Iron Hearts: Book 4 - Emerald Dawn

by SFaccountant

Strange Bedfellows

Iron Hearts: Book 4

Chapter 9

Strange Bedfellows

****

Ferrous Dominus - sector 10

"Come on! This way!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she rocketed between the buildings, a trail of smoke marking her path behind her.

On the ground below her, four power-armored mares and Pinkie Pie dashed along the avenue, their metal boots hammering against the ferrocrete.

"I can't BELIEVE not a single one of you actually reads the Company strategic alerts!" Twilight groused as she glanced up at Rainbow's exhaust trail.

"Ah can't believe ya waited 'til mornin' to tell us what happened!" Applejack groused right back. "Some of us were a little busy last night, Twi!"

"Busy doing WHAT? Shooting each other for fun in Solon's dream hellscapes?"

"It ain't fer fun, it's trainin'!" Applejack insisted. "Don't go tryin' to turn this around on us! Why didn't ya tell us right away?"

Twilight groaned to herself as she rounded the corner of the next avenue, and then she screeched to a halt.

Hundreds of Tau wearing dirty jumpsuits and shackles were lining up in an open lot, most of them looking confused. There were several guards of both the human and post-human variety, but only one slave overseer to watch the procession.

Fennin looked around in confusion at seeing that they weren't being led to the mines or some other sort of obvious work area. He had briefly considered that they might be on their way to a mass execution, but quickly ruled that out for the sake of his rising panic. Why would the Iron Warriors take care of them for as long as they did only to suddenly kill them all off? They did say that slaves had value, after all.

Jerriha was following behind the engineer, her focus more intense as she kept looking over the guards and mapping out potential escape routes. Forced labor had been unkind to her, at least more so than the others; a combination of being one of the stronger captives, as well as having a generally defiant attitude, had seen her take more work and punishment than the rest of the slaves.

Now the Fireblade was fully on edge, searching quietly and diligently for any sign of their impending fate or an opportunity to avoid it.

*This sure doesn't LOOK like a firing range. Or a cleaning dock. Maybe this is some kind of exercise program?*

Jerriha glared over at Fennin. *Stop your prattling and get ready to flee if I give you the signal.*

*Ugh, this again? We're in the middle of the fortress, Shas'vre. We wouldn't even last long enough to SEE the palisade wall if we made a run for it.*

She was about to snap at him again, but then someone beat her to it.

"HEY, FENNIN! YOU SUCK!!" Rainbow Dash shouted from above.

"GO CHEW ON A POWER CABLE, YOU WINGED VERMIN!!" Fennin shot right back.

Then he cringed away and raised his arms to protect his face.

When several seconds had passed without a beating, he cautiously lowered his arms. None of the guards had attacked him. None of the guards were even approaching him. There was no way they had missed the exchange, which meant that for some reason they just didn't care anymore that their prisoners were causing trouble. Strange.

Then Fennin saw another line of Tau prisoners approaching from a different direction, and he furrowed his brow. These prisoners wore the same jumpsuits and shackles as they did, but they lacked the wear and damage that suggested heavy labor. The prisoners themselves also looked rather emaciated, as if they had suffered inactivity and under-nourishment as their primary ills rather than exhaustion and occasional beatings.

*Are those the prisoners from the fleet? They're mostly Air Caste. Are they gathering up all the Tau?* he asked anxiously. Jerriha grunted and shrugged.

"Line up! Shoulder to shoulder!" one of the human mercenaries shouted, walking along the edge of the lot.

The Tau rearranged themselves as demanded, many of them openly gawking at the armored pegasus hovering over them.

"Ah can't believe this," Applejack growled, a puff of steam blasting from her vox grille, "they're really lettin' 'em go? After what them varmints did?"

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "These Tau weren't imprisoned as a punishment, Applejack. They're slaves. Their emancipation was part of the deal."

"They should be emancipated straight into the dungeons," Rarity quipped, "I am quite surprised and distressed that Solon agreed to this."

"I saw it coming, but it's still a super bummer!" Pinkie pouted.

"Wait, there he is! The officer!" Twilight said, spotting another Tau walking down the avenue. This one lacked any of the clothing or obvious marks of imprisonment, and was being escorted by General Gnoss and an Iron Warrior.

Twilight heard a high-pitched whining noise behind her, and quickly turned her head around. "Rarity, put away the plasma gun!"

"I'm just keeping it ready!" she protested. "You know, just in case they try to pull any funny business!"

"Like gettin' outta this fortress in one piece," Applejack growled, small puffs of fire spurting from the flamer mounted on her foreleg.

The Tau, for their part, looked absolutely stunned to see the Shas'el walking alongside the mercenary General. Most assumed he had been captured as well, and duly bemoaned the fate of their army, but others saw little sign of submission or hostility in the highest-ranking Tau soldier on Centaur III.

*Well, now I'm completely confused,* Fennin mumbled as Shas'el Wraithstar passed in front of him. The Battlesuit Commander paused briefly in his walk to look at Jerriha, but even there his gaze didn't linger long before moving on to stand in front of the prisoners.

Wraithstar finished a brief inspection of the hostages, and then nodded grimly toward General Gnoss. The General, in turn, gestured to the Dark Techpriest that was currently acting as overseer to the prisoner convoy.

With a brief flicker of the Techpriest's optics, the shackles of the prisoners unlocked and tumbled to the ground.

Before the prisoners could fully wrap their head around this turn of events, Wraithstar spoke.

*I'm not sure how much you all know about what we've been doing, and what we've done, in the Centaur system,* Wraithstar began, *some of you were told nothing but your immediate missions because you lacked rank. Others of you have been in a gue'la cell for long enough that most of the events of the past few weeks may not have reached you. And you may have gleaned secrets and surprises from rumor or overheard reports. But the time for secrets has passed, and you will now know the truth.*

He took a deep breath. *We are here in what the humans call the Centaur system as part of a strategic ruse called the Emerald Dawn project. The objective of this operation is to lead a massive Ork fleet into a massive Tyranid fleet, in the hopes that at least one of them will be destroyed in the encounter. In the process of this project, this world will be assaulted by the Orks before they move on to the next system in a long chain leading them across the sector... and into the jaws of the Tyranids.*

*A lot of strange things suddenly just made a lot of sense,* Jerriha mumbled.

*Now to hear how badly we screwed it up,* Fennin added.

*The operation here, despite heavy and unexpected resistance from gue'la pirates, was a success.*

Wraithstar paused to take in the mixed emotions that statement caused in his soldiers. Surprise was most evident, although there was a good deal of relief and pride as well. Only a few Tau seemed especially concerned by the news.

*As such, an Ork WAAAGH with a troop strength in the billions is approaching this planet. And we, the members of the Lamman Sept chosen to infiltrate this planet and construct the luring beacon, have been abandoned here with no way off-world. Despite this, we have orders: we are to keep the beacon active until the bulk of the fleet arrives.*

Appropriately, there was a lot more concern coming from his audience now, and a few flickers of anger. The Tau military wasn't known for abandoning its armies, and those who knew the details of Emerald Dawn knew that it was not supposed to be a suicide mission.

*This was formally declared to be our final duty to the Greater Good,* Wraithstar said, his voice rising at that particular point, *it too, is finished with us. Under the presumption that we are not going to survive.*

*Is this presumption correct?* asked a Fire Warrior near the side, his eyes narrowing.

*There is no possible way for a mere thousand of the Fire Caste to fend off a WAAAGH,* Wraithstar said, *the pirates too, despite their super-soldiers and extensive experience, are just as hopelessly outnumbered.* Then he cast a brief glance at General Gnoss before turning back to his Sept-mates. *And yet, they do not run. They claim there is a way to block the system off from Ork incursion, forcing the WAAAGH onward to the next beacon in the route. Their plan is difficult for me to understand, as it relies on dark mysticism that sounds like superstitious nonsense to affect gue'la technologies that seem little better. But they're still here, fully aware of the threat and standing against the Orks, when they could have been parsecs away by now.*

He took a deep breath. This next admission was the hard part.

*As some of you may have concluded already, our goal and that of the pirates no longer necessarily conflict; so long as the Orks follow the system route, we don't care if this world survives. And as long as they can stop the earliest Ork attacks before the main fleet arrives, they don't seem to mind working with the ones who guided the fleet here to begin with. As such... we will be pursuing these goals together.*

There was another round of outright shock. Some were scowling, but fewer than he had feared.

Other reactions were more unusual.

"Hey, fur ball!" Fennin shouted up at Rainbow Dash. "We're allies now! HAH!"

"You still suck!" the pegasus countered, shaking a ceramite-clad hoof at the engineer.

