//------------------------------//
// Legate 
// Story: Adepta Sororitas: The Tale of Canoness Sunset Shimmer 
// by ratedoni 
//------------------------------//

If there was one aspect of life among humans of the almost endless Imperium of Man that Sunset never conformed to, it was the fact that she just couldn’t get used to the idea of living all her life aboard a ship and continuously make travel across the Warp, taking supplies and soldiers everywhere without ever stepping into a world or seeing a sunrise. Not that she did much of the last one, except when she survived a gruesome battle. Now that she thought about, that usually happened a lot.

It’s not that Sunset detested the idea of flying across the never ending corners of the universe. In fact, every single travel that she did across the Warp had been awe-inspiring by itself, at least even more than any time she had been forced to pray to a god that she wasn’t even sure if it was a god or was the best example of humanity. With the kind of gods that existed in the universe, well, there were worst choices to look up to.

The truth was that she liked traveling in space, never mind the fact that going faster than light meant going through the dimension where literal demons lived and the only thing keeping her safe were the special shields that nobody explained to her how it worked since it apparently was a sacred secret which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. The other thing that kept everyone in the ship safe was apparently that the Emperor’s mind and powers were still working even though his body was now a rotting carcass sitting on top of the Golden Throne, and he used that power to safely guide ships across the Astronomican, the beacon that guided mankind’s ships across the warp.

To say that Sunset was incredibly excited and scared out of her wits the first time she understood that, well, it would be like saying that ponies kind of liked pastries and bright pastel colors, which means that she was close to going bonkers, screaming into the night how such thing could be possible, which in turn would probably have made every single member of the Adepta Sororitas start looking at her as if she was crazy. And of course, if you are crazy then came the Inquisition. Only a couple hours of meditation and hitting the training dummies saved her from making a scene back at the Schola Progenium and make everyone stop trusting her.

She had been 12, maybe, when she had finally began to read about her new world and even though she had been scared witless at the time, as she continued her training the fear went away. Only then her desire to see the kind of place that the Emperor had created started to worm into her brain. She had the chance to do that, even if it became reality in the worst kind of situation possible.

Walking across the metal corridors of what the Gothic Armada considered a pleasant ship to be in, her steps echoed across the walls of steel and whatever else the ships were made of. For a species to be able to fly around and conquer innumerable worlds, the simple fact that making space faring ships could be a complete mystery except for some few groups of people and that some of them were hoarding that knowledge to this day just made her blood boil, a little bit more than usual that is.

While they had some great minds in the Imperium, the simple fact was that technology was revered and also seen as a huge heresy to this day, which tinkled Sunset’s scientific mind in the completely wrong way, not that she was stupid enough to complain aloud back home. She liked being alive and well and not being in the sight of the Inquisition, at least as the defendant.

As she walked, many of the other workers in the ship stood aside, recognizing their de-facto leader since they arrived via warp to this point of the galaxy, or maybe they weren’t even in the galaxy at all and could be lost in another universe. Guards, Navy, Sororitas, Psykers and even Tech-Priests were all about aboard the Lunar-class ship, which simply boggled the mind of the different members of the Imperium of Man since, well, those different people would never be in the same place all at the same time unless it was a huge crisis the size of the Horus Heresy.

The fact that they were all about the same ship was enough to make Sunset’s head throb with an endless headache, and alongside the fact that when they were basically thrown out of the warp half of the people inside the ship had been replaced by another half of people that had nothing to do with their mission was even a worst thing.

Their ship had been ready to drop supplies and a whole platoon of guards and even the Sororitas Order under the direction of Sunset Shimmer into a planet where apparently Tyranids had been found. Now, instead of being on that sector, she and the rest of her group had found out that they were right in front of Equus and completely lost in a universal kind of way. Not only that, since basically every single official and half of the ship’s crew had disappeared at the same time just meant that the problems were only starting.

