Iron Hearts: Book 5
Chapter 5
Bulwark
****
Ponyville town periphery - 2 hours previous to enemy contact
Thunderlane huffed breathlessly as he stamped down another patch of dark clouds into place, molding the gray, cottony surface more or less flat. His coat was damp with sweat, and his usual mohawk swayed limply to one side.
All around him was a veritable ocean of near-black clouds, and the air was thick with the sound of heavy rain pouring down below. Every dozen seconds or so, a crackling ribbon of electricity would roll over the surface of the clouds, eventually sparking in a single spot and then discharging a bolt of lightning into the ground below with an echoing crash.
Thunderlane glanced around, panting. The members of his weather team had been joined by a few other teams that had volunteered from nearby settlements, as well as nearly a hundred pegasi from the ranks of the Royal Guard and the Company's Equiis detachment. With all the extra help, they had enough ponypower on hoof to manage several cities' weather. Still, the task of locating enough clouds to cover the valley, preparing them for heavy, sustained rainfall, and then pushing them into place had been a herculean task, and the weather ponies were exhausted.
Raindrops landed next to Thunderlane, her tongue hanging out of her mouth while she heaved for breath. "I double-checked... huff... the cloud bank... huff... on the West side... huff... are we... huff... done yet?"
"Just about," Thunderlane mumbled, looking over the vast stretches of cloud below his hooves, "and just in time, too. The last evacuation train is leaving soon."
Raindrops moaned at the reminder. It didn't sit well with any of them that they had labored so hard to help save their home, only to leave and hope it was still standing by the time the sun set.
But at least this way they could be of SOME help. Thunderlane didn't think he'd be of any use on the firing line.
Raindrops finally caught her breath, and she sat down as another bolt of lightning crashed onto the distant ground below. "Do you really think the Orks are coming?"
Thunderlane gave her a look. "Do you really think Princess Twilight Sparkle would ask us to do this as an elaborate practical joke?"
"No, I mean, do you really think an army would march through this kind of weather?" the mare asked, kicking softly at the clouds beneath her hooves. "Why wouldn't they just go around the valley, or wait for it to pass?"
"I don't know. I've never even seen an Ork," Thunderlane confessed. Then he jabbed a hoof in the direction of Ponyville. "But the three hundred Iron Warriors and four THOUSAND other troops over there seem pretty sure. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt."
Another crash of thunder caused the pegasi to flinch, and while they shook off the booming in their ears another pegasus swooped in and landed behind Thunderlane.
"All right, I think this valley is as miserable as we can make it for now!" barked the new pony. He was wearing flak armor with a Chaos Star pinned to the chest plate. On his helmet was a vox headset, and a lasgun was attached to his leg in a ballistics harness. "We're heading back to the firing line! Everypony else needs to make for the train station or fly on out of here!"
"Hey, do you really think the Orks are going to march through this?" Raindrops asked, apparently not satisfied by Thunderlane's earlier assurance. "What if they're not coming?"
The pony soldier paused and checked an auspex that was strapped to his other foreleg. "... Oh, they're coming, all right," the Company pony murmured with a wince, "let's go, ponies! We have an hour!"
"What happens in an hour?" Thunderlane asked as he took wing.
"In an hour, this valley becomes even MORE miserable."
The Ponyville weather team fell back as suggested, soaring over the low-hanging storm clouds they had stitched together over the valley.
Once they reached the end, the carpet of dark gray suddenly stopped, like the edge of a cliff, giving way to verdant prairies only SLIGHTLY marred by the brand-new mine field that had been set up on the edge of town. Beyond the patch of green peppered with gunmetal stood a slanted metal wall, heavily reinforced, that stood at chest level and was dotted with mounted heavy stubbers and heavy bolters. Soldiers were lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, nearly forming a second wall of bodies and laser rifles. The Iron Warriors came next, forming secondary firing lines elevated to allow them clear shots over the more expendable mercenaries. Bunkers had been placed to provide lascannon support, with Tau Fire Warriors standing on top of the battlements. Many other guard towers and turrets had been erected, manned mostly by Tau. Tanks idled next to caches of supplies, and walkers patrolled the streets. The Company's Baneblade super-heavy tank was sitting on the main road into town, flanked by two crab-like Defiler daemon walkers. Artillery was clustered on the West side. And all throughout the town, more ponies, more soldiers, and more Chaos Space Marines manned barricades and garrisoned houses.
It seemed ridiculous that anything could hope to challenge this kind of force. Thunderlane didn't know much about war, much less futuristic space war, but the amount of firepower on display as he swooped overhead could have broken a dragon in half in a single barrage.
Then again, 80,000 was a pretty big number.
"By Celestia, I wish we had time to buzz those guard towers," Raindrops griped, "I'd really like to kick one of those Tau jerks in the face. Just ONCE."
"Easy, Rainy," Thunderlane mumbled as they passed the town square. This area was given over to some sort of big metal Chaos Star being presided over by the Company Sorcerer.
"They're the ones that caused all this, Thunderlane!" the mare protested.
"Yeah. And now they're the ones down there trying to stop it. They're going to suffer plenty down there without your help."
Raindrops growled incoherently for several seconds. "If it were up to me, they'd be at the front acting as bullet shields!"
"And that's just ONE reason why nobody lets you run an army," Thunderlane quipped before he shifted his flight path for a landing, "come on. Once we're in Canterlot, I'll take you to lunch. If we find a good place, we might even be able to see the explosions from there."
The weather team pegasi started landing on the train station platform, folding their wings and taking a final look at their fortified home before boarding the waiting train.
Next to the platform, two well-armored Princesses stood over an obviously anxious Mayor Mare. Across from them, General Gnoss was calmly entering data into a dataslate being held up in front of him by a Dark Acolyte.
"You're going to have the shield, right? I don't see any shield. Somepony definitely said there was going to be a shield!" the Mayor said, her rear leg tapping the ground nervously.
"Aye, there shalt be a barrier," Luna said, sounding somewhat exasperated, "all our defenses art in place to combat the alien. We shalt surely prevail!"
General Cyrus Gnoss grunted. "Or at least we'll make for an impressive rout."
Twilight winced, stepping over to the General. "We've had plenty of time to prepare for this, right? With everything we've set up, we HAVE to have a chance!"
"That relies a little too much on YOU for my liking," Gnoss admitted, glancing meaningfully at the pony. "No disrespect intended, Princesses, but I am most uncomfortable leaving the fate of the battle in your hands."
"Hooves," Mayor Mare corrected automatically.
"Whatever," Gnoss grunted, "if those Gargants reach engagement range, this defense is over. Nothing we have can stand against them. Especially not with thousands of other targets in the way."
The Mayor gulped. "But, you can beat them, right Princess? These... Gargants can't be as bad as Discord! Or Nightmare-" her eyes quickly snapped over to Luna, and she winced. "Uh... Sombra! Right?"
"Well..." Twilight hedged uncomfortably, trying and failing to make any meaningful comparison between the bizarre magical tyrants and the enormous walking fortresses approaching the village.
Then a giant, black metal hand dropped onto Mayor Mare's back and lightly squeezed her, nearly giving the pony a heart attack on the spot.
"Fear not, Mayor!" Luna declared grandly. "We shalt not fail! Thy village will be returned to thy control in short order!"
"Whatever's left of it, at any rate," Gnoss mumbled.
Twilight grimaced at the man in annoyance. "You know, part of managing an army is keeping up MORALE, General."
"And part of managing expectations is a healthy sense of pessimism," Gnoss countered.
Mayor Mare chuckled weakly, feeling desperately uncomfortable with the Iron Gage rubbing her withers reassuringly. "Well, I suppose you're all doing your best."
As a trio of heavy walkers stomped by the platform, one of the war machines shouted out to them.
"Hey, ladies and gent! You ready for this?!" Pinkie waved her thunder hammer at the group while Sirius and Kairon, the other two Dreadnoughts in her unit, continued walking past. "Sorry I can't come with you on your super-important mission to destroy a Mega Gargant! It sounds super fun!"
"It sounds completely impossible," Sirius grunted, pausing in his patrol to growl at his subordinate walker.
"Sure, but in a super fun way!"
As the Contemptor Dreadnought growled in annoyance, Twilight intervened to defend her mission.
"I can assure you that Warsmith Solon knows what he's doing, my Lord," the purple pony insisted, "we won't let the Gargants reach Ponyville!"
"Preliminary estimates place your chances of success at six-point-nine percent," Kairon noted, "well outside the bounds of 'completely impossible'."
Twilight scrunched up her muzzle, wishing that the assault walkers would hold this conversation out of earshot of the Mayor. "I'm sure our odds are better than THAT..."
"That is the aggregate completion chance for all three operations," Kairon went on to explain, "any one assault may rate better possibility of success on its own." Then the Dreadnought pointed its massive power fist at Luna. "And, of course, the Lunar Princess's victory is all but assured."
The Iron Gage swung through the air, palm upraised, and then slammed into Kairon's open power fist in a jaw-rattling high-five.
"Yes, well, I suppose you all have this well in hoof, then," Mayor Mare said, backing away toward the train. She didn't look especially convinced, but she didn't really want to hang around any longer. "Goodbye, Princesses! And good luck!"
The Mayor heaved a heavy sigh before she stepped up onto the platform, casting another long look at the heavily militarized town that now stood between the aliens and the rest of Equestria.
Shaking her head, she stepped in front of the door to board. She had to wait, though, as another pony currently stood in the doorway making a tearful farewell.
"Just promise me you'll be careful, Jacob!" Lyra sniffled, clinging to the mercenary's leg with her hooves. "Don't let them get too close! No heroics! You HAVE to come back to me!"
"Well, estimated casualties are around forty percent," the man admitted with a shrug, "and that's if everything goes right. So surviving the battle is basically a coin toss, no matter what I do."
As Lyra's sniffling turned to outright bawling, Bonbon groaned from one of the train windows.
"Look, the train's on a schedule. Could you pry her off and shove her in here?" the cream-colored mare asked.
Jacob took Lyra off his leg without much difficulty, and then placed the sobbing unicorn into the carriage so that the other ponies waiting could board.
Soon the train doors shifted closed, and the engine's plasma reactor released a hiss of pressurized coolant.
