//------------------------------//
// Holding the Line 
// Story: Warhammer 40k: Courage and Honour and Friendship 
// by Verbose Soubriquet 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7: Holding the Line

M41.996 15:12 (Equestria time) 85 kilometers southwest of Ponyville
“AAAAAAAAAA!”  Caramel’s screaming somehow carried over the sound of the air rushing past the two Land Speeders.
“Now that is really beginning to annoy me,” Sergeant Strabo muttered.
Applejack could not respond.  She was to busy trying to get her face to return to its original shape, which it had not held since the Land Speeder had accelerated.
Strabo had no such problem, thanks to his sealed helmet.  As an Assault Marine, he was trained to pilot all variants of Land Speeders, from the heavily armed Typhoons such as the one he currently flew to the agile Tempests.  Jinking between trees, dodging anti-aircraft fire, and bombarding enemy forces, all while flying at three hundred-fifty kilometers per hour was just another part of his role in the 2nd Company.  He had grown to enjoy the empowering feelings of speed and acceleration, and being hundreds of meters away before the enemy even realized that they were under attack.
Sadly, it had been a long time since Strabo had been behind the controls of a Land Speeder.  The densely-packed hive cities of Ichar IV had been no place for skimmers.  Therefore when Sicarius had decided to send messengers to outlying pony settlements via Land Speeders, Strabo’s day had immediately improved.  He might not be able to exact his own vengeance on the Tyranids, but for now he could enjoy the exhilarating sensation of flight.
“Dontcha think we should slow down a bit?” came the nervous voice of the orange pony sitting in the gunner’s seat beside him.
A pang of irritation shot through the Assault Sergeant as he snapped out of his reverie.  He had almost forgotten about the alien presence with him in the Land Speeder.  He had heard her referred to as “Applejack,” and she had volunteered to travel with him to the settlement called “Appleloosa.”  Strabo had no issue with Sicarius’s order that one pony travel with each Land Speeder.  The Captain had passed judgment on the ponies, and Strabo would obey his orders, but his passenger’s naïveté was… annoying at times.
“’Scuse me, but ah asked ya a question.”
Persistent little xeno, Strabo thought, his irritation increasing.  “No, pony,” he growled.  “The sooner we get to where we are going, the sooner we can leave, and the sooner I can rejoin my battle-brothers.”
“Well ah didn’t mean ta get ya bent up ‘bout it,” Applejack responded, sounding surprised at his sudden anger.  “Ah was jus’ askin’.”
Good.  This conversation is over.
“Ah jus’ wanted ta say that ah really appreciate everything y’all are doing fer us.”
Emperor, not more pointless… wait, what?  “What did you say, pony?” he asked incredulously.
“Ah was sayin’ thank you.”  Applejack smiled sheepishly.  “Ya saved us all from those Teary-Nids, or whatever they’re called.”
For the first time in as long as he could remember, Strabo was at a loss for words.  After a long hesitation, his voice returned.  “You are welcome, pony,” he said slowly.
“Ya didn’t really have ta do any o this,” Applejack continued, obviously intent on carrying on the conversation.  “And ah’m pretty sure that some o ya didn’t want ta help us.”
“Several of my brothers have felt that way,” Strabo replied, recalling a brief debate among his own squad.  “But they will obey Captain Sicarius.”
“What about ‘Sergeant Merciless,’ or whatever his name is?”
Strabo allowed himself a grin at Applejack’s mispronunciation of Marcellus’s name.  In the past few weeks, the Terminator had proven himself to be an utterly ruthless fighter, not caring about anything but victory.  Marcellus would probably approve of that nickname, Strabo thought.  Even though he would never admit it.
Applejack continued.  “Cuz he tried to kill mah friend Rainbow Dash!”
While the orange pony was obviously shocked and indignant about this, Strabo was unsurprised.  “Marcellus is very short-tempered.  You ponies would do well to keep out of his way.”
“But why the hay would he try ta kill somepony?  He can’t jus’ go ‘round killin’ anypony who annoy him!”
“Applejack,” Strabo said.  “We come from a world where anything non-human is considered an abomination to be purged from the galaxy.  Understand that whenever Marcellus sees you, more so than any of the rest of us, he sees an offence to the Imperium.  He is forbidden to harm you, but he will not hesitate to disobey orders if provoked.”
Those words left Applejack with quite a bit of food for thought.  As revealing as they were, they still left unanswered questions.  If humans hated aliens, why did the Ultramarines not kill everypony?  Why did Marcellus attack Rainbow Dash when all the other Ultramarines did not?  Why would he disobey his Captain’s orders?  And what did Rainbow Dash do to provoke him?
She felt it best to not pursue these questions at the moment.  Strabo seemed civil enough, but considering his words about how humans regarded nonhumans, she decided to continue her investigation later.
Besides, she had a more pressing concern.  The landscape of Equestria that whizzed past the Land Speeder was breathtaking.  Or at least she suspected it was.  Her eyes were squinted shut against the air rushing against her face.
“’Scuse me, but ah can’t see a thing with this wind,” she said apologetically.
Strabo glanced at the storage compartment between the two seats.  Besides his bolt pistol, power sword, and explosives, there were several pairs of flight goggles, intended for Scouts or Marines who preferred the wider field of vision provided by not wearing a helmet.
“Try these.”  He handed the goggles over and Applejack awkwardly grabbed them between her hooves.  Though designed for a human, they shared the same basic design and fit perfectly over her face.
“Thanks,” she said.  “Ah owe ya…” she broke off as she looked out over the terrain blurring past.  They had been travelling for a matter of minutes, but they were already far outside Ponyville’s borders.  Passing below them were gently rolling hills covered in lush green grass, with hardly a tree in sight.  Even the Canterlot Mountains had almost vanished over the horizon.
As she looked down again, the grassy fields transformed into the shimmering surface of a pristine lake.  The water rippled gently from the wind of their passage, and before she could fully appreciate it, the lake swiftly shifted back to grass.
So this is what it feels like to fly, Applejack thought.  Her stomach lurched, and her face probably matched the colour of her eyes.  How the buck do those pegasi stand it?  The gorgeous landscape flashing by was too much to take at once, and she felt sick to her stomach.  Groaning, she slumped back down, staring intently at the seatbelt buckle.
“What should I know about this ‘Appleloosa?’” Strabo asked.  “You have family there?”
Glad to have something to take her mind off of her airsickness, Applejack sat up and looked at the Ultramarine.  “Why, Apploosa is one o the best towns in Equestria!  Buncha mah family have lived there ‘slong as ah can remember.  Mah cousin Braeburn-”
“Sergeant!” Ionius shouted over the vox.  “Look out!”
Strabo snapped his gaze away from the stubborn orange pony to see a massive rock formation jutting up from the ground.  Cursing, he jinked hard to the left, feeling the g-forces press him sideways into his seat.
Applejack felt like her internal organs had decided to kick the right side of her body.  Gagging from the sudden force, she grabbed her hat before it could fly off.  “What in tarnation?”
Strabo wrestled with the controls and quickly righted the Land Speeder, elevating several meters above the huge, sandy tan rocks.  After a few seconds they were flying level with Ionius and Caramel.
Finally slowing her breathing, Applejack sighed in relief and turned to the pilot.  “Well,” she said with a cheerful grin.  “That weren’t so bad.”
Without warning, an alien screech sounded over the whining of the skimmers’ engines, and a large glob of sickly green fluid splattered across the side of Strabo’s Typhoon.  The caustic liquid steamed and evaporated, leaving a large blemish on the bodywork of the craft.  Applejack spun in her seat to face their assailant.
Diving toward her was yet another permutation of the various Tyranid horrors that she had witness earlier that day.  Its body shared the same shape of some of the smaller ground-bound Tyranids, but exchanged it four rear legs for leathery, bat-like wings, each tipped with menacing claws.  Its forelegs were melded together to hold what looked like a chitinous counterpart to the Ultramarines’ “bolters.”
This bizarre biological weapon hissed and spat a volley of dark pellets towards the farmpony, who threw herself sideways, just in time to see a cluster of oversized, writhing beetles impact the hood of the Land Speeder, smashing apart in spurts of insect parts that would have made Rarity wake up screaming every night for a month.
“Tyranid flyers!” Ionius shouted.  “I count at least two dozen Gargoyles!”  It looked more to Applejack like twice that number.  She had just managed to stop her head from spinning with airsickness, and now she had more than twenty screeching, diving bat-aliens to watch.
Wonderful, Strabo thought as he swung sideways to avoid another venomous spray.
“What are we gonna do?” Caramel cried over the vox, ducking a swooping Tyranid.
“How the hay did they catch us?” Applejack asked, watching the bat-like aliens swarming around the two skimmers.
“They must have been hiding in that rock outcropping.”  Strabo tapped several controls.  “That is irrelevant.  We have the advantage in speed.  Disengage and continue to Appleloosa.”  He slammed the throttle forward, and the Land Speeder shot forward through the swarm, pulping one unlucky Gargoyle against its hood.  Within seconds, the alien flock was far behind the Ultramarines’ craft but still in pursuit.
Applejack stared at him insistently.  “Strabo, them bugs don’t even know Appleloosa exists!  We’ll be leadin’ em straight to it!”
The Assault Sergeant quickly weighed his options.  The Land Speeders could easily outpace any Tyranid flyer, but the xenos were right on their tail, and it was unlikely that they could lose ever them entirely.  Continuing on to Appleloosa would lead them straight to the town, and it was doubtful that such an isolated frontier town could hold off even a scouting party of Tyranids.  Plus, increasing speed could result in overheating the engines, stranding them in the middle of the desert surrounded by airborne aliens.
Strabo was forced to concede that Applejack was right.  The Ultramarines were mighty indeed, but they could not afford to spread themselves too thin, and leading the enemy straight to another population center would quickly result in a war on multiple fronts.
“Ionius.  Change of plans.”  He spun the Land Speeder around abruptly and sped towards the flock of Tyranids, Ionius close behind.  “We kill them all.”
“I hope you actually have a plan!” Caramel shouted.
“We always have a plan,” Ionius chuckled, and flipped several switches, priming the missile launchers on the craft’s sides.  With a tap of the firing stud, a pair of frag missiles whooshed forward, each seeking a separate target.  The swarm of Gargoyles parted around the shots, but the guidance systems had already chosen their victims.  The two unfortunate xenos blew apart in a burst of fire, smoke, and chitin.  Shrapnel blasted outward, ripping into nearby Gargoyles, shredding wings and shattering thoraxes.  With around a third of their number gone, the flock quickly rearranged itself, spreading out to minimize future splash damage.
“Damn Tyranids,” Strabo muttered.  “They never fall for the same trick twice.  Save your missiles.  We do not have enough to pick of each one individually.”
Applejack felt the cold touch of fear.  Unconsciously, she realized the similarity between this alien swarm and herding cattle.  Clustered together, they were easy to manage, but now that they had spread out, bringing down each individual would be a waste of effort and resources.  She glanced at Strabo and saw him fiddling with his pistol one-hoof… handed.  Feeling useless was never something that anypony enjoyed, but Applejack in particular.  She could never sit by and let somepony else do all the work.
Strabo fired off a few shots, scoring a lucky hit or two, but he could not afford to put much thought into aiming.  Trying to shoot down Gargoyles and steering simultaneously could only end badly.
Tracking a nearby Gargoyle, Applejack’s gaze fell on the massive gun mounted in front of her seat.  Obviously it was intended to be used by the Land Speeder’s passenger.  Judging by the size of its projectiles that fed into it via a belt, it would make short work of their assailants.
Ideeeeaaa!  Applejack grinned and tapped Strabo on the shoulder plate.  “Strabo!  Ah got an idea!  Ah could use this thing!”  She pointed at the idle weapon.
A horse-alien using a heavy bolter, Strabo thought.  Just when I thought that this world could not get any stranger.  He reached over and flipped the safety off.  “It’s called a heavy bolter.  Aim down the top of the gun, pull the trigger gently, and aim for the closest target!”
Applejack leaned forward in her seat, straining against her harness.  The huge gun shifted on its mount, moving smoothly and easily.  She managed to grasp its surface awkwardly, gripping the handle with one hoof and placing the other against the trigger.  Without warning, the gun barked and flashed, a single explosive bolt shooting out and detonating against the rocks in the distance.
“Whoa!” she yelped.  The heavy bolter had bucked in her grip as it fired, but not quite as strongly as she had expected.  What had surprised her was the sensitivity of the trigger, as it had fired when she barely touched it.  Resetting her hooves, she swiveled it around, searching for an easy target.
Strabo swung the Land Speeder around, giving Applejack a clear line of sight at a pair of Gargoyles that were flying straight at them.
“Two targets, twelve o’clock!” he barked.  “Short burst!”
“Noon was three hours ago!”  Applejack retorted, but she pulled the trigger anyway.  The heavy bolter emitted a steady stream of shots, accompanied by a percussive thudding sound.  It kicked repeatedly against her hooves, sending jolts of pain through her forelegs, but she ignored it.  Her hail of shots struck both Gargoyles, blowing the wings off of one and bursting the thorax of the other, causing both to plummet downward where they left ugly stains on the desert sand.
“Good shooting,” Strabo complimented.  “I’ll call out targets.”
“Whaddidya mean by ‘twelve o’clock?” Applejack asked.  “Shouldn’t it be ‘bout three by now?”
“It means… never mind.”  Strabo veered to the side to avoid a shower of borer beetles.  “Ionius!  Have your pony man the heavy bolter!"
“What?  Are you insane?” both Ionius and Caramel exclaimed simultaneously. “He cannot…”
“I can’t…”
“We have no choice!” Strabo said angrily.  “We need these things dead before we can move on!  Do you have a better idea?”
In response, the heavy bolter on Ionius’s Land Speeder opened up, spewing an indiscriminate hail of bolter shells along its firing arc.
“Whoa how do I stop this thing?” Caramel yelled as he spun the weapon on its mount.
Strabo veered around to face the majority of the remaining Gargoyles.  Applejack lined her eyes up with the heavy bolter’s sight.  Dead ahead were at least ten more aliens flying towards them, firing their bio-weapons and shrieking with a malevolent fury.
“Open fire!” Strabo roared as he rammed the throttle forward.  “For the Emperor!”
“Fer Equestria!” Applejack responded, squeezing the trigger.  The recoil of the fully automatic fire nearly ripped her out of her harness, but the effect on the Tyranids was far more satisfying.
The thunderous fusillade of fire that she unleashed was inaccurate, but she filled the air with so many explosive rounds that aiming was irrelevant.  Gargoyles screeched as they exploded in showers of blood and chitin, or spiraled downward, missing limbs.
Still, there were plenty more alien terrors to attack Strabo and his equine gunner, and they passed low over the pair, trying to land a volley of borer beetles or splash of venom.  The Sergeant strafed the Land Speeder from side to side, wreaking havoc with both the Tyranids’ aim and Applejack’s, but he could not risk taking too many hits.  Borer beetles and venom were nothing more than mild annoyances for him, but all it would take was one beetle to inflict a gruesome, agonizing death upon Applejack.  Therefore, he dodged back and forth constantly, hoping that the heavy bolter’s ammunition would hold out.
“I count thirteen left!” Ionius called.  Strabo spared a glance at his battle-brother, who shot by, his own gunner spraying bolter shells indiscriminately.  He caught a glimpse of Caramel’s face, and spared a chuckle at the stallion’s expression of panicked enthusiasm.
“YAAAAAAAAH DIE YOU BLOODSUCKING FREAKS!”
“Sounds like Caramel’s havin’ fun!” Applejack yelled, juddering as she fired another burst at a diving Gargoyle.
Strabo chuckled again.  “There is no greater joy than to smite the enemies of the Imperium,” he growled with a grin.
Between the two inexperienced earth pony gunners and the expert piloting of the Assault Marines, most of the Gargoyles fell in fairly short order.  Caramel in particular seemed almost hysterically happy behind his heavy bolter, and he made sure that every living thing within a kilometer knew that.
“Hey freaky!  Ya want some of this?”
“Eat lead and die!”
“Pew pew pew!”
“What was that on your face?  IT WAS PAIN!"
Unbeknownst to each other, Ionius, Strabo, and Applejack were all simultaneously trying out for the title of “Equestria’s Most Legendary Eye-Roller” (held annually, all species with one or more eyes welcome).
Though her friend was having an inordinate amount of fun blowing away aliens, Applejack could not share his feelings.  It don’t matter that these bugs are attackin’ us, killin’ is killin’, and killin’ is wrong, she thought.  Ah don’t see how anypony can enjoy this.
“Feel the Emperor’s wrath!” Strabo roared as he snapped off a bolt pistol shot that blew an opponent’s head off.  The body, though missing a rather critical component, did not seem to realize that it was dead until a second shot turned its thorax inside-out.  For the second time that day, Applejack felt her face turning as green as an apple.  In what was becoming an alarmingly common occurrence, she felt a pang of sympathy for Rarity.  The farmpony was not likely to dry heave at the sight of mud, but watching oversized bugs explode and shower guts everywhere was something nopony should have to put up with.  Forcing her rebelling stomach to cooperate, she scanned the airspace, searching for another target.
Looking up, she saw a Gargoyle fly apart from a lucky shot by Caramel.  As he whooped in victory, Applejack’s Land Speeder passed under the falling Tyranid, and bits of its chunky black viscera splattered across the hood.  And across Applejack’s orange coat.
“Eeeeeuuuughh!” she squawked in a convincing imitation of Rarity.  “Oh horseapples, it’s everywhere!”  Releasing the smoking heavy bolter, she flailed her forelegs about in an attempt to rid herself of scraps of wings, thick black blood, and an organ that looked a lot like something that a Diamond Dog would eat.
“Applejack!  Incoming!”
Galvanized by Strabo’s voice, she hurriedly wiped her goggles clear just in time for a Gargoyle to land right on top of her, scrabbling at the Land Speeder’s frame with its clawed wings.
“Holy buck!” she yelped and threw herself sideways, just in time to dodge the Tyranid’s spiked tail, which embedded itself in the seat right where her head had been.  It shrieked in anger and pulled back, but it was stuck fast.  Applejack grinned in victory and smashed a forehoof into her opponent’s midsection.  The alien hissed in pain and tried to bring its gun to bear, but Applejack seized it around the barrel, forcing it upward and away from her face.  Just in time too.  The weapon discharged with a hissing sound, spraying a burst of beetles skyward.
“Strabo!  Little help here?” she called as she wrestled against the Gargoyle.  The creature was maddened and berserk, but she held its gun still, preventing it from filling her full of flesh-eating grubs.  Stalemate, she thought as she gripped the thrashing alien.  Just gotta keep em still till Strabo can… wait.  The Gargoyle’s struggles had lessened, but it looked like it had something caught in its throat.  What’s it… oh no…  Drips of steaming greenish liquid were running down its fangs.  “Strabo!  Help!” she screamed, but too late.  With a loud hissing shriek, the Gargoyle sprayed its blinding venom into her face.
“AAAAUUUUGHH!” she screamed, snapping a hoof to her face.  To her relief, it clunked against her borrowed flight goggles, which had saved her eyes.  Still, the venom was melting them and obscuring her vision, so she ripped them off.  Just in time to stare down the barrel of the Gargoyle’s fleshborer.  The Tyranid’s face seemed to leer at her in triumph.
Which made it that much more surprising when its head exploded like a ripe watermelon.  For the second, or maybe even third time that day, fragments of exoskeleton and an unrealistically huge amount of blood splattered across Applejack, staining her coat in a way that would have left Rarity comatose and probably unwilling to leave her house without a plastic suit and copious amounts of disinfectant.
As she opened her eyes, she saw the smoking muzzle of Strabo’s bolt pistol pointing at the space formerly occupied by a Tyranid head.  Its grip now slack, the alien’s body flopped off of the Land Speeder.
“Sergeant, that was the last of them,” Ionius said, bringing his Typhoon alongside Strabo’s.  “We should make haste before more Tyranids show up.”
“Let’s move,” the Sergeant replied, holstering his pistol.  He glanced at Applejack, who was staring blankly into the sky.  “Applejack?  Are you alright?”
She jerked slightly at his voice, her mind still full of images of the Gargoyle about to spew venom into her eyes.  “Whuh?  Oh… uh ah’m fine.”
Strabo nodded, satisfied that the pony was at least physically intact.  “Good.  We should be at Appleloosa in about forty minutes.”
Reaching upward, Applejack removed her hat and rubbed a hoof across her brow, removing a mixture of alien blood and her own sweat.  As her hoof crossed her eyes, she noticed that it was shaking uncontrollably.  A hollow, chilling feeling spread through her body, and she shakily replaced her hat.  The day was hardly over, and she had already given a stern lecture to Princess Luna, knocked several bug-aliens into next Tuesday, bucked a huge crab-alien in the shins, fractured her hind legs, met giant armoured aliens called Ultramarines, had her legs mended in a matter of hours, rode a crazy flying contraption, used a heavy bolter, and been covered with so much alien blood that she was probably unrecognizable.  Shakily, she replaced her hat.
“Hey Strabo?”
“Yes, Applejack?”
“Thanks,” she managed, before the day’s exhaustion caught up with her and she slumped back in her seat, fast asleep with her hat over her face.

