A Foul Light Shines

Chapters

Prologue & Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

Prologue & Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own neither My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic nor Warhammer 40000.

This is written solely for the purpose of enjoyment, with no monetary gain.

Prologue

The Lux Foedis screamed.

Caught in the relentless currents of the powerful warp storm, the ship was being slowly torn apart. Currents of aetheric energy slammed into the weakening Gellar fields, twisting the ship uncontrollably as it tumbled through the screaming madness of the Immaterium. Vast daemonic talons raked her sides, clawing at the bubble of enforced reality that surrounded and protected her, scenting the delectable souls of her crew. Her mighty keel twisted, emitting a horrible metallic screech like a creature in its final moments of mortal agony.

Inside her hull, tech-priests struggled frantically to bolster the ship's dying machine spirit. The Lord-Captain bellowed orders to the bridge crew, as the Navigator peered desperately into the Warp, seeking the light of the Astronomicon that she'd lost sight of hours before. The effort proved fruitless, so instead she sought out any fleeting islands of stability, seeking to prolong the ship's life in the vain hope that the storm would blow out. She knew there was every chance that she was guiding them deeper and deeper into the seething hell of the Warp, but no other choice presented itself.

It was in one of those fleeting instants of calm that her pineal eye saw something like, yet unlike, the Astronomicon's beacon, illuminating what might possibly be a safe harbor, a sheltering island of reality. She seized upon it like a drowning woman bumping a piece of driftwood.

At the Navigator's instruction, precious power that the tech-priests had hoarded like misers flowed into the warp engines, violently sundering the veil between real and unreal. The cruiser Lux Foedis, once-proud vessel of the Rogue Trader Parseon Anderocus, staggered drunkenly through the rift, streamers of vile psychic energy cascading down her sides.

Her once-mighty engines flickered, barely supplying enough energy to nudge her into orbit around the gleaming gem of the world below.

Behind her, daemons howled in inchoate rage, seeing their prey escaping. Bursts of foul warp energy blasted forth from the Warp rift, striving to hold it open, to tear it wider, and in the process the rift bathed the world below in screams of hate and unclean lust.

Chapter One

Twilight Sparkle leaned forward where she lay on her balcony and peered through the eyepiece of her telescope, carefully adjusting the focus knobs with her telekinesis. She made a small sound of satisfaction as she located the comet she'd been tracking for the past few nights. Right where it's supposed to be, she thought, a soft violet glow lifting her quill pen so she could begin recording tonight's observations. The comet wasn't terribly close yet, but her calculations suggested it would be a spectacular feature of the night sky in a few weeks' time.

She quickly jotted down precise astronomical references on the scroll next to her. Twilight was only an amateur astronomer, but she took her hobby seriously, and within minutes she'd filled about half the scroll with detailed notes of the comet's brightness, color, and position in the sky with respect to both the nearest cataloged stars and the nearest major beacon stars. She double-checked her notes with a critical eye, made a few minor corrections, and gave a satisfied nod. Placing her quill to the side and capping her inkwell, the lavender unicorn softly called out to Owloysius. Her nocturnal assistant came flying out to the balcony on silent wings, alighting on the railing and regarding her with his huge eyes.

"Who?"

"Would you mind storing this with the rest of my astronomy notes, please?" Twilight levitated the scroll up to the little owl, who reached out and gripped it in his talon.

"Who!" Owloysius launched himself back off the railing, doing a quick circle around Twilight's head before heading back into the library as silently as before. The unicorn laughed quietly at his antics, trying to keep her voice down in consideration of the sleeping Spike, even though she knew it would take one of Pinkie Pie's parties rampaging through his bedroom to wake the little dragon; he was a heavy sleeper.

A party rather like the one that was going on now. Twilight idly crossed her forelegs as she looked over the rooftops of Ponyville to the lights shining at Sweet Apple Acres. She could just barely hear the music, the sound carrying far in the cool night air. Today marked the last day of summer and the beginning of fall, a holiday known as Cooldown. This year, the Apple family was hosting the celebration, and Applejack had gotten together with Pinkie to organize and plan the party. The two earth ponies had been working to prepare this celebration for over a week, and it sounded like it was going well. Twilight had felt a little bad when she told them she wasn't going to be able to make it, explaining that she'd found a new comet and that the first few days observations were really, really important. She'd apologized profusely, hoping she wasn't hurting her friends' feelings. Pinkie hadn't been upset though, to Twilight's relief, asking if the academic would be free the next week, and offering to set up a smaller, belated celebration with just her closest friends to make up for the party she was going to miss. Applejack hadn't been upset either, taking the news of Twilight's absence with the same equanimity that the farmpony greeted nearly everything with.

Twilight had accepted the invitation to the later party, touched by the pink pony's thoughtfulness. She wasn't the only one that would be missing tonight's party, either; Rarity had had a huge order come in from Hoity Toity's boutique in Canterlot for new fall clothes, and she'd fallen a bit behind. The designer was having to work feverishly to meet her deadline; the shipment had to go out first thing in the morning, and she'd still had a lot to do.

I could probably still make it to the party, Twilight mused. I've gotten all of my observations done, and it's clearly still going on. There are probably a couple of hours left before it breaks up. While Rarity wouldn't be there, the rest of her friends almost certainly would. Pinkie and Applejack were hosting, Rainbow Dash would never miss anything with "cool" in its name, and Fluttershy… would probably be there because everypony else was, though she'd probably be trying to blend into the walls of the barn. Well, maybe not by now; the yellow pegasus did have fun at parties, but usually only after she'd been there for a while and had time to relax.

Still, Twilight found herself enjoying the momentary quiet and solitude. She'd never trade her friends for anything, but she did occasionally enjoy having time to herself. She lay on her balcony, legs tucked comfortably underneath her, and just gazed up at the sky, drinking in the calm beauty of the thousands of tiny, twinkling lights and the huge, silver full moon.

Something odd in the starfield glittered in the corner of her eye, and she turned to look at it. Twilight frowned; she'd never seen this light before, and it was more than bright enough to be quite noticeable. Her horn glowed as she started to bring her telescope around, but she stopped before finishing the motion.

The light pulsed and flared, emitting an odd, purple-white glow that should have been pretty but somehow really, really wasn't, and Twilight had the sudden feeling that she didn't want to look at it more closely.

She frowned more deeply. Where had that thought come from? The lavender unicorn was intensely curious by nature; not wanting to look at something new was totally alien to her normal way of thinking. Brushing the odd moment aside, Twilight rose to her hooves, moving the telescope so she could get a better look when…

*rage*

The feeling slammed into her with the force of a plummeting sky carriage. She shook her head, trying to regain her equilibrium, wondering where…

*fear*

Twilight stumbled, violet eyes wide as another wave of emotion smashed into her. She realized that these emotions weren't hers, they were…

*lust*

They were coming from somewhere else! Were they being projected? Who would do that? Twilight scrambled to strengthen her mind…

*hate*

Something was attacking her! Twilight's horn glowed anew as she slammed together wall after mental wall, forming her mind into a bulwark against the intruding emotions. They continued to wash over her, digging at her mental barriers with phantasmal talons, but she held firm, and she could swear something recoiled from her with a thin scream, but there was nothing there.

She tried to identify the hostile emotions without allowing them to touch her. They were all negative, many grotesquely so. She felt grimy, like the intangible feelings were leaving physical trails of filth across her coat as they passed.

Finally, the waves began to abate, and she shuddered in relief, unsteady legs dropping her on her haunches. She ran a quick mental inventory of herself, and as far as she could tell, she was unharmed save for that lingering unclean feeling. Even that was beginning to fade. She looked up into the sky again; that oddly ugly light was still there, but it was much dimmer than it had been moments ago.

She sighed, relaxing a bit as the sudden threat abated.

That was when she noticed the screams.

Elsewhere

Urgency. "Sister, Awaken!"

Concern. "Yes, what is it?"

Further urgency. "The Veil, Sister, it is torn! There has been an incursion!"

Confusion. "I sense it! How many?"

Anguish. "Dozens, perhaps as many as a hundred. I tried to seal it, to hold Them back, but… I am not yet as I once was! I am still diminished, and the Four have the scent of Our world again. They are fighting Me, trying to force the breach open wider!"

Reassurance. "I lend My strength to Yours, Sister. Hold fast, We can repair this. It will take time, though. How did this happen?"

Uncertainty. "A ship, Sister. It made the breach, and it sits in the sky now, in Our domain. It is a ship of His people, Sister."

Worry. "His people? Truly? We have not heard from Him in an age. I fear the worst."

Stronger worry. "As do I, Sister. I know You feared the sons He made…"

Correction. "I did not fear them. The way He used the information on the Elements You shared with Him… disturbed Me, yes. He inverted their power, combined them with other sorceries and turned them against the material, not the Immaterium. He made them to stand alone, when they were always, always meant to stand together. I worry that the resulting beings were terribly, terribly flawed."

Defiance. "He needed tools to unite His people. He wished to carry the fight to Them. Imagine, Sister, a universe free of Them! His ambition was a worthy one!"

Sadness. "Fighting Them only strengthens Them. They can be resisted, but should never be directly fought; it is better to starve Them than it is to fight Them. I know You disagree with Me on this, Sister…"

Regret. "Yes. And that disagreement, in part, gave Them inroads into My heart. It… may be that He was wrong, that I was wrong, but I still do not believe so. I wish I could ask Him… These are His people. Perhaps they could tell Us what happened to Him."

Sternness. "Nothing good, I fear. And these are but mortals; He has been silent for long, long ages. They will not know Him."

Bleak Hope. "They may. Legends, stories, a hint here or there, anything would be better than the nothing I have now. I know You were wary of Him, but He was My friend, Sister. I miss Him so."

Sadness. "I know You do, Sister. That sorrow and loneliness, more than Our disagreement, gave Them a hold upon You. We will ask them, but We should not speak to them directly, or We might harm them. Let Our people speak to them. We both would rather not see them harmed."

Cautious hope. "Would You volunteer Your protégé?"

Affirmation. "She would be My first choice, yes, though I suspect she may not thank Me for it. Now, We must focus Our energies toward strengthening the Veil. We cannot repair it immediately, but We can patch it, hold Them back long enough to deal with this incursion, and prepare Our people to speak with His. Then We can bend Ourselves toward restoring the Veil. It will be an arduous task, throwing Our might against the Four once again. It has been a long time since we last had to face Them."

Gratitude. "Thank You, Sister. Once the patch is set, I will go to Your protégé, to tell her what she needs to know. You, I think, would be better suited to deal with the incursion. It seems largely confined to those large cities that are far from Us. I believe the villages are safe."

Affection. "Yes, Sister, I believe that would be best. I believe You will enjoy My protégé; she is curious like You, though less fierce. Perhaps she can learn from His people what happened to Him."

Creeping fear. "I only hope… I hope with all My heart that that scream, that constant, eternal scream that We have heard every moment of every day for ten thousand years… is not Him."

Dread. "I hope that too, Sister. I hope that, too."

A brief note on scale: For the purposes of this story, I'm assuming that the median size for Equus Sapiens subspecies is Equus Sapiens unicorns, at about 3'6" (~107 centimeters) with E. Sapiens terrene a bit larger and E. Sapiens pegasus a bit smaller. E. Sapiens deus is obviously much larger, but that's neither here nor there.

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Twilight felt her hair stand on end as the shrieks and screams echoed thinly through the still air. The sound was utterly chilling. There was terror there, and worse, the kind of sounds she’d never heard outside of really, really bad nightmares.

She staggered to her feet, shaking her head to try to clear away the shock of the unexpected attack. Had the rest of Ponyville been attacked, too? What’s happening? Who… or what… could be doing this?!

The unicorn stood frozen on her balcony, unsure of what she should do. The sudden attack had stopped, or at least she hoped it had, but those screams sounded bad. Should she run to help whoever was in trouble? Should she report the attack to the Princess first, maybe get help sent from Canterlot? It sounded like the screams were coming from the Cooldown party at the barn… should she go there first? Should she check on Rarity? Should she go find Nurse Redheart first, in case somepony was hurt? Wait, was Redheart supposed to be at the party? She couldn’t remember!

Twilight dithered for a few moments, fidgeting in place while she tried to decide on a course of action. Finally, she decided to head for Sweet Apple Acres; four of her friends were definitely there, and after she’d made sure they were okay, then they could all go find Rarity. She ran into the library, slamming the balcony door shut behind her, heading for the stairs down.

As she passed Spike’s basket (how in the world can he still be asleep?!) the little dragon rolled over and, without waking up, belched a gout of green flame that coalesced into a rolled-up scroll. Twilight skidded to a stop at the sight. A letter from the Princess? She felt a great surge of relief. Maybe she’s telling me what happened, and what I need to do! Twilight levitated the scroll up to eye level, unrolling it as she did so. She pushed a little bit of extra energy through her horn, causing it to cast enough light to read by.

In stark contrast to Celestia’s normal elegant script, this message had clearly been written in a terrible hurry. There were places in the letter where the quill had clearly run dry, and the Princess had simply re-inked the pen and continued with the next letter without re-scribing the one where the ink had run out. It spoke of extreme haste, and lent the message a spidery, scratchy appearance.

To my faithful student:

I sincerely hope this message finds you in good health. Something terrible has happened, Twilight. I do not have time to describe it now; Luna and I are working to stop its source, and when we are done, we will deal with its effects. The power you carry should render you immune to the most terrible of those effects, but be warned, my student, the same may not be true of all of Ponyville. I ask you to do your best to help any that might have been harmed… but stay away from anypony who is acting… unnaturally. I do not expect this to happen, but if it does, be careful. They could potentially be very dangerous, and I do not want you or your friends to come to harm. Either Luna or I will come to check on your town as soon as we possibly can; if anyone seems… dangerous… avoid them, isolate them and keep everypony else away from them until one of us arrives, if you can.

Your Teacher,
Celestia Invictus, Princess of Day.

Twilight flipped the scroll over, but there was no more to the message. She stared at the scroll blankly for a moment. Um. This may be worse than I thought. What does she mean by ‘the power I carry?’

She was standing in the dark, trying to compose her thoughts and fighting against the chill in her belly, when she heard a whoosh of displaced air and a heavy thump as something landed on the balcony she’d just left.

“Twilight! Twilight, are you home?!” The rough voice was clearly Rainbow Dash, but she sounded frantic, almost terrified. Twilight heard hooves pounding on the balcony door, and Spike pulled his pillow over his head with a sleepy grumble. “Oh, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon! You’ve gotta be home! Twilight!”

Twilight sprinted back to the balcony door and flung it open with a quick telekinetic shove, glad she hadn’t gotten far. The door barely missed the cyan-coated, rainbow-maned pegasus, who was panting slightly and shivering, her ears lying flat in distress. “Rainbow Dash? What’s wrong?”

“Ohmygosh, Twilight, I’m so glad you’re okay! I- I was at the party, you know, w- with Pinkie and A.J. and Fluttershy, and most of the town was there, and all of a sudden all the unicorns just started freaking out!” Rainbow started panting harder, her eyes huge, unshed tears glimmering in the moonlight. “I mean, they were all crying and screaming and falling down and, like, totally spazzing out! Some of ‘em started bleeding! And, and, then Hammer N’ Tongs, he, he,” Rainbow started hyperventilating. Her wings tucked tight against her sides, and she actually cringed slightly. Twilight was seriously starting to freak out herself, trying to imagine what could scare the normally cocky Dash this badly.

“Rainbow!” She interrupted, “Take a deep breath and calm down a little! I won’t know what you need me to do if you pass out!”

Rainbow took a couple of quick, deep breaths, then shook her head. “No time! Listen, you know Hammer N’ Tongs?” Twilight nodded; she’d met the big, dark yellow unicorn stallion a couple of times. He was a blacksmith, a slightly odd fellow who preferred to use the older methods of heating metal in a furnace and shaping it with hammer, anvil, and telekinesis. Rainbow continued before Twilight could say anything, her words running together as she spoke with frantic haste. “He didn’t fall down, he started acting crazy! Not, like, spazz-crazy like a lot of the other unicorns, l-like rabid crazy! He was standing up, but he was twitching, and his voice got all deep and spooky, and the stuff he was saying…” Rainbow sat back on her haunches, jamming her forehooves against her ears, “I couldn’t understand it, b- but the words hurt my ears! And it made some of the other unicorns scream louder! I… I think…” The pegasus bit her lip, hopping back to her feet, “I think one of ‘em actually died. Th- there was blood everywhere! It was coming out of her mouth and ears and eyes like a fountain!” Rainbow’s breath caught in a half-sob before she was able to push out the rest of her words, nervous tension causing her to almost dance in place. “Th- then he started this twitchy-walk, moving closer to some of the other ponies, and he was between everypony and the door so they can’t get out! A.J. yelled at me, told me to come find you! C’mon, you gotta get to the barn, like, now!”

A cold pit formed in Twilight’s stomach as she listened to the pegasus’s stammering, terrified account. One point stuck in her head. “It was just the unicorns?” Rainbow gave a quick, spastic nod. “Oh, no, Rarity!”

Rainbow looked sick. “Oh, Celestia, I didn’t even think! She’s off by herself in her shop!” She whirled around in an agony of indecision, starting to move in one direction, then freezing and darting in the other. They both heard the screaming from the barn intensify, despite the distance. Dash winced, starting to hyperventilate again. “Uh, uh, okay, I got an idea. They really, really need you at the barn. C-can you teleport that far? I can check on Rarity while you go help the others!”

Twilight shook her head. “I… don’t think I can teleport right now, Rainbow.” The local magic field felt seriously chaotic, and teleporting under these conditions could be fatally dangerous, even if it didn’t cause the kind of dimensional displacement several of her textbooks warned about.

Dash winced. “Uh, okay, new plan. I’ll carry you down there as fast as I can go, then I’ll come back here for Rarity.” Twilight hesitated, wanting to make sure her other friend was all right, and the pegasus evidently read her thoughts. She grabbed the unicorn’s face with both forehooves, staring Twilight in the eyes while speaking urgently. “Twi, Hammer N’ Tongs killed somepony by talking. None of us has any idea what to do, and you’re the only one with magic who can even walk right now! They need you there, right now! They need you sooner than now, c’mon, we’re going!” Rainbow’s wings unfurled and she took to the air, swooping down over Twilight. The pegasus wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s torso just behind her forelegs, easily lifting her friend off the ground. Twilight could feel the muscles shifting in Rainbow’s chest as she arrowed toward the barn at incredible speed, barely even seeming to notice the extra weight, even though Twilight weighed more than Dash herself did. Twilight forgot sometimes just how freaky-strong her rainbow-maned friend was; she was very nearly as strong as Applejack, in spite of the fact that the latter, as an Earth pony, had her inherent magic enhancing her strength and endurance.

In fact, if Hammer N’ Tongs was as dangerous as Celestia’s letter and Dash’s panicked story suggested, it might be a better idea not to have the pegasus take off immediately. Between the two of them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash should be able to overpower any one pony short of Celestia Herself without much trouble, and if Twilight could neutralize Hammer N’ Tongs’s magic, the two athletic ponies should be able to subdue him fairly easily. Dash wouldn’t be happy about leaving Rarity on her own, though.

She couldn’t say anything while they flew. The wind was whistling in her ears, and she doubted Dash would be able to hear a word she said.

Fortunately, the flight was a short one. Rainbow deposited Twilight in front of the barn, with horrible screams and shrieks still emerging from inside. The unicorn’s ears were flat to her skull at the thought of confronting the cause of those screams, but she knew she had to.

“Okay, Twilight, I’m gonna go check on Rarity.” The pegasus almost shot off again before Twilight’s interjection made her pause.

“Rainbow, wait! I might need your help in there!” Dash hovered in midair, uncertainly.

“B- but what if Rarity’s in trouble? She might be hurt!”

They heard Applejack shout something. A rending crash and a fresh chorus of screams erupted from the barn, followed by a deep, gurgling laugh. Both ponies flinched, looking at the closed door with huge eyes.

“I- Rainbow, I don’t want to leave Rarity alone, either, but if this is as bad as it sounds, I might need both your muscle and Applejack’s in there. Please?” Rainbow blinked a couple of times, before dropping to stand on the ground, stance firm.

“Right, Twilight, I’m with ya. But you gotta tell me the second you don’t need me here, okay?” Twilight nodded. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need Dash’s help at all, and the pegasus could go check on their missing friend… but she had the feeling that if she did wind up needing Rainbow, she might find herself in serious trouble if the pegasus wasn’t around.

Twilight flung open the door to reveal a scene of horror.

Several unicorns were still lying on the floor, spasming and shrieking. All of them were bleeding from the eyes and ears, and many were trying to cover their faces with their forehooves. The rest of the unicorns and Earth ponies in the barn were crowded up against the back wall, huddled together for protection, and most of the pegasi were trying to hide up in the rafters.

Applejack was pinned against a wall by a heavy, cracked table. She and her older brother Big McIntosh were shoving at it, trying to get the farmer free, but it was being held in place by a sickly pinkish-white glow. Pinkie Pie lay at the base of one of the barn’s support pillars, unconscious, while Fluttershy stood protectively over her, wings spread defensively even as she cringed in terror.

Hammer N’ Tongs was between all of them and the door. He had his back to Twilight and Rainbow, and was crouched in the middle of a huge pool of blood, over the motionless body of a unicorn mare named Fair Deal, a travelling merchant who’d stopped in Ponyville for the party. The blacksmith’s dark yellow coat was splattered with vivid red. Twilight noticed almost immediately that his cutie mark was wrong; it was normally an anvil, but what she could see of it now looked like a messy, eight-pointed star with a slit-pupiled eye in the middle! His head seemed to be prodding at Fair Deal’s belly, making disgusting chewing sounds, and he was… was he eating her?

Twilight felt her gorge rise, and heard Rainbow’s sharp intake of breath next to her. This was… it was obscene! “Hey!” she barked out, and Hammer N’ Tongs lifted his head and turned it to face her, his neck bending weirdly.

Twilight forgot the rest of what she’d been about to say. The unicorn stallion’s face was soaked in blood, and ragged strips of flesh dangled from his teeth. His eyes were terrifying; they looked like rippling pools of blood filled his eye sockets, bulging and swirling but somehow refusing to spill out. Past him, she could see that Fair Deal’s belly had been ripped open. The poor mare was almost certainly dead.

Rainbow gagged, and Twilight had to fight her own gag reflex as she tasted bile in the back of her throat. Hammer N’ Tongs laughed, the sound a deep, fruity chuckle.

“Oh, my. More guests. How… delicious.” His voice was a deep, smooth, velvety bass, which was wrong, as wrong as his twisted cutie mark! Hammer N’ Tongs had always had a light baritone, slightly harsh from all the smoke he’d inhaled at his forge!

“Twi! Get this here table offa me!” Applejack yelled, sounding strained. “He’s crazy, don’t let ‘im near ya!”

“Oh, come now little hayseed, you shouldn’t be rude.” Twilight heard the farmpony grunt in anguish as the table shoved against her harder. “You know perfectly well how to be urbane and polite. Such a shame you abandoned those manners and chose to be so crude. Going blindly through a dull life, like the simpleton you’ve become.” Hammer N’ Tongs rose as he spoke, looking less like a pony standing and more like a puppet being lifted by its strings. The effect was nightmarish, especially when combined with the blood still drooling from his muzzle.

“Leave her alone!” Twilight reached out with her own telekinesis to fight Hammer’s grip, grabbing the table that was pinning Applejack. To her surprise, the sickly pink glow evaporated in an instant with a scintillation of silver when her own power touched it. She took advantage of the unexpected lack of opposition to fling the table away from her friend and smash it into the blacksmith, sending him tumbling to fetch up against the opposite wall.

She looked to Applejack, who was being helped up by her brother. The orange earth pony was clearly favoring one side. Applejack winced slightly, shaking her head as Big McIntosh quietly asked her something. She didn’t seem badly hurt, though it was clear that she was injured.

Twilight rounded on Hammer N’ Tongs, who was rising to his hooves in that intensely creepy puppet-manner again, seemingly unbothered by the impact with table and wall. “W- what is wrong with you, Hammer? Why did you hurt Applejack? W… why were you… e- eating Fair Deal?!”

The blacksmith laughed again, the deep bubbling sound sliding across Twilight’s nerves like a naked blade. “Wrong with me?” He started walking very slowly toward her, jerking and twitching in a way that made him almost seem to flicker. “Why, nothing at all. Do I look ill? Should I seek a physician?” He bared bloodstained, flesh-spotted teeth in a vile grin, the pools of blood in his eye sockets swirling. “As for the orange one, I had only just begun to introduce her to the very crudest of pains. I thought she would feel a kinship with them, base and simple as she is.” His tone was dismissive as he continued to slowly close the distance between them, still leering at her. Twilight’s heart was hammering in her chest, but she took comfort in the tense presence of Rainbow Dash beside her. “But you! Oh! You proud little thing. No such base pains for you. No, no, I must introduce you to the more sophisticated pains. The gentle glide of a slender shard of glass through a single nerve. The slice of a razor as it passes slowly across an eye. Have you ever felt true pain, proud little thing?” The deep voice had dropped to a husky whisper that still somehow managed to carry easily to Twilight’s ears.

“Don’t you say things like that to Twilight, y’hear me monster?” Applejack wheezed slightly as she moved forward, Big McIntosh staying close to her and throwing nervous looks between her and Hammer N’ Tongs. “An’ I don’t know what you are, but I know durn well you ain’t Hammer. Twi, don’t listen to this thing, it’s a liar!”

“A liar? Me? Why, little hayseed, I’m hurt. Don’t you recognize my face? Did I not craft those horseshoes you wear? Have I not supplied your slowly failing farm with endless metalworks?” Hammer N’ Tongs… or whatever he was, shook his head with mock sadness. “Hush, now, I’m talking to your betters. I can batter your body and smash your bones any time. Perhaps later I’ll pluck your brother’s ribs out one by one while I make you watch?” Applejack stiffened and started to move protectively between Big McIntosh and Hammer N’ Tongs, but Mac blocked her path, leveling a steady glare at the mad unicorn. Hammer chuckled again. “Oh, you’re not scared now, big quiet one. You will be. Or perhaps…” The smooth voice trailed off as gory eyes peered back into the crowd. He licked his lips in an exaggerated, lascivious manner. “Perhaps your dear little sister. I see her pretty red bow back there…”

“Hey! Don’t you dare threaten Applebloom!” Applejack shouted, her voice harsh with rage, baring her teeth in a snarl and lurching into an unsteady charge toward Hammer N’ Tongs with Big Mac at her side.

Quick as a blink, a pair of mostly-full pitchers hurtled across the barn, slamming into the Apple siblings’ foreheads with the sounds of shattering glass. The impact sent Applejack’s hat flying, bouncing off the wall behind her and landing near Twilight and Rainbow. Twilight hadn’t had time to try and deflect the flying pitchers, and the two Earth ponies dropped to the floor, unconscious and bleeding where the broken glass had scored them. They skidded to a stop well short of the flickering figure of Hammer N’ Tongs, which was starting to look more and more… unreal. The unicorn stallion burst out laughing in deep, liquid chuckles.

“Applejack!” Both ponies shouted, seeing their friend drop. They started forward, but halted at the sound of Fluttershy’s voice.

“How dare you? How dare you hurt and scare everypony? I have half a mind to tell your mother what you’re on about, mister!” The normally shy yellow pegasus was glaring fiercely, teal eyes flashing as she advanced a couple of steps from where she’d stood over Pinkie’s unconscious form.

“Oh, not this again.” Hammer actually grinned in the face of a glare that had made cockatrices and mighty dragons back down. “I thought we had settled this last time, fragile cringing flower. Go ahead, bring my mother here. Tell her whatever you like. Then you can watch as I eat her eyes. Or perhaps… perhaps I could feed them to you?” Fluttershy faltered, her glare losing some of its burning intensity. Hammer licked his lips again with an obscene slurping sound. “Yeeees, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? That savage core of yours that you try so hard to hide would absolutely relish her agony, wouldn’t it? Oh my, yes. Why hide the truth any longer? You should be my ally here, cringing flower. I could bask in the light of your rage every time it flares up. Come now, stand here beside me. Such wonders I could show you. Such… mmm, sensations.” Fluttershy lost her momentum, glare failing against Hammer’s hideous, suggestive leer. Emitting a tiny squeak of terror, she folded in on herself, backing up until her rear hooves bumped against Pinkie. “No? Pity.”

“T- Twi, we gotta do something! We can’t let him keep doing this!” Rainbow’s voice was a strained whisper. “J-just tell me when, and I’ll go for him!”

Hammer’s deep, smooth, false voice cut in again before Twilight could reply. “Go for me, little coward? Don’t be silly. You’d have done it already, but you know you’d just fail. Again. Like you always do, when you aren’t cheating. And this time, your friends would pay for it.” The last sentence came out in a low hiss. The mad stallion began advancing toward the two friends, grinning horribly.

Twilight heard Dash make a tiny, strangled sound beside her. She turned to face the athletic pegasus, who was standing rigid. “Don’t listen to him, Rainbow Dash!” Dash started, blinking a tear out of her eye and shaking her head violently. Twilight rounded on Hammer. “Applejack was right! You’re a liar and you’re not Hammer! Hammer would never say those things, or… h-hurt ponies like you have!” Twilight gulped, carefully not looking at the torn corpse of Fair Deal.

“Oh, you don’t think so? I won’t lie; I’m not Hammer, but he’s still in here with me. Watching. Laughing. I couldn’t do any of this if he didn’t let me. He’s always hated you all, did you know that?” The… thing wearing Hammer’s face smirked, stepping closer all the while. “Oh, yes. The things he wanted to do to you, proud little thing, oh my. What I’m doing now… and what I’m going to do… is something he’s always dreamed of…”

The thing was closer than Twilight was comfortable with by now. She sensed Dash tensing beside her, but she acted before the pegasus could. “Stay back!” she yelled, horn glowing as she reached out to telekinetically shove the thing away.

She did not expect what happened next. As the light purple glow of her telekinesis touched Hammer N’ Tongs, there was a sharp crack of sound and a brilliant flash of silver light. The blacksmith was flung back into the wall of the barn so hard the wooden paneling cracked, and Twilight could smell the disturbing aroma of burnt meat. A fresh chorus of screams erupted, as the unicorns and Earth ponies on that side of the barn tried to crowd away from Hammer N’ Tongs’s still form. The unicorn academic gaped, aghast.

“Twilight, what did you do?” Dash’s voice was shocked. “I didn’t even think you knew spells like that!”

“I- I don’t! I don’t know what just happened!” She hadn’t meant to hurt Hammer! And she really didn’t know any combat spells; she had been just trying to shove him back, to give herself some breathing space! Oh no! Did I kill him?

Hammer’s body shifted. Dash made a disbelieving noise, and Twilight’s own reaction was mixed. She hadn’t killed him… but that meant he wasn’t gone.

Hammer twisted around, bringing his head into view, and Twilight felt nausea grip her stomach again. The silver blast had burned the skin and most of the flesh off of Hammer’s face, leaving a grinning pony skull leering at her with the swirling blood-pools of its eyes. Even as she watched, the skin began to re-grow, and Hammer’s body started to twist and re-shape itself, growing and warping, accompanied by the sickening crackle of breaking bones. Twilight took a few steps back, unnerved by the horror of it.

“Oh, now, that was hardly pathetic at all, proud little thing. Perhaps you have some reason for your pride.” The deep, smooth voice purred, somehow remaining unchanged even as Hammer’s muzzle elongated and warped, leaving his heat-blackened, shattered teeth spaced out in his larger jaw. There was a sharp crack as both of his forehooves shattered, the splintered fragments elongating to form jagged claws as his blood ran from the cracks. Twilight had no idea how he was doing that, but it was repulsive to watch a pony’s body mutilating itself that way. Beside her, Rainbow Dash finally lost control of her stomach, retching violently. Twilight maintained control of her own, if only barely.

The Hammer-thing regarded its newly-formed talons with evident satisfaction. “Of course, you realize what this means, proud little thing. What I will do to you for inflicting that indignity upon me. How I will wrench that precious horn of yours from your head, after nailing your little hooves to the ground.” It took a few steps toward her, moving in a weird, hunchbacked manner, half on four legs and half on two, and she quailed back, unsure of what to do. She didn’t want to hurt Hammer, if he was still in there at all. Though I’m really beginning to doubt that he is. “I will drive your own horn through that soft spot in the hollow of your throat, and watch you gag and choke as I slowly, oh so slowly push it in. Eventually, after a good, long while, it will pierce your brain, and only then you will die. But don’t worry; I’ll take my time about it.” The Hammer-thing ran its tongue across its ruined teeth and let out a revolting, rapturous sigh. “Your agony will be exquisite.” It flickered, and suddenly was standing right in front of her. She could smell rotten blood on its breath, it was so close. “And I shall savor every…”

“Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash snarled. The pegasus had evidently recovered most of her composure, and she’d had enough. She interposed herself between Twilight and the thing that had been Hammer, rearing back to shove it away with both forehooves. As her hooves made contact, there was another blast of sound and eruption of silver light, more intense than when Twilight had flung it away. The Hammer-thing screamed as the explosion flung it rolling across the floor, smashing against the wall where it had come to rest before. Rainbow’s hooves had caught it on the shoulder and half-ripped it apart; its right forelimb was torn free entirely, and its ribcage was open to the air, quivering organs inside its chest laid bare for all to see.

Rainbow froze, wings fanning to hold her in a bipedal stance, looking down at her forehooves in sick horror.

The Hammer-thing squalled, spitting and hissing like a massive, enraged cat. Light shone through tears in its form, a shining white that was somehow unclean, repulsive in its twisted purity. The monster’s flesh bulged, swiftly regrowing its missing limb and layering on sheets of muscle. Hundreds of long, needle-thin, transparent teeth extruded from its gums in a grotesque parody of growing plants as its jaw distended further. As its body expanded, bloating up hugely with muscle and fibrous tumors, it seemed to almost… lose focus. Twilight couldn’t see through it, but she felt like she should be able to, and its outline was somehow fuzzy, like she was seeing it out of the corner of her eye. A smell like nothing Twilight had ever experienced permeated the air. It smelled like… corrupt ozone was the only label Twilight could apply to it, though the appellation made little sense. Next to her, Dash looked from her hooves to Twilight and back, before dropping back to a firm four-footed stance and facing Hammer squarely again.

The monstrous Hammer-thing hurled itself back onto its feet, barely even resembling a pony any more. It looked more like a violently unnatural cross between a pony, an ape, and some hideous pelagic predator. “Grew a backbone, I see, little rainbow.” It spat, its smooth voice distorted by rage. “I will visit such transcendent ruin upon your flesh!” Its tongue was shredding on its forest of slender teeth as it roared, spittle, blood, and shreds of meat flying, “I will peel the skin from you and ravage your flayed body while you scream! I will strip your pretty little wings down to bones and use them to pick my teeth while I devour your entrails! And you will beg to die as my get rip their way free of you!”

Twilight could see Rainbow tremble slightly at the horrific threats, but the cyan pegasus stood firm in front of her. “Yeah, you talk big, chump. But I think talk’s all you got. You wanna go?” Rainbow glanced back over her shoulder, checking to make sure Twilight was okay with the idea.

The unicorn looked her friend in the eye and nodded. “Okay, Rainbow, whatever that is, I don’t think it’s got any of Hammer left in it. I’ll hold it, you hit it, as hard as you can.”

Dash nodded. “Right.” She turned back to the thing. “You wanna go? Let’s go!” She yelled, launching herself off the ground and arrowing toward the monster, accelerating as she went. Twilight’s horn glowed as she seized the thing in a firm grip. Where her telekinesis touched it, its twisted flesh erupted with dazzling silver light. This time, instead of just shoving it, she held it, and the monster let out an ear-rending screech as the shining silver rapidly ate away at its substance. It flailed in sudden desperation, trying to grab nearby objects with its telekinesis, but Twilight countered its power with her own, preventing the creature from lashing out.

Dash hammered into it an instant later, forehooves extended. The argent flash that resulted was blinding, stealing Twilight’s sight, and she heard a mighty thundercrack, followed by the slightly quieter thump of something hitting the barn wall, hard.

Twilight blinked, trying desperately to clear her vision of the purple blobs that obscured it, backing up and hoping the creature wouldn’t attack her while she was blinded.

Her vision cleared swiftly, but the creature was nowhere to be found. A large scorch mark was burned into the floor where she’d held the monster still, and Rainbow Dash was sitting on the floor, next to a large dent in the wall shaped suspiciously like the athletic pegasus’s head. Dash was wincing and gingerly rubbing her forehead with a forehoof; she’d evidently hurtled clear through the monster and slammed into the wall. Twilight was concerned for her, but not unduly so; Dash had a very hard skull. This wasn’t the worst crash she’d had, not by a long shot, and she’d probably be fine. Physically, at least.

Still, Dash was close at hoof, so she quickly stepped over, just to make sure. “Rainbow Dash? Are you alright?” Twilight reached out to touch the pegasus’s foreleg. To her surprise, Dash flinched violently away before Twilight could touch her, sudden fear written on her face.

“Nonono, don’t touch me, Twilight!” At the unicorn’s shocked look, she continued, “I dunno how I hurt Hammer like that, b-by just touching him! I don’t want to hurt you, too!”

That was a good point, actually. Twilight had no idea how she and Rainbow had damaged the Hammer-thing so terribly without even meaning to. “Rainbow… are you hurt?”

“N- no, not really.” Dash’s voice was a little shaky. “Thumped my head pretty good, but I should be fine. Twilight… did…” She gulped. “Did I just kill Hammer N’ Tongs?”

“I think we both did, Rainbow.” Twilight answered, quietly. The fact that she might have killed somepony was gnawing at her too, but she absolutely had to hold together for now. There were ponies that needed her. She hoped Rainbow would be able to similarly hold on. “But I think we had to. You saw what he did to poor Fair Deal. And to Applejack and Big McIntosh. You heard what he said to the two of us, and to Applejack and Fluttershy, and I think he hurt Pinkie Pie, too. S- something was wrong with him, something really bad, and I don’t think we had another choice. Someone had to stop him.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow nodded miserably, looking sick. She closed her eyes and shivered for a moment before visibly pulling herself together. “And we stopped him, alright. I’ll… I might be okay with it later, but right now? Heh, n- not so much.” She swallowed hard, then sat up suddenly, though the motion caused her to wince. “Oh, horseapples, Rarity! You got things here, Twilight?”

Twilight looked at the still-moaning unicorns scattered about the floor, (at least they weren’t screaming any more) and the ponies staring at her and Rainbow wide-eyed from the back of the barn and the rafters. There was a subtle wobble in Rainbow’s voice that seriously worried her, but there were things they both needed to do. “I think so… I don’t see anything else wrong, at least. Could you check the other homes, too, and make sure nopony else is hurt?”

Dash started to give a firm nod, but checked the motion almost immediately, rubbing at her head again. “Ow. Sure thing.” She heaved herself up to all fours and spread her wings, turning to the door.

Twilight stepped in front of her, concerned. “Rainbow… are you sure you’re all right?”

The pegasus nodded carefully. “I told you, Twilight, I’m fine!”

“Oookay. Be careful, and listen, come back as soon as you can, okay? I could still use your help, and I think we both need to talk about… you know.” The unicorn tilted her head toward the scorch mark. “And keep an eye out for the Princesses; I got a letter just before you showed up on my balcony saying that one of them would be coming by.” Twilight hoped that reminding Rainbow that she was still needed would help the pegasus hold off her shock.

“Right. Check on Rarity, look for anypony who’s hurt, keep an eye out for the Princesses, and be back here as quick as I can.” Rainbow flashed a wan grin. “Easy peasy. I’ll be back in no time.” Twilight moved aside and the pegasus took to the air, shooting out the door and into the dark.

Shoving her concern about her rainbow-maned friend to the back of her mind, she turned to the ponies left in the barn. “Is anypony hurt?” There was a generalized murmur that seemed to indicate a negative, before one voice spoke up.

“Twilight? What happened?” The question came from a cream-coated earth pony mare with a pink and blue mane and tail. She was standing over a mint-green unicorn mare that lay curled up and shivering on the floor, as though she intended to shield the unicorn with her body.

“I’m not sure, Bon-bon.” Hmmm… if the unicorns here are suffering from the attack I felt earlier, maybe they’ve got cracks in their mental shields? It would explain why only some of the unicorns were still down; those would be the ones who’d taken actual mental damage, while the others had either successfully defended themselves, or had already managed to pull themselves back together. Twilight hoped the damage to the unicorns’ minds was repairing itself; none of them were screaming anymore and most looked to be recovering, now that Hammer was… gone. Wait, could it have been Hammer causing the damage? Was that why the effects on the unicorns here seemed so much worse than what she’d experienced? “I’ll tell everypony as soon as I find out. Is Lyra okay?”

Bon-bon whispered a quick question to her mint-colored friend. At the answer, Bon-bon dropped to the ground, embracing the unicorn. “She says she’s feeling better.” The earth pony mare began gently wiping away some of the drying blood that had leaked from the corners of the unicorn’s golden eyes.

“Alright, everypony.” Twilight addressed the crowd in the barn. “I think the worst of the crisis is over. I’ll need some of you to check on the ponies who are still down. The rest of you, please move outside so there’s less crowding here in the barn, but stay nearby just in case something else happens. Is Nurse Redheart here?”

“I’m here, Twilight.” A white mare with light pink hair shouldered her way out of the crowd. She made her way over to the body of Fair Deal, stepping gingerly in the lake of blood surrounding her. As the rest of the crowd began to tentatively move outside, carefully not looking at the torn unicorn, Redheart checked Fair Deal’s pulse, resting her muzzle on the unicorn’s neck. She shook her head sadly, and gently closed Fair Deal’s staring eyes.

The medical pony walked over to Twilight, leaving bloody tracks on the floor of the barn as she did so. The rest of the ponies continued to exit the building, though several paused to check on friends that still lay on the floor. In an undertone, the nurse said, “I’m sorry for not stepping forward sooner. I was trying to help some of the unicorns who collapsed, just before Hammer… went wrong. After that, I was just so scared…”

“It’s okay.” Twilight interjected, “I think we were all scared. Do you have any idea what might have happened to Hammer N’ Tongs?”

Redheart shook her head. “I’ve never even heard of anything like that. There are a few serious psychomagical disorders that could possibly have explained some of his behavior and movements, and possibly what happened to his eyes, but certainly not those extreme physical changes toward the end… or the fact that his cutie mark changed the way it did.” The nurse closed her eyes for a moment. “Hammer was always very conscientious about his health; he came in for checkups regularly. There were occasionally minor maladies, generally related to smoke inhalation or mild burns, but there was never any sign of anything serious being wrong with him, certainly nothing like that.”

“Okay, Nurse Redheart. Thank you.” Twilight watched Bon-bon carefully help Lyra to her feet. “I think the other unicorns are recovering on their own, but Applejack and Big McIntosh were knocked unconscious, and I’m not sure what happened to Pinkie Pie. I’m going to go speak to Fluttershy, so would you please check on the Apples?”

Redheart nodded, and walked over to examine the Apple siblings. Twilight, moving against the push of the dwindling crowd, made her way over to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The sweet-voiced yellow pegasus was huddled over the unconscious pink Earth pony. She was sobbing quietly, her eyes squeezed shut, but even though the monster that had been Hammer had utterly terrified her, she was still trying to protect Pinkie with her own body.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight kept her voice soft, trying not to further frighten her friend. “Fluttershy, can you tell me what happened?” She carefully stroked Fluttershy’s mane with her forehoof.

The pegasus lifted her head to look at Twilight, still half-hiding her face behind her long pink mane. Her teal eyes were reddened from crying. “Oh, Twilight, it was awful! Right after Rainbow Dash left to go find you, Hammer N’ Tongs started saying the most horrible things. He- he was so mean!” Fluttershy sniffed, and Twilight embraced her friend, trying to lend the pegasus strength. “Then Pinkie Pie… she said he was being silly, and just trying to scare everypony, and she started laughing at him! A-and then... then Hammer screamed, and this silver light started burning him!” Twilight wondered what that silver light could possibly be. And why had it hurt Hammer so badly, when they were only trying to subdue him? And why would Pinkie laughing at him have hurt him? Curiosity gnawed at her. Oblivious to the lavender unicorn’s thoughts, Fluttershy was continuing. “And when he screamed, this table… it came out of nowhere and hit Pinkie! I- it hit her so hard!” The memory overwhelmed Fluttershy, and she sobbed incoherently for several moments. Twilight continued to hold the yellow mare, looking Pinkie Pie over as she did so. The pink earth pony had a nasty bruise on the side of her head, and what looked like some contusions on her back and side. Twilight could see tufts of pink hair clinging to the pillar Pinkie was lying at the base of. The earth pony must have been flung through the air, striking the support and falling at its base. Fluttershy confirmed the suspicion when she regained her voice. “W- when the table hit her, it threw her into the post, there, right next to me, and she didn’t get up. Th… the noise she made when she hit… I asked Hammer, I pleaded with him not to hurt anypony else, but he just laughed at me and called me weak, and pathetic. I- I got mad, b-because he was hurting ponies and wouldn’t stop, and I even used the Stare on him, but it didn’t work! It was like he liked it! A- and then… then he said these horrible things to me, and Applejack got mad too, and she started yelling at him, and then that table came around a-and smashed her into the wall!” Fluttershy fought off more sobs. “And then he started making fun of her, and, and, and…” The pegasus’s teal eyes got wide, “And he went over to Fair Deal and started chewing on her belly! Ponies… we don’t do that! Wolves or... Or bears or something yes, but… not ponies!”

“And that’s when Rainbow Dash and I came in.” Fluttershy nodded, and Twilight stroked her pink mane, trying to calm the traumatized pegasus. “It’s okay now, Fluttershy. It’s over, and Hammer’s… gone. He won’t hurt anyone else. As soon as Nurse Redheart is finished checking on Applejack and Big McIntosh, she’ll come over here and help Pinkie. It’s all going to be okay. All right?” Fluttershy nodded, miserably.

Releasing the pegasus, Twilight made her way back over to Nurse Redheart. The mare had just finished checking over Applejack and Big McIntosh. “How are they, nurse?”

“They’ll both be all right, thank Celestia. I had to remove a few glass slivers, but none got in their eyes and their skulls are intact. They might have mild concussions, but that should be all.” Twilight stroked Applejack’s blonde mane, as Redheart walked off to go check on Pinkie. A voice behind her made the unicorn start slightly.

“You done good, youngun.” Turning, Twilight found herself looking into the rheumy eyes of Granny Smith. The green earth pony mare was one of the oldest ponies Twilight had ever met, and she looked it. Her voice was firm right now, though it carried the weight of years, and her accent was even thicker than her granddaughter’s. “I figgered nopony else woulda said anythin’, so’s I reckon it’s up to me.” There was a steely glint in those ancient eyes. “You an’ yer friends done us all proud, all a’ ya, an’ I don’t think I ever been prouder a’ my kin.” Granny Smith looked down at Applejack and Big Mac warmly, gently stroking the younger mare’s freckled cheek with one arthritic forehoof. “She was a’ holdin’ that crazy unicorn’s attention, ya know, keepin’ him thinkin’ ‘bout her, ‘steada hurtin’ somepony else, and Big Mac was right there supportin’ her. Pinkie an’ Fluttershy did it too. Took guts.” She turned to meet Twilight’s eyes. “An’ so did stoppin’ him. Wish I coulda done it; I was with Miss Cheerilee, keepin’ the little ’uns outta the way.” She shook her head, bitterness creeping into her voice. “Not that these brittle old bones woulda held up long, anycase. But you an’ Rainbow stopped him. I know yer both upset ’bout the way ya had t’ do it, you’d have ta be crazy not to be. But let me tell you right now, ya did the right thing, and don’t you let nopony tell ya different, not even yerselves.” The old mare poked Twilight in the chest, emphasizing her words. Her tone turned gentle. “I thank ya fer helpin’ my kin, and my friends n’ neighbors, and you tell young Rainbow to come talk t’ me when she gets back, so’s I can tell her the same. Iffen she can stand still long ‘nuff, a‘course.” Twilight nodded, bemused, treasuring the thanks of the unexpectedly steely old mare. She received a single, curt nod in return. “Alright. I’mma go thank Fluttershy, an’ wait fer Pinkie to wake up so’s I can thank her too. We all owe ya, all a’ ya, an’ some of us ain’t never gonna ferget that. You ever need anythin’ from the Apple family, sugarcube, you come an’ tell me.” Granny Smith nailed the unicorn with another fierce look, before turning and slowly walking over to where Nurse Redheart was checking over Pinkie and Fluttershy.

Bemused, Twilight turned to organizing the shocked residents of Ponyville, hoping to see who was most affected so she could make sure they got help. She hoped the Princess arrived soon; she felt like she really needed to know what had happened.

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Rainbow Dash flew through the skies above Ponyville, wings pumping strongly, eyes locked on the wedding-cake profile of Carousel Boutique. It was a short flight, especially for Ponyville’s fastest flier, and right now she considered that a very good thing. It meant she had less time to think.

Rainbow was far from the most introspective pegasus in Equestria. Right now, though, her thoughts were chewing away at the fringes of her mind, and she was holding herself together with the very edges of her hooves. Images kept flashing through her thoughts; the fun of the party dissolving into sudden horror when the unicorns all started screaming like they were on fire, the spike of terror she’d felt when Twilight didn’t answer the door right away, Applejack dropping unconscious as the pitcher shattered against her forehead, and the boneless way the orange mare had rolled when she hit the ground. Rainbow hadn’t even paused to check on her friendly rival before shooting off, nor had she tried to find out whether or not Pinkie Pie was okay. Just another screwup. Just another failure.

She bit her lip. Gotta fight that. Can’t fall apart right now, Rarity and Twilight are depending on me! Frantically, she shoved the images out of her mind. Almost there!

Unfortunately, pushing those thoughts out had just made room for new ones. Now she was seeing her hooves shove against Hammer N’ Tongs’s shoulder, trying to push him away from Twilight. You’re a murderer, Rainbow Dash. She kept seeing the silver flame blossom in slow motion from her cyan hooves where she’d made contact with him, blasting outward like an explosion, leaving ripped and burned flesh in its wake. How did I do that? How can I keep from doing that? Does this mean I’ll never be able to touch anyone else ever again? No more playfully nudging her friends, no more impromptu wrestling matches, and if she forgot, even once, even for just a second…

Now she was trying to suppress mental images of her friends screaming and burning with argent light when she touched them. Rainbow shuddered mid-flight, narrowly avoiding spinning out when the motion disrupted the airflow over her wings.

The brief flight to Rarity’s boutique seemed to take ages.

Finally, she found herself in front of the big, ornate, round building Rarity lived in and worked out of. She landed heavily in front of the door, stumbling as her whirling thoughts robbed her of some of the fine muscle control she treasured. That caused a new round of doubts and worries to start chasing through her head. Stop. That. She told herself savagely, tapping a forehoof angrily against her head and wincing because she’d forgotten again about the bruise she’d acquired when she impacted the wall of the barn.

There was a light in the upstairs window, and Rainbow let out an explosive sigh of relief as she realized she could hear Rarity’s sewing machine rattling. The machine wouldn’t be working unless the designer was actively using it, so at least her numerous delays in getting here to check on her friend hadn’t caused any harm. Not that Rainbow felt any less guilty about them.

She stopped herself before she started pounding frantically on Rarity’s door as she had with Twilight’s. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door. Upstairs, the sewing machine stopped, and Rainbow heard the unicorn’s voice call, “Just a moment!” She sounded fine, like she hadn’t even noticed anything wrong.