"Goodbye, Jakey!" Lyra shouted through her tears as she magically waved a handkerchief out the window. "Stay safe!" Bonbon yanked the green pony back inside as the train started to accelerate, taking the last batch of civilians away from the imminent combat.
Pinkie's Dreadnought watched the train leave the platform for a few seconds, and then trundled about until she could see Twilight again.
"Hey, Twilight! I didn't want to say anything while the Mayor was here, because she already seemed pretty stressed out about the whole invasion and how it was likely to destroy all of Ponyville, which hopefully won't happen but you never know since we're facing an awful lot of enemies-"
"Pinkie," Twilight tried to interrupt, but her voice failed to halt the run-on sentence booming from Pinkie's vox caster.
"-just like that one time that Ponyville was almost destroyed but not like the other times because it wasn't really an accident even if Discord says he didn't want to just destroy stuff because that would boring but it was still pretty bad all things considered and the Mayor was seriously stressed just like now-"
"Pinkie!" Twilight tried interrupting louder, but it didn't seem to help.
"-so I didn't want to say anything bad in front of her and really this isn't THAT bad since it doesn't really destroy the city on purpose like the Orks would do except-"
A loud clanging noise came from the pink Dreadnought as Sirius' siege drill smacked her upside the helmet.
"Ouchies! That hurt, Sirius! Serious!" Pinkie exclaimed, snickering at her pun despite herself.
"Get to the POINT, you sniveling pink freak," the Contemptor Dreadnought growled, "the xenos approach, and we have little time for your foolishness."
"Oh! Right! So there's this shady Chaos dealie going on over on the North side of town, and you might want to check on that."
Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Pinkie, this whole operation is a shady 'Chaos dealie'. You'll need to be more specific."
"It's the Nurgle type of shady Chaos dealie," Pinkie Pie clarified, "with icky dark magic and stuff. It's kind of gross. Also, the other girls are over there trying to get them to stop. So, you know..." Pinkie Pie trailed off as a dust cloud billowed into her, courtesy of Twilight's expedited departure.
"No, no, no, no, no..." Twilight mumbled over and over as she skimmed across the ground, her legs folded up under her. She had to make a few low-power leaps to bound over the armored supply vehicles that were parked next to the streets, but soon she had reached the northern-most part of town.
This section of Ponyville hadn't been fortified or used to host supply caches or artillery, and had been left mostly bare. Or, at least, that was the impression Twilight had been under when she had reviewed the fortification maps. Now that she was quickly approaching the "unused" space, she could see that it was seeing a fair amount of, well, use. Rusted iron Chaos Stars were suspended above the ground by metal poles, and were hung with rotting fetishes and scraps of foul meat. Cultists of Nurgle, easily identified by their thick, filthy robes and nearly visible miasma of odor, shuffled about in small groups carrying jugs and crates. Each one of the shambling, diseased humans was wrapped up entirely in dirty rags and tubing, with full respirator masks and goggles, such that not a shred of their skin was visible. A courtesy to their less pious human peers, perhaps, but it didn't help the smell much.
Twilight stopped to put on her helmet, and she checked her armor seals before activating her suit's personal oxygen supply. It was no wonder Pinkie was concerned about what was going on; the stench alone could render this section of town uninhabitable to most ponies, and she wasn't so foolish as to think that awful smells were the worst hazards that Nurgle had to offer.
She passed by another house, and then Twilight almost tripped as she dropped onto the ground and skidded to a halt. She'd found the center of the "infection", and it wasn't quite what she had expected.
The altar shaped like three big circles and covered in festering Ork corpses, sure. The humans kneeling around it, hands clasped together while mumbling feverishly, fine. The cloud of flies circling through the lot and droning incessantly, naturally.
But the three ponies wearing power armor and facing off against Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were something of a surprise.
At the very least the confrontation didn't seem to be approaching violence, so Twilight allowed herself a moment to take in the three strangers. A unicorn, pegasus, and an earth pony, all of them mares - in contrast to her friends, the other three had their helmets disengaged - and all bearing very dubious cutie marks.
Her visor noted the Nurgle ponies' IFF signums and brought up their names. Poison Kiss, Breezy Blight, and Rot Blossom. Twilight winced. They'd probably had a rough childhood.
"Excuse me! What's going on here?" Twilight asked firmly as she approached.
Her friends whirled around, and judging by the tone of Applejack's voice, were quite relieved to see her.
"Twi! Thank Celestia yer here! Do you know these ponies?"
"No, I don't," Twilight admitted, stopping next to Rainbow Dash, "and I'm honestly kind of surprised about that. I would have thought that I'd know about any other equines that had been issued power armor."
Poison Kiss sighed. Her forehoof was resting on a large book, while her boltgun and helmet laid nearby, next to the altar. "Our conversion and deployment was not widely advertised. I'm sure you understand, Princess," she drew the title out for emphasis, "that our allegiance raises some uncomfortable questions. Questions that would be best left until after the Ork threat has passed."
"Yeah. Okay. That makes sense," Twilight admitted, "but I'd like an answer to a few of those questions anyway, please. How did you end up in a Chaos cult?"
"And a NURGLE cult, at that?" Rarity asked, clearly distressed. "Your coat and mane are so pristine and healthy, Miss Kiss! Think of what you're doing, I beg of you!"
Kiss hung her head as she sighed again. This was clearly not the first time in this encounter she had heard Rarity fearing for her future appearance. "Our enlightenment was quite a surprise to all of us, Princess Sparkle. And, I admit, not entirely voluntary."
"But in a nutshell," Blossom interjected, "it's all Serith's fault."
"SON OF A MULE!!"
****
Ponyville - town center
Serith suddenly looked up at the sky, and then tilted his head to the side. "Oh, what is she angry about NOW? I didn't even do anything this time. That I can recall off-hand."
"Erm, who are you talking about? What are you looking at?"
Serith lowered his gaze back to the stallion in front of him. Shining Armor was scanning the sky, looking confused.
"Nothing, Lord Armor. Pay it no mind. Let us continue."
Shining Armor was standing on a raised platform made of iron that was very conspicuously shaped like a Chaos Star. It was also floating roughly two feet off the ground, and might have risen higher if it weren't secured to the dirt with heavy metal chains at each point of the star.
Around the altar were some thirty unicorns, all of them wearing dark red cloaks and iron amulets shaped like each pony's cutie mark. Many of them looked nervous, but several others seemed bizarrely serene despite being so close to an enemy army. His own feelings were much closer the anxious ones.
"All you need do is cast your spell when General Gnoss gives the signal. He will be conducting the battle from there." Serith pointed to a small outpost located between a Chimera APC and a Leman Russ battle tank. "The cabal shall form a psychic choir, linking their minds to yours. Any feedback your barrier suffers, rather than falling upon your mind alone, will be shared amongst the group."
Shining Armor looked over the cloaked unicorns, some of whom waved shyly at him or whispered to each other. "And you think we can hold out against the Orks this way?"
"A single thread snaps but with the slightest tug," the Iron Warrior noted, "but when coiled with others it forms a binding that can weather any storm."
"... Including thousands of Orks?" Shining asked skeptically.
"The metaphor will only get you so far," Serith admitted, "but take heart, Lord Armor. The weaker you imagine your magic to be, the weaker it will manifest."
The unicorn stallion gulped, and then banished thoughts of the army yet to come. Serith was right; confidence made all the difference when it came to magic, and it was way too late for doubts.
"And where will you be, Lord Serith?" Shining asked uncertainly after he sat down on the hovering platform.
"Oh, I have other matters to attend to. We have many surprises in store for the Orks today, and I'm afraid I cannot keep watch on you."
"Fair enough," Shining mumbled, "but what should I do if the Orks reach this area?"
Serith turned and started walking away as he spoke. "If that occurs, it is mostly likely because both your barrier and the defensive lines have fallen, and the army is in retreat," the Sorcerer said blithely, "if that happens... well, it doesn't really matter what you do." Serith cast a final glance behind him, his visor glittering in the sunlight. "If this defense fails, then you, and your entire world, are doomed."
****
Ponyville - Altar of Nurgle
"Uh... ya all right, sugarcube?" Applejack asked as Twilight made a long string of incoherent growling noises.
"Yes! Yes, I am totally BUCKING fine!" Twilight snarled. "Great, even! It seems like Serith found other ponies to mess with! I guess tormenting me specifically was starting to get BORING for him!"
"Whoa. Think you've got some anger issues there, Princess," Breezy said, cringing.
"Naw, that's just Serith for you," Rainbow Dash assured the other pegasus, "even his own guys think he's a jerk."
"I don't mean to be disrespectful, Princess," Poison Kiss said gently, her accent giving her words a lilting, musical quality, "but we really don't have much time remaining until enemy contact."
"Right. Right, of course," Twilight mumbled, shaking her head, "never mind Serith, and never mind your corrup... erm, new religion. What I want to know is what you're doing here with all this." The alicorn Princess beckoned all around with a metal-clad hoof.
"Just another aspect of the defense against the Orks, Princess," Kiss assured her.
"An aspect that wasn't part of any battle plan I recall," Twilight pointed out, "what are you planning to do here?"
"And how much hoof sanitizer will it take to recover once you're done?" Rarity demanded. "I know a place where I can buy it in bulk, but I'll need to work fast once this is over! This lot is right next to my boutique!"
"Rarity, you don't live or work there anymore," Rainbow pointed out.
"I still haven't sold it, though! Do you know what a Nurgle cult could do to the property value?!"
Kiss shared an exasperated glance with the other members of her unit, and then turned back to Twilight. "It was suggested that our intended tactic might generate an... unfortunate effect upon morale if it were revealed ahead of time," the unicorn admitted, tilting her head apologetically, "you know how some humans get about Chaos sorcery, Princess. To say nothing of some PONIES." She narrowed her eyes at Rarity.
"It's just a back-up plan anyway," Breezy said with a shrug, "we're here to help if the Orks break the barricades and things start looking dicey."
Blossom yawned, her muzzle stretching open wide. A wasp zipped out of her mouth before she finished, flying off to join the insect swarms already present. She didn't seem to notice.
"Uh... well, that's... I mean..." Twilight stared along with her friends at the bushy-headed pony, completely distracted from the conversation she was having.
