//------------------------------//
// Conference and Confetti 
// Story: Iron Hearts: Book 2 - Ferrous Dominus 
// by SFaccountant 
//------------------------------//

Iron Hearts: Book 2
Chapter 8
Conference and Confetti


****


"This. Right here. I can see it now; the storefront, the staff, the displays... it's perfect!"
Norris Delgan stood in front of a small, empty storefront at the base of a tall multi-story building, holding his hands out and staring at the boarded-up windows.
Rarity frowned. "I don't know... it's a bit out of the way, isn't it?"
"That's ideal for a business that doesn't want to attract too much attention," Delgan explained, stepping up to the front, "besides, all the shops on the main thoroughfare are currently occupied. I don't have the time to 'evacuate' one first before I set up."
Gaela and Spike stood behind the trademaster and unicorn, the former looking quite bored. "Who knew that you had the aspirations of a shopkeep?" the Dark Acolyte asked, leaning on her axe. "Is hawking explosives and shiny objects to system raiders just not exciting enough anymore?"
Delgan paused in his admiration of the empty suite to heave a sigh. "I don't expect you to understand, Acolyte. The Mechanicus adopts a mindset and then hammers the worlds around them to fit. The rest of us must be more flexible. If I'm walking onto an orbital platform with a squad of Chaos Space Marines at my back, then looting is the order of the day. If I'm hailing a base of space pirate, then bulk trading. And if we happen to be poking around the settlements of a friendly civilization, then I'm hardly above setting up little markets. If I don't do so often it is merely because we so rarely face an alien race without guns blazing."
Rarity nodded sadly. "And from what little we've seen of other aliens, we can hardly blame you."
Gaela looked skeptical. "Could you not at least choose a more obviously industrial region to set up shops? How are you going to acquire sufficient raw materials in a place like this?"
"There's more to be gained here than simply another cart load of ore and oil. Why do I have to keep explaining this?" Delgan muttered.
"Because I don't believe you," the Acolyte answered sharply.


Standing a ways behind them were Shining Armor, Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle, the three of them engrossed in their own conversation about the other group.
"She really said that?" Cadence asked, looking skeptical as her husband nodded.
"Yes! I mean, not in those exact words, because I didn't understand all of them, but that was the gist of it!" The unicorn shook his head. "She talked about falling in love like it was some sort of disease! And that birth factory thing was just... eugh."
Twilight chuckled nervously. "Oh, she was just exaggerating. A little bit. Probably. Gaela explained the birth-factories on her homeworld and even admitted that they were pretty rare. Not all humans are like that."
"Yeah, just the humans that have landed in our country and are trying to associate with us," Shining grumbled, looking upon his little sister with concern, "I don't know as much about them as you, obviously, but I can already tell that Princess Celestia was right. These humans are bad news, Twilight. The sooner they're off our planet, the better."
As Twilight chewed her lip, Cadence hummed to herself. "Well, I'm not sure I believe that."
Shining gave his wife a hurt look. "What, you don't believe me?"
"I don't believe HER," Cadence said, thrusting a hoof at the cyborg breaking through the lock on the empty storefront with her servo drill, "from ponies to changelings to even Discord himself, I don't believe that any intelligent creature can survive without love. She may have buried hers deep, but it's there!"
"Yeah, I'm sure that..." Twilight faltered rather quickly once she started searching her memories of the Dark Acolyte for any hint of actual affection. "Well... maybe. But again, she doesn't represent ALL humans."
"Well, I say we find out right now," Cadence said, wetting her lips as her horn started to glow.
Shining Armor and Twilight recoiled as the pink alicorn turned her gaze on Gaela.
"Honey, wait, we talked about this," Shining protested, "you can't just go around pairing up anypony you meet!"
"Quiet, Shining. This is for science!" Cadence said with a grin as her horn flared even brighter.


"Is this what you were expecting?" Gaela asked as she stood outside the doorway, arms folded over her breastplate.
"Just about. Obviously there's a lot fewer power conduits than I'd like, but I'm sure you can fix that," Delgan said with a smug smile.
"And when did I become another one of your lackeys?" Gaela asked, her glare hardening slightly.
"Since you were assigned to my service, obviously," Delgan answered, "what else would you do while you're here if not work? Hobnob with the horses?"
Rarity, who was waiting politely for the two humans to finish bickering with each other, blinked as she felt a spell go off nearby, and thought she caught sight of a faint magical glow briefly encompass the pair of homo sapiens.
They paused immediately.
"Did you feel something just now?" Delgan asked, tugging on his collar uncomfortably as he looked around.
"I'm not sure," Gaela admitted, holding her biological hand to the side of her head as she ran a quick diagnostic, "but... somehow..." she pursed her lips, "I feel as if my usual loathing for you has weakened into mere contempt."
"I see. You know, for the first time, I'm starting to think you may have some sort of value beyond the strict monetary worth of your production," Delgan allowed, rubbing his chin with a hand as he stared critically at the Dark Acolyte.
Gaela stared back at him, her bionic eye rotating in its socket. Silence reigned for several seconds.
"No, I was imagining things," Delgan decided, shaking his head, "really, I don't know what I was thinking."
"Ah, and now the loathing is back," Gaela deadpanned, "good. Where were we?"
"Power conduits," Rarity answered.
"Ah, right! Thank you. I'll need ten to a wall. Go break open that back room and see how big a reactor we can stuff in here," Delgan commanded.


Cadence's face darkened as Shining Armor and Twilight shared a wary glance.
"Twilight, these people are monsters and they must all be destroyed," the larger alicorn said grimly.
"Easy, Cadence," Shining said with a sigh, "they're going to leave anyway, remember?"
"Besides, Gaela and Delgan are the decent ones," Twilight allowed, "the really awful sorts seem to be the Iron Warriors themselves." She grimaced, recalling the post-human soldiers and their mechanized overlord. "I've been reading up on the Space Marines from the information Warsmith Solon gave me. It's not pretty. The humans we can identify with somewhat; they're normal creatures, just with heightened intelligence and a rather brutal culture. The Astartes..."
She trailed off, and Shining eventually nudged her wing with a hoof. "Twily?"
"They're different," Twilight eventually finished, cringing, "that's really the only way I can put it. There's nothing like them in our culture or any other one on our planet. There couldn't be. We have soldiers, sure, but the Space Marines are more like their spears, if anything."
Cadence and Shining spared each other a dubious look, not comprehending.
"So... what? They don't have free will?" her older brother asked.
"Oh, it's not that. They have free will," Twilight corrected before adding quietly, "maybe that was the problem..."
"Sparkle." The cold, clipped voice immediately startled Twilight out of her thoughts about the human super-soldiers, and the alicorn snapped her head up.
"What is it, Gaela?"
"I've received a vox transmission from Ferrous Dominus. The transport should be arriving in a matter of minutes," Gaela said, resting her power axe on her shoulder.
Shining Armor nodded, his expression turning far more serious. "Right. Where are they landing? We have a special 'welcome' prepared for him."
"Judging from the model of transport craft and direction of the fortress, I believe our 'diplomat' will be touching down on the west balcony gardens," her servo arm pointed over to a path leading to the relevant area.
Cadence frowned. "There are usually ponies picnicking in those gardens at this time of day."
"I'm sure they'll move to safety once they have an Astartes gunship hovering over them," Gaela assured her, "even if not, the pilots will fire a spread of warning shots with the heavy bolters to scare off anything left in its landing zone."
Awkward silence dominated the area after that until Twilight cleared her throat.
"Shining? Maybe it would be a better idea to clear those ponies out of there ahead of time," she suggested.
The unicorn bolted away immediately.
"You know, as diplomatic agents, you could do a lot more to keep from disrupting the peace in Equestria," Cadence complained, her tone straining to remain calm.
"I don't really think you appreciate how unusual diplomatic conduct is for our forces," Gaela replied dryly, "for example, the current Company-wide orders not to fire upon your people are justified on the grounds that it would be a waste of ammunition."
"I thought you were going to talk to them about that!" Twilight said, frowning at the Acolyte.
"I did. General Gnoss ultimately decided that the current orders were clearly adequate, given that we haven't killed any of you yet."
Cadence turned a bemused gaze on Twilight. "Twilight, why are you friends with her?"
"Love and tolerance," the purple alicorn mumbled, "lots and lots of tolerance."


****


Ferrous Dominus - security cordon outer perimeter


There was understandable confusion among the security staff as their sensors registered a convoy of friendly transports rumbling toward the base. Although the number of transports approaching matched up closely enough with the number of vehicles deployed outside the fortress perimeter, there was no reason to expect them to be returning at the same time, and without a hail from Delgan to announce their return and arrange debriefing.
Needless to say, that confusion grew exponentially as the vehicles came close enough for visual contact.
The crowd being transported had grown significantly since leaving Ponyville as ponies had met up with the convoy along the way from nearby settlements. A second deck had been bolted into place in the Gorgon super-heavy transport to take advantage of the ponies' shorter profile and double its capacity, and then another set of plates and makeshift railings had been added over the top to make a third deck. The Chimeras had eventually been obliged to stuff themselves full of ponies, and even hitch on additional trailers behind the first set to carry more ponies and bushels of refreshments.
Above the transports flew a great flock of pegasi, the winged ponies in general needing no vehicles to travel with the convoy at speed.
It was quite a sight to take in for the pair of hapless mercenaries that stopped the Gorgon at the first guard bunker.


"Ah... hello?" shouted one of the men as he scanned the faces of ponies crammed together like the livestock they technically weren't. Some of them were even wearing glass fish bowl helmets, fake visors, and bizarre alien masks. There wasn't a single aspect of the situation that wasn't patently silly.
"Is... Is there anyone in charge of this... convoy?" the other man asked hesitantly, trying to get a look at the raised cab behind the transport. "When the fortress established a vox link all they heard was some kind of music! Much like the music that's playing from the rear Chimera! Did you actually link that up to the network?"
As the soldiers looked about at the colorfully decorated war machine, a lone figure dropped from the cab and onto the ground. The pony was wearing a hard plastic suit made to resemble that of the Iron Warriors, only designed around the pony's quadrupedal anatomy. The mercenaries had to admit that it was a pretty good costume, aside from the bunches of poofy pink hair coming out of the top of the helmet crest and the rear of the suit.
The pony dressed as an Iron Warrior strolled up to the two men and then stopped about a meter away, snapping one foreleg up to her helmet in an awkward salute.
"Party Bus checking in for entry clearance!" Pinkie said, her cheery voice partially muffled by the horned helmet.
The soldiers glanced in tandem at the pink text on the Gorgon's prow, helpfully identifying it as the Party Bus in question.
"Um... why are you here, exactly? What is all this?" one of the men asked as he gestured to the balloon clusters.
"Why are we here?" Pinkie repeated. "We're here to..."
"PAAAAAAAAAAAARTAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!" The combined shout of hundreds of ponies - and a few humans on active vox casters - nearly bowled the men over, and it took several seconds for the pair to gather their wits in order to continue the basic admittance procedures.
As the vehicles idled, a unicorn wearing a dark brown hood and robe leapt down from the cab behind Pinkie, its hood hiding much of its face with shadows.
"Okay, look, we're going to have to call this in, and all these vehicles are going to have to be searched," one of the mercenaries explained, pointing to the Chimeras, "I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think there are any parties happening in Ferrous Dominus any time soon."
Pinkie snorted as the unidentified unicorn walked up behind her. "Don't worry about all that! Just switch your vox to the Company-wide channel and announce that 'the Pie is ready'. This will all get cleared up."
The soldiers glanced at each other, and then one of them took a step forward. "Who are you, exactly? Let's see some kind of identification, xeno."
The pony with the hood suddenly raised a hoof and made a slow arc through the air with it while his horn glowed. "You don't need to see our identification."
The mercenary paused. "I don't need to see your identification," he agreed.
The hooded pony waved his hoof again. "These aren't the ponies you're looking for."
"These aren't the ponies we're looking for," the other man repeated.
"Move along," said the unicorn as he waved his hoof yet again.
"Move along!" commanded the mercenaries as they backed out of the way, beckoning the transports down a corridor road between numerous turrets and dug-in battle tanks. "Move along!"
Pinkie snickered as she and the unicorn rushed back to the Gorgon cab, and soon the vehicles were shifting into a long, single-file line toward the gates of the fortress.


The mercenaries stepped back into their bunker, and one of them moved up to the vox unit, pausing briefly as his hand reached for the receiver.
"Were we looking for ponies?" he asked his compatriot, turning around.
"I don't even know anymore, mate. Let's just send that message over the vox and kick this one back to the main gates."
"Aye, good idea."


As the vehicles rumbled past the first lines of defense, Pinkie chuckled and sat down next to Dest in the Gorgon cab, her hooded friend seated next to her.
"I told you I had it all worked out! You just trust me! Nothing's going to stop us now!"
Dest couldn't help but chuckle as he guided the super-heavy vehicle past the barricades. "That was very clever. But even so, you got lucky."
The unicorn interjected, "In my experience, there's no such thing as-"
"Shut up," Dest interrupted.
"Okay," the unicorn said quickly, ducking his head down.
"In any case, avoiding an inspection that would take most of the day is a good first step, but how exactly do you expect to get this past the main gates?" Dest asked. "They will not allow the transport through on my say-so."
Pinkie grinned, and Dest was surprised and slightly unnerved to see the grill of her plastic helmet curl into a smile as well.
"Easy peasy! We have a reservation!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - gate complex primarus


"Are you fragging serious?" snarled a heavily tattooed Captain at the crew manning the sensor stations. "Ponies? There is a horde of PONIES requesting entrance to the fortress?"
The sensorium crews all glanced back at the various monitors, needing to briefly confirm it themselves.
"Yes, Sir. That's... That's exactly what's happening here. And... And they're in our transports, Sir," muttered a man as he quintuple-checked the IFF signatures.
"Except for the pegasi," mumbled another as he checked the pict captures, "they're all just hovering up there. They seem to be waiting with the others, though..."
"Well, let them wait," the Captain snarled, "this is absurd! How did they get past the perimeter?"
"Do you think it had anything to do with that vox message about pie?" asked another sensorium tech.
"I don't care," the Captain snapped, "you know the procedures, and more importantly, so do the Iron Warriors manning the palisade. Without an extensive inspection and a good reason, we're not letting any xenos into Ferrous Dominus. So unless they have a bloody appointment to be here, they're not getting inside!"
Another tech briefly checked his monitor. "They do."
The Captain had to take several seconds to try to process that, and even then, he failed. "What?"
"They have an appointment. Convoy 218-P, command vehicle 'Party Bus'. Which is apparently what the Gorgon is called now, I guess. They've all been scheduled for entry at this time."
The Captain strode over to the console, glaring down at the man. "How the hell did we have a convoy scheduled for arrival today and I didn't know about it?"
"No idea Sir, but there it is," the hapless crewman said, pointing accusingly at the monitor.
"On whose authority was that entered?" the Captain asked, his eyes narrowing.
The sensorium tech turned back to his console and hit a few keys to expand the data entry.
Then he cringed. "Lord Tellis, Sir."
The Captain was silent for several more seconds, his lips pursed and his face turning red.
"So then. WHY are you not opening the gates? Are you TRYING to get us all killed?"
"N-No Sir! I'm sending down the confirmation right away! All clear!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 4, central data core secundus


"Annnd... we're clear," Lenna said before yanking several neural cables from their sockets, "everything should be in place now. If they stop Miss Pie, it will be because of common sense, not security procedure."
"Good. Then we're done here," Geth said as he peeked down the hall, checking for any intrusion, "are you sure Lord Tellis won't mind us 'borrowing' his security clearance?"
"I'm sure Lord Tellis isn't precisely sure what his security clearance is, exactly," Lenna snorted. "He would probably admit to doing it if he saw the data himself, just because he couldn't remember differently. We're fine."
Geth nodded and then grabbed the rail of the anti-gravity lifter that Lenna was currently placed on. Then he started pushing it and her back toward the technology repository in the heart of the Dark Mechanicus temple.
"You know, I never realized it before," Geth admitted, "but you're pretty useful outside the cockpit, too."
"Aw, thanks!" the Mechanicus pilot said, whipping a few tendrils coyly in his direction as her visor glimmered. "Wanna be my date to the party?"
"That's a designation used for the wasteful and useless mating rituals of our unenlightened peers," the Scavurel Core said sharply. "... But sure, why not?"