A few moments later, the door to the boutique opened, and Rarity asked, “Yes, can I help… Oh my goodness! Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong? You look dreadful, darling, are you all right?” Rarity stepped forward to give her friend a comforting hug.

Rainbow backpedaled desperately, trying to get out of reach. “Rarity, no, don’t touch me! I don’t wanna oof!” Rainbow’s back hoof slipped on a loose pebble, and she fell on her rump. “I don’t wanna hurt you!”

“Hurt me?” Rarity had stopped when Rainbow moved away, and she now looked at the pegasus with concern. Rainbow was glad to see that the white-coated unicorn looked uninjured, though her purple mane was looking a little frizzy, as it sometimes did when it was stressed. “Rainbow, what are you talking about? Did something happen?” Rarity stepped forward carefully.

“Y- yeah! At the party!” Stress, memory, guilt, shock, and worry were all closing in on Rainbow Dash like a swarm of stinging wasps. She was still trying to fight them off, but she could feel her legs starting to shake. Noo… I don’t have time to break down right now! “I… It was… a-are you okay?” Rainbow’s voice was unsteady, betraying her increasingly-frantic efforts to hold herself together.

“Me? Darling, I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be? The better question is, are you all right?” Rarity edged closer, worry written on her face. The pegasus shook her head urgently.

“N- No! Don’t get too close! T- Twilight and I… w- we killed Hammer N’ Tongs! I burned him, j-just by touching him!” Rainbow tried to scoot back on her haunches, unsure whether she’d be able to stand with her legs shaking as they were
.

“Hammer N’ Tongs? The blacksmith?” Skepticism chased the concern across Rarity’s face. “Now why would you and Twilight kill him? Honestly, Rainbow, if this is another joke you and Pinkie cooked up, I will be very cross…”

“It’s… it’s not a j-joke, Rarity,” Rainbow sobbed, her fragile composure cracking. “Pinkie’s… she’s out cold, or she was when I left, Applejack too! I didn’t even ch- check on them! All the unicorns had gone crazy, and, and, I needed to make sure you were okay, n-nopony had seen you s-since… a- and now we need to check the other houses, see if a-anypony’s hurt…oof.” Rainbow’s shaking forelegs suddenly gave out, dumping her face-first onto the ground.

She quickly rolled onto her side in an attempt to get her legs underneath her again, trying to stand back up, but her body rebelled. She’d held herself together this long out of sheer willpower, but the fear she’d felt and the shock she’d experienced had finally hammered past her guard. She curled up, her whole body shaking as recrimination bludgeoned her, the little voice in her head that she could normally ignore now shouting at her, telling her how she’d failed, how she hadn’t been good enough. How she’d never be good enough, no matter how hard she tried. Telling her she was a killer, a murderer.

Rarity gasped, seeing the pegasus collapse. She swiftly moved to Rainbow’s side, reaching out in an unthinking attempt to try to help the panicking athlete. Rainbow tried desperately to warn her away, knowing she had to protect her elegant friend from the ruin she’d wreaked on Hammer, but her voice refused to cooperate, stammering out random nonsense syllables, and her quaking body wouldn’t even let her draw away. She could only watch Rarity’s hoof moving closer in what seemed to be agonizing slow motion, knowing that she was about to see her friend get horribly burned, and it would be her fault for failing to warn her. She squeezed her rose-colored eyes tightly shut, not wanting to see the silver flame, wishing with all her heart that she could cover her ears and not have to hear the screams.

Rarity’s forehoof touched Rainbow’s lower shoulder, and the pegasus flinched violently, but there was no heat, no flash, no scream. She felt the unicorn stroke her gently, and tentatively pried one eye open.

The elegant white unicorn was unhurt. There was no pain in her face, only concern as she carefully stroked Rainbow’s lower shoulder and foreleg with one precisely trimmed forehoof. Rainbow felt a tremendous surge of relief. She’s not burning! She felt relieved tears prickle in her eyes as she realized she hadn’t maimed or killed her friend.

“Rainbow Dash, darling, I am so sorry. I honestly thought you were joking. I had no idea…” Rarity carefully lay down next to Rainbow, tucking her body alongside the quaking form of the pegasus, heedless of the dust that was getting in her well-groomed tail. She nuzzled the athlete reassuringly, saying, “There now, it’s all right. It’ll be okay. You’re all right, and I’m all right, so just take a deep breath…”

They lay like that for several minutes. Rainbow shook, her occasional attempts at speech coming out as stammered nonsense, while tears poured from her eyes. Rarity tried to gently calm the pegasus, alternating soothing words with simple humming, just trying to be there for her friend.

Eventually, Rainbow’s shudders subsided, and she was able to get back to her feet. Rarity rose along with her, watching the pegasus carefully, ready to steady her if she fell again.

“Thanks, Rarity. Just… thanks.” Rainbow smiled at the fashion designer, who returned the expression. Rainbow took a deep breath, releasing it slowly, and then said, “Okay. I’m really, really glad you’re okay. Now, we need to check the rest of the houses in Ponyville, make sure nopony’s hurt and needs help.”

“Well… all right, Rainbow Dash, but can you at least tell me…”

Rarity was interrupted by a soft contralto voice coming from above them. “Excuse me.” They both looked up, as an exceptionally large pegasus glided down to land next to them. The mare had dark blue fur with a lighter blue mane and tail, and though she was clearly built like a mare, she was one of the tallest ponies either of them had ever seen. She turned to face them, and they realized the reason for her stature.

In addition to her wings, the pegasus sported the spiral horn of a unicorn. This was Princess Luna, one of the sister goddesses of Equestria. They both bowed.

“Oh, no, get up, please. I am looking for Twilight Sparkle. I believe you are both friends of hers?” The pegasus and the unicorn shared a glance, nodding. The Princess paused, sniffing at the air before continuing. “Oh… dear. Has something… unpleasant happened near here?” Rainbow nodded miserably, ducking her head so her flame-colored forelock hid her eyes.

The Princess sighed. “We had hoped that… never mind. Could the two of you please show me where Twilight Sparkle is? There are some things we need to discuss.”

“Uh, Twilight’s down at the Sweet Apple Acres barn.” Rainbow answered. “Hey, Rarity, would you mind walking the Princess down there? I’ll start checking houses.”

“Checking houses?” Luna asked, before Rarity could speak. “Checking them for what?”

“Wh- to see if anypony’s hurt! After all of the unicorns at the party freaked out, we were worried that somepony who stayed home might have fallen and hurt themselves, so someone’s gotta check on ‘em!” Luna’s gaze sharpened at the mention of the unicorns’ plight.

“The… disturbance. Was it near here?” The princess asked.

Rainbow shook her head. “No, it was up at the barn. Twilight’s there, trying to help everypony that got hurt.”

“Ah,” Luna nodded at the pegasus. “I understand your concern, but the farther away a unicorn was from the… manifestation, the less harm they will have suffered.”

“I didn’t even realize anything was wrong.” Rarity chipped in. “I’ve been working on an order all evening, and the only unusual thing I noticed was this odd shivery feeling a little while ago. I thought it was just a draft.”

“Were you using your magic at the time?” The Princess asked.

Rarity paused for a moment to think. “No… no, I don’t think I was. If I remember correctly, I was using my sewing machine, concentrating on getting an even stitch.”

Luna nodded. “Precisely what I would expect. As I said, this far away it should not have been strong enough to hurt anypony. If the two of you would accompany me to the barn, I’d like to speak to both of you as well as Twilight. Do you know where the other Bearers are?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow answered, her voice subdued. “We were all at the party together. Pinkie and A.J. got hurt, and Twilight and Fluttershy should still be up there with ‘em.”

Princess Luna’s teal eyes (almost the same color as Fluttershy’s, Rainbow noticed in a flash of irrelevancy) widened in surprise. “They were injured? How badly?”

Rainbow felt a surge of guilt smash into her again. She hung her head in shame. “I dunno. I took off to check on Rarity before anypony had a chance to check on ‘em. Applejack got hit in the head and knocked out; I didn’t see what happened to Pinkie.” Rainbow trembled slightly, but Rarity stepped up next to her, leaning comfortingly against the cyan pegasus’s side. Rainbow smiled at the unicorn gratefully, glad for the support.

The Princess looked troubled. “Please, could you tell me the full story on the way to the barn?” Rainbow nodded, and the three set off through the empty streets.

Haltingly, the pegasus related her account of what she’d seen and felt in the last half hour or so. (Had it really been that short a time?) The story took longer than it should have, as Rainbow had to pause occasionally to regain her composure. The Princess interrupted several times to ask questions, but for the most part, she let Rainbow tell it in her own way.

They had nearly reached the barn by the time she finished. The Princess’s face sported a troubled expression, while Rarity looked utterly shocked. “Oh, you poor dear!” The designer exclaimed, “That sounds absolutely horrific! No wonder you were in such a dreadful state when you came to find me, you must still be in shock!”

“I suspect that she is,” the Princess interjected thoughtfully, “though possibly a different kind of shock than you may have in mind, Rarity. Did no one tell the six of you the true purpose and function of the Elements you carry?”

Rainbow eyed the Princess warily. “‘True purpose and function?’ Whaddaya mean? They turned you from Nightmare Moon back into Luna, right?”

“Not… precisely,” Luna said slowly, “That is… not quite what they were made for, and it would be more accurate to say that the Elements burned away the creature that was partially controlling me.” The Princess paused. “The full explanation is something I would rather only have to give once, so I would prefer to let it wait until I could address all six of you.”

A sudden connection formed in Rainbow’s brain between the events of the party and what the Princess had just said. “Creature controlling you? D’you mean Nightmare Moon was like what happened to Hammer N’ Tongs?”

Luna gave the pegasus a respectful look. “You are very quick on the uptake. Yes, something similar, though the creature you describe was almost certainly far, far less formidable than the one that possessed me. As I said, I will give the six of you a full explanation when you are all gathered.”

The three walked in silence the rest of the way to the barn. Rainbow had to admit she was curious; she’d known the Elements were important, but somehow had never gotten around to asking exactly why. The idea that they might somehow relate to the horror that had befallen Hammer N’ Tongs was frightening, though. She didn’t want to think about that kind of thing happening regularly. Monsters, I’ve got no problem with fighting. Done that before, and somepony’s gotta keep Ponyville safe, the pegasus thought, but hurting somepony I know… doesn’t that kinda make me the monster?

She was still mulling over the unpalatable thought when they reached Sweet Apple Acres. There was a large crowd of ponies outside, milling around the farm’s large gazebo as the mayor attempted to organize them. (To do what, Rainbow had no idea. Maybe she was just organizing for organizing’s sake. That sounded like Twilight’s influence.) The murmur of conversation out in the field carried an ugly undertone of fear and shock.

“The Princess!” somepony called out, catching sight of the dark blue winged unicorn. “It’s the Princess!”

The sound of pony voices trailed off as more of the crowd spotted the goddess. Rainbow had half expected Luna to be uncomfortable as the center of attention; she’d seemed a bit shy when she’d attended the party after being broken free of Nightmare Moon. Instead, the Princess seemed to be holding up well under the focused gazes of the crowd; perhaps the intervening time had been enough for her to rebuild her confidence.

For her part, Rainbow Dash was uneasy with the overspill of attention that she was catching. Ordinarily, she’d have enjoyed the fact that she was being noticed, even though the notice in this case was secondhoof, as she was walking next to Luna. Of course, ordinarily she wouldn’t have been involved in the death of another pony a scant few minutes before. Some of the looks that were being directed at her were hostile, others were curious, and some were grateful. She really wished they’d just stop looking at her, a feeling that was totally alien to her normal attitude, and she resisted the urge to duck behind the Princess to avoid their gazes.

The crowd bowed as the three approached, lowering their heads to show respect to the Princess. That finally seemed to make Luna uncomfortable, and she quickly bade them to rise, much as she had Rarity and Rainbow Dash when she’d arrived earlier. The crowd complied, slowly, interrupted conversations resuming with a new, excited undertone replacing some of the previous fear. The Princess made a quick gesture, a flick of the wing, and as if by magic the crowd’s attention wandered, going back to speaking to their friends and neighbors. Rainbow was shocked; had the Princess used some kind of spell? She hadn’t seen any horn glow…

Motioning for Rainbow and Rarity to follow, Luna stepped over to the mayor. In an undertone that barely carried to Rainbow’s ears, she asked, “Excuse me. I do not see Miss Sparkle out here; could you perhaps tell me where I could find her?”

The mayor blinked, as though surprised to see the large winged unicorn standing there. “Oh, she’s inside the barn, with Nurse Redheart. I believe she was helping those who haven’t recovered yet.”

“And are Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy inside as well?”

The mayor nodded. “I think so. I haven’t seen any of them leave, at least.”

Luna smiled at the gray-haired earth pony. “Thank you, mayor.” She moved off, heading toward the barn as the crowd parted in front of her.

Rainbow sidled up next to the Princess, asking her in an undertone she hoped nopony else could hear, “Uh, hey, Princess, how did you get everypony to forget about you like that? Was that some kind of spell?”

Luna chuckled quietly. “No, there was no magic involved. The only spell I have used since I arrived was tiny bit of energy to sooth the psychic shock of being so near a daemonic manifestation. Redirecting their attention was a kind of… suggestion. Celestia is much better at it than I am; I doubt you would have noticed if she had done it.” The Princess paused, considering her words, and Rainbow noticed Rarity listening avidly on the other side of the tall winged unicorn. “It has to do with how ponies react to certain gestures, timing, things like that. It is a form of applied psychology; you could learn to do it, if you wanted to and had a few thousand years to study.”

“Oh, is that all? I’ll make sure to mark my calendar.” Rarity remarked sarcastically, drawing another chuckle from Luna.

The three ponies entered the barn, finding Twilight and Nurse Redheart speaking to one of the unicorns who was still lying on the floor. Fluttershy was talking softly to Applejack, as the latter brushed dust off of her hat, and Big McIntosh listened silently from where he was sitting next to his sister. They’d evidently just awoken, and were still wincing slightly at loud noises. Pinkie Pie was awake too, rambling somewhat incoherently about not bringing the “special” punch this time and wondering aloud why she had a hangover.

The sound of quiet voices ceased as the Princess’s presence registered, just like what had happened outside. And, just like outside, everypony bowed. Rainbow was starting to realize why Luna didn’t seem to care for the gesture; this was only the second time she’d seen it happen, and it was already getting a little bit annoying. She was impressed that the Princess didn’t show a hint of exasperation when she again asked everypony to rise, and the pegasus wondered how many times a day this kind of thing happened.

Luna paced over to where the stricken unicorn lay, and her horn glowed with a blue light. The result was nearly miraculous, as the fallen stallion heaved himself to his feet, shaking his head as though he’d awakened from a dream.

“Excuse me, everypony,” The Princess said, “I have a pressing need to speak to the Bearers of the Elements in private, so would it be possible for the rest of you to wait outside?”

The newly recovered stallion simply nodded and trotted outside. Nurse Redheart looked anxiously at Applejack, Big Mac, and Pinkie Pie, but complied after a short hesitation.

“Uh… my brother’s had one nasty knock to the noggin, Princess.” Applejack said hesitantly. “I reckon it might be better for him t’ stay put. Maybe we all could find someplace else to talk?”

“I’ll be fine, A.J.” The big red stallion drawled. “I felt worse last year, anyhow, and I was still fine when I helped with the harvest. I’ll wait outside.”

Applejack looked unsatisfied. “An’ I wasn’t happy ‘bout that, either, as I recall! Gettin’ smacked in the head with a pitcher ain’t much like havin’ a tree fall on ya!”

Big Mac snorted. “Six a’ one, half a dozen a’ the other, sis. Either I move or you do, and a thump to the noggin ain’t slowed you down none. Don’t see why it should me.” The hulking earth pony turned and slowly left the barn without saying another word.

As the stallion left, Luna motioned for the six friends to gather around her. They complied, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.” Luna nodded to each in turn, going clockwise around the circle that had formed. “What I am going to tell you is history and knowledge known only to myself and Celestia. You must swear not to divulge any of this, to anyone.”

“Ooh, ooh, a secret!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Her injuries evidently hadn’t significantly affected her outlook. “I’ll keep it, I swear! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” The pink earth pony accompanied her chant with a series of wild gestures, culminating with a mock jabbing of her hoof into her eye.

Luna stared at her, clearly unsure of how to respond to that. Rainbow stifled a giggle, as Pinkie grinned. Trust Pinkie to manage to leave a goddess speechless, the pegasus thought. Impulsively, she mimicked Pinkie’s gestures, though without the chant, and lost her fight against laughter when the other four did likewise. Laughing felt good, and she felt a bit of the tension that had been bearing down on her drain away. Thanks, Pinkie.

While Rainbow chuckled, Luna looked at the six like they’d gone utterly mad. “Are… all of you all right?” The Princess asked, finally.

“Well, of course we’re all right, silly! We’re just swearing a Pinkie Pie swear!” Pinkie piped up. “It’s the most serious -est of serious promises! You neverever break a Pinkie Pie swear, you gotta keep it for-EV-er!” The Princess cocked an eyebrow, glanced back at Rainbow Dash, who was nodding vigorously, and finally looked at Twilight.

The lavender-coated unicorn spoke up. “It really is a serious promise, Princess, even though it looks a little silly. You can trust us.”

Applejack shifted uneasily. “Uh… Princess, I ain’t sure I’m comfortable with lyin’. ‘Taint somethin’ I’m good at.”

Luna shook her head. “I will not ask any of you to lie. This is simply information you cannot share. Indeed, were it not for what you have already seen this night, I would not be telling even you.”

The orange earth pony rubbed her forehead, carefully avoiding the large knot left behind by the pitcher’s impact. “Well… all right then. I can keep a secret, if you’re sure it’s one as needs t’be kept.”

“It does.” Luna’s expression was grave. She took a deep breath. “This tale is a long one, so please be patient. To begin, I must tell you something of the way the universe is structured.” Rainbow noticed an expression of intense interest forming on Twilight’s face at the winged unicorn’s words. “The physical reality we inhabit is… adjacent, shall we say, to a different aspect of reality. This other aspect is called by many names: the Immaterium and the Warp are among the most common and least fantastical, and will suffice for now. It is a place composed entirely of energy and emotion, fed by the minds and souls of those who live in the physical universe.”

“A universe of emotion?” Twilight asked, fascinated, “I’ve never even heard of this, it sounds like a wonderful place!”

“It is not.” Luna’s response was flat. “The universe outside of this solar system is not a pleasant place, Twilight, or a happy one, and for whatever reason the power of negative emotions in the Immaterium is massively amplified over that of positive ones. The chief inhabitants of the Warp are four immensely powerful beings, gods of a sort. They each embody a collection of emotions, each discrete and separate from the other three. The chief emotion represented by one is rage, another’s is lust, the third despair, and the fourth, betrayal.”

Twilight blanched. “Oh.”

“Indeed.” Luna’s face was hard. “The denizens of the Warp are monsters, the closest thing to pure evil you will ever find. Long ago, Equestria had to contend with them. They preyed upon us, toyed with us, until Celestia and I were born.” The Princess closed her eyes, clearly reliving some old memory. “We sisters fought against them, held them back, but we could not be everywhere at all times, and our people continued to suffer in the most horrific ways. It was centuries before we found a more permanent solution.” Luna opened her eyes again, and Rainbow could see age and pain in her ancient gaze. “Celestia and I discovered the existence of sections of the Immaterium that had been walled off and protected from the creatures that lived there. It took us much study, and many trials, but we eventually learned how it had been accomplished, and determined how we could do something similar on a larger scale. It took us centuries more to build our fortress, enclosing Equestria and this entire solar system within a protected bubble, all the while watching as daemons preyed upon our people while our attention was focused elsewhere.”

“Demons?” Twilight interrupted with laughter in her voice. “Oh, you had me going there, Princess! Demons aren’t real, they’re just stories to scare foals!”

“Daemons are very real, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said seriously, no trace of jocularity in her tone. “It is better for most of Equestria to believe that they are only stories, but here, now, it is important for you to know that they are most emphatically not just stories.” Twilight’s laughter trailed off awkwardly as the winged unicorn spoke. “They are normally kept at bay by the Veil that Celestia and I built millennia ago, but this night, a particular event allowed several of them access to Equestria.”

Twilight’s eyes got big, and she looked at the large scorch mark on the floor of the barn. “You mean…”

“Yes. You confronted and destroyed a daemon this very night. A very minor one, true, a Warp predator only barely deserving of the label, but a daemon nonetheless.”

“What, you mean Hammer N’ Tongs?” Rainbow asked, confused. “But he wasn’t a demon, he was just crazy…”

“A crazed unicorn whose flesh regrows?” Luna interrupted. “Whose form warps and mutates before your very eyes, and who acts nothing like how he has ever acted in the past? Who burns like a candle when the power of the Elements so much as touches him? And, most tellingly, who bears the emblem of the Enemy in place of his cutie mark?” The princess looked at the pegasus in sympathy, shaking her head. “No, Rainbow Dash, what you faced was no longer your town blacksmith. That was a daemon, wearing his flesh as a suit to stay in this world.”

Rainbow was speechless. That… hadn’t actually been Hammer? She was thinking furiously, trying to work through the implications of this revelation, when Applejack jumped into the conversation. “Wait… the elements were burnin’ him? Y’mean when Pinkie laughed at ‘im? Why?”

“Laughed at him?” Luna asked, and Applejack quickly recounted the events that had passed when Rainbow Dash had left the barn to get Twilight’s help.

Luna paused to gather her thoughts. “Another name the Warp goes by is Chaos, my little ponies.” The Princess said, “The Elements of Harmony were built long ago with a singular purpose; to oppose the servants of Chaos at all turns, and to defend Equestria from their designs. In past ages, the wielders of the Elements have confronted powerful daemons, even mighty Princes of the Ruinous Powers, and driven them shrieking from Equestria. Celestia and I harnessed their power when we built our great Veil, shielding this world from the Warp, and locking out its inhabitants, leaving them no access to our world until one of their number crept into my mind, turning me into what you knew as Nightmare Moon. When Pinkie laughed at the entity, her element of Laughter would have resonated with her mirth, and some of its power struck the daemon. I suspect that Pinkie came very close to destroying the creature in that moment.”

Twilight scratched her head. “But… if what you’re saying is true, and you were possessed the way Hammer was, why didn’t the Elements destroy you when we used them against Nightmare Moon?”

Princess Luna lowered her head, closing her eyes against a painful memory. “The circumstances were different. In my case, the daemon had not fully possessed me. It was whispering in my ear, convincing me that its lies were truth and its voice was my own. It pulled at my strings and I danced like a puppet.” Her voice gradually gained an edge of bitter anger. “Yet, even though it was a fell and terrible being, and had infused me with its power, I was still largely me, and because of my strength it could not fully control me, powerful though it was. When Celestia exiled me, the daemon’s presence was not yet strong enough to react to the Elements, and it was still hidden away in the core of my being. I slept on the Moon, and it whispered, gaining more control and convincing me to give more of myself over to it. Then, after a thousand long years, the daemon and the Four it served had given unto me enough power to return here.” The winged unicorn opened her eyes again, looking fiercely at the six friends that surrounded her. “And then, you came along. You struck at me with the Elements, and the daemon within me burned. And, with its burning, you showed me the truth of what it was, and you drove it out as I finally closed my mind to its influence. Without the six of you, I shudder to think of what I might have done. I owe you all a debt I can never repay, for you saved not only my life, but my very self.” With those words, the Princess sank into a bow.

“Oh, uh, Princess, we just did what we needed to do!” Twilight said uncomfortably.

“I know you did,” The Princess replied, rising. “To do otherwise never occurred to you. And that is even more remarkable.”

Twilight blinked, and shared a smile with the other five ponies gathered around the Princess. Something seemed to occur to her, and she tilted her head. “Um, Princess, that didn’t really answer my question; if your possession was similar to Hammer’s, why did the Elements not burn you the way they did him?”

“Oh, but they did.” Luna’s smile was brittle. “They burned away a part of me, the part infused with the daemon’s presence. Had I been any other pony, I would have died then. Instead, I was able to finally see the daemon for what it was, an invader, and not a part of my mind at all. In that instant, I fought it from within as you six burned it from without, banishing it back to the Warp. Doing so, casting it off, harmed me greatly, however. Or did you not wonder why I am now so much smaller than my sister?”

Rainbow didn’t understand at first. Then, realization struck her in a flood of nausea. The Princess must have sacrificed a part of herself when Nightmare Moon was destroyed, she had been burned just as Hammer had, and she had been diminished by the loss. The pegasus saw the same horrified realization on Twilight’s face, standing on the other side of the Princess.

“No, no, do not think that I blame you!” Luna said hastily. “As I said, you did what you had to do, and in doing so you saved me. Shapeshifting magic allowed me to save what remained of my body without visible damage, and though I am diminished, I can still fulfill my duties.”

“B- but… Hammer…” Rainbow choked out, looking around with the slightly mad impulse to see if some scrap of the blacksmith’s flesh had fallen in a corner somewhere and still clung to life.

“Oh, I apologize. I had not understood your concern.” Sadness filled Luna’s large teal eyes. “No, as I said, his case was different from mine. The Warp predator that took him lacked the subtlety of the daemon prince that corrupted me, and Hammer lacked the power to resist it. There was no scrap of him remaining; poor Hammer died in the instant the beast entered his flesh. All that you saw, the quaking, the unnatural words… that was simply the daemon learning how to use his body. Hammer, the real Hammer, was already dead by then. That is why the Elements burned him with the slightest touch: every scrap of his flesh was suffused and animated by a minion of Chaos.”

“He was dead?” Rainbow asked. “But, it said he was still in there…”

“It lied.” Luna interrupted. “That is what they do. Daemons can never be trusted, never be believed. Even when they tell the truth, they are still lying.”

Rainbow’s mind was engulfed in a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. He was dead? But Twilight was talking to him! How could he be dead? How could that thing have used his body like that? Wait… wait… if Hammer was already dead, then does that mean Twilight and I didn’t kill him?

The multicolored pegasus voiced that last question, seeing Twilight perk up as she did so. Luna shook her head. “No, Rainbow Dash. You did no harm to Hammer N’ Tongs; the only thing you destroyed was the creature that murdered him and stole his body. In fact, as what you’ve described of that creature’s behavior leaned somewhat toward the Prince of Excess, and somewhat toward the God of Lies and Betrayal, you as the spirit of Loyalty, or Applejack as the spirit of Honesty, had she been able to reach it, would likely have been particularly toxic to it, as would Rarity’s element of Generosity. I suspect your blow may have destroyed the creature utterly, rather than simply banishing it.”

“Good.” Rainbow spat venomously. Her friends looked at her with varying degrees of worry, unsettled by her vociferousness.

“Uh, sugarcube, you okay?” Applejack asked, moving so she could look past Rarity into Rainbow’s eyes.

“No, Applejack, I’m not.” The pegasus growled, spinning on a heel to walk a few steps away. The grief, shame, shock, and worry she’d been feeling swirled around, condensing into a knot of rage that was shockingly strong. Dash whirled and kicked a nearby table, smashing it to splinters and drawing a gasp from her friends. “That… that monster,” Dash wished she knew some decent profanity right at that moment. Ponies didn’t curse, but right then she could have. “murdered Hammer right in front of us, and we didn’t even know it! Then it used his body, kept us from knowing what it did while it hurt you, Big Mac, and Pinkie!”

“We’re all okay now, though,” Pinkie offered tentatively, and flinched slightly at Dash’s response.

“That’s not the point!” The pegasus shouted. “The point is that it hurt you, not that you got better! And then…” Dash gritted her teeth and kicked another table apart. “Then, Twilight and I killed it, only we still thought it was Hammer, so we both feel like murderers! But we didn’t have any other choice!” Tears of rage and pain prickled in Dash’s eyes as she met Twilight’s, seeing an echo of her own anguish there. The lavender unicorn had hidden the feeling better, managed it better than Dash had, but it was definitely there.

“I know, Rainbow Dash,” the academic said, quietly. “I feel it too.”

“But…” Applejack started, only to be interrupted by the Princess.

“I understand why you feel this way.” The goddess observed. “I think anypony would, at least anypony as goodhearted and decent as you two. But you must understand, in this case, that feeling is a lie. It is another lie the daemon has told you. In this circumstance, do not trust your hearts, but your minds and my words. Regardless of what it may have looked like, the creature you killed was not the pony you knew. Destroying it was a favor to him and an honor to his memory, as I doubt he would have wanted his body put to the uses the creature intended.”

Rainbow nodded, though she was still seething with anger. Anger over what she’d seen, anger over what had happened, and anger over how the monster had torn savagely into her heart, and her friends’ hearts, both with its deeds and its words.

“Uh, sugarcube, you may wanna simmer down some. It ain’t healthy to stay that mad.”

Applejack had a point, and Dash took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself. The red film over her vision cleared, and she was able to stop grinding her teeth, but she was still quietly furious, and suspected she would remain that way for a while.

The orange earth pony saw the tension ease in Dash’s frame, and simply asked, “Better?”

“A little,” Rainbow answered grudgingly. “Not a lot, but a little.”

The Princess spoke up again. “Though my sister would disagree with me for saying so, I suggest you remember that feeling. Righteous anger, not simple rage, combined with the power of the Elements makes for an extraordinarily powerful weapon against Chaos. I speak from personal experience.”

Rainbow took a few more deep breaths, trying to calm herself down more. It was difficult. Much of the night’s emotional stress seemed to have transmuted itself into anger, and dissipating it all was hard. She was trying not to bottle it up; she’d done that when she was a kid and that road could lead to some bad places. Instead, she just tried to let it pass, but she knew the others were waiting for her, and she felt like she was holding up the discussion. She waved for them to continue, still concentrating on taking deep, even breaths.

“Um, Princess?” Twilight asked, “If Equestria is protected by this ‘Veil’ you mentioned earlier, how did this demon get to you? And how did one get Hammer N’ Tongs?”

“The first was my own fault.” Luna sighed. “Especially powerful wielders of magic can sometimes hear the whispers of daemons, even from within the Veil’s protections. It generally poses no threat, but this one was exceptionally clever and subtle. It took the creature many centuries, but it eventually convinced me that its ideas were coming from my own conscience, and when I finally began to draw upon its power, I was doing so because I felt it to be the proper thing to do. That is why Celestia and I worked so very hard to ensure that nopony in Equestria knew about the existence of Chaos, and why we made daemons into silly stories that no one believes; if no one thinks they are real, it makes it vastly less likely that someone might reach through the Veil to allow them in.” Luna lifted her head, her eyes focusing past the roof of the barn. “And then something like tonight happens.” Twilight started to say something, but the Princess held up a forehoof to forestall her. “A moment, please. This is what I had come here to tell you about, and with this extra discussion I am growing short of time. A short while ago, the Veil that Celestia and I built so long ago was ruptured. Several entities from the Warp managed to squeeze through before I could block them, and I had thought Celestia and I had already dealt with all of them before I learned of the one that struck here.”

“It’s torn?” Twilight asked in horror. “Does that mean more of these things could attack at any time?”

“No.” Luna gave a quick, emphatic shake of her head. “We sisters are holding a temporary barrier over the breach. Nothing can come through, but doing so is consuming a significant amount of our energy and attention. Soon, we sisters must turn our attention toward repairing the Veil, but that will consume virtually all of our attention, and may take as long as a month, possibly longer. Which is why we have a task for you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“A task?” Twilight said, as Rainbow wondered whether her friend had gotten stuck on echo mode or something.

“Yes, and that was my reason for coming here. I did not expect to be telling the six of you the truth of Chaos!” Luna chuckled. “But I digress further. The tear in the Veil was not random; it was caused by the arrival of a ship.”

Twilight’s brow wrinkled. “But what does that have to do with me? The ocean’s nowhere near here!”

“Not an oceangoing vessel, my little pony. This ship sails between the stars on engines of flame, navigates tides of gravity and mass and forges through storms of unreality in the Immaterium. It is something ponies have never dreamed of outside of stories, and is crewed by beings never before seen on this world.”

Rainbow actually almost forgot about her anger, in the face of Luna’s statement. Woah… wait, aliens? Seriously? That’s awesome! Rainbow Dash had always gotten along well with non-ponies, and the idea of meeting beings that no pony had ever met before was kinda exciting. The other five made noises that mixed surprise and amazement.

Luna looked pleased by this reaction. Her words confirmed it. “I had hoped all of you would be interested in this news, as Celestia and I would like Twilight to be Equestria’s ambassador to these creatures, should they choose to land.”

“Me?!” Twilight squeaked. “Why me? I’m not a noble, or, or a diplomat, I’m a student!”

“And Celestia’s protégé. She trusts you, Twilight, and your friends as well.” Luna added. “In fact, my sister suggested you for this duty. Should these starfarers choose to visit Equestria, we have arranged for them to be pointed toward Ponyville, so that you may deal with them as Celestia’s chosen representative.”

The lavender unicorn looked overwhelmed. Applejack spoke up, reassuringly. “Don’t you worry, sugarcube. You’ll have all of us to help out if you need it.” All of Twilight’s friends nodded, echoing the sentiment.

“Pff. Yeah, you just try and keep me away.” Rainbow said. Aliens! This is like, the coolest thing ever! I’m gonna get to meet aliens! The feeling of excitement finally started driving out some of the rage and horror she still felt. The guilt seemed to be sticking around, though.

“Ooooo, I wonder what kinds of parties they like!” Pinkie mused. “I’d better have everything ready, just in case!”

Rarity had a rapt look on her face. “Oh, my, I wonder if I could get any ideas from them. I had the most delightful ideas for accessories after we met those buffalo…”

Only Fluttershy looked nervous. “Um. Do you have any idea what they… look like, Princess? Are they scary?”

“I… actually do not know for certain what they look like.” Luna said, embarrassed. “They are the same species as a friend Celestia and I had long ago, but we only ever spoke mind-to-mind, and I am not entirely sure what his physical appearance was.” She turned back to face Twilight. “And that, young one, leads me to a personal request I would like to make. If possible, if these visitors know anything of my old friend, I would very much appreciate it if you could learn what happened to him.” The princess’s gaze turned sad. “Neither Celestia nor I have heard anything from him in more than ten millennia. We are worried about him. Please, if you get the chance, ask if they know anything about one of their kind that is to them as Celestia and I are to you.”

Twilight’s jaw firmed, and a determined light entered her eyes. “I’ll take care of it, Princess.” She softened a bit. “I’m deeply honored by your trust.”

“And I know you will be worthy of it.” Luna turned, looking over her shoulder. “And now, I fear I must depart. Celestia and I must begin repairing the damage to the Veil. Once we have begun, we will be able to do little else apart from raising the sun and moon, but we will make time to read the reports you send us.” She turned back to the six friends. “Be careful, little ones. These creatures will be different from anything you will have ever encountered. They may be dangerous, but I believe you six can handle anything the universe throws at you.” With a final smile, the Princess’s horn glowed, and she vanished in the flash of a teleport spell, leaving the six friends to discuss how to handle something they’d never seen before.

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The bridge of the Lux Foedus was caught in a voidsman’s nightmare. Sonorous alarms tolled out in a host of different tones and rhythms, warning of engine failure, power system failure, void shield failure, structural failure, atmospheric venting, Warp incursion, fire… virtually every conceivable mishap that could befall a starship of the Imperium of Man. The plainsong of the bridge servitors told any listener capable of interpreting it about crew casualties, reduced hull integrity, and a litany of other failures and damages too minor to merit individualised alarms.

“Where are we?” Lord-Captain Anderocus asked, leaning over his helmsman’s shoulder and gazing at a flashing bank of warning lights and malfunction indicators.

“Unknown, Lord. Auspex arrays detected a habitable world, but their machine-spirits rebelled shortly thereafter, and they’ve refused all of my requests for more data. I was able to nudge us into orbit, but there wasn’t time for a detailed inquiry. We could be anywhere.”

The Lord-Captain nodded, turning to his second-in-command. “Eudaros, any word from the Navigator?”

Captain Eudaros, the large, heavyset man with the florid complexion that ran the ship when Anderocus was busy, shook his head. “No, sir. From what we can tell, her Sanctum is intact, but vox-lines between there and the bridge have failed.” Eudaros mopped at his jowls with a handkerchief, scowling at the banks of flashing red and amber lights. “Along with every-damned-thing else.”

Anderocus turned to the junior tech-priest stationed on the bridge, who currently had his upper torso buried in an open service panel. “What is working, Acolyte?”

“I have managed to persuade the emergency vox-repeaters to lend us their service. Apart from that and the lights, lord, there appears to be little still functioning.” A spark erupted from whatever the Mechanicum acolyte was working on. “I am attempting to restore hardline vox-linkage with the enginarium; Magos Tersiaard is undoubtedly working to ease the ship’s suffering, and he would certainly have more information for you than I do.”

Anderocus nodded, turning to issue further orders to the bridge crew. Eudaros was already contacting what stations he could with his commbead, making use of the emergency repeaters. The Lord-Captain was left with little to do apart from overseeing his subordinates and presenting an inspiring mien for his crew, a regrettably common occurrence in the Rogue Trader’s nascent career.

Eudaros finally finished a preliminary assessment, and stepped close to address the Lord-Captain in an undertone. “I couldn’t reach much, sir; hull’s interfering with the vox something fierce, even with the emergency repeaters. And reports from those I could reach aren’t good.”

“Tell me.” The Lord-Captain braced himself. He hadn’t held the Anderocus Warrant for long, a scant decade and a half, and this had been easily the worst disaster he’d encountered since succeeding his father.

“All right, sir. Enginarium seems largely intact, though it looks like vox-lines are cut. Crew’ve already seen servitors working to repair it, so Tersiaard’s probably still kicking.” Eudaros snorted. “Not that a little thing like a warp storm would put that old monster down.” The two shared a bitter smile. The Mechanicum Magos had been aboard the Lux Foedis for far longer than either of them had been alive. Frightening and dangerous though he often was, he’d proven astoundingly hard to kill over the centuries of his life, and he was utterly dependable in a crisis such as this. “Engines are offline, but that seems to be a problem with the control runs, rather than the engines themselves. Munitorum’s on lockdown, but it didn’t blow, thank the Emperor, and the guns are all inactive anyway, so the lockdown’s not hurting us. Fires all over the starboard side and the gunnery crews for the starboard batteries are completely gone, far as I can tell. Port batteries are in better shape, some damage to the macrocannons, but the crews are still mostly alive and the guns look to be mostly still functional. Serious depressurization of a lot of the starboard compartments, from epsilon 16-starboard all the way up through rho 13-starboard, including both starboard holds. The hull armour reads as compromised in that area, too; must have taken a helluva tap.”

Anderocus winced. The Lux Foedis, as flagship of a powerful Rogue Trader dynasty, was a warship in all but name, effectively equal to one of the Imperial Navy’s battlecruisers in strength and resilience. Indeed, prior to being acquired by the Anderocus dynasty and partially refitted to haul cargo, she’d been an Overlord-class battlecruiser in service to Battlefleet Ceresius. Compromising the massive, meters-thick sheets of adamantine alloy that armoured her over so large a stretch of her hull would have required apocalyptic amounts of energy.

Eudaros caught the wince, nodding grimly. “Aye, sir, that’s a dockside job at the least, and we’d best avoid having anything hostile to our starboard ‘till it’s done. The Lux is as naked as a joygirl on that side for now, poor lass. But that’s not the worst of it.”

Closing his eyes, the Lord-Captain simply said, “Tell me.”

“The Gellar fields are out. Failed just as we left the Immaterium. Thank the Emperor they held on as long as they did, but there’s Warp-touched all over the bloody ship; we’ve lost a lot of crew to them, sir. Commander Seria’s troops have already purged most of them, but there’s a nasty concentration in the port-six lander bay that she’s trying to flush now. The minders had to put down almost the entire astropathic choir, too; I think we’ve only got one left.” The heavyset captain shook his head. “Throne, we’re lucky the minders were so quick. Warp-touched crewmen are bad enough, but when an astropath goes bad like that…” He shuddered. Eudaros had served in the Navy for decades before entering the employ of Anderocus’s father; it was likely he’d seen what happened when the Warp overwhelmed an astropath.

“Any word from the Navigator?” The Lord-Captain asked.

“Not yet. I had one of the firefighting teams check the Sanctum. It was intact, but they couldn’t get a response from Navigatrix Daniella.” Eudaros shrugged. “Crewmen don’t like to stay close to the Sanctum, so I doubt they tried for long, but they did attempt to contact her.”

Anderocus sighed, nodding. The tall, spare, dark-haired man rubbed his forehead wearily. He wanted to make checking on the Navigator a priority; with the Gellar fields failing when they did, her direction to exit the Warp had unquestionably saved the lives and souls of every man and woman still alive aboard the Lux Foedis. On the other hand, though, there were a thousand things that urgently needed to be done, and with the crew’s fear of the Navigator it would require either an officer or one of the ship’s tech-priests to open her sanctum, and they would all be urgently needed in other areas.

“Eudaros, you said Seria was in contact?” The captain nodded. “Very well, keep trying to reach the other crew elements; I’m going to check in with her.” The heavyset officer moved off, and Anderocus tuned the commbead in his ear to his household guards’ command frequency. “Commander Seria, this is Anderocus. Respond, please.”

“Lord-Captain? It’s damn good to hear you’re still alive, sir. Team six, get that stubber set up!” Seria’s harsh voice was hashed with static, and Anderocus could hear a chorus of shrieks and screams in the background overlaid by the rapid crack of lasgun fire and the thunder of heavy weapons. He could also hear Confessor Deumos’s stentorian bellow as he chanted one of the Rites of Detestation. No surprise that he’d be there; the tough old priest had started as a chaplain-militant in the Arbites and had gone on to serve with the Guard. He liked to be in the thick of the action. “Bit busy here, sir.”

“Can you give me a status report? Have the Warp-touched been contained?”

“I think so, for the most part. We’ve… Throne, here they come again! Dedris, now dammit!” Anderocus heard the deep whoosh of a flamer over the open link. “Good man! We’ve got the biggest concentration contained here, sir, enfilade right, third squad! and my troops have already swept most of the ship. There are a few smaller concentrations, but they’re contained, and I’ll take care of them as soon as we’re done here.” Seria kept squads of armsmen stationed throughout the Lux Foedis for just this sort of occasion, but even so, to have the ship swept so quickly was remarkable.

“Can you give me an estimate on how many crew we’ve lost?” Seria’s troops were equipped with boosted vox sets, and had military-grade gear coordinating the squads that would undoubtedly be far superior to the emergency repeaters Eudaros and Anderocus had to rely upon; she probably had a better idea of the damage the Lux Foedis had sustained than anyone on the bridge.

“Throne, sir, fifteen thousand at least. Between the damage and venting my hunter squads reported, and the damned Warpspawn rampaging around, it wouldn’t shock me if we were down twenty thousand or more.” She paused, and her voice was even harsher when she continued. “I’ve lost over two hundred of my armsmen, too, including one of my best squads. Team six, suppressing fire, eleven o’ clock!”

Golden Throne! Even Seria’s more optimistic estimate was almost a fifth of the crew! That was going to seriously slow the repairs they needed to make, and the ship was going to be operating at significantly reduced efficiency until they could make port.

“Very well, Commander, keep me…” Anderocus was interrupted by sudden blast of static over the bridge speakers, followed by a flurry of incomprehensible Mechanicus chatter. “...informed, and report when the incursion is contained.” The Lord-Captain switched his commbead off, refusing to be flustered by the sudden blast of noise. Turning to the Tech-Priest who had been working to restore the vox, he barked, “Report, Acolyte! Does this mean you have made progress?”

“The acolyte’s report is unnecessary.” The cold, metallic voice booming from the bridge vox-units was unmistakable, unique even amongst the Lux Foedis’s Tech-Priests. “He has served the Omnissiah adequately, soothing the machine’s hurts and restoring my ability to speak with you.”

“Magos Tersiaard, you live.” Anderocus had mixed feelings about that fact.

“An accurate statement. The ship’s machine-spirit is grievously wounded, Lord-Captain, worse than I have seen in three hundred years, and it will require a great deal of work to persuade it to serve us again.” The ‘us’ in that statement represented one of the problems Anderocus faced when dealing with the ancient Mechanicum Magos. Tersiaard invariably behaved as though he and the Rogue Trader were at least peers, and he occasionally behaved as though the ship belonged to the Magos, and Anderocus were the subordinate. The Rogue Trader lord had to be extremely careful when dealing with Tersiaard; the Magos was extremely highly placed in the Mechanicus hierarchy, and worse, he had been aboard the Lux Foedis for almost six centuries. The Magos knew the ship’s systems intimately, and Anderocus feared that if the tech-priest were sufficiently angered, the ship itself would act on his behalf. While Anderocus couldn’t afford to let Tersiaard push him around with impunity, he had to be very careful when and how he could push back.

“Magos, I am attempting to assess the condition of the Lux Foedis. What knowledge can you contribute?” He knew he sounded stilted, he always did when talking to Tersiaard, but the Magos never seemed to notice. Or possibly he noticed, and simply didn’t care. There was a short pause, and the Lord-Captain heard a few of the alarms shut off.

“The ship’s condition is grave.” Tersiaard finally said. “The plasma reactors rebelled, perhaps outraged by the nearness and turbulence of the Warp, and they had to be temporarily lulled to sleep so their fires could not slip their chains to ravage the rest of the vessel. Life sustainers are currently inoperable, as they have been starved of power with the reactors’ dormancy, though the ship’s current atmosphere should sustain the crew for hours yet. The dearth of power has caused widespread system failures; both primary and secondary engines are inactive, the macrobatteries and lance turrets are silenced, and the void shields are down. There will also be myriad minor problems that will require Mechanicus attention before the ship consents to move or fight again.” Anderocus tried to hide his dismay, but the Magos wasn’t finished. “In addition to the structural damage you have doubtless already been apprised of, the warp engines and Gellar field generators have suffered multiple catastrophic failures; it would seem they sacrificed themselves in an attempt to save the other systems from the fury of the storm. Both systems will require extensive reconstruction and reconsecration before they are again ready for service. Finally, my servitor stocks have been depleted. I suspect, given the circumstances, that a number of crew-serfs have sustained sufficient injury to make them effectively useless; I request that such individuals be sent to the enginarium for servitor conversion to replenish the servitor supply.”

Anderocus balked. There was silence on the bridge, save for Eudaros muttering about “Mechanicus ghouls” under his breath.

The Lord-Captain rubbed his chin in nervous irritation, finding his voice again. “Magos… we may have lost as much as a third of the crew. Your request can not be fulfilled at this time; I can’t spare any significant number of the survivors without further compromising the efficiency of the ship!”

“I am not requesting anyone be tithed who possesses a valuable skill. Simple crew-serfs are all I need. A servitor cares not about its origins, be they humble or exalted.” Tersiaard’s voice remained flat and cold, as it always was. “Additional servitors will be required for many of the more perilous repair tasks. Without them, my work will be slowed significantly, and I am likely to lose many of my acolytes. Serfs are far easier to replace than enginseers.”

“Even regular crew-serfs are in short supply, Magos. Every voidsman I give to you is one less to fulfill the ship’s needs!”

“Servitors are in short supply as well, Lord-Captain.” Tersiaard replied. “Our need for them is more immediate than our need for serfs. However, in deference to your authority, would you be willing to allow my tech-priests to collect only the dying and irreparably crippled? Those may suffice to our needs.”

Anderocus was glad that Tersiaard hadn’t simply threatened to take the crewmen he wanted. Then again, Tersiaard rarely threatened, he simply acted, and the Lord-Captain worried that the Magos would do exactly that if he was refused. The tech-priests and combat servitors under Tersiaard’s control were an extremely formidable force; Anderocus had asked Commander Seria to write up a report of the comparative strength of his armsmen relative to the Lux Foedis’s Mechanicus contingent when he’d first appointed her. Her conclusions had been… worrisome.

Though the crew would be deeply disturbed, now was not the time to force a confrontation with the Magos. “Very well, Tersiaard. You may have the crippled and the dying, but no more. Do not waste their sacrifice.”

“I would never commit so hideous a sin as waste, Lord-Captain.” Was there a hint of menace in Tersiaard’s cold, level voice, or had the Lord-Captain imagined it? “Inform the medicae. My tech-priests will collect the tithe shortly. If the Omnissiah wills it, I should have the plasma reactors’ health restored to minimum operable levels within the hour, and the life sustainers restored to function shortly thereafter.”

Anderocus buried a sense of relief. “And what of the Warp engines? The Gellar fields?”

“Those and the main engines will take a great deal of time and succor to fully restore. As well as materials and resources. Is there a world near our location?”

“We are orbiting one, though we have yet to assess its character. If we are fortunate, it will be a forge world, and have the parts we require.”

There was a brief pause before Tersiaard responded. “It is not a forge. I have increased the repair priority of the auspex arrays; they should find you worthy of their aid shortly after the life sustainers return to function.”

Anderocus wondered how the Magos could be so certain that they were not orbiting a forge. Granted, it was extremely unlikely, but it was very rare for the Magos to make such a definitive statement without backup. A question to ponder later. “Hopefully, the world is sufficiently developed to supply us with the parts we need.”

There was almost, almost a hint of scorn in Tersiaard’s voice. “The manufactory bays are undamaged, Lord-Captain. Even if they cannot supply us with parts, all I require are base materials and time. With that, I can construct everything we might need. Thanks to my efforts over the centuries, the Lux Foedis is largely self-sustaining, so long as my contingent is mostly intact.”

“That may be the first good news I’ve received yet, Magos.” Anderocus rubbed his forehead, trying to ignore the tech-adept’s boast. “Once the auspex arrays are repaired, we can discern whether the world below us is inhabited. If it is, I would appreciate your company in our landing party; you know better than any of us what materials we might need.”

“Very well, Lord-Captain. I shall await your summons.” There was a click of the vox channel disconnecting.

Anderocus sighed with released tension. Dealing with Tersiaard was always… hazardous. He didn’t think he’d made any mistakes this time, but with Tersiaard, one never knew.

He and Eudaros returned to coordinating the repairs. It wasn’t until the vox network was back online thirty minutes later that the Lord-Captain learned of the mistake he’d made. Tersiaard’s tech-priests had indeed collected the crippled and dying from the medicae, dragging them away screaming to be converted into lobotomized cyborg laborers. Ten minutes later several squads of combat servitors had lumbered into one of the crew bays and shattered the right leg of every crew-serf housed there, while the unarmed menials had clawed at the bulkheads in a desperate attempt to escape the heavily armored cyborgs. The tech-priests had followed, and had “collected” over four hundred additional crewmen. Anderocus’s angry protest to the Magos had been met with a simple, flat reply.

“The Machine required additional servitors. Those serfs were crippled, and they were duly collected as a Mechanicus tithe, as we agreed.”

Anderocus had furiously forbidden Tersiaard from attacking crew, but the damage had been done.

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In spite of his use of methods the Lord-Captain most definitely did not approve of, Tersiaard was as good as his word. In less than an hour, the Lux Foedis’s plasma reactors had kindled back to life, though operating far below maximum capacity. The life support systems reactivated minutes later, taking a substantial load off of Anderocus’s mind. The crew had finally gotten the various fires raging through the ship under control, though they’d had to vent a significant number of compartments out into space. Doing so had cut the time they could subsist on the ship’s atmosphere with the vitae systems nonfunctional, and they’d been approaching perilously near the point where the Rogue Trader would have had to consider further crew reductions in order to spare the rest.

