//------------------------------//
// Great and Powerful Diversions 
// Story: Iron Hearts: Book 1 - Planetfall 
// by SFaccountant 
//------------------------------//

Iron Hearts
Chapter 6
Great and Powerful Diversions


****


Centaur III - 7 kilometers outside of fortress Ferrous Dominus perimeter


On a lightly forested plateau bordering the badlands, a lone traveler halted beneath a willow tree to rest in her long journey.
She was a unicorn, deep blue in color with a white mane striped with light blue. Sitting atop her head and obscuring her horn was a pointed, wide-rimmed wizard's cap that matched the cape clasped around her neck.
Tellis would have heartily approved.


Trixie munched on some oats as she wrote down her latest observations and thoughts on a scroll of parchment, one of many that were stuffed inside her saddlebag.
"For too long has Trixie wallowed in self-pity and loathing, motivated by petty revenge and hubris," the unicorn said to herself before she finished her writing, magically rolling up the parchment, "it's time for Trixie to overcome. To start anew. To prove to this world that Trixie is WORTHY of the title 'great and powerful'!"
The unicorn jumped to her hooves, putting away her oat sack.
"But where to begin? If Trixie is to start over, Trixie will need a new caravan. And the funds to build it," she continued musing aloud to herself, walking through the trees toward the edge of the plateau.
"So Trixie must find work, obviously. And preferably in someplace that she's never visited before."
A new city would, of course, be more impressed by her magic act, never having been exposed to it before.
She certainly wasn't trying to avoid places that may or may not be full of disgruntled audiences that might wish to chase her out of town. Certainly not.
"And... what have we here?"
The Great and Powerful Trixie quirked an eyebrow as she spotted some buildings in the distance, along with what appeared to be columns of smoke.
As she moved forward toward the edge of the plateau, she could make out more details of the place, and as she stepped past the last of the trees between her and the cliff, she was finally treated to an unobstructed view of an Iron Warriors fortress-city.
"Big" was the word that Trixie kept returning to as she stared at the fortification. Big buildings covered by big spires mounted big smokestacks that spewed big clouds of smoke and ash into the air. All around the massive buildings, big walls were being placed by big cranes in a big palisade absolutely bristling with big guns.
The palisade wall was incomplete, with several enormous towers having been raised and mounted with weapons before the walls were cut from the starship that was being rapidly cannibalized down to a metal skeleton. The walls were in the process of being put into place, one segment at a time, before being reinforced and fitted with weapon emplacements.
The finer points of fortress engineering were, sadly, lost on Trixie as she rubbed a hoof against her chin, but she could see that behind the walls that were being put into place there was clearly a thriving metropolis.
Funny that she didn't recall a place like this before. Hadn't she been by this region just last month?
"It will do," Trixie declared, levitating some rocks next to the cliff to act as a staircase for her, "prepare yourself... uh... mysterious dark city, for the show of a lifetime!"


****


Ponyville - Rarity's boutique


"I still can't fathom the point of all this."
Gaela stood in place, grumbling to herself with her arms spread wide in the middle of the boutique. Her power armor and actuator backpack sat in the corner of the room, and Rarity was slowly circling her with a hovering length of measuring tape.
"The point is to get you some nice clothes, dear. You can't go tromping about in that armor everywhere; you'll scare the wits out of everypony!"
Gaela rolled her eye. "A paltry concern when me and my unit could be ambushed at any time by enemy soldiers."
"Oh, just indulge me for a bit, darling. Hmm... such interesting form..."
Twilight was stooped next to the deactivated armor, making a sketch for her notes. Spike was next to her, although the young dragon seemed fully absorbed in watching Rarity work.
As Rarity started mumbling to herself, Twilight sensed an opening in Gaela's attention and pounced on it. "Gaela, can you tell me anything about your homeworld?"
Gaela didn't turn her head when she responded. "The human origin world, or mine?" she asked. "I know little about the former, besides what curses my masters lavish upon it."
"Yours, then," Twilight asked, retrieving a fresh sheet of parchment, "I'm trying to get an image of what a human civilization would look like."
"Nearly anything you could imagine, really," Gaela offered with a shrug, "human colonies number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions; we can't even be sure of the total number. Each has its own history, culture, and developments such that it's near impossible to generalize. Though we do our best."
Twilight stared down at her blank paper, feeling overwhelmed. MILLIONS of colonized planets? She could hardly fathom such enormous numbers when applied to astronomical bodies.
"As for my origin world, it doesn't mean much to me now, but it is called Starhaven, a prominent forge world and shipyard among the Imperial colonies on the eastern fringe. A forge world, by the way, is an entire planet given over to heavy industry and manufacture. Usually for military equipment and supplies."
"A whole PLANET?" Twilight asked, "that kind of scale seems... excessive."
"It is ever the hubris of humans to impose our will wherever we go, and leave lasting marks on this universe before it swallows us," Gaela said, her expression coming close to a smirk, "this entire galaxy is nothing but mass and energy, and we happily bleed it dry to make and power our machines."
Although she seemed almost wistful while speaking of humans' unnecessarily huge creations, her expression snapped back to apathetic before she continued to answer Twilight's request.
"Starhaven has shipyards of considerable worth, and sucked metal from many nearby asteroid fields to supplement its resource base. It has long days owing to its wide orbit, and the surface is covered by frost most of the year."
Gaela noticed that while Twilight was writing furiously at her description, Rarity's work had slowed to a crawl; even she couldn't resist the curiosity of learning about an alien world.
"Starhaven's natural surface - mostly metals and rocks - has been almost completely covered by construction, every last square kilometer given over to mines, factories, power plants, and residency arcologies. One side of the globe is built up all around a single massive space elevator that connects to the primary orbitals, giving the planet the appearance of an enormous teardrop covered in lights and glimmering metal."
She glanced at Twilight, and a sudden, inexplicable impulse struck her. "I can draw its appearance from orbit, if you wish."
Twilight could hardly nod fast enough, and Rarity was already retrieving some sketching paper and a pencil from her supplies.
As soon as a short desk had been placed next to her, Gaela went to work on a sketch with her bionic arm, although she looked entirely bored while she drew.
"Did your family come with you, or are they still on Starhaven?" Rarity asked, holding up the tape along Gaela's back as if unsure what to do with the measurement.
"I don't have a family," Gaela said simply, not taking her eye from her sketch.
"What happened to them?" Twilight asked immediately, without considering that such a question could be very sensitive.
Rarity would have reprimanded her, but didn't get the chance.
"I never had a family," Gaela explained, "on Starhaven, rather than leaving population levels to the whimsy of human lust and making do from the results, a majority of the populace is vat-grown according to projected labor needs using sex cells stored from discarded and harvested organs. We are raised, educated, and provided for by the Techpriests on Starhaven to become Techpriests ourselves."
Twilight gaped at the explanation, and Rarity completely forgot about her measurements.
"You're telling me that humans come from factories?" Rarity asked. She didn't know whether to be disgusted or fascinated by the idea. It was such an alien concept to her.
"Some of us do. Not many," Gaela admitted, "even among forge worlds, the industrialization of human reproduction is often considered unnecessary. I personally consider it ingenious, but I suppose I'm biased."
She lifted up her bionic arm and then slid the paper over toward Twilight, who took it eagerly.
The sketch resembled a tack or a short pin more than a teardrop, Twilight decided, with one very tall needle-like spire stretching out from a carved-out sphere and surrounded by smaller spires, like a city of needles stretching toward the sky. At the tips of the taller needles, and completely surrounding the tip of the main spire, were large platforms with rails and scaffolding that seemed to form a good chunk of a whole other world in low orbit above the planet. Other satellites, some shaped like tops and others like diamonds and spheres, floated in carefully plotted orbits marked by shallow dotted lines.
"It's... beautiful..." Twilight whispered, slowly wrapping her mind around what Gaela had said earlier about humans leaving their marks on the galaxy.
"Eh. It meets quota," Gaela said dismissively as Rarity telekinetically checked the width of her arm, "each forge world is owned and run by an Archmagos, and each one is geo-engineered to their specifications, the natural surface carved apart and encased almost entirely in metal and ferrocrete. I will say, at least, that Archmagos Wellen had an artistic touch when molding his planets. Some Archmagi try to keep their planets completely standardized."
As Twilight studied the sketch intensely, Rarity clicked her tongue. "Really, is there ANYTHING we can do about that arm?" she pointed a hoof at Gaela's bionic limb, looking extremely irritated. "I don't think ANYTHING can make that look presentable!"
"What do you want me to do? Take it off?" Gaela asked.
Rarity winced, slapping her cheek lightly with her hoof. "Oh, dear, I'm sorry. That was terribly insensitive of me, wasn't it? It's an actual limb, not a fashion accessory, Rarity!"
Gaela raised her eyebrow. "I was being serious. It can come off. Would it help?"
"Ah... no. That's all right, dear. I'll manage."
As the snow-colored unicorn went back to mumbling to herself, Twilight raised the sketch of Starhaven in front of her.
"What are those things around the platforms? Are those space craft?"
"Yes," the Acolyte confirmed, "I added them to present a sense of scale."
Twilight nodded. "I see. Starhaven isn't a very big planet then, is it?"
"Not really. It's about eighty-two-point-three-one percent the size of your own world by volume," Gaela explained, "the gravity is stronger than expected from a planet of its size due to the heavy ore content, however, which increases its mass substantially."
None of that made any sense to Rarity, who was anyway sketching something while staring intently at Gaela's cranial bionics, but Twilight returned her gaze to the drawing, doing some rough calculations in her head.
"That would make some of these vessels larger than cities," Twilight noted, expecting the Dark Acolyte to realize her mistake and offer a correction.
"Yes, they are. I would have included the Judgment of Mars, the Archmagos' flagship, which was many times larger, but that would have been a misrepresentation. The ship was destroyed when the 38th Company raided the system."
Twilight wasn't really able to imagine that. The idea of something artificial and engineered being so massive was itself challenging to fathom, despite all the grandiose imagery Gaela had subjected them to already, but the idea of something like that being DESTROYED...
She shuddered.
"Why did you leave?" Rarity asked suddenly, still sketching her own designs from across the room.
"I left because an Astartes pointed a boltgun at me and told me to," Gaela said with a shrug, "the 38th Company had disguised itself as a freighter fleet and managed to upload a scrapcode virus into the orbital defenses to confuse their sensors. Once they docked, they managed to take control of the defense network completely and ran rampant through the orbitals, stealing millions of units of cargo and capturing Mechanicus crew by the hundreds. I was one of numerous crew that were assigned to one of those sectors, and I was taken back to their ships to serve the Iron Warriors. During the escape from orbit the 38th was engaged by system defense vessels, but ultimately that only resulted in a much greater loss for the planet when the Judgment of Mars was destroyed."
Twilight and Rarity stared at the cybernetic woman.
"Doesn't that make you... a prisoner?" Twilight asked hesitantly.
"That's one way of looking at it, I suppose," Gaela admitted with a shrug, "I accept my new role without complaint, and in fact prefer serving the Iron Warriors to the Adeptus Mechanicus. I suppose that's the drawback with commoditizing workers: we're not picky about which master we serve."
"Also, if I may say so, your method of reproduction sounds depressingly dull," Rarity pointed out.
"We get that a lot."
Twilight kept staring at the drawing of Starhaven, thinking over everything she had been told. The planet was amazing and excited her just to know of its existence, but it also existed in a galaxy where such abominable scale was necessary, and apparently devoted almost entirely to warfare. A galaxy where battle was commonplace and Chaos was worshiped as some sort of divine force.
"What a wonderful, terrifying universe," she mumbled out loud without really meaning to.
"Oh, to be certain," Gaela agreed, "but it's the only one we've got. So we do our best to hammer it into submission so we can make a decent living out of it. It just keeps fighting back, is the problem."
The alicorn nodded. She could agree with that much. How many threats to Equestria had she put down just to keep the status quo?
"The Iron Warriors..." Twilight started to speak, but trailed off. How to phrase this next question? Were they nice? Of course they weren't nice, she could see that much already. Were they good people? Noble? Meeting Tellis made those prospects unlikely, but it had been stressed that he was unusual.
"What are the Iron Warriors like?" she finally asked, unable to keep a note of distress from her voice.
Gaela turned her head toward the alicorn, and for the first time since any of the ponies had seen the woman, she smirked. It was a small thing, totally devoid of real mirth, but it still would have probably gotten a rousing cheer out of Pinkie Pie.
"Well Sparkle, you can find out for yourself when more of them arrive."


