//------------------------------//
// Gearing Up 
// Story: Iron Hearts: Book 4 - Emerald Dawn 
// by SFaccountant 
//------------------------------//

Iron Hearts: Book 4
Chapter 4
Gearing Up


****


Canterlot Castle - dining hall


Princess Celestia sighed with contentment as she levitated a napkin to her lips, wiping them clean of the remains of her breakfast. That done, she finished off her tea in short order, slurping down the last remnants of the dark, slightly tangy liquid.
Her meal complete, Celestia sat by herself quietly, completely relaxed. She didn't find any particular joy in solitude, calming as it was. However, peaceful moments had become increasingly rare as of late, so she intended to savor each one as much as possible before diving back into the day's chores.
Then the doors to the main hall opened, and as Kibitz trotted through Celestia knew that her respite had come to an end.
"Good morning, Kibitz," the Princess said as she stood up from the table, "the palace repair and cleanup crews have made remarkable progress on restoring the palace. Aside from that laser burn on the wall, this room looks just like new. Please give them my thanks."
The unicorn stallion shifted his weight to one side and then the other, looking quite uncomfortable. "Oh, yes, of course, your Highness. I'll see to that."
Celestia frowned in concern. Kibitz wasn't a hard pony to read, and it was quite obvious something was the matter. "Kibitz, what's wrong?"
"Well... uh... there's a... certain matter that requires your attention, your Highness. A matter that is quite... off-schedule." Kibitz took his scheduling seriously, Celestia knew, but this unease was different from the normal frustration of his being unable to plan out every single aspect of her day.
"Is it something to do with the humans?" Celestia asked, forcing calm into her tone.
"It is, Princess," Kibitz admitted, wiggling his mustache, "a group of them have requested an audience with you at once. They're waiting in the throne room. They haven't followed the usual procedures demanded of your petitioners, however."
Celestia nodded slowly. "Very well. I shall accommodate them." She started heading into the hall, and then noticed that her assistant still looked quite out of sorts. "Is there something wrong with these humans, Kibitz? You seem worried." Not that there was much right with the humans they had met so far, but then her assistant should have been used to the maniacs by now.
"Not so much worried as... confused, your Highness," Kibitz admitted, "as for whether there's something wrong with them... well, that might be a matter of opinion, really."
Celestia didn't really know what to make of that, other than the fact that these humans at least didn't have any obvious deformities or ill intent, which could only be a good thing. She still wasn't sure what to make of her assistant's mood, though.
She magically opened the throne room doors and trotted in quickly, fixing a neutral expression over her face as she stopped before the cluster of surprised humans gathered inside.
Surprised humans wearing long, white robes. Robes with suns stamped or sewn on them. That was new.
"She stands before us! The Goddess Celestia!"
And now all of the humans were bowing. Celestia had definitely not seen this coming.
The white alicorn swept her gaze from side to side, having no idea of what to make of the aliens prostrating themselves before her. Eventually she settled on treating them the same as she did her own subjects when they did this sort of thing.
"Please rise, my little... erm, humans," she said awkwardly, although she had at least dropped her serious expression for a gentler one, "tell me what brings you before me today."
They moved from their bowing positions to kneeling positions, which hardly made the meeting any less bizarre. One of them pulled back the hood of his robes and spoke.
"My name is Farian, oh Goddess, and I speak for the Sunsworn! We have come today to seek audience with you and receive your blessings!" He placed his hands together as he spoke, and then bowed his head again.
Celestia took a few moments to ingest that revelation, and then glanced at Kibitz.
"Kibitz, what is this, exactly?" Celestia asked.
"I think it's just what it looks like, your Highness," the stallion murmured.
"Indeed!" Farian said happily, "we Sunsworn have seen your light, Goddess Celestia, and thrown off the barbed chains of Chaos that once thought to ensnare our very souls! With your blessings, we shall be redeemed of our sins and live out the rest of our lives in your service as penance!"
Again, that took some time to fully digest. "... Sunsworn?" Celestia finally asked.
"The name is negotiable," Farian said quickly, "we were going to go with 'Enlightened', but didn't know how your Holiness feels about puns."
"R-Right," Celestia stuttered, "just... let me see if I understand this correctly: You humans have left the service of Chaos and wish to serve me under the premise that I am a Goddess?"
"Indeed!" Farian said exuberantly as the others Sunsworn nodded and murmured agreement. "Your holiness controls the very sun! This we have seen with our own eyes and most sophisticated instruments!"
"I mean, technically, we know you control the planet's spin," another cultist interrupted, "but you do it explicitly to manage the solar cycle, and it's still pretty damn impressive."
"And for that you think I'm divinity?" Celestia asked cautiously.
She was hardly unfamiliar with religions devoted to her, although she avoided encouraging such institutions. Even if actual churches and formalized worship to the Royal Sisters were rare (in Luna's case, practically nonexistent), most ponies casually associated them with divinity as a matter of course simply due to their extraordinary age and magic power. The fact that said "Goddesses" lived among them and handled mundane matters of state tended to undermine the sense of awe that such extraordinary powers might have evoked, however.
"What is 'God' but a word borne of clumsy philosophy and the hope of mortals?" Farian asked, spreading his arms and tilting his head. "Your world lives or dies in accordance with your own fate. Your care and power has given your people prosperity and happiness in a galaxy full of strife and bloodshed. You bear the mark and power of the sun! You create life from sheer will! What more need one do to stand as divinity?" Farian said, raising his arms higher and higher.
"I can't actually do that last thing," Celestia interjected.
"Okay, well, you're still doing pretty good from a strictly mortal perspective," Farian lowered his arms, "also, have you SEEN the last batch of Gods we were worshiping? Eesh."
"For too long have we begged and scraped at the feet of Warp monsters who would as soon watch us bleed for their own amusement as reward us for our devotion!" complained another Sunsworn.
"We've had enough of the darkness! Bring us into the light, oh Goddess of the Sun!" shouted another.
Celestia magically shut the door behind her and then calmly walked past the throng toward her new throne, which had just arrived that morning from the magic lacquer shop. Her countenance was peaceful, but her mind was racing the entire time, trying to work out this very unexpected turn of events and judge whether it would be ethical and worthwhile to use it.
On the one hoof, she certainly wanted to encourage humans to leave the twisted cults of Chaos and embrace the ideals she championed as the path to happiness and prosperity. She didn't necessarily want them to idolize and serve her as well, but if they needed some living icon to tell them to embrace love and not to hurt others, then so be it.
On the other hoof, she was in the awkward position of learning to tolerate Chaos worship as part of a desperately needed ploy to save her kingdom. The cruel fact was that she needed the power Chaos offered in order to protect Equestria, and the Iron Warriors offered a means of controlling that power without dabbling in it personally. Undermining their cult with one of her own could be a serious diplomatic blunder, and she had made too many of those already.
"If I may ask..." Celestia began slowly as she settled down on her new throne, "you all aren't on this planet of your own volition, correct? You were brought here while serving the 38th Company. Won't they come looking for you when they find you've abandoned your duties?"
Farian shook his head. "Not at all, your Magnificence. Many of us are former mercenaries, and the terms of our contracts with the Company were ended formally and properly before we arrived here." He paused while looking over some of the robed figures behind him. "Others among us are menials, and while they don't strictly have a 'contract', and can't really 'quit' their jobs, per se, it's not at all uncommon for some to sneak off when the fleet makes planetfall or docks with a space station. They won't be missed."
He looked like he was about to keep speaking, but was suddenly interrupted by a series of angry shouts from just outside the throne room.
"Halt!"
"Stop! You can't just walk in there!"
"Sir, if you'll just make an appointme-"
The doors to the throne room burst open, and the Sunsworn flinched back as Virgil stalked into the room.


Princess Celestia locked eyes with the Chaos Priest immediately as he approached. Then she saw her Royal Guards rushing in to surround him.
"Guards, stand down, please," the alicorn commanded calmly, "I realize that this is highly irregular, but it has been a highly irregular week." Then she cleared her throat and addressed the dark-skinned man. "I remember seeing you before, but at the time I did not allow you the chance to introduce yourself. Please do so, Sir."
"I am Virgil," the Chaos Priest stated simply, maintaining unflinching eye contact with the white Princess.
After a few quiet seconds it seemed that he wasn't going to offer up anything else as way of introduction, so Celestia continued.
"And what brings a Priest of Chaos to my halls?" she asked dryly, having already guessed at the man's purpose.
"I am here on behalf of Discord, Arch Daemon of Chaos," Virgil replied.
Celestia blinked. That wasn't quite what she was expecting. "And what does the 'Arch Daemon' want?" She added a mocking tone when she spoke Discord's apparent title.
"He wants to know if you've seen his keys," Virgil answered, his gaze burning into hers.
Silence.
"... They'd probably be in your lounge," Virgil clarified, "he thinks he may have dropped them when you immolated him and then kicked us out."
Celestia blinked. Again. Several times. "So... when you say 'keys', are you speaking metaphorically, or talking about some sort of powerful magic artifact, or..."
"They're a collection of small pieces of metal, each one precisely shaped to open a certain mechanical lock," Virgil explained in detail, crossing his shackled arms over his chest, "they're all attached to a small metal ring, which also holds his Barnyard Bargains membership tab and a decorative plastic lanyard he made as a Harpy Scout back from an age before Time began."
The guards looked over to the Sunsworn, clearly wondering if the other humans had any special insight into this absurdity. They shrugged helplessly.
"Why would DISCORD have KEYS?" Celestia asked incredulously.
"Discord is a creature of pure energy manifest, whose power is literally beyond fathoming," Virgil noted, "there is no reason whatsoever for him to have keys. But he does. And they're missing. Have you seen them?"
Celestia gaped for several seconds, and then glanced over at Kibitz.
"Just a moment, you Highness. I'll check the lounge," the mustachioed stallion trotted out of the throne room, leaving the rest of the rather confused ponies and cultists with the Chaos Priest.


A few minutes passed quietly as those in the throne room waited for Kibitz to return. Neither Celestia nor the Sunsworn wanted to return to their previous topic with the Chaos Priest in the room, and the white-robed humans coughed and fidgeted nervously in his presence.
"Well, this is awkward," one of the Sunsworn mumbled, breaking the stifling silence.
Celestia shifted uncomfortably, her eyes still locked onto Virgil's. "So, just to be clear, you're only here for Discord's keys? That's all?"
"Yes," Virgil answered.
"So, you're not here to punish us for blasphemy? Or drag us back to the Company?" Farian asked nervously.
"Chaos offered you a chance at immortality, and you all turned away from its power and glory to worship a horse's ass," Virgil explained in his usual bland monotone, "you're an embarrassment to humanity, and the Dark Gods are better off for your absence." Celestia frowned at that statement, but didn't challenge it.
"Well, that..." Farian seemed angry at first, but then he trailed off. "That... works out rather nicely for all of us, actually."
"Found them!"
Everyone turned to face Kibitz as the unicorn galloped back into the room with a set of keys hovering in the air in front of him.
"They were next to that old couch that I'm pretty sure shouldn't be there," the Royal advisor said as he floated the keys over to Virgil.
The Priest snatched the keys out of the air. "Thank you." Then he turned toward the Royal Guards standing at attention to either side of him. "Flash Sentry, Star Blitz, Shield Bearer: I have listened to the whispers of the Gods to divine that which may yet be, and have determined that Sunday night poker is back on this week."
Flash raised his head in surprise. "Really? But I thought-"
"She'll be fine. Bionic lung. See you at eight." Without further explanation or fanfare, Virgil turned on his heel and walked out of the throne room. Many of the guards followed, closing the main doors behind him.


After a few more silent seconds, Farian turned back to Celestia and pointed to her.
"So. Celestial church. Where are we at?"
"You may do as you please if you intend to live among us ponies, so long as you abide by our laws," Celestia declared, trying her best to completely forget the previous encounter.
"Awesome. Any divine wisdom you can share with us lowly mortals to build a religious code around?" he asked as the other Sunsworn nodded eagerly.
"'Love and Tolerate' is a personal favorite of mine," the alicorn replied, "treat others with kindness and seek to spread joy and happiness wherever you go. Stay your hoof - sorry, hand - from violence and retribution whenever possible, and never let the poison of hatred consume your hearts."
"Perfect. We're going to go inscribe some stone tablets now. Thanks, Holiness!" the cluster of humans started bowing again as they headed backwards toward the door, some of them tripping over their robes in the process.
"You're, uh... You're welcome. Farewell, my little... well, farewell. And good luck."