"What?" Blossom asked, wondering why all visors were locked on her now. She hadn't even said anything.
"Princess Sparkle," Kiss said, beckoning to herself with a boot, "I know that you have obvious, and perfectly valid, concerns about ponies turning to Chaos worship. But I assure you that we are still ponies in mind and heart, even if our souls are now sworn to a greater power."
Blossom and Breezy nodded enthusiastically as Kiss continued.
"We're here to defend our home and people, not glorify Grandfather Nurgle."
Twilight's helmet shifted over to look at the altar.
"... Well, at the very least, we're doing the latter for the sake of the former," Kiss corrected awkwardly, "but I can assure you that our actions here will not inflict any permanent harm or corruption upon Ponyville."
"You can?" Blossom asked, sounding surprised.
Kiss glared sharply at her, and the earth mare ducked her head sheepishly.
Applejack tilted her head toward Twilight. "Whaddya think, Twi?"
The armored alicorn pursed her lips nervously. "Well..."
"Also, we're here on Lord Sliver's order," Kiss added, "so it isn't as if you really get a say in the matter."
Twilight groaned. "I thought Princess Luna was in command of all pony auxiliaries?"
"We're an exception," Breezy shrugged and giggled, "we report directly to Vice-Commander Sliver. Isn't that cool?"
"Not really, no. Kinda feel sorry for you girls," Rainbow Dash said, "Sliver's gross. And mean. And his strict anti-party policy is completely not awesome."
"He's not a fun boss, I'll give you that," Blossom said, "but the humans respect him for a reason."
Twilight saw a locator rune appear on her helmet, and then she clicked her tongue. "All right, it looks like we have to go now. You haven't exactly set my mind at ease, here, but at least if Ponyville is horribly contaminated with toxins or the plague we'll know exactly who to blame."
The trio of Nurgle ponies shared another inscrutable glance. Then Poison Kiss smiled warmly at the alicorn Princess. "Well then, it looks like this is goodbye, Princess. Good luck out there. You'll need it."
****
Ponyville - East perimeter
Solon looked up at the cluster of locator runes approaching, and soon spotted three ponies in armor racing past the artillery batteries while a fourth swooped overhead.
"Ah, good! We're shtill on shchedule, then."
"Sorry, Warsmith," Twilight called out before she slowed to a trot, "we were just reviewing the defenses."
"And while your diligence ish appreciated, Princesh, it ish our offenshive power that should concern you," the Chaos Lord reminded her, "General Gnosh hash thish shituation well in hand."
"Right. Except for the parts Sliver didn't tell him about," Rainbow Dash mumbled after she dropped onto the ground.
"Ah, sho you found that little shurprishe, did you?" Solon chuckled. "I wash quite impreshed when I heard what the Nurgle cult had planned. I can't wait to shee if they pull it off!"
The four Equinoughts glanced at each other in concern. They all mostly trusted Solon, at least more than the equine cultists they had just met, but they knew that the preservation of Ponyville was hardly the Warsmith's top priority.
"Right, about that... what're they doin' exactly?" Applejack asked.
"Oh, you needn't worry about that. You have quite enough on your plate ash it ish." The Iron Warrior assured her. Then he pointed to a Valkyrie gunship waiting nearby. "There ish your transhport. It will join the resht of the aerial shtrike force and then carry you to your mission shite. Mishter Macintosh hash the melta chargesh you'll need to dishable the Mega Gargant once you gain entry."
Big Macintosh stood by the access ramp, staring out at nothing in particular as if he was guarding the aircraft. The ammunition crate that was normally strapped over his rear was replaced by a different kind of munition box, and covered in hazard striping.
"Ya really figger we can drop that thing on our own?" Applejack asked.
"If I'm to give an honesht tactical asheshment, no," Solon replied, "but you've all proven far more reshourceful and capable than I'd expected, sho I figure I'll keep giving you dangeroush jobsh and shee how long your good fortune holdsh out."
This earned a nervous laugh from Rarity and Twilight, but Rainbow Dash snorted.
"'Good fortune'? It wasn't good fortune that's smashed sixteen and a half Ork planes out the sky since they started showing up!" the pegasus boasted.
"No, it was moshtly the armor I deshigned," Solon agreed, "but even my weaponsh have limitsh. If I could have shimply built a gun to wipe out a Gargant in the time we had available, I would have."
Twilight decided not to pursue the implicit idea that Solon COULD have constructed a weapon to fell such massive war machines if given enough notice. She reared up and slapped a forehoof against her helmet. "We won't let you, or Equestria down! We're ready to go!"
"You're not going anywhere, yet!" barked a vox-amplified voice from above. The ponies flinched at the shout, startled, although Rainbow Dash quickly recognized the voice.
Tellis came in for one of his usual landings, slamming his boots hard into the ground while smoke from his flight pack marked his descent arc.
Then he stood up straight and pointed to Twilight. "I'm coming with you."
The purple pony recoiled. "What? Why? That wasn't part of the battle plan!"
"Screw the battle plan!" Tellis shouted, pounding his fists together and generating a burst of crimson sparks. "You're going to be facing like a hundred xenos in that Ork Titan, and that's if nothing else goes wrong trying to get into it. Without me, you're dead! With me you're probably dead anyway, but at least we'll have awesome, glorious deaths on top of heaps of Ork corpses and stuff. That would be SO metal."
"Sweet!" Rainbow cheered, racing up to the Chaos Lord and grinning widely.
"Tellish, you've been ashigned to the counter-attack contingent," Solon said firmly. His tone took on the distinctive quality of a beleaguered teacher telling a problem student to do his homework.
"What, so I can pounce on helpless greenskins after they crawl free of their exploding transports? No thanks!" the Raptor Lord scoffed. "I'm going with Dash and her pony flunkies!"
"Tellish..." Solon growled, his voice taking on a "warning" tone. Even Twilight, who actually still considered the Warsmith dangerous and frightening, couldn't help but snicker at him lecturing the smaller Chaos Lord.
"Nothing doing!" Tellis growled back. "I'm going with Rainbow Dash! It's my obligation in the name of friendship!"
Rarity and Twilight actually gasped in surprise at hearing one of the psychotic warriors invoke their prized virtue. They were even more shocked that he was doing it correctly, in the sense of wanting to shoulder the burden and danger they were facing. They weren't the only ones surprised, either; Solon stopped to consider his subordinate's words, his posture relaxing considerably.
After a few seconds, he gave his answer: "That ish actually the besht reashon you've ever provided for blatantly ignoring my ordersh."
"Really? Shoot, I should use that all the time, then!" Tellis chuckled before Solon released a defeated sigh.
Twilight cleared her throat, waiting for Tellis to look over at her. "Lord Tellis, I hope you understand that I'm in charge of this operation. So if you're coming with us, I'm going to need you to follow my orders."
"HAAA HA HA HA HA HAAAA!!" the Iron Warrior roared with laughter, doubling over on the spot while his wings shook.
Twilight's ears flipped down and she scowled at the Marine, saying nothing.
"HA HA HA HA!! HAH HAH oh, wait, you're serious." He straightened up immediately. "Yeah, no, that isn't happening. But nice try, Princess Dork."
"But... I... I'm..." Twilight's response faltered as Tellis strode right past her and into the Valkyrie.
Rainbow Dash offered a chuckle and a shrug, trotting after the shock trooper. "Well, I think we're all set to go!"
Twilight sighed while her friends trotted up to the ramp, apparently not worried about the new and aggressively unpredictable tag-along. Granted, having Tellis along boosted their fighting power considerably, especially in what she predicted was going to be a lot of desperate melee combat inside the Mega Gargant. Still, the Khorne worshiper was unreliable at best, and she could think of plenty of ways that the Raptor Lord could prove a liability.
Various catastrophic scenarios played out in her head as she walked up to the waiting gunship, but she steeled herself before she made to step onto the access ramp.
"WAIT!!"
Twilight jerked to a stop, whirling around. The rest of her unit also stared out of the transport compartment in surprise.
Solon swiveled around to track the source of the shout, and he was fairly perplexed to see a batpony stallion galloping over to the gunship with a panicked expression on his face.
Twilight's face darkened when she recognized who was racing up to her, although she could barely guess as to what he was doing here. No Lunar Guard aside from Luna herself were part of the defense, as manning a fortified firing line in the daytime rendered most of their talents useless. That probably meant he was here to see her specifically.
"Lieutenant Dusk Blade. Hello," she deadpanned, her eyes narrowing to slits, "it's a bit late in the morning for you to be up, isn't it?"
The Lieutenant slowed to a stop about a meter away from Twilight, panting heavily. He had obviously strained himself to make it here in time, and it took several seconds for him to catch his breath.
"P-Princess Twilight Sparkle. I'm g-glad I caught you before you left on your... uh... well, I don't want to say 'suicide mission', because that's k-kind of a jinx, but-"
"I don't have time for this," Twilight declared, cutting off the stallion's rambling before she turned around.
"Wait! Please! I just want to say something before you go!" Dusk protested.
"I SAID I don't have time!" the alicorn snapped as she ascended the ramp.
"Actually, your flight group doeshn't deploy for a while yet, even after your transhport reachesh the rendezvous point. You have plenty of time," Solon corrected helpfully.
Twilight fought down a groan and turned to the extremely hopeful and nervous stallion waiting at the bottom of the ramp. "What do you want, Lieutenant Blade?" She was acutely aware of her friends all poking their heads out of the gunship behind her, watching intently and whispering to each other.
"Apples alive, ya could chill cider with that tone," Applejack muttered.
"Is that the guy? I think that's the guy!" Rainbow stifled a giggle.
"Hmm... that mane could use some work, but she could do worse," Rarity mused.
Dusk also seemed aware of the muttering, and he pointed to a space by a supply transport. "Could we speak, you know, in private? Just for a few seconds?"
"No," Twilight refused, "anything you can say to me, you can say in front of my friends."
"Well, I shupposhe I'll be going, then," Solon said before he swiveled away and walked off.
Dusk Blade winced, but then took a deep breath. He had faced and defeated bloodthirsty Orks and wild beasts, and he wasn't about to back down now because of a cold shoulder.