The Mechanicus contingent had removed that necessity, at least, and in so doing had probably spared the lives of more crew than they’d stolen. A fact that the Magos would doubtless point out when the Lord-Captain confronted him about his “tithe” later.

The auspex had blinked on less than thirty minutes after the red lights representing the life support systems on the bridge enginseer’s panel had changed to green. The scanner arrays weren’t operating at full efficiency yet, and probably wouldn’t be until the tech-priests had time to sooth their spirits with laborious blessings and calibrations, but it was sufficient. Data flooded the bridge readouts, power sources, thermal signatures, gross and fine motion, mineral analyses, climatological data, and the other assorted pieces of information that represented the planet below.

The report was disheartening. Anderocus had been hoping for a fully-developed Imperial world, or at least a lost colony with a fair amount of infrastructure. That hope had been a slim one, especially as time ticked along and no ships approached the crippled Rogue Trader vessel to investigate. Instead of what he’d hoped, what Anderocus saw represented in the bridge hololiths appeared to be a fairly primitive culture, likely somewhere between the loose categories of feudal world and civilized world. The planetary climate was oddly uniform, and it was staggeringly rich in minerals; the systems that searched out various forms of gemstones had gone into mechanical hysteria, their spirits reeling from the deluge of scan returns. There were significant veins of valuable ores, as well, but the materials the Lux Foedis needed would be difficult to obtain for such a primitive culture. And difficult meant expensive, which was especially worrisome in the Lux Foedis’s current predicament.

That wasn’t the worst of it, though. Careful analysis of the available data had revealed clear signs that the world’s inhabitants weren’t human at all. This was a xenos world.

Anderocus rubbed his head as this final piece of information came in. Wonderful. Xenos. It wouldn’t be the first time the Lux Foedis had traded with xenos, far from it. His father, Beliar Anderocus, had had extensive (and lucrative) dealings with a species known as the Tannor. Unfortunately, when Parseon had attempted to renew the relationship between the Tannor and the Anderocus dynasty, they’d informed him that they never dealt directly with the living relatives of someone who’d died, and Parseon’s status as head of the Anderocus dynasty meant that their previous business relationship had to be regretfully terminated. It had been intensely frustrating, and out of spite Anderocus had pondered the thought of trying to steer one of the Telemach sector’s crusade fleets their way, though he’d ultimately decided against it. He’d dealt with several other alien races since then, and had learned that each was different. Dealing with non-humans always, always meant additional complications, and complications in the current situation were something he really, really didn’t need.

Not that he had a choice. The ship absolutely required the extra materials, or they’d stay here in orbit forever. At least, the ship would stay here in orbit forever. The crew would eventually run out of food and turn to eating each other, eventually leaving the Lux Foedis a cold, empty tomb floating in the void. Admittedly, they could probably obtain most of the materials they needed by mining the system’s asteroids or Oort cloud, but doing so would take an enormous amount of time and fuel, possibly more time than they had supplies for. They could also try mining the world below without dealing with the inhabitants, but it would almost certainly be much easier to simply buy what they could. And who knew? The aliens might actually have something valuable that would enable him to turn this disaster into a profitable enterprise.

Doing so, however, required diplomacy. And diplomacy required making contact, which was why Anderocus had called together several of his senior subordinates, once the most pressing matters at hand had been dealt with.

“Hmph.” Commander Seria snorted. “Xenos, eh? What kind of xenos?” The commander had actually removed her customary helmet and visor for this meeting, and her hard, dark brown eyes were thoughtful, clearly already running through possible contact plans. Seria was an older woman, with a strong, severely-lined face seamed with several scars and a nose that had been broken at least twice, but she’d been a soldier for more than four decades, and exercise combined with a few juvenant treatments had left her in excellent shape. More than good enough to handle the heavy suit of carapace armour she wore everywhere, even to this meeting.

“We have no idea.” Eudaros answered. “The auspex is still sulky, and the returns we’ve gotten weren’t detailed enough to resolve what xenosbreed we might be dealing with. All we know is that they’re definitely nonhuman, and appear to be fairly primitive technologically.”

“Is it entirely necessary to speak to the xenos?” Confessor Deumos was clearly unhappy about the idea. The big, rawboned confessor’s pale face was pinched. “Perhaps we could simply attempt to take what we need.”

“I would rather avoid conflict if we can.” Anderocus replied. “If we simply land and start mining, there is every chance the natives might object to our presence. Perhaps forcefully.”

“And my troops are already depleted.” Seria interjected, staring into the priest’s face challengingly from across the holographic map table. Her recaff-coloured skin tone contrasted strongly with Deumos’s pale features, and she was the only person in the room besides Anderocus who could look the priest in the eye, standing as she did a shade under two meters in height. “Fighting the local xenos could deplete their numbers further, and we will need them if we suffer another Warp incursion on the way to a system with a shipyard. Or, Emperor forbid, if we’re boarded en route.”

All told, the armsman contingent had taken over four hundred losses during the Warp storm and the fighting that followed. Seria’s troops had performed brilliantly, even after losing nineteen squads to the damage wreaked by the storm, but the vicious close-quarters fight in the port-six lighter bay had cost them almost ninety dead, and they’d lost more flushing out and exterminating the last of the Warp-touched crewmen in the ship’s halls and galleries. At least, they all hoped that the armsmen had exterminated all the tainted personnel. Only time would tell.

Deumos sighed, holding up a hand in defeat. “Very well. I urge you all to remember, however, that the Emperor teaches us never to trust the alien lightly.”

“None of us are likely to forget that.” Seria responded curtly. She turned to address Anderocus. “Indeed, sir, I’d prefer if we could send in a recon team first, rather than immediately dispatching a diplomatic mission.”

“I think it would be wiser to avoid that.” Anderocus’s seneschal, a short, slender, light-haired man named Tangro, spoke up. “If your troops, or more likely their landers, are spotted, it could make it much more difficult to acquire what we need. The xenos would suspect, correctly, that we were spying on them, and there are many xenosbreeds that would consider that a hostile act. I’d prefer to avoid that risk.”

“And instead you’d prefer to take the risk of exposing the diplomatic team to potential hostiles?” Crossing her arms, Seria glared down challengingly at Tangro, who shrugged, seeming completely unimpressed by the armour-clad bulk of the woman looming over him.

“There would obviously be a security detail along, yes? And the contact party should probably be wearing low-profile armour; that should repel primitive weaponry adequately enough, unless we have a run of appallingly bad luck. We can stay close to the landing craft, and be ready for a hasty retreat should it prove necessary.” Tangro paused. “I am aware of the potential risks, Commander. I have been involved in several xenos first-contact teams, you know.”

“I am aware of that, Tangro.” Anderocus interjected. “It is for precisely that reason that I want you there. I will be there as well, in case my authority is needed, but I want you to lead the discussion, assuming we can establish one.”

Seria fidgeted uneasily. “You’re going along as well, sir?”

Anderocus gave a firm nod. “I am indeed, Commander. The Mechanicus contingent will be sending their most senior representative, and I wish to be present in case it becomes necessary to overrule him.”

The former Guardswoman rubbed her chin, clearly unhappy. “In that case, sir, I’d like to deploy at least three squads in the escort. I’d be fine with just one under other circumstances, but with your Lordship along as well…” She trailed off, thinking.

The Lord-Captain raised an eyebrow. “Three squads? Might that not be a bit excessive?”

He was answered by a firm shake of her head. “No, sir. That is the minimum I’d feel comfortable with, and I’ll only consider an escort that small if I’m personally leading them.”

Anderocus now raised both eyebrows. “Indeed? Well, as I said when I appointed you, your armsmen are yours to command as you see fit, Seria. This delegation is certainly going to have an overabundance of senior personnel, though. At least the xenos won’t be able to complain about having to deal with flunkies!” He snorted a laugh. “After all, I’ll be going, Seria will be going, Tangro, Tersiaard, Dwyer…”

“Chief Astropath Dwyer is dead, sir.” Eudaros interjected.

Anderocus blinked in shock, all humor gone from his face in an instant. “Dead? But I thought one of the astropaths had survived!”

“One did, sir. Astropath Malachai Setaron, second in seniority.” Eudaros looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, sir, I thought you knew.”

“Quite all right, Eudaros.” Anderocus waved the apology aside. Inside, though, he was shocked. Dwyer had been an old astropath, yes. At sixty-eight, though only a decade older than Anderocus, he was incredibly ancient for one of the telepaths that held the Imperium together; the stress of their occupation tended to kill them at very young ages. The ones that survived that long tended to be weathered and tough, and Dwyer had certainly fit that bill. That he hadn’t survived the Warp incursion… “You did tell me one of the choir had survived. I had simply assumed it was Dwyer. I’m not as familiar with Setaron, but he is a senior astropath, so he should serve almost as well.”

“I am personally familiar with Astropath Setaron.” Deumos’s trained voice boomed out. “A most pious man, and a noble spirit, especially for a witch.” The priest paused, blinking. “My Lord, what purpose could Setaron serve here? The man is no fighter, and no practiced diplomat.”

Tangro spoke up. “I would like to answer that, my lord, if I may?” At Anderocus’s nod, the seneschal turned to face the big priest. “When contacting any xenos species, there is always a danger that they may use their own versions of psykers to tamper with the minds of the delegation. Normally, the Administratum employs sanctioned psykers of their own to counter the threat, but we have no such individuals on board. An astropath is almost as good for that purpose; they often lack the power to directly block xenos meddling, but the extra sensitivity they possess allows them to warn of subtle mind-witchery that even a sanctionite might often miss.” Tangro paused, as though unsure whether he wanted to share the rest of his reasons. At a gesture from Anderocus, though, he continued. “In addition, some xenos species communicate exclusively through telepathy. Should this xenosbreed prove to be one of those, we would require a telepath of our own in order to hold a dialogue. Such communication can have an… extreme corruptive effect on the psyker in question, however.”

“I venture to say we should have little to fear in that respect.” Deumos said. “As I said, Setaron’s faith is firm, and his soul strong.” The Confessor tapped a finger on his staff of office, thoughtfully. “Nonetheless, perhaps it would be best if I were present, as well. Contact with xenos is ever-perilous, and none are so vigilant against corruption as I!”

Seria let out an exasperated sigh, rubbing at her temples with the fingers of her left hand. “Of course. Why not? Let’s all go! The Lord-Captain, his chief adjutant, the commander of the household guard, the head of the Mechanicus contingent, the ship’s primary priest, and the only bloody astropath left on board! Shall I send a squad to fetch the Navigator? Perhaps she’d like to come on this little holiday!” She leveled a glare at Eudaros. “Beltan, perhaps you’d like to come along too? Are there any other ways we could guarantee that a single strike would completely decapitate our command structure?”

A jolly laugh bellowed from Eudaros’s throat, visibly irritating the guard commander further. “Oh, no, no no! Thank you for the kind offer, lady, but I do try my best to keep the mud off my boots!” The ruddy-faced ship captain continued to chuckle, as Seria scowled at him.

“It isn’t necessary for you to accompany us, Seria.” Anderocus interjected, and the commander transferred her unhappy look to him. “If you are concerned about losing all of our senior staff, you would be quite justified in remaining aboard ship. Daniella will be staying as well.” One of the tech-priests had finally opened the Navigator’s sanctum, finding her uninjured but exhausted. She was still recuperating from the ordeal she’d endured in navigating through the storm, and would likely not have been interested in a jaunt planetside in any case. Though fairly personable for a member of the Navis Nobilite, Daniella was still a Navigator, and she’d turn up her nose at the thought of mingling with primitive aborigines. Especially if said primitives were nonhuman.

“Sir, your safety is my primary duty. I trust my people. They’re good troops, but should something go wrong, I need to be present. I would be shirking my duty otherwise.” The tall woman seemed slightly offended.

“So noted, Commander.” Anderocus inclined his head in a salute. “And your dedication is commendable. Muster your guard detail, if you please, and have them meet us in docking bay port-nine.” Seria saluted, slamming her right fist against her breastplate, and marched off to gather her troopers, re-donning her customary helmet and rebreather as she left the room.

“I shall retrieve the astropath and meet you there, Lord.” Deumos stated. The priest gave a curt nod, spun on his heel, and briskly followed the commander.

“Port-nine, sir?” Tangro inquired. “We aren’t taking an Aquila?” The Lux Foedis carried several varieties of orbit-to-surface shuttles and other small craft. Typically, diplomatic mission used the sleek and ornate Aquila-pattern shuttles, but bay port-nine instead contained two of the ship’s heavy cargo shuttles.

“That’s correct, seneschal.” Anderocus turned toward Captain Eudaros. “Eudaros, please summon Astropath Setaron, and have him meet the landing party there.” He turned back to Tangro. “If we’re bringing along three full squads of armsmen, a single Aquila would be far too small, and I’d rather use as few of the landing craft as possible to conserve fuel. One of the heavy shuttles should suffice for our delegation, and their rough-field landing capability should prove an asset.” The Lord-Captain’s mouth twisted. “I suppose should contact the Magos and inform him of our departure.”

Tangro interrupted the Rogue Trader as he moved toward the vox-panel. “Lord, are three full squads really necessary? Surely Seria would consent to reduce that commitment if you requested it of her!”

Anderocus shook his head. “No, Tangro, Seria knows her duties, and I appointed her to her position because I trusted her judgement. I’ll not second-guess her in the matter of the guard detail.” Anderocus had already turned away from Tangro, and as such, missed the oddly frustrated look that passed over the smaller man’s face.

The Lord-Captain was able to reach Tersiaard fairly quickly. From the speed of the Magos’s response, it was clear he’d been expecting Anderocus’s call.

“I have delegated the appropriate tasks to my acolytes already, Lord-Captain.” Tersiaard’s cold voice stated. “If you are prepared to visit the surface, I would be willing to accompany you at any time.”

“Excellent, Magos. We are finalizing our preparations, so if you could meet us in docking bay port-nine, we would welcome your company.”

“I decline.” Anderocus was surprised by the response. “I shall make use of my own shuttle.”

Tersiaard’s personal shuttle was a lander of a pattern Anderocus had never seen anywhere else. The thing resembled a slimmed-down Astartes Thunderhawk, and underneath its elaborate engraving and scrollwork boasted a formidable array of weaponry and thick armor. The only problem was… “Magos, isn’t your shuttle stored in the starboard-seven bay?” Starboard-seven was right in the middle of the worst of the hull damage.

“That is correct.” Tersiaard replied calmly. “I have already sent acolytes to ascertain its status. The shuttle is undamaged, though the external door to the bay is currently missing, as is much of the exterior wall.”

“That whole section of the ship is depressurized!”

“That is also correct. It will not be an issue.”

Anderocus knew when to admit defeat. He sighed. “Very well, Magos. We will be launching in a cargo lander from bay port-nine in approximately fifteen minutes. You may lock on to our beacon and follow us down.”

“I will do so.” Tersiaard disconnected with a click.

Anderocus turned back to Tangro and the map table, shaking his head. “Seneschal, do you have a landing area selected?”

“I do, Lord.” The shorter man touched several runes on the hololith, causing the map to zoom in on a small collection of lights. “Here. This is the largest settlement we’ve detected on the planet, and though it is no hive, I believe it will do adequately. There is certain to be at least a local leader present, and I estimate a nontrivial probability that this is a national or planetary capital. If we leave at the time you indicated to the Magos, we should arrive a bit before dawn.”

“That should suffice. Eudaros!” The heavyset voidsman appeared at Anderocus’s side. “Send these coordinates to the shuttle pilot.” Eudaros nodded, but the Lord-Captain wasn’t finished. “Have pilots report to bay sixteen, both sides, as well.” Starboard-sixteen was far enough aft that it had been spared the Warp storm’s fury, and those bays contained the Lux Foedis’s pair of Fury-pattern interceptors. “I’d like them to fly high cover, just in case.” He smiled at Tangro, as Eudaros began giving orders over the vox. “Shall we go, seneschal?”

Anderocus and Tangro left the briefing room, the two guards at the door falling in behind them to ensure the Rogue Trader’s safety.

Outside of the heavily-protected bridge area, the damage to the Lux Foedis was far more noticeable. The smell of smoke suffused the entire ship, and the normal three-kilometer walk from the bridge to the port-nine landing bay was almost five kilometers, as it was necessary to divert around damaged power conduits and fires that, though under control, had not yet been extinguished. Emergency bulkheads had sealed in dozens of different places and had yet to be reopened, and dead crew-serfs had been stacked against the walls in several corridors. The bodies had been dragged out of the way and simply left there, as more pressing tasks required the attention of the surviving crew. Corpse disposal would have to wait for later. They also passed three places where heavy lasgun fire had scarred the corridor walls, reminders of just how much force was necessary to neutralize possessed crewmen. Anderocus stopped at his personal quarters briefly, donning the heaviest armour he owned that could be easily concealed underneath his ornate clothing.

The Lord-Captain reached the landing bay without undue incident, Tangro tagging along behind him, and the two guards that followed them posted themselves on either side of the entrance. Inside, Commander Seria had already assembled three squads of his household guards, already armed and ready for action. Their carapace armour was spotless, their uniforms in perfect order, and their weapons impeccably maintained, and they stood at attention in three precise rows. The Anderocus dynasty was a wealthy one, and could afford to arm and equip its household troopers almost to the level of Imperial Guard storm troopers, and their training was almost as good. He examined them briefly, knowing that Seria would have picked these thirty troopers for both combat capability and impeccable discipline. One only had a single opportunity to make a first impression, after all, and these troops looked like they’d make a good one. Anderocus nodded approval to the Commander, and she returned the nod before ordering her troops to fall out and get strapped in.

Anderocus walked up to speak to the commander of his guards, motioning for Tangro to embark ahead of him and running a critical eye over the looming bulk of the shuttle that the soldiers were hastily boarding. The heavy lander was huge, easily able to accommodate thirty armsmen in addition to the small diplomatic party. It was also, unfortunately, rather plain, sporting little of the gilded ornamentation or detailed, gorgeous inlays that covered the hulls of the smaller Aquila shuttles. Still, it was in good repair and spotlessly clean, and should prove suitably impressive to a civilization that, from all appearances, lacked space travel. The fact that the heavy shuttle boasted a robust, heavily armoured hull and thus was far more survivable than the more lightly-built Aquilas was a bonus.

“Hellguns only?” The Rogue Trader asked his guard commander in an undertone. “After your reaction at the briefing, I had almost expected you to want to bring along a Hellhound or two.” The Lux Foedis carried several of the lightly armoured infantry fighting vehicles, though they rarely saw any use.

“I had missile and grenade launchers and heavy stubbers loaded aboard the shuttle before you arrived, sir. There’s a portable lascannon in there, too, just in case. Better to have and not need than need and not have.” Seria had donned her helmet and face-concealing rebreather mask again, but her tone was deadly serious, and Anderocus suspected that, could he see through it, he’d see even less humour on her face than her mask currently displayed.

“Probably not a bad idea.” Anderocus observed. “I’ve ordered the Furies to fly high cover, as well. And Tersiaard will be following us in that gunship of his, should additional firepower prove necessary.”

“He’ll probably have battle-servitors with him, too.” Seria commented. “I’ll be glad for the air cover, at least.” She shook her head. “Sorry, sir, I don’t mean to be dismissive of the Magos. He isn’t really that bad, as cogboy higher-ups go.” The last of the troopers had boarded, and the commander and Lord-Captain stood alone in the bay, save for the enginseers making final launch preparations on the shuttle. “Shall we board, sir?”

“Hm?” Anderocus blinked, shaken out of his momentary reverie. “I’d rather intended to wait for the astropath. I don’t think I’ve ever actually met any of ours other than Dwyer.”

“Setaron and Deumos arrived just before you, sir. They’re already aboard.”

“Oh.” The corridors between the choir vault and the lander bay must have been less damaged than those between the bay and the bridge. “Well, let’s not tarry any further, then!”

Even with the three squads of troopers embarked and extra heavy weapons loaded, the cargo compartment was largely empty. When configured for personnel, the heavy shuttle could carry a full company without overloading, so the thirty troopers currently aboard had plenty of leg room. The senior personnel were sitting close to the front of the compartment, and Anderocus caught his first sight of Astropath Setaron.

Setaron’s hollow eye sockets were as unsettling as any astropath’s. His sight had been burned away from him on Holy Terra, a price exacted in the soul binding ritual that armored an astropath’s soul against Chaos. Unlike some, Setaron didn’t wear a bandage or blindfold to spare others the sight of the empty pits in his face. He was bald, again, as most astropaths were, and his skin was a medium brown colour, slightly darker than Seria’s, indicating he’d probably been born on a planetary surface rather than aboard a starship. He was attired simply, in a dark gray robe, and the only ostentation visible was a slender gold chain around his neck, supporting some ornament that hung beneath his clothing against his chest. A straight wooden staff sat upright next to his seat.

“Astropath Setaron. I don’t believe we’ve met.” Anderocus didn’t offer his hand; it would be unseemly for someone of his station to shake the hand of a witch.

“My Lord. I live to serve.” The astropath didn’t rise, and his voice was quiet.

“You know your task?”

“Of course.” Setaron smiled. “It will not be difficult, my Lord. Despite the fury of the storm we escaped, the Warp seems oddly quiet here. It should be easy for me to detect any interference.”

“Good.” The Lord-Captain didn’t understand how the Warp could be quiet, with the raging daemonic fury of the storm on the other side of the divide between material and immaterial. He decided not to ask; where the Warp was concerned, it was better not to know. Let those burdened with its presence bear that load.

Anderocus took a seat at the front that had been left vacant for him, noting as he did so that Tangro had seated himself as far from the astropath as he could manage. It was no great surprise; many subjects of the Emperor were so revolted by witches that they couldn’t stand to be near one, even sanctioned witches like astropaths. It was a bit odd that he hadn’t noted that tendency in Tangro before, however.

The Lord-Captain shook that thought aside as irrelevant, as the shuttle’s engines roared to life. The enginseers must have been nearly finished with takeoff preparations when he arrived, for the bay was swiftly purged of atmosphere and the exterior doors opened. Anderocus tuned his vox-bead to the pilot’s frequency as the shuttle smoothly lifted from its moorings and slid out into the void.

“Emperor on Earth,” the pilot cursed softly, “How did we survive?”

“Can you describe what you’re seeing, pilot?” Anderocus cut in.

“Oh, sorry m’Lord, didn’t realize you were on this channel.” The pilot’s voice was chagrined. “Ah… there’s significant damage to the exterior of the ship. I can see broken gargoyles and damaged devotional icons all down the port side, and some serious scoring in the armour…” The pilot trailed off, evidently concentrating on fine maneuvers. He would be moving the shuttle to the starboard side of the Lux Foedis, to rendezvous with Tersiaard’s shuttle before descending into the planetary atmosphere, so they should be coming around to the more damaged section right about… “Golden Throne!” The pilot gasped, horror in his tone. “M’Lord, it looks like something peeled the starboard flank open like a bloody ration tin!”

“Make sure your pict recorder is active, pilot.” Anderocus hid the dismay he was feeling with the ease of long practice. He’d hoped the damage might have been less severe than it had sounded from the damage control reports.

“Aye, sir, pict recorder active and capturing.” The record would help with damage repair later. Tersiaard’s gunship would surely be taking a similar record, but it couldn’t hurt to have multiple sources. “There’s the Mechanicus lander. We’re beginning descent now.”

The ride down through the atmosphere was a bit rougher in the cargo shuttle than it would have been in one of the more aerodynamic craft. (The pilots in the Furies were doubtless having a delightful time, the Rogue Trader reflected somewhat sourly) The blocky, brick-like profile of the heavy lander tended to simply smash through the atmosphere rather than riding on it, but the powered descent ameliorated the worst of the effects, and the weather was calm. Aerobraking in this brick would have been a nightmare, though.

Anderocus listened to the roar of the air passing by the lander’s hull and the muted thunder of the engines as time ticked by. No one in the cargo compartment spoke; they were doubtless all mentally rehearsing the various plans and contingencies that would need to be fresh in their minds when they made planetfall.

It wasn’t long before the pilot’s voice came over the vox again. “Xenos city in sight, Lord. Did you want me to set down on the outskirts?”

Anderocus thought for a moment. “No, pilot, that would likely place us too far from the local power structure. Are there any parks or clear areas near the city center that can accommodate both us and the Mechanicus shuttle?”

“Don’t know, m’Lord. The skyline’s hiding the city core from this angle; did you want us to do a flyby?”

“Yes, but take care not to go too fast. High and slow, avoid any sudden maneuvers unless you see ground fire.”

The pilot snorted a laugh. “In this tub, by the time I’ve seen it it’ll have already hit us, m’Lord.” The Lord-Captain felt the craft’s forward speed drop as the pilot carried out his orders.

Anderocus pondered potential alternatives to a city-center landing site as the shuttle slowly circled. The buildings were fairly large, but he seriously doubted they’d support the lander’s massive weight, so if they couldn’t find a clear space it would be necessary to land further out on the edge, suboptimal as that might be. They could probably demolish a building, if they absolutely had to; the shuttle could smash through most primitive constructions without damage, but that seemed an unnecessarily hostile act. Finally, the pilot’s voice broke his reverie again. “Got one, M’Lord. Big open park near the middle of the city, should be more than large enough for both shuttles. We’ll have to knock a couple of trees down when we set down, though. Be warned though, sir, I’m seeing a fair number of airborne xenos creatures, might be the locals, might be some local wildlife. Don’t seem to be armed, but they’re pretty clearly shadowing us. They’re giving us a wide berth for now, but once we land…”

“Thank you for the warning, pilot. Go ahead and set us down. Take it slow and be careful not to accidentally incinerate any locals or their pets if you can avoid it.” The shuttle eased to a halt midair and began to cautiously descend as the Lord-Captain turned to Guard-Commander Seria. “Did you get that?”

The helmeted head nodded once, briskly. “Yes, sir. My troops will be ready and watching.” She paused before adding, “There’s a fair amount of urbanization around this park, sir. I’m a bit concerned about possible snipers.”

“Keep an eye out, but this is most likely the best option for contacting someone in a position of power.” Seria made a noise of quiet dissatisfaction, but nodded all the same. “Have one of your squads exit first to secure the area and impress anyone watching. Intimidating, but not aggressive, if you please.” The shuttle bumped to a stop with a couple of hard thumps that Anderocus assumed had probably been trees, the engines quieted, and Seria stood, saluting.

“Right, sir. Sergeant Dulis, it’s your lucky day! Your squad’s first out the door and ramp security. Keep it ceremonial for now, but keep your damn eyes peeled! The rest of you: be ready to form up for escort detail!” All thirty troopers slammed to attention in perfect unison, and the squad closest to the ramp turned as it hissed down, opening to show the alien world beyond.

The ten soldiers marched down the ramp in two short columns, bootheels slamming down on metal surface in perfect unison, as Anderocus would expect of his best household troops. Each column turned to one side as they reached the ground, forming a line ten abreast flanking the foot of the boarding ramp. Their formation achieved, the squad slammed to a halt, hellguns at port arms, and waited.

Anderocus held the party inside the shuttle for a few moments, waiting to see if something attacked the vanguard squad. Nothing happened, and there was no sound but silence as pleasantly cool early morning air drifted into the open shuttle, the clean smell tainted by the stink of promethium fumes from the lander’s thrusters. He was about to lead the landing party out, when he heard the roar of the approaching Mechanicus gunship, and decided instead to hold his retainers inside until Tersiaard had landed and debarked.

He didn’t have long to wait. Either the Mechanicus pilot assumed the locals had cleared out when Anderocus’s shuttle had landed, or more likely, he, she, or it simply didn’t care if a few natives were immolated by the lander’s thrusters. The sound of the engines died down quickly, and Anderocus heard the metallic noise of heavy footsteps on a ramp.

Now he led his party out of their shuttle. It wouldn’t do to give the impression that the Rogue Trader had been waiting on the Mechanicus Magos, after all. Better to make it abundantly clear to the locals who was actually in charge of the Imperial delegation.

Parseon Anderocus proceeded slowly down the ramp, infusing his stride with grace and authority, as his etiquette tutors had taught him from a young age. He managed his fine clothing easily, though he currently wore his normal shipboard garb rather than full formal finery. That would wait for the locals to arrange official diplomatic meetings; it always behooved a powerful trader to have additional ways to surprise and impress those he dealt with kept in reserve.

The second of the escort squads fell in beside him, marching in columns on either side of the ramp as the first had. Tangro fell in at his master’s right hand, while Commander Seria loomed over the Rogue Trader’s left shoulder. Deumos and the astropath followed the two higher-ranking retainers, while the third guard squad filled the ramp behind them, marching five abreast. Anderocus thought with satisfaction that they presented an impressive and intimidating panoply.

To his right, Anderocus saw the red and gold shape of the Mechanicus lander. Standing at the base of its ramp loomed the intimidating form of Magos Tersiaard.

The Magos stood well over two meters tall, and from what Anderocus had seen, his body seemed to be almost wholly augmetic. He wore the traditional red robe of the Mechanicus, trimmed with a gold cog-teeth pattern, and very little of him was currently visible underneath it. His face was a faint gleam of metal underneath the deep shadows the combination of streetlights and pre-dawn gloom cast in his cowl, and three green lenses that were his eyes glittered with an odd light that never seemed to quite match the surrounding illumination. A frightening, arthropodan array of augmetic utility limbs and mechadendrites sprouted from his back, haloing his body with metal struts and tentacles, and the huge, boxy shape of a heavy bolter sat on his right shoulder where it always was. A small cluster of servo-skulls flew around him, the tiny antigravity units that supported them producing a noticeable buzz, but no retainers accompanied the Magos. Apart from the machine-studded flying skulls, Tersiaard was alone.

Anderocus only spared a brief glance for the tech-priest. Most of his attention was devoted to the creatures gathering in the park, gawking at the huge form of the shuttle.

“Did someone kidnap a juve festival’s rough riders group and leave the mounts behind?” Seria muttered near-inaudibly, and Anderocus could understand why. The brightly coloured quadrupedal hippoform xenos before him averaged a bit over a meter in height, and were staring at him, his entourage, and the two shuttles with obvious shock written on their countenances. As he’d walked down the ramp, the Rogue Trader had initially dismissed the creatures as local pets or beasts of burden, but now that he got a closer look, he suspected they might actually be the inhabitants. Many of them wore ornamental clothing of one sort or another, ranging from a simple vest worn by what looked to be a streetside news-sheet vendor to one creature sporting a remarkably tasteful monocle, top-hat, and tailored suit. Others were unclothed, in numbers sufficient to indicate that this was considered quite socially acceptable. More of the creatures were cautiously emerging from the multi-story structures that surrounded the landing zone, no doubt alerted by the thunderous noise of the shuttles’ landing thrusters. Others were hovering in the sky, on feathered wings that seemed far too small to support them. All the ones in view, including the fliers, were gazing at the human group with expressions that mixed awe, wonder, shock, and a trace of fear, and many seemed to be speaking to one another in hushed voices.

“I don’t think these are pets, or carnival beasts, Seria.” Tangro commented. “Observe the large cranial space, the clear binocular vision, the clothing and tools some of them are sporting. Can you see the mobile expressions on their faces?”

“I can, but I’ve seen pets that mimic expressions before.” The former Guardswoman replied impatiently.

“Very few that boasted such large brains, I’d wager. And look! Are those tattoos on their rumps? Could those be marks of rank or social status? Or perhaps they indicate employment or career! But how do they get them to appear on top of their coats?” Tangro’s tone was excited. “Not to mention that they’re clearly talking to one another about us! Oh, my, just look at their expressions! How very humanlike, despite the decidedly nonhuman body structure, moreso than even the Eldar! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the like before!”

“Take care, seneschal.” Deumos growled. “It is not seemly for a servant of the Emperor to be so… taken with xenos.”

“Understanding these creatures is the entire reason I am here, confessor. They have something we need, so it behooves me to be open-minded. It will be easier to obtain supplies if we try to determine the most effective ways of talking to them.” Tangro’s reply carried a peevish tone.

“‘An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.’ Remember that, Tangro.” The priest quoted piously, “You should watch yourself carefully, lest something unholy use the opportunity to sneak in.”

“Emperor’s mercy, Deumos! Even the mightiest fortress would starve, were its gates to stay ever-closed, and such a thing only invites a siege!”

“Will you both be quiet?” Anderocus hissed. “Save your bickering for later, in private!”

Both men fell silent, muttering apologies.

The distraction dealt with, Anderocus concentrated on putting as much impatience as he could into his bearing and expression. He had come all the way to their world, now he would make their leaders or representatives come to him. It was a powerful negotiating tactic, one that gave an immediate advantage and had worked well for him in the past. The greatest downside was that his arrival had doubtless been tremendously intimidating for a society that lacked space travel of its own, so he might be standing there waiting for quite some time before one of the xenos gained sufficient courage to approach. That was no great worry; in fact, it was part of the reason he’d been willing to land a bit before dawn, when he suspected most of the aliens would be just waking up.

He was therefore surprised when, after a wait of only a few minutes, one of the hippoid creatures, a being with electric-blue mane and tail and light tan fur, clad in a vest and with a spiral horn projecting through a black beret, began to step tentatively forward out of the crowd that had gathered around the park’s edge. It spoke a few words, clearly addressing Anderocus, its manner and voice nervous. When the Rogue Trader simply regarded it uncomprehendingly, it repeated itself more slowly, taking care to clearly enunciate its words.

Seria started slightly, the slight rattle of her armour drawing the Lord-Captain’s attention. “What is it, commander?”

“Sir, I’m not entirely sure, the accent’s a little odd, but… it sounds to me like this little xeno is speaking Ancient Anglic!” Anderocus was glad his guard commander was wearing a helmet; if her face was as stunned as her voice sounded, it could make them appear weak, possibly undermining their eventual bargaining position.

“Anglic? I’m not familiar with that tongue.” Tangro said, pensively.

“It is an ancient, pre-Imperial, possibly pre-Gothic language.” The metallic voice was unmistakable. Anderocus had no idea how Tersiaard had gotten that close without him noticing, though the massive Magos displayed an almost feline affinity for quiet movement at times. “I am curious how you came to be familiar with it, commander.”

The xeno who’d addressed them evidently hadn’t noticed Tersiaard’s approach either, as it shied away when he spoke. Its large eyes grew even larger when it saw the tech-priest move up to stand behind the row of guards on the right side of the shuttle ramp. The xeno took a few nervous steps backward, but one of Tersiaard’s servo-skulls buzzed out of the darkness to hover beside it, and the creature checked its retreat in favor of staring in wide-eyed fascination at the flying skull-machine.

Ignoring the interplay, Seria had turned to face the Magos. “It’s still spoken in a few places in southern Raal, back home on Silieus. I lived a few hours away from a town where everyone spoke Anglic; I learned it from a childhood friend.” She cocked her head. “It’s been decades since I heard it, though. Not since I shipped out for the Guard as a girl.”

“Intriguing.” Tersiaard angled his gaze off to where his servo-skull was slowly circling the nervous-looking xeno. “I wonder how it came to be spoken here?”

“Does this mean you can translate for us, Seria?” Anderocus asked.

“I… maybe?” Seria said, with uncharacteristic uncertainty. “It’s been years, as I said, sir. Maybe I’ll pick it back up?”

“My linguistic database includes Ancient Anglic.” Tersiaard observed. “If you could prompt this xeno to speak further, I could adjust for dialect differences and program my servo-skulls to serve as translators.”

“I suppose I could try.” Anderocus stepped to the side, gesturing for Seria to go past him. The commander’s tall, armoured, helmeted form was clearly intimidating the little alien, though; it started stepping back nervously again as she approached, the expression on its face making clear that it was regretting its decision to address them.

“Commander,” Tangro called out, “You’re scaring it. Take your helmet off.”

Seria looked over her shoulder to Anderocus for confirmation. The Lord-Captain gestured assent, and the guard commander reluctantly removed her face-concealing mask and helmet.

Some of the tension left the small alien’s body when it saw Seria’s face. It relaxed further when she haltingly addressed it. The xeno smiled delightedly and spoke back to her slowly in its own language, taking care to enunciate clearly to make it easier for the commander to understand. Anderocus noted that the creature sported a mark on its rump that resembled a quill pen scribing a character, and wondered if that meant that the creature might be a scribe of some sort.

The Rogue Trader leaned back, turning sideways so he could address the astropath in the back of the group. “Setaron, are you sensing anything?”

“I sense a great deal, Lord.” The psyker replied quietly. “A great many of these creatures have minds that buzz and spark with power. Rest assured: none have made any attempts to intrude upon our thoughts, however, else I would have spoken.”

Anderocus shot a glare at the astropath. It was a wasted effort, of course, as the man hadn’t spontaneously regenerated his sight in the last few moments. “I thought you said the Warp was calm here?”

“It is, Lord.” The psyker replied, unshaken. “Calmer than any place I have ever been. It should not be, with so many psykers about, but it remains so.”

“Very well,” Anderocus was deeply uncomfortable to know he was surrounded by psykers. “Remain attentive, and alert me if you sense any attempted intrusions.”

“I remain vigilant.” The astropath intoned solemnly.

Commander Seria had continued her conversation with the tan-coated alien while Setaron and Anderocus spoke, clearly growing more comfortable with the language quickly as she did so. The alien, for its part, was smiling widely, clearly excited, and much of the fear seemed to have dissipated from the growing crowd. The discussions between the various little clusters of xenos were getting more animated, and Anderocus noticed several of the winged aliens darting off, perhaps to fetch those higher in authority.

“What are you telling this creature, commander?” Anderocus interrupted.

Seria turned, saluting. “Nothing dangerous, sir, I’m mostly just answering basic questions. I’ve told him what our species is called, that we come from a starship, that we serve both your dynasty and the Imperium, and that we’re seeking to speak to his leaders.” She turned back to the alien just in time to see it telekinetically levitate a small pen and notepad out of a pocket in its vest, and the soldier leapt away, exclaiming, “Emperor’s blood!”

The alien jumped in response, looking around frantically with wide green eyes to try and spot what had startled Seria. The armsmen tensed, but their iron discipline kept them from moving without Seria’s orders or an immediate threat in view. The commander pointed at the floating writing tools, speaking a few more words in the alien’s language, and it looked at her in surprise for a few moments before laughing and answering whatever she’d asked with an unconcerned smile.

“Ah… sir? It, ah, seems that the local population has… an extremely high concentration of psykers.” Seria’s voice was steady, and it would take someone who knew her well to spot her unease. Anderocus could see her trying very hard not to put her hand on the butt of the plasma pistol at her hip.

“Yes, Astropath Setaron made me aware of that fact while you were talking to this one.” The Lord-Commander replied in a slightly acid tone. Anderocus indicated the creature Seria had been speaking to. “Has it told you anything of value?”

“A bit, sir.” Seria, seeing her superior unconcerned about the profusion of witches, recovered her composure rapidly, though she remained more watchful than before. “All the ones with the horns are psykers, apparently, though they vary in power.” Anderocus spared a glance around at the gathering crowd. The ones with the spiral horns made up an uncomfortably large percentage. “This one’s name is Wordsmith, though he prefers simply Smith.” The little alien was busily scribbling in his notebook, pausing occasionally to peer intently at one or another of the humans. “And while the leaders of this particular town have already been summoned, the overlord of this world dwells elsewhere. That’s as far as I’ve gotten; I’m having to struggle to remember the words and grammar.” Seria’s voice held a note of apology.

Anderocus harrumphed. “Does he have any idea when these local leaders might arrive?” It was probably too much to hope for to find the planetary leader in the first city they visited. Ah, well, perhaps he could persuade the world’s ruling lord to come here; that would give him additional diplomatic leverage, making them come to him.

“He seemed to think it would be shortly, sir.” She spoke to the alien again, drawing its attention away from whatever it was writing, and it nodded to her, then looked at Anderocus and said something emphatic, nodding again. “A matter of minutes, he says.”

“Commendably quick, if true.” Anderocus observed. “Magos, any progress on adjusting your translation database?”

“Affirmative. I have recited the proper prayers and brought the cogitators into line. A fairly simple task; I did not even require any of the ritual incense. These servo-skulls should serve as adequate translators.” A small group of the little servitors flew out of the Mechanicus lander and took station at the shoulder of each senior member of the expedition. “They have been instructed to only speak when you address one of the xenos, or when one of them addresses you.”

“Thank you, Magos, that should prove invaluable. Though we may wish to extend that instruction to the xenos speaking in other circumstances; it could prove advantageous to know what they are saying, while keeping our own discussions secret.” Anderocus turned to the little xeno… Wordsmith, was that its name? “Can you understand me now?” He asked, and the servo-skull hovering over his shoulder spoke, interpreting the Rogue Trader’s words for the alien’s ears.

The alien nearly fell over in astonishment. “Your flying skull things… can talk?” As it had just done, the servo-skull spoke, translating this time from the local’s language into High Gothic. Its voice was slightly metallic (though less so than the Magos’s, oddly enough) but easily understandable.

“They do not speak their own words, merely translate mine.” Anderocus replied, feeling that it was important to establish that the servo-skulls were servants. “A task that it appears they are accomplishing adequately.” The Lord-Captain gave a thankful nod to Magos Tersiaard, though the Mechanicus adept didn’t bother to acknowledge the gesture.

“That’s amazing!” Wordsmith exclaimed via servo-skull. He peered more closely at the skull still hovering next to him. “What kind of magic is this thing, anyway? It’s so small, to be both flying and talking!”

“You told Commander Seria that your leaders would be here soon, is that correct?” Anderocus asked, ignoring the alien’s question. It would be best to keep them guessing, at least for now. Fortunately, Tersiaard did not volunteer any information either, and he showed great restraint in not correcting the alien’s assumption that the miracles of the Machine God and the psychic trickery of witches could be mistaken for one another.

“Oh, yes. I’m quite sure they’re on their way now!” The xeno looked over his shoulder at a clock on a nearby building. “I suspect they’ll be here shortly after the Princess raises the sun.”

Princess, eh? It was probably referring to some local sun-god figure, from the context. Anderocus was sufficiently well-travelled to be familiar with a variety of heathen alien religions; hopefully this one wasn’t tied to the Warp, as some of them were. Sun-worship was generally harmless enough, and he’d even encountered a few branches of the Imperial Cult that followed it. Sun-as-Emperor was a common enough simplification of Emperor-worship. Not that he thought for a moment that these aliens actually worshipped the Emperor!

“Of course. Is there any particular interruption or ceremony associated with sunrise?” If the aliens expected the Imperials to participate in their ceremonies, it would be best to know now, and get the disappointment over with. Anderocus couldn’t see any weapons in the crowd of aliens, so he felt confident that any violent reaction to his refusal to follow their religion would break against the bulwark of his guardsmen.

“Only for the Princess,” the alien replied with a worldly shrug, “or folks attending the ceremony in Canterlot. Here in Manehattan it’s just sunrise.”

“I see.” Anderocus looked out at what he could see of the horizon, occluded as it was by the shapes of the multi-story buildings that surrounded him, and could see a faint glow heralding the oncoming dawn. “Then we shall await the arrival of your leaders.”

The Rogue Trader stood there silently, waiting, as the alien scribbled in his notebook.

Finally, the sun peeked over the horizon, and behind him Setaron collapsed, screaming like a damned soul.

The astropath awoke as the shuttle ascended through the atmosphere, leaving Tangro on the surface with Tersiaard to continue his discussions. The seneschal had insisted on remaining, even as the rest of the senior staff withdrew, insisting he could handle preliminary negotiations singlehandedly. Anderocus hoped that Tangro could invent a sufficiently plausible explanation for their sudden withdrawal; it must have looked exceedingly undignified to have the senior members of the officer corps hustling back into the safety of the shuttle while a pair of guards dragged the shrieking astropath up the ramp behind them, brandishing their hellguns at the crowd threateningly. Seria had left one squad of guards with the seneschal to ensure his safety, taking the other two to ensure that Setaron could pose no threat to the rest of the senior personnel.

At the sound of Setaron’s ragged inhalation, several of the others in the passenger compartment crowded further away from him. After the astropath had collapsed in a shrieking fit, blood streaming from the empty sockets of his eyes, there’d been significant concerns that the Warp had overtaken him, or that some fell xenos sorcery had corrupted him. Though Confessor Deumos had examined the astropath and pronounced him free of taint, no one wanted to take any more chances than were necessary.

Now he was sitting up, groaning, wiping at the drying blood that streaked his face, and it was time to learn if the confessor had been mistaken.

Deumos nudged Seria, drawing her attention to the awakening astropath. She motioned the guard detail out of his way with a wave of an armored hand, and the big priest respectfully shouldered past Anderocus. As Seria’s guard detail leveled their hellguns, the confessor drew his ornate, thrice-blessed bolt pistol and addressed the frail telepath.

“Malachai Setaron, do you hear my words?”

The astropath’s blind gaze swung toward the priest. “Kessar? Kessar, is that you?”

“It is.” Deumos replied firmly. “You were taken by a fit as the sun rose, Setaron. Are you still yourself, or has the stain of your witchery finally proven too much for your soul to handle?” The confessor trained his weapon on the astropath’s head, finger resting lightly on the trigger. He clearly intended to take no chances.

“Yes, confessor, both my mind and soul remain my own. Wait, I shall prove it…” Setaron fumbled at the collar of his robe, finally locating the fine chain that hung about his neck. He drew out the beautifully-wrought golden Aquila that hung from it. Holding the charm firmly in his hand, he raspily intoned, “I swear unto you, Confessor Deumos, in the name and presence of the Emperor, that my soul remains pure in His sight, and that the Enemy has found no purchase there.”

Deumos waited for three long, tense heartbeats, watching to see if the God-Emperor would see fit to strike the astropath down. When no divine wrath manifested, he holstered his weapon. “That is good to hear, Malachai. I feared for you.”

The tension in the passenger compartment eased greatly as the confessor’s words dispelled fears of daemonic possession. Lord-Captain Anderocus stepped up next to the priest.

“What happened, Setaron? Did something attack you?”

“I… don’t think so, my lord. As the sun rose, I felt a vast outpouring of psychic power. It was not aimed at me, else I fear I’d have burned like a candle. Even so, it was all I could do to hold my mind together; the presence was so immense that even in merely sensing it I was almost destroyed.” Setaron shuddered. “I… hesitate to say this, but I’ve only encountered anything like it once before.”

“Farseer Melandaril.” Anderocus nodded. If that damnable xenos mind-witch had somehow followed them through the warp storm…

“No, my lord.” Setaron’s voice was hesitant, as he corrected the Rogue Trader he served. “This… entity quite thoroughly eclipsed the Eldar’s power. The only time I’ve felt its like was…” He trailed off, clearly uncomfortable with whatever he had been going to say.

“Yes? Was when?” The captain prompted impatiently, when the astropath didn’t continue.

Setaron hesitated again, and when he spoke, his voice was almost inaudible. “The day I… lost my eyes, my lord.” The whispered answer visibly confused Anderocus. Setaron was an astropath, he’d been blind since…

“Blasphemy!” hissed Deumos. The big confessor gripped his staff of office tightly. “You would seek to claim that the Emperor is on this world?” His hand strayed to the butt of his bolt pistol again. “Perhaps you did not escape taint after all!”

“Be still, Deumos,” the Captain commanded, holding up a hand to forestall any violent action by the priest. “I’m certain Setaron had no intent to blaspheme. Did you, Setaron?” The question held an edge of warning.

“Of course not, my lord.” The astropath bowed to Deumos. “I humbly beg your pardon, confessor. What I am about to say may sound impious, but you know me, Kessar. I would never, ever turn from the Emperor’s light. Not even to save myself from an eternity of torture.”

The priest rumbled angrily, but in truth he did know the astropath well. He knew well that the blind man was almost ferociously pious, and had always been a steadfast, loyal and true acolyte of the God-Emperor. “I will withhold judgment for now, Malachai. But take great care with your words.”

Setaron licked his lips nervously, nodding. “I shall do so.” The blind man paused, clearly searching for words. “I did not mean to suggest that the Emperor was here, on this world, but the power I felt was so very much like that of the Astronomicon, in scope if not in flavor.” He hesitated. “It was more unified, and, and warmer, somehow. The Astronomion has this sense of terrible, remorseless purpose to it, but on the edge of your senses, you can detect… almost a babble.”

“Babble? You dare to speak of the Holy God-Emperor’s mind as babble?!” Deumos interjected furiously, interrupting the Astropath’s thoughtful accounting.

“Confessor!” The captain barked. “I said be silent. We all appreciate your zealotry in defense of our souls, but this is something I absolutely must hear. I need to know as much as I can about this world, and I cannot have you interrupting Setaron’s every other sentence! Now hold. Your. Peace. I will not ask again.” Anderocus’s icy glare bored into the priest’s eyes. The ire of a powerful Rogue Trader, even one as relatively young as Parseon Anderocus, would have caused many men to quail, especially with Seria standing behind him, ready and willing to execute those who earned the Lord-Captain’s ire, but Deumos was made of sterner stuff. His jaw flexed and his back remained ramrod-straight as he stubbornly returned the Lord-Captain’s glare, but he nodded.

Anderocus held the priest’s gaze for a moment longer before turning back to Setaron. “Continue, Astropath Setaron.”

The astropath nodded. “Yes, Lord. I- please forgive me, ‘babble’ was not precisely the right word. I am trying to explain something that doesn’t lend itself easily to words; my apologies. When I endured the Soul Binding, I could… hear, or sense, a cacophony of voices, those souls sacrificed to the Astronomicon. Those who hadn’t been strong enough to endure, and had been consumed by the Emperor to fuel His might. Their voices chatter, as they gutter out. What I felt today… it had much of the power I felt during my Binding, but it seemed more… aware. It lacked that mad cacophony of dissolving voices, and I could only feel one presence.” He shivered. “There was but one voice. It did not speak, but still I heard it. It was… kind.” Deumos clenched his teeth again, but managed to keep his silence as Anderocus had commanded. The psyker’s voice took on a dreamy edge, a strange mixture of wonder and fear. “In truth, it sounded the way I’ve always imagined the Emperor used to, back in the days of the Great Crusade, when He was working to take all of Mankind under His protection and spread His light to the far reaches of the galaxy. Before He was bound to the Throne. It was warm, and kind, though there was steel underneath. It saw me, I think, at the very last moment,” His tone was musing, now, “became aware of me even as I writhed in the glare of its power. It sought to shield me from itself, but it was pulling back the flame after the hand had already been burned. That it did so, I think, is the only reason I still draw breath.”

No one spoke after the astropath finished. The only sounds in the lander’s passenger compartment came from the roar of the engines as they drove it up through the atmosphere, back to the Lux Foedis, the uncomfortable shifting of Seria’s infantrymen in their armor, and the squeak of Deumos’s teeth grinding. Finally, Anderocus cleared his throat.

“Are you saying that on this world of, of pastel xenos, there dwells a peer of the Master of Mankind?” He sounded incredulous.

Setaron shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not sure I’d use those precise words, my lord, but your statement seems largely accurate, with one caveat. Whatever it is, it is… akin to the Emperor before the Great Heresy, when He still walked among us.”

Glances were shared. Even Seria looked uneasy, shifting in her carapace armor, though her eyes were hidden behind the visor she had hastily redonned when the astropath had collapsed. Deumos jammed his hands over his ears, murmuring the Cantos of Faith under his breath.

“That edges perilously near to heresy, Setaron.” Though the captain’s words were firm, his tone was uneasy.

“I know, my lord. But, even if it damns me to tell it, this is a truth you must know. That we all must know. We must tread very, very carefully, for whatever watches over the little xenos of this world could obliterate us all with but a thought if it so chose.”