****


Ferrous Dominus - psyker dormitories


Spike scratched at his belly as he plodded down the empty metal halls of the psyker dorms, heading toward the secondary data repository with a respirator under his arm. He had already had a handful of rubies for breakfast, and after getting a very late start getting out of bed, had found a few messages waiting for him on Twilight's dorm cogitator console.
He was quite proud of how well and quickly he had adjusted to the shift from a low-tech living space where magic was an everyday commodity to a high-tech alien environment where magic was rare and treated with suspicion. Gaela had run him through using the basic residential consoles, and although he absolutely refused to pray to the device when he turned it on, he now knew its use far better than Twilight did.
Partially because his claws functioned as well as fingers for using the touch-screen while Twilight had to use a stylus. And partially because she hadn't been there when Gaela had explained the machine to him.
She also hadn't been there when he'd finished unpacking the meager collection of belongings stuffed in a magic fifth-dimensional bag and arranged them in her new living space. Or when he'd made dinner the previous evening. Or when he'd gone to bed. Or had breakfast. He hadn't seen Twilight for more than sixteen hours now.
Not that he had any doubts as to where she was.


"Morning, Twi," Spike said as the door to the repository slid open, recognizing the security key in a small bracelet around his wrist.
Twilight didn't answer. She was laying on a metal bench in a corner of the data repository, her face illuminated by the pallid glow of a single dataslate. Her mane and tail were out of sorts, and she had very obvious bags under her eyes. Despite this, she was staring at the dataslate with a deep, almost disturbing intensity.
"Hey, Twi! Twilight! Hello!" Spike shouted, getting a few annoyed glances from a Dark Acolyte on the other side of the room.
No response from Twilight, though.
"Hey Twilight, I saw Serith rooting through your stuff before I left. When did you let him into our room?" Spike asked.
"I WILL MELT DOWN HIS HELMET AND TURN IT INTO A TEA KETTLE!!" Twilight roared as she bounced to her hooves, her horn flaring with power.
"And a good morning to you, too," Spike said dryly.
Twilight shook her head dizzily, and then winced as she realized that her legs had fallen asleep. "Spike? What time is it?"
"Time for you to take a break from the information hyper-highway," the young dragon answered gruffly, "did you even eat?"
"Nutrient paste," Twilight replied as she shook out her legs, "really, it's hard to imagine how I got by without it! Cooking is so inefficient!"
"But I do all our cooking," Spike pointed out.
"Right! And now that frees up your time to do more... uh... well, whatever you want, I guess," Twilight trailed off uncertainly. If her role in service to the 38th Company was ambiguous, then Spike's was a complete mystery. She absolutely objected to Serith's classification of him as a 'thrall', but he had come along with her as a matter of course when she joined an army of space pirates.
"Anyway, was there something in particular you wanted? I was reading up on the specific treatments used to prevent organic tissues from rejecting mechanical augmetics. I wanted to finish the section on nerve-input technology before taking a nap. Assuming I don't find some other subject that catches my interest."
"At this rate the Orks are going to show up and find an alicorn skeleton laying here on a pile of notes and dataslates," Spike grumbled, "I came to tell you that you have a pair of messages. Rainbow Dash is already here, and she wants to show everypony something in about an hour at the main manufactorum block in sector 11. The other is from Rarity. She wanted to let you know that she, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack should be here soon to 'check in for assignment' or whatever."
Twilight frowned. "Not Fluttershy?"
"Not Fluttershy," Spike shrugged, unsurprised.
"Well, I knew this would be a hard sell to her. Just give me a few minutes to finish this section, and I'm sure we can meet..." Twilight trailed off as Spike walked up to her bench, picked up the dataslate she had been reading, and then tossed it like a frisbee into a pile of similar objects.
"Let's go," the young dragon said bluntly, walking toward the exit and holding up the respirator above his head. "I've got your mask and security band and everything. Move it."
Twilight's eyes narrowed as she followed after her assistant. "You've gotten awfully cheeky lately, Spike."
"Well, I've been hanging around Gaela a lot," Spike replied as he tossed her the respirator mask, "I guess she's been inspiring me to be more assertive."
Twilight frowned as she caught the mask in her telekinetic grip. "You know I like Gaela, but she isn't the best role model, Spike."
"Isn't she, though?" the dragon asked seriously. "She gets to brush off anypony she wants, even Princesses, and ponies and humans both practically beg for her help. That's pretty impressive!"
"She's a sociopath who literally thinks kindness and empathy are personality flaws," Twilight deadpanned, "the only time I've ever seen her smile was when she was hacking apart a Tau battlesuit. Most people and ponies - even the Iron Warriors, for crying out loud - only tolerate her because she's so useful to them."
Twilight paused to fit the mask over muzzle, and then followed Spike out into the polluted exterior of Ferrous Dominus. "You're handy to have around, AND you're nice. Don't start thinking that kindness is a weakness."
"Did you know that Gaela thinks I'm a slave?" Spike asked as he plodded down the walkway. "I told her I wasn't, and then she started arguing with me. I couldn't prove her wrong."
"You know how humans are about friendship," Twilight countered, "they think about all relationships in terms of servant and master or commander and subordinate. As long as YOU know better, that's all that matters." Then she paused. "Besides, I'm more like your surrogate mother than your master, anyway." She trotted ahead as she deemed the conversation concluded, bounding lightly up the stairs onto the train platform.
To her surprise, there were several ponies waiting at the platform along with the expected assortment of humans and post-humans waiting for rail transit. This probably wouldn't have been so surprising to her if they were all unicorns, given that a significant number had been moved into the city yesterday, but to her surprise all three pony races were represented among the dozen waiting for the train, all of them wearing black, pony-shaped respirator masks. She hadn't thought that enough pegasi or earth ponies had moved into the fortress for her to run into a few of them at any given gathering point in the base.
Then she realized that she recognized one of the unicorns.
"Prince Blueblood?" Twilight asked.
One of the masked ponies swiveled toward her, his scowl thankfully hidden behind the thick protective rubber.
"Princess Sparkle," Blueblood practically growled out from where he was sitting next to another white unicorn.
Twilight paused at the tone, unsure if the Prince had any reason to be upset at her personally. "Is... something the matter?"
"Mmmph mrmhph mmn," said the other unicorn.
Blueblood's eye twitched from behind his mask. "Is something the matter? You meet me in the middle of a fortress-slash-war-factory-slash-SLAVE-PEN where I've been pressed into service like a common conscript! Plucked from Canterlot like a garden flower and shipped to this hideous city of vile smoke and ugly metal! And you ask if something's the matter?!"
"Mnn mhm mmph," said the other stallion.
"So... yes," Twilight deadpanned, "Prince, I know that your coming here must have been an unpleasant surprise to you, but your recruitment was necessary to save Equestria!"
"No it wasn't!" Blueblood countered angrily.
Twilight briefly thought back to the conscription back at Canterlot. "Oh. Right. Fine. But you're here now, so you may as well make the most of it. There are a lot of remarkable things in Ferrous Dominus besides metal and smog."
"Hmm mrrph mmnm hmph!" said the other stallion.
Blueblood slammed a hoof down on the platform below him. "Fancy Pants, would you QUIT that? I know you can talk through the blasted masks just like the rest of us!"
"Oh, you're no fun," Fancy Pants said, his voice muffled by the mask but still perfectly comprehensible, "Fleur fell for it."
"So where are you two headed? Dark Portal training?" Spike asked.
"Not at all, my good dragon," Fancy replied as Blueblood ground his teeth back and forth, "whatever magic quality Mister Sorcerer was looking for in his unicorns, we don't meet it. So we're headed to an assessment."
"They're going to test us to find out what we're good at and give us a job based on that," Blueblood growled, "can you imagine?!"
"Uh... yeah. I can," Spike replied.
"It's not so bad as our Royal Highness makes it out to be," Fancy said as he patted the other stallion on the back, "after our assets are approved for transfer to the trade corp we can acquisition better quarters and such."
"Oh, what joys and luxuries await us in the Company's PREMIUM suites!" Blueblood said melodramatically, still scowling. "Just think! I'll have a personal washroom again! May Celestia forgive such decadence!"
"The Prince is taking a distinctly 'glass half-empty' view of things, you may have noticed," Fancy said as the train swept in from around the corner.
"Well, I hope things get better for you," Twilight offered as she moved to embark on the train. She wouldn't wish for anypony to be taken into the 38th Company against their will, but if there was one pony who could undoubtedly benefit from the spartan accommodations and laborious discipline, it was Prince Blueblood.
"Farewell, Princess!" Fancy Pants called out as the stallions boarded a different car.


The ride to the gates was short, and mostly spent speculating with Spike on the number of ponies that had moved into Ferrous Dominus, and for what reasons.
They disembarked behind a squad of Iron Warriors, and then used the higher vantage point of the train platform to look over the line of vehicles and individuals undergoing security screening, searching for their friends.
It didn't take long, and soon Twilight and Spike were rushing toward Pinkie Pie and Applejack, who were standing in front of several parked transports.
"Wow, you guys really are moving here after all, huh?" Spike asked. It seemed like a dumb question, but he was rather impressed by the three chimera APCs that were idling behind the three mares, each one stuffed with luggage while large furniture was stacked on top and tied down to the vehicles' roofs.
Applejack snorted. "You kiddin'? This is all Ah got," she was balancing a large suitcase on her back, and briefly rolled it back and forth to emphasize the piece, "almost all o'that is Rarity's junk."
Pinkie giggled. "There was barely enough room for us! We had to squish super tight! It was fun!"
Twilight looked alarmed at seeing the sheer volume of things that the fashionista had taken along with her. On their first trip to the fortress Rarity had apparently packed enough to furnish an entire room. This time it was patently clear that she had taken everything but the house itself with her.
"Where is Rarity, anyway?" Spike asked, glancing around with barely concealed eagerness.
"Clearin' somethin' up with the traders. Ah guess she managed to nab us a few trading corps rooms rather than them closets we were in before," Applejack explained. Then she snorted. "Gotta hand it to Delgan; the guy's shady as all get-out, but knowin' him sure gets ya a heap'o favors."
"Twilight! Spikey! Hello!" called a muffled but cheerful voice from off to the side.