M41.996 15:13 (Equestria time) Ponyville, Equestria
The plasma cannon on the Terminus Rex flashed again, blindingly bright, and obliterated several cubic meters of oncoming Tyranid.  Vents along the turret’s length hissed and expelled plumes of glowing blue steam.  While the main gun cooled, the heavy bolter sponsons opened up, their hails of high-explosive rounds cutting bloody swathes through the charging swarm.
“Plasma cannon cooled,” Maxilos droned.  “Firing.”  The plasma cannon strobed for about the dozenth time in the past ten minutes, and Rarity tried to rub the afterimage out of her eyes for the tenth time.  She hunkered down beside the huge armoured vehicle, covering her ears with her hooves and willing the clamour around her to stop.  The steady thudding of the Predator’s heavy bolters, the pulsating, crackling sound of its plasma cannon, the harsh mechanical voices of the Ultramarines, and of course, the spine-chilling, hair-raising, howling, screeching, and hissing of the Tyranids.
One lucky alien managed to bound forward, leaping all the way up to the Ultramarines’ chest level.  Rarity caught a perfect view of its slavering jaws and outstretched talons before it took a powerfist to the face.
At least Nightmare Moon looked stylish while she was taking over the world! Rarity thought in a panic.  The aliens were utterly hideous.  Their bloody red and smoky blue colouration contrasted in a way that made her cringe even more.  The mere sight of their wickedly sharp claws sent chills along her spine, forcing her to imagine them sliding across her skin, between her ribs, through her organs….
Rarity shook those thoughts away.  It’s going to be all right, she told herself repeatedly.  The Ultramarines are here, and they won’t let those things near us.  The blue-armoured titans were incredibly outnumbered, but their devastating weapons had kept the carpet of murderous chitin at bay.  Many ponies may have had reservations about their alien allies, but Rarity was sure that without them defending Ponyville, the town would have been overrun in minutes.  When the attack began, Rarity and the other Element Bearers followed Princess Luna and the Ultramarines to the defence.  Initially, Rarity had adamantly opposed going anywhere near the battle.  However, Twilight had insisted that their best chances of survival lay with the Ultramarines, who had all rushed to engage the Tyranid horde.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” Rarity muttered.  “The closer we are to danger, the further we are from harm.”
“It would be more ironic if we were made of iron!”  Pinkie Pie popped out from beneath the Predator, looking as excited as ever.
“Pinkie Pie this is no time for jokes!” Rarity scowled.
Pinkie’s expression instantly changed from carefree to deadpan serious.  “Rarity,” she began, speaking with uncharacteristic calm.  “This is exactly the time for jokes and cheering ponies up.  If we get all down in the dumps, then we might as well just give up!”  She snapped to attention like a guard on the parade ground.  “We’re all still alive!  That should be reason enough to celebrate!”
Rarity found herself smiling at the party pony’s strangely upbeat, serious attitude.  “You’re right, Pinkie.  We cannot give up.”
Satisfied, Pinkie shot off, cheering on the Royal Guards and Ultramarines alike with inspirational shouts.
“Keep shooting, guys!”
“Every shot you fire is a life saved!”
“Never give up!  Never surrender!”
Turning her eyes away from the Ultramarines’ firing line, Rarity spotted Fluttershy cowering behind another Predator tank.  The poor pegasus was a sorry sight.  She did not just cower behind her mane; she was actively pulling it over her face.  Her wings were locked at her sides, and every inch of her body was shuddering in terror.
The sight of one of her best friends in such a state banished any concern she had for personal safety.  She galloped out from behind the Predator, making a beeline for Fluttershy.
Suddenly one of the smaller Tyranids sailed past the Ultramarine defenders and landed right between Rarity and Fluttershy, scaring the unicorn to a halt.  The creature, which she had referred to as a Hormagaunt, skittered on the cobblestone road before turning to the cowering pegasus with a hungry snarl.
That did it for Rarity.  A fury awoke within her, the likes of which she had not felt since Prince Blueblood had used her as a shield against a flying cake.  With a scream of wrath, she charged headlong at the Hormagaunt, horn lowered as if to stab it.  Her target heard her scream and turned to meet the charge.
“Get away from my friend, you disgusting crime against fashion!” Rarity screeched, her horn igniting with magic as she reached toward the Tyranid with her telekinesis.  To her surprise, she was almost unable to cast the simple spell.  The Hive Mind suppresses psychic power, she realized, recalling the words of Epistolary Argus just before the battle had begun.  Straining painfully, she reached out again.  It’s not working… it’s not working!  It felt as if she were trapped in a mass of shadows, fumbling about for a light switch.  I can’t do this… she thought, her head aching.  As the distance between her and the Hormagaunt closed rapidly, she caught sight of Fluttershy, who had finally looked up.  Her eyes shimmered in the adorable fashion that could make anypony break down in tears.  She was fearful, but in her eyes hid more feelings.
Hope.  Faith.  Trust.
Emboldened by the pegasus’s unspoken confidence in her, Rarity pushed again against the wall of darkness that surrounded her mind, and shoved the Tyranid with all her might.  The glow around her horn intensified and the alien flew sideways, enveloped in a pale blue light.
Her adversary now out of the way, Rarity skidded to a halt beside Fluttershy and put a comforting foreleg around her shoulders.  The two mares simply sat there for a minute, trying not to think of the violence occurring such as short distance away.
“Um, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked, her voice almost inaudible over the thundering of the Ultramarines’ guns.  “What happened to it?”
Rarity stared in confusion for a moment, but then she recalled the incident minutes earlier.  Her eyes fell upon the Hormagaunt, which lay beside one of the Predators, its head twisted at an unnatural angle.
“It’s… dead,” Rarity said.  “Oh, heavens!  I just killed it!”  Her telekinetic blast had thrown the Hormagaunt aside, where its head had whacked against the armour of the Predator, snapping its neck.  Rarity buried her face in her hooves, sobs wracking her frame.
“Shhh, Rarity.  It’s alright,” Fluttershy cooed, stroking her friend’s mane.
“No it’s not!” Rarity wailed.  “I just killed a living creature!”
Fluttershy flinched at those words, but continued nevertheless.  “It’s alright.  You didn’t know that it would die.  It was an accident.”
“It doesn’t matter!  It was alive, and I killed it!”
“Get used to it, pony.”  Both mares looked up to see the unwelcome form of Sergeant Marcellus walking by.  “You’ve saved me the trouble of killing that one.”
The two mares stared at Marcellus as he returned to the battle line, loading his storm bolter.  Rarity stood and fixed a hateful gaze on the Terminator.  “You… big… metal… brute!” she spat.  Marcellus appeared not to notice her angry words.  She turned back to Fluttershy.  “How can they just kill senselessly?  Don’t they have the slightest bit of reverence for life?”
Fluttershy had no answer to those questions.  “Should we find somewhere safer?” she whispered.  “Maybe further away from him?”  She pointed at Marcellus, prompting a nod from Rarity.
“The further we are from that monster, the safer we will all be.”  The two mares peered out from behind the Predator, eventually leaving to seek another hiding place.
Fluttershy’s mind reeled from the close shave she had just had.  Obviously, the Tyranid would have killed both ponies given the chance, so Rarity’s quick actions had probably saved both their lives.  Still, Rarity was badly shaken by the fact that she had just taken a life.  Fluttershy was torn between pitying her friend for the atrocity she had just committed and thanking her profusely for saving her life.  Could the murder have been avoided?  If Rarity had hesitated, would Fluttershy still be breathing?
I don’t want to think about it, she told herself, but that thought did nothing to allay her worries.

