Celestia pased tirelessly as she waited for the first signal. She understood Twilight's deduction that she and her sister were the only ones with enough power to enhance teleportation for weaker Unicorns to return, but she still wished to do more against the invaders.

"Do not be ashamed sister. Pulling our Ponies and the Changelings out of harm's way is just as important as fighting the Dark Eldar." Luna reassured her.

Celestia sighed. "I know Luna, and it's not the first time I've trusted Twilight to handle something without me. But those were local problems that I felt confident she could take care of, not otherworldly invaders that feed off pain."

"Perhaps. But Aries is leading the charge. His kind were bred for this. And Twilight Sparkle is far from helpless an- oh!" Luna ceased her pep talk when she and Celestia felt the first Unicorn reaching out to them.

Luna would've gotten it first, but decided to let her sister feel helpful.

Celestia seized the magical signal and pulled it towards her. A single Unicorn materialized with two Changelings.

Nurse Redheart looked over the two Changelings while the Unicorn took off.

"Hey! You're supposed to be going back!" Celestia called after him.

The Unicorn turned to face her, his eyes full of fear and not quite seeing her, and teleported elsewhere.

Celestia was dumbstruck. What sort of horror had her student subjected herself to?

Thunder cracked and the enemy died. Defiance spat it's hatred into the alien's heart without mercy or forgiveness. Aries kept a mental note of how much ammo he had left in the single magazine they had built for him. He would have to send Defiance with the first evacuation to be rearmed.

Five rounds left. But every single shot has been fatal. A fine test indeed. Aries thought to himself.

His killteam rounded a corner, the Changeling Hive sealing the way behind them. There were no Dark Eldar here...only Changeling corpses.

Bumblebee gagged at the sight of the slaughter. A family of four with the youngest being an infant...they had flayed it.

Yellow Jacket snarled like a beast. "How could anything be so evil? They shouldn't exist. "

"They won't. We will purge this evil in the name of the Emperor." Aries stated.

"And in the name of Equestria." Neighsay added. The other Unicorns started for fear that Aries would take offense, but he ignored the comment.

The group pressed on, but before they could reach the next passage, a group of Kabalite Warriors came in from the other side.

"Shields up. Charge!" Aries ordered. It wasn't the first time he'd opted to save his dwindling ammo for greater foes.

The Dark Eldar brought their guns up and fired, but Bumblebee and Neighsay prevented any shots from getting through.

Yellow Jacket and Tempest unleashed their arcane lightning upon the enemy just as Aries closed the gap. His first strike beheading two at once, the second cutting a xeno from its right shoulder to its left hip, and the third cutting the final alien in half at the waist and removing its forearms at the elbows.

Aries pressed on. Yellow Jacket and Tempest at his heels. Neighsay hesitated at the cooling corpses for a moment but proceeded over them. Bumblebee took longer, not because she wasn't used to such death, but because she was. And that terrified her as much as their foes.

Starlight had decided that the Unicorn that left wasn't coming back. She couldn't blame him. These things were worse than any monster they'd ever encountered.

The first time I was in this place, I had to fight Chrysalis without my magic. I almost wish I was doing that again. Starlight thought to herself.

"Alright everypony, if he was coming back, he would've done so already. We can't wait any longer." She called to remaining three in her group.

One looked angry at the deserter, but the other two seemed to envy him.

The four pressed on, finding trouble almost immediately. Fighting was heard a distance away. A quick teleport brought the Ponies into the fray.

Three Changelings laid dead while a Dark Eldar towered over a Changeling foal that stood frozen in fear. The alien had turned towards the newcomers. It wasn't like the ones they'd encountered before.

Starlight and another Unicorn shot magical beams at the alien, but she evaded with astonishing speed and grace. Twirling around in a hypnotic manner.

Starlight encased her group in crystal just as the alien plunged one of its knives into the back of a Unicorn's head. She had hoped to save him, but the Eldar was too fast.

Starlight teleported herself and the other two living Unicorns around the young Changeling. Leaving the dead Unicorn, and more importantly, the Wych's blade, trapped in the crystal.

The third Unicorn screamed at the death of the fourth while Starlight and the Unicorn that helped her last time fired again.

The Drukhari flipped away from their attacks. Abandoning her second knife.

"You! Take her and get out of here!" The Unicorn fighting by Starlight shouted to the one that was cowering. He complied. Taking the Changeling foal in his hooves and teleporting back to Ponyville.

