Fallout Equestria: Return Of The King

Chapters

Chapter 1: Steel And Gold
Chapter 2: Preparations of War
Chapter 3: The First Battles
Chapter 4: Expansion and Reconstruction
Chapter 5: The Great Crusade
Chapter 6: The Siege Of Maripony
Chapter 7: Manehattan
Chapter 8: Manehattan Part 2

Chapter 1: Steel And Gold

Myself and a group of steel rangers where told that, to the north, in an ancient and ruined church there was a fresh stable, it's door was never opened, and all sorts of undiscovered technologies await. It was a ten day trip from Manehattan, but the promise of what could be found inside was too much to stay, even if the trip was dangerous, the prize was too good.

The trip was long but mostly quiet, but we found the ruined church in morning, it was on the top of a hill and dead trees surrounded said hill, the radiation levels in the forest was far too high for most creatures too live there without medical help. The church it's self was shockingly radiation-free, and there where even pools of relatively clean water.

The church was filled with ruined tapestries and destroyed furniture, the tapestries where red and gold, and had the image of the sun on them. Broken gold and silver objects where lying around and cluttering the floor.

I walked down the hill and scoured the surrounding area, I found a small cliff on the northern side of the hill, then I saw something that filled me with awe, a giant golden stable door with the symbol of the sun painted on the front. The door was shiny and polished despite it being closed for two hundred years.

“I found it!” I screamed to my fellow steel rangers, ten steel rangers came running over the hill, one of them our leader, Black Lily.

The steel rangers stared at the single most beautiful thing we had ever seen, the door shined and glittered in the light. “Get that thing open,” Black lily said.

We spent the entire day trying to break down the door, the gold door seemed indestructible and after evening came to come we gave up on breaking our way through the door. There was no terminal on the outside, so we couldn't hack our way in either.

The night was quiet, something strange was going on, we had never encountered any raiders, slavers, or radioactive / tainted creatures, what ever was going on here, everything avoided it. I could not blame them, I was walking through the church ruins, despite me being an earth pony my entire body was shivering, I could feel magic energy emanating from the ground. It had to be coming from the stable, what ever was causing this was powerful and more than likely in the hooves of the stable dwellers down beneath.

No pony got a good night sleep, we could all feel the magic force, and it got stronger when we approached the stable door.

It was early morning when i went to check on the stable door, it was big and golden, the same as yesterday. Then i noticed something strange, the entire door began to glow around the edges, “The door!” I cried to the rest of the team, the glowing around the door became almost blinding, it looked like those images from old school books, about nightmare moon's rebellion, about the sun and the moon being right on top of each other.

“What's going on!” Black lily screamed as she ran towards me, she gasped as she looked up at the blinding door. The door started to open, the entire hill shook as the great gold door started to shift out of place, that uncomfortable feeling of magic pressure suddenly waved over all of us, a few fell over from the overpowering feeling of magic, I wondered if this is how it felt to be hit with a magical energy weapon.

The door was open, and the magic pressure gone. but light was still poring out from the hole in the hill, we could see a blurry silhouette of a unicorn with a big spiky disk just behind his head, standing in the door way.

I could hear singing coming from the stable and it was in a language i couldn't begin to understand.

Then the light began to fade and we could see the pony standing in front of us, he was a stallion unicorn, unlike many of the other stables we had found he was not wearing any kind of uniform, instead he was wearing a red suit that covered his entire torso, it had golden trim around the hooves and around his neck, over the suit he had a long white robe with the same gold trim, where his cutie mark should be there was an image of the sun stitched to the robes. But the strangest thing of all about this pony was the giant golden ring hovering just behind his head, it was spiked and had rubies embedded into it, he also had golden shoes that also had rubies in them.

The unicorn stared at us, not with fear, innocent optimism, or even anger, like we have seen in most other stables. The unicorn stared at us with a cold condescending glare with a hint of pity in his eyes.

The light had completely faded away, revealing an army of similarly robed ponies, just with white suits and red robes. Then when we saw what they had mounted to their sides we all took a step back, most of them had giant sub-machineguns, and a few even had flamethrowers. Black lily started to point her minigun at the unicorn with the halo, and we all brought up our weapons, fearing that they won't just let us take their technology willingly.

“So... you point your little guns at me, how cute, you think that you can kill us,” The unicorn said in a strange accent I had only ever heard on old recordings from pre-war Canterlot, and from the citizens of Tenpony tower.

Black lily was angered by the unicorn's challenge, “This little gun can!” Black lily screamed as she shot her minigun at the unicorn. The bullets had no effect, they stopped once they came close to the unicorn, dropping to the ground in a pile of flattened and shattered bullets. I realized that the unicorn must have some kind of invisible magic shield.

Black lily was infuriated, she ordered all steel rangers to open fire, the bullets just bounced off of the unicorn's shield, and even the robed mass behind him where immune to our weapons. Then the army of robed ponies turned their SMGs towards us, I had been attacked by sub-machineguns before and our power armor proved stronger, but these SMGs where diffrent, one pony infront of me was ripped apart by a hail of bullets, they broke right through her armor and exploded inside, blood came flowing out from any holes in the armor.

“Shit!” I dove behind a rock, then I looked up and saw the battle, steel rangers where falling like flies, the robed ponies suffered no causalities other than a few robed ponies who where injured, it looked like their shield had a range and you could get inside of it. Black lily charged at the unicorn, then a robed pony with a flamethrower jumped in her way and turned Black lily into a pile of molten metal and burning flesh.

From behind the rock I saw the unicorn look up to the sky, translucent wings made of light appeared at the unicorn's side, they where giant and luminescent, shining a brilliant gold light, similar to the light that erupted from the stable when it's door opened.

The winged unicorn flew into the sky high above the church, the unicorn's voice echoed across the hill “All whom survived the battle, all whom wish to live, arise from hiding and show yourselves, surrender and you shal be spared!” The unicorn said.

I came out from the rock, my weapons where turned off and pointed to the ground, I bowed in surrender to the robed ponies, the unicorn descended from the sky and looked around at the few ponies that where still alive.

I was walked into the stable, it's interior was made of polished gold, silver, and marble, the air was fresher than anything I had ever breathed in my life, the stable was lit by golden lanterns that gave off what felt like warm sunlight. I sat at the end of a beautifully crafted marble table with gold around the edges, the unicorn siting on the other side of the the table, with two ponies beside him, one a dark green pegasus stallion with a black mane, the other a black unicorn mare with a red mane, both in the same white suits and red robes.

“I have a few questions for you, but before that let me introduce myself, I am Edward blaze, loyal servant to her majesty the queen Celestia. what is your name?” The unicorn said. Now that i wasn't fighting I could get a better look at the unicorn, his mane was orange and his coat a shiny white, his eyes where a deep red and he had a small necklace that had an I shape with the same sun symbol in it's center.

“My name is Firefly, i'm a steel ranger crusader. I hope that's good enough of an introduction?” I said quietly. Looking around my surroundings I saw ponies of all colors, all with the same robes, some where carrying boxes of material, some where tending to their weapons, some where talking to others. However one pony stood out from the rest, he was a slightly older stallion, he had a rusty red coat and an orange mane, his eyes where blue but one, was mechanical and glowing a brightly, he was inspecting some steel ranger armor, from the way he was walking I could tell that most of his body must have been mechanical. “I have a question for you Edward, how did this stable get so technologically advanced.”

“Well, as you might have guessed, we are not a normal stable, we ... or more precisely they, are the descendants of the Priesthood of Flutterwest. A religious and military order dedicated to princess Celestia.”

“Wait... you said that they are the descendants of the priesthood, does that mean that you are not one,” I asked

“Well, yes and no, I am a priest, and I am the leader of the priesthood. But I am no descendant of any one here, not a single pony in this stable is related to me genetically, my parents died a long, long, long time ago, longer than you can comprehend,” He said, a slight smile forming on his face. “Anyway back on topic, I want to know three things, what is the state of the outside, what is the state of Canterlot, and finally where is princess Celestia?“ he asked me.

“For the first question, Equestria is in absolute ruin, raiders, slavers, and bandits roam the wastelands, there are a few surviving areas of life, namely us the steel rangers, some pegasus enclave in the sky somewhere, and a few settlements lying around the wasteland, there's also a place called Tenpony tower in Manehattan. Secondly, Canterlot is the worst ruin of them all, it has a deadly pink mist surrounding it, I don't know much about it myself. And Celestia is dead, has been for centuries, she was in Canterlot when the mega-spells hit.“

The unicorn sat there quietly for a few moments, “So it's not too different from what i expected, good,“ He said. Then three more ponies ran up to Edward, one was the cyborg pony I was looking at before, the other two where wearing armor strapped to their robes, one of those two was wearing a gas mask and the other had what looked like a pre-war officers cap on.

“Dark angel and Martyred, you two are coming with me,“ Edward said to the two original robed ponies next to him. “Skitarii you continue to research the armor the steel rangers where wearing, Cadia and Krieg, go patrol the outside, and try to arrange a militia from any ponies you can find to help with our conquest of Equestria,“ Edward said before walking away.

I was left alone at the table when a young mare with a red coat and black mane walked up to me, she looked like a sister to one of the ponies with Edward, “My name is Bloody rose, I have been told by lord Edward to either escort you out or to offer you a place in the priesthood.“

“What?“ I said confused

“Either join us, or I will escort you to the nearest pony settlement.“

I was going to let her escort me out, so I could go back to Manehattan and tell the other steel rangers about this, but the would just attack this place, and if they do, i doubt any of them would survive, and the chances of me surviving the trip back are slim. “I will join you,“ I said.

“Good, follow me,“ Bloody rose said as she led me away into the stable.

Chapter 2: Preparations of War

I stepped into the war room, most of the stable's more important ponies where here but Skitarri and Krieg where noticeably absent. There was an argument going on when I entered, but once every pony saw me the entire room went silent.

“Whats the situation,” I said. Then a tall stallion with a vibrant red coat and blonde mane sat up.

“Sir Edward, From Cadia's scouting parties, we can surmise that the outside is mostly in ruin, the few places that are in somewhat decent condition are the major cities," The red pony said. A holographic map of Equestria appeared from the the center of the table. “Those surviving cities are marked in red on the map, they are, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Griffonstone, and Canterlot."

“Good, Blood angel, you will continue your reconnaissance,“ I said. Then after a few seconds of silence, a mare with a white coat and black mane stood up as well.

“Currently the flutterwest stable is functioning at thirty percent capacity, the water talisman is at forty two percent capacity, manufacotorums are at five percent capacity, arcane generators at fifty percent capacity, mining system at twenty three percent capacity, and twenty two other sub-systems functioning at less then forty percent capacity. “

“Good, we have room to expand, Sacred rose, tell Skitarii to get the manufacotorums working and to start the production of more ammo, weapons, and sanctification talismans,“ I said to the white and black mare, she then bowed to me and left the room.