Instead of veterans and Navy officers, Sunset had found out that a group of Tech-Priests that were about to make a trip to some ruins had suddenly appeared on their ship, much to their own confusion and delight to see what kind of things they could find on the new planet full of strange xenos and strange technology, not that Sunset trusted their little greedy hands. It was no secret across the Inquisition that the Adeptus Mechanicus loved to find new technologies… just so they could hoard them to themselves. If any of them put one foot, finger, or metallic claw out of place, she would personally throw them through a decompressing hatch to see if they could breathe in space.

Others that were also apparently invited by the warp were more Guardsmen than there were initially. Instead of the 50 members that were basically a garrison for a planet, now they had a little close of 150 men and women that didn’t even come from the same group. Sunset already found Imperial Guardsmen that were so new that their armor had been barely been giving to them a day prior to being shipped. She also found probably the worst kind of troops aboard her ship, the damn Death Korps of Krieg. Thankfully, most of those soldiers were currently stationed on Equus in the land that had been given to them by the Diarchy of Equestria.

While most soldiers were the usual rabble that were more likely to die than to be able to take down a single enemy of humanity, Sunset had found that other soldiers about the ship were a little bit more… colorful let’s just say. The suicidal driven soldiers from the death world of Krieg were the only members of the army that were quicker to charge into the enemy that Sunset and for that she was surprised, amused and proud of such bravery.

Of course, it also meant that they tended to die in higher numbers, but that’s how they liked it, thinking of death as a way to redeem themselves from their failure in saving their planet, more or less. To be truthful, Sunset never had much of a chance to speak with the Korps since she never knew if she was talking with the same guy and they tended to have a very short life in the battlefield so she never got the full story out of them. So lo and behold, she had found a group of them inside the ship, currently going bonkers since they haven’t a chance to die gloriously in the name of the Emperor.

Also, and this was quite interesting, some of the guards hailed from another death planet - for completely different reasons than Krieg -, the jungle world of Catachan. For what Sunset had been able to read about the planet, the whole place would make the worst of the Hive World sectors into a paradise planet considering everything in Catachan had evolved with the intention of killing everything else that lived on its surface.

The few warriors of Catachan that now called the Wonder - the Lunar-class cruiser ship that had been spit by the warp into her old dimension - their home were not exactly what she envisioned of an Imperial Unit. While the average soldier in the Imperium used the standard uniform and armor, which must be made out of recycled paper due to how fragile it was to most attacks, but since technology was lost after millennia and most advances could be seen as heretic work, well, it was almost a hopeless cause.

No, Catachan Jungle Warriors did not use armor, in fact, they basically went shirtless all the time and looking more like a miniature Space Marine without armor, that was how big they were. That would be distracting to most female and male soldiers with that disposition due to how completely perfect in terms of anatomy they were, but Sunset sometimes just screamed about the injustice of her training as a Sororitas.

As an Adepta Sororitas, each and every one of Sunset’s Sisters of Battle had been mentally trained to be chaste, cold and completely focused on the cult - ahem, true religion of the God Emperor of Mankind. Sadly, that extremely effective training brought other consequences that Sunset never really understood until later, when as she grew older became so blatant it almost slapped her in the face. Not even once, after all the time she spend working, living and also bathing alongside her Sisters, she had ever even peeked or grew curious about her own and the other’s bodies. Now, back in Equestria, well, she wasn’t a recluse and at least knew about self-pleasure, but as a human in the Imperium of Men, just, nothing. She was as chaste as… well as a nun, which fit perfectly.

Sunset Shimmer, who was now over 30 years old, didn’t have even an ounce of carnal desire left on her perfectly sculpted body. I mean, after battling the servant cultists of Slaanesh in one planet and not even blink once at all the exposed flesh and promises of eternal pleasure, well, it was pretty obvious how pure and chaste she was now. Well, at least it was useful to keep herself centered into the new role she had as the temporary commander of the ship, at least until the guardsmen, the Psykers, the Tech-Priests and the Navy all decided on their new commander. Sunset wasn’t waiting with bated breath on that one.

