So I finally got an idea for an Age of Iron story I like enough to run with, involving events a few decades after the original series, but while tossing it around in my head, I came up with what I feel like would be an interesting concept.

Anyone who has read a story from the Black Library(or has any base knowledge of 40k in general) knows that whether traitor or loyalist, Space Marines are effectively ageless, and the Mechanicus just replaces any bits that age, so typically the story of a single character in the setting can span millenia. Now when you pair that with the ponies, who have like 100 years at best excluding the princesses, things get sorta weird for writing future nonsense.

This line of thought got me thinking "hey couldn't Solon make some kind of pseudo-gene seed using Twilight and give the others immortality?" which then lead to "hey couldn't he create a pseudo-gene seed from all the EoHs, Mac, Trixie, and Luna?".

This concept is hilarious to me as all I can think of is Luna as a mini Horus analog, being Solon's "favored daughter", and the rest of them as little pony primarchs, who could lead little Equinought chapters each implanted with their own kinda-gene seed thing.

Anyone have thoughts on this? I really like it but it isn't exactly perfect. For one thing the Iron Warriors could be like nah man, not cool, not cool, as it's sorta crossing a line...though just giving them power armor is along the same idea...

I sort of like the idea as well, but I don't think that would happen.
Gene-seed for space marines, whether Chaos or Loyalists, could be compared to how we would value a brick of gold; only a hundred thousand times more so. Sure, Solon humors them by giving them power armor (except Luna, Luna is the favorite), but sticking gene-seed in them?
No.
Iron Warriors actually go to great lengths to keep themselves relatively free of mutation despite being a chaos legion; and by that, I mean the lop off any limb or other body part that has mutated in any way, shape, or form, and replace it with tech.
So I think it's a good idea, but even Solon wouldn't want to waste precious gene-seed making sure Equinought sticks around.
Or maybe he would, I don't know, all depends on how he's feeling and how much he hates them at the moment.
Might keep Pinkie around as a brain in a jar just to study it.

4831391 I reckon I would be fine with that idea hell i will even help you write it if you want

Some ideas for equine marine chapters and the cannon ones that inspired them

The luna lords - night lords

The bearers of harmony - word bearers

the dragon marine's - the ultramarines

4831457 Oh definitely, I don't think they'd ever get any real gene seed, not to mention I doubt the ponies are interested in growing 19 extra organs. What I was thinking was more along the lines of just a single genetic implant based around the the "pony primarchs", something entirely of solon's own design, or possibly one of the Magos, that would simply impart Alicorn longevity and some cocktail of all their innate genetic abilities, focused around whichever one they choose as their leader. For example, Twi would lead a bunch of unicorn adepts, AJ a bunch of beefy terminator earth ponies, etc. So not a real gene-seed, but sort of a silly but functional imitation.

I feel that a better option would be to use something already present in Equestria, perhaps Phoenix DNA? Then there's the added humor of the humans getting frustrated because of Centaur's crazy ecosystem.

4831391
4831457
Hmm, I do have some comments about this. Please don't be offended about any of it as I believe the end result could help make this concept better.

Now, I don't think Solon would be able to make any sort of "genetic modification" organ from anyone other than the Alicorn Princesses. They're the only ones who really make sense in that aspect as everyone else is a normal pony by most standards.

Now, here's where I kinda shut it down. I swear this sort of idea has come up before and I think it was determined that while Solon is a brilliant engineer and a master of metal, he only understands the soft organic bits enough to where he can attach wires and metal bits to it without killing the subject and making it all work. He wouldn't really be able to make anything like what you're describing.
I mean, if it could be done you would have to get someone like Honsou to do it but well... his results are debatable and we really don't like to talk about it...

However! What if the Centaur-Pattern armor was more like the Freeblade Walkers in the Imperium?
Say, there are ponies who have earned or been gifted with their own power armor from the Warsmith over the years and that armor is passed down from generation to generation with minor adjustments and modifications as new heirs take on the particular power armor of their family? Now that could be a little more interesting.

4831940 That was something I considered, as Solon definitely comes across more as, well, a brilliant smith, rather than all around science guy.

...I wonder if Twi could figure it out, given some kind of excuse to get her access to the relevant information...

4831940
Not Honsou!
He made the thing! No one wants anything to do with the guy who made the thing!

4832007
Oh, would you get over the thing?
He was young and needed the soldiers! Everyone makes mistakes! He deserves a second chance!