Rarity approached the others at a light gallop. As expected she was wearing the "outfit" she had assembled for use in the polluted exterior of the fortress, although she had found time to color the layers of rubber a surprisingly tasteful pattern of white and purple. She was also being followed by Daniels, who was carrying a cat cage with a sheet over the top.
"Explain to me again why I have to carry your cat?" the mercenary asked irritably.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, darling, but Opalesence gets quite agitated when I try to levitate her. And I can't very well carry the cage with my hooves like this, now can I?" the unicorn asked.
"No, I meant why do I, specifically, have to carry it?" Daniels groused. "You have your own bloody servitor and there are dozens of menials around. Any of them could do it."
Rarity tuned the man out as she approached Twilight. "Darling, I'm glad you came to meet us! Did you need a room too? I hope they didn't put you next to Serith again!"
"They did," Twilight admitted, "but it's also next to the data repository, so, you know, silver linings."
"I had to take away her dataslate, or she wouldn't have come out here," Spike whispered to Applejack, who snickered.
"Well, as long as you're sure," Rarity said uncertainly, "and how is Rainbow Dash faring? Apparently she flew here with Tellis just after you left."
Twilight frowned. "I didn't know about that until this morning. We're supposed to meet her in sector 11, apparently."
The other mares shared a look.
"Wonder what she's got to show us," Applejack mumbled. As friendly as Rainbow was with the Iron Warriors in general and Tellis in particular, she didn't think the pegasus racer had built enough ties amongst the humans to be wandering around Ferrous Dominus alone or leading her friends to points of interest.
"Daniels, can you see to it the transports get to the proper dormitory block? We have to go meet up with Rainbow," Rarity asked, glancing over at the mercenary.
"Okay, seriously, when did I become your personal secretary?" the man groused. "You work with Master Delgan, right? He can get you one of those, you know."
"Well, I'd ask Spike to do it, but I don't think the drivers would listen to him," the unicorn reasoned, "oh, and don't leave Opal unattended, all right? She doesn't like being left alone in the cage."
"Why didn't I stay on the bloody apple farm..." Daniels grumbled, carrying the cage over to the idling transports.
"Applejack, dear, why don't you swing that bag on top, since it's heading to the same place anyway? All right, let's go!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 22


Blueblood tapped a back hoof against the side of his chair as he waited impatiently, trying not to let his nervousness show.
He was sitting in front of a stony-faced administrator who had an optics visor over his eyes and a shock baton at his side. The man was staring intently at a dataslate, and taking far too long about it in the Prince's opinion.
Blueblood had tried to keep an appropriately regal bearing since he'd been shipped off to Ferrous Dominus like a head of cattle, but it was proving quite difficult. The presumption seemed to be that the ponies being tasked with new jobs around the fortress were to be assigned and judged according to merit, which was annoying, but tolerable. Despite what many ponies assumed after meeting him, Prince Blueblood was not some simpering idiot of a noble whose only worthwhile trait was his family name. That may have been his BEST trait, but he was also well-educated, trained in the arts, and far better than the average unicorn when it came to magic proficiency.
No, the unsettling thing was how INDIFFERENT these humans were to him. He'd met plenty of ponies that had called him out for his arrogance or openly resented his status. The title of Prince created as many enemies as sycophants, to be sure, but it was still a kind of recognition. But he wasn't used to being ignored. Despite being dragged here for being a Prince, to the human guards and administrators that were judging him, his title meant literally nothing. He was just another pony to them, no different from any of the unicorns dragged here from rural backwaters like Ponyville. That, among everything else, he found most intolerable.
Blueblood heard the gentle sound of a dataslate dropping onto a table, and he jerked his head up into the green lenses of the administrator's visor.
"Well, Blueblood, I think we have enough data to find you a position." The man laced his fingers together as he leaned forward across the desk, looking down at the stallion. Blueblood was unfamiliar with sapien body language, but that pose immediately gave him a bad feeling.
"According to my assessment, you suffer from an extreme sense of entitlement and a general disregard for the comfort and well-being of others. You're entirely self-interested, very judgmental, and have an extraordinary superiority complex. A model sociopath. And you're apparently a Prince? I'm sure that doesn't help."
Prince Blueblood stared up at the human, then down at the dataslate. Then he looked up at the human again.
"All I did was list my talents and skills, like the form asked me to," the stallion said, looking fairly stunned, "where did you get all that from?"
"Oh, I wasn't reading the form," the administrator explained, holding up the dataslate, "one of the guards recorded a text transcript of your ranting and complaining at the other ponies in the lobby. He thought it was so funny that he gave it to me to review."
Blueblood took a few seconds to recall all he had said while waiting to be called into the office and be given a job to do in this wretched military fortress for an indeterminate amount of time. In his defense, he found the current circumstances unusually upsetting, but ultimately that analysis seemed about right for what the man had apparently been told.
"So... what happens now?" Prince Blueblood asked quietly.
The administrator smiled pleasantly. "How would you feel about a position as a slave overseer? The pay is poor, but you get to bark orders to others and hurt them if they don't obey. Or if you just feel like hurting them. I think it's an excellent fit for you, and it will give us an exciting new way to demean our forced laborers by putting them under the command of a talking barnyard animal."
Prince Blueblood considered this offer silently for almost a full minute before he clicked his tongue. "I'm not sure I could... as a member of the nobility, I'm expected to uphold the values of kindness and harmony central to the Equestrian way of life. Directly assisting the implementation of slavery is a rather blatant violation of those tenets," he explained calmly.
The man across from him nodded slowly. "I see. How about menial overseer, then? It's harder, since their jobs are more complex and there's much less discretion on when you're allowed to beat them, but they're not slaves. Technically."
Blueblood smiled. "When do I start?"


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 11 manufactorum block


"REALLY! Prince Blueblood, stuffiest of the Canterlot nobility, snob among snobs, being put to work in a human fortress?!" Rarity had to keep from cackling as she walked down the path toward the looming manufactorum, so funny and satisfying was the mental image. "I'd heard that the Company grabbed more ponies than they had suggested they would, but that is DELICIOUS! What do you think he'll end up doing? Oh, I can't even imagine!"
Twilight watched a land raider rumble by, its fresh, unblemished armor gleaming despite the haze of ash overhead blocking out much of the sun. "Yeah, it's pretty strange. Still, I hope nothing bad happens to him. If he gets into trouble around here, he might not survive it."
Rarity's giggling trailed off as she thought that over. As much as she disliked Prince Blueblood, she didn't want to see him physically harmed, much less killed.
"True enough. Still, he's not a COMPLETE idiot. He'll keep his head down low enough so that he doesn't lose it. Probably." Rarity looked around at the enormous shutters leading to the manufactorum entrance, and she started looking at the sky for any blue figures. "Well, here we are. More or less. Did Rainbow give any directions more specific than which sector to look in? Each one is rather large."
"She said the 'main manufactorum block', which is this. I guess," Spike mumbled, also searching the sky. There were a couple of pegasi flying through the area, but he could tell at a glance that neither of them was Rainbow Dash.
"Why would RD wanna meet here, anyway?" Applejack asked, nodding her head to a pair of Iron Warriors that were walking by.
They nodded back, both of them immediately recognizing the mare from a widely-circulated recording of a pony savagely beating a Tau Fireblade. It was quickly becoming a fleet-wide favorite.
"Ooh! It's a surprise! I just love surprises!" Pinkie said, bouncing up and down in place. "Do you think she has a new mission? Or maybe a new air trick to show us! Or maybe she had a mission yesterday and used a new trick to complete it and we're here for another medal ceremony which would be awesome because we didn't get any new medals for helping out in Canterlot although the Company did most of the work this time and Twilight pretty much just watched since magic didn't work so maybe she'll just get a lead bolt this time but I'm hoping for gold and then we'll get promoted and raise our stats and..."
Twilight tried her best to tune Pinkie Pie out as she rambled, and found herself growing impatient. She had neglected to bring her dataslate with her to placate Spike, but with nothing to immediately distract her but Pinkie Pie, and nothing of importance immediately demanding attention, she dearly regretted leaving it behind.
The familiar noise of Solon's approach cheered her up instantly, and she sighed in relief as the doors started to grind open in front of them.
"Ooh! It's Shmithy! Maybe I was right! Gold bolt, here I come!" Pinkie cheered as the other mares diligently ignored her.
"Warsmith Solon! Good morning!" Twilight said as the Warsmith stepped out from the heavy blast doors.
He halted, seeming surprised to see the equines. "Oh. You're here already. Well, good." The Chaos Lord said.
"Just arrived this mornin' and reportin' fer duty, Warsmith. But we're here 'cause Dash wanted us to come. Somethin' up?" Applejack asked.
"Dramatic reveal time!" said a vaguely familiar voice distorted by a vox grille.
Solon crab-walked to the side, and Twilight's eyes bugged out.
"Heh. And you thought it'd never happen, didn't you?" Rainbow Dash asked as she watched her visor bracket her friends in green reticules.
"Well, Ah'll be..." Applejack murmured as Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in surprise.
"Awwww... I guessed wrong. No promotion, then." Pinkie seemed disappointed, but nopony took her reactions seriously anyway.
Rainbow Dash was covered in a shell of gleaming powered armor, bearing her cutie mark on her right shoulder pad and the Iron Skull on her left. Her helmet had a pair of backward-sloping, pointed horns, like an antelope, and the boots were noticeably thick and bulky as compared to the rest of the leg sleeve.
However, the two features that undoubtedly dominated the suit was the strange-looking gun mounted over the left shoulder pad and the pair of large, metal wings that stretched out from an engine built onto the armor's back. The wing fins were made up of a number of small thrusters, not unlike Tellis' flight pack, although Dash's was necessarily much smaller.
"I call thish P-variant Centaur-pattern power armor," Solon said as Rainbow tested the wings' range of motion. "It'sh main feature-"
"Check this out!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "I have a gun that shoots Ninja stars! Is that the coolest thing ever, or what?" The shuriken catapult on her shoulder swiveled from side to side with her head as she took in the impressed and surprised expressions of her friends.
Then she frowned behind her helmet. "Hey, it's not shooting. This thing broken already?"
"It'sh on shafety lock," Solon explained, "you're not allowed to have discretionary acesh to your weapon until you've trained with it shufficiently."
"What? That's dumb!" Rainbow complained.
"At the time you were intending to tesht-fire it, you were aiming at Princesh Shparkle'sh face," the Warsmith pointed out.
As Twilight recoiled, Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side. "Oh! Okay, so the little cross is where the gun is aiming! Good to know."
"You're a very smart person, and I appreciate your foresight," Twilight said to Solon, a few beads of sweat crawling down her head.
"Anyway, ash I wash shaying, the main feature of the armor ish clearly the-"
"Awesome wings! Solon says I'll be able to keep up my incredible flight speed with these puppies!" Rainbow interrupted again, flapping the wings of the flight pack. "I'm not sure if they're THAT good, but, y'know, I guess I can give up a little air speed for the armor and Ninja stars!"
"... Am I not needed here? I can leave if I'm jusht getting in the way," Solon offered.
"All right, all right, sorry. Go ahead," the pegasus sighed through her vox grille as she sat down on her armored haunches.
"Good. In addition to the high-output flight pack, each boot ish equipped with a light impulse blashter for quick take-offsh and re-direction mid-flight. The mosht unique feature ish the kineshish refraction field, however."
"The what, now?" That question, oddly enough, had come from Rainbow Dash.
"It negatesh the reactionary energy of a kinetic impact, allowing full-"
"Okay, wait, hold up," Rainbow interrupted yet again, raising a foreleg, "can you put that in terms that normal, non-egghead ponies can understand? I don't want Twi to have to play translator."
The hulking Chaos Lord groaned, slumping forward on his chassis. "Okay. Have you ever crashed before?"
Applejack and Pinkie started snickering as Rainbow Dash turned her head to the side and coughed.
"Well, sure. You know, once or twice," the pegasus answered, happy that her helmet hid her current expression.
"You've probably noticed that it hurtsh," Solon continued.
"Yeah. I noticed," Rainbow gave an annoyed grunt. He didn't have to dumb it down THIS much.
"The kineshish refraction field keepsh crashesh from hurting you as you impart the full force of the impact upon whatever you crashed into," the Warsmith finished.
Rainbow Dash froze in place. "That... That... AWESOME!!" she finally managed to spit out, her wings spreading up behind her. "I gotta try this out!"
"I advishe you practice low-velocity high-altitude flight firsht," Solon said in warning even as Rainbow Dash turned toward the streets, "although your wing movementsh shtill control the direction and acceleration of your flight, it will be very different from-"
He was interrupted yet again as Rainbow's flight pack roared to life, lifting her up off the ground.
And directly into the side of a rhino APC parked on the other side of the avenue.
The ponies winced and looked away from the loud, ringing impact, and the rhino actually pitched to the side far enough for one of its treads to leave the ground entirely. Then it fell back into its former position, dumping Rainbow Dash back onto the ferrocrete below.
"You desherved that," Solon said bluntly.
"You... said it... wouldn't... hurt..." Rainbow Dash groaned, her wings twitching and spitting out bursts of sparks.
"You have to turn the field ON in the momentsh before impact, you imbecile," Solon explained.
"Why isn't it on... ALL the time?" grunted the pegasus as she slowly got up.
The Chaos Lord swiveled his torso away. "I am SHO done with thish. Shparkle!"
Twilight straightened instantly, standing at attention like the soldier she kind of was, maybe. "Yes, Warsmith!"
"Mish Dash is your reshponshibility from here on out. Try to keep her from breaking her new armor before any actual enemiesh arrive to do it themshelvesh," Solon commanded.
"I'll do my best, Warsmith!" Twilight promised. "Thank you for your help!"
The Chaos Lord grumbled something unintelligible as he stomped back around to face the manufactorum. Applejack trotted up beside him before he left, however.
"Well, that's a mighty impressive piece o'work! What'd ya have in mind fer mah suit?"
Solon halted, and then turned to look down at the orange mare. "Your shuit? Why would I make you power armor?"
Applejack looked surprised. "Well, ya made RD a suit... why would ya make her one but not the rest of us?"
"I only made her the blashted armor becaushe she annoyed me into it!" Solon complained, one of his legs rising up and slamming into the ground angrily. "It wash the only way to get her to leave me alone!"
Applejack blinked, and then looked over to Rainbow Dash as Pinkie Pie helped the pegasus up.
Then she looked up at Solon again. "Well... Ah guess Ah could do that too, but wouldn't ya rather Ah just ask ya?"
Solon was silent. After several seconds, the silence was interrupted by the sound of Rainbow's flight pack again. Followed by the sound Rainbow impacting a wall of metal again.
"Dash! Are you trying to use the flight pack or the refraction field?" Twilight demanded, levitating the armored pegasus off the ground.
"I'd settle for either one of them at this point!" Rainbow replied irritably as she squirmed about in the air. "Wait, let me try those impulse blast-WOAH!!"
Solon sighed as the shriek of metal scraping against metal filled the air again.
"Oh, the hell with it. Power armor for everybody. I may ash well try to have fun with thish."
"Even for me?" Spike asked, raising a hand.
"Of courshe not. I don't even know why you're here," Solon scoffed as he started stomping back toward the forge, "beshidesh, you're obviously a youngling. You'll grow right out of any shuit I made you now. If you want armor, turn to Chaosh and ashk for a proper mutation or shomething."
As Spike grumbled to himself, Solon beckoned Applejack along with him. "Come on, you firsht. After that I think I'll do one for Fluttershy next. It will give me shomething to ushe all those shpare narthecium gauntletsh for."
"Fluttershy isn't here yet, though," Rarity pointed out.
"Then bring her here!" Solon shouted as the shutters started to close behind him and Applejack. "Thish should take a good eight hoursh to put together. You have until then."
The doors slammed shut.


