After about an entire day of Twilight and her friends confronting Zecroa, she and her friends now have a more significant issue with what to do with the alien guest, Veteran Sergeant Major Thorn "Mad Dog." Grey. A human from the imperium of man and in service of the imperial guard of the eighth Cadian regiment Astra Militarum, Twilight asked the guardsman to answer her questions in her library. He was distant and kept his space from them, being that going near him gave a sinister feeling of fear and terror to which he accepted. Still, his behavior and actions were more confusing for Twilight or even understand. Hopefully, he would answer her questions before being bombarded by his could ask.

It was a small library located within the trunk of a massive tree, dubbed "Golden Oaks Library," a sign pointed out its name. Twilight allowed him to enter and chose a place to sit down before following behind at a safe distance; he decided to stand across the large table in the sitting area of the library as she took her seat.

Spike followed shortly after, coming over carrying a small stack of papers, a quill, and a small inkwell, setting them onto the table next to the unicorn. "Thanks Spike. I can take it from here," she said, dismissing him. He gave a slight nod and stared at the human questioningly before padding off to do...something or the other, presumably.

Twilight turned towards Grey, smiling as she used her magic to smack the bottom of the stack of papers against the desk to neatening them a bit before setting them back to one side and pulling one off of the tip, her quill dipped. Ready floating in her magical, a feat getting the man's attention across the room from her.

"So you a psyker, with that horn, then wait, think you could perform those long messages to others of similar power?" he asked, with a mild amazed tone in his voice at what he was seeing.

She tilted her head and gazed at her horn, and snickered. "I'm not sure what is a "psyker." But this simple unicorn magic very versatile. As for “messaging others”, I don't think I or anypony can do that here; we can teleport ourselves and objects but sending messages is more of a "psychic" type of magic. But that got me wondering." She said in an incredulous tone as she raised an eyebrow and leaned in a bit, seeming more interested.

"What is a psyker, are you a soldier, and if so, who do you serve, what level of technology you have, what is your world lik-"

"Uh... Ms. Twilight, as much as I would enjoy playing forty thousand questions, I need my questions answered first, then I'll answer yours."

She groaned softly setting her quill down and looking at the human before nodding. "Well, I guess an alien would have questions just as I would for you, so ask away."

Thorn took a breath from his respiratory and looked at the small purple "unicorn" xeno before holding up his hand with four fingers extended out. "Firstly, I would like to know what planet this is; my memory of the galaxy is fuzzy, but I know most planetary sectors, so it shouldn't be too hard to map out in mind." He finishes curling up his pinkie and moves to his second question. "Secondly, judging by your world, which I deemed a feudal world, I suppose you have a monarch or planet ruler of the form of government." He says, curling his ring finger, pressing down on his middle finger, and using his other hand.

"Thirdly, what bases of technology is currently the latest so I may get a grasp at how far your kind is." He finishes holding up his index finger as he looks at Twilight's eyes through his visor, seeing confusion and curiosity from his questions as she looks at his hand and then back to his visor.
"And lastly, has there been any sighting or information of other humans like me in these lands? Even simple rumors would be grateful at this point."

The unicorn looked down at her hooves set on the table, scowling her gaze in deep thought; her expression was stern, pondering. Overall, she knew from the memory of her time in Cantorlots library and the knowledge she knew but only lowered her head in shame, followed by a sigh of disappointment. She looked up at the human. His thoughts were right on these xenos. They weren't going to help him much, let alone be of use even to the imperium.

"Well, to answer in order, this planet is Equestria or Eques for short. Our rule now being a coop-ship ruler of the two twin alicorn princesses, Princess Celestia the oldest and in charge of moving our sun to grant a new day, and her younger sister Princess Luna in charge of moving the moon giving us new nights." She says, using her magic to pull a book of Equestias history to show pictures of both princesses to the human as he looked intently, studying every word and detail Twilight told him.

"But for your other question, I believe our latest technology is airship balloons, but only it was being used for royal or noble pony travel, shipping of trades, and for the guard or other businesses. I think it's based on being on both steam like the trains and magic powering and guiding it through the air to its destinations.”

