A Light in the Grim Darkness

1 week later, Inquisitorial Black Ship Tannenburg: Location: Segmentum Pacificus.

Ian sat at his weapons table in his quarters tending to the smalll arsenal that he carried with him. Before him on the obsidian surface sat his powered bowie knife, master crafted bolt pistol, and his personal favorite, his modified Arbites Pattern III Lawbringer shotgun. The shotgun is a greatly underestimated weapon in the Imperium and beyond, and many Inquisitors scoff at the use of a weapon that they consider "ugly and unbefitting of their rank" as one had said to Ian long ago. However, Ian loved his shotgun, the weapon's pump action meant it rarely, if ever, jammed and when it was racked, the weapon was intimidating in the extreme. The thing he loved most about this weapon was the custom ammo that he'd had built for it.

The round was the brain child of a techpriest he had worked with about 2 years ago; it was a specially built armor piercing slug to be fired from the 10 gauge barrel, that was much akin to a bolt fired from a boltgun, and the shotgun combined with these "slugs" had been the bane of at least 5 overconfident chaos space marine champions  and many other enemies of the Imperium. Ian's attention then shifted  to the open cherry wood case on his dresser. Layed reverently in the velvet interior, was Dread Bane, his daemon hammer.  The weapon carried great meaning to him; not only was it a holy relic revered by daemon hunters, but it had been carried by his father who right before the destruction of Laureus IX, had thrust the weapon into Ian's hands and told him:

"Son; this is your's now, wherever there is evil, use this to crush it, wherever there is fear use this to shatter it!"

Ian was snapped from his memories by a buzz, the sound that meant someone was at his door. Ian walked over and opened it to reveal a man in an Imperial Guard uniform. He wore his gray hair in a buzz cut as is common in many regiments of the guard.

"We're in veiw of the planet milord, the captain wanted to know if -" the veteran was cut off by Ian's hand on his shoulder.

"Emil, how many times have I told you; don't need to call me "milord,"  you and I have been through alot and I would prefer you just call me Ian or failing that sir."

The old guardsman knew that Ian was right. Emil had been the first member of Ian's retinue after he'd stopped him from drinking himself to death. He had been the only surviving member of Governor Lukas Alexander's Kasrkin bodyguard, and had borne the regimental banner of the 1st Kronus regiment with pride; until Kronus had fallen to the Blood Ravens Space Marines under command of Davian Thule. The governor had died as Emil had tried desperately to save him, but considering the ammount of blood the governor had lost from his severed leg, there was nothing to be done, and after being discharged with PTSD he turned to drinking. One night he was at the bar when he met someone else trying to drown his bad memories. As the two had talked that night and shared their stories, they became friends and Ian gave Emil a job on his, at the time, non-existant retinue. Both men had since that time given up alchohol and had saved eachothers lives on multiple occaisions, they were like family to eachother.

"Of course sir." replied the scarred up veteran.

"Good, tell the rest of the retinue to get ready and have my pilot notified to prepare for take off in one hour. I want them in the shuttle bay for a briefing" said Ian.

"Yes Sir." replied Emil.

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Shuttle bay of black ship Tannenburg, 30 minutes into mission.

Ian's retinue had assembled in the bay near Ian's Aquilla shuttle, and stood in a line as Ian handed out folders to each member of his retinue. All of them were ready to go on whatever mission that their lord had planned were dressed and armed for the occaison, what the 12 henchmen were not ready for was what was in the files. A few minutes after Ian allowed the assembled retinue to open the files, nine of them burst out laughing with the exception of Emil, a techpriest, and a tall warrior dressed in the armor of a cardinal's pontifex guard. Emil for one was nervous, he knew that he could get away with laughing had he wanted to, Ian was like a son to him. It was the others that he was nervous for at the moment. Emil had learned 5 years ago, that despite being a very laid back man and unorthodox for an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, Ian Ludones had a lightning fast and sometimes lethal temper when it came to serious matters. He had once seen Ian hurl an uncooperative planetary governor through a window to his death from the upper most balcony of his own palace after the governor made one too many snooty remarks about the mission Ian was on; and right now Ian was getting the same angry look that he'd had when he had defenestrated the governor.

"Are you all quite finished acting like fools?" Asked Ian in a very dangerous tone.

The room went quiet as Ian adjusted his glasses. He disliked wearing them, but being

near sighted could be a bit of a problem at times. One memberof the retinue still had a

grin on his face, he like Emil was a former Imperial Guardsman, but no where near as

close a friend. Ian's aquiline features hardened in anger at the sight of this.

"Corporal Vrens I am near sighted, not blind, now wipe that stupid looking grin off of your face

before I strangle you." said Ian dangerously. This was all that it took to make the Corporal's

grin fade. Ian then continued his briefing.

"Comical as this may seem, this mission was entrusted to me by my master, Lord Coteaz, and is of the utmost importance. These ponies may well be the ones that many of our parents told us about in fairy tales, the ones that our Emperor loved like his own children, and if that is the case, then we must protect them. This however is not the only reason we are here. In the story, the Emperor gave the ponies six very powerful 'devices' known as the elements of harmony. These devices, if the stories are true, contain massive power; they can be used as a weapon, and maybe more, and ladies and gentlemen what I am about to say cannot leave this room." All eyes were on Ian, he had their undivided attention.

"These elements may be able to return our Emperor to us in the physical realm." finished Ian.The cargo bay broke into an excited commotion, that silenced suddenly as Ian raised his hand.

"Unfortunately, you cannot accompany me on this mission.The reports and stories say, the ponies are peaceful creatures,  and Part of my mission is to study them and find out what they are. It is confusing to many of my collegues because they look like animals, but have the intelligence of a human, nor can they be considered xenos. My studies could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, and I cannot ask you to stay along for this, as I study better on my own.I release you all from my service. It has been a pleasure and an honor serving along site of you all these past years. Maybe, when these studies are done, Emperor willing, we can serve togeather again; May the Emperor watch over you

all."

Ian's speech had shocked them, and there were more than a few teary eyes. As one the retinue saluted their master. "And may he watch over you." came the reply. Every person there respected Ian, and would take the information he had given them to their graves; and Ian Ludones, Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, forced his tears to stay away.

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Canterlot Palace, Princess Celestia's balcony.

Celestia and Luna stood on the balcony admiring the night sky that the princess of the night had wrought. No one would argue that of the two sisters, Luna was the artist. Celestia looked through her telescope and marvelled at her sister's work, but noticed somthing a little off:

"Sister, when did you create a moving cluster of stars?" asked Celestia.

"We, I mean, I made no such thing sister, what are you talking about?" asked a very confused Luna. Celestia moved and allowed Luna to take a look. Luna peered through the lense and sure enough saw the cluster of stars she was talking about, but as she looked closer, she noticed that these were no stars, they were lights, and that they were in a shape, and that shape was moving slowly towards the Equis.

"Tia, I think we may have company."