Wraithstar cleared his throat loudly, but Jerriha spoke up before he could continue. *You mean to tell me that we're being "freed" just so that we can work with these... these FREAKS? And their pet horses?* she asked angrily. *Do you know what they've done to us?*

*No,* Wraithstar said, his gaze lowering toward the ground, *all I know is that they have fulfilled the terms of our agreement by placing you back under my command. That was... one part of the bargain.* He looked up again, his expression tired. *And it would be inaccurate to say we'll be 'working with' the gue'la. From this point onward... we serve the 38th Company.*

More shocked and angry looks.

*Today, that means forming a unified defense against the Ork invasion!* Wraithstar's voice rose to shout over some of the former prisoners who were starting to object. *Today, the bargain is merely to add our strength to that of the Iron Warriors rather than fearing it will be turned on us! To destroy a common enemy, and ensure our own survival!*

Then his voice fell again. *But our service does not end after today. Surviving the onslaught of the green horde will mean more battles to come, in service to a force we barely understand, following a positively repulsive ideology. It is not... unthinkable, either, that our new allegiance will demand we one day fight and kill those of the Tau Empire who have not yet been "discharged" by the Greater Good. I cannot protect us from this possibility.*

He paused, waiting for any angry interruptions. He didn't get any, although he could feel the heat of his niece glaring at him. He was sure she wasn't the only one.

*So, on the advice of the Company's master, Warsmith Solon, I offer you a choice: you can take up this new allegiance that I have negotiated, and you will be protected from Chaos and bolster our odds against the Orks. Or you can refuse it. I cannot say what will happen to you, but it will be on the Company's terms, not mine.* He bowed his head, grimacing. *That is all I have to say, my comrades. Those that wish to join me may stay until our transports get here. Those that do not may pick up their shackles.*

There was a lot of murmuring and anxious looks as the ex-prisoners milled about uncomfortably. None of them picked up the shackles, though.

Then Fennin raised his hand. *Does this mean we have to follow orders from the equines?* he asked, making a face.

*THAT'S your first question when being asked to join a band of mutant, piratical cultists?* Jerriha growled at him.

Then she kicked her shackles away, sending them bouncing past Wraithstar.

*I still follow your orders, Shas'el, even as you forsake everything we stand for,* she snarled, glaring at her uncle, *but this is no "choice" you offer us.*

Wraithstar sighed. *Matters of survival rarely are, Shas'vre.*

The Tau Fireblade seethed quietly for a moment, and then whirled around with her arms crossed over her chest.

Then her eyes bulged, and she screamed before falling backwards onto her rear.

The other Tau prisoners, for their part, found this confusing when they looked at what had startled her. Certainly there was something strange and unnerving about the power-armored pony standing behind them, but they didn't find it nearly as intimidating as the Iron Warriors surrounding the area.

Jerriha, for her part, glared up at the equine figure, though her eyes were mostly fixed on the dirty brown stetson on its head. "... YOU."

The tusked helmet tilted to the side. "Well, shucks. All you grays kinda look the same t'me, but the way yer goin' on Ah get the feelin' we've met before."

The voice was undoubtedly feminine, and held barely a fraction of the anger and frustration being restrained at the moment by its source. All the same, Applejack's vox grille turned the simple statement into a crackling, booming curse.

"How's yer face doin? I didn't break nothin', did Ah?" Applejack asked with mock concern.

"Oh, look. It's the one with the hat," Fennin mumbled as he glanced at the pony harassing Jerriha. Then he looked over at General Gnoss. "Taking a page out of our book and arming the primitives, are you?"

"A whim of the Warsmith, your new Master," Gnoss said happily, "perhaps you'll get the chance to arm a few 'primitives' for us yourself, xeno. I'm aware of your caste delineations. You're an engineer, aren't you?"

Fennin winced at the thought. He was taking the sudden switching of allegiance better than most of them, but the prospect of working for Chaos raiders and divulging Tau technologies to them was still quite uncomfortable.

Down the street, several Predator tanks started approaching, moving in escort to a full dozen Devilfish troop transports.

Standing up again, Jerriha glanced over at the approaching vehicles before glaring acidly at Applejack again. "... I suppose this debacle wasn't entirely unpredictable, if not still entirely unwelcome. I look forward to seeing how many bullets that armor of yours can take."

"Just don' make me regret not finishin' ya off when Ah had the chance, Tau," Applejack snarled before raising a thickly armored hoof toward the alien. "Ah've got mah eye on you."

With a heavy snort, the terminator-armored pony whirled around and stomped off back toward her friends.

"Thanks for not flaming them all, Applejack," Twilight said seriously as the farmer returned to the her friends.

Applejack glared at her before she passed by. "Ah may like the Tau even less than y'all do, but Ah ain't gonna kill a bunch of helpless grays on our side over a grudge."

"We weren't sure if you were feeling that reasonable, what with having this drop on us out of nowhere," Rarity opined, turning her head to follow the earth pony's path down the avenue, "er... where are you going?"

"To see Solon and get the full story on this," Applejack replied, pausing to stare back at the others, "ya comin'?"

****

Ferrous Dominus - Solon's forge

Gaela traced a thick, augmetic finger over the pale cubes of light being displayed by the hololith in front of her, watching as a line appeared over the space.

"The harness uses the positioning of the forelimb to arm, aim, and fire the weapon. Once in the 'chambered' position, the unit need only pull back the foreleg along the track to sustain fire. Although undoubtedly still more complicated and cumbersome than using the weapons with hands, the ballistics harness will allow for quadrupedal fighters to use combat rifles without sophisticated armor systems, extensive retrofitting, or psychic powers."

Solon nodded as he stared at the hololith diagram. It showed an outline of an earth pony with a metal collar that attached to the right foreleg with a series of hinged struts, making a sort of brace over the limb. Attached to the brace was a lasgun.

The lasgun was carried barrel-down and held against the shoulder so long as the equine was standing or walking with all four legs, but every few seconds the hololithic pony would raise its right foreleg as if to point at something. When it did, the rifle slid down and forward into a firing position.

"Cheap, shimple, and effective. I like it," Solon said warmly as his optics tracked to the prototype harness on the table next to him, "we can make thoushandsh of theshe devicesh with eashe."

"We also have a great surplus of flak armor, which can be easily modified for equine use," Gaela concluded, "combined with refurbishing their primitive melee weapons with mono-molecular edging and superior alloys, we may yet turn the Equestrian military into a tactical asset rather than a running gag." Then she paused. "If they buy them, that is. Delgan feels it would be most advantageous and economical to price them appropriately for our 'allies' rather than making a gift of them."

"And I agree. We've provided plenty of giftsh sho far." Then he glanced back at the Dark Techpriest. "But you dishagree?" He couldn't help but notice the note of irritation in Gaela's voice as she spoke of the Trademaster.

"Not at all, Warsmith. It is simply a habit of mine to view everything Master Delgan does with suspicion and disdain," Gaela explained.

Solon laughed, his chassis crackling and shaking under him. After he finished chuckling, he sighed quietly and then pointed to the prototype harness.

"Put it into field teshting immediately. Ushe any of the Equinesh we haven't yet ashigned to permanent poshitionsh and obsherve them in training drillsh and combat patrolsh. I want-"

And then a purple flash of light appeared in front of them, depositing six ponies in his forge.

"Warsmith Solon, we need to talk to you!" Twilight said, obviously distressed.

"... I think I'll build a teleport inhibitor next," Solon said, as if having a sudden epiphany, "that'sh it. It'sh technicaally feashible, I think. The particle interactionsh are the key..."

"Er... Warsmith?" Twilight asked as the Chaos Lord started mumbling to himself. "Did we come at a bad time?"

"As much as there's ever a good time to jump into the Warsmith's personal facilities without permission or warning, no. This is not a bad time at all," Gaela confessed, "what do you want?"

"We wanna know why we woke up this mornin' in a three-way alliance with the grayskins," Applejack said coolly, "was there a meetin' or somethin' that we missed?"

"The agreement between Equestria and the 38th Company says nothing about the fate of the Tau," Gaela pointed out, "why would we not take any agreement with them that we find favorable?"

"Because they're the ones RESPONSIBLE for the Ork assault threatening to wipe us all out!" Rarity reminded the Chaos cyborgs.

Solon made a snorting noise. "Oh, that. That'sh all in the pasht."

"Yeah! The past WEEK!" Rainbow Dash complained. "You can't expect us to forgive them!"

"More importantly, we can't possibly trust them after what they did," Twilight added, although she tried to keep her tone less provocative.

