A Guardsman in Equestria

by Guardsman_Sparky


Ground Zero

A few days later found Alexander standing in the hallway of his new home. He was amazed at how quickly the pony builders had completed his house. He didn't have any furnishings yet though. Actually, to call the building a house was a gross understatement. It had more in common with a small fortress or bunker than anything. The outer walls of the building were made of thick blocks of stone, quarried in from the Emperor knew where. The windows on the ground floor were too small to fit through, merely slits in the stone. The entrance led to a small foyer where Alexander could store cloaks and capes for inclement weather. Beyond that was a short hallway. To the right were the living quarters. Although Alexander was going to be living alone, there was enough room for several bunks in all three rooms, in the extremely unlikely event that Alexander would have visitors staying over. As it was, they'd probably be used for storage for now. On the other side of the hall were the kitchen and an empty room that would be the gym. The kitchen was already fully equipped, and with human sized utilities no less. How the ponies had found those in just a few days was beyond Alexander. Next to that was a communal bathroom. Unfortunately, there weren't any toilets there yet.
At the end of the hallway was a staircase. Up those stairs was Alexander's sleeping quarter's and a laundry room that also served as a workshop. Further up the stairs was a small minneret with a 360 degree view of Ponyville and its surrounding territory. It was a perfect lookout point and sniper's nest. Down the stairs was a reinforced vault basement. It was to be Alexander's armory. Unfortunately, the only things to go down there right now would be his armor, his sword, a laspistol, five laspistol clips, and one empty flamer. Not much of an arsenal. Alexander shook his head. He'd have time to think about that later. For now, he needed to find furnishings that he could comfortably use.

An hour later, Alexander stood in the main square. He had spent about half of his bits purchasing furnishings that fit humans. Unfortunately, much of it had to be custom made, especially the toilets, so it would be another week until his new home was fully furnished. Not knowing what to do, he began to wander Ponyville until he recalled the distant ruins he had seen while in the Everfree Forest. He didn't know why, but something seemed to be compelling him to go there. He made his way west through town.
As he passed by Sugarcube Corner, Alexander ran into Twilight and Spike. "Twilight. Spike."
"Oh," Twilight looked up from a checklist she held in her magic, Spike waving hello. "Hello Alexander, how's your new house?"
Alexander shook his head. "It's great, but it'll be a week until any furniture arrives."
"Well, you're still welcome to stay with me until then." Twilight started to go inside before a thought occurred to her. "Um, Alexander?"
"Hm?"
"The girls and I are having a picnic later today." Twilight hesitated. "Would you like to come?"
Alexander smiled, but shook his head. "That sounds great, but I have some business to take care of."
"Oh, well, see you later then." Twilight went into Sugarcube corner, Spike waving goodbye. He seemed...uncharacteristically quiet to Alexander, but then he hadn't known him for very long.
Alexander continued to make his way west until he came across Fluttershy's cabin. Intending to pass it by, he was caught unawares as a chitinous mass dropped down from a tree and latched onto his face. Alexander gave a muffled scream and began trying to pull the miniature carnifex off his face.
"Chompers! No! Bad girl!" Alexander heard Fluttershy admonishing the tyranid before it was plucked off his face. Fluttershy began trying to apologize to Alexander as the carnifex curled up on her back and fell asleep. "I'm so terribly sorry, Alexander. I don't know what came over her."
Alexander sighed, waving her off. "It's fine," Alexander forced. "Just try to keep it on a leash or something."
"Oh, I couldn't do that to her," replied the timid pegasus. "I could never confine such a free spirit."
Alexander sighed in exasperation, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Fine! Just try to keep it off my face." Alexander started to storm off before a question rose in his mind. "Fluttershy, do ponies eat meat?"
Fluttershy considered his question. "Well, while most ponies are usually vegetarian, we do eat eggs and fish from time to time." She tried to hide behind her mane, wondering how the human would react. "Though on occasion we will eat chicken or turkey if it's available."
Alexander stared off into the distance. "Thanks Fluttershy. That answers a few questions." Guess I won't have to go hunting around here as often as I thought. The last he saw of Fluttershy before he entered the forest was the yellow pegasus talking to a rather large bear that seemed to be in some pain. Muttering to himself about how crazy ponies were going to make him go insane, Alexander stepped beyond the forest boundary.
Immediately, Alexander was plunged into an unnatural darkness by the forest canopy. Cursing, Alexander turned on his head lamp, flooding the woods in front of him with a harsh, white light. He pulled out his compass and made a hard estimation of where he wanted to go before heading in that direction. Several times, he had to use his power sword to clear away thick vegetation before he could proceed.
He had been travelling for about five minutes when he came across a small hut in the middle of a small clearing. He was about to leave when he saw a strange black and white striped pony with a mohawk that was wearing unusual gold jewelry. The pony's eyes opened in surprise, before she spoke with a strange, melodious accent. "Unless my eyes do me deceive, a human before me I do perceive."
Alexander stared at the strange, almost exotic pony. "You've heard of human's before?"
She nodded. "Creatures of myth and legend humans are here. But they are obscure and faded, many ponies never hearing of humans before this year."
Alexander regarded the strange pony. "Well, it was nice to meet you, but I've got to be going."
The striped pony smiled. "If ever you should need aid, just remember, I am not too far away."
"Thanks." I think. Checking his compass, Alexander moved off deeper into the woods. After about an hour, he came across a shallow river. Carefully, Alexander crossed it before moving on. Half an hour later, Alexander found himself surrounded by a thick fog, his floodlamp barely able to cut through the mists. Advancing cautiously, Alexander came to a halt as he came to a narrow gorge spanned by a rickety rope bridge. Across the gorge were the ruins he had seen once before from a distance. They were quite impressive, if a bit rundown.
Licking his dry lips, Alexander began his crossing. He didn't trust the bridge, but he could not see any other way across short of flying, and he was no pegasus. Carefully testing each plank of wood before putting his full weight on it, Alexander slowly but surely made it across the old bridge. Eventually, Alexander made it across safely, and he could breath a sigh in relief. He entered the castle.
After exploring the castle for a time, Alexander came across a large room that was reminiscent of the throne room in Canterlot. However, where the throne would have been there was instead a raised stone pedestal with five stone plinths. Alexander stepped closer to examine them. They looked extremely old, decades, if not centuries so. Alexander felt...drawn to the empty pedestal. A deep, glacial groan stopped Alexander dead in his tracks. He slowly looked down at the cracks forming in the floor. He swallowed. Gingerly lifting his foot, Alexander tried to get to safer ground.
With a mighty CRACK, the floor gave out, dropping Alexander into the nothingness below.