Once she arrived at the bridge things were pretty much the same as she had seen it the last time, since there were still Navy personnel, or at least the ones that had been left behind due to the Warp Jump. While most technology in the Imperium wasn’t the most advanced one due to the Dark Ages of Technology and most advancements being lost due to chaos and the Warp storms constantly affecting the world, the bridge was strangely modern looking, if one ignored the chandeliers and the whole gothic interior decoration that permeated every single fact of the Gothic Armada. I mean, there is a reason why it was called THE Gothic Armada.

Although most teams in the army could barely get maybe some long range communicators, the ship had one of the most advanced way of communication, which was the video transmitters that they had installed in the bridge. Since their arrival at planet Equus, they left one of the smaller portable transmitters with the royalty of Equestria, much to the distaste of most of the people on the ship, but they all admitted to themselves that it was for the best, at least for now. Besides, they didn’t have to fear of being branded as heretics for having communications with a xeno empire since, well, the people that would usually judge them for that were the ones that DID the negotiations, so, no problem, right?

Right there, in one of the monitors was the one being that brought as many good memories as those she simply wanted to erase from her brain. It was the bright sun of Equestria and its beacon of hope, the great Princess Celestia.

“So, the guards say you have a message for me?” While the relationship between the two had somehow cooled since the days of the redhead’s tutoring, it was still a little too awkward for both considering the last time they had seen each other before Sunset’s jump into the mirror. Still, Sunset had to give it to Celestia because right now she looked as royal as ever.

“Yes, I don’t want to take up your time but Princess Cadence arrived this morning from the Crystal Kingdom with many injured guards. She has been deposed by a returning Sombra.” Okay, that name did caught Sunset’s attention.

“Wait, isn’t that the dark sorcerer that was killed thanks to the artifact that absorbs positive mental energy? Didn’t you blow him up?”

“Indeed, but he has returned. It took both Cadence and Shining Armor by surprise due to Sombra’s quick attack on the crystal Empire. What’s more, and mainly the reason why I call you, is that thanks to the surviving guards and Cadence’s description, well, the only way in which we can describe the ponies working with Sombra is by calling them demons.” Celestia’s words, accompanied by a drawing that when she raised it with her magic made Sunset’s body tense up. Somewhere behind her she heard a gasp and someone saying something about the Emperor’s holy light or something, because what was drawn was not any kind of pony she had seen before, but it was still familiar. The horrible welts and face completely deformed, alongside sharp protuberances growing alongside its body. It looked way too much like a demon spawn.

“I’ll be at Canterlot Castle in a couple of hours,” she simply said, no more words having to be said across the communication as Celestia nodded and the transmitter went dark. Sunset looked around the bridge to see how the guardsmen and navy personnel acted, seeing that none of them were disgusted by the Sister of Battle’s decision to meet a xeno, but worried and angered at what this could mean.

It was Chaos, simple and dark Chaos in action on Equestria, but how? The planet itself was way too cheery and colorful to be the target of a corrupting force like chaos and the Dark Gods. Sunset Shimmer then almost facepalmed knowing full well that things like corruption were nothing new if the story about Nightmare Moon being true and ending up being Princess Celestia’s sister all along, well, then things could very well be true and that was not a comforting thought.

Knowing that every member of her impromptu Order was now looking at her, she simply commanded them to continue operations and monitoring the planet’s surface from orbit. If there was one tactical advantage that Sunset had over every single xeno species in Equestria was her advantage of being able to attack from space at any moment, which probably didn’t sit well with Equestria’s courtroom. Neither with the Elk Union that lived deep in the forest at the east of Equestria, not that any of them gave a shit what those pompous idiots did or thought. They made Sunset remember the Eldar and that was not conducive to the continual existence of the Elk.