Solon paused, and then shrugged his massive shoulders. "Thish issue ish not open for dishcushion," he began, ignoring Pinkie Pie when she burst into giggles, "the negotiationsh have already been completed, and the prishoner exchange ish in progresh. The additional manpower and ordnance offered by the remnantsh of the Shept represhent a conshiderable boon for my forcesh, and relieve the threat of the army shtill closhe at hand." He paused again. "I will not jeopardize that for the shake of 'jushtice'. What the Tau have done ish done, and they have shuffered tremendoushly to achieve it. All they have now are their livesh and weaponsh. If they will shell thoshe to me, all the better."

"Heh. Shake of jushtice," Pinkie snickered.

"Agreed. There is no benefit to holding them accountable for their mission here," Gaela said firmly, "their survival anyway depended on our success in constructing the Nethalican. Now they may aid that effort directly, rather than merely observing our struggle. It is advantageous for all of us. Even you."

"That's some awful bitter medicine yer askin' us to swallow, sugarcube." Applejack said grimly.

"Then don't. Our shtrategic agreement doesh not require you forgive or trusht the Tau. Merely that you not shlay them on shight anymore." Seeing several of the ponies scuffing their boots miserably against the floor, he felt an inexplicable urge to cheer them up. "Oh, don't be like that. Think of it ash a shurrender, rather than an alliance!"

"Surrender?" Twilight asked, frowning behind her helmet.

"Yesh. Faced with deteriorating morale, withering shuppliesh and no hope of reshcue, the Tau now sherve the Company. They call it an alliance to eashe their shpiritsh and jushtify the decishion," Solon explained.

"It's a lot like our 'alliance' with your nation," Gaela quipped.

"Hardly," Rarity disagreed with a sniff, "our agreement is a PARTNERSHIP."

Then she paused. "Albeit a partnership where you hold total military supremacy," the unicorn allowed, hesitating again, "as well as de facto control of the planet." She lowered her head as her brow furrowed. "Huh."

"I suppose it's not that bad," Twilight allowed, "and I certainly prefer that the Tau contribute to the defense of the planet rather than waiting for us to win the battle for them..."

"But how do ya know this ain't another trick o'theirs?" Applejack finished, snorting hotly.

"They have little reashon do to sho, now that their mission ish complete. But if thish ish shome mere deception, then we shall overcome. We have weathered thish Shept at the peak of itsh shtrength, and we will not falter now."

The ponies shared a silent glance for a few lingering seconds.

"Uh, back-tracking a bit, here... you mentioned a prisoner exchange?" Twilight asked. "I wasn't aware that the Tau had many human prisoners of war."

"They don't, really. All they have ish the shlavesh they freed during their attack," Solon explained.

"So who are they trading for the Tau prisoners?"

"The shlavesh they freed during their attack."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "This is SO messed up."

"Ah, that'sh right. I have shomething for you," Solon said suddenly, turning around and walking off, "follow me."

Most of the ponies perked up at this, and they followed after the Iron Warrior with varying levels of eagerness. Gaela took up the rear, jabbing Fluttershy with her axe to goad her forward.

Making their way through the halls of giant machines and flickering hololiths, the ponies followed the mechanized Astartes to a raised dais that was surrounded by hefty servo arms and a few turret guns, as well as numerous glowing orange screens that were plastered over with schematics and spreadsheets. In the middle of the dais was a collection of power armor parts - mostly the interior carapace frame - made of a strange, smooth ivory substance.

As intriguing as the parts were, however, what was undoubtedly more interesting was a thin, weak-looking woman leaning over the armor pieces. She had dry, wispy hair and pointed ears, and was shackled and chained to the dais. That was weird.

For his part, Solon walked right up onto the dais and scooped up something sitting on a table on its edge.

"Uh, hi. I don't believe we've been introduced?" Twilight asked the strange woman. The captive had an intricate series of tattoos across her face and arms, and she was breathing heavily, clearly on the verge of exhaustion.

"This is prisoner 32," Gaela explained, "she belongs to a particularly disliked species of alien called the Eldar. Her role is bonesinger."

"She looks like a human," Applejack mumbled, stepping up onto the dais while zooming in on the alien's exhausted face.

"Indeed. But I assure you, the shimilaritiesh are merely shkin deep," Solon chuckled, "certainly, merely looking like humansh hashn't paved the way for peace and undershtanding between our two shpeciesh."

"Does she, uhm, have a real name?" Fluttershy asked.

"Oh, probably. But I don't like the Eldar language. Too shing-shong and full of artishtic interpretation. Sho we jusht call her 32. Shay hi, 32."

The Eldar prisoner coughed a few times before staring down at the equines.

"... Help... me..." she wheezed.

"Let'sh pretend that wash Eldar for 'hello'," Solon said as his mechatendrils hissed at the alien. She cringed away and quickly faced toward the armor pieces again. "She'sh conshtructing the power armor frame for Princesh Luna. Wraithbone ish pshycho-conductive, and will minimize the wear and weight of the undercarriage."

"Aw, she doesn't look too happy about it!" Pinkie said before gasping. "I know what would cheer her up! We should throw a party! A forge party! I've never even thought of that theme! I can use-"

Pinkie was cut off by a rattling noise above her, and she craned her head up to see that Solon was dangling a chain over her that had two heavy bolter rounds attached to it.

"You want thish? You want the medal?" the Warsmith asked as he shook the chain over her head.

Pinkie sat upright on her haunches with her forelegs in the air, and she nodded rapidly as her eyes followed the gleaming bullets.

"Go get the medal!" Solon flung the chain down the hall, and Pinkie sprinted off after it, her tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth.

"I have to start taking notes for how you guys deal with Pinkie Pie," mumbled Twilight, "it really is ingenious."

"Now shtay shtill," the Warsmith ordered as he approached Applejack, taking hold of the shoulder pad that bore the Iron Skull.

His mechatendrils reached forward as he wrapped another chain behind and over the armor plate, and then welded it into place. When he backed up, the chain was secured tight against the shoulder pad in a V shape around the Legion emblem. The bolts hung at the bottom edge of the shoulder plating, and Applejack lifted her head proudly at the improvised award.

"Awesome! Me next!" Rainbow Dash quickly leap-frogged Twilight and Rarity to land in front of the Chaos Lord, turning to expose the armor pauldron.

"In recognition of your contribution to your lasht shortie, and becaushe you ashked for them, I award you all another shilver bolt," Solon said with an over-dignified tone while he welded Rainbow's award into place, "I guesh thish ish going to be a regular thing, now."

Twilight tilted her head to the side. "We got our first bolt before we actually joined you, though... now that we're actually your soldiers, wouldn't we be subject to whatever standards you use to reward the rest of your army?"

Solon halted as he thought that over. "Yesh, I shupposhe sho," he admitted, "but I wouldn't know much about thoshe."

"Why's that?"

"Shliver managesh them."

"Silver bolt it is!" Twilight said cheerfully, turning the appropriate shoulder pad toward the Warsmith. "Oh, and thanks for taking time out of your intensely busy schedule of managing an army and building impossibly useful things to make little award trinkets for us," the alicorn added, smiling anxiously, "we really appreciate it!"

Solon looked up after he finished securing Twilight's chain in place, ready to disburse the final two amulets. Then he saw that Rarity and Fluttershy were already walking toward the exit, already immersed in their own conversation and completely ignoring the impromptu award ceremony behind them.

"... Most of us really appreciate it, I mean," Twilight said awkwardly.

"Shure," Solon drawled, "the combat with the Orksh wash the firsht of many, Princesh. And I-"

He stopped suddenly as Pinkie skidded to a halt in front of him. She had the chain with its heavy bolt rounds hanging from her mouth, and her tail whipped back and forth happily as she grinned up at the Chaos Lord.

"That'sh actually yoursh now. You can keep it," Solon said.

Pinkie Pie spat out the chain in front of him and then sat upright, smiling widely.

Solon eventually picked the chain up and then flung it away again, causing Pinkie to squeal happily and sprint after it.

"You know, I could automate something to do that ad infinitum," Gaela offered, "we'd probably never see her again."

"Please don't tempt me," Twilight sighed.

****

Ferrous Dominus - sector 22 Supply Corps

Rarity's sword swung through the air in long, twisting arcs, enveloped by a swirling aura of blue. The unicorn's expression was one of tightly controlled frustration; a scowl moderated to a frown through sheer willpower.

Her dull-edged training sword slashed and stabbed, but time and time again it was smoothly evaded or battered aside.

Then she saw her opponent twist, all weight balanced on one heel, and she leapt to the side.

As she tumbled, Rarity saw Delgan's blade move out of the corner of her eye, and she felt the slightest disturbance of air across her coat as the man's arm lashed out with unnerving speed.