****


Ferrous Dominus - security cordon


As the fortress took shape, it was, of course, necessary to ensure security while construction was underway. The Iron Warriors were all but unopposed on this planet, with military might that could challenge an entire Chapter of Space Marines, but the legion took its defenses most seriously even without credible opposition.
The entire fortress was ringed with defense lines and bunkers, manned by hundreds of human mercenaries and cultists and supported by Predator tanks and Vindicator siege tanks that had been dug into earthwork barriers. The tanks could be redeployed at a moment's notice to better oppose an attack, while patrols of Astartes in Rhino and Land Raider APCs ran circuits around the perimeter. Outside of the perimeter itself, spools of razor wire separated minefields from wide stretches of "safe" approaches, every one of which was covered by overlapping fields of fire to instantly become a killing field. It was a fortress outside a fortress, a more subtle bulwark that would break any force that dared to attack the stronghold during its completion.


"This place is a sight, let me tell you. Damn near a paradise world."
In one such bunker, two human mercenaries were manning the fortification, ensuring that even without an alert its autocannon could be manned immediately in case of enemy attack.
One of them was looking over the landscape through a monocular viewer, while the other sat in the corner, his rifle across his lap as he read a dataslate.
"They'd be hard-pressed to classify any planet with a Chaos fortress a 'paradise world'," noted the mercenary on the floor.
"Well, okay, fine, besides us, though," the other mumbled, "how long do you think we'll be here?"
"Until they retrofit the ships? I dunno. Could be months."
"Well, that'll do just fine for me. This place is MUCH better than Lamnis."
"Well, I'd certainly hope so, given the distinct lack of Tyranids,"grumbled the man reading the dataslate, "the damn hive fleets have been everywhere lately. Don't know why the Imperium puts so much heat on us, when we cost them barely a regiment's worth of material and personnel every few months. The 'nids are taking entire planets."
That didn't get a response from his fellow guard, and the pair were silent for almost a minute.
"Hey, you read that primer, right? The one uploaded this morning by the Warsmith?"
The mercenary looked up from his dataslate. "Yeah?"
"What did it say about the native life forms, again?"
With a few taps, the soldier brought up the relevant notice.
"A species of relatively small equine-derivative aliens. Capable of intelligent communication, speak Gothic, winged, and surprisingly friendly, it would seem. The Warsmith has declared that firing upon them without cause shall be regarded as wasting ammunition and be disciplined appropriately."
Not that there was any kind of significant punishment for "wasting ammunition", given that their ships were loaded near to bursting with spare ordnance, but it was a fairly clear signal that the natives were to be left alone without giving a direct order to that effect.
"Does it say anything about them having hats?"
The other man finally stood up. "Do you see something out there?"
"Yeah. I think we'd better call this in."


A few seconds later the two men had stepped out of the bunker, their rifles at the ready as they approached a group of Chaos Space Marines gathered around a comms amplifier tower while a Dark Acolyte and a pair of servitors worked on the device.
"-with the towers, vox is spotty, reduced to usual combat conditions without any of the interference caused by actual combat."
"And the Warsmith has no plans to eliminate the enemy?"
"What do you expect? Lord Sliver will come up with something, I'm sure."
It was about at that time that one of the Astartes noticed the two humans standing off to the side of the squad, patiently waiting to be recognized.
"You two! Why are you not at your post?" an Iron Warrior demanded, swinging around.
"We have incoming, my lord. I had hoped for your guidance on the matter," explained one soldier, his monocular at his hip.
"Explain."
"One of the native aliens, my lord. The ponies. It's approaching the security perimeter. The primer distributed this morning does not specify how to deal with the creatures as a possible security threat."
The Iron Warrior grunted, clearly annoyed at having such a petty matter brought to him. "How do we normally deal with possible security threats?"
"Right, my lord. The primer says not to fire on them without cause, however."
"I would think that walking into our perimeter is a cause," the Astartes said slowly, his voice menacing.
The soldier with the dataslate saluted promptly, but the other man hesitated.
"Is that an order, my lord?"
The Iron Warrior stared at the man in irritation for a few more seconds. Apparently he wanted to have someone else to blame if he was reprimanded for opening fire.
"Fine, go handle it however you want," the Iron Warrior said, waving off the men as he turned back around, "you have my permission to leave your posts to see it off, if you like."
"Yes, my lord. At once."
As the two mortals scurried off, the Astartes turned back to his squad.
"I'm not sure how 'intelligent' these xenos can possibly be, wandering into a kill zone like this."
"Curiosity, no doubt. Ever the burden of sentience. Do you think we'll ever find the grayskins?"
"Pardon me, brother," a new voice interrupted from behind the marines, smooth and with minimal vox distortion, "if I may have a moment of your time: could you tell me where those two men are off to?"


****


Trixie had to admit that this was a very strange city. And she hadn't even gotten a look inside it yet.
Loops of barbed wire were everywhere on the approach to the city limits, and she could see small buildings and some sort of vehicles ringing the place.
She'd never seen anything like it, but she had to reason that she'd never seen a city like this before, either.
Seeing something up higher, the magician halted on her approach to stare into the sky.
A vessel was descending from the air into the city, its body gleaming in the sunlight as thrusters burned furiously to slow its descent. Trixie had seen flying machines before, from simple hot-air balloons to more exotic contraptions that used rickety propellers, but this craft was easily the size of several houses lined up wall to wall, and flew faster and with greater apparent control than some of the clumsier pegasi she'd known.
"Interesting..." the unicorn started walking toward the city again, making sure to stay within the wide, open lane marked out by the razor wire. The areas beyond the wire were bumpy and marked by metal posts with skulls on them. She didn't really know what they meant, specifically, but they seemed to warn against traveling in the regions inside the wire barriers, and she was perfectly happy to oblige.
"Hm? Well, it seems they sent someone to welcome Trixie to their city! It's about time!" she said to herself.
In the distance were a pair of figures in long red coats wearing rebreather masks and black hoods.
Trixie quirked an eyebrow. Not ponies, definitely. Not minotaurs or dragons or any of the other bipedal species she could think of off-hand, either. What WERE these things?
Well, whatever they were, they were definitely coming to meet her specifically; there was nopony else around. Time to make a first impression.
"Now remember, Trixie: this is your chance to start fresh. To show your good side," she mumbled under her breath as the strange people jogged into earshot, "humility and cheer! That's what everypony wants from an entertainer! Go!"
She cleared her throat.
"Greetings, unwashed denizens of this wretched, forgotten land! You have come to welcome the Great and Powerful Trixie?" she asked, grinning as she sat on her haunches and beckoned to herself.
"Nailed it," she whispered a moment later.
The creatures didn't respond right away, slowing to a walk while unslinging something from their backs.
The objects looked kind of like weapons. Especially with the metal spikes attached to the ends.
Trixie decided she could stand to turn the humility up another notch.
"Ah, is there something Trixie can do for you?" she asked without shouting this time as the pair got closer.
"They really do speak Gothic. Funny," said one of the soldiers as he stopped a few meters away. His voice was muffled somewhat by the mask, but Trixie could still hear him clearly, and she was quite relieved that at least communication wasn't going to be an issue.
"Sorry xeno, but there's no entry up ahead. If you were planning on traveling through this region you'll have to go around," the other soldier said, pointing off to the side.
"Xeno? What is that?" Trixie said. She understood everything else they were saying, but so long as they weren't threatening her she'd try to talk her way in.
"That's you," the other man said, holding his lasgun up on top of his shoulder.
"Trixie is Trixie, not 'xeno'," she insisted, her snout in the air, "and since Trixie has introduced herself, what and who are you two supposed to be?"
The two mercenaries glanced at each other.
"We're humans, mate. I'm Nema and this Gotts. That all you want to know? Curiosity could get you killed around here, you know."
Trixie pointed a hoof at the manufactorum complex. "Would it endanger Trixie terribly to inquire what that city is called? It wasn't here the last time Trixie passed through here."
"That's Ferrous Dominus. And it's less a city than a military base," Nema explained.
Trixie's brow furrowed. That couldn't be right. The largest military center she'd ever seen, or even heard of before now, was the barracks complex in Canterlot for the royal guards. Ferrous Dominus dwarfed the entire city of Canterlot like an ursa major dwarfed a young filly.
Oh well, she wasn't about to start arguing about it with the locals.
"And you two are guards, yes? Tell me, is the local government-"
Gotts cut her off. "No, we're not telling you anything more. We've already revealed enough; anything else could risk a serious security leak, especially with the damn grayskins skulking around. Now beat it, Trixie. We ARE authorized to use force if necessary."
Trixie glared at the man, and then turned her nose up as she turned away. "Very well. If you 'humans' are going to seclude yourself in the middle of nowhere and drive off anypony who comes around, so be it. Your loss."
The soldiers seemed unmoved, and they watched silently as the blue unicorn turned around and started to walk away.
"HOLD."
Trixie and the mercenaries both flinched at the voice, which inexplicably seemed to come from just outside their ear, as if the speaker was standing just over each individual's shoulder.
The men started looking around wildly, while Trixie quickly recognized it for what it was: a simple magical cantrip. Apparently these humans had a few unicorns around somewhere.
All of them turned around to search for the possible source of the voice, and they all quickly found it: a single figure walking toward them along the path to the fortress, as if it had been trailing the soldiers by a few minutes.
It was not a unicorn.
Trixie noted that this new one was similar in form to the humans she had already met, but she still found herself more taken by the differences between them. The soldiers were smaller, for a start, to such a degree that Trixie doubted the newcomer was simply a bigger individual of the same species. The soldiers were covered from head to toe in their armor, masks, and boots, as was the big one. But where the mercenaries wore flak vests, overcoats, leather gloves, and cloth hoods, the newcomer was covered in metal far more extensive and exotic than any kind of armor Trixie had ever seen.
Bands of gold wrapped around plates of brushed steel, and mounted on the left shoulder, as if it had grown naturally from a mundane shoulder pad, was a leering silver face with three eyes that glittered bright green. The other shoulder pad was more mundane, with a much less disturbing silver face merely painted on the otherwise black surface. The helmet of the suit had a T-shaped slit that ran down the face of the helm and glimmered red where the eyes should have been, although no actual part of the man's face was visible. Atop the helmet were a pair of golden horns that curved upwards, a bejeweled eye fixed between them.
The torso piece boasted an eight-pointed star made of beaten gold around a coolant vent, while around the waist a gold belt supported a long black robe that brushed the ground around metal-shod feet.
A book encased in metal binding and various pouches hung from the belt, cementing the arcane appearance around the heavily armored man.
Trixie knew magic and she especially knew arcane showmanship, and the armored fellow absolutely reeked of both. The soldiers were much less experienced in such things, but it was obvious enough that they grew visibly unnerved as he approached.
"Who is that?" Gotts asked in a panicked whisper.
"I don't know! Just... be cool!" Nema blurted, having no better ideas.
Both men were familiar enough with the Iron Warriors to treat the Chaos Space Marines with respectful indifference, but Astartes Sorcerers were an entirely different level of terrifying. Most humans were nervous enough about psykers, but the combination of reality-warping power, post-human physiology, and pacts with the daemonic entities of Chaos put them in a much darker and deadlier league than mundane heretics.