The silence that followed the astropath’s declaration could have suffocated an Astartes.

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Twilight Sparkle stood at the edge of Ponyville, her friends arranged alongside her, and tried to contain her nervous excitement as they waited for the arrival of visitors from another world.

It had been three days since the nightmare at the Cooldown party. The town had mostly recovered; ponies were a resilient folk, and most had been simply frightened and horrified, not injured. Even those unicorns who had been worst stricken by the creature that had taken Hammer N’ Tongs didn’t seem to have been permanently traumatized; indeed, most maintained that they couldn’t remember a thing about the incident, claiming that all they remembered was the party going well, then suddenly finding themselves outside the barn with dreadful headaches.

They’d held a memorial ceremony for both Hammer N’ Tongs and Fair Deal the next day, and though most of the town’s inhabitants had cried, they hadn’t seemed like the horrific incident had affected them as much as Twilight would have expected. An uncharitable portion of the unicorn’s mind wondered if Princess Luna might have slightly altered their memories, just enough that it would remove the worst of their trauma.

If so, she certainly hadn’t done the same thing for any of Twilight’s friends.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack seemed to have been least affected by the daemon. Pinkie especially had returned to her normal, bubbly self almost immediately, though the fact that she’d been unconscious during most of the monster’s worst actions had probably helped. Applejack seemed more or less all right too; the phlegmatic farmpony didn’t tend to get worked up about much, and knowing the creature had been dealt with seemed to be enough for her. Rarity was fine as well, having missed the entire incident.

That had left three ponies who were still working dealing with it, in various ways.

Twilight privately suspected that, of the three, she was handling the trauma best. She’d kept her composure throughout the entire thing without too much trouble, probably aided by the fact that the weapon she’d used against the thing that had taken the blacksmith’s body had been her magic, which she only rarely used on other ponies. Further, since she’d been more than a little angry and frightened at the time, she’d half-expected a degree of violence to happen when she’d employed her magic against Hammer. The level of violence that ensued had shocked her, but not really the fact that it had happened. In the end, Twilight had suffered a few really bad dreams, but by now she was largely over it.

The two pegasi were another story. Fluttershy, always somewhat timid by nature, had been far more so over the last three days. She’d barely spoken to her friends since enduring the daemon’s verbal flaying, but at least she hadn’t confined herself to her house as Twilight had worried she might. She’d been involved in planning the reception for the aliens, contributing when she could, and she’d stayed close to Rarity most of the time. The two had always been close, and now the designer was giving the kindhearted pegasus a shoulder to lean on. Twilight had come across the two talking quietly a few times, and had seen Rarity comforting Fluttershy when the latter had broken into tears the day after the attack. Fluttershy had shown considerable improvement in the time that had followed, and though she was still visibly nervous about meeting the aliens today, her core of quiet strength seemed to have returned, so Twilight wasn’t too terribly worried about her.

That left Rainbow Dash. The athlete had been the only one to actually touch the creature, had been the one to finally deliver the deathblow to the daemon inhabiting Hammer’s body, and as a result had seemed to have been the worst affected of the six. Twilight had thought Rainbow had been handling the situation well enough, despite her sudden, explosive bout of rage when Princess Luna had explained the night’s events, until Rarity had pulled her aside shortly after the Princess’s departure and quietly told her about the pegasus’s breakdown in front of her shop.

Warned that Rainbow might be trying to hide the extent of her distress, Twilight had kept a close eye on the racer for the remainder of the evening, and she’d seen several signs that worried her. Ordinarily a fairly tactile individual, Rainbow seemed to be making concerted efforts not to touch anypony, even by accident, and more than once the unicorn saw her standing where she thought nopony could see her, her ears back and eyes squeezed shut, visibly fighting to hold on to her composure. Not wanting to leave Rainbow alone for the night, Twilight had talked to Applejack, and the orange earth pony mare had convinced the athlete to stay overnight at Sweet Apple Acres.

The cyan pegasus had been haggard the next morning when Twilight saw her, sporting deep bags under her eyes, though she’d continued to act chipper and confident. Applejack had privately told her that Rainbow had suffered horrendous nightmares and barely slept, waking up screaming two, possibly three times.

Beginning to realize the severity of her multicolored friend’s problems, Twilight had made absolutely sure to build time into her schedule that day for a long talk. She’d had Pinkie Pie and Applejack once again planning a celebration, though she’d asked Rarity to ride herd on them. Since this would be a more diplomatically-oriented event, Twilight figured that the designer would be the perfect choice to add a bit of style to the proceedings. (And possibly restrain Pinkie, if such a thing was even possible) Twilight had just barely managed to snag Rainbow as the latter was about to take off to schedule the weather for the next week. She’d quietly asked the pegasus how she was holding up, confessing that she herself was having… problems dealing with her role in Hammer’s fate.

Rainbow had initially brushed her off, insisting that despite her appearance she was fine, thanks, and could Twilight please just leave her alone so she could make sure her weather crew was ready for when the aliens got here? But Twilight hadn’t backed down, and had refused to let the pegasus leave, and Rainbow had finally relented.

“I… ya know, I’ve been in fights before.” The athlete had admitted at last. “But this one… it was different.” She shook her head. “I’ve always thought of myself a- as a good pony, ya know? I mean, yeah, I can be kind of a jerk, and maybe I’m a little too aggressive sometimes, but I’ve never done anything bad. Last night was… it was the first time I’ve ever really, seriously hurt somepony. I mean, yeah, there’ve been bruises, black eyes, bloody noses, a couplea broken ribs that one time but that was totally an accident ‘cause he zigged when I thought he was gonna zag, but never… like that.” She’d swallowed hard, head low and ears back, and Twilight had remained quiet, giving the pegasus the space she needed to talk. “Yeah, I know what the Princess said, that it wasn’t really Hammer. But man, did it ever look like him, at least at first. And when I saw his body after I shoved him away from you, aw man…” Rainbow had angrily swiped a tear away from her eye, “This shouldn’t bother me, but it does!” She’d ground her teeth. “I thought I was over it. I really did. When the Princess told us what that thing wearing Hammer’s face was, and why it burned when I touched it, I thought I’d be okay! But… argh!” Rainbow had shaken her head violently, flinging drops of salt water out of her eyes where they’d been gathering. “Stupid tears, stop it. Argh. I just can’t get it out of my head that I killed Hammer, even though I know I didn’t. And every time I touch somepony, I get this sorta flash of Hammer… no dangit it wasn’t Hammer!” The pegasus had ground her teeth and thumped her head with a forehoof, evidently trying to knock the idea out of her skull. She’d kept on doing it, too, each strike hitting harder, until a dismayed Twilight stepped up and blocked the athlete’s forehoof with her own. Rainbow flinched at the contact.

“Rainbow Dash, stop it. Hurting yourself isn’t going to help anyone. Please, I do want you to tell me what’s bothering you so I can try to help, but you should not be punishing yourself for the way you’re feeling. That is not healthy and it needs to stop, right now.” Twilight had kept her voice firm, though she’d known her worry was probably showing. She hadn’t realized that Rainbow’s mental state had been this bad, and she hadn’t been entirely sure how to handle it.

Rainbow had nodded wearily. “Yeah, I getcha. Okay, no more of that.” She’d heaved a sigh, head hanging. “But you saw it. That flinch. I’m… every time somepony touches me, I see that thing burning, except instead of it, I see you. Or Rarity. Or Pinkie, A.J., Fluttershy… It’s driving me crazy and I can’t make it stop!” She’d ground her teeth again, eyes tightly shut.

Twilight had paused, thinking hard, listening to Rainbow’s harsh breathing. “Okay, Rainbow,” She’d finally said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were quite this upset. So here’s what we’re going to do.” The pegasus had watched her warily as she’d raised a hoof and laid it gently against her cyan-coated lower shoulder. Rainbow had shied away, but Twilight had moved to maintain the contact, and left her forehoof resting against the athlete’s shoulder. “Okay. See, your head knows nothing bad is going to happen, but your heart is convinced that it is. So first we’ve got to convince your heart that your head is right.” Twilight had lowered her hoof to the ground, but before Rainbow could sag in relief, she’d said, “Okay, now you put your hoof on my shoulder, just like I did for you.” Rainbow had tensed up again, about to refuse, but Twilight shook her head and interrupted. “I know it’s hard, Rainbow, but you have to. Don’t be silly, I’ll be fine, and if you let this fear win now it will never go away. So are you going to let it win, or are you going to fight back?” Rainbow’s head had come up, and her expression firmed, exactly as Twilight had been hoping it would. Rainbow rarely refused a challenge. It made her easy to manipulate at times, though Twilight was glad about it in this circumstance.

Bracing herself, Rainbow Dash had extended a forehoof, gingerly laying it against Twilight’s shoulder. It had taken a visible effort of will for the pegasus to do so, and she’d closed her eyes with a slight shiver as her hoof touched the unicorn, but the relief on her face when nothing happened had been easily visible.

“There, you see? Everything’s all right.” Twilight had smiled, meeting the athlete’s exhausted rose-colored eyes when she’d reopened them. “That’s step one. I want you to keep doing that; make yourself touch somepony every few minutes. Do you think you can do that?”

“Uh…” Rainbow’s response had been hesitant, but she’d nodded slowly. “Okay, I get why you want me to do that. I’ll try. It’ll be hard, but I’ll try.”

“Great!” Twilight had given her friend a relieved grin, which the pegasus returned. “Second thing; I think it would be better for you to try not to dwell on what’s bothering you. Instead, why don’t you tell me something that makes you happy, or something you’re excited about? When’s the next Wonderbolts airshow, for example?”

Rainbow had blinked, as though the question hadn’t even occurred to her. “Actually, Twilight, I’m kinda looking forward to meeting those aliens Luna was talking about. I’ve been thinking about it since she mentioned ‘em.”

“What, really?” The answer had taken Twilight by surprise. “I didn’t realize you were that interested in them.”

“Oh, yeah, totally.” Rainbow had flashed a quick grin. “I’ve always liked hanging with non-ponies, finding out how they think, y’know? It’s interesting. Plus, we’re talking about things that have never talked to ponies before, and that wander around stars! Who knows what kind of awesome stuff they’ve seen!” The pegasus’s face had gotten a dreamy look. “And how many ponies have gotten to talk to aliens, huh? Like, none! We’ll totally be going down in history!” Excited animation had been creeping back into Rainbow’s voice and manner as she spoke, and Twilight had realized her friend really was enthusiastic about the prospect of meeting aliens. And when the unicorn thought about it, it made perfect sense. Between Gilda and the buffalo, Rainbow had made friends among at least two sapient species that were normally hostile towards ponies. That fact was even odder when Twilight considered the fact that the pegasus had very few pony friends; indeed, before befriending Twilight herself, Rainbow hadn’t seemed to have any pony friends. From what the academic had heard, Rainbow had had a cordial relationship with Applejack, but hadn’t hung out with the farmer much before Twilight had moved into town, and the lavender unicorn couldn’t think of anyone else that the pegasus normally spent time with. She and Pinkie were good friends now, but it hadn’t been that long ago that Rainbow actively avoided the cheerful pink mare. It made Twilight wonder why Rainbow had been so quick to befriend her when she’d first arrived; maybe because she herself had been a bit odd? It was an interesting question, but it hadn’t really pertained to the immediate issue, so Twilight had pushed it aside, focusing instead on the present.

The academic had offered to help Rainbow with the scheduling she’d been planning to do, an offer that was gratefully accepted. The two had spent the next few hours working out a new rotation for the pegasus weather crew; Rainbow had wanted to try to add a night shift, to ensure that the weather was pleasant in the early morning. The two had managed to juggle schedules, leaving Rainbow’s second-in-command running the night shift. The athlete’s chief subordinate was a mare named Gray Nimbus, a levelheaded individual about ten years older than Rainbow Dash, who’d proven in the past to be reliable and dependable, though not excessively imaginative. She’d agreed to oversee night operations, leaving Rainbow free to help Twilight with the aliens.

Their planning done, Twilight had made sure Rainbow wasn’t left alone. She’d convinced the pegasus to spend that night at the library, and she’d had a quiet word with their other friends to ensure somepony was always around, and the athlete seemed to be doing much better, though Twilight knew she was still sleeping uneasily. She’d only woken Twilight up screaming once, which was an improvement over the previous night, at least.

Rainbow had been the most excited of the six when they’d finally gotten word from Manehattan that the aliens had landed. The pegasus had been a bit disappointed that the big city had gotten the first visit, but the letter they’d received from the city council assured them that the aliens had been directed toward Ponyville at the first opportunity. Apparently, they’d been slightly offended not to be met by the Princess’s representative, and the more senior aliens had returned to their ship. The ones that had remained had been told that the Princess’s representative could be found in Ponyville, as Celestia had commanded, and according to the Manehattan council’s correspondence, they’d be landing in the early afternoon.

The whole day had been a whirlwind of preparation. Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity had been busting their flanks getting the celebration prepared, and there were banners and flags everywhere, Twilight had been frantically reading up on what books she could find on diplomatic protocol (which wasn’t much) and Rainbow Dash had been zooming back and forth helping out her weather crew. Fluttershy had helped where she could, mostly trying to stay out from underhoof.

And now they all stood at the edge of town, wearing the fanciest clothes they could get on such short notice, ready for the aliens to land.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow asked in an excited undertone, “Did those letters from Manehattan say how they got down? They come from up in the sky, right? Do they have wings?” The pegasus was fidgeting, spreading and folding her own wings in a nervous tic she displayed sometimes. She’d refused to deck herself out in as much fancy clothing as most of the others had, contenting herself with her gold laurel wreath from the Best Young Fliers’ contest and a fairly modest jeweled pectoral plate reminiscent of Celestia’s guards’ uniform.

“No wings, Rainbow,” Twilight answered, “They’ve got some kind of flying vehicle. From the description, it seems to use fire for propulsion almost like a firework, so we need to keep everyone back when they come in to land.”

“So they fly in, like, a giant fireworks rocket? That’s so cool!” The excitement and enthusiasm in Rainbow’s voice was good to hear, Twilight thought.

“I wunner how they keep it from explodin’.” Applejack mused. “Don’t seem too safe to be flyin’ around in somethin’ that might decide t’ blow up on ya.”

“Maybe it’s just the best way to fly without wings,” Rainbow shot back. “Or maybe it works waaaaay up high and nothing else does. I flew way up there once, where you can see the horizon curve; it got all cold and hard to breathe, and my wings lost lift.”

“That’s actually a very good point,” Twilight mused. “If the ‘ship’ that Princess Luna was talking about is up in space, then they’d need a way to travel that didn’t depend on air. I wonder how exactly it works. Oh, I’m so curious!”

“Applejack,” Rarity said, her tone slightly acid, “darling, you could have at least let me make you a fancier hat. Even Rainbow Dash got dressed up, and here you are, looking like nothing special’s going on!”

“I told you before, Rarity, that kinda thing just ain’t me. I still got my Gala getup an’ I was gonna wear it, but you were the one that said it wouldn’t be the right thing!” The farmpony retorted, irritated.

“That was for a party, Applejack. It was far too festive; this occasion calls for more gravitas!” Rarity exclaimed, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m fine like I am.”

“Oh, honestly.” Rarity exclaimed in exasperation.

The budding argument was cut off, as Rainbow Dash, staring intently into the sky, pointed with a forehoof and exclaimed, “I think I see it!”

The crowd erupted in an excited buzz of conversation, everypony gazing off into the clear blue sky, trying to spot the incoming aliens. Twilight squinted, unable to see anything in the direction Rainbow had indicated, and surreptitiously brought up a lensing spell. The magnification effect revealed two shapes, tiny with distance but gleaming in the sunlight.

“I see it too, Rainbow.” Twilight said, dismissing the spell before anypony noticed. Rainbow flew up a short distance, doing little loops in the air out of sheer excitement. Twilight felt like an assassin of joy as she called up to the enthusiastic pegasus, “Rainbow! It’s probably safer for everypony to stay on the ground!”

Dash drifted back to the ground, chagrined. “Sorry, Twilight.”

“Aw, it’s okay, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie was bouncing in place, “If I could fly I’d be flying! Flying and floating and whoosh! I love meeting new ponies, even when they’re not ponies, and these are the newest of new since they’ve never even been to Equestria before!”

“My thoughts exactly, Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow grinned at the bubbly pink earth pony.

Twilight ignored the conversation, focusing on the sky. She could see the two dots now, still tiny with distance but growing rapidly. Much quicker than she had expected.

“Wow, they’re uh… coming in pretty fast.” Dash observed, next to her, suddenly sounding a bit worried. “Really fast, actually. And they’re big.” She glanced nervously at Twilight. “Um, how fast can they slow down?”

“They came in fairly slowly when they landed in Manehattan,” Twilight answered. The two shapes had grown, and she could easily make out the profile of both. One was boxy and slab-sided, and colored a dark shade of red, though gold gleamed from various places. The other was smaller and sleeker, with a wing profile that looked remarkably like that of an eagle. It was a deep sapphire blue, and shone with reflected light. “The local pegasi were able to fly around them. I hope nothing’s wrong.”

Dash cocked her head, measuring the vehicles’ speed with a practiced eye. “I don’t think anyone but me or a couple of the faster Wonderbolts could keep up with that.” She observed frankly. Her cyan-feathered wings fanned nervously. “And I seriously don’t think I’d be able to catch either of those if they’re falling. I’m awesome, but those things look like metal buildings; even the little one’s gonna weigh a lot more than I can handle. Like, tons. Maybe we should think about getting everypony clear.” The pegasus glanced over her shoulder at the assembled crowd.

As she said that, though, both vehicles pulled their noses up in an impressively well-synchronized maneuver, jets of white flame blazing on their ventral surfaces and wing roots. A few seconds later, the incredible, continuous thunder they produced reached the ponies’ ears.

Rainbow Dash’s only comment was an awestruck, “Woah.” Even Applejack gave an impressed grunt.

Twilight looked over her shoulder at the crowd, who were all gazing in awe at the immense metal forms approaching the town. “Okay, everypony! Remember what I said earlier, these are going to be really loud, so everyone be ready!” That was why she’d left Spike at home in the library. Much as she’d like to have him here, she didn’t want to risk damaging the baby dragon’s hearing. The letters from Manehattan had warned that the human vehicles were almost deafening when they came in to land.

And indeed they were. Twilight laid her ears back in an effort to reduce the volume when the two vehicles were still a fair distance away, and the noise increased exponentially as the distance dropped. By the time the human conveyances drifted to a stop and eased down into the empty grass, coming to rest on insect-like piston legs that unfolded from their bellies, the noise was more a physical presence than a mere sound, the vibrations thrumming in Twilight’s chest and buzzing against her horn. The heat from the fire blasting out of the vehicles’ ventral surfaces had been pretty intense, too, and the lavender unicorn noted a few small fires around the base of the two vehicles when the white flames that propelled them finally died down, and they rested in front of the crowd of Ponyville residents, metal bodies emitting sharp clicks as they cooled.

Twilight glanced around quickly, checking on her friends. To her left, Rainbow Dash was struggling to maintain the serious mien that Rarity had suggested she adopt. While her face was admirably grave, her eyes shone with excitement, and her feathers rustled as her wings moved restlessly. On the other side of the cyan pegasus, Applejack sported an expression of mild interest, gazing at the huge metal shapes with one eyebrow cocked. To Twilight’s right, her other three friends were decked out much like Twilight herself, sporting ornate capes, headdresses and saddles. Rarity stood directly to her right, chin raised, with a haughty look on her face. Pinkie Pie was bouncing energetically in place next to her, though less than Twilight would have expected. The lavender unicorn fought back a smile as she noticed that Rarity (without breaking her haughty façade) had moved one of her rear hooves, standing on Pinkie’s frizzy pink tail and pinning it to the ground, preventing the enthusiastic mare from bouncing as high as she normally would. Fluttershy stood a few paces back, half-hiding behind Pinkie Pie.

Satisfied that her friends were where they needed to be, Twilight took a couple of moments to assess the vehicles sitting before her. The larger one was one of the two that the Manehattan council had described; boxy and slab-sided, its dark red paint overlaid with intricate gold inlays. It sported gilded gear and cogwheel icons everywhere in all manner of differing shapes and sizes. The second vehicle was not the enormous gray thing that the letters had spoken of; instead, this was much smaller and sleeker. (Though it was still huge) Its intense deep-blue hull was inlaid with silver, sporting a recurrent motif of two rearing heraldic beasts that Twilight didn’t recognize facing one another, each with one forelimb extended and grasping an eagle-winged staff that stood between them. Eagle wings seemed to be quite popular with the beings that had decorated the vehicle; they were everywhere, much like the gear icons that covered the larger one. In addition to the heraldic symbol and the unlikely-to-be-accidental shape of the vehicle’s wings, the academic spotted a two-headed eagle that appeared in numerous places, and another icon that looked like some creature’s skull framed by eagle wings. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what to think about that symbol.

Twilight heard Rainbow Dash stifling snickers beside her. She gave the pegasus an inquiring look, and Rainbow pointed a cyan forehoof at the smaller vehicle. “Ha ha, it looks like Nimbus put on a few pounds! And, like, joined a rock band or something!”

The vehicle’s blue and silver color scheme actually did look like a metallic version of Rainbow’s second-in-command’s coat and mane. Twilight suspected that Rainbow was a bit disappointed that the older pegasus wasn’t around; she’d switched her schedule to oversee the night shifts. Dash loved to tease her slightly stodgy subordinate. The lavender unicorn made a mental note to tell Gray Nimbus to be thankful she’d been elsewhere; it was likely Rainbow would have forgotten about the joke by the time she saw Nimbus again, but if the older mare had been here it would likely have been weeks before she heard the end of this.

Before Twilight could respond to Rainbow’s observation, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud hiss emitting from the two vehicles. In near-unison, ramps lowered in the front of each vehicle, looking unsettlingly like mouths opening. They even sported pistons in place of ropes of saliva, and Twilight had an uncomfortable flashback to her confrontation with a hydra some time ago. There was silence for a moment, finally broken by a sound reminiscent of heavy, synchronized drumming.

The ten humans whose footsteps were responsible for producing the sound advanced down the ramp of the smaller vehicle in two columns of five, and Twilight had to admit that they presented an impressive sight. They stood upright on their hind limbs, straight and tall, looming nearly as tall as Celestia herself. Each was fully clothed, with no hint of skin or hair showing beneath their wrapping of cloth and heavy, thick-looking armor. Even their faces were masked, hidden behind tinted goggles, helmets, and oddly-shaped rigid face coverings. They marched down the ramp as though controlled by a single mind, feet striking the metal surface in perfect unison with a heavy, slamming tread, long arms purposefully supporting odd, boxlike implements with tube-shaped protrusions that they carried in their long-fingered hands. To her right, Twilight heard Fluttershy squeak slightly, probably startled by the rolling concussive noise of the creatures’ marching. As each pair reached the base of the ramp, they took right-angle turns, marching away from each other until all ten had formed a line parallel to the end of the ramp, at which point they slammed to a halt, and as one turned to face the crowd of ponies in front of them. Their maneuver accomplished, they stood perfectly still and ramrod straight.

The humans’ entrance had clearly been intended to awe and impress, and Twilight had to admit that it had worked. It had been a remarkable demonstration of perfectly coordinated movement, even better in a lot of ways than anything she’d seen from Celestia’s guards. In fact, it had more closely resembled a simplified, ground-bound version of something the Wonderbolts might have done, and a quick glance at Rainbow Dash showed that the pegasus had probably noted the similarity. She was grinning widely, rose-colored eyes sparkling with excitement. She seemed to be trying to fight the grin back, in an effort to paste her serious expression back on, but Twilight was just as happy to see that her friend seemed to be losing that battle. It was good to see that kind of glee in Rainbow’s face again.

Twilight found herself mentally comparing the humans’ appearance with various things she was familiar with. They were built superficially like Spike, if the baby dragon had been stretched out to about three times his normal height. Their limbs seemed much longer in proportion to their bodies, though, and they looked like they might be leaner under their encasing armor. That armor was another curious thing; she mentally compared it with the armor she’d seen on the Royal Guards. The Guards’ armor was fairly lightweight, though strong for its comparative thinness, and gleamed with polish at all times. The Guards considered it the height of slackness and a sign of disrespect to the Princess to let one’s armor show anything less than a pure gleaming reflection of the sun, as she’d been told once in a conversation with their commander back in Canterlot. This armor was dull-colored and nonreflective, but uniformly so, giving the impression that it wasn’t supposed to be shiny. It looked much thicker than the Guards’ armor, as well, and heavy besides. It also covered a lot more of the wearer’s body, and Twilight wasn’t sure if it reduced the wearers’ mobility or not; she’d have to see more of the humans’ method of movement before she could judge whether these guards had any difficulty moving. It sure didn’t look like it was hampering them much, though.

“Hmph. A bit drab, if you ask me. Those uniforms could use a little bit more flair.” Rarity commented, next to her.

She expected to see the human dignitaries leave their vehicle behind the guards, but the next motion she saw didn’t come from the sleek blue-and-silver vehicle. More clanging footfalls, only one set that was far more metallic-sounding than the guards’, rang from the hatch of the second, larger red-and-gold vehicle. The shape that emerged from its hatch was more than slightly frightening, and Twilight heard several gasps behind her. Where the guards stood a bit under twice an adult pony’s height, this figure stood almost two and a half times as tall as Twilight did, and was swathed head-to-foot in a hooded robe of the same dark crimson as the vehicle it was exiting that obscured its exact shape. The sheer size of the figure wasn’t what made it frightening, though. Projecting from its back were almost a dozen jointed metal limbs and gleaming metallic tentacles, most terminating in large crablike claws or clusters of needle-looking shapes and odd instruments. The limbs shifted slightly as the human (if it was a human; it looked nothing at all like the guards) moved, just enough to make it obvious that they were moving of their own volition and not simply swaying with the movement of the one they were attached to. Resting on its shoulder was something that looked like a massively scaled up version of the boxy things the guards were carrying, and the cylinder protruding from its end was correspondingly larger. The unicorn wondered anew what the boxy things were… some kind of tool, maybe? Whatever they were, they sure seemed to have a lot of the things.

Twilight couldn’t see the giant figure’s face. The deep hood it wore cast heavy shadows, and all the unicorn could make out was the green gleam of reflected light, coming from three points on its face that more or less corresponded to where she thought its eyes should be, two on one side of its face and one on the other. Do they have three eyes? She mused, the Manehattan council didn’t mention anything like that! The figure walked calmly to the end of its ramp and stood there silently, stock-still save for the continued languid waving of the metallic limbs on its back, hands tucked into the sleeves of its long red robe. Twilight hoped the rest of the humans she was supposed to meet were slightly less… intimidating.

Her attention was drawn from the frightening multi-limbed figure back to the blue-and-silver vehicle as her peripheral vision spotted movement inside it. Five more figures emerged, lacking the disciplined unity of the guards that had preceded them, but making up for it with amazingly ornate clothing. The one in front was clearly the leader, and was decked out in robes and capes of the same blue and silver as the vehicle he emerged from, including an outer cape that appeared to be made of molten silver, so brilliantly did it shine. Twilight was interested to note that he only had two eyes in his almost flat, bizarrely hairless face, and wondered why there were three gleams underneath the giant figure’s hood. (Perhaps that one was a different species after all? It didn’t really resemble any of the other humans in anything but its upright posture.) The leader had a dark mane with no forelock that fell to his shoulders, but no sign of hair beyond that, and she couldn’t see any sign of a tail. Its limbs did indeed look leaner in comparison to its body than Spike’s did, as she’d suspected the guards looked without their armor. It exuded an attitude of calm authority, though Twilight though she detected a slight hint of anxiety under its serene expression.

The two directly behind the leader were a study in contrasts. To his right walked a shorter, slenderer individual, with light hair where the leader’s was dark. His eyes darted about, clearly assessing the assembled ponies, though for what, she had no idea. For some reason, the human gave her a gentle attack of the creeps, so she moved her attention to the one standing next to it.

The human to the leader’s left was even taller than the leader, (though still smaller than the crimson-robed giant) and looked enormous, fully encased in armor very like that worn by the guards at the ramp. It didn’t carry one of the box implements that the guards seemed to be proudly supporting, but it moved with an easy confidence, and the slightly more decorated armor it wore suggested that it might be the leader of the guards.

The two in the back were much less impressive. Each carried a stick in one hand, but one seemed to carry it more as a mark of office than as a support. That one was as tall as the guard leader, and its uncovered head was entirely hairless. It looked straight ahead, not focusing on any of the ponies, and had a grim expression on its face. The second was hunched, leaning on the staff it carried as though it needed the stick to keep balance on its two legs, its face hidden behind the hood of a simple brown robe. That last one seemed almost to want to be overlooked; its plain robe was almost unnoticeable beside the glittering finery of its companions, and its hunched posture and hidden face made it look like it was trying to hide in plain sight. Twilight wondered if it might possibly be an elder. Perhaps it was the one that was actually in charge?

“Well, that’s more like it,” Rarity observed, clearly impressed by the humans’ sartorial splendor.

The group reached the base of the ramp, advancing a bit past it so the line of guards stood behind them, and stopped. Silence reigned, even Pinkie Pie seeming to hold her breath as the ponies waited to see what the humans were going to do. The leader turned toward the other vehicle, making a small gesture toward the hulking multilimbed figure that stood there. The giant didn’t seem to move, but a cluster of small flying objects buzzed out of the shadowed interior of the red-and-gold vehicle. They were ivory-colored orbs, about head-sized, and they appeared to be covered in metallic filaments and components and glowing red lights. Several of the things flew over to take station hovering at the shoulders of the important-looking humans, and four more hovered in a cluster above the metal-limbed giant.

One of the objects buzzed over to hover in front of Twilight, and she caught her breath as she realized they were, in fact, exactly head-sized. This would be because they were, in fact, skulls.

It was an oddly round and short-faced skull, by pony standards, sporting sharper teeth than any pony ever had, but it was clearly the skull of a member of the same species that stood at the base of the vehicle’s ramp. It leered at her with its exposed teeth, empty eye sockets filled with a crimson glow from the lights within, metal wires and tubes protruding from various locations, and the open mouth was filled with some form of fine mesh. Um. Well. That’s… macabre. The unicorn thought, fighting the urge to step back from the thing. Hmm… is this thing magic? I don’t feel any. Weird. And creepy. Near as she could tell, the flying skull things were totally inert… which was obviously not the case, as the thing buzzed around her before taking station at her shoulder, much like the others hovered at the humans’ side. Oh well, that could wait.

The flying skull simply hovered in next to her, doing nothing, while the short, slender human stepped forward to address her. He spoke in a language she couldn’t understand at all, but half a heartbeat after he began speaking, a metallic voice issued from the grill in the skull’s teeth.

“Am I addressing the representative of this world’s ruler?”

Twilight blinked, looking back and forth between the skull beside her and the human who’d spoken. Oh, is it some kind of translating device?

Evidently recognizing her confusion, the human made a dismissive gesture, saying, “The servo-skull is translating my speech into a form you can understand. Pay it no mind; it is simply a tool. Now, am I addressing the representative of this world’s ruler?”

Twilight pushed the dozens of questions she wanted to ask to the back of her mind. Instead, she smiled at the light-maned human, and said, “Yes, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’ve been appointed by the Princesses to speak to you on their behalf!” She’d been rehearsing her opening words all morning, and was pleased that she was able to articulate them so smoothly and with no problems. In a mirror of what had happened when the human spoke, the skull that hovered at his shoulder translated her speech for him.

Of course, then the human just had to toss a wrench in her plans. “May I see your credentials, then?”

Twilight balked, taken completely by surprise. “Cred…?”

She was interrupted midword by Rarity, who cut in smoothly. “We would be happy to present the Lady Twilight’s credentials, once we know whom we address, mister…?”

“Oh, but of course!” The human exclaimed. The duality of the conversation was slightly confusing; the human would speak, and a half-second after he started speaking in his incomprehensible language the skull-thing would start talking in perfect, unaccented, uninflected Modern Equestrian. It was difficult to know what to focus on. The human gave an elaborate, flourishing bow that Twilight was amazed didn’t send him stumbling off of his feet. Clearly, the bipeds had much better balance than she would have expected. “I have the honor of being Seneschal Aleron Tangro, head of household for the illustrious Rogue Trader Parseon Anderocus, master of the starship Lux Foedis and lord of the Anderocus dynasty and trade fleet.” He made an elegant gesture, indicating the tall, dark-haired human that led the party. “Indeed, my master has chosen to personally grace your world with his glorious presence, so highly does he value your esteem.” The leader, who was evidently this ‘Parseon Anderocus’ individual, inclined his head slightly to affirm the seneschal’s statement, the serene expression on his face showing nothing of his thoughts.

“Oh, my!” Rarity exclaimed. “We hadn’t expected to welcome such an illustrious personage right away! Do please forgive us, we had expected to deal with lackeys first.” The designer observed in a dismissive tone, waving a forehoof vaguely, and Tangro’s face twitched, clearly unsure whether or not the white unicorn had just referred to him as a lackey. “If you gentlecol… er, gentlefolk will give us a few moments, we would be happy to fetch Lady Twilight’s credentials, so that you can examine them.” She gave Tangro a winning smile, bright blue eyes guileless.

The light-maned human gave Rarity a suspicious look for just long enough to make it clear she was supposed to notice it, before turning to the dark-maned leader and receiving another calm nod. Tangro turned back to the pony delegation. “My glorious master, the Rogue Trader Parseon Anderocus, has graciously consented to wait here, that you may retrieve the necessary documents. Please don’t be too long.” The last statement carried a slight edge of warning. Twilight had to listen to the human’s actual voice when he spoke to catch his intonation; the translation from the creepy flying skulls was devoid of expression, so she had to pay attention to how he spoke even though she couldn’t understand his language.

Rarity bowed gracefully, acknowledging the human’s words. She turned, pausing for a moment to whisper in Twilight’s ear, “come along, darling,” and headed for the library. As she passed Applejack, she hissed to the farmer, “Try to keep Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash from doing anything embarrassing!”

“Try to… what? How? Rarity…!” Applejack started to turn to follow them, but checked herself. Twilight caught a glimpse of the orange earth pony glaring surreptitiously after them as the two unicorns went behind a building. The flying skull that had been hovering near Twilight drifted casually over to hover next to the farmer.

“Um, Rarity? Where are we going? I don’t have any ‘credentials’ to get!”

The white mare let out a sigh. “I know that, darling. I think they’re just trying to put us a bit off-balance; I feel more like I’m starting a rather tense business negotiation with a tough client instead of meeting with diplomats. Maybe it’s the same thing, I admit I’ve never been a diplomat before.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry to have to drag you away like that, but I think they were trying to put you on the defensive, so I just had to seize the initiative back.”

“Oh, um, it’s alright, but now we’re going to have to come back with something, aren’t we?” Twilight had read up on diplomacy, but she hadn’t been able to find very many sources. She didn’t even know what diplomatic credentials from the Princesses would look like!

“I’m sure we can find something that looks official in that library of yours, Twilight!” Rarity answered. “If they can’t speak our language, I doubt they can read our writing.”

“Oh, that’s a good point.” Twilight pondered for a moment. “But I don’t even know what kind of documents they’re looking for!”

“I doubt they do either, dear.” Rarity said, kindly. “The only way they could have seen Equestrian diplomatic papers is if they’d been to the borders, and didn’t you say they’d only been to Manehattan and here?”

“Well, as far as I know…”

“Exactly!” The designer smiled triumphantly. “So as long as we find, or make, something that looks impressive, that should work just fine, shouldn’t it? Well, impressive I think I can provide!” They’d almost reached the library, and Rarity continued. “Let’s be quick, Twilight, I don’t want to leave them alone with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash for any longer than we absolutely have to; that’s a recipe for a complete disaster.”

Twilight snickered, but it was more true than she’d like to admit. Rainbow was certainly enthusiastic and excited about meeting the new arrivals, but the one who’d spoken to them had an air about him that suggested he was almost eager to take offense, and the cyan pegasus often didn’t even notice when she was being rude. And Pinkie Pie… was Pinkie Pie. Anyone who wasn’t used to her was likely to at least be seriously confused by her. Hopefully Applejack would be able to keep the two in check.

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Arriving at Twilight’s home, Rarity pulled the door of the library open, asking Twilight, “Now, what kinds of important-looking documents do you have here?” The two trotted in, Twilight trying furiously to remember if there was anything like that in the stacks.

Spike stuck his head over the railing of the second floor, a quizzical look on his face. “Twilight? Rarity? What are you two doing here? I just heard that roaring noise a couple of minutes ago!” The little dragon craned his head back over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me Rainbow Dash chased ‘em away already, I didn’t even get to meet ‘em!”

“Now, Spike, be nice,” Twilight chided. “I’ll have you know Rainbow is on her best behavior.” The lavender unicorn started rifling through some of her stacks of official documents in the government records section. They all looked disappointingly bland, mostly consisting of things like census reports and tax records.

“Well… why are you here, then, instead of out there?” Spike asked.

“We need documents,” Rarity answered, flipping quickly through a stack of papers Twilight recognized as weather reports that she’d been referring to the day before, when she’d been helping Rainbow Dash. “Papers, scrolls, books, something like that. Something impressive, but not tacky.”

“What about the letters you get from Princess Celestia, Twilight?” Spike disappeared back into Twilight’s bedroom, re-emerging a moment later with a roll of parchment in his stubby-fingered hand. “These have seals and stuff on ‘em.”

“Oh, let’s have a look,” Rarity said, levitating the paper down and unrolling it so she could look at it. “Oh, my, yes, this is very nice. Celestia’s royal seal, and that gorgeous elegant script. Oh, my, does she really illuminate the first letter of every page? I didn’t think anypony did that for a simple letter, what a delightfully classical touch! Are there more of these?”

“Oh, yeah, a whole bunch! Hold on!” Spike exclaimed, dashing back into the bedroom and re-emerging with a handful of rolled-up scrolls.

“Oh this is perfect! Thank you, Spike!” Rarity beamed at the dragon, levitating the bundle of papers toward herself.

“Anything for you, Rarity…” Spike said, but the white unicorn’s attention had already been directed elsewhere.

“Now, I’ve got some ribbons here,” The designer opened a small pocket in her cape that Twilight hadn’t noticed before, levitating out several ribbons, “And I see a few candles that I could use for wax. I’ll make some seals and streamers that look quite impressive, won’t take more than a few moments…”

“Do you need my help, Rarity? I’d like to look up a spell really quick, but if you need me…” Twilight trailed off.

“Hm?” Rarity hummed, looking up from her work on the letters, “Oh, no, darling, I’ve got things well in hoof here. Go ahead, but this won’t take me long at all!”

Twilight nodded, trotting quickly to the magical reference section of the library and leaving Rarity in the throes of creation. The academic knew exactly what she needed, and she thought she remembered where the book in question was. Indeed, she found the book on linguistic spells right away, pulling it off of the shelf and flipping quickly through it. Twilight had decided that being able to understand the humans, with or without their creepy talking skull-things, would probably prove incredibly useful. She located the universal translation spell near the back of the book, and started reading, brow furrowed in concentration.

The spell was amazingly complex, but not terribly power intensive. Almost any unicorn could cast it… if they had the fine magical skill, or the proper talent.

Fortunately, she did have that level of skill, though this spell was right at the edge of what she could handle at her present level of advancement. She read through the spell several times, to make certain that she fully understood it, before setting the book aside. She closed her eyes, turning her focus inward, and started weaving the spell together. Twilight wasn’t the fastest spellcaster, especially when it came to delicate work like this, but so long as she wasn’t pressured for time there was almost nothing she couldn’t do, magically.

The spell formed as a fractal lattice in her mind, glimmering threads of power threading through one another in an intricate dance of energy and thought. She found the process if its formation intriguing; she hadn’t done any linguistic spells beyond the most basic forms before. Twilight found the incredibly complex network of image and concept the spell was creating to be endlessly fascinating, and she had to force herself to finish the spell, allowing it to coalesce around her brain, integrating flawlessly into her speech centers. With the spell in place, she’d be able to understand the speech of almost any creature that used language. It was slightly dangerous; using this spell to interact with beings whose concept of communication worked in ways radically different from her own would put stress on her psyche, but based on her brief interaction with the humans and the reports from Manehattan, she strongly doubted that they were anywhere near that alien. Their facial expressions and body language were fairly close to pony norms, too, so it wasn’t like they were blob-monsters that used scent to communicate, or anything like that.

It was really a pity that she couldn’t cast this spell on anypony but herself. The sophisticated, delicate linkages of the translation spell required intimate familiarity with the neural structure it was to be used on; the kind of familiarity that could only come with living inside said structure. Twilight was fairly certain that Rainbow Dash at the least would have leapt on the opportunity to use this spell, and she suspected the other five would be interested, too, to varying degrees.

Oh, well. At least Twilight would be able to understand the humans without the aid of translators. She re-shelved the book, heading back to where she’d left Rarity.

The white unicorn was right where Twilight had left her, putting the finishing touches on the bundle of letters. They really did look splendidly official now, sporting extra seals and ribbons of varying colors and forms. If Twilight didn’t know that it was just a collection of letters, she suspected she’d be fooled, though it remained to be seen if it would satisfy the humans. She told Rarity so, thanking the designer profusely. She also told Rarity about the translation spell she’d found, asking if the other unicorn wanted to try casting it herself. A spell requiring fine control and a delicate touch should be right up Rarity’s alley.

“Hm.” Rarity muttered, as she rolled up the finished “diplomatic credentials” and slid them into a scroll case she’d decorated. “I’d like to, dear, but to be honest, I don’t think we have the time. We need to get back as quickly as we can. Perhaps I could look at it later today?”

“Okay, that sounds good.” Twilight said, turning to leave. “Let’s get back, then. Spike! Take care of the library, please!”

“Aw, can’t I come al…” The dragon was interrupted by the closing door. “Nuts.”

The two unicorns trotted briskly back to the edge of town, trying to hurry without getting themselves out of breath. Rarity didn’t want it to look like they’d been rushing, insisting that the humans would likely take them more seriously if they appeared unruffled and unworried. They paused behind a building just out of sight of the landing area, readjusting their clothing, and calmly walked back into view, glancing around as they did so.

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around the human diplomats, unleashing a barrage of questions about what kinds of food they liked, what kind of party games they played, if they had a favorite kind of music, and other things to that effect. The tall, bald human in the back of the group was watching the pink mare with an expression on his face that suggested he thought she was utterly mad, or perhaps possessed. The other humans were mostly ignoring her, only glancing briefly at her as she passed through their line of sight, save for the hunched one in the brown robe, who was evidently striving to answer as many of the bubbly party pony’s questions as he could in a quiet, resonant voice. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, was hovering in front of one of the human guards. Twilight was relieved that at least she didn’t seem to be trying to tease a reaction out of the poor creature as she had with Celestia’s guards, instead contenting herself with trying to peer into the human’s reflective visor. (And evidently not meeting with any success) The lavender unicorn was impressed by the guard’s stoicism; Rainbow had her eyes about half an inch from the hapless creature’s visor, squinting and craning her head through various angles and trying to shade the visor with her hoof in an attempt to see past the visor’s surface, but from all appearances the human hadn’t moved an inch. It had to be funny as heck from the other side of that visor.

Twilight and Rarity threaded their way through the crowd, keeping an unhurried pace. As they got closer, they heard a voice speaking to the humans, complete with the metallic echo of a human-language translation from one of the creepy skull things.

“And do please forgive my friends; while they hold important positions, they haven’t been well-schooled in etiquette, and their behavior can often be a bit on the uncouth side.” The voice held a strong trace of a Manehattan accent, and was smooth and cultured. Twilight wondered who the heck that mare was; nopony but she and her friends were supposed to be talking to the humans yet, and that voice didn’t sound familiar at all.

“That’s quite all right,” Tangro’s light baritone replied, “We have become accustomed to less than perfect manners in our travels throughout the galaxy. Though I must say that your own manners more than make up for the mild rudeness of your friends, Miss Applejack.”

Applejack?!

The two emerged from the crowd, in time to see the orange earth pony answer in a smooth, Manehattanite voice completely unlike her normal Western twang, “Thank you for your kindness, sir. I confess that my own manners are a bit rusty, but your patience and tolerance is sincerely appreciated. Rainbow, dear, if you haven’t been able to see through that visor by now, you’re not going to.”

“Aw, c’mon A.J., I think I’ve almost got the right angle! And why the heck are you talking like Rarity all of a sudden, anyway?” Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at Applejack, catching sight of the returning unicorns as she did so. “Oh, hey, Twilight. Find what you needed?”

“Yes! I’ve got it right here!” Twilight answered brightly.

Applejack looked back, spotting Twilight and Rarity as they walked up to stand beside her. “’Bout dang time y’all got back,” she growled under her breath. “An’ you owe me one, Rarity. Makin’ me have to talk all citified an’ fancy…” She lapsed into a grumpy silence.

Rarity gaped at the farmpony in disbelief for a few seconds. Shaking off her surprise, she then intercepted and drew Pinkie Pie aside as Twilight removed the fabricated documents from her saddlebag, holding them in front of her in a light purple glow. “Here you are Mister Tangro, my credentials, as requested!”

The talkative, light-maned human stepped forward and held a hand out imperiously. Twilight had to fight the oddest urge to shy back from him, and carefully set the rolled letters in the human’s extended hand. Why does this one make me so uncomfortable? He’s the smallest in the group, and he hasn’t made a single aggressive move. So why am I so nervous? It was a question to ponder. Maybe the other humans would trigger feelings of unease too, once they started talking. She hoped not.

She concentrated on not showing her nervousness, keeping her expression to a simple raised eyebrow as the light-maned human unrolled the bundle. Oooo, I hope this works! The human flipped past the first page, quickly enough that Twilight knew he wasn’t actually reading it. Whew! Tangro looked at several more pages, eyes ostentatiously scanning along the lines of text, though it was pretty obvious he was just making a show of it. Twilight fought back a relieved grin as the human gave a satisfied nod and held the packet of papers out for her to retrieve.

The light-maned spokeshuman turned to his dark-maned leader, as Twilight tucked her packet of letters away. “They look solid to my eyes, my Lord, but of course I can’t read a bloody word. I am reasonably certain that this is the one those others were talking about though; supposedly, it speaks for the Sun Goddess or planetary leader. Either this one’s the actual leader and the god is just a myth, or this god-figure is the being Setaron sensed earlier and this is a representative. Shall I bring out the Warrant, and see how impressed they look?” The seneschal had maintained an even, respectful tone despite what he was saying, and Twilight’s mouth nearly dropped open as she listened to his appallingly rude words.

The leader, Anderocus, nodded gravely. “Go ahead, seneschal. But don’t try too hard to overawe them; we need them impressed, but not frightened.”

Twilight suppressed a shocked look, stunned that the humans would be speaking so frankly in front of her. That was when she realized that the skull-translators hadn’t said a word during the exchange; only the spell she’d cast had allowed her to understand the human language, and they clearly had no idea that she knew what they were saying.

She was torn; should she tell them she could understand them, and risk embarrassing them? Should she not tell them, and have to risk them finding out later? After a few moments of mental dithering she tried desperately not to show on her face, she decided to stay silent. She was, after all, supposed to try and learn about the Princesses’ friend, and should the humans prove reluctant to talk about him, being able to understand them when they didn’t know she could might prove to be helpful.

Tangro had turned and made a quick beckoning motion toward the shuttle as Twilight wrestled with her indecision. Now two of the flying skull-things came whining out, bearing a large, ornate box between them. They set the case down between Tangro and Anderocus and released it, jointed metallic arms withdrawing into the metal mass that sat where the spine would probably connect in a living creature. Tangro made a great show of undoing the latches of the case, slowly raising the lid and removing a bound collection of flexible, metallic sheets. The short, slight human turned, holding the metallic book out in both hands with a ceremonious air.

“Twilight Sparkle, envoy of Equestria, you gaze now upon the Anderocus Warrant of Trade.” Tangro intoned, “Granted to the Anderocus dynasty in the name of the Holy God-Emperor seven thousand years ago by High Lord Theseus of the Council of Holy Terra, this imperishable document grants its possessor power and authority commensurate with a planetary noble. As you can see clearly noted here, we represent the might and the glory of the Imperium of Man, even here outside its vast borders. Where we step, the Emperor leaves his footprints.” Twilight was simultaneously awed by the age Tangro claimed for the book, (seven thousand years?) and amused by the incredible pomposity of his little speech. ‘The might and glory of the Imperium of Man?’ Pff! Full of yourself much? She was beginning to realize that the translation spell made listening to him a bit confusing; she heard everything he said twice, and she suspected that before long the odd echo effect would end up giving her a bit of a headache. She filed away the idea of a God-Emperor; the label was close enough to how Celestia was sometimes described that it might pertain to the individual Luna had wanted her to ask about.

Still, the age of the artifact he held was entrancing. She stepped closer, ignoring the intensifying creepy feeling the human caused, and he knelt to let her better examine the metal-leaved book. Like Tangro a moment ago, Twilight was completely unable to make any sense of the writing in front of her, (her translation spell was limited to speech, not text) but the book that contained it was gorgeous. The pages were inlaid with amazingly intricate pictures and writing so tiny it must have required a needle to engrave, all plated in metals and wafer-thin gem slivers. The sheaves of metal that formed its pages were so thin that they bent like paper. It was a work of art as much as a historical artifact, and it took the unicorn’s breath away. She suspected Rarity was similarly entranced, but didn’t want to show disrespect by looking over her shoulder.

Twilight forced herself to nod calmly, accepting the remarkable document at face value. Tangro gave a thin smile, straightening and carefully placing the Warrant back in its resting place. The two skulls that had borne it before buzzed down, metal limbs unfolding, and carried the ornate case back into the vehicle from whence it had emerged.

Of course, Pinkie Pie could be relied upon to break any somber mood. “Hey! Twilight!” The pink earth pony not-whispered loudly enough that the unicorn was certain everyone in the immediate area heard it, “I gotta go change some stuff for the welcome party! Buy me, like, five minutes! I‘ll pay you back later in cookie-shaped-time!” Pinkie zoomed off, pausing to collect a few confederates from the crowd before galloping back into town.

The humans looked a bit taken aback, and Twilight gave them a nervous grin. “So…” she said, just to break the silence, “Now that we each know we belong here, why don’t we introduce our groups?” She pointed out each of her friends in turn. “As I said, I’m Twilight Sparkle, speaking as a representative of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. This is Applejack, who I think you’ve already formally met,” The farmer nodded noncommittally, adjusting her hat, “This is Rarity,” the unicorn bowed, “That’s Fluttershy over there,” Twilight hadn’t heard the yellow pegasus speak a word since the human vehicles had landed, but she wanted to include all of her friends. She squeaked as the humans’ attention was drawn toward her, and Twilight hurriedly continued. “Rainbow Dash is, er, over in front of that guard,” The cyan pegasus was still trying vainly to peer into the beleaguered guard’s visor. She turned when her name was mentioned, grinning and waving a forehoof cheerfully and going right back to what she was doing. Twilight had to try really hard not to facehoof. “And Pinkie Pie is the one that just ran off. She was putting together a party in honor of your arrival, and I guess she needed to change something.”

“No need to be concerned,” Tangro replied, with a slight self-deprecating smile, “As I am well aware, one’s majordomo can often focus on their plans to the exclusion of all else. We feel honored that you would plan a celebration for us on such short notice!”

