I returned to my housing. It was a nice evening, though not one that fit with my melancholy mood. I kept turning over ideas in my head. I opened the door with a bit too much speed and sat down at the kitchen table. I looked and noticed that Fluttershy’s door still sat on my table. I mentally admonished myself, she needed her door. It was in the exact same style as her previous door, except for a small Blood Raven badge on the bottom left corner. I still had some pride, and most of it was just to gain credit for my work, no matter how clumsy. I slowly allowed sleep to overtake me, after all, what could happen in my house.
That question was stupid. My natural reflexes kicked in a few hours later and I bolted up. What I woke up to, was all the crusaders, and spike, trying to approach my face. I wouldn’t have minded, were it not for the bucket of water held threateningly in Scootaloo’s hooves. I jumped fully up and retrieved the bucket from the filly’s hoof. “Now Scootaloo, I’m not mad you tried to pour water on me.” All four faces flooded with relief. I stood as imposing as I could, and leaned in close. “I’m livid that you failed.”
I poured the bucket of water equally over the four of my attackers before grabbing the door. “Knowledge is power. Guard it well.” With the old battle-cry uttered I flew with all speed to Fluttershy’s. It barely took ten minutes.
I knocked on the door. Surprisingly, it still managed to function, though it still had a rather large crack in it. “OH, um, come on in, the door doesn’t work so well so don’t bother locking it. Um, that is... if you want to you can.. I guess.”
I smiled and moved the door in front of me. The twinkle in her eye told me all I needed to know. “Ms.Fluttershy, I believe I broke your door?”
Fluttershy squeaked in appreciation, the lack of air in her lungs making a ‘squee’ noise. She picked it up and instantly affixed it to the hinges. “You really replaced my door Mr.Marx. Most ponies say they’ll do stuff like that, and never actually do it. Thank you.”
I turned out the door to see all the crusaders, plus spike, marching up the hill out of breath. Scootaloo hovered up and looked me in the eyes. “Why did you have to run so frickin’ fast Mr. Marx?”
Her eyes cut to my soul, not enough for repentance mind you, just enough to make me feel bad. “Why, to make you run for trying to pour water on me? Why else?”
Spike looked at me. “Marx, you have earned all of my hate. There wasn’t a lot, but I think you made it grow two times as big.” He had a mixed expression. On the one hand, he looked like he was about to laugh until his lungs gave out. On the other hand, I think he was contemplating murder.
I decided not to stick around and find out. “Anyway my friends, Big Mac said we could use one of his fields as a hosting ground for my fellow Blood Ravens. I still need some help building, if you want to.”
Spike fell to the ground in mock exhaustion, meanwhile, the other crusader’s all perked up at the new. Applebloom jumped up to my head level, an impressive feat. “Really? Big brother said someone was usin’ our old field, but ah thought he was meanin’ ol’ Mr. Mech.”
I looked down at the various young xenos around me. This was still a surreal experience, but, how could I hurt such creatures? “No, he was meaning me. Now come on, we’re wasting time.” With that, we all began to walk to the field.
The field didn’t arrive soon enough. Throughout the entire trip the entirety of the crusaders, including Spike, sang songs about finding who they were. I wouldn’t have minded so much, except for the fact that only Sweetie Belle could sing. I found it odd, the quiet one with the beautiful singing voice. Even in the Astartes we cherish music, and say that if a brother can sing, then he should sing. However, we reached the field with no incident. It was in a valley, which was good. The only downside was the size. It could easily host our ships and a bit more, but I wondered if it could support a battle. Scootaloo only worsened my hopes of finding a bigger area. “Wow Mr.Marx, this is the biggest field in all of Ponyville.”
I looked around the entirety of the field. I could mark an area for them to land with a sigil. The next problem was cover, the field was completely bare, I would have to bring in supplies from outside. That, and the only materials on this planet probably couldn’t stop Bolter fire. I looked across my recruits. “So, which one of you knows how to build.”
Applebloom jumped up. “Ah can build. I’m the one what built that catapult we used the other day.”
I perked my eyebrows at that. It had looked like a professional job. Well then, I think you could help me out pretty well.” With that phrase we started working. Towards the end of the day I called us all together. We had made a respectable amount of headway. We had some trenches, along with some cover. It now began to resemble an arena. Very good my fiends!! We shall be done in no time. What are you three doing tomorrow?”
They all three gave me the look they gave me when we first met. It was the ‘are you stupid’ look. Sweetie Belle picked herself up and walked up to me. “We have school tomorrow Mr.Marx.”
I felt stupid. Of course school happened. I looked at the time, it was approaching eight quickly. “Alright then my young apprentices, to home with the lot of you.” After much groaning they all complied, going their separate ways. I walked home with Scootaloo on my shoulder.
I put Scootaloo in bed with a promise to teach her about flight tomorrow. I walked to the door, about to leave for the library. “Going to do your research project yet?” I growled in my helmet. Discord was back.
I heard his infuriating laugh sound in my head. “Oh, yes, YES!! Someone's finally going to read about my adventures.” I simply closed my door, and walked towards the library.
The library seemed to be my magnet. It always attracted my attention whenever I wanted something. I thought over my supplies, before a humbling thought flashed through my head. I still had no money. I was going to have to see if Mech had a building planned.
As luck would have it, Mech was in the library, along with Twilight and Big Mac. Their fumblings amused me still. I walked up to Mech and sat across from him. It was uncomfortable, sitting on my own heels, but better than standing. Mech took a sip of what I assume was coffee before looking at me. “Ah assume you’re still looking for a job friend?” I nodded back. “Well, ah got a job that’ll take me a few months, would go a lot better with an extra set of hooves.”
I gave him an appraising look. “Sounds like a deal friend.”