Dannelos fired another glowing pulse of plasma, incinerating a trio of gaunts.  The gap in the living carpet of onrushing aliens was short-lived, as the rest of the brood simply trampled their erstwhile brethren and continued their inexorable push forward.
“Armour, field of fire on the swarm to the left.”
The autocannon turret of a nearby Predator Destructor pivoted to a particularly thick mass of Tyranids and boomed, blowing dozens of gaunts airborne while its heavy bolters mowed down more of the onrushing swarm.
In spite of the Ultramarines’ overwhelming firepower and the horrendous casualties that the Tyranids had taken, their assault continued unabated.  The battle had been going on for about twenty minutes, but very few Tyranids had reached the Ultramarines’ firing line alive.  They had evidently not expected heavy armoured opposition and had consequently sought to overwhelm the defenders with tides of smaller organisms, which fell in droves to the quartet of Predators.
Dannelos’s plasma gun hissed and expelled heat after a few seconds of sustained fire.  Seeing an opening, a Hormagaunt leapt upward only to be met by a combat blade through the throat.  Sliding the impaled Tyranid off of his blade, Dannelos shouldered his cooled weapon and resumed firing.  “Sergeant, we’re holding them back, but barely,” he reported.  “Still nothing but gaunts and Warriors.”
“Understood.”  Sergeant Daceus expended his bolter magazine and turned to Captain Sicarius.  “Captain, still no sign of larger organisms.  They weren’t expecting this much resistance.”
“It’s only a matter of time before they bring in the Carnifexes and such,” Sicarius replied.  “Sergeant Darius, any visual on enemy heavies?”
“Negative, Captain,” came the Scout-Sergeant’s voice over the vox.  “Nothing larger than Warriors.  My snipers can handle them.”  To punctuate that point, the bangs of several sniper rifles rang out from the rooftops, and three medium-sized Tyranids fell dead from headshots.
“Captain?”  Sicarius turned to see Captain Stone Mason standing beside him.  “Can my battalion assist in any way?”
“This battle is beyond you, pony,” Sicarius said, watching the earth pony’s nostrils flare.  “Pull your troops back and defend your civilians.”
“Captain, this is our home!” Mason snapped.  “We want to fight, and you can’t tell us what we are or are not capable of!”
“Watch your tongue, pony.”  Sicarius’s voice was calm, but the authority behind his words was unmistakable.  “I will not have any insubordination from you.”  His tone changed slightly, just enough to lose its implied threat.  “You and your troops have no experience fighting Tyranids.  I will not have you sacrifice yourselves needlessly.”
Stone Mason was about to protest further, but Captain Stormcaller put a hoof on his shoulder.  “Understood,” the earth pony growled.
“Good.”  Sicarius turned back to the battle, firing his plasma pistol into the onrushing mass.
Mason confronted Stormcaller.  “I know what you’re about to say,” the unicorn said.  “But do you really want to get in the way of that?”  He pointed at Sergeant Marcellus, who was in the process of swatting leaping gaunts aside like angry tennis balls.  Tennis balls filled with paint.  That shrieked as they were ripped apart.
“Point taken,” Mason grumbled.  He turned to the waiting squads of Royal Guards.  “Troops, new orders!  We fall back to defend the civilians.  The Ultramarines can-”
“What the hay is that?” Private Tulip exclaimed, a hoof pointing upward.  Mason and Stormcaller’s heads both angled up to see several strange objects drifting down towards them.  They were roughly spherical, lumpy, uneven surfaces, and they trailed long tentacles beneath them that waved lazily in the wind.  A few seconds later they drifted at the guardsponies’ eye level, and slowly floated around, buoyed by some unknown force.  Mason was reminded of jellyfish.  Strange looking, seemingly harmless, and could kill a curious pony with one touch.
“What the hay?” Private Palm Frond muttered in confusion, slowly approaching one of the strange, organic objects, sword outstretched.  As he moved closer, it drifted towards him lazily, the tentacles on its base twitching slightly.
“Get away from that-” Mason bellowed, but he was too late.  The floating thing burst with a thunderous pop, spraying guts and fleshy shrapnel in all directions.  The flying shards lacerated the unfortunate Palm, punching clean through his armour and ripping bloody gashes across his coat.  He flopped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut without even a gasp of pain.
“Get back!” Stormcaller barked, but his words were hardly necessary.  Everypony hurriedly backed away from the lethal objects, which were now descending from the skies in droves.  “Shoot those things!”
The Royal Guards aimed their crossbows and fired a volley of bolts, which struck their targets in an impressive display of marksponyship.  The spheres detonated, their payloads scattering across the cobblestone road.  But more kept coming, drifting gently on the breeze like leaves.
Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie dashed away from a menacing ball, which burst harmlessly against the armour of the Terminus Rex.
“These things-”
“Pinkie if you say that they look like balloons I’ll teleport you into a brick wall!”
“-are everywhere!” Pinkie finished, causing Twilight’s exasperated expression to deflate comically.  “What are they?”
“Spore Mines,” came the grim voice of Argus, who was busy picking the mines off with his pistol.  “Tyranid artillery.  They’ve brought Biovores this time.”  He turned to the two ponies.  “Find some cover.”
“Where?” Twilight asked, nervously eyeing the sky.
“Over there!”  Pinkie’s outstretched hoof stretched outward, not indicating anything in particular.
“Pinkie-”
“No time to argue just run!”
With a groan, Twilight galloped after Pinkie, her eyes still darting back and forth to spot Spore Mines.  She sidestepped several Ultramarines, ducked under a leaping Hormagaunt, and almost had her mane scorched off by a blast of flames from a flamer, but she eventually caught up with Pinkie, who still looked as if she had just gone strolling across the park.
“Well?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie smiled at Twilight knowingly.  That expression of absolute conviction and cheer.  That same look that had nearly driven Twilight insane during the whole Pinkie Sense escapade.
“What?”  Pinkie’s smile only widened.  “Pinkie, there’s nothing here but a bunch of tanks!”
If her smile gets any bigger, it’s going to make the rest of her turn invisible!  “Seriously, Pinkie.  What are you… oh, no.”  Twilight had just realized what Pinkie was thinking, which normally would have been an event that would have been recognized in the annals of psychology for centuries to come.
Pinkie pointed straight at the biggest, most threatening piece of machinery present: a Land Raider.
“Pinkie, you’ve got to be insane.”
“When the world is insane, a madpony is your best guide,” Pinkie said solemnly.
Twilight groaned and trotted towards the hulking machine.  “Sure it’s fascinating, but is now really a good time?” she muttered.  “I mean, they are millennia ahead of us technologically-”
“Twilight look out!” Pinkie yelled.  Twilight immediately looked up.  A pair of Spore Mines drifted down towards them, tentacles twitching in anticipation.
“Argus!” Twilight yelled, searching for the Ultramarine, but he was nowhere to be seen.  Looking up again, she saw one mine mere meters away from her, tentacles outstretched as if welcoming an old friend.  “Nooooo!” she yelped and lashed out with her magic, knocking the mine away like a balloon.  It was a simple telekinetic spell, but it still made her head feel as if a set of Vinyl Scratch’s biggest, loudest speakers had been embedded in her brain.  I haven’t strained that much casting a spell since I was in magic kindergarten!
Unlike Twilight, Pinkie did not seem panicked at all.  She actually appeared to be having fun dodging her pursuer.  It would drift after her as she dashed behind a tank, only to float in confusion as Pinkie popped out from behind a different tank.
“I’m over here, silly!”  The mine turned to chase her again, only for her to pop out of a pile of masonry several meters away.  Twilight felt a grin creeping onto her face despite the life-or-death circumstances, but that grin flipped over when she spotted the other Spore Mine, the one that she had just knocked away, drifting towards Pinkie from behind.  The pink pony, who was currently making an extensive and imaginative range of funny faces at the other mine, had no idea of the danger creeping towards her.
“PINKIE!” Twilight screamed, reaching out with her magic again in a vain attempt to knock the mine away.  Pinkie spun around, just in time for the mine to detonate and envelop her and the other mine in a cloud of chitin fragments and greenish mist.  “NOOOOO!”  Pinkie can’t be gone, she can’t be gone…
“Hey Twilight!  Up here!”  Twilight spun around to see a perfectly unharmed Pinkie poking her head out of a hatch on the top of the Land Raider.  She nearly passed out in relief, but a crack of ionising air from the tank’s lascannons perked her up faster than a glass of liquid rainbow.
Twilight clambered awkwardly up the side on the tank, accepting a helping hoof from Pinkie.  From her position atop the huge vehicle she could an unending carpet of Tyranids smashing into the Ultramarine defence line and for the most part, breaking against the armoured giants like water against a dam.  The Ultramarines held firm, sometimes standing waist-deep in Tyranids as they parted the swarm with their massive guns and blades.
Twilight jumped in surprise as the heavy bolter turret on the Land Raider opened fire, blowing fountains of dirt and blood into the air.  Glancing upward, she spotted another cluster of Spore Mines descending towards them.  She quickly hopped into the open hatch on the tank’s roof, followed closely by Pinkie, who slammed the hatch shut.
The interior of the Land Raider was absolutely cavernous.  Twilight spent a few seconds taking in the entirety of the dimly-lit compartment, trying to deduce the functions of the devices lining its walls.  The massive benches along the sides could have easily accommodated fully armoured Space Marines, so their sheer size made Twilight feel quite tiny.  On each side was a large protrusion with a variety of controls, ostensibly control systems for the Land Raider’s side cannons.
Suddenly, the tank’s engine gave a throaty rumble, causing both ponies to jump.
“What do you want?” Pinkie asked, staring at the hatch to the cockpit.
“Pinkie,” Twilight groaned.  “It’s just a machine, it can’t talk.”
“Then what was that?  It sounded like it was clearing its throat!”
Twilight was about to argue, but she realized how accurate that comparison was.  Her magic was dampened by the Tyranids, but inside the Land Raider she could feel something.  A… presence, that seemed to come from within the tank itself.  Twilight was reminded of the events of the previous night, where she had tapped into the disturbance in the stars.  She had touched the mind of the Tyranids, an experience that she hoped would never occur again.  But where the Hive Mind had exuded pure menace and hunger, the sensations she felt in the tank were… strong.  Resolute.  Venerable.
“Do you feel it Twilight?”  Normally Twilight would have nearly blown a blood vessel trying to comprehend how Pinkie had somehow acquired empathic senses, but that was the least of her worries, so she merely nodded.
Pinkie rubbed a friendly hoof along the wall.  “Don’t worry.  We’re safe here.”  As if in response, the Land Raider’s engine rumbled again.

