Darkest Hours in Equestria

The Thunderhawk's engine roared dully through Twilight's helmet as herself, Ultrapony Squad Mane 6, Captain Haikune and his squad, and Tactical Squad Leevey all sat quietly in the Thunderhawk. Somewhere outside the hull of the venerable Thunderhawk, several other Ultrapony Thunderhawks and Imperial Guard Valkyries were making their way to Manehatten in the first attempt of reclaiming the cities along the east coastline of Equestria.

Twilight mind, however, was only partially focused on the task at hand because it was more worried about Big Mac, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Steeltrix. She wondered why they hadn't been taken in to become Ultraponies like herself and the others and part of her wanted to ask Captain Haikune why they hadn't been added with her squad but she found herself realizing that to do so would be inappropriate for even herself and she kept her thought's quiet as Ultrapony Captain Haikune said, "Twenty minutes till assault."

Everyone suddenly began check their weapons as Twilight could only check her Bolter. She checked her Bolter's counter and made sure it was full of blessed bolter shells before she looked back at her friends and said, "Give me affirmations that you all check out good."

Lights flickered in the corner of her eyes as everyone checked out good and she went back to her thoughts as the Thunderhawk began to shift it's trajectory. At first, she thought it was coming in for a landing but the it suddenly shook and she heard explosions outside as the orkish ponies attempted to bring them down. She tried to brace herself the best she could but each one of the nearby AA blasts jolted her in her seat and she wondered how the other ponies were faring when she heard a high pitch whine and watched from her spot as a Imperial Guard Valkyrie came burning past the Thunderhawk as it spewed fire, smoke, and ponies out into the sky.

She chewed her bottom lip as the Thunderhawk began a descent and as everyone tensed up, Captain Haikune shouted, "In the name of Primarch Celestia!! For Equestria!!!!!!!"

Everyone roared with that shout, although Twilight believed Fluttershy had done her "Yay" instead but she didn't mind as the Thunderhawk continued it's hot descent to the ground, heedless of the orkish fire trying to rip it from the sky.

********** ***********

When the Thunderhawk suddenly touched the ground, the ramp quickly lowered as Captain Haikune and his Command squad lead the way while Squad Leevey followed him. Twilight lead Squad Mane 6 out with bolter in hoof and as they ran out into the destroyed streets of Maenhatten. Twilight got her good first look at what the Orkish ponies had done to the city.

Now, granted, she had read up on them from what few text the Ultraponies had of them but she hadn't expected them to be truly this destructive. Buildings all around her were in ruins from the Orkish ponies desire for endless destruction as she followed the lead of Captain Haikune. She passed stinking refuse, the bodies of killed ponies, and the remains of some other creature that must have been with the orkish ponies. She also saw the dead remains of Ork ponies, all beaten up and robbed of their terrible clothes and surprisingly their teeth, although she had read up that they used teeth as currency which was quite barbaric and repulsive even for her. They ran past smoldering pits of fire that had been constructed and when they came to an intersection, Captain Haikune stopped them as Twilight watched a squad of Imeperial Guardponies come up with a Chimera behind them.

"We must head off towards the east. More of our Brother Ultraponies have engaged the Greenskins ahead of us and require our assistance." Said Captain Haikune as he ran down the intersection opposite the Guardponies had come from and as Squad Leevey and Squad Mane 6 accompanied hiss squad, the Guardponies also followed them.

As they ran along, the sounds of war soon reached Twilight's ears as they approached another intersection but just as they reached it, an explosion torn apart the Guardponies and hurled shrapnel into the other's as Captain Haikune, Squad Leevey, and Squad Mane 6 hit the asphalt and watched as Ork Ponyz came charging out of a nearby building, hoof's holding crude pistols and choppa's, mixture of toothed axes, chainsblades, and sword as the swarm of greenskins came after the Imperial forces.

Twilight popped up and fired her bolter as she the reticule in her vision on each Orkish pony as each blessed-bolt round she fired slew another of the ghastly ponies. Each of the Ork Ponyz were green furred and hair that was either nonexistent or was in a barbaric pony tail. They had crude armor covering them and their jaws had a covering of metal that was shaped into a jagged lower jaw and some of them had industrial staples, stiches, and oversized bandages on their body, as if they been in so many fights their limbs were literally falling off. As a Orkish bullet snapped by her face, she turned to see a Ponyz with a Big Shoota on a crude battle-saddle and the pony gave a guttural laugh as it fired a stream of shots at the Ultraponies. Twilight thought up a spell and threw it before the Ultraponies using the warp and as her horn became hot and her body became warm, she strained to hold off the barrage of the Bug Shoota as more of the Ork Ponyz came and fired at them.