He stepped aside, clearly about to introduce his party, but his speech was interrupted, to his evident irritation. The tall figure in the decorated armor standing at Anderocus’s left shoulder had been watching Rainbow Dash and the guard since shortly after the two unicorns returned, and it finally spoke up. “Miss Rainbow Dash,” it called, in a firm contralto voice that sounded slightly harsh, perhaps from age, “Those visors are one-way. No matter what angle you try, you’re never going to see through them.” There was a slight hint of amusement lurking under the observation.

“Aw.” Rainbow’s disappointment was clear as she backwinged a short distance away from the guard, who continued to stand stock-still. “I wanted to see if they looked like the rest of you guys under those helmets.”

“You could have simply asked.” Twilight decided the guard leader sounded female, and labeled her as such in her mind. “Sergeant, remove your helmet and rebreather, please.” The order was clearly directed at the guard Rainbow had been pestering, and again the skull-things didn’t translate it. Huh. They only translate when they’re talking to us? Twilight mused.

“Yes, ma’am.” The guard replied briskly, in a voice that also sounded female, slinging the box-thing she carried over her shoulder and reaching up to remove the helmet and mask. The face that was revealed was subtly different from the ones Twilight could see, though she couldn’t really put her hoof on what precisely the difference was. The creature’s skin was fairly pale, and its mane was cut very short indeed, and was an unremarkable shade of brown, as were her eyes.

“Oh, thanks!” Rainbow aimed a grin at the guard leader. She cocked her head, studying the revealed face closely, then moved sideways to hover in front of another guard. She looked off into space for a moment before addressing the new guard. “How did that go…? Uhh… Srr-junt, ruh-mov yrr hll-met and ribreethr, please.” She actually used the humans’ language, coming very close to the leader’s pronunciation.

Twilight saw Tangro’s eyes widen as Rainbow mimicked the words the guard leader had used to order the first guard to remove her helmet. This one stayed still, however, and a chuckle escaped from the leader’s helmet. “Nice try, but that won’t work. He’s not a sergeant.”

Rainbow cocked her head again, looking at the guard leader thoughtfully. “Hey, could you say that last sentence again?”

“He’s not a sergeant.” The alien repeated, echoed as usual by the skull-translator. Rainbow had her eyes shut, and Twilight saw the pegasus’s lips moving silently. After a moment, her eyes popped open again, and she swung back toward the guard she’d addressed unsuccessfully. She hovered a bit higher in the air as she said, “Ruh-mov yurr hll-met and ribreethr, please! Ha!”

Twilight was sincerely impressed. It seemed like Rainbow had managed to simultaneously listen to both the translation and the original language, and managed to derive the word she’d needed to subtract to make the request nonspecific. Her accent wasn’t very good, but she was clearly understandable. Maybe including the multicolored pegasus hadn’t been a mistake after all!

The guard she’d addressed broke the stillness of the line, turning hesitantly to look to his commander. Receiving a nod, the guard mirrored the sergeant’s actions, slinging the box he carried and removing his helmet. This one’s face was a darker color, light brown instead of pinkish, and its hair was almost black, cut just as short as the sergeant’s. Its lines were more like those of Anderocus, Tangro, and the tall bald individual, and Twilight wondered if the general cast of features she was noticing on the sergeant’s face was characteristic of human females. Anderocus and Tangro seemed to be male, as was this guard… she’d have to see more humans to draw a proper conclusion, but she thought it a solid hypothesis.

Rainbow grinned triumphantly, clearly pleased with herself.

Tangro cleared his throat, drawing Twilight’s attention back to him. “Yes. Well. Perhaps I should handle our side of the introductions now?” He directed a hard look at Rainbow, who did a little midair flip that ended with the cyan pegasus landing back with her friends, between Twilight and Applejack. Her grin didn’t diminish, and the light-maned human harrumphed.

“Very well. As I said before, I am Aleron Tangro, seneschal and chief majordomo to my master, Rogue Trader Perseon Anderocus.” Tangro bowed, and gestured toward the tall, dark-maned leader who had yet to directly address any of the ponies. “This is Commander Seria, leader of Lord Anderocus’s household guard.” He indicated the tall, armored human with the female-sounding voice who’d spoken to Dash. She slammed her right fist against her armored chest, producing a hard thump of impact and bowing slightly. “Behind her stands Confessor Kessar Deumos, an anointed Priest of the Ecclesiarchy and a devout servant of the God-Emperor of Mankind.” The tall, grim-faced bald human in the back of the group inclined his head slightly. He seemed to be staring into space slightly above everypony’s head, evidently unwilling to make eye contact for some reason. “And next to the confessor is Malachai Setaron, chief astropath of the Lux Foedis.” The robed figure didn’t move, but it had to be the individual that Tangro was referring to. Twilight cocked her head, trying to see under the figure’s hood, but met with no success. Tangro gestured off to Twilight’s left, “And finally, accompanying us is Magos Tersiaard of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a high priest of Mars and leader of the Lux Foedis’s tech-priests.”

Twilight turned to look where the seneschal had indicated, and nearly jumped out of her skin. The gigantic figure in the red robe was standing not two bodylengths to Applejack’s left, having somehow moved there from the foot of the red vehicle’s ramp without her noticing while Tangro was introducing the rest of his party. It was easily close enough for one of its weird metal limbs to reach out and touch the orange mare. Following either Tangro’s gesture or Twilight’s gaze, Applejack glanced casually to her left, yelped in surprise, and almost fell down in an attempt to leap away from the looming, multi-armed shape. She came close to knocking Rainbow Dash over, too, as the pegasus seemed to be listening intently to Tangro, exhibiting a degree of focus that was somewhat unusual for the athlete and not paying attention to what her friends were doing. How in the world can someone that big move that quietly? Twilight wondered.

This close, she could actually see the face underneath the giant’s hood. She almost wished she couldn’t; it was fairly unsettling. The upper part of its face was either a mask or a molded metal skull, with the three asymmetrically-placed green glass lenses she’d been able to see before as eyes. The bottom half was a nightmare mishmash of mandible-like metal tines, pipes, and ribbed tubes, and it really didn’t look like there was room for a face underneath. The overall appearance was so shockingly alien and grotesque that it was almost sickening; it probably would have been sickening if Twilight hadn’t seen the horrible abomination that Hammer N’ Tongs had become only three days before. Applejack’s shock at finding that staring at her from almost within touching distance was easily understandable. Even Rainbow looked a bit unsettled, when she looked to see what had scared Applejack.

“Sorry ‘bout that, mister.” Applejack said to the giant, a bit sheepish over her startled reaction. “Ya startled me some.”

“I take no offense.” Tersiaard replied. His voice was metallic and echoed, as though he were speaking through a long metal pipe, and pitched remarkably deep. It was also cold in tone, and most interestingly, he didn’t speak through a translator. Creepily, the lavender unicorn couldn’t see any motion underneath the metal mass of its lower face that might have come from a mouth; the words simply seemed to emerge from Tersiaard’s face, in unaccented Modern Equestrian, accompanied by a slight waving of small metal armatures.

“Well, it is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you!” Twilight exclaimed. “To the best of my knowledge, you’re the first space travelers to visit Equestria, so welcome!” She grinned again. Her enthusiasm was genuine enough, though Tangro was still creeping her out for some reason, and the giant Tersiaard flat-out scared her a bit.

“Hey, is that a mask, like those helmets have?” Rainbow asked the huge figure of Tersiaard, interrupting Twilight again.

“I wear no mask.” The cold voice answered, still speaking Equestrian rather than the human tongue. “As is custom for a senior member of my order, I have replaced much of my flesh with the pure metal perfection of the Machine.” The limbs projecting over his shoulders flexed, giving Twilight a good look at the bewildering array of tools at the end of some of them. Many of those tools looked… uncomfortably sharp.

“You… replaced your flesh? With machines?” Dash echoed, eyes huge, a trace of fascinated horror in her voice that mirrored what Twilight felt, and echoed what the unicorn saw in Applejack’s face. The pegasus was clearly fumbling for words, and finally settled on, “…How?!”

“The mysteries of the Machine are not for the uninitiated to ponder.” The metal figure answered, its metallic voice suddenly dripping with menace without seeming to change its tone. Several of the metal arms protruding from his back flexed forward, their heavy crab-like clamps extending threateningly with what looked like lightning crackling along their surfaces.

Dash blinked at Tersiaard, taken aback by the response. The three green lenses set into the metal face glittered with a cold light as they stared unblinkingly at the athletic pegasus, and Twilight shivered.

“Rainbow,” Rarity whispered, “don’t ask him any more questions.”

“Ah’m gonna have to agree with her, sugarcube,” Applejack carefully sidestepped to put herself between Rainbow and Tersiaard.

Twilight caught motion out of the corner of her eye right before the guard commander, Seria, stepped up next to Applejack in between the pegasus and the multi-limbed giant. “Magos, that’s enough, sir. She didn’t mean anything by it.” Her stance was relaxed, and she had one hand resting casually on her hip, where the handle of a long, slender object hung on her belt. Though the commander had been one of the tallest of the humans to step out of the blue-and-silver flyer, Tersiaard still loomed head and shoulders above her.

“The xeno asked a question. I supplied the answer.” The giant said, switching smoothly to the human language, its voice as cold as before. “I will not share the mysteries of my Order.”

“I won’t try to compel you to.” Seria replied. “And they won’t either. It was just an offhand question, she meant no insult.”

“Perhaps.” Tersiaard’s general body language didn’t change, but it hadn’t changed, at all, since the giant had walked down that ramp. The metal arms did retract a bit, though several of the metallic tentacles extended in their place. Twilight wasn’t sure what she should do; Applejack and Rainbow were both tense, and Rainbow had a look of frightened bewilderment on her face, wings half-flared as though she couldn’t decide whether she was going to have to defend herself or not, looking from Seria to Tersiaard and back again. It was obvious that there was a confrontation of some sort going on, but what had sparked it was a total mystery. Surely, the metal giant couldn’t be reacting this strongly to Rainbow’s simple question! It had been more rhetorical than anything else!

“Please step back a few paces, Magos. You’re making them nervous.” Seria’s stance was still relaxed, though Twilight wondered what the thing at her hip was and why she seemed to be making sure Tersiaard could see her hand on it.

Tersiaard didn’t move. Twilight glanced at the other humans. Tangro was watching the confrontation impassively, though an odd light glittered in his eyes. Anderocus was clearly masking something, and the priest, Deumos, simply stared straight forward, seemingly ignoring the whole issue. The ten guards had almost imperceptibly shifted their grip on the box-things they held, and though their stance seemed the same, tension crackled in the air around them.

The academic managed to catch Anderocus’s eye, giving the human leader a pleading look, hoping he’d do something before someone got hurt. She wasn’t sure that was going to happen, but the huge tech-priest was frightening her, and while Seria seemed relaxed the reactions of her subordinates indicated they were a split-second away from violence. She caught a troubled look in Anderocus’s eye, and he glanced away, looking askance at Tangro. The seneschal didn’t seem to notice, however, so the dark-maned leader cleared his throat, addressing the red-robed giant.

“Magos, the Commander speaks with my voice on this. Please step back a short distance, so as not to frighten the locals.”

Tersiaard did nothing for a long second, finally taking two precise steps backward. The tension that had built up dissipated almost immediately, and Seria’s hand fell away from her belt. She turned to kneel next to Rainbow Dash, who still looked confused and a bit hurt, and said quietly, “Don’t worry, that wasn’t your fault. Just don’t talk to him for a while and everything will be fine.” Like the Magos, Seria spoke Equestrian without the aid of a translator, but unlike the giant she had a strong, noticeable accent, though she was still easily understandable.

Rainbow blinked. “You speak Equestrian? Why are you guys talking through those creepy skulls, then?” She still looked a bit skittish, but her curiosity had evidently pushed past that, a feeling Twilight was well acquainted with.

Seria shook her helmeted head, rising. “I’m the only one that speaks this language. The servo-skulls are easier.” Wait, what about Tersiaard? Twilight wondered, he seemed to speak our language just fine! She filed that question away for later, not wanting to push the commander right after she’d helped Twilight’s friend. Seria turned, pacing quickly back to her station behind Anderocus. “Thank you sir, I thought that was going to get really ugly for a second there.” She commented as she passed the leader, switching back to the human language.

“Quite all right, Commander. I was starting to get worried myself.” The leader shot a slightly angry look at the seneschal. “Tangro, I’d rather expected you to defuse that.”

“I was trying to avoid a show of disunity, Lord.” Tangro answered smoothly. “Just as well, they’ll feel like Seria’s on their side now, and they should respond to her more positively. I can use that.”

Seria’s helmet pivoted to point at Tangro. “That’s not why I stepped in.” She said, icily. Rainbow and Rarity were watching the human group carefully, unable to understand what the bipeds said to each other. Twilight wished she could translate for her friends, but she was now doubly wary about revealing to the humans that she could understand their language. She also wished the humans would settle down and stop bickering so she could try and learn what the Princess had asked her to! “It looked to me like the Magos was going to hurt the little rainbow one. I didn’t intend to just stand by while he did it.”

“He would have done no such thing.” Tangro scoffed. “I have known Magos Tersiaard for longer than any of you. He’s grumpy, yes. He snarls occasionally. But his priorities are in order, and he wouldn’t jeopardize our efforts to get what we need to fix his precious ship.”

Fix the ship? It’s broken, or am I misinterpreting?

“You realize he can probably hear you.” Deumos observed, speaking for the first time that Twilight had heard. The tall, bald human had a deep, resonant voice that carried beautifully. Twilight suspected he’d be a remarkable public speaker.

“Of course he can,” Tangro replied, acidly. “He could almost certainly hear us anywhere in this field. He doesn’t care. And that’s my point! Magos Tersiaard generally doesn’t care what we do or say, or what anyone else might do or say. Certainly he wouldn’t be sufficiently motivated to become violent over a mild slight!”

“And when he killed one of my soldiers for fixing a vox improperly?” Seria asked, a dangerous edge in her voice.

“A misunderstanding.” The seneschal waved his hand blithely, “And the man shouldn’t have been playing with that machine anyway.”

“Um… excuse me,” Twilight interjected, hoping to find a way to set the humans more at their ease. “I’m sorry to interrupt your discussion, but perhaps we could move to the town square and start the celebration?” The suggestion that the huge ‘tech-priest’ had killed one of his own people over something as minor as fixing a machine worried her seriously, and she made a mental note to keep a close eye on him.

“Of course,” Tangro replied smoothly, one of the skulls translating his voice now that he was addressing her. “Please, do lead the way.”

“All right, this way, please.” As Twilight turned to lead the humans into town, Fluttershy caught her eye. The yellow-coated pegasus had been completely silent the entire time, saying nothing to her friends or to the humans. Twilight stepped closer to her friend and asked quietly, “Fluttershy, did you want to come to the party with the rest of us?”

“Um, actually, Twilight, these humans are a little scary.” The reply was so quiet, Twilight could barely hear it, and she was standing right next to the nervous pegasus. “If it’s okay with you, I was going to go home and check on my animal friends. Maybe I’ll see you later?”

“I understand,” Twilight said. “And maybe they’ll be a little less scary once they’ve gotten used to us.” The unicorn heard the echo of her voice emerging from one of the skulls. It made her a little self-conscious, knowing that the humans were hearing her like that even when she wasn’t talking to them.

Rarity nuzzled Fluttershy comfortingly. “I’ll come visit you just as soon as I can, dear. I’ll make sure to tell you all about the party!”

Fluttershy nodded, big teal eyes peeking out from under her long pink forelock. She unfolded her wings and flew off toward her house, at the edge of the Everfree Forest.

The humans were watching Twilight expectantly, so she shook aside her concerns for the moment, and set off in the direction of the town square, where she knew Pinkie had set up the festivities. I hope I bought her enough time, Twilight thought to herself, oh well, she’ll either be ready or she won’t.

The human group followed, holding their pace down politely. Those long legs of theirs could evidently propel them at a fair clip, even walking. The guards mirrored their entrance, falling into a column behind the five apparent leaders, and the huge Magos followed at a fair distance, somewhat to Twilight’s dismay. She hoped he would behave himself.

Rainbow Dash fell behind the other ponies, flying along next to Commander Seria. “Hey, uh, Seria, right?”

The helmeted head swiveled to look at the pegasus. “Yes, assuming you’re talking to me.” She was still speaking the human language, as Twilight could hear the echo from one of the translator skulls.

“I just wanted to say thanks. For, you know, talking that big guy down.” Rainbow glanced nervously back over her shoulder at the red-robed Magos. “I thought I was gonna be in serious trouble there. I totally could have taken him, though.”

“Think nothing of it.” The commander made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “I don’t think he was actually going to hurt any of you, but I wasn’t sure you knew that, so I just thought I’d step in.” The helmeted head looked Dash over in frank appraisal. “And I wouldn’t be so confident about taking him on in a fight. The Magos is… formidable.”

Wait, that’s not right. Twilight thought, overhearing the conversation behind her. She said just a few seconds ago that she was worried that he was going to hurt Rainbow! The lavender unicorn wondered why the human had just lied to her friend. Worse, she’d lied really well. It just made her even more uncomfortable, knowing what the humans were saying to each other. But… isn’t that just what they’re doing? Their skull things have translated everything we’ve said, even when we weren’t talking to them…

“Well, thanks anyway.” Rainbow continued. “Sure made me feel better. What ticked him off, anyhow? I’d just asked him a question!”

“The Mechanicus like their secrets. They like them a great deal.” Seria shrugged. Her voice turned serious. “You should be very careful when you ask him questions, miss, and what questions you ask. It would probably be better to come to one of us instead, rather than asking him.”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow said, beaming. “So, if I want to know something, I should ask you?”

“You could, of course, ask any of us, miss Rainbow Dash,” Tangro put in smoothly. There was a sour grunt from the tall, bald Deumos, and the seneschal added with a thin smile, “Except perhaps Confessor Deumos, he’s a bit grumpy. Any of the rest of us would be glad to enlighten you… providing of course that you’re willing to answer our questions in turn.”

“Oh, uh, thanks!” The cyan pegasus sounded a bit discomfited, and Twilight wondered if Rainbow was getting the same weird vibe off of Tangro that was creeping her out. “I’d be glad to! Twilight’s better if you want questions answered, though.”

Twilight mostly tuned the conversation out, as Rainbow started asking Seria about the vehicles the humans had arrived in, with Tangro butting in occasionally. While the discussion was interesting, it wasn’t immediately relevant, and they’d nearly reached the town square. Twilight glanced around, making sure everything seemed in order. Except… she could see several clouds in the sky, off to the west. She had specifically asked Rainbow to make sure the day was cloudless, and she knew for a fact that the pegasus had passed that instruction along to her team. She cleared her throat. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah?” Rainbow looked at Twilight, clearly a bit annoyed that the unicorn had interrupted her conversation. Twilight jerked her head meaningfully, trying to draw her friend’s attention to the clouds without actually mentioning them, but Dash (being Dash) didn’t catch it. “What? You got something stuck on your horn?” Dash squinted slightly, looking at the unicorn’s horn, but obviously not seeing anything there.

Twilight sighed. “No, Rainbow. Look up in the sky.”

The pegasus complied, gazing up with a puzzled air. Finally, she realized what she was seeing, and her rose-colored eyes narrowed. “Aw, drat. I told the whole crew to keep it clear. Assigned quadrants and everything so nopony would get overloaded!” She made a frustrated noise and covered her eyes with a forehoof for a moment. “I guess with me down here and Nimbus on night shift, somepony decided it’d be okay to slack. Be right back.” She flapped her wings hard and shot away in a prismatic blur.

Applejack snorted, muttering, “Well if that ain’t a case a’ the pot an’ the kettle, I don’t know what is.” Rarity snickered.

“Pardon me,” The voice was Anderocus’s, echoed by a skull. “What had her rushing off in such a hurry?”

Twilight glanced back over her shoulder at the human leader. “Oh, it was nothing major. We’d planned on having a nice, cloudless day for you, but it looks like there was a bit of a mix-up. Rainbow’s taking care of it now. And she isn’t really in any particular hurry, she always goes that fast, it’s just her thing.”

The human’s dark eyebrows went up, and he looked at the sky as the clouds began to disappear. He blinked a few times, eyebrows still raised, a thoughtful look coming over his face. The other humans seemed largely uninterested, save for Magos Tersiaard at the back of the group. His head was lifted, glittering green lenses clearly watching intently as Rainbow Dash swiftly cleared the clouds away, and the unicorn could see his head moving slightly as he tracked the pegasus’s movement. She suppressed a shiver. That level of attention couldn’t be good.

Twilight’s attention was snatched away from the metal giant by a sudden musical fanfare. Balloons in various bright colors drifted up, and several pegasi scattered bags of confetti from the sky.

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ponyville!” Pinkie Pie’s voice rang out. Several firework rockets streaked upwards, trailing sparks and smoke and exploding with sharp cracks that made the human guards look around warily. A huge banner hung across the street, reading “Welcome!” in much neater writing than Twilight had ever been able to coax anypony into managing when she was putting a festival together. (Not that Twilight was jealous or anything.) Cheerful music rang out from where a familiar-looking group of musicians had set up. Pinkie was standing in the center of the square, wearing a top hat and carrying a conductor’s baton tucked under her foreleg.

Oh, no. Twilight though, frantically, Nonononono, she’s not going to sing, is she? We talked about this; no singing, not even if the castle is sinking into the swamp, whatever the heck that means! That almost-war with the buffalo was enough!

Her concerns proved to be unfounded. Pinkie waved her baton, held crooked under her forehoof, at various parts of the village square. “We’ve got games, treats, music and dancing allll ready for you! You can play pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, which you may not have played since you don’t have tails, so it’ll be fun and new! It’s super easy to learn, and I bet you guys’d be the best at it! There’s bobbing for apples, and horseshoes and ring toss and races and all kinds of other stuff, and if there’s a game you want to add, just tell me and the pink pony’ll get ya set up!” Pinkie grinned and winked, tipping her hat. “If you don’t feel like playing, there’s a dance floor right there, with the bestest musicians in the country ‘cause I got my sister to bring her band in from Canterlot, and they can play all kinds of music!” At Pinkie’s reference to her sister, a gray-coated earth pony with an elegantly-groomed dark mane and striking purple eyes paused in her bass-playing to give a short bow. Several ponies had already taken station at the dance floor, and were cheerfully stepping through a classic line-dance routine. “Aaaaaand if you’re hungry, and who wouldn’t be after flying down from space, I mean, really,” Pinkie continued, “there’s a whole bunch of tasty treats, fruits, vegetables, candy and baked stuff, all fresh and I can personally say they’re all delicious.” The pink mare tossed a cupcake into the air, catching it in her mouth and chewing with exaggerated gusto. Or maybe it wasn’t exaggerated. Twilight heard a couple of amused chuckles behind her. Pinkie smiled widely, bright blue eyes sparkling. “And if there’s anything you can think of that I forgot about, just let me know! Have fun!”

Anderocus bowed, smiling politely. “Thank you, Miss Pinkie Pie.” He turned to his retinue. “Gentlemen, ladies, standard social drill. Mingle, be polite, and don’t give too much away if you can avoid it.” There were noises of generalized affirmation, and the human group broke up smoothly, suggesting long practice. Confessor Deumos planted himself at the entrance to the square, driving his staff into the ground and standing stiff-backed, the grim expression still set on his face. Anderocus himself drifted toward the snack tables, Tangro tagging along behind, with two of the guards following. Seria wandered toward the dancing floor, watching calmly as the ponies danced, her arms folded behind her. The guards broke their unified column, slinging the box-things they carried over their shoulders to free up their hands, and going off in pairs to wander around the square. Tersiaard stayed in the street, still watching Rainbow Dash clear the last of the clouds away from the western horizon. Twilight shivered again, resolving to keep the athlete away from the metal giant as much as possible. She didn’t think Dash would put up much of a fight about it, either; she’d seemed genuinely frightened by Tersiaard’s sudden hostility. It would probably be a good idea to have somepony keeping an eye on the Magos, and she started thinking about who would be the best choice. The flying skull things went off in various directions, one at the shoulder of each of the human leaders, one accompanying each pair of guards, and Twilight was startled when one buzzed down to hover at her shoulder, and two more took station next to Rarity and Applejack.

Applejack headed for the games area on her own. Twilight started to follow Anderocus as Rarity already had, reasoning that the humans’ leader would be where her attention should be focused, when she saw the stooped, brown-robed human looking around as though lost. The lavender unicorn stepped up to him, trying to remember his name, which was a bit difficult since he’d barely spoken since exiting the blue-and-silver flying machine, and hadn’t drawn any attention to himself. It came to her just as she opened her mouth to speak to him. “Mister… Setaron, isn’t it? Are you all right?”

The hood swiveled toward her, revealing a leathery, aged-looking face with a kind smile. “Oh, I’m fine, thank you. I just haven’t been to any social events in a very long time, and I find myself somewhat at loose ends. I’m not sure what I should be doing.”

Twilight’s stomach lurched as the human’s brown hood slipped back a bit, revealing the rest of his face, including his eyes. Or rather, where his eyes should have been. She gasped, “Oh, my goodness! Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?”

“A doctor?” The human’s brow wrinkled over the empty pits of his eye sockets. “No, I feel quite fine. Why? Is something amiss?”

Twilight felt a sick pang, as the human unintentionally (she devoutly hoped) came very close to quoting what the daemon-possessed Hammer N’ Tongs had said to her three days ago. She fought back a brief spike of terror, swallowing a few times before she regained her voice. “I w- was talking about your eyes.”

“Ah, I see. If I may make a small joke.” Setaron smiled again. “No, there’s nothing wrong. My eyes have been gone for a very long time. Most of my life, actually. I hardly even miss them, these days.” Twilight realized that Setaron wasn’t bothering her the way Tangro had, despite the unsettling lack of eyes in his face. Anderocus and Seria hadn’t either. She wondered briefly why the slender seneschal put her so on edge.

“What happened? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“I-” The eyeless human hesitated frowning. “I’m actually not sure what I should tell you.” He cocked his head, looking thoughtful. “I don’t see what it could hurt, but…”

Twilight’s curiosity was well and truly piqued. “I’ll promise not to tell anyone else, if it’s something embarrassing.”

“Oh, it’s not embarrassing, it’s just…” Setaron trailed off. He shrugged. “Oh, well, what could it hurt for you to know? I’m an astropath. I use my powers to relay messages between ships, worlds, what have you.”

“What kind of messages?” Twilight asked.

“All kinds, really. Hm… do you have a postal service, anything like that?”

“Of course! We send letters and packages from city to city, usually carried by pegasi. Oh, and my assistant, Spike, can do something similar: he’s a dragon, and his fire can carry messages back and forth, across great distances.” The local post office was run by a gray pegasus named Ditzy Doo, who had a rather extreme lazy eye. Twilight figured the humans would meet her sooner or later. Perhaps she and Setaron would find something in common
.

“My function is something along those lines, though I simply send the contents of a message, rather than a physical object.” Setaron paused, tapping his chin with a finger. “Actually, rather than the direct contents, I send the thoughts that make it up. It’s actually quite complex, and difficult to explain.”

Thoughts… astropath… “Oh! You’re a telepath, then? That’s a very rare talent, I only know of a few unicorns who have that ability!” She paused, trying to remember what she knew about telepathy. She hadn’t actually met any telepaths before, but she’d read about them. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anypony who had anywhere near the kind of range you seem to be talking about, though. Is that normal?”

“It’s… normal for astropaths, yes.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the evasive answer. “Okay. Soooo… an astropath is different from a normal telepath? How?”

“Erm.” Setaron’s head swiveled around blindly. Finally, his shoulders slumped. “Well, honestly, I can’t see why I shouldn’t tell you. Astropaths are soul-bonded to the Emperor; the process greatly increases our strength and sensitivity, and wards us from the predations of the Warp, but in so doing it burns our eyes away. A small price to pay, to serve the Emperor.” The last sentence was spoken in a reverent tone, while the astropath stroked a slender chain he wore around his neck.

“The Emperor? Can you tell me about him?” This was the second time she’d heard a reference to an Emperor, and Twilight hoped that might be the person she was supposed to find out about.

“The God-Emperor of Mankind. It is he whom all in the Imperium serve, and who wards us from the Ruinous Powers.” Setaron intoned.

“Um, no offense, but that doesn’t really tell me very much.” Twilight gave the human an apologetic smile before realizing he couldn’t see it. “Who is the Emperor?”

“That is a simple question with a very complex answer,” Setaron replied. “And I’m afraid I am not the best person to answer it. You should ask Confessor Deumos, instead. He is quite well versed in the Imperial Faith.”

Twilight looked toward the entrance to the plaza, where the Confessor stood. The human was standing ramrod-straight, his face so grim and hard she was surprised it hadn’t cracked into pieces. “He... doesn’t look like he’s feeling talkative.”

“Perhaps later, then. The Confessor can be a bit difficult to approach at times. I could introduce you, if you like…”

Setaron was interrupted by the returning Rainbow Dash streaking out of the sky. She slowed down at the last possible instant, touching down lightly in the very middle of the square on all four hooves. It was a very theatrical, attention-grabbing entrance, which was doubtless exactly what she’d been aiming for. Of course, she apparently forgot that the wind she’d brought along in her wake didn’t slow down when she did, so it blew dust all over the square, and many of Pinkie’s banners and streamers were torn away and went flying to parts unknown. Anderocus managed to hold on to his elaborate capes, but Tangro lost one of his, and shot a glare at the pegasus.

“Oops. Heh, heh, sorry ‘bout that.” Rainbow chuckled, looking sheepish. “Um… do you want me to go get that for you?”

“No, that’s quite all right.” Tangro replied, icily. “I’d rather keep the rest of my clothing, thank you.”

He and Anderocus returned to their discussion with Rarity, the seneschal ostentatiously ignoring Rainbow, who drooped a bit at the snub. Rarity caught Twilight’s eye and winked, telling her that everything was going well, so the lavender unicorn didn’t need help smooth ruffled feathers.

Dash made her way over to Twilight and Setaron, still looking chagrined. “Hey, Twilight. Hey… uh, robe-guy. Sorry about that; Skyfall had a bunch of screwy formations rolling in from the Everfree, and he kinda got overwhelmed. Took care of it, and moved some of the others’ sectors around to help him out, just in case.” She glanced back at Anderocus and Tangro. “Um… you don’t think they’re really mad, do you?”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight reassured her friend, “That Tangro guy does seem like he’s a bit touchy, but I think he was just making a point.”

Dash shivered. “That guy creeps me out.”

“You too?” Twilight frowned. “That’s odd. He bothers me, but I thought it was just me…”

“How was that accomplished?” Tersiaard’s metallic voice rang out behind the two ponies with heart-stopping suddenness.

“Gah!” Rainbow yelped, spinning around with her wings flared to see that the huge tech-priest had managed to come up behind them unnoticed. “Where the heck did you come from?!” Twilight felt her heart hammering in her chest. That was twice that the giant had managed to sneak up soundlessly like that.

“Over there.” One of the metal arms on Tersiaard’s back extended, pointing back to the street where Twilight had last seen him standing. He repeated his question. “That cloud removal. How was it done?”

Rainbow backed up a few paces, still-flared wings betraying her tension. “Um. I just do it, you know? It’s a pegasus thing, kinda hard to explain.”

“Insufficient.” Tersiaard stated coldly. “I require more information. What precisely did you do?”

“Should we do something?” Twilight whispered to the astropath next to her.

“I… don’t think so. If he decides she genuinely can’t explain it, he’ll probably give up. I hope. Trying to intervene would almost certainly be a bad idea.” The eyeless human whispered back.

“It’s… I just… argh, I don’t know how to explain it to someone who isn’t a pegasus!” Dash shook her head in frustration. “Look, I fly up, I hit the cloud. If I hit it one way, it dissipates. If I hit it another, I can make it rain, or push it around, or whatever!”

“Insufficient.” The metal giant said again. Conversation around them had petered away, the nearby ponies watching wide-eyed. “What mechanism is employed? What specific effects are achieved? Is intent a factor?”

Dash bit her lip, glancing at Twilight for support. The unicorn mouthed, tell him what you can, hoping that Rainbow would be able to read her lips. “I… uh… I… Look, it’s pegasus magic, okay? I can’t tell you how I do it, any more than you could tell me how you… how you move your arms!”

The Magos stared at the pegasus for a long, tense few seconds. Finally, he inclined his head, saying, “I could in fact describe the mechanics and processes of my arms to a complete layman in substantial detail. I accept your protestations of ignorance, however, and shall seek out the information I desire at another time. You would do well to educate yourself.” With that, the giant pivoted, heading back toward the landing field with heavy, ringing footfalls.

“Geez, what is his problem, anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically, glaring at the human’s back. “‘Protestations of ignorance.’ Pfeh.” She quoted, in a mocking approximation of the Magos’s voice, “Jerk. I know exactly what I’m talking about, I just can’t explain it.”

“The Magos has an insatiable hunger for knowledge, like most of his order.” Setaron told her.

Rainbow snorted. “For someone who likes to know stuff, he sure gets mad when someone else asks him questions.”

Setaron nodded. “The Mechanicus like to know the answers, but they’re often reluctant to share them. Knowledge is power, after all, and I believe they enjoy being powerful.”

The pegasus chewed her lip for a moment, thinking. She finally nodded, slowly. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. It doesn’t make him less of a jerk, but I kinda understand where he might be coming from.”

“You do?” Twilight asked.

“Kinda.” Rainbow chewed her lip again. “If he thinks that knowing everything is what makes him special, then sharing all of it would pretty much make him not special, wouldn’t it? ‘Cause then everyone else would know it too. What’s his cutie mark, anyway?”

“No idea.” Twilight replied. It sounded extremely selfish to her, but Rainbow’s reasoning seemed sound. “I don’t think we’ve seen any of their cutie marks. Setaron, what’s yours?”

“My what?” The blind human asked uncomprehendingly.

“Your cutie mark. Like this.” Rainbow Dash clarified, turning sideways to show off the cloud and multicolored lightning bolt on her hip. “You know, the thing that shows up when you figure out what you’re good at. You guys are all wearing too much for us to see ‘em.”

“I’m… not certain what you mean,” Setaron said, and Dash finally looked closely at him, seeing that he lacked eyes.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Dash winced. “I, uh, thought you had, you know, eyes. Wow. Um… help me out here, Twilight.”

The lavender unicorn took pity on her multicolored friend, and decided to chip in. “Setaron, do you know about the markings each of us have on our hips?”

“I did hear them mentioned, yes. There was a great deal of speculation about what they could signify; I believe the favored explanation was rank or caste markings.”

Both ponies frowned slightly, sharing a glance. “You don’t know what they are?” Twilight asked.

“Are we supposed to? I don’t believe any of your people told us what the symbols meant, unless perhaps they spoke to Tersiaard and Tangro after I left.” Setaron sounded confused.

“Huh. Interesting.” Rainbow Dash observed. “That’ll be something we’ll need to remember.”

“This is kind of a major thing, Rainbow. If they don’t have cutie marks, how do they know what they’re good at?” Twilight was seriously troubled by this information. If they didn’t know what they should be doing, how was she supposed to know which of them to talk to on any given subject?

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at her. “Prooobably the same way griffons, or dragons, or buffalo do.” The pegasus drew out the word ‘probably’ with a sardonic flair. “Cutie marks are pretty much just a pony thing, Twilight. Not having ‘em isn’t that unusual.”

“But-” Rainbow interrupted her.

“Eh. Don’t worry about it, Twi. They’re not ponies, so there’s gonna be some things that’re different.” Rainbow looked around, her gaze lighting on Seria, who was still standing watching the dances. “Hey, warn me if that big metal jerk shows up again, will ya? I’m gonna go talk to Seria some more.”

“I’ll come with you,” Twilight was curious about the guard commander too; she’d seemed the most approachable of the human party. Belatedly, the unicorn remembered she’d been talking to the astropath, and turned back to him. “Mister Setaron, would you like to come along?”

The astropath shook his head amicably. “I’m afraid the commander doesn’t particularly care for my company. I’ll speak to Confessor Deumos, and let him know that you were inquiring after the Imperial Faith. Until later, then.” Setaron bowed, turning to head for where the grim-faced Deumos stood. How does he know where to go, Twilight wondered, he doesn’t have any eyes, and Deumos hasn’t said anything, so he couldn’t be following his voice! She shook herself. Yet another question for later.

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

She and Rainbow set off across the square, and the pegasus asked, “What’s this ‘Imperial Faith’ that robe-guy was talking about?”

Twilight shrugged. “He wouldn’t tell me much. I think it’s connected to this God-Emperor figure they mentioned, and I’m hoping he’s the one Princess Luna wanted me to ask about.”

“Oh right, the human version of the Princesses!” Rainbow looked over her shoulder at the astropath and the gloomy confessor. “Man, is that guy part of his religion? Talk about Mister No Fun!”

“It sounds like it.” Twilight was a bit troubled by that fact. The Equestrian religion as built around Princess Celestia was a fairly laid-back faith, much like the goddess herself. The severe, humorless Deumos would not have fit at all in the Celestian order, so either this ‘God-Emperor’ was a very different kind of deity than Celestia was, or he didn’t have very much to do with the running of his religion. The unicorn hoped she’d have a chance to talk to Deumos before too long to clarify things.

“Hey, Seria!” Dash called out as they approached. “Whatcha doin’?”

The armored human turned as she heard her name called. Inclining her head in respect to the two ponies, she answered, “Hello again, Miss Rainbow Dash, Miss Twilight Sparkle. I was just watching the local dances, I find them quite interesting.”

“You like dancing? Why don’t you join in?” Twilight asked.

Seria chuckled wryly. “I’m afraid I’m two limbs short. It’s still interesting to watch.” Pony dances (especially formal ones) tended to be intricate, involved group affairs, and the steps really did require four legs. Twilight could see why the human would be hesitant to jump in; it would be easy for the biped to end up looking silly, and these folk seemed to treasure their dignity.

“Aw, come on!” Rainbow prompted. “Give it a try. It’s fun!”

“I’m sure it is,” Seria answered. “And dance is something I’m actually quite good at, so believe me when I say that I can’t manage this style.”

“Well, what about your style?” Twilight asked, “This is supposed to be as much us learning about you as it is you learning about us! We’d like the chance to see what a human dance looks like!” Beside her, Rainbow nodded enthusiastically, sunset-colored forelock bouncing vigorously atop her head.

“Well... I suppose I could, just as a demonstration. Most of the dances I know are court dances, though, so I’ll need to find a partner.” She glanced over at Anderocus and Tangro, who were still talking to Rarity. “Let me talk to the Lord-Captain, would you mind waiting here?”

Rainbow looked to Twilight for an answer, and the unicorn was happy to supply one. “Oh, we wouldn’t mind at all! I hope he agrees; I’m really curious!”

The commander nodded respectfully, and left the two ponies at the edge of the dancing floor while she walked over to speak to Anderocus.

“This could be interesting.” Twilight commented to Rainbow. The latter was grinning again, the tension of her confrontation with the tech-priest having dissipated.

“I’ll say!” The pegasus responded cheerfully. “How the heck does something with two legs dance, anyway?” She pushed herself into a bipedal stance, balancing carefully on her back legs and trying a quick spin. She managed it remarkably well, Twilight thought, using her wings to maintain her balance. Rainbow dropped back to all fours. “I’ve seen Spike try a few times, but looks kinda goofy on those stumpy little legs.”

“Um, Rainbow,” Twilight started hesitantly. They were alone for the time being, and this was as good a time to broach the topic as any. “I, ah, think it might be a good idea to keep you away from that Tersiaard character.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Dash growled, good mood vanishing instantly. “I don’t want anything to do with that guy, ‘cept maybe to thump him a few times.” She glared angrily down the street where the Magos had vanished.

“Please don’t do that,” Twilight protested. “I think it would just be better for everyone if you just avoided him. Let me or Rarity deal with him, if he comes back.”

Rainbow sighed. “Fine, Twilight. I’ll stay away from him if I can. I woulda done it anyway.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Well, there was that taken care of; Twilight was glad Rainbow hadn’t objected. Seria was still talking to Anderocus, and it looked like they’d pulled Pinkie Pie in as well. “I wonder what they’re talking about over there.”

“I dunno, but it looks like they’re about done.” Indeed, as the pegasus voiced the thought Pinkie, Seria, and Tangro broke off and headed in their direction. “Aw, great, that Tangro guy’s coming too.” Rainbow observed in disgust.

“I wish I knew why he bothers both of us,” Twilight mused. “I’ll have to ask the others if they feel the same way.”

Pinkie broke away from the two humans as they reached the dance floor, bouncing over to talk to the band. Seria and Tangro approached Rainbow and Twilight, the seneschal giving another flourishing bow as they stopped. “So, Envoy, I understand you’re curious about our dances?” He asked with a small smile.

“Well, Rainbow and I thought that Seria might enjoy a chance to demonstrate your people’s style…” Twilight responded, hesitantly.

“Delightful!” The light-maned human exclaimed, clapping his hands once and rubbing them together. “And I’d be glad to partner the commander for a quick turn around the dance floor. I’m not quite so accomplished as she is, but I do think I can hold my own!” He smiled, beckoning toward one of the flying skulls that seemed to be unassigned. It buzzed over obediently, and he turned to Seria. “What tune would you prefer, Commander?”

The taller human rubbed at her chin under her face mask. “Hmm… are you familiar with the Teurlitz Waltz, seneschal? It’s an old favorite of mine.”

Tangro’s eyebrows rose. “You have classical tastes. As it happens, I am.” The seneschal answered with another smile. He shook a finger playfully at Seria. “I will insist on one thing, though, Commander. You are going to have to take off that helmet and mask, if you want me to help here.”

A chuckle emerged from beneath the armored mask. “I suppose that’s a reasonable request, under the circumstances.” The commander reached up, undoing the clasps that held her mask and helmet in place, and Twilight felt a pang of curiosity as to just what that mask hid. She saw Rainbow leaning forward out of the corner of her eye, and suspected the pegasus felt the same way.

Tangro started talking to the floating skull, issuing commands for it to “retrieve” something, while Seria removed her helmet and mask, setting both aside at a nearby table, and Twilight finally got the chance to see the guard commander’s face. Her skin was a light brown color, almost the exact shade as coffee with a bit of cream in it and a bit darker than that of the male guard they’d seen earlier, and her short mane was straight and midnight-black. The shape of her face was vaguely similar to that of the guard sergeant, sufficiently so for Twilight to decide that it was indeed the general shape of a human female’s, though Seria’s had a number of marked differences. Her nose was longer and straighter, for one, though it had a pair of odd crooks in the middle that the unicorn hadn’t seen on any of the other humans. She had faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, too, and her skin was slightly weathered, though nowhere near as much as the astropath’s had been. She had several thin white lines crossing her face that looked like they might be scars, and the beginning of some strong creases on her brow and cheeks. Her dark eyes had a bit of a sparkle to them, and combined with the slight upturn at both corners of her mouth, suggested someone who had a good sense of humor, though her expression was a bit stern.

Seria caught the two ponies’ scrutiny, and quirked a black eyebrow. “See anything unexpected?”

Beside Twilight, Rainbow flipped her wings in a shrug. “We were just wondering why you were hiding your face. I don’t see any reason you should be.”

The commander smiled. “There’s a reason, but it’s a long story. And it’s personal.” She turned to Tangro. “Ready, seneschal?”

Tangro bowed again. He did that a lot, Twilight reflected. She wondered briefly if he ever got dizzy. “I certainly am, Commander. You’re better at this sort of thing than I; would you care to lead?”

Seria snorted. “I suppose I could.” She extended a hand that Tangro grasped, and they walked on to the dance floor as the band stopped playing and Pinkie ushered the group that had been using the floor to make space. The commander and the seneschal took position near the center, with one of Seria’s hands resting on Tangro’s side and one of Tangro’s reaching up to the commander’s shoulder, their other hands still clasped and held away from their bodies.

The seneschal addressed the skull he’d been talking to earlier. “Begin playback!”

Music began playing from the grille in the skull’s mouth. It wasn’t quite like anything Twilight had heard before; very heavy on the strings, and light on brass and percussion, almost the opposite of most Equestrian music, and there were several instruments lurking in there that she couldn’t identify. The two humans remained stock-still for a handful of seconds, letting the music establish itself, and then they were off.

The dance that ensued was completely unlike the relatively rigid, group-oriented Equestrian dances. Seria and Tangro glided across the dance floor, spinning and turning with a grace Twilight hadn’t expected from the (to her eyes) awkwardly-balanced, topheavy bipeds. It was enthralling, and it was immediately clear that the two were very good at what they were doing, moving through the steps as though controlled by a single mind. Commander Seria, particularly, was astoundingly graceful, considering the heavy armor she still wore. Twilight spared a glance around at her friends; Rarity was watching the show with an enchanted look on her face, Pinkie Pie looked gleeful, and even Applejack looked impressed. Next to her, Rainbow Dash was watching the performance with an enraptured expression, obviously thrilled by the coordinated precision of the dance. The athlete did like to dance; after all, it was the next best thing to the precision flying that she loved best. Rainbow swayed slightly in place with the rhythm of the music, shuffling her hooves a bit as though unable to help herself.

The two humans whirled, the music getting faster and faster, but they didn’t misstep. It was clear that the tall, armored female was leading the dance, and she managed it with skill. Their expressions grew more intent as the music sped up, and their movements got faster, spinning about the dance floor at remarkable speed. The music built, heading for a crescendo… and stopped with shocking suddenness, seemingly in the middle of a note. The two dancers stopped at the exact same time the music did, their heels slamming down at the final beat and leaving them posed in a dramatic fashion.

There was silence for a moment, the Equestrian audience unsure whether this was just a pause or whether the dance was over. The two humans separated, bowing respectfully to one another, and the crowd erupted in applause, everypony drumming their forehooves on the ground and cheering to express their appreciation. Anderocus and Setaron chipped in with what must have been the human version, producing a remarkably sharp noise by slapping their open hands together, while Deumos just glared the way he seemed to do at everything. Twilight found herself applauding along with the rest; it really had been a remarkable thing to watch, and she was pleased to have seen it.

Tangro and Seria bowed to the audience, waving and smiling, clearly pleased at the reception they’d gotten. Finally, they turned, heading back to where they’d left Rainbow and Twilight.

The athletic pegasus was beside herself with excitement, forgetting her dislike of Tangro for the moment. “Ohmygosh, that was great! How long did it take you guys to learn that? Could I try it?” She launched herself into the air, unable to stay on the ground in her exuberance. “Dude, I’d love to try that. Do you think I could?” The pegasus grinned, hovering a short distance off the ground so she could look the tall commander in the eye.

Tangro raised an eyebrow, looking at his companion and clearly willing to let her field the questions. Seria blinked at the barrage of inquiry, cocking her head as she sorted through them. She shrugged armor-clad shoulders. “I started learning… hmm… about thirty years ago, when I was promoted to captain, back during my days in the Imperial Guard. The regiment needed someone to represent us at formal functions when Captain Taldren got killed, and the colonel ‘volunteered’ me for the job.” The tall female had a faraway look in her eyes. Twilight found herself wondering just how old the Commander was, and resolved to try asking at the first opportunity. Seria continued, “Of course, it doesn’t take that long to actually learn; I was doing a fair job of it after just a week or two, and if you’ve got a partner who knows what he’s doing it doesn’t really take any practice at all, just good balance and coordination.” She cocked her head, eyeing Rainbow carefully. “As for whether you can try it? You’d look a bit silly trying solo. Did you mean with one of us?”

“Yeah! I mean, if you guys are cool with it!” Rainbow answered. “I’d just like to give it a try!”

“Hmm.” Seria hummed, head still cocked. “Well, can you stand upright?” Rainbow descended, coming to rest standing on her hindlegs the way she’d been trying before. She kept her wings half-spread, adjusting her balance carefully. There were a few ponies who had a natural gift for bipedal movement, (Pinkie Pie was a good example) but Rainbow wasn’t one of them, and it took her a bit of effort to hold her stance. Her natural athleticism helped, though; Dash had an excellent sense of balance and position, and was very well coordinated, so she was able to keep herself upright without too much difficulty.

“Looks like you might be able to manage at least a basic ballroom dance, though probably not a waltz like we were doing.” Seria observed, watching Rainbow’s balance with a critical eye. “You’d need someone who’s fairly experienced as a partner, though, and I’m way too tall for you.” Even fully upright as she was, the top of Rainbow’s head only came up to the commander’s collar. She was a bit taller than Tangro, but her shoulders were set a good bit lower than the human male’s, and Twilight could see easily that the pegasus would have trouble with the posture the two humans had used, since it would be difficult for her to reach the tall human female’s shoulder. Seria turned to the seneschal. “What do you think, Aleron? You’re about the right height; would you be willing to partner Miss Rainbow Dash here for a quick spin?” Twilight saw Rainbow’s face fall slightly; she clearly wasn’t pleased with the idea of being in such close proximity to the light-maned human.

“I don’t know that my own skills would be up to the task,” Tangro demurred, and Rainbow’s face fell further, her ears going back a bit. Twilight bristled slightly at the backhanded slight to her friend, implying that she was so incompetent as to need extra help, but Seria spoke before she could.

“That’s all right, seneschal, I’ve got an alternative.” Seria turned, beckoning to one of the pairs of guards that were wandering around. “Desker! Front and center!” She turned back to Tangro and the two ponies. “I make it a point to cross-train the squads I put on ceremonial duty, so most of the troopers here today have some skill in upper-class matters, and Desker there’s from a noble family to boot. He’s something like a twelfth child, very much a supernumerary, but he has the background.” The two guards arrived, snapping to attention in front of their commander and giving her one of the human fist-to-chest salutes, and Seria addressed them. “Desker, would you be willing to partner one of the locals in a fairly simple dance?”

The shorter of the two, only a bit taller than Tangro, hesitated. The voice that emerged from the helmet sounded male, and younger than the other humans who’d spoken. “Uh… Commander, I don’t know any of the local styles…”

Seria waved his objection aside. “They don’t want you to do one of the local ones, Guardsman. Miss Rainbow here,” she jerked her thumb at the pegasus, “was impressed by the show Tangro and I just put on, and she wants to try one like it. Would you be alright, dancing with a xeno?”

Xeno? Twilight thought, that doesn’t sound like a very nice label. Is my spell working right?

The guard hesitated again, making Twilight think that her impression might be accurate. The helmeted head glanced from the commander to the pegasus (who was still standing on her hind legs, with a hopeful look on her face) and back again. “Just a dance? That’s all?”

“That’s all.” Seria confirmed. She shrugged, “I’d do it myself, honestly, but I’m just too tall for her, and she probably needs a tutor who really knows what he’s doing, so Tangro’s right out.” The seneschal looked sour, and Twilight had to fight not to snicker as the fact that the commander had snubbed Tangro right back registered. I don’t know if she did that because he insulted Rainbow or not, but he deserved that.

