Twilight stared incredulously at the holoscreen before her, the translucent light-blue screen depicting a massive swarm of beasts ripping apart the surface of the planet below. It had been two weeks since the fiasco with her toothbrush, and Commissar Pie had decided to give the private a chance to prove herself in combat. She'd be serving under Pie's direct orders, traveling with her squad alongside Fluttershy and several other 'whiteshields', as the Steel Legion called their rookies. The commissar herself stared blankly at the vicious xenos on the video, her real eye showing a veiled look of terror as memories of rending claws and gnashing teeth washed over her. Pinkie regained her composure by clearing her throat, drawing the attentions of the surrounding ponies.
"Alright gentlecolts! Today we embark to the surface of Hurax Prime to handle a force I like to call," She brought up a picture of one of the beasts on the holovid, "the Paranids." Her voice was serious and firm, and Twilight heard a nearby stallion gulp nervously. Pinkie went on without falter. "Paranids are a mindless xeno race of unknown origin. Our first contact with them was their attack of Paranos Major, a Mechanicus research-world that the Paranids ambushed, butchered, and devoured."

Pinkie nodded. "Paranids eat everything in sight and leave no resources in their wake. They've claimed many of the Equestrium's worlds without any stopping them, but we know for SURE that they can be killed." She smirked and pinged several points on the paranid's body. "It's just hard as hay to do it, unless you know where to shoot." Commissar Pie then began to list all the vulnerable bits on a paranid, which Twilight could boil down to simply 'wherever there was no shell'. When the commissar finished, Twilight saw a cream-yellow hoof shoot up. Fluttershy smiled sheepishly as Pinkie's gaze met hers. "Yes, private Fluttershy?"

"What if we miss, miss Pie? Or our guns jam? Or..we're too scared to fire?" Fluttershy asked in her quiet voice, avoiding eye contact.

Pinkie took one step toward Fluttershy and chuckled when the pegasus took two steps back and shrank. "Well, miss Shy, I guess you'll just have to keep your corpse out of our way. Is that clear?" Pinkie's face was locked in a cruel grin, and Twilight wanted nothing more than to defend her friend. Fluttershy squeaked and nodded frantically, trying to hold back tears of fright. "Good." Commissar Pie trotted back to the holovid's terminal and shut it down, the room's lights turning on and allowing everypony to see each other clearly. Twilight sighed in relief as she realized she had eight other ponies in the squad besides herself, Pinkie, and Fluttershy.
"That better than just us and the Commissar." Twilight muttered, snapping back to reality when Pinkie Pie nudged her. "You're dismissed, private." The pink earth pony said forcibly. "THAT MEANS GET OUT!"
The unicorn mare scrambled back in shock, saluting nervously before bolting from the room. She only had three hours till orbital drop, and she planned to spend it well. Opening up her bunk-room door, she trotted over to her bed and quietly reached under the pillow and withdrew a book. The book was leather-bound and of mild thickness. 'The Codex Equestratum" was written on the cover in bold letters, and the seal of the Friendquisition sparkled in the light that filtered into the room from the hallway.
Twilight opened the book and began to read, underlining texts she found to be particularly moving.

In the grim darkness of our past, a plague ripped through Equestria and nearly left ponykind powerless against the eclipse of Nightmare Moon. This plague was called kindness.
Kindness infests the mind and makes the infected think they've nothing to fear, and that friendship and love will overcome any obstacle. Thanks to Luna's fall to Discord, ponies know better.
Happiness must be sustained, but also kept in check. Allow it to drop too low and the people lose hope and wither before the heretics hand; or worse, become the heretic. An idle mind breeds heretical thoughts, after all.
Allow happiness to get too high and everypony believe they have finally found peace; a foalish thought in a world such as this, and almost blasphemous to contemplate.
Happiness is not our answer. The only answer to the problems of our kingdom is duty and servitude to our Empress Faust.

Only in death those duty end.

Twilight stared at that last sentence, the grim implication making her shudder. Placing the book back under her pillow, she climbed into bed and closed her eyes.

"ATTENTION, MEMBERS OF THE 178th REGIMENT. ORBITAL DROP IN 15 MINUTES. MAY THE EMPRESS PROTECT," The intercom blared, and Twilight stared up at in mixed confusion/horror. "There's no way that took three hours!" She groaned in irritation before getting up in defeat and leaving the room.

"Alright, everypony! The planet below is teeming with billions of sharp teeth and claws just waiting to mark your hide." Pinkie grinned evilly and snickered. "Just try not to think about it."
Twilight rolled her eyes and glanced over to Fluttershy, who was nervously biting her hooves. "Calm down." The unicorn giggled, patting her shoulder. "You'll be fine. Just stick next to the Commissar. She might be a little...cruel, but she knows what she's doing." Twilight consoled the cream pegasus, who looked up at her terrified. The unicorn gave her a "cheer up" grin, making the smaller mare hesitantly smile back.
"Brace!" They both heard Pinkie scream before something collided with the ship, sending it spiraling out of control. The two ponies screamed and grabbed each other, losing each other as the lights cut out in the drop-ship's cargo bay. The whole ship was dead silent for a moment before another object smashed into the ships hull, shattering against it but clearly doing some damage as one of the ship's panels buckled under the force and finally tore free to reveal a hole about four feet across and three feet in height. "Ready your guns! Time to party!" The Commissar barked before withdrawing a bolt-pistol from her side, holding it in her mouth like earth ponies are trained to.
Through the hole came rancid air teeming with green parasites that seemed to swim by Twilight's face, and without warning a creature came barreling through, skidding across the floor to Pinkie's feet. It was a foul-looking xeno covered in a purple shell with soft blue flesh exposed on its joints and freakishly large green eyes that stared soullessly ahead. From its back spread two huge wings, each one the length of a filly. It pulled its lips back to show a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, screeched in rage and leapt at Pinkie.
The bolter-round punched right through its head and detonated in its chest, spraying the room with chunks of shell and bright-pink ichor. Pinkie's face looked the same despite being stained with the alien's blood, and she dropped the pistol in her mouth and grinned. "For the Empress, men! Today's a good day to die!"