The Guardpony Chimera suddenly came forward and it's cannon began to spew death at the Orkish Ponyz but a Ork Pony appeared with a checkered rocket launcher with a rocket with a shark face and that seemed too big for the launcher but as Twilight dropped the shield from exhaustion, she watched as the missile blew from the launcher and tore into the Chimera's side hull as fireworks of cooking ammunition fired out of the rent and the Chimera went up in flames and as Twilight ducked down behind the concrete barricade everyone was behind, she popped up to fire a shot when the Big Shoota fired another stream of bullets at them and she heard the Pony laugh a guttural laugh and she tried to hug the ground as a bullet chipped her ceramite armor but she managed not to be hit by any more as the barrage was soon replaced by the smaller shoota's and slugga's and as those bullet snapped around them, Twilight became slightly agitated and frustrated as she tried to summon up another shielding but the bullet's around her were too much and she kept her head down as she watched Haikune and his squad tried to fight back until one of his Ultraponies was shot in his helmet, the blood spraying the cracked pavement behind him as he pitched back and Haikune cursed as he fired more shots.

Twilight looked at her squad and watched as Rainbow Dash popped up and fired three bolt's from her bolt pistol before she ducked down as a storm of lead raged over her. Rarity was trying to fire back with her Bolter as Applejack was sorta stuck behind the pavement with her blessed flamethrower, still unable to do anything under such a fullisade of weapon fire but as Twilight looked around her, she felt a fury building inside her and as she suddenly stood up despite the gun fire all around her, her blessed horn grew hot as suddenly a bright bolt of lightning blasted straight as the Ork Ponyz and she watched in incredible detail as she stripped flesh and charred bone to three Ork Ponyz and then blasted the head off the one with the Big Shoota. As soon as the lightning stopped, Rainbow Dash whooped as she soared into the air before crashing down intot he pavement as the pavement buckled and sent the Ork Ponyz tumbling and scattering as Rainbow's chainsword carved a chunk out of an Ork Pony. Her bolt pistol fired twice and another Ork pony pitched back with it's body being blasted and that's when Twilight gave a shout and her squad ran forward as Haikune roared and his squad and Leevey's tactical squad charged the remaining Ork Ponyz and as the Ork Ponyz tried to mount a shambled, shattered defense, the Ultraponies swept through them and killed them with combat knives, power swords, and the butts of bolters and bolt pistols.

As Twilight looked up from the carnage, she watched as Fluttershy open up the Ultrapony from his armor as she used her Narthecium to cut apart his body till she got to his gene-seed and then she put it in a vial as she stored it into her bag. Then she got up as she took out her bolt pistol and looked around as Captain Haikune said, "Come, we must continue our aid to our brothers nearby!"

Twilight nodded as she followed the Captain along with Squad Leevey as they followed him back into the glorious conflict.

******** **********

When they reached their Ultrapony bretheren, Twilight now got to saw what they were up against when it came to the Ork Ponyz numbers and vehicles. Tactical Squads, Devastator Squads, Assault Squads, and an occasional four-legged Dreanought, all fought off Ork Ponyz, Pony Nobz, Killer Kans, and what looked like GrechFillies, smaller Orkish Ponies that she read who do all of the work for the bigger ones. She watched as a huge horde of them charged the Ultrapony and Imperial Guarpony lines and she watched as they were cut down in huge swathes as more Ork Ponyz came to bring up another assault down upon the Imperial forces.

Captain Haikune roared as he charged forward into the battle lines as Squad Leevey followed after him but Twilight stayed back as she felt waves of the Warp crashing into her and she fell to her knee's as Captain Haikune stopped and noticed this. Looking around his channels, he found one pony who could help her and said, "Librarian White Eyes, please come to my position. Librarian Twilight is being assaulted by the Ork Ponyz own Shaman's."

But as another explosion happened along the Imperial lines, Captain Haikune was forced to leave Librarian Twilight on her own and as Twilight tried to stand, something evil and not naturally pony kept throwing waves of the warp against her to keep beating her down, her head feeling like it was going to explode. But then a reassuring paw was placed on her shoulder and she felt the aches go away as she stood up to look upon the figure of the Librarian White Eyes.