"Okay, uhm... I just wanted to say that ever since I read your thesis on magical planar dispersion, after the batpony tribes were re-integrated with Equestria proper and I was allowed in the Canterlot Grand Library, I've always wanted to meet you!" he blurted, his words spilling out of his mouth before he could reconsider. "I read all the papers your teachers published, even that silly theoretical one about the dual nature of atomic particles!"
"Hey! Quantum mechanics are NOT silly!" Twilight retorted angrily. "And given that I've seen at least two examples of human technology that utilize quantum entanglement to function, it's not theoretical anymore, either!"
"I know! I was amazed!" Dusk admitted, sounding fairly breathless. "Since I actually met you, I've even read all your recent work on human socioeconomy and your hypothesis about xeno-military survival theory on a galactic scale! Oh, and your extrapolation of Dark Mechanicus production surveys was-"
"NERRRRRRRRRRD!!" Tellis shouted out of the waiting Valkyrie, leaning over Rainbow Dash while cupping his hands around his vox grille.
The pegasus looked up at him. "Tellis, I know you're just saying what the rest of us are thinking, but could you keep quiet this time? I REALLY want to see where this is going."
"Oh, fine," the Iron Warrior grunted, backing into the gunship and crossing his arms over his chest.
Twilight shot a dirty look toward the aircraft, and then her head snapped back to Dusk when she remembered something important. "Wait, how did you read all those essays on humans and the Company? I haven't published any of those."
"I break into your room sometimes and copy any dataslates I can find," Dusk said quickly, coughing to clear his throat as Twilight's eyes widened, "ANYWAY! I really admire you, and think you've done an amazing job working with the Iron Warriors and saving us all, and, uh," sweat started to crawl down his forehead as he forced his way through his confession, "and, well, I know I'm not really good enough for you-"
"That is LITERALLY the problem with you, yes," the purple mare said mercilessly, apparently unmoved by the soldier's praise.
Dusk Blade gulped, but kept going. "But I couldn't let you go without telling you... that... I, uh..." he sucked in a deep breath, his cheeks burning, "THAT I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!"
Twilight's eyebrow twitched when she heard a high-pitched "Squeeee!" sound from behind her.
Dusk Blade, for his part, bolted away immediately while shouting behind him. "I just wanted to say that thanks for listening bye!"
Twilight Sparkle hardly hesitated any longer before she turned around and once again ascended the ramp. She walked by her friends, passed by Tellis, and then tapped the vox link at the rear of the passenger compartment. "Pilot, we're clear to depart."
"Confirmed. Enjoy the flight out, because it's going to get awfully bumpy once we hit the engagement zone," the pilot replied before the vox cut out.
Twilight climbed up onto a bench while the access ramp closed, and then sighed a long-suffering sigh as the engines started to warm up.
"... Well," Rainbow Dash began as the Valkyrie began to lift off, "...now you HAVE to go out with him."
"Oh, I do NOT!" Twilight snapped, glaring at her friend.
"Come now, darling. After he confessed to you right before a dangerous mission, and in front of spectators? Don't be so cold," Rarity chided, barely holding back a titter, "just let me have five minutes to fix up that mane of his, and I promise you won't be able to keep your hooves off him!"
"He is a SLAVE OWNER!" Twilight reminded her friends, loudly.
"Not that I care one bit about all this lame, girly, 'love' crap," said Tellis, "but so what?"
"So, I refuse to contemplate a relationship with somepony who owns a slave! It's unconscionable!" the alicorn growled.
Big Macintosh personally thought that she should have been more concerned with the Lunar Lieutenant infiltrating and rummaging through her room when she was out, but he kept quiet as he was wont to do. Nopony had asked for his opinion, anyway.
Applejack was not nearly so reserved. "Are ya sure he's a slave owner? Ah thought he just had an assistant."
"AAAAAAAAARGH!!"
****
Canterlot Castle
"And this space, class, used to be the royal gardens! It hosted all sorts of plants, all of them grown in magically controlled sections of the garden that copied their different natural environments!"
Cheerilee gestured to the large raised platform that now sat over the ruined plaza, a Chaos Star stamped over its surface. There were also a pair of massive promethium tanks standing nearby, right next to a pair of signs expressly forbidding smoking and pyromancy in that general area.
"When the Tau took Canterlot, the Iron Warriors sent a single squad of elite soldiers - along with three ponies - to attack the gardens and destroy the hidden device that prevented the unicorns and Princesses from using their magic! The fighting was so intense that the garden was completely ruined in the battle, but in the end the Iron Warriors succeeded!"
The young ponies were quite interested in the story, or at least more interested in it than the area being described. The rubble and debris had all been cleared from the gardens, and the only evidence of a combat was a few scorch marks on the ground that had stubbornly refused to be washed out but didn't quite warrant paving over.
"It's quite sad, really," Cheerilee continued, "some of the plants kept here were extremely rare, including a unique lava lilly bush that was the only known example of it's kind!"
There was a unicorn guard escorting the mare and her class, and the stallion chuckled. "Funny story, that: it actually survived the fire just fine, but a drunk mercenary wandered in from the celebration after the battle and peed on it." As the colts and fillies giggled, the guard's expression turned more somber. "Neither the bush nor the human survived the explosion. We're STILL finding little scraps of scorched bone out here."
Some of the young ponies stopped giggling. Others just laughed louder.
"Hey, weren't Apple Bloom's brother and sister here, too?" asked Snips.
"Why, yes, I believe they were two of the ponies that fought in the battle," Cheerilee replied, guiding her class forward past the landing pad, "I'm not sure what role they specifically played in the fight, though. You can ask her about it next time you see her."
Apple Bloom wasn't among the young ponies in her class today, nor were the rest of the CMC. They had been evacuated from Ponyville, of course, but had apparently been explicitly barred from any tours of the palace while in Canterlot. Cheerilee wasn't clear on why that was, but it only made her job easier not having to corral the Chaos-marked fillies along with everypony else.
"And over there is the throne room," the purple mare explained before she led her class underneath a row of colored armorglass windows. "Most of the windows commemorating major historical events in Equestrian history in the throne room were destroyed. Some during the initial invasion, and the rest during the subsequent climactic duel between Warsmith Solon and Tau Commander Voidsong."
"In which the Warsmith got OWNED," snickered the guard. Then he pointed a hoof up to one of the windows. It did, in fact, show the massive mechanized form of Warsmith Solon being decapitated by a battlesuit.
As her class laughed, Cheerilee cleared her throat so that she could continue. "Yes, well, be that as it may, these replacement armorglass windows were built by the 38th Company and given to Canterlot as a gift when our alliance was formalized. As you can see, they all present images from the siege of Canterlot."
The guard spoke up again. "Princess Celestia is going to replace them with something tasteful eventually, but wants to wait until the world is saved first."
"Oh, hey! This one has Miss Trixie!" Snails shouted, grinning widely.
As the class looked over the colored windows and murmured among themselves, a spectator watched the group from a high balcony, just out of sight.
Princess Celestia had not been briefed on any tours of the castle; such things weren't considered important enough to bother her for. But she could guess that the smallish class of mostly rural earth ponies was from a refugee evacuation and not one of the local schools. She could even guess which town they were evacuated from.
As she watched, two of the fillies broke off from the group and approached a human kneeling at the base of a statue.
"Princess?" Kibitz was next to her, and a sheet of parchment hovered in front of him. "We should hurry if we want to get to the commission committee meeting. It starts in a few minutes."
Celestia glanced over to her assistant, and then back out the balcony window. "Just a minute, Kibitz. The meeting can start without us."
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon trotted across the flagstones toward the human kneeling at the corner of the plaza. He was wearing a white robe with a sun emblem on the back and front, and he appeared to be praying underneath a statue of Princess Celestia.
Diamond Tiara glanced back at the rest of the class, confirming that she was still within view of Miss Cheerilee and the guard. It seemed like the unicorn soldier was going over the windows and talking about the events they pictured. Which was honestly pretty interesting, all told, but she was more curious about the man in white.
"Hey, human!" the pink filly shouted, causing the man to start and turn his head around. "Why aren't you in Ponyville defending Equestria?"
The man looked somewhat perplexed by her question. "I have renounced the sword in my quest to better embody the Celestial truth, young pony. I cannot fight."
Diamond frowned. "That sounds like an excuse, to me. Aren't you one of those Sunsworn weirdoes?"
"Indeed, I am," the human confirmed, "my name is Zack."
"So if you serve Celestia, shouldn't you be defending Equestria with the other humans?" Silver Spoon reasoned, adjusting her glasses.
"I could, if that is what the Princess of the Sun wished of me," Zack admitted, turning around and shifting into a seated position, "but the Celestial Goddess seems to disapprove of violence perpetrated in her name. Though most of us Sunsworn were once warriors, we have abandoned our weapons and embraced a peaceful and harmonious existence."
"LAME," Diamond scoffed, "what if we need you to actually help us with something? What are you supposed to do then?"
Zack smiled despite the criticism. "Exactly what I'm doing now." He turned around again and pressed his palms together. "Care to join me?"
"So all you do is pray? Does that work?" Silver Spoon asked, looking skeptical.
"I don't know," Zack said as he closed his eyes and bowed his head, "a prayer is merely a call for help. A petition for a higher power."
"Yeah, so does Princess Celestia ever help you?" Diamond Tiara asked.
"Not directly, no. Not yet, at any rate."
Silver Spoon snorted. "Not a big surprise. I hear she doesn't even like humans. So why do you bother?"
Zack opened his eyes and stared up at the stone figure above him. He was silent for several more seconds before he answered.
"It isn't for us to judge what the gods do," he shrugged, "their thoughts are unfathomable, their perception timeless, and their power nearly infinite. I'm just a man. Not even a psyker. What do I know of them?"
Diamond and Silver shared a glance before they sat down behind the cultist.
"That makes sense with your creepy evil gods, I guess, but Princess Celestia is a pony," Diamond Tiara pointed out.
"An immortal pony who raises the sun every morning," Zack clarified, "she takes a different - and if I might add, far more pleasant - form than the Dark Gods, and her power and outlook are different as well. These are what draw the Sunsworn to her in the first place. But her wisdom and power are still utterly beyond the scope of comprehension for mortals such as I. So who am I to say that my plea is worthy of her attention? Who am I to argue that she doesn't have anything better to do?"
