//------------------------------//
// Peace Through Superior Firepower 
// Story: Strange Bedfellows 
// by BRBrony9 
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	‘How goes it, Lord-General?’ Admiral Marcos asked, handing his Guard compatriot a cup of pungent Amasec. The bridge of the Emperor’s Judgement was, as ever, awash with activity. The Admiral’s pulpit, with its holo-display and his command chair, offered a semblance of respite from the bustle.
‘One of our escort forces has been fired upon by some kind of native aircraft,’ Galen replied. ‘They are engaging it now. They report it appears to possess void shields and plasma-based weaponry, so perhaps the inhabitants are human after all.’ The Admiral downed his own cup of alcohol in one slug.
‘Ah, well, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Imperium,’ he said. ‘If some sacrifices must be made, then it shall be done. But please inform your troops, I do not want any more bloodshed than is absolutely necessary to secure this world, especially if we are facing humans. Every human life is precious!’ he continued, pouring and downing another shot of Amasec while the Lord-General continued to nurse his first.

‘If we can take this place without force, or establish an alliance with the natives, then that would be my preferred course of action. Don’t let us jeopardise it through overzealousness. I have told my pilots, only fire if fired upon! If an attack upon this native craft is necessary to protect the first-contact team, then so be it, but I do not want us to go in guns blazing unless it becomes necessary.’
‘Very wise, Admiral,’ Galen said, finally taking a sip of the Amasec. ‘Our supply lines this far from the Segmentum core are limited, and it is proving very difficult to get reinforcements out to us. It would be unwise to squander troops where no sacrifice is truly necessary.’  The Admiral put the Amasec bottle down on the holo-display table.
‘We have more than enough troops to pacify this world, Admiral, but if this Crusade is to proceed much further I would rather not throw them away here.’ Marcos nodded. The Lord-General’s words were sound, and as usual he agreed with them. The Crusade had already fought its way through Eldar raiding fleets, Chaos cultists and even a system held entirely by some wayward band of Orks, and had taken plentiful losses in the process. It had taken them nearly eighteen standard months to get this far, and the Lord-General was unsure how much farther they could go.

He was also unsure how much farther he wanted to go. The edge of the galaxy was not a nice place to be. The light of the Astronomican was, according to his Navigators, dim and faded this far out, which is why the smoothness of the jump to this system had surprised him. The Crusade was facing the same problem that had confronted the Lord Solar at the end of his great Crusade hundreds of years earlier- they were at the edge of the galaxy, and at the edge of human endurance. The same strange tales that had plagued the Macharian Crusade had surfaced again in the troop decks and bunkrooms of the fleet- beyond the galactic fringe there was only death, the void outside of the guiding light of the Astronomican was haunted. There were tales of ghosts, demons, foul xenos abominations, things that drove men mad just from seeing them. 
Not that the rest of the galaxy is much better, he thought ruefully. He doubted the veracity of such rumours, but he knew full well that Imperial Guardsmen are a superstitious lot, and that they would believe anything if they heard it often enough. Thoughts of the Ecclesiarchy crossed his mind as he thought that, but he dismissed them before he found himself blaspheming against the Emperor.
Beyond the galactic edge there were but a few scattered rogue stars, and it was several million light years to the nearest neighbouring galaxy, assuming that warp travel even worked so far from Terra. Galen knew he didn’t want to be the one to find out. They were already at the edge, and there was nothing beyond. This system seemed as good a place as any to end the Crusade- it was, after all, a garden planet that would be an ideal candidate for becoming an Imperial possession. 
But first, they had to take it.