Outside, the Spore Mines were causing chaos among the remaining Royal Guards and were becoming more than a nuisance for the Ultramarines as well.  The Tyranids pressed their advantage, swarming the defenders with tides of gaunts.  Worse, larger Tyranids appeared with greater frequency.
Argus bashed a Termagant away with the hilt of his axe and blew another into ribbons with his pistol.  Need to clear some space, he thought, and called upon his otherworldly talents.  The Tyranid Hive Mind was there as usual, bathing the warp in darkness, but Argus had experience dealing with it.  Feeling power rush through his body, he swung his axe in a devastating overhead smash and brought it down on the ground.  Lightning blasted off the blade, frying dozens of gaunts and sending their spasming corpses flying.  A spike of pain lanced through Argus’s skull as he paid the price for his display.  Well worth it, he thought, wrenching his axe from the ground and sprinting through the opening he created.
“Close that gap!” Sicarius barked, and the Lions of Macragge rushed to the opening, bolter fire cutting down another surge of gaunts.  “Epistolary, your actions were timely, but we cannot hold this position for long with these mines raining down.”
“Captain, I can see some broods breaking off from the main force,” Darius reported.  “They’re moving around to the southwest, near the library.”
“Where they will massacre the civilians,” Sicarius said.  “We must counter from all angles.  Marcellus, take the Reavers to defend our southwest flank.  I will send Maxilos to provide support.”
“On my way, Captain,” the Terminator replied as his squad disengaged from the battle.  The Terminus Rex roared to life and followed close behind.
“Those Biovores are going to be the death of us at this rate,” Argus pointed out.
“I have a plan,” Sicarius replied.  “Ixion, I need those Biovores out of the battle.  They are somewhere just behind the tree line.  Can your Avengers eliminate them?”
“They will not live another minute, Captain.”

At the front lines, Macragge’s Avengers were ripping into the leading pack of gaunts when Sergeant Ixion addressed them.
“Brothers!  The Captain calls upon us to break this siege!  The Tyranid artillery behind the tree line waits for our vengeance!  For Macragge!”  The Avengers echoed the battle-cry, momentarily drowning out the clamour of battle.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the Ultramarines’ unnecessary pomp.  Every second they spend psyching up to fight means more ponies get hurt, she thought, her temper flaring.
“Brothers, to the skies!”
“Wait, what?” Rainbow said loudly, drawing what was probably a scathing look concealed by a helmet.  “How the buck can you guys even fly?  You don’t even have wings!”
Her words fell on deaf ears, or at least ones that were tuning her out.  With the thunderous roaring of engines, the ten Assault Marines launched themselves airborne on pillars of flame, leaving Rainbow with a lungful of exhaust and a bewildered expression.
“Oh great.  They can fly now.”  She watched as the Ultramarines soared through the sky to land far off among the trees of the Everfree Forest.  She was busy rolling her eyes again when a Tyranid Warrior leapt the chunks of masonry serving as cover.  Her reflexes kicked in and she shot backward with a flap of her wings, narrowly avoiding the swipe of a bonesword.
“I’m not running this time,” she growled, snorting aggressively.  Outstretching a hoof, she shot forward and landed a solid whack upside the Warrior’s jaw.  It hissed in anger and surprise as it swung the bonesword again, trying to impale her with an upward swing.  She was ready for this, and kept flying until she had passed over the creature completely.  Its two secondary arms swiped at her, nicking her sides and drawing a gasp of pain.
How is every alien so fast? She thought before doing a quick loop and ramming both hooves into the Warrior’s chitinous backside.  First Marcellus, now this?  The Tyranid spun around and its tail missed her by inches.
Once again, she found herself face-to-face with the Warrior, which wasted no time trying to fillet her again with its sword.  She evaded the bony weapon, but this time the Tyranid followed up with a swing from the writhing, whip-like tentacle on its other arm.  Rainbow rolled in midair, sparing her wing from the blow, but it wrapped around her hind leg, where it stung like a nest of angry wasps.
“Gah!”  She gritted her teeth against the pain and twisted her body, trying to wriggle free.  The tentacle was stuck fast to her leg thanks to the wicked hooks near its end.
“Let… me … GO!”  With a powerful beat of her wings, she slipped free.  The Warrior snarled in anger at the sight of its prey escaping.
Rainbow felt a sickening tearing sensation along her leg, as if strips of tape were being pulled off of her fur.  Forcing the pain aside, she did a quick one-eighty and glared at her adversary.
“Now… I’m angry.”
With those words she blasted forward, a rainbow contrail in her wake.  The Warrior hissed and charged to meet the speeding pegasus, all four arms outstretched to dismember and shred.
Rainbow’s world seemed to move in slow motion as the distance between her and the Tyranid shrank.  Her perception narrowed, leaving nothing in existence but herself and the monstrosity ahead.  She could make out, in horrifying detail, every single feature on its body.  The wicked serrations along its upper arm-blades.  The bony hooks on its whip-arm, still slick and glistening with her blood.  Its dark, soulless eyes, utterly devoid of life and exuding a palpable feeling of malice.
An unexpected feeling welled up in Rainbow.  At first, she thought it was just plain anger: anger at this lone creature for attacking her.  But then she realized it was more than that.  Her fear of the Warrior promptly vanished, replaced by an urge to fight, to protect everypony from monsters like the Tyranids, even if it meant putting her own life on the line.
“FOR EQUESTRIA!” she roared, shooting straight past all four of the Warrior’s limbs and landing both forehooves squarely into its throat.
The Warrior gave a gurgling snarl, blood spraying through its teeth as it flew backward from the sheer force of Rainbow’s impact.  The tangled mess of pony and Tyranid landed among a heap of masonry with a crunch of shattering chitin.  Rainbow pushed off her opponent and flew out of reach, but there was no need.  The Warrior’s thrashing slowed and a puddle of black blood expanded beneath it.  Her head still pulsing with adrenaline, Rainbow simply panted and stared as her enemy choked to death on its own blood.
“Impressive,” came a grating voice from behind.  “Maybe you ponies are not as useless as I expected.”
Rainbow spun to see one of the Ultramarines watching her.  Around him, a full squad of Ultramarines advanced, two of them carrying massive, belt-fed weapons as if they weighed nothing.
Sergeant Tirian strode toward the blue pegasus.  “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re bleeding.”
She glanced back at her left hind leg where the Warrior’s whip had snagged her.  The limb bore several deep gashes from the whip’s hooks, running almost the full length of her leg and displaying the vivid red of her muscles.  The sudden shock of this sight caused the pain to return full-force, causing her to gasp and crumple to the ground.
Tirian strode past the bleeding pony, surveying the battlefield.  “Bolters, suppressing fire.  Missiles, targets of opportunity.”  With a chorus of acknowledgement, the Devastators of Guilliman’s Hammer opened up, pushing an oncoming brood of gaunts back.  The Sergeant turned back to Rainbow, who had staggered to her hooves.  “I recommend that you find medical attention, pony,” he said.  “We shall take it from here.”
Rainbow was about to protest when the assault cannon on a nearby Razorback opened up, filling the air with a stream of massive rounds that ripped clean through three Tyranid Warriors like the one she had just fought.  With a nod, she flapped her wings and flew off towards the Ponyville Hospital.
“Maybe I’ll get some kind of ‘Preferred Patient’ discount,” she muttered, trying not to think about the creature she had just killed.

M41.996 15:19 (Equestria time) 1 kilometer north of Cloudsdale
Captain Sidewinder watched the landscape of Equestria whiz by hundreds of meters below him and felt his stomach heave uneasily.  Throughout the thirty-minute trip he had almost repainted the Tornado’s interior with the remnants of the apple cobbler he had eaten for dessert.  Twice.
Pegasi, as a rule, loved flying.  Having wings kind of meant that flight was important to them.  Some simply enjoyed the gorgeous view that being airborne afforded, while others preferred attempting to break the sound barrier.  Sidewinder definitely fell into the latter category.  The exhilaration of speed, wind rushing across his fur, the dizzying heights; he loved it all.
Within ten minutes, he had discovered that almost all pegasi absolutely detested being flown.  Pulling carriages or surfing on clouds was fine, but being airborne without being in control left him fidgeting restlessly in his seat and struggling to keep his stomach contents where they belonged.
That guy is laughing behind that helmet for sure, he thought as he glanced over at Calisius, the pilot.
As if sensing his gaze, the Ultramarine tapped some keys and spoke.  “We will be arriving at Cloudsdale in two minutes.  We will be relying on you to convince the citizens that they can trust us, pony.”
“Don’t worry,” Sidewinder reassured him.  “I was one of the best stunt flyers to ever come out of Cloudsdale.  They’ll believe me.”
Off in the distance, the towering, fluffy white cloud formations of Cloudsdale came into focus.  Majestic buildings supported by rows upon rows of pillars.  Soaring arches and causeways spanning vast swathes of sky between cloud islands.
Though many considered Canterlot to be the crown jewel of Equestria, Sidewinder had to give that award to his hometown.  Canterlot may have been built on the side of a mountain, but Cloudsdale was made of clouds for crying out loud!  Most pegasi might have taken it for granted, but the City in the Skies never failed to leave Sidewinder feeling awestruck.
“Brother, set down in that plaza near the fountain,” Calisius ordered over the vox.  “Let the pony get out first.”
Sidewinder suddenly realized that he never bothered to check who the other pegasus on this trip was.  That discovery could wait, as flocks of pegasi were emerging from their homes to get a closer look at the two strange craft descending into their city.  Most worrisome was a squadron of Royal Guards wearing the distinctive charcoal-grey armour of the Cloudsdale Guard regiment, who were bearing towards the two Tornadoes, crossbows at the ready.
Ignoring the heavily armed pegasi, Calisius nosed the craft downward, coming to a perfect halt beside the fountain in Cloudsdale’s Cumulus Plaza.  Sidewinder stretched his stiff wings and flapped down to the ground, coming face to face with a squad of Cloudsdale Guards in full battle armour, hovering with a shield on one foreleg and a sword on the other.
Noticing Sidewinder’s metallic purple and gold armour, one pegasus guard with gold-trimmed armour stepped forward.  “Sir?”
“Captain Sidewinder, Canterlot 3rd Regiment.”  Sidewinder snapped a salute.
The Cloudsdale Captain returned the salute crisply.  “Captain Nimbus, Cloudsdale 1st.  Now, may I ask just what the heck is going on here?” he asked, shooting a nervous glance at the still-seated form of Calisius.
“Er…” Sidewinder’s mind raced.  Okay, how do I break the news?  Do I tell them about the invasion yet?  No, that might make him suspect the Ultramarines.  Introduce them myself or let them handle the introductions?  Argh, why is introducing ponies to creatures from another world so stupidly difficult?
“Hi Captain!”
The voice drew the eyes of everypony to its source, which revealed itself to be the ever-jovial Ditzy Doo, who was still partially tangled in her harness from the other Tornado.
Wait, was she the pegasus that flew into the library? Through the window? Sidewinder thought in horror.  The one that everypony was calling “Derpy?”  The one who is now trying to get Calisius and Nimbus to shake hooves… hands?  Hoof-to-hand?
Ditzy, an almost offensively cheerful smile on her face, was holding the Assault Marine’s hand in one hoof and Nimbus’s hoof in the other and was trying to make them greet each other.  Nimbus appeared utterly bewildered, possibly more from the grey pegasus than from the armoured giant staring at him.
“Calisius, meet Nimbus!  Nimbus, meet Calisius!  He’s Ultramarine, and he and his battle-brothers are here to protect Equestria from these other aliens called Tyranids who want to eat us all to make more Tyranids!”
The Space Marine and pegasus Captain regarded each other in the same way that one might regard a loaded cannon: worried that the slightest movement could set it off.  Everypony (and Space Marine) held their breath, waiting for the inevitable catastrophe.
“Now, shake!” Ditzy commanded.  With a resigned “Oh-well-I’m-dead-anyway” shrug, Nimbus reached out to shake hooves… hands… limbs, with Calisius.
An unfamiliar sensation crept all throughout the pegasus’s body as the Ultramarine gently grasped his hoof, wrapping metal-clad fingers around the limb.  “I’m Captain Nimbus, Cloudsdale 1st Regiment.”  He spoke clearly and pushed his hoof against the armoured gauntlet slightly more than necessary.  Always good to show them who they’re dealing with.
“I am Calisius of the Ultramarines 2nd Company.”  Nimbus winced as Calisius squeezed his hoof.  Not enough to cause any damage, but more than enough to hint at the gargantuan strength he possessed.
Noticing the squads of Cloudsdale Guards advancing with weapons drawn, Nimbus raised a hoof to halt them.  “Squad at ease.  Disperse the crowd.”  With looks of confusion, the guardsponies separated to shoo off the gathered crowd of onlookers, many of whom held cameras.
“The grey pony is correct,” Calisius said.  “We came here in pursuit of an alien race known as the Tyranids.”
“And the Tyranids are not very friendly!”  Once again, all eyes turned to Ditzy Doo.  “They were attacking Ponyville when the Ultramarines showed up, and the Ultramarines saved us all!  Captain Sicarius promised to protect Equestria from the Tyranids!”
Nimbus remained silent, trying to process this information.  “I…” he began.  “This is over my head.  We should go inside and discuss the matter.”  He pointed a hoof towards the Cloudsdale Senate.
“Very well.”  Calisius stood up in his Tornado and moved to dismount.
Sidewinder had an awful premonition.  “Wait a sec…” As he spoke, the Space Marine stepped off of the hovering craft and dropped to the cloud plaza.
And fell straight through the clouds.
“What?” everyone exclaimed at once.
“Squad, dive!” Nimbus barked, lifting off.  “We still have a chance to-” His voice was cut off by a harsh roar from below.
Borne aloft on a stream of flames, Calisius punched a second hole in the clouds and hovered above the stunned pegasi.
“Oops!  My bad!”  For the third time, everybody stared at Ditzy Doo, who bore a sheepish grin.  “I forgot only pegasi can walk on clouds!”
Calisius adjusted his jump pack and landed back in his Tornado, glad that nopony could see his bewildered expression behind his helmet.  “As you were saying, we should meet with your superiors,” he said to Nimbus, doing his best to remain nonchalant about his accidental plunge.  “We have matters to discuss.”

