Kneeling in front of the statue of the Goddess of Eternal Darkness, a lone Dark Knight is seen. It's been many centuries since Luna or Celestria had been seen on any planet but terra. But in her heart she knew, they were still watching over the Dark Crusades. The holy war they had been waging against the Xeno scum, to purge and gain land for the Empire of the Sun.
Muttering the prayer of redemption, she rose, her mane tightly plated and oiled sat tight against the skin of her neck. Bundles of cables protruded from ports at the base of her skull and around her jaw, each connected her to her sacred power armour forged in the Holy furnaces of mars by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Her armour Identical to every other suit if looked upon by the eyes of mortals, but to her and her sisters they were each different. Each had it's own sense of being, shared with that of the wearer it was a glorious feeling to share the power of such a mighty force.
Her suit may be a few decades old, but it was still as new as the day it was made thanks to the great armour smiths of the chapter. Her armour had been battered, bruised and broken many times in the face of conflict but they were always there to restore it to it's rightful glory.
The lone Knight turned and walked towards the wall of the temple of darkness. In front of her the armour servitor sat inbuilt into the wall, the organic/mechanical hybrid holding her helmet in it's grip. These servitors worked as the fingers of the 22nd assault squad of the Dark Knights. Another genius creation of the Adeptus Mechanicus: the brain child of their founder Twilight sparkle: the Greatest Mage and inventor ever known. Her family, a prime example of the cream of the imperium. Her brother even had gained fame as the primarch of Celestrias royal guards his gene seed preserved, and used to grow the royal guards of tomorrow.
But what about her: the lone Dark Knight? The stray wipes of straw coloured yellow hair being gently coaxed inside the neck seal of the helmet as it was lowered: what part did she play?
Meanwhile, on the upper decks of the C.R.B.S Harpy, a Deathcall class strike cruiser, the captain strode back and forth impatiently. There was a clicking sound as his hooves struck the metal deck.
"Captain," a navigator called from his station. "We're about to exit the warp." The captain took a seat as the klaxons wailed, a warning that they were exiting warp, a time when the ship was most vulnerable to the forces of chaos and lord Discord. He waited as the air inside the ship seemed to shimmer and flex, then stood still, returning to normal. "We have exited warp." the navigator said, informing the captain who immediately stood up and resumed his pacing.
The bridge was silent, the captain had stopped pacing and was facing the navigator. "How far from planet side?" he barked, the authority he held was clear in his voice. "Two weeks sir." the navigator hesitantly replied. The captain smiled and turned to one of the message servitors at the back of the bridge (it was a Parasprite model: finally, they'd found a use for the little buggers)."Take note" he said taking a deep breath, and the servitor beeped in response. "Message for warmaster Golden berry" he paused allowing the servitor to recognise the name and acquire her location within the ship. "Being awaking of the Dark knights' plant fall in two weeks" he finished and nodded his head and the servitor took flight, heading towards the chosen pony.
Meanwhile, back in the bowls of the ship, the lone Dark Knight wandered from the temple. Her helmet secured tightly to the neck seal, the blaring of the klaxons which signalled leaving the warp still ringing in her ears, the sound enhanced by the auto senses of her helmet. Why was she wandering through the ship when she should have been asleep in stasis with her sister? She had asked herself the same question. Then she heard it, the chirp of her vox system telling her she had an incoming message. It was her summons to the council, what she'd been waiting for, she was to be told if her punishment had been served for her crime. What was her crime? The last conflict they had been in, she was held responsible for the death of her sister. It had not surprised the lone Dark Knight, she was a medic after all. She saved life's and she took them but this case was special: she had been charged with killing her by removing her gene seed to soon. They claimed she could have saved her but the lone Dark Knight knew she couldn't have. The pony in question had received a laser blast to her chest it had melted though her holy armour and punctured her primary and secondary heart. "I could save her..." the mockery clear in the lone Dark Knight's voice. "Sure I could." In her opinion, the best option was to remove her gene seed and end it quick: stop her comrade's suffering. What was wrong about that? And her sentence? Her sentence was she was refused from entering stasis for the three year trip. She'd spent the trip in meditation and in practice, honing her skill for when she was allowed to re-nter battle and she hoped she would be granted permission at her hearing.
Slightly up the hall, the warmaster sat surrounded by the captains of the battalion of her chapter. They listened intently to the message of the servitor. "Two weeks till plant side." One of the captains said with a whistle. "Better begin preparation for the drop." Each captain who sat alongside the warmaster knew what was meant by the drop: each squad of ponies would be strapped into a drop pod and fired at the planet below. Within a matter of seconds they would have made hoof fall on the plant and begin the extermination of the Xeno species. But this held it's own risk, as in the past they had lost whole squads to malfunctions of the drop pod boosters.
Their thoughts were interrupted as they heard hoof falls on the sold oak doors which were the entrance to the chamber. "Here comes the accused" the warmaster said and her horn begin to glow, the doors of the chamber swinging open and in walked the lone Dark Knight. "What have you learned from your three years of solitude?" the warmaster said, her voice soft and welcoming.