I stuck out my hand and Mech took it. After having shook on it, he became less business like. “Well, ah can pay yah twenty bits per day. Not a lot, but enough for food and water with a bit left over.”
I nodded back at him. “That sounds fair. If you’ll excuse me, I still have to find a book and get back home. Even in her sleep, Scootaloo might break something important.”
I nodded back at him, walking towards Twilight. She scooted away from Big Mac as subtly as possible when I approached. She had a small blush plastered on her face. I looked at the book Big Mac was reading. It was titled “The Zebra Shaman”. It was also obviously not about agriculture. I smiled, even if it wasn’t official, they were dating. “Twilight, Big Mac! I was hoping to find a book.”
Twilight jumped up. “Really? Good, I needed to let Big Mac read anyways, I was kinda, um, distracting him” Her energy puttered out as her blush deepened. I even saw one clearly on the already red Big Mac.
I chuckled under my breath. “Well, I was going to look for a book about something called ‘the ones who came before’. You got any?”
Twilight almost looked crestfallen. “Really? You wanna learn about that old mare’s tale. Be it not in my mind to judge, I guess.” As Twilight walked through the shelves I thought about her reaction. It was more than likely a very old story turned fairy tale. Not uncommon, even in the Imperium. Oh, the heresy’s I could spout, just from living through the most trying of times. My thoughts were cut short by a book in front of my visor. “Here you go Marx, It’s all the old tales about them. They aren’t very interesting, but hey, I can’t really judge you freaky aliens.”
After a short goodbye I left, leaving the library to my back and continueing home. the trip, as always, was short. I got in and instantly opened the book. I read through it within an hour. I was almost blown back by the amount of war for such a peaceful planet. The references were different than normal of course. This was a Chaos cruiser of Tzeentch sorcerers, and one unlucky marine. The sorcerer’s slowly tried to dstroy the planet, looking for archeological artifacts, the marine however, began to localize with the culture, and slowly formed around it. He delved deeper and deeper into his ‘dark magic’ and ‘banished’ the sorcerers. By ‘dark powers’ I was guessing they meant the Warp. By ‘banished’ I knew they meant killed. As time went on, the marine changed. He slowly morphed into a more and more animalistic state. He never killed, but he tortured through chaos. He would ruin crops by replacing water with small mammals. All to gain a laugh. I now knew how Discord had gained his power, and why I should begin to fear.
After that night, my life began to take the form of a schedule. I would teach Scootaloo to fly before school, and then go work for Mech. I would work on my arena every free day I got. Soon the crusaders and I found a natural rhythm, which led to one of the proudest moments of my life.
The first was within a week of starting to build. I wanted to see how well Applebloom built. So, I asked her to build an Astartes sized pavilion. She worked on it for two days before finishing. When she was done, she let me look over it. It was beautiful. We invited her whole family to see her wonderful work. It wasn’t until we started a meal that we noticd she had her cutie mark.
AppleJack had just thrown an apple to me when I heard her scream. I jolted up and looked at her. “Applebloom!!”
Applebloom began to worry. “What is it sis? Is there a spider on mah bow?” She began slowly spinning in circles to look at her bow. I smiled and sat back down.
AppleJack smiled “No sugarcube, look at your flank.” And look she did. A scream exited her lips as well. All the crusaders jumped up and sang and danced. Ther, on her flank, was a small picture of a hammer, with an apple at the hilt.
Sweetie Belle was the first to see the downside. She looked down and kicked the dirt with her hooves. “Well, I guess you won’t be crusading with us anymore, will you?”
Applebloom just about decked Sweetie belle in the face. “Of course ah will yah silly filly! Ah just won’t get a cutie mark fer it.”
With that our miniature party resumed, allowing everyone to have a good time. The next moment arrived only two days before the Blood Ravens arrived. I was finishing the sigil for their landing zone. They seemed to be in good enough moods, but I was angry. They had an inquisitor. I could imagine my brothers accepting my choice, an inquisitor might try to destroy the whole planet simply because of the xeno’s there.
I chopped the last of the dirt out of my way. The sigil was almost complete, and I was getting annoyed. I still had to clean my bolter, and get my radio to hail the Blood Ravens for a last minute check up. I had to get together some dinner for Scootaloo, and finally, do a final ammo inventory. I wouldn’t have minded, except that was a schedule for tonight and two of things could take a full day. I was about to lose it when a voice came into my little hole. It was utterly flawless. The lyrics melded into my mind and seemed wordless. I got an overwhelming sense of peace. I suddenly knew exactly how to get everything done. I peeked out and saw Sweetie Belle singing the object of my rapture. I also noticed a new mark on her flank. I sunk back into my trench, Rarity would want to be the one to find it. I smiled as I finished my work. How would she react when she know’s she’s carrying a smile and new treble on her.
There was a party for the event. I attended for a brief moment, but I left after a few minutes. It was only a short flutter to my house, and Scootaloo needed the practice. I got home and did the final checks on everything. Counting the days I went out and did marksmanship rites, I had two full magazines for my bolter, and one magazine for my bolt pistol. I went to my bed and fell into a state of deep slumber. My brothers would arrive in fourteen hours, and I needed to be prepared to kill them if the need arises.
Authors note
I wanted to put this at the end so as not to ward off any potential reader. This chapter was a bit of a cash in. I had no ideas for a filler arc between then and the arrival of the Blood Ravens, so here's the full month. It was originally the same thing with about seven more pages, but it bores me to tears. While I don't love this, it's better than anything else I could do at the moment. I say all that to say this. I'm really sorry, but this chapter sucks ad I know it. I will never let this error in planning happen again. If I do something like this I'll find a filler arc that I think would fit the character and plot. With Marx's planning he would have only done what he needed to during the planning stage. Forgive me for this. This is Nobodyslament, signing off.