****


Canterlot - balcony gardens


Dozens of royal guard ponies stood in unmoving rows at the edge of the gardens, arranged in a kind of parade formation that separated them by species. Unicorns were lined up on one side and pegasi on the other, while the earth pony guards formed a barrier that blocked the entrance to the now-evacuated gardens.
It was hardly an impressive show of force to the humans, but it was the first sign of military presence and awareness they had seen so far despite the battles already fought on Equestrian territory.


Off behind the line of earth ponies, Twilight was talking to Shining Armor and Cadence in hushed tones, making sure not to be overheard by their two-legged guests.
"Everything's all set, Twily!" Shining Armor said with a proud grin. "After he lands, we're going to march that creep right to the Princess and watch him answer for his crimes!"
Cadence nodded. "Between twenty unicorns plus us three, we should be able to smother any magic this 'Serith' fellow tries to use against us."
Twilight nodded grimly. "All right. But like I said, BE CAREFUL. This man is powerful, dangerous, and above all, clever. He can turn enemies against each other in an instant before they even know what's happening."
Shining nodded. "Yes, I remember. Don't worry about it. It's time for the Equestrian Royal Guard to show what they're made of!"
Cadence shivered, smiling. "I'm getting a little excited! Facing down a real evil Sorcerer from a fleet of space pirates! It's like something out of a novel!"
Twilight chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah, it's... thrilling..." she had read those sorts of novels too, and she had to admit that dealing with the real thing was generally unpleasant.
Well, that, and the "dashing pirate captain" in this case was a heavily mechanized super-soldier cloaked in fear and toxins. It COMPLETELY ruined the prospect of a romantic sub-plot between him and the lonely, sheltered princess. Such a waste.
The roar of jet engines approaching drew Twilight out of her memories of books read long ago, and she joined the other ponies in searching the skies for the approaching gunship.
Then it appeared. Not from behind a building or by dropping through the clouds, but rather it just faded into view, as if it had been there all along but they had somehow missed it. Several of the guards yelped in shock, and even Twilight blinked in stunned surprise. The transport craft was as big as a house, almost the size of a Thunderhawk, but with its vehicle carriage replaced with enclosed storage space for foot troops.
"They can turn INVISIBLE? You didn't mention that!" Shining Armor complained as the gunship slowly hovered over to the balcony.
"Because I didn't know. We've only really scratched the surface of what the humans' technology can do, really," Twilight answered. She could see Gaela in the gardens, speaking into her vox unit to guide the gunship in. "Never mind. Let's get in position."


The three royals moved into the gardens, taking up position in front of the line of earth ponies. Gaela, Delgan, Rarity and Spike all stood off to the side, in front of the pegasi, and they all waited patiently as the airborne transport slowly brought itself down.
Stone planters were knocked over and carefully-trimmed plants were smashed into pulp as the gunship lowered itself onto the platform, its jetwash blasting into the faces of the various creatures waiting to greet its passenger. Further away, many Canterlot citizens were crowding around windows and standing in the plaza outside the gardens, extremely interested in the sudden commotion and the arrival of the strange vehicle.
Steam blasted from pistons as the embarkation ramp on the rear of the gunship was slowly lowered to the ground, revealing a pair of blast doors that further protected the passenger hold. The hammering of metal on metal from within the hold alerted everyone present to its occupants, and many of the guards visibly steeled themselves as they prepared to meet a Chaos Space Marine for the first - and hopefully last - time.
Twilight figured out something was wrong almost immediately. The clanging footsteps within the transport were too heavy, and there were too many of them falling in a rhythmic sequence. She recognized it immediately, and it was not Serith. "No, wait! What's HE doing here?!"
Gaela and Delgan likewise recognized the noise, and both of them pushed aside their initial surprise and dropped to one knee before the blast doors slid open.
Warsmith Solon clambered down the embarkation ramp, his optics swirling and his helmet turning from side to side as he took in the surroundings casually. Once he stepped off onto the ground, he turned his gaze down to the slack-jawed ponies arranged to greet him.
"Sho thish ish your capital! Lovely!" the Chaos Lord proclaimed, his mechatendrils whipping about behind him and eyeing the lines of soldiers.
His greeting seemed to break the surrounding equines out of their stunned stupor, and they reacted more or less as expected.
"EEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAH!!"
"What IS that thing?!"
"It's a monster! Tactical retreat!"
"EVERYPONY FOR HIMSELF!!"
The pegasi bolted into the air like a flock of spooked pigeons, scattering every which way. The unicorns made an immediate rush after the earth ponies, who had already sprinted toward the loose crowds of Canterlot citizens fleeing in horror from the gardens.
Before long there were only seven individuals remaining.
Rarity hung her head and groaned as she removed a handkerchief from her saddlebag to drape over her nose.
Spike also looked exasperated, but this had more to do with the howling laughter in the back of his mind.
Shining Armor had not fled, to his credit. He was, however, quivering silently, and he remained rooted in place as if his hooves were made of stone. Cadence was crouched behind him, her face frozen in an expression of absolute terror.
Twilight settled for slapping a hoof against her face.
"Why didn't you tell me that the Warsmith was coming?" Gaela hissed as she stood back up.
"Because I didn't KNOW the Warsmith was coming," Delgan hissed back while he did the same.
Solon's torso swiveled about slightly, and his optics zoomed in on a group of fleeing pegasi that had almost rammed into a tower in their haste to escape.
"Huh. From my experience with the resht of you, I'd come to think you were made of shterner shtuff than that," the Warsmith said, turning back to Twilight, "ah, well. Greetingsh, Mish Shparkle."
"Greetings, Warsmith Solon," Twilight said after a heavy sigh, "may I ask why you're here?"
"Well, you did ashk to shpeak to the Company leadership," Solon noted.
"True... but we were told to expect Lord Serith," Rarity countered.
"Oh, he'sh here too," Solon confirmed, crab-walking to the side.
Twilight and Rarity's eyes narrowed as a heavy, echoing chuckle came from within the gunship, and even Spike snarled something under his breath as the Sorcerer stepped up to the ramp.
"I simply could not depart quickly enough after receiving your invitation," Serith said as he descended the ramp, carrying some sort of cylinder-shaped case, "why, for a while I wondered if we had parted on poor terms, Lady Sparkle."
Twilight's face threatened to turn red, but she took a deep breath and forced down the litany of anger that threatened to escape. "Well, we did have some 'unfinished business' to take care of, didn't we? Not that I knew that until after we left..."
"Indeed! But given the import of our negotiations concerning the Company presence upon Equestrian soil, I thought it would be prudent to have an even higher authority present. As such, I invited the Warsmith."
"That'sh not a problem, ish it?" the Nurglite asked, his helmet scanning the surroundings and taking pict-captures.
"Not at all, Warsmith," Gaela replied quickly, saving the ponies from having to lie to the Iron Warriors, "we were simply unprepared. We would have made further preparations had we been informed."
"Like maybe found a less jittery welcoming committee," Delgan remarked, sniffing as he glanced over to Shining Armor. The guard captain and his wife still hadn't moved, their eyes locked upon the behemoth of oily metal.
"Oh, that'sh fine," Solon said dismissively, stomping up to Twilight and the quivering pair, "I jusht wanted to get out of the fortresh for a while. That, and I thought it might be nice to obsherve your city. It'sh sho rare that I get to shee alien shettlementsh before they're reduced to ruinsh."
Twilight glanced over at her brother, and then resigned herself to the diplomatic process. "Warsmith Solon, this is my brother, Shining Armor, and his wife, Princess Cadence. Shining, Cadence, this is Warsmith Solon, the high commander of the 38th Company."
Shining Armor made a squeaking noise as he craned his neck upward to make eyes contact with the many glowering optics set around Solon's helmet.
"Warsmith Solon uses a sort of magical aura effect to incite intense, paralyzing fear on sight," Twilight explained further, "the effect fades as you spend more time around him."
"Why does he smell like burning rubber?!" Cadence demanded, still crouched behind Shining Armor's flank.
"Oh, that'sh shimply the rusht-eater fungal growthsh conshuming oxidesh over my armor. Don't worry though, the fumesh aren't very toxic. And I've shtoppered my exhausht portsh," Solon reassured them.
There were, in fact, great iron caps on the Chaos Lord's smokestacks, and his augmetic limb was a massive, armored arm that ended with four fingers with a glassy white lens set in the palm. Twilight had to admit that it was far less intimidating than the rotary cannon, although it still looked a great deal more dangerous that his other, "normal" arm.
"Do we have time before we're to meet the Equeshtrian officialsh?" Solon asked, stomping past the terrified ponies.
"Oh, certainly," Delgan said, "I know! Why don't I show you the area I've chosen for my storefront in this city? I'd like a recommendation on the best kind of reactor for it, my lord."
"Oh, that shoundsh good! Lead the way!"
"Wouldn't that frighten every pedestrian pony out in the streets into a stampede?" Rarity asked as she and Gaela followed behind Delgan, her handkerchief still shielding her nose.
"Oh, they'll be fine. Beshidesh, it wouldn't hurt them to toughen up a little. I don't even have my gunsh deployed," Solon said as he stomped after them.
Twilight grimaced as they left, and then she felt an itch around her horn.
Not a bad opening move, Sparkle. But as always, I'm too far ahead of you. Serith's voice whispered in Twilight's ear as if he were leaning in right next to her, even though she could see him walking after Solon.
I wonder if I'm too far ahead, really. Can you even see where you're headed?
Twilight's horn flared briefly, and the voice disappeared.


"So... are we going to follow them?" Spike asked, walking up to Twilight cautiously.
"Yes. Eventually. I just... need a moment," the alicorn said, gathering her thoughts.
"Does this mean the plan's failed?" the young dragon asked nervously. He could already hear ponies screaming and shouting about monsters further down the street. Shining Armor was taking deep breaths, his chest heaving from being so close to Solon.
"No, actually. This is going about as well as I'd hoped," Twilight admitted, "Serith is here. He's walked into the middle of our territory, and what's more, the Iron Warrior he's chosen for a 'bodyguard' isn't even someone who takes orders from him. I can't be surprised that he doesn't just hand the Elements right to us."
Then she turned toward Shining and Cadence. "Are you two okay? We need to get moving soon."
"That... That was..." Shining shook his head. "I can't even describe it. I faced Sombra before, and that was terrifying, but..."
The unicorn stallion turned his head slightly to look at his sister. Even considering that Twilight was the Element of Magic and heroine of Equestria, it was hard for him to contemplate his little sister facing something like that. And that was purely his first impression. The Iron Warriors were supposed to be military paragons without peer. Who knows what kind of destruction he was actually capable of?
"Twilight, I don't like this," Cadence warned, shuddering, "Gaela and Delgan were bad enough, but this is beyond the pale! Why are we allies with these people?"
Twilight looked away, wincing. "Well, we're not TECHNICALLY, allies, but to answer your question: circumstances, ultimately."
"Circumstances nothing!" Cadence shouted firmly, her eyes narrowing as Twilight recoiled from the shout. "You saw that... that THING that they call their master! I say we get the troops, the Princesses, the other Elements, even Discord if need be, and we get rid of them! Now!"
"Cadence, dear, calm down," Shining Armor pleaded.
"Why should I?" the pink alicorn snapped back. "I don't understand why we haven't tracked down these 'Tau' people and helped them to wipe out these monsters! Princess Celestia said they're evil! They admit to being evil themselves! And now that I've met them in person, I can say with all confidence that yes, they are in fact evil!"
Twilight and Spike cringed as Cadence finished, her chest heaving.
"That's all true," Spike allowed, seeing how Twilight was still thinking of a way to answer that, "but they're not evil at US. I think we need to give the Iron Warriors credit for that."
Also, her plan would get you all killed, mentioned the voice in his head.
"Also, Cadence, your plan would get us all killed," Spike added.
We make a great team!
The pink alicorn didn't seem mollified by the excuse. "So that's it? We're okay with murder and slavery and... and whatever that Warsmith is as long as it's not turned on us?" she demanded angrily.
"Not necessarily," Spike said, pointing a claw in the air, "but we should probably still do what we can to keep it 'not turned on us'."
Twilight stared at the ground in thought, having fallen silent since Cadence's original outburst.
"Have you seen that article? The one in the Cloudsdale Times about Ferrous Dominus?" Twilight asked suddenly.
Cadence blinked. "Yes. What about it?"
"Having been there for a few days at a time, the fortress is actually a pretty awful place," Twilight admitted, sitting down next to her brother, "it's a reflection of the 38th Company itself: a joyless, brutal, labor-intensive fort where happiness is sacrificed for efficiency and everything is done in aid, ultimately, of waging war."
Shining and Cadence shared a confused glance.
"But I'd still go back there again. The place is packed full of amazing technology! They have carts that defy gravity! Wireless communications devices that can fit in a helmet! A data core the size of a tree, complete with more information than every library in Equestria put together! And whenever a human loses a limb, they just build a metal one and plug it in the socket!"
"So what? Isn't all of it used in aid of warfare?" Shining Armor asked. He wasn't as eager to lash out at the Iron Warriors as Cadence, but he couldn't see where his sister was going with this.
"Yes. But those technologies aren't evil themselves. They've been built into a massive war factory and put toward the ultimate goal of destruction, but they could just as easily be put toward a more peaceful goal."
The purple alicorn took a deep breath. "I think the humans are the same way. They're not somehow born evil, and they're not irredeemable. Chaos is a corrosive, destructive influence on them, but as far as I can tell it hasn't totally dominated their free will. The humans and Chaos Space Marines we've met happen to be a part of or are employed by a band of space pirates, but if we give them a reason to they can still do good deeds. The Dark Mechanicus rebuilt Applejack's farm. Trademaster Delgan put up a market to trade rather than ransacking houses to get what he wanted. Even Tellis took enough time out of his fighting to rescue Zecora. And Solon, terrifying as he is, backed off from a fight because he saw that it was mostly pointless."
Cadence frowned. "So you're saying... we can change them?"
"Maybe. Or perhaps we can at least guide their destructive talents toward more useful ends," Twilight stood up again, and then started to walk along the trail of cracked holes in the ground that marked Solon's path across Canterlot's streets, "either way, to make an enemy out of them when we don't need to will hurt us more than it will hurt them. That's why I'm doing this. Where it's possible, friendship is always a better choice than violence."
Cadence shared another long look with her husband, and then followed her sister-in-law down the street. "I hope you're right, Twilight. It's hard to put much faith in friendship when we were called here to help you recover the Elements of Harmony from one of their soldiers who stole them."
Come on, that was totally legit!
"Oh, it is not!" Spike countered angrily.
The ponies almost jumped in surprise, and Spike reddened as he realized that he had responded to the voice out loud.
"Uh... that is to say... friendship will... prevail?" the young dragon said awkwardly.
You know, you don't have to answer me verbally. I can't even hear your actual voice, you know?
I hate you so much. Spike thought.
Yeah, just like that! You're golden!