"So that's where your kind came from." The wych said as she walked casually toward them in an unassuming manner.

Starlight wasn't taking the bait. Especially now that she had a good look at this creature.

A severed human hand clung to one of the wych's breasts, while the other was covered by the freshly flayed face of a purple Changeling. It's green blood leaking down the left side of the murderess' body.

She kept her modesty with a loin cloth of human faces sown together, and bound her crimson hair in a topknot with a human skull that was too small for even a child. She was as beautiful as she was horrifying...and she was looking at Starlight the way Rarity looks at new clothes.

Starlight didn't bother with a warning. She decided that this creature was going die right there. She weaved together the most complex spell combo she had ever made. Accelero, Sumilo Duplexus, and as much power as she could put into a blast.

Starlight reared up on her hind legs. Her horn glowing with a blinding light. The wych had plenty of time to stop her, but wanted to demonstrate her superiority with a last minute dodge.

However, at the last second, Starlight's first two spells put her not only in two, but in three places at once.

Standing side by side, the three Starlights unleashed all the power they had, the beams proving too wide to dodge.

The wych only evaded disintegration by leaping vertically into the air. Wyches could leap over 20 feet off the ground. But it wasn't good enough she fell towards the beam.

She felt the sensation of her own skin being burned from her flesh before hitting the ground in pain. Starlight stumbled as her duplicates disappeared, she didn't the strength to finish her off.

In a blind fury, the wych leapt forward, screaming like a banshee. All thoughts of grace and flamboyance replaced by a need for revenge.

Vengeance was denied. The other Unicorn, forgotten by the enraged wych, fired a beam through her chest. Puncturing a lung and throwing her backwards.

The wych struggled and thrashed, but couldn't rise again. Her gargling gasps of breath growing quieter and quieter, before she fell silent and still.

Starlight gasped for breath. Refusing to take her eyes off the monster. "...th..thanks."

"You should leave. You'd be a sitting duck if you got attacked again." The other Unicorn said.

"...I...I recognize you...from the train." It was an odd thought. But for a Unicorn to use so much magic, slight delirium could expected.

One-Way Express spared a chuckle at this. "Now I know you need to leave."

"...yeah...probably...but what about you?" Starlight asked.

"I can handle myself." The golden Unicorn stated.

Starlight tried to argue further, but had to stop herself from falling over and decided to take the hint.

Her horn lit and she was gone. Pulled to safety by the princesses. One-Way doubted that she would stay longer than she needed to...unlike the others.

One-Way knew it was wrong to be angry with them. They weren't warriors. Heck, he wasn't a warrior. But creatures needed help, and they had stepped up. Now, they were running before the job was done. But not him, he wouldn't let Aries onto his train without a ticket, he'd be dead before he left innocent creatures to suffer while he fled for his life.

As he renewed his determination, the wall in front of One-Way Express opened up. As good a direction as any. The Unicorn thought to himself as he moved deeper into the Hive.

"HHHRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!" Screamed the abomination as it swung a cleaver at Tempest in spite of her electric assault.

Four Aries noted as he shot the monster in the head while beheading another. He new not the name of these creatures, World Eaters learned little of their foes beyond how to kill them, but he knew that they were created by the Dark Eldar from their victims...some had even been human.

What humanity they had was lost. All that was left was multi-limbed drug-fueled monsters that could only ease their eternal pain through the rage of battle. Much like his brothers.

Tempest and Yellow Jacket fell back. Bumblebee and Neighsay used their telekinesis to slow the closest abominations while Aries put them out of their misery.

Three monsters remained, but they were not alone. A dark shape leapt from behind the center abomination and kicked off its head towards Aries.

The War Hound brought his blade up in the nick of time. Warp Eater's power field clashing with another as the tip of an alien power sword cut a gash into his helmet.

The Incubus would've fled, but Bumblebee stunned him with her magic, allowing Aries to cut him in two.

Several more of its fel kind came from between the remaining abominations. Tempest and Yellow Jacket halted their advance from behind Bumblebee and Neighsay, but the abominations kept coming.

Aries locked blades with one and shot another in the head along with one of the Incubi.

Two Aries noted as he twisted Warp Eater to expose the monster to a headshot as its final kinsmen brought its blade up.

One Aries dodged the cleaver and beheaded the last abomination. The two jigsaw bodies falling as one.

