Bleak mountains stretched across the horizon, fresh ocean air buffeted the coastline, and vibrant grassy fields coated the land, A rare sight in the Celestial Imperium. In the distance near the coastline were massive concrete and steel hive cities, with grey and brass colored spires forming forests of stone. Massive arches and buttresses held up gold and brass towers. The City was too far away to be seen in detail, but it still shimmered with light.

For a brief moment, less than a second, a burst of arcane light cast violet rays along the plains. From that light appeared a mare in power armor. Underneath an off-white hood the pony had a vibrant cyan mane, that hood extended down the length of her armor. Her fur was a clean white that clashed with the white of her hood and made her purplish red eyes stand out more. The mare, a unicorn, looked around violently, attempting to check every inch of her surroundings.

"Ahhhh, Marecragge, It's been a while... Now let's see if those Ultramares will be nice this time..." The Mare's pauldrons had musical notes painted on in a deep purple, on one side was a standard note, while on the other was a note with wings protruding from either side. The armor its self was black while her pauldrons were painted white, and the trim was deep purple, like the paint used on her shoulders. Held to the pony's waist was a pair of pistols, on her back was a sword, a small purple gem held in its hilt, with several empty slots along its handle. The mare trotted off towards the mountains, fully aware of what watched her.

Chanting echoed through crystalline halls and stained glass as a lone marine trotted along, this marine stood on two legs, In one armored claw he held a helmet, and mounted to his waste were two weapons, a shortsword, and a pistol. The marine's head was nothing like that of a pony, his hide was coated with purple scales and a ridge of green spikes went across his back, disappearing into his power armor. From his back and to either side of the power-pack protruded two power armored wings like those of a pegasus but featherless.

The Marine wore a red cape over his back upon which was a horseshoe with a six-pointed star in the center, the same iconography was covering his armor. One of his pauldrons was made from solid gold, shaped into the wings of an alicorn with a six-pointed star in silver on its' center. The marine arrived at a steel door, with the press of a button it slid open.

A magic table stood in the center of the war room, a holographic map of the galaxy just above. Sitting on crystal pedestals on either side of the table were two marines, both ponies. One, a massive blue and white mare who towered above the black-armored colt opposite to her. Her hooves were the size of fillies, clad in massive powered plates that could crush ceramite without effort, her mane was a swirl of white and blue that blended in with her equally blue eyes. Her armor purplish-blue, trimmed in silver and with violet pauldrons, one of which was brilliant gold, similar to the Dragon's.

The runt beside her was a pale blue colt, his mane shimmering gold. His head was torn, battle-scarred, and what fur he still had clung on in patches to his mauled face. One of his eyes was biotic and glowed with gold magic, while the other glared with a deep hatred. Across his back was a mace, it's head in the shape of an alicorn, while resting on the table just beside its wearer was a helmet in the shape of a unicorn's skull. His armor was pitch black, trimmed with silver one pauldron was purple while the other was in the shape of a skull, on his sides were silver wings, although he wasn't a pegasus, the wings were simply ornamental.

The room was illuminated with a cacophony of colors from the stained glass windows. The windows were decorated with depictions of battle and slaughter. The center window showed a purple unicorn in equally purple armor, violet maned and lavender coated, this unicorn stood over a pile of corpses, all of traitor marines, below were the words "Ultramare" in golden metal, merged into the window.

Next was a far darker window, both literally and figuratively. That same unicorn was locked in combat with another unicorn, this one wore turquoise armor, trimmed in gold. Her pauldron was decorated with a burning lyre, this unicorn's eyes were a burning red and clutched in an equally red field was a mace shaped into an eight-pointed star, a lyre held in its center. From the marine's back was a pair of turquoise bat wings, the two marines frozen in time as a city burned behind them, standing over the corpses of both their legions, below this was "Colth" In golden letters.

The Next was again darker, on this was the Purple Unicorn again, she stood in pain as a blade pierced her neck, this sword held in the telekinetic grasp of what was once a pony. The front half of the abomination's body was that of a pitch black unicorn, her mane swayed in the wind like that of the Empress's, and her pupils shaped like bloody-red diamonds. Bat wings protruded from her back, and the bottom half of her body was a long tendril, like a snake's torso, below this window was "Cressala" in gold letters.

"So... The mutant has arrived," The Chaplain exclaimed.

"Star Tracker, Don't" The Chapter Master replied.

"Are you still calling me that, it's been a century," The Dragon exclaimed in return.

"I have served this chapter for four hundred years, A century to me is nothing!"

"I have served in far more battles than you! I have slain greater foes than you! and you still cannot accept me as your battle brother!"

"I will never accept a mutant such as you into our ranks!"

"Everypony stop this right now!" The Chapter Master yelled.

"I am your Master of Sanctity I will not take orders from a lowly Captain!"