"Were you speaking to Trixie, or to these two?" Trixie asked the newcomer fearlessly, resisting the urge to add "buffoons" to the end of her question.
The Chaos Sorcerer didn't answer right away, his bright red gaze turning to each of the individuals in turn as he stopped about a meter away. Finally he tilted his head down to stare at Trixie's bemused expression.
"I spoke to you, xeno," the Astartes said, his voice a bizarrely smooth purr despite presumably coming from a vox grille. Not that Trixie knew the mechanics of a power suit's helmet, but the humans at least found it bizarre.
"Trixie is NOT 'xeno'!" the unicorn snapped, stamping her hoof. "Trixie is Trixie!"
The men promptly took several steps away, unsure if the intruding creature had angered the Chaos Sorcerer.
Said Sorcerer tilted his head to one side slightly. "I see. Well met... Lady Trixie. I am Serith, of the Iron Warriors 38th Company."
"My lord. We were just-" Gotts began, only to be cut off.
"I am aware of the situation, mortal. You have been vigilant, and the Company thanks you for your efforts." The way that Serith didn't actually turn toward them when he spoke made them doubt how thankful he really was. "You may return to your post at once."


Trixie watched the two soldiers secure their guns and then scurry off like frightened mice, and she couldn't help but wonder what they were so afraid of.
Granted, Serith was of a fairly intimidating size, but he didn't seem very aggressive. Besides, she was smaller than they were, and SHE wasn't freaking out.
"I must apologize for the security, Lady Trixie," Serith said, slowly walking past the unicorn and then circling around her while he stared, "my brothers are ever concerned that enemies wait on their doorstep."
Trixie didn't really know what to make of that, but decided it didn't matter so long as she was getting an apology. "Fair enough, Trixie supposes. Does this mean that Trixie is being granted access to Ferrous Dominus?"
Serith stopped circling the blue pony, for which she was thankful. She already had to crane her neck most of the way around to keep eye contact.
"You wish to enter the fortress, do you? Well, that can be arranged. What is your purpose here?"
Trixie turned around to face the Sorcerer properly, a grin on her face. "You stand before the Great and Powerful Trixie, the best... erm! ONE of the best magicians in all of Equestria!" she said brightly, gesturing to her chest with her hoof. "The Great and Powerful Trixie wishes to visit your city and perform Trixie's magic act so that it may know of her greatness and power!"
Then her head turned to the side. "And contribute funding to the rebuilding of Trixie's livelihood," she added quickly.
Serith clasped his hands behind his back, underneath the spine-riven backpack that supported his power armor. "You are an... entertainer? An unusual profession for a psyker."
Trixie frowned up at the Astartes. "What's with you humans and all your nonsense words for Trixie? Trixie is a unicorn! Have you not seen one before?" she demanded.
"A unicorn? Fascinating. Does that make you different from the other one? You don't have wings, I notice."
Trixie gave Serith an incredulous look, clearly surprised she had to explain this. "The ponies with wings are pegasi. Trixie is a unicorn," she tossed her head backward, causing her hat to slip back behind her horn, "and ponies with neither wings or a horn are earth ponies. Do you humans really not know this already?"
Serith chuckled, the sound seeming to echo from within his helmet. "We're new here. And since you taught me something new, Miss Trixie, I will do the same for you. Among the 38th Company, those of us that are larger and usually dressed in powered armor," he pounded a fist onto his breastplate, "are not actually humans, but superhuman warriors known as Astartes... or, more commonly, Space Marines."
"Trixie sees," the unicorn said with a nod, "and among your people it is only the Space Marines with magical ability?"
Serith paused at the mention of "magic", but didn't bother to challenge the term. "Oh, not at all. Such powers are gifted to an elite few, even among the Space Marines."
Then Serith walked past Trixie again, moving toward the fortress perimeter. "Follow me. We can speak on the way toward the fortress. I will see to it you are granted access to the greater part of our little base, but do be careful not to touch anything important. My brothers can be most... unfriendly with unfamiliar creatures about."
Trixie didn't like the sound of that, but figured that since she had finally gotten access to Ferrous Dominus she might as well use it before Serith changed his mind.
"Trixie imagines you were being facetious when you referred to Ferrous being 'little'," the unicorn remarked, "it's the biggest city Trixie has ever seen."
"Oh? Your people must not have very big population centers, then," Serith noted, "among my species, it is merely larger than the average military base. And even that is only due to the manufactorum facility dominating the center of it."
Trixie chewed over that tidbit for a while, looking up into the sky as another of the airborne vehicles descended from high above.
"Where do your people come from? If you've built cities larger than this, Trixie has to imagine she'd have heard of you before now."
Serith looked over at her. "Well now, if you're asking where humans come from, that would be a world called Terra that lies far, far to the Galactic West of here. If you're asking where the 38th Company comes from, that would be the fleet of starships in high orbit above your planet."
Trixie was silent for almost a full minute as she continued following the Sorcerer, staring at the descending dropship. Deeper into the fortress, she could spot another identical craft lifting up over the enormous buildings, tilting upward as its rear engines burned toward escape velocity.
To leave the planet.
And join other vehicles.
In space.
"Oh... my," Trixie said weakly, suddenly feeling much, much smaller compared to the metal giant next to her.


Trixie and Serith reached the security perimeter in short order, and now that she was closer Trixie could make out dozens of Astartes marching about behind heavy defensive walls. There were just as many humans, but the defenses seemed dominated by the Space Marines and their vehicles, while the humans mostly huddled in the bunkers or lounged against the barricades.
She got no shortage of curious looks as she passed by the defensive line - much to her quiet pleasure - but no one stopped her or spoke to Trixie while she stayed close behind Serith. Humans quickly scurried away to be out of their path, while even the Astartes took a long glance at Serith before finding something else to do and getting out of their way.
"Are you an official here? Perhaps a leader?" Trixie asked, having recovered fully from the revelation that she was walking into a city of militant aliens.
"Hardly. Sorcerers are not given leadership roles in the Iron Warriors. We are not trusted," Serith explained, "the reason no one challenges my decisions is simply because they fear my attention."
Trixie frowned at that, not liking the idea that the magical class of humans were treated so poorly.
"Why is that?" then she walked up closer to ask in a hushed voice, "Are they jealous?"
Serith chuckled again. "Perhaps some are. But my brothers are ever suspicious of powers beyond the realm of their precious science. The Iron Warriors do not reject sorcery as a matter of course, but are keen to never rely upon it. That means that me and my ken are few and not well-respected. On the other hand, such fears mean that I am rarely burdened with duties like so many of my brothers. It allows me to pursue... other projects."
"Oh? Like what?" Trixie asked.
"Such as personally investigating the first psychic signature I sensed, for one," Serith said, "I don't make a habit of wandering around outside of our security corridors."
As they passed by the last of the guards, Serith and Trixie stepped between a pair of gun towers where a gap was awaiting a wall section.
"But enough about me. Tell me of yourself, Great and Powerful Trixie," the Sorcerer asked, his gaze fixed on the unicorn.
"Ah, Trixie's best topic!" Trixie said with a smile. "Trixie has traveled far and wide proving herself the most amazing and skilled unicorn that Equestria has ever seen!"
Then she paused, and added reluctantly, "With some exceptions."
"I see. And what is 'Equestria'? I'm afraid I know as little about your people as you do mine," Serith mumbled.
"Oh, it's the nation your city has been built in," Trixie explained briefly. She was looking around at the interior of the fortress now, marveling at the vast expanses of pipes and thrumming machines that were piled up into great monoliths between avenues. There were many more humans about now than Space Marines, but Trixie noted that many of them had metal parts sticking out of them, for some reason.
"I was not aware your world had a complex political structure," Serith noted.
"Indeed we do," Trixie continued, "all of Equestria is ruled by Princess Celestia, guardian of the sun and current head of Canterlot's royal family."
"Monarchy. And a solar cult. And you say that... 'magic' is commonplace?" Serith asked, as if rolling the word around on his tongue.
"Well, it's a basic tool for about a third of all ponies," Trixie explained, frowning at a chain gang that was hauling a massive steel wagon full of rebar, "although if you ask Trixie, it's pathetic how few unicorns bother to develop their magic beyond basic levitation."
"What a curious society you have," Serith mumbled, stopping and turning toward the unicorn, "may I?"
Trixie looked confused, but nodded hesitantly. "Uh... sure?"
Serith kneeled down so that his visor could look the blue pony in the eyes, and he cupped Trixie's chin in one hand.
Trixie shivered slightly at the Sorcerer's touch; not out of fear, but because his armored gauntlets were disturbingly cold.
"Hm. A shadow of Warp corruption, but it is... old. Faded. As if you had not used your powers for some time," the psyker mused.
Trixie snorted, staring into his helm's glimmering visor. "Trixie practices magic every day. Trixie isn't sure what you're checking for, but you're quite mistaken."
Serith tilted his head one way and budged Trixie's the other. "When our minds touch the Warp and reconfigure reality around us, it leaves... scars. Both in the fabric between the material universe and the Immaterium, and in the mind and soul of the psyker. But perhaps not for unicorns?"
Trixie recoiled, pulling her face out of the Sorcerer's grasp. "T-Trixie has no idea what you're talking about!" she shouted nervously.
Serith stood up, scratching at the chin of his helm. "I suppose not. Well then," he turned toward a short vox amplifier tower that was mounted to the side of an avenue and bristling with antennae, "will you be needing time to prepare?"
"Pardon?" Trixie asked.
"You're going to put on a show for us, aren't you?" Serith asked, tapping a console on the tower. "I look forward to seeing what one of the greatest and most powerful unicorns can do."
Trixie immediately stood up straight. "Of course! Trixie just needs to prepare some props, and-"
"Oh, you needn't worry about such details. I have quite a performance planned for you," Serith said with an echoing chuckle.
His fingers swept across the console for several seconds, overriding much of the routine vox traffic that was organizing the construction and linking the network to his helmet transmitter.
"Attention, all base personnel. This is Lord Serith speaking with a happy announcement to make."
Trixie blinked as Serith's voice was echoed a half-second after him by the speakers mounted on the tower, along with dozens of other such towers such that his words blanketed the base far and wide.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie, a most capable representative of the local species, has graced us with her presence in our humble facility today and offered to perform a show for us to demonstrate the talents of her race. Come one, come all, to the secondary gunnery range in sector 8 to witness her feats of sorcerous might! Any base personnel, humans and brothers, not on active duty and any menials on their rest period may attend. The show begins within the hour."
Serith deactivated the vox link and turned back toward Trixie. "How is that?"
"Perfect!" Trixie said with a hesitant smile. "It's just... what did you mean when you said you were planning Trixie's performance? Trixie runs her own show!"
"Oh, nothing you need worry about. Simply a little game I'd like you to play for the troops. I'm certain it will be ENTIRELY within your substantial abilities," the Sorcerer said, soothing Trixie's unease with a boost to her ego.
Trixie rolled her eyes, accepting the reasoning with a pretentious sigh. "Very well, Trixie will humor you for now. You ARE doing Trixie a favor by letting her in the base, apparently."
"Indeed. Now please, follow me. I'd like to show you your new... resting place."