Her hooves slipped across the clean iron floor as she stabilized herself, and her own blade came around to aim at her opponent like a crossbow bolt readying itself to fire.

"First blood, end of round," Delgan said, lowering his arms. With nothing more than a glance from their employer, a pair of waiting guards stepped up to take the practice weapons and hand him a cup of jasmine tea.

Rarity kept her pose for a moment, the practice sword slowly twisting in place as blue magic continued winding over it. Then she glanced at her side.

She clicked her tongue in irritation. Where she had thought her training partner had missed his strike, there was a stripe of black ink on her coat that proved otherwise.

"How the blazes do you do that?" Rarity asked, practically tossing her weapon at one of the guards. "I could barely feel a thing. I was sure you missed."

"Brute strength is worth nothing in training duels," Delgan explained between sips of tea, "speed and finesse are everything. That's why we use the practice swords edged with ink. It simply wouldn't do to inflict bruises upon your body, would it?"

Rarity pursed her lips, but restrained any further comment as Spike approached with a damp cloth. She quickly floated the cloth over her side, wiping away the black mark that stained her snow-white coat.

The cloth already had several dark smudges on it, ugly evidence of her record so far in her fencing practice. Delgan's manservant had a cloth for him as well, and it was thus far unblemished.

"Thank you, Spike," the unicorn said, dropping the cloth into his waiting claws. The young dragon then offered a hand mirror and brush, and both objects took to the air as Rarity did some quick work on her mane.

Delgan drained his tea cup and handed it back to his guard. "Fighting a human is a bit different than facing Orks, is it not?"

"Well, you didn't need to muss up my fur to tell me THAT," Rarity said before floating her things back to Spike, "the brutes certainly know which side of an axe to put into somepony's face, but they do take their time about it."

Spike took the mirror and brush, and then scurried back to the line of spectating servants. They kept giving him odd looks, as if wondering how their lives had come to the point that they were sharing professional space with a young reptile, but he ignored the humans entirely.

"All right, next round," Rarity said coolly, her posture as dignified and elegant as ever.

"Match thirteen," Delgan said as one of his men stepped forward to hand him his training swords.

Rarity's eyebrow twitched as another man held out her sword in front of her. Her horn started to glow, and the sword floated into the air. "Ready when you are, darling."

Delgan held his swords loosely at his sides, his stance perfectly neutral. "Begin."

Rarity darted backward across the floor, a surge of magic pushing her practice sword in the opposite direction. The blade spun in a circle as it sailed toward Delgan, who once again shifted his weight onto one heel.

Both of Delgan's swords came together and smashed Rarity's weapon out of the air, breaking her telekinetic grip and sending it bouncing across the floor. Then he calmly walked up to the cringing pony and tapped his sword against the tip of her nose.

"First blood, end of round," Delgan said calmly. He held out his swords again, which were again replaced with a cup of tea.

Rarity let out a frustrated sigh as she sat down. "I thought you said strength didn't matter in a training match," she muttered.

"And you adapted your strategy to fit. I just adapted faster," Delgan said, "in any case, treating a melee weapon as an improvised projectile isn't the worst tactic, but it's a distinctly desperate one. And even had it worked, it's not very conducive toward improving your technique, which is the entire point of this exercise."

"Well, do you have any advice?" Rarity asked as Spike dabbed at her snout with her cloth.

"There's only so much our styles have in common, given that I control my weapons with my hands and you with your witchcraft," Delgan admitted, "but tactically, I've noticed that you seem to expect me to be flummoxed by having to fight a floating sword. I'm not."

Rarity pouted. "Well, I hope I don't meet too many opponents as jaded as you."

Delgan watched as one of his men brought the pony's sword forward, and his brow furrowed as he sipped his tea. "Tell me, Miss Rarity, what is it like?"

"Hmm? What is what like?" she asked, blinking.

"Telekinesis. Magic. Sorcery," Delgan explained, scratching at his mustache, "our psykers describe it in many ways, all of them quite awful and difficult to grasp. How is it to call upon such power with such casual ease?"

Rarity placed a hoof to her chin, staring at the ceiling.

"Well, it's not something that I think about a great deal. For me, magic is almost as natural as walking." She fell silent again as she searched for the right words. "I think of it as drawing a thread through the air. Reaching out with my horn connects me to the object I want to move, and then I wrap that thread around it, pulling and pushing on certain parts of the thread as necessary to move the object."

Delgan listened intently, intrigued. "I see. And the strength of this force?"

"It depends. On a lot of things." Rarity beckoned over the minion serving tea, and got a cup for herself. "The material composition of whatever I'm levitating, its weight, the distance away it is, whether it's moving, my concentration... it probably even varies with my mood. Twilight could give you a more exhaustive explanation, I'm sure."

She drained her own teacup, and then floated it back to the rather nervous-looking guard. "Another match?"

"Let's make it our last for today. I have a lot of work to do in preparing for our new tenants," Delgan explained.

Unsurprisingly, this reminder brought a sour expression to Rarity's face. "Ah, yes. You'll be accommodating the Tau as well as us equines now?"

"And the Kroot. They're a mercenary force attached to Tau armies," the Trademaster added, "always a pleasure to deal with species that understand the value of money. I don't even know if Fire Warriors are paid for their service or not."

"And the fact that they brought the Ork menace here that threatens us all doesn't bother you?" the unicorn sighed.

Delgan hesitated, and then the side of his mouth curled up into a smile. "Well, now, that's an interesting thought, isn't it? They ARE responsible for the Ork incursion. But what do the Orks mean for the Company? We can leave any time we want. It was YOU who convinced us to stay."

Rarity scrunched up her nose, but didn't offer a rebuttal.

"Besides: I have little right to judge others for their crimes of desperation and deception. We will deal with the Tau as befits our role, and you will be expected to assist me properly. Feigned respect is mandatory."

The snow-white unicorn tilted her head in consideration. "... Oh, fine. Only for you, Norris."

"Good. Match fourteen, then. Swords!"

****

Ferrous Dominus - sector 7 mercenary barracks

Luna's jaw stretched out into a yawn as she exited the showers, her mane wrapped up in a damp towel that sat on her head in a ball.

As expected, the domestic facilities in Ferrous Dominus were horrid compared to the royal standard she was used to, but perfectly adequate for their function. Having an antiseptic cleaning fluid rather than soap and shampoo and washing in a tiny metal stall were small and petty indignities, and the Princess of the Night would make no complaint of such things.

It was kind of weird that she apparently had to share the showers with all the human males on the floor, and in fact they seemed just as confused by her presence, but whatever. As long as none of them tried to make awkward small talk while she cleaned herself, she could ignore them.

As she approached her room, she saw Midnight Blaze and Dusk Blade, two of the higher-ranking Lunar Guards taken into service, standing at attention outside her room. Dusk Blade had something fuzzy and familiar on his face, and Luna brightened considerably.

"Tiberius!" the alicorn chirped, her steps instantly becoming lighter and happier. The gray possum was clinging tightly to Dusk's muzzle, and the batpony held a quietly annoyed expression as his eyebrow twitched.

"My Princess," Midnight Blaze bowed as the alicorn approached, "Tiberius has arrived with the rest of your personal affects. At least, those that could be reasonably transported from the palace. We've already moved the crates inside." Then she frowned. "They may be in some disarray, however. The humans seemed to have searched the containers before telling us about them."

"Aye, We hast come to expect as much," Luna sighed as she extended a wing toward Tiberius, and the possum happily detached from Dusk's face and scampered onto his owner. "It shalt be some time yet before We acquire the rank or trust necessary to forgo such trifles. The Company has no cause to treat us with suspicion."

Dusk frowned. "Didn't Sparkle sneak in here with the Elements of Harmony with the intention of destroying the Warsmith and forcing the rest of the army off the planet?"

"That doth not count," Luna insisted as Tiberius crawled up her neck and started unwrapping the towel from her head, "no hostilities took place, and the conflict was resolved amiably."

The batponies glanced at each other.

"Soooo... speaking of conflicts being resolved amiably," Midnight Blaze said, pausing to wet her lips, "our, uhm, little alliance we've got going here kind of... grew bigger."

Luna shook out her mane as Tiberius finished taking off the towel, letting the dark, empty mass float about her head.

With a moment of concentration, points of light started to wink into place within the void, decorating her mane with its usual star-lit motif.

"This is grand news," Luna declared once she decided her appearance was in order, "all aid is welcome in the struggle against the alien menace!" She strolled toward her bedroom door, which slid open to let her in.

"We are REALLY glad you think that," Dusk Blade chuckled nervously, waiting alongside Midnight in front of the doorway.