"Wait, So let me get this straight, so I better understand. You're telling me that this world's latest piece of technology is based around steam engines. Yet somehow you also as a species possess psychic powers or what ever is this "magic of friendship" to where your machines run on and even based as a power source!?" He looked at the unicorn flinching back at his agitated tone with her ears lowering, nodding slightly her head to his questions.

“Well, the magic of friendship is different from how other pony's magic is, yet it is played a big part in ponies and their magical properties, like how unicorns can cast spells, pegasi to move clouds and fly, and the earth ponies to-“

"By the emperor, if the machanicus were on this world, they would have a field day along with even the pykers of the guard getting headaches. This is a feudal world, but one where its technology is more confusing than repairing a damn Power Cogitator."

So these "ponies." developed aerial transportation by the emperor. They don't even know what lies beyond the stars above, let alone the absolute ludicrous and heretical information he's gathered; he never heard or even remembered any sector having this planets name, yet that followed with more questions. What the hell was an alicorn, and how can these beings move both sun and moon? Does this planet not have an orbital gravity? The more Grey thought, the more he felt his mind circling in his head as if he was going to have an aneurysm at that very moment, but his ears caught Twilight's following words as he continued to listen. She gave him a sorrowly expression, almost as if she was trying to pity him.

"But for your the last question, there hasn't been anything of humans or your kind, I’m sorry Grey..."
He looked at the sad unicorn at what she said, feeling crushed by not only the guilt of somehow surviving the fall of Cadia. But being far from holy terrors star on an unknown planet as what he assumed and prayed not to be true, but him being the last and only one of his kind on a xeno-filled planet. He slowly slides the strap of his broken Hellgun, dropping it to the floor making a loud 'clank.' he falls to his knees as he slides his heavy powerpack and backpack off his back to the floor, falling into despair in his mind from all that has happened.

"Huh... Imagine that not only am I lost but stranded in an unknown world of xenos that barely even attempt aerial travel, let alone even bother to look at the stars... Fuck, can the emperor even know of or even hear my prays, being this far from his star?"

Twilight watches the human collapse bowing his head in what looked to be a defeated depression. She couldn't understand what he meant by his home or battle companions but seeing how he spoke and acted, she knew he was a warrior for this "imperium of man." But what kind of warrior, what sort of battles did he fought in to make him like this, what did he lose that brought such a being to fall before her in shame.

“Grey, I want to know something... What happened to your people, your home, and what kind of battles did you fight? I know you are a warrior or a soldier, no less by your “uniform." She says as she looks from his helmet down to his boots of his wargear and armor, but besides the mud and red stains the two things that catch her eyes were the two broken chained shackles around his wrists seeing it was a dark metal with an orange stripe across both of them, their were chains that hanged though broken their were spiked and looked to bear symbols of a two headed bird symbol and the letter "I".

"But still, maybe I can help you or at least better understand your probl-”

"You asked who I served, right? About my people. about my... world?" He interrupted her in a tone that sounded empty, as if he wasn't even speaking as himself anymore, shutting up the purple unicorn looking at Grey with concern and worry for him. He moved his legs to sit right up correctly, having both of his arms rest on his knees, looking only to the floor through his cracked visor.

"Then I'll tell you everything, all the things that I've know ever since I was birth as a true born, so I would like to ask you halt your questions till I finish this... grim story, please." Twilight picked up her quill, readying it as it floated in her magical, to write down what she presumed to be a very long writing by the human as she started to scribble down his actions and heard him draw breath.

"It was long ago, during the midst of the 13th black crusade of... well that was the fortress world of Cadia Prime. I was born organic birth by my mother, granting me the status of true born and thus started my instant enlistment into the imperial guard, in servers of the great godly Emperor of Mankind, and were I was given a lasgun and instructions of how to take it apart, rebuild it remembering every little piece of it that they can fit into my mind. Then from the moment I could walk was the start of my drill practice of a white-shield recruit with others, with the only true words I know how to say was "Sir Yes Sir" that and how to run through raining artillery and bolt-fire."

He says, looking at the broke Hellgun, leaning over to grab it, and staring at the that on the built barrel grip was a scratch word reading "Redeem" scratched onto it. Then he looked at his shackles but back at the barrels grip flipping it to the other side and seeing a set of tally marks counting eighteen marks. He sighed and looked at the unicorn scribbling away writing as she listened to his story.

