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The 41st Millennium, five days after the Lictor Incident
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Rainbow awoke with a start and open her eyes, immediately she realised she was back in Elariques’ house, lying in the same bed she had woken up in the last time she had been unconscious. Rainbow silently wondered how many more times she would wake up in this bed after almost dying before she got the message and stayed away from big scary monsters.
Rainbow sat up and got out of the bed, and began to explore the rest of the room, she had only seen a small part of it when she had first woken up there due to the fact she had been angry at Talvan the last time she left. The first thing she noticed was a large mirror in the corner of the room. Rainbow passed by the mirror without giving it much thought, she had never cared much for how she looked, that was more Raritys’ area of skills. However, as she walked past it, something caught her eye.
As Rainbow looked into the mirror, a strange cyan Pegasus stared back. Nowhere in sight was the long Rainbow coloured mane that the mare was known for, instead, all that adorned her head was a cropped version of her hair style, making Rainbow appear even less of a mare than she had seemed before. That was not the part that drew Rainbows attention the most however, that honour went to her face. Instead of the usual uninterrupted mass of blue fur that covered her face and muzzle, there were now two separate areas of the fur, separated by a large ugly red scar, which stretched from just above her right eye to the middle of her muzzle. The thing reminded Rainbow of the stomach of a dragon, not solid, but defiantly not as soft as fur was. Rainbow had never been too fussed about her appearance, and even enjoyed having a scar or two around her body from various flying accidents she had been in, each one reminded her that she needed to do better, get stronger and fly faster, but this, this was much worse than anything she had ever got in any crash.
“It’s never going to heal” came Elariques’ from the door way, prompting Rainbow to whirl around to stare at him.
“What?!” Rainbow demanded, getting slightly angry at this statement “You said the Eldar were an advanced species, but you can’t even heal a scar that I could get sorted out back home?”
“The claws of the Lictor, the creature that attacked you, were coated in a mildly corrosive acid,” Elarique explained, “it was only due to Eldar medical practices that you survived at all, five more minutes and the acid may have managed to get through your skull and attack your brain directly. If that had happened, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”
Rainbow stared at Elarique for what felt like an eternity, her jaw suitably open at this comment, had she really been that close to death, and if so, had the Eldar really saved her life? Even though not all of them had accepted her, and Talvan outright hated her?
Suddenly the realisation of what she had just done crashed down upon her. She had killed a creature, a living breathing creature. Sure it was trying to kill her, but she had killed it. She suddenly started shaking, something that did not go unnoticed by Elarique.
“Is something the matter Rainbow?” He asked, concern heavy in his voice.
“I-I killed that thing.” Rainbow said blankly.
“And if you hadn’t then you would be dead, Aranel would be dead, and in all likelihood a lot more Eldar. While killing is repulsive, sometimes we must, to protect those around us.” Elarique stated. “It is worse to not take the life of a killer and let it run free to kill again, than to kill it if it is within your power.”
Rainbow was still shaking, but she guessed Elarique had a point. As much as she hated to admit it, not killing the creature, the Lictor, would have made her the worse pony. She had been brought up to believe that killing was always wrong, but that was in Equestria. Here, she could now see, would be different in this regard, on a planet where killers ran loose, would it not be better to stop those she could?
While Rainbow was having her inner monologue, Elarique had walked over towards the door.
“Rainbow? If you would please accompany me”
This broke Dash out of her thoughts and she dumbly followed him. Floating just off the ground.
As they walked out of his house, Rainbow was greeted by the other members of Elariques’ squad.
“Rainbow, on behalf of the village, the squad and myself, we would like to thank you for killing the Lictor five days ago, and in all likelihood saving Eldar lives.” Elarique stated.
The entire squad, including Talvan, although he did so reluctantly saluted Rainbow, before all walking over to her. Aranel was the first to speak.
“I’ve been wondering, the pistol I threw you is designed for fingers to pull the trigger back, but you did it with hooves, how did you accomplish this?” He asked, unable curiously.
“Oh, that’s easy.” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her neck nervously, “All ponies have an innate magical field that surrounds their forehooves. Basically it allows us to pick stuff up like a rudimentary dragon claw or an Eldar hand.”