****


Ponyville - Rainbow Dash's house


"This is the silliest and most awesome thing I've ever seen," Tellis proclaimed, his flight pack hissing as he hovered above Rainbow Dash's house.
"What? This? You're kind of easily impressed, aren't you?" Rainbow chuckled, floating just ahead of the Chaos Raptor. "You can make ships that fly through space, but cloud buildings amaze you?"
"This doesn't make one bit of sense," Tellis said, giggling in a way that would have seemed almost girlish if it wasn't being pushed through his augmented vox grille, "I'm serious, I'm running every scan I can think of with this thing and my visor just keeps reading 'Bullshit. This is BULLSHIT'. It's hilarious!"
Rainbow giggled herself as she landed in front of the entrance, small puffs of cloud wafting up from her hooves.
"Well, I don't know if the inside is going to impress you as much, but come on in!" she opened the door, trying to remember if she had any good snacks left in her kitchen.
Tellis tilted forward to bring himself over the front "porch" of the cloud, and then cut his flight pack.
He couldn't honestly say that he was surprised when his boots completely failed to find any purchase on the surface of the cloud and he plummeted to the ground.
Rainbow Dash blinked, and then she winced when she heard a loud THUD that announced her houseguest's impromptu meeting with the ground.
The pegasus quickly took off and flew down to find him. It wasn't very hard, as he had landed face-down and spread-eagle with his rocket-wings quivering above him.
"So... why didn't you just fly after you fell through the cloud?" Rainbow asked, hovering over the prone Iron Warrior.
"I was busy wondering why either of us thought that might work," Tellis mumbled, pushing his face up out of the dirt and marveling at the impression of his helmet that had been left into the ground.
Rainbow shifted into a seated pose while still hovering. "Well, the way I see it, there are ponies that can fly, and those ponies can stand on clouds. So if there are humans that can fly, shouldn't those humans be able to stand on clouds?"
Tellis stood up properly, clods of dirt falling from his armor. "I see absolutely no flaw in that logic. Maybe the clouds are the problem? They probably just can't support my weight. I get that sometimes even from materials that AREN'T gaseous in form."
As the two mused over the perplexing matter of a physical impossibility actually proving to be impossible, a quiet, timid voice suddenly came from behind Tellis.
"Um, excuse me, M-Mister? Is n-now a better time to talk?"
Tellis tilted his head back, annoyed. "Oh, great, it's YOU again. What do you want NOW, voice outside my head?"
Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. Fluttershy was crouched several meters away from them behind a tree and visibly quivering as she peeked out at the Chaos Space Marine.
"That's just Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash explained.
Tellis tilted his gaze toward the blue pegasus. "You're naming the voices that speak to me now? And you couldn't come up with a better name than that? It sounds like the name of a fawn-like weakling!"
Rainbow pointed a hoof over at the tree.
Tellis turned to look at where she was pointing and saw a yellow pony right before it squeaked and hid completely behind the tree.
"Yeah, it sounds like the name of something like that!" Tellis agreed with a nod, looking back at Rainbow.
Rainbow didn't speak, and continued to hover in place with her hoof pointing toward the tree.
"Ohhhhhhhh. NOW I get it." Tellis turned fully toward the tree that Fluttershy was hiding behind. "So what's wrong with this one?"
"Oh, she's just scared. You DO look kind of dangerous," Rainbow allowed, floating over toward her fellow pegasus.
"'Kind of'?" Tellis asked indignantly.
"Hey Fluttershy, what's up?" Rainbow Dash asked, rounding the tree to find Fluttershy practically wrapped into a trembling ball. "It's okay, it's me!"
Fluttershy slowly stood up to speak to her friend, mindful to stay completely hidden from the terrifying person in powered armor.
"H-Hi Rainbow. Do you know that... uhm..."
"His name's Tellis," Rainbow said, "he's a Chaos Space Marine. Don't worry, he won't hurt you!"
"I can't vouch for the accuracy of that statement," Tellis pointed out, waiting on the other side of the tree, "but I must admit that killing you doesn't seem like it would be much fun."
Fluttershy started shaking again, and Rainbow sighed as she watched the color start to drain from her face.
"Flutter, did you want to talk to me or something? You didn't come out here to meet the aliens, I'm guessing."
Fluttershy composed herself and leaned in toward the other pegasus. "Well, it's just that... Mister Tellis kind of... put a hole in my cottage earlier."
Rainbow's expression went blank, and then she winced, her ears dropping flat against her head.
"Ah. Right. That happened. I kinda forgot."
Rainbow landed and lowered her head. "Well, look, I have to admit that was my fault too. I didn't think he'd just go through the wall like it wasn't there."
"Is THAT what this is about? One lousy hole in a wall?" Tellis asked, finally stepping around the tree.
Fluttershy squeaked and immediately darted behind Rainbow Dash.
"I destroyed a main battle tank, two APCs, a Tau Fireblade, and a Crisis Suit all before noon, and you're complaining about some rough re-modeling on your little cabin? I even managed to get through the first window without tearing anything up!"
"Eep! I'm sorry! I don't know what any of that means, but don't be mad!"
Rainbow rolled her eyes, but lifted a hoof toward Tellis. "Naw, come on, Tellis, this is different. If you break your friend's stuff you've gotta help fix it."
Tellis leaned over to one side, trying to get a good look at the cowering Fluttershy. "My friend? She's not my friend."
"Well, we're friends, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Damn straight! You kicked a missile off my tail!"
"And Fluttershy is my friend. Since I'm friends with her and I'm also friends with you, that makes her your friend too!" Rainbow grinned, obviously proud of the conclusion.
Tellis was silent for several seconds. "I wish I had the wherewithal to dispute that," he admitted, crossing his arms over his chest and rattling the skulls that were hanging over it. "Fine. Lord Tellis is at your disposal, Fluttershy. What do you want me to do to amend for your extremely low-key property damage?"
Fluttershy swallowed nervously, but she did feel somewhat reassured at hearing the Raptor Lord accept her as a friend. She didn't step out from behind Rainbow Dash, though.
"Well, I just thought maybe you could fix the wall? Or maybe just put up a temporary one? If it's not too much trouble, I mean..."
"Actually, yeah, that sounds like a huge hassle," Tellis said, glancing around as if looking for something interesting to do.
As Fluttershy wilted, Rainbow snorted. "Oh, it is not. I have an idea!"


****


Ponyville - Fluttershy's cottage


"There, see? This is crazy easy!"
Tellis might have been inclined to think that was because Rainbow Dash and her more timid friend were simply watching while he did all the work, but even he had to admit that this was way simpler than actually fixing or building a wall.
He was currently carrying two large pieces of poly-ceramic armor carved from the wreck of the hammerhead still smoldering in the center of town. With all that wreckage still lying around, why not put the extra material to use?
Several animals were milling around the gaping hole in Fluttershy's home before the roar of Tellis' flight pack sent them bolting in all directions, and the Raptor Lord landed heavily outside the cottage with the blue-and-black armor held over his head.
"All right, then. One!" He slammed one of the plates of armor in front of the hole, sinking it deep into the dirt around the foundation. "And two!" He did the same with the other piece, adjusting it slightly so that it lined up cleanly in covering the breach.
"See? All done!" Rainbow said with a nod. Fluttershy didn't look so sure, although she wasn't about to complain openly to anyone.
"Not quite. Hold on a microcycle," Tellis mumbled, noting that the plates weren't secured to the wall in any way.
With a crackle of energy his lightning claws sprang from his gauntlets, and he reared a hand back before stabbing it deep into the far side of one plate, slicing through the armor and the flimsy wooden wall behind it.
With a sharp twist of his arm, his claws snapped off of his gauntlet in a burst of crimson electricity, leaving the blades lodged in place.
"Er, Mister Tellis? I, uh, have some nails, um, if you need-" Fluttershy started to speak, but Tellis cut her off as he stabbed the other armor plate.
"You can't push a mundane nail through poly-ceramic silicate. Although it'd be funny to try, just to watch it snap."
He twisted his other arm, snapping off the powered talons.
Stepping back, Tellis planted his fists on his hips as he admired his handiwork.
"Ha! Who needs those Mechanicus dweebs to build a wall? All you need is a few spare blades!"
"Okay, but... didn't you need those?" Rainbow asked, staring at the shards of metal sticking out.
"Eh, they'll grow back."
"They WILL?"
Fluttershy didn't really know what to say, although that was more because she was still uncomfortable talking to the scary psychotic man than because she was overcome by emotion.
"So, are we done here? Because I'd like to get back to solving my problems with murder as soon as possible," Tellis asked.
"What do you think, Fluttershy? That's good, right?" Rainbow asked, beckoning toward the panels of alien materials.
"Well... uhm..." the timid pegasus hesitated, never one to volunteer criticism.
"This is better than your old wall anyway," Tellis insisted, slamming a fist into the barrier and putting a few new cracks into the surrounding cottage structure, "Tau vehicle armor is sturdy, light, and insulates well! Plus it's impervious to small arms fire, unlike the rest of your home!"
The report of a combat rifle came from behind him, and a pair of high-caliber bullets slammed into the panels. They bounced off loudly, but didn't even crack the surface of the ablative paneling. Both pegasi recoiled, startled by the gunshots.
"See? Check it out! Barely a mark! You might even want someone to knock down the rest of your house so you can replace-" another bullet slammed into his shoulder pad and another into his greaves, cracking the outer ceramite. "Oh, hey, Kroot."
Rainbow Dash set her jaw as a tall, spiny-haired alien stepped out from the trees, reloading its rifle. "You guys again? You have a lot of nerve showing up here, jerks!" 
Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow as best she could while they were both in the air, having no idea what was going on. Tellis just watched.
The Kroot snarled a threat at the Space Marine, although it seemed surprised that Tellis hadn't responded much to being shot. Several of its kin slowly stepped out behind the trees, each of them hissing happily as they sighted fresh prey.
Some of them were carrying ropes attached to animals hung over their shoulder, while one of them was clutching a net in which several small animals struggled uselessly to escape.
Fluttershy gasped as she spotted one creature in particular squirming angrily within the net.
"Angel Bunny! Rainbow, they have Angel!" Fluttershy gasped, grabbing hold of the blue pegasus and shaking her. "He must have wandered outside while I was gone! We have to save him!"
Rainbow grimaced, looking at the cautiously advancing aliens. "Uh... there's kind of a lot of them, Flutter."
Tellis glanced over at the pair, but continued watching silently.
Fluttershy stopped shaking Rainbow and floated forward, wringing her hooves as she addressed the aliens directly.
"Please, Mister Kroot! Let Angel go! You're hurting him!" she begged, pressing her hooves together in front of her face and staring imploringly at the carnivorous warriors.
Their response was to draw hunting blades. The nearest one licked its beak. The rest, which numbered seven more Carnivores, started to encircle the trio, all of them keeping a wary eye on the Iron Warrior.
As Fluttershy recoiled, Tellis finally shrugged. "This isn't a combat group. These Kroot are just hunters."
Rainbow Dash flew up higher, not liking the way the aliens were looking at Fluttershy. "What does that mean?"
"It means that even without the claws, this is going to be really easy," he turned his helmet toward Fluttershy, ignoring the two Kroot that had circled around him and were approaching his back.
"Hey. You want something in that sack released?"
Fluttershy gaped, and then nodded her head rapidly. "Y-YES! Please!"
"Fine. But after this we're even," Tellis said as the hunters behind him lunged.
The loud crack of splintering bones came from one of the Kroot as a swinging metal backhand struck it in the torso, smashing it aside and into its partner.
"Blood for the Blood God," Tellis said simply, as if the battle cry was a mere formality. And then he charged.
The Kroot armed with a rifle fired a burst as the Raptor leapt toward them, but the shots went wide, only one barely scraping the edges of his bicep armor in a spray of sparks.
Tellis pistoned a fist into that hunter, lifting it clear off the ground as its rib cage crumbled.
The one carrying the net was next, and the alien swung a knife with its free hand desperately once the metal giant blurred toward it.
The blade scraped uselessly against Tellis' vambrace, and he seized the hunter by the neck with both hands, his metal fingers closing tight around its throat.
"I'll be perfectly honest, strangling victim: I don't have anything against you killing random animals in the forest to eat. In fact, I'm not even that excited about wailing on all of you."
The other Kroot had surrounded him now and were hammering away at him from the back and sides, trying to find gaps in his armor for their knives.
"But this is the way of friendship! I guess. I'm kind of new to it."
As the Kroot in front of him collapsed to its knees, dropping the net and clawing desperately at the hand around its throat, Tellis felt a blade slide into the back of his knee. The crude weapon penetrated the exposed tubing and sliced through the gen-enhanced flesh beneath, and the hunter crowed as he pushed his weapon deeper.
In response, Tellis spread the wings of his flight pack and ignited the engines to hovering velocity, and the Kroot screamed and backed away as low-intensity flames and scalding gases blasted into them.
"So, yeah. I'm not technically sorry about this, but I'm not thrilled about it either. I just wanted to let you know that you haven't done anything wrong here, except maybe being a little too gutsy when you only have one real weapon between the lot of you. Goodbye, strangling victim."
The Kroot's body went slack, and Tellis could feel the last minute signs of struggle leave the alien's body.
He let the corpse fall and idly bent his wounded leg, testing it for any severe tendon damage. The blood had already clotted, and the pain was bearable.
"Oh, thank you Mister Terrifying Murderer!" Fluttershy cried as she immediately rushed to the net, pulling it open as fast as possible to free the creatures trapped within.
"Fluttershy, his name is Tellis," Rainbow reminded her.
"I answer to both, actually," Tellis assured her as he glanced around, "hey, where did the other xenos go? I'm pretty sure I only killed three of them." The area around Fluttershy's cottage was now clear, and there were a few animals making panicked runs for Fluttershy's home as the nearest safe haven.
"They booked it right after you blasted them off you," Rainbow Dash said scornfully, pointing a hoof toward the edge of the forest, "those freaks sure can run."
Tellis tapped a metal finger against his vox grill. "Huh. Right back to their base. That gives me an idea."