“Krieg is out recruiting any pony from the surrounding villages, to serve in the militia, he will return by morning, he has also taken the former steel ranger with him to act as a guide,“ A pale blue mare with a grey mane said.

Then a large silver unicorn stallion with a white mane shouted “Why do we even need this militia, we are powerful enough as it is, we don't need to rely on the primitive masses to help us.“

“You forget Grey knight, that we are just one thousand ponies, even if we had all of the technology in the world, it still takes more than just an order of one thousand to conquer a land the size of Equestria, even if that land is a collection of minor waring states,“ I said to Grey knight “And I would like it if you did not interrupt Valhallan next time.“

“Yes lord Edward, it will not happen again.“

“Any other news?“ I questioned the room of ponies.

“Yes sir, myself and a few others where checking the radio, and we came across two different channels that still broadcast signals, one was a local factions propaganda, the other was a news network, but this one was rather strange. We detected arcane interference in the sound waves, our machines removed the magic from the radio and discovered that, the mare on the other side was using some kind of spell to change her voice, for what reason we cannot say,“ A hooded cyborg mare replied.

“I will have a full report on this later, for now continue to analyse the radio waves,“ I said.

Blood angel stood back up, and the map zoomed into an area of northern Equestria, “This is Flutterwest and the area around it, we are here, and the steel rangers say that there are raider tribes, here, here, and here, there's also a ring of heavily irradiated land around the hill, but were working on clearing out the radiation. Just outside this ring, are several non-raider villages that Krieg is currently trying to recruit from.“ The red pegasus said as he pointed at the map.

“Blood raven!“ I said as a dark red earth pony with a dark grey mane stood up and looked at me, “I will put you in charge of dealing with these barbarians, do what ever you think necessary, after Blood raven clears the area of raiders, we should start expanding our base, I will put you in charge of that,“ I said pointing at the hooded cyborg mare.

After the meeting in the war room many of the ponies who where not assigned jobs went to the chapel to pray, I unfortunately did not have the time, I needed to plan our attack, with what information we have.

...

I wandered into a small village, the ponies looked worn and dirty. I wasn't wearing my gas mask, nor was my guide Firefly here to help me, he had to go on ahead to scout the surrounding area. I figured that my gas mask would frighten the ponies in the village, but even my presence was enough to scare these villagers. I asked one young mare on the street, “Who are you ponies,“ But she did not reply, only ran away from me.

For about an hour I explored the ghost town, ponies clearly lived in the buildings, but they where too frightened by me to come out, eventually I found an older stallion who did talk to me “You shouldn't be here, this town is plagued by bad luck, our plants die a few days before we harvest them, animals stay away from this place, and raiders attack us every goddamn week,“ The stallion shouted at me, he was sick and malnourished, if I did not do something, most of these villagers would die within the month.

“I come from the church on the hill just west of here, we have medicine and food, we can help this village.“ I said my voice full of hope. The stallion looked up at me in awe of what I just promised.

“Yo... you would actually help us?... but... but wait how do I know that your aren't a bandit trying to lure us into a trap!“ He shouted, “You are, iv'e been to that ruin, there's nothing there.“

“I can assure you, I am no such thing. I am an arbiter of the Priesthood of Flutterwest, my name is krieg. I understand if you don't trust me, and if you say for me to leave, I will“ I said trying to calm the clearly paranoid stallion.

Then I heard a scream from somewhere in the village “RAIDERS!!“ I then grabbed my meltagun and bolt pistol. The raiders where fast, they wore poorly kept leather and iron armor, they had an insane look in their eyes, and to most normal ponies, a very dangerous foe, but I was no normal pony

My meltagun turned one raider into ash before he even knew what happened, a second raider turned around when he saw his friend was gone, he shot his assault rifle at me but to no effect, the bullets breaking upon contact with my shield. I floated my bolt pistol and with a loud BOOM his head was now a red mist, but the boom of my bolt pistol attracted more.

Five raiders where circling me, they now knew that my shield protected me from their bullets, one charged at me screaming “WAAAGH!“ as he tried to get behind my shield, but a bolt round to the head said otherwise, but while I shot one another attacked from behind, anticipating the distraction I leveled my meltagun and burned the ambush.

There where now three raiders left, all three attacked at once, my bolt pistol and meltagun killed two of them but the third got behind my shield, at this close range my shield would not protect me. The raider lifted his pistol to my head but before he could shoot me i heard a shot from somewhere to my side,the raider jumped away outside my shield, the raider had a hole in his leg but was still alive, I fixed that with my meltagun.

The pony who saved me was the young mare who ran away from me earlier, she had a revolver in her teeth and was clearly shaking from the fear of both me and the raider attack. “Thank you, now let's finish this battle.“

The battle was over, there where fourteen raiders in total, all where now dead. The ponies of the village where now crowding around their new hero... me, I stood atop the tallest thing I could find other that the decrepit shacks, “Ponies of this village, I come from the church on the hill, we are hiring soldiers for a militia that will be in charge of protecting this area, all whom wish to join step up, you will be offered free medicine, food, water, and shelter. All whom wish to join raise your hoof!“ The group looked hesitant at first but then one pony raised their hoof, then another, and another, before long the entire village had their hooves raised. We now had fifty ponies in the militia, I made sure to remember to reward the pony who raised their hoof first.

The militia corp and I then started to march back to base.

Chapter 3: The First Battles

I was in a elevator heading to the primary hanger of the Flutterwest stable. Krieg and his new militia corp arrived this morning, after a basic medical checkup and a feast to repair their malnourished bodies, they where outfitted in basic titanium flak armor, and given a standard issue lasgun.

I heard the ding of the elevator as I reached the hanger, the door opened and as I walked out I smacked into a maroon colored unicorn cyborg mare, she jumped into the air, frightened at my sudden impact and then she collapsed onto the floor, her hooves covering her face as the mechanical limbs protruding from her back flailed in all directions.

“Mechanica, I hope I did not startle you too badly.”

“Oh... BLOOD RAVEN!” she screamed, “i'm... i'm sorry, did I hurt you?” she said timidly.

“Oh... there is nothing to worry about, i'm fine,” Mechanica has always been a shy pony, but when around her father Skitarii, or lord Edward she is a brave, compassionate, and calm young mare, but otherwise becomes a timid paranoid and apologetic filly.

“Mechanica, what are you doing here?” I asked

“Oh... Edward put me in charge of base construction, I am to repair Flutterwest chapel, and to build more manufacotorums and to build a base for the militia, and... ”

“That's enough... remember I was at the meeting too.”

“Sorry...”

“Wait, Mechanica would you mind helping me purge the raiders, Edward said that you cannot start construction until the raiders are dealt with, and you sound like you already have everything planed,“ I asked the kind mare.

“Wait... you want my help... you really want my help!” she screamed in delight, “I'll go get my weapons,” she said as she darted off out of the hanger.

Well, now I have two arbiters, one mechanicus, and myself another arbiter, I say that i had enough to purge some local raiders.

I pushed the button on my communicator and ordered the others to come to the hanger, the first was Grey knight, he had a chainsword and a bolter levitating next to him, the second was bloody rose, she has a heavy flamer and heavy bolter mounted onto her saddle, I had a meltagun and a bolter, then Mechanica came back with her weapons, mounted to her back via metal arms was a radium carbine and an arc rifle.

“Good, everypony is here, now our first target is due south of here, the second about a mile east of the first and the third is north west of Flutterwest, I have packed food, drink, and extra bolter and flamer ammo... and Mechanica's weapons should never run out of ammo.”

The rest nodded and we began to trot over to the stable door.

...

Half way through our walk over to the first raider camp Grey knight asked “Why are we all unicorns, i'm a unicorn, you are a unicorn and the two ladies over there are unicorns.”

“Edward said to bring a mostly unicorn team, he needs the other ponies for other jobs, the earth ponies strength is being used to haul the materials from the mines to be used in construction, and the pegisai are being used to scout the area for anything good or bad near the base.”

We where almost to the first raider camp, we where mostly hiding in the trees, Mechanica's guns glowed and almost gave away our chance of surprise but we managed to get by without notice, I could see the camp through the trees, four raiders where sitting by their campfire, three others where patrolling along the outside, I could see five more in the buildings, and one off in the woods behind the camp.

I signaled Mechanica to fire, she aimed her radium carbine, with perfect accuracy she shot one of the patrols right in the torso with a wave of radioactive energy, the target collapsed in radioactive pain, the rest came running in the direction of the screaming raider.

They fell into our trap, Bloody rose fired her heavy flamer at the group of ponies, two of them died, the others ran as soon as they saw her, I floated up my bolter and tore one of the retreating raiders into pieces, two ran back to the camp, one got his head removed by Grey knight's chainsword, the other got away, Mechanica ran after the raider back to the camp, I got my meltagun and burned away another raider.

Mechanica found the raider hiding in the camp, he fled onto the metal roof of a shack, Mechanica aimed her arc rifle and with a blast of lightning, electrocuted the poor raider, back in the ambush Bloody rose tore down three other ponies with her heavy bolter, their remains now splattering the first raider, still screaming from the pain of radiation poisoning. Grey knight trotted up to the last raider and tore him up with his chainsword. Back from the direction of the camp we heard the final raider get killed by Mechanica's radium carbine, as the first raider finally died of radiation.

We scanned the primitive camp for anything of use, everything we found we either already have or we could make in the manufacotorum, Myself and grey knight inspected the inside of one of the shacks. it was disgusting, vulgar paintings littered the walls, painted in what we could assume was blood, there was a torn mattress in the corner and all sorts of random objects lining the floor. Understandably we wanted to leave as soon as possible.

When we where about to leave I turned around behind one of the shacks, I saw a pony, he was burned and unrecognizable, but I could tell from the cuts around his sides and flank that these raiders where eating him, I almost wanted to vomit, but knowing that all the raiders where already dead made me somewhat more comfortable, and I used my meltagun to burn away the rest of the body.

We reached the second camp, but it was deserted, we could not see a single pony anywhere in the camp, the buildings where still intact, or at least intact enough to assume that nothing slaughtered the raiders for us. Then I remembered that some raiders attacked the village that Krieg saved, presumably this was where they came from.

My communicator started to make a beeping sound, turning it on I heard Edward's voice from the other side “How's your progress Blood raven.”

“Good, we have destroyed the first raider base and the second was already abandoned when we got here.”

“I have sent Krieg ahead to destroy the third raider camp for you, it will be a good test of his militia, the death korps of krieg, he has named them.”

...

Myself and the other militia where marching towards the raider village, I hated raiders, they murdered my friends and family, they raped and burned my village, but now I was given the chance to fight back against the raider bastards. Krieg was leading all fifty of us, we all had the same uniform, metal armor and a dark red trench-coat, a gas mask to protect from any poisons in the air, and a type of magical energy weapon called a lasgun, Krieg and the other priesthood arbiters say that they aren't as good as their weapons but is the only thing they could produce in large enough numbers.