"So tell us!" Luna shouted as she slipped her collar into place. "Which nation hath courageously stepped forward to add their might to our own?"

Midnight sucked in a deep breath. "... That would be... the Tau, Princess. The Tau have joined us."

Luna paused in the middle of putting on her silver slippers, her eyes narrowing.

"Hmm..." she finished dressing, and then turned toward her soldiers. "We must admit, We art still terribly unfamiliar with the other nations with which Equestria currently shares this land. They hath changed a great deal in the time since our banishment. We were not aware that there existed a nation with the same name as the deceitful aliens that sought to sacrifice our world."

Midnight Blaze and Dusk Blade studiously avoided eye contact, fidgeting in the hallway.

"... Thou canst be serious," the Dark Princess said flatly.

"The humans do not seem to be taking the grays' plot as... personally as we are," Midnight Blaze said timidly, "numerous Tau transports have been moving through the fortress all day, apparently. Some are for taking the former prisoners away, but... more of them are unloading soldiers and supplies."

"How did this happen?! WHEN did this happen?!" Luna demanded, her wings spreading angrily. Tiberius stood atop her head, leaning over the edge of Luna's crown and glaring at the soldiers.

"Well, as I understand it, now that the Tau are bringing the Orks toward this system, their plan is pretty much golden and they don't actually NEED them to overrun the planet. Especially now that they're stuck here with us. Without a reason to fight the 38th Company, they'd rather help us keep the Orks at bay."

"And we LET them?!" Luna demanded incredulously. "And this was all decided today, while I slept?!"

Dusk and Midnight shared another uneasy glance.

"Well... it was actually decided yesterday. You know. Technically," murmured Midnight.

Luna's jaw fell slack. Tiberius slapped a paw against his forehead.

"We haven't really been properly organized into the Company forces yet," Dusk Blade chuckled anxiously, "so... nobody tells us anything important, and we don't really know where to get information or orders. Princess Sparkle actually informed us this evening, and told us to keep an eye out for any clandestine activities."

Luna seemed like she was on the verge of exploding, her ears laid back and her horn crackling with power. Tiberius leaned back from the magical spire, shielding his face.

"The moon," she growled suddenly, turning her head away and stalking toward the stairs, "We must raise the moon."

Luna emerged on the roof of the barracks, immediately summoning a barrier of wind against the toxic air as she stepped outside.

Her horn glowed brighter as she begin her spell, though her head was held low and her posture held none of her usual dignity and grace when performing her most sacred royal duty.

Luna walked up to the edge of the roof, glowering down at the streets. There were no Tau in the immediate area, though, and frankly she didn't know what she would have done if there were. She couldn't simply attack them; even if the Iron Warriors let her get away with that, the Tau could retaliate against the Company's ponies, and she could hardly expect the humans to protect them. She certainly couldn't refuse to serve alongside them, either; Equestria had far more at stake than the Tau did.

Her horn dimmed as her spell reached completion, ensuring that the moon would retain its momentum and orbit for another night.

"Princess?" asked Midnight Blaze as she cautiously stepped onto the roof behind her. The batpony mare had already affixed a respirator and pair of goggles to her head, despite the wind shield.

"Gather the Lunar Guard. They are to patrol the darkened fortress this night, and see to it that no grayskin wanders the base unattended," Luna demanded.

Midnight Blaze bowed and ducked back into the stairwell.

Luna briefly checked to make sure Tiberius had a good grip, and then launched herself from the roof and into the air.

Luna searched the avenues below for about five minutes before she saw them.

The sleek, floating forms of devilfish troop transports were moving through the base in convoy, with a hammerhead hover tank at each end. They were moving slowly, being escorted by groups of Iron Warriors on foot. She didn't know where they were going, but it surely wasn't the prisons.

After moving on from the convoy, Luna found herself hovering high above an open lot where numerous Kroot warriors were being herded together by another ring of Chaos Space Marines. And off on the side...

She squinted at the cages that were being hauled into place at the edge of the lot, and she swooped down to a street lumen to view it at a better angle.

Inside the cages were Orks and gretchin; the prisoners and wounded seized from the recent sortie. Those Ork warriors still healthy enough to act belligerent gladly did so, shouting at the mercenaries marching alongside them and beating against the bars. The small and cowardly gretchin whimpered and clutched each other in terror by contrast, far more concerned than the Orks as to why they were being brought out.

An order was shouted, and the convoy of cages halted. Another shout, and the mercenaries escorting the Orks brought up their rifles and fired into the cages at the Ork warriors that were still on their feet. The brutes howled in pain and fury at the sudden barrage, most of them falling to their knees from the fresh wounds.

Another order came. The cages were unlocked by remote, and their doors popped open.

Luna recoiled as the Kroot surged toward the prisoners, dragging them free of the cages before descending on the helpless aliens with a carnal, animal frenzy.

Luna wasn't squeamish in general, and had no particular qualms with Orks being killed and eaten; by all accounts, they would have done the same to her. But she nonetheless turned away with a shudder as the Kroot Carnivores hacked up the greenskins to be eaten on the spot.

"We surmise that there shalt be considerable tensions within the fortress in the coming days," Luna said as Tiberius stared at the feeding frenzy and gagged, "Sister will also need to be informed." She really wasn't sure how Celestia would take the news. She was as upset as anypony at the Tau's treachery, but didn't have the same fear and revulsion for them that she did for Chaos.

Then again, the Tau SERVING Chaos may be the worst of both worlds.

"We must speak to the Warsmith," Luna decided, "Tiberius, remain still."

The possum froze in a comically exaggerated pose as Luna's horn flared.

****

Ferrous Dominus - Solon's forge

"The circle'sh tertiary and shecondary layersh are for containment, ash are the ley tracesh. Control ish ever the matter of primary concern when dealing with daemonsh, even more sho than the shummoning itshelf."

Solon was standing over a series of large runic circles drawn on the floor in chalk, all of which surrounded a human man who was bound, gagged, and blindfolded in the middle. Standing on the side of the circle was Serith, and watching the ritual opposite the Warsmith was Gaela and Fennin.

The Tau engineer looked distinctly uncomfortable as he watched the man struggle, but paid rapt attention as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"I just want to make sure that I'm still following the premise of this operation and didn't invite myself to some kind of weird ritual feast due to a miscommunication," Fennin said as he pointed gingerly to the arrangement of chalk and helpless victim, "this is a process to create a monster, which, in turn, will be built into an ARMOR SUIT as a component. Is that right?"

"You are correct," Solon said, tilting his head to the side, "ish thish difficult to undershtand?"

"Not so much 'understand', as 'believe'. But then again, I'm already listening to an engineering lecture from a metal monster spider, so I'm not sure I have the right to question it."

He suddenly yelped as he felt a cold metal claw seize the back of his neck, and he shouted in pain as he was pushed down to his knees.

"Show RESPECT to the Warsmith, xeno worm," Gaela said coldly, her servo arm squealing as it held down the Tau next to her, "you live or die according to his will, no matter what deal your leaders have made."

"Hey! Stop! We're allies now! You're not allowed to hurt me!" Fennin complained.

"Oh, she'sh allowed to hurt you," Solon corrected, "although if she doesh, I'd prefer it be for shome offenshe more dire than an unflattering metaphor."

Gaela's servo arm promptly let go, and Fennin staggered away from the Dark Techpriest, scowling.

"You're being allowed to see secrets of manufacture that are beyond anything your pitiful species has even DREAMED of," Serith drawled as he stood at attention, "you should be glad that the Warsmith considers curiosity a virtue in its own right. None of the Dark Mechanicus would show you something like this."

Fennin stood up silently, trying to look nonchalant. "I am... honored," he mumbled, not sounding at all like he meant it.

"Yesh, well, let'sh continue, then!" Solon said. "Now, the next phashe ish going to-"

Solon was interrupted by a crackling noise as Luna and Tiberius teleported into the room, emerging from a pool of darkness that vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"And thish ish Luna, one of the poniesh conshtantly teleporting into my shanctum whenever they feel like it," the Chaos Lord explained, gesturing to the alicorn as if she were an expected part of the process he was supervising.

"Warsmith, greetings," Luna said, trotting up to the ceremony. She cast a sharp glance at the Tau in attendance, but then passed by him without further attention. "We awoke this evening to some rather disconcerting news."

"If thish ish about the Tau, I already had the argument about it with Princesh Shparkle, and the matter ish not up for dishcushion," Solon said as the mare approached him.

"We supposed as much," Luna admitted with an annoyed expression as Tiberius stood atop her head with his arms crossed over his chest, "so We art not here to debate on it. Although We must protest that We were not informed."