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 10 mining quarters


The first indications that something strange was happening was when the vox casters all started crackling with static simultaneously.
It wasn't odd for many casters in a sector to all activate at once, but the constant, noisy hum coming from the communications towers started raising alarm as no message followed it.
The slaves trudging into and out of the mining lifts paused as the static disruption stretched into a full minute, and even the overseers turned toward the communication towers rather than correcting them, allowing for the possibility that there may be a situation more dire than the possibility of failing to meet their immediate production quota.
After another minute of empty noise, suddenly the static cut out and a surprisingly enthusiastic voice rang from the tower.
"Heeeeeeey Ferrous Dominites! How ya all doin' out there?! This is DJ-PON3 givin' a shout-out to all my hominid brothers and sisters visiting our fine planet!"
The slaves that hadn't stopped working before halted at the voice.
"What in the Second Sphere is this about?" growled Jerriha as she dropped a load of ore into a processor tank. She was wearing a white jumpsuit, dirtied by heavy labor in the mine, and a set of iron manacles just like the rest of the chain gang.
"We settin' up in sector 6 to ROCK this rock! Fun, games, refreshments, and beats so sick even Nurgle will be feeling dizzy! Come one, come all, and prepare to get down with the pones! HI-YAH!!"
Several Dark Techpriest overseers were talking rapidly to each other in Binaric Cant, and Jerriha blinked in surprise as dubstep music suddenly boomed from the vox casters, staggering the cyborg clergy.
The black-robed slavemasters got to their feet slowly, swaying slightly as if in thrall to the heavy, obnoxiously loud beat coming from the vox tower.
*Fireblade, what's happening?* gasped one of the other Tau slaves, his hands clamped over his ear-holes. *What is that terrible noise? More of the humans' cruel and primitive rituals?*
Jerriha frowned as she stared at the other slaves, most of them human. They looked just as bewildered as anyone else, and were whispering to each other quietly as they watched the writhing overseers.
*If it is, then it's a fairly new one,* Jerriha answered in T'au.
"Uh-oh," mumbled a human man nearby, "here comes another overseer team."
Indeed, there were several more Dark Techpriests approaching, but most of the laborers noticed something was off right away. Most of them were connected to the vox network and had the volume turned up so high on their transmitters that echoes of the same beat coming from the vox casters could be heard coming from within the black hoods that obscured their heavily modified faces.
A few of them also had little colorful paper hats on top of their hoods as well, which was definitely the stranger of the two irregularities.
"Presenting explanation," barked the Dark Techpriest at the front, his numerous servo limbs twitching to the thumping beat in his aural receptors, "all quotas within the current solar cycle have been suspended."
The slaves glanced about at each other, perplexed.
"Extrapolation: for the current duration of PARTEE TAIM all prisoners are free to rest." The Dark Techpriest twitched and sparks blasted out of his hood mid-sentence as he spoke, and the various claws and drills on his servo limbs started spinning wildly.
"Addendum," added another Dark Techpriest, his mechatendrils bobbing in time with the beat flowing around them, "all human prisoners are hereby invited to GET FUN-KAY with all regular Company personnel and the native civilians in sector 6."
Dozens of beeping noises joined the cacophony from the vox casters, and all at once the chains linking the manacles on all the human prisoners disconnected one shackle from the other.
The xeno prisoners watched the humans start expressing surprise and cautious joy, and one of the Tau Fire Warriors tugged on his own bonds.
*Wait, why are the humans going loose? What about us?*
"Terribly sorry," barked a Dark Techpriest, emitting a static buzz that sounded distantly like chuckling, "I am not proficient in your useless babbling."
More electronic laughter came from the Dark Techpriests, and the spasming overseers joined the other Mechanicus priests as they turned away and started walking down the avenue. Plenty of human slaves, bewildered and curious at being suddenly offered any kind of recreation, followed after them at a respectful distance.


*What is this? The humans get to go free? What do we get?* demanded a Tau pilot bitterly.
*We get the day off,* Jerriha murmured, watching as huge spotlight beams swept the skies over one section of the fortress.
*That's all? Where are the humans going, then?* asked another.
*Racism is the least you should expect from these savages by now,* the Fireblade mumbled, staring at the palisade, *besides... they may have also given us an opportunity.*


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 3, Astartes barracks beta


"Perturabo's hammer, what IS that?"
The heavy tread of dozens of armored boots mixed with the thumping techno beat as the first Iron Warriors emerged from the barracks and into the streets of the fortress proper.
The vox casters in the buildings weren't blaring dubstep, as they had been deliberately excluded from the network commands, but it hadn't taken long for the fortress's more militant denizens to determine that something odd was happening throughout much of the rest of the base.
"Sstep asside, foolss," snarled a thick, phlegm-slurred voice.
The gathered Iron Warriors did so, moving out of the way as the hulking mass of Sliver's terminator armor stomped out of the barracks.
Sliver stepped past his men, and then slowly raised his visor toward the nearest vox caster, listening intently to the heavy pound of music pouring from it.
"What is this, Lord Sliver? Some sort of xeno trick?" asked a Marine, his boltgun already aimed at the vox caster.
The Nurglite snorted through his vox grille. "Ssurely even the graysskinss haven't ressorted to ssuch feeble methodss. Thiss interference iss not ssome plot of theirss."
"My lord," barked another Iron Warrior as he approached, "I was just speaking to Tearas. He was outside when the disturbance began."
"Sspeak," Sliver slurred, his visor pulsing slightly.
"Someone designated DJ-PON3 invited the base personnel to sector 6. It was stated that many of the native xenos would be there."
Sliver turned his gaze back toward the vox caster. "Why?"
"It was implied that it was for the purposes of... revelry and merriment," the Iron Warrior spat with distaste.
Sliver turned back to his soldier. "We shall ssee. Everyone, ready yoursselvess for riot ssuppresssion. Follow me."
Sliver stomped across the avenue toward the train platform, the Iron Warriors behind him breaking into groups for transit and checking their weapons.
Within minutes the soldiers were waiting to board, nearly sixty Chaos Space Marines arranged behind the toxic Iron Warrior as warning lumens informed them that the train was on approach.
The magna-rail transport turned around the bend and started slowing to a stop, coming into full view of the soldiers.
There were a few things that immediately struck them as odd about it.
Speakers had been bolted to the exterior of the train and linked to the primary vox net, such that it blasted the same music as the vox towers. The entire outer hull of the train had been splashed over with brown paint in an attempt to make the frame armor look like wood grain. Finally, a large flag had been attached near the front. The flag had clearly been an ordinary Iron Skull emblem at first, but additional painting had added a pair of crossbones and an eye patch.
"Yar! You'll never take me vessel, ya planetlubbers! I'll make ye walk the space plank right into an asteroid field!" shouted a small white and brown pony waving a wooden sword and wearing a black pirate hat.
"Hoh hoh hoh hoh!" laughed Diamond Tiara from the next car, standing on top of a table with Silver Spoon sitting in front of her in a tricorn hat. "Sorry to disappoint you, Captain NObeard, but I'll be taking your precious ship! And your life!"
"Nevarrr! Snips, Snails, full broadside!"
Party cannons mounted at the windows of the transport - having evidently replaced the train's autocannons - blasted confetti and clouds of glitter into the air as a pair of colts lit the fuses, incidentally getting much of it on the phalanx of Iron Warriors standing on the platform in absolute silence.
"Prepare yourself, Silver Hook! I won't go down without a fight!" shouted Pipsqueak, advancing on the fillies with his wooden sword.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Silver Spoon laughed before taking up a short length of rope to proxy a whip.
Then the automatic doors to the train slid shut and the train started moving again, its flag whipping about in the air.


The ranks of Iron Warriors watched it go, dozens of blood-red visors staring dumbly at the departing vehicle.
"The train... uh, the train is... er... leaving..." one of the Chaos Space Marines spoke, stumbling over his own words.
Sliver wiped a hand over his greasy breastplate, removing some portion of the colorful paper confetti that had stuck to him. Then he turned on his massive heel and began trudging back toward the streets.
"We'll walk," grumbled the Chaos Lord.


****


Canterlot Castle - main courtyard


"Yeeeeeek!"
"Run away!"
"A monster is terrorizing the city!"
"Guards! Guards! Where are the guards?!"


Solon walked through the courtyard at a leisurely pace, steam hissing from the joints of his chassis. Delgan and Gaela followed close behind, the former rather frustrated about how many ponies they had sent away shrieking in horror. Having learned to ignore the fear aura long ago, he really was surprised by how potent it was against peaceable citizens who had never encountered anything like the Warsmith before.
"You know, I don't remember Mish Hoovesh reacting like thish when she firsht met me," Solon remarked as he tracked a trio of pegasi darting into a high window and into a sixth-story apartment. Their forced entry elicited a shocked scream, presumably from the resident, but it was somewhat blunted by their own fearful howls.
"Well, Derpy is... special," Rarity admitted, following behind him in front of Serith, "she WAS the one that took a good look at Ferrous Dominus and decided that she wanted to deliver mail there."
"Hm. Point," Solon allowed, slowing his pace as a fleeing mare tripped on her dress and stumbled into a heap in front of him.
"NOOOOO!! Please! Spare me!" the unicorn begged, tears pouring down her face as she turned her gaze away from the armored monstrosity.
"Okay," Solon said, his legs stepping over the prone equine without difficulty.
"Get up. You're embarrassing yourself," Gaela muttered to the stunned mare as she followed after her master.


Twilight, Cadence, Shining and Spike were all following a fair distance behind, all of them looking exasperated by the entirely needless panic the followed in Solon's wake. Even Cadence and Shining Armor, who still couldn't look at the Chaos Lord without shuddering, had to admit that the pandemonium was getting ridiculous considering that Solon wasn't doing anything more destructive than leaving little holes in the ground from his immense weight.
"Okay, so, I should probably head in and let the Princess know we're here," Twilight said, her ears pinned to the sides of her head. She really hadn't meant to cause so much havoc just by walking through Canterlot with the Company "dignitaries".
Delgan glanced back. "Me and the Dark Acolyte shall attend you. I believe your officials may react more favorably if you meet us first."
Solon swiveled his torso around. "That'sh probably a good idea. I'll shtay here for-"
"HALT, VILLAIN!! THY REIGN OF TERROR ENDS HERE!!"


Everyone present jumped in surprise at the shout, and Serith's helmet snapped about with unusual urgency.
"That psionic signature! Impossible!"
Solon's torso swiveled back around, and he looked up to see a dark shape silhouetted against the sun as it flew over the tower.
"You..."
Princess Luna hovered high above the courtyard, her horn crackling with power as she glared down at the Chaos Lord. "Indeed, We hast come to vanquish thee, monster of Chaos! Feel the wrath of the night!"
The ponies' eyes widened as Luna's horn flashed with energy.
"Sherith," Solon said calmly.
The Sorcerer bolted in front of the Warsmith, raising his left arm toward Luna and spreading his palm open. The vambrace glowed with unnatural light as dispersal rods split away from the main plating, and an onyx black lens set in the palm of the armor gleamed as Luna unleashed a sizzling lance of blue lightning.
A thundercrack shook every mortal present as the lance of magic met Serith's hand. The searing energies were immediately sucked into the absorption lens, and the Sorcerer's arm trembled as whips of blue power lashed about his armor.