The raiders heard us coming, there where at least twenty of them, the started firing their guns at us, we did not have the same magical shields that the arbiters had, and a few of us where gunned down before they got to cover. Krieg screamed “FOR CELESTIA, FOR THE PRIESTHOOD AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, FOR LORD EDWARD, DIE!!!” as he charged at the raiders with his chainsword, I looked around the tree I was hiding behind, the raiders where firing wildly in all directions, I got hit a few times but the bullets bounced off of my armor.

I fired my lasgun into the hoard of raiders, my aim was off a bit and I only blew off a raider's leg, my second shot was a bit more accurate. The rest of the militia was also doing well in the battle, we had pushed the raiders back into their village and I was hiding behind a fallen tree, the raiders tried to hold us off but we had the technological advantage.

Some of the raiders tried to run as soon as they saw we had overrun them, I fired my lasgun at one, the shot tore open his side and he bled out, Krieg was taking shots with his bolter and killing quite a few, still some raiders got away. Krieg stood atop their dead campfire and screamed “This place belongs to the priesthood!” as he stuck a flag with the priesthood's iconic golden sun symbol. The battle was won.

I wonder how long it will be, before word of our existence gets out.

Chapter 4: Expansion and Reconstruction

The voice of the ever enigmatic DJ Pon3 came over the radio, however unlike many of her speeches this one was not about an event on the other side of the wasteland nor about the equally mysterious hero of the wasteland whom the tech-priests soon got tired of hearing about “Well, now I have some interesting news for you children, remember that old church on the hill, just north of Canterlot,” with this the tech-priests soon jumped to their feet and started to listen intently, “Well it appears that those ruins are not so abandoned after all, there's a group of red cloaked ponies living up there, calling themselves the Priesthood of Flutterwest, now I don't know who these ponies are, or what they are doing, but they have been hunting the raiders up in the north, and from what we know about raiders, i'd say that's a good thing.”

The speech of DJ Pon3 surprised the tech-priests, they did not expect word of the priesthood's existence to travel so quickly, but they knew that they must tell lord Edward about this, “Just be careful when going up north, we don't know what the priesthood is, neither do we know what they want, we just know that there up there, and they have a lot of powerful tech.”

The tech priests soon started to relay this information to Edward, and started to work harder on the projects that skitarii and mechanica had them working on, they had almost finished a functional suit of flutterwest power armor, and could soon start work on the multitude of other projects they had.

...

I was put in charge of expanding the base, the tech-priests under my command where working all night and now all morning in getting the first manufactorum constructed, we had the outside of the building almost complete, and we even had some of the machinery working, Edward was going to be so pleased with my work, even just being near him was heavenly, and this would impress him, it had to impress him.

“Mechanica, how's the manufactorum, almost done?” Skitarii asked me

“Yes father it should be done by the evening if we continue at the same rate,” I said “And I thank you for the rad-away you gave me yesterday, but I don't need it, I've used a radium carbine many times before, and do you think I'd ever invent a weapon that would kill the user.”

“True, imagine how stupid somepony would half to be to use a weapon that would actually do that, ha!” Skitarii laughed. “These manufactorums will be useful for my current project.”

“I have no doubt that they will father, and I hope that lord Edward is happy with my progress.”

“I've known Edward since I was born, and I can assure you that he will be quite pleased with how efficiently you've assembled the building.”

Upon hearing this I couldn't prevent a giant smile from appearing across my face, I was in pure joy from the promise that Edward would be happy with my success.

“You there, tech-priest, that need's to be aligned vertically, not horizontally,” I shouted to a tech-priest attempting to weld a sheet of titanium to the floor, when he heard my orders, he removed the piece of metal and put it on the correct way.

From the other side of the hill I could hear the marching of hooves and the sounds of lasguns. Krieg was training his soldiers to be more disciplined and better with their weapons.

Blood angel was overseeing the construction, wandering around and checking for any problems that could occur, as well as inspecting the construction and delivery of materials from the mines.

Dark angel was watching from what remains of Flutterwest tower, scanning the area for anything approaching the base. Yesterday I had taken the skull of one of the dead raiders and filled it with machinery to act as a scanner to assist Dark angel in his scouting, the skull could even spot invisible things.

Martyred and Sacred rose where discussing combat tactics, Cadia was assisting Krieg with training, Bloody rose was helping the tech-priests with moving resources for construction. and Grey knight was sanctifying the area to remove any radiation from the land so we could grow more crops. It was impressive to think that only two days ago we opened the stable door, and that we had progressed so fast in those two days.

...

“You, solder come over here!” I shouted to one of the militia ponies.

“Yes Krieg sir,” the militia pony said as he walked over to me.

“This is rather informal but, I was impressed by how well you fought in the last battle and impressed by your bravery to be the first pony in your village to raise your hoof and join the militia, so in honor of your minor but still notable achievements I will promote you to a commissar, you will be in charge of improving morale and ensuring that the militia does it's job and fights at full power, I will also leave punishment of insubordinate ponies up to you.”

“Thank you sir, I don't know what to say, i'm honored and I hope I don't disappoint,” The militia pony said “You did save my village and for that we all owe you our lives.”

“Good, I hope you do a good job at leading your fellow militia, ugh... what was your name?” I paused remembering that I haven't asked his name yet.

“Radray sir, I was named that after my mother died of radiation sickness.”

I nodded understanding the rather grim ways to die without the magic of our sanctification talismans protecting us from such things as radiation.

I was about to go and check on the training but then a shout coming from the tower caught my attention “We have steel rangers approaching the base, there coming form the south east,” Dark angel shouted down to me and Radray.

Myself, the newly appointed commissar and two more militia ran to the south east border of the camp, there where seven steel rangers approaching, one was wearing no helmet.

“Who goes there, this is Flutterwest cathedral,” I said to the small group of armored ponies.

“My name is crusader Midnight I was going to accompany the rest of the steel rangers from Manehattan in the pursuit of a stable somewhere near Ponyville, but our leader had sent me here to see if I can't discuss some kind of deal with you.”

But before I could respond to the armored mare in front of me, Blood angel shouted to me, “Let them in, i'll discuss this with them myself.”

The Group of steel rangers trotted into the base, they looked around for the source of the voice that let them enter, but when they looked up and saw the red pegasus flying just above them, they all took a few steps back, with a notable look of shock on the face of Midnight who had clearly never seen a pegasus before.

...

“So... why are you here again,” I asked to the leader of the group of steel rangers.

“We have come to see if we can't discuss some kind of deal with you,” Midnight replied.

“Come follow me,” I said as i began to walk off to the ruins of Flutterwest.

I brought the steel ranger group to a large titanium and gold table we had placed in the ruins of Flutterwest to act as a basic diplomatic chamber until we had actually built a dedicated diplomacy room.

“So let's get this started, what do you want and why are you here,” I said to Midnight.

“I want to speak to your leader,” Midnight replied with a hint of anger in her voice.

“Lord Edward blaze is unavailable at the moment, he has left me in charge,” I said truthfully but it appeared that the steel rangers did not believe me.

Midnight sighed but then soon said “Ok then, I will talk to you instead.”

“Good now, what do you want.”

“Even though it is below me to reason with primitives, you have some impressive weapons and tech, and I, or rather my leader, would like to try to bargain with you for some of you lovely technology, in exchange we will grant you information about anywhere and anything in the wasteland, and as much as I despise telling you this, he has ordered that we grant you resources and assistance for what ever you need.”

I looked at the clearly angered mare in front of me, “these are requests we are not keen in meeting but, your assistance may prove useful,” I said while staring at Midnight “And I can assure you, that we are not primitive in the least.”

“I don't like this deal either, I would rather steal the tech from you myself, but I've been ordered to solve this non-violently if possible,” She Replied with contempt, “The specific tech I would like is your sub-machine guns, your anti-tank flamethrowers and the magic shields that protect y-”

“NO!” I would not let these ponies get a hold on our most useful tech, I was wary of giving them bolters and meltaguns, but our sanctification talismans are too powerful to fall into the wrong hooves.

“What?” Midnight shrieked with anger, “I demand to speak with your leader!” Midnight shouted.

“As I said, lord Edward blaze is unavailable at the moment,” I shouted “And I am sure he would say the same thing, our bolters and meltaguns are ok, but we cannot let you have our talismans, they are far more than just simple shields and are too powerful for simple-minded beings such as yourselves,” I said as Ii pulled out my talisman, it was in the shape of a gothic I with a circle in the center, on that circle was the image of the sun engraved into the shiny gold pendant.

She stared at the pendant with a look of determination, she wanted it but did not know it's awesome power, “You don't know how powerful this simple pendant is, and because of that i cannot let you have it,” I said as I lifted the necklace into the air with my wing. An otherworldly holy light shone around the I, in a flash one steel ranger burst into flames and screamed for a few seconds before dying.

The flames went away when the subject died, but when Midnight turned around to face me, she looked at the talisman with desire in her eyes, I feared that I had only made the situation worse, I had killed one of the steel rangers, and now Midnight saw the power of the talisman.

“As I said, you cannot have it, is too powerful.”

“I won't leave without it!” she screamed

“Do I need to repeat myself, you cannot have it!” I screamed back as I carefully put the talisman back into my robes.

“Damn you, that tech belongs to us, and if you don't give it to us we will take it from you!” she screamed as she galloped up to me and with a loud smack she slapped me across the face.

I stared at her with a fury in my eyes, she began to back away when I screamed to her and to all the steel rangers in the room, “You come here, and try to lie your way to getting filthy hooves on our sacred tech, then you threaten our holy order, and hit an arbiter!” a look of fear shot across Midnight's face as I spoke “If we did give you what you demanded then you would have only used it to betray the ones who gave you it in the first place, and as long as I live I will never let your unworthy hooves touch even a single one of the sacred bolters or lasguns our goddess Celestia has given us!” I screamed in rage.

It was only a few minutes into diplomacy and it has gone downhill very quickly, although I did expect this to happen given what we know about the steel rangers. Seeing as shit hit the fan so quick I shouted “Enough of this!” and before Midnight could react I already was pulling something out of a hidden holster underneath my cloak.

Midnight jumped back at the sight of what i pulled out of my cloak, a chainsaw, half the size of a pony, with the handle and body of a sword. Midnight tried to get her weapons running but she was distracted by the sound of ripping metal and the whir of my chainsword, she looked down and all she could see before dying is my chainsword ripping through her chest and armor with ease.

With their leader falling limply to the ground, blood poring from her chest, the steel rangers began to back away, they ran as far as they could, the militia firing at them with their lasguns, the bolts of their relatively weak lasguns harmlessly bounced off of the steel rangers power armor with ease, surely we had now made one new enemy.

...

I was trotting around the war room, going over what knowledge we have on Equestria and trying to decide how to conquer Equestria most efficiently when a beeping sound emanated from a large communicator lying on the center of the table

The voice of Skitarii came from the device, “Edward, some steel rangers came up to the base and started a fight, blood angel killed their leader but it looks like we might have a new enemy... Oh and also I've finished one of the projects you requested.“

Chapter 5: The Great Crusade

“Who the hell are you?” I asked the group of wasteland ponies in front of me.