His Psychic Hood blazed white like his unicorn horn as he looked down her with his Ultrapony armor. His armor had old, wrinkled books on his armor and he had strips of purification placed on his armor with seal of red wax. He held a power sword that rippled with his Psychic powers and as he looked at her, his deep voice asked from his vox-grille, "Are you alright, Librarian Twilight."

"I am better now.... But I thought I was no more than some Psysker?" She asked as she felt a wave of grit wash over her armor and looked to see a few dead Guarponies nearby, torn up from an orkish artillery shell.

"When you take upon yourself the armor you wear, you become a Librarian.... although, we did find out about your previous job as a Librarian in Ponyville." Librarian White Eye's said as he suddenly threw up a Psychic shield as she shielded the entire squad from an Orkish rocket that exploded into greasy smoke against it.

He's really good. Thought Twilight as she watched the shield drop and as the Librarian looked at the Mane 6, he knew they were a.. needed to repulse the greenskins and so he said, "Come! Follow me! Our battle-brothers need us in the fight!"

No pony disagreed as they followed the Librarian from the place as more explosions erupted along the Imperial lines and in the sky.

******** *******

As soon as the Mane 6 officially got into the fight, they were faced with many others against the tide of greenskins: Grechfillies, Ork Ponyz, Nobz, Loota's and Burna's, and as she felt the warp around them, she felt a Shaman amongst their ranks and she was about to recoil when she felt a blast of psychic energy next to her and watched as the lightning bolt from White Eye's horn blew a hole through the horde and through the brief empty space she saw the Orc Shaman but couldn't get enough of his features to exactly see who he was but then the tide of greenskin's returned en masse and she took up her bolter and as she aimed it at the horde of bodies, she heard a screech of flames spewing from Applejack's flamer and watched as it cover several Ponyz and Grechfillies in oily, promethium as the flaming liquid began to burn skin off them and cook their flesh as fat hit the pavement. All of these details struck her like a tidal wave as she snapped back and fired a shot at a Nob trying to charge their lines and her shot connected to it's chest as it blew out half of it's ribs and pulped every organ in it's body and as the Nob fell with a meaty thump to the pavement, her aim twitched as her next to bolts dropped some Loota's from where they were giving war cries.

Another bolt of War sorcery from White Eye's blasted a path through the greenskin horde and as she looked through, she summoned from her horn her own lightning bolt and fired it as soon as she saw the Shaman. She heard the pony screech as he lightning bolt connected but she frowned as the Shaman stopped screeching and them suddenly blast at her a green bolt of Orkish sorcery and she threw up the hastiest warp shield she could as the bolt blasted across the shield and forced her to her knee's. White Eyes saw this and threw a few warp bolts back at the Shaman as he watched Apothecary Fluttershy help up Twilight from the ground and as he fired his simple bolt pistol, his sword remained tightly gripped in his hoof.

Rarity fired her bolter in a short burst as Pinky Pie fired off her Lascannon and the blast punched through two more Nobz as Rarity's and Rainbow Dash's bolts punched through the Ponyz around and all Fluttershy could do was hide behind them all with her Narthecium in her hoofs still. Applejack ducked down as another stream of orkish fire zipped by her armor as she popped back up long enough to turn a half dozen more Ponyz and Nobz into living torches.

But just as Twilight felt some more power of the Warp slowly go through her to renew her, she also felt just a touch insane suddenly and she thought she saw something in the corner of her eyes. But she shook her head as she focused on the task ahead and shot another Pony dead in it's tracks, the shot punching through its chest and spine. She ducked down as green lightning whipped by her helmet and she watched from her peripherals as White Eye's fired another blast of lightning at the Shaman and as she prepared to fire her own lightning, she suddenly saw something in the corner of her left eye that nearly, very nearly froze her in shock and horror.

Steeltrix was fighting on the frontlines against some Ponyz with only his lasrifle that had a bayonet on it's barrel. He had a gash along one leg and he was fighting his hardest against what looked like three Ponyz that were swinging away with choppa's. And as she looked round him, she saw Imperial Guardponies and Orkish Ponyz scattered and stacked on top of each other indiscriminately.