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 9C, secondary gunnery range


The crowd gathered in response to Serith's announcement was a small fraction of the base personnel eligible to attend, although even then there were almost three hundred assembled in the gunnery range.
Partially this was a reflection of their alert status; most of the soldiers were manning the barricades as the palisade went up, while most of the workers were busy building.
Of those that did find themselves free, most ignored the message. Few of the Astartes and Dark Mechanicus units wanted to waste their time on simple-minded diversions, and they were anyway wary of anything that involved sorcery or was endorsed by the Company's most powerful psyker.
The soldiers and menials were more interested, though. Entertainment was hard to come by in an Iron Warrior establishment, and they were more curious about a xeno being given access to the fortress proper. The hapless mortals weren't given much in the way of free time, however, and not too many were willing to give up sleep or a meal for some sideshow.
The secondary gunnery range was quite a large stretch of land on account of it being set up to train with field guns and mortars as well as rifles. There were multiple lifts underneath the range that connected to the fortress' primary tunnel network as well, so that targets could be moved underground into position quickly.
The crowd of spectators were standing or sitting on the range in a ring in front of one such lift, milling about and making idle chatter as they waited for the show to start. Those at the front were almost all soldiers, and they made up the bulk of the crowd, while the menials, little more than glorified slaves, stood behind them and tried to get a look as best they could. There were but a dozen Chaos Space Marines in attendance, and they stood on the fringe of the crowd, waiting silently. Only four Dark Techpriests waited for the show, although they were eagerly chattering with each other in binary as they stood off to the side, just in front of the Astartes, so at least they seemed more interested.


Much of the chatter died down as a figure in heavily stylized power armor began walking through the crowd, and everyone in his path quickly stepped away to open a corridor to the makeshift stage.
Serith paid the spectators no mind as he approached the control panel on the side of the range, stepping up on top of a raised platform and linking his helmet vox to the system installed above before cranking up the volume.
"WELCOME, BROTHERS AND SERVANTS OF THE COMPANY," the Sorcerer's voice boomed over the field and silenced the last few pockets of conversation, "THANK YOU FOR FINDING TIME IN OUR MOST DEMANDING SCHEDULE TO ATTEND THIS DIVERSION. I AM SERITH, HIGH SORCERER OF OUR MOST ESTEEMED COMPANY!"
All of the Iron Warriors knew that, of course, but it came as a surprise to almost everyone else in the field to actually see a Legion psyker. Unlike some other legions, the Iron Warriors did not often give their psykers specific strategic roles or titles, and Serith didn't make a habit of requesting deployment when they reached a mission area.
"BUT YOU'RE NOT HERE TO SEE YET ANOTHER MASTER OF THE DARKER POWERS PLY THEIR MACABRE TRADE. TODAY YOU ARE HERE TO WELCOME... THE GREAT... AND POWERFUL... TRIXIE!"
At the final syllable, floor panels above the central gunnery platform swung upward and a lift started to rise up above the ground as small-scale fireworks fired up and burst low over the crowd.
Atop the lift, which continued rising until it stood about a meter above the ground, was a grinning blue unicorn in a star-covered wizard's hat and cape with a picture of a magician's wand stamped on her flank.
Trixie's entrance was greeted with scattered applause and murmuring, with many people shuffling to get a good look at the alien creature and no one impressed by the fireworks.
Not her best reception, but far from her worst. Ah, well.
"HELLO, CITIZENS OF FERROUS DOMINUS!" Trixie shouted into the vox headset that hung over one ear and fed her voice to the vox casters. "AND WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA, LAND OF WONDER AND HARMONY! IT IS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE'S UTMOST PLEASURE TO WELCOME YOU OBNOXIOUSLY MILITANT SPACE MEN TO OUR FINE KINGDOM, AND IMPLORES YOU NOT TO BURN IT DOWN!"
That got some laughs from the crowd, although most of them guessed she wasn't joking.
"YOUR CONSPICUOUSLY WELL-ARMORED WIZARD HAS PREPARED A CHALLENGE FOR THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, ONE OF THE MIGHTIEST UNICORNS IN ALL OF EQUESTRIA! WATCH WITH AWE AND WONDER AS SHE BESTS YOUR SORCERER'S TRIVIAL TESTS WITH HER GREAT AND POWERFUL MAGIC!"
She smirked over at the control platform as the applause built significantly, and even the Space Marines paid noticeably more attention as Serith responded.
"INDEED, TRIXIE, I HAVE PREPARED A CHALLENGE FOR YOU. IT'S QUITE POPULAR AMONG MY PEOPLE, AND WILL PROVE A FINE TEST OF YOUR ARCANE SKILLS," Serith said with a hollow chuckle, "WE CALL IT 'ARENA DEATHMATCH'."
With that, the Sorcerer worked at the control panel, and Trixie's platform started to sink down to ground level as another lift opened.
Trixie's smirk vanished. "WAIT. DEATHMATCH?" She couldn't help but notice that the crowd started cheering and whistling once they had heard what her challenge was. "IS THAT LIKE A MAGIC DUEL? BECAUSE TRIXIE HAS ACTUALLY RESOLVED NOT TO-"
Serith continued his spiel, cutting her off. "YOUR FIRST OPPONENT SHOULD BE A SIMPLE MATTER; A TORVID-PATTERN BUTCHER AUTOMATA. ACTIVATING IN THREE..."
Trixie turned hesitantly toward the new lift, and her fur stood on end as she saw a metal sphere larger than she was rising from the opening.
"TWO..."
It was covered by optics lenses and prehensile metal tentacles, each of which ended in grasping claws or spinning blades. It had no legs or propulsion systems of any other kind, and the sphere was lifted up by its many tendrils while others aimed themselves quite obviously in Trixie's direction.
"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WHAT IS THA-"
"ONE. GOOD LUCK!"
Trixie yelped as the automata broke into a loping run, its tentacle-legs lashing wildly underneath it as it crossed the distance between them with frightening speed. The spherical body bobbed left and right and down in a basic evasion pattern, and at least a dozen spinning razors were aimed forward directly at the blue unicorn's horrified face as it advanced.
"YEEP! G-GET AWAY!" Trixie recoiled, her horn flaring with magic underneath her hat as she lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
A blast of magical energy engulfed the butcher drone, striking it directly while it was still out of reach of its target.
It didn't slow down, however, and continued stalking forward toward engagement range. The first of the tentacles lashed out, using what little slack it had to bring its weapon point into the target.
It swung just short, swiping closely enough that Trixie could feel the wind from its passing brush her nose, and the unicorn's eyes snapped open again.
Several more tentacle-blades swung and thrust toward her, but these ones fell even further short than the first attack, pulling and straining uselessly toward her face.
The cheering crowd fell silent as the butcher automata's body slowly floated up into the air, its "legs" lifting off of the ground and robbing it of its means of locomotion. The tendrils whipped about wildly, but they seemed utterly helpless to deal with this unexpected obstacle.
The crowd seemed equally flummoxed as the machine floated upward, far out of engagement range. Although the closest ones noticed that the drone's body seemed curiously translucent, and had a string hanging down from a nozzle on the bottom.
"Wait... did she turn the bloody automata into a balloon?"
Trixie took a few seconds to take some heavy breaths. Not because of any great exertion in casting that spell, but simply because her heart was thundering in her chest like it wanted to escape.
Serith watched the automata rise above the crowd, its tentacles lashing uselessly. The crowd had gotten over its shock for the most part, and there was mounting laughter as the men pointed up at the machine's absurd plight.
There was some annoyed muttering coming from the Dark Techpriests, though. They probably felt sorry for the pitiful thing.
"WELL, I MUST DECLARE THAT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE HAS WON." Then, after a moment, he added, "FLAWLESS VICTORY!"
The crowd's cheers and laughter increased threefold, and Trixie's expression quickly shifted as her ingrained showmanship took over.
"WAS THERE EVER ANY DOUBT? WITH A SINGLE SPELL, YOUR CREEPY METAL THING HAS BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE ARENA!"
"YOUR HIND LEGS ARE QUIVERING," Serith pointed out.
Trixie sat down on her haunches immediately, and the crowd's laughter rose up again.
"AHEM! NOW THAT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE HAS COMPLETED YOUR SILLY LITTLE CHALLENGE, SHE WILL-"
"ACTUALLY," Serith's booming voice interrupted Trixie's, drawing a glare from the unicorn, "I HAVE MORE OPPONENTS FOR YOU. THE GAME WILL CONTINUE UNTIL... HM?"
The sorcerer glanced over at a large ammo crate that had been engulfed in magic and was floating up next to his platform, positioning itself over the control panel.
Then it smashed itself against the panel, crushing the various buttons and controls into a useless mess.
Trixie smashed the crate into the control panel two more times for good measure, only releasing her hold on the crate when the controls were a twisted heap of metal spewing sparks.
"AND WITH BUT ONE MORE SPELL, TRIXIE HAS TRAPPED YOUR REMAINING OPPONENTS UNDERGROUND, DEFEATING THEM ALL BY DEFAULT!"
The crowd seemed to like this turnaround a great deal, the laughter swelling again.
"NOW, MAY TRIXIE GO ON WITH HER SHOW, OR DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER LITTLE 'TESTS' FOR HER?"
Serith looked at the mangled remains of the range console and shrugged, his large, ornate shoulder pads shifting upward. "NO, YOU GO AHEAD."
Trixie nodded sharply, and then returned her attention to her audience. That whole affair had been dicey, but she had admit that she had the crowd now like never before.
"TRIXIE'S NEXT ACT IS ONE WHERE SHE CHALLENGES YOU, THE AUDIENCE! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE DOES NOT KNOW IF YOU HUMANS HAVE SPECIAL TALENTS, OR ANY TALENTS OTHER THAN CONSTRUCTING STUPIDLY HUGE BUILDINGS, BUT SHE WILL ACCEPT ANY CONTEST OF WITS AND SKILL! JUST... NO MORE DUELS OR DEATHMATCHES, OKAY?"
The crowd started murmuring to itself as the audience turned inward, discussing what sort of challenges to bring forward and whether it would be safe. They were all fine watching something else get turned into a balloon for sport, but not many among the personnel were willing to challenge a psyker.
It came as a surprise to everyone when the first person to step forward was one of the Iron Warrior spectators.