“We... were merchants, from Manehattan, we heard DJ Pon3 talk about, your hiring solider for some kind of army, and paying them in-”

“That's enough talk, come in and follow me, I'll show your barracks. I'll ask you some basic questions, and then I will send you over to Krieg for training.”

“Tha...Thank you sir!“ The merchant mare said hesitantly as I led them off into our encampment. The merchant ponies stared in awe at the construction being done on Flutterwest cathedral, they looked at the score of tech-priests rebuilding the stone and wood church out of titanium and steel, they trotted around scaffolding and welded pieces of metal together to form the outside shell, piles and piles of gold and silver cluttered the ground around the church. Edward said to coat the outside and inside in enchanted silver and gold to match the inside of the stable.

The two manufactorums where finally fully functional, after yesterdays events Mechanica had requisitioned a dozen more tech-priests so she could finish both of the facilities before nightfall, and all through the night she worked on the militia camp, we now had a militia barracks, and a proper firing range.

Around the militia base we could hear the marching of the militia, over the past few days, ever since we first opened the stable door, Krieg has been going out into the wasteland to gather more ponies for the militia, we now had one hundred and fifty soldiers for the flutterwest militia, and with these ponies came knowledge of the Equestrian wastes, all of which was being sent directly to lord Edward.

After showing the new recruits around the base I proceeded to ask them basic questions about their military background, such as, have you ever used a magical energy weapon before, What do you know about the Equestrian wasteland, and finally I had a unicorn check their mind for any signs of malice to ensure that they aren't spies or infiltrators of some kind.

“Krieg!“ I shouted over into the camp, “I have six new recruits for you.“

The brown and grey unicorn came walking over to me, “I see...“ Krieg said as he stared at the group of ponies I had been escorting, “Good, you six, come with me,“ Krieg and the six merchants then disappeared into the militia camp.

After giving Krieg new militia, I trotted around the hill until I came to the stable door, all around the door where priesthood arbiters, they where moving resources from the stable and over to the cathedral, the ground around the door was excavated to reveal the stable door.

The gilded halls of the stable shone with brilliant light, this happened when enough ponies where preying to Celestia, their magic energy flows through the structure of the stable, I could feel the magic rushing around the stable, pooling in the reliquaries and shrines.

Finally I reached a door, the accumulated magic of the stable made the door vibrate and glow softly, behind the door I could see hundreds of ponies gathered around a shrine, on top of said shrine was a statue of goddess Celestia. I waded trough the sea of ponies, I found a spot between Ultramarine and Valhallan, and joined in the prayer.

...

“... Move it a bit to the left!“ I shouted up to the tech-priest trying to place a symbol of the princess above the door of flutterwest cathedral, “What do you think Mechanica?“ I asked my daughter.

“Move it a bit to the left,“ She repeated to me.

“Very well than,“ I said to her, I screamed up to the tech-priest “You heard the young mare, move it a bit to the left.“

The tech-priest mounted the statuette of Celestia just above the door, it was the same polished gold that lined the walls of the stable and that comprised the stable door, and despite the cloud cover and discolored light emanating from through the gloomy sky, the gold still shined with a sparkling brilliance. I waved a hoof at the tech-priest, signalling to the cyborg stallion to take a break, the stallion nodded and trotted away.

“Mechanica?“ I said to my daughter

“With this I estimate that flutterwest is fifty seven percent complete, if we continue at our current speed we should complete the structure by next morning if we work through the night... if not then it will take another day.“

“... Very well, I will leave you to your management, Edward has need of me again.“

“Good luck,“ my daughter waved to me while I trotted off to the flutterwest stable. I was starting to get annoyed with how often Edward needed me, but I was the only of his inner circle of friends who was a mechanicus, blood angel was his manager and kept the arbiters together, martyred and grey knight where only ever good at fighting, and I was already passing most of my work to my daughter, with Edward's permission of course, after all my daughter was infatuated with our leader to the point of obsession, was twice my age, and worked twice as hard as me, but I doubt she has have the willpower and discipline to do more advanced tasks, such as research and development. I just wanted a break from the piles and piles of work that had accumulated over the days, but with the rate Edward's plans where unfolding, I doubt that I would get my wish any time soon.

...

I was lying in my bed when I heard a loud horn noise sound from somewhere outside, the noise echoed through the grey metal walls of the barracks, myself and many other militia ponies rushed out of our cots when we heard the horn, it was rather late in the evening, and we where all on the verge of sleep when we where unpleasantly shaken from our rest by this echoing noise.

We rushed outside, the cold toxic air blew my mane about, and even with my helmet on it still got into my eyes and started to get bothersome after a few moments of fiddling about with my white and blue mane. I soon got accustomed to the violent wind and continued onward to the sound of the horn.

Near the bottom of the hill was a small wooden podium, mounted on a wooden platform, there where braziers of fire on either side of the podium to illuminate the area in the darkness of evening, their flames clearly enchanted to be immune to the chaotic wind. There where hundreds of ponies standing in front of the platform, most of them where wearing red and gold robes, clearly flutterwest arbiters, I concluded we where the first militia to arrive at this gathering.

My place as the first militia pony to join this gathering was short-lived as soon the rest of the militia rushed-in and joined the mob. Not every arbiter was present at the gathering, as there where one-thousand and one of those robed priest-warriors, and the crowd was clearly not one thousand ponies big, the rest must be inside flutterwest stable, this theory was proven true when I saw a microphone attached to the podium, and a wire extending down from the stand and to a small antenna protruding from a strange device, the rest of the arbiters where going to listen to whatever was going to happen through a make-shift radio system.

Not long after the rest of the militia was gathered around the podium, a group of arbiters walked up on to the platform, a red stallion with a blonde mane, a black mare with a red mane, a big grey stallion with a silver mane, and a skinny red stallion with an orange mane and most of his body augmented with mechanical parts.

“Now, before we begin I must ask all ponies present at this event to split into three groups, arbiters in the center, and militia on each side“ the stallion said down to us from the slightly raised platform. We did what we where asked, I was in the front of the right group, I had to shuffle around a bit so I could see the podium clearly, and while I was trying to get to the front of the group I heard a thunderous applause ring through the crowd, and when I could finally see again through the sea of flesh, and armor I saw why.

There, standing right behind the podium was the silver stallion with a short orange mane, white robes draped over a red suit that covered most of his body, and a beautiful golden halo levitating inches away from the back of his head. Edward blaze looked at the crowd and once the crowd got the message they all suddenly became as silent as possible.

With a deep masculine voice, in an accent I've rarely heard back in my days of being a merchant the unicorn spoke “Fillies and gentlecolts, I have gathered you this night to declare war upon the factions of Equestria, this will be a war of reunification, a war of salvation, and a war to reunite the races of ponies, griffons, and dragons again. The once great empire of my queen Celestia has fallen, it is now a rabble of uncivilized barbarians, killing, raping, and destroying my once great land, and what final bastions of unity and hope have been twisted and corrupted by the evil of this wasteland, the steel rangers slaughter those whom they don't deem worthy, and hoard technology unjustly. That is why the priesthood of flutterwest has risen from the depths of the earth to bring order to this fractured and distraught land.“

After a vigorous round of applause from the arbiters, Edward continued with his speech “And so I begin this war, from the knowledge I've received from the militia recruits I have found our first targets for our great crusade. Just south is the province of Maripony, myself, grey knight, and martyred will lead two-hundred arbiters to retake that land in the name of Celestia, and I'm sending the militia, and another one-hundred arbiters to go to Manehattan, once there await further orders from me.“

After a few more moments of silence Edward continued “But because working in such a way is to complex for the current chain of command, I, with the help of blood angel, have reorganized the ranks of the arbiters, militia, and mechanicum. First a group of ten arbiters will be led by a canoness, then ten of those canoness will be led by a chaplain, this way I can control the one thousand arbiters with more effectiveness, even if the arbiters grow to two or three thousand. Next is the militia, one hundred militia are led by a commissar, and ten commissars are led by a canoness put in charge of the militia, in this case Krieg, Cadia, and Valhallan, and each militia canoness will have the same number of militia ponies under their control, thus I have split the ranks of the current militia to keep an even number of militia for each canoness. Finaly is the mechanicum, ten tech-priests will be led by a enginseer, and from their they will be fused with the normal arbiter command structure by being led by a chaplain.“

I took a moment to process the command structure in my head, the militia ranks were not altered that much, but from some of the arbiters reactions I could tell this was new to them, “Now, For promotions!“ Edward said “I am assigning Blood angel to the rank of chaplain, Martyred, Ultramarine, Grey knight, Bloody rose, Black templar, Dark angel, Ebon chalice, Deathwatch, Space wolf, and Crimson fist are going to be my canonesses, finally Skitarii, Mechanica, and Magos are going to be enginseers.“

“Now, I believe it is time to show you all the many secret projects I've had Skitarii working on,“ Edward said as a pony came marching over the hill, this was clearly an arbiter, but their robes were a bit bulky in certain areas, such as the joints where their legs meet their body, and down their back. When the pony reached the platform just as Edward finished talking I could see the pony more clearly, she was clearly a mare, red fur with a black mane, and she was wearing some kind of armor underneath her robes.

The mare disrobed and all of her clothing dropped to the ground, she was wearing a suit of golden power armor, she had large metal plates covering her back, plot, and upper forelegs, with lighter armor covering the rest of her body, and protruding from the front of the armor was a giant version of the sanctification talismans that the rest of the arbiters where around their neck,“This is the sororitas pattern power armor, before opening the stable door, we had already built a suit of power armor, known as the astartes pattern armor, but it was bulky, oversized, and primitive compared to our current design, so I had Skitarii rebuild the armor from scratch, and with the steel ranger's power armor we where able to perfect the design,“ Edward said just before levitating his bolt pistol to the mares head.

With an echoing BOOM! the bolt pistol fired and when we looked back up, we could see the mare was unharmed, “ The sororitas power armor has a more powerful version of our sanctification talismans built into the armor, it can protect from most forms of weaponry, and even if an attack punctures the shield, the armor is five times as strong as steel ranger armor. The armor is difficult to manufacture and takes roughly a day to create, and therefore is only available to cannonesses and chaplains currently, but when we get more production and resources, I hope all of us will be armed with this glorious piece of machinery.“

The crowd erupted in cheers and joyous screams, but with a rumbling sound the crowd's cheering turned to awe as a giant vehicle roamed over the hill from the manufacotorums. It was giant and bulky, it looked like ten ponies could fit inside with little effort, plus a driver and a few weapons.

“This is the second project I've had Skitarii working on, this is the rhino, an armored transport designed to carry ponies to the battlefield with a heavy amount of protection, I also have plans for a larger armed version called the land raider, and a version retrofitted with a turret and heavy flamers known as the Immolator,“ Edward said pointing his hoof at the tank that appeared over the hill, the crowd remained silent as they stared at the machine.