The Lone Dark Knight stood stunned, she wasn't expecting the warmaster's voice to sound like that: she had heard it many times before, but it had always been through the vox grill of her hemlet, robotic and harsh. It inspired her to fight in the name of Celestria on countless occasions, on countless worlds, against countless numbers of enemies. "I have learned from my mistakes: I have repented my wrongs and honed my skills." the lone Dark Knight said to answer the question. "I hope you have..." replied the warmaster "As you know, we have left warp and we are two weeks from planet side: you'll be going in with the 79th scout squadron of the blazing angles. Our primarch was close friends with this chapter primarch: make us proud." With that, the warmaster stood up and retired to her chambers to begin the rituals for battle. That, for the lone Dark Knight, was the que to leave.
On the other-side of the galaxy Fabricator General Twilight Sparkle sat in a darkened room the air around her was cold, recycled and religiously clean. This was for a reason around her stood six regeneration tanks all but two stood full in each floated a pony with highly oxygenated nutrient fluid flowing round them constantly being removed and replace as it grew dirty with the waste products from the ponies within.
Twilight sparkle stood up Using her mind impulse unit she turned on the lights. She unlike most ponies in the Adeptus Mechanicus had very few obvious augmentations to her body, after all the princess favourite student and wielded of the element of magic and had to keep her public appearance and couldn't be seen scaring the public with her looks.
As the lights turned on each tank lit up with a special colour of it's own, the first a cyan blue light emitted from it's base, the second a shade of orange, the third a bright pink and the forth emitted a aura of pure white light, completing the circle sat the two empty chambers one belonged to twilight the other Inquisitor lady Fluttershy - Ordo Xenos her special talents with strange and exotic creatures had become very useful during the conquests of the empire of the sun. As if on que in behind Twilight walked Fluttershy her thick black leather cape flowing behind her obscuring her cutie mark of butterflies and her long flowing tail. A hood covered her head and shrouded her face in darkness but out of the darkness shone a soft pink glow.
"Fluttershy it's been too long" started Twilight only to silenced by the pony standing beside her with a wave of her hoof. This wasn't the shy pony known to the population of ponyville before the start of the dark crusade. Over the centuries Fluttershy had become more confident and up-front with her demands and orders, not even the so-called Iron Will had anything on her. But then again he had been executed within the first few weeks of the Dark Crusade for desertion.
The yellow Pegusi lowered her hood and turned to face Twilight, her bionic eye glowed softly pink in it's eye socket. A mass of pink scar tissue surrounded it highlighting the eye further. "Yes Twilight it has been too long" Fluttershy began her voice still as soft as ever. "But we had some problems with orks in the gamma quadrant but don't worry we have corrected the problem" she said the final few words ending with what sounded Like a chuckle her laughing at a private joke.
The two mares stood side by side in silence, for a while they looked from tank to tank taking in each of there friends. For today was the day when they were to be woken. It was thanks to a series of augmentations that each of the mares present were able to have lived for slightly over a millennia but not all of them were as lucky as Twilight to have retained there beauty.
In the first tank Rainbowdash floated, curled up in a ball like a unborn foal in her mothers womb. But unlike a unborn Pegusi foal upon her back there were no wings... She had lost her wings in a battle against the tau. (Two legged foul creatures who walked around in a pathetic copy of the imperial light power armour). In the place of her wings were instead two bundles of cables, each were vital for the use of a power armour mounted jet pack.
In the second tank very much in the same position as Rainbowdash floated applejack she had been slightly more fortunate than the Pegusi as she had not lost any limbs but instead she had lost her right eye to an ork which had pierced right through her helm with one of it's tusk. In that very same battle she had also lost her dear brother. Big mac primarch of the Crimson Shades chapter of the space marines. He had been beheaded by a ork behemoth. But not before Big Mac had slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of the enemy.
In the third tank floated Pinkie pie, she being her usual self was floating upside down and had a look of content on her face, occasionally the mysterious pink pony would twitch as her pinkie sense kicked in. Twilight noted down every movement when it happened. As she and the Adeptus Mechanicus had long sense decoded the pinkie sense and used it to there advantage. From the first glance you could tell pinkie had the most extensive injuries among the group, along her back were patches of skin which were bald due to an incident a decade previous when the propane tanks of her flamer had been punctured by Tyranids the resulting explosion had resulted in the loss of her two fount legs along with a large proportion of exposed fur but thanks to her enhanced healing power much of her skin had healed allowing the regrowth of much of her fur. As for her legs, two shiny bionic legs were attached in there place.
In the third tank floated Lady Rarity who had been bestowed the title after becoming the governor of a planet in the Delta sector on multiple occasions. Along with that she was also the primarch of the Dark Angles how she had managed it all was a mystery to everyone including her friends. But it had not been all smooth sailing as they watched Raritys' trade mark mane moved of her face ushered by the gentle current within the tank. Reveled underneath were a cluster of cybernetic components as Rarity had lost her facial muscle in the left side of her face when she had been hit by a high frequency pulse rifle which had partially reduced her face to jelly only the fast acting of her chapter's medics had saved the right side while the left side was left in the trust worthy hands of twilight sparkle who had amazingly restored the majority of the muscles using bionics to replace to unsalvageable ones. During that attack she had also lost her left eye which had turned to liquid in her head now from the eye socket a bionic eye emitted a soft white glow to replace the lost eye.
Twilight sighed "Fluttershy were did it all go wrong" the yellow pony looked at her and said "It's not your fault if only we hadn't been attacked this would never have happened." Both ponies shuddered remembering the faithful day when terra had first been introduced to the horrors of this never ending war.