Twilight wet her lips, her mind whirling. She hadn't taken Rainbow Dash's efforts to get a power armor suit very seriously before, but it seemed that she had inadvertently equipped their whole team.
With gear made by Warsmith Solon himself, apparently, which was obviously highly significant in itself. She was pretty sure that "kinesis refraction fields" weren't a very common technology around the Iron Warriors. It was likely the equivalent of having Celestia herself enchant a weapon or armor piece for a soldier. Granted, she'd never heard of her mentor actually doing that, but still.
"Eight hours? It only takes that long?" Rarity asked.
"Well, mine took longer than that," Rainbow Dash noted as she got up again, "but let's be fair: obviously the awesomeness of MY armor is much higher, and so it took longer to make." Then she paused. "Also, I did keep arguing with him the whole time and telling him what I wanted it to do. That could have had something to do with it."
Twilight fought off a groan. "Okay, well, he wants to see Fluttershy next. Rainbow, do you think you can figure out the flight pack well enough to make a trip to Ponyville and pick her up?"
"Sure, no problem!" the pegasus laughed behind her vox grille.
"I don't," Spike said.
"I have doubts," Rarity agreed.
"I wanna see her try!" Pinkie said eagerly. While holding a pict-capture unit in her hoof.
Rainbow Dash snorted as she turned around sharply, lifting her visor toward the sky. "Cut me some slack! Flying with rocket power is just, you know, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from flying with wing power! I'll get the hang of it!"
"All right, well, maybe I can help," Twilight offered, "what's your control scheme like?"
"I dunno. Solon was talking about something like that earlier as we were heading out here, but I was busy working out my visor settings," Rainbow explained, "it used to dump a bunch of technobabble at me every time I focused on something, but now I got it to just tell me how cool a target is."
"I refuse to believe that your visor has a 'coolness sensor'," Twilight deadpanned.
Rainbow turned her helmet toward her, and then watched as the targeting reticule circled around the alicorn.
After a moment, blinking green text automatically appeared over Twilight's head, reading: Cool factor 0.2 - NOT AWESOME.
"Hey, you can believe whatever you want, Twi," Rainbow said.
"Whatever. Since you've apparently squandered your chance to get a proper explanation as to your suit's control mechanisms, you'll just have to feel it out. Hopefully without putting any more dents in the architecture." Twilight frowned, placing a hoof to her chin. "You've obviously figured out how to activate the boosters, right?"
"Yeah. It's all in the wings," Rainbow explained, "if I tense them up like I'm going to take off like I normally do, then the rockets start up."
"Okay, then do that, but GENTLY and GRADUALLY," Twilight ordered.
The pegasus nodded, and then looked up at the soot-stained sky.
The engines fizzled to life again, but this time gently enough that Rainbow's armored form wasn't flung through the air.
"Okay... then, I think if I move like THIS," Rainbow spread her wings higher and tilted them upwards, and she felt her body  lift a few inches off the ground.
"Fantastic, Rainbow! You've got it!" Rarity congratulated her. Pinkie blew a party favor in celebration.
Rainbow gave a haughty chuckle. "Of course I've got it! Flying is in my blood!"
To be honest, however, her "flier's blood" was fighting her savagely at the moment. Every impulse she had built up over a lifetime of flying was telling her to flap her wings now that she had left the ground. With her flight pack, moving her wings changed the direction of thrust rather than creating it. It was an extremely awkward change, and she found it more than a little frightening.
But there was no way she was going to complain or give up now that she finally had the power armor that she had badgered Solon for.
"Okay, now let's work on forward movement," Twilight said carefully.
"Yeah, let's do that," Rainbow agreed, "forward to Ponyville, that is! Later!"
Before Twilight could shout a warning, Rainbow suddenly blasted forward and upward, curving into the air on a trail of flame and (curiously) rainbow-colored sparks.
"Woooo! Go Rainbow, go Rainbow, GO!!" Pinkie Pie cheered as the gleaming (though fairly battered) pony zoomed over the tops of the nearby buildings.
Well, mostly.
Twilight cringed as Rainbow Dash clipped the rigging of a macrocrane and bounced off into a downward spiral. Rarity gasped and hid her eyes. Pinkie Pie took pict-captures of the dive. Spike slapped a hand over his face in exasperation.
The impact occurred out of their line of sight, but the sound of a ceramite-shielded shell smacking into ferrocrete easily reached their ears despite the distance.
"... TWIIIIII?!" shouted a voice from several blocks away.
"What?!" Twilight shouted back irritably.
"YOU THINK YOU COULD HELP ME FIGURE OUT THAT FIELD THING BEFORE I TRY THAT AGAIN?!"
"I have to hand it to Solon. Four crashes in and she's still conscious and lucid. Very impressive armor," Rarity offered.
Twilight sighed. "Coming!"


****


Ponyville - Fluttershy's cabin


"Oh dear, oh my..." Fluttershy mumbled as she looked over the assembly of hololithic figures on the table in front of her. "I'm... I'm not really sure what to do."
On the other side of the table, Tellis was leaning over the opposite edge of the Blood Bowl hololithic game board, his helmet propped up by his elbow.
"Well, you remember what the goal is, right? Get the ball in the area at the other side of the playing field."
Fluttershy looked up at him pensively. "Oh, yes, I understand that, but all your figures are in the way! And they're so big and scary!"
"Well, that's kind of the point. I'm not supposed to make it easy for you," Tellis reasoned. Then he pointed to a spot on the field. "Okay, check this out. You see how you have this player surrounded? You can hit him, and that will make it easier to get a player through that you can pass to."
The yellow pegasus chewed her lip nervously. "Oh. Well... I suppose it's just a game. And he won't get hurt, right?"
"Of course he might get hurt!" Tellis laughed. "If you roll well, he might even die!"
Fluttershy's face turned ashen, and she recoiled. "But... But aren't they just playing a ball game? Why would they risk their lives for that?!"
The Raptor Lord scoffed. "Don't ask me to try to explain sports, Shy. I don't get it either."
Then the front door opened.
"Wouldn't you know it? I get my keys back, and it turns out your front door is broken anyhow!" Discord clicked his tongue as he walked into the room.
Tellis looked up at Discord, tilted his helmet to the side, and then looked over to Fluttershy.
"Oh, good afternoon, Discord. Tellis, this is my friend Discord, the spirit of Chaos and an ancient tyrant that brought fear and mayhem to all of Equestria," the pegasus said brightly, gesturing to the draconequus with a hoof, "Discord, this is my roommate Lord Tellis, a crazy and very violent Iron Warrior who decided on his own to live here. He's teaching me to play Blood Bowl."
"Ooh! I get to play winner!" Discord called out as he walked into the kitchen.
Tellis stared after the creature, utterly perplexed.
"So... you a greater daemon or something?" he asked as he sized up the newcomer.
"Arch Daemon, actually," Discord explained as he pulled a carton of milk from Fluttershy's fridge.
"I've never heard of Arch Daemons," Tellis confessed.
"There aren't many of us left," Discord shrugged and then raised the milk carton to his lips, taking several long gulps.
Fluttershy frowned. "Discord, I have cups, you know."
"It's fine," the ancient creature scoffed, "I'll finish the carton." Then he opened his jaws wide and dropped the entire milk carton inside before closing his mouth and chewing.
After swallowing his snack, he walked back into the room and smiled at Tellis. "You may not have heard of me, but I've heard of you. Big Red isn't my favorite Dark Liege ever, but I'm a big fan of your work! It's always nice to meet a cultist with the gumption to have a sense of humor!"
"Oh yeah?" Tellis stood up, quite interested. "You ever met Kharne the Betrayer?"
"Met him? I used to vacation on his summer planet back in the day!"
"He has a summer planet?"
"Not anymore. Burned up during a clam bake in 34'," Discord said sadly.
Fluttershy blinked. "His PLANET burned up?"
"I swear that when I invited the Flesh Tearers, I thought they were a Chaos Legion!" Discord said, placing a palm against his chest. "Between the name and the fact that most of their members are CLEARLY insane, how was I supposed to know?"
"Honest mistake," Tellis agreed, "could've happened to anyone."
Tellis was going to continue the increasingly obscure and absurd conversation, but he halted as he heard an engine roar approaching from outside.
"Is that a missile?" the Raptor Lord asked, staring up at the ceiling. Fluttershy yelped and leapt under the table.
"Orks here already?" Discord asked, checking his wristwatch and watching as the hands spasmed and swirled about the face. "They're early."
"WHY DIDN'T HE BUILD THIS THING WITH BRAAAAAAAAKES?!?!" came a howling scream.
The impact came a moment later, although it was quite clear that whatever it was had missed the cottage, at least. It was also clear that whatever it was wasn't a missile, judging by the lack of a fiery explosion.
Fluttershy gasped as her home rattled and shook around her, and she started scrambling out from under the table. "That was Rainbow Dash!"
Tellis glanced down at her. "Wait, really?"
The yellow pegasus nodded as she trotted to the door. "I'd recognize her screams of terror and regret anywhere! Although the actual crash sounded different than usual."
Fluttershy rushed outside, and Tellis moved to join her, intrigued.


Discord, for his part, decided to wait.
Thus he was the only one present when Angel bunny bounced down the steps, looking furious.
"What's wrong with you?" Discord asked, glancing over at the rabbit.
Angel shook his fists and hopped up and down angrily.
"If a little tremor like that was enough to disrupt your dark ritual, you probably weren't even doing it right," Discord said, rolling his eyes.
Angel bunny pointed upstairs and nodded firmly before stomping his foot.
"As if. You'd have better luck with Malal," the draconequus scoffed as he decided to head outside and join the others, "and take off those fish skulls around your neck; you look ridiculous."