He told her how he was born, and his experiences of growing up, all the drilling, the practices, the things he had seen and done, but seeing the sight of the unicorn's expression of worry shift from horror to a pure sorrow face with her eyes glistened waterily. Tears building up in the corners of her eyes, all this from the birth of a Cadian to being humanities "perfect soldier" to fight against daemons, traitors, mutants, heretics, and alien xenos... just like the world he was stranded in, she could understand him being born in and to serve a war that lasted for eons. Still, to only be tasked with killing even his own kind and others they deemed aliens, she would only imagine what he was capable alone if this imperium of man wore to come to Equestria. Grey knew if he told her about anything of the imperium, he would practically have to resort to total bloodshed on this world, even if he had to do it alone.

Moments turn to minutes, then to hours of talking, Grey telling all of his twenty years of service to the imperial guard, the enemies he fought against being from orks, Tyranids, and chaos. He remembered stories and reports of other battles with living machine aliens, a high-level alien called "Eldary," and some aquatic alien species called Ta'u, but he had never seen such things, he was glad he didn't form the reports and stories. But what really made Twilight cry was the battle of Cadia Prime. How he lost his battle companions in the war being posted in the secondary front line defense as most of his "Friends" died in the first line. He saw a few of them turn traitor, or die being burnt, shot, disintegrated, or pike to have their corpses or limbs displayed as trophies, even watching a soldier he once called "lover" and ready make a family, be skinned alive then her corpse ripped apart slowly, and her body tossed as if it were nothing. So much loss he suffered broke the unicorn, making her break down into crying as she fell to the floor, covering her face in an instant to shield herself from the horrors he spoke off.

"I think it be best if we end with anymore questions... it is already past thirteen thirty, best get some rest, and try forget about... all this..."

He says, looking up and watching Twilight slowly get up to her hooves silently, it was an era of silence but one he knew from experience. He knew how she felt, and yet he didn't feel anything, not a single ounce of emotion for her, he only scratched the surface of his life’s story and of the knowledge and experiences to tell her, but he decided to halt his tongue from speaking as she quietly walks over to set of stairs going up it and stops halfway to the first step. Hiding her face in her mane and spoke in an almost empty tone.

"You can stay here for the night, the guest room is just over their Grey..."

"Thanks, Twilight..." He said, staring at the floor at the clopping sounds of Twilight making her way up the stairs till they faded, and now he was alone, left with his own thoughts. Did he really just thank a xeno, an alien he barely knew of its species or anything they have, let alone their world. What was coming over him, did his time in the warp start having an effect on him, was he in this world, or was it something more... He sighs, moving his heavy power backpack setting it on the library wall, and leans back on it using it as a pillow, he closed his eyes cradling his broken Hellgun in his arms and bows his head, taking a slow breath from his respirator and drifts to sleep.

Princess Luna stands on her observatory's balcony, looking over the lands of Equestria from Canterlot castle. The night was yet another beautiful night she brought as now she had her duties to work for the night. Luna closed her eyes, taking a moment to listen to the night and its beauty. Her horn slowly glowed its blue hue; soon, she was surrounded by darkness before emerging into a plain of thousands of small white orbs that floated and drifted around her as she opened her eyes to being seated in her court of dreams and began her night court duties. She watches over the orbs, hearing the sounds of pony's dreams and using her magic to quickly eradicate dark orbs being nightmares, many being of fillies and foals, but little from any mares or stallions, seeing dreams of all kinds, from the "exotics" imaginations to some beyond words.

'Still the same as all, let us begin for the night.'

Luna says as she then catches an orb that is small yet different. Instead of a dark orb, knowing it was of a nightmare, this one was red; she had never seen such a dream state before, let alone ever encountered such an orb. Using her magic to bring the small sphere up before her. Her ears flicked, folding to the back of her head, making her flinch at the sounds of a loud shrike scream followed by explosions, screaming, and sounds of hissing roar as she pushed the orb back and stared at it in total appalling shock and confusion.

'What pony would dream such a dream, how is such a dream even possible to form let alone for the pony's mind to bare.'

Her thoughts questioned as she stared at the red orb tilting her head to the side and examining it, the screams, expulsions, and roars were faint for her to hear, but she knew that it was a dream she needed to eradicate and understand what kind of dream it was. With her closing her eyes again, her horn glowed a white light before the void of darkness surrounding her.