The fillies contemplated this for several silent seconds.
"Meh. This religion thing sounds way too self-debasing for my tastes," Diamond Tiara said, "why pray if you don't even know if anypony's listening?"
"If you really need the help, why not?" Zack countered. "You never know."
Diamond and Silver shared another glance, and then seemed to come to a silent understanding.
They sat back on their haunches, and then pressed their forehooves together under their chins in imitation of the man in front of them.
"Oh blessed lady of the light, bringer of the sun upon this land of harmony and love..." Zack began.
"Although the harmony has involved an awful lot of bullets recently. Just saying," Silver Spoon interjected.
"... Show us your light and continue to guide those of us who struggle with the darkness. Protect our souls from the temptations and perversions of Chaos, and our bodies from the cruel instruments of war."
"And, uh..." Diamond Tiara trailed off briefly, wondering if she looked as stupid as she felt doing this. Then she braced herself and added her own prayer. "Please help the humans stop the Orks and save the world! I know you and the 38th Company aren't super cool with each other, but it's still really important to... well, everypony, basically. And, well, if you can, it would be really great if my house survived the battle, too. Apparently they're using it as an ordnance supply cache."
"Diamond Tiara? Silver Spoon? Are you ready to go? The class is leaving!"
From the balcony above, Celestia's horn slowly dimmed as she watched the fillies scramble across the plaza.
Before her spell faded completely, it brought her a final exchange between the Sunsworn and the young ponies, carried to her ears on the winds of magic.
"Goodbye, you human weirdo!"
"May Celestia's light protect you, ponies."
Celestia turned away from the balcony, and then started walking down the hall again.
"Ah, Princess? The meeting is that way," Kibitz said, sounding nervous and pointing a hoof in the opposite direction. This was clearly off-schedule.
"I think the committee will have to make a decision without me," Celestia said calmly as she headed down the hall, "in fact, you'll have to clear my day's schedule entirely, Kibitz."
"Wh-What? Why?" asked the Princess's assistant, nearly choking on his words. It wasn't unheard of for Celestia to alter his schedule as necessary or on a whim, but she'd never dumped an entire day's work for as long as he'd known her.
"I have a much more important appointment to keep with our good friend, the Warsmith." Celestia said wryly. "I think the bureaucrats can survive a day in my absence. Solon may not be so lucky."
****
Ponyville - improvised command post
"The greenskins have entered artillery range," General Gnoss said as the auspex readings flickered on his data display, "artillery squadrons Gamma, Delta, and Beta, prepare to fire on my mark. Maximum spread."
"Acknowledged, General."
The pirate officer took a long breath while the vox crackled its response. This was it. As soon as the shooting started and the horde was made aware of their presence, there would be no respite until one side buckled and fled.
The General had faced more desperate odds before, but never so willingly. They had always been efforts of desperation and survival, and usually they were fought to try and get his forces OFF a given planet, not so that they could stay. What a bizarre crossroads they had reached.
"Well, I suppose I should offer the men a bolstering speech before enemy contact," Gnoss mumbled, switching his vox set to the proximity frequency.
"GREETINGS, WARRIORS OF THE 38TH COMPANY, AND WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!" someone else's voice boomed from the vox casters, causing him to jump in surprise.
"THIS BACKWARD HICK VILLAGE IS KNOWN FOR MANY THINGS, SUCH AS APPLES, SNARKY KNOW-IT-ALL BOOKWORM PONIES, AND BEING WAY TOO CLOSE TO A FOREST FULL OF MONSTERS!!"
Gnoss leaned out of the temporary command station to scan the area, and was utterly unsurprised to see a power-armored equine with a ridiculous, star-spangled hat and cape standing atop the Company's Baneblade super-heavy tank. She was standing on her rear legs and gesturing grandly while her voice roared through the vox system.
"BUT TODAY IT EARNS A NEW DISTINCTION!! YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE SITE OF EQUESTRIA'S LARGEST XENO GRAVEYARD!!"
As a wave of cheering rolled over the ranks of human mercenaries, a sniper on a nearby balcony leaned closer to the unicorn to speak.
"Hey, you mean an Ork graveyard, right? Because the rest of us are technically aliens too, so..."
Trixie ignored the sniper as her visor was filled with data from the sensor outposts. Then she once again shouted into her helmet receiver, spreading her voice all across the town.
"TO KICK OFF THIS GALLANT DEFENSE, ALLOW THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE TO SHOW YOU TRIXIE'S NEW AND IMPROVED FIREWORK DISPLAY!!"
****
Ork horde - vanguard
The rain came down in thick sheets all around the advancing army, utterly soaking the advancing Ork troopers. Visibility was reduced to barely half a dozen meters, and the ground was a slurry of mud that constantly sucked at their boots.
Orks were not so easily discouraged, however. Their physiology was hardly bothered by the cold rain, nor did their single-minded eagerness to reach the next combat give way to tactical concerns about possibly having to fight with poor footing and reduced visibility if they were attacked. The terrain, though covered in a sheet of sticky mud, was clear and solid enough that it didn't pose any serious obstacle to the march even with the storm in play. The transports still rumbled along without difficulty, even as water sloshed about inside the transport cabs and chilled the passengers' feet. The frequent crashes of lightning were considered, if anything, an exciting respite from the dull pounding of the rain, and many of the green-skinned warriors gave a hearty chuckle from the banging of thunder rolling over them.
Despite their decent morale, the slog to the next battlefield was still long and boring. So when the Trukks that made up the haphazard "vanguard" of the army spotted something standing alone in the rain, they wasted no time in turning up the engines and roaring toward it.
"Oi! Wot's dat?"
"Dat a hoss?"
"Wotevah it is, it's ded! Hah hah hah!"
Two Trukks raced by on either side of the small, darkly-colored figure, and then swerved to a stop, spraying mud about in thick, dark waves. Having trapped the mysterious creature between two Trukk-loads of boyz and the mobs of Orks sprinting forward at the merest hint of violence, the passengers disembarked into the muck.
"Oi! You'z aint too bryt, standin' owt 'ere in da rayn!" chuckled a Nob as he strutted forward.
The figure was short and blue, and now that he could get a closer look, clearly equine. Furthermore, it had an umbrella strapped onto its back to keep the rain off, although it didn't seem to have any protection against the mud sticking at its hooves.
"'Ey, hoss! Ah'm tokkin' t'you!" the Nob barked, scowling as the pony didn't even turn around to acknowledge him.
A loud clanging noise came from behind him, and the mob leader briefly glanced back at one of his boyz as the younger Ork tripped into the mud face-first. The other boyz started laughing and kicking mud on the clumsy git, none of them being terribly curious about the hunk of metal in the mud that he had tripped on in the first place.
The Nob dismissed it and continued approaching the pony, eventually reaching out and tearing the umbrella off of its back.
Or at least he tried. Instead he ended up lifting the entire pony. Granted, the miniature horses were puny critters, but even he was surprised by how little weight his victim had.
He was also surprised by the way it didn't move as it was being picked up, or struggle in any way.
And by the wires attached to its belly that ran into the ground.
"Wayt a minnit..." the Nob mumbled, furrowing his brow.
Just as the idea started to take form that maybe the pony he was holding up WASN'T actually a living creature, it started talking, which just complicated things even further.
"Hey, ugly!" the life-sized Trixie plushie squeaked. "Wanna see a magic trick?"
And then all he knew was fire and pain.
The first detonation completely swallowed the Nob and his unit, throwing their Trukks into the air on jets of flame and shrapnel. The Orks rushing toward the encounter were either thrown back physically or simply stopped short in surprise as a rocket of fire shot upward through the mud and the disintegrating bodies of their compatriots. Then it exploded grandly, popping into a colorful starburst that shimmered beautifully in the pouring rain.
The explosions seemed a lot less pretty when they started happening under their feet instead.
Several tons of high explosives detonated in dense clusters under the Ork horde, obliterating warriors by the dozens, tearing transports into pieces, and bringing a pair of Squiggoths near the front to a shuddering halt.
One Battlewagon that had been carrying a load of Bomb Squigs was knocked flat on its side after the mud burst up under it, and the resulting burst of flashing lights above promptly frightened the dim-witted beasts as they spilled out of the vehicle and into the mud slick. As soon the bouncy red creatures got to their feet they scattered in all directions, snarling and snapping their oversized teeth while their bomb harnesses lit up.
Soon the vanguard of the Ork army was in complete chaos, with enormous rockets of bright colors bursting up from below while the squigs went wild on the ground. Orks and Gretchin raced about in all directions, some trying to escape the explosive animals, while others simply tried to find some patch of ground that wasn't blowing up. More often than not, those of one group ran headlong into those of the other, stopping both parties dead and ensuring that both failed.
Eventually, however, the carnage relented. The light flares ceased as the final charges detonated into the air. The last of the bomb squigs slipped into mud patches, smothering themselves in muck and dousing their explosive charges. Vehicles that were aflame or out of control were doused by the rain or dragged to a stop in the mud.
And as the dust settled, the shattered remains of the Ork vanguard picked themselves up in dazed confusion, wondering what had prompted such devastation, and what would be next.
****
Ponyville - main battle line
"AND WITH BUT A SLIVER OF HER GREAT AND POWERFUL MAGIC - and several hundred kilos of bombs - TRIXIE MAKES A HUNDRED ORKS DISAPPEAR!!"
The humans and ponies on the firing line roared their approval as they saw the distant light flares, shaking their rifles in the air or bucking wildly. Even some of the Fire Warriors seemed to be getting into it, although the Iron Warriors restricted themselves to grim chuckling as usual.
Trixie herself found the display rather underwhelming, as the heavy rain made the distant explosions almost invisible from Ponyville and even muted the noise considerably. The weather teams had definitely overdone the storm.
Oh, well. When it came to gifts of explosive traps, it was - as they say - the thought that counted.
General Cyrus Gnoss smirked as he sat back down. "Well, I certainly don't want to have to follow that." Then he turned on his own vox transmitter. "This is General Gnoss. All forward defense units, you may fire at will. Armor formations, remain on standby. Artillery, keep to firing plan theta." A pause. "Suffer not the alien to live."