The guard, Desker, nodded. “Sure, Commander. I think I can handle that.” He doffed his helmet and mask, revealing a strong-boned light brown face a few shades lighter than Seria’s, green eyes, and a mane that was an odd reddish-yellow color. Unlike any of the humans Twilight had seen thus far, Desker had hair growing on his face. It was short, a bit thin, and a slightly darker color than his mane, and it seemed to stop at his neck, covering only his jaw and chin. The human’s skin looked a bit softer than the others’, and it was almost completely unlined. Twilight wondered what that could mean; she’d seen several different physiologies amongst the humans so far, and she was hesitant to draw any conclusions about an alien species, but that face combined with his voice made her suspect that he might be younger than the other five humans. (She wasn’t even going to guess about Tersiaard. She’d already put him in an entirely separate mental category from the rest of the humans)

Desker smiled at Rainbow Dash, giving her a slight bow as Seria spoke for him, the skull-thing picking up the translation it had dropped while the two humans were talking to one another. “Miss Rainbow Dash, Guardsman Desker here would be willing to be your partner for a quick dance, and teach you a simpler version of what Tangro and I performed.” Desker’s unnamed companion, still masked, moved to stand at Seria’s shoulder as she spoke. “He’s young,” she continued, confirming Twilight’s supposition, “but he comes from an aristocratic background, so he’s been learning this since he could walk. Does he meet with your approval?”

“Sure!” Rainbow chirped, her enthusiasm returning with the news that she wouldn’t have to get close to Tangro. “Thanks, Desker! This is gonna be fun!”

Seria patted the young guard on the shoulder, smiling gently. “Just remember that translation delay, trooper. You’ll need to start giving the instruction about a half-second before you normally would, so she’ll hear it in time. And remember that she doesn’t normally walk on two legs, so you may need to help her keep her balance from time to time.” Desker nodded, and Seria started talking to the skull that had played the music for the dance she and Tangro had done.

Twilight reflected that the skulls weren’t creeping her out quite as much as they had even a few minutes ago. They were still unsettling (they were still skulls!) but the utterly blasé way the humans treated the things was starting to rub off.

It didn’t take Seria long to arrange what she needed with the musical skull, and Rainbow and Desker walked to the center of the dance floor, where Seria and Tangro had originally been. Rainbow had dropped back to all fours for the quick walk, and she looked a bit nervous, glancing around at the crowd. Twilight figured it was because she was going to be trying something for the first time in front of an audience; Rainbow liked to show off, but she didn’t like to fail with anyone watching. Hopefully, Desker would be a good enough teacher to keep the pegasus from embarrassing herself.

The two reached the center of the floor, and Rainbow pushed herself back up on her hind legs, again leaving her wings half-extended to help with her balance. She carefully hooked a forehoof over Desker’s armored shoulder, and she got an odd look on her face as he took her other forehoof in his hand. The human’s other hand rested on the pegasus’s flank, just below her ribs, corresponding to the spot Seria had placed her hand on the seneschal, fortunately low enough that it was well away from the sensitive areas under the pegasus’s wings.

The music, when it started, was slower than the frenetic tune that had played for the earlier dance. Twilight thought it was quite nice, actually, though the way the strings wailed was slightly eerie to her ears. The dance Desker started was considerably slower-paced than the one Seria and Tangro had done, but it was still smooth and graceful. Rainbow was a bit unsteady at first, having slight difficulty maintaining her balance, but slight corrective motions and quiet suggestions from the young guard smoothed her movements out quickly, and before long she was moving as though she’d been dancing like this all her life. The athlete smiled delightedly as she found the rhythm, rose-colored eyes sparkling.

Seeing that Rainbow was taken care of for the moment, Twilight sidled up next to Seria. Tangro had headed off to attend his master again, so the guard commander was watching the dance alone.

“Excuse me, Commander Seria,” the unicorn asked, “do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

“Ask away,” the tall female responded. “I’ll answer what I can.”

“All right. Those different skin tones? Do they mean anything?” It was one of dozens of questions that had formed in the academic’s mind.

“Not really.” Seria shrugged. “Humans tend to be darker the more sunlight their ancestors dealt with; Tangro and Lord Anderocus are both void-born, from long lines of void-born, so they’ve never had to deal with much sun. Confessor Deumos is from a Hive sublevel, so same story there. I’m from an Imperial world myself, and most of my troopers are from either one of those or an agriworld, so you’ll generally see darker tones on us. Sergeant Disrev is one of the exceptions; they’re pale where she’s from.”

Twilight absorbed the information like a sponge, her eager mind popping up new questions. “Interesting! Can I ask about those terms you just used? What’s void-born, and what are Hives, Imperial worlds, and agriworlds?”

Seria gave her a sidelong look. “Sorry, I forgot you aren’t spacefarers.” She shook her head, clearly ordering her thoughts. “Okay, in order: void-born refers to those who are born aboard ships, and often spend their entire lives there. A Hive is a huge city, with hab-spires kilometers high and populations that are often in the hundreds of millions or more, and a Hive World is a planet with multiple Hive Cities. The cities usually cover most of the planet’s surface on a Hive World.” Twilight was boggling at the information, trying to picture what Seria was describing. “Imperial worlds is sort of a catch-all term for a civilized world that isn’t densely urban enough to be classified as a Hive, and an agriworld is a place with very few large settlements. They’re covered in fields instead, and the food they produce is exported in bulk to worlds that can’t supply all their own needs, or to the Guard or the Navy.”

Twilight’s head spun slightly. “People spend their entire lives on ships? For multiple generations?!” And there were entire planets covered in farms? And others covered in cities?! The lavender unicorn was beginning to grasp the sheer, awesome scale of the empire these creatures represented. How many humans were there, anyway? Tens of billions? Hundreds? …More?

“Sure.” Seria was nonchalantly answering the question Twilight had asked. “I think there are a few officers aboard the Lux whose families have served aboard her since she was commissioned. Well, assuming those officers are still alive after that storm.”

“How old is your ship, anyway?” Twilight was expecting an answer in the range of a hundred years or so. Which was an amazingly long time for a ship to be still working, but long enough for multiple generations of a family to serve, and not all that old compared to the age Tangro had cited for the document he’d showed her.

She was not expecting the answer she got. “Eight or nine thousand years, I think.” Seria answered offhoofedly, shrugging. “She was built a while after the Heresy, but I’m not sure on the exact date. Ask the Magos if you want a precise answer; he could probably tell you her age to the second.”

Twilight felt her jaw drop. The ship is eight thousand years old?! “H-how can anything still be functioning after eight thousand years?” She stammered.

The commander shrugged again. “Mechanicus tech-rituals. It works, that’s all I know, and it’s not really healthy to know any more than that.”

Twilight blinked at the human guard commander, stunned anew. These people were really, really alien. Not only did the commander not know, she clearly didn’t care, and actually considered the knowledge to be potentially detrimental! The idea that knowledge could be unhealthy drove home the sheer otherness of these creatures in a way that their mere physiology hadn’t.

Seria, of course, was unaffected by the thoughts racing through Twilight’s mind, and was watching Rainbow and Desker with a slight smile. The dance had gotten a bit faster, and the pegasus had a rapturous expression on her face. She’d really gotten the hang of the human dance, and was clearly thoroughly enjoying the graceful, flowing movement.

Twilight pulled her focus back to the questions she was asking. “So, is that a normal age for a ship, or is yours particularly old?”

“The Lux? Nah, she’s not that old. I hear Battlefleet Telemach’s flagship dates back before the Crusade; supposedly, she’s something like twelve thousand years old.” Seria paused, chewing her lip. “And there’s always rumors about ships pried out of space hulks, stuff that dates back to the Dark Age. Those ancient things can be as much as twenty thousand years old or more, and they still run better than ships a tenth their age.”

“Tuh, tuh, twenty thousand years?!” Twilight blurted out. To the best of her knowledge, that was older than the entirety of Equestrian civilization. By a significant amount! And these creatures had ships that old? Starships? Ohhh, Twilight, what have you gotten yourself into? “How old is your civilization, anyway?”

“The Imperium has stood for ten thousand years,” Seria intoned, a ceremonial resonance in her voice.

Twilight was confused. “How can there be twenty thousand year old ships if your civilization is only ten thousand years old?” ‘Only!’ Ha! Hahaha. Her mental laugh carried an edge of hysteria.

Seria blinked at her, confused in turn. “What? You asked how old our civilization was. Before the Emperor unified mankind in the Great Crusade, there was no civilization, just strife and disunity.”

Uh oh. Twilight thought. That sounds uncomfortably like something they’re expected to say. Don’t push, Twilight. How else can I put this… “Oh, sorry. I actually meant to ask how far back your history goes.” She smiled, hoping Seria wouldn’t notice her brief hesitation.

She didn’t. “Oh. Well… I don’t know, actually. This is the forty-first millennium. Eight ninety-six M forty-one, if you want the exact date. I’m not sure what started the calendar, though. There may be history before that, but honestly you’d be better off asking Tangro, or the Magos. I’m just a soldier.
”

Forty thousand years. Forty thousand years. The age and scale of the society she was dealing with suddenly bore oppressively down on the unicorn academic. If I make a mistake… if any of us make a mistake… then who knows what these creatures might do? Twilight fought back the urge to start hyperventilating. And another thing, there’s that attitude again. ‘It doesn’t concern me, so I don’t care.’ Seria isn’t stupid, how could she be so unconcerned about her own people’s history? As Twilight struggled with the sheer otherness of the humans, she found her attention drawn back to the dance floor. Rainbow had gotten well and truly comfortable with the movements of the human dance, and she and Desker were adding extra flourishes and spins, lending the performance an almost ethereal quality. The two almost looked like they were floating, tethered only by the contact between their feet and the floor. Twilight knew it was an illusion; Rainbow’s wings weren’t flapping, so she clearly wasn’t actually trying to lift off, but the illusion was a powerful one, nonetheless. If they can do something this beautiful, how bad can they be?

Head spinning slightly, Twilight latched on to a question she’d filed away earlier. “Seria, how old are you?”

The commander snorted. “Experiential or sidereal?” She waved a hand before Twilight could answer. “Sorry, habit. When you travel through the Warp a lot, time starts to get… funny. Near as I can figure, I’m in my mid sixties, but I’ve had some juvenant treatments, so physically I’m probably forty or so.”

Before Twilight could ask anything else, the music playing from the skull drew quiet, and finally drifted away, leaving Rainbow and Desker standing perfectly still in the center of the dance floor. This time, there was no hesitation from the audience, and riotous applause broke out almost immediately, hooves thundering against the ground, accompanied by the slapping sound the humans produced. Twilight had to smile; Rainbow was looking happier than she had in days, and was grinning so widely the unicorn half-expected the top of her head to fall off. The pegasus and the guard separated, Rainbow dropping back to all fours, and the pair strolled casually back to where they’d left Seria and Twilight. The pegasus was clearly basking in the attention, looking around triumphantly while the young human next to her waved to the crowd. Rainbow said something to Desker as they approached, but Twilight couldn’t hear it over the noise, and the human simply nodded calmly rather than responding.

Finally, the noise died down enough that Twilight was able to congratulate her friend. “That was remarkable, Rainbow Dash!”

“I know, right? Ha! That was great! Dude, it’s sooo much fun, you’ve gotta try it sometime!” The pegasus grinned, eyes dancing with glee.

“Maybe later.” Twilight turned to the young guard. “Mister Desker, thank you so much for helping to teach Rainbow. We both sincerely appreciate it!”

Desker gave her a slightly shy smile. “Glad to help, ma’am. If any of the rest of you folk would like a lesson, I’d be glad to oblige.”

Twilight was touched by the offer. “Perhaps later, but thank you!” Desker nodded in acknowledgement.

Seria cut in to the conversation at that point. “Well done, guardsman. You have my gratitude as well.”

Desker snapped to attention again. “No need to thank me, Commander. It wasn’t a difficult duty at all; she’s a quick study. A damn sight quicker than I ever was! Never even stepped on my feet, which is better than half the partners I had back home. Wish I could’ve had her around when I was going to formal dances as a kid.” He chuckled ruefully. “My tutor would’ve been glad to have her for a student, if he could get over the idea of teaching an alien!”

Seria leveled a penetrating gaze at the young male. “And do you have any problems being that close to a xeno, trooper? Answer honestly; I won’t hold it against you if you do.”

There was that lurking suggestion that they didn’t actually like other species again. It made Twilight more than a bit uncomfortable, especially since they hadn’t made a single mention of that attitude in any form the ponies could understand. That, combined with her earlier realization of the age and size of the empire they represented, kindled a knot of fear in Twilight’s chest that she carefully kept hidden.

Desker’s quiet laugh helped dispel some of her concern. “No problems, Commander, at least not with these xenos. The purple boss one was even thanking me, just for teaching the rainbow one! Don’t tell the Confessor I said so, but they’re nicer than most of my family back home!”

Seria’s gaze turned stern. “Be careful who you say things like that to, trooper. Deumos would have you scourged if he heard that.” Twilight’s heart almost stopped before Seria’s grim look was broken by a small smile. “But he won’t hear it from me. At least, as long as you don’t tell him I agreed with you!”

“My lips are sealed, Commander.”

“Back in uniform with you, then, guardsman. We’re still on duty, here.” Desker saluted crisply and retrieved his helmet and mask, redonning them quickly. He and his partner, who still hadn’t said a word and whose name Twilight didn’t even know, drifted back off into the crowd. Seria moved to retrieve her own headgear, but Twilight interrupted her.

“Oh, please, Commander, don’t put that mask back on. It’s so much easier talking to you when I can see your face!” Seria hesitated, mask held in her hands, as Rainbow echoed the sentiment.

“Yeah! It’s nicer to talk to a face than a mask!”

Glancing back and forth between the pegasus and the unicorn, the commander hesitantly said, “Do you ladies mind if I ask you a question?”

“Of course not!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’ve asked you plenty! It’s only fair if you want to return the favor!”

Seria set the mask back down on the table. “That’s exactly what I wanted to ask about. Why are you asking me these questions? Why are you spending so much time talking to me? I’m just a soldier!”

Rainbow answered before Twilight could. “Because you’re nice,” the pegasus said, a puzzled look on her face. “Tangro’s creepy, Tersiaard’s a huge jerk, Deumos is kind of a jerk but less than metalhead, Setaron’s shy, and Anderocus always has Tangro around.”

Twilight had to facehoof at the athlete’s complete lack of tact. “I think what Rainbow means,” she cut in, hoping to smooth things over, “is that you’re more approachable than the rest of your party.” Rainbow glared at Twilight, looking annoyed at the unicorn putting words in her mouth.

Seria didn’t look enlightened, but at least she didn’t look offended. “But what does any of that matter? Tangro knows far more than I do, and Lord Anderocus is the one in command! If you’re in charge here, shouldn’t you be talking to him? I just command his household troops! Warp it, even then I’m just a jumped-up grunt; I originally went into the Guard as a guardsman, not even an officer!”

Twilight and Rainbow glanced at one another. Twilight thought she was gaining some insight into the humans, but she saw sudden realization dawning in the pegasus’s expression, her eyes going wide and her mouth dropping open. Clearly, Rainbow had experienced some sudden epiphany, but the academic cut her off, hoping to head off another potential faux pas from her friend. “I think we just do things a little differently. Rarity is much better than I am when it comes to things like etiquette and diplomacy, plus she’s my good friend and I trust her, so I can leave discussions with your lord up to her.”

Rainbow started to try to speak up, but Twilight kicked the pegasus in the foreleg with her own to forestall her. “Tell me later!” she hissed, as quietly as she could, with a meaningful glance at the translating skulls that Rainbow thankfully caught. Even more thankfully, the skulls stayed silent, so they evidently hadn’t heard her.

Seria was nodding thoughtfully, looking at where Rarity was talking to Tangro and Anderocus, and she’d evidently missed the brief scene. “I… suppose I could understand that.”

“Have you encountered other species before, Commander?” Twilight asked. She was hoping to steer the conversation in a direction that would divert Rainbow’s attention, and maybe Seria’s confusion stemmed from not being used to other points of view.

The tall female snorted. “Oh, yes. I served in the Imperial Guard for thirty years; I’ve had quite a few encounters with xenos.”

“Really?” Rainbow asked. “What were they called? Were they nice?”

Seria smiled bitterly. “Orks, mostly. Tyranids on Geladria VII, and a brief encounter with the Eldar on Lastrial. And no, they weren’t nice at all.”

“Well, what were they like, then?” The pegasus persisted. “Did you get a chance to talk to them much?”

“Talk to them?” Seria seemed honestly surprised at the mere suggestion. “You can’t talk to Orks or Tyranids. You kill them, or they kill you.”

The chill in Twilight’s stomach got stronger. “Kill them? Surely there’s something else you can do!”

The commander looked at the unicorn like she was utterly mad. “What else is there to do? Orks aren’t interested in conversation, they just want to kill you and take whatever you might have, and as for Tyranids…” She shuddered. “Tyranids just want to eat you. Tyranids want to eat everything. I got these,” she ran a finger along one of the white lines of scar tissue on her face, “from a ‘Nid spore mine. Nearly killed me. The swarm of gaunts that came along with it came even closer; my regiment barely made it offplanet. Nine out of ten of us didn’t make it out as it was.” She swallowed hard, the memory clearly an unpleasant one. “The Navy pronounced Exterminatus on Geladria VII less than an hour after the shuttle carrying me got back to the troopship.”

Twilight was speechless. The idea of violence on that scale… and what was ‘exterminatus’ anyway? From her memory, Princess Luna’s voice whispered, “The universe outside of this solar system is not a pleasant place, Twilight, or a happy one.”

Fortunately, Rainbow could be relied on to fill a conversational gap. “Uh, if it was their planet, why were you there?”

Seria’s look was hard. “It wasn’t their planet. It was an Imperial world, and had been for millennia before the bugs showed up. The Tyranids don’t have planets, they just eat them.” Rainbow’s jaw dropped, but Seria wasn’t finished. “The Navy tried to keep them from getting close, and the Guard was there in case the Navy couldn’t stop them, including my regiment. The 599th Siliean Grenadiers, Emperor watch over their souls. Well, the Navy dropped the ball, big time, some of the big hive ships got close and the spores started raining down from the sky. There were so many falling that it lit the night like it was day.” Seria drew an unsteady breath. “Once they were on-planet, they swarmed like formics. Tens of thousands, millions, of the little ones, flowing like a tide around the big ones when they hit our forts. My outpost was lucky; we had enough heavy support to keep them back long enough to fall back to the dropships. Somebody dragged me along with them, or I’d never have made it; gaunts ripped apart the medicae tent not five minutes after they dragged me out. Thank the Emperor that the Navy showed up when it did; they blasted enough of the hive ships out of the way that the troopships could evacuate the few of us that survived. There were damn few of us that made it out. Damn few.” The commander’s jaw clenched. “Some of my troopers were in good enough shape to watch the Exterminatus. They told me about it later.”

Rainbow looked too shocked to speak. This time it was Twilight who managed to find enough of her voice to ask, “What’s ‘Exterminatus’?”

The answer made her wish she hadn’t asked. “Exterminatus is what the Imperium does when a world is deemed utterly lost, and there’s no chance to get it back. It kills everything on the planetary surface. Burns it clean, completely.” Seria shook her head. “Better to burn than let those monsters tear you apart, though.”

Twilight felt like something had hit her in the belly, hard. She had to stop to catch her breath, and she could see that Rainbow was similarly afflicted. Seria, belatedly realizing the effect she was having on the two ponies, looked a bit chagrined. “Oh, since I’ve been out of the Guard I’ve found out that not every alien is out to kill me. Sorry if I’ve upset you, I have no intention of trying to kill you, or anyone on this world.”

Twilight finally found her voice. “Th- this ‘exterminatus.’ How is it done?”

Seria examined the unicorn’s face closely. “Are you sure you want me to answer that? You seem pretty upset…”

“Please, just tell me.” Twilight bit her lip.

“Okay.” Seria hesitated, looking toward Anderocus for a brief moment. She heaved a deep sigh. “Usually, ships loaded with special ordnance, virus bombs or cyclonic torpedos, conduct the bombardment. In a pinch, though, a ship can do a quick-and-dirty version with its main batteries, but it takes a lot longer.”

Twilight felt a thrill of pure horror. “A ship like yours?”

Seria looked as horrified as Twilight felt. “Oh shit!” She exclaimed, the sudden profanity causing Rainbow and Twilight to lay their ears back. “I didn’t mean that! I mean, yeah, the Lux could do it, but we have no intention of glassing this place! If we did, we wouldn’t have landed!” She waved her hand in a negating gesture, “We’ve got no reason to do anything like that, and I’d personally oppose any suggestion along those lines.”

Perversely, Seria’s obvious distress at the idea of that kind of utter devastation made Twilight relax a little bit. The idea that their visitors were actually capable of visiting that kind of destruction on her home was still terrifying to even contemplate, but if Seria, who’d evidently witnessed so much violence and death in her life, was so obviously appalled by the idea, then the likelihood of the humans actually doing it had to be low.

The rest of the day passed slowly, the humans of the Lux Foedis and the ponies of Ponyville gradually getting used to one another. There weren’t any other major revelations like the one Seria had supplied, courtesy of her background, and Twilight arranged to house the humans in a pair of vacant buildings near their landing areas. All was quiet, as the sun sank below the horizon.

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

As the sun sank and the shadows of evening grew, Twilight Sparkle and her friends lay on cushions in the unicorn’s library home, discussing their impressions of the human visitors.

“..And I actually think my first impression may have been more correct than I initially thought,” Rarity was saying, having just told Fluttershy about how the party had gone from her perspective. “I thought they were acting more like businessfolk than diplomats, and I really think that might be the case after chatting with that charming Anderocus fellow. They want something, I’m sure of it, and they’re willing to trade for it.” The elegant unicorn took a sip of her tea. “I just wish they’d come out and tell me what they wanted. They seem determined to dance around it!”

“I wonder if they’re trying to find out if we’re willing to trade before they introduce the idea,” Twilight mused.

“Or maybe they’re waiting for their leader to talk to you, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash observed.

“Why would they wanna talk to Twilight specifically?” Applejack asked. “Seems t’ me that they’re already talkin’ to Rarity.”

Rainbow looked at Twilight with a hint of truculence. “Can I talk about it now? You shut me up really fast when I was gonna talk about it before.”

Twilight assumed the pegasus was talking about the epiphany she’d had while they were talking to Commander Seria. “Of course, Rainbow Dash. I just didn’t want to talk about it in front of the humans, that’s all.”

“Oh, is that why you kicked me? You coulda just said so.” Rainbow grumbled, but the frown vanished with the chance to share her realization. “I think the thing is that they all have, like, particular jobs they do. Kinda like cutie marks, but different. Each group of ‘em has something they do, and the others don’t. Remember, Seria said she fights, but she wasn’t interested in anything else.”

“Maybe like ants?” Fluttershy interjected. “Some work, some defend the nest, and some make babies?”

“Sorta, yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed, glad for the unexpected support. “Except, ya know, smarter and not bugs.
Anderocus makes the decisions, Seria and the guards keep everyone safe, dunno what the others might do.”

Rarity looked thoughtful. “Well, that unpleasant fellow Tangro seems to run most things, though he does seem to take his orders from Anderocus. A sort of manager.” They’d already covered that the light-maned seneschal seemed to creep all of them out, but none of them could nail down why. Even odder, none of the other ponies in town shared that reaction.

Twilight chimed in, too. “You girls remember Setaron? The one in the brown robe? He does their communications.”

“Maybe they really are like ants.” Fluttershy mused quietly. “Big, scary, two-legged ants.”

Rainbow scowled. “They aren’t that scary. I mean, when Twilight and I were talking to Seria, she turned out to be probably the scariest one, and she’s still pretty nice!” They’d already told the others about that conversation.

Applejack cocked an eyebrow at the polychromatic pegasus. “What ‘bout that Tersiaard feller? He seemed like the scary one t’ me.”

Rainbow deflated. “Oh, right. That guy. Yeah, he’s scary.”

Rarity bit her lip. “I’m sorry to tell you this, Rainbow, but I’m fairly certain that he’s going to be coming back at some point, probably tomorrow. Anderocus suggested that he would be involved with whatever it is they need; it seems that he knows quite a bit that the others don’t.”

The athlete dragged her forehoof across the floor in irritation. “Great. And here I was hoping that guy wouldn’t be back. Pfeh.”

Huh. Twilight thought. Seria did say that Tersiaard knew quite a bit. I wonder what I could learn from him? She almost immediately thought better of it, though. She also said he didn’t like to share it, and he acted like he was going to attack Rainbow because of a rhetorical question. Nevermind. She was wrestling with frustration. On the one hoof, she and Rainbow had had quite an interesting discussion with Commander Seria, and had learned a fair bit about the humans and the way they acted. On the other hoof, though, she hadn’t managed to talk to Deumos about this ‘God-Emperor’ figure the humans seemed to revere, and as such was no closer to fulfilling Princess Luna’s request than she had been this morning. The severe-looking bald human had outright refused to speak to her when she’d tried to approach him, instead choosing to stare off into space, even though she knew perfectly well that the skulls were translating what she was saying.

Oh, well. There was always tomorrow. Maybe Twilight could get the commander to talk to Deumos on her behalf; Seria had proven to be talkative and helpful thus far.

“Oh, wait!” Rainbow exclaimed, perking back up, “One more thing! How are you guys doing with their language?”

“Their language?” Rarity asked, puzzled. “Whatever do you mean, darling?”

“Like, figuring out how to understand it!” The pegasus replied. “It’s easier than I thought it was gonna be; those skull things are really helpful!” The other five ponies boggled at her, prompting her to let out a defensive, “What? What did I do this time?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Rainbow,” Twilight answered, “Are you really learning the humans’ language?”

Rainbow grinned proudly. “Yeah! It took me a while to figure it out, but every time I say something, one of those skulls says the same thing, just in their language. Gothic, I think it’s called. You just gotta listen; it’s super easy!”

The others looked dubious, and Rarity said, “Well, I’ll certainly try, Rainbow Dash. It would definitely be easier if we could all talk the same language. At least Twilight won‘t be the only one who can understand them!” Rarity had looked at the translation spell Twilight had used, and regretfully pronounced it beyond her own capabilities. That Twilight was able to cast it was a testament to her skill.

Interesting discussion or not, it was getting pretty late, and Twilight thought it might be a good idea to follow Spike’s example and turn in for the night. “Well, ladies, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use some sleep.” Twilight yawned, followed by all five of the others. “Tomorrow’s going to be just as busy as today, I have a feeling.”

The group broke up, everypony headed for their homes, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who was spending the night at Pinkie’s, since all of the others were still concerned about her mental state, though Twilight had to admit the pegasus seemed to be in better shape than she had been in days.

Her friends having departed, Twilight sat down at her desk to compose her first day’s report for the Princesses. To her chagrin, it wasn’t very long, just a brief description of the humans she’d met and a short summary of the events of the day, most of which had been a large number of words exchanged that were actually saying very little. After a moment of consideration, Twilight decided to include Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s speculation on human social patterns. While it was only speculation, Twilight considered it to be intelligent speculation, well-grounded in the evidence they’d observed, and felt justified in including it in her report. She rolled up her report and tied it off neatly; she’d send it in the morning, when Spike woke up.

Feeling pleased and disturbed in equal measure at how the day had gone, Twilight tucked herself into bed and swiftly fell asleep.

The next day started out more or less the way the previous one had ended, to Twilight’s dissatisfaction. She left Rainbow Dash to talk to Seria and joined Rarity in her conversation with Anderocus, but it didn’t seem to help. Their conversation wandered evasively, neither Anderocus nor Tangro willing to definitively state exactly what it was that they wanted. Even more frustratingly, the one human she really wanted to talk to, Deumos, had decided not to even show up! It wasn’t until the huge, frightening Tersiaard reappeared midway through the morning that she actually learned some of what they were after.

Rocks.

They wanted rocks. Lots of them.

Okay, that wasn’t really fair. It wasn’t just rocks they wanted. Tersiaard was actually quite specific about what they needed; they were seeking several particular kinds of ore. The problem lay in the fact that, while the ponies were familiar with the ores the humans were talking about, actually doing anything with them was incredibly difficult and prohibitively expensive, in time, effort, and magic expended, and thus it wasn’t mined extensively, nor were there large stockpiles to be found anywhere. And “large” was a wholly inadequate word to describe the quantities the humans were looking for. “Vast” was closer. It made Twilight wonder just how big that ship of theirs was.

Twilight had called for a break around midday for lunch. She was planning on getting Applejack involved in the discussions, along with Pinkie Pie. The former, along with Rarity, would probably be able to work out an equitable trade or payment arrangement with the humans; they’d hinted at some fairly amazing things as payment, but Twilight wasn’t especially economically-minded, and she’d prefer for her two more mercantile friends to handle the financial side. As for Pinkie’s involvement, while the pink pony came off as a bit of a bubblehead, she did come from a background as a rock farmer, and possessed a surprisingly extensive knowledge of geology. She should be able to give Rarity and Applejack a fair idea of how difficult it would be to obtain the ores that the humans wanted, so they would be able to work out what Equestria might be able to ask for in exchange.

While that discussion was going on, they’d also had to deal with another problem; namely, Magos Tersiaard. While Rainbow Dash was assiduously avoiding the giant, and Tersiaard appeared to be leaving her alone, he most certainly wasn’t being so polite to the rest of Ponyville’s pegasus population. He’d harassed several of them, asking question after question about how their weather-manipulation abilities worked. Some of the more academically-minded pegasi had done their level best to answer his queries, but the Magos lacked the proper frame of reference to fully understand their answers. It had led to evident frustration on Tersiaard’s part, and more than a bit of fear on the part of the pegasi he’d confronted. Especially poor Thunder Blaze; the Magos had backed the mare into a corner, refusing to let her leave until Twilight and Anderocus had made him back off.

Twilight had asked the Lord-Captain to keep the Magos from upsetting Ponyville’s pegasi. He’d agreed to do so, and Twilight had been sufficiently close by to hear the conversation. She’d been pleased when Anderocus had delivered her request to the Magos almost word-for-word, adding his own command to leave the pegasi alone. What had worried the unicorn had been the response.

“Lord-Captain, the weather alteration ability these creatures possess could potentially be extremely valuable. Surely, you can recognize that further study could prove beneficial!” The Magos’s voice had been uninflected as ever. Twilight had wondered what exactly he’d meant by ‘further study,’ though.

“Perhaps, Magos.” Anderocus had replied, “But conduct your studies without disturbing the xenos. Perhaps answers will come to you through observation.”

The lavender unicorn was talking the problems with the tech-priest over with Fluttershy, the two having stopped at an outdoor restaurant for lunch. Twilight was glad her friend had decided to attend the second day; she’d spent much of it talking to the astropath Setaron, who seemed to share some of Fluttershy’s shyness, and the yellow pegasus had seemed fairly comfortable with the blind human. Unfortunately, the kindhearted mare didn’t have any better idea of how to deal with the giant than Twilight did.

Fluttershy’s attention was suddenly diverted, her head whipping from where she’d been talking to Twilight to look off into the distance, over Ponyville’s roofs. “Oh. Oh, my. This could be a problem.”

Twilight followed her friend’s gaze, but all she could see was a flock of birds wheeling in the sky. “Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” The unicorn frowned, trying to see where the problem could be.

Fluttershy pointed at the wheeling birds with a forehoof. “You see those birds?” At Twilight’s nod, she continued, “I know those birds; they’re part of a flock that lives at the edge of the Everfree Forest, and they only wheel like that when something scares them! And if something has scared them…”

“…It might be something coming out of the forest.” Twilight finished for her. Fluttershy nodded, teal eyes large behind her pink forelock. Twilight heaved a sigh, thumping her head on the table in front of her. “Of course. Of course! Nothing ever goes smoothly! Argh!”

Fluttershy’s suspicions were confirmed when Rainbow Dash came rocketing up to her, trailing a dark gray pegasus stallion whose name Twilight couldn’t remember, yelling “Twilight! Twilight! We’ve got a problem!”

The lavender unicorn spared a brief, regretful glance at her half-finished salad (it really was delicious) before heaving herself to her feet to try and deal with whatever crisis was arising. “What’s wrong, Rainbow?”

The cyan pegasus landed in front of her, the stallion following. “Fluttershy, great, you’re here too! Man, I’m glad you’re both here. Skyfall here,” Rainbow twitched her head to indicate the dark gray pegasus, “was taking care of the clouds around the Everfree. Tell ‘em what you told me, Sky.”

“Right, boss.” Skyfall nodded. “Well, I was keeping an eye on a storm formation way out west, when I spotted a bunch of trees shaking, in a line pointing this way. Flew over to see what was causing it, and there’s this big blue snake-thing headed this way, fast. It’s mean, too; when I tried to go in for a closer look it nearly got me.”

Twilight looked at the yellow mare next to her. “Fluttershy, animals are your talent. What do you think?”

“Um. C-can you tell me more about it, Mr. Skyfall? More about what it looks like, maybe?” Fluttershy stammered slightly, her shyness in the face of somepony she didn’t know well making her nervous.

The stallion stared off into space for a pair of seconds, evidently trying to recall what he’d seen as precisely as possible. “Uh… okay, like I said, it was a big blue snake. Big. Like, twenty bodylengths, maybe more. It had what looked like armor scales covering its back; they overlapped, not like a normal snake. Um, what else… Oh, there were a couple of big horns on its head, pointing backward, and it had big teeth. I got a good look at those. Its mouth is big enough to swallow a pegasus whole, by the way. I’m really glad it missed.” Skyfall winced at the recollection. “It was hurt, too. I could see it bleeding from at least two places.”

Fluttershy nodded, looking suddenly serious instead of nervous. She looked Twilight in the eye. “Um, Twilight, I think we need to get everypony out of town, and fast. You especially need to make sure Spike gets out of here as quickly as he can.”

Twilight was stunned by the pegasus’s sudden change of attitude. “Wh- Uh, Fluttershy? Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s a behir.” The gentle mare responded. “They’re big, they’ve got terrible tempers, and it sounds like this one lost a fight, poor thing. It’s going to be a lot safer if we get everypony someplace else until it calms down. We definitely want to get Spike somewhere else, behirs hate dragons.”

“But, can’t you calm it down or something? Maybe make it leave?” Twilight protested. Evacuating the town would be really hard with the humans around. The unicorn bit her lip, imagining how difficult it would be to talk Tangro and Anderocus into going somewhere else.

Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “Behirs are smart enough that I can’t talk to them the way I talk to my animal friends. And if it’s hurt and mad, it won’t be like that dragon up on the mountain; he was just grumpy. I’ll try, but it may just make it madder.”

Skyfall shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, we may not have that much time. That thing’s gonna be here in a couple of minutes.”

Rainbow nudged him. “Thanks for the warning, Sky. Get yourself up outta harm’s way, and let the rest of the crew know what’s up. We’ll handle stuff here.”

“Right, boss.” The stallion shot off into the clear sky.

“A couple of minutes?” Twilight was aghast. “I don’t… we’ll never get everypony out in time! What are we going to do?” She looked around frantically.

“Well, I can try to make it turn around…” Fluttershy offered, quietly.

Twilight shook herself, taking a deep breath and pushing out her incipient panic. This was a time for calm and for cool-headed planning, not a time for panic. “Okay. Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. Fluttershy, see if you can catch the behir at the edge of the forest and try to convince it to go back. Rainbow Dash, you go with her, so if it decides not to listen to her, you can try and buy us some time. I’ll try to find the rest of our friends to get them to start the evacuation, and then I’ll see if I can get the humans to run along with us.” The pegasi nodded, acknowledging her instructions, and took off together for the edge of the forest.

Twilight galloped through town, telling everypony she passed to head for Sweet Apple Acres as fast as they could, and to spread the word, reasoning that it was the only place nearby that could serve as a temporary refugee center. She was growing increasingly frantic, not finding any sign of the humans, or the rest of her friends. Finally, she stumbled across Applejack, crossing the street with her brother.

“Applejack, there you are! Have you seen the rest of our friends? Where are the humans?”

The earth pony blinked at her. “Well, Big Mac and I saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy headed west a minute ago… Last I saw of Pinkie and Rarity, they were with that human boss guy. You seen ‘em since then, Big McIntosh?”

“Nope.” The laconic stallion answered. “They’re off that way.” He jerked his head in the direction Twilight had sent the two pegasi. She realized with a sinking feeling that the human group was probably right where they really needed not to be; at the edge of town where the serpent would be emerging from the forest.

Quickly, Twilight told Applejack about the emergency, finishing up with, “…And I’ve been sending everypony out to Sweet Apple Acres to keep them safe while we take care of the behir. You should probably head there too, to make sure nopony tries to come back until we give the all clear.”

“Right, Twilight, we’ll handle it.” Applejack reassured her, turning to head for her home. Twilight stopped her.

“One more thing, Applejack… would you please stop by the library on your way, and bring Spike along with you? Fluttershy said behirs hate dragons, so I’d rather not have him anywhere near here.” The thought of the little baby dragon getting hurt frightened Twilight more than almost anything could.

Applejack nodded again. “Right. Big Mac, you head fer home, I’ll get Spike and meet ya’ there.” She turned back to the unicorn. “Don’t you worry, sugarcube. I’ll take good care of the little guy.” The two earth ponies wheeled and galloped off at top speed.

She found the humans and the rest of her friends right where she suspected she would; right at the edge of town, overlooking the Everfree Forest. She could clearly hear the crashing noise from the Forest that heralded the arrival of the behir, and Fluttershy was hovering out in the clear area between the town and the Forest, clearly ready to meet the rampaging creature. Rainbow Dash was flying higher, shouting updates about the monster’s location down to the other pegasus.

The humans, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were standing in a group. Rarity looked worried; the sane response. Anderocus looked calm, Tangro had the smug expression he often wore, and Twilight couldn’t read Seria’s expression behind the mask that she was again wearing, nor did the metal face of Tersiaard give anything away. Tellingly, though, the ten guards had their boxy sticks gripped in their hands again, rather than slung over their shoulders the way they had been since shortly after they’d landed.

Twilight rushed up to the human party, arriving slightly out of breath but still able to speak. “Ah, gentlecolts, I’m so glad I found you. We’re having a bit of a problem, so if you won’t mind coming along with me, we’ll try and get it sorted out.”

“What kind of problem, Miss Twilight?” Tangro inquired, an odd small smile forming on his face.

Twilight forced a smile of her own. “The kind that I’d be happy to explain once we’re elsewhere. Soooo, if you’ll just follow me…”

“Too late, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash’s shout drifted down from the sky, as she swooped by low enough to deliver her warning. Biting her lip, Twilight whipped her gaze to the edge of the forest, and had a front-row seat to the behir’s entrance.

Two trees at the edge of the forest cracked, falling to the ground as they were pushed out of the way by a massive, sapphire-blue scaled head. The creature’s head alone was more than twice the size of a pony, and it glared around at the clear area with angry eyes the size of plates. Its gaze lit on the structures of Ponyville, and it rapidly slithered out of the forest and into the clear. Once free of the forest, it reared back, and a dozen legs unfolded from its paler blue underside. Standing upright, its head reared back, the behir was taller than most of Ponyville’s buildings, and Twilight knew that she, her friends, and their human guests were in serious trouble.

“Sir…” Twilight heard Seria say, concern in her voice. Anderocus held up a hand.

“Let’s see how our hosts handle this, Commander. We can intervene if the need arises.”

The commander made a dissatisfied noise, but said no more, and Twilight wondered what form the ‘intervention’ might take. For now, she judged that the best course of action would be to let Fluttershy do what she could; the behir clearly moved faster than Twilight or Rarity could run, and she suspected it was faster than the humans as well.

The behir shot forward, headed toward the town with violence in its eyes, and Twilight could see the injuries Skyfall had mentioned. Blood dripped from several places along the creature’s length, and she could see at least two places where scales had been ripped away. The injuries looked painful, but far from disabling, especially on a creature so large.

The monster checked itself as Fluttershy swooped down in front of it. The yellow mare addressed the behir, though Twilight was far enough away that she couldn’t hear Fluttershy’s words. Her tone was similar to the time she’d upbraided the huge red dragon at the top of the mountain.

Unlike that dragon, though, the behir didn’t look the slightest bit chastised. It looked surprised at first, but it recovered from that quickly, the smoldering rage in its eyes getting hotter and hotter. Fluttershy was clearly keeping it from attacking her outright, but even from this distance Twilight could see that the pegasus was struggling, as the behir bared its enormous teeth in fury. Eventually, she was going to lose the tenuous control she’d established over the serpentine monster, and Twilight was terrified of what would happen then. The unicorn started gathering magic to her, going over the options she might have available. Simply hoisting the beast into the air was unlikely to be effective; against an active and resisting target like the behir was likely to be, she doubted she’d be able to hold for long. She thought the best option would probably be to build a wall of force between Fluttershy and the monster, that would probably slow its inevitable lunge enough for the pegasus to get out of the way.

She wasn’t given the time to put the spell together, however. The behir lunged at Fluttershy almost the instant Twilight began gathering power, its jaw opening enormously, and the academic could see that Skyfall had actually understated the size of the monster’s mouth. Twilight felt a shot of horror run through her body and heard Rarity gasp in dismay as they both realized that the behir would be able to easily engulf the kindhearted pegasus, swallowing her whole without even having to chew. Twilight started forward, spell barely forming, but feeling that she had to do something, anything, to save her friend’s life!

A cyan-and-rainbow blur shot down out of the sky at the last instant as Rainbow Dash intervened, grabbing Fluttershy and pulling her sideways, clearing the behir’s closing jaws with barely an inch to spare. The behir spat in rage, and Twilight saw a faint fog of pink, as the hairs the creature’s closing teeth had sheared from the tip of Fluttershy’s long tail drifted down in the noon light. The two pegasi streaked away, Rainbow carrying her friend to a safe distance.

The serpentine monster worked its jaws, head swinging around to seek a new target for its wrath. Its gaze lit on the group of humans and ponies standing in the open at the edge of town, and it snarled.

“Sir…” Seria said again, sounding strained.

“Not yet, Commander. They haven’t asked for our help. It’s their world, presumably they can handle it.” Anderocus said. The guards shifted subtly as the beast’s eyes focused on the group.

The behir let out a low hiss, but before it could charge it was interrupted by a returning prismatic blur. Rainbow Dash kicked the monster in the face, pulling its attention away. “Hey! How about picking on someone who can look you in the eye, huh?!” The athlete sneered. The monster snarled again, lunging at the pegasus, who narrowly avoided its jaws. “Twilight!” She shouted over her shoulder, “I’ll buy you as much time as I can! Get everyone outta here!” Rainbow dodged another lunge, jeering at the behir and visibly enraging the creature further.

Twilight turned to the human group. “Okay, listen, we need to get everyone out of here. The rest of Ponyville is up at Sweet Apple Acres, so if you folk will just follow me, we’ll get there as quickly as possible…”

Tangro smirked. “What, leave already?” Anderocus frowned at the seneschal, but the slight human didn’t seem to notice, gesturing theatrically to where Dash was dodging and circling frantically around the behir’s head, barely managing to avoid its lightning-quick lunges. “But it’s just getting interesting! Are you really going to just leave your town to be smashed by some creature?”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie gaped at him, and Twilight found herself at a momentary loss for words. “I… but… what?” She stammered, trying to think of another way to convince the aliens to vacate the area.

It was at that exact moment that Rainbow’s luck ran out. Twilight had glanced in her direction at just the right moment to see it. She crossed the behir’s eye-line at precisely the wrong time, and it darted forward while she was adjusting her course. She swerved desperately, caught in irons as she tried to avoid disappearing into the monster’s gaping mouth. She succeeded, barely, managing to roll just enough that the behir didn’t swallow her outright, but she wasn’t able to avoid the rest of its head. Its snout smashed into the pegasus, the noise of the impact clearly audible even from the distance Twilight stood, sending the athlete hurtling in an uncontrolled tumble at sickening speed straight for a nearby building. Rainbow smashed into the side of the house hard enough to splinter the wooden walls with a sick crunch, falling to the grass in a limp heap.

Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat. Oh Celestia! She hadn’t been able to see clearly. Had the pegasus hit headfirst? Is she dead?! Oh no, no no! The unicorn felt sick to her stomach with fear for her friend. Pinkie gasped out, “Dashie!” sounding almost as sick as Twilight felt, and Rarity grabbed the pink earth pony before she could run to her friend’s aid. Rainbow’s unmoving form was even closer to the behir than they were, and it snarled again in satisfaction as it flowed toward the cyan-and-rainbow pegasus who had annoyed it. Twilight saw Fluttershy’s forehooves cover her mouth in horror.

“Sir!” Seria’s voice sounded strangled and thick.

This time Anderocus didn’t hesitate for a second. “Permission granted, Commander.”

“Yes sir!” Seria’s hands were moving even as she barked out, “Team one, heavy weapons! Team two with me, VIP retrieval! Move it, troopers!” Before Twilight could blink, the commander’s hands were filled. In her right was the long, slender thing that she wore at her left hip, which proved to be a blade like a drastically oversized kitchen knife, long and slender in a shape Twilight had never seen before, its gleaming surface covered by a bluish haze that crackled with tiny lightning bolts. Her left hand gripped a short, oval, metal object whose dorsal surface began to glow with a similar blue-white light, and whose end was blackened, as if by fire.

Seria and the guards took off at a dead sprint. Five of the humans wheeled about and pelted for where their vehicles rested, on the other side of town, while the other five plus the commander made a beeline straight for where Rainbow Dash lay.

“Lord Anderocus!” Twilight gasped, certain that Seria was guaranteeing the death of herself and her guards, along with poor Rainbow. She continued gathering power for her kinetic wall, certain that she would be too late, and that her efforts would be in vain.

“They’ll help your friend.” Anderocus calmly replied.

Four of the guards slammed to a halt at a fence and the last two buildings between them and where Dash lay. They each dropped to one knee, slamming a shoulder into a fence or wall to stop their momentum with what had to be bone-jarring impacts. They paid the discomfort no mind, raising their long boxy sticks to their shoulders, looking down their lengths and pointing the cylindrical ends at the approaching behir as Seria and the fifth guard continued to sprint toward Rainbow’s prone form. Stuttering beams of blinding red light connected the sticks and the behir with rippling cracks, blasting craters into its sapphire hide. A sudden, intense ozone stink flooded the area as the behir shrieked in sudden pain and surprise, its dozen legs stumbling.

“Sure would be nice to have some grenades right about now!” Twilight heard one of the guards observe acerbically.

“Stow it Kohb! The Commander’ll have your ass if she hears that!” Another shot back.

However continually they were being inflicted, the injuries were superficial, and not enough to stop the serpentine monster. Still focused on the pegasus, the behir regained its equilibrium and, enduring the storm of light burning into its hide, lunged forward to devour her. Its momentary hesitation had been just enough, however, and Commander Seria skidded to a halt between Rainbow and the serpent. The fifth guard was right behind her, dropping to both knees next to the motionless athlete and dropping his box-like weapon as his hands frantically darted over her body. He yelled something Twilight didn’t catch to his commander, and she shouted back over her shoulder, “Get her out of here, then!” She raised the stubby weapon in her left hand, two blue-white bolts of brilliant energy blasting deep craters in the behir’s belly as it lunged, but that was all she had time to do. Seria vanished from sight when the behir’s rushing jaws closed over the commander’s tall form, as the guard lunged to his feet, grabbing Rainbow’s forelegs in his hands and heaving as he frantically dragged her back and away from the massive serpent.

Tears streamed from Twilight’s violet eyes as she gathered the last of the power she would need for the barrier spell. Too late, she cursed herself, too slow, as she prepared to cast the spell she’d failed to cast in time to save the impossibly brave human who’d rushed to her friend’s aid.

The behir bared its teeth at the guards that continued to barrage it with brilliant light, preparing another lunge. It checked itself, an odd expression growing on its scaled visage. Then it opened its mouth to shriek in agony as a blue-sheathed, crackling point burst from the top of its muzzle. The open mouth revealed the armored form of Commander Seria, clinging to one of the monster’s teeth with her left hand and bracing her feet against the base of its tongue as she drove the blade in her right hand through the top of its mouth. The behir howled, shaking its head in an effort to dislodge the human driving the white-hot spike through its head.

Still clinging like a burr to the inside of the behir’s mouth, Seria pulled the blade back out, preparing to stab the beast again further back. As she drove the blade in again, the behir whipped its head back and forth, desperate to remove the source of agonizing pain in its mouth. The motion caused Seria to lose her grip, flying from the serpent’s maw in an imitation of what had happened to Rainbow Dash moments before, though nowhere near as fast. The commander tucked her limbs in as she flew, hitting the roof of a nearby house with the back of one shoulder, and falling off to hit the ground in a roll. She staggered back to her feet, momentarily stunned, and then braced herself, raising her crackling blade in a defensive pose, one arm hanging limp. A black line across her torso showed where the blade she’d refused to drop had scored her armor in the fall.

The instant the human was out of its jaws, the behir dropped to the ground, scraping its head along the grass, trying to make the pain in its head and mouth stop. It continued to do so for nearly a minute before getting back on its numerous feet. Its eyes found Seria, standing out in the open, the only easy target in sight since the fifth guard had managed to drag Rainbow Dash behind the shelter of the nearest house. He’d removed the armored socks that covered his hands, and was frantically checking her head, neck, and limbs.

The creature glared at Seria, and the human took the handle of her blade in both hands with visible effort, masked face gazing up at the maddened serpent.

Twilight finally had a chance to make a difference. She forced the matrix of the spell she’d summoned to coalesce faster than it wanted to, tears of effort and a little pain joining those already streaming down her face. The kinetic barrier formed invisibly between human and serpent, and when the behir lunged, it found itself shoved violently back and away from its intended victim.

Rage and pain filled the monster’s screams as it recoiled, still under assault from the crackling storm of light that was starting to burn deeper into its hide. It was growing desperate, head whipping around to find its tormentors. It focused now on two of the guards blazing away at it from behind a fence, and its mouth opened wide. A bolt of lightning spat from its maw, dwarfing the red lines of light carving into its armored hide and thundering into the two humans. The armored figures were flung back, the fence disintegrating in the blast. Their limbs flailed wildly, then fell still, the stick-like weapons they held falling to the ground.

The monster’s screech of triumph was met by Seria’s shout of challenge, the commander attempting to draw the behir’s attention back to herself. The other two guards stopped firing at Seria’s command, dropping their weapons and running to drag their fallen compatriots under cover. The serpent snarled, striking again at Seria and again being repelled by the spell Twilight was continuing to maintain.

Seria jeered at the creature again, driving it further into a fury just as Twilight heard the pounding of running feet behind her, heralding the return of the five guards who’d gone racing off earlier. The tall, hairless form of Deumos was leading them. Twilight risked a glance back, tightly holding her concentration to maintain her spell as she did so, and saw two of them carrying huge, tubular things that were reminiscent of drainpipes. The guards skidded to a halt, drainpipe-carriers raising the devices they carried to their shoulders much as the others had done with their light-shooting sticks, while two others pulled things vaguely reminiscent of fireworks rockets from the heavy backpacks they’d donned. They carefully fitted the cone-tipped cylinders into the drainpipes, and hastily moved away, with a shout of “clear!”

Deumos’s resonant voice boomed out, “In the name of the Emperor, deliver damnation and death to our enemies! Fire!”

With a heavy, loud thump smoke blasted from the rear ends of the stovepipes, and smoke-spewing projectiles shot out toward the behir. Both flew arrow-straight, directly into the serpent’s massive head and detonated with an immense double thundercrack. The behir’s head blew apart, fragments the size of a hoof flying everywhere. The headless body swayed, finally collapsing to the ground and twitching spastically, blood pouring from its explosively-truncated neck.

Seria barely even paused. Sheathing the blade she carried, she spun on one heel and ran for where her guard had dragged Rainbow. Shaking her head slightly, both to dissipate her spell and to push her horror at the gigantic headless corpse aside, (it was easier than it should have been) Twilight broke into a gallop with the same destination, Rarity and Pinkie Pie right at her heels.

