He should be dead.

He should have been dead.

He should have been given the emperor's mercy, even though he was supposed to die like the rest of his kin.

Yet...

The knowledge he held was too great and the adapts from the machine cult wouldn't allow him death.

Not yet at least.

He can remember even now.

Rushing through no-man's land with the information on the heretic lines along with a recovered package that was of great strategic value.

He was a few feet away from the allied trench before the explosion went off.

To this day he had no idea what caused the blast.

It didn't matter all that he remembered was the combat sims wearing off and the burning pain that was in each limb.

Half-blind and he could still feel his gasmask melt onto his face.

That was when he saw it a being moving down clad in red wrapped him and the package in countless limbs of metal before the pain vanished then came the darkness.

The next day he gave his report and the information, the magos that saved him were grateful for delivering the package.

He never knew what was in it but the mechanics were extremely grateful.

So grateful in fact he was walking on new limbs the next day and eyes that could help him see in the dark better than before. Luckily the new limbs could allow him to handle the kick of his new weapon with little effort that engineers of his regiment used.

An engineer, a 'promotion' if one can call it that.

He was taught by the best from the same being that gave him a second chance to serve the emperor and now the machine god as well.

Fate seemed to smile down on him but only for a brief moment before realizing who he was.

That brings him here.

Trapped in the same tunnel he and a few others spent weeks digging under the enemy lines.

A tunnel that was swarming with infected humans with the foul gifts from the chaos god Nurgle.

This tunnel was dug right into the heart of a sick rotting twisted flesh-covered temple with the plaguefather's mark bearing the walls. He watched as two of his 'brothers' were pulled in and ripped apart, having to move back quickly to try and seal off the tunnel he stayed behind to buy them time.

Even with the duel filtered gasmask, he could smell the stench of rotting flesh...

It made him sick.

He just hoped his tank-kin had finally finished welding the sap's entrance shut and started setting a defensive line.

Yet hope is unreliable in this line of work.

But there are facts and logic.

These walking corpses should have known that the being before them was a walking corpse.

One with a pack full of explosive charges.

Maybe he can buy his regiment more time.

The hades breaching drill next to him had a full tank as well.

Machine spirit forgives him but this is what needed to be done.

Pulling the trigger one last time he watched as the shot from his Mark 22c shotgun ripped apart the center mass of an infected imperial citizen While the last shell was spent, he watched as the infected's neck along with the jaw and the collar bones were torn into a bile colored mist.

Reaching behind him he pulled out the small explosive device.

Unlike the 'pine' texture of a frag grenade, this one was rounded and was one preferred by engineers such as himself for a much smaller explosion which was a blessing for a 'Tunnelratte' like himself. Plus this could punch through the armor plating over the hades breaching drill's fuel tank and set off not only the fuel lines but cause a chain reaction setting his own explosives off and the many other explosives nearby.

He would bring this entire tunnel down on these abominations!

Pulling the pin with his thumb he threw the grenade at the drill which caused the small explosive's magnetic system to clamp itself to the drill tank. While a Plague Zombie tackled him to the ground the Krieger couldn't help but slightly smile under his gas mask, he turned his gaze to the explosive then back to the wave of undead.

"Auf Wiedersehen,"

The explosion engulfed the entire tunnel in milliseconds not even an angel of death could escape the blast.

Fire of plasma, melta, and natural roared out the tunnel system melting the premacrete support beams while the dirt and stone above were sent loose and dropped down sealing the tunnel and burying the charred corpses.

Yet...

The dead man wasn't dead.

*GUUUUH!*

Shooting up the Krieger gasped.

The cold air that entered his lungs was like razor blades slicing his respiratory system into ribbons, he was so used to the filtered air that his precious gasmask gave him that normal air was alien to him.

Reaching for his mouth to cover it with his hands from the amount of pain this experience was to him, only to feel that his hands were bound. After a moment to collect himself, the Krieger realized he was sitting up, his back was up again a wooden pole wrapped in thick rope and his ankles and hands were bound by similar thick golden rope.

Confusion filled his mind...

How was he still alive?

The blast should have killed him, yet he was still breathing.

Breathing without his gas mask.

He looked down at his limbs, he could still 'feel' them from every digit on his gloved hands and in his boot-covered feet.

Still wearing his trusty oil-chemical treated trenchcoat, the engineer quickly noticed that he wasn't alone.

Others were next to him.

There were four wooden poles in total including himself, each held a captive but unlike him, these three were... alien to him.

They could have been Xenos but they almost seemed more like abhuman.

He has seen Rattlings and Ogryns before, though when he was stationed with a unit of Cadian's back in his early days he heard stories of 'Felinids' feline-like human mutants. Yet these weren't cat-looking adhumans but... equines. They were similar to the mounts that the death rider’s rode into battle. But these adhuman equines has strangely color coats and manes with unnatural colors.

Pearl white, Blazing orange, and a light yellow.

The three had fear on their faces, a very human emotion along with their body structure, but from what he could tell by human anatomy they were female and young.

He saw the Pearl colored female who bore a horn sticking right from her forehead tired to squirm in her restraints, the orange female tried to bite through her robes but couldn't yet her stubbornness could be clearly seen, finally, the yellow female looked at him but the moment he turned to face her she turned away seemly to avoid eye contact with the Krieger out of fear.