Leaving the cottage, he saw that there was a deep furrow that originated from a rather impressive impact crater and ran almost to the edge of the Everfree forest. Tellis and Fluttershy were at the end of the scorched trench, with the former pulling a power-armored pony up from the dirt.
"Man, things are going to get SO much better when I remember to use that stupid field before I hit something," Rainbow Dash groused as she wiggled free from the Raptor's grasp and landed on the ground.
"Nice suit, Rainbabe!" Tellis chuckled. "I can't believe you actually got the Boss Nerd to make you one!"
Dash's helmet hissed as its seals disengaged, and the headpiece split vertically before opening up and sliding back.
"Well, it wasn't easy, but I can be VERY persuasive when I want to be," the blue pony said with a grin.
Fluttershy had to raise an eyebrow at that. Rainbow Dash had plenty of good traits, but "persuasive" was not one of them as far as she knew.
"I was SO persuasive, in fact, that Boss Nerd decided to make the whole Element team power armor suits!" Then Rainbow gestured to Fluttershy. "That's why I'm here, actually. Solon wants to make yours next, so we've gotta get back to the Fortress fast!"
The other pegasus recoiled and started stepping back. "Oh... no, no. I couldn't. I... don't want him to go to so much trouble! Yes. That's it."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah, see, the thing is, it would actually be a lot of trouble if you DIDN'T show. It sounded like Solon was giving us an order to me."
Fluttershy stopped backing up toward her home. "So... what will happen if I don't?" she asked nervously.
"Nothing," Tellis answered, causing Fluttershy to sigh in relief. "But that nothing probably also includes not fitting out the rest of Team Horse. Defying the Warsmith is no big deal if you don't want anything from him, but if you do then you should probably do what he says."
"You hear that, Shy?" Rainbow Dash asked, her expression hardening dramatically. "If we don't get you to Ferry D, then Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity won't get their own awesome customized sci-fi pony armor! We CAN'T let that happen!"
Fluttershy wilted, finding herself honestly conflicted. She didn't want to live in Ferrous Dominus, obviously, but she certainly didn't want to disadvantage her friends. As strange as it was that their new wargear depended on her.
"And really, you might as well up and move to FD anyhow," Rainbow Dash continued, "it's a pirate's life for us, Shy! We're Company mares now!"
Fluttershy cringed. "But... But what about my animals?"
"I'm sure you can take Angel with you," Rainbow said, "I'm gonna bring over Tank eventually." Then she gave a rather pointed stare at Discord. "I don't know how they'd feel about your OTHER pet, though." Discord snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, but what about the other animals? I couldn't just leave them!" Fluttershy fretted. "Without me around, who will take care of them? I just can't leave Ponyville!"
Rainbow Dash fell silent, and then she glanced up at Tellis pensively.
"Do you want to tell her, or should I?" Tellis asked.
"Here it comes," Discord said, looking away.
Rainbow sighed. "I'll tell her. I've known her the longest."
"What? Tell me what?" Fluttershy asked nervously, looking back and forth between the others.
"Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash started, stepping over to the other pegasus as her power armor shifted heavily with her movements, "about your animals... they're..." she frowned and glanced down at the ground. "Well, they're animals. WILD animals."
Fluttershy blinked. "Yes. Uhm... so?"
"Animals usually know how to take care of themselves," Rainbow explained further, "they're all staying with you because they like having you feed them and stuff, but they can get by on their own." Then she paused, glancing away to the side. "And really, if they can't remember how to live on their own, then you're not doing them any favors by keeping them fed, you know?"
Fluttershy looked over at Tellis and then at Discord, watching as they nodded solemnly.
"Wait, but... what about when an animal comes to me hurt, or sick?" Fluttershy challenged, raising her voice ever-so-slightly. "What will happen to them if I'm not around to care for them?"
Rainbow Dash winced, and then turned toward Tellis. "Tag out! You handle this." She raised an armored hoof, and the Chaos Lord tapped it and stepped forward.
"What will happen is that those animals will die," Tellis said bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Fluttershy nodded rapidly.
"And those dead animals will feed other animals who were lucky enough to be born as meat-eaters," Tellis continued, "c'mon Shy, you know this stuff. Veggie-eaters die, meat-eaters eat. Circle of life. All you're doing by saving an animal's life is depriving some other critter of its lunch."
Fluttershy sat down heavily, completely aghast. "You mean... You mean I'm... useless?" Tears started forming in her eyes as her ears drooped.
"No! No, we're not saying that!" Rainbow interjected quickly.
"Well..."
"We are NOT saying that!" Rainbow shouted at Tellis before turning back to the pegasus. "We're just saying that the critters around here aren't going to starve to death if you aren't around to care for them!" She quickly put a foreleg over Fluttershy's withers, and the yellow pegasus yelped at the feeling of hard (and dirty) metal closing around her.
"But you know who DOES need you? A lot? WE DO!" Rainbow said firmly. "Equestria needs you! Our planet needs you! You're not useless, Fluttershy! But it won't do those animals much good to be fed and housed when the Orks come and... and..."
Rainbow Dash trailed off and looked over to Tellis. "Line?"
"Eat them, mostly. Mister bear might get hacked up for sport," Tellis said, "and NOT in an environmentally sound 'nature is so fascinating!' way."
"Yeah! This is for them too!" Rainbow said grimly.
"The green horde IS marginally more thorough in its destructive tendencies than Chaos," Discord agreed, "not for lack of trying, mind you."
Fluttershy wavered for a moment longer until she finally straightened up and steeled herself. "You're right, Rainbow Dash! I've spent enough time cowering here! I made a... Well, you made a commitment for me to save our home, and if joining the 38th Company is what I have to do, then that's what I'm going to do!" She set her jaw and turned around. "Angel bunny!"
The generally grouchy rabbit hopped from their domicile, wondering what could have brought his servant and landlord to actually raise her voice to call him.
"Pack up! We're moving!" Fluttershy barked, utterly shocking the rabbit. Then she looked over at Rainbow Dash again. "When is the transport arriving?"
"Huh? Transport?" Rainbow blinked, then frowned. "I didn't actually think to bring a transport with me."
Fluttershy tilted her head to the side. "Rainbow, you know I can't fly that far! How am I supposed to..."
Fluttershy trailed off as she felt herself being picked up by a metal-encased arm. "Oh. I, uh... okay." Her newfound courage seemed to wither away as Tellis held her firm.
"Yo, c'mon Angel!" Tellis held down his free hand, and the bunny hopped up to him hesitantly. "No time to pack! We're leaving now!"
Angel paused and glanced up at the Chaos Lord suspiciously.
"No, I don't have seat belts," Tellis said, "you can either fly with me, or fly with Dash."
Rainbow Dash shifted in her suit, the gears whirring softly around her. "I haven't really mastered that whole 'landing' thing yet." She looked back at the considerable furrow she dug into Fluttershy's yard and chuckled.
Angel sighed and hopped into Tellis' hand.
Tellis stood up, and his flight pack spread out behind him as hot gases hissed from the boosters. "All right, preparing for take-off in five... four... NOW!!"
Fluttershy shrieked as she was suddenly carried into the sky, blasting toward Ferrous Dominus on a trail of flame.


Discord watched the gleaming comet tear through the air, a small smile on his face. "Well, I think I'll busy myself by telling all the animals that they've been abandoned to the cold, harsh wilds once again."
"Yeah, you have fun with that," Rainbow Dash grunted as she flexed her own wings and concentrated. She lifted off gently from the ground, and then started to pick up speed in the same direction that Tellis had gone.
"Oh, I WILL," Discord said as he watched the pegasus gain altitude. Then he withdrew a pict-capture unit from nowhere. "Hey, isn't that one of those Wonderbread ponies over there?"
"Wonderwhat?! Where?!" Rainbow tried to veer around using the reflexes built from a lifetime of flying practice, and promptly sent herself into a tailspin back toward the ground. "WHY DIDN'T I PUT MY HELMET BACK OOOOON?!?!"
Discord quickly snapped a series of pictures before Rainbow was obscured by her impact with the ground, and then he snickered to himself as he turned back toward the cottage. "I've still got it."


****


Ferrous Dominus - entrance to Solon's forge


"... so as soon as we got here we rushed Rainbow Dash to the medicae center to have her concussion treated," Fluttershy explained as she stood in front of the massive iron vault leading to Solon's personal forge.
Twilight was standing in front of an obviously annoyed Rainbow Dash, and she was staring critically at the exposed lacerations on her head. "I'm surprised she managed to fly back here in that condition," the alicorn mumbled.
"Pft! I have LOTS of experience flying off severe blows to the head!" Rainbow said haughtily. "Barely slows me down! Sure, the double vision means twice as many obstacles, but if you get to the right altitude there's nothing much up there for you to run into!"
Fluttershy nodded slowly. "That's true. And then, well, she eventually got back here. And crashed again."
"WITH my helmet on, though!" Rainbow clarified. "Heck, I even figured out how to turn on that field thing that's supposed to protect me! But it disappeared after like a second!"
Twilight frowned. "As I understand, the power required for the refraction field is too high to sustain for longer than that. It's a matter of timing."
"Well, that's dumb!" Rainbow complained. "I might as well just learn how to land normally!"
"Yes. Yes, you might as well," Twilight deadpanned, "anyway, putting aside your difficulties with energy fields and propulsion technology, how did you fare with the medicae?"
"They gave me a once-over, declared that nothing was broken and that my injuries were non-fatal," Rainbow Dash answered.
Twilight blinked. "And then what?"
"Then they told me to stop being such a whiner and go walk it off," Rainbow rolled her eyes, "which is what I TOLD Fluttershy I should have done in the first place!"
Twilight slapped a hoof against her face. "Rainbow, I can't believe you badgered Warsmith Solon into building you customized, fully-functional power armor, but couldn't be bothered to demand medicine from the medicae workers."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "You can't?"
"... Point taken," the purple pony grumbled, "I should really know better by now."