"This is your plan B?!" Shining shouted to Twilight as his teeth rattled in his head from the noise.
"No!" Twilight shouted back. "This is a little like plan F, but I'm pretty sure Luna is acting on her own, here!"
"Delgan! Prepare to support!" Gaela snapped as she engaged her helmet.
"Negative," Solon said calmly, instantly causing the humans to halt, "shtand by, both of you."
Luna grunted as her spell reached the limits of her endurance, and she finally let the torrent of lightning cease. Serith likewise released an aggravated grunt before he staggered backward, smoke pouring from his left arm.
"My turn," Solon said simply. Then he raised his augmetic arm toward the Princess.
Luna made ready to dodge, but as the lens set in Solon's palm pulsed, she suddenly felt the strain on her wings lift, as if the effects of gravity had been completely negated around her.
Then Solon pulled his arm down.
Twilight gaped as she watched Luna plummet into the ground, her wings completely useless against the force applied by Solon's tractor beam. She smashed into an abandoned hay cart that had been set up at the edge of the courtyard, throwing up a veritable cloud of debris as the wood and flagstones shattered underneath her.
"Wait! Stop!" Several of the ponies cried out as Solon's heavy bolter mounts clicked into place on the sides of his chassis. Serith quickly moved out of the way, still clutching his smoking arm.
Any further protests were drowned out by the roar of heavy bolter fire. Flames bloomed from the muzzles of the guns, ammunition belts snaked through the mess of devices mounted on Solon's chassis, and the fallen Princess was further obscured from view as small explosions rippled through the dust and debris.
"I'll stop him!" Shining Armor volunteered, gritting his teeth as his horn flared.
It promptly fizzled when Gaela's power axe swung down in front of him, very nearly touching his muzzle. The Dark Acolyte said nothing, her eyes focused on the waves of mass-reactive bursts, but the crackle of the disruption field along the axe's edge said enough.
The heavy bolter bursts suddenly stopped, the rattling thunder replaced by the gentle ring of ammo casings bouncing across the stone ground.
The ponies gaped. At the edge of the courtyard, where the cart had been, a column of dust, smoke, and blasted hay parted around a shimmering bubble of light, its rippling surface still reverberating from the bolter impacts.
Luna let the barrier fall before she stepped away from the shredded remains of the hay cart and walked across the courtyard, her mane flowing in a great dark pool behind her. There was a deep crack in one of her shoes and her jeweled peytral from her impact with the ground, but the dark Princess seemed largely unharmed, and had clearly avoided any damage from the heavy bolter barrage. Still, most of those present thought her calm pace and slightly bemused expression seemed inappropriate for someone who had just been subjected to so much ordnance. On the other hand, Solon seemed equally collected, waiting patiently as the blue alicorn walked up to him.
Luna finally stopped in front of the Chaos Lord, her head craning upward to meet the gaze of his optics array.
"Warsmith Solon," Luna said flatly.
"Princesh Luna," Solon replied.
"Thou art much uglier in the waking world," Luna noted with a raised eyebrow.
"And you are shlightly more impertinent," Solon grumbled, his mechatendrils hissing angrily.
Twilight suddenly realized that everyone besides the alicorn and Chaos Lord was staring at her, apparently waiting for an explanation. Even Serith seemed to be completely lost.
"Okay, just to be clear, I have NO IDEA what's going on here," Twilight explained.
"I don't expect you would," Solon mused, "my contact with the Princesh took place under... unushual conditionsh." His heavy bolters clicked noisily as they snapped up and then retreated back into armored munitions sheathes near the front of the chassis.
"Speaking of which, thou didst not sleep last night," Luna said, a hint of reproach in her voice. The dark blue alicorn was now inspecting Solon's armor in detail, staring closely at the various components and marks as she spoke.
"I wash bushy. Sherith needed a new arm," the Warsmith explained, rather annoyed that he felt the need to excuse his absence to the Princess, "I hope you didn't break it; I put a lot of work into that."
Serith held up the vambrace, inspecting the wisps of smoke leaking from the seams. "No permanent damage has been done. The psykant occulus is still functional."
Gaela cleared her throat, the noise converted by her vox grille into an ear-grating grinding noise. "I would like an explanation of why were attacked, if it is not too much to ask of the Princess." It was hard not to notice that Gaela had her plasma pistol in hand now.
"We heard word that there was a monster roaming the streets of our fair city," Luna explained as she poked a hoof at one of the mechatendrils, watching it flinch back, "We moved at once to vanquish the beast and restore order. We did not notice at first that there were ponies of good standing accompanying the fiend."
"Well, the important thing is that nopony got hurt!" Twilight said in a somewhat desperate tone of voice, her eyes darting between all the heavy bolter cases and the shattered hay cart. "Much."
"Why art thou here?" Luna asked, having moved on from the torso armor. She ducked under the first of Solon's right-hand legs, staring closely at his oil-stained chassis.
The quiet hiss of steam came from the mechanoid legs as they pulled up one after another to let the Princess underneath them. "We're here for a diplomatic engagement, actually," Solon replied, "with your government."
"Shouldn't you have known about this, your highness?" Shining Armor asked as Luna circled around the rear of the Warsmith, her eyes fixed on the large servo claw that hung over Solon's head.
Luna snorted. "We art never told ANYTHING. Had a pair of guards not burst into our quarters begging for sanctuary, We would not even know of thy disturbance."
The Princess of the Night finally pulled her gaze away from Solon and glanced at the other humans and post-human in attendance. "Art these thine attendants, Warsmith?"
"They are. Thish ish Gaela, a Dark Acolyte of my army. Thish man ish Norrish Delgan, the Trademashter. And the Iron Warrior ish Sherith, my mosht powerful pshyker."
Both Gaela and Delgan held off from greeting the dark alicorn, still quite annoyed at being attacked.
Serith wasn't so easily shaken, and he bowed deeply to the Princess. "It is my deepest pleasure to make your acquaintance, my lady. I was quite impressed with your entrance as well. I have not felt such power in a long time. It was quite... exhilarating."
Luna nodded sharply, approving of his compliments. "Well met, Lord Sherith."
Serith stumbled at the mispronunciation of his name, and every pony other than Luna chortled openly at the mistake.
"My... My name is SERITH, Lady Luna," the Sorcerer said firmly, "and as entertaining as this diversion has been, I wonder if you may yet inform your ministers and other leaders as to our presence so that we may get under way. I am most interested in meeting your sovereign."
This immediately raised alarm bells in Twilight's mind, although she firmly resisted the urge to panic and change the plan; this was all too likely to be another of Serith's mind games.
"It would alsho help if you informed your enforcersh that we are not here to harm any of you," Solon pointed out, "at leasht, not unlesh more of you shtart bombarding ush without provocation."
"Right! Follow me!" Twilight shouted suddenly, trying to seize control of the situation.
She rushed toward the main gates to the castle, which had been left open by the guards fleeing inside. "You can wait in the entry hall while I inform the Princess you're here. Just... please keep from shooting anymore," Twilight said, cringing.
"I can't promishe anything if we're attacked again," Solon warned as he let Gaela and Delgan move on ahead, "but go ahead. I'll wait here for now."
The other ponies and Spike likewise hurried into the castle, and Serith hesitated only long enough to give Luna a lingering stare before he too moved toward the gates.
Luna watched the others go, and then looked up at Solon. "So, why dost thou speak as if thou art inebriated?"
Solon tilted his head down to look at the dark blue alicorn. "I don't know; why do you shpeak like an actor from a period play? Sherioushly, nobody'sh talked like that for forty thoushand yearsh. And a royal 'We'? Really?"
Luna wrinkled her muzzle. "At least We do not send helpless ponies fleeing for their lives with our mere presence," she said indignantly.
Then she paused. "Not anymore, at least."
Another pause. "Well, not much."
"It shoundsh like we have a shurprishing amount in common," Solon admitted.
Luna just grunted irritably.


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 6, PARTY CENTRAL


Speakers the size of upturned Rhinos stood next to Vinyl Scratch as she bobbed her head to the thumping beat. She was positioned atop a grand pyramid of metal scaffolding covered in wire bundles and jutting platforms, and numerous Dark Acolytes jerked and spasmed in bizarre in surprisingly well-choreographed dances atop the pyramid's steps.
Below her perch were hundreds of humans and ponies moving in vast, gyrating crowds to the beat. Many of the soldiers had arrived armed and in their usual uniforms, but they had been easily welcomed by the throngs of equines wearing alien masks, tinfoil vests, and the occasional cyber-pirate helmet.
Around the swirling crowds was a conga line of Dark Mechanicus priests and Scavurel, all of them moving in perfect coordination as if locked in a cybernetic trance. High above the crowds, suspended from nearby structures or raised on heavy iron columns, were metal cages where mares danced in scandalously sparse skirts or tight-fitting silver bodysuits.
Around the street nexus that had served as a dance floor were tables and the occasional scavenged vehicle wreck piled high with food and drinks. The human mercenaries and particularly the slaves utterly dominated these areas, as many of them hadn't had a tasty meal in months. Food made of hay and flowers were left alone for the ponies, obviously, but the baked goods and fruit dishes had been decimated by mercenaries and laborers desperate for sweet food.
Beyond that were the games, which were mostly martial tests of skill and card games, the latter at least being something the ponies could compete in. There were also more unique games that had been set up for the cultists, but they mostly attracted attention for their novelty: neither the ponies nor humans had ever seen a Khornate pillow fight before.


"Pinkie! Got your mug!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she soared low over the dancing crowd, holding a mug of cider on each hoof.
She slowed to a hover in front of the plastic-armored pony, and then landed on her back hooves as Pinkie tossed her helmet up to expose her face.
"Thankyee, Dashee!" Pinkie shouted back, taking her mug and then tapping it against Rainbow's drink.
The two of them took deep swigs of their cider, gasping in satisfaction as the smooth, sweet beverage cooled them down from their exertions.
"Gotta admit Pinkie, you outdid yourself this time! This party is awesome!" Rainbow Dash grinned. "I didn't think you'd get the humans into it at all!"
"I forgive you for doubting me," Pinkie said brightly, sticking out her tongue, "and it's only going to get better from here! We have a firework display in store when it gets a little darker, thanks to a certain Great and Powerful somepony! Are you ready to LIGHT UP THIS TOWN?!" she shouted, spreading her forelegs into the air.
"YEEEEAAAAH!!" screamed a huge, white, muscular pegasus, veins bulging around his neck.
"YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!!!" screeched Tellis a moment later, almost knocking over Bulk Biceps.
"Hey, Tellis!" Rainbow shouted, practically diving at the Raptor Lord with a hoof outstretched.
Tellis clapped a metal palm against the incoming hoof. "Heya Blue! Welcome back! This is a pretty nice setup you got here!"
"Well, take a load off and party, dude!" Rainbow shouted, spinning in the air.
"Also, I hope you don't mind, but we basically pinned all of this on you!" Pinkie said with a grin.
"Okay, sure, whatever," Tellis dismissed the pink pony without really listening and started gyrating about in tune to the music.
Rainbow Dash glanced up at the floodlights sweeping through the air. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked the Iron Warrior.
"Aerial dancing?" Tellis replied.
"Aerial dancing," Rainbow confirmed with a smirk.
Pinkie had to turn her head away from the blast of Tellis's flight pack igniting as the pair took off into the air, curling around each other to form a double helix trail of smoke and rainbows.
"Hey, look, it's more of those legless people!"
Much of the crowd parted for Big Macintosh - dressed in a tinfoil mask and saddle to look something like a cyborg and bobbing his head to the beat of the music - and the large wagon he was towing. It had been emptied of its party supplies and now carried several Dark Mechanicus pilots, their bodies all in varying states of extreme amputation and augmentation. Mechatendrils lashed about in the air and hips gyrated and spun in the bulky life-support pods as they were carted through the dancing throng.
Pinkie finished off her mug of cider and then slipped her helmet back on as she prepared to re-join the dancing.
And that was when a bolter salvo fired over the crowd.


A loud record scratch shrieked through the vox network as the music cut out, and a great many people and ponies fell prone in fear and confusion.
The confusion didn't last very long; it quickly became obvious what was happening. Advancing on the party grounds was a wall of gleaming armor and glowing visors, boltguns at the ready.
Party-goers quickly started backing away, stumbling into each other as they pressed into a wall of their own.
The advancing Astartes slowed, their gazes taking in the trappings of the festivities with cold contempt.
Sliver took up the lead, his larger terminator armor giving him a higher vantage point to scan the crowds.
He was most displeased to see a considerable number of human soldiers among them, and even worse, many of them were fully suited up as if they had arrived straight from their guard and patrol details. He had no doubt that there a lot of new holes in their defenses with this many gunmen wasting time away from their posts. Bizarrely, the Dark Mechanicus had also made a good showing, and he quickly stopped trying to count and identify all the Dark Techpriests and Acolytes present. Only the Iron Warriors themselves had largely stayed away, and he barely counted a dozen Chaos Space Marines among the throng.
"Hey there! Are you here to join in?!" Pinkie asked brightly, bringing the line of advancing Marines to a halt as she squeezed out of the crowd.
Sliver's Cyclops-style visor dipped down to glare at the pony dressed in mock armor.
"We'll have the music going back up in a minute, but until then, we have drinks and snacks over there, there's some target shooting over on the side, and behind us the Nurgle cultists are bobbing for rotten apples!"
Sliver was large, bloated, and his armor resembled a heap of glued-together scrap more than a proper combat suit like the other Iron Warriors wore.
As such, Pinkie was quite surprised by the speed and dexterity with which the Chaos Lord's huge, grubby hands seized the horn of her costume helmet and hauled her up to face level.
"You. Are you ressponssible for thiss... dissorder?" Sliver demanded, his huge glowing lens pulsing.
"So party games aren't your thing. Food, then? Or are you one those guys with the armor you can't take off?" Pinkie asked, hanging limply before the Nurglite Lord. "You don't look like much of a dancer to me. No offense. I mean, you can dance if you want to, of course."
Sliver waited for the earth pony to finish babbling, and then he held the arm grasping Pinkie out to the side, away from his face.
Pinkie Pie gulped as several boltguns were aimed at her from nearby Marines, their hammers clicking back into place in preparation to fire.
"Hey! Whadda y'all think yer doing?!" Applejack shouted as she and Big Macintosh pushed through the crowd toward the Iron Warriors, the latter shouldering a path for him and his sister.
Sliver glanced down at the angry-looking ponies in disinterest. "Everyone and everyTHING here iss to disspersse immediately. Every member of the Company iss to return to their dutiess, and every xeno will be ejected from the premissess."
"What? Why?" demanded a voice from the air as Rainbow Dash swooped in. "We were just having a party! What's the problem?!"
Sliver wasn't especially averse to putting a bolter round through the winged blue thing rather than answering its stupid questions, but she wasn't the only winged reveler to swoop down from above to complain.
And unfortunately, Tellis wasn't quite so easy to dismiss.
"What the bleeding heresy is your problem, Tubby?" the Raptor Lord growled as he landed heavily in front of the Apple siblings. "Bitter you didn't get an invite? Maybe if you losers actually left your damn barracks once in a while..."
A rumbling sigh escaped Sliver's vox grille, and he dropped Pinkie Pie onto the ground, dismissing her. "Thiss... ill disscipline will not be tolerated. All of thiss will be-"
"'Ill discipline'? What do you think we fight for, Fatty?!" Tellis shrieked, stomping up to the Nurglite Lord while his flight pack puffed flame and smoke. The other Chaos Space Marines started backing up to give the Raptor Lord some space in imitation of the crowd of party-goers on the opposite side.
"We are CHAOS!! That doesn't just mean we get to wear skulls and spikes, it means that we DO WHAT WE WANT!!"
"YEEEEEAAAAAH!!" Bulk Biceps probably made up the loudest portion of the shouted support that roared from the crowd of partygoers, but there were plenty of humans that joined in, some of them waving Chaos Star pendants in the air.
Another sigh came from the Lord in terminator armor. "If that wass the casse, Telliss, I would have sslain you long ago for my own ssatissfaction."
He gestured to the crowd of ponies and humans. "Thesse xenoss do not belong here, and thesse men have other dutiess. I will not tolerate ssuch a flagrant violation of military order in my fortresss."
Sliver looked up at the scaffolding tower and the various other structures that had apparently been built to accommodate the festivities. "Bessidess... thiss foolishnesss ssmackss of Sslaaneshi worship."
The cracking noise that followed that statement promptly silenced the stray mumbling and irritated growling coming from both sides of the standoff.
Sliver hit the ground on his side and then tumbled over further onto his belly, his armor shrieking against the ferrocrete ground. His giant fisheye visor lens was cracked, having taken the brunt of a power-armored sucker punch.
Even then, every Chaos Space Marine was stunned that Tellis had actually managed to knock the bulky Chaos Lord over with a single blow. On the other side, the mortals seemed mostly shocked at the sudden outbreak of violence.
"Say that again," Tellis hissed, stepping up to his superior officer and planting a foot on the back of his suit.
"WELL?! Accuse me of Slaaneshi worship again, you fat, filthy, worm-eaten piece of scrap!" the Raptor Lord screeched. "I'll cut you open like a can of expired lard! SAY IT, FATASS!!"
The hum of Sliver's teleporter activating caused Tellis to quickly step back, taking his foot off the heavily armored Marine.
Sliver's body was consumed by a teleport flare, and Tellis was quite surprised when the Nurglite rematerialized in the same spot, only standing upright. He hadn't known a teleporter could be used like that.
He was honestly much less surprised when a hefty, grimy fist slammed into his abdominal plate, lifting him off the ground and throwing him back. His flight pack activated on its own as he threatened to fall onto his back, keeping him upright as he landed unsteadily on his feet.
Sliver's next punch came with enough warning for Tellis to dodge to the side, his flight pack flaring and his armor boots scraping across the ferrocrete ground in a stream of sparks.