She almost didn't see the bolt of Shaman sorcery nearly hit her and as she snapped back to the present and faced the Shaman pony, who was now much easier to completely see. He wore what looked like a hood and cloak of dirty rags and was covered in by hides of creatures. He wore many teeth of both ork and other origin and he held in his hoof a cantankerous staff that crackled and sparkled with raw, uncontrollable Warp energy. The shaman cackled again and then sent a lightning bolt at her of green as she threw up a warp shield and blocked it before she heard someone shout something to her left and she whipped her head around to see Steeltrix having been pushed to the ground onto his back and she watched as an Pony raised it's choppa.

White Eyes suddenly shouted, "Finish him off, Twilight!" and Twilight had two choices: save Steeltrix or kill the Shaman.

But do I really need to save him? Would he do the same for me though? She quickly thought before she made up her mind and summoned from her horn the most powerful lightning spell she could conjure and then fired it at the Shaman in one powerful blast. The Shaman screamed as his body was turned into a light source and she watched with grim satisfaction as the Shaman Pony was soon no more than burnt, crisp meat for the carrion birds to feast on. But as she looked over to where Steeltrix had been and saw he was gone, either now another corpse or had been taken away.

But the battle for Manehatten wasn't over yet and as White Eyes charged forth after the retreating greenskins with two Tactical squads behind him, he shouted back to her, "Come! We must pursue and crush the enemy before they can regroup!" and Twilight nodded as she lead her small squad after them.

******** ********

Twilight and her squad of friends soon found themselves in the grisly warfare of house-to-house fighting, where they were always within melee distance of ork Ponyz and where their only savior became Applejacks flamethrower. One such case was when Twilight advanced her squad into an apartment when suddenly a Big Shoota pinned them down behind some overturned furniture and as they all kept their heads down, Twilight could hear the Ork Pony harshly laughing as it sprayed the room with bullets.

But Applejack soon grew tired of this and she popped up amidst the bullet storm and as a few bullets reflected off her armor, she aimed her flamer as she let it screech it's cry and send liters of burning promethium at the Orkish position. The Ork Pony screeched and roared as it danced crazily around and as the squad moved up, Rarity put it down with a bullet to it's neck. And as they passed it's corpse to get into the next room, they found themselves swamped by a group of grechfillies and as they all swung every melee weapon they had, the grechfillies screamed and tried to hide from them. Twilight crushed one with a boot to it's head and as she shot another one, she watched as they all soon ran out of the apartment through some of the nearby broken windows.

As Twilight tried to collect herself together after that sudden surprise, Rarity looked around them as she suddenly said, "Anyone... hear something?"

They all stopped and listened to hear something coming from the next room: the clinking of a shell on broken rubble.

Rarity took something off her belt and then tossed it into the room and they heard the frag grenade bounce into the room and they heard a surprised grechfilly shout some gibberish before an explosion ripped the room apart and they all ducked as the munitions for the Zzap gun went off in a huge display of fireworks that brought that portion of the apartment crashing down. As Twilight and them all looked at the wreckage, she nodded to her friends and they jumped out the nearby windows as they prepared to go to the next house.

Of course, that was the original thought until they landed amongst a squad of Imperial Guardponies. Twilight looked around and saw Derpy Hooves, Dr. Whooves, Big Mac, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and-

"Steeltrix?" Twilight said in surprise as she looked at the black pony in his dented and scarred armor. He had one foreleg bandaged up but from the looks of it, he thought it to be a mere scratch they way he still held up his lasrifle.

Steeltrix looked up into the purple face of the Ultrapony as he recognized the voice but couldn't even believe she had actually become an Ultrapony, and not because he didn't think she could make it. He just thought she wasn't exactly a candidate because she was a mare, not a stallion. But as he looked up at her, he could no longer doubt the fact and as he went back to facing the nearby street, Twilight looked over as she saw movement in the building and asked Steeltrix, "What's your objective?"

"Objective? Like you, clear out the city with bonus objective of not dying... of course, that was before our Sargeant bought the farm, so to speak, and now we're stuck here trying to survive." Steeltrix muttered as Big mac popped up from behind the building and launched a rocket at the Building Twilight was looking at and it streaked through a window as an explosion of blood splurted out with random limbs and body parts that hit the pavements with meaty thumps! and as Big Mac ducked back, Steeltrix peeked around the corner as he said, "Time for us to finally move up!" and the squad of Imperial Guardponies quickly trotted around the corner as Twilight nodded to her friends to follow them.