4831940
I don't actually recall a particular segment where it was confirmed that he was weak in bio-genetics, but if I had to choose an arbitrary limitation on his expanse of scientific knowledge, that would probably be it. Although there's an entire DarkMech contingent with the 38th Company, too. There's already been shown to be some gene-forging going on already, which is why the Apples are sitting on a colony of horrible alien monsters harvesting blue apples.

But really, I think we're overlooking something obvious, here. The 40K brand of immortality comes with lots of strings and scars: ugly bionics, daemonhood, or an entire lifetime given over to becoming a tireless killing machine. It's part of the background narrative. Overcoming one's mortality means losing one's humanity.
In Equestria, you can get immortality by impressing Princess Celestia enough.

Magic is a much more likely vehicle for indefinite longevity with no obvious consequences. Even if such solutions are rare and/or temporary, it's better than heading into the Eye of Terror and relying on its plot-convenient time-warping to keep you young.
Furthermore, it's pretty obvious that Equestria doesn't apply its magic resources to its full potential militarily.

Upshot: instead of a line of ponies modified by Solon and turned into an army of Space Mareines (which generates some pretty dubious parallels between him and Big E), we could see generations of Equestrian soldiers separated into an elite corps and then magically buffed up.
So, basically half the plot of Heresy.
Then the magic super-soldiers are given over the 38th Company as tribute and given armor and weapons, and then they're sorted into miniature detachments by specialty and race and which Princess is their favorite.
This way it not only gets to emphasize an Equestrian advantage, but the soldiers can be very different from the Iron Warriors and even the original Equinoughts.

4832410
I see. That's two for two that I've been wrong about recalling something like that. Ah well.

4832410
Oh I have nothing but respect for Honsou, yeah the thing was bad. But that puts him up there with some of the more bad stuff/people in 40k. I mean he's up there with Fabius Bile. You have to work to get up there with that guy on screwed up genetic experiments.

Solon probably isn't an expert in Necrontech, but it didn't keep him from toying with living metal, either. Now, there are strains of MLP fanon which make the Changeling Queens epic masters of bioengineering. See Law Abiding Pony's Twilight and Dash become queens series. Of course, the one thing keeping the 38th Company from being topped off with entire squadrons of Twiliings and Dashlings in powered armor is that the Iron Warriors are going to look at that culture and burn it with fire for being a nest of obvious and inherent Slaaneshi cultists.

Hmmm, this is all very good input, thanks all! This idea is gonna have to bounce around in my head for awhile but it sounds like there are ways to potentially explore it.

And at some point I really just want Luna to call some force she commands her "Luna Wolves", which would cause any nearby member of the 38th to chuckle, and none of the ponies would ever understand why.

4833182
The changelings honestly always seemed more in line with Tzeentch to me. Also, love as a food source isn't inherently Slaaneshi, only how you get it would determine that.

4835590 In general fanon, yes. It's a specific tic of LAP's protagonist 'lings, who are aggressively promiscuous, brood-proud and incestuous in a way that would set off most anti-Slaaneshi alarms.

4832410
4832806 what is the thing ?

4839786
Daemonculaba
We don't like to talk about it in detail.

4839839
NO! You said the word! You fool!
(Hides under table)

4835590
Slaanesh isn't even close to a God/dess of Love. That's Nurgle's thing.
So really, they could play to any of the Chaos Gods except Khorne if you're so inclined. Slaanesh if you want to make them depraved, hedonistic succubus types, Tzeentch for being shape-shifting schemers, or Nurgle because... well, he has the love they want. It's got a lot of... stuff on it, but it's there for the taking.

4839839
4840466 sweet omnisiah no burn it burn honsou burn it all with volkite fire

4841092
Told ya

4841216 Honsou is a evil evil super human

4841599
And damn proud of it, thank you very much.

4841693 so does the warsmith have any volkite weapons and radium weapons

4841801
Warsmith Solon, or Warsmith Honsou? Or some other Warsmith?

4842166 solon the good well relatively good zombie one with a lot of guns and a wizard rubric the warsmith / warpsmith I would rather have as my evil overlord

4842495
He has access to those kinds of weapons, although he favors more exotic types, like thunderfire cannons, Eldar pulse lasers, and archeotech stuff.

4842562 oh the fort has those big ass miniguns that is good if there are more attacks

4843870
I was speaking about Solon specifically, in terms of his personal gear.
As an army, the 38th Company is split between the Iron Warriors, Dark Mechanicus, and traitor Guardsmen, cultists and mercenaries. The Iron Warriors use the same weapons all Chaos Space Marines use: bolters, chainswords, plasma guns, power fists, etc. with the odd daemonic wargear here and there. The meat shields/ordinary humans use weaker small arms, along with some specialized weapons like autocannons and heavy stubbers and such, plus the heaviest tanks.
The Dark Mechanicus I sort of built up at an awkward time, since GW released an actual Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus Codex while I was writing the final book of this. So I haven't really featured any galvanic rifles or radium carbines or any of that juicy high-tech shooty goodness they typically enjoy, and I feel like it would be weird if they suddenly popped up now. I've mostly shown them with a lot of laser technology, and they have xenotech too (especially given that they have Tau stuff now).