Sliver was already positioning for another blow when music again started up on the vox network; this time it was a faster, even more intense tune that could easily be characterized as "battle music".
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the crowd of party-goers started to chant.
"Kick his butt, Tellis!" shouted Rainbow Dash.
"Blood for the Blood God!" howled a hooded man covered in scars and loose pillow feathers.
"YEEEEEAAAAAH!!"
On the other side of the divide, the bitter grumbling of the Iron Warriors began to pour into the open as well.
"He's gone too far, Lord Sliver!"
"Dispatch the fool!"
"Kill the Mad Angel! Let his corpse feed Nurgle's rotting gardens!"
Sliver tapped the lens of his helmet, listening to the scrape of armorglass along the cracks that Tellis had made.
"I'm going to take you apart, you inssubordinate worm," he hissed. Sliver was unarmed, at least to the extent that a Chaos Space Marine in terminator armor ever could be considered unarmed, but his opponent likewise seemed to be content fighting with his claws retracted.
Tellis just laughed, pounding his armored fists together. "NOW it's a party! HRAAAAUGH!!"


Pinkie staggered away from the escalating conflict as the heavy clang of metal was followed by a raucous cheering from the crowds.
Not that she wasn't interested in how the sudden fist fight would turn out, but she currently had a more pressing issue. Light was pouring from the visor of her costume's helmet like a pair of floodlights, and besides completely blinding her, it also served as a notice that she suddenly had more important things to do.
"Scroll in the helmet: not one of my better ideas," Pinkie admitted as she took the helmet off and blinked her eyes rapidly.
Then she retrieved the scroll Twilight had left her and rolled it open to read it.
"Pinkie, if you're reading this then hopefully things have gone as planned, or close enough as planned, and Serith is stuck in Canterlot for the moment. Blah blah blah, spells and trickery, yadda yadda," Pinkie read aloud, skimming most of her orders, "the Elements are probably in Serith's room." Pinkie promptly crumpled up the parchment and tossed it away. "Groovy! Time for some Pinkie Spy action!"
The earth pony quickly sprinted away, the sound of metal grinding against metal far behind her.


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 2 ground battery docks


"Be very careful with that! Trixie spent a long time preparing that shell!"
A team of a half-dozen servitors lumbered toward the super-heavy ground-to-air cannons, hauling a car-sized cannon shell between them that was stamped with Trixie's cutie mark on the side.
Suuna was guiding the servitors toward the ammunition feed, which had already been opened and awaited loading.
"Hi Trixie!"
The blue unicorn jumped when she heard an unnecessarily loud greeting from behind her, but she hardly needed to turn around to confirm who it was.
"Hello, Pinkie Pie," Trixie said evenly, "Trixie got the fireworks ready on time, barely. Trixie will fire it off as soon as it is loaded."
"Neato!" Pinkie cheered, bouncing in place. "Oh! By the way, I just wanted to check: you and Serith are super-special best friends, right?"
This time Trixie did turn to look at Pinkie, her eyebrow arched. "... Sure. You could say that. Why?"
"Oh, no reason!" Pinkie said, grinning as she held her helmet under her foreleg.
"Mistress Trixie, shouldn't we have a Dark Techpriest on hand to fire the batteries?" Suuna asked as the servitors slowly pushed the firework shell into place. "You won't be able to access the firing controls, I don't think."
Trixie chuckled, turning away from Pinkie. "Oh Suuna, how you underestimate the Great and Powerful Trixie! Trixie has that taken care of!"
The unicorn's hat floated off her head and then turned upside-down.
With a burst of magic, Trixie levitated a large, entirely augmetic, and mysteriously dismembered arm out of the hat and into the air.
"Is... that..."
"A Dark Acolyte's arm, yes. He assured Trixie that it contained his security clearance key when Trixie borrowed it from him. Trixie has all the angles covered."
"Not quite all of them!" Pinkie disagreed loudly. "You don't have a costume!"
Trixie's triumphant expression soured. "Well Trixie WOULD have the greatest and most powerful costume of all the ponies in attendance, but Trixie was only invited an hour ago!" she growled. "Trixie couldn't even use that hour to come up with something, since you demanded a firework display!"
"Oopsie! Hey, I have an idea!" Pinkie shouted.
Before Trixie could ask what the idea was, Pinkie had slammed her helmet down over the unicorn's head, incidentally puncturing the forehead plate with her horn.
"There! Now you have a costume!" Pinkie said brightly.
"Lovely," Trixie grumbled, shifting the helmet so that she could see clearly through the visor, "can Trixie get back to work now? Trixie wants to finish in time to get a decent hayburger for supper."
"Aye aye Captain Ego!" Pinkie snapped a salute and then galloped off.
Trixie sniffed irritably and then stepped up to the manual control platform built into the base of the towering cannon.
"All right, just give Trixie a minute to figure out how to work this thing," the unicorn murmured, swiping the mechanical arm over the access scanner and watching as the console flickered to life.
Suuna frowned as she watched the hatch to the ordnance feed grind closed, and then she glanced over at the control platform. Then she turned to look about at the area where Pinkie had appeared.
"Where did Mistress Trixie's hat go?"


****


Canterlot Castle - residency halls


Twilight trotted uneasily through the halls of the castle, her head twisting back and forth. Spike followed behind her at a fair distance, looking distracted with a hand on his forehead.
She was increasingly perplexed as to the state of the castle as she searched for Princess Celestia.
Aside from the guards that Shining Armor had summoned for their first attempt at restraining Serith, there was no indication of any unusual activity around Canterlot Castle. The throne room had been almost empty when she had led Delgan and Gaela inside, and Cadence had left to round up ministers just so there was somepony of relevance for the Trademaster to talk to. Shining had left as well to round up the guards that had fled in order to set up another detail to receive the Iron Warriors. Hopefully one that wouldn't retreat at the first sight of the Warsmith. Twilight had quickly found a secluded spot to cast her spell to activate the scroll she had given Pinkie, but after completing that she hadn't had any luck in finding the single most important pony in Canterlot. Which was strange, because she was a pretty central part of the plan to get the Elements back.
Where was Celestia? It was clear that nopony that worked in the castle had been prepared for the Company arrivals. It was almost as if her teacher had never received her letter.
Spike suddenly felt a totally inexplicable twinge of guilt.
So who's this Celestia chick that you're so afraid of, anyway? asked the amulet in his head.
She's kind of this super-powerful sun goddess that seems to really, REALLY dislike Chaos, Spike answered, his pace lagging considerably behind Twilight.
That's religious persecution! She's oppressing your freedom to turn into an awesome, unstoppable monster and murder people you don't like! Let's talk rebellion.
Spike clenched his teeth. There has to be a way to shut you up, and I'm going to find it!
Twilight eventually reached Celestia's personal study, and she knocked a hoof on the door before calling out.
"Princess? Are you here?" Twilight called.
A thumping noise immediately came from the room, as if furniture was being knocked over. Then the sound of somepony galloping quickly to the door.
Twilight wisely stepped back from the door, and that was the only thing that saved her from having her face bashed in when it was flung open in front of her.
"Twilight! You're here already?" Princess Celestia asked, an ink quill floating next to her head. Her expression was an odd mix of apprehension and relief.
"Uh... yes. Are you okay, Princess?" the smaller alicorn asked.
"For the moment, yes. But we must hurry! There's some sort of monster attacking Canterlot! I was just writing you a letter to request your aid!"
Twilight's expression fell. "Oh. THAT. No, that's okay. He's not a monster." She frowned as she thought over that statement. "Well, maybe he is, actually, but at least he's the sort of monster that can be reasoned with. That's worth a lot, in my opinion."
Princess Celestia stared down at her student in total incomprehension.
"Well, never mind. We need to go now. The others are waiting," Twilight said, pointing a hoof down the hall.
Twilight started to trot away, but it was several seconds before Princess Celestia moved to follow her down the hall.
"Wait, Twilight, who's waiting for me? You mean the other Elements of Harmony?"
Twilight gave the Princess a quizzical look as she glanced back. "No... Well, actually, Rarity's there, but she only came along to accompany Mister Delgan. More importantly, Serith is here too."
Celestia looked more confused the more Twilight explained things. "Delgan? Serith? Who are they?"
Twilight felt a surge of irritation that Celestia hadn't even remembered the names of the two most important actors in the so-called "negotiations" to take place, but quashed it immediately. The Princess was ruler of the entire nation, and probably met a dozen new people every day; was it so much to ask that she get a refresher course on who was who among the humans she had never met?
Spike's progress in following them had already slowed to a crawl, and upon hearing the confused meeting ahead of him he decided that it was really in his best interest to not be around for questioning.
"Delgan is the Trademaster for the 38th Company fleet. His role usually involves bartering the less useful stolen goods from the Company's pirate raids for supplies," Twilight explained as they reached the door leading to the throne room. Her expression darkened as she considered the other name. "Serith is the Iron Warrior Sorcerer. I think you know which one I'm talking about."
Celestia glanced at the double doors leading to the next room. "No, I don't. Why are these humans here?"
Twilight gave the Princess a confused look. "They're here for the conference."
"What conference?"
Twilight was starting to get the feeling that something was wrong here. "The conference I set up for my plan."
"What plan?"
Yes, something was definitely wrong. "The one I explained in my letter."
"WHAT LETTER?"
The alicorns stared at each other in confounded silence for several seconds.
"Uh oh," Twilight mumbled. "Spike?" She glanced behind her, but to her increasing alarm she couldn't see her assistant anywhere.
"Twilight, this is the first I've seen or heard from you since you left for the human fortress!" Princess Celestia said, clearly exasperated. "I tried sending letters, using scrying spells, sent Luna to enter your dreams, left you a note at home... nothing has worked! I wouldn't even have known if you were still alive if it weren't for that absurd article in the newspaper!"
The gears in Twilight's head slowly ground to a halt as she suffered the intellectual equivalent of having the rug pulled out from under her.
"That's... uh... I don't..." Twilight swallowed deeply, trying to come to terms with the her new understanding of the situation. "I have to admit, a whole lot of my planning for this kind of rested on the assumption that you knew what was going on."
"Well I DON'T! Why are the humans still on our planet? Luna said that the 'War Blacksmith' or whatever he's called said the matter was resolved, but I'm not about to trust HIM. Especially not with them causing havoc and pandemonium throughout Canterlot!"
"Okay... this is... this is bad," Twilight admitted, cringing, "well, I probably have time to explain before we head in there. I mean, there are a lot of important details that you should be aware of, but the most important thing is-"
"HELP!" shouted a voice from the throne room. "No! Stop! Not the drill!"
Celestia gasped and her horn lit up, prompting the doors to burst open as she rushed to assist.
There was little Twilight could do other than slap a hoof against her face.


****


Canterlot Castle - throne room (several minutes earlier)


"Ah, the face," Delgan said somberly as he touched the metal plates that made up nearly a third of his head, "that's quite a story, actually. It came about from a laspistol wound. Bio-therapy was an option to repair the damage, but given the specializations of our fleet, augmetic repairs are always the better option."
"Well, they certainly did a remarkable job," commented a unicorn mare, one of several ponies that had surrounded the Trademaster.
"Your medical technology must be astounding," remarked a pegasus boasting a pipe and monocle.
All the ponies that had assembled so far to meet with the Company leadership were wearing fine suits and dresses, in stark contrast with the ponies he had encountered in Ponyville. Whenever they spoke it was in a tone of general disinterest, and they also boasted an assortment of accessories and hats. A few even had attendant ponies of clearly inferior class waiting behind them.
They were precisely the sorts of characters Delgan was hoping to meet, although he had a sneaking suspicion that they were acting out some sort of unconscious parody of the human elite. They did look quite silly in their fancy clothes, and he simply couldn't fathom how pony mustaches were a thing.
Rarity was likewise engaged in conversation with a few of the Equestrian ministers. Unsurprisingly, however, Delgan had attracted more attention as the commercial agent of an alien space fleet.
Even less surprisingly, Gaela stood off to the side of the room by herself, leaning against a column as she cataloged the stained-glass windows that decorated the throne room. The fact that she still had her power axe gripped in her bionic hand and her helmet closed over head probably had something to do with her isolation.
"I'm sure our medical technology, useful as it is, would be hard-pressed to compete with healing magic," Delgan said with a small smile.
"Oh, I don't know about that. Trying to see a decent magic healer in this country is quite the chore," an earth mare snorted, "the discipline is evidently just as complicated and difficult as the conventional sort. When I sprained my foreleg I had to wait nearly a whole day to have it cured!"
"A sprain? Are you sure the doctor didn't want to resort to magic for something so petty?" giggled another mare.
"Petty? It's a sight more than you've ever suffered, I'm sure!"
The pegasus coughed meaningfully to get the two mares to stop bickering. "I'm still quite curious as to how you suffered the facial wound, actually."
"Ah, very well," Delgan said as he traced his jaw line with his finger, "it happened roughly four standard Terran years ago, on Lionaas Six. The fleet had taken up position in orbit and ambushed the primary defense ships and their support platform. After the planetary governor was made aware of the threat, she was given an ultimatum to surrender a substantial store of supplies or have her cities assaulted and ransacked. She capitulated rather quickly."
"Scandalous," murmured one of the mares.
"Cowardly, more like," snorted another.
"Either way, with no need to deploy serious military force, I attempted to do some heavy trading in the planet's industrial sectors, something like what I've done here. Alas, one prominent industrialist refused to deal with me, insisting that he would not allow the piratical sacking of his facilities," Delgan continued.
"Such nerve."
"Indeed, nerve he had in abundance," the Trademaster agreed, "I'd guess he traded most of his wisdom for it. To illustrate the difference between piracy and trade, as well as make clear that I am accomplished at both, I had a team of men burn his factories and loot his warehouses. Then I enslaved his family and had many of his employees fed to our ship's reactor core for good measure."
The ponies didn't immediately respond this time, and their haughty, vaguely disinterested expressions grew far more attentive.
"As you said, the man had nerve though," Delgan admitted, brushing a stray hair off of the breast of his coat, "he somehow got past my guards at the shuttle landing bays and charged me with a pistol while I was taking stock of our 'earnings'."
Delgan smirked and chuckled. "He fired first, but missed his mark. When I returned fire, I was more accurate."
The ponies remained dumbstruck, some of their jaws agape as he finished the tale.
"So!" Delgan said suddenly, aware that the silence was starting to become awkward. "I hear gems are quite the abundant resource in Equestria!"
"I... uh, I have to go," the unicorn stuttered uncomfortably, stepping away, "I have to... do... things..."
"Y-Yes, quite. Me too," said another minister, cringing as he backed up.