"It was part of the Company-wide alert feed," Serith pointed out, "did you not get a message about it on your room cogitator?"

Luna blinked. "Our what?"

"The console in your sleeping quarters," he explained, "that screen next to the door."

Luna frowned. She supposed she'd have to learn how those things worked if she couldn't count on her subordinates to inform her of important events. For now, though, a change of subject was in order.

"And what is this, then?" Luna asked, opening a wing and gesturing toward the human restrained in the circle while she walked around it. "Who is this man? And what hath he done to warrant such treatment?"

"That man is a Slaaneshi cultist, dear Princess," Serith answered with a grim chuckle, "from time to time we find a mercenary or menial has surrendered to temptation and dallied with powers expressly forbidden to the 38th Company. Such lapses in discipline are quickly culled before these indiscretions have a chance to spread among the weak-willed."

"Theshe foolsh do make good shacrificial fodder, however. Shtrong attachment to the Empyrean, and a shoul rich with hate," Solon said, "he will be the veshel that allowsh the daemon to take to thish plane. You're going to want to shtand back. Thish ish not a shanitary procedure."

Serith raised a hand toward the man as Luna, Fennin, and Gaela all backed away. The Sorcerer's voice suddenly came out in a stream of constant, unintelligible whispers as he began the ritual, and the man in the middle of the circle started thrashing and squirming violently.

"I knew that human science and engineering involved a lot of mysticism, but I'd really assumed you humans hadn't gone so far as to integrate blood sacrifice with physics and metallurgy," Fennin remarked as the chalk circle started to glow.

"Most humans DON'T go that far," Gaela noted, "and they're all the weaker for it. This is the strength of Chaos, Fio'el. We will not flinch away from power, no matter how terrible."

"There is certainly a macabre sort of nobility to thy machinations," Luna said, her eyes on Fennin, "so We must ponder what the Tau hopes to gain from this demonstration. Or - more importantly - what it shalt contribute."

The Tau engineer furrowed his brow as Luna stare at him coldly. "... Is there a reason you're using some kind of bizarre Gothic dialect when every other primitive speaks the normal form perfectly? Who else do you mean when you say 'we'?"

"Do not mock us, alien!" Luna hissed, her eyes briefly flashing a pure, angry white. "We ask what thou thinks to add to a military force that hath so thoroughly trounced thine own?" Tiberius blew a raspberry at the engineer.

The sounds of the prisoner's gasps and struggling became louder and more pronounced, but Fennin simply raised his voice to speak over it as he scoffed.

"Oh, that's rich, coming from a horse. What technological MARVELS have you fingerless bohemians offered up? A particularly vicious model of spear?"

Tiberius bristled and Luna clenched her jaw. "Perhaps thou art not aware that my people art of PREDOMINANT importance to the repulsion of the Ork fleet!"

"I don't know what art has to do with anything, but as I understand it your 'importance' to the Iron Warriors' plan is as a bunch of glorified psionic generators," Fennin snorted, "but sure. I guess you have to take all the credit you can get."

Luna had to struggle not to shout as she retorted. "And what hast thou accomplished, besides CREATING the very conflict that now threatens to engulf us?"

"Who's 'thou'?"

"THOU art 'thou'!" Luna barked. "Thou cannot even-"

Luna stopped mid-sentence as Pinkie Pie galloped between her and Fennin, a chain hanging from her mouth.

Pinkie jumped over the man writhing in pain on the floor and landed on the edge of the runic circle in front of Solon.

Then she dropped the crude amulet in front of him, and the Warsmith wordlessly picked the chain up and flung it away toward the ceiling. A servo arm mounted high up grabbed the chain and then tossed it further down the hall, where another servo arm caught it to continue moving it across the length of the forge. Pinkie happily bolted after it, a huge grin plastered on her face.

Luna watched the pink mare sprint away for a few seconds, and then she turned her narrowed eyes back onto Fennin.

"... What were We conversing about?" the alicorn asked.

"It was... uh..." Fennin trailed off, also having difficulty in finding his previous train of thought. "... Probably not important."

Then the screaming started.

Luna and Fennin both recoiled as the sacrifice's gag suddenly ripped apart, finally allowing him to release an agonized howl. This came about because his jaw was distending horribly, and thick spikes were pushing out of his cheeks to puncture and tear the band of rubber.

"Oh, gross," Fennin cringed as he watched the human deform, but couldn't deny being utterly fascinated by the rapid and impossible change.

The man's body was starting to bend and contort in ways that defied its bone structure, and spikes of bone poked through the sacrifice's rubbery skin as blood streamed from his eyes. The man's abdomen seemed to shrink into his body as bone shards poked down over it from his ribs and upward from his pelvis, giving the impression of a gasping, monstrous mouth.

Further observations were suddenly lost to Fennin as the daemon-thing screeched at a much higher volume and frequency than before, almost dropping him to his knees as he clapped his hands over his ear holes. Tiberius mimicked him, shuddering as he hid behind Luna's mane.

"This procedure seems to be most distressing for thy subject," Luna observed needlessly. The horrible noise merely caused her to cringe, which was still more response than the power-armored spectators gave.

"Good. I was afraid he might find the intense pain of this ritual pleasurable. You can never tell with Slaaneshi scum," Gaela replied.

"Jusht a little more..." Solon said eagerly, his displays running wild as the outer skin of the sacrifice started to burn away into flakes of ash.

"Oh, blast!" Serith said suddenly, his chanting cutting off and his arms falling to his sides. "The circle! The pink one scuffed the circle!"

Fennin looked up, his eyes wide. The human was all but gone now, replaced by an impossibly posed, six-limbed beast covered in rubbery muscle sinew and blade-edged bone spikes.

And then it leapt for him, completely ignoring the remaining runes on the floor as it stretched out its foot-long talons to shred apart the engineer's body.

Fennin glimpsed an azure flash before he was knocked onto his back by a wave of force. He squeezed his eyes shut, fully expecting to be shredded into bloody strips, but after a few seconds his terror-induced paralysis passed and he cracked open his eyes.

The daemon was plastered against the wall, twitching as motes of blue light floated up off of it. Luna was walking up to it, her horn glowing brightly.

The small shadow cast by the daemon suddenly stretched out underneath it, and then tendrils of darkness coiled up and wrapped around the creature's limbs while it snarled and thrashed. Within the next few seconds, the Warpspawn was restrained against the floor and wall.

"Good shot, Princesh," Solon said as he walked over to the snarling monster.

Fennin looked over at the humans and post-humans in the room with him. Gaela and Serith were still standing in the same places as before, as if they were waiting, and Solon had only just started moving.

"Were the rest of you seriously going to just stand there and watch while that thing killed me?" Fennin demanded as he stood up.

"No, not at all," Serith answered breezily, "we were going to wait until it was fully occupied killing you, and then attack it while it was diverted."

"A most dangerous custom, is it not?" Luna asked as Solon seized the daemon with his primary servo claw. "The merest misplaced hoof may render the entire affair a fatal calamity."

"No shpeciesh hash ever mashtered fire without playing with it firsht," Solon said, lifting the thrashing daemon up higher, "beshidesh, thish little guy ishn't all that dangeroush."

"Rushul vehnlaal! Krui ffrehlmeh shul!" the daemon howled, its talons screeching against Solon's armor plating as he carried it toward a large vat on the other side of the hall.

Luna followed after him, and she could see that the vat, which stood as tall as a normal human, seemed to be filled with some sort of liquid metal.

Solon plunged the daemon into the vessel, and its senseless screeching was soon drowned in the fluid.

"Gaela, prepare the veshel," Solon commanded while he held the daemon down. An emitter built above the vat suddenly discharged a stream of electricity into the pool of quicksilver, and the fluid started to bubble and churn even more.

Serith once again chanted something incoherent while he walked a circuit around the processing vat, his hands and visor lenses blazing with Warpflame. Behind Solon, Gaela was handling a frisbee-shaped disc run over with circuits and acid-etched runes.

"Thanks for keeping that thing off me, by the way," Fennin mumbled as he walked up beside Luna to watch the utterly bizarre forging process.

"Think nothing of it," the alicorn answered airily, "thy people hath inflicted great harm upon mine, but We would yet see thee live to correct thy mistakes." She paused, casting a sidelong glance at the alien. "Or, at least, perish by the Orks that thou hast summoned here." Tiberius seemed to snicker to himself as he rested in Luna's mane.

Fennin didn't reply to her. He appreciated the sentiment, but he didn't really consider the successful completion of his mission a 'mistake'.

"Perfect," Solon breathed softly as he pulled the daemon out of the vat.