‘Here they come again!’ Starburst could hear the rising panic in the voice of whichever pony had shouted that. Things were not looking good. The two enemy fliers were all over the Manehattan- she couldn’t outmanoeuvre them, she couldn’t outrun them and she couldn’t outfight them. Now they were sweeping in again, preparing to deal the killing blow.
The main deck was already like a charnel house- broken, twisted bodies lay scattered amongst the splintered, charred remains of the guns and deck fittings. The flyers were coming in from dead ahead, out of the firing arcs of the Manehattan’s guns. The swivel guns on the bow railings had long since been knocked out, leaving the airship essentially defenceless. There were still a few unicorns who fruitlessly flung their magic at the flyers, but their fireballs were moving far too slowly and they dodged them with contemptuous ease. Starburst heard their guns begin to chatter and he could see that the end of the Manehattan was fast approaching. He ducked behind the wheel as the deck was sprayed with shrapnel once more.  
‘Sky Shimmer!’ he called out to a silver Pegasus who was desperately trying to load one of the anti-air cannons himself after its entire crew had been killed. 
‘Sir?’ he replied, looking up from his task. 
‘To me!’ Sky Shimmer flew up to the command deck and gave a rather sloppy salute. 
‘You’re our fastest flyer. Get out of here, get back to Canterlot. Tell them what happened. Give them our location, 30 miles southeast of Ponyville. Tell them we were attacked by unknown enemy flyers and that we fought as well as we could.’ Sky Shimmer hesitated, understanding the hidden implications of his Captain’s orders. Then he saluted again.
‘Yes sir. I won’t let you down.’ Starburst nodded, and returned his salute. Then he took to the air, his powerful wings propelling him clear of the airship. He dove for the relative safety of the ground, heading north towards Canterlot, and disappeared from Starburst’s sight.
The Captain turned back to survey his vessel. The enemy were coming back again. This was it. Two more of the oversized fireworks shot out from the wings of the newly arrived flyer and raced towards the airship.
‘Brace for impact!’ Starburst yelled, though he knew it was a futile gesture. He clutched the railing with one hoof and the wheel with the other. He thought about closing his eyes, but then he felt a sudden rush of bravado from somewhere deep down. No, he thought. I will die like a pony should.
The rockets roared in. The first one struck the prow of the airship and blew it to pieces. The second streaked into the front of the gasbag.
The blinding flash forced Starburst to close his eyes after all. He could feel the heat, and it was like standing in front of a furnace. The gasbag erupted into a seething mass of flames, its armour blasted clean through and its self-sealing skin defeated by the size of the explosive charge in the warhead. Gas hissed out and was instantly ignited, wreathing the whole thing in flame. Burning, bubbling canvas dripped down onto the deck. Everywhere he looked was fire. The deck was burning, the ropes were burning. Ponies were burning. He briefly considered taking to his wings and escaping, but looking around he could see no way out. There was fire on all sides. He would be going down with his ship, as a Captain should.

Burning and rudderless, and without the lift from its precious gasbag, the EAS Manehattan plunged downwards like a comet, leaving a tail of fire in the sky behind. Before it hit the icy foothills of the Foal Mountains, the flames found their way to the main magazine. With a thunderous detonation the whole gondola disintegrated and the falling star burst into a dozen fragments, scattering funeral pyres over the snowfield below. 




‘Twilight! Twilight!’ The purple pony looked up from the book she was reading as Spike rushed in to the library. In his hand he clutched a scroll.
‘It’s the Princess’s reply!’ he gasped, having obviously run a fair distance. Catching his breath, he handed the scroll to Twilight. She quickly read through the message.

My Dearest Student,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I can assure you that it is most definitely not a waste of my time, so you need not have worried about that. Such a development requires further study. Therefore I ask you and the other Elements to visit Canterlot and seek the counsel of my sister and I in examining this phenomenon. Gather any notes you may have made on the subject and bring them with you. A coach will be arriving at the library to pick you up at noon.

Your Teacher and Friend,
Princess Celestia.