As Delgan utterly botched his attempt to make friends, Gaela took note of a squad of royal guard ponies entering from the front halls, being led by Shining Armor. They looked badly shaken, no doubt because Solon was waiting in that area with Serith and Luna to be called in.
"We're not seriously going to let... THAT in here with the Princess, are we?" asked one of the soldiers, his ears flat against his head.
"Yes. And I'd feel much better about it if you could look at the humans' leader without shaking like a leaf," Shining said with a grimace. Of course, he hadn't fared much better when he had first met the Warsmith, but he had still been one of the few ponies that didn't actually flee.
"Just take your post here. The Princess should be in soon," Shining commanded, turning around and heading back out.
As the guards lined up along the path heading up to the empty throne, one of the unicorns noticed Gaela. Or rather, all the guards noticed Gaela, but only one of them took a look at her power axe and decided that something needed to be done about it.
"Pardon me Sir or Madam," the guard said grimly, his head held high as he stepped up to the Dark Acolyte, "I'll have to ask you to relinquish your weapons to me for safe-keeping."
"No," Gaela said simply, her optics locked on the window featuring Discord surrounded by the Elements of Harmony. She didn't even spare him a glance.
"Sir or Madam," the stallion said more forcefully, his horn lighting up with magic, "I'm afraid I must insist."
Gaela detected the buildup of psionic energy, and she turned her helmet to face the guard. "Whatever you're doing, stop it. I will not surrender my weapons."
Several of the other guards winced, wondering if they should intervene. On the one hand, their compatriot was certainly acting within the interests and authority of his post to insist that the human disarm. On the other hand, she was armed, armored, had more limbs than they did, and was associated with the hulking cyber-monstrosity in the next room. This was definitely one of those moments where discretion might be the better part of valor.
The unicorn didn't seem so easily cowed, though. "Fine. If you want to do this the hard way..."
The moment that Gaela's power axe started to glow from a levitation spell, she twisted her hips and her servo arm lashed out to clamp tight around the surprised guard's neck.
Gasps came from all around (along with a tired groan from Rarity) as the servo limb hauled the terrified stallion up into the air.
"I warned you," Gaela said flatly as the spell broke around her axe.
"HELP!!" cried the guard, batting at the claw with his hooves as the other servo limb levered into position. "No! Stop! Not the drill!"
"Acolyte, what are you doing?" Delgan growled, turning around.
"I warned him," Gaela repeated, keeping an eye on the other guards in case they moved to assist.
Then the doors burst open.


Delgan and Gaela snapped their heads around as Celestia stepped into the throne room, her eyes narrowed and her horn already aglow.
"Tch! About time you showed up," Gaela grumbled. She promptly dropped the unicorn onto the floor, leaving him in a gasping heap.
Delgan noted the horrified looks on the ponies' faces, and then took another look at Celestia, noting her similarities to Luna in form and clothing.
"Oh, wonderful. A fine first impression, Acolyte," Delgan snapped, turning on Gaela, "I just can't take you anywhere, can I?!"
"This was not the first time we've met," Gaela pointed out as her servo claw clanked shut.
"It is not," Celestia said through clenched teeth, "and every meeting is more unpleasant than the last."
Delgan could only pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You didn't tell me that, Acolyte."
"You never asked," Gaela deadpanned, "and if I might remind you, your sole reason for bringing me along was my having met more ponies than anyone other than Dagger."
"Daniels. The man's name was Daniels," Delgan corrected.
Twilight stepped past Celestia gingerly, well aware that she was walking into a proverbial minefield.
"Well then, why don't we start with some formal introductions!" the purple alicorn said desperately.
Princess Celestia cast a sharp glance downward, but let the magic surrounding her horn dim. She was really in no mood for this, but at the very least she trusted that Twilight had Equestria's best interests in mind when she arranged... whatever this was.
"Princess Celestia, this is Norris Delgan, Trademaster of the 38th Company, as I explained before. This is Gaela, Dark Acolyte of the Dark Mechanicus. She was the one who first fought off the Tau from Sweet Apple Acres and then from Ponyville."
Delgan fell to one knee and bowed deeply. "It is my deepest honor to make your acquaintance, Sovereign."
Gaela, recognizing that her allies were putting considerable effort into their diplomatic postures, decided to give it her best as well. She said and did nothing.
Princess Celestia didn't seem especially impressed by Delgan's gesture, but then her attention was mostly fixed on the Dark Acolyte as she stepped up to her throne and sat down. "Twilight? Is this all of them?"
"No, Princess!" Twilight said a little too loudly, reacting badly to the high tension in the room. "There are two more waiting in the halls!"
"Then bring them in," Celestia commanded, doing her best to keep her calm even as her glare was fixed on the optics sensors of Gaela's helmet, "let's get this over with."
Twilight winced at her words. This wasn't how the meeting was supposed to go at all. Aside from undermining Serith specifically, she was hoping that Celestia and the 38th Company really could reach an accord. But now Celestia was unaware of the importance of the first matter and didn't seem too keen on the second.
She supposed she could tell the Princess then and there about Serith's theft of the Elements of Harmony, but then the punishment was likely to fall on all the humans present. To say nothing of how Solon and Serith might fare against Celestia's wrath, having already fended off one Princess today.
Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by the creaking of hinges, and her head snapped up as the main doors to the entry hall started to slide open.
"Finally! We thought that we would have to leave to raise the moon before you would call thy guests!" Luna complained, walking into the throne room as she magicked the doors open.
"Oh, it's no trouble. We have all night," Serith assured her, following the dark-colored alicorn into the room.
Celestia's attention was hardly focused on her sister and the Sorcerer, however.
It was devoted entirely to the monster of oily fleshmetal that stomped in behind them, its every step leaving deep cracks in the floor tiling.
"Introductionsh, Mish Shparkle?"


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 6 psyker dorms


Pinkie crept through the halls of the psyker dorms on her tip-hooves, her back sliding against the metal wall.
At some earlier point she had ditched her power armor costume and was now wearing her skin-tight black spy suit, complete with a tri-optics mask. The effect was pretty much ruined, however, thanks to Trixie's wizard hat sitting on her head as well.
Pinkie raised her foreleg to her mouth, tapping the watch that was strapped to it and then speaking into the face.
"Command, this is Spy Pie Tri, reporting in. I have eyes on the prize and the bad guys are not wise. Over."
A brief burst of static came from the watch.
"Who are you, and how did you get this vox frequency?"
"I will be observing vox silence from here on out to prevent alerting the enemy. Over and out, Command," Pinkie said grimly.
"What enemy? Who is-" the voice was cut off as Pinkie tapped her wristwatch again.
Then she crept up to the door to Serith's quarters.
Pinkie took Trixie's hat off and then placed the card pinned to the rim against the scanner next to the door.
There was a brief pause, and then Pinkie grinned as the indicator lumen flashed green.
"Awww, they must be really good friends if he lets her drop into his secret evil magic lab whenever she wants!" Pinkie said brightly as the door opened. "I'm so happy for her! I almost feel bad that she might get blamed for this!"
She tip-hooved into the room.


Serith's room was mostly empty on account of the recent explosions to come from his experiments and the subsequent repairs. In the main room there was little more than a cabinet, a few chairs, and a desk stacked with weapons. Notably absent was any sort of sleeping area.
Pinkie quickly rummaged through the cabinets, but as expected, Serith didn't keep his all-important filched artifacts in unlocked cupboards. They were mostly full of books written in languages Pinkie didn't recognize.
Turning away, the earth pony rubbed a hoof against her chin as she looked around the room.
Her eyes eventually settled on a panel of the wall that seemed to be dressed up in writing and runic circles. There were several passages written in uneven lines, and in each one was a gap.
"In darkest night swim the blank," Pinkie murmured, running a hoof below each line, "blood within blank flows through the tributary that feeds the galaxy. The vortex of blank that seals the secret whispers off the void. The beast hunts, the scent of blank seething through the veins of unreality."
Pinkie narrowed her eyes at the holes in the strange passages, and then she glanced over at the desk with the munitions. There was a small pile of polished stones laying on top of it, each one marked with a strange and unique rune.
"I've got it!" the party pony said brightly, galloping over to the desk.
Then she pushed aside the pile of runes and picked up the melta bomb laying behind them.
She promptly affixed the explosive to the mysterious door and then twisted the fuse grip before bolting away.
"I am the bestest spy EVER!" the pink pony cheered as the melta bomb went off.


The explosive did its work with far less noise and collateral damage than Pinkie had guessed, blasting a hole through the arcane door with a jet of directed melta gas rather than a simple detonation. Toxic smoke boiled up to the ceiling from the vaporized metals, and Pinkie slipped her mask down to protect her eyes and lungs from the fumes as she approached the breach.
That's when she noticed that some parts of the door still seemed to be intact. Specifically, the part with all the glowing, indecipherable sigils and arcane patterns. Even without the metal backing that it had been placed on, the runic text hung in the air in the exact same place, its lettering glowing even brighter than before.
"That's not good," Pinkie Pie declared.
A bare second later, black chains burst from the pall of smoke and darted straight for her, curling through the air like eels swimming through water.
Pinkie tried to dodge away, but the chains simply followed her movements and then wrapped around her legs and throat, twisting and tangling together until she was wrapped in a veritable web of black, otherworldly metal.
"Okay... this isn't... THAT bad," Pinkie admitted, grunting as she tried to wriggle free.
Then the glyphs that made up the sorcerous trap rotated in an uneven sequence. Crackling green energy leaked from the haze of smoke and heat, and then coalesced into the form of a pair of fanged serpents that hung over the arcane chains.
"Okay, yeah, now this is pretty bad," Pinkie admitted as the daemonic snakes started slithering up the chains, "not to mention kind of genre inappropriate. Electronic security gates and magic snake traps in the same building? Really?"
The serpents didn't seem concerned with the issue, and continued creeping toward the trapped pony as the chains held her firm.
Pinkie tried to reached for a hidden pocket on the stomach region of her suit, but the chains refused to give as she struggled to reach it with any one of her legs.
"Must... get to... secret... countermeasure!" Pinkie growled as she twisted and squirmed. All it did was rattle the dark chains around her, however.
One of the serpents came within leg's reach, and it reared its head back as some dark, gloomy substance leaked from its fangs.
"Ah-ha!" Realizing the one limb she possessed that hadn't been bound, Pinkie's tail curled down over her flank and the tufts of pink hair slipped into the pocket of her spy suit to grasp the item she needed.
"Success!" she shouted in the face of the arcane serpent as the object was yanked from her pocket and promptly fell down onto the floor beneath her.
A small cube bounced several times against the metal flooring before finally coming to rest, causing the snakes and the chains to freeze in place, as if stunned.
On the top facing of the cube was the number six.
The snakes vanished in an instant, turning into puffs of smoke. The chains around Pinkie were next, going slack and falling apart link by link before she was dropped safely onto the floor.
"Phew! That was close!" Pinkie said with a heavy breath, picking up the six-sided die and slipping it back into her pocket.
Then she bounced into the next room, bounding over the still-warm remains of the door.


The next room, while also having been damaged in the lab explosions, was much closer to what Pinkie Pie expected to see in an evil Sorcerer's room. She still couldn't help but notice there were none of the basic facilities for living such as a bed, bathroom, or kitchen, however. Weird.
Cages were stacked in one corner while a desk next to it was piled with shattered pieces of some bizarre machine. Inactive servo skulls lay on an upper shelf, while bookcases dominated one wall entirely.
But most important was clearly a single large case next to the cages that was helpfully labeled "Artifact cache 3719: Elements H. Warning: objects are to be considered highly reactive!"
"Jackpot," Pinkie said with a grin as she advanced on the case.


****


Canterlot Castle - throne room


Celestia was able to work out right away that the Warsmith slowly advancing on her throne had some sort of fear aura about him that instilled terror just to behold his form.
She steeled herself against the irrational sense of panic with ease, dispelling the effect that threatened to unsettle her.
The more rational sense of panic that she felt while looking upon the hulking Astartes was not so easily dealt with. The creature of metal fused with flesh seethed with energies both arcane and conventional and was ancient beyond even her formidable experience. His body hummed with devices whose purpose she could only guess at, and his bulk moved with a casual, efficient strength that could tear down the castle's walls like so much paper.
The Warsmith needed no aura to send chills down Celestia's spine, and the fur on the back of her neck tickled uncomfortably as Twilight cleared her throat.
"Princess Celestia, this is Warsmith Solon, high commander of the 38th Company," Twilight began, gesturing to the Chaos Lord.
Her voice took on an unsubtle edge of irritation as she then jabbed a hoof at Serith. "And THIS one is Serith, Sorcerer of the Iron Warriors. Warsmith Solon, Mister Serith, you stand before Princess Celestia, Sovereign of all of Equestria."
"It is a great honor, Princess," Serith said, bowing deeply just as he had done for Luna. He was still carrying the metal case he had come in with, gripping it with both hands as if to protect it.
"Well met, Princesh," Solon said, his back-mounted mechatendrils hissing quietly at the white alicorn.
Celestia glanced around the throne room, noting that aside from herself, Luna, Twilight and Rarity, every other pony was quivering in terror from the presence of the Warsmith.
"Let's get this over with, then," Celestia said, her eyes narrowed as she stared down at the Iron Warriors, "what are you doing in Equestrian lands, and how can I get rid of you?"
Twilight smiled and resisted the urge to beat her head against the wall.
Serith made a coughing noise immediately. "Although I understand your haste, my lady, there are yet formalities to be observed."
The Sorcerer stepped forward past the other ponies with the case in his hands, walking up the stairs to the throne even as Twilight and Rarity fixed him with glares that threatened to strip the paint from his armor.
"As... unfamiliar as we are in the conduct of diplomacy, it is well-recognized that one should offer a gift when meeting foreign powers about matters of peace."
He laid the case down before Celestia's throne, and then passed his hand over it.
The locks on the case snapped open, and a gentle squeak came from the container as the lid slowly opened upward.
Twilight ground her teeth irritably as she fought to stay still. She couldn't see what was in the case from her current angle, and judging from the surprised yet nonplussed expression on Celestia's face, it was probably something she'd want to issue an opinion on before Celestia accepted it.
"Twilight?" Princess Celestia said, turning her gaze on the purple alicorn.
"Yes, Princess Celestia?" Twilight answered eagerly, glad that she was apparently being consulted anyway.
"Why does this man have the Elements of Harmony?"


****


Ferrous Dominus - Serith's laboratory


Pinkie stared pensively into the empty case, blinking repeatedly.
There was no clever little note, no substitute item, no trap, no anything. The case was simply empty of the contents it was indicated to have.
"Twilight is NOT going to be happy about this," Pinkie mumbled, grimacing.