The heavy doors next to them started to shift, and Fluttershy yelped in shock. Rainbow Dash quickly spun around, a grin on her face as she imagined what she would see emerge from Solon's workspace. Twilight was similarly intrigued, and just as excited, but tried not to be as obvious about it.
They were hardly disappointed.
"Aw, did y'all wait up fer lil' ol' me? Shucks girls, Ah'm right flattered!" The voice was heavily distorted by a vox grille, but not so much that it could hope to disguise the accent.
Applejack's armor was big. That was Twilight's first and most obvious observation. The power armor suits she had seen before now, which were obviously quite heavy and bulky by design, were nonetheless much lighter and smaller than what she was seeing now. Applejack's armor was about as large as Big Mac's, despite their obvious difference in body mass.
Solon stomped up behind the apple farmer, raising a leg up and letting it rest on the pony's back.
"Quite a fine piece, ishn't it?" the Warsmith asked, pride evident in his voice. "You've no doubt noticed the shize differential between the other armorsh and Mish Apple'sh. I modeled her deshign after our tactical dreadnought armor for additional plating, sheeing ash she didn't require flight shyshtemsh or shenshitive psionic componentsh."
Twilight nodded dumbly. Where the other pony armors had neck plating and a gorget, Applejack's suit had her head and neck protected by a large armor block behind and under it that was part of the torso plating. The helmet poking out of the front had a pair of thick, elephant-like tusks mounted on either side of the vox grille. Applejack's stetson sat on top, of course, somehow fitting into the helmet cavity like it was made for it.
"The shuit hash two weapon shyshtemsh. The firsht ish a shimple heavy flamer shyshtem here," Solon tapped a dual-nozzle flamer attached to Applejack's right foreleg, "I ushed a lot of Tau gear to make it shmall enough. Their sholid-fuel cellsh were alsho handy, shince they're shmall and quite shtable. The heavy flamer will require minimal reloading while on deployment."
Twilight gave the flamer a quick glance, but the more interesting weapon was definitely whatever was attached to the tail. Unlike the other armors, which had a simple curved plate to cover the backside and leave enough room for them to bundle their tail inside, Applejack's had a segmented tail extension that curved up and forward like a scorpion's stinger. It also had a very obvious protrusion on the end, with some sort of device set in the end.
"But I'm sure you've noticed the zero-point projector," Solon continued, gesturing to the tail, "Mish Apple inshishted on shome proxy for her lasho, sho I miniaturized one and ushed the tail nervesh for control. I call it the 'gravity lash'."
"Mighty sportin' of ya, Warsmith," Applejack chuckled.
Rainbow Dash had re-engaged her helmet by now, and was looking at the other armored pony through her own visor. Applejack was clocking in a cool factor of 4.3, and with a rating of "Dangerously Awesome", was threatening her own supremacy (naturally, she assumed that she topped the scale at 5).
"In addition, your greavesh carry micro-gravity plating," Solon explained as he backed away, "each limb can shubshtantially increashe itsh weight at will, which will aid you should you lash shomething a little too large."
Applejack raised a foreleg before turning the mechanism on, causing her hoof plating to glow a dark purple. She didn't feel any strain from holding up the artificially weighty appendage, but when she stomped her foot down it emitted a tremendous clanging noise and the floor trembled underneath her. Fluttershy actually yelped and leapt up into a hover, despite knowing exactly where the impressive force came from and that it wouldn't be directed at her.
"Well, Ah think Ah can find a few uses fer that," Applejack said, grinning behind her helmet.
"I'm mostly surprised that you went through the trouble of securing her hat in place," Twilight said.
"I didn't," Solon confessed, "I don't know what the deal ish with the hat."
"Well, thank ya kindly, Warsmith! Ah think Ah just might be able to keep up with Mac in this thing!" Applejack said cheerfully, ignoring the speculation about her stetson.
Rainbow Dash snickered. "With how huge you are now, I doubt you'll be keeping up with anypony! And really, your special suit power is to make yourself HEAVIER? I think that's an area where you didn't really need the armor to help!"
Applejack struck like lightning, her gravity lash snapping forward before sending a crackling beam at Rainbow Dash. Even so, the pegasus was faster, blasting to the side and out of the way.
Using her flight pack.
Indoors.
Rainbow yelped as she slammed into a wall and then bounced off, crashing into a pile of metal crates and toppling them onto her.
Applejack clicked her tongue as the gravity lash flickered away. "Dang, Ah missed. Guess Ah need some proper practice with this gizmo."
Twilight and Fluttershy stared at the collapsed pile of crates.
"I have to admit; it's very impressive how many high-speed impacts she's been able to shrug off in that armor. To say nothing of the armor itself still functioning after so much abuse," Twilight said.
"Nothing but the besht for our dear Rainbow," Solon slurred sarcastically. Then he focused his optics on Fluttershy. "Now then. You're next."
Fluttershy cringed away, hiding behind her hair. She thought there was something slightly less scary about Solon now, somehow, but having the massively-armored Iron Warrior looming over her and glaring with those blood-red optics was still plenty intimidating.
"I, uh, d-don't need anything d-dangerous," Fluttershy stammered, pawing at the floor, "I mean, I'm n-not really very good with weapons or... or hurting others in general."
"I had that impression, yesh," Solon agreed, "that'sh why your shuit took some creativity to deshign. A shupport unit, mainly."
Twilight heard a heavy stomping noise coming from down the halls, past a set of doors that were still closed. Such noises were hardly uncommon in the manufactorum, but this almost sounded like it was running toward them.
"Oh, uh, that sounds okay," Fluttershy admitted, looking relieved, "thank you very much, Mister Warsmith, Lord."
"Excellent. We will begin the shurgery immediately," declared the Iron Warrior.
In an instant, Fluttershy was terrified again. "Wait, surgery? What?"
"Yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that part," Rainbow Dash grumbled as she kicked aside a metal crate and stepped back onto the floor, "we have to have some kind of little metal holes drilled into us for the power armor to work. It's not like a dress that just anypony can put on."
Fluttershy gaped, stepping back. "D-d-drilled? Doesn't that h-hurt?"
"Pft! It's nothing!" the other pegasus scoffed.
"It ain't nothin'," Applejack rumbled, "but it ain't THAT bad. And Ah like the results!"
For some reason, hearing reassurances from Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the two toughest and most headstrong mares she knew, did not go very far in reassuring Fluttershy.
"I'm having second thoughts," the yellow pegasus confided as she started trembling.
"Overruled," Solon said simply, "come along. I have to get you into the frame sho that I can begin..."
The Iron Warrior trailed off as the heavy clanging noise barreling down the closed-off hallway became too loud to ignore. "What the blazesh ish that? Ish there a walker running looshe in here?"
A few seconds later the doors to that hall shifted open, revealing that, yes, there was a walker running around the manufactorum.
"Hey, girls! Hey, Shmithy!"
A Dreadnought, specifically.
"Oh, dear sweet Celestia, NO," Twilight gasped, taking a shaky step back.
"I got a Dreadnought!" Pinkie Pie shouted cheerfully, her head looking comically small sticking out of the assault walker's gorget.
"We, uh... we can see that," Applejack mumbled, taking a few steps back. Even in her new, extra-large power armor she found that she was barely taller than the Dreadnought's knees.
"Oh, hey! Super cool suit, AJ!" Pinkie chirped, stomping over to the other earth pony and reaching over with the walker's power fist. Which was the size of Applejack on its own.
"Th-Thanks! No touchin', please!" the farmer yelped as she backpedaled.
Solon, meanwhile, was stunned into silence as he looked over the assault walker and the bubbly pink mare that was controlling it. It was a newer model, bearing a plasma cannon on the right shoulder and a power fist with an integrated heavy flamer on the other. It had no apparent mechanical mutations or modifications, either.
"You can't do that," the Chaos Lord finally said.
Pinkie halted, and the noisy whirring of gears issued forth as she twisted on her enormous metal hips.
"What? I can't keep it? But why?!" Pinkie said sadly, her ears dropping flat against her head and her eyes watering up.
"I mean it'sh physhically imposhible," Solon clarified, "Dreadnoughtsh operate ushing a complete neural shubmergence interface. There are no manual controlsh for you to manipulate. You can't poshibly control that thing."
Pinkie turned all the way around to face the Warsmith, finding with some satisfaction that their eyes were about at the same height now.
"So... does that mean I CAN have it?" the pink pony asked eagerly.
Solon was silent for several seconds as he ran scan after scan of the Dreadnought and its grinning pilot who couldn't possibly be a pilot.
"That'sh Brother Kellian'sh Dreadnought shell," the Warsmith said, "what happened to him? He'sh not currently in the pilot baysh. He should have been deployed."
"Dunno," Pinkie said, shifting both massive arms upward into a shrug, "there wasn't anyone like that in here when I found it."
"Warsmith Solon, I must advise that letting Pinkie have a heavy walker is NOT a good idea," Twilight said nervously.
"I'd agree with you normally, but I'm rather intereshted in the proshpect now," Solon admitted as he stepped over to Pinkie to observe her more closely. Pinkie Pie withstood the attention proudly, lifting her chin up and planting the Dreadnought's power fist against its hip. "Alsho, thish way I don't have to build you a shuit too."
"Nope! I'm good!" Pinkie gave the Iron Warrior a massive thumbs-up.
"Excellent. Then I'll take Mish..." Solon trailed off as he looked about, finding no sign of Fluttershy. "Blasht. She got away."
"Who, Flutters?" Rainbow Dash asked, pointing a metal-clad hoof toward the partially-toppled stack of crates. "She's right here."
A startled "Eep!" came from the pile of iron boxes, and a yellow blur bolted from behind them and made a break for the halls.
"Apple!" Solon shouted.
"Ah got her!" Applejack's gravity lash cracked loudly as the writhing tendril of energy locked onto Fluttershy and struck her in the side.
The pegasus stopped right there, although she tried to keep moving. Her hooves scraped at the floor and her wings beat at the air, but Fluttershy suddenly found that she couldn't get enough traction to move.
"Very good. Follow me, then," Solon commanded, walking back into his forge.
"Flutters, relax, it's going to be fine," Rainbow promised as Applejack started hauling their meek friend along on the string of crackling white energy.
"I'm sure it will be over before you know it!" Twilight added optimistically.
"Actually, it takes him dang near half an hour to get them little nerve buggers in," Applejack admitted as she crossed the threshold of the main doors.
Twilight cringed. That sounded pretty bad. "Well, can't he put her under, first?"
"Nah, I asked that," Rainbow Dash explained, "he gives you a general painkiller, but he says you need to be awake during the process because of sciency reasons. It has to do with your brain or something, I don't know."
"NOOOOOO-" Fluttershy's scream of terror was cut off by the forge doors slamming closed behind her, silencing her cries with grim finality.


"Phew!" Pinkie leaned over toward Twilight, tilting the Dreadnought chassis over so far that it looked like she might fall over. "I'm glad I don't have to go through any of that! I hate needles! I mean, I don't really hate drills, but I've never really thought about them before! It seems like they'd be even worse than needles!"
"There are needles too," Rainbow informed her darkly, "first needles, then drills, then those little servo arms jamming stuff into you, then welders, then more needles..." she trailed off uncomfortably. "Eventually you just stop paying attention and try to think about something else."
Pinkie Pie shuddered, and Twilight frowned at her.
"Are you SURE there wasn't anybody in that walker?" the alicorn asked suspiciously. "That doesn't look like the kind of gear that an Iron Warrior would just abandon for no reason."
"Well, there WAS, but he was dead," Pinkie admitted, rolling her eyes, "so I guess it wasn't technically 'abandoned', but whatever."
Twilight took a step back in surprise. "Oh! I, uh... I see. Getting him out must have been... very unpleasant."
Pinkie Pie snorted. "You're telling me!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - sector 27 salvage processing


"Faster, you maggots! Faster!" Prince Blueblood growled, standing on top of a raised platform as menials dug, scraped, and sorted the piles of wreckage and trash heaped all around them.
The unicorn had a respirator on with an integrated vox amplifier, and above him he levitated an electro-whip that writhed in the air threateningly.
Blueblood hadn't had to use the electro-whip yet, for which he was quite thankful. He disdained violence, even when it was part of a grossly indulgent power fantasy inexplicably come to life. But seeing the implement of pain swaying overhead like a snake preparing to strike, combined with the occasional crackling of its electrical discharge, proved to be quite a motivator on its own for the workers placed under his oversight.
"By the Sisters, did they stick me with all the sick and injured workers as a hazing prank?" the white unicorn bellowed. "Pick up the pace! I'll not be humiliated by you buffoons when the Dark Techpriests come to check the stocks!"
He had only a vague idea of his section's progress, actually, and much less of a clue how it stood relative to that of the other menial blocs, but he wasn't about to risk a mediocre performance on his first day. Pampered noble he may be, but when Prince Blueblood was given a task, he buckled down and saw it done.
He glimpsed a female menial standing at the edge of his platform, looking nervous. As well she should have been, since she wasn't carrying anything.
"Did you want a break, Miss? I may be able to arrange for a nap in the infirmary, if you'd like," Blueblood said blithely, the electro-whip curling down under his neck as he glared at the woman with disdain.
"No, Lord! Not at all, Lord!" she said quickly. "It's just that we, uh, have a situation, Lord."
"Naturally. First day on the job, too," Blueblood growled, cracking the whip against the floor at his side and watching the human flinch, "well? Out with it!"
"We found a sarcophagus in the scrap piles, Lord," she continued, "there is a corpse inside."
Prince Blueblood grimaced.
"And... And it talks, Lord. Kept screaming about some pink devil and swearing bloody revenge."
The grimace shifted to a cringe. Blueblood had known that the Iron Warriors dealt with all manner of dark magic and techno-sorcery, but he had been hoping to get settled in a bit better before he had to deal with it himself.
"And what do you think I'M supposed to do about it?" the stallion demanded. "You've been here much longer than I have! How do you usually deal with this sort of thing?"
"I deal with it by informing the overseer, Lord."
The unicorn silently cursed the double-edged sword that was authority, trying to think of a proper response to this emergency.
"If I may, Lord, don't you have that primer?" the menial asked, pointing to a dataslate on a stool behind the pony.
"Why yes, I suppose I do," Blueblood groused, momentarily dropping his lash so that he could levitate over the dataslate and a stylus, "but I doubt it mentions what to do with dead bodies found on the job."
Prince Blueblood tapped the dataslate and looked over the table of contents.
"Or, alternatively, they might have three chapters written on the topic," the unicorn mumbled, "was the body a friendly, an enemy, or unknown?"
"I think the corpse is Astartes, Lord. So... friendly. Technically speaking."
Blueblood tapped on the appropriate chapter icon. "All right, let's give this a look. Although even if there are guidelines on how to deal with dead bodies, I doubt there will be any mention of how to deal with suspiciously talkative corpses that appear in nevermind, I found it." He cleared his throat before reading from the dataslate. "Over the course of operations in a Chaos Legion, it is possible for dead bodies to be brought to a state of undeath, reanimation, or even full revival thanks to the various arcane energies and dark experimentations. Should you find such an experiment discarded in your work area, the proper thing to do is to contact your Legion masters to have the body identified such that it can eventually be determined who is discarding potentially dangerous individuals or research materials with the general waste for salvage processing."
The menial nodded slowly. That made sense.
"The SMART thing to do, however, is keep your mouth shut and discreetly dispose of the body," Blueblood continued, "the sort of Dark Techpriests and Sorcerers who would discard a living corpse so carelessly would certainly have no compunction teaching an uppity overseer their place, and often may be attempting to rid themselves of the remains of a bested rival whose absence will be noticed and investigated. It is never wise to interject oneself into the politics of Astartes."
The menial winced. "That's a REALLY good primer."
"It is highly recommended that the corpse be silenced and then treated as a an ordinary body belonging to an enemy combatant, as per section 315-B. For help silencing the corpse, see the following diagram." Blueblood tapped the stylus against the dataslate to move on to the next section.
"I don't get it," the unicorn mumbled, "there's no diagram, just a picture of a bolt pistol."
He paused.
"Okay, now I get it." Prince Blueblood sighed and levitated over a pistol holster that was laying on the stool where he had put down his lash.
"First day on the job and I'm already burying the bodies of other people's enemies. I may as well have stayed in Canterlot and joined the Senate." He withdrew a bolt pistol from the holster with his telekinetic grip, and then pulled the hammer back. Then he glared at the menial woman. "And you! Back to work!"