‘Spike! Go upstairs and get all those papers and books that are on the balcony!’ Twilight said, relieved that the Princess seemed to be taking things seriously. Spike sighed, obviously hoping for a rest before he had to do anything else.
‘Come on Spike! There’s no time to waste, the carriage will be here in an hour!’ The purple ponies’ purple companion sighed again.
‘Ok, ok, I’m going,’ he said, heading for the stairs. As he did so there came a knock at the front door. Twilight trotted over and opened it.
Applejack had returned, and as promised she had rounded up the rest of the Elements of Harmony. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash stood, or in Rainbow’s case hovered, outside the door.
‘Hi Twilight!’ they all chorused as one. 
‘Hi girls!’ she replied, a broad grin spreading across her face. ‘I’m glad you could all come.’
‘Oh my dear, we wouldn’t miss it for the world! Any invitation for old friends to get together is fine by me!’ Rarity said. 
‘Well you’re in double-luck today Rarity,’ Twilight replied. ‘The Princess wants us to go to Canterlot.’ Immediately the fashion-conscious mare’s eyes lit up.
‘Canterlot? Ohh darling!’ she squealed, giggling with glee. Rainbow Dash took on the opposite appearance.
‘Ah geez, Canterlot again? Everypony is so stuffy there,’ she moaned, touching down outside the door as the Elements of Harmony made their way inside the library. 
‘Don’t worry Rainbow,’ Twilight said. ‘We’ll only be going there to see the Princesses.’ Hearing this latest development, Rarity gasped.
‘Oh, you never mentioned seeing the Princesses in person! Oh my heavens, what do I wear? What do I not wear? I can’t wear the same dress I wore last time I met them, can I? Would that be considered uncouth?’ Rainbow Dash sighed again and dispensed her pithy wisdom.
‘Rarity, the Princesses always look the same whenever we see them, so why does it matter what dress you’re wearing when you meet them?’ Rarity blinked, surprised at how much sense her Pegasus friend was making. Then she blinked again, and decided she was talking nonsense.
‘Oh come now Rainbow darling, you can’t seriously expect me to not put in at least a little effort now, can you?’
Twilight used her magic to shut the door behind them as they gathered round her. 
‘So why are we going to Canterlot? Is there going to be a party? Is it going to be like the Grand Galloping Gala? Because that was so much fun I just loved that it was the best party everrr!’ Pinkie gasped for breath.
‘No Pinkie, it’s not a party,’ Twilight said, as Spike returned from upstairs bearing a stack of books and papers.
Twilight pointed a hoof in his direction as her friends greeted Spike.
‘That’s why we’re going to Canterlot.’
‘Because of Spike?’ Rainbow asked. Twilight shook her head.
‘No, silly! What he’s carrying.’ Dashie dropped her head in disappointment.
‘Oh geez, you’re telling me we’re going all the way to Canterlot for some…book reading competition or something?’ Twilight chuckled. 
‘No, no. here, let me explain.’ She levitated the same sheets of paper she had shown to Applejack earlier and spread them on the table. Her friends gathered round. Briefly she explained to them what she had seen.
‘So you don’t know what it is?’ Fluttershy asked. Twilight shook her head.
‘Not yet. That’s why the Princess wants me to go to Canterlot. Princess Luna does a lot of astronomy too, so maybe together we’ll be able to figure out what this thing might be.’ 