If it wasn't for the moisture in the air it was the feeling of cold air that told him he wasn't on the surface.

He's been undergrounding so many times he has gotten used to the cold air of the underground, the coldness of the air nip at his face. He almost forgot the feeling of anything but the comfort of his gas mask strapped to his face, his captors took his precious gas mask off his face.

Looking at his bindings he could easily break them, but not yet...

Not until he finds out who was holding him and these equine abhumans.

He would have to answer of how he got here later.

His sharp bionic eyes cut through the darkness of the cave with little effort before they rested on a crudely built wooden table with familiar gear resting on top of it. His attention was turned to a low snoring and sure enough, there was a guard on a stool of some kind with metal armor that looked like an ork gretchin had made in a hurry, armed with a crudely crafted spear resting in it’s arms.

The creature's oversized helmet covered their face and along with their eyes (if it even had any that is) but from the snoring, it sounded like this guard was asleep.

His attention was grabbed by the three whispers.

"Girls he's awake," The yellow one spoke to the others.

"What?!" The three turned to him as he looked at them but they shivered slightly at the sight of his face masked in the darkness of the barely lord cave, mostly from the glow of his bionic eyes.

Moving from the equines he brought his attention to look at the guard. Turning back to the girls he moved his finger to his lips, it took them a moment for them to realized what he was trying to tell them.

Casually he moved his hands and the thick rope binding his wrists snapped quietly, the orange female gasped before the two hushed her which was louder than her gasp.

These three were going to give him away if they don't shut up.

Removing his chest and ankle bindings he rose up and walked over guard putting his hands together and bring them down on the strange creature's helmet. The impact of the helmet caused the three females to flinch but luckily for them, they didn't hear the crunch as the guard's lifeless body slumped down.

Catching the guard and quietly setting the dead beast down, he then rose up and walked over to his gear seeing it all thrown about on the table but all of it was there. The Krieger blinked seeing that even some of his spent ammunition from before was also there, along with the Krak grenade he swore was used on the hades breaching drill.

"Hey, buddy care to give us a helping hand?" The orange spoke.

Ignoring the three the engineer quietly picked up his gasmask before pulling it over his face, the familiar tightness was a welcoming feeling as he pulled on the straps before moving a hand to put the duel filter system behind his neck and then push the connection port. Unfiltered air exited the gasmask before the staleness of his gasmask's rebreathers system quickly kicked.

He closed his eyes for a moment with his hands over his gasmask.

His second face.

"Hey! HEY!" The orange pony shouted angrily to the Krieg engineer. "DUDE!"

"Quiet!" His muffled whispered voice was barely heard by the three but him placing a finger to his gasmask's connection port told them before his words did.

Grabbing the rest of his gear he went over to the females who all looked up at him barely able to see him in the dark cave with their organic eyes. He looked at the three in return in thought...

Should he help these three?

From how they acted so far maybe they would only slow him down for them to get caught again but then again he could get help in contacting imperial command.

That is if this was a world of the imperium.

Even then he could find a way out quicker without them but they might know the way out.

'By the golden throne, I'm going to regret this,'

Going down he pulled out his trench knife and cut their bindings before the three got up.

"Alright let's get out of here!" The pearl-colored one shouted about to rush out only to be stopped by the Tunnelratte grabbing her wrist.

"What are you doing?" He asked through his mask.

"What does it look like? We're getting out of here!"

"If you run out there you'll give us away!" He spoke in a low growl starting to regret his choice of freeing them. "Quietly yet quickly we need to escape,"

He then let her wrist go.

"Do you three know the way out?" The Krieger asked to which the three shook their head.

'Fuck,'

Reaching down he pulled out his auspex scanner to which the green glow lit up the room slightly while the three females perked up at the sight of the device glowing giving a low 'ooh' at it.

Looking at the scans, though they were limited it would be a great help in their escape.

He looked up at the only way in or out of this area.

"Follow... be quiet," The three nodded their heads while they exited the cave chamber into a tunnel away before the four moved in the darkness.

They could now clearly hear the echos of digging and pickaxes hitting stone echo softly in the natural hallway of the cave.

"Rarity's going to kill me... the diamond dogs just had to grab us right before our school pictures," Spoke the pearl-coated one.

"Relax Sweetie Bell I bet Rarity will understand after we tell her we got kidnapped," Spoke the orange one.

"Y'all be quiet our friend told us to be quiet for a good reason," The yellow one interrupted.

"We are being quiet Apple bloom," The orange one argued.

"Do you want to be napped by those dogs again Scootaloo?!"

"No,"

"Be quiet," 'Applebloom' said shutting up her friend aware that the three gave him their names.

'Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Bell,'

What strange names...

Author's Note

Finally a KRIEG story!

I said I would do it...

And I finally did it after so long!

So yeah a Krieg engineer in MLP.

Before you hit the dislike button I'll have you know almost all crossovers into the mlp world are isekai...

Isekai does translate to: 'sent to another world'

(1/30/22)- I would have done more for this chapter but I didn't know how to continue with it and the next chapter will be out sooner rather than later...

Hopefully, I'm going to help my co-worker move with her stuff and plus:

I need to start painting before my pile of shame stacks up even more...

That new warp smith looks fucking awesome...

Might name him Ender hints to those who get that reference.