4844127 oh thanks for telling me the army layout

4832410 I know this is a bit late on the draw and all but... are you sure the Alicorn Transformation Spell thing actually gives you immortality. In one of the episodes it shows that Cadence had aged from when she was foalsitting Twilight, and she was an Alicorn then sooo.

5036527
Nope.
There's not very much canon information about alicorns. It's not clear whether they can live indefinitely or age very slowly, whether they can be killed through ordinary means, whether they need sustenance (Luna did survive an AWFUL long time on the moon...), or how powerful they really are.
It's not even clear where they usually come from. Twilight ascended to being an alicorn by serving one, but now we've got pictures of Cadance's kid Flurry Heart, and apparently she was born an alicorn. Does that make Twilight some kind of sub-alicorn? Does that make her better because she earned that distinction rather than being born that way? Is her lifespan still that of a unicorn? And if alicorns can breed normally, why aren't there thousands, or at least a few dozen of them?
There are a lot of questions, and like most fanfiction authors, I'm just making up the answers as I go.

4832410
Sounds like we're talking about successor chapters here, which got me thinking (always dangerous)
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0pCN0cqMakReGtuSUtQNzdkeUk&usp=sharing
Should lead to a Google Drive folder with pics of pony "successor chapters" I doodled up. The "Founding" section refers to whether the chapter in question is one Twilight would approve of (Harmony) or be suspicious of (Chaos)

5093213
Wow, that's pretty cool!
I see that the Lunar contingent is run by Dusk Blade rather than Luna. Boy, he sure has moved up in the world! :D

5093319
Well, it was supposed to be in the future, when there are enough ponies in power armor to merit it... so one could consider Luna to be in charge of all the pony auxiliaries. Really, I didn't have time to look through the fics for Dusk Blades' true ranking, and I figured it would annoy Twilight. :)

5093324
Clearly. And Dusk Blade would have plenty of time to earn a heroic recommendation to run his own "Chapter" . And it WOULD annoy Twilight. A LOT.

"Hey, Princess Sparkle! Wanna go head into an alcove and 'found a new Chapter'?"

5093370
To be fair, it seems like a lot of Iron Hearts was written based on the question "Would this really annoy Twilight?"

The 38th Company would decide who gets Power Armor, and Dusk Blade would almost certainly be able to gain their approval. :)

Tellis, I'm sure, would see these "Successor Chapters" as a way to ensure he always has more Pony Bombs.

5093393

To be fair, it seems like a lot of Iron Hearts was written based on the question "Would this really annoy Twilight?"

Ssssh! That's supposed to be a secret! >.>

5093574
I got carried away again and made 4 more successor chapters... Equal Rites, Suns of Tzeentch, Crystal Conquerors, and Yak Smashers. :)

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0pCN0cqMakReGtuSUtQNzdkeUk&usp=sharing

5095680
I was quite surprised to see Flash Sentry with his own... well, anything, really.
But not quite as surprised as I was that the Yak Smashers was apparently composed of yaks that smash soldiers, and not soldiers that smash yaks.

5095784 Well, I thought of it being run by Lightning Dust, but I also wanted to use the colors of Sombra's magic. Flash Sentry (pony) does work for the Crystal Empire.

As for the Yaks, I thought they made good Berserkers. :)

BTW, after reading Entrenchment, are the Deer and Buffalo the Eldar of Centaur III?

5095816
I wouldn't say so, no. There aren't enough parallels between the MLP and Warhammer races to make them equivalents of each other. Even if you meant in the sense of everyone's attitude toward them, the Eldar are hated and despised, while the deer and buffalo are either ignored or grudgingly tolerated.

5095905
I'd say out of all the chaos gods Nurgle would welcome the changlings with open arms. It just a question of how desperate the changlings are to wanting to live or rot? Ever way I'd love to see a overly happy death shroud want to give the bugs a hug and see them running away in fear.

6406019
I'm sure any of the Chaos Gods would welcome the changelings. At this point it's a matter of what would save them from the Iron Warriors and their allied pones, not which Chaos alignment is best for them.

I think Gear Works could make a good member of the team. Also I think he and Twilight would really hit it off with there tech talk.