saddened her to think that she may become one of them at one point and such a thought made her shiver, even in the heated, cramped passenger compartment of the APC. The APC began to slow as it neared the base and as she looked around she said to everyone, "Well, we made it back... hooray." Her tone lacked any enthusiasm in the return and everyone solemnly kept focused on themselves as most tried to not remember what just happened.

That's when the APC halted and turned off and as the ramp was lowered and as everyone slowly filed out of the APC, she looked around to see medic's running to and fro once again, taking away those poor wounded ponies from their mission. They began to walk along when Lt. Apollo approached them and as they snapped to attention, he said to them, "Your heavy trooper, Big Mac, did a fine job killing that Carnifex."

"I also wanted to say that though you may have not done much, you actually did help us a lot. Your shots kept the concentration of Hormogaunts off of us long enough to load up our wounded." Apollo continued to say. He seemed genuinely thankful for what little they did and Twilight smiled slightly as she said, "Of course. Whatever we can do to help."

Apollo smiled as he said, "Come follow me to the mess hall, you all need it more than you may think."

Twilight looked at her friends and squad mates before she nodded and she lead the squad after Apollo as he lead them to the mess hall that was situated on the other side of the Krieg ponies camp area.

The mess hall was loud and rowdy with all sorts of Stallion's and mares congregating around the mess tables that seemed to span the room with how long they were. Although the outside made it look like a normal bolter equipped bunker, Apollo had lead them downstairs into this place and as they followed him through the line, he asked them, "What sort of Ration have you been eating? You all look starved of some real food."

"Well, we only eat what we get, which is mainly three meals of A-Rations." The rations, to say the least, were disgusting and awful and sometimes she wondered what exactly was put into them.

"A-Rations! Geez, most Guardponies usually throw them into fire pits because they aren't very good for you but burn quite well. In fact, if you need a quick fire, just put a match on a pile and it'll give you plenty of light to see around you." Apollo came to the counter and as he picked up a tray, Twilight noticed the chef's were giving Apollo strange looks but they shrugged as she took up a tray and followed Apollo.

With their food splattered on her tray, and a little bit on herself, they quickly followed Apollo till he sat down and they arrayed themselves around him as he asked Steeltrix, "So, what exactly did you do before the war?"

Steeltrix went ramrod straight with his body as he looked around before he looked back and said, "I don't want to talk about it... There is a single pony in my group that will be offended by what I did

Although Twilight and her friends knew he had done violence but as she watched him nervously glance around, she suddenly realized she had never even attempted to find out what exactly he had been doing that was violence and as she watched him glance suddenly over at Fluttershy, she suddenly had an idea at what he had directed his violence at and she blurted out, "You killed animals didn't you?!"

Fluttershy, who apparently had been drinking some water from her canteen, spewed the water out like a water hose and it was aimed at none other than Steeltrix himself and as he looked at her with a slightly hurt look, she demanded, "What did you kill?"

"I may have killed a few Timber Wolves and destroyed some of their den's when I was a Pariah... Nothing too bad, right?" He looked around sheepishly as he said it.

"Timber Wolves? As in, full grown Timber Wolves?" asked Applejack in astonishment.

"You know, unless you use fire or an axe, they are really tough to kill and every time I got in a scrap with them, I always seem to come out of it with a bazillion splinters all over me that I have to go through every night. It's a wonder I still don't have some in me right now." Steeltrix said.

"I've seen Timber Wolves, or at least the photo's. What is the most you've taken on alone at one point?" Apollo asked with complete interest.

"I'd say.... around.... well...." Steeltrix thought back to his early years before he said, "I had to clear out a den of over 2 dozen of the things. I had more splinters that day than I would the entire year of dealing with those things."

And at that declaration, Fluttershy seemed to sniff and Applejack hugged her close as she muttered, "I knew you were a monster... Now look what you've done."

"Had I not dealt with those beasts, they surely would have killed some random pony or maybe taking a looking to prowling about your Sweet Apple Acres." Steeltrix retorted and Twilight began to realize things may come to blows soon enough.

So she quickly said, "Well, at least we can all remind ourselves that you've done crazy things in the past when you go off on some suicidal mission."

Steeltrix glanced over at her with his peripherals and she watched as his eyes narrow as he said in a surprisingly dark tone, "Are you for real saying that? Are you saying I'm just another pawn for you, like your friends are?"

Now that stung.

"My friends are not some pawns or slaves to be thrown about! I actually would die before I let my friends be harmed in anyway! I care for them!!" She spat back at him as her own eyes began to narrow.

"Right, are all of your friends treated that way? All of them??" He said and she realized she had not counted on him actually knowing much about her.

"Are you saying that I don't actually care about any one of my friends?" She demanded and her face began to feel warm from this heated debate.

"Yeah! For one thing, your dragon. You can't even look at him with glowering at him! Sorry to say this, Princess, but Friendship is only Friendship when everyone you know is a friend and from what I see, Spike isn't one of them." Steeltrix nearly spat it out but he didn't, knowing that as soon as he let his anger out, he wouldn't be able to stop it or whatever came next.

Apollo realized that unless he did something this was going to end in a very nasty brawl and as the commander of this unit, he only wanted a fight against their enemies, not amongst themselves. So he tapped Steeltrix's shoulder with a hoof and jerked it to the exit as he said, "Go outside and let off some steam, Steeltrix. Trust me on this. Heck, I order you to go let some steam off."

As Steeltrix got up, he cleared his tray of food and left the mess hall and though the entire atmosphere around them hadn't changed one bit, the group's mood had gotten worse from this.

"He... He seems a bit scarier when he's mad..." Pointed out Rarity as she tried to resume eating.

"Look, from what I can tell, you all need to stop holding grudges against him. What's done is done and there is nothing you can do about it." Apollo addressed the group as he watched Twilight slowly calm down. " You all need to realize that his flank's mark is not a cutie mark. It's a mark that is aptly called a Warrior mark. Just like your Cutie marks, it shows him what he must do and his says he must be the one to wage a constant conflict against something. I'm just thankful he didn't kill any other pony."

Twilight wanted to tell him that it is impossible to get a 'Warriors Mark' but as she let her head wrap around what he just said, she knew that he had a point. She sighed as she looked down at her food before she made up her mind and said, "I'm going to apologize to him. And you should come too, Applejack."

"Why should I bother with scum like him?" Applejack asked as Fluttershy began to resume eating herself.

"Because not only are you just as guilty but you also are my second-in-command and you should always help me out with these sort of things." Twilight said as she got up and cleared her tray.

Applejack gave a frustrated groan as she looked around and Big Mac, who was sitting next to her, nudged her and she sighed as she got up and cleared her tray as she said to her, "Fine, but don't you think I will ever trust him again."