Ambient battle background my friends, all credit goes to " Josszam TV " on youtube, go give him the credit it deserves and enjoy.

"They don't kill for anger, hatred, idealism, money, or god. They kill to feed. They feed simply to gain more in numbers and to become better than what we fought before. They didn't come from another galaxy. They don't come from any galaxy but from the nothingness between galaxies. Yet you don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. It is structurally perfected and is matched only by its hostility. We call them the Great Devourer for a reason."
- Author of the Guardsmen Story.

Soon her eyes snapped open to be greeted with a blazing inferno field of flames. The sky was tinted red with the smell of metal oils, blood, and flaming smoke that made her cough at the very breath into her lungs burning from within, with loud explosions blasting around her followed by screaming roars and hissing that surrounded her all around. Even the dark skies seemed to light up by explosions that shined the dark clouds briefly, shadows of what looked to be enormous airships hearing their engines scream through the sky, and the sights of horrid beasts that flew following the smaller airships to grab them from the sky and tear them to shreds with ease making them burn and fall from the skies to crash into the ground in a blazing flame of destruction.

She was stuck frozen in fear standing in pure horror of her surroundings before through the flame that burned around her showed silhouettes of large beings that stand over her towering her only to emerge form the blazing orange fires with the sounds of clattering claws and emerged a large maw of teeth sharp and coated in saliva as it hissed at Luna, it was a beast that not even lune would even thought to exist let alone be dreamt of, it bared four clawed appendages and stood bipedally each claw bared a long bright red sharpen talon scythe as its had a color of purple shell on its back and its what looked to be body being bone white as its four red eyes locked with the dark blue alicorn. It hissed out a roar at Luna forcing her to galloped back running from the horrific beast.

"By my sisters fat royal white flank! what in Tartarus his this horror to hunt such a pony's dream!"

She screamed out only to see thousands of beams of red go past her and hit the beast, blasting away large chunks of its body and skin as chunks of itself flew off with green blood spewing out of the wounds causing Luna to immediately stop and drop flat into mudded ground as she watches the giant beast's body getting ripped apart by the red beams of light. A faint whistle charm is blown behind her, followed by roaring screams quickly lighting up her horn to use her magic, casting a shield around her and promptly levitating her to the sky above, hearing the sounds of numerous stomps as if a stampede of beasts were coming.

"Forward you dogs! Forward! This world will not fall to these locusts! Let them consume the wrath of our blades, Skewer them on the Emperor's holy flames of hatred! Charge men! Charge!"

She looked to see thousands of matching bipedal creatures charging, all clad in matching olive green armor and khaki uniforms, many gripping metallic weapons that fired the identical red beams at more beasts that emerged past the flame and seeing a few carrying heavy boxes piped and connected by a tube to two tanks on their backs. Only to see the piped boxes breathe out a raging flame that spreads several hooves out, burning the oncoming beasts. She watches in terror as the bipedal creatures all charge the beasts, only to watch as the beasts use their talons and claws to tear through the creatures consuming their bodies, whether alive or dead, as they barely react to being burnt or even shot at.

She then noticed the none stop and growing numbers of the beasts, all identically to one another, running through the flames, causing the fire to die out and to the sight that made her eyes go to near pin point and her mouth dropped in awe of pure horror and intimidation. It was not waves of creatures. It was an entire mass of them all in different shapes, sizes, and even with weapons practically apart or fused with their bodies, seeing small to huge green shots fired at the bipedal creatures, some lunching larger mass into the skies to shoot down the small airships form the air or to come down on the thousands of charging creatures. Still, soon she heard stomps of something slow but massive to look out on the horizon covered by clouds of flaming smoke to see the larges of the beasts roaring out.

"Hierophant! the damn bastard bugs got a titan hierophant!!"

"Ripper swam in coming! Burn the swa- Aaahhhhh!"