"You two. Go fetch a crate of boltguns and spare ammunition," the Astartes demanded, glancing toward a few soldiers at the edge of crowd nearest to the "stage".
A lot more than two men dashed off to fulfill his request, and the Iron Warrior continued walking up to the lowered platform.
"AH! A CHALLENGER!" Trixie looked utterly unimpressed by the soldier that towered over her in gunmetal armor, even as she craned her neck up to make eye contact. "SO YOU'RE THE FIRST TO TASTE HUMILIATION AT THE HANDS OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, ARE YOU? WHAT IS YOUR NAME, SPACE MARINE?"
The Iron Warrior didn't bother linking to the vox network over the speakers, speaking at normal volume. "I am Myenas. Squad champion of the Burning Talons," he said simply.
The humans came back carrying the requested munitions between them, and the Chaos Space Marine gestured to the gunnery range behind the platform.
"As for the challenge, since we find ourselves on a target range, let us hold a simple one: marksmanship. Basic bolter drill."
Trixie glanced behind the platform, where several boards had been placed at various ranges, each of them cut into outlines that vaguely matched the shapes of humans. The targets had target rings in various vital spots to identify the most precise shots.
"Any target you wish, any range. Get a better hit than I, xeno witch, and you are the victor. If you can even manage a boltgun, that is."
Trixie's expression soured. "THERE IS NO 'XENO WITCH' HERE TO TAKE YOUR CHALLENGE, MYENAS, BUT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE WILL GRACIOUSLY SEE TO YOUR DEFEAT INSTEAD, IF ONLY TO HELP MOVE THE SHOW ALONG. WE WOULDN'T WANT OUR AUDIENCE TO GET BORED, WOULD WE? YOU WILL GO FIRST."
A static-filled snort was all the response she got as the Iron Warrior stepped toward the box full of bolters. He had his own weapon mag-locked to his leg already, but didn't deign to use his own weapons for a petty contest such as this.
Trixie watched intently as the Astartes took up one of the Phobos-pattern boltguns and then loaded it with a magazine from the next crate.
Myenas pulled back the slide, and then raised the battle rifle up to align the iron sights with a target out at mid-field; not the most challenging shot, but still at a range where the boltgun's natural inaccuracy could affect a perfect shot in ideal conditions.
He pulled the trigger, and Trixie flinched as the weapon's retort rang in her ears.
A small explosion hit the target - reinforced so as to detonate the mass-reactive shells of boltguns - marking Myenas' shot. It was at the edge of one of the torso rings; not a marksman's hit by any means, but it was still a fatal blow to anything less durable than a Space Marine.
"Your turn," Myenas said simply, removing the clip from the boltgun and dropping it into the crate.
It was immediately swallowed by Trixie's magical energy and lifted back into the air, and the blue unicorn inspected the gun carefully as it hung over her head. The weapon was big, and even if Trixie had the anatomy to handle a rifle properly she would have struggled to hold the weapon due to its mass. The flat sides of the combat rifle were painted with black and yellow warning stripes, and the there were several attachment points for upgrade parts.
The bolter magazine that Myenas had removed floated up and locked into place, and the slide pulled itself back before Trixie leveled it out at a target about the same distance away as the one Myenas had fired on.
The trigger pulled back, and the boltgun shook mightily in the grip of her magic as it fired downrange.
"Awwwwww..." A wave of audible disappointment came from the audience as the bolt struck a sandbag pile further down the range, having missed the target completely. To be fair, the shot had come surprisingly close considering that the unicorn was firing a bolter for the first time, using telekinesis, and without using the sights properly, but it was still an obvious failure.
Trixie's hackles rose. "TH-THAT WAS A PRACTICE SHOT! A PRACTICE SHOT! THAT DIDN'T COUNT!" she bellowed into her headset.
"It takes months of training and thousands of 'practice shots' to become basically proficient with a bolter," Myenas scoffed, "I'll give you all the 'practice shots' you want, but I don't think your audience has so much time to waste."
Trixie cast a glare at the Chaos Space Marine and then returned her focus to the gun range, lining up the boltgun again as best she could.
Then a magical glow engulfed both the crate of bolters and the ammo crate next to it.
Myenas stepped back in surprise as all the other boltguns in the crate flew out the top and halted all around Trixie, each one aiming downfield in the general direction of the target. An equal number of bolter magazines were flung from the ammo box and fixed themselves into the floating battle rifles with near-perfect synchronization.
The crowd went silent, which allowed the sound of nineteen slides being pulled back to echo over the gun range, unchallenged.
The sound of twenty bolters firing on full auto hardly needed silence to dominate the field, and those members of the audience that started to cheer and laugh were drowned out by the ferocious roar of gunfire.
Trixie grit her teeth as the bolters shook all around her in their relentless barrage, brass casings spilling around her hooves.
After several seconds the bolters clicked empty, smoke pouring from their barrels as they shook and trembled in the air.
Trixie let out a long breath, and at once all twenty guns flew back into the munitions crate.
The target that she had been aiming for had been obliterated. Along with the two nearest targets to it. The ground all around the targets had been chewed apart from the barrage, and the sandbag barrier behind Trixie's mark was now more of a sand pile.
"That's... not how marksmanship contests work," Myenas pointed out, somewhat dumbfounded.
"TRIXIE BELIEVES YOUR TERMS WERE TO SCORE A BETTER HIT THAN YOU DID!" Trixie said with a smirk. "AND THAT'S PRECISELY WHAT TRIXIE DID! PROBABLY." Really, for all she knew the target had been knocked over and torn apart by the inaccurate hits before she had struck any of the target circles, but whatever.
The audience seemed willing to give it to her, judging by the whoops and cheers from the crowd, and the Iron Warrior cast an annoyed glance at the noisy throng cheering his defeat. Even the other Astartes were visibly enjoying themselves, shoulder pads shaking and vox-altered laughs bursting from their helmets.
Serith approached the brooding Space Marine and slapped a gauntlet onto his armored shoulder.
"Don't be a poor sport, Champion. This is, after all, merely a show. Do try to enjoy yourself," the Sorcerer said beneath a condescending chuckle.
Myenas grunted irritably, but turned away from the stage.


Trixie swept away the veritable puddle of spent bullet casings around her hooves, mildly annoyed that the humans' weapons had a tendency to litter.
"THAT WAS AN INTERESTING DISTRACTION, BUT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE REQUIRES A NEW OPPONENT! WILL NO ONE VOLUNTEER TO CHALLENGE TRIXIE?"
Before anyone else could try, Serith, who was still at the edge of the central platform, stepped up to the unicorn.
"VERY WELL, TRIXIE. I BELIEVE IT'S TIME YOU FACED A PROPER CHALLENGE TO YOUR SORCEROUS MIGHT."
Trixie gave the Astartes psyker a wary look, and then quickly raised a hoof to switch off her headset as the Sorcerer had shown her earlier.
"This isn't another combat match, is it? Because Trixie told you, Trixie doesn't do those!"
"THIS IS NO DUEL... AS SUCH."
The Sorcerer chuckled into the vox, and almost the entire audience shuddered at the insidious sound. "THIS IS A SUMMONING CHALLENGE!"
Trixie blinked. "Summoning?"
"INDEED. WE SHALL EACH SUMMON A CREATURE, ON THE SPOT AND WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONAL MATERIALS OR SACRIFICES."
Several humans in the crowd sighed in relief. Making daemons usually started by the summoner UNmaking the nearest mortals. Without that step they would only have to worry about being ripped apart by the summoned creatures, which at least gave them fair odds at running away.
"THE CREATURES WILL FIGHT FOR US. THE ONE WHOSE SUMMON IS VICTORIOUS IS THE WINNER."
Trixie chewed her lip. Summoning was very serious magic, and not a kind that she had extensive practice in. Serith wasn't just challenging her to some idle game, but asking for a straight-up measurement of their respective powers.
"The show must go on," Trixie mumbled under her breath before switching her headset back on.
"IF THOSE ARE YOUR TERMS, THEN THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE WILL BE ALL TOO HAPPY TO HUMILIATE YOU IN FRONT OF YOUR FELLOWS!"
Another laugh came from the psyker. He could see beads of sweat forming over Trixie's coat.
"AS YOU SAY. I WILL BEGIN."


Serith's summoning ritual was surprisingly short, given the complexity of such things, but visually stunning. Standing away from Trixie, he lifted his arms into the air and began chanting in a language that Trixie - and the vast majority of the crowd - did not recognize. Runic flares flickered to life above his hands in swirls of pale blue wychfire, and Trixie's fur stood on end as the air itself seemed to come alive with an electric charge.
Trixie grimaced at seeing the beginning of Serith's ritual. She had been hoping that she might be able to copy his spell and maybe change it on the spot, but that wasn't possible if she didn't even know what the words meant.
Shimmering psychic hoarfrost surrounded Serith's gauntlets as he turned his gaze skyward, his chanting reaching its apex as dark lightning crackled around his feet.
"SAALUUM-NARAHI-URUHM-NAHSAI..." his arms shaking, the Sorcerer swing his arms down toward the ground. "ARISE, SERPENT OF THE DEEP PITS!"
The lightning ran back and forth along an invisible seam across the ferrocrete floor, and Trixie felt her horn heat considerably as reality cracked open under his feet.
The creature that actually emerged was somewhat underwhelming, especially to the crowd of warriors that were used to fighting alongside the Ruinous Powers. It was a snake with shimmering, prismatic scales and three eyes. A relatively large snake, sure, and it probably had fangs that could pierce adamantium and venom that poison the very soul yadda yadda yadda, but the applause that came from the crowd could only be considered "polite".
"YOUR TURN, OH GREAT AND POWERFUL ONE," Serith said, holding an arm straight out. The snake slithered up over his belt and coiled around his arm, its eyes locked on the unicorn.
Trixie gulped. She, for one, could fully appreciate the difficulty of doing a summoning without any sacrificial materials, and she was plenty impressed with Serith's efforts.
She, on the other hand, had but one spell that could possibly summon a creature big enough to fight. She had only cast it once before with anything approaching success.
That had been while she had been practicing with a certain magic amulet. And even then, it hadn't exactly gone perfectly.
"PFT. IS THAT THE CREATURE YOU EXPECT TO DEFEAT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE'S GREAT AND POWERFUL SUMMON?" she taunted, her mouth running off while her mind raced in a completely different direction. "TRIXIE WILL MAKE BOOTS OUT OF THAT PITIFUL THING!"
And then her own spell began.
The strain showed almost immediately as her horn flared with magic and a runic circle appeared beneath her hooves. Trixie grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, and her tail whipped about wildly as she struggled to work through the spell.
The daemonic serpent around Serith's arm hissed and writhed as it felt reality start to tear once again. Serith himself merely waited silently, although he made sure that his helmet systems were recording this event for later review.
After almost twenty seconds, and despite dozens of soldiers in the crowd starting to chant her name for encouragement, Trixie started to tremble as the circle beneath her flickered.