"You dare call the captain of the second company 'Lowly!'"

"Isn't that what all mutants are!"

The Chapter Master simply sat on her crystal throne and watched the two argue. "If it wasn't for Colgate I would have killed that heretical Tech-Priest!"

"Then you would have been deprived of your greatest commander, I Spike Sicarius!"

"You are no greater than any other of the mutant scum!"

There was the thunderous sound of a power-hoof stomping on marble, and a shout that would rupture the ear-drums of any normal pony, "As your Chapter Master I order you two to stop bickering, I have dealt with it for over a century now!"

"Forgive me, my lord," Spike replied, as Star Tracker simply closed his mouth and scoffed.

"I have gathered you here to discuss the galaxy at large, not for you to fight each other to the death... Now then, about Coltia."

"Let me guess, Another Black Crusade..." Spike replied.

"Another Black Crusade...."

"Stygian has tried twelve times to break through Coltia, he will never. I suggest we focus our forces on Armaregeddon and scour the planet of griffons before we assist on Coltia... Armaregeddon is closer to Eques, if the griffons conquer it we will lose one of our more important hive worlds... Not to mention the danger they will pose to our homeworld."

"Both the Blood Mares and Timberwolves have deployed their entire forces to Armaregeddon along with a few companies of Daybreakers, I have fought alongside Zephyr and Party Favor before, I can safely say that Armaregeddon is in safe hooves... This isn't the first time they have been invaded by the Birdbrains."

"If you want my opinion I say be bring the fight to the traitors and push them back into the warp for good! Why wait for the Black Crusade to come to us when we could launch our own crusade against them!"

"Star Tracker... Are you aware of what a crusade into the Eye of Terror would result in..." An annoyed Spike replied.

"I'm aware that we cannot be defeated as long as we have the God Empress on our side! We would fail because we have a filthy mutant in our chapter!"

"You put a bit too much faith in the Ecclesiarchy's teachings..."

"You can never have too much faith! Questioning our Empress like that will lead to your death one day!"

"It's been a century, If I was going to be smote like you always preach about, you would have thought she would have done so by now... Why have I won every single battle I have fought, could it be that the empress actually favors me over you, or is it that I Spike Sicarius 'A lowly dragon' has superior strength, intellect, survivability, and willpower than you ponies!"

"Stop fighting this instant!" Colgate shouted, her voice rattling the stained glass. The two simply sighed and returned to their seats. "Now, the question still stands, do we deploy our chapter to Coltia or not."

"You said it yourself, Armaregeddon is in safe hooves, I trust your judgment," Spike politely replied.

"Very well... Let's go defend against yet another Black Crusade," Star Tracker scoffed.

"Astropath!" The Chapter Master yelled, and in just a few seconds, a frail unicorn in purple robes limped towards the marine who summoned him.

"Minuette Agustus Colgate... You have summoned me..."

"Tell the Coltian Lightbringers that the Ultramares will assist in the defense of Coltia."

"Yes my lord..." The Unicorn replied before trotting out the way he came.

Minuette turned around and stared at the two marines, "Star Tracker, as punishment for starting this mess I am assigning you to the Second Company... Obey the captain or there will be consequences..."

"I am not taking orders from a Dragon!"

"And I will not tolerate any disobedience from a Chaplain who's entire life revolves around a book," Spike interjected.

"You dare call the Codex Astartes a book! It's a holy tome written by our primarch... I would have thought any true Ultramare would know that!"

"I wasn't talking about the Codex... I was referring to the Lectitio Divinitatus."

As the two continued to argue on, Colgate simply sighed and planted her head on the table, groaning with pain at the verbal bombardment going on before her.

"Stairs, and stairs, and more damn stairs!" The white unicorn shouted to herself as she marched up the mountains towards the Fortress of Dusk, "I should have just teleported up here!" "But then you could get caught by some watchful marine!" "I could pretend that I was just a librarian and I messed up a teleport spell," "But then they might think that I'm some daemon impersonating a marine, or that I was corrupted during my spell," "True, luckily this way they won't know why I'm here, they'll think that I'm just a pilgrim coming to see their 'Spiritual Liege' when in actuality I'm here to steal one of their most prized artifacts..."

The white unicorn, hearing the noise of a boltgun being cocked, looked up to see an Ultramare pointing a bolter at her head, "And I should really stop talking to myself." Another Space Marine raised her hooves and stomped down on the White Unicorn's back, sending her to the ground.

"What should we do Caeruleum," Said the female marine, now standing on the mare in black armor.

"I say we kill her and get it over with, she is clearly dangerous!"

"No, we need to know why she's here, I say we give her over to Star Tracker and see what information we can get!"

Stomping through the halls came a very annoyed and very tired Colgate, her power-hooves shaking the entire building with every step, With a power-armored buck to the doors she came barging into the main hall, her hooves crashing down and nearly fell down on the heads of two marines, scrambling to clear a path.