One of the soldiers scream out, Luna's ears caught the screams of pain as a sea bed of small packs of the beasts called rippers crawled through the ground into these guardsmen's trenches, jumping to latching onto their bodies with their claws and letting their mouths biting and ripping their bodies. Tearing off limbs from their bodies or burrowing into them, consuming them from the inside out as they screamed in agonizing pain, screaming out for aid or even death, only to be burnt by other guardsmen with their fire breathing flame weapons or shot by their beams as they continued to fight against the Tyranid monsters. But the 'Hierophant' they spoke of was impossibly ginormous, a titanic beast standing on four clawed legs as it slowly made its way across the battlefield. It used its claw and even tail to stab through armored cannon-mounted carriages and two large infused cannons that lunched out large green liquid shots that hit exploded on the ground melting all, but its own smaller forming pool sized puddles of toxic acid pools, melting the bipedal creatures and their armored carriages.

Luna watches all the horror of the guardsmen killing off Tyranids and their own charging without care for their own lives. These soldiers charge at the beasts letting out their roaring war cries or screams of pain as they get ripped apart and eaten alive. Luna shined her horn a white light and made a thin strand line that guided her to the source of the nightmare seeing it was one of the guardsmen dragging the body of other guardsmen by his large saddlebag on his back, one bared a helmet with a white line, and on there chest pieces saw a white shield mounted. The dragged soldier gripping his weapon in his hand, continuing to lay fire of the red beams at the smaller coming beasts killing them in multitude as they seem to be screaming at both the beasts and another, one after the other.

"Oscar! I swear by the golden throne! That these bugs will feed on my rage! I am a Cadian! A symbol of the very gate of humanity!"

"You are a damn fucking idiot is what you are! What are you thinking taking on three of them with nothing but a bayonet and shovel Sergeant! You cant walk, or stand! We were meant to be positioned on the support line not the front yet!"

"This was meant to be the fight, the fight meant only for me, it would've granted me honor guard if I would've- AH!"

The guardsman named Thorn was interrupted by one of the rippers shot straight into the stomach of his torso. He screamed in pain, grabbing its tail, desperately pulling on it to get it off his stomach but only to see it sink in its teeth and rip through his armor and uniform with unimaginable speed and force. Then the blood quickly started to gush out as the creature sank its two tiny claws to Thorn's torso only to see the other named Oscar drop him into a trench line, falling I'm with thrown and quickly pull out a smaller weapon from its saddlebag off his leg, and points it at the small creature planting the barrel on the top of its head before blasting it killing the ripper instantly.

"Fucking bastard bugs, if we were on Cadia you'd all be my meal!"

"By the emperor Thorn, your mad for killing as your mad for death, Come now, lets get you patched up and back to our damn post before the commissar kills us first before these damn Tyranids."

Oscar says, pulling out a first aid kit and emergency stim injector syringe as the guard with his open stomach groans in pain, pushing his own flesh to close the wound, only exposing his small intestines. Soon the sounds of a hissing rasp can be heard as both look up from the trench just to be surprised by the sight of a giant four-armed Tyranid roaring over them. As both scream out of fear, Princess Luna watches as she lit up her horn to bright blinding light as it if were the sun and opens her wings, breaking her shield off, and dives over to the entrenched guardsmen seeing both guardsmen and the large Tyranid looked up at the sky shine by a bright light blinding both soldiers and beast briefly.

You may turn off the ambiance video here, thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of the chapter : ) - end of author bloop.

Princess Luna descends from the sky with her horn lighting up brightly. She crashes onto the floor Between the Tyranid beast and Thorn. With a quick slash of her horn, the Tyranid. Along with Oscar standing by him, the trench he was in fades away with everything else. He sits on the ground, covered in sweat and bloodied mud.

He regains his composure, and he slowly looks up to Luna. "What are you?" His voice slowly dies down from fear crawling back away from her. "T-This isn't right, in the Emperor's name! What is the meaning of this!?"

"I have saved you from your nightmare, and that horrid beast." Luna speaks gently.

Thorn instantly locks eyes with Luna, a vengeful fire behind their purple hue. "N-Nightmare, who said I required saving let alone aid!?" he asks, a particular bite to his words. Luna didn't understand. Did this soldier not appreciate that she saved him from his suffering and possibly death?

"This is my duty of the night, to aid those from nightmares in their dreams, though this one was more horrific than any I've encountered. Who are you, what are you if I may ask?" Luna slowly leans her head closer to the soldier's face only to see him snarling at her, causing her head to retract. "Leave." Thorn says in a tone holding hatred with a dark aura around him.