"YEAH!" Screamed a huge white pegasus beside Twilight, who withdrew his laspistol and fired it at another paranid entering through the hole. The other soldiers followed in his actions, and even Fluttershy fired when one of the xenos emerged. "Just a little further, Twilight. We're gonna be down on the planet soon." Fluttershy's eyes widened at the realization of her own statement. After a moment, the cream pegasus' eye twitched. "And we'll make them regret the day they challenged FLUTTERSHY!" She cried in fury.

Pinkie snickered. "I knew that girl was a wuss-puss! Just needed an extra-hard kick in the plot to get her started." She commented smugly, watching the other soldiers stare at the enraged mare in shock. Paranids barely showed their faces before a laser ripped through their skull and sent them falling back to the surface miles below.
Twilight smiled as she watched Fluttershy prove herself an expert marksmen, just as her training suggested. "Good job, Fluttershy."

Applejack stared out the window of the massive ship, watching shooting stars and other crafts moving throughout the inky blackness of the void. Each ship passing made her long for home and a nice slice of apple pie. Just thinking about it made her hungry, and she groaned in irritation at the fact that the battlebarge was out of provisions; for some odd reason, the Hogs had charged the storage facilities and gorged themselves until they were the size of boulders. She shook her head in anger. It was a stupid move in the short-term, but in the long-haul, it was beginning to make her life a hell of gnawing hunger.
"AJ?" Came a voice from behind her, and she turned to face her older brother. He looked better than he head a few days prior, the gash he had taken to his head healing up rather nicely - no doubt thanks to Nurse Redheart's tender loving care, she thought with a smirk.
"Yeah, Big Macintosh?" She responded, saluting momentarily. The red stallion before her sighed. "Ye're hungry, aren't ya?" He inquired, pointing to the orange mare's growling tummy. Applejack blushed and shook her head quickly. "No sir! I'm feeling better than an egg salad sandwich on a hot Appleoosian day!" She smiled sheepishly.
Macintosh gave her a concerned look before averting his gaze. "Ye don't have to be so selfless, AJ. There's enough food to keep almost all of us okay until we get home, and the veterans and I have decided to put you younger mareines first in the lunch-line." He placed a hoof on her shoulder. Applejack grinned back at him. "That's awful kind, Big Mac, but Ah'm really okay! A little hunger ain't gonna slow me down!"
As if on some ironic cue, a massive explosion rocked the ship. Applejack was thrown across the room by the sudden quake, slamming against the metal wall and getting dazed. Macintosh held his ground and readied his bolter, looking sternly in the direction of the blast. "Stay here, AJ. Ah'll handle this!" He ordered before bolting out of the room. Eager for battle, AJ disobeyed her brother's order and ran to her power armor's pod.

Stepping out of the pod in full armor, Applejack surveyed her surroundings. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, save for her visor going wonky whenever she looked in the direction Macintosh left. Deciding to test her luck, she ran out of the room to find her big brother.
Turning a corner, she gasped and rolled back behind the wall, fearing she had drawn the attention of the strange ponies down the hall. Glancing to see the ponies, she saw three Mareines wearing red and orange power armor covered in odd spikes and decorations. They seemed to be bickering amongst themselves, actually reaching the point where they were fighting themselves in a rage. This terrified Applejack, as she finally knew who had blasted their ship. "Discord Mareines.." She said silently, wincing when her whisper made its way into the extremely-selective ears of the Mareines down the hall. Their heads turned in unison, and they all split the same toothy grin. "Why hello there, poppet." Said one, a stallion who began to giggle in anticipation at what they were going to do to her.
"Why don't you come over here, poppet?" Asked the second, a mare talking in a sultry tone. Applejack shuddered when she realized all three of them had completely different intentions. "Why not I just introduce you to CAPTAIN McBOLT!" Applejack barked back, firing her bolter - or, tried to. She gasped and stared at the jammed gun in terror. "Hello, Mr. McBolt!" Said the final Discord Mareine, stepping forward. "Funny, I have a McBolt too. It looks like THIS!" He pulled out a bolter covered in scribbles and crazy decor, firing a round at Aplejack's feet.
Applejack jumped back and tried to fire again, but her bolter was done for good. Weighing her odds, she decided to do the next best thing. Taking a deep breath, flexing her legs and gritting her teeth, Applejack stood as tall as she could and then ran away as fast as possible, screaming like mad.
"I like it when they play hard-to-get!" Cried the second Discord Mareine, and the three gave chase. Applejack couldn't even stand to look behind her, knowing they were practically on her flank already. Diving around a corner, she smirked as they kept on going down the straightaway. "So long, demon freaks!" She called back at them before bolting away.
"Damn, you let her get away!" Growled the first Mareine, bonking the others on the head. "Me! You let her get away, you foal!" The third roared back and punched the first. Once again, they had all begun to brawl until the sound of somepony clearing their throat caught their attention.
"Hello, you ruffians." Said the white unicorn before them, flicking her purple mane to the side and winking. The three Mareines shared glances before charging at her, hooves outstretched.

They barely made it three steps before a bolter-round through their chests sent them back to the fiery pits of Discord. Rarity grinned and blew the smoke away from her gun's muzzle. "Never rush a lady with a bolter. Of course, you'd know that if you weren't nasty heretics." She humphed and ran down the same hall as Applejack, searching for her friend.

Harmony's Call

by LostGuardianNexor

Chapter 2