****


Ferrous Dominus - secondary data repository, the following day


Twilight hummed pleasantly to herself as she scrolled through the list of topics in the data core, flagging those that caught her eye for download onto her dataslate.
She felt much better than yesterday, mostly thanks to Spike insisting that she have a real meal and a solid eight hours sleep before diving back into the repository and losing herself in the vast stores of knowledge that lay within. She was slightly resentful of her assistant taking it upon himself to tell her what to eat and set a bedtime for her, but she could only complain so much when he was right.
The main doors opened, and she spared a glance toward the entrance. Oddly enough, there was nobody there.
"Are the doors malfunctioning? I should tell someone about that," the alicorn said to herself before deciding to add "sensor technology and maintenance" to the list of topics.
The door shifted closed a few seconds later, meaning that she wouldn't have to close them manually, at least.
"Twilight?"
Twilight jerked to attention, her head swinging from side to side.
There was nothing. She was alone.
"Twilight? Uhm, I'm sorry to interrupt you... am I interrupting you?" said a static-distorted voice from behind her.
Twilight felt her heart rate start to pick up as her eyes shrank. She was definitely hearing a voice. A voice that knew her name, and seemed to come from nowhere. A curiously polite voice, perhaps, but that barely eased her sense of rising panic.
"It's nothing. I'm hearing nothing," she whispered, her eyebrow twitching as she levitated her dataslate in front of her and stared hard at it, "I have reading to do, and I'm going to do that, because that's what nice, sane ponies do with their free time. They do not converse with disembodied voices." Twilight stiffly turned toward a bench, her eyes fixed on the dataslate as if she feared it might try to run.
"Twilight, what are you... oh! Sorry!"
An armored face appeared in front of her.
Not, like, jumped in front of her or dropped in front of her. It just materialized, as if from a teleport, but without the noise or magical reverberation.
Twilight would look back on the incident later and decide that she reacted to the surprise very well.
"AAARGH!!" she screamed, using her telekinesis to smash the dataslate against the intruder.
"Yeep!" The helmet recoiled as the electronic reader broke apart on top of it. "Twilight! Please, stop! That... uh... well, it doesn't hurt at all, actually, but it's still very scary and I'd like you to stop, if that's okay with you?"
As the purple pony scrambled backward, her thought process finally caught up with the surge of pure survival instinct.
"F-Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, stunned.
"Uhm, yes! It's me! I'm so sorry, I'm still getting used to the cloaking field! I just got so comfortable being invisible that I forgot to turn it off!"
The gentle, high-pitched voice came from behind a helmet bearing two curled, ram-like horns. Twilight also couldn't help but notice that rather than two blood-red slits that slanted inward, like on Rainbow Dash's and Trixie's suits, Fluttershy's visor slits slanted at the opposite angles. That was a rather nice (and perhaps sarcastic) personal touch Solon had given the helmet.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight finally said, realizing that she had been staring mutely. "Your armor is done!"
"Oh, yes. It's very nice, actually," Fluttershy mumbled as she lowered her head, "the, uh, surgery was not so nice."
Twilight was already circling her and looking her over, identifying the key differences between Fluttershy's suit and Rainbow Dash's; she assumed that the two suits might have some similarities since they were both constructed for pegasi. And they did have a key similarity, in that Fluttershy's armor also had wings. Even the flight packs were different, though. Rather than being a line of thrusters placed in a manner vaguely resembling feathers, Fluttershy's armor featured wide slats of metal with some sort of disk-shaped boosters on the bottom, and at the tips of each of the wings was a small propeller turbine.
Fluttershy's foreleg plating also boasted an array of tubes, hoses, small blades, needles, and capsules wrapped around them. There were a pair of small servo arms folded against the chest plating as well, and unlike Big Mac's, they didn't seem like they'd be of any use to replace ammunition.
And as far as her actual weapons systems went, well...
"Is that a grenade launcher?" Twilight asked, pointing a hoof at a wide-barreled weapon mounted on Fluttershy's back, on top of her flight pack. She recognized the weapon from an armory inventory log she had looked through the previous day.
"Uh, yes, I think so," Fluttershy mumbled, "Mister Solon said it fires photon grenades, though."
"Tau weapons? Interesting," Twilight backed up a few steps as Fluttershy looked down at the ground again, embarrassed, "but that stealth system is impressive! I couldn't see a thing until you turned it off!"
While Fluttershy's suit was mainly gunmetal and gold, with black shoulder pads, her armor featured more hard angles rather than the largely curved surfaces of other suits, and also had strips of softly glowing blue running through the exposed plating.
"Oh, it's not that great, really," Fluttershy mumbled, pawing at the floor and generating an awful metallic scraping noise as a result.
Then the armored pony suddenly started, remembering why she was here. "Oh! I almost forgot! Twilight! I need you to come with me!"
"Is it my turn?" the alicorn asked, her voice thick with anticipation and tinged with a little bit of anxiety. Having nerve sockets installed did sound VERY unpleasant, after all.
"No, it's Rarity's turn!" Fluttershy corrected. "But she, uhm, wanted to see the design first. And then she wanted to fix the design."
Twilight blinked. "Fix it? A power armor schematic?" Rarity didn't know the first thing about armor, her specialty was fashion!
Twilight slapped a hoof over her face as she realized what likely went wrong. "Oh no..." The power armor suits were anything but elegant and pretty; a perfect example of function over form. Of COURSE Rarity would have a problem with that.
"They started shouting at each other before I left to get you," Fluttershy said nervously, "it was really scary!"
"I'm on it!" Twilight said as her horn started to glow. After a few more seconds of concentration, she teleported away.


****


Ferrous Dominus - Solon's forge


"What the blazesh?" Solon lurched back as Twilight appeared in a flash of purple.
Servo arms and ceiling-mounted turrets started swiveling around on their mountings, immediately classifying the teleporting figure as an intruder and preparing a properly lethal response.
Solon deactivated the alert with a thought, and the various tools and weapons ground to a halt as he stepped forward again.
"Didn't anybody warn you not to teleport inshide the fortresh perimeter?" Solon said as Twilight started glancing around.
"I know, but I thought it was an emergency," Twilight replied as she spotted Rarity and Spike standing on the other side of the room.
"And an emergency it is!" the unicorn claimed. She was levitating a drawing slate and a stylus above her head, and at a glance looked quite annoyed. "Twilight, have you seen what this man wants me to wear?"
"No, but I doubt it's any worse than anypony else's armor," Twilight quickly pointed out.
"True. At least it doesn't have a set of animal horns on it," Rarity sniffed, "but Lord Solon simply will NOT listen to reason! Talk to him, Twilight!"
The purple pony turned toward the highly bemused Iron Warrior behind her. "I am SO sorry about this!"
"That isn't the kind of talk I meant, Twilight," Rarity groused.
"Your friend here hash shome deshign requirementsh for her shuit that I am MOSHT unwilling to accommodate," Solon growled.
"What's so hard about letting my tail out the back?" Rarity demanded, shaking the drawing slate in the air.
"It'sh not hard, it'sh shtupid!" Solon spat. "You can't properly sheal a shuit againsht void exposhure and environmental hazardsh if there'sh a part of you shticking out!"
"Oh, come on," Rarity scoffed, "how likely is it for me to find myself in 'hard void', as you refer to it?"
"It'sh becoming more likely the longer thish dishcushion continuesh."
Twilight fought the urge to facehoof again. Rainbow Dash may have been too dense and fearless to treat the Warsmith with proper respect, but Rarity really should have known better than to start arguing with a Chaos Lord over something so petty.
"I don't think this design is a bad compromise!" Rarity insisted, levitating the drawing slate over to face the Chaos Lord.
"I think it's very nice," Spike agreed, "although a helmet would probably be a good idea." He really liked Rarity's face, after all, and thought it would be best that her face be protected from oncoming bullets.
"Oh, don't even get me started on THAT," the unicorn scoffed, patting her curled, purple locks with a hoof, "as if I could stuff all this Fabulous into one of those tiny, compressed little shells. No helmet hair for Rarity, thanks."
A heavy servo arm crawled over the ceiling and plucked the drawing slate out of the air, orienting it to face Solon properly.
Then it flung the device against a wall, shattering it into pieces.
"You're going to be difficult about this, aren't you?" Rarity asked, her eyes narrowing.
"You can either accept the deshign I've preshented, or refushe it," the Warsmith said, "I've heard enough of your shniveling."
"Shniveling?!" Rarity repeated angrily, so incensed that she even copied Solon's slur. "I'm merely trying to help you create something that any mare of taste wouldn't be embarrassed to be wearing!"
"Okay, whoa, time out, Rarity," Twilight interjected, moving toward the unicorn, "Warsmith, could you excuse us for a-" the purple pony yelped as a massive metal leg slammed down in front of her, obstructing the path to her friend.
"Now you lishten here, you insholent white pesht," Solon growled, looming up higher over the unicorn.
Rarity recoiled immediately, but Spike quickly jumped in front of her and spread his arms out. "Oh, no you don't! You want to hurt her, you go through me!"
Solon casually plucked Spike off the ground by his head crest and flung him into a pile of spare parts.
"I make WARGEAR, not show piecesh," Solon continued, looming over Rarity and finally cracking the mare's indignant fearlessness. "With or without my armor, you will shoon find yourshelf on a battlefield. There ish every chance you will die. And if you DO perish, it will be due to your own incompetence or the proficiency of the foe, NOT becaushe I produced inferior equipment. Ish that CLEAR?" His eye pulsed brightly on the last syllable, and a shudder crawled down Rarity's spine.
She gulped, and her ears pinned back while she pursed her lips anxiously. "I... have to respect your dedication to your craft," she mumbled. She was surprised to find that she meant it. As a fashion designer, she could sympathize with him taking such pride in his creations. She had really assumed that he wouldn't care about such a thing, given the Iron Warriors' obsession with industrial efficiency.
"Then you will accept the deshign I have offered?" Solon inquired. Off to his side, Twilight was helping Spike out of the scrap pile.
Rarity chewed her lip as she looked over at the schematics that were splashed all over the wall hololiths. She honesty could only make so much sense of the finished appearance from the technical sketches, but it didn't look much different from Trixie's armor. The main difference - putting aside the cape and hat that Trixie wore on top - was that rather than an integrated cannon there was a plasma gun and a power sword sheathed against the armor's barrel for her to employ.
"What about colors?" Rarity asked.
"Gunmetal and gold trim. With shome black," the Iron Warrior said flatly, "shame ash everyone elshe. Too much variation and you'll be at rishk of friendly fire."
"Could we do... platinum instead of gunmetal?" the unicorn asked hesitantly.
"Deal. Can I get shtarted now?" Solon asked irritably. "The temporal dilation engine ish going to take shome time to modify sho that it can draw on a pshionic energy shource."
"The temporal... what?" Twilight asked as Spike timidly made his way back to Rarity's side.
"It's the suit's main system, it would seem," Rarity said with a weary sigh, "if I understood the Warsmith's explanation, it speeds up the wearer by shifting the flow of time around it."
Twilight's eyes were wide as she considered the implications of such a device. "And you were worried about whether or not it would show off your TAIL?"
"Please, darling, don't remind me," the unicorn said sourly, "such is the cruelty of war! That in order to protect my beauty from the hazards of the battlefield I have to cover it in a cold, decidedly unglamorous metal shell!"
"I have never wanted to shquash an equine underfoot more than I do right now," Solon informed the ponies, his leg pistons releasing uneven spurts of steam, "in any cashe, I'll get the chirurgeon prepared for another shurgery."