That's when something whizzed by Twilight's face and smashed Pinky Pie off her hooves and as she landed down, everyone else turned to see Ork Pony with a rocket launcher and as Twilight turned back, she saw the rocket hadn't exploded thankfully but was still embedded into the chest of Pinky''s armor, who sat up just enough to aim her lascannon and shout, "Take this, you meanie!" and the lascannon fired a blinding beam of laser that blasted the ork position, which was embedded in the ruined section of an apartment.

The Pony didn't expect retaliation so terrible and it stood dumb-founded as the blast vaporized it's torso and sent everything else flying away as Fluttershy went over to Pinky Pie and pulled out the rocket before tossing it to the side as she helped Pinky up onto her hoofs.

"Are you okay, Pinky?" asked Applejack with some concern.

"Awwh! They ruined my armor.... those meanies!" Pinky said as she looked down at her armor.

Steeltrix trotted along to lead his squad and as Twilight looked back at him, she soon followed him too as the old gang, regardless of who they were with, seemed to come back together for this one possibly last time.

Just as they reached the edge of the street, they heard the screeches of flamers, melta's, multi-melta's, and bolters as they all turned their heads to see the Mares of Battle attacking a mob of Orkish Ponyz that were held up within another apartment and as they group watched the Mares of Battle slaughter the Orkish Ponyz until none of the Ponyz and grechfillies were alive or looked to be alive. The Mares of Battle sudden looked over at the group of Ultraponies and Guardponies and Twilight suddenly recognized one of the figures amongst the Mares of Battle.

"It's you, from the throne room!" Twilight said as the Mare came forward with a sudden smile to spread across her face.

"I am Cannoness Echlestia, commander of the Mares of Battle that help defend this world.... You must be Ultrapony Twilight Sparkles, the Primarch Celestia's prime student." The mare said as she bowed. For someone who had seemed cold before, she suddenly seemed very warm to Twilight.

And that seemed a little to suspicious to Twilight.

"But I must ask about those three." Echlestia said as she pointed to the three Cutie Mark Crusaders in their Imperial Guardponiy uniforms still holding their lascarbines. "Such young fillies must not be conscripted into the Guards, surely?"

Well that explains it then. Thought Twilight as she said, "If I knew why they were here myself, I would tell you but because I never found out, I cannot say why they joined."

Echlestia looked down upon the three youngsters with a critical eye when a Mare of Battle leaned in to Echlestia and muttered, "We need more Mares to replace our dead... Maybe they can be of service to us?"

"I agree Silver Lily..." Echesltia she said back to the mare, who seemed to be made of pure silver to Twilights eyes, " But who is there squad leader?"

"I am..." Steeltrix said as he stepped forward with his lasrifle in his wounded hoof as he managed to stay standing. "Our original leader bit the dust back at the original Imperial lines but he made me leader before he died."

"Would you be upset if these fillies were taken from your squad?" asked Echlestia.

Steeltrix looked down on the fillies as he thought hard about this before he said, "No... they no longer are needing to be in the weakest outfit of this war... But for everyone's sake, don' let them die."

Echesltia looked the guardpony up and down, noting he was severely injured and yet somehow was still managing to stay standing, let alone fight the Ork Ponyz. Such bravery and such resilience were what the Guardponies needed more of during these terrible days.

Finally, she nodded to him as she said, "I will try my hardest."

Steeltrix looked at her suddenly and his eyes spoke volumes but she nodded again as the group left while Silver Lily took Applebloom. Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo with her as the trio dropped their weapons to follow the Mares of Battle.

Twilight looked at Steeltrix and watched as Fluttershy slowly trot over to him and as she extended a needle from her Narthecium gauntlet, she injected a painkiller into Steeltrix before ripping off the terrible looking bandages from Steeltrix's foreleg and then began to administer to him Ultrapony-grade bandages that would most likely keep him alive linger than the standard Imperial Guardpony medical bandages. Steeltrix watched the Mares of battle soon disappear with the CMC and he felt a small hole open up inside of him as he felt their leave hard.

But then he tied those feelings and tossed them into the very back of his mind as he said to the rest of their squad, "Well... I guess it's just us for now on..."

That's when they heard the shrillest voice scream out, "DON'T KILL ME!!!"