"Excuse me?" Luna looks at him, confused beyond words to think. The guardsmen quickly stand up on his legs pulling out the same small weapon aiming the barrel of it at her head. "I said, Leave damn it! Leave my mind! Get out of my head!" The entire dream collapses as cracks of blinding light fill the darkness around them as Thorn shouted at Luna, seeing her body disappear in a cloud fading away in the remains dark void as the light shines blinding Thorn.

Grey awoken with a rapid breath, quickly arming himself with the broken Hellgun cradled in his arms and aiming it around him as he scanned his surroundings, seeing he was still last where he remembered, the golden oaks library that the xeno Twilight offered to house him. Grey's hands gripped the Hellgun and breathed heavily, slowing his panic state to calm himself down. With only a few minutes, he lowered his broken Hellgun to the ground and leaned his back against his power backpack and his head to stare at the ceiling with his thoughts, trying to calculate what he had just encountered.

'First the planet, now my own dreams in my mind, Emperor, if you can still hear my prayers, please shield my mind, for now, the warp has tainted me to see these xenos within my own mind now.'

He set his broken Hellgun leaning on the wall and quietly moved his power-backpack to be infront of him learning his hack against the bookshelf, unclipping the straps that closed his backpack and rummaged through his inventory pulling out a one of his rations packs, pressing a small button on the side as a faint vibrational sound is hear followed by a red light lighting up, he reached in and pulled out his weathered down mess kit grabbing a metal spork and in clips his helmets respirator revealing only his mouth, a light ‘ding’ was heard from the ration pack and the red light turns off, grabbing the pack and gently opening it to see steam come from the pack and it was a simple brown and yellow toned cooked paste dipping in his spork to get a spoonful, sticking the it into his mouth lightly chewing it only to have his eyes shot widened and his face to crunch up cringing at the taste groaning disgustedly at the ration wanting to spit it out, he quickly turned the pack to see the name of its ration reading "corpse starch" before lightly groaning and forces himself to swallow it disgusting chunky texture and flavor that had a hint of metallic and smell of a burnt corpse.

"W-ell... beats Ork or nid meat...ugh."

Author's Note

You know, always wondered what goes on through the mind of our cadian Thorn... sadly I don't know either, human mind is a strange thing isn't it, after all...

Memory is such a fickle thing.

Art Showcase

Art showcase done by me (yes seriously) to fit in with this chapter basic the first part of the chapter.

Shoutouts/Good News

A big thank you for BronyCommander for use of one of his characters that he as contributed and give me his blessing to use in this chapter and for future chapters in hopes to come go give him a big thank you and look at what he’s got in his profile.

Also gocheck out the new Audio Reading of this story on Fire Heath's YouTube Channel go over to his profile, channel and support him and the story that are now audio read

Both of these people I grateful thank to them for doing this along with their other work, its greatly appreciated, it means a lot to me that such a story caught the attention of an audio reader and contributions of characters offered to such a story please go and give them not only thanks but a like and credit they deserve it truly.

Final note

Though this chapter is the longest, for now and hopefully, I did my best to integrate a war against Leviathan Tyranids as a PTSD memory/ dream and meat Luna bring a realism.

Along with the fact that the Cadian was alone in a planet of xenos, with no help or even contact and knowledge, with the fact that he survived the fall of Cadia believing he's the last Cadian so I'm sure his survivors guilt plus shame for not dying honorably is kicking him more than it should, who know what choice he would make or interactions he would have.

I like to think that all over 500 of you people reading this are like 40 orks, tyranids, eldar, dark eldar, Ta'u, and chaos followers ready to go on me a lone naked guardsmen against you all to a fight of the death, every time I publish a chapter and seeing how you cluster bombs read them so fast and ready to comment every mistake I made reporting them to me where it could give even give an inquisitor stroke. but thank you for reading and telling me of the mistakes.

But yet same old me telling folks to remain calm as they get there lore hardons as I make the story blah blah blah yada yada yada and thank you for reading along with leaving a comment or a point of of an error and like I love it and try to reply to all comments either bing questions, thoughts, or theory, or just a meme cause I'm a shithead that has no idea what he's doing

As always, Cya in the next chapter friend : )