Twilight skidded to a stop next to Rainbow and the two armored humans, relieved to see that the pegasus was moving, if in a slow, undirected manner. “Is she okay?” Twilight called, “Is she okay?”

Pinkie Pie pushed past the unicorn, trying to get to Rainbow, only to be grabbed one-handed by Seria. “Wait,” the human told her, “we don’t know how badly she’s hurt. You don’t want to make it worse.”

“But… but…” Pinkie’s lip quivered, and her blue eyes were huge.

Behind them, a resonant voice boomed, “Make way, make way! Get out of my way, blast it!” Twilight turned to see Deumos shoving his way past the others. One guard didn’t move quickly enough, and the big bald human thumped the armored figure in the helmet with his staff. “I said get out of my way, damn it all!”

“Sorry, sir.” The guard moved, clearing a space for Deumos. Twilight expected him to go to Commander Seria, but he just glanced at her and asked, “Bad?”

The armored head shook once. “Had worse.”

Deumos grunted. “Suit yourself.” He knelt, laying his eagle-winged staff on the ground next to Rainbow, whose eyes had opened and were blinking woozily. “Hold still, there.” She started to shake her head, but the priest grabbed her gently, holding her head still between his hands. “Hold. Still. Let me see how badly you’re hurt.” She blinked at him, rose-colored eyes foggy, but obediently held still. He laid her head carefully on the ground, and swiftly ran a hand along her spine, from the base of her skull all the way down to her hips. He grunted. “Did you feel all of that?”

Rainbow started to nod, but a fierce glare from Deumos made her freeze. “Um. Yes?”

He nodded. “Good. Do you hurt?”

“Ugh. Yeah.”

“Where?”

“Everywhere.” Rainbow groaned theatrically, and Twilight had to fight back a gasped snicker. Maybe she really was okay.

“Good.” Deumos said, nodding curtly. “Your back isn’t broken. Been hurt before?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yes, Dad.” She answered sarcastically, “Plenty of times. Can I move now?”

The bald human snorted in amusement. “I suppose, if you really want to. Anything broken this time?”

Rainbow shook her head carefully. “Nah, don’t think so.” She carefully moved all six limbs, wincing a few times. “Nope, no breaks. Got some sprains, though, that’s gonna hurt later. And my head’s ringing; think I’ve got a concussion, but not one of the really bad ones.”

Deumos chuckled. He had a good laugh, Twilight noted irrelevantly, deep, rich, and full-bodied. “Damnation, you’re a tough little thing. From what the troopers said, I was sure your spine had shattered when you hit that wall.” He gave the pegasus a respectful look as he rose to his feet. The tall priest extended a hand. “Would you like some help up?”

Twilight found herself warming up toward the taciturn priest. Maybe he’s not such a jerk after all.

“Uh, no thanks. I’ll just stay here for a second, if that’s cool.” Rainbow’s eyes suddenly popped open wide, darting around. “Wait! The behir! Ohmygosh, is everyone okay?”

Deumos ignored Rainbow’s question, turning to Seria, whose left arm was hanging heavily. She was clearly favoring her left side. The commander looked straight at the pegasus. “The beast has been dealt with. Your town is safe; you were the only one of your people to be hurt.”

“But what about yours? How did you get hurt, Seria?” The pegasus started to heave herself to her feet, but was prevented from doing so by Pinkie Pie, who threw herself down next to Rainbow, embracing her fiercely.

“Oh, I’m soso glad you’re okay! I mean, you got hit, and you were all whoosh flying through the air, but not like usual! And then there was this crunchthump and I really, really thought you were hurt bad and I’m so glad you’re not!” Pinkie buried her face against Rainbow’s neck, and the pegasus awkwardly patted her friend in an attempt at reassurance.

Seria chuckled. Deumos was moving her arm a bit, evidently trying to determine the extent of the injury. “I got hurt doing something amazingly stupid that I haven’t done since aaah!” The confessor had grabbed Seria’s left wrist and, bracing her shoulder with his other hand, suddenly yanked on her wounded arm, hard. The commander let out a short scream, and Twilight heard a sharp click from her shoulder. “Damnation, Confessor! Bloody well warn me next time! Argh, one of these days, I’m going to forget your office and knock your damn head off!”

Deumos snorted. “And of course, a simple old priest like me would be easy prey for you.” He picked his staff up and walked calmly to stand behind Anderocus.

Twilight was confused. “Confessor, thank you for attending to Rainbow, but… what about the two guards that got hurt? Aren’t you going to help them?”

Deumos shook his head. “They are beyond my help. Or indeed, anyone’s help but the Emperor’s.” Twilight gasped, glancing at the still bodies, lying where their compatriots had dragged them. “I commend their souls to His care”

Twilight felt a pang in her heart, one that got worse when she saw Fluttershy out in the field gently stroking the lifeless body of the behir. Rainbow and Seria hurt, two humans dead, and the behir… this didn’t need to happen! Her gaze wandered to the small group around Anderocus, and she saw a tiny, smug smirk on the face of Tangro. The unicorn came very close to losing her temper right there and then, and she forced herself to take a deep breath.

“Lord Anderocus!” She called, walking angrily up to the dark-maned male. Once she had the human leader’s attention, she continued, “This might have been avoided. All of this, your guards and the behir both, if your seneschal hadn’t argued with me!” Tangro scoffed, an odd expression on his face, and Twilight gritted her teeth. “In addition to being responsible for this… this tragedy, he has persistently disrespected both me and my friends, and as of right now, he is no longer welcome here.”

Anderocus’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, please. I offer you an abject apology on behalf of my servant…”

Twilight cut him off. “I am not asking for an apology. I am requesting that Mister Tangro take his leave. Now.”

Anderocus chewed the inside of his lip for a moment, thinking. “Aleron serves an important function on my staff, Miss Sparkle. It may be that should he leave, we will be forced to leave as well.”

Twilight took another deep breath. She thought this was a bluff, and she was willing to call it. “If that is the case, I will be very disappointed. You, Lord Anderocus, are welcome to stay, and I have no objection to Commander Seria, Confessor Deumos, Astropath Setaron, Magos Tersiaard, or any of your guards. I’d actually like to thank the Commander, the Confessor, and the guards for their help, and I would be very sad to see all of you go. Seneschal Tangro, however, must leave, and that is my final word on the subject.” Twilight stamped a forehoof, emphasizing her determination. Her violet eyes were hard as they bored into Androcus’s green ones.

Anderocus nodded once, slowly. “Very well. It saddens me that you’ve taken such a dislike to my seneschal. If you insist, though, I will send him back to our ship.”

Twilight returned the nod. “Thank you, Lord Anderocus. I think that would be best.”

Anderocus turned to the seneschal. Twilight was honestly curious as to what he was going to say, especially since the humans still didn’t know she could understand their speech. “Well, Aleron, it looks like you’ve worn out your welcome.”

“My Lord, you can’t possibly…”

“Oh, yes I can.” Anderocus interrupted. “We cannot afford to anger these creatures too much, seneschal, or we’ll never be able to repair the Lux. Go to the Aquila, I’ll be sending Seria up with you, since she needs to visit the medicae.” The curtness of the Lord-Captain’s dismissal surprised Twilight. Huh. Wow. I guess they need those rocks more than they’re letting on.

Tangro’s jaw clenched. “Very well, my Lord, though I believe you are making a mistake.” He glanced over at the tech-priest. “May I speak with Magos Tersiaard before I go? Without me here, he’ll likely be contributing more to your trade negotiations, and I‘ll need to brief him.”

“Very well, but be quick about it.” Anderocus ordered. Tangro bowed, a sour look on his face, and walked over to where the huge Magos stood. He hadn’t moved, not an inch, during the fight with the behir. The Lord-Captain turned back to Twilight, and the translation resumed. “I have instructed my seneschal to leave as quickly as possible. Will this satisfy you?”

“Yes, completely. Thank you.” Twilight was a little surprised to face so little resistance from the Lord-Captain. She’d have expected the Lord-Captain to object more on principle alone, given how status-conscious he seemed. The supplies they were trying to obtain must have been more crucial than she’d originally thought.

Anderocus stepped past her, walking over to where Seria stood next to Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie had just told the pegasus about how Seria had saved her life. Dash was shaking her head slowly in astonishment.

Seria waved her unhurt hand in a brushing-away gesture. “She’s exaggerating a bit. Besides, I had to…” Anderocus cut the commander off.

“Excuse me, ladies, I need to speak to Commander Seria for a moment.” Without waiting for a response, he turned to tall female and the translating skulls cut out as usual while he spoke to her. “Commander, it seems that Tangro has managed to irritate the locals enough that they want him sent home. Would you mind escorting him and your two casualties on the Aquila? I’d prefer if you got the medicae to treat your injuries aboard ship.”

Seria shifted uneasily. “Sir, I don’t want to leave you here without…”

Anderocus interrupted her again. “I’ll be fine, Commander. You can come right back down as soon as the Aquila’s refueled, if you’re concerned.” He quirked a smile. “Besides, with a guard as brave as this one,” He jerked his head toward Rainbow Dash, “I think I’ll be safe, don’t you?”

Rainbow laughed, drawing a surprised look from Anderocus. “I… uh… I’ll… take… cure? No, care! Of… him… for you, Seria!” The dark-maned male’s eyes widened so much that Twilight was worried they’d fall out of his head, as Rainbow spoke to him in slow, hesitant Gothic.

“Holy Throne! You speak Gothic?” Anderocus exclaimed, looking stunned.

A chuckle emerged from Seria’s helmet. “I was going to warn you later, sir. She’s picking it up quite quickly. I think she’s listening to her own echo when the servo-skulls translate.” Rainbow nodded and beamed, wincing a bit as her numerous bruises twinged.

“I… see.” Anderocus said, nonplussed. He adjusted his cape nervously. “Regardless, Commander, I expect you to report to the Aquila to accompany Tangro back to the Lux Foedis. You can return when the medicae is done with you.”

Twilight left Seria to her preparations (which seemed to consist of deciding which of the surviving soldiers was going to carry the bodies back to the shuttle) and Anderocus to try to diplomatically figure out just how much of his language Rainbow actually knew, and trotted out with Rarity to where Fluttershy hovered, gently stroking the huge, headless body out in the field. “Fluttershy?” She called softly.

“Oh!” The yellow pegasus started, but regained her composure quickly when she recognized the two unicorns. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I’m sorry for all of this.” Tears pooled in the corners of the mare’s eyes.

“It’s not your fault, Fluttershy. I’m sorry I couldn’t get the humans to leave faster.” Twilight hung her head.

“Now, stop, both of you.” Rarity cut in. “Twilight, it was that Tangro’s fault, not yours, that they didn’t leave. And Fluttershy, it’s scarcely your fault if an angry monster won’t listen to you!”

“I know.” Fluttershy answered softly. “I tried, but he was looking for a fight, and didn’t want to listen. I’m just sorry he found one.” She looked sadly at where the guards were lifting their fallen compatriots to carry to their vehicle. “I’m not even angry at the humans, really. Like I said, he was looking for a fight, and they gave him one. He probably thought they’d be easy to beat.”

“You aren’t angry?” Rarity was perplexed. “Darling, I thought you’d be furious!”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, they were just doing what came normally for them, the same as the behir was. They aren’t ponies, Rarity, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to judge them as if they were. I’m just glad Rainbow Dash and Seria weren’t hurt as badly as I thought they were.” It was intriguing, Twilight reflected, that understanding the aliens seemed to come more naturally to the two pegasi than it did to the rest of them. Especially Rainbow, it made some sense that Fluttershy would be more in tune with these creatures, but the athlete’s rapid identification with the bipeds was surprising.

Twilight’s musing was interrupted by Fluttershy clearing her throat. “Um, Twilight? Could I ask you a favor?”

The academic shook her head to clear it. “Of course, Fluttershy, what do you need?”

“Um. I know you’re really good with your telekinesis, so could you…” Fluttershy sniffed, “Could you move the body back into the forest? I couldn’t save this creature, but I can at least make sure it feeds others.” The pegasus wiped tears away from her face with a quick swipe of her forehoof. She might not be angry, but she was clearly upset.

“Sure, Fluttershy. I’ll take care of it right now.” Twilight answered, gently. She turned her attention to the motionless sapphire body, horn beginning to glow as she gathered energy. Lifting dead weight wasn’t especially complicated, unlike the kinetic barrier spell she’d used to save Seria, and she didn’t need to spend a great deal of time focusing. The behir’s corpse lifted silently off of the ground, and Twilight levitated it deep into the forest before lowering it carefully, and dismissing her spell.

“Thank you, Twilight.” The pegasus’s voice was quiet, but sincere. “Um. I’m going to go home now. I’ll see you later, maybe?”

Twilight nodded, and Rarity interjected, “Do you mind if I come along with you, Fluttershy? I think you could use some company right about now.”

“That would be nice, Rarity, but don’t you need to be here to help Twilight?”

Twilight waved a forehoof airily. “Oh, I’ll be fine. Go ahead, Rarity, I’ll see you later.” The white unicorn gave her a grateful look, and left with the pegasus.

A few minutes later, a roar echoed through Ponyville, as the blue-and-silver eagle-winged vehicle lifted off, arrowing into the sky.

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

It was hours before the vehicle returned, and Twilight noticed a change in the humans’ attitude right away. Where before Tangro had done the lion’s share of the talking, now Anderocus took over, with Tersiaard chiming in when facts were needed. The Lord-Captain was far less coy than his seneschal had been, and Twilight quickly realized that the humans actually had quite a bit to offer. Amongst other things, they had offered the use of powerful mining machines to help gather the ores they needed. Twilight wondered anew just how large this ship of theirs could be; the machines they were describing would be by their very nature enormous, and of limited general utility. Tersiaard commented that the devices had been stored in a secondary hold for a very long time… how much space must the regular holds boast, that they could afford to waste so much of it on equipment they weren’t using?

Seria did return before dark, accompanied by ten more guards. She insisted on sending the eight survivors of the original squad back up, arguing that it was time for a duty rotation. The commander seemed rejuvenated, her injuries not even bothering her, and Twilight made a note of what had to have been extremely sophisticated medical treatment. That would have helped Rainbow Dash, for example, who had been informed that she’d be spending the night at the Ponyville clinic, just in case.

Twilight was feeling optimistic, as the sun went down. Despite the horrible occurrences of the day, it seemed like things might finally be looking up.

Gray Nimbus trudged through the Ponyville streets in the early hours of the morning, her horseshoes dragging slightly in the dirt. This night shift business was exhausting, keeping the weather nice overnight so the diplomats wouldn’t be uncomfortable in the morning. As second in command of the weather patrol, overseeing the night shift had fallen to her, since the Princess’s representative had specifically wanted her boss to be available for the negotiations.

Privately, Gray Nimbus questioned the wisdom of that. She had a lot of respect for Rainbow Dash, but diplomacy really wasn’t one of the younger pegasus’s strong points. She just hoped her boss could avoid making the aliens too angry.

At least her shift was over, and she was almost home. She needed to make breakfast for her foal and make sure he got to school on time, then she’d be able to collapse and finally get some sleep. She was so tired at this point she could barely stay on her hooves, and couldn’t even fly, so it really wasn’t going to be fun getting all that done. She’d manage, though; she’d done alright for the past few days.

Gray Nimbus heard a thin hiss, and was surprised by the sudden sting in her side. The pegasus swished her tail, thinking a bug had bitten her. She heard something fall to the ground and, turning her head, spotted a tiny dart lying in the road, the thin, sharp tip stained red. She blinked uncomprehendingly at it for an instant, before her legs gave out and she collapsed into the dust.

Magos Tersiaard watched the small winged xeno drop from where he’d concealed himself within a shadowed alleyway. He’d judged the paralytic agent’s dosage perfectly, as behooved a senior Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The sense of satisfaction he felt at making the precise calculation marked him as unusual among tech-priests; even with large portions of his weak organic brain replaced by sacred silicon and metal in imitation of the perfection of the Machine, he still retained vestiges of the towering ego he’d possessed as an acolyte, back when he was made almost entirely of meat. Eight centuries of life and an augmetic cortex wasn’t nearly enough to erase that.

This eccentricity was part of the reason he’d wound up on a Rogue Trader crew in the first place, rather than running a forge world as most of his rank did.

Tersiaard’s intense curiosity, on the other hand, was fairly normal for a roaming tech-priest, even if it verged on heresy at times. He’d repeatedly asked the pony-xenos how they managed their astonishing feats of weather control, but had found the answers they supplied him with to be utterly unsatisfactory. He’d been delighted (another emotion unusual in a high-ranking Magos) when the lord captain had agreed that the ability deserved further study, and had finally given him the go-ahead for his experiments. Since then, Tersiaard had been watching for this opportunity. One of the weather-worker-type xenos, alone in an empty street? It was a gift from the Omnissiah, too perfect to pass up.

He twittered a binaric command, sending two of his servo-skulls swooping to hover over the prone, dark blue form of the little xeno. He noticed as he made his way over that its large gray eyes were wide open and locked on one of the flying servitors. That was as it should be; the paralytic agent was inhibiting most of its voluntary muscle movements, but it was fully conscious. Brain function was one of the things he’d have to monitor while he was doing his tests, after all, and it wouldn’t do at all to contaminate his results.

Gray Nimbus couldn’t move, no matter how hard she tried. It was a terrifying feeling. Her legs were all tangled up from her fall, but she couldn’t untangle them. Her wings lay limp in the dirt, and all the willpower she possessed couldn’t even get them to twitch. It couldn’t be simple exhaustion; she’d been more tired than this before, and she’d never suffered this kind of paralysis! All she could do was move her eyes, looking frantically around the street and hoping somepony would notice her predicament and be able to help. She saw her little colt, Cirrus, peeking out of the window of her home, and tried to silently impel him to go get the nurse.

She was distracted by a quiet, high-pitched whining noise somewhere nearby, and was startled to see one of the flying skull-things that accompanied the human diplomats fly over her head and hover in front of her. She hated the macabre little things, finding them to be intensely creepy. This was the closest she’d ever been to one, and… is that actual bone? These things are really skulls?! She’d thought they’d just been unsettlingly realistic sculptures!

Still, creepy as it was with the glowing red lights in its hollow, dead eye sockets and with its slightly terrifying skeletal grin, she was glad to see it. If one of the flying skulls was here, it meant one of the humans was probably nearby. She’d spoken to some of them before, and they’d seemed like nice folk; surely they’d help!

Gray Nimbus heard quiet, heavy thumping approaching her from the side, and felt a sense of relief. Those were human footfalls or she was a phoenix: they’d get her to the hospital.

The footsteps sounded odd, though. Heavier than she remembered them sounding. Maybe it was just because she was lying flat on the ground.

The human stepped into her field of view and stopped, and her relief curdled in her stomach. It was the big metal one in the red robes; the one with all the extra metal limbs and tentacles that nearly everypony was at least a little bit scared of. This close, it smelled like spiced oil and hot metal, and a strong scent of ozone and burnt incense clung to it. Gray Nimbus wanted to sneeze as the scent burned in her nose, but her body wouldn’t obey. She was even more terrified now than she had been when she’d collapsed.

Maybe I’m doing him a disservice. He… he may be perfectly nice, scary as he looks. She tried to calm herself down. The insect-like metal human wasn’t one of the ones she’d talked to; her brief conversations with the humans had been limited to the armored guards. As far as she knew, this one had barely talked to anypony, and at the moment she really, really hoped that he was just shy.

A metallic, tentacular appendage sprouting from the human’s back waved over her paralyzed body, lights blinking on the end of it. Another limb extended from high on his shoulder and poked at her uncomfortably. She gazed pleadingly into its face, trying to wordlessly ask it for help. The three green glass lenses set into the metallic mass of its face gleamed expressionlessly under the shroud of its gold-trimmed red cowl, and she tried to fight against the encroaching feeling that this was not a nice person at all. It made a weird, chattering noise, and the flying skull in front of her moved, sprouting a pair of long mechanical limbs.

Magos Tersiaard double-checked the readings on his vitae scanner, satisfied that the xeno fell within the norms he’d recorded for its species. Normal. Build was normal, muscle resilience was normal, it had a dark blue coat and feathers with light grey mane and tail, and a cloud marking on its rump, nothing exceeding standard margin of error. Additionally, this individual matched up in color, profile, and markings with one he’d previously observed performing the weather modifications he was interested in. Perfect. The Omnissiah had truly smiled upon him today.

He had many, many tests he wanted to perform. He twittered another binaric command to his servo-skulls, and they each extended a set of utility mechadendrites. Hovering over the xeno’s still form, they carefully worked their limbs underneath it and lifted it gently into the air. Tersiaard’s lander was close by, and he turned to follow the servo-skulls as they bore his test subject toward it. He voxed a command to his subordinate tech-priests aboard the Lux Foedis, instructing them to push Gellar field repair priority down one level and ready his vivisectorum chamber. Hypotheses and possible experiments and tests flicked through his augmetic cortex as he planned his agenda. Several days would likely be required, and he dispatched a third servo-skull bearing notice of his probable extended absence to Lord-Captain Anderocus. The Rogue Trader could do without him for a few days; there was no rush.

Questions ran through his mind. If the xenos’ ability was mechanistic in nature, perhaps he could adapt one or another of the sacred template constructs to mimic it. If not, perhaps he could imprint it within a clone-psyker, or a gene-cultured biological vatstrain. If all else failed, he would see if the ability survived servitor conversion. He ran a quick mental inventory, going over the contents of his shipboard manufactoria and maintenance bays. There were several organs he’d have to make sure his examinations didn’t damage excessively, or it would be unlikely that he would successfully adapt the little xeno into a servitor. Perhaps he should test his ability to repair the xenos organs? That would definitely matter, especially in the long run. Or perhaps he could clone replacements…

Tersiaard’s auspex scanners had noted the juvenile xeno watching him from the window of a nearby dwelling. They now noted said winged juvenile departing the structure at a run. As before, he dismissed it as unimportant. No one really listened to the excitable chattering of organic juveniles, and he’d be off-planet momentarily anyway.

Mind buzzing with plans, Tersiaard followed the servo-skulls bearing his prize, instructing a fourth skull-servitor to follow behind him and erase the traces of his passage from the dirt road, just in case. A small subroutine added to his pleased demeanor, noting that it had been a long time (twelve years, thirty-five days, six hours and eight minutes) since the vivisectorum had been used. Not since he’d taken that Kroot apart. What an education that had been!

Cirrus bolted out of his home, looking frantically for help. His stubby legs carried him at a surprising speed as he ran through the empty street towards his school, reasoning that Mommy had told him to find a teacher if he was ever in trouble. He wasn’t in trouble, but he thought Mommy was! He’d thought Mommy was just playing a game when she fell down in the street, but then the scary metal bug-giant had come and taken her away! He panted, wishing his wings were strong enough to carry him. The streets were empty, as they nearly always were this early in the morning, but Cirrus was sure Miss Cheerilee would be at the school; she always got up early! She would know what to do, how to get Mommy back!

Twilight awoke to the sound of knocking at her door. She glanced at the window, noting that the sun was barely rising, and jammed her pillow down over her head. Argh, just a few more minutes.

The knocking didn’t stop, though, and Twilight finally rolled out of the comfortably-warm embrace of her blankets to deal with whoever was at her door this early. Spike opened one eye as she made her way out, mumbling, “Tell ‘em to come back later. We’re closed.”

Twilight laughed quietly. “I sure will, Spike. Go back to sleep.”

The lavender unicorn made her way quickly down the staircase, opening her front door and blinking at the grey light of dawn. Standing in front of her door, hoof still raised, was a worried-looking burgundy earth pony mare with a pink-streaked mane. “Cheerilee? Wha?” Was the most eloquent inquiry the unicorn was able to manage just after waking up.

“Twilight! Thank goodness!” The unicorn reflected that Cheerilee was far too talkative for this early in the morning. “Maybe you can help me sort out this… disturbing news.”

“Disturbing… huh?” Twilight blinked, sleepily. Had the other mare already told her something, and she’d missed it?

“Come on, child. Tell Miss Twilight what you told me,” Cheerilee prompted to what Twilight thought at first was her own tail. Closer examination revealed a white-coated young pegasus colt hiding behind the teacher, which made far more sense than Cheerilee talking to her own tail.

“Th- they took Mommy!” The colt blurted out, as Twilight made eye contact with him. Startled and confused, Twilight looked to the teacher for clarification.

“Tell her the whole story, dear.” Cheerilee said.

The colt sniffled. “Okay, Miss Cheerilee.” He leaned out from behind the teacher to talk to Twilight. “I was up early, ‘cause Mommy gets home early in the morning, an’ I wanted to see her! I saw her coming down the street, but then she fell down! And the scary giant metal bug took her!” The colt was on the verge of tears. “Please, Miss Twilight, get Mommy back!”

The unicorn shook her head again, confused. “Uh, Cheerilee? What’s he talking about?”

Cheerilee sighed. “Cirrus here is Gray Nimbus’s foal. As far as I can tell, she was coming home this morning, fell down in the street, and Cirrus saw that big metal human with the green glass eyes take her away.”

That only confused Twilight more. “What, Magos Tersiaard? Why would he take Gray Nimbus anywhere?”

Cheerilee’s troubled expression started to register on Twilight’s sleep-fogged brain. “I don’t know, but I can’t find her. When Cirrus found me at the schoolhouse, I thought he’d just had a nightmare, but when I took him home, there was no sign of her. This is about the time that the late-shift weather team goes home, and she should have been there, but she’s nowhere to be found.”

“I see,” Twilight answered, starting to grow worried herself. “I’ll go down to the house where the humans are staying. I’m sure they…”

She was interrupted by the thunderous roar of one of the human air vehicles starting its engines. Her head whipped toward their landing field as the blast of noise ripped the early-morning peace apart, and saw the huge red-and-gold vehicle that the Magos had arrived in lifting slowly away from the ground. It rotated, pointing its nose skyward, and thundered almost straight up at a speed Rainbow Dash would have been hard-pressed to match.

As the immense noise of the human vehicle receded, Twilight turned to meet Cheerilee’s wide-eyed gaze. “Cheerilee, can you look after Cirrus? I think we may have a major problem.”

The schoolteacher nodded, ushering the young foal back to the schoolhouse. Twilight shook herself, thoroughly awakened by the sudden blast of noise, and set off toward the building where she’d arranged for the humans to stay. Tersiaard couldn’t seriously have abducted Gray Nimbus, could he? I heard Anderocus specifically tell him not to disturb us! Well, this is pretty darn disturbing!

Quite a few ponies were poking their heads out of their homes as Twilight trotted along the street, doubtless awakened by the vehicle’s departure. Outside the clinic, Twilight saw a grumpy-looking Rainbow Dash making her way somewhat stiffly in the same direction Twilight was going.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow greeted her, “You gonna yell at Anderocus for waking the whole town up, too?” The pegasus scowled. “I was having the best dream, too…”

“No, Rainbow,” Twilight answered, her voice serious. “I just talked to Cheerilee and Cirrus. Do you know Cirrus?”

Rainbow’s brow wrinkled in thought. “Cirrus, Cirrus… nah, don’t know him. Sounds like a pegasus name, though.”

“He is a pegasus, Rainbow. He’s Gray Nimbus’s colt.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Okay. So? Why are you talking like it’s a big deal?”

“Because I think he saw Magos Tersiaard abduct his mother. That vehicle that just took off was the Magos’s, too.” Twilight really hoped that wasn’t what had happened.

The pegasus looked incredulous. “Tersiaard abducted Nimbus? No way. The guy’s a jerk, yeah, not to mention spooky-weird, but why would he do that?”

“I’m not sure, Rainbow. Hopefully, he didn’t; I’m going to talk to Captain Anderocus right now to find out.” The pegasus followed the academic, though ‘follow’ wasn’t quite the right term when the individual doing the following refused to actually fall behind the one who was nominally leading.

What Twilight saw when they reached the humans’ accommodations made her heart sink. All of them were standing outside, looking up at the sky. Anderocus, Seria, and Deumos were speaking to one another in worried voices.

“Lord-Captain!” Twilight called out as she approached, causing the discussion to cease abruptly. “I hope you have an explanation for this!” I’ll give him a chance to tell me what he knows before I start getting mad. Twilight thought.

Anderocus cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. It would appear that an emergency has arisen aboard our ship that urgently required the Magos’s attention. I apologize for alarming your town’s populace, but it was a time-critical matter.” Seria, possibly demonstrating why she normally wore a mask, shot an incredulous look at the dark-maned male.

Twilight fixed Anderocus with a steady glare. “I see. Now please explain why the Magos needed to bring Gray Nimbus along.”

“I’m… sorry? Who or what is Gray Nimbus?” Anderocus asked, brow creasing in puzzlement.

“She’s part of my weather team,” Rainbow growled.

Twilight explained further. “Tersiaard was seen abducting her a few minutes ago, shortly before his vehicle lifted off.”

Anderocus’s jaw dropped open in what looked like completely honest shock. “What?!” Seria and Deumos looked just as stunned as their leader, sharing a disbelieving glance. “Are you… are you seriously saying that Magos Tersiaard abducted one of your people?”

“Yes, Lord Captain, I am. I’d like an explanation, but more importantly, I’d like Nimbus back.” Rainbow echoed the sentiment enthusiastically.

Anderocus covered his mouth with one hand for a moment, looking horrified. “I don’t… please believe me, Lady Twilight, I did not order him to do this!” He turned to his retainers. “Commander, get your guard squad to the Aquila, and vox ahead to have the remainder of the household guard on alert.” Seria nodded crisply, turning to her subordinates. Anderocus turned back to the unicorn. “Lady Twilight, you have my abject apologies. With your permission, I will leave immediately to recover your missing compatriot. I have no idea what Magos Tersiaard was thinking, but I will strive to correct this… this error!”

Not good enough. “That sounds like an excellent idea, Lord-Captain, but with one addition: I’m coming with you.”

“I am too!” Rainbow growled, next to her.

Twilight turned to face the pegasus. “Rainbow, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You’re still hurt, and…”

“Buck that.” Rainbow interrupted, rudely. “It’s just bruises, I’ll be fine. Nimbus is on my team, if she needs help, I’m coming along!” Rainbow’s mulish look told Twilight that she wasn’t budging on the issue.

Twilight nodded to the pegasus and turned back to the human. “We’re both coming along, Lord-Captain, and that’s my final word on the subject.” She was hoping to avoid argument.

Anderocus’s mouth moved soundlessly for a few moments. Finally he shook his head and said, “Very well. But please, once we’re aboard the Lux Foedis, I implore you both to listen closely and to do what we tell you; the environment aboard the starship will be very different from anything you’ve seen before, and it can be very dangerous.”

Twilight considered that fair. “We accept your stipulation. Please, lead the way.” The two ponies followed the human group out to the landing field, and despite the situation, Twilight couldn’t help but be excited. They were going to be flying into space! Higher than anypony had ever been, except for Princess Luna, obviously. She didn’t think they’d be going all the way to the moon. And Twilight was going to get to see the human ship! She’d wondered ceaselessly about it since first hearing about it. A glance at Rainbow Dash suggested that the pegasus felt similarly, though she actually looked even more anxious than Twilight felt.

Biting her lip, Rainbow moved closer to Seria as they walked. “Hey, Seria, you don’t think the Magos is gonna hurt Nimbus, do you?”

“I’m not sure.” Seria answered after a brief pause. “I… frankly, I prefer not to speculate.”

Rainbow bit her lip again, looking slightly sick.

The group maintained a grim silence until they reached the remaining vehicle, the ‘Aquila’ as they referred to it. Twilight and Rainbow followed Lord Anderocus up the ramp, and the shivery sense of excitement in Twilight’s stomach got stronger as she felt the unaccustomed sensation of her hooves ringing on solid metal.

Inside the vehicle were several rows of seating, with complex, heavy straps attached. Anderocus sat down, quickly strapping himself in without a word, and the two ponies found themselves slightly at a loss as they gazed uncomprehendingly at the arrangement of restraints.

Fortunately, the other humans were paying more attention than their leader. Seria helped Rainbow strap in next to her, and somewhat to Twilight’s surprise, Confessor Deumos took it upon himself to help the unicorn, seating her next to him. Twilight could hear Rainbow talking nervously to Seria, but Deumos maintained his customary stony silence, after he made sure she was secure.

The lift-off was… an experience. It hadn’t occurred to Twilight to think about what it would be like to ride a rocket, but it was very different from anything she’d done before. The Aquila shuddered and rattled, and Twilight could feel herself getting heavier as the vehicle surged off of the ground. It was more than a bit terrifying. At least for the unicorn; a quick glance at the huge grin pasted on Rainbow Dash’s face indicated that the pegasus wasn’t having the same problems Twilight was.

The thunderous noise didn’t last all that long, dwindling to a steady rumble that wasn’t enough to impair conversation. Twilight realized that, all other things considered, she probably wasn’t going to get a better opportunity to talk to Confessor Deumos than this, as they were both effectively a captive audience, at least for the moment. And she did have some things she really needed to ask him.

“Um… Confessor?” Twilight asked timidly. When he didn’t respond, she said a bit louder, “Confessor?”

Deumos grunted, glancing at her. “What?”

“I… well, we’re kind of stuck here until we get to your ship, so I was wondering… could you please tell me about your Emperor?” Twilight looked into Deumos’s eyes, her gaze pleading.

Deumos grunted again, with an air of inquiry. “Why?”

Twilight considered how best to answer. “Well, all of you refer to him fairly regularly,” she hazarded, “and he’s clearly an important figure to you. I think it would help me to understand your people better if I knew more about him.”

The priest stared at her suspiciously. Before he could speak, Seria’s voice rang out from the other side of him, “Emperor’s blood, Deumos, just tell her. What harm could it do?”

“What good could it do, I ask.” Deumos growled back, but he turned to study Twilight again. “What do you want to know about the Master of Mankind?”

“I was hoping you could tell me something about his life. And maybe, about where he his now?” Twilight asked, the crack in the priest’s grim façade lending her hope.

“Hmm.” Deumos rubbed his chin pensively. “I suppose I could tell you. In fact, I can tell you more than most Imperial citizens know, for in my service to the Ecclesiarchy, I have learned much of what is not told to the lay citizenry.”

“Oh, yes please, that would be wonderful!” Twilight exclaimed, eyes shining in the delight she always felt when learning something new.

So Deumos told the unicorn the story of the God-Emperor of Man. He told her of his grand ambition, to reunite the scattered shards of humanity under a single banner. He told her of the great conquest of Terra, and the unification of the birth world and Mars that was the foundation of the Imperium. Of the vast Crusade Fleets he sent out.

He told her of the sons the Emperor had made; shining generals cast in his image, leaders of the Crusade, and the greatest heroes of Man. He told the story of their scattering, and the Emperor’s quest to find his lost sons. He spoke of the Great Crusade triumphant, led by the Emperor and the mighty generals he had forged.

And then he told her of the creeping darkness. How the whispers of the Ruinous Powers had crept into the ears of the Emperor’s sons. How the Emperor’s favored son, the great and shining Horus, was seduced by those whispers, abandoning his father’s goal and seeking to slay the living god that had made him.

He told the story of the Great Heresy, when fully half of the Emperor’s sons had sided with their brother Horus rather than their father, and the shattering, ruinous war that had followed. Of the Siege of Terra, where Horus’s forces had hurled themselves against the very place of their birth, seeking to slay their father and put Horus in his place. He told her of the final confrontation between the Emperor and his beloved son, with Horus’s murdered brother Sanguinius lying at their feet, and how the Emperor had realized too late that his son could no longer be saved. How the Emperor had finally slain Horus, but not before the great traitor had struck a deathblow.

Twilight was holding back tears during much of the story, allowing them to flow freely as Deumos described the end of the battle between the Emperor and Horus, and the stalwart, loyal Dorn arriving late, finding his father dying beside the corpses of his two brothers.

“So the Emperor is dead, then?” Twilight asked, as Deumos finished his tale.

The priest shook his head. “No. The Emperor is trapped, halfway between death and life, kept alive by the technosorcery of the Golden Throne, and sustained by the sacrifice of ten thousand psykers a day. Soon, though, the Emperor will heal himself, and step off of the Throne to lead his people to glory once again. I only hope I will live to see it.”

Twilight was appalled. Sustained by ten thousand sacrifices a day? She knew Celestia would rather die than survive at such a price, and she suspected that her sister Luna would feel the same way. And he’d been trapped like that for ten millennia? That meant… that was billions of deaths. How could she possibly tell Princess Luna that that had happened to her friend? Deumos didn’t notice her internal conflict, clearly lost in religious rapture at the retelling of his deity’s tale.

She was shaken out of her horrified reverie by Seria’s voice, as the commander leaned across the confessor to speak to her. “Excuse me, Lady Twilight?”

The unicorn shook her head, refocusing. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation with the Confessor, but Rainbow tells me that you would probably be interested in seeing the Lux Foedis as we approach. Would you like that?” Twilight was about to object, wondering how she was supposed to see anything with no windows nearby and the straps holding her in place, when she noticed that all of the humans had unfastened their harnesses. She was, in fact, the only one in the compartment still strapped in; Rainbow was clearly leaning forward in her seat, too. Her horn glowed softly as she sheepishly undid the restraints, noting the pegasus’s grin as she did so and preparing herself for the teasing that would doubtlessly come later.

Seria beckoned for the two ponies to follow, and led the way forward. The front of the vehicle, where the driver evidently sat, was covered in transparent windows, affording a breathtaking view of the black void outside, speckled with tens of thousands of pinpoints of light. The stars were clearer than Twilight had ever seen them, and her breath caught in her throat from the sheer beauty of it.

The human who operated the vehicle sat in a chair at the very front, with a commanding view out the numerous windows. Twilight wondered for a moment why she’d never seen this individual before; he or she must have stayed aboard the vehicle the entire time.

Twilight’s speculation was swept away when Seria pointed to one of the points of light, a little brighter than the rest, and told her, “There she is. The Lux Foedis, flagship of the Anderocus Fleet.”

It didn’t look all that impressive at first; just a tiny dot in the distance, only slightly larger than the comet Twilight had been observing when this whole affair started, seemingly a lifetime ago. It didn’t stay that way for long, however, growing in size and proximity with a shocking suddenness that told Twilight just how fast the Aquila was moving, and the unicorn could start to see details. It was certainly complex, she thought, covered in buttresses and arches, the only simple-looking part the solid, beaklike prow. And it was certainly big.

She had to reassess that thought almost immediately. Their rate of approach slowed, and she was able to study the ship more closely. Every passing moment brought a new layer of detail into view, and Twilight realized that ‘big’ was a wholly inadequate descriptor for the ship in front of her. She’d been mentally using the scale of Equestrian seagoing vessels initially, filing this ship with the others she’d seen, thinking that maybe this one would be, say, twice as big as the biggest she’d seen. Which was an impressive feat, mind, but the reality of the Lux Foedis was far, far more. Before long, the ship filled the front window entirely, a seemingly endless expanse of metal walls, spires, and sculptures. This wasn’t a ship; it was a city, a mobile city filled with aliens.

“Wow.” Rainbow commented. “It’s a lot bigger than I thought it was gonna be.”

Twilight nodded, and echoed, “A lot bigger.”

The unicorn could hear the smile in Seria’s voice. “She’s not the biggest ship out there, but she’s not small. I’ve been proud to be aboard her; she’s a work of art. And a tough old bitch.”

A question occurred to Twilight as the sheer, mind-numbing scale of the construction before her registered. “Seria… if Tersiaard has Gray Nimbus in there, how are we going to find her?”

“Well… there’s only a few places she could be.” Seria answered. “And it’s not going to be just us; Lord Anderocus has ordered the household guard to fully mobilize, so you’ll have every one of my troopers helping you.”

“How many guards do you have?” Rainbow asked.

“About three thousand.” Seria replied, “Used to be about thirty-five hundred; we got hammered hard in the storm that stranded us here.”

Twilight kept herself from exclaiming in shock with some difficulty. Three thousand was something like ten times the size of the Princess’s Royal Guard. She reflected that she should be getting used to the enormous scale the humans seemed to think in, but the numbers they casually threw out continued to shock her.

“That’s a lot of guards,” Rainbow commented. “How many people do you have aboard that ship, anyway?”

Seria rubbed her chin. “Well, the full complement for the Lux is about seventy-five thousand. We’re running really short, though, because a lot of crew died in the storm; I think there are about fifty-someodd thousand left. Plus the Mechanicus contingent, of course; they didn’t get hit as hard, and there should be about two thousand Mechanicus acolytes of various ranks.”

Twilight shook her head again, and shivered. It really was a city. That twenty thousand of them had died the day they arrived… she felt a deep sadness on behalf of the humans. It was worse, in a way, that Seria seemed completely unbothered by the loss. These creatures seemed… accustomed to death in a way Twilight never wanted to be. It was even in their religion, the unicorn realized, the dying god chained to his throne, sustained by the blood of his followers… it was no wonder their artwork featured skulls everywhere. Her heart ached for them, all of them, all their teeming billions… and for their master. She wondered if he could see what had happened to his people. She hoped not. Twilight had a sudden vision of her mentor, Celestia, in a similar circumstance, trapped on her throne for millennia as her people suffered and died all around her. Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, overcome by the image.

The Aquila shuddered slightly, shaking Twilight out of her morbid fantasy. The pilot called over his shoulder, “Nearly there, ma’am. We’ll be docking in about three minutes.”

Seria thanked him, ushering the two ponies back to the passenger compartment. The ten guards in the back were already standing, readying their weapons, pulling larger, heavier ones out of racks set into the walls.

Troubled by these preparations, Twilight turned to Anderocus. “Lord Anderocus, are you expecting a fight?”

The human leader nodded. “It’s a definite possibility. Magos Tersiaard has never flat-out defied my commands this way before. That he has chosen to do so now suggests to me that he may intend to remove me in a permanent fashion, so we must be prepared.”

Twilight shared a worried look with Rainbow. They’d seen how dangerous ten of the human guards could be; the thought of being caught in the middle of a conflict involving thousands of them was frightening.

Well, there was no point in complaining. They’d insisted on coming along, so they would have to try and stay out of the worst of it, if they could.

The Aquila slid smoothly into a metal cavern, coming to a stop with a barely perceptible bump. The ramp hissed open, and the two ponies followed Anderocus out of the vehicle. A large, heavyset male human with a face that was an almost alarming shade of pink was waiting, along with two full squads of armored guards. The chamber they emerged into was enormous, holding two more of the big Aquilas with plenty of room to spare, and Twilight’s mind reeled as she adjusted her perception of scale yet again. If she hadn’t seen the vast shape that was the Lux Foedis from the outside, she would have had serious trouble accepting that they were inside a vehicle. The metal-walled space was large enough that Rainbow Dash would likely be able to do a full acrobatic routine without hitting anything!

“Pleasure to see you again, sir! Pity about the circumstances.” The red-faced human declared, as Anderocus stepped off of the ramp. He cocked an eyebrow, catching sight of the two brightly-colored ponies trailing behind his leader. “Guests, sir? Should I have the stewards ready the guest quarters?”

Anderocus glanced askance at Rainbow Dash, probably remembering that she could understand at least part of what he said. He clearly still didn’t realize that Twilight could understand Gothic at least as well as he could. “Not guests, as such, Eudaros. The Magos appears to have kidnapped one of the locals against my orders, and the local leader and one of her retainers wishes to see their subject returned.”

The heavyset human’s eyes widened, and his face grew even redder. Twilight was seriously concerned; was he about to have a stroke? “Blood of the Emperor, sir! Are you serious? No wonder the guards have been scurrying around like a nest of angry formics!”

“Indeed.” Anderocus replied with a solemn nod. “Do you have any idea where the Magos is now?”

“One of my deckhands overheard him saying he was going to the vivisectorum, sir.” Eudaros replied, worriedly, and Twilight felt an icy chill in her belly as the name of the place registered.

“Uh, what’s a ‘vivisectorum?’” Rainbow Dash interrupted, in her halting Gothic.

Anderocus looked grim. “It means we need to get your subordinate away from the Magos as quickly as possible,” he replied, “Or there may not be much to retrieve.” The expression on his face confirmed Twilight’s worst fears.

Rainbow looked sick. “Well, what are we waiting for, then?!”

By way of answer, Anderocus turned to Commander Seria. “Well, Commander, are your troopers prepared in case we have to move against the Magos?”

Her helmeted head nodded once. “Yes, sir. The whole regiment is mobilized and ready; I’ve got them stationed around the Mechanicus area of the ship, and they’re ready to move the instant I give the word. These three squads, plus two more who will join us at the door, will escort us if you plan to go yourself.”

The grim expression on Anderocus’s face hardened further. “Very well, Commander. I do so intend, so let’s be about it.” He turned around to speak to the group behind him. “All right. Astropath Setaron, get back to the Astropathica chambers. There’s no need for you to be in the middle of this, one way or another.” The quiet human in the brown robe nodded silently, turning to shuffle away. “Confessor Deumos, you would be welcome to join us.”

“A tempting offer,” Demos replied, “But I think I will join one of your secondary forces, Commander. If you want to get to Tersiaard, you’ll need a distraction. And I can be very distracting when I set my mind to it! I will inspire your men to valor, and draw Mechanicus attention away from you.”

Anderocus nodded. He turned his gaze upon Twilight and Rainbow. “Ladies. I recall your earlier statements, but I must warn you; this could potentially be extremely dangerous. Are you certain you wish to come along?”

Twilight’s response was firm. “I meant what I said, Lord-Captain. I mean to see Gray Nimbus returned safely to her home.”

Rainbow was similarly adamant. “Same here! I’m responsible for Nimbus, and I’m not gonna leave her hanging when she needs help!”

Anderocus took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Very well. If fighting breaks out, I ask that both of you take cover, and listen to what my guards tell you. They will have instructions to keep you safe.” He turned back to the heavyset Eudaros. “Captain, get to the bridge. I’ll need you to help coordinate things if this goes badly. Try to contact Tersiaard before we reach the Mechanicus area, maybe he can be convinced to part with his captive.”

“Yessir! I’ll be looking over your shoulder, sir, count on that!” The large human left the gigantic cavern at a jog, not even glancing backwards.

Anderocus turned, curtly gesturing for the others to follow, and headed in almost the opposite direction from where Eudaros had gone. Twilight and Rainbow followed as the Lord-Captain led the way through a seemingly endless series of metal corridors. Twilight felt like she was descending through a mine, or labyrinth, (Or an ants’ nest, her mind whispered, remembering the comparison Fluttershy had made) and quickly lost her way. A glance at Rainbow showed that the pegasus was tense, ears laid back and wings clamped tightly to her sides. Twilight suspected that the close spaces were bothering the athlete; she’d barely have room to spread her wings in here, let alone fly.

Several of the corridors they passed through were badly stained by smoke, and carried an extremely unpleasant, sharp smell that Twilight had only ever encountered before when an electronic device she’d been working on in her basement had caught fire. There was also an even more unpleasant sickly-sweet smell that the unicorn couldn’t identify. A group of charred bones lying on the floor finally provided an answer; this was the smell of burnt flesh. Twilight nearly gagged, realizing that she was breathing in particles of ash that had once been a human.

Anderocus tried to contact Eudaros several times during the walk, but whatever system the humans used to pass messages was evidently nonfunctional. The Lord-Captain’s grim face grew grimmer when they realized that communications were cut off.

Finally, after walking for what seemed like forever through the twisty labyrinth, they came to a huge, vaulted chamber, easily larger than Celestia’s throne room at the Palace in Canterlot. Two more squads of human guards were waiting at the entrance, bringing the total number of guards accompanying them to fifty. The twenty armed and armored humans were nervously watching the end of the chamber, were there was a massive door, emblazoned with a symbol that was half-skull, half-machine, contained in a cog-toothed wheel. Standing before the door was a red-robed human reminiscent of Tersiaard, but much smaller and with fewer limbs emerging from its back.

Anderocus strode boldly up to the figure, his guards hurrying to keep pace, Seria keeping her position at the Lord-Captain’s left shoulder. “Open this door, Adept.” He commanded.

The red-robed figure didn’t move. “You know I cannot do that, Lord-Captain.” A distorted voice emerged from under the crimson hood. “This is sanctified ground, sacred to the Omnissiah. Only those versed in the secrets of the Machine are allowed within.”

“This is my ship,” Anderocus growled, “and I will go where I please within it. Open the door, Adept.”

The figure still didn’t move. “I will not.”

Twilight could see tension gather in Anderocus’s shoulders. “If you will not open this door, my guards will open it for you.”

“You would not dare,” the figure replied.

Anderocus turned to the armored guards that were following him. “Remove the adept from our path and open these doors.”

One of the guards stepped forward to lay a hand on the adept’s shoulder, and the chamber exploded in violence. The adept’s metal hand came out of the sleeve of his robe and punched straight through the guard’s armor. A half-instant later, a pair of metal tentacles tipped in saw-toothed blades that spun like circular saws sliced the hapless guard’s head off.

Alcoves along the edges of the chamber snapped open, releasing horrible things that looked like someone had taken human corpses and grafted metal pieces onto them. They lumbered out wordlessly, almost a dozen of them, raising cylindrical weapon arms that thundered and spat flame.

The guards responded instantly. Seria flung Anderocus away from the adept, drawing the blade that she’d used against the behir and engaging the mechanical horror in a flickering battle of blade against metal tentacle, too fast for Twilight to make sense of, sending pieces of the adept’s weapon limbs flying each time she connected. The other guards raised their weapons, projectiles that moved too fast for Twilight to see sparking off of their armor as they blasted the dead-looking things with cracking beams of light and the thunder and explosions of their heavier weapons. One of the guards grabbed Twilight, pulling her away from the battle and kneeling to interpose his own armored body between her and the dead things. She felt several impacts, transmitted through the human’s body, as more of the projectiles struck his armored back.

“Hey! Get off me! Let me help!” Twilight heard Rainbow shout, and breathed a sigh of thanks that another guard was probably keeping the pegasus out of the fight, much as the one shielding her was doing.

The fight was over in moments. Twilight looked around when the guard released her, seeing the dead things collapsed on the floor, most in several pieces, and the body of the adept lying at Seria’s feet. Two of the guards were down as well; their armor was evidently not completely proof against the dead things’ weapons. A quick glance reassured the unicorn that Rainbow was alright, glaring furiously at the guard who had shielded her.

The pegasus forgot her annoyance quickly, however. “Hey, what are those things?” She asked, pointing at one of the dead things.

“Servitors,” Seria replied, nudging the adept’s corpse with her boot. “Combat servitors, actually. Mechanical servants, built for battle. You and you, get that door open.” She pointed at two of the guards, who hastened to obey. The adept’s metal body twitched, and Seria drove her blade into it. It fell still once more. Seria turned to Anderocus. “Well, sir, there’s the easy part done.”

The Lord-Captain sighed. “Damnation. I was hoping to avoid this.” He dusted off his robes. “Well, nothing for it now.”

Twilight bit her lip in anxiety. “Lord Anderocus, is there any chance we could just talk to the Magos? Maybe this is all just a huge misunderstanding.”

The dark-maned human shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Lady Twilight. The communications net is down, and the only reason I can think of for that to happen is if Tersiaard doesn’t want to talk to us.” He sighed. “I’ve been worrying about a confrontation like this for some time now. If you and Miss Rainbow Dash would like to wait at the shuttle, I give you my solemn oath that we will retrieve your compatriot.”

Twilight was shaking her head before the human had even finished. “No, Lord Anderocus, as I said before, I intend to see Gray Nimbus home safely. We will come with you.”

He sighed again. “Very well.”

