A Space Wolf Goes to Equestria
Sven Lodbrok made a crash-landing on the grass below. The shock ran through the back his dark-blue and yellow Adeptus Astartes power-armor, which bore on its pauldrons the snarling wolf of his Chapter – the Space Wolves. He rubbed his throbbing head, then scratched his lower jaw through his scraggly blond beard. Whether the throbbing came from being flung through the realm of mind-tearing eldritch horrors that was the Warp, or from last night's mead, he could only guess.
With a groan, he pushed himself up on his feet, and looked all around him at his surroundings. He found himself in a mess of trees, densely packed together so that their branches intertwined, and their leaves covered the sky with only small rays of light peering through them. 'Ugh. A forest,' Sven thought to himself. 'By the Emperor's beard, why does it always have to be a forest? Can't the Warp do something different for once?'
He heard a ruffling in the trees to his right. He whipped out his chainsword – a sword whose single edge bore the teeth and engine of a chainsaw – from the sheath strapped to his side, and let it rip with a squeeze of the trigger on its hilt. The chainsword's roar echoed throughout the forest. The animals within the trees scampered about, causing ruffling all around him. It also caused a scream coming from the right. It was the shrill scream of a little girl.
He tightened his grip on the chainsword, then growled, “Heretics.”
In the direction of the scream, he stomped his way through, swiping away at the fauna in front of him with his chainsword. Whatever that heretic did to whatever little girl he victimized, Sven was going to do things to him too horrible for even most Space Marines to imagine without cringing. The screaming continued; he picked up pace, running through the strange forest, powering through the branches with his chainsword and the sheer weight of his power-armored body. As he went forward, the screams grew louder. The heretic was nearby. Payback time was imminent.
One last swipe at the trees. He came at a dead end – a steep formation of rock standing forty meters wall, and stretching as far as the eye could see. In front of him laid the source of the shouting – some yellow equine xenos with a flowing pink mane, and wings on its back. Sven remembered the mantra: Beware the alien, the mutant, and the heretic. By instinct, he raised his chainsword high above his head, ready to do what Space Marines do best.
Yet, he hesitated. This xenos… the way her big teal eyes – and it was clearly a her – looked up at him, wet and shuddering with terror. The way all her legs trembled and quaked. The way she whimpered in that adorable little voice of hers. Indeed, this alien touched him in a way that was all too human. But although he faltered, he kept up his guard. In the grim darkness of the far future, alien predators which lulled their prey into a false sense of security were not unheard of in a galaxy containing billions of xenos species. This unbelievably adorable little pony could have, in fact, been a horrific man-eating monster that would have latched onto his face and eaten him before he could have reacted in time. Sven knew that he had to be careful.
He kept his chainsword roaring, holding it in front of his chest as he reached out to the pony with his free hand and approached it with slow, tiny steps. His breathing was heavy. His heart was racing. Although any Space Wolf worthy of the name loved a good fight, being lulled into a trap was a far more unsettling thought.
Then, the pony's shaking eased up. She looked up to Sven with a smile, and said, “Oh. You're just as scared as I am! Don't worry, big guy. I won't hurt you.” She looked up in the air. “Oh, Discord. Can you let the big ape with the scary chainsaw-thing know I won't hurt him?”
Sven heard a sinister chuckling from his left side. He turned his head; a flash of light popped in the air, and in the flash, some strange sort of chimera appeared. A Daemon! One of the Chaos Gods – most likely Tzeench – put this pony here to lure him here at the behest of a Chaos Daemon. But Sven wouldn't go down without a fight. He tightened the grip on his chainsword, then winded himself up to unleash an underhanded swing at the foul beast. With a devilish smirk, the Daemon snapped its fingers. When Sven unleashed his swing, he saw not the work of the chainsword on the Daemon, but a bouquet of white roses in his clutch in front of him.
The Daemon chuckled. “Flowers?” it gushed. “For me? Oh, you shouldn't have.” He pinched the bouquet out of Sven's fist, then turned to the pony and handed it to her. The pony grabbed the flowers in her teeth, then gave the Daemon a knowing wink.
Sven growled, still in his confusion.
The Daemon disappeared in a flash of light, then reappeared next to Sven and wrapped its arm around his shoulder. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Discord. God of… well, discord!” He chuckled, then gestured to the pony. “That's Fluttershy. She's really sweet. And how! I mean, just look at how she made even the big, bad Space Marine stupefied by her sugary, cutesy charms.”
Sven drew his gaze down to Fluttershy, who was staring up at him with the cutest of smiles and the most adorable pair of eyes he'd ever seen. The serenity in her eyes loosened the tension he had in his nerves.
Sven sighed, shaking his head. “Too cute.” He looked back to Discord. “What is this place? Why am I here?”
Fluttershy giggled. “You're in Equestria, of course! Where else would you be?” She sighed. “But I don't know why you're here. Sorry.”
“I brought him here,” Discord remarked.
Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Why?”
Discord shrugged. “Eh. I just felt like it.” He paused. “I'm Discord. I ain't gotta explain stuff.”
Fluttershy sighed, shaking her head with a smile. “Oh, Discord! You silly.” She looked up to Sven. “But now that you're here, is it alright if I give the big bad Space Marine a hug?”
Sven was silent for a moment. He then put on a smile as wide as the Imperium, itself, and extended both arms outward to embrace Fluttershy. “Aww, come here, you cute, cute, cute little alien horse thing!”
Fluttershy flapped her wings, then made a great leap upwards at the Space Marine, wrapping her hooves around his neck and rubbing her face up and down his neck. The soft brushing of her coat brought joy to his heart as he laid his hand up on Fluttershy's lower back to hold her up.
Fluttershy cooed. “Oh, we're gonna be the bestest of friends! I'll feed you, and clothe you, and call you George. And I will love you forever and ever.”
Author's Note
Here's where I got the idea for this fic.