“The rhino will accompany myself and the arbiters in the conquest of Maripony,“ Edward said to the crowd as the awe of the rhino started to die away, “ Next morning we leave, the militia and one hundred arbiters will go to Manehattan, and myself, the rhino, and two hundred arbiters will leave for Marypony,“ Edward said finally.

Chapter 6: The Siege Of Maripony

I was staring at the metal walls of the rhino, the sound of the engine rumbling throughout the tank, the arbiters closest to lord Edward were aloud to use the rhino, myself, blood angel, Martyred, and Grey knight, but Skitarii couldn't come, he was instructed to stay at the cathedral and make more rhinos for the second group, the one whom is heading to Manehattan. and with my father's absence, I was here as a replacement tech-priest.

Normally, I would be obsessing over Edward, but now was not the time for that, we didn't exactly know what was here, ponies have told us what they've seen but none are conclusive, all have errors or contradictions. and if we found ourselves a fight, I needed a clear head.

Then without warning, the rhino stopped, everypony looked confused and worried, then Blood angel said to the driver “What's going on.”

“There are a bunch of winged-unicorns blocking the road!” The driver replied. Myself and Blood angel exited the rhino to see what there winged-unicorns were doing. There were around fifty of them, and they formed a living road-block.

“Who are you?” They all said in unison, while each was staring at the rhino. I could feel a strange feeling wash over me, something was trying to get into my head, but the sanctification talisman was blocking it's influence, and whatever it was, I could tell that the others were feeling the same thing.

“We are the priesthood of flutterwest,” Blood raven said, After Blood raven's response, a look of fear washed over the alicorns, but that fear soon faded when the alicorns cast a shield spell over themselves, and then pointed their horns at us.

“Everypony, get back!” I screamed, but as I finished my sentence, a beam of magic hit Blood raven. The arbiter fell to the ground, bleeding from his shoulder, the alicorn's spell tore through our shields, but luckily Blood raven was not dead.

The battle began with an arbiter firing her bolter at the alicorn that shot Blood raven, the bolt shells exploded against the shield of the alicorn, but on the third shot the alicorn's shield broke, and then with one final bolt, the head of the creature exploded into a fine red mist, but the alicorns retaliated, and with a sharp scream the arbiter was killed by another beam spell.

While gunshots rang out from all directions, an alicorn charged at me, it's horn glowing brightly. I fired my arc rifle and radium carbine at the same time, the electricity from the arc rifle was absorbed by the creature's shield, and the radiation only made the creature's horn glow brighter and the creature's run faster.

I retreated back into the rhino and closed the door as fast as I could, “What's going on!” Grey knight screamed.

“A bunch of angry alicorns attacked us, Blood angel is still outside, but one-” Then a loud pounding shook the rhino.

“You hide in this metal box!?” The alicorn shouted at the rhino “COME OUT!” The alicorn's voice grew louder and louder.

Then with a flash of light, the alicorn appeared inside the rhino, but the moment the alicorn teleported, a bolt shell tore through it's skull, leaving nothing left of it's head. Edward trotted over the corpse of the alicorn, a deep anger in his eyes, and floating next to him a bolt pistol and chainsword.

Edward opened the door of the rhino and stepped into the maelstrom of battle, “ARBITERS, DRIVE THESE DAEMONS BACK FROM WHENCE THEY CAME!” Edward screamed into the battle. Once the alicorns saw Edward, they all started to back away, and seeing this moment of weakness the arbiters charged at the alicorns.

Bolt shells filled the air, as alicorns were gunned down by the arbiters, after retreating the alicorns tried to counterattack by flying up into the air and trying to descend upon us, but they were stopped by our pegisai. Soon the dead bodies of both sides began to rain down from above.

...

The alicorn screamed as I planted my chainsword in her back, my white and silver coat was now spotted with blood. Using my magic, I lifted the chainsword from the now dead alicorn, just in time to take off the head of another in one stroke. Without warning, another alicorn flew past me, and tried to fire it's beam spell at me, but then a blast of heavy bolter fire tore the daemon into pieces.

Martyred was standing a few metters away, she raked the alicorns with her heavy bolter, but then a purple alicorn, slightly larger than normal, teleported behind Martyred. Thinking quickly, I teleported behind the alicorn, and with a slice of my chainsword, removed the creatures legs, the alicorn tried to turn to attack me, but then I plunged my chainsword into it's head.

“Thank you, Grey knight,” Martyred said, tired form the battle.

“I will do what I can to protect a fellow arbiter,” I replied, “But there is no time to be tired, we must purge these daemons, leave not a single one alive!” I screamed with fury.

I rushed back into the battle, cleaving through alicorn after alicorn, I was unmatched in mele combat, While Martyred fired her heavy bolter through the alicorns as if she was shooting through paper, she never missed, she was unmatched in ranged combat.

One green alicorn pointed her horn at a blue alicorn, then a magic shield formed around the blue alicorn, the blue one charged into battle, while the green one began casting a spell over it's self, but the spell was cut short when the alicorn was shot apart by bolter fire, and once the green alicorn was dead, the shield on the blue alicorn faded.

I shouted to the arbiters around me “Target the green alicorns, they are the ones giving the others shields!” Then I charged at the nearest green alicorn, my chainsword roaring like an angry beast, as I brought it down on the alicorn's shield, breaking the shield and then slicing the alicorn in two.

...

“Lord Edward!” I called down to the silver unicorn, “About half a mile south, there's a large building of some kind, I think that's where the alicorns are coming from.”

“Good, Blood angel, direct our forces in that direction,” Edward replied as I started to fly off back into battle.

I landed at out front lines, the arbiters had formed a small defensive line, and were doing a decent job of keeping the alicorns back with bolter fire, “Rally!” I shouted to the arbiters, and heading my command, they all formed a line of bolters, with a second line of flamers just behind.

We pushed forward, as the alicorns slowly retreated, we still had to beware of teleporters, but we were gaining victory, slowly. After pushing the alicorns back about one hundred and fifty meters, we came across a few arbiters surrounded by alicorns.

As soon as they saw us, the trapped arbiters fought harder, and soon rejoined the front lines. Grey knight ran up to me, “Thank you, we were led into that trap by a large blue alicorn, who seemed to be smarter than the rest.”

“Did you kill the smart alicorn?” I asked, wary of this creature, fearing that it might lead us into another trap

“No, but while fighting, I discovered that the green alicorns can give both themselves and others those shields. if we target green ones, then we might gain the upper hand.”

We continued on for another ten minutes, exchanging fire with the alicorns, as the alicrons were retreating faster and faster. Mechanica had fixed the rhino after an alicorn damaged it's engine, and now, we had all of our forces in one giant charge, with the alicorns in full retreat.

Edward was inside the rhino, waiting for when we got to their base. Something felt off, the alicorns were in full retreat, but these creatures were connected in a hive mind judging from their tactics, and how they acted when we first encountered them, and because of that they should be unafraid of death, so why were they retreating.

“Flamers, guard our backs!” I shouted when I realized what the alicorns were planing, there are three types of alicorns: blue, green, and purple, but the majority of alicorns we had encountered in the battle, were green and purple, so where were the blues...

Then from out of nowhere, fifty blue alicorns appeared behind our lines, they charged at our backs, firing their spells into our ranks, the flamers had responded by forming a defensive line behind us, and now were engaged in a slight skirmish with the blue alicorns.

I flew over our lines to help reinforce our rear, I lifted my sanctification talisman to the sky with my wing, and the small golden pendant started to glow with golden light.

My plan worked, the spell being cast by my talisman was a simple light spell, but amplified so as to blind the alicorns attacking us, it worked.

The counter attack was quick and deadly, the alicorns in their blinded state were burned allive by flamers and torn to shreds by bolters, without any of them fighting back, and because of their hive-minded state, the alicorns in front of us were blinded to, and just like their purple kin, they were torn to shreds by bolters.

...

The alicorns were blinded by Blood angel's trick, and seeing their moment of weakness, I charged, my chainsword roared as I tore through alicorn after alicorn, their blood flaking my already blood soaked bluish grey coat, I saw one, and with a bloody rage, I tore through it's flesh as if it was butter, then once it was dead, I looked around, and saw another, one by one I slaughtered them as quickly as I could, they would soon recover from the light spell, and I could not let a single one get out alive, one more dead, and another, and another, and another.

I looked around for one more to kill, but I could not see one alive, I looked around for what felt like hours, but not a single one was alive, then I came out of my bloody rage, and saw, none were alive, they were all dead, their bodies lined the ground like a rug, we had done it.

I stared intently at the giant building we had approached when we drove the alicorns away, it was still far away, but we could see it more clearly now, there were still several alicorns around the structure, what fortress wouldn't have a garrison, but we now knew how tricky the alicorns were, and we knew that the alicorns would have better defenses then what we see.

The levels of radiation had gone up drastically, our sanctification talismans still protected us, but radiation wasn't the only thing that had risen since we had arrived, the psychic power, and buzzing in the back of our heads had grown as well.

We continued forward, no alicorns had attacked us since we had devastated their main force, but we were still wary of any traps they could have set, we had reached the building when the alicorns trap was sprung, a swarm of them flew seemingly out of no where, and descended upon us, one landed just in front of me, and the moment it landed I put a bolt shell into it's head, then another landed next to the corpse of the first, and reacting as quickly as I could I sliced it's horn off with my chainsword, just before putting three bolt shells into it's body.

The battle escalated quickly, I crashed by chainsword against the shield of an alicorn, while growling like a timberwolf, which is fitting given my name. After a few seconds of grinding my blade against the alicorn's shield, the shield finally broke and I swooped around behind it's back, and shot it in it's spine. As an earth-pony I would never compare to Grey knight in mele combat, but for an earth-pony I was the best.

“Space wolf!” I heard a familiar voice cry out through the battle. A charcoal black pegasus, with a green mane approached me.

“What is it, Salamander” I replied.

“We have been ordered by lord Edward to secure the entrance to the building,” Salamander replied, but before I could offer a responce, an alicorn teleported between us, and tried to fire it's spell at me, but was turned to ashes by Salamander's two heavy-flamers.

Me, Salamander, and a few more arbiters rushed over to the building to secure the entrance, but five alicorns ambushed us when we reached the door, All of them had shields, and therefore Salamander's flamers would be useless here, with my chainsword and bolter I figured that I could kill two, before the rest could fire their spells at me, the other two arbiters were equiped with bolters, and if we conordiated our fire, we could kill all of them quickly, but there was no way I could tell them that before the alicorns fired their spells at us. I was wondering if I should run for it and try to kill as many as I could before getting killed myself, or if I should duck for cover.