“Tell the personnel in the hangar bay to get the Thunderhawk ready and call Chroma and Siivet, they will accompany me into Canterlot.” The guards quickly nodded and began to relay the messages across the ship. Going by drop ship was infinitely safer than going the drop pod route and Sunset detested that way of descending into a planet. More than hate, Sunset had a deep seated disgust with such kind of thing no matter how fast and effective it was to suddenly fall into the enemy forces, but unless one was a member of the Adeptus Astartes, there was very little chance for a normal human being to not arrive with all their parts intact.

“Don’t you want a bigger escorting party Canoness? I mean, it will only be you three,” the Guardsman that had spoken with her previously said, clearly having followed Sunset to the bridge like the good soldier she was. The blonde girl still looked slightly worried, but that was probably because she wasn’t that good yet in hiding her true emotions or she had a very serious problem in regards of her nerves.

Sunset Shimmer looked at her for a full second before continuing advancing as if nothing had happened, clearly enjoying putting the guard even more stressed for some reason, when she suddenly stopped just as the guards had returned to their jobs.

“Now that I think about it, you are right Guardsman, what is your name?”

“Mine? Ah, I’m Felicia Lancaster my, uh, my lady?” she asked, not knowing exactly in what kind of trouble she was getting into.

“Like I said, you are right, I need more people helping… you will travel with us too Guardsman Felicia.” Just seeing the wide eyes full of surprise and trepidation was enough to make Sunset smirk a little bit. It was definitely not good to play that kind of tricks on the people living on the ship, but sometimes Sunset needed to act a little bit less holy all the time or else she would start screaming in rage and nobody would like that.

Leaving Felicia behind - in a way that made her unable to refuse the order of the Canoness, not that the blonde guard had any hope of surviving the mere fact of refusing the order from someone of the Ordo Hereticus - Sunset made way into her private chambers, something that many other soldiers didn’t have that luxury in the ship, and prepared herself for dropping into the planet, thankfully, this time without being attacked by anti-air shells or flying monsters that were ready to tear down their vehicle. Sunset has had an interesting time in the battlefield.

She have definitely seen her fair share of strange things and was accustomed to rough landings. That was not to say that she wanted one, not in a planet that had been so peaceful. Although, now that Sunset thought about it, maybe Equestria wasn’t as idyllic as she thought when she was still a citizen of it. I mean, they have dark eldritch monsters, creatures of chaos that could wreak havoc on the populace with a snap of its fingers, monsters that wanted power and armies of insect monsters that only wanted to feast upon the citizens of civilized world. Listing those terrors made Sunset realize how similar Equestria and the Imperium were, of course, minus an all-powerful Ecclesiarchy that controlled most aspects of the empire.

Beyond that, the similarities in enemies trying to destroy the place was uncanny, even more so now that there were terrible creatures ready to pounce upon most ponies. Sunset Shimmer would have laughed at the irony of doing her job as someone who stopped the ever-present taint of Chaos on her birth planet, if it weren’t so serious in nature the fact that the whole planet could be consumed by that same darkness in record time if left unchecked.

In her room and without the usual ritualistic process of donning her armor as the Canoness of the Solis Aeterni Order, the redheaded veteran prepared herself for her meeting with the rulers of Equestria. Usually the process took a time since for the most part, several members of the Order were supposed to help the Canoness into her personalized Power Armor. It was a true marvel of technology, one that she itched to be able to further modify, but the simple act of trying to upgrade some kind of technology, or to even think about simplifying the process in which to produce it was not only frowned upon, but it could very well make you look like an heretical for many, even if one was an Adepta Sororitas. As much as it grated Sunset’s mechanical senses, she had left the armor aside for better military expertise and the sufficient knowledge in how to make the best use of her power armor in combat and outside of it.

Unlike the standard versions of the Sororitas’ armor, the Solis Aeterni has gained a new paint coat. Gone was the dark look of the armor, with red and yellow signifying the sun on the banners and the armor becoming red with the cloth turning white with the inside parts yellow. Sunset knew that in a way, the Order had decided to use the color scheme of her hair since for them, it waved proudly the sun that would burn eternally, like the Imperium. There was a part in Sunset’s brain that knew that all that was simply superstition and fanaticism, but, well, that was the bread and butter when you were a Sister of Battle.