Artillery thundered behind him as the first volleys of shells were loosed into the sky.
****
The Orks near the front of the horde were already in a shambles when the first shells crashed down from above, blasting more craters into the steaming mud next to the ones left by Trixie's trap.
These explosions, however, were preceded by a distant boom and the whistle of a descending shell. A conventional source of fiery death that the Orks were used to, and one that heralded the presence of an enemy.
As the first detonations rippled through the vanguard, crushing more transports and throwing Orks into the air, the response was nonetheless confused. They weren't expecting resistance this far from the fortress, and especially not during the day. Was this an indication of an enemy army, or just a few artillery batteries set up in the mountains to chip away at the advance?
As the next wave of shells started crashing into the mud, some of the warriors started scrambling forward into a charge, plowing forward through the storm in search of opposition. Others started dashing away in the opposite direction, intent on bringing news of the sudden assault to the Warboss and receiving definitive orders.
One unlucky Grot that had eagerly sought to be in the "retreating to warn the Boss" group ended up tripping in the mud during his mad sprint, falling flat on his face. The other Gretchin of his mob paid their companion no heed, trampling him as they continued the retreat he had started.
The ear-splitting crash of artillery shells pounded the earth relentlessly, and the soaked and filthy Grot curled up into a shaking ball as the very ground trembled underneath him.
An enraged roar snapped him out of his paralysis, however. The Grot looked up in horror to see a Gargantuan Squiggoth charging blindly through the rain, directly toward him. An earthshaker shell slammed into the muck right next to the beast, tearing off the armor on its flank and hammering the flesh underneath.
Far from disabling the warbeast, the wound only enraged it further, and the Squiggoth started swinging its head to and fro while it broke into a full sprint. Boyz were knocked aside or simply smashed to paste, and one Killa Kan that had lost a leg to an explosion was crushed flat under the Squiggoth's massive feet.
The lone Grot, for his part, rolled and crawled as best it could to get out of the animal's path. When the Gargantuan Squiggoth did reach the fallen Gretchin, the tremor from its passing was enough to bounce the Grot up out of the mud and onto a rocky outcropping.
Within moments the Squiggoth passed, its furious roars lost among the pouring rain and artillery strikes.
The Grot sighed miserably before he pushed himself to his feet, and he looked around at where he had landed. The outcropping led up to a sheer stone cliff that was part of the base of a mountain; one of many that formed the range that, in turn, formed the valley the horde was marching through. For now, it also seemed like the safest place to be if one wished to wait out the storm of artillery. Eventually he'd have to re-join the horde, but there would be plenty of opportunity to do that after the warriors had taken care of the humie guns.
The Grot idly kicked a rock toward the cliff face, trying to clear a space for him to sit down more-or-less comfortably. The rock fell through the stone surface and vanished without a trace.
The tiny greenskin froze in surprise, staring at the cliff. Despite his continued attention, the near-vertical stone face didn't disappear or give any other indication that it was anything other than a large hunk of rock, exactly like the stone around it.
And yet...
The Grot approached cautiously, his eyes narrowing at the cliff. There was something slightly OFF about the way that the rain struck it, now that he was paying close attention. The way the raindrops rolled down over its surface was much smoother than the surrounding rock. They didn't seem to splash off at all, as if the impact was somehow muted, or not really happening at all.
The Gretchin's brain was still in the midst of processing these observations when a lasher tendril came out of the cliff, wrapped around his leg, and dragged him screaming into the wall.
The Grot continued shrieking as he was pulled across a dark stone floor, his hands clawing desperately at the damp rock.
He gasped when he was suddenly pulled upward into the air and twisted around, and any further cries for help died in his throat as he stared into the glowing crimson eyes of a Maulerfiend siege walker.
"Oh, uhm, I'm very sorry about this," mumbled a voice from below, "but could you please stop yelling? It's kind of important..."
The Grot, struck dumb with terror, slowly turned his head away from the daemonic war engine to look at the rest of cavern he had apparently been dragged into.
Four more Maulerfiends were packed into the dark space, all of them lying on their bellies and staring at the hapless greenskin. In the middle of the siege walkers was a power-armored pegasus standing behind a hololith projector. The projector faced the cavern entrance, keeping the shelter hidden from view behind a highly detailed false image.
"Oh, thank you," Fluttershy said with relief, mistaking the alien's shock for cooperation, "if you could just keep the noise to a minimum, we should be okay."
The Maulerfiend currently holding the Grot upside-down via its metal tentacles held its hand out under him, and then dropped him into its palm.
"Now be careful, Crabapple," Fluttershy warned, "we don't have to hurt him."
Crabapple emitted a discordant growl in response. Fluttershy couldn't make any sense of Crabapple's corrupted Binary-speak, but she got the impression that the probe-turned-siege walker disagreed.
Really, she would have preferred to leave Apple Bloom's pet Maulerfiend out of this assault entirely; Crabapple didn't listen to her as easily as the other daemonic machines did, and she found the presence of its corrupted machine spirit far more unsettling than actual daemon minds. But Maulerfiends evidently weren't so common in the 38th Company's armor lots that they could afford to turn down the prospect of an extra one.
A sharp snapping noise, followed by the shriek of metal scraping against metal, came from behind the caretaker pony. Fluttershy whirled around immediately, her eyes narrowing as she saw one daemon engine biting at the arm of another.
"Hierix, you stop that right now!" Fluttershy said firmly, causing the war machine to freeze. A moment later it ducked its head away, looking almost bashful.
The pegasus sighed, her tone instantly softening. "I know it's really cramped in here, Hierix, but you'll get to go out and play soon, okay? I promise."
The daemon-machine fidgeted, making a rapid clicking noise in the back of its throat.
Fluttershy pursed her lips briefly, then pointed a boot at another of the Maulerfiends laying closer to the entrance. "See how calm and cool big brother Varox is? Don't you want to be a good boy like him?"
She had no idea if Varox was older or if the war machines had any relation besides serving in the same army, but such details didn't really matter. The Maulerfiend designated as Hierix shifted its posture to match that of the Maulerfiend Varox, and turned its jaws away from its irritated partner.
The Grot simply watched the exchange slack-jawed, having no idea what was going on.
"Now, then... what to do with you..." Fluttershy mused aloud before she stepped up to Crabapple. The pet Maulerfiend released a hot, dusty snort and lowered its hand so that the equine could more easily see its captive.
"P-P-Pleez lemme go!" the Gretchin sputtered, seizing upon the possibility that this horse was some sort of stupidly merciful creature. "I won' tell no wun dat yer heah! I sweahs it!"
Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably in her armor, and the small servo arms attached to her chest fidgeted anxiously.
"Well, uhm, I'm really very sorry about this... normally I would let you go, but I really can't! I mean, you don't even look very dangerous and I'm sure you're perfectly trustworthy..."
The Grot made a desperate leap off the Maulerfiend's palm, toward the cave entrance. He didn't even reach the ground before a lasher tendril snaked around his skinny torso and caught him in mid-air.
Fluttershy kept on speaking as if nothing had happened. "... But you see, the future of the world and everything I know and love kind of depends on my mission here, so I really can't risk making any mistakes that could ruin it. I'm really sorry!"
As the Grot whimpered pathetically, Fluttershy raised a boot to the vox grille of her helmet. "Let's see... I still don't see any need to hurt you, though... I know! Why don't we just keep you in the back, behind Tiberian? It shouldn't matter if you escape after we attack!"
Feeling quite proud of herself that she'd managed to reconcile her sense of mercy with the needs of the battle, Fluttershy pointed to Crabapple. "Go ahead, Crabapple. It's okay."
Crabapple blurted something at her, and then dropped the small greenskin onto the cavern floor. Then it smashed a giant fist onto the helpless alien, crushing it like an ant.
Fluttershy yelped and jumped back, and all the other Maulerfiends turned their heads to glare at the disobedient war machine.
"Crabapple! Why did you do that? He wasn't in a position to hurt anyone!" the pegasus insisted.
Crabapple didn't even bother trying to communicate anymore, and simply crossed its arms in front of it before lying down again and waiting for any further signs of intrusion.
Fluttershy puffed up her cheeks and narrowed her eyes at the recalcitrant siege walker, although it's doubtful her expression would have provoked any reaction even if she weren't still wearing her helmet. "Ohhh! I really have no idea how Apple Bloom puts up with you! How could you do something like that?!"
Crabapple growled something that nobody else understood, and Fluttershy shook her head in disappointment.
"All right, be that way. I just hope you'll listen to me when the Gargant shows up," Fluttershy grumbled, staring at the auger readout at the top of her visor.
****
The crash of artillery continued to clash with the noise of the storm as the Orks pushed forward through the mud, eager to find this unexpected enemy and bring them to battle.
Infantry mobs that had been gutted by the barrage or crawled their way free of wrecked transports joined up into larger hordes as they advanced, their numbers diminished but their excitement kindled. It also helped that the artillery strikes didn't seem to be following their advance; the rain of earthshaker munitions continuing to pound the same stretch of ground as fresh troops wandered underneath it, ensuring an even spread of devastation as the horde marched to this new battle.
Really, the only serious damper on the Orks' mood was the weather. So when even the rain started to thin out, the mobs started surging forward even faster, axes raised to the sky and sluggas aimed - mostly - forward, ready to fire.
And then the ground started exploding. AGAIN.
"Zog it all! Wot's da probbem now?!" demanded a Nob as he was battered by chunks of his unit. Another mob on his right suffered a similar detonation, and Orks near the center of the explosion went flying through the air while shrapnel pelted the ones still on their feet.
"Bommz! Dey gotz bommz in da durt!" claimed a Slugga Boy angrily, pointing to a metal disk ahead of them that was only partially covered in mud. The Nob held a hand over his brow to keep out the remaining rain, peering out at the stretch of ground before them.
There were definitely more explosives laid out on the ground, for starters. A lot more. The Nob decided then and there that they needed a few mobs of Gretchin to push through this area before he was going to try to get any further.
But besides that, with the lighter rainfall he could see something beyond the mines. It was still hard to make out, but it looked like a wall or something.
