Macharius

"Bird, left flank!"

"Tracking... Fire!"

The gun roared as the shell sped across the war-torn battlefield of Vraks Prime and right into the head of a Lord of Change, affectionately renamed by the Imperial Guard soldiers that it was fighting to "Bird". The materal form of the Greater Daemon shattered into a gruesome shower of various demonic limbs as it was banished to the Warp.

"Keep moving, the Kreigan zombies can't have all the fun!" the tank's commander, Major Voss roared over the vox and the Macharius rumbled forwards, seeking new prey for its armoured maw.

The war had been raging for sixteen long years when it should have ended in ten. The once thriving armoury world had been reduced to little more than a flat sheet of earth, occasionally punctured by the occasional abandoned trench or wrecked tank. Yet the fighting had continued for sixteen years with no end in sight. Voss and his crew of veterans had been there for fifteen of those sixteen years, blowing up, shooting and in some cases driving over the bodies of the traitors.

All in the name of the God-Emperor, of course.

The Macharius crested a ridge and was revealed with a gruesome but spectacular scene.

On one side stood the forces of the Emperor in all their glory, the Death Korps, Red Scorpions of the Adeptus Astartes and the mighty Baneblades, all locked in a great battle with the traitors.

On the other side stood a perverted reflection of the Emperor's armies. Where ordered ranks of Guardsmen stood on one side, on the other there stood a shambling horde of cultists. Where the Space Marines stood in all their glory, their debauched brothers, the traitor marines stood in shadow and blood. And while the mighty orchestra of the Imperium's tanks pounded the enemy, the traitor's own tanks were able to respond in kind.

Voss failed to notice the glowing purple and blue that was racing towards the tank, silhouetted on the ridge. Schult, the gunner, did not.

"Look out Sir!"

Voss looked up to see the gigantic Doombolt racing towards his tank.

"Liutz, reverse, reverse!"

The collossal tank began to reverse, but not fast enough.

"Oh shi-"

Voss was overcome by a haze of purple and blue as he and his crew were catapulted through the Warp to Emperor knows where.

Tzeench smiled, a rare occurrence in the last few millenia. There had been very little to do other than watch Nurgle accidentally give Typhus the Zombie Plague, Khorne get billions of his own followers killed and listen to Slannesh gasp as she found something new to use as a implement of pleasure.

Abbadon's crusade had been bogged down for a while, the Tyranids were so boring they could almost be Malal's ultimate weapon that he had apparently created before his demise and the other races were little better than the Nids. Even his schemes in the various other galaxies had gotten boring.

Sure, throwing a guy from industrial-age Dunwall into the stagnant Reaper galaxy was fun to watch but other things had accomplished little. Even his new project, "Fallout" was less interesting.

He was beginning to grow bored. And boredom was not something the god of change should have to put up with.

In passing, he noticed a small group of souls that have recently passed into his domain along with an Imperial tank.

"Hmmm..." he mused to himself "I may have thrown various beings from other galaxies around, but how about the Arena? Now all I need is a world of friendship..."

He made a tv guide appear on the wall as he began to look through the vast network of other galaxies out there.

"What to choose... Reaper? No, I dumped that Eldar and Stormtrooper there, the last thing they need is more Imperials... Reaper and Fallout? Too dangerous... Warcraft? No, they would rule the world in a few days with that giant armoured beast of theirs. The wierd animal headed world?

No... What's this? World of peace, tranquility, friendship. Non-warp based magic, no or very little violence or death, no humans. Two demi-god rulers. Sounds like a bad advert for a holiday. I should give the others a heads-up about this place. No, wait, it's my new playground. Let the others slaughter themselves. Abandon my followers to Kairos and let him take over. Or should I give them to Empy? That would screw the others big time."

Tzeench's current form morphed into that of a Imperial Inqusitor before he sent a message "Kairos, you're promoted to god of change, etc, until I finish my holiday. Which may be never. Otherwise, continue with all my present schemes."

"Just a little bit of memory adaption... A change in warp currents... And we're done."

Quite a crowd had gathered around the strange metal object after it had materialised in Ponyville's main square with no explanation whatsoever. Even Twilight couldn't find a explanation in that massive library of hers.

Voss groaned as he got to his feet before he was promptly sprawled on the floor again after hitting the turret roof. "Inquisitor Shane? Liutz? Schult? Byrzan?" He shouted out into the tank.

"Here Commander." Liutz groaned from the driver's seat below him.

Schult sat up below him and said "Here but shaken."

Byrzan yelled "Same as Schult but I'm a bit stirred down here."

"Alive but I'm not in any shape for kicking Commander." The Inquisitor's voice echoed through the tank. "I'm not picking up any vox traffic."

"Berner, weapons!"

"All still active Sir and loaded. All gunners accounted for."

"Good. Now where in the Emperor's name are we?"

"Commander, the auspex is picking up a large number of heat readings from outside."

"Schult, get a visual."

The Macharius's massive turret began to turn.

"Commander, the crowd is separating. They appear to be horses like the Rough Riders use. And judging by the lack of humans, I guess they are the dominant xeno."

"Xenos!" The Inquisitor spat. "Ammo?"

"500 stubber rounds, 300 heavy bolster rounds and 35 battle cannon shells."

"Enough to purge the place?"

"Here? Easily Inquisitor. The planet... Frankly, Inquisitor, we're in a bad situation here. Even if we cleared this small village, they will put up a fight. We don't have enough ammo to purge the entire planet."

"I see. I still think this is some Warp Trickery!"

The last two words echoed out of the tanks loudspeakers.

"Twilight, what's warp trickery ?"

"I don't know... The Warp, or at least what we know of it, is a plane formed of the emotions of everypony. Other than that, I'm stumped."

"Great. Not even the egghead knows what this thing is..."

A loud rumbling came from the metal object.

"Twilight... I think... I think we woke it up... And it's angry!"

The metal object sped forwards, nearly crushing Fluttershy.

"Everypony, back away from the metal creature..."

Rainbow Dash, as brash as ever, flew over the creature before shouting "It's harmless! Look!"

RD continued flying over the creature, doing the occasional trick.

The Inquisitor spat. "These xenos think to provoke us. Voss, deal with it."

"Yes, Inquisitor!"

"Schult, on my command, fire at the largest mass of xenos, once Voss has dealt with the flying thing."

A hatch opened on the top of the creature, straight into Rainbow Dash's face.

Everypony could see Rainbow Dash's limp form laying on the creature's back, a strange pony in a black uniform, a sword in one of its hooves...

"That's a hand!" Twilight burst out.

The figure turned to look down the hatch. "Inquisitor, we've got intelligent xenos. And judging by the fact I'm not riddled with bullet holes or psychic energy, they appear to be defenceless."

A loud voice, equal in volume to the Princess's voices when they were enraged, spoke from the tank. "Schult, open fire!"

The ponies scattered as two large projectiles impacted near where they were standing.

Several ponies were caught by the blast. The doctors from the hospital swiftly carried them away.

"Inquisitor, these xenos mean us no harm! I think."

"Voss, you are coming close to heresy. For now, I will take your advice. Liutz, drive towards the train station over that way. Berner, Byrzan, provide covering fire and crowd clearance. Let's see how these Princesses like a true god!"