While the systems inside the armor paled in comparison to those the Adeptus Astarte had in their own power armors, the very fact that the armor they could wear was millions of times better than the normal guardsman was a huge step forward. Yes, most of the auto-system, well, make that ALL the auto-systems that a Space Marine would have were not present in their armor. Obviously, since all Space Marine chapters made, regulated and upgraded their own variation of the Armor, unlike the one the Sisters used which were made by the Ecclesiarchy apparently, not that Sunset was sure considering how the Church did not mix well with things like technology and the Adeptus Mechanicus. So they ended up having a lighter Armor with no extra systems and no extra power. Still, Sunset loved the armor.

Putting everything together, something that she had done since she became a Sister, Sunset looked around at her rather bare room, now that she had taken every belonging from the previous captain of the ship. Sunset prayed to the Emperor that the man and the rest of the crew was alright before leaving her chambers and moving quickly into the Hangar.

Along the way Felicia, rather expectantly, began to try and explain why it would be better for her to remain on the ship, but Sunset completely ignored the sputtering and babbling guardsman currently following her and totally blaming herself for opening her mouth. Sunset continued to walk in the direction of the Hangar, grateful that they were using one of the most standard issue Cruisers in the Imperium. While not everyone knew how it was made, everyone knew their way around.

She was thinking about the ship because while the ship was not a huge Battleship capable of destroying planets, it was big enough that it had some of the standard equipment that the imperium had, among them a Thunderhawk which worked not only as their main way of transportation from ship to planet, but also the only reasonable way in which to travel around that same planet.

At least The Wonder, now Sunset’s ship in a way, had enough space for the personnel, if a little tight at the beginning, at least until she send several groups into the planet to create a permanent base of operations on land.

Alongside the aforementioned Thunderhawk, which was their main tool to re-enter the atmosphere safely, they also had a couple of other vehicles, most of which had been moved down to the planet’s surface so they had more space for cargo and supplies, which were of utmost importance for the band of lost soldiers of the Emperor.

At the aforementioned Hangar, the surprisingly resistant space vehicle known as Thunderhawk was already prepped to go and close to it Sunset could see two of her Sisters already suited up and waiting for her. The two had been loyal companions of her since she had been inducted into the Sisters of Battle Order, which in itself was something surprising considering they had been together for almost 20 years of combat and survival, almost a miracle on itself for warriors. While it was true that they were not frontline soldiers, it did not mean that they have been safe from war, battle or destruction.

Of the two Sisters of Battle waiting for her, Chroma was the quickest to act, which in itself had been a problem at the beginning, with rash action and not thinking of the repercussion those could bring to the mission. Sunset had to bring her ass back on line numerous times in the past and once she had literally hauled her back when she had been injured. It had been one of the worst situations the Order had been involved with.

Since that battle, Chroma had, well, not exactly changed, but had matured as a warrior and followed Sunset’s command. In the end, Sunset had finally turned her into a great warrior who will finally think before jumping straight into the battle, to the relief of many in the order that were fond of her brash attitude and confidence.

The other, as angelical as Celestine herself probably, was another problem in and of itself at the beginning. You see, while Siivet was generous, pious, humble and benevolent with everyone in her order, she could become quite the hellcat in battle, wielding a heavy Power Maul as if it were nothing. While the two women had reached the rank of Seraphim, an accomplishment on their own, they remained devout to the Solis Aeterni and unlike most Sisters of Battle, or Sororitas in that case, never abandoned Sunset’s side in their order which the redhead was thankful for.

Siivet was probably one of the most zealous members of the Sororitas Sunset had seen when they had become part of the same group several decades ago and that was saying something considering every single Sister of Battle is a zealous of some kind. Only through constant talking, experience fighting and bonding had Sunset been able to diminish that part of her personality, finally gaining some backbone and making her think outside of the guidelines of the Ecclesiarchy.