Then a pulse bolt struck the Ork in the face, sending him keeling back into the mud.
****
*Target down! We have contacts!* Jerriha shouted as she watched the Nob collapse through the scope of her pulse rifle. *They've reached the minefield! We have incoming!*
Dozens of other pulse rifles came up over barricade walls and battlements as the Fire Warriors prepared their own firing lines. Pathfinder units began sweeping the edge of the storm with their markerlights, searching for more targets to pass on to the Fire Warriors.
*We have incoming Trukks, Shas'vre!*
Four Ork light transports raced out of the gloom, boyz cheering and firing wildly when they finally recognized they had found the enemy.
The cheering proved short-lived. Explosive mines tore the Trukks apart from below while lascannons stabbed into the light armor from the barricades. All four vehicles were stopped dead or blown apart in seconds, their passengers spilling out onto the ground.
Following the anti-armor weapons were the stubbers, pulse rifles, and lasguns, which raked over the surviving aliens and finished them before they could get their bearings. More Orks staggered out of the sheets of rain with weapons primed, only to get cut down at range before they could take stock of the opposition.
"Squiggoth approaching on the right side!" barked a warning from the vox system. "Heavy weapons, concentrate fire!"
The shadow of the gargantuan beast loomed from behind the sheets of rain, the ground shaking from its advance. Orks sprinted into the minefields ahead of it to avoid being trampled to death, and these hapless warriors were duly cut down by rifle fire in short order.
The charging Squiggoth was greeted with volleys of lascannon fire and the report of tank cannons, and the warbeast was staggered almost immediately as intense heat cored its legs and explosions tore through its flank. The Gargantuan Squiggoth released a furious roar before its legs buckled, but even this was quickly silenced by a plasma cannon discharge that struck it square in the jaw.
The ground shook once more after the enormous creature collapsed on its side, blood and flame spilling from its body. The Orks riding it were dumped onto the ground as well, and soon joined their compatriots in being speared by laser blasts and pulse bolts.
"We got it! We actually got it!"
"WAHOO! Take that, you ugly, green savages!"
Daniels glanced back at several ponies that had started prancing about happily at seeing the demise of such a huge creature.
"Hey! Keep it together! This fight's barely started!" the mercenary shouted.
The equines quickly sobered and raced back to the barricades, although they still had huge grins on their faces.
"If we can keep this up, those Orks don't stand a chance!"
A bullet struck the top of the barricade, and the pony closest to the deflection yelped and quickly ducked down.
Daniels grimaced as he fired back into a squad of Lootas that were setting up behind a wreck. There were a lot more Orks coming into the killing zone now, and those with heavier weapons were seeking refuge behind the wrecked transports and Squiggoth corpse.
"We're seeing some incoming fire, here! Didn't somebody mention a shield or something?" Daniels shouted as he snapped of another shot at the Trukk remains. The hyper-accelerated rail punched through the twisted metal with ease, and the Ork Loota behind it lurched back onto the ground.
"Roger that!" the vox crackled. "Lord Armor, you may proceed when ready."
****
Ponyville - town square
Shining Armor took a deep breath after the command boomed through the vox network. With the crack of lasgun fire and the thundering of tank cannons at the front, he had known it wouldn't be long before he was called on to add his own contribution to the battle.
He looked around at the unicorns surrounding his spooky floating Chaos platform. "Well, are we ready?"
The cabal of robed ponies nodded.
"Let us proceed, Prince Armor," Fleur de Lis said grimly before her horn started to glow. The other ponies likewise adjusted the circle around him so that they were evenly spaced, and their horns lit up as well.
Shining began his spell, and his own horn pulsed as the familiar weave of magical patterns in his mind came together.
As they formed, however, he felt an intrusion in the process. Numerous other weaves of foreign magic brushed against his own, carefully linking into the spell. These links were feather-light at first, so as not to interfere with him, but as he progressed in the casting Shining felt the web of magical energy tighten considerably, drawing the other ponies' magic into his own.
The stallion gulped as he looked down at the unicorns in mid-cast. Their eyes were pale and glowing along with their horns, and some members of the cabal were mumbling to themselves. Such things were hardly unknown among unicorns, but it wasn't the sort of thing normally treated as a "good sign" while using magic.
"Here goes everything," Shining Armor murmured before he finished the final calculations in his head.
****
Ponyville - main defense lines
The firefight taking place at the barricades seemed to come to a complete halt as the space between the Ork attackers and various defenders shimmered brightly.
A sphere of purple coalesced in front of the barricade, and then seemed to flatten itself into a circle standing vertically between the two forces. Then the circle expanded, joining with the ground and spreading across the entire breadth of the valley.
None of the defenders dared fire, thinking that their weapons might disrupt or otherwise damage the feat of sorcery, but the Orks knew little such restraint. Impatient to get back to the fighting, a Tankbusta launched his rokkit in the general direction of a dug-in battle tank.
The missile went far afield of its intended target, but anyway met the translucent purple barrier first. It detonated against the shimmering wall, causing no apparent distortion or damage to it.
In response, the Leman Russ aimed its battle cannon at the aggressor and fired, causing the entire tank to lurch back from the recoil. The cannon shell passed through the purple barrier without incident, causing but a brief ripple through the ambient energies from its passing.
Then it crashed into the remains of a Wartrakk, obliterating much of the wreckage as well as the Orks sheltering behind it.
Whooping cheers and exultations came from the Company lines before the infantry started firing again with gusto. Their aim was somewhat hindered by the sparkly purple field in front of them, but they could hardly complain so long as their fusillades passed through the shield while the Ork munitions bounced off uselessly. Wartrakks and Guntrukks were shattered as soon as they appeared, and thick mobs of soaked and muddy Orks were scythed down before they could further expend the minefield.
As the battle entered the end of its second hour, the front lines of the Ork advance were little more than a vast stretch of wreckage and corpses. Smoke rose in thick columns through the thinning rainstorm, while those greenskins that hadn't fled the utterly hopeless assault found themselves covering in blast craters and behind heaps of the dead. All the while the Basilisk artillery cannons sent volley after volley of ordnance into the heart of the advancing horde, battering armor and gutting entire mobs before they even saw combat. Everything was going according to plan.
But even the Company's most optimistic battle plans acknowledged that the enemy wouldn't keep obliviously stumbling into their defenses forever.
****
Boss Squiggoth "Betsy"
"Wot da zog is goin' on down dere?! Wot's wit all da 'sploshuns?! Sumwun ANSAH me!"
Warboss Drahgza raged from atop his Gargantuan Squiggoth, his klaws snapping angrily as he demanded information from his subordinates.
The command howdah on "Betsy's" back was loaded to bursting with mega-armored Nobs, some oddboyz, and even a pair of lesser Warbosses. Hazarr Wrencha was also hitching a ride, although the Big Mek was there by request; if anybody had asked the older Ork's opinion, he would have rather taken to battle in one of the Gargants. Alas, nobody did.
Nobody in the coterie of massive greenskins knew what to tell Drahgza, however. The reports being brought by messengers and scorched survivors were numerous and confusing. First they had been told that the bright flashes of light were from a little horse using nasty magic. Someone else who hadn't seen any ponies at the scene himself claimed there were a bunch of explosive traps. Then someone ELSE claimed the explosions were from a batch of escaped bomb squigs. Yet another Ork insisted that they were being hit with artillery, but admitted that he hadn't seen any humans or their guns. Then came more Gretchin claiming that the rest of the army was advancing to try and find... whatever was ahead of them, he supposed. That particular Grot had no idea what was out there, and had been squashed underfoot for his ignorance.
Drahgza wasn't especially worried about a few measly explosions; it would be good to have a few boyz spontaneously die off during the advance just to keep the rest on their toes and entertained. But he didn't like the fact that his army was splitting itself up to race after an enemy that he wasn't even sure was there. It smelled like a trap.
A crackling noise came from behind him, and Drahgza whirled around to see Hazarr fiddling with a monitor screen.
"Wot're ya doin' NOW, Coggz?" the Warboss demanded.
"We'z got a messuj from da Great Gargant," the Big Mek grunted as he adjusted the communicator frequency, "gimme a sec."
Drahgza moved closer while the static started to break up, and after several seconds a dim image of another Ork was barely visible on the screen.
"Boss Coggz! We fownd 'em! Dey're 'ere! Da spikies an' humies is waytin' fer us!"
"Say wot?!" Drahgza growled, looming over Hazarr's shoulder. "Da spikies is 'posed ta be at da fort! Why's dey out heah?!"
A long stretch of static followed the Warboss's question.
"Erm, I dunno, Boss. But da boyz haz been gettin' shot up by 'em, so we wuz gonna go back 'em up, yeah?"
Drahgza's bionic visor display flickered, a sure sign that he was irritated.
"Dese humies do dat," Hazarr admitted, shaking his head, "dey don' wan' us ta get to da fort, I gess."
"So dey's fightin' us out heah? Wot a buncha idjits! We'z gonna crush 'em flat!"
Hazarr frowned. "Wot's da boyz from da frunt sayin'?"
The communicator crackled again, and then the operator laughed. "Da humies is dug in reel gud, dey fink. Lotsa dakka! We'ze gettin' shot up gud, but I'll stomp 'em ta bitz!"
"Boss... a warnin', Boss..." a hesitant, creaky voice came from behind the two Orks, and they turned to regard a much shorter greenskin.
This Ork was thin, wiry, and hunched over. His raggedy outfit was covered in feathers, fangs, and other strange trinkets and arcane fetishs as well. What was most obviously strange about him, though, was undoubtedly the fact that the top of his skull was missing, leaving his brains exposed to the air and rain. The exposed gray matter glowed and thrummed with strange energy, and every once in a while an arc of colorful electricity would crackle around it.
"Wot's da matter, 'Eadbusta?" Drahgza grunted, giving his full attention to the Ork Weirdboy.
The psyker shuddered before he looked up, shielding his face from the pouring rain.
"Dis storm iz a bad omen," the Weirdboy declared, "ain't nacherul. Da workin' of hoss majik."
The three circles on Drahgza's visor turned to three slits as he stared up at the rain.
"An' dere's mo', too. I been feelin' a lot o' hoss majik down da vallee. Dere's sum bad juju 'round heah."