Lieutenant Muzzle Flash, unicorn Royal Guardspony officer and amateur photographer, was bored. All the past week his company had been assigned to Ponyville, and nothing, absolutely nothing, had happened there. There were small Royal Guard contingents stationed in each city and town across Equestria, where they acted as the local police force. In addition, many of the Guard units usually based in Canterlot would rotate to posts in various towns on a weekly basis. This was to  ensure there were enough police in each town to keep order without having to pay for the construction and upkeep of additional barracks in every town, and, according to the senior Guard officers, to allow the newer members of the force to get experience of policing in all parts of the country. Theoretically a sound idea, Muzzle Flash thought, but I’m bored out of my mind. 
He had joined the Guard eight months ago after completing Officer Training School, and had immediately been posted to Canterlot, which he had been enjoying. Then his Company began to be rotated around Equestria. Some places he found stimulating. Patrolling the streets of Fillydelphia had been an exhilarating experience, full of petty thugs and criminals to deal with. Appleoosa was another good one, a tough frontier town with no permanent Guard presence, just a local Sheriff and his deputies.
Then there was Ponyville. Bright, happy, safe, usually sunny…and deathly dull. His company had made two arrests, though. The first was a desperately minor crime but, by Ponyville standards, may as well have been mass murder- somepony had been putting up posters protesting the nearby hydroelectric dam.
You missed the boat on that one, Muzzle Flash had thought. It’s been up for years. Bill posting was outlawed by local ordnance unless specifically authorised by the mayor’s office, and so somepony called the guards and the dark grey stallion responsible had spent a remarkably comfortable and well-fed night in the cells.
The second crime was even less major- somepony had been…caught short, was the politest way to describe it, he thought, near the town square and had ended up making sure a nearby flowerbed was well fertilised. The owner of said flowerbed had not been too impressed, and so a rainbow-maned Pegasus mare had been taken back to the police station and released with a caution for public indecency.

Apart from that, and breaking up a few minor evening scuffles outside Ponyville’s drinking establishments, Muzzle Flash had been having a quiet week. His repeating rifle remained unused in its harness hanging from his flank, as did his electric stun magic and his sword which, although mostly ceremonial, he knew how to handle. 
Like many Royal Guardsponies, his coat was a brilliant shade of white. His burnished golden armour shone like the sun on the cutie mark of the Princess that he served, because his company commander, Captain Steel Rain, liked to make sure his officers and men polished them during every downtime period. And, thought Muzzle Flash, there was precious little else to do for the rest of the day, either.
His cutie mark was, unsurprisingly, a cannon firing, although it was not often visible because his armour protected his flanks. His horn allowed him to perform all of the usual military magic; stun spells, shield spells, offensive spells of various types. All in all, not a pony that anything less than a fully-grown dragon would want to mess around with.

Currently his platoon was on patrol duty. One of the other platoons in the company was located at the Guard barracks that doubled as a police station, and the third was on guard duty at key points around the town, including the town hall, the now protest-free dam, and the hospital. 
As platoon leader, Muzzle Flash was in charge of twenty-five other ponies- eight per squad, plus the platoon Sergeant, a large, equally white earth pony named Thunderchief. Along with Muzzle Flash, Thunderchief had attached himself to one of the squads and were patrolling the southern edge of the town with them. 
It was pretty enough, but there was little of interest. The road south to Detrot snaked away through the trees, and the towering bulk of the Foal Mountains stretched away to the horizon, their peaks obscured by the low cloud. The ten Guardsponies made their way across a meadow near the road. A couple of carts and carriages rolled by, clattering over the cobbles. Birds chirped gaily in the trees.  They were the only sounds. At least, they were at first.
‘Does anypony else hear that?’ Private Sharpshooter asked. The squad stopped to listen.
‘Yes…’ said Muzzle Flash. He paused for a second, not sure he wanted to acknowledge what his ears were telling him. A distant, rumbling roar was gaining intensity by the second.
‘Dragons!’ he shouted. ‘Dragons! Back to the town! Move, move!’ The squad of highly trained ponies reacted to his cry immediately. 
‘Let’s move, everypony! We have to alert the town,’ said the dark grey earth pony squad leader, Boot Camp. ‘Tornado, fly to the barracks and alert the Captain.’ Tornado, a white Pegasus, took to his wings and headed for the town. They galloped up the road, shouting the word to every cart they passed. 

Ponyville town square was a bustle of activity, as usual for this time of day. Ponies perused the market stalls, chatted to friends, and enjoyed snacks and drinks in the restaurants and bars around the periphery of the square. Many of them looked up in confusion and surprise when a squad of Royal Guard came galloping in.
‘Dragons!’ they shouted. ‘Dragon raid! Everyone please proceed calmly to the shelters. There is no need to panic.’ Naturally, almost every pony present immediately panicked.