Rarity sighed as the Chaos Lord summoned a new cascade of hololith screens. He turned to face away from the ponies and Spike while he started tapping away at the air, and his smoke stacks released a sudden puff of noxious fumes.
Then a rather large, dull green insect clambered out of the smoke stack.
Rarity immediately took several steps back, repulsed. Twilight found herself drawn forward, instead; she never had been able to identify the creatures that had emerged from Solon's body in his duel with Voidsong.
The Equestrians watched the insect scuttle down the exhaust pipe and onto the chassis proper with varying levels of unease, and then Rarity cleared her throat.
"Warsmith Solon, do you mind if I ask you a... personal question?" the unicorn asked.
"If thish queshtion ish hygiene related, then yesh, I mind," Solon replied as he continued to work.
"Not... directly related, no," Rarity assured him awkwardly, "it's just that I find myself wondering how one ends up worshiping the Chaos God of Plague."
Solon stopped working, and then he swiveled around on his chassis to stare down at the snow-white mare.
"While I can understand the general appeal of Chaos and even some of the specific gods - to a point, anyway - I don't understand this 'Nurgle' cult," Rarity admitted, "even after seeing Apple Bloom subject herself to Nurgle's worship, it doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you join a cult that worships death and disease as an end in itself? What's the appeal?"
Solon didn't answer right away, and Twilight eventually spoke up.
"I was wondering that too, actually. I know that ritual devotion to a specific Dark God can yield specific mutations and abilities, but only in Nurgle's case do those changes seem to be... well, exclusively bad. Being tortured by disease hardly seems like a gift, even if one is protected from the symptoms."
Solon seemed to think on the matter for another minute, looking over the smaller creatures staring up at him patiently.
"I undershtand your revulshion and confushion," Solon finally said, "but it shtemsh from a bashic mishundershtanding of Nurgle'sh nature. The Plaguefather ish not a god of death, but a god of life."
The Equestrians shared a doubtful glance.
"You're going to have to explain that one to us," Spike admitted, looking back up at the Chaos Lord.
"What ish disheashe?" Solon asked in response. "What caushesh it?"
"Dirt and filth," Rarity answered immediately, barely stopping herself from gesturing at the Warsmith himself.
"Well, specifically, most diseases are caused by parasitic micro-organisms, such as viruses and bacteria," Twilight clarified.
"Preshicely," Solon confirmed, "these populationsh infesht the body, and draw shushtanence from it. Your body fightsh theshe parashitesh, and often inflictsh grievoush shuffering upon itshelf to do sho."
Then Solon placed his flesh-arm against the Mark of Nurgle on his waist. "Nurgle changesh thish relationship from the parashitic to the shymbiotic. Organishmsh that would normally be shnuffed out are allowed to grow, multiply, and mutate. Nurgle turnsh every one of Hish children into a colony of disheashesh and peshtilence, putting the cultisht at peace with that which would undo him otherwishe."
"Fascinating," Twilight breathed.
Rarity was less impressed. "Oh-kay... I still don't see what the appeal is," she admitted, grimacing at the hairy fly/roach/Warp bug that was crawling over Solon's leg.
"Mosht would agree with you," the Iron Warrior noted, "fear of disheashe and infection ish well-ingrained in the inshtinctsh of most intelligent creaturesh. To the outshider, He ish a patron of death, carelehshly shpreading hish giftsh to friend and foe alike. To the children of the Plaguefather, He ish protector and provider, a font of life and love rather than pain."
The Warsmith turned away again. "Ash for the 'appeal', well... immortality ish a prize often dangled before the cultishtsh of the Eightfold Path, and Grandfather Nurgle tendsh to grant it more than the othersh. Beyond that... a fondnessh for arthropoda helpsh, I shupposhe." The strange insect that had emerged from Solon's chassis buzzed irritably and then flew up onto his shoulder.
Rarity grimaced. Twilight wanted to capture the bug for observation, but didn't know if doing so would offend Solon somehow. Spike was standing sentinel next to Rarity with half a breath of fire in his cheeks, ready to incinerate the Warp-spawned insect if it approached her.
A heavy grinding noise came from a raised platform in the corner of the room, and the Equestrians watched as a dozen needle and drill-tipped servo arms dropped into position around it.
"Mish Rarity, I am ready to begin. Shtep onto the platform," the Chaos Lord commanded.
Spike and Twilight gave encouraging looks to Rarity, and the unicorn nodded thankfully at them before walking over toward the chirurgeon.
She stopped just on the edge of the platform, frowning at the four mechanisms in the middle that presumably locked around her legs. "I don't suppose-"
"Shtep into the shacklesh or we're doing thish without aneshthetic," Solon snapped.
Rarity yelped in fright before practically jumping into the middle of the platform, and within seconds her hooves were secured to the floor.
"The things I do for my country..." the fashionista murmured to herself as the drills around her started to spin up.


****


Ferrous Dominus - the next day


"What did you call this device again?" Twilight asked as she looked over a cross-shaped machine on a pedestal in front of her.
"It'sh technical name would be a pshionic evocation dishtributor," Solon explained as a cascade of hololith screens surrounded him, "it'sh a pshionic weapon, and a far more potent and dynamic piece than Mish Trixie'sh cannon."
"What does it do?" Twilight asked with carefully-measured enthusiasm. In truth it was all she could do not to stand back and start pumping magical energy into the machine then and there; only her fear of breaking the device with a stupid and easily avoided mistake stayed her hoof.
"A number of thingsh," Solon replied unhelpfully, "but itsh mosht usheful functionsh will doubtlesh be itsh ability to quickly and shafely dishcharge your pshychic powersh ash a focushed energy blade or barrier." The Warsmith took several steps back. "Go on, try it out."
Twilight wet her lips before touching the machine with her telekinesis, her horn glowing softly.
The reaction was instantaneous. Thin lines of glowing purple flooded over the device as her magic reached it, lighting up the dimly-lit forge interior. When Twilight lifted it telekinetically, she was quite surprised to feel it move through the air with barely any effort, as if she was lifting a pair of twigs rather than a metal object.
"Now, focush on any two polesh to activate a blade between them. Activating all four polesh will generate a one-way barrier," Solon explained.
Twilight turned the cross in the air so that it formed an "X" in front of her, and then filled the two poles pointing upward with her magic.
The device crackled to life, and a triangular blade of what appeared to be violet glass formed between the energized poles. It was just over a meter in length, and it hummed with subtle power as Twilight rotated the weapon in front of her.
"If you inshtead push your energy into the central core between the polesh, it will emit a beam. Redundant, perhapsh, depending on your pshionic shpecialty, but very energy-efficient."
Twilight nodded approvingly as she swung the weapon about in a few small, tightly controlled arcs, listening to the blade hiss as it cut through the air.
"It's magnificent," Twilight said, marveling at the arcane weapon that had been designed and created overnight. She idly wondered what sorts of things Solon would be able to create if he wasn't utterly devoted to conducting warfare. What kind of incredible things was humanity missing out on because his genius was needed for the construction of weapons?
The purple pony shook her head to clear it. Now wasn't the time for such speculation. For now, weapons were exactly what they needed.
"It needs a name," she said finally, smiling as she let the sword configuration fizzle out. The "glass" that made up the weapon edge dematerialized immediately. "I think I'll call it... the Twiblade!" she said triumphantly.
"No," Solon said flatly.
Twilight blinked. "But I-"
"I built it, I get a veto. You're not calling it that," the Warsmith said firmly.
Twilight's ears flattened against her head, and she stared up at the metal cross quietly thrumming with power. "Well... how about... Sparkle Sword?"
"You're awful at thish," Solon noted before pausing, "it'sh a force harmonizer. That ish itsh name now."
Twilight pouted as she looked over the hololith screens depicting the rest of her power armor suit's schematics. "So we're ready to start, then?"
"Indeed. Shtep into the chirurgeon," Solon commanded as the array of servo arms shifted into place around the raised platform.
Twilight chewed her lip anxiously as she stepped up and into position, but she didn't hesitate. She and the other Elements of Harmony had come too far to hesitate now.
"It ish time to begin," Solon said, interrupting her thoughts, "would you like me to pontificate dramatically during the final ashembly procesh?"
Twilight thought that over. "Yes."


****


"In the grinding indushtry of war are we broken. In the firesh of battle are we forged. And in iron are we reborn."
Twilight hissed through her teeth as the last servo arms moved away from her new nerve sockets. Even with the anesthetic, her legs and neck throbbed painfully.
"You who have given yourshelf over to me and shworn yourshelf to the Legion Iron Warriorsh shall now receive the toolsh by which you will enforce my will."
More servo arms moved in to replace those that had drawn away. These ones carried shaped pieces of metal.


"Iron ish the ancient metal, the mother of indushtry. It shtrengthensh and protectsh. Iron doesh not betray."
Frames of adamantium were slowly sealed around Twilight's barrel, and her ears were filled with the crackling of welders and whirring of gears.


"Trusht in your wargear, for it ish loyal in waysh that even the mosht shtalwart ally might fail you."
Bands of metal squeezed tight around Twilight's legs as layer after layer of machinery and plating were wrapped around her extremities.


"Thish armor will be your shield and your weapon. With it you may shatter your enemiesh wherever they think to face you, whether in the cold of the void or the choking heat of the volcano."
Twilight felt her wings tense as they were pressed under layers of impact foam, which were then covered by plate after plate of metal shielding intricately linked into a heavy sheath.


"But it ish alsho your prishon. From here on out, my enemiesh are yoursh ash well. Regardless of whether you accept the truth of Chaosh or not, you will sherve the darker powersh, and you will help to further shpread their blight over thish accurshed galaxy."
Twilight's vision went dark as the first pieces of her helmet were pressed into place around her and fitted around her face. Soon the servo arms moved away and she could see again, albeit in a limited scope and with a strange, crimson tint to everything.


"You bear the Iron Shkull and our Legion colorsh, now, Princesh. You are the property of the 38th Company. MY property."
Light poured into Twilight's eyes, and she blinked repeatedly. Her vision was much clearer now, although still tinted red. Targeting matrices, icons, and rapidly scrolling text swam before her eyes in a confusing jumble. In a few seconds most of it vanished or shifted into miniature icons on the periphery of the visor, leaving her sight largely unobstructed.


"Iron within. Iron without."
The shackles around Twilight's legs cracked open and the servo arms drew away.
Solon walked up to the chirurgeon platform, and Twilight looked up at him as targeting brackets and data readouts surrounded the Warsmith.
"How ish it, Princesh?" Solon asked, his servo claw clanking shut.
Twilight paused to think. "I liked it. Paradoxically, I think the part about the armor being a prison was the best line. It really gave a sense of-"
"I meant the shuit," Solon interrupted.
"Right! The power armor! Of course!" Twilight lifted each of her legs in turn, noting that the limbs moved without difficulty or any apparent resistance from the heavy armor plating. "It's fine! Great, even! Still a little sore where it's plugged into my nervous system, but that'll pass, hopefully."
She frowned behind her helmet. "It's going to take some time to sort out everything on this visor, though. What's this bright red thing on the side?"
"That'sh a combat alert. Look at it and blink," Solon instructed.
Twilight did so. A new block of text opened up in front of her for her to read.
After a few seconds, she gasped. "Wait, is this-"
"Yesh. The firsht Ork veshelsh have transhlated into the shyshtem. We have incoming," Solon said calmly as his mechatendrils hissed angrily, "prepare yourshelf, Princesh. War hash once again come to Equeshtria."