At least, Luna and Fennin assumed it was the daemon, if only because it was still held in the same servo claw as before. It looked like a basketball-sized orb of metallic sludge, and it oozed long ropes of squirming mercury as Solon carried it onto a small iron dais.

Next to the dais was a sledgehammer easily the size of a man, and Solon took up the hammer in his flesh-arm as he deposited the squirming daemon-mass onto the raised surface.

"From flesh, to terror, to iron. Blood, metal, and shpirit become one, and are reborn." Solon raised the hammer over his head. "Be calm, daemon. You will get to kill again."

The hammer descended.

****

Ferrous Dominus - sector 6 mess hall, the next morning

Twilight swallowed a spoonful of nutrient gel as her eyes scanned over the dataslate in front of her, gulping down the tasteless sludge before she pushed the empty can aside.

"Okay... I think this is the full break-down," she began, glancing over at the other two dataslates laying in the middle of the table. "There are now roughly three hundred Fire Caste Tau taking up garrison in Ferrous Dominus, almost all of them light infantry and transport drivers. They're keeping the heavy Tau units at Black Point, which holds a garrison of about six hundred, including almost all of their battlesuit squadrons and attack vehicles. This is probably because the more advanced weapons require specialized supplies and maintenance, which Black Point is already set up for. And also because the Iron Warriors don't want to invite too much firepower into the fortress too soon."

Twilight looked up from her dataslate.

Fluttershy paid polite attention as the servo arm mounted on her chest armor stirred some sugar into her tea.

Pinkie Pie was nodding rapidly, although her eyes seemed somewhat vacant and unfocused.

Spike ignored her completely, rapidly devouring a bowl of crystals.

Daniels nodded thoughtfully. "It makes sense. That doesn't include the Kroot, though, does it?"

Twilight was happy that at least SOMEONE seemed to care about this, although she would have been happier if it had been someone from her squadron. Granted, only two other ponies from that group were present, but still.

"No, it doesn't. Nor does it include the Earth Caste Tau," Twilight continued, "they've moved in a lot of the Tau scientists and engineers here after sending most of the freed Air Caste slaves back to Black Point. Ostensibly this is to help ramp up production and integrate new weapons into the 38th Company, but..."

"But it's pretty convenient that we have a bunch of helpless grays close at hand in case the Fire Warriors get uppity," Daniels finished.

"Uh... well, I was going to phrase it in such a way that it didn't sound like we were using them as hostages," the purple pony mumbled, "but yes, it's a good safeguard." Then she scowled. "Still, another part of the deal was letting the Tau keep the Warp beacon active until the Nethalican is finished and they can be sure the Orks have had time to get close."

"What difference does that make at this point?" Daniels asked between bites of his breakfast. "Even if they turned the beacon off now, there are more than enough greenskins headed our way to wreck this world."

Twilight frowned as she levitated her empty ration tin away and dropped it into a scrap receptacle. "I don't really like the prospect of the Tau's project succeeding."

She turned her head toward a table off in the corner of the room. More than twenty Fire Warriors were crammed together on the benches, isolating themselves from the rest of the diners. They were speaking in hushed tones as they ate, although nobody else in the building spoke their language.

"And why's that? You want the Orks to destroy the Tau?" Daniels asked. He wasn't terribly surprised to hear that sentiment from a pony, although he didn't quite expect it from Twilight.

"No, not really," Twilight said after a pause, "but I can't help but wonder how many other planets are being used as stepping-stones to lure this fleet. Planets like ours. Sacrificed to save their empire."

The mercenary snorted. "I'm sure you can get all the morbid details if you ask around."

The front doors to the mess hall slid open, and Twilight looked up as she heard a familiar voice shouting angrily.

"You better back off, chump!" Rainbow Dash snapped, her shuriken catapult aimed up at a Kroot warrior as they entered more or less at the same time. "Do you know who I am? I'm RAINBOW DASH! I take down PLANES for fun, jerk!"

A few more Kroot walked in behind their companion, and the half-dozen mercenaries chuckled and mumbled to each other in their native language. The one staring at Rainbow Dash snapped his beak eagerly, like he was chewing on something. Then he turned around and headed toward the line for food, laughing the whole way.

Rainbow was wearing her powered armor, but her helmet was disengaged, allowing them all to see the irritated scowl on her face as she approached.

"Bucking Carnivores," Rainbow growled as she hopped up onto the bench next to Fluttershy with a heavy clanging noise, "I swear I can feel them undressing me with their eyes."

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"... You know, so that they can eat me," Rainbow clarified, "with their eyes. Er, minds? Whatever, not important!"

The pegasus suddenly slammed a hoof against the table, scowling even deeper. "You guys will never guess who I ran into this morning!"

"Mister Fennin?" Fluttershy guessed.

"Ooh! Ooh! That Fireblade girl AJ keeps beating up!" Pinkie Pie cheered, bouncing up and down. Her chain and silver bolt "medals" bounced along with her, rattling noisily.

"It's not Shas'o Voidsong, is it?" Twilight asked, looking fearful. "Nothing in the agreement suggests that we have to restore her, but it's possible the Iron Warriors wanted her to work for them, too!"

Rainbow Dash was silent for several seconds as her friends waited for her to reveal the source of her ire.

"Wow, uh... all of those guesses kind of make the ACTUAL answer look pretty lame," she admitted, "I was just checking on the patrol teams that they're hooking that lasgun harness onto, and it turns out that Lightning Dust joined the Company a few days ago. She was gearing up with a bunch of other pegasi down there!"

There was no immediate response as each of her friends stared at the ceiling, frowning.

"... None of you remember who Lightning Dust is, do you?" Rainbow deadpanned.

"Sorry," Fluttershy squeaked, ducking her head down into her gorget.

"She sounds pretty C-list to me," Pinkie Pie mumbled, squinting, "was she an antagonist or a background character?"

Rainbow Dash didn't really understand Pinkie's question, so she ignored it. "Whatever. Anyway, I asked her what she was doing here and she gave me this." Rainbow bit onto a scrap of paper that was wedged between her gorget and her shoulder pad, and then spat it onto the table.

Twilight seized the paper with her magic, instantly intrigued now that the matter at hand involved reading.

"Is this... a recruitment brochure?" The front of the glossy document had a few Company soldiers staring and pointing at the reader, while below it there was a parade of pony-shaped silhouettes. She opened it up, and then started reading the interior aloud.

"Looking for adventure? Want to meet exotic new people and then murder them with laser beams? Have a dark past or antagonistic nature that your idyllic and relentlessly benevolent society refuses to accommodate? Join the 38th Company today, and defend your world!"

Twilight's eyes tracked over to the other half of the folded paper. "Free room and board available. Unpaid, ongoing testing and training course mandatory for all recruits. Redemption NOT required."

Then she looked up. "Huh."

"Well, that's very understanding of them," Fluttershy ventured, "I mean, most ponies that commit crimes and refuse to reform don't have a lot of options for jobs. Especially when our career is usually based on our cutie mark anyway."

"So this doesn't bother anypony else?" Rainbow Dash grunted, sneaking herself a bite of Fluttershy's breakfast (which appeared to be stale biscuits and little else). "I mean, don't you think our standards should be a little higher than this?"

"Standards for what, exactly?" Daniels asked with a shrug. "Long as they can follow orders, there's always room for another warm body between us and the enemy."

"And it really shouldn't come as a surprise by now," Twilight said as she tucked the brochure away in her armor, "the 38th Company hired Trixie and conscripted Prince Blueblood. Obviously they don't have a problem working with less-than-reputable ponies. And that's fine, I guess."

"Well, I don't like it," Rainbow Dash groused, "who knows what kind of clowns we might end up with?"

****

Ferrous Dominus - Security perimeter

Two pale yellow unicorns with red and white manes stood outside the fortress gates, staring up at the gun towers. They were wearing striped shirts with bow ties and straw hats, and were standing in front of a large mechanical contraption of some sort that was being eyed suspiciously by the Iron Warriors at the barricades.

"... Next town, Flim?"

"Next town, Flam."

****

"I mean, we're the best, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, slamming an armored hoof on the table and causing everything on it to jump and rattle. "We should only get the cream of the crop! Like the Wonderbolts, rather than the Wonderbolt wash-outs!"

"I thought we did have them," Pinkie mumbled, turning her head to one side.

"Nah. Just for one mission," Rainbow replied, "they went back to Cloudsdale after the party. Apparently had to drag Fleetfoot off kicking and screaming too, from what I heard."

"I don't know if you can call us 'the best'," Daniels remarked, "we're space pirates, Dash. Not exactly the highest order of humanity, and we told you about the quality of Space Marines we end up with. I think we should be happy we're getting more help at all."