She couldn't do it. The power just wasn't there. There wasn't enough energy in her, or rather, her horn, to complete the casting.
As she tried to keep from losing the spell, she thought back to the last time she had performed this magic, and the feeling of drawing magic from the Alicorn Amulet. It had been exhilarating and frightening at the same time.
And it was most definitely the source of that "scarring" that Serith had mentioned.
She had known exactly what he was referring to, even if no other unicorn would. The feeling of dipping into the energies outside her horn, the power thick with darkness and hate.
Even now, she could feel it...


The circle stabilized under Trixie's feet, and her horn sparked red.


She COULD feel it. The power swimming just beyond her perception, beyond the flow being channeled neatly and safely through her horn, boiling angrily just out of her reach.
The power that Serith had seized and molded like potter's clay, she realized.
And anything he could do, she could do BETTER, damn it!


Serith backed up a step as the ground started to tremble, feeling a definite change in the flow of Warp energy around the unicorn.
It was very fascinating: whenever Trixie used her horn, it seemed to act as safety conduit for the psychic energies, sucking the power out of the Empyrean steadily and without exposing Trixie's mind to the Warp. He suspected that such a method protected the pony's thoughts from the raw influence of the Warp and prevented vigilant daemons from noticing the use of sorcery.
As a result, it also sharply limited the amount of power a unicorn could draw upon. It was hardly any wonder that unicorns rarely developed their power beyond utilitarian means, as Trixie had told him. For a human psyker, a sixth sense meant constantly having an entire other universe waiting just within your reach, constantly whispering secrets and opening the material world to you in ways that terrorized the sensibilities of mundane men. To a unicorn it meant being able to lift things without touching them.
Something had changed in this case, though, and he could feel the Warp starting to react fully to Trixie's presence, its power spilling into the summoning circle like water into a drain.
The unicorn's eyes flared a bright red, and an updraft of wind that couldn't have possibly come from anywhere but the magic circle kicked up her cape and blew her hat off.
The noise from the spectators began to build louder as they saw the spell reach its apex, but Serith imagined that Trixie couldn't hear them anymore. Her mind was in a different place.
A great red seam split the air, forming an ugly, bleeding wound in the material universe, and then Trixie's beast emerged.
A huge dog-like daemon, twice the size of an Astartes and covered in barbed spines, clawed its way from the breach. Its flesh was stretched unevenly over its muscle, and there were tears in its hide where glistening ligaments were exposed to open air. Its snapping, drooling jaws were disproportionately large, with jagged, uneven teeth.
It also had a copy of Trixie's cutie mark on its hind leg. Serith thought that was a nice touch.
"Well, there's your opponent," the Sorcerer said quickly, backing away as the dog-daemon finished emerging from the breach, "go get it!" He flung his daemonic serpent at the thing exactly as one would hurl a chunk of meat at a hound to distract it, which was almost exactly what was happening.
Trixie's daemon, taking a few seconds to adjust to its physical form, saw the fellow daemon being thrown at it and snapped the creature up out of the air, crushing the serpent in one bite.
A roaring cheer came from the crowd at the completion of the match, with wild applause and howling laughter joined by chants of "TRIXIE!! TRIXIE!!"
As for the unicorn herself, she was slowly backing away from her summoned beast, a horrified expression on her face as she retrieved her hat from the ground where it had landed.


The spell had failed.
Not in the sense that she hadn't summoned anything, obviously; she had brought a terrifying monster into being, and it had done its job. Although Trixie had to admit she would have appreciated something a little less gruesome, she had even manage to brand the daemon's physical form.
But every wizard knew that the hardest part of a summoning spell was not simply yanking things from one plane to the other, but rather imposing control upon the creature once it had arrived.
She had kind of dropped the ball on that one.
"UHM, TRIXIE ADVISES EVERYONE TO GIVE THE SUMMON A BIT OF ROO-"
Her warning was interrupted by a screeching roar from the daemon before it jumped toward the audience.
One man went down screaming as its claws threw him to the ground, and the daemon stretched his jaws wide open before spitting a volley of bone shards into the crowd, cutting down the nearest spectators.
Trixie whimpered and pulled her hat down over her eyes and ears, trying to block out the shrieks.
For the daemon's part, it had gotten the jump on the humans, certainly, but it was currently attacking a crowd of soldiers not unfamiliar with such monsters. As it crushed the body beneath its claw and closed its mouth to replenish it's projectile spines, nearly a hundred lasguns were unslung and aimed, and the first volleys speared into the daemon's body before it could continue its rampage.
Twenty, thirty, fifty, and more bolts of hot light cut into the raging hellbeast, swallowing its vision in red and burning away its un-flesh.
It screeched in anger, but the volleys didn't stop. A few mass-reactive shells from Myenas, who was closer than the other Chaos Space Marines, brought the beast to its knees, and its form slowly came undone as the body absorbed critical damage in a matter of seconds.
In moments the final growls of the daemon were lost to the wind, and the gunfire stopped as the beast crumbled to muddy red dust.


Trixie slowly crept away toward the side of the gunnery range, trying to keep her cool while also looking for any cue to break into a full gallop. It seemed obvious to her now, but she hadn't realized that her audience was so well-armed. It was going to be tricky getting out of Ferrous in one piece.
"This is Las Pegasus all over again," the unicorn grumbled, having already switched her headset off.
"WELL NOW, THAT WAS EXCITING, WASN'T IT?" Serith's voice boomed over the vox. What with his voice being transmitted via his helmet, Trixie couldn't really tell where the Sorcerer was by his voice.
It became pretty clear when his boot stepped on the edge of Trixie's cape to stop her from leaving, however.
"A BLOODY CONCLUSION TO THE FINAL CHALLENGE! BUT WE STILL HAVE BUSINESS TO WRAP UP, DON'T WE?"
Trixie pulled her hat down over her head again, mentally running through her list of spells that might divert the crowd long enough for her to escape.
"YOU HAVE HUMBLED ME, THE HIGH SORCERER. I CONCEDE DEFEAT. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE IS VICTORIOUS!"
As the crowd erupted into cheers again, Trixie blinked under her hat.
Raising her head again, she was utterly baffled to find herself surrounded by elated humans clapping and laughing brightly.
"Er... Trixie is confused..."
Serith deactivated his vox link before he spoke again. "Well, you did win the challenge. At no point did I state you had to properly control your summoned daemon. That was a brilliant interpretation of the rules, by the way. Most sorcerers would have been fearful of summoning a beast upon which they exercised no command."
The edge of Trixie's lip twitched upward as the humans in the audience started chanting.
"TRIX-IE! TRIX-IE! TRIX-IE!"
"Uh... okay..." then she leaned over toward Serith. "What about those people that Trixie's summon mauled? Trixie is pretty sure they're dead."
The Sorcerer's shoulder pads rose upward. "Meh."
"TRIX-IE! TRIX-IE! TRIX-IE!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - psyker dormitories


"Well, Trixie must admit that went better than she could have hoped," the unicorn sighed, walking onto a pillow and then lying down, "er... aside from those dead humans. Trixie really does feel bad about that."
Trixie and Serith had retired to the room that Serith had requisitioned for Trixie's use while she stayed in Ferrous Dominus. It was in a small (as far as the Iron Warriors were concerned) apartment complex attached to a secondary databank center, and was created specifically for housing the Company's few psyker personnel on the occasion that they might make planetfall rather than stay in orbit among the Harvest.
To Trixie, the room was practically cavernous, although she had to admit that the extremely sparse furniture made the extra room forbidding rather than pleasant. She had a bed and some pillows, a table that was too high for her and a computer console that she probably couldn't physically use even if she knew how it worked.
She wasn't sure if she was going to be staying in Ferrous Dominus for very long, but if so she was definitely going to have to spruce this place up.
"As I told you," Serith insisted, his heavy gauntlets dancing over the command console on the side of the room, "you needn't worry about the casualties. Attrition is a fact of life in our Company, and those killed were no one of import."
Trixie frowned, not entirely comfortable with the idea of having "casualties" from her performances. She wasn't going to insist on incriminating herself, however. She had gotten a break and she was going to seize it with both hooves.
"I must confess that in all my many, many years I have never used my skills for the petty entertainment of others before. It was surprisingly agreeable," Serith admitted.
"Well, it is Trixie's destiny and living. Which reminds Trixie: we should discuss the Great and Powerful Trixie's fee for her performance," Trixie said, her face stretching into a smile. "Although enthralling your citizens with Trixie's amazing prowess would be its own reward, even Trixie can't fill her belly with cheering."
Serith glanced over at the unicorn. "Ah, right. Matters of commerce. Hm."
The Sorcerer finished whatever he was doing at the console and then clasped his hands behind his back.
"This is where your fortune is... mixed, Lady Trixie. You see, the 38th Company is well-placed to purchase services from free agents, given our status as pirates pillaging the Imperium in order to resupply our fellow Legions. Commerce is well known to us."
Trixie blinked. "Wait, did you say you were pira-"
"On the other hand," Serith interrupted, "we are new to this world, and generally disdain alien currencies if not currency altogether. If you wish to be compensated, you will have to accept payment in kind."
Trixie didn't look happy about that, but she had to admit that it probably should have occurred to her earlier. The humans were from space; where would they get bits?
"That's disappointing, but Trixie imagines that you must be very wealthy in your own way to build all of THIS," she pointed her hoof all around, indicated their surroundings.
"To a Space Marine wealth is but a means to an end; resources exist to be expended," Serith explained, "I have little idea of what a pony would want for besides food and shelter, but I can secure almost whatever you wish."
Trixie nodded. "That's quite generous of you, Mister Serith. It's almost like you're trying to make up for loosing a terrifying death robot on Trixie." Her expression wasn't angry, merely annoyed. She probably would have resented the stunt more if it hadn't helped her hook her audience so easily.
"Don't be silly," Serith said between chuckles, "if I was trying to atone for that, I would have merely apologized. I have not done so because I'm not sorry."
Trixie rolled her eyes. "You found it that amusing, did you?"
"I find YOU amusing, Lady Trixie. Investigating and studying alien psykers... or 'magicians' in your case, is something of a hobby of mine. And you have proven to be a MOST intriguing specimen."
Almost anypony would have been creeped out at the revelation that an alien wizard thought of them as a promising science project.
Trixie was not just anypony.
"Of course Trixie is! You couldn't have chosen a greater or more powerful subject!" the unicorn preened, understanding only that she was of unique interest for her talents. "But still, doing that thing where Trixie draws magic power from outside her horn gives Trixie a burning hornache, so try to keep the magic challenges more low-key, okay?"
"Oh, you're no fun," Serith said.
At that point Serith's helmet alerted him to a vox transmission, and a short groan came from his helmet.
"A moment, please." The sorcerer turned away from Trixie as he connected to the transmission. It was very strong, so the source was obviously very close. "Yes, Warsmith? How may I be of service?"
"Sherith! I wish to shee you at once! Meet me in the data center antechamber!" The vox link was cut immediately.
"Ugh. He did not sound pleased. What does that oaf want now?" Serith grumbled to himself.
"Do you need to go?" Trixie asked. She was currently writing down a list of all the non-money things she could think of that she might want as payment.
"I'm afraid so. Unless you wish to meet the Warsmith? He's the supreme commander of the 38th Company."
Trixie quirked an eyebrow. "Is that a good idea?"
"It couldn't hurt. The man is mild-tempered to a fault and quite indulgent," Serith explained with a hefty shrug.
"Certainly, then!" Trixie bounced up and walked behind the Sorcerer as he exited the room into the hallways. "Is there anything in particular Trixie should know when meeting this 'Warsmith'? Any etiquette or something?"
"Just one: try not to make fun of his voice," Serith said. There was usually far more to be aware of when one was meeting a Chaos Lord, but Solon didn't care for petty formalities and feigned respect. Which was good, because he got little of either.