Alexander slowly came to in pitch blackness. Groaning, he flipped on his headlamp. Somehow, the fall had turned it off. Slowly raising himself to his feet, Alexander played the circle of light across the immense cavern he found himself in. What he found was almost to much to bear.
"Holy God-Emperor..."
Before Alexander rested an Imperial Navy frigate. Well, half of one. Where the front half of the ship would be was a cavern wall. It was as if the ship had materialized into the rock itself.
Alexander approached the ship. It wasn't the Dawn, but Alexander had been on a frigate before, so the emergency airlock should be right around...there. Alexander pressed a switch, and the emergency airlock opened. Still has power. Should make things a little easier. Alexander slipped on his respirator, and stepped into the ship.
Inside, the ship was eerily quiet. Alexander tried to figure out what it was, until he realized the engines were offline. Even when a ship was running silent, there would be the groaning of bulkheads and the hum of the reactors. That these sounds were absent told the human that this ship was truly dead. However, the fact that the frigate still had power meant that the reactors were still ticking over on minimum power output. That meant the life support should still be online.
Deciding to risk it, Alexander removed his respirator. He took a tentative breath, but the air was clean and without poisonous gases. Breathing a sigh of relief, he began searching for the ship's armory.
After some time, Alexander found the armory. He tried the door, but the bulkhead was locked, a keycode needed to unlock it. Alexander drew his power sword and stabbed it into the electronic lock, praying it would work. Miraculously it did. Alexander entered the armory.
The first thing that struck Alexander as odd was that this armory was still fully stocked, not a weapon or tool out of place. The second thing that stood out to the guardsman was the row of gunmetal grey space marine power armor. Alexander examined one of the suits of power armor. The suit was of a pattern Alexander had never seen before. It was for the most part unpainted, with the exception of the shoulder pads, which were covered in flowing words and glyphs picked out in gold that Alexander didn't understand, though some seemed to be written in high gothic. The cyan-lensed helmet reminded Alexander of that of a primitive suit of plate armor, a strange adamantium cowl raised above it. Embossed on the chest, where the Imperial Aquila would normally be, was a familiar barbed capital I, the symbol of the Imperial Inquisition. Looking at the other suits of power armor, Alexander saw that every suit had the Inquisitorial Rosette engraved somewhere at least once. He had heard rumors that the Inquisition had its own pet chapter, but he had never believed that. Until now.
Alexander moved on from the rows of power armor to the weapons lockers. Row upon row of Astartes bolters greeted him. Alexander gazed at the boltguns longingly. He would have loved to be able to fire those inch-thick, mass-reactive bolt shells in battle. Unfortunately, if he ever tried firing one of those fully automatic rocket launchers, the recoil would more likely than not tear his arm right out of his socket. Not to mention the fact that using, much less touching an Adeptus Astartes boltgun would likely result in a ten-ninety. Sighing, he moved on to the next cages.
These weapons cages actually had weapons Alexander could use. Grinning like an idiot, he sliced the gate open and picked up a hellgun, a special forces version of a lasgun that traded longevity and ammo for greater penetration and stopping power. Alexander put it back as another lasgun variant caught his eye. He lifted a longlas off its hooks, cradling it in his arms. A sniper's weapon, he had always wanted to use one, but his requests had always been turned down. Now however, it would be a great boon if he ever went hunting. Slinging it over his shoulder, Alexander stuffed his pockets with as many lasgun and laspistol powerpacks as he could before moving on.
In the next cage were various support weapons. Grenade launchers with drum mags, flamers, the tempermental plasmagun, the tank killing meltagun, heavy bolters that spat fist-sized bolts, autocannons that could tear heavy infantry and light vehicles to pieces, lascannons that could turn the heaviest armor to slag. Alexander practically drooled over the amount of firepower present in the room. Sadly, he had neglected to bring his backpack with him when he set out, and he had no way to lug the heavy, crew-manned weapons on the wall. Nor could he find any promethium for the flamer he had left in Ponyville. It had all gone bad, and Alexander didn't know how to rejuvenate it. Sighing, he left the armory, knowing that he could come back with a wagon or something to carry the weapons and equipment in.
Alexander stopped outside the armory as a thought occurred to him. Where are the bodies? He realized that he had not seen so much as a finger bone the entire time he had been on the ship. He needed answers. He looked aft. He wouldn't be able to reach the bridge, not through solid stone. That only left the enginarium and the communications hub. Knowing from experience how easy it was to get lost in the vast enginarium, Alexander decided to try the communications hub.
Alexander crept through the halls, laspistol drawn. He hoped whatever had disappeared the crew was long gone, but with his luck, it wouldn't be. Eventually, he came to the comms hub. He opened the door, clearing the room with his laspistol out. It was empty. Holstering his pistol, Alexander moved to a cogitator and sat down. He reached out, turning it on with a flick of a switch. To his relief, the screen glowed green as the machine came to life. Cracking his knuckles, Alexander tried to pull up the ship's log. He jumped as a loud squawk sounded from the machine, an error message coming up on the screen.