The huge doors finally slid open, completely soundlessly, surprising the unicorn. She’d expected the massive portal to groan theatrically, but there was no noise at all. The guards moved in, Anderocus hanging back from the front this time.

Seria fell in at his shoulder again. Twilight heard her say quietly, “Sir, the other squads are moving in. First and Second Companies are making as much noise as they can, so hopefully most of the Mechanicus forces will be drawn away.”

The gallery was eerily silent as the group made its way through. Occasional noises would echo against the high-vaulted ceiling, but for the most part even their footfalls were lost to the oppressive silence.

Seria’s voice spoke up again. “We’ve got a choice coming up, sir.” The guard commander was holding an odd, glass-fronted slate in one hand and clearly studying it intently. “There’s a shorter, open route through the main gallery to the vivisectorum, or a longer one through the generatorium. Do you have any preferences?”

“We’ll see when we get to the proper intersection.” Anderocus answered. “It troubles me that we have met so little resistance thus far.”

“Me too, sir.” Seria sounded worried.

Twilight had thought that the chamber they were in was the ‘main gallery,’ but it turned out to be only a hallway. The gallery itself was larger by far, so vast that Twilight could see streamers of mist forming at the ceiling vaults. Huge towers and buttresses were spaced along the vast open area.

“Woah.” Rainbow Dash said quietly, “No wonder he was so interested in weather-work. This place is big enough to need its own crew, almost.”

“The side passage to the generatorium is over there,” Seria said, pointing to a doorway.

“All right, commander.” Anderocus acknowledged the information. “Let’s head that way, but at the moment I’m inclined to go the shorter route. How are the other detachments faring?”

“Not well,” Seria answered grimly. “They’re getting hit hard by Tersiaard’s battle-priests and heavy combat servitors. Thank the Emperor that they are, though.”

“Indeed.” Anderocus looked around at the vast, empty hall.

The group made their way quietly down the enormous space to the doorway Seria had indicated. Abruptly, one of the guards out in front stopped, holding up a hand. “D’you hear that?” He hissed.

Twilight strained her ears. Right at the very edge of her hearing, she managed to pick up rhythmic, metallic sounds from ahead.

“Damnation,” Seria spat, quietly. “Choice time, sir.”

Anderocus glanced indecisively back and forth between the hallway and the side passage. “All right, if the generatorium route looks clear, we’ll go that way. If it’s not, then we go the shorter way.”

Seria nodded. She sent one squad ahead to check the side passage, while the rest of the party crept along behind.

The explosion of violence took them all by surprise. A stream of glowing, smoke-trailing projectiles streaked across the gallery, accompanied by the deep, heavy thunder of one of the humans heavy weapons. The stream intersected one of the guards, and his body blew apart violently in a sickening explosion of blood and viscera, his armor doing nothing to stop the projectiles.

Massive, heavy forms lumbered out of alcoves spaced along the vast gallery, and Twilight got her first look at what had to be the ‘heavy battle servitors.’ The things loomed huge, nearly as large as Tersiaard, their sickly grey flesh bulging enormously around the intrusive mechanical implants they were laced with. Most had enormous, boxy weapons replacing one arm, and a whirring, multi-toothed blade in place of the other. Weapons fire thundered, more of the glowing projectiles zipping across the intervening distance to explode against the walls or tear into the flesh of the guards.

Seria, Anderocus, and the guards scattered, diving into what cover they could find that would shield them from the servitors’ weapons. Again, Twilight found herself grabbed and hauled to safety, and she could hear vociferous protests indicating that Rainbow Dash was receiving the same treatment.

Up ahead, the squad Seria had sent to check the alternate route ducked into the doorway, only to come reeling back out again as more weapons fire erupted from the hall. Three of them died immediately, blown apart in the same horrifying fashion as the guards who’d been killed in the opening exchange, and the others scattered, finding what cover they could.

Once behind cover, the surviving guards began to return fire. They massed their return fire, several guards blazing away at individual servitors. The servitors were robust, though, enduring the cracking light beams with minor damage as they lumbered closer. Other guards began to set up their heavier weapons, each carried by several guards to distribute the weight.

Twilight could hear Rainbow struggling with the guard who was seeking to keep her safe. The unicorn risked a glance in that direction to see what was going on. Rainbow nearly threw the guard aside the second she managed to get even a little leverage; the pegasus’s slender frame was deceptive, and she was enormously strong. The guard managed to keep hold of her, though, lifting her up off the ground in a wrestler’s hold while still keeping her behind the cover of the alcove he’d taken shelter in. The pegasus struggled, legs and wings flailing, clearly wanting to help, but the guard had her clamped against his chest in a position where she couldn’t use her strength, and her light weight wasn’t enough to throw him off-balance. Rainbow was cursing with amazing fluency, (what had Seria been saying around her?) and Twilight’s cheeks burned a bit, hearing it.

Satisfied that the guard had her friend out of danger, (however much the pegasus didn’t want to be there) Twilight turned her attention to the fight. The servitors were lumbering closer, and more were emerging from the path they’d intended to take.

A moment of thought revealed that, while Rainbow’s attempts to help would almost certainly lead to her death, Twilight might just be able to lend a hoof. Or a horn, in this case. Her horn glowed as she gathered her magic and lifted the nearest servitor off the ground. A quick telekinetic flick sent the huge thing tumbling into two more, knocking the whole bunch down with an incredible racket.

The guards’ heavy weapons strafed the fallen servitors, damaging them severely and quickly disabling them. Twilight heard Seria shout, “Whatever you just did, do more of it!”

The unicorn complied, lifting several more servitors and sending them careening into their compatriots. The incoming fire ceased as the fallen servitors sought to untangle themselves, and the guards were able to pick them apart quickly.

The instant the last servitor was disabled, the guards began taking their heavy weapons apart, in preparation for moving on. The one who’d been covering Twilight with his own body pushed himself up, allowing the unicorn to move. She shot the human a grateful smile. “Thanks for keeping me safe.”

“Of course, ma’am.” The guard saluted. “My duty and my pleasure.”

The other guard was still holding Rainbow Dash in a death-grip, evidently unaware that the fighting had temporarily ceased. Probably, Twilight reflected, because the pegasus kept slamming her wings into his helmet. His ears were probably ringing pretty loudly. The poor human had his head tucked down, the top of his helmet pushing against the back of Rainbow’s head so she couldn’t slam the back of her skull into his face, and his arms wrapped tightly around her ribs just below her lower shoulders, keeping her back hooves hoisted far enough off the ground that she couldn’t get purchase to throw him off. It was a pretty good hold, Twilight had to admit.

Seria walked over to where the guard was struggling with the pegasus. “Guardsman Dercius!” He didn’t seem to hear, so she yelled louder, “Guardsman Dercius!”

“Yes, Commander!” The voice was muffled.

“The fighting is over for now, guardsman. Release her!” Dercius complied, letting Rainbow drop to the deck, where she spun around, furious, wings flared aggressively.

“I oughta kick your butt for that!” She growled, glaring at the hapless guard.

Dercius snapped to attention, and suddenly the smoking cylindrical end of Seria’s boxy weapon (she’d evidently had to replace the blue-glowing one she’d lost to the behir) was pointing directly at the side of his head.

“Do you feel this soldier has disrespected you, Miss Rainbow Dash?” Seria asked, her tone quiet.

Rainbow’s narrowed eyes got huge. “Wait, what? W-what are you doing, Seria?”

The commander’s voice stayed low. “Do you feel that he has disrespected you? You are a personal guest of the Lord-Captain; if this soldier has treated you poorly, I will execute him and appoint a replacement.” Dercius stayed silent and stock-still.

Rainbow’s jaw dropped, and she shook her head spastically. “No, no! Don’t hurt him! I was just mad ‘cause he was keeping me from helping, but I know it was just ‘cause he was trying to keep me from getting hurt! Please, please don’t hurt him for that!”

Seria’s weapon dropped to her side, and Dercius sagged slightly in relief. “Very well, and thank you,” the commander said, “Dercius is one of my most dedicated troopers; I would have hated to have to execute him.” She nodded cordially, and walked back over to Anderocus to discuss their options.

Twilight stepped up next to Rainbow, who was shivering in reaction, her ears flat. “You okay, Rainbow?”

The pegasus nodded, swallowing. She looked up at the guard who she’d nearly condemned. “Dude, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to nearly get you hurt like that.”

The big human shrugged. “Think nothing of it. I’m just glad I was able to hold on to you; if you’d gone out there, those heavy bolters would’ve torn you apart.” The voice that came from the helmet was an incongruous light tenor, strange to hear coming from such a large figure.

Rainbow gave him a strange look. “Wait… you’re more worried that I might have gotten hurt than you are about yourself nearly getting killed?”

Dercius shrugged again. “Better to be executed for succeeding in my duty than for failing at it. Though I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t fight me so much next time.”

The pegasus grinned wanly. “Heh. I did nearly get loose, didn’t I?”

“That you did,” the guard replied, “I didn’t realize how bloody strong you were. Don’t worry, I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“Pff. We’ll see.” Rainbow said, a challenging light in her eye.

“That we will,” Dercius answered calmly, not rising to the bait.

“Rainbow…” Twilight said, alarmed by her friend’s attitude. “He’s telling the truth. If you’d gone out there, you would almost certainly have been badly hurt or killed. Please, let him do his job if there’s another fight.”

Before the pegasus could respond, Seria called for the group to move out. They’d evidently settled on the shorter route, as they began moving briskly down the huge passage. Twilight didn’t want to drop her conversation with Rainbow, though, so she persisted as they walked. “Please, Rainbow, promise me that if there’s another fight like that, you’ll let Dercius keep you safe.”

The athlete heaved a sigh. “Fine. If there’s another fight like that, I’ll try and stay out of it. I do kinda want another shot at beating this guy, though.”

Twilight chuckled. That was Rainbow Dash all over. “I’ll talk to Anderocus and see if he’ll let him come back to Equestria for a wrestling match, then.”

Rainbow grinned, her ears finally coming forward again. “Deal. Ooh! Another thing that I just realized! They’re all about duty!”

Twilight didn’t follow the train of thought. “They’re what now?”

“Duty! Everything’s about duty with these guys!” The pegasus exclaimed. “They stick to their duty even when it’s a bad idea! Seria was gonna kill Dercius even though she didn’t want to, Dercius was holding on to me even though I was fighting him, and that adept guy didn’t move out of the way at the door even though we outnumbered him! They were all doing their duty!” Rainbow grinned, pleased that she’d figured out something new about her alien acquaintances.

Twilight’s reaction was considerably more somber. She felt a chill in her belly. “Doing their duty, even when it means death.” She mused. What happened when two humans’ duty came into conflict? She glanced at the guard who’d twice now put his own body between her and harm. It was admirable… and terrifying.

The diminished group pushed on, moving rapidly in the hopes that they could reach Tersiaard before more Mechanicus forces appeared. Seria was checking the slate she held constantly, and finally called out for them to turn, taking a doorway that looked exactly like a hundred others they’d already passed.

“All right, troopers,” Seria called, “We’re coming up on the anteroom to the vivisectorum. Keep an eye out, there’s likely to be HOLY THRONE!” Seria ducked to the side just in time, and a bolt of blue light sizzled through the space her head had occupied an instant before, burning a four-hoof-wide hole in the wall.

The room they had come to was large, though nothing in comparison with the massive gallery they’d just left, and it was occupied. Seven figures exploded into violence as the guards poured into the room, already firing, and these were a different thing entirely from the servitors they’d faced before. All were clad in the same red cloak that Tersiaard and the adept at the entrance had worn, and all sported multiple limbs. They were fast, too, even faster than the adept had been, and in the close confines of the room and corridor they were unbelievably lethal. One dashed into the middle of a squad of guards, cutting them apart with sparking, blue-wreathed blades attached to its tentacles, while another attacked Seria, the commander desperately fending off strikes from five metal limbs.

Unafraid, the guards attacked with remarkable fury, pouring shots at the darting figures, though they weren’t scoring many hits. Twilight again felt herself grabbed and pulled out of danger, and again she realized she could help even as the guard whose name she hadn’t learned shielded her with his armored body. She focused, knowing that grabbing just one wouldn’t help in this situation, and knowing that the robed figures’ darting speed was the danger. Instead of grabbing and hoisting them, she draped the creatures with cords of force, dragging at their limbs like a net and slowing them drastically.

With the extra fractions of a second Twilight had granted them, the guards blew apart the metal creatures in seconds, able to carefully aim and direct stuttering bursts of light into the attackers. Seria, likewise, swiftly dismembered her suddenly-slowed opponent, her blade crackling as it sliced through its metal limbs before she drove the point through the creature’s chest. The commander glanced around and saw that all of the darting figures were down and leaking sparks and oil across the painfully-clean floor. She beckoned for some of her troopers, and they set to work trying to open the huge door at the end of the chamber.

Twilight and Rainbow entered the room behind the guards, the unicorn examining the metal creatures curiously and trying not to look at the slaughtered guards who had been their victims. When she got closer, she realized they were leaking not only oil, but blood as well. She gasped.

“L-lord Anderocus,” Twilight stammered, pointing at the metal bodies with a hoof, “These… these things are bleeding!”

“Well, of course they are,” Anderocus sounded perplexed. “Tech-priests aren’t all metal, not even senior ones like these.”

“Who were they?” Twilight’s voice was a horrified whisper. She’d thought these things had just been more of the humans’ machines!

“These?” Anderocus knelt next to the nearest, pulling its hood back. “These were some of Tersiaard’s senior subordinates. It’s a good sign; if they were here, then he must be in there with your servant.”

Twilight pressed a hoof to her mouth in horror. These had been people, and she’d helped kill them! They weren’t machines, like the servitors, or monsters like the daemon that had worn Hammer N’ Tongs’s flesh, they were people, with stories and names and dreams! Twilight closed her eyes, feeling sick to her stomach. Rainbow’s earlier statement came back to haunt her. They were only doing their duty.

She felt Rainbow come up next to her. “Are you okay, Twi?” The unicorn shook her head. She felt the pegasus lay a hoof on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“I helped kill them,” Twilight whispered.

Rainbow was silent for a moment. The pegasus sat down next to Twilight, leaning comfortingly up against her. “Twilight, believe me, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way, right after we killed Hammer, so I’m gonna tell you what you told me. You didn’t have another choice.” Rainbow paused. “Look, Twilight, we still need you. I still need you. Can you hold it together, just for a while, just ‘till we’re outta here?”

Twilight took a deep breath. Then she took another, eyes still squeezed shut. She wrestled with her own emotions, trying to get a grip on herself. She had no idea how long it took, but she finally opened her eyes, meeting Rainbow’s worried gaze. “Thank you, Rainbow.” Twilight was pleased with how steady her voice was.

“You okay?” Rainbow prompted, and Twilight gave a careful nod.

“For now.” Twilight didn’t say anything further, and Rainbow didn’t ask.

It took several tense minutes before the door began grinding open. When it finally did, Rainbow and Twilight set themselves, as did the surviving guards, pointing weapons toward the opening portal. Seria stood right next to it, blade in hand, ready to spring through. When the door reached its stops, the commander charged through, followed closely by a dozen guards, with Rainbow and Twilight right on their heels.

Tersiaard spun around in surprise where he was standing next to a bank of blinking lights, but Twilight barely noticed. Her eyes were drawn to the table in the center of the room, a huge, gleaming metal thing, with various armatures and wires festooning its surface. Gray Nimbus lay limp in the center of it, her right wing outstretched. It had actually been peeled open, and Twilight gagged at the sight of glistening muscle and tissue revealed beneath the pegasus’s skin. Nimbus’s silver-grey eyes were wide open, and they locked on Twilight’s own the instant she entered the older mare’s sight line. Tear tracks ran down her face, and Twilight could see the desperate fear in her eyes.

It was then that Twilight noticed the wires. Dozens and dozens of fine wires had been attached to Nimbus. Some hooked into the exposed muscle and tendons of her wing, others seemed to go into her spine, and a cluster were attached to her head. Tiny trails of blood ran from the puncture wounds in the older mare’s scalp, and the unicorn realized that the wires might actually be attached to her skull… or even her brain.

She wasn’t given time to ponder the horror. Seria charged straight for the Magos with a shout, and her guards shouldered their weapons, unleashing a blinding barrage at the metal giant, but Tersiaard wasn’t like the other tech-priests.

The blazing lines of light achieved precisely nothing, vanishing against a shimmering energy field that appeared to block them. Seria’s thrust got scarcely any further; a crab-clawed arm sheathed in the same crackling disruption field as her blade darting forward with impossible speed and precision, grabbing the blade and ripping it out of the commander’s hand in a single motion. Tersiaard’s arm swung out in the same moment, connecting with the charging Seria and sending the big, armored female flying in a single contemptuous blow. Tersiaard turned, leveling the huge boxy thing on his shoulder that Twilight now recognized as the same ‘heavy bolter’ that the battle servitors had carried, and metal tentacles rose up behind him like angry snakes.

“STOP!” Anderocus’s shout rang out, stunningly loud and laced with authority. The guards froze, Twilight and Rainbow froze just before lunging at the huge Magos, even Tersiaard froze, weapon trained on the group of guards.

Anderocus strode into the center of the room, arms raised in a halting motion. Twilight was impressed by the human’s bravery; he was totally unarmed and unarmored, and he walked between his guards and the Magos as though he belonged there. “Stop. Everyone. Lower your weapons, now!” The guards obeyed, and Tersiaard’s metal tentacles withdrew behind him as his shoulder-carried weapon deflected its aim away. Anderocus turned, pointing an accusing finger at the Magos. “Magos Tersiaard. What is the meaning of this?”

“The meaning of what, Lord-Captain?” Tersiaard’s cold voice was even colder than usual.

Anderocus’s pointing finger swung around, pointing now at the limp, mutilated pegasus on the table. “The meaning of that, Magos. I specifically told you not to bother the locals. Why is one of them on that table?!” There was honest fury in the human leader’s voice.

“I did not disobey your orders, Lord-Captain.” There was an edge of honest confusion in the Magos’s voice. “Seneschal Tangro clarified them before he left; if I could obtain an experimental specimen without alarming the other xenos, I was to do so.”

“What?” Anderocus shouted, “I never gave those orders!”

Tersiaard’s head cocked to the side. “That was the command I received, Lord-Captain. If there was an error, it was not mine.”

“I see I’m going to have to have a chat with Seneschal Tangro.” Anderocus growled. “Is your… subject damaged beyond repair?”

“No, not at all,” Tersiaard stepped over toward Nimbus, whose eyes locked on him in terror. “I can have it repaired in moments, if you so desire. I have but to rebond the epidermal tissue.”

“Her.” Twilight snarled, no longer caring if the humans knew she could understand them. “You can have her repaired. She’s not an ‘it.’ And can you fix the pain you’ve caused?” She glared at the Magos, enraged.

“What pain?” The Magos switched smoothly to Equestrian. Two of Tersiaard’s tentacles were already working, delicately removing the wires in Nimbus’s wing and carefully pulling her skin and feathers back into place. “Pain would have disrupted my neural scan data. I was quite careful to ensure the subject felt none. The only pain the subject felt was the sting of the dart that delivered the paralytic agent.”

“But you peeled open her wing!” Rainbow interjected, sounding sick, “I can’t even imagine how much that would hurt! Our wings are really sensitive!”

Light flared as the Magos ran his strange instruments over Nimbus’s wing. His tentacles shifted to begin removing the other wires. “Pain has a very distinctive neural signature. I was able to isolate it easily, based on readings from the dart impact, and block it before it reached the subject’s spine. I assure you, there was no pain at all; I made use of the same procedure the last few times I performed augmentic surgery on myself, and I can attest from experience that it is perfectly effective.”

Anderocus looked stunned at Terisaard’s lack of resistance. He’d clearly been expecting a tremendous battle. Twilight felt the same way; it was as though she’d tried to climb a stair that wasn’t there. The Magos gently lifted Nimbus from the table and laid her in front of Rainbow, who moved to stand protectively over the other pegasus.

“The paralytic agent will wear off in six point two minutes, at which time the subject will be fully recovered.” Tersiaard told them. “My apologies for any inconvenience.”

Anderocus looked like he was desperately trying to get a grip on the situation. “Magos, if you weren’t deliberately disobeying me, why did you shut down the vox network?”

“I did nothing to the vox net. It is…” Tersiaard’s voice cut off midword. “Something is wrong with the vox net.” The cold voice held anger when it resumed. “Who has tampered with my machine spirits?! A moment, Lord-Captain, and I shall restore it.”

Rainbow and Twilight shared a confused look, and the guards shifted uneasily. Two of them slung their weapons, going over to check on their fallen commander. Rainbow bent to whisper in Nimbus’s ear, “Hey, Nimbus, don’t worry. We gotcha. We’re gonna get you home.” The paralyzed pegasus managed to convey deep gratitude with nothing but her eyes.

Everyone froze when the deck shuddered slightly. Anderocus’s head whipped around to look at Tersiaard. “Magos, what was that?”

“That was the attitude thrusters firing,” the metal giant responded. “I have restored the vox net, if you wish to determine the cause.”

“Thank you, Magos.” Anderocus tapped something in his ear. “Eudaros, why did the attitude thrusters just fire?”

The heavyset human’s voice crackled from speakers set into the walls. “What, you don’t know, sir? Per your orders, we’re rolling to present the port broadside to the planet.”

“My orders? Delivered how?” Anderocus growled.

“Why, by Aleron, of course, sir! Since the vox was down, you had him deliver your orders… didn’t you?”

“Tangro again!” The Lord-Captain snarled. “When I get my hands on that man…”

“Lord-Captain…” Tersiaard interjected. “The spirits of the port macrocannons have been roused. A target has been given to them, and they are eager to speak their wrath.”

“What?!” Anderocus’s face went sheet-white. “Send them back to their slumber, Magos!”

“I cannot.” Tersiaard’s voice was growing angry. “Someone has suborned them. Their gaze is locked on a castle on the surface. I will stay their wrath as long as I can, and seek to redirect it if possible, but they will speak.”

“Anderocus, what is going on?” Twilight asked.

“The Lux Foedis is going to bombard your world.” Anderocus replied, his voice clipped. “A full broadside will probably obliterate your entire civilization.”

“And that’s where I come in.” A hissing voice spoke over the vox. “Hello, Parseon. Things going well?”

“Who is this?” Anderocus barked.

“Oh, you don’t recognize me? I’m hurt. It’s me, Parseon, your seneschal.”

“Tangro? What happened to your voice? Why are you doing this?” Anderocus sounded shocked and frightened.

“I’m not just Tangro anymore, Parseon. I’ve got a guest. As for why? Because these wretched little pastel things have it coming, that’s why, and you’re my tool.” The voice gave an oddly birdlike cackle. “With you, I can finally destroy those vile sisters that have kept us from our fun for so very long. You will fire, they will die, and then you will die. And I will lead my siblings into an endless time of fun and play, while the pastel things sing their song of agony to entertain us.”

“Lord-Captain.” Tersiaard interjected. “There is worse news. The plasma reactors’ chains have been sundered. In minutes, they will break free and consume the ship. I am trying to restrain them…”

“Never! You will never stop your deaths! Now, my children, now! Strike them!”

An insane cackling echoed from a thousand places in the Lux Foedis, and the ship went mad. Countless multicolored horrors writhed into existence throughout the ship, giggling madly and spewing prismatic flame that warped all it touched. Twilight saw them capering toward their group from the long hallway they’d just come down, and something deep inside her recognized an enemy. But this time, she knew that enemy, and she knew what she had to do.

“Magos! Lord-Captain! Get your ship under control, Rainbow and I can handle these!” Twilight barked, her horn beginning to glow. “Rainbow, these are daemons! Let’s show them what we showed their friend!”

“Right!” Rainbow launched herself off the ground, as Twilight started to build a spherical shell of power around them. These humans had protected her, now it was time for her to return the favor. She didn’t need to build the shield especially strong; the abominations burned and discorporated just touching her power. Outside, Rainbow zipped down the wide corridor that teemed with daemons, bouncing from one to the other in a dazzling display that left a wall of prismatic light in her wake. A simple touch from her hooves was all that was necessary, and within seconds the daemonic horde was nothing but drifting motes of silver light. The pegasus zoomed back, landing next to Twilight and contemptuously exclaiming, “You’re gonna have to do better than that, Tangro! Where are ya? I’ll show ya personally!”

Tangro’s voice cackled from the speaker, no longer even recognizable as human beneath the birdlike screech. “No I don’t, no I don’t! Ask the Magos! Ha ha ha!”

Tersiaard shook his head. “The plasma reactors are no longer in my control. They will destroy the ship, and soon. There is one thing I can do, however.” Tangro continued to cackle gleefully from the speakers. “I can silence that monster.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

“Oh, you will.” Tersiaard’s voice was iron. The ship shuddered again. “You are currently in a shuttle, only a few thousand kilometers from me. You must have left even as we spoke, having done your vile work. I may not be able to lull the macrocannons to sleep, heretic, but I can point them in a different direction.”

“Ha ha! You can’t! I gave them a target, and they are slaved to it!”

“They are not. I have served the spirit of the Lux Foedis for six centuries, heretic, and she is mine, as I am hers.” Tersiaard’s voice rose to a crescendo. “She heeds my voice, heretic, whenever she is able. And now, I am pointing to you, and telling her that you are her foe, and she is listening!”

“What? No! No, you can’t…!”

The ship shuddered. Outside, in the silent vacuum of space, vast plumes of flame erupted from the cruiser’s port side. Shells the size of buildings were hurled from the cannons’ maws, speeding outward. They did not strike the royal castle at Canterlot, for the Lux Foedis had indeed heeded her acolyte’s voice, and her dying spirit had focused on the tiny shuttle seeking to escape. She spat her fury into her murderer, one final gesture of spite, the great shells converging on the thin-walled hull that was smaller than the shells themselves.

After they detonated, there was nothing left of the shuttle, or Tangro, but thinly divided atoms.

Tersiaard sagged. “It is done. We are avenged.”

Anderocus nodded in acknowledgement. “Thank you Magos.”

“But… aren’t you going to do anything? What about my world?” Twilight protested.

Tersiaard turned wearily to her. “Your world is unharmed, and will remain so, save for possibly being struck by fragments when we die. I directed the Lux Foedis’s fury toward Tangro, where it belonged. Beyond that, there is nothing to do.” The huge tech-priest reached out with a metal hand, laying it gently on the wall. “There are only moments left. The ship dies, and she does not die alone.”

Twilight felt panic seizing her mind. Her magic rose, unbidden, as she locked eyes with Rainbow Dash and Gray Nimbus, and with a flash the three of them vanished.

Anderocus looked at the empty space where the three ponies had been, nodded, and uttered a single word. “Good.”

The wrenching dislocation of the teleport spell was worse than Twilight had ever felt it before, probably because she’d never teleported even a fraction of this distance before. Sight returned with shocking suddenness, and the unicorn found herself sitting on the floor, back in her home, as Spike leapt away from the three ponies who’d appeared out of nowhere.

“Geez, Twilight, don’t do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Spike exclaimed, but none of the three ponies were listening. Rainbow Dash staggered, her eyes spinning in disorientation, and collapsed at the base of a bookshelf. Gray Nimbus lay perfectly still, eyes also spinning.

Twilight stumbled for just a moment before sprinting up the stairs to her balcony. She flung the doors open and ran out, looking at the sky.

Far out in space, the containment of the Lux Foedis’s plasma reactors failed. Ravenous flame raced explosively through the ship’s corridors, those caught in its path not even having time to scream before their ashes were scattered. That alone was not enough to destroy the mighty cruiser, far from it. The raging plasma blast only ate away at her armored bulkheads, chewing at her personnel quarters but leaving her crucial structural members only superficially damaged, for ships of the Imperium were built phenomenally tough.

She could not endure what followed, however. The searing plasma reached her munitions stores, detonating them in a mighty chain reaction. The Lux Foedis shuddered, quivering in her final agony as her lesser munitions stores detonated, but even that was only a precursor.

The first of the macrocannon shell bays exploded with a fury to rival the sun, and the blast broke the Lux Foedis’s back. Her keel and armor screamed as they were torn asunder, a metallic death wail that was heard by no-one. An instant later, as the two pieces of the once-mighty cruiser were hurled away from one another, the remaining munitions stores and the plasma engines detonated, shattering the broken hull into a billion pieces, and scattering it to the stellar winds.

Thus died the Lux Foedis.

Below, on the planetary surface, Twilight frantically searched the sky. Will I see anything? Maybe the Magos will fix it! Maybe it’ll all be okay, he’ll figure something out at the last second, and…

The soundless flash lit the entire sky, bleaching the blue to white for an instant, the heat palpable even from this distance. Twilight Sparkle collapsed to the floor, wracking sobs tearing at her body, as above her a billion fiery trails drew themselves across the sky.

Elsewhere…

Anger. “No. No. This will not do, not at all.”

Resignation. “Nonetheless, it is what will happen, Sister.”

Anger. “It is what might happen. It is only a possibility.”

Mild correction. “It is the most likely possibility.”

Refusal. “It is the most likely, only if things remain unchanged.”

Suspicion. “And what might change, sister?”

Certainty. “A small thing. A tiny thing. I can see a place where a nudge would make all the difference. All that must be done is to apply it.”

Caution. “That is a tool of the Enemy, Sister.”

Denial. “Not only the Enemy. The Farseers do it, as well.”

Chiding. “Yes. And they almost invariably make things worse by doing so. Think on that, Sister.”

Clarity. “They make things worse, because they seek to improve only their own lot. That is not what I seek, Sister. I seek to improve the outcome for everyone, save the Enemy, of course.”

Ambivalence. “The noblest intentions often herald the most heinous of outcomes. Be cautious, Sister.”

Iron certainty. “I will be cautious, but I must do this.”

Ambivalence. “I will not oppose You, Sister, but I will not aid You, either. I fear You are treading the same path He did.”

Regret. “Perhaps. But I still maintain that it may be the right path. I will do this, with Your help, or without.”

Resignation. “So be it, Sister. So be it.”

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Twilight Sparkle was feeling the oddest sense of déjà vu. The knocking at her door had awakened her before, she was sure of it. Her encounter with Rainbow on the street, and her confrontation with Lord Anderocus were similarly familiar. She shivered as the Aquila climbed, as she heard Deumos’s story of the Emperor, and as she beheld the Lux Foedis for the first time… except it wasn’t the first time. It was like she was acting out a story she’d heard in a dream; nothing felt quite real. Even the fight with the adept at the doorway didn’t shock her, for she’d expected it.

She finally shook the creeping sense of unreality when they were ambushed in the main gallery. The squad sent ahead darted into the side passage, and Twilight wanted to scream at them to be careful, but they quickly peeked their heads back out, signaling that the passage was clear.

“Right!” Seria barked, “They’re not defending the route through the generatorium! Everyone, move it, through there!”

As Twilight ducked into the doorway, she saw heavy servitors lumbering out of a side passage further down the gallery, and knew with sudden, iron certainty that that group had been diverted, somehow. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew.

A team of guards set up in the doorway with heavy weapons, preventing the heavy servitors from following, while the rest of the group forged on ahead.

This corridor was far narrower than the gallery, though not quite as much so as the flame-blackened passageways they’d traversed before. The humans could walk nearly four abreast if they so chose, and Rainbow wasn’t quite as tense here, where she could spread her wings without her pinions hitting the wall.

They threaded through hallways for quite a while, following Seria’s directions, before the guard commander stopped the whole group.

“The generatorium is just ahead,” Seria explained. “I’m sending a pair of troopers to recon, just to make sure we aren’t walking into an ambush.”

They waited in tense silence while the two troopers moved ahead. The scouts were gone for only a short time before returning, their hands shaking where they gripped their weapons.

“Commander… there’s something unholy in there.” The lead trooper reported, unsteadily.

“Unholy? What do you mean ‘unholy,’ soldier?” Seria asked sharply.

“I mean warp-touched, Commander. Evil.” The trooper shuddered.

Twilight and Rainbow shared a worried glance. “Warp-touched?” Twilight asked, “Do you mean daemons?”

The guard nodded, spastically, whispering, “Unholy,” again under his breath.

“Lord-Captain, Commander, it might be best for us to lead this time.” Twilight said, mentally preparing herself for the horrors she was likely to face.

“What? If there is something warp-touched in there, you’ll need every bit of firepower available to deal with it!” Anderocus exclaimed.

Twilight shook her head. “Your weapons and armor and machines are something we aren’t equipped to deal with, Lord-Captain but daemons we can handle.” Twilight glanced at Rainbow for support, and received a firm nod. “We, Rainbow and I and my friends, have a special power within us. If a daemon, a thing of Chaos, is in there, we will destroy it. We have to destroy it.”

A wave of muttering ran through the guards, and Twilight caught the words, “Gray Knights!” repeated more than once in awestruck tones, whatever it meant. The unicorn ignored it, focusing instead on Anderocus’s face, trying to mentally compel him to agree.

Finally, he gave a reluctant nod. “Very well, Lady Twilight. Go on ahead, and we will follow, and support you should you need it.”

Twilight smiled at the dark-maned human. “Thank you, Lord Anderocus. We won’t let you down.”

Twilight and Rainbow led the way into the huge, vaulted space of the generatorium, humming with the constant noise of the huge plasma reactors. Twilight felt a wave of wrongness as she entered the door, and a glance at her friend showed the pegasus had noticed it, too. There were vile symbols painted on many of the reactors in what looked like blood, but Twilight somehow instinctively knew that the sigils were a secondary threat. If they could find and destroy the sigils’ maker before they could be triggered, they would fall inert.

They hunted through the massive, thrumming space, Rainbow staying on the ground to keep near her friend. Near the center of the room, they finally found their prey.

The short, slender figure stood before one of the largest generators, chanting low, blasphemous words. It was surrounded by a dozen tech-priests, their bodies twisted into horrifically abstract sculptures of flesh and metal. Rainbow hopped up in the air, dropping to the ground hard with all four hooves, producing a sharp clang as she hit the deck.

The figure turned, revealing the face of the seneschal, Tangro. “What?” Tangro barked, his voice oddly distorted. “You aren’t here. You can’t be here! I looked, and you didn’t arrive!”

Twilight snarled at the light-maned human, suddenly realizing just why she and her friends had been so uneasy around him. “We are here, monster. And whatever you’re doing, we’re not going to let you finish.”

Tangro goggled at the two ponies. “You are here. How is this possible?” The seneschal suddenly cackled wildly, flinging his head back and stretching his arms upward. “Oh, my lord, my lord, what a transcendent betrayal you have visited upon me! Thank you! Thank you for this delicious gift!” He lowered his head, glaring at the two ponies. “You don’t even know what I am, do you?”

“I do.” Rainbow Dash stepped forward, her voice unusually somber, sounding almost like somepony else’s. “I know what you are. You are betrayal personified, a lie given shape.” She bared her teeth, flaring her wings. “I wish that Applejack was here too, to see you fall. You are the opposite of everything we stand for.”

Tangro cackled again, his body beginning to shift, like Hammer’s had, only far more smoothly. “Am I now? We’ll see. We’ll see how loyalty and friendship endure, when faced with a choice between their duty and their friends. Only two of you are here, against me who once faced all six. Two of them fell that day, the two that stand here now, and you are destined to fall again! So speaks Azgad-Denoroth, Lord of Change!” Tangro’s body suddenly and explosively mutated, growing to enormous height and sprouting shimmering, multi-colored feathers in a grotesque parody of Rainbow Dash’s coloration. Its head elongated into a huge beak, and a staff appeared out of nowhere that it clutched in one hand. Standing before them was a vast, blue-scaled hybrid between a human and a vulture, cackling at them in triumph.

“Oh, that is it,” Rainbow exclaimed, her voice returning to normal. “You so don’t get to use my colors like that, punk!” She took off, streaking toward the compartment’s ceiling. The daemon screeched, hurling a volley of multicolored flame at her that she nimbly dodged.

Twilight’s horn glowed as she prepared her own offensive. She flung darting thrusts of telekinetic force at the towering figure. It tossed out a web of glimmering, ever-changing magic, absorbing her attack with little spits of argent fire that was quickly cut off from the rest of the spell net.

“How amateurish, Element of Friendship.” The monster sneered. “Try mine.” It spun its web toward her, the fire growing hideous leering faces as it flew. Twilight slammed together a spherical shield, holding it tight while the vile prismatic flame writhed around it, silver sparks spitting everywhere. Twilight winced, feeling the uncomfortable proximity of the daemon’s tainted magic, but her shield held.

The daemon cackled again. Twilight was getting heartily sick of that sound. “Not bad! But now, your choice! To strike the foe, or ward those that aided you! Make that choice, Bearer!” It flung a taloned hand out, making a beckoning motion, and dozens of swirling, ever-mutating horrors rose out of the floor and turned to where Anderocus, Seria, and their guards crouched, watching the battle.

Twilight saw Rainbow diving toward the towering daemon, but she changed her course as the legion of smaller ones emerged. She traced a curving path, striking those that were closest to the humans and evaporating them with spine-shivering screeches and spitting showers of silver sparks.

Why do I occasionally think in alliteration? Twilight wondered, but shook the thought aside. The faint rainbow-striped wake the pegasus left behind had just given her an idea. She shoved a heavy wave of force at the daemon lord, forcing it to concentrate on defending itself for a moment, and shouted, “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow!”

“What?! Kinda busy here, Twilight!” The pegasus obliterated another group of capering daemons, but despite her efforts, their numbers were growing.

“I’ll defend the humans! Climb up to the very top of the chamber!”

“What? Why?” Rainbow darted closer.

“Once you’re up there, dive at Tangro, and do a Sonic Rainboom right over his head!”

Rainbow stared at her, wide-eyed. “Twilight, are you crazy? Do a Sonic Rainboom inside? I’ll wreck everything in here!”

“Just do it, Rainbow! We need something he hasn’t seen before, and if he’s seen a Bearer of an Element do a Sonic Rainboom right over his head, I’ll eat my horn!”

Rainbow gave her a dubious look, but shot off into the upper reaches of the chamber anyway. Twilight focused her magic, hoping that the master daemon was still off-balance from her earlier attack, and concentrated on flinging small spheres of force at the daemons nearest the human position, disintegrating them just as Rainbow had been doing.

She was quickly overwhelmed. There were so many, and more appeared more quickly than she could destroy them. Worse, she could feel energy gathering, and realized that the daemon master had recovered and was preparing to strike her down.

It cackled. “And thus your choice is made, Element, as I knew from the beginning that it would be. Fare…”

There was no warning, only a flicker of light at the edge of Twilight’s vision. Rainbow Dash came hurtling down from the vaulted ceiling, trailing an increasingly-brilliant wake of rainbow-striped light. She hit her target speed directly over the hideous bird-thing’s head, a massive prismatic shockwave blasting out like a halo above it.

The huge reactors groaned as the shockwave struck them, but they fared far better than the daemons that flooded the room. The army of lesser beasts vanished in an instant, ripped away by silver light, and the huge birdlike figure let out a final, horrific shriek as the rainbow ring pushed every part of it in a different direction, tearing it apart in a massive silver blast that shimmered in the center of the Sonic Rainboom.

The shockwave even picked Twilight up, tossing her across the room. She had a brief instant of panic, fearing that she was going to strike one of the reactors or one of the frighteningly-spiky gargoyles that adorned seemingly everything in this ship, but her fears vanished when she struck something yielding, something that grabbed at her and held her as she skidded to a stop.

She found herself lifted and gently set on her feet by the two guards who’d caught her, cushioning her flight with their own bodies. They glanced at each other, and she heard the murmur of “Gray Knight!” again.

Rainbow Dash swooped down and landed next to her, panting heavily. “Man, it was hard to dodge all those reactor things at that speed. Wish the Wonderbolts coulda seen me! Did I get him?”

Twilight nodded, “You got him, Rainbow. Good work!”

Anderocus stepped up to the two ponies. “I… I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone defeating a daemon like that before. I’m in your debt… everyone on this ship is in your debt.” His face firmed. “Let’s go get your friend.”

Elsewhere…

Smugness. “I told You, Sister. A tiny change, just a nudge, and it all turned out for the better. For everyone.”

Surprise. “So it did. I confess, Sister, that I am shocked that You managed it so adroitly.”

Mild self-satisfaction. “I might be rusty, but I can still get the job done. Who’s the best little sister, eh?”

Amusement. “If there is a better sister than Mine, I have yet to see it. I am so glad to have You back again, Sister. I doubt I would have managed half so well on My own.”

Placation. “You would have done fine, I’m sure. Back to work for Us, though. We’ll need to leave a door for Our guests to leave by.”

Love. “Indeed, Sister. Indeed.”

Epilogue

Confessor Deumos stood at the edge of the small xenos town, waiting impatiently. The aftermath of the small civil war aboard the Lux Foedis had left him feeling oddly incomplete; he'd steeled his soul and his body in preparation for a battle against the treacherous Magos, only to find that both he and the servants of the Machine had been deceived, foully deceived by the vilest of foes.

It had been worse, in a way, that he had felt so conflicted about the battle in the first place. Yes, striking against one who had disobeyed his superior's command was a righteous cause... but the catalyst had been a single alien. Deumos had led soldiers into battle, slain servants of the Machine and seen his own followers fall... all for the sake of a single xenos life. The waste of it was sickening. Almost a hundred and fifty brave Guardsmen fallen, a score of tech-priests dead, and it had all been for nothing. They had all been played like game pieces by a servant of the Ruinous Powers that Deumos hadn't even suspected. It was fortunate that Anderocus had been able to convince Tersiaard's senior subordinates that they'd been manipulated, or more loyal servants of the Emperor might have fallen.

Deumos ground his teeth, remembering. The fighting had halted abruptly, Magos Tersiaard's orders calling for his acolytes to stand down coming over the suddenly-restored vox net only moments before Lord Anderocus's command for his own followers to do the same. Confused, Deumos had complied, even executing two men who had been so impious as to refuse him. That they'd fallen to recover a single winged xeno, when even now, standing next to the Aquila near the xenos town known as Ponyville, the Confessor could see over a dozen, had been irrelevant. A command had been issued and disobeyed, and examples had to be made. Obedience was the underpinning of the Imperium.

Deumos had been sick with rage when Lord Anderocus had told him about Tangro's corruption in the aftermath, just before the Rogue Trader escorted the two aliens and their recovered compatriot back down to the surface. The Confessor's self-confidence had been badly shaken by the news; a daemon had possessed a man he'd known for years, and Deumos hadn't even noticed? He'd assigned himself harsh penance, and even now, over a month later, his self-inflicted scars still pained him.

Even more galling than his own failures had been the fact that the daemon had been purged by two of the aliens, without any kind of help from the Emperor's faithful. Indeed, according to the soldiers who'd come to him for confession, the xenos had gone out of their way to safeguard the lives and souls of the guardsmen who'd accompanied them, one of them even leaving herself open for what might have been a devastating attack from the corrupted Tangro. And the one with the rainbow-striped hair had been so damnably proud of it! It was unseemly in a creature that many of the soldiers in Deumos's flock had come to regard as being akin to a Grey Knight, one of the semi-legendary daemon-hunting paladins of the Inquisition.

Still, Deumos had been grudgingly impressed by the creature's bravery. As a man who'd seen battle repeatedly, both with the Arbites and with the Guard, the Confessor admitted that the distraction she had provided when the massive serpent attacked had taken tremendous fortitude, and had pushed him to seeing her as a fellow warrior, rather than just another xeno. That she and her leader had faced down a mighty daemon lord, with no hesitation and no fear that the soldiers had seen had reinforced Deumos's opinion in that regard, even if their behavior was often... frivolous.

And, oh, it was so often frivolous, and Deumos was a man who despised frivolity. The aliens' cheerful, chirpy behavior and penchant for celebrations and parties grated on his nerves, and he considered it utterly inappropriate in beings who faced down daemons. Such an entity should be grim and focused, its purpose and resolve obvious to all who beheld it, not... not cheerfully grinning and boasting about winning athletic competitions, for the Emperor's sake!

The aliens clearly cared little for Deumos's opinions, however, so he was left to steam while they conducted their business with Anderocus and Tersiaard, save for the times when the purple one felt like asking him more questions about the Emperor. He had answered, of course, as a stalwart foe of Chaos was deserving of his respect no matter its behavior, (in all honesty, he'd considered the behavior of the only Inquisitor he'd ever met to be considerably more reprehensible than these creatures had been) but she'd left him be after a few days, and he was glad for it.

He'd continued to attend, though he had little to do besides observe. The xenos had finally agreed to provide the materials the Lux Foedis needed, in exchange for the mining machines the Lux had been carrying for Emperor only knew how long, the training to operate said machines, and one of the Lux's shuttles, though Deumos had no idea what they intended to do with the vehicle. (The offer of servitors to help run the mining machines had been turned down with almost indecent haste.) There'd been additional trades on the side, of course, there always were. The Lux would be leaving with several cargo holds full of rare gems that would fetch a fortune back in Imperial space, and all it had cost them had been a few near-useless trinkets. Multi-fuel generators, old cogitators, data-slates, vox units, that kind of thing. Nothing actually valuable. Anderocus had been privately cackling with glee over the profits they'd be making.

Oh, well, he didn't have to put up with it any more. The rest of the Lux Foedis's senior officers were in town, attending the "farewell party" the xenos had insisted on holding. Another party. At least it would be the last one he'd have to worry about. Deumos himself had ducked out as soon as he possibly could, and made his way to the landing field so he wouldn't have to endure any more frivolity. Now he just had to wait for the rest of his people to pry themselves free. However long that might take.

Deumos sighed, breaking his stolid façade for a moment to rub his forehead in irritation. Based on past experience, he could be standing here for hours.

"Feeling all right?" A soft voice spoke behind him, causing the confessor to start slightly. He hadn't even had a hint that anyone else was around, and cursed himself for his lack of vigilance.

Deumos managed to keep himself from spinning about in shock through an iron effort of will. Instead, he turned slowly, maintaining his dignity. Standing behind him was one of the aliens, but it was unlike any of the others he'd seen. For starters, it was huge, nearly tall enough to look him in the eye. Its dark-colored hair and tail seemed to ripple in an ethereal breeze that the priest couldn't feel, and it sported both a horn and a pair of wings, while the other xenos he'd seen possessed one or the other. (Or neither) This individual, with the odd hair and the dark blue coat, was the first he'd seen with both, and it made him cautious.

"Merely impatient to be on my way," the priest replied, curtly.

The large alien smiled gently. "I can understand that. You have been stranded here for almost three months, and I imagine you are eager to return to your home."

Deumos shrugged. "This is far from the longest time I've spent outside the Imperium's borders. Nonetheless, it will be good to return to the realms of Mankind once more."

"I imagine." The creature fell silent.

Deumos fidgeted uneasily, made uncomfortable by the close presence of this alien. "If you seek to speak to my master, I believe you will find him in the center of the... party in the town square." The priest hoped this creature wasn't planning on pestering him as much as the rainbow-haired one had done to Commander Seria. The commander must be possessed of astounding patience to deal with the creature daily, though she'd confessed to Deumos that she actually found it likeable. The confessor had been baffled by the revelation. He may have come to respect the xenos, but liking them was a good bit further than he was prepared to go.

The xeno shook her head. "No, Confessor, I am not here to speak to your master." She regarded him steadily. "I am here to speak to you. To thank you, actually."

Deumos wrinkled his brow. "To thank me? Whatever for?" Deumos thought back over the last three months, but he couldn't think of a single thing that he'd done for the xenos that one or more of the rest of the Lux's crew hadn't.

"For giving me answers." The creature stared off into the distance for a moment, teal eyes pensive. It had an expression of deep sadness writ upon its features. "They were not answers I particularly enjoyed receiving, but they were answers, and I owe you my sincere thanks for providing them."

Confessor Deumos was by now thoroughly baffled. He'd never spoken to this creature before, he was certain of that. Its size and distinctive features would definitely have registered. "Your pardon, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Have we met?"

The xeno shook herself, reorienting to the present. She smiled at Deumos again. "Of course, forgive me. We have not spoken directly, but a mutual acquaintance asked you questions on my behalf. My name is Luna, and you have my gratitude for bringing news of the fate of my old friend."

"A pleasure," Deumos said reflexively, still utterly lost as to the creature's meaning. "Though I must confess my confusion. What friend are you speaking of?"

"The one whose story you related to my sister's protégé, Twilight Sparkle."

Deumos blinked. That was the name of the purple xeno, one of the two who'd accompanied him back to the Lux. But the only story he could remember telling her was... "You couldn't possibly be referring to the Emperor, could you?"

Luna laughed softly. "That was not his true name, of course. He had many, through the years, but I believe he felt that it would be better for his people to simply refer to him by title. But yes, he is the one to whom I refer. He was my friend, long ago, and I feared for him after I stopped hearing from him." The alien looked down, the sadness in her face intensifying. "It seems I was right to fear."

Deumos was outraged for a moment. This creature was claiming familiarity with the Holy God-Emperor of Man? He almost denounced her zealously, but he suddenly recalled Setaron's collapse, at dawn of the first day they were on this world. "You..." his mouth was suddenly dry. "Are you the being that Malachai sensed, that first dawn?"

The xeno shook her head. "No, I know what time you refer to, and it was not I that your telepath sensed, but my sister, Celestia." Luna paused, clearly remembering something. "I am glad you mentioned that, actually. Celestia wished me to convey her apologies to the poor man; she had no intent to harm him."

Deumos felt a hollow pit forming in his stomach. This... this was blasphemy. For an alien to claim a relationship with the Emperor... it was absurd. Yet, at the same time, these aliens had demonstrated even to his satisfaction that they weren't enemies, and Malachai had indicated that a being of power comparable to the Emperor could be found here. And there were two of them?

"You... you claim to have known the Emperor?" Deumos finally said, his voice strangled.

Luna nodded calmly, her mane swirling about her head. "I did. We never met face-to-face, but we communicated mind-to-mind for millennia. He was older than Celestia or I, and often offered advice. Good advice, generally. Celestia never really trusted him, but I came to regard him as a dear friend. To hear what happened to him... it strikes me to the heart, Confessor. I cannot even begin to express my sorrow. I truly, truly wish he had told us about his son's rebellion; I would have come to his aid in a heartbeat. I would have found a way to help. To be there for him." A tear slid down the alien's dark-furred face.

Deumos had no idea what to say. The teachings of the Imperial faith held that aliens were not to be trusted, that they intended no good for Humanity. Yet this being was claiming to have considered the Master of Mankind a friend, lamenting His fall, and wishing she could have aided Him in His darkest hour. He wanted to dismiss this as a lie, but what possible purpose could such a lie serve? These beings were demonstrated foes of Chaos, so they couldn't be trying to corrupt him. This creature, Luna, had made no attempt to undermine his faith in the Emperor or the Imperium; she simply seemed to be sharing a moment of honest sorrow.

Finally, just to see how she would respond, Deumos answered. "I wish you had been able to aid Him, too. Perhaps things would have turned out differently."

The winged, horned alien smiled kindly at the Confessor, tears still brimming in her eyes. "Perhaps. I like to think I could have made a difference. You are most kind to say so. In any case, I am glad my people could aid yours, even if I was unable to aid my old friend." She looked toward the town, as the sounds of the party changed subtly. "But it seems the party is entering its final stages, and it will soon be time for your people to depart. Thank you again for the news you have brought. Rest assured, Celestia and I will see you safely from this system."

Surprising himself, Deumos bowed to the tall creature. "Perhaps, if fate is kind, we will meet again, then."

Luna gave an enigmatic smile. "Perhaps we shall, Confessor. Perhaps we shall."

END