My question was answered when I heard the sound of the rhino getting louder and louder, Myself and the other arbiters with me ran for cover, as the rhino smashed into the alicorns, crushing them under it's tracks. After the rhino came to a stop near the entrence, I ran from my cover and hid behind the rhino, looking inside the tank, Edward, Martyred, and Grey knight, were seated inside, and jumped out into the alicorn's base, understanding that I must hold this position, I, along with the other arbiters and Salamander, got inside the tank, and used it to guard the door.

...

I had just finished hacking my way through the guards when we came across a large steel door, I was about to propose finding another way around, when martyred decided to shoot her way through the door instead. Inside we found ourselves within a large metal room, with several giant vats of multi-colored oily liquid, the same liquid lined the floor of the building, and we stood on a raised catwalk overlooking the building.

Then without warning a voice appeared from nowhere in the center of the room, “Who dares to enter the room of the Goddess!” said the giant shifting apparition that took form before us.

The phantom took the form of an alicorn, ever-shifting in color and shape, as if a daemon of change was summoned from the realm of magic, right before my very eyes “So, you are the unholy creature whom created those mutants,” Edward said as he trotted up to the creature, his eyes full of the same fury mechanica saw when the battle first started.

Before the Goddess had time to respond, Edward continued “You defile ponies with your horrid creations, and you enslave them in your hivemind, my Equestria has no place for beings such as yourself,” Upon hearing these words, the Goddess's expression changed to annoyance as she stared at edward.

“You cannot harm the Goddess, foolish pony,” The goddess replied in anger.

“The time for words has passed, unholy thing. To the dream realm with you, foul daemon!” Edward said to the Goddess, while levitating his sanctification talisman.

“That thing is useless, the Goddess has already seen what it does.”

Light began to form around Edward's talisman, and within a few seconds, the light around the talisman had reached it's brightest. The light then erupted from the pendant and struck the Goddess, lighting her incorporeal form aflame with holy fire. The Goddess screamed, so loud that it could be heard from outside the building.

Her screams had reached their apex when she started to disintegrate, she was slowly being atomized by the holy fire unleashed by Edward, and in but a few short minutes, her screams faded, when every particle of her body had been devoured by the blaze. The Goddess was no more.

...

I fired my bolter at the purple alicorn in front of me, the first bolt shell struck it in the leg, blowing it's leg from it's body, the second hit it in the chest, creating a giant hole in the creature, from which it slowly bled out. Then a second alicorn started chargeing at me, but right before I shot the alicorn, it stopped mid stride and then started screaming, and it wasn't just this specific alicorn either, all of them were screaming in agony. I took this opportunity to slaughter all of the alicorns I could while they were in fits of pain.

Then after killing sixteen alicorns, their screaming stopped, and they slowly started to retreat.

“Your goddess is dead, foul daemons, your armies are ruined, your doom has come. Arbiters, purge them all, none shal be left alive!” Edward shouted down to us, he flew on brilliant translucent wings of golden magic.

I rushed the fleeing alicorns, firing my bolt pistol, I hit one in the back of it's head, and fired a few shots into the flank of another, they weren't teleporting away or turning invisible, their magic powers seemed to have dissipated with that blast of pain. I charged and shot wildly at the creatures, killing and wounding many.

The battle was over, all of the alicorns dead. I was siting on a rock, comprehending what just occurred, shurly news of our victory will reach across the wasteland, we would now be known as the ones who killed all of the alicorns, I must prepare my mind for battle, as there will be many more battles to come.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw a yellow stallion with an orange-yellow mane.

“What is it,” I asked Imperial fist.

“Come Ultramarine, lord Edward has requested our presence,” The bright earth-pony said to me.

The silver and orange unicorn stared at the both of us for a second, then Edward said “We have regained Maripony, but at the sacrifice of fifty arbiters, and this loss cannot go unnoticed, so I have called you two here. Imperial fist, I want you to fortify this position, and enshure that we have a good hoofhold on this area,” Imperial fist nodded and then let Edward continue speaking

“And we need new arbiters to replace those fifty whom have died today, and I leave recruitment of arbiters to you Ultramarine. Your recruitment list will be the forces of the militia, choose ponies from them to make into arbiters,” I understood and wandered off to continue my contemplation.

But while thinking, I realized somthing, there were many wounded in the battle, including Blood raven, but when checking the list of the wounded, Blood raven was no were to be found.

...

Three alicorns were hiding around a make-shift campfire, in a small cave. One was purple, one was blue, and one was green. The green one said in a tired and lazy voice, “So... the Goddess is dead?”

“I feel so... free, it feels so strange, it's almost good... I wish I felt this good all the time!” The purple alicorn said with pleasure.

“Yes, the Goddess is dead... And don't you see what this means girls!” The blue one said as a wicked smile formed across her face.

“What does it mean? sister,” The purple one replied.

“The goddess is gone, we could take her place... we could become new goddesses!” The blue one said.

“It won't be that simple, those robes ponies won't just leave us alone, they are probably looking for us as we speak,” The green one replied.

“We need to fight back, we need an army that can fight against their weapons, and new spells too!” The blue alicorn said with excitement.

“For that, we need to reproduce, and there aren't male alicorns sister,” The green one said.

“That's why I brought these along,” The blue one replied, while levitating a barrel of taint, and the unconsciousness body of Blood raven. “We will create a new type of alicorn, one who knows all sorts of new spells, spells that I will devlop!” The blue one contunued.

After this, a smile formed on the purple one's face, and the green one looked up with a slight look of interest “What will we call our selves, now that we are no longer unity,” The green one said

“We need new names, we all can't just be called the goddesses can we?” The blue one questioned.

“I kinda like the name... Slaanesh,” The purple one replied.

“Nurgle sounds good,” The green one said, then Nurgle turned her attantion to Blood angel, slowly being transformed into an alicorn “And what about him.”

“I'll name him... Khorne, and I will be called... Tzeentch,” The blue one said.

Chapter 7: Manehattan

“We need to go north,” I said to my sisters.

“Why?” Nurgle asked me.

“When we where part of the Goddess, I heard somthing from a trade caravan, that up north there are the ruins of an ancient crystal city, this will make the perfect hiding spot for us.”

“But the north is cold and such a long way away!” Slaanesh moaned obnoxiously.

I was about to yell at Slaanesh, but a strange shuffling noise, and a low angry growl caught our attention.

“So, he's awake,“ Nurgle said, still laying on the ground, never moving since yesterday.

I trotted over to the red alicorn, mumbling to himself on the ground, he looks at me “Who are you... and who am I,“ He asks hesitantly

“Your name is Khorne, I'm Tzeentch, and I will explain everything, but not right now, right now we need to go north.“

...

There was a strange sound emanating from the north-western side of manehattan, it sounded like thunder but was a quiet, monotone clomping sound, as if hundreds of ponies where trotting in unison.

I was sitting on the ground, thinking about the recent events, first a strange faction of ponies appear out of a stable and claim that they will "reunite" equestria, then they hire ponies of all kinds to fight in some kind of army.

The arrival of this new faction to the wasteland is concerning to say the least, but I have more important things to think about, and Red eye still had his raiders surrounding Tenpony tower.

Littlepip left last night, I wish that I had time to tell her about the priesthood of flutterwest before she left, but she was going to Canterlot, I doubt that she would run into the red-robed ponies there.

The sound got louder and louder, as if it was getting closer, but after a few minutes of waiting, the sound of gunfire rang out from the city below, the regular bangs of guns mixed with deep loud booms from unknown weapons, and what sounded like hundreds of magical energy weapons.

I rushed to the window and looked down, the red eye slavers where fighting hundreds of ponies, armed with what looked like a small magic energy weapon, and armored with some kind of metal armor, panted dark red, and with a dark brown suit underneath the armor, but then I saw something truly terrifying.

What could only be described as a giant metal box was moving through the raiders, it spewed several columns of fire at red eye's army, burning them to death, it was also surrounded by ponies in red robes with strange guns.

Red eye's army was being torn to pieces, and rapidly retreating towards Tenpony tower when I looked away from the window and screamed "WHAT THE F**K."

...

"First rank fire, second rank fire!" I shouted to the militia, their lasguns tearing through the raiders, and a cacophony of shouts and gunfire rang through the derelict city.

A commissar ran up to me "Cadia sir!" said the commissar "The raiders are in full retreat."

"I know commissar, I can see that with my own eyes," I replied, slight annoyed at the commissar's stating of the obvious.

"No sir, the raiders are in full retreat and the ponies inside the tower are firing at the retreating army."

I was surprised by the good news, I hoped to kill all of the raiders before they got into the tower, a siege was something the militia was not equipped to handle, and even with the immolator on our side, a siege could be bad. Not only were the raiders unable to fortify themselves, but the building is apparently inhabited by possibly friendly ponies.

Right as I was about to reply to the commissar, a griffon raider attacked us from underneath the monorail line, but before it could shoot me or the commissar with it's primitive weapons, the commissar shot the griffon in the chest with his laspistol, the griffon then, in searing pain, fell from the monorail and fell to the streets in just the blink of an eye.

Despite being a unicorn, I was envious of earth ponies and their ability to use weapons effectively without magic.

I pointed my horn into the air, and with a burst of magic, I spoke to all of the minds in the area, without words and in a single second, I communicated to all of the militia that the ponies inside the tower were friendly. That is my cutie mark, and the reason why I was made the leader of my militia corp.

The raiders soon lost the will to fight, they were running in all directions, while being massacred from both sides, corpses lined the floor, mostly of raiders ponies, but also the bodies of griffons, and militia soldiers, It was an ocean of blood, and certainly not the last ocean of blood I will see in my life.

I walked up to the door of the tower, it was heavily reinforced, and with slots in the door for armed guards to fire through, it was impressive fortification for wastelanders, and the best i've seen so far.

I banged my forehooves against the door, and waited for a reply, "Who are you," A voice from inside said.

"I am Cadia, the arbiter in command of the cadian militia, I request entry."

"We can't allow that, you're not driving your army into a peaceful settlement," then the ponies inside pointed their gun through the slots in the door.

"Please, I wish to avoid a conflict if possible, my army will stay out here, but we demand to speak with your leader."

There was a long pause, and I thought that I could hear whispering on the other side, but an answer came through the door "Ok, you can come in, but only five are aloud entry, and leave your weapons outside."

"You have a deal," I replied, but not before concealing a laspistol in my robes. I looked to the arbiters, Bloody rose, Dark angel, Raven guard, and Skitarii decided to follow me inside.

The door slid open, revealing a giant hallway. The two guards stood watch on either sides of the door, their weapons mounted to saddles in a similar style to how the arbiters, but beyond those guards, the inside was devoid of life, not a single pony could be seen.

The inside was mostly marble and other stones, unfortunately stained brown from the centuries of neglect, even still no ponies could be found inside, but we did hear noises and the occasional whispering from the small shops and rooms that lined the halls.

One of the guards was guiding us to the closest thing that they had to a leader, DJPON3. We had reached a small staircase and where led up to the top of the tower, it was a long and rather dull climb, and while asending I wondered what my army was doing outside, unlike Krieg I actually cared for my soldiers.