--ERROR--
--DATABASE CORRUPTED--
--OPEN LAST RECORDED COMMUNICATION?--
--Y/N?--

Alexander frowned. He pressed the 'y' key. The cogitator's screen flickered, displaying a new message.

--PROCCESSING--

--WARNING!--
--DATA CORRUPTED--
--CONTINUE?--
--Y/N?--

Alexander hit the 'y' key again. This time, it took several minutes for the cogitator's screen to pull up the last message received by the frigate's crew.

--INCOMING TRANSMISSION--
--CLEARANCE LEVEL: MAGENTA--
--ERROR--ENCRYPTION ERROR--
--DISPLAYING DATA--
--INQUISITOR--
--IT CT A-P1592 “ALEXANDER” SURVIV  PURGE OF PROJERL ON PERSEUS OMNICRON VIII. SUBJECT  CONFIRMED  HARLECH 501EGIMENT. RENTLY ASSIGNED ABOARD RWARD UNTO DAWN. THE  TERMINATE, AND  WITH O BE PASSIFIED. NY MEANS NECES. BY THE EMPEROR’S GRACE--
-AVE IMPERATOR REX HUMANITUS--
--END TRANSMISSION--

Alexander slumped in his seat, face pale. No, it's gotta be some kinda mistake. Alexander had been betrayed. His regiment had been betrayed, by the very Imperium that they had given their lives to defend. He didn't know why, but the Inquisition had wanted him dead, and had sacrificed an irreplacable ship and every soul aboard just to kill him. He stumbled out of the communications center, emotions a storm of uncertainty and pain. He left the ship, staggering down a rocky passage. He blundered out of the cavern into the Everfree Forest, ominous black clouds brewing overhead. Tripping on a root, Alexander fell. He pulled himself to his knees, screaming into the gathering storm above.
It was a primal thing, full of hurt and loss, pain and betrayal. He screamed until his throat was raw, until he could scream no more. He slumped down as the heavens opened up. Torrents of rain and blown branches battered Alexander, but he felt none of it, his mind and emotions in turmoil.
A low, eerie howl brought Alexander to his senses. He raised his head to find that he was surrounded, red glowing eyes materializing out of the darkness around him. A large wooden wolf as big as Big Macintosh stalked out of the foliage, snarling at the human as it pounced. Rage filled Alexander as he drew his sword and knife. Snarling in return he charged at the timberwolf, his eyes ablaze. As the two beings tore at each other, the storm opened up in earnest, thunder and lightning flashing above the combatants.
In Ponyville, everypony cowered in their cellars as the storm of the century raged outside their homes as the weather pegasi gave up trying to tame the storm. In Canterlot, Princess Luna stopped talking to her sister in alarm as they threw up a powerful magical shield, protecting the city from the unnatural weather. The storm would continue raging for several hours, until a bloodied figure covered in mud stumbled into the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville early the next morning.