The Warboss considered his head psyker's words cautiously, scraping at his gorget with a klaw blade.
"... If'n we'z fightin' hoss majik, dere's gotta be a hoss Weirdboy, yeah 'Eadbusta?"
'Eadbusta twitched badly, and another lash of energy colored neon green crawled over the surface of his brain. "Yeah. I can feel 'im. An' udders, too. LOT of bad juju."
"All roight! 'Ere's wot we'z gonna do!" Drahgza said, his voice suddenly bright and chipper. "Zoktoof!"
One of the Warbosses who was very deliberately lacking mega armor perked up. "Yeah, Boss?" His face was striped with purple warpaint, and a huge shotgun was slung over his back.
"You'z takin' 'Eadbusta, sneekin' up on da humies, and takin' out da weerd hosses! I don' want no 'juju' messin' up da fightin'!"
The lesser Warboss saluted, and then quickly made for the ladder that would lead him down from the command howdah and the Squiggoth.
"Dedhamma!" Drahgza barked next, causing the other Warboss in mega armor to shift to attention. "Get da boyz in fightin' ordah! I dunno wot da spikies is up ta, but if dey wanna fight heah, we'z gonna give 'em da best - an' LAST - fight dey evah had!"
Drahgza laughed as his Nobs started roaring their approval, and then the other Warboss moved to leave the Squiggoth.
Drahgza finally turned back to Hazarr. "Now, as fer you..."
Dispatching his last orders to the Big Mek turned out to be more complicated than expected, because Hazarr wasn't there. Drahgza wasn't sure when the newest addition to his horde had wandered off, but the command howdah on top of Betsy wasn't large enough that Hazarr could be hiding or otherwise simply be out of sight. When had the Big Mek left?
Drahgza noticed that the communications device was still on, however, so he cleared his throat and then yelled at that instead.
"Oi! Youz gitz in da big dakka stikk wit da footsloggaz! Da spikies cood be tryin' ta kill da big gunz 'fore we can yoos 'em on da fort! If'n ya see da humies, you blast 'em, but don' get stukk in yet, got it?!"
The disappointment of the Great Gargant pilot was palpable, even despite the heavy static. "Yer da boss..."
"Damm strayt," Drahgza grunted. Then he put his klaw through the face of the monitor, assuming that was the correct procedure for turning the device off.
Down below the command Squiggoth, Hazarr trudged through the veritable craters left in the mud by Betsy's footfalls, searching the surrounding mobs.
Battlewagons and looted tanks rolled alongside Betsy's earth-shaking stride, along with countless Ork mobs that hadn't been lucky enough to secure a transport for the long march to Ferrous Dominus. Hazarr headed toward one such unit, his mega armor squealing as it carried his bulk through the muck.
Although the Big Mek expected the horde to wash over the human resistance without much further issue now that they were aware of and prepared for them, he couldn't help but feel a niggling sense of deja vu. This seemed vaguely similar to when his own army had made its attempt on the planet, and while circumstances were definitely different this time around, it had gotten Hazarr to thinking.
"Oi! You dere!" Hazarr called to the largest of the passing mobs, waving his power klaw.
The Orks being hailed slowed down in confusion, and the unit Nob eventually shouldered his way forward to greet the approaching Mek.
"Wot's up? We'z got ordahs!"
"I'z got sumfin' I want ya ta do," Hazarr grunted as he stepped up to the Nob. His servo claw clanked open and shut irritably. "I'm gonna bring in wun o'my Battlewagons fer ya, so ya don' haff ta slog all da way to da frunt."
The Ork mob perked up considerably at that. They were already soaked and muddy, and even if there was an unexpected fight going on ahead, they fully expected it to be over by the time they walked there.
Hazarr leaned in closer to the Nob, his optic visor glowing softly. "Ting is, I want ya ta bring me wun o'da enemy bakk in tokkin' shayp."
The Nob tilted his head to the side, slightly confused. Taking prisoners wasn't at all rare for Orks, but it was usually a result of not being thorough enough in murdering everything the first time through. Deliberately subduing a foe without harming him was entirely new territory for this warrior.
"I dun care wot kinda enemy ya git. Spiky, humie, hoss, wotevah," Hazarr clarified, "but I want 'im in wun pees. Cleah?" Then the Big Mek pulled something from his belt. It was a small, brick-shaped object with a single black button on it. "Wen ya git da prisunah, git cleah of da fightin' and push da button. I'll go git 'em."
The Nob took the device hesitantly, and then shrugged his massive shoulders. "Yer da Boss, Coggz."
"Gud," the Big Mek declared, turning around to go organize the mob's new transport, "mebbe now I can figger out wot da zog is goin' on 'round heah..."
****
Valkyrie gunship Delta Primarus
"Okay, okay, I've got a new one," Tellis said as he leaned forward on the bench and pointed at Applejack, "your power is being really heavy, right?"
Applejack's eyes narrowed at the Iron Warrior. "I got special platin' on the soles o'my boots, if that's what yer referrin' to."
"Yeah, sure. That, plus you're huge. For a pony, anyway."
As a deep growling noise came from the farmer's throat, Twilight quickly interjected. "He means your ARMOR, Applejack. Your armor is heavier than ours."
"Right! And so is your muscley orange butt," the Raptor said without hesitation. Rainbow Dash made no effort to hide her snickering. "Anyway, I'm thinking we could fly you up, and then drop you like a bomb. You hit the gravity plating before impact, and WHAM. I'll bet you could flatten a battle tank!"
"That's not a bad idea," Rainbow Dash decided, bumping the glaring farmpony on the shoulder pad, "if she can even survive something like that, I mean."
"Ah'd rather not make gettin' bionic legs a new Apple family tradition," Applejack drawled. Then she glanced over at her brother. "Not that there's anythin' wrong with 'em, o'course."
"Nnope," the stallion agreed.
"Hey, I'm just trying to help out!" Tellis groused, crossing his arms under the skulls hanging from around his neck. "Work with me here, would you?"
"Don't think that we don't appreciate your help, dear," Rarity said with the slightest edge of sarcasm, "but we'd much prefer 'battle strategies' that don't involve flinging, dropping, or otherwise using us as pony projectiles."
"But you'd make a GREAT spear! And with your silly glowing horn thing, you could probably even generate a disruption field! You should at least TRY it."
Twilight generally ignored the belligerent Astartes. Besides the fact that she was glad to have someone dominating the conversation who didn't care about her unexpected confession of love before they embarked on the gunship, her attention was largely elsewhere. Twilight's visor was almost completely filled with auger displays from the listening posts. Estimates of troop strength, munitions levels, kill reports, and other numerical tidbits of data flashed over it every couple of seconds, allowing her to track the front line's efforts as closely as possible without actually being there. Fluttershy and Pinkie's vital signs and vox links were tracked on the corner, allowing her to see at a glance if anything untoward happened to her friends who weren't currently with her.
"Hey, Dash," Tellis said suddenly, turning away from an exasperated Rarity, "this is kinda dull. Ya wanna go jump onto the Tau flyers and freak out the pilots?"
Rainbow Dash brightened immediately, but Twilight was forced to once again intervene. "NO. We could get the signal to attack at any moment. We have to stay inside the gunship, and refrain from terrorizing our allies."
"Pft. You don't give me orders," Tellis reminded the alicorn, poking a thumb into his breastplate.
"Yeah, but she does give ME orders," Rainbow Dash said with a sigh, "and even though she's being a total drag as usual, Twi kind of has a point. The entire planet's fate is pretty much riding on this battle, so we should focus on the fight ahead."
Tellis seemed to consider the point as he leaned back on the bench, and his head tilted up so that he stared at the ceiling.
Then his gaze dropped back to the ponies. "Wait, the ENTIRE planet's fate is riding on this? How?"
Rarity released a long-suffering sigh. "We need to destroy this army here and now so that we can build the Nethalican before the rest of the Orks arrive," she explained tersely.
Again, the Chaos Raptor paused to digest this. "... What's a 'Neth-ali-can'? Is that some sort of weird magic horse gun?"
Twilight snapped out of her strategic ruminations so that she could gape at the Iron Warrior along with everypony else. Even Rainbow Dash had an expression that clearly asked "Are you kidding me?"
"You're saying you don't even know what we're doing here?" Rarity asked incredulously.
"Of course I do," Tellis replied, "we're taking down a Mega Gargant."
"Well, yeah, but ya don't know WHY yer doin' that?" Applejack asked.
"FOR FRIENDSHIP!" Tellis shouted, thrusting his arms into the air.
"Ah give up," Applejack sighed, slumping heavily against her brother. Big Mac gave her a comforting nuzzle as the orange mare groaned.
Twilight was about to launch into a complete explanation of the Nethalican, its supposed mechanisms, and its purpose. Not because she expected Tellis to appreciate it or even listen, but just because she found the Dark Portal fascinating and would have enjoyed discussing it.
Mercifully - for the others, at least - the gunship's internal vox system interrupted her and filled the passenger bay with Solon's static-distorted voice.
"Thish ish Warshmith Sholon to all unitsh..."
Every one of the passengers either chuckled or struggled not to.
"All battle plansh are progreshing ash shcheduled and all interception missionsh are go for launch. Delta Wing, Alpha Wing, Crine Wing, and all Xenish shquadronsh are to proceed ash planned to your deshignated shtrike zonesh. Ambush team theta, you are clear to attack at your dishcretion. Princesh Luna will be making her own deployment in T-minush eight-hundred shecondsh."
The constant shudder of the Valkyrie's engines turned to a heavy shaking as the gunship started accelerating, and the constant background roar of engines became far more pronounced. The ponies that didn't yet have their armor sealed grimaced, and one by one their helmets engaged, folding into place and pressurizing.
Solon's voice again came from vox. "May the Dark Godsh blesh your fire and bring ruination to the foe. For Chaosh!"
"For Khorne!" growled Tellis.
"For Equestria!" barked Rainbow Dash.
"For the Princess," Rarity said firmly.
"Fer Ponyville!" shouted Applejack.
"Eeyup," added Big Macintosh.
"For peace, harmony, and friendship!" Twilight added, lifting her head proudly.
The vox crackled again.
"IRON WITHIN. IRON WITHOUT."