There was a giant metal door in our way, the door to DJPON3's office, I knocked the door, but nothing happened, then I shouted "Open the door!" but still nothing happened. After knocking on the door again, the guard pony left and started trotting down the stairs again.

I turned to Skitarii, and he just looked at me and said "The door is sound proof. You know, you could have asked me first," The cyborg replied, with a hint of pride in his voice.

"The door is sound proof, how do you know?" I asked.

Skitarii then just pointed at his luminescent mechanical eye and smiled.

'Fine... how do you think we get through this door."

Skitarii then pulled an inferno pistol out of his robes, and showed it to us, then started to melt the hinges of the door, but after a few seconds of melting the door, a look of concern fell over Skitarii's face and he said "The door isn't melting, I think it has a shield, or warding spell cast on it, but I don't know, i'm just an earth pony."

Upon hearing this, Bloody rose levitated her sanctification talisman and touched her horn with it. The talisman began to glow with golden light, and a beam of arcane energy shot out of the talisman and impacted the door, making the corners of the door glow with the same golden light.

"Yep, there's a shield spell around it. I think I can break it, but it might take a few minutes, and if worse comes to worse, then Cadia can contact Edward," Bloody rose said.

...

After ten minutes of magic and fire, Skitarii broke the door off of it's hinges, and with a firm bucking delivered by the tech-priest, the door fell to the ground with a loud thud. The room was nice and well kept, the room was a giant circle, with a statue of an alicorn in the center, and a pool of water at it's base. Standing in front of the alicorn statue, was a young unicorn with dark grey fur, and a cobalt blue mane.

"How did you get in?" The mare said questioningly, clearly surprised by our entrance.

I walked up to the clearly suprised mare, and said "We are the priesthood of flutterwest, but you probably already know that now, so I'll get strait to the point, we have come to reclaim Manehattan in the name of Celestia, and we need this tower to do so,"

The mare stared at us for a few moments, first looking at me, then turning to Dark angel, Raven guard, and Bloody rose, and she cringed when looking at Skitarii, but then she turned her gaze back to me, "Follow me, if this is diplomacy, then let's get a seat, and some water," she said to us, I nodded and we walked up more stairs up to the balcony.

We all sat around a large oblong table behind the alicorn statue, and in front of a giant wall of screens that Skitarii spent a few minutes tinkering with. The mare had given us each a glass of water, and once the awkwardness of the moment had passed, we began to discuss the ownership of Manehattan.

"So, you're an ancient order of knights and priests, who are loyal to Celestia, and an immortal unicorn named Edward blaze, and when the mega-spells destroyed Equestria, you hid in a stable near that church up north... and now you've come back to try to reunite Equestria?" the mare said, clearly confused and in awe of the priesthood's past.

"Yes, and we need information about the wasteland if we are to reunite it, that's why Edward told us to go here, you are the eyes of the wasteland, and know many of it's factions and what those factions are doing... you might even help us with recruitment of new arbiters and militia."

The mare nodded and took another sip from her glass of water, then stared at me with a look of understanding, "And if I refuse?" the mare asked.

"If you refuse, then we will simply use the land around this building for our purposes, and leave your tower alone... we are not like those barbarian raiders, or the cowardly steel rangers..."

"How am I going to trust you, after you broke my door, and not to mention that machine-pony over there is messing with my things!" she shouted while pointing at Skitarii, as the tech-priest had started scanning the statue with his cyborg eye.

"I know my bionic friend does seem... strange... but i'm trust worthy, and if yo-"

"And if you don't trust him, you can trust me," a voice echoed over from the other side of the room.

Walking in through what remained of the door, was a silver stallion with an orange mane, and a golden halo, "Lord Edward!" I shouted, surprised by his arrival.

"I have just returned from purging the alicorns, and slaying that miserable hag, the Goddess... good news, Maripony is ours!" Edward said to us. Upon hearing the death of the Goddess, the mare's face was washed with a look of shock, as she stared at the majestic unicorn who was now standing at the table.

"How did you get here so quickly, I haven't heard of the Goddess's death" the mare asked, still dazed by the news of the Goddess.

"I flew here."

The mare's jaw dropped, and she sat there, without saying a word, when she heard of a "Flying unicorn"

Skitarii continued looking for every bit of technology inside the room, and he squeaked (a noise I thought he was incapable of until now) when he saw a safe built into a wall, and started cutting through it with his inferno pistol.

Once things returned to normal, after Edward had barged in, we continued our diplomacy, "Do you promise, that you will reunite Equestria, and make it a haven for all ponies, griffons, dragons, and anything else... Do you promise that you will save this land, and make it great again... please."

"That is what I set out to do in the first place, and thus I will continue to do so," Edward replied.

"Then we have noting more to discuss, I am not the owner of Tenpony tower, and I can say that they won't be so kind as me... but I will help you as best as I can," said the mare.

...

A pony ran through an open door and into a dark room, filled with several more ponies, dressed in dark brown robes, the pony closed the door when he got in, and clearly in a panic he shouted "There here!" just before an explosion tore both the door, and the panicked pony into pieces.

I walked through the now open doorway, with a chainsword dragging across the ground, and a bolt pistol floating next to me. Sounding as menacingly as possible, I shouted to the room, "So, this is where you are, I wondered where those unfortunate arbiters who never made it to the flutterwest stable ended up... how pathetic"

"You... you're alive, i've only heard of you in stories from my parents," a stallion said, his voice shaking from fear.

"That's all you have to say... I am disappointed, you've given up you loyalty to Celestia, you presumed that I had died, and you call yourselves the twilight society..."

"If we knew that you where alive, we would have searched for-"

"So you knew of the flutterwest sable, and you didn't even try to find me there... you disgust me, have you no loyalty!" I screamed with fury, as my pace began to speed up, and I was now galloping at the heretical stallion before me.

Two more robed ponies ambushed me from the shadows and tried to stab me with their daggers. I ducked behind the first one's attack, and in a single moment, I used my enemies momentum against him, and sliced off his head with a swing of my chainsword.

The second pony had almost impaled me with his knife, but using my magic, I wrenched the dagger out of his teeth, and threw it to the floor, then I brought up my bolt pistol and blew off his head. Once the fight was over, I pointed my bolt pistol at the remaining members of the twilight society.

"The only reason why I'm not slaughtering all of you heretics right now, is because you have information I require... Where is she," I shouted to the twilight society.

"W-Who is she!?" the scared stallion asked.

"WHO IS SHE, She is you're founder, you aren't telling me that you forgot who created the priesthood of flutterwest!" I thought that my anger had hit it's peek with their disloyalty, but now I discover that they forgot their history too, needless to say, I was outraged.

"Wait, you are not our founder!" the stallion shouted in surprise.

I just sighed at the ignorance of the twilight society, but I could not feel remorse for the traitorous heretics. I ran up to the stallion, and in the blink of an eye, I sliced his right foreleg off, he fell to the ground in a puddle of blood, then I turned my gaze to the ponies next to him, they ran for the exit, but where cut off by priesthood arbiters, and where gunned down with bolters.

I left the stallion there to bleed to death, as I turned back to the door, "Seal up this room, and may we never speak of this again," I said to Dark angel just before walking up to Cadia and saying to him "Raise the flag over Tenpony tower, make sure that every pony for miles knows that this place belongs to us."

...

I laid there, in a pool of my own blood... I was dying, I couldn't feel my legs any more, and my vision was blurry, but I still had a few moments of life left. The flutterwest ponies had sealed the door, and I laid there in complete darkness, but I prayed to anything, certainly not celestia anymore, that something could save my life, something could give me the strength I needed to survive.

Then as my vision went red with blood, I saw a shadow in the darkness, the image of an alicorn, a red alicorn with a strange symbol carved into his chest. "Save me," I whimpered with what little strength I had left.

The shape of the alicorn then pointed at the puddle of blood that I was now laying in, and told me to drink

Chapter 8: Manehattan Part 2

Tzeentch looked around at the ruined crystal buildings, they ruined and abandoned like the ones in Equestria, but these buildings where glowing with a pinkish color. Snow melted when it fell into the pink mist that lined the streets, or when it touched the jagged pieces of pink crystal that where once houses and shops.

The pink cloud here was not as thick as it was in canterlot, the snow was absorbing most of it, and the magical properties of crystal meant the most of the buildings had absorbed most of the cloud when the city was first attacked.

As the alicorns slowly moved towards the spire in the center of the city, the cloud got thicker and thicker, and when they were right below the ominous pink tower, the cloud was solid pink, fortunately the cloud was only up to the alicorn's knees.

The alicorns where now just underneath the ruined tower, pieces of broken pinkish crystal were protruding from the sea of pink mist, in the center of the ruin there stood a strange heart-shaped crystal, it glowed with the same pinkish glow, but the center of the crystal heart was an ebony black, and pink cloud was flowing out of the crystal from various cracks in the heart.

Tzeentch smiled when he saw the heart and said "This is what we are looking for."

Slaanesh looked at Tzeentch and replied "What is it... and more importantly, what are you going to do with it?"

Tzeentch smiled and waved of her horn around, a greenish yellow orb appeared in front of her in a flash of bluish light, it was about the size of a regular pony, if that pony was rolled into a ball, and it cast a strange green light over the pink mist.

"A balefire bomb!" Nurgle shouted as she took several steps back from the blue alicorn.

"How did you teleport that bomb, I thought I was the one who teleported things," Slaanesh asked suspiciously.

Slaanesh and Tzeentch exchanged a glare of distrust for a few moments and then Tzeentch replied with "I learned it while we were flying over here."

"I don't believe you," Slaanesh said quietly, then walked away.

Nurgle then pointed at Tzeentch and screamed "What is she doing with a balefire bomb."

Tzeentch then slammed the green orb into the crystal heart, the orb slowly disintegrated as it touched the heart, the swirling green and yellow flowed through the sea of swirling pink and purple that was inside the heart, and a screeching sound like that of a thousand birds being shoved into a wood chipper came echoing from the heart as the balefire bomb was shoved into it.

A few seconds after the balefire bomb was absorbed into the crystal heart, the heart started spinning and humming rapidly, and then a blast of pink and green light erupted from the heart and into the tower above. The tower was now the same color as the crystal heart, and started to glow with the same eerie light.

A blast of pink and green light then shot from the top of the crystal tower, just like it did from the heart. The beam impacted the clouds and the entire city shook, as if an earthquake struck the land, suddenly a raging green and pink vortex was created, and blasts of multi-colored lightning was raining down from the storm.

Nurgle then shouted at Tzeentch "What did you do!" "I thought we where trying to hide!"

Tzeentch then replied "The radiation from the storm will keep anything from coming here."

"I want to know how you knew that this would work, you could have killed us!" Slaanesh said, her voice filled with anger.

"I think we should trust Tzeentch," The deep raspy voice of Khorne replied to Slaanesh's threat.

"I don't know," Nurgle said, "she didn't tell us about the balefire bomb, nor about her plans for this place."