M41.996 15:33 (Equestria time) Ponyville, Equestria
“Four more!  Make those shots count!”  A volley of crossbow bolts shot out from Mason’s squad, blowing the four Spore Mines out of the sky.  Their deadly payloads rained harmlessly down, pattering against the heavy armour of one of the Space Marines’ tanks.
Stormcaller quickly reloaded his crossbow with his magic and brought down another mine.  At his side, Mason craned his neck as he tried to slide a fresh bolt into place with his teeth, causing the unicorn to feel a pang of sympathy for earth ponies and pegasi in general.  The crossbows utilized by the Equestrian Royal Guard were powerful weapons, but ponies lacking magic generally felt somewhat resentful towards their designers.
A short distance ahead, Dannelos fired his massive plasma gun, burning Tyranids into piles of ash and charred exoskeleton.  For around the fourteenth time, Mason grumbled with jealousy.
“I wonder if they could spare some of those fancy toys for us,” he remarked to Stormcaller.
“I’d rather not blow myself up in the process,” Stormcaller replied.
“That’s a risk I’d be willing to let you take.”  Mason grinned at his fellow captain.  “Besides, it’d beat using these stupid things.”  He cocked his crossbow and let another bolt fly, skewering a mine.
“Oh, quit complaining about the crossbows.”
“That’s rich, coming from a unicorn.”
The Guard Captains’ long-standing argument was interrupted by Sicarius, who emerged from the battle and approached the cluster of ponies.  His sword crackled with lightning, casting a bright glow around him and steamed with vaporising viscera.  Claw marks and blood covered his armour, but he bore no signs of injury.
“Captain Stone Mason,” he addressed the group.  “I believe that you wanted a chance for your troops to prove themselves?”  Mason nodded enthusiastically.  “All of you follow me.”
Sicarius headed back to the battle line, the ponies galloping to keep up with his massive strides.  “I have sent troops to eliminate the Tyranid artillery and to counter flanking attacks, but I need troops to reinforce our battle line.”  He gestured toward a gap between two squads of Ultramarines.  “Take position there and provide suppressive fire.”
“Yes sir,” Stormcaller acknowledged.  “Guards!  Three ranks, five wide!  Move!”
Galvanized by having something to contribute to the battle, Mason galloped forward and reared onto his hind legs, aiming his crossbow.  Behind him, the others adopted similar stances, some on their hind legs so they could grip the crossbows with both forehooves, others holding their weapons one-hoofed.
Not having magic really sucks sometimes, he grumbled.  Someday, I’m gonna smack whoever designed these stupid crossbows.  Firing two-hoofed sacrificed mobility for accuracy, and vice versa for one-handed.  Weapon harnesses left limbs free but were cumbersome to aim.  He glanced over at the Ultramarines, all of whom carried their massive weapons in those convenient hands of theirs.  Maybe they could rig something up for us.
“Take aim!”  Stormcaller’s command snapped Mason to attention and he peered down his crossbow’s sights.  For a moment, he was back on the firing range at training, landing bull’s-eye after bull’s-eye.  The thunder of bolters and autocannons faded away, leaving nothing but Mason, his crossbow, and the slavering Tyranid who was about to acquire a third eye socket.
“First rank, fire!”  Mason squeezed the trigger gently and a bolt shot forward with a twang, flying straight and true straight between the eyes of a Termagant.  A volley of bolts hissed out from the squad, skewering a brood of oncoming gaunts.
“Drop and reload!  Second rank, fire!”  The first rank dropped flat and scrambled to prime their crossbows while the second rank fired, cutting down another score of gaunts.  After they fired the third rank followed suit, by which time the first rank was ready to fire again.  Utilizing this strategy of alternating fire, the ponies’ formation kept up a steady fusillade of crossbow bolts that effectively slowed the Tyranid advance.
“They fight surprisingly well,” Sergeant Daceus remarked to Sicarius, watching a Tyranid Warrior collapse, its face resembling a pincushion.  Leaking blood.
“A man, or pony, will fight to their last drop of blood to defend their home.”  Sicarius scanned the battlefield.  The majority of the Tyranids so far had been gaunts with Warriors sporadically mixed in.  The larger creatures such as Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants had yet to make their appearance.  “Ixion, status.”
“Biovores have been exterminated, but we’re facing a heavy counterattack.”  The Assault Sergeant’s voice was momentarily drowned out by a thunderous roar followed by the barking of multiple bolt pistols.  “Captain!  Tyranid heavy support incoming!  We can try to delay them.”
“Pull back to our defence lines, Sergeant.  We shall meet their charge in full force.”  Sicarius turned to the defenders.  “Brothers!  We advance, now!  Push them back!”
“Victoris Ultra!” several Ultramarines called out as they vaulted cover, firing into the endless horde.  Seeing their prey actively come towards them, the Tyranids surged forward with renewed vigour.
“Ponies!  Advance!”  Sicarius’s command caught Mason by surprise, but it paled in comparison to the surprise he had when Stormcaller ordered the pony formation forward after the Ultramarines.
“Captain, are you insane?  There’s no way in Tartarus we’ll survive that!”  Shooting crossbows from behind cover at packs of melee Tyranids was one thing.  Rushing forward to meet them at point-blank range was quite another.
“Stay in formation and keep your eyes forward!” Stormcaller barked out before turning to Mason.  “You said we needed to prove ourselves to the Ultramarines and now we have a perfect chance!”
Mason rolled his eyes.  “I’d prefer to not get killed in the process.”
“We’ll keep close to Sicarius’s squad and let them do the heavy fighting.  We don’t need to kill the big ones ourselves, we just need to show that we’re willing to fight up close and personal.”
With a resigned sigh, Mason reached back and drew his sword.  With an order from Stormcaller, the front rank of ponies drew their swords, holding them aloft with straps on their hooves.
The Ultramarines were already in the thick of the action, facing the Tyranids hand-to-claw with chainsword, combat knife, and the sheer mass of their armour.  Gaunts were pulped against the ground by boots and ripped apart with chainswords.  Dannelos forewent his blade in favor of using his plasma gun a point-blank range, blowing leaping gaunts out of the air and covering his battle-brothers’ flanks.  The two Devastator Squads advanced slowly with the Predators and Razorbacks, laying down barrages of ordnance.
Though he tried to project an air of confidence, Stormcaller questioned his own decision.  Tyranids were utterly lethal at close range thanks to their alarmingly large numbers of sharp ends.  This disadvantage was only exacerbated by the fact that ponies simply were not built for close-quarters.  Royal Guard armour was made to facilitate maneuverability and protected depressingly little of a pony’s body.  Their best hope was to stay near the back and provide supporting fire.
Sicarius was in his element.  Facing off against a pair of Tyranid Warriors, he ducked, turned, and weaved around their blows before the Tempest Blade flashed forward and slashed limbs off and split carapaces open.  The first Warrior snaked its lash whip forward to ensnare Sicarius’s leg, but he fired a plasma pulse into its arm, melting it off at the elbow and following up with an abrupt dash forward so he could plunge his sword up to its hilt in the Warrior’s thorax.
The second Warrior, armed with massive crushing talons instead of boneswords, snarled and swung a blow that would have struck the Captain’s head from his shoulders.  He stepped back and ducked at the last moment so the claws passed inches above his face.  As soon as the arm passed, he slashed upward, slicing it off at the shoulder before cleaving the Warrior in half with a follow-up swing.
Mason watched Sicarius in awe, almost missing the Hormagaunt that would have eviscerated him.  Rearing back, he plunged his sword down through the creature’s skull, twisting the blade around a few times for good measure.
“Get down!” Stormcaller shouted, and a volley of fat, oozing grubs flashed over their heads to splatter against the hull of a Predator.  Corporal Zephyr flapped his wings and leapt skyward instead of dropping flat and another burst of grubs struck him with a gruesome splat, their acid eating through his fur, skin, and organs in seconds.
Mason looked up from his prone position to see three Warriors advancing rapidly with long-barreled weapons.  “Bring them down!” he yelled, and a volley of bolts whizzed over his head, striking the trio of Tyranids repeatedly.  The towering creatures hissed as steel bolts embedded themselves in their exoskeletons, and one dropped, a bolt protruding from its eye socket.  The others leveled their weapons again and fired into the prostrate ponies, killing another pair who could not roll away in time.
“Face me, xenos!”  Mason looked up to see Epistolary Argus charging at the remaining Warriors, his huge glowing axe held high.
Gaunts swarmed about Argus’s legs, scrabbling at his armour and trying to trip him.  “Clear him a path!”  Stormcaller shouted and the ponies fired again, bringing down several of Argus’s assailants.
“Running low!” Corpspony Frost Wind called out.  His words were echoed by almost the entire group.
“I’m out!” Mason yelled, firing his final bolt and pinning a Termagant to the ground, where it screeched angrily before another bolt silenced it for good.  “Troops, switch to melee!”
“What about magic?” Private Tulip asked, and her horn began glowing a faint pink.  Almost instantly, she cried out in pain and collapsed, grasping her horn.
“The Tyranids interfere with magic somehow,” Stormcaller said grimly.  “Looks like we’re stuck with blades.”  He pulled short sword from its sheath and held it outward.  “Charge!  For the Princesses, and Equestria!”
With a chorus of fierce whinnying, the group of battered Royal Guards galloped forward into the fray.  Blades flashed and severed Tyranid limbs flew as they set upon the aliens with a vengeance.
Stormcaller ducked the scything talons of a Hormagaunt and stabbed with his short sword, spitting the offending alien like a marshmallow.  Wielding the blade without his magic was awkward, but he had not become the best duelist in the Royal Guard through magic alone.  Still, the Hormagaunts moved with startling speed, forcing the unicorn Captain onto the defensive.  The small aliens were frenzied to the point where injuries barely seemed to slow them down.  One lost two of its left-side limbs but scrambled back upright, sliding in a puddle of its own blood.  Stormcaller felt himself tiring while the Tyranids berserk frenzy only seemed to be intensifying.
Suddenly, a burst of energy jolted through his body, the likes of which he had not felt since he first fought the Tyranids mere hours ago.  The racket of the battle morphed into a single rushing sound like wind through a canyon.
Most surprisingly, a pale bluish glow surrounded each pony, distorting their images like a heat haze.  The strange effect conjured up an image of wind in Stormcaller’s mind, rushing around their forms and weapons.
He spun around to face his opponent, but to his shock, the leaping alien was moving disconcertingly slowly.  Not sluggishly but slowly, as if it were underwater, whereas Stormcaller’s own movements were perfectly normal.  The speed the Hormagaunt was going, he could have calmly trotted behind it, turned it around in midair, and watch it sail back the way it came.  Confused, but not enough to question his inexplicable good fortune, he plunged his sword into the Hormagaunt.
His opponent now dead on the ground, Stormcaller expressed his shock at the unexpected, but fortuitous event as eloquently as possible.
“Whoa.”
The rest of the guardsponies were experiencing similar situations.  Mason deftly leapt away from another Hormagaunt, bringing his longsword down to decapitate it.  The severed head, a furious snarl still etched on its face, spiraled almost comically through the air.
“Whoa,” Mason reciprocated.
Frost leaned back further than he thought anatomically possible for a pony, bearing a striking resemblance to a tango dancer.  Several deathspitter grubs shot past his eyes, close enough so that he could feel the wind of their passage.  Tilting his head upward, he took aim and fired his last crossbow bolt, skewering the offending Termagant.
“Whoa,” he said.
“That… was… awesome,” Tulip said breathlessly.
Tyranid corpses littered the ground around the surviving guardsponies, who stared incredulously at their victims and each other, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
Frost holstered his now-empty crossbow.  “The last time that happened was at The National Dessert Competition.”  He shuddered at the memory.  “And that pony had just eaten a cake bigger than she was.  Does anypony remember being injected with pure sugar in the past hour?”
“Wait a second…” Stormcaller said, worry building in his mind.  “Where’s Argus?”
Abandoning their unpleasant recollections of chasing a sugar-crazed pink pony through Canterlot, the squad spread out rapidly searching for the Ultramarine.  Mere seconds ago he was facing off against two Warriors alone, and while nopony doubted his martial prowess, they could not help but fear for his safety.
“Found him!”   The guards immediately rushed towards the sound of Tulip’s voice.  “He’s in trouble!”
The Librarian was down on all fours, obviously in distress.  A corona of bluish light surrounded his from, identical to the glow around the ponies’ bodies and weapons.  He sat there still as a statue, and Stormcaller doubted that even being tickled by phoenix feathers would get his attention.
“NO!”  Spontaneously, Argus leapt to his feet causing the ponies to jump, freeze, or in Frost’s case, rear up and tip over in surprise.  “YOU SHALL NOT TAKE ME!”   Argus thrashed about violently, swinging his axe as if chopping invisible enemies apart.
“Stay back!” Stormcaller shouted, covering his ears at the sudden volume.  Argus’s voice was not only physically painful, but it also seemed to cut into the guardsponies’ minds, leaving them all staggering from the sharp pains in their heads.
Visions flashed through the minds of all the unicorns; visions of madness, of fire, of a swirling maelstrom of pure emotion that clawed at their sanity.  One by one they crumpled to the ground, hooves clasped to their foreheads or ears.
Mason felt none of this beyond an excruciating pain in his ears, and he could tell that neither earth ponies nor pegasi could feel mental trauma either.  “What in Tartatus is going on?” he roared to nopony in particular.
“Captain!  More Tyranids!”
Striding towards the crippled squad was the pair of Warriors that Argus had been fighting.  Thankfully they still moved in slow motion, but to Mason’s horror, they appeared to be gaining momentum.
“Kill them, quick!”  The time-slowing power could wear off at any second, leaving the guardsponies facing some furious Warriors with a third of their number incapacitated.
With a rallying shout, Frost launched himself forward, leading the pegasus guards in an airborne charge.  The Warriors raised their deathspitters, but they were still mired in thickened time and the ponies were upon them before the first shots were fired.  The pegasus medic landed right atop one Warrior, plunging his sword repeatedly into its face.  Scything talons lashed out intending to separate his head from his shoulders, but he hopped right off, bucking the Warrior squarely in the jaw for good measure.
While the pegasi’s lightning strike kept the Warriors off-balance, Mason and the earth ponies charged forward and began slicing at their legs, resulting in almost laughable attempts to kick them away or tail-whip them in slow-motion.
Whooping in victory, Frost landed in front of one of the Warriors.  “Yeah!  Score one for the medic!”  He smirked at the massive Tyranid, whose hoof was gradually kicking outwards toward him.  “How do ya like me now, big guy?”
“Uh, Frost?” Mason said, watching the kick inch closer and closer to the pegasus’s face.  “I wouldn’t get to close to it if I were you.”
“Why?  What’s he gonna do?” Frost laughed dismissively.  “Beat me up over the course of the next week?”
“Well, technically it’s not actually moving slower,” Mason began, trying to recall his guard training courses on time-manipulation spells.  “It’s moving at the same speed over a longer period of time.”
“Huh?”  Frost’s face twisted in confusion.
“It’s relativistic,” Mason explained.  “Its hoof still travels at the same velocity, we just view it from a faster time frame.”
At Frost’s blank expression, Mason rolled his eyes and tried to dumb his explanation down as much as possible.  “Therefore it looks slowed down, but theoretically it should still carry the same force.”
After a few seconds comprehension dawned on Frost’s face, though it was probably faked.  “Nah, see?” he said.   “It’s moving slower!”  Mason facehoofed.  The Warrior’s hoof, still barely moving, crept forward with agonizing slowness and touched Frost’s helmet with a soft “clink.”
Frost flew back as if struck by a runaway train, yelling all the way until he smacked painfully into the armour of an advancing Razorback.  “Owwwww…” he whimpered, before flopping off the tank and rolling aside, clasping his head.  “Medic…” he groaned.
Grumbling, Mason trotted over and helped the pegasus to his hooves.  “See?” he chastised, bursting at the seams with sarcasm.  “That’s what you get for arguing with science!”
With a shout of exertion, Argus ripped his mind free of the warp’s clutches.  His skull still throbbed, but he ignored the pain.  That was closer than I expected, he thought.  Best to not try it again.  Drawing power from the warp, he had accelerated both his and the guardsponies’ minds and reflexes, making time seem to slow around them.  Initially it had worked beautifully, but as he tried to sustain the ability he became too deeply immersed in the warp, allowing it to ensnare his mind.  The psychic backlash had ripped into his mind as well as those of the unicorn guards, whom Argus was now convinced had some sort of connection to the warp.  Thankfully he had broken free of the immaterium’s clutches, but the remaining guardsponies had handled the Tyranids quite well.
Retrieving his bolt pistol, Argus scanned the battlefield.  Sicarius had led the Ultramarines in an unstoppable advance, pushing the Tyranids back step by step, and was locked in combat with what appeared to be a Tyranid Prime.
“Always the glory-seeker,” Argus sighed, turning to aid the Royal Guards.  Fortunately they were mostly unharmed, and even better, were standing amongst the corpses of the two Warriors and a multitude of gaunts.
“No, that was not a time-slowing power,” Argus said.
“Was that some time-slowing power?” Tulip asked simultaneously.
“I did not slow time, I sped you up to the point where time appeared slower.”
“Ohhhh, that makes so much more sense,” Frost said with so much sarcasm it could probably be spread on a sandwich.  Mason still kicked him in the fetlock.
“We’ve fallen behind.”  Argus pointed his axe towards the still-raging battle.  “Advance!  For the Emperor!”
“For Equestria!” the guardsponies cheered as they galloped alongside the Epistolary.