“Really?” Dorgolmar asked excitedly, “So you can pick stuff up? That makes sense, I mean how can a species create a civilisation without opposable thumbs, or any fingers,” He began to ramble on, drawing groans from the rest of the squad.
“Great,” Talvan groaned, “well done Rainbow, you got him started talking, he never shuts up. And just to make things clear, this act of yours, it does not make us friends. I will tolerate you, but no more than that.”
“Really?” Elarique deadpanned. “She saves us and you still dis-like her over her species. If she was a human then I would understand, but she’s not.”
“She is not Eldar, therefore she is inferior to us.” Talvan said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Before Elarique or Rainbow could reply, an Exodite riding some sort of Dragon like creature sped into the village and ran towards Elarique.
“Commander,” The female Eldar spoke, "Tyranid forces are approaching the fourth defensive line, the other villages have been over-run.”
Quickly the squad donned their helmets and formed up infront of Elarique.
“You’ve got ten minutes to get your Megadons and weapons and meet back here with weapons. Prep for combat.” He said quickly but firmly to the rest of the squad, before turning to Rainbow. “I hate to ask this of you Rainbow, but we will most likely need your help here.” He said solemnly.
“W-WHAT?!” She shouted. “You want me to go and kill more creatures? What the buck are you guys for if I’m going to fight?”
“The Tyranid swarm that will be attacking will number in the millions. The Eldar defending this line will be lucky to number one thousand. We need every able bodied creature to help.” He said softly, “I regret having to ask you to do this Rainbow, but I have no other option.”
Rainbow stared at him for a moment. He was out of his mind. She couldn’t kill another creature, could she? What had he said earlier? Sitting by idly and letting others die when you could help was worse than killing. Was this any different? It would be like a pre-emptive attack, to protect others. Rainbow made up her mind. She was the Element of Loyalty, and while these Eldar may not be her friends, or even her species, she couldn’t leave them hanging.
“Alright” She whispered.
“Pardon Rainbow” Elarique said, leaning in closer.
“I said alright,” She shouted, “I-I’ll help you. Only to protect others, I’m not fighting because I want to or because I like it.” She finished weakly.
“Not many people fight because they like it,” Elarique said softly, “I know it’s not easy, but it is necessary. Follow me please. I may not be able to offer you much in the way of armour, but I can give you a weapon.”
Elarique turned and walked with a purpose back into his house, bidding Rainbow to follow him. They walked down past the room Rainbow had been staying into to a small room at the very back of the house. The door was locked, but Elarique simply put his hand on a scanner and let himself in. Inside was a Rack holding his weapon. A large rifle and a curved sword, as well as his lance. Taking down the rifle, he handed it to Rainbow.
“This is a Shuriken Catapult, one pull of the trigger for a second here” He pointed to the trigger “Will fire off fifty micro shrunkens. Hold it down for longer burst. When the ammunition supply is gone, this light here will glow red. Push it and insert another core.” he said, handing the weapon to a dumfounded Rainbow Dash, who gripped the rifle in her forehooves and began to hover.
“Now, amour” Elarique continued. “As I said, I don’t have anything that will fit you properly, but you can have these.” He picked up two shin guards and a helmet that looked different from what he was wearing, but similar at the same time. “This is the primitive armour of the 'humans'.” He spat the word, “I kept it as a memento of my first battle, but now, you can wear some of it.”
He began to fix the armour to Rainbow, attaching the two shin plates to her forelegs and strapping the helmet to her head. He finished off Rainbow's makeshift armour by attaching a bandolier to her, loaded with cores for the Shuriken Catapult.
“This is the best I can offer you Rainbow” He said solemnly “If there was anything else I would give it to you.” He walked over and took the sword off the rack and placed it in its sheathe. He turned and walked towards the door. Rainbow silently followed him back to the front of the house. The rest of the squad was back, holding weapons of their own, and sitting on the back of the weird dragon things.
“The pony shows us who she truly is” Talvan spat, “Garbed in human armour”
“That’s enough Talvan” Elarique said threateningly before mounting his own Megadon. “Rainbow, you ride with me."
Rainbow slowly lowered herself down onto the back of the Megadon. Without another word, the squad rode out of the village. There they were met by more Eldar, similarly dressed and all riding their own mounts. When Elarique got to the front of the group he turned his Megadon around and looked at the assembled warhost. With a nod they set off to confront the Tyranids.