"I received a report about an intruder!"

A small Ultramare earth pony and Ultramare pegasus were holding down the White Unicorn, The stallion's eyes were glowing as he held a boltgun to the unicorn's head. The Unicorn had just been dragged into the Fortress when the Chapter Master came crashing in, now she simply laid there, not too annoyed by the pegasus standing on her back.

"So you must be Minuette Agustus Colgate, chapter master of the Ultramares."

Colgate simply scanned the White Unicorn, she was drawn to the winged note on her pauldron, "An Arcane Angel... Caeruleum, what's the meaning of this... You are aware that they are our allies."

"W-Well, you see, she was mumbling something about the Spiritual Liege and 'Stealing one of our most prized artifacts'... S-So we figured she must be up to something..." An uneasy smile crossed the stallion's face as he finished speaking.

With a heavy sigh, Minuette just said, "I've spent three hours in the war room with Spike and Star Tracker... Just throw her into a cell for now, I'll deal with this in the morning." While trotting off down the halls, she turned to the frail unicorn who has followed the Chapter Master into the hall, observing the mare sprawled out on the floor, now being hoisted up into the air by a few space marine unicorns. After a deep yawn she said, "Astropath! Tell Time Turner that one of his marines appeared at the fortress, she has white fur and cyan hair." The Astropath simply nodded.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy

Surrounded by the sounds of battle, the shots of energy weapons and the slicing of swords, An alien runs through towards his home, a tan-colored dome. The alien wore a simple robe and a metal disk on his head, not good protection against the hundreds of crystal-shards lacerating his body. One shard tore clean through his leg, and as he fell to the ground, maniacal laughter filled the battlefield.

The cat-like alien forced himself up and looked back to see who shot him. Standing on a small hill were four creatures, two massive bipedal creatures coved in blood-stained fur, they wore black armor and carried strange curvy rifles with blades mounted to their barrels. One of these beasts was laughing at his newly downed foe, his crystal-gun pointing right at the head of the downed cat-alien.

Inbetween her two guards was a unicorn... Or at least what looked like a unicorn, but the Abyssian was part of the Crystal Topaz Caste and unlike the Ruby or Opal Caste knew nothing of the other races. The 'Unicorn's' fur was a deep maroon, with a magenta mane, her entire body, adorning which was very little in the way of armor, was coated in scars. Her horn was shattered yet still glowing with magic, and held in that magic was a gruesome looking short spear, it's blade dripping with yellow blood.

The final creature was an actual pony, a crystal pony. He wore tan-colored armor that had just been cut to ribbons by the Dan'lin with the short spear. With magic energy that crackled like electricity, the Crystal Pony was lifted in the air, with his dying breaths it shouted at the Dan'lin, "F-For the Greater Good!" It tried to lunge its head towards the Dan'lin unicorn just in front, a knife held in his teeth... But the telekinesis was too strong and the Crystal Pony was stopped mere millimeters away from the unicorn's neck.

"Are you done..." The unicorn responded. The Crystal Pony, realizing his own doom dropped the knife and mere moments later was plunged to the ground, his spine snapping from the force of the telekinesis. The Dan'lin raised her spear into the air and plunged it down into the Crystal Pony's torso, then lifting the spear, and the impaled corpse of the Ruby Warrior into the air, bathing in the yellow blood raining down from above.

Just after celebrating her kill, the Dan'lin took notice of the abyssian, frozen in fear and still sprawled out on the ground. She flung the corpse from her spear and pointed it at the paralyzed cat, "Kabalites!" In quick response both of the furry bipedal creatures charged at the abyssian. Ignoring the pain he climbed to his feet and attempted to run, but another burst of crystal sent him down again.

Noticing an abandoned pulse rifle on the ground, the abyssian lifted it and fired at the approaching hulk, a burst of super-heated plasma tore a searing hole in the Kabalite's armor and flesh, leaving an apple-sized hole in its torso. One Kabalite fell to the ground, causing the other to trip and fall over his once-ally, but something far worse was on the other side... The 'Pony' stood atop the fallen Kabalite and stuck her short spear through her partner, killing her own comrade, with a bloody smirk she said, "So, you still have some fight in you... You'll make for nice practice in the arena."

The abyssian fired one last blast from the pulse rifle, but with little effort the Dan'lin dodged it, now with no other choices the abyssian raised his gun to use as a shield but the monomolecular blade of the short spear cut the gun apart with no effort. A small explosion followed as the gun detonated, the Unicorn's weapon was melted, and the abyssian's face was burned, leaving him blinded for a moment, with dazed eyes he looked to the sky as a dark purple hoof filled his vision... Then it went black.

Author's Note

Feedback is more than necessary, please give me as many comments as you can :)