M41.996 15:58 (Equestria time) 3 kilometers north of Appleloosa
Applejack slept the deep, dreamless sleep of somepony who was both physically and emotionally exhausted.  Comforting warmth surrounded her, and she smiled unconsciously, nuzzling her face deeper into the gentle-but-firm surface of her mattress.  Her bedroom was aglow with a soft yellow light, and a low thrumming sound told her “just go back to sleep already.”
“Applejack.”  She was jolted awake by a light touch on her withers and pitched forward.
“Consarnit!  Big Macintosh ah told ya I wanted ta sleep in today!”
Suddenly something lifted from her eyes and the peaceful yellow glow intensified to painful levels, searing her dormant retinas.  “Ow!  What the hay… oh.”  She blinked blurriness from her vision to see the glowing red eyes of Sergeant Strabo, who was holding her hat.  “Sorry.”
“We are just outside Appleloosa,” the Sergeant said.  “We have located rails for the steam-powered transit system.”
Applejack leaned outside the Typhoon to see train tracks stretching on kilometers into the distance, leading to a small conglomeration of buildings.  “Good ol’ Appleloosa!  Ah can’t wait ta… why are we slowin’ down?”
Strabo tapped the Typhoon’s controls, causing the engines whine to decrease in pitch.  “We can proceed on foot from here.  The citizens of this town might overreact to a sudden appearance.”  He nosed the craft down towards the ground, blowing up plumes of dust and sand.
“Relax, Strabo,” Applejack drawled, putting her hat back on.  “Mah cousin will be the first pony ta great us, and he’s mighty friendly.  If there’s one thing he won’t do, it’s overreact.”
Suddenly, something ricocheted off the Typhoon’s armour, leaving behind scraped paint and an echoing “sprang.”
“Taking fire!”  Strabo flipped several switches and angled the vehicle upward, his eyes darting across the desert in search of the attacker.  Appleloosa was still three kilometers distant, so the shot could not have come from there.  As he scanned, a glint of metal flashed by a pile of sandy tan boulders.  As if waiting for him to notice, two muzzle flashes appeared and two more bullets struck the Typhoon.  “Two contacts by the rocks.  Close and neutralize.”

“Great shot, Braeburn!”  Sheriff Silverstar cocked his rifle and tracked one of the strange flying creatures.  They were very unusually shaped, looking almost like flying bricks, and they did not even seem to have wings.  Worse, they were moving incredibly fast.
“These some kinda dragon?” Braeburn asked.
“Maybe,” the sheriff scratched his wide mustache.  “Ah thought dragons were bigger.  These things look like they don’t have wings.”
“Ah ain’t seen nothin’ like em before.  We gotta stop em before they reach Appleloosa!”

Another shot rang out, echoing across the plains and striking Strabo dead in the chest, but the bullet bounced off of his armour and barely left a scratch.
“Guilliman’s blood, this one is a marksman,” he exclaimed.  “Octavian would love this.”
“Hold on a sec…” Applejack peered at the boulders, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw a familiar light yellow coat and cowpony hat.  “That’s Braeburn!”  She hopped up out of her seat, making herself fully visible.  “Braeburn!  It’s me, Applejack!  Stop shootin’!”

“What the hay?”  Braeburn nearly dropped his rifle in surprise.  “It’s cousin Applejack!”
“What?  Why is she ridin’ a dragon?”
“Those ain’t dragons!”

Overreacting, Strabo thought as he pulled the Typhoon to a hovering halt over the boulders.  Minus one word, Applejack was completely right.
Still about two meters above the ground, Applejack unclipped herself and hopped down before galloping towards the pair of ponies who had been shooting.  Judging by their heavier, squarer builds, they were male.  Both wore large hats similar to Applejack’s and, strangely enough, vests, prompting Strabo to reevaluate what was considered “normal” in Equestria.
“Applejack!” the yellowish stallion cried, embracing her.  “What are ya doin’ here?  And what the hay are those things?”
“Dismount,” Strabo ordered, and hopped to the ground, landing with all the subtlety of an airdropped Land Raider.
“Whoa!”  Strabo had just enough time to look up before a bullet struck him dead in the forehead.  It did nothing against his helmet, but it did serve to irritate him.
Silverstar fumbled with his rifle, trying to get the lever back into position for a second shot, but by the time he had the gun primed, the metal titan was already inches from him.  “Holy-” he yelped and fired again, hitting the massive alien in the leg.  Seemingly unharmed, it reached out and seized him around the barrel, lifting him to dangle twice his own height in the air.  Keeping his wits about him, he deftly flicked a foreleg and cocked his gun one-hoofedly, but his captor’s gauntlet enclosed it and tugged it out of his grip.
“I would appreciate it if you would stop shooting me,” Strabo growled, and unceremoniously dropped Silverstar on his back.
The Sheriff scrambled to his hooves and stared dumbly at the two blue giants standing before him.  They were each at least six times his own size, covered from head to toe in slightly more metal than was required to build an entire train, and just to freak him out even more, had spoken perfect Equestrian and seemed to be on friendly terms with Applejack and Caramel.
“Just what in the name of Celestia are you?” Braeburn asked, his gaze shifting from Strabo to Ionius to the two idling Typhoons.
“Cous, Sheriff,” Applejack began.  “These fellas are the Ultramarines.  They’re aliens, and they’re our friends.”  Seeing the shocked faces of the two frontier ponies, she went on.  “They done saved the lives o’ everypony in Ponyville.  Ah trust ‘em, an’ so do the Princesses.”
Strabo reached up and removed his helmet, squinting as the blazing desert sun attacked his retinas.  “I am Sergeant Strabo of the Ultramarines 2nd Company.  We mean no harm to you or anypony.”
“What the hay are ya doin’ in Equestria?”
Strabo’s jaw clenched slightly at Braeburn’s interruption, but he continued calmly.  “We came to this planet in pursuit of another alien race known as the Tyranids.  Three of their ships made planetfall, and we intend to purge them from this world.  My orders are to warn Appleloosa of the threat and to provide counsel.”
Braeburn was silent for a moment.  “So…” he began.  “Yer not gonna abduct cows?”
The farmpony’s question caught Strabo completely off guard, and he stuttered slightly.  “Yes… er, no.  We are not abducting… will not abduct anything.”
Applejack laughed uneasily at the Sergeant’s obvious discomfort.  “Gettin’ back ta the important stuff, these Tyranids are trouble.  They killed almost an entire posse o’ Royal Guards before these guys stepped in.”  Silverstar and Braeburn both stared.
“Well,” Braeburn said after a long pause.  “We’d best be gettin’ ready ta protect ourselves.”
“”Braeburn Apple!”  Silverstar glared in furious disbelief.  “We hardly even know what these… things are, and yer willin’ ta trust ‘em?”  Applejack winced, hoping that the Ultramarines would not take offence at his words, but they remained stoically silent.
“Applejack trusts ‘em,” Braeburn replied plainly.  “And if the word o’ the Element o’ Honesty ain’t enough, then ah don’t know what is.”
Strabo nodded approvingly.  “Then we continue to Appleloosa and hold a meeting.”  He replaced his helmet and strode towards his Typhoon.  “Mount up,” he ordered, gesturing to the hovering craft.
Silverstar observed the floating vehicle nervously, still obviously having difficulty comprehending the situation.  “What are those crazy contraptions?”
“They’re called Land Speeders,” Applejack answered as she climbed into the passenger seat.  “They’re some kinda flyin’ machine that these fellas use.”
The Sheriff still looked skeptical, but Braeburn trotted forward, an enthusiastic grin on his face.  “Well, ah’ve always wanted ta go flyin’ sometime.”  He hopped into the Typhoon and sat down next to Applejack.  “Well Sheriff?” he asked, watching Silverstar expectantly.
Sighing, Silverstar trotted over to Ionius’s Typhoon and climbed in beside Caramel.  “Ah just know ah’m gonna regret this.”