Sunset didn’t want zealous, martyrs or fanatical warriors among her ranks. Sure, it may be the Sisters of Battle way, but fanatics didn’t survive. She has seen many soldiers, Sisters and even Marines die because they have been stuck on their way of thinking. Instead of finding new ways in which to attack the enemy, everyone preferred to simply scream their loudest and charge directly into the enemy. There were no real tactics, no subterfuge, no ‘cheating’ in the battlefield and Sunset Shimmer have found herself excelling at all of those areas.

“So, what did the big horsie have to say?”

“How do you know it was one of them Chroma?” Sunset said as the four women quickly went into the Thunderhawk.

“Please, it was easy since she is the freaking Princess of this stupid xeno species.”

“Chroma, while they may be xenos, it is not… well, nice to talk about someone that has been offering us their help in that way,” It had taken time… a LOT of time and effort from Sunset to at least battle some of the most rooted xenophobic tendencies of her Chapter. Well, calling it a Chapter would be too big of a word for a mere 30 Sisters that were currently under her command, but considering how different they acted to most other Orders, maybe Chapter would be more precise to explain their band of misfits. Very successful misfits, but misfits all the same.

As she thought about her group and the bizarre circumstances in which they had been thrown into, she couldn’t avoid the thoughts that had been plaguing her since they arrived at Equus, just like the reason why she ran away in the first place and the kind of reception she had had on the other side of the mirror. Those first days lost in an alien world continued to be a nightmare that constantly reminded her in what type of hell she had jumped into.

As the group got into the Thunderhawk, Sunset thought back on those initial days, when she thought she had found a world as technologically advanced as Equestria, with their small haven and simple living, oh how wrong she was back then. Both Chroma and Siivet completely ignored Felicia as they bucked down and got ready for their descent as the green armored woman was as nervous as was possible without going to point where she would vomit due to stress.

The flying machine they were using was clearly not modified with Space Marines in mind, what with being rather standard model with enough space for soldiers to sit down and await their dead as their transport will probably be shot down by enemy batteries. The grey flying box even had enough space left to transport a war machine like a Rhino or maybe even a Chimera… if they were lucky enough to have something with that kind of power around, but nope. They only had a Rhino which had been on the ship to be used as transport for whatever planet it was supposed to give supplies to.

As Sunset got comfortable, something that she was capable of even when there were artillery cannons and sounds of guns and bombs, one of the advantages of becoming a veteran in everything military related, she thought back on the first look that she got of The Imperium as a young little girl, just fresh from screaming at Celestia’s face like the little brat that she had been back there.

It was weird that just one small talk with Celestia, as frozen and awkward as possible it could be, made her go back to the moment everything went beyond her control. No, it had always been her decision to search for more power. Celestia may not have been guiltless in all of this, but Sunset had as much, or even more blame in the destruction of her life in Equestria.

She could even smell the scent of freshly baked bread as she finally recovered her wits after jumping into the mirror. Sunset took a look at her small extremities, finding the way in which her hooves had been transformed into hands with digits, like the bipeds back on Equestria. Her skin was peachy and it seemed that the creatures on the other side of the portal were neither armored, nor where they equipped with fur.

The small girl with a peasant dress spend some time checking her body, noting how small and young she looked, younger that she had been in Equestria, maybe it was another power of the mirror and Sunset was bursting with excitement at what was going on.

Finally turning around from where she had been sitting, she finally noticed what was the portal on the others side, quickly noticing that it was a statue, a big statue of a man wearing armor and with a laurel crown adorning his head. The statue gave her the same kind of aura that statues of Celestia in the royal garden gave her; the same kind of command and charisma, as if it was an eternal caretaker of whatever species controlled this planet. Sunset decided that she hated the man just as much as she hated Celestia.

Just as she was about to truly explore her new surroundings, the sky above her suddenly became even more curious and interesting as something, a monster that seemed to be made of metal of some kind appeared on the sky, followed closely by something that looked like… pods? They were white and Sunset had no idea in what kind of hell she had just got into.