****


Canterlot Castle - throne room


As Twilight and Rarity gaped in surprise, Serith stood up and shook his head.
"My lady, I do not possess the Elements of Harmony. You do," Serith confessed, walking back down the steps to re-join the Company delegation, "after confiscating these dangerous devices from your servants, it occurred to me that they may possess some import to your people. As such, I thought it would make a fine gift to mark our meeting."
Absolute silence answered the Chaos Sorcerer, broken only by the sound of Twilight smacking her face into the wall repeatedly.
Solon leaned over on his chassis to speak to Serith. "I don't think she likesh it. I told you we should have brought a shervitor inshtead!"
Serith grunted. "Ugh. That's so impersonal, though."
"Thou hast a point," Luna said obliviously, "if the Elements of Harmony were lost, t'would be of great value to return them in good order." The dark-furred alicorn nodded. "We believe Sister's dismay originates from being unaware that they were lost in the first place."
"Well, that's hardly our fault," Gaela pointed out.
"Agreed. You would think Miss Sparkle would have mentioned something this important to all of you," Delgan said, snorting contemptuously.
Rarity winced as the sound of a face meeting a stone wall grew more frequent.
Celestia's lip twitched as she spoke again. "It's fine. Twilight, stop that."
Twilight froze immediately, her muzzle quivering mere millimeters from the stone wall.
"Now I would like to proceed. Your fortress 'Ferrous Dominus' is in our lands. We want you all gone, and preferably off our planet."
Solon waved his smaller arm dismissively. "No, no, we've already worked that out with Mish Shparkle. We're going to leave when our Warp enginesh are finished."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "And how long will that take?"
"Two monthsh or sho," Solon answered breezily.
Princess Celestia grit her teeth. "That's not acceptable."
"It will sheem a lot more acceptable two monthsh from now," the Warsmith countered with a chuckle, "but sherioushly, we're only here becaushe it'sh the besht place to build what we need to leave. We're not departing without our Warp enginesh."
"Then I'm not sure what there is to discuss," Celestia admitted, her eyes narrowed.
"There is the matter of the Tau stragglers," Serith interjected, "according to what we've observed-"
"I don't CARE about the Tau," Celestia interjected harshly, "they're YOUR problem that you've brought upon us! I have firefights breaking out in my villages and the remains of your weapons littering my fields!"
Serith grunted in irritation. He knew by now that the Iron Warriors weren't what brought the Tau to Centaur III, but without a better explanation for their presence he wasn't going to try to convince the Princess that the aliens had more sinister intentions than they did.
"Your people are raiders, slavers, and butchers, and you come to me asking for permission to stay to make it easier to hunt down your victims?" Celestia asked, her voice turning more shrill.
"Well, technically I think we've already concluded that bushinesh," Solon pointed out, "you won't give ush permission, and we don't care."
Delgan groaned as he hung his head. "Not helping, Lord," he mumbled under his breath.
"And THIS!" Celestia shouted, her horn flaring with magic.
Delgan yelped as the Chaos Star badge that was pinned to his jacket was ripped off of his chest to float between the two parties.
"I know what this is! Did you think I would give you free reign to spread your hatred and rot among my people?" Celestia demanded, her wings rising half-way open in irritation. "We will not invite your darkness into our lands or abet your atrocities!"
Delgan seemed increasingly uncomfortable with the confrontation, although Solon just leaned over to speak to Serith.
"Ish thish the agenda we were shupposhed to dishcush? I thought it wash moshtly to be about commercial issuesh."
Serith sighed and then addressed Celestia again. "Obviously our servitude to Chaos is not negotiable. But we might address your... other concerns?"
"Other concerns?" Celestia said sharply. "Which ones? The pollution your fortress is spewing into our air and water? The crossfire from your battles in and around our settlements? The disruption from your landing ships, guns, and buildings in our territory?"
"Wash our negotiating poshition thish bad when we came in?" Solon asked Gaela. "I feel like we had a much better cashe when we arrived."
"I hardly think such petty concerns warrant our attention," Gaela noted, forgetting that her most useful contribution to the diplomatic process was to remain silent, "as far as I know, there haven't even been any ponies killed yet from our operations here."
Celestia slowly forced her wings back into their resting position and took a deep, cleansing breath before she spoke again. "Get out."
"What? Already?" Solon asked, surprised.
"I have nothing more to say to you, and you're all beyond redemption. Get OUT of my castle," Princess Celestia demanded.
"Sister, dost thou not think it best that we at least hear them out?" Luna asked with a frown. She didn't mean to side with the humans in this matter, but she did feel SLIGHTLY guilty about assaulting them earlier.
"As far as I'm concerned, that's what I just did," the white alicorn replied coldly, "in recognition of your... 'attempt' at peaceful engagement, you have twenty-four hours to leave Canterlot. After that, I never want to see any human here ever again." Then her eyes narrowed. "That extends to whatever YOU are, and any more such monsters that bear the eight-pointed star."
Delgan chewed his lip anxiously. "Ah, is there a chance I can get that badge back? Your highness?"
The Trademaster winced as his floating Chaos Star flashed with magic, and then it vanished into a puff of ashes.
"That would be a 'no', then," Delgan sighed.
Princess Celestia stepped down from her throne and headed for the doors leading back to her study, the case containing the Elements off Harmony floating behind her. "This meeting is over. Twilight, I wish to speak with you before you leave for Ponyville again."
Nobody said anything as she walked out, each of them stewing silently in their own thoughts while the double doors slammed shut.
Rarity was the first to breach the silence, turning toward Twilight and whispering into her ear. "You know, technically, your plan was STILL a success since we got the Elements back."
"Yeah. Great," the purple alicorn mumbled.


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 6 PARTY CENTRAL


"Go for the face!"
"Crush the traitor!"
"Look out for that pipe, dude!"
"Iron within! Iron without!"


Tellis leapt into the air, his flight pack spewing flames as Sliver swung a hefty length of pipe under him.
"Hah! Even with a weapon you're too slow for me, loser!" Tellis howled as he flew a circle around the Nurglite, hovering just out of pipe range.
The hum of Sliver's teleporter engine filled the air before he vanished, and Tellis grunted as he brought up his HUD to try to mark Sliver's new location.
Before he could manage that, the length of pipe Sliver had found struck him in the back like a thrown javelin. The pipe didn't stand a chance of penetrating power armor, of course, but nonetheless the sheer force was enough to knock him out of the air and slam Tellis onto the ferrocrete avenue.
Cheers and cruel laughter came from the block of Iron Warrior spectators, while the party-goers shouted at him to get up.
In a moment Sliver was bearing down on the Khornate Lord, puffs of foul gas blasting from the exhaust vents of his terminator armor.
"Die, maggot!"
Tellis blasted off into the air again from the prone position, evading the larger Chaos Lord just before Sliver stomped onto his back.
"Man, you really are slow, you know that?" Tellis asked as he spun around in mid-air. "If we didn't have that nerd Solon around to figure out ways to move your fat ass, how would you get ANYWHERE? That guy really is a genius!"
"To be certain, he blesssed me with better toolss than you," Sliver agreed as he slowly moved toward the Raptor Lord, "your daemon mail iss a paltry thing compared to my weaponss."
"Eh, I dunno about that. I can do some pretty nifty stuff in this thing. Let me show you!"
Tellis burst forward straight toward Sliver, his jets screaming as he turned the boost into a rocket-powered kick.
Sliver took the blow on his shoulder pauldron, grunting as the force slid him back across the ground.
Tellis hovered back away from a grasping hand. "Too slow again! Are you even trying, man?"
Sliver charged forward, his momentum building dangerously as he accelerated toward the Raptor Lord.
Rather than dodging, Tellis blasted forward instead to meet his superior officer head-on. His blood-forged gauntlets slammed into Sliver's slimy, diseased ones as their fingers interlocked, and his flight pack screamed furiously as it fought off the terminator suit's inertia.
"Go! Go! Go!"
"Crush him, Lord!"
"Come on, Tellis!"
"Grind the whelp to nothing!"
"The horror! The horror!"
The two combatants remained locked in their grapple, mini-servos squealing and rocket boosters roaring for dominance. Sparks blasted from armor joints and power cabling, and cracks started to break open in the ferrocrete underneath them.
The sound of a distant cannon shot gave both Chaos Marines pause. Tellis wondered if Sliver had been so intent on ending the party that he had actually fielded armored support, while Sliver, aware that he did no such thing, was concerned about who was firing heavy ordnance without his orders or permission.
"Hey, look up there!" said Rainbow Dash with a hoof pointed toward the sky.
A flare of light was shooting up into the air, and as Sliver risked a glance upward he quickly determined that it had come from the ground batteries.
Then the firework shell exploded.


The ponies, humans, and even Chaos Space Marines that were loudly cheering on the fight stared upward, and the soot-stained skies were suddenly painted with bursts of color. Clusters of bright lights bloomed like flowers and then crackled noisily as they fell, only to be followed by new chains of bursting light.
Tellis, noting that Sliver wasn't paying attention to their grappling any longer, reluctantly turned his visor up as well.
A particularly large explosion went off, encircling the other color bursts with a ring of white sparks. Eight other bursts along the circumference of the circle generated outward-facing arrows around it, and murmurs of reluctant approval came from the gathered Iron Warriors as the mortals and ponies cheered loudly.
Two more clusters of fireworks detonated to the sides of the enormous Chaos Star; one red, and the other green. As the fireworks expended themselves the humans started cheering and whistling even louder to see the marks of Khorne and Nurgle illuminating the night sky.
"Shouldn't there be a mark of Tzeentch, too?" Tellis said suddenly, his gaze locked on the display. "I mean, obviously the whore-God's symbol is a no-go, but I thought we were cool with Tzeentch."
Sliver turned to look at the Raptor Lord silently for several seconds, and then he grunted in irritation, letting his arms drop. "Devoteess of Nurgle rule thiss army, Telliss. The Lord of Liess findss few victimss among our number." Then he snorted noisily. "Bessidess, thiss iss likely the creation of that blue pony witch of Sserith'ss. She likely doess not even know of the entire pantheon."
Tellis let his arms drop as well, his flight pack sputtering. "So, you wanna take a break or something before we get back to me pounding your helmet flat?"
A throaty hiss came from Sliver's vox grille. "I do not. I tire of thiss foolishnesss. Trading blowss over carnival gamess and dancing..."
"Sounds like a perfectly good reason to me..." the Raptor said with a shrug.
"I'm ssure. And I should know better than to lower mysself to your level," Sliver grumbled, walking away toward his men. "Thiss command goes for all of you ass well ass the Mad Angel: for the duration of thiss fesstival, you may do what you want. I'll hammer you foolss back into worthy ssoldierss upon the ssunrisse."
Sliver stomped off down the avenue, the other Iron Warriors parting before him to make way. Many of them turned around with him and followed the Chaos Lord despite his orders, but about two dozen of the Chaos Space Marines took a long look at the resuming celebrations and cautiously started approaching the dance space or the target range.


Tellis cracked his neck to one side and then the other as Rainbow Dash flew over to land on top of one of his pack turbines.
"Man, that guy's a jerk," the pegasus scowled after the hulking Marine, "and he smells even worse than Solon."
"He's also ugly. Don't forget ugly," Tellis added.
"How can you tell? He had that mask on."
"Well, if he wasn't before, he is now that I've  punched all that armorglass into his face!"
A screeching belly laugh came from Tellis as Rainbow Dash snickered.
As the laughter tailed off, Rainbow jabbed a hoof toward the party. "You wanna go dance?"
"I shall party in the name Chaos!" Tellis replied enthusiastically. "Let's go!"


****


Canterlot Castle - courtyard gardens


"Well THAT went atrociously," Delgan grumbled bitterly as he strode into the gardens surrounding the castle.
He had separated from his allies almost immediately after Celestia had dismissed them. In part because he had planning to do that didn't necessarily involve them, but mostly because he really didn't want to have to be around the fools right now.
It would have been much easier to deal with the Princess alone, he decided. A single human merchant tagging along with the fleet of slavers and bandits would not have been seen as a threat, and he would have been able to steer the conversation quickly from what the Company had done in Equestria to what he could offer its citizens.
But instead, he had been talked into letting SERITH of all people make an appearance. And then HE had brought along the Warsmith himself! It was absolutely no surprise that things had come undone so quickly.
He was just glad that he had a backup plan in the form of Rarity opening a storefront for him. After today he wasn't even going to be allowed in the city, never mind allowed to do business.
"I suppose I should be thankful that she didn't banish us from her nation entirely," the Trademaster muttered, "although I suppose that if she could manage that, then she would have done so already."
"Excuse me? You're Mister Delgan, right? The merchant?"
Delgan looked behind him, and his lips pressed into a thin line as he spotted a guard approaching. The guard didn't appear hostile, however, and behind him was an earth pony with a tan coat and slicked-back, black mane.
Delgan composed himself. Whether or not he had the blessings of Equestria's ruler, there was still much that could still be achieved here. "I am Norris Delgan of the 38th Company, yes. How may I assist you?"
The earth pony quickly cleared his throat and then gestured to the pegasus guard. "I'll take it from here. You may go."
The guard seemed uncertain, glancing uneasily at the human. "Are you sure? I thought that the humans-"
"I'm quite sure. Thank you," the tan-colored pony said with a note of finality.


Delgan had to admire the casual ease with which the xeno commanded a royal guardspony, and he watched the pegasus take off into the air.
Then he observed his new guest. "I don't believe we've met before, Sir. Am I mistaken?" The pony had a trio of money sacks for a cutie mark, and a collar and tie that resembled a harness. He looked absolutely ridiculous, to be sure, but Delgan appreciated the lack of subtlety in bringing attention to his wealth.
"We haven't met. You can call me Mister Rich," the earth pony said, looking the human over like one would observe a dog while wondering if it might bite, "I was looking to meet a merchant from that army of slavers down near the badlands."
"You know, the slavery thing is really starting to get old," the Trademaster noted dryly, "between the Iron Warriors, the worship of dark gods, and the fleet of space craft floating in orbit, you'd think we'd be known for something other than forced labor."
Filthy Rich rolled his eyes. "Yes, what a tragedy for you to be saddled with such an awful, clearly undeserved reputation," he said snidely, "now see here: I wouldn't normally countenance dealing with something like you, but I have no other options."
Delgan's annoyance at the sarcasm was countered significantly by the admission of need. "I'm listening..."
Filthy Rich sighed, his expression softening somewhat. "I... I have a daughter. The most adorable, loveliest filly in the country, if I do say so myself." His voice was thick with a father's pride, but there was definitely an air of frustration hanging over it. "But she can be quite a handful, and VERY demanding. She's asked me for something that would be impossible for me to get, under normal circumstances."
Delgan nodded grimly. "I see. Well, beautiful or not, the important thing is whether she's healthy. And even then, I can't guarantee you a good price for a mere child."
Filthy Rich was silent for several seconds, and then he tilted his head to the side. "What?"
"Sorry, never mind," Delgan said quickly, "I misread some signals, there. Go on."
Filthy Rich hesitated for a moment, but then continued. "ANYWAY, my daughter apparently saw one of your mechanical walking gizmos, and now she wants one for herself. Obviously, there's no way I can pick up one of these things at the local market, you understand."
Delgan briefly considered informing him that there WAS now a market which sold such things, but decided against it. Since Mister Rich had decided to come to him, he could stand to give the wealthy pony his personal attention.
"I believe what you're looking for is an automata," Delgan said as he clasped his arms behind his back, "they're robots that are completely self-motivated, and usually lack any sophisticated intelligence. There are numerous models and functions to choose from, as well."
Filthy Rich nodded slowly. "Good... and what will one of these cost me, exactly? I'd say money is no object, but dealing with space men probably puts a different spin on things."
"Well, that is the thing," Delgan admitted with a smirk, "our currency and yours have yet to be properly evaluated for exchange. Without that being officially established, it becomes a challenge to do business, you know?"
The human stepped around the earth pony, gesturing casually to his cutie mark. "That brand of yours marks you as a man... erm, a pony of wealth. If you're not a banker yourself, I presume you know several. Once I can purchase your bits with my credits, I'd be more than happy to provide a cutting-edge automata of your choice. There's a deposit I'll need to make on a new storefront, you see. This would be a tremendous help."
Filthy Rich chewed his lip anxiously. It was a very good deal for him personally, but the economic ramifications of what he was asking for were quite serious. "We'll need some time to work out the details..."
"I was given all day to leave the city," Delgan said, him smirk growing, "know any good restaurants?"