M41.996 16:07 (Equestria time) Ponyville, Equestria
Princess Luna galloped along in the wake of the Reavers of Macragge and the Terminus Rex.  Upon hearing that a brood of Tyranids had broken off and was headed toward the library, she had immediately decided that her presence would be most helpful protecting ponies there.
Sergeant Marcellus had immediately objected to her idea.  “I will not be responsible for shepherding a pony during battle,” he growled.  “Get out of my sight, xeno.”
“ULTRAMARINE, WE ART MORE THAN CAPABLE OF PROTECTING OURSELF,” she replied.  “WE SHALT NOT-”
“Silence!”  Marcellus raised his storm bolter.  “I do not care.  You will keep away from me and my brothers, and maybe we will let you live.”
Staring down the twin barrels of the gun made Luna falter.  She was about to leave with her tail between her legs when the Terminus Rex ground to a halt beside her and Maxilos dismounted.
“Sergeant, I recommend keeping Princess Luna with you, at least until you encounter severe opposition.”
Marcellus rounded on the Techmarine as he continued.  “A portion of this town’s civilian population has taken refuge in this area.  Our objective is to counter the Tyranid advance here and defend the civilians.  The probability of success would increase significantly if the Princess was here to handle the evacuation.”
Damn your logic, Maxilos.  “Then tell it to stay out of our way.”  He turned back to his Terminators and kept moving.
Luna was about to thank Maxilos when a familiar voice rang out.
“Princess Luna!”  She turned to see Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy galloping toward her.
“FRIENDS!  Sorry.  This is too dangerous for any of you.  I urge you to find somewhere safe.”
“Well Twilight and I were hiding in one of those tanks and it was really friendly but then it started moving into the fight so we had to leave!”
“Yeah… what she said,” Twilight panted, gesturing to Pinkie.
“Besides, we simply can’t hide when there are ponies who could be in danger,” Rarity said.  “We must help them escape!”
Luna watched the pleading expressions on the four Element Bearers and smiled.  “You four have enough courage for dozens.  Follow me.”
Ahead, Marcellus’s Reavers approached the library.  “Tychus, fan out.  Lucius, any movement?”
The squad’s assault cannon carrier consulted his auspex.  “Negative.  No movement for twenty meters.”
“Techmarine, anything?”
“Long-range scans show the swarm two hundred sixty-three meters north of our position, moving at a constant speed.  I calculate that they will arrive here in seven minutes.”
The top hatch of the Terminus Rex popped open and Maxilos appeared.  “Princess, large concentrations of ponies have taken shelter in the library and schoolhouse.  I recommend that you evacuate them immediately.”
Luna nodded and galloped toward the library door, the four Element Bearers close behind.  With a quick burst of magic, the door flew open to reveal the frightened face of Minuette.
“P-Princess!”  The toothpaste-maned pony jumped in surprise and somehow managed to bow in midair before landing on the floor with a painful thud.  “We hid in here after the Ultramarine Captain made his speech and we were too scared to come out!  Lyra said she saw something creeping around out there!”
“PLEASE, EVERYPONY REMAIN CALM!”  Twilight tapped Luna on the shoulder.  “Right.  Everypony remain calm.  I am here to take you to somewhere safer, but I will need your cooperation.”
Once everypony had calmed down and regained their hearing, they began filing out of the library, only to be greeted by the menacing forms of two Terminators.
Just as Lily, Daisy, and Rose were about to panic, the Terminator with a huge, cylindrical gun held up a hand placatingly.  “All of you, stay together and head toward the town hall,” Lucius rumbled, causing most of the group to shrink back in terror.  “Fear not.  My brothers and I will protect you.”  Tentatively, the ponies crept forward under the watchful gaze of Lucius and Tychus.  Soon, the group was moving briskly through the plaza, Luna at the front.
“Spike!  Spike!”  Twilight navigated the crowd, searching for her number one assistant who had disappeared sometime during Pinkie’s “We Have New Alien Friends” party.
“Over here!”  A short, scaly arm rose over the crowd, and Twilight rushed over to her little brother.
“Spike!  Thank goodness you’re alright!”  Twilight wrapped her forelegs around Spike, nearly smothering him in an overprotective hug.  “Where have you been?”
“Mmph, mmph, mmph!”
“Oh, sorry.”  She released Spike, who panted heavily.  “Where did you go?”
“Twilight, I’m fine,” he said emphatically.  “You ran off with your friends, so I went back to the library.”
“I was so worried!” Twilight said, grabbing Spike in another strangling hug.  “The Tyranids were everywhere, I couldn’t even leave to check on you, you could’ve been hurt, or eaten, or…”
She rambled through a long list of “Worst Possible Outcomes,” oblivious to the fact that Spike’s face was turning blue from a lack of oxygen.
A short distance away, Marcellus fumed at the sight of the Reavers, his Reavers, protecting a herd of alien horses.  In the Emperor’s name, I should just kill them all right now, and damn Captain Sicarius and his idealism!  Xenos are xenos, and deserve nothing more than extermination! 
His eyes turned to Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing around cheerfully in utter defiance of the imminent Tyranid threat.  Another surge of anger washed through him and his powerfist clenched audibly.  Everything about her seemed designed to be as offensive as possible to him.  Her garish colouration reminded him of Slaaneshi cultists.  Her constant bounding movements evoked memories of cavorting Eldar Harlequins.  Her spasmodic twitching brought a particularly vivid image of a gibbering Chaos-possessed psyker to mind.
What?  Marcellus did a double take and stared at Pinkie.  The pink pony’s legs had spontaneously begun flailing of their own accord, causing her to skitter across the ground comically, drawing confused looks from the Reavers and other ponies.
“Pinkie!  What is it?”  Twilight, who had finally released Spike, rushed to her friend’s side and grabbed her leg to steady her, but the rapid gyrations caused her to spin like a pinwheel.  Finally, with the help of the other three Element Bearers, Twilight managed to steady Pinkie, who legs were still trying their best to send her skidding away like a hockey puck.  “What is it this time?”
“Uhhhhhhhh…” Pinkie juddered back and forth before Rarity grabbed her head so she could speak clearly.  “Uh, my legs going nuts…” Her eyes went wider than dinner plates and she spun to face the Terminators.  “Hammer guy!” she called out urgently.  “Behind you!”
Tychus spun around with speed belied by his massive armour, raising his storm shield in a blocking stance.  The shield came into contact with something, prompting an angry hiss.
“Lictors!” Marcellus roared.  “Defensive circle!”
Shoving his adversary back with the force of his spin, Tychus whirled his thunder hammer around by the butt.  The massive head came into contact with the Tyranid and its energy field detonated.  With a shriek and a satisfying crunch, the Lictor crumpled like a tin can, spurting blood as it flew across the plaza.
His opponent dead, Tychus thundered towards his brothers, who stood in a circular formation back-to-back, spraying bolter shells and delivering hammer blows to any Lictor that got too close.
“Maxilos, how many?”
“Currently tracking between four and twelve separate organisms.  Their camouflage makes them difficult to-”
“Noted.”  Marcellus swung a vicious uppercut with his powerfist, knocking a Lictor’s head clean off before filling its still-standing corpse with bolter shells.  “Scan for the rest of the swarm.”
After a brief pause, the Terminus Rex surged forward.  Marcellus was about to protest when Maxilos’s voice cut through again.  “Sergeant, another Lictor brood with Warrior and gaunt support is moving into the town to attack the civilians.  If I move now I calculate an eighty-eight point-”
Marcellus had stopped listening, instead silently cursing the Techmarine once again.  He would have happily left the ponies to die, but as seemed to be occurring with alarming regularity, circumstances conspired against his hatred of them.
Rarity watched as the Predator Executioner rumbled by, pulping an unfortunate Lictor beneath its treads.  “Where is he going?  Oh heavens he’s leaving us!”
Luna was about to answer when a blurry outline of something twice her height caught her eye.  Without hesitation she cast a spell, sending a blast of lightning at the shimmering target.  The electricity made contact and crackled all across the creature, highlighting every inch of its towering, bladed form and filling the air with the stench of burning skin.  The alien’s form blurred, losing its transparency and mimicked the image of the lightning playing across it.
“AAAAAH!  What is it?”
“The horror!  The horror!”
The now lightning-patterned Tyranid shook off the attack and leapt forward, its serrated shoulder blades extended.
“THOU SHALT NOT TAKE US!”  Luna prepared another lightning spell, but as she drew power into her horn, her mind began slipping and flailing as if drowning.  A pounding ache surged through her head and her vision dulled, shadows creeping into the edges of her sight.  An alien hiss cut through the murk in her mind, sounding almost like a malicious laugh.
Suddenly a barrage of glowing purple projectiles struck the alien and sent it flying back, its chameleonic skin now a fairly gaudy shade of magenta.  Forcing her rebelling mind to cooperate, Luna pulled her mind from the gloom and turned to see Pinkie Pie holding Twilight Sparkle by the barrel and pumping her tail up and down like a lever.  More magical pulses fired from the unicorn’s horn, blasting the Tyranid back even further.
Luna could not help but smile at the ridiculousness of this tactic, but she had to admit that it was effective.  Unfortunately there was only one weaponized unicorn in the herd and more chameleon-Tyranids were closing.  Twilight and Luna could only last so long before succumbing to the Tyranids’ magic-suppressing nature, at which point they would be eviscerated one by one.
“Princess!”  Luna recognized the voice as Rarity’s.  “The Ultramarines!”  She snapped her head around to see the Terminator squad standing in a large circle facing outward.
Of course!  She mentally facehoofed.  “FOLLOW US!”  Flapping her wings, Luna shot toward the Ultramarine formation, the herd of ponies right behind.
Marcellus spotted the incoming crowd.  “Get out of our way!” he barked, firing a burst over their heads, killing a Lictor attempting to pick off stragglers.
“WE CANNOT SURVIVE IN THE OPEN!” Luna cried, trying to squeeze between two Terminators.
“And?” Marcellus said, his voice full of cruel sarcasm.  Fury spike through him as Lucius stepped out of formation, allowing the herd of panicked ponies to slip inside the armoured wall of Terminator armour.  “HOLD!” he roared.  “CLOSE THAT GAP!”
Seeing the opening, a pair of Lictors darted forward.  One set upon Lucius, ripping gouges into his armour.  His assault cannon useless, the Terminator swung his torso back and forth, trying to dislodge his assailant.  Just before the Lictor could plunge a talon into his neck joint, another volley of magical blasts blew it airborne, where Lucius tore it apart with a hail of shots.
The other managed to slip past Lucius, apparently set on catching a pony.  Fluttershy squealed in fear, immediately catching its attention.  With a fluid hissing sound, a cluster of hooked tendrils shot out from a cavity on the Tyranid’s thorax straight towards her face.  Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation, but the pain never came.  When she opened her eyes, the sinewy tentacles were inches from her face and the Tyranid was struggling as if held back by something.
That something was Brother Alcaeus, whose lightning claws had punched clean through the Lictor’s thorax and protruded from its front.  With a grunt, he lifted the creature over his head as if it weighted nothing and pulled it in half, raining gore across the crowd, prompting several ponies to faint dead away, vomit in disgust, or both, in either order.
Fluttershy stared at Alcaeus as blood ran down his armour, staining the formerly immaculate blue surface and pooling at his feet.  Every detail of the gruesome kill seemed to scream at her for attention, and her perception of time, deciding to play a cruel joke, distorted to give every droplet of blood, every mutilated organ, and every glistening claw plenty of stage time.  As she stared, another image, generated by her fear-addled mind, superimposed itself over the already horrifying scene.
This new image made the old one seem like baby bunnies riding kittens stuffed in socks.
The black Tyranid blood splattered across Alcaeus’s armour shifted, forming liquid tendrils that reached across the blue, replacing the magnificent blue with an oily black.  Every edge of the armour elongated and deformed, becoming less functional and more baroque.  Leering, howling faces of bronze and gold emerged upon the armour as if struggling to free themselves.  The huge, crackling claws on the back of Alcaeus’s hands slid forward to replace his fingers, still slick with blood.  His pure white helmet lengthened, sprouting massive, jutting, spiked tusks.
His eyes changed the least, but this only served to make them his most terrifying feature.  Their normal red glow intensified as if a raging fire burned behind them, and they glared at Fluttershy with a malicious, hateful stare.  She heard him speak, his voice sounding like a thousand sheets of rusted metal scraping together.
“Are you hurt, pony?”
She looked up.  The metal horror was gone, and the gore-splattered form of Alcaeus leaned over her, proffering a hand.
“Are you alright?” he asked again, his voice surprisingly gentle.
Fluttershy accepted his help, but did not answer his question.
With the ponies safely behind a barrier of heavily armed Space Marines, the remaining Lictors efforts ended in failure.  With a roar of triumph, Tychus leapt forward and smashed his thunder hammer down on the final, very surprised, and subsequently very flat, Lictor.
Marcellus seethed at Lucius, the ponies, and Equestria in general.  Because of those damned ponies our formation almost broke!  He stomped down on the face of an obviously dead Lictor, doing little to abate his anger.  All it would take was one Lictor at our backs and we would have been divided!  “Techmarine, status.”