Trixie puzzled over the comment about the Warsmith's voice as they reached the blast doors at the end of the hall.
The doors sensed their approach and slid open, leading into the data center's main antechamber. Cogitator cores were stacked high into numerous support pillars around the room, bristling with memory coils that could be programmed and borrowed at a moment's notice. Piles of dataslates were lying everywhere, although most of the data center's supply was still circulated among the base personnel to explain the important details of their stay on Centaur III.
It was really hard to focus on all of that, though, with the giant mecha-spider-man-thing standing in front of the hallway.
"GAH!" Trixie yelped at seeing Warsmith Solon waiting for them outside the doors, and quickly darted behind Serith's legs.
Serith chuckled lightly. The unicorn dealt with him and the other Astartes fearlessly, but was startled by the Warsmith's massively reconstructed body. Silly creatures, these ponies.
Solon was briefly curious about the blue pony that had sought cover from him, but didn't let that distract him from his purpose.
"Sherith! I hear earlier that you were conducting shome short of magic show for the troopsh!" Solon said, his voice clearly in "reprimand" mode. The Warsmith towered over the Sorcerer on his chassis, and several of his mechatendrils glared and snapped at Serith angrily, sensing the mood.
"That is correct, Warsmith. I was disappointed that you could not attend," Serith said, his voice mockingly sad.
"I am very bushy helping Kaelith conshtruct the ground defenshe batteriesh. I have no time for shideshowsh," Solon explained as if he really needed an excuse not to attend, "but on that matter I wish to know how your little act reshulted in the deathsh of three men!"
Trixie winced badly from where she was listening in behind Serith's greaves.
Serith resisted the urge to sigh. "They were mere mercenaries, Warsmith. And sorcery is never an art that can be taken lightly."
"Then don't make a bloody act of it!" Solon said, pounding two of his six legs into the ground hard enough that Trixie bounced off the floor slightly.
"The show was an unmitigated success, Warsmith. Morale is high among the attendees, and I have received multiple requests for another such program," Serith said defensively, "I hardly think the loss of those three hapless mortals will be felt."
"It'sh the principle of the thing, Sherith!" Solon insisted, although his aggravated tone was weakening. "I know it liesh outshide your concernsh, but manpower ish a reshource, jusht like ammunition and material! I can accept the losh of men during combat, conshtruction, and even Warp travel, but I will not accept deathsh ash entertainment! We are not a blashted cult Legion!"
Trixie hesitantly poked her head out from behind Serith's legs in order to stare.
She'd seen a lot of strange things in her travels, and a great number in this very fortress, but nothing as bizarre or repulsive as this "Warsmith". Humans with metal devices replacing their limbs or mounted on their backs were commonplace from what she'd seen, but this was more like they'd built a horrifying machine and then placed a Space Marine on top.
Added to that, there was something inherently... VILE about the Astartes leader. Just looking at him made Trixie feel ill, and he smelled distinctly of burning rubber.
"T-Trixie would like to apologize for that," the unicorn stuttered, steeling herself as she stepped out from behind the Sorcerer.
Solon turned his attention to Trixie, his optics rotating as he captured data for analysis. "Oh? And who might you be, little one?"
"Th-The Great and P-Powerful Trixie," the blue unicorn said, shivering as she forced a smile.
"Ah. Then you were the shtar of that little show, then."
Solon crab-walked a few steps to the side, such that his full attention was unmistakably focused on the pony.
Trixie had never felt fear quite so keenly as she did at that moment, in the shadow of that metal monstrosity while being scrutinized by those glaring ruby lenses. Solon wasn't even really doing anything, like making threatening gestures or brandishing a weapon. He didn't have to. One sweep of his arm or clumsy misstep with those legs would break her like a soup cracker. She supposed that was true of any of the Astartes, but facing the Warsmith seemed to make her dwell on the matter.
"I expect that in any future performancesh you will keep cashualtiesh at zero, Mish Trixie. Sherith holdsh the livesh of hish brothersh and our shervantsh in dishdain, but I will not shuffer shuch pointlesh loshesh gladly."
"Yes, Warsmith. Your fondness for the human rabble is noted," Serith said, sounding tired.
"Fondnesh nothing!" Solon said, finally turning his metal bulk away from the trembling blue unicorn and stalking across the room. "Our brother Legionsh let their humansh rot in the shub-decksh, feed them to their daemonsh, and butcher them by the dozensh for shport and ritual! And then, when they take to the void, the imbecilesh wonder at the lack of experienced crew and ratingsh! It ishn't jusht gunsh and fuel we shupply to our brothersh, Sherith! The enginesh of war require labor, bodiesh, shoulsh!"
Solon kept on muttering, and Serith leaned over to speak to Trixie. "You must forgive him. He is ever the logistician, more concerned with the facility of warfare than its prosecution."
"Trixie sees what you were talking about with his voice, too," she mumbled back, "if Trixie wasn't rooted to the spot in fear, Trixie would be laughing."
"-more than shlaves to see to the maintenance of a Legion! Which ish why I didn't object to the premishe of pshykersh putting on showsh in the firsht place!"
The Warsmith's torso swiveled about on its chassis, allowing him to face the pair of psykers, and the enormous servo claw behind him jutted forward to point at them.
"If you keep thish in mind, then I have no issue with your performancesh. I demand only a minimal level of dishcretion from my sholdiersh and our agentsh. Ish that clear?"
"Of course, Warsmith Solon," Serith said, his hands still clasped behind his back and his attention elsewhere.
"Absolutely, Mister Solon, sir!" Trixie barked, snapping a hoof up to her forehead. "It was never Trixie's intent to hurt anypony! It won't happen again!"
Solon nodded, and a puff of foul ash blasted out of the smokestacks mounted behind him. "Good! I'm glad we had thish little talk, then, Mish Trixie. If you adhere to protocol then your shervicesh will be mosht appreciated. Will you be shtaying for further performancesh?"
Trixie frowned at that, her body finally easing up under the Warsmith's attention. The more she heard him speak the harder he was to take seriously, which helped enormously in dispelling the persistent sense of terror instilled by his presence.
"Well, Trixie would, but there's the little matter of payment... Trixie isn't sure what to take as compensation since you don't use bits," the unicorn said uncertainly.
"A common matter." He paused briefly, his optics dimming and then glowing again. "I've shent a notice to Mashter Delgan. He'll shee to writing you up a contract and giving you proper shecurity clearancesh. Sherith, sheeing how you've taken the initiative in dealing with theshe pony xenosh, you will be in charge of any further vishitorsh until further notice."
"Of course, Warsmith," Serith said, an obvious tint of annoyance in his voice, "does that include the one being escorted in behind you?"
Solon paused, and then his torso swiveled around so that he could see the main entrance to the data center.
A squad of mercenaries were entering the building with rifles at the ready, a familiar gray pegasus walking between them and looking happily oblivious to being surrounded by masked soldiers.
Trixie quirked an eyebrow, and Solon shook his head. "Oh. Her. No, that'sh okay, that'sh jusht the courier. I don't know what she'sh doing here, though."
The Warsmith turned his chassis around and stomped off toward Derpy and her escorts, and Serith and Trixie followed hesitantly. Neither were under any obligation to stay involved any further, but both found the situation too strange and interesting to leave alone.


"Warsmith Solon! Sergeant Tammil, reporting," the head soldier snapped, saluting sharply. In some Chaos armies mortal soldiers were strictly forbidden from speaking to Chaos Lords on pain of death, the presumption being that such individuals were too important to be bothered by mere humans.
In the 38th Company, such pointlessly sadistic discipline was unheard of. Many Chaos Marines used the mercenaries and turncoats to deal with tasks they didn't feel like addressing themselves, and to some that included reporting to their Warsmith.
"Shpeak, Shergeant," Solon said, his optics rotating as Derpy waved a hoof at him in greeting, "I left inshtructionsh on how to deal with the pony couriersh, did I not? Wash there shome confushion?"
"Not at all, my lord, but she seemed to want to deliver a communication to you personally," the Sergeant felt absolutely ridiculous leading an armed escort for the goofy-looking horse to deliver a letter, but nobody served Chaos Space Marines out of pride.
"Hey, Mister Solon! I have a letter for you!" Derpy said happily, gesturing to her saddlebag. "It's from Twilight Sparkle!"
Trixie recoiled, glancing up at the massive Chaos Lord. "You know Twilight Sparkle?" Solon didn't look like the sort of person Twilight would be friends with so much as the sort of person Twilight would be imprisoning in stone forever.
Solon turned his head toward the unicorn. "I don't even know OF Twilight Shparkle. What ish thish?"
Derpy wrinkled her snout. "Well, actually I guess it was from that person next to her with the metal things on her back?"
"That shoundsh more like it," Solon agreed with a nod, "I will receive your letter."
Derpy reached her muzzle into her saddlebag, and then pulled out the message.
"Very good, Mish Hoovesh," Solon said, leaning forward on his chassis and reaching out an arm.
Derpy made no move to hand it over. "It's postage due," she said in explanation.
Solon tilted his head to one side. "Poshtage what?"
The human soldiers all took a prudent step away from the mailmare. Warsmith Solon was absurdly mild in temperament for a Chaos Space Marine, but none of them wanted to test just how far his patience stretched, or be too close to him when it broke.
"Ugh. Classy, Sparkle, real classy," Trixie grumbled as she took off her hat. Her horn started to glow, prompting the guards to take another cautionary step back.
A single bit flew up out of her hat and slipped into Derpy's bag, and the blonde pegasus grinned as she floated up and dropped her message into Solon's armored hand.
"Well, that's all I have! Goodbye!" Derpy waved brightly with her hoof, and then turned around in the air to fly outside.
Everyone else winced as the pegasus smacked hard into an armorglass window, bouncing off and landing in a heap on the floor.
"Shergeant Tammil, shee her out, would you?" Solon requested, opening his letter.
"Yes, Warsmith Solon. Come on xeno, on your feet!"
As the soldiers led the dizzy pony outside while trying not to feel silly about the whole encounter, Solon's eyes scanned the message Gaela had sent him, his optics extending out of his helmet.
"If I may inquire, Warsmith, who sent that message? 'Person with metal things on her back' covers a great deal of territory." Serith asked.
"It'sh from Dark Acolyte Gaela," Solon explained, "with the vox network down and her transhport deshtroyed, she had to reshort to mailing me an intelligence report."
"Oh? And is this intelligence... actionable?" the Sorcerer asked. He had limited interest in the tactical details of the Company's mission on Centaur III, but he found all of this far too amusing to ignore.
"Oh, yesh," Solon said, rolling up the parchment as ribbons of electricity danced over the wires and churning devices on his chassis, "excushe me, Sherith. I musht deploy an ashault force. We've found the Tau."