****


Canterlot Castle - main hall


Yeesh, did you see the way she went off on those guys? And when they came here for the express purpose of NOT murdering you all and burning down your nation! Not cool.
Spike was huddled in a corner of the hall, nervously looking over his shoulder for any sign of guards or Twilight. "Well, there has to be a better chance of her getting rid of you than getting rid of me. Maybe I should come clean."
WOAH. Did you not catch the part of the "meeting" where she disintegrated that guy's little badge thing? And that wasn't even an actual Chaos artifact, just a symbol! Don't go doing anything I'll regret, buddy.
Spike grasped the sides of his head, his thoughts torn. He was responsible for Celestia not being prompted on the conference Twilight had arranged, but he hadn't burnt ALL the letters. So was this really his fault?
Naw, it's not your fault! Responsibility is for chumps! insisted the voice in his head.
Responsibility and blame are two very different things, my friend. Responsibility is the sword we choose to fall on; blame the weapon held over us by others.
Spike blinked as another voice answered the first.
Oh, don't get all preachy on... wait, who said that?
Spike's eyes darted left and right, and then he glanced up.
"Hello!" said Discord, grinning as he stared down.
"Aaaaaaah!" yelped Spike.
Aaaaaaah! yelped the voice.
"You don't have to be that frightened," Discord said, his face shifting into a pained frown as his long, serpentine tail curled around Spike's feet, "I thought we were friends!"
Spike might have objected to that idea, but he was suddenly very aware and intrigued that the voice he had been hearing seemed surprised too.
Hey, back off brosef! This is a private line! The voice of the Chaos amulet was clearly agitated, and even seemed somewhat frightened.
"I see you made a new friend," Discord said, his face shifting into a grin again, "but I don't think he's the sort of fellow our dear Princess Twilight would approve of. Chaos spirits can be SUCH a bad influence."
Takes one to know one, jackass!
"Yes," Discord agreed, "precisely."
... Oh. Huh.
"Can you get rid of this thing?" Spike asked eagerly. "All I did was put on the amulet for a second! I didn't know this was going to happen!"
"Can I get rid of it?" Discord said, tilting his head to the side and quirking an eyebrow. "Hardly. My powers aren't exactly suitable for cleansing souls of dark influences. Not my style." At seeing Spike wilt, Discord tapped the tip of his bearded chin. "If you can't stop the disease, though, you can sometimes treat the symptoms. I'm sure it would help you keep this little mess hidden if you didn't have that annoying, pestering voice clamoring in your mind."
Spike brightened instantly. "YES!"
NO! Come on man, this is hard enough on us already; a lack of communication is not going to make this relationship any easier!
"The evil artifact has a point," Discord allowed.
"No it doesn't! Get rid of it!" Spike demanded, before reluctantly adding, "PLEASE."
"Oh, very well," the draconequus sighed, raising his bird-like claw into the air.
No! Don't snap me, bro! Don't snap me!
A snap of Discord's finger caused a surge of intense, if brief, pain to shoot through Spike's head, and the young dragon clutched at the sides of his skull.
After a few seconds though, the pain was gone, and Spike slowly opened his eyes.
"It... It's gone. It's finally gone!" the young dragon cheered, almost crying in relief.
"Full disclosure, Spikey-Wikey," Discord said, poking him on the head, "it is NOT gone. Just silenced. Which will do wonders for keeping your sanity intact, but it won't reverse those nifty night-vision peepers of yours."
Spike winced as he considered the changes that had already affected him. "So what do I do to cure it?"
"You can't CURE a contract, my little purple friend," Discord said with a smile, "you can only break it. And that comes with... consequences."
Spike blinked up at the arcane chimera. "Contract? What contract?"
"The deal you made with the Chaos spirit, obviously," Discord said with a chuckle, "power overwhelming, yes?"
Spike shook his head.
Discord's smile faded. "No? Not power? Love, then? Your wildest dreams realized? Your fondest wish? At the low, low price of your immortal soul?"
Spike kept shaking his head.
After several seconds, Discord slapped his lion's palm over his face and sighed.
"Great. This guy must be new or something. Hold on..."
Spike adopted an incredulous expression when a book appeared in Discord's hands, and the Chaos spirit started flipping through it as his tail twitched irritably.
"I hate working with the daemons of today, really. They have a total lack of professionalism. And don't even get me STARTED about their taste in music. I blame Slaanesh." Discord stopped on one page and then unfolded a pair of reading glasses from nowhere before putting them on.
"Hmmmm... Vel, is it? A young one. No contract, and he's already going for full-blown mutation. Bleagh. This has 'lawsuit' written all over it."
"Do I even want to know what you're talking about?" Spike asked of the much larger creature.
Discord slammed the book shut - and out of existence, incidentally - and then lowered his glasses down his snout to look down at the young dragon. "Long story short: you've got a decent case here for a full dismissal of Chaos corruption. I'm going to go run this by the Big Four, see what they think. Don't call me, I'll call you."
Spike was soon looking at nothing but a puff of smoke as Discord vanished, his reading glasses bouncing onto the floor.
Then the door at the end of the hall opened.


"You know, I never undershtood until today why the Tau have an entire cashte dedicated to diplomacy," Solon said as he stomped through the doors, "it sheemsh sho shimple! Meet with the other shide, don't shoot anyone, and then agree to continue not shooting anyone! But it'sh actually really hard!"
"Well, she didn't make it easy on us," Serith opined somewhat bitterly, "I really did think she'd give us SOME credit for me returning the Elements."
Gaela followed behind the two Iron Warriors. "The failure of Delgan's venture is ultimately irrelevant to us. On balance, the Equestrian nation is still completely outmatched militarily by our standing forces. They have no choice but to bide until our own objectives are complete and we take back to the void."
"I shupposhe. It wash shtill an embarashing meeting."
As the three armored humanoids walked by Spike's hiding place, Serith halted and stared at the young dragon.
"Really? It got you?" the Iron Warrior said with a clear tone of annoyance as his colleagues walked on without him. "These things never seem to work out as I planned."
Spike growled at the armored Sorcerer towering over him even as he braced himself in the corner against the wall. "Back off! My fire breath is a lot more dangerous now!"
"I'm sure," Serith drawled. Then he reached to his belt and detached a small iron box from where it was hanging against his hip.
"Here, slave. I brought gifts for Lady Sparkle as well. Take this to your mistress."
"I'm not Twilight's slave!" Spike barked angrily, a puff of dark fire escaping from his lips.
"No. You are mine," Serith chuckled.
Within seconds Spike's angry expression had been replaced by a dazed one, and he stiffly held his arms out for the container.
"Good boy," Serith said as he handed the box over, "really, if Lady Sparkle doesn't keep track of her things, she shouldn't be surprised if others use them as they wish. Scurry off now, lizard."
Spike quickly dashed off down the hall, and Serith left in the opposite direction to follow his own master.


****


Canterlot Castle - residency halls


Twilight looked absolutely miserable as she stepped out of Celestia's study, and the purple alicorn sighed weakly when she saw Rarity and Gaela waiting for her.
"So? How did it go?" Rarity asked pensively.
"Oh, it went well enough," Twilight admitted, "Princess Celestia understands what's going on now, at least. She didn't really change her mind as far as the humans are concerned, though."
Twilight looked up at Gaela. "She especially doesn't seem to like you, Gaela."
The Dark Acolyte shrugged, perfectly indifferent.
"Still, I managed to convince her that fighting the humans is both futile and easily avoidable, so it won't be a problem for Gaela and Delgan to stay in Ponyville."
"Such a font of wisdom and benevolence," Gaela noted dryly.
Twilight cast an annoyed glare at the armored woman, but was distracted from the topic when she saw Spike walking through the halls carrying a metal box.
"Spike, there you are! We're going home soon," the alicorn explained as she walked over to the young dragon.
Spike halted about a meter away from Twilight, and then held out the box. "This is for you, Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight quirked an eyebrow at the curiously formal method of address. "And who is this from? This looks like one of the humans' containers."
Rather than answering, Spike blinked rapidly and twisted his head from side to side. "Where am I? How did I get here?"
"Ah. It's from Serith," Gaela surmised.
The temperature in the room immediately dipped several degrees as the ponies scowled.
"Great. And what has that slimeball given me now?" Twilight asked, levitating the box away from Spike and opening it up.
She went completely silent as she beheld a small pile of rolled-up parchments in the box.
Spike still wasn't completely sure what was going on, but he pointed to the scrolls immediately. "Hey, those look like the letters we sent to the Princess!"
Rarity grimaced. "Wait, you don't suppose that he..."
She trailed off as she noticed that Twilight was quivering like a teapot at a dangerously high boil, and the unicorn took a cautious step back.
Gaela and Spike weren't quite so perceptive, and both of them were almost knocked over as Twilight's coat suddenly erupted into flames and her eyes turned a solid glowing white.
"SEEEEEEEEERRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTH!!!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - landing platform tertius, two hours later


The Warsmith's gunship slowly lowered itself onto the landing platform as its cloak disengaged, coming to a much easier stop than it had within the gardens of Canterlot.
As the ramp lowered itself to the ground, there was already a small collection of Iron Warriors gathered to receive the occupants of the craft.
Sliver stood at the head of the group, his hammer resting on the ground on its head. His visor lens was still cracked from his earlier fight with Tellis, and would probably have to be repaired while he wore it; it had been many long millennia since he could actually remove his helmet like lesser wargear.
The blast doors opened, and the Iron Warriors watched their commander descend the ramp on his many legs, followed by Serith.
"Okay, fine, it'sh a little funny. But I shtill think you have too much fun antagonizing them. If you want shomething dead, then kill it. If you don't, then leave it alone."
Sliver suppressed a groan from hearing the tail end of one of Solon's tiresome lectures. Not that he had any sympathy for Serith; in all likelihood the Sorcerer deserved it.
"Warssmith Ssolon," Sliver said loudly, causing Solon to halt suddenly.
"Uh, yesh? Shomething wrong?" Solon asked warily, his optics swinging around to regard his second-in-command.
Serith snickered at the Warsmith's sudden nervousness. There were several good reasons that Solon deferred to Sliver so readily, but even so their relationship was absurd.
Sliver slowly shook his head. "No, Warssmith. I am ssimply here to ssee you back to the manufactorum."
"Oh. Okay, fine," Solon said as he began moving again, "uhm... did shomething happen to your helmet?"
Sliver turned around and started to head away from the platform, and the other Iron Warriors followed immediately. "Yess... there wass a great celebration while you were out, Warssmith. It got a little... out of hand at one point."
Solon tilted his head up to scan the darkened night sky. "A celebration? Well, that explainsh the balloon clushtersh tied to all the shmokeshtacksh. I thought that wash shtrange."
"What a shame that we missed it," Serith said, scratching the chin of his helmet, "when exactly did it take place?"
Sliver made a gurgling growl from behind his vox grille. "The xeno filth left very recently. The sservitorss are sstill cleaning up the ssite."
Solon and Serith paused.
"The ponies put it on? Well, that was nice of them," Serith decided, "I'm surprised you let them in."
"I didn't," Sliver spat, "ass far ass I can tell, Telliss sset up thiss messs."
Solon noticed another delegation coming to meet them, this one comprised of General Gnoss and several other officers from the mortal branches of the Company. "And what'sh thish, then?"
The humans stopped a respectful - and semi-healthy - distance away from Sliver as General Gnoss saluted.
"Warsmith Solon, Lord Sliver," the General said, bowing immediately as his attendants did the same.
"At eashe, General," Solon slurred, "what bringsh you here?"
Gnoss stood upright, his hands clasped behind his back. "I was asked to give a full report on the state of the fortress after the... 'revelers' left, my lord. We've completed our security evaluations and already corrected for the errors."
Then the General took a long, rasping breath from behind his rebreather mask. "But there were... losses."
Solon quickly glanced over to Sliver, trying to gauge the other Nurglite's reaction.
"Losshesh... from the party?" Solon asked.
"In a way, Warsmith," Gnoss said, steeling his nerves, "it would seem that forty-seven Tau slaves escaped over the palisade wall during the party. Nobody noticed until there were new guard details assigned, but apparently they rappelled down the side while there were still gaps in our watch."
A shrieking grind came from Sliver's hand as his grip on his hammer tightened past the stress point that his gauntlet was designed to tolerate, and both Gnoss and Solon flinched.
The Nurgle Lord made no other move or indication of distress, however, and the Warsmith quickly stomped closer to Gnoss and bent down toward him.
"All right, jusht to be absholutely clear about thish... it'sh not my fault, right?"
General Gnoss blinked. "No, Warsmith. Not at all. You weren't even present when the party was underway."
"Phew! That'sh a relief!" Solon said, eliciting another chuckle from Serith as the Sorcerer felt Sliver's temper boil.
"In any case, Lord, we may yet recover the lost slaves," Gnoss continued, "they're still shackled, and we have locator beacons attached to their manacles. If we dispatch a team to-"
"Oh, no, that'sh okay," Solon said quickly, eyeing Sliver as the terminator armor around him started to leak hot, poisonous vapors, "a few dozen Tau shlavesh are nothing to ush. And they're headed right for the xeno bashe, no doubt. No reashon to throw good men after bad."
"Ah. I... I see, Warsmith," Gnoss allowed, glancing at the trembling mass of armor off to the side, "well then, there's also this."
He took out a rolled-up piece of paper and held it out to the massive Iron Warrior.
Solon snapped up the parchment in the mouth of a mechatendril, and then unrolled it between the semi-sentient appendage and his flesh-arm.
"... What ish thish?"
"It's an invoice, Warsmith," the General said with irritation, "they billed us for the party, apparently."
There was an almost perceptible snapping noise as Sliver's restraint broke, and every other person present - Iron Warrior or mortal - leapt away as the Chaos Lord of Nurgle furiously slammed his hammer into the ground. The ferrocrete under his feet buckled instantly, folding into a shattered crater as the shock wave blasted over the prone bodies of the others.
Then Sliver pitched his head back, his cracked visor lens spewing toxic smoke as it glowed a furious crimson.
"TEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!"


End Book 2


Epilogue


*The prisoners have all been debriefed and cared for, Shas'el. Yet if the gue'la didn't know where we resided before, they do now.*
*But if these reports are accurate, they DID know. And yet they've done nothing, simply sitting behind their great walls and waiting.*
*These gue'la are very strange, Shas'el. The prisoners reported many curious things about the enemy that seem unusual for their military forces and even pirates. And their military aggression has weakened considerably since they destroyed our field base. Nothing about their behavior makes sense to us.*
*To say nothing of their military discipline. Much as I respect her skill, I still find it difficult to believe Jerriha escaped with so many prisoners so easily.*
*It is true. And still, the enemy does not pursue. Our traps are useless before prey that will not emerge from its shelter.*
*True... but there ARE advantages in facing an enemy that does not wish to fight.*
*Your orders, Shas'el?*
*Have the components to the device brought here piece by piece in small detachments. Maximum stealth. If they're not running patrols outside their defense perimeter, they can't intercept transports that are invisible to their local scanners.*
*We will not fail, Shas'el. For Sept Lamman! For the Tau Empire!*
*No, Shas'vre. We do this for the Greater Good.*