“Currently engaged near the schoolhouse.”  The plasma cannon belched another series of miniature suns, incinerating a Warrior bearing towards the Terminus Rex with a venom cannon.  The twin heavy bolters on the tank’s sides fired streams of explosive shells, blowing apart another pair of Warriors as it roared forward through a veritable carpet of gaunts, who seemed to want nothing more than to clog the tank’s treads with their mangled corpses.
“We have purged the Lictors and are advancing along the path you took,” Marcellus said.  “Encountering light resistance.  What’s your status?”
“Heavy resistance throughout this sector of the town.  The swarm is targeting me and is leaving the civilians alone for the moment.”  A burst of fleshborer beetles smacked into the tank’s side.  “I require immediate infantry support.”
“I can see you.  Do not falter.”  Maxilos rotated an external camera, zooming in down the road to spot the ten Terminators moving in a box formation around a herd of ponies.
With an abrupt clunk, the Terminus Rex jolted to a halt, its engine straining against something.  Muttering a prayer to soothe the tank’s indignant machine-spirit, Maxilos popped the top hatch.
A Tyranid Warrior stood up against the front right track guard, its front limbs caught in the whining treads, stalling the Predator entirely.  All around the tank, gaunts and Warriors swarmed about, climbing its sides towards Maxilos.  One Hormagaunt had made it atop the cabin and was poised to leap.
The Techmarine kicked into action.  Simultaneously, he snaked a mechadendrite down and reversed the Predator, snapped his bolter up and blew the stricken Warrior’s arms off, smacked the leaping Hormagaunt out of the air with a servo-arm, impaled another Warrior through the face with his power glaive, and unleashed a gout of burning promethium from his flamer.  The gaunts milling about shrieked as they ignited, scattering away.  With another jarring jolt, the Predator surged backward, crushing more gaunts and drawing the swarm back in pursuit.  With another mechadendrite, Maxilos fired the plasma cannon, slagging the cobblestone road and vaporising more Tyranids.
Now caught out in the open, the remaining Tyranids surged forward in pursuit of Maxilos, but a hail of bolter fire from the advancing Terminators cut a bloody swathe through their ranks, leaving only a pair of Warriors standing.  An arc of lightning blasted outward striking one and leaping to the other, causing both to spasm uncontrollably and flop to the ground dead.
“HUZZAH!”  A jubilant blue alicorn glided across the battlefield, alighting on the turret of the Terminus Rex.  “WE HATH VANQUISHED THESE ABOMINATIONS!”
Maxilos was not listening.  Dismounting, he loaded his bolter and charged towards the Ponyville schoolhouse, mechadendrites flailing in his wake.
“Techmarine!” Marcellus’s voice crackled over the vox.  “What are you doing?  Have you gone mad?”
Maxilos ignored the Terminator Sergeant.  As he sprinted, countless scenarios buzzed through his head accompanied by countless equations.  One Lictor remaining.  High probability that it will seek weaker prey.  Schoolhouse likely target.  Pony resistance negligible.  Situation: critical.

The schoolhouse had remained untouched, thanks to Maxilos’s timely armoured assault.  Still, there was fresh meat inside, and a Tyranid Lictor would never miss a chance to butcher the helpless.
“It’s coming through the door!” Silver Spoon shrieked, trying to wedge herself beneath Cheerilee’s desk.  “Don’t let it get me!”
“Please, children.  Try to stay calm.”  Both the magenta pony and her students knew that her words were empty.  The creature bashing at the door would break through, and the ponies within did not have a prayer.
Big Macintosh grunted as he shoved a filing cabinet across the floor up against the door.  “That should buy us some time,” he panted.
“For what?” Berry Punch’s voice quavered as she clutched Berry Pinch tightly.  “What can we do?”
“The Ultramarines will save us!” Berry Pinch said happily.  “Just wait!  They’ll show those big old bugs!”
The door to the schoolhouse exploded open, revealing… nothing.  Through the door was nothing but a beautiful, hot spring day.
Mus’ be hotter than ah thought, Big Macintosh thought as he watched the strange shimmer in the doorway.  Las’ time ah saw somethin’ like that was in Appleloosa… wait.  The heat haze was moving, creeping forward in an almost predatory manner.  As he examined it more closely, he made out a strange, tall silhouette that could have brushed the ceiling if it were… oh no.
“Git back!” Big Macintosh barked, the tone of his voice causing everypony to jump.  “It’s inside!”
“What?  What is it?”
As if in response, the hazy outline thickened, and a towering, long-armed Tyranid stood in the middle of the classroom, a hungry grin on its face.
“Oh, bollocks,” Pipsqueak said.
Normally Cheerilee would have chastised him for such language, but the monster in the room was somewhat distracting.
“GET AWAY FROM THE CHILDREN!” she yelled, scaring herself with her volume.  The alien was less than intimidated, and it hissed and began walking forward slowly, its huge serrated limbs extending.
“We’re doomed!” Dinky Doo squeaked, burying her head in her hooves.  “I want my mommy!”
Pipsqueak put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.  “Don’t worry, Dinky.  We’ll be fine.  You want to know why?”  Fearful tears in her eyes, Dinky nodded.
Pipsqueak stood up, defiantly staring up at the Tyranid.  “I've got a friend.  He's different from us.  He’s from another world.  He came here in a blue spaceship to protect ponies like us from monsters.  He’s a genius, and he’s going to save every single pony in this room, because that’s what he does: saves ponies.  His name is-”
“Hello!  So sorry I’m late, had a bit of a run-in with an acid-spewing monstrosity, but hey, that’s life!”
A brown-coated stallion with a spiky mane and hourglass cutie mark stood in the doorway, a cheerful, welcoming grin on his face.  The Tyranid spun to face this interloper and raised its claws again.
“Oh, stop it,” the stallion continued, waving a hoof dismissively.  “You’ve got no way out, why not just give up now?”  The Tyranid hissed and began walking toward him.  “Oh that’s right.  Not into the whole ‘surrender’ business, are you?  No matter, ‘cause I’ve got a friend of my own!”  He hopped aside, and the huge form of Maxilos pounded up the steps to face the Lictor.
“-Maxilos!” Pipsqueak finished, hopping up and down excitedly.
“Well, I suppose this time I can’t really take any credit,” the brown stallion said regretfully.  “Though to be fair, I did distract him for a minute.”
The Lictor and Maxilos stood silently, neither moving a muscle.  Big Macintosh could have sworn he saw a tumbleweed blowing past the door.
Calculating trajectory.  Ninety-eight point four-zero-one-three percent chance of fatality if shot is on-target.  Maxilos leveled his bolter at the Lictor’s eye, prompting an angry hiss.
Searching database.  Suitable phrasing complete.  “Inquiry: does this particular Lictor consider itself fortunate?”
The Lictor leapt, flesh hooks blasting out of its chest.  Maxilos adjusted his aim and fired a single shot straight through its eye socket.  Now quite dead, it flew limply through the air and collapsed in a headless heap on the floor.
Maxilos lowered his bolter.  “Inquiry,” he droned.  “Was the query that I posed to the Tyranid appropriate?”
The ponies’ reactions were mixed, at best.  Most began cheering raucously, while many, particularly the parents, facehoofed.

“Grenades!”  A pair of frag grenades sailed overhead and blew apart a Warrior, whose place was immediately filled by two more.
Sicarius fired his plasma pistol again, melting yet another Termagant with a miniature sun before launching an aggressive kick that sent a Warrior reeling, presenting its unprotected back to him.  Leaping forward, he plunged the Tempest Blade upward through its shoulder and out through the top of its head.
The Ultramarine advance had forced the Tyranids back with startling speed at first, easily mulching through the hordes of gaunts and Warriors.  Unfortunately Sergeant Ixion had been correct, and Carnifexes came barreling through the woods, forcing the battle to a deadlock.  With these living tanks stuck in the fray, Hive Guard had moved up to provide heavy firepower.  Already they had accounted for three Ultramarines and an immobilized Razorback.  With the Terminators fending off another incursion to the south, Sicarius was left without an anchor in his formation, and simply had to hold out against a seemingly endless tide of chitin.
“Push them back, brothers!” he roared, holding his blade aloft.  “The sons of Guilliman shall not yield!”
“Victoris Ultra!” roared the Lions of Macragge, and soon the battle-cry was echoing all along the battle line.
“Captain.”
“Gaius, good to see you still fighting.”  Sicarius grinned at his old friend now fighting shoulder-to-shoulder.
Gaius bashed a Warrior across the jaws with his shield and slashed its face open with his sword.  “Likewise, Cato.  I fear that this battle may be taking a turn for the worse.”
“Those Carnifexes are the anchor of the xenos’ lines, Gaius.  Slay them and this will turn into a rout.  Have faith, brother.”
“I do not lack faith, Captain, but we cannot advance under fire from those Hive Guard.”
Sicarius glanced at the raging battle.  “Then we give them what they want.”  He spoke into his vox.  “Dreadnoughts!  Epistolary!  Make some holes.  We must advance!”
Maccabeus chuckled, a deep resounding sound that filled the Ultramarines around him with inspiration.  “FOR THE EMPEROR!” he thundered and unleashed a storm of flames and melta blasts, scattering the hordes at his feet.  Ultracius followed suit, slowly pivoting as he unleashed a storm of assault cannon shells into the swarm, turning them into a bloody mist.
Argus swung his force axe overhead, feeling warp energy course through his arm into the blade.  Lightning coruscated along its length, arcing outward to shock several gaunts.
“Feel the Emperor’s fury!”  With those words, he slammed the blade down, resulting in a massive explosion of psychic lightning that blew Tyranids airborne, spasming and incinerating as they went.
Three gaping holes punctuated the Tyranid lines.  “Charge, brothers!  For Ultramar, and the Imperium!” Sicarius shouted, charging through the crackling lightning left from Argus’s psychic smash.
“Credit where it’s due, these guys are pretty awesome,” Stone Mason commented to Stormcaller, who grinned.
“Guardsponies, advance!”  The squad of Royal Guards advanced in the Ultramarines’ wake, hopping over the cooling corpses of dozens of gaunts.  “Mop up any stragglers.”
Sicarius smashed through a stunned Warrior, feeling its chitinous shell crack against his armour before he rammed his pistol into its mouth and fired.  Gaunts and Warriors were irrelevant.  His target waited ahead.
The roaring Carnifex fired a stream of venomous shards from its venom cannon, forcing Sergeant Vorolanus’s Thunderbolts into cover.  The Space Marines hurled grenades, but the shrapnel scattered against its shell with little effect.  As Sicarius advanced, dozens of gaunts swarmed towards him, blocking his path to his target.
“Make way for the Captain!”  The Thunderbolts turned their weapons on the gaunts, cutting them down and clearing a path straight to the Carnifex.
“Face me, creature!”  Sicarius raised the Tempest Blade in challenge, its power field glowing almost blindingly bright.
A hail of crystalline shards hammered against Sicarius as he charged, scoring his armour and shredding his cape, but not even slowing him.  Abandoning his pistol, Sicarius grasped his blade in both hands and slashed, severing the barrel of the venom cannon.  The Carnifex screamed in rage and swung its huge arms downward.  He nimbly ducked forward under the Tyranid’s guard and plunged the Tempest Blade straight through its thorax, where its lethal energies could do their work.
The Carnifex gave a keening howl and snapped its jaws vindictively, trying to at least take its killer with it.  The Ultramarine Captain pressed forward even further, actually forcing the weakened Tyranid back a step.  He yanked the blade free and hacked downward, slicing his opponent’s leg off at the knee, causing it to crash to the ground.
Along the battle line, all the Ultramarines pressed forward, spearheaded by the Dreadnoughts and Argus.  But the Hive Guard still lived at the tree line, firing their deadly impaler cannons from range and slowing the advance once more.
“Captain, the Carnifexes are down, but we’re entering a no-man’s land,” Prabian said.  “They’ll hold us here until the next wave arrives.”
Sicarius drew his pistol.  “I will not be denied!  This battle ends now!”
Mason hunkered down with his squad.  “Well, we’re stuck again, and unless Sicarius has a trick up his sleeve, we’ll take heavy losses trying to reach the tree line.”
“Captain, look!”  Tulip pointed a hoof towards the sky.
Like avenging angels, a veritable fleet of Cloudsdale Guards shot downward, firing a hail of crossbow bolts into the entrenched Tyranids from above.  Pegasus bombers dropped flasks of burning oil, igniting the Hive Guard left and right.
At the head of the formation roared a pair of Land Speeder Tornadoes, their assault cannons stitching bloody trails across the battlefield.  As they passed low, the heavy flamers in their passenger seats added to the conflagration.
“Yes!” Stormcaller yelled and broke cover.  “Troops, with me!  Victory!”
No sooner had the guardsponies emerged from cover had Sicarius given the order to advance as well, and the entirety of the 2nd Company charged towards the trees.
“For the Emperor!” a hundred voices thundered in the ponies’ ears.
Stormcaller had never felt so alive.  Standing with his brothers-in-arms, fighting against insurmountable odds, knowing that they would never yield; this moment was the reason why he had become a guardspony.
The remaining Tyranids fell like dominoes, with scant few surviving to flee through the forest.  The Ultramarines halted at the trees, watching for another wave of enemies that never came.
“Victory,” Sicarius said, a grin etched across his face.  “Victoris Ultra.”
The two Tornadoes, along with several Cloudsdale Guards, swooped downward and landed near Sicarius.  Stormcaller and Mason immediately galloped to their pegasus counterparts.
“Captain Nimbus, Cloudsdale 1st  Regiment,” the pegasus captain panted, sheathing his sword.  “You’re Captain Sicarius?”
“Yes, pony,” Sicarius responded.  “Your arrival was timely.  Thank you for your support.”
“No, it’s me who should be thanking you.”  Nimbus removed his helmet and mopped his sweaty brow.  “That was the most fun I’ve had all year.”
Mason and Stormcaller trotted around the Tornadoes, searching for Captain Sidewinder.
“Sidewinder!  Where are you?”
“Up here.”  The unicorn and earth pony looked up to see Sidewinder sitting in the passenger seat of a Tornado, massive flight goggles on his face and one foreleg across the heavy flamer.  “What up?”
Stormcaller and Mason stared, their faces blank.
Sidewinder grinned and patted the huge gun.  “You would not believe, what I have been up to today.”