"Let's listen to her for now, if we kill each other, the victor won't survive for long without help."

...

I saw them up ahead... raiders, five of them. They hid behind a makeshift wall, made out of wood, tires, and other junk.
They clearly saw us, we weren't trying to hide or be stealthy... we had no need.

"Surrender, you will only have one chance!" The commissar shouted to the raiders behind the wall.

"FUCK YOU!" one of the raiders shouted back. The raider stood up and grabbed a SMG in his mouth, but moments before he could get a single shot at us, several lasbolts hit him. He exploded into a shower of blood and burnt flesh

"Blood mane, no!" A raider mare screamed, then she waved her hoof at the rest of the raiders. They came out of their camp and bowed before us, "Please, we surrender," She shouted, her voice trembling with fear.

"You were given one chance for surrender... you think you're in any place to do so now!" The commissar shouted.

"Please, i'm sorr-" The raider screamed, as lasbolts tore her, and the rest of the raiders into pieces.

"Militia, spread out, kill any raiders you come across. All friendly ponies should be brought to me."

"Yes sir!" We shouted in unison as we ran off to secure the area.

I ran down an alley, after nearly tripping on garbage, I finally caught the raider I was chasing. I detached my lasgun from it's saddle, then griping it in my teeth I brought the barrel down on the raider's underbelly, impaling her with the knife mounted on it's end.

I looked around, there where no other ponies in sight. I reattached the lasgun to it's harness, and continued down the alley.

I turned a corner and found myself face-to-face with several raiders whom had entrenched themselves into a ruined building. They had some kind of heavy machine-gun and continued to keep me suppressed with it, the dammed raiders had learned how to fight.

The machine-gun stopped firing, It was being reloaded, I wouldn't have much time to do something, but the few seconds when they where out of ammo gave me just enough time to act. I pulled a frag grenade from my saddlebag, I gripped the grenade with my teeth and pulled the pin with my tongue, then with a toss of my head I flung it over into the raider camp

The grenade splashed into the muddy ground, A loud bang blasted from around the corner, followed by the screams from several raiders all swearing yet all said something different, resulting in a slightly comedic and indescribable sound.

The grenade landed short, it didn't kill any raiders, neither did it damage their defenses, but the sound of the blast disrupted the enemies formation, and undoubtedly attracted some attention.

I ran from my cover while the raiders were still dazed. They didn't see me, and when they returned to fire their machine-gun, they fired it at my previous location, not noticing that I was now hiding behind a piece of rubble in the center of the road.

I waited roughly ten seconds, then the shooting stopped. I jumped from my current cover and fired my lasgun at the unicorn manning the machine-gun, her head exploded in a shower of burning blood.

I hunkered behind my piece of rubble, bullets flying all around me. I realized now that my new cover was a poor choice, I was safer behind the wall.

Then a stinging pain hit me in the side, as if someone took a hammer to my shoulder. I was unharmed, but a bullet still hit me. Then the shooting stops... I look around the rubble, but the moment they see me, several bullets fly at me, a few ping off of my helmet and another flies a bit too close to my cheek, but I manage to duck back behind cover without harm.

I couldn't go running out there, and they learned from my previous attack. I grabbed my communicator and proceeded to contact Tenpony, "Command, I have encountered a well-armed and inelegant group of hostiles at my current position, requesting support."

"Understood, an arbiter has been sent to you're location, ETA - thirty seconds."

I looked around my cover, the raiders were doing the same. I hesitated to shoot them, but the raiders didn't, and several small caliber bullets made dents in my titanium armor, but then a single bullet found it's way into my foreleg.

I ducked behind cover, writhing in pain, trying to suppress my screams for fear that the raiders would hear them, and I don't want to give those scum a morale boost. Luckily I had reinforcements, but I wasn't sure that I would survive for another twenty seconds.

The moment of silence had given me time to reflect on the events of the last week. I've spent my entire life in Tenpony tower, never stepping hoof outside, but i've always wanted to bring order to the wasteland, it was ambitious of me, and impossible for one pony to do.

I had a chance to leave and fight for a better cause, a group of wastelanders, calling themselves the minutemares had visited Manehattan many years ago, said that they where from Baltimare, but I was too scared and young to join, as much as I wanted to, a small filly who wanted to run away, sounds like the start of a good story.

But look at me now, I was doing what I wanted, although not in the way I imagined. fifteen... sixteen... seventeen. I could hear the raiders hoof steps approaching, and I could barely fight, at best I could stab one of the raiders with my knife before they shot me dead. nineteen... twenty... twenty one... twenty two. At least if I die, I would die knowing that I helped a greater cause, and not just pass from radiation poising somewhere in the wasteland, or peacefully in my sleep in Tenpony, or from some unknown disease. twenty seven... twenty eight... twenty nine. I was going to die, and I had excepted my death.

Then a blast of white light, brighter than any light i've ever seen, flashed before me, and out from this light of salvation stepped a giant stallion in golden armor, his fur was a deep cobalt blue, and his mane the same golden color as his armor, he wore a red cape with gold trim that hung from his neck and extended down, hiding most of his back and his flank, and painted on his shoulders was what I assumed was his cutie mark, not that I could see his cutie mark underneath his armor and robes, a golden horse shoe.

The arbiter stepped forward, the raiders stood there silent and frozen in terror and awe. One raider ran while screaming, but his voice was silenced by a loud bang from the arbiter's bolter, then the other three just stood there, some flinching at the sound of the gunshot that killed their friend.

The arbiter was only a meter from the raider mare who shot me in my leg, she was frozen, this beast of a stallion towering a foot above her. She screamed, but it was too late, as the arbiter grabbed a long silver sword in his mouth and removed the raider's head in a single swing.

The sounds of gunfire rang through the air, the other two raiders started shooting wildly at the arbiter, then their gunfire fell silent with two more shots from the arbiter's bolter.

"You there, mare. Return to Tenpony and heal, I shal continue the fight."

...

"Ultramarine's mission is successful, the deep-strike spell worked like intended," Homage said

"Good, continue to monitor the mare whom he saved, she is skilled for a militia, and I don't want talented soldiers to die."

I looked around at the room, the athenaeum had been converted into a command center, and the radio now was being used to command our armies in retaking Manehattan. Homage could still broadcast her news, but her radio was only functioning at five percent capacity, and it's range was greatly diminished.

The communication array required at least five ponies to operate, but it gave us control of the battlefield, and the locations of every solider, it was truly an impressive work of art by the mechanicum.

I turned away and trotted down a hallway extending away from the athenaeum, and I approached an elevator that M echanica had repaired yesterday.

I took the elevator down to the mechanicum's floor, it was filled with tech-priests, all working on either their own projects or projects given to them by Skitarii, and all sorts of unidentifiable machinery cluttered the room.

I approached a locked door, behind was the experimental weapons room, where all of the prototype weapons and unstable machines where kept. The door automatically opened once I touched it, and inside Skitarii was tinkering with a dissembled star blaster, and a few primitive plasma guns.

"Ahh... Edward, you're just in time!" Skitarii said in a creepily happy way.

"What have you invented this time," I asked.

Using the mechanical arms bolted to his back, Skitarii reached for something underneath the table, "After dissembling the firing piece of this beautiful little gun," he said as he pointed at the star blaster, "I noticed that it shares many similarities with these plasma guns. So I extracted the heating core, and mag-rails from a plasma gun, and then wired them to the power cell of the star blaster, then after analyzing the components of the star blaster's heating core, I tried to combine the tech used in both the plasma gun's and the star blaster's heating cores, resulting in a three hundred percent increase in plasma temperature."

"I've also included a heat-sink into the barrel, it will convert any wasted heat into magic energy, then the magic will be rerouted into the arcane battery, the heat-sink works at seventy percent efficiency, so by my calculations that should result in forty percent of the energy used to fire the gun being returned, the other sixty percent being shot out the end in the form of heat," Skitarii rambled on, while I was disinterested in the technical details of his new weapon, I could tell that my listening made him happy, and the information could be useful.

Skitarii then pulled his prototype weapon from underneath the table, it was a giant pistol, made mostly out of titanium, with some kind of corrugated metal on the top that was indented into the gun. Skitarii clicked a switch on it's side, and the corrugated metal started to glow with a bright blue color. "Don't touch the glowing part, that's the heat-sink. The blue color comes from the gas used as ammo, the traditional plasma gun uses mercury vapor, giving it a soft green color, and the star blaster uses xenon gas, resulting in the blue color you see there. I was going to keep using mercury vapor, since liquid is denser then gas, the gun would have more ammo capacity, but mercury is hard to find, and xenon is available in the atmosphere, so I am using xenon instead... The gun is still unstable, and could detonate when firing, but I will get that problem resolved, and soon we will have these new plasma guns."

"Very good, and it appears that Ultramarine's test of you're sword design is going well," I replied

"I had no doubt that the power sword could cut through a raider, even a raider in power armor... it's magic shields that i'm worried about, the chainswords proved themselves not that great at cutting magic shields in the battle of Maripony," he said.

"With you're expertise, i'm sure we can handle any problem."

I trotted back to the elevator and went back up to the communications room. when I arrived one of the ponies shouted "Unknown aircraft approaching from the south west, you're orders lord!"

I replied "Does it have any weap-"

"Let it through!" homage shouted, interrupting my order.

There was a brief period of silence before I continued, "very well, let it through... but I want a full scan of that vehicle, identify any weapons, ponies, creatures, robots, anything that could be a threat... I will personally search the vehicle once it lands."

...

A wanderer stepped into Absolutely everything, he looked around for a bit, then turned his attention to the ghoul running the store, "Hey, Ditzy doo, have you heard the radio... up north there was this old stable, then an army came out and gave the steel rangers a shock, they've been hiring soldiers for some army and call themselves the priesthood of flutterwest!"

The ghoul then came around the counter and pointed at the door, when the wanderer just stood there and looked confused, then sliver bell said "She's trying to tell you to leave."

The wanderer looked even more confused, but walked out the door anyway. After the wanderer left, the ghoul rushed over to the center of the room.

the ghoul pulled away a rug lying on the ground to reveal a trap door built into the floor. Underneath was a small artificial cave, silver bell could not follow as she could not climb ladders.

The ghoul came to a large door, closed shut with ten locks, each lock too hard to pick, even for a master locksmith, the ghoul, with the keys in her mouth opened the door.

Behind the impenetrable door, there in the center of a small wooden room, was a suit of armor, the armor was coated in gold, and reflected the ghoul's lantern in a dazzling display of light, the two pauldrons had Fleur-de-lis sculpted into them, and an image of the sun was engraved into the breastplate, built into the armor was a golden halo, allthough not a fancy as gaudy as Edward's halo, it was still solid gold finally lying next to the armor was a golden sword with a red handle.

The ghoul stood there, and stared at the armor with a look of determination, the ponies eyes, not crossed or derpy looking, but pointing forward, with a burning look in them.