The Incubi had succumbed to their electrocution by the time Aries finished fighting the monsters. Everypony was exhaus-...Aries gave a slight shiver as he realized that he was spending far too much time around these creatures.

"Neighsay, return us to Ponyville. We will not last much longer if we do not withdraw." Aries ordered.

"...No. You will not." Spoke an alien voice.

Aries turned around...and became wary. He knew no fear, even in the face of death. But he knew that he was very likely to die in the next moment.

Incubi were the most well known Dark Eldar warriors remembered by the XIIth Legion. Aries knew them the moment he saw them, as he knew the appearance of their leaders. A Klaivex.

Warrior killers over a millennium old, a Klaivex was the absolute deadliest Dark Eldar in close quarters combat. And while Aries may be a War Hound, he remains more fond of providing fire support for his brothers than charging into the fray himself. He knew he couldn't win.

...Zero Aries leveled Defiance and fired the last round. Completely unsurprised when the Klaivex jerked his head at the same time Aries pulled the trigger.

Aries maglocked his firearm to his hip and charged.

The Klaivex would've torn him apart, he had no illusion of that, and he doubted his Equestrian allies would've saved him...so he was pleasantly surprised when a golden magical beam forced the Klaivex to stop short.

Aries slashed across his midsection, but the Dark Eldar flipped over him, only to be met with not four, but five Unicorns.

One-Way Express fired first, the other four following suit. They were trying to drive the Klaivex back towards Aries...they failed.

The seasoned fighter unleashed a secret weapon, a Tormentor, and left the Equestrians writhing in agony.

The Klaivex was among them in an instant, Aries right behind him...too slow to stop him from bathing his demi-Klaives in Equestrian blood.

Warp Eater lashed out, chasing him off for an instant. "GET US OUT OF HERE!!" Aries shouted. Hoping that at least one Unicorn with their horn intact was still alive. He hadn't seen who all was struck.

The Klaivex leapt at him. He brought Warp Eater to bear...and was back in Ponyville.

"GOOD HEAVENS!!!" Celestia shouted as she beheld the bloody sight.

Aries looked down at the dead and dying, at last learning who was who.

Neighsay had been the one to save them, but he was far from salvation. The Klaivex slashed his throat and cut off his left front leg...he had been lucky.

One-Way Express was gone. Beheaded in one stroke...and Bumblebee was drowning in her own blood like Neighsay.

Tempest and Yellow Jacket were unharmed but for the agony of the Tormentor. Aries knew that when Yellow Jacket came to her senses, she would demand blood.

Looking up from the apparent defeat, Aries could a handful of Changelings being looked at by medical personnel...but there was bound to be more.

"How many have returned?" Aries asked.

Celestia was trying to heal the wounded, but Luna was able to answer. "Just 6 besides yourself. Starlight Glimmer will be ready to return in a moment."

"I will reload my weapon and join her. This fight is far from over." Aries stated.

Author's Note

And there it is, a chapter almost completely devoted to Aries kicking ass. Before anyone says anything, I know that Aries was fighting Wraks. It's just that one of the biggest complaints of the first Volume is that he knew too much.

I don't know if Wraks come with ranged weapons, but the ones seen here were merely armed with large cleavers.

I don't really know how Incubi stack up against Space Marines, but I'm definitely sure a Klaivex is beyond Aries. He has only been an Astartes for 30 years after all.

Also, does anyone else remember One-Way Express, because I genuinely forgot him until a new reader complemented his introduction two days ago. Oops.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I got some bombs to drop.

I have stated numerous that I've living in a Trade School. Well, that changes in about a month...cause I'll be graduating and getting a job.

This means that until I settle into a new normal, my breaks between chapters are going to be even longer than before...but that's not all.

I have stated on my FanFiction.Net bio(that I swear I'll copy/paste to this site one day) that I am using fanfics as training in the hopes of writing something authentic. Well...a few days ago, I wrote down the few paragraphs of an original Dark Fantasy Novel.

It's going to be a while before I get that one off the ground, and I'm going to try to finish Broken Beast and the next chapter of the Lion's Heresy(I can't believe its been over aYEAR and I'm still not done) before committing to that wholly. But I'm fricken excited to actually give it a shot.

Alright, coming up next will be a bonus chapter to tie up a loose end that I forgot to address. Followed by the conclusion of the Battle For The Hive, and I will see you all there.