Rainbow Dash made a frustrated noise, turning away from the human. "Whatever. I need to eat something," then she frowned, "where's AJ? Is she done with breakfast already?"

"She and Mac headed home for a few days," Daniels answered.

Twilight continued. "The Canterlot Institute of Equestrian History started moving things off of her farm, so Applejack wanted to help and supervise things."

"And pick up the check," Daniels finished.

****

Canterlot City

"... Eleven pulse rifles, six pulse carbines, thirty-two battery magazines, nine photon grenades..."

Applejack continued reading down the list of alien artifacts in front of a pair of bespectacled unicorns, rattling off the devices that had been piled up in the yard.

The unicorns - two senior members of the Canterlot Institute of Equestrian History's board, evidently - were supposed to be rooting through the artifacts as she listed them to make sure that the items were present, but couldn't quite bring themselves to take their eyes off the apple farmer. Or, rather, the suit of modified terminator armor that the farmer wore. It was easily as interesting as anything in the mound of recovered artifacts behind them; all the more so because it was clearly functional and designed specifically for equine use, and comfortable enough that Applejack had worn it around Canterlot without hesitation.

"... one rhino hull. Or what's left of it, anyhow. Same with the gunships and transports. We brought what would fit on the train, but some of the Tau vehicles are still intact and too big. Miss Duster had us bring 'em to the Ponyville train station and leave 'em there, but from here on out they're yers."

Applejack waited a few seconds for a response, and one of the unicorns belatedly stopped staring at her gravity lash to reply.

"Yes, quite. It won't be a problem," he stammered, "we're storing the larger artifacts in our Manehattan facility, and in fact we're in negotiations to commission another museum there based on our current conflict with the Orks." He paused. "Contingent on our actually SURVIVING that conflict, of course."

Applejack chuckled as she leaned back, her armor suit whirring and creaking from the movement. "Yeah, well, we're doin' the best we can, sugarcube."

A heavy grinding noise came from behind her as Big Macintosh hauled more wreckage from the train up to the yard. He was also wearing his power armor, and the suit visibly strained along with the stallion as he towed the rhino and gunship wrecks behind him on wheeled platforms. Next to him were numerous unicorns magically carrying labeled body bags, and none could resist the occasional impressed glance over at the pony hauling hundreds of times as much weight as they were.

"And there're the bodies," Applejack said with a mild grimace, "not sure what ya wanna do with 'em, but yer welcome to 'em."

"Fantastic, Miss Apple," said the other director, an elderly unicorn mare, "and may I say that you have been an extraordinary help in our mission to preserve and record the tumultuous events of the present day for future generations."

Applejack snorted. "Hay with that; thank y'all fer takin' this stuff off mah land an' actually payin' fer it. There's too much history what been showin' up on Apple property these days, and most of it is armed."

"From what we've heard of your circumstances, things have certainly been hard for you," the other director agreed.

"Yeah, a little," Applejack mumbled, looking behind her as another unicorn approached them.

Relic Duster practically pranced through the yard while levitating a large, wire-mesh cage in front of her. Inside the cage was a daemon wasp, and the mutated insect thrashed and buzzed angrily as its prison was magically carried along toward the Institute building.

"You are going STRAIGHT into my collection!" Relic said gleefully as she passed by the other ponies. "But I don't think any of my pins are big enough... maybe a railroad spike? Ooh! A knitting needle! That would be PERFECT! I'll get you your own personal case and everything! Wait, what will I label you? Do I get to come up with the name? I hope I do! That would be so great YOU HAVE NO IDEA!"

The two directors watched uneasily as their associate entered the building with the insectoid monster, and the stallion raised an eyebrow at Applejack as he turned his head back around.

"So, what exactly was-"

"No questions, please," Applejack said seriously, "Ah'm just here to drop off yer stuff and collect. Don't want things gettin' complicated."

"Ah, of course," the mare said as she levitated a checkbook and pen in front of her and started writing.

"I don't suppose there's a number we could come up with to convince you to part with your... personal affects?" the stallion murmured, gesturing to Applejack.

The farmer blinked, and then she smirked and pounded an armored hoof against her chest plate.

"'Fraid not, sugarcube. This thing's mighty important to me. Also, ya know, Ah need it fer fightin'. Still a lot of Orks to put down 'fore we can wrap up this next war."

"A pity. Well, nonetheless, we'll be in touch, Miss Apple," the stallion said as Applejack's check was levitated over to her, "since you seem to be in a... unique position in dealing with and collecting intergalactic refuse, keep in mind that the Canterlot Institute of Equestrian History is always happy to acquire new exhibits."

"Normally we'd be limiting our acquisitions to those artifacts that specifically have to do with EQUESTRIAN history," the mare interjected, pausing for effect, "but I'm sure you understand that there is always 'additional interest' in alien equipment and high technology."

Applejack chuckled before biting the check out of the air. "Ah'll keep that in mind. See y'all later, folks."

Applejack joined her brother, grinning widely around the slip of paper in her mouth.

"All set, Mac! Ya got a safe place to stash this?"

Big Mac's armor hissed as the frontal seals cracked open, and his armor plating dropped down like the door of an oven, revealing his heavily augmented chest.

His chest plate popped open with a click, and Applejack stuck the check inside the cluster of artificial organs. "Well, ain't that nifty!" she laughed, oblivious to the bug-eyed stares that were coming from almost every other pony around.

Macintosh was more aware of the attention, and he quickly closed his torso access panel and his armor before heading down the street with his sister.

"Well, the farm's still in a mighty bad way, but at least Bloom and Granny'll be okay," Applejack mused as they headed to the bank, "barring any more aliens and daemonic monsters, anyway."

"Eeyup."

"Still, there's a lot to do, and Ah've got mah obligations to the fleet," Applejack said, nudging over and bumping into Big Mac. The impact made a heavy scraping noise, alerting those few ponies that had somehow missed the two massive, armored forms lumbering down the street. They joined everypony else in staring at the Apple siblings, while those directly ahead clambered to get out of the way first.

"Yer gonna have a lot on yer plate puttin' the farm back together, Mac. Ah'll see about comin' down when Ah can, but ya know that fightin' Orks comes first."

"Eeyup," Macintosh confirmed, before adding, "an' Ah'll be joinin' ya on the field when more of 'em show up."

Applejack frowned. "Mac, ya can't! Somepony needs to rebuild the farm."

"Fightin' Orks comes first," Mac repeated his sister's words to him, "ya let me worry 'bout the farm, AJ. But Ah ain't sittin' out the war."

"Nopony could accuse ya of that with them legs," Applejack drawled.

She would have continued speaking, but a crimson light on her gorget started blinking. The two Apples came to a stop.

"Hold on, lemme check this out," the orange mare mumbled, engaging her helmet. The upper plating moved forward over her head and slid her visor into place, and the lower component locked in over it. "Ah turned this thing back on after Twilight kicked up a fuss about it. Don' wanna get left in the dark again."

Applejack found the Company alert among the icons that started swimming over her Heads-Up Display and opened it up. Big Mac waited patiently for her, though he was acutely aware that other ponies and even a few humans were now walking over to form a circle around them and stare. Equines in power armor were no longer so rare that most ponies were shocked by the sight, but seeing two of them stomping through downtown Canterlot was still quite a novelty.

"Consarn it," Applejack grunted. Then she started walking again. "Come on, Mac. Let's get a move on. Looks like we're gonna hafta cut this trip short." She was mildly perturbed to see ponies forming a veritable wall in front of her, but since they quickly parted to let her through she decided to ignore them.

Big Mac followed silently, his gaze shifting upward toward the sky. Applejack saw the gesture and answered his unspoken question.

"Four Ork ships. Showed up pretty close. Headed straight fer us, naturally. They give 'em twenty hours 'fore they make orbit." She sighed. "There goes mah weekend."

Big Mac chuckled deeply. "Eeyup."

****

Ferrous Dominus - Solon's Forge

"The bond between daemon plate and itsh wearer ish... different from that pertaining to other wargear."

The constant grind of twisting servos and crackling welders filled the air as a dozen different machines worked at the same time. Solon stood off to the side, his attention focused on etching something into a long plate of blue crystal.

"Armor ish not jusht a barrier between you and the foe. It ish much more than mere protection."

On the other side of the room, Serith murmured quietly in some unintelligible language as he held a hand over a work desk. On the desk was a small object about the size of a soup bowl. Most of the exterior was covered in tiny etched runes and circuits, but the face of the device bore the Legion's Iron Skull colored in beaten gold.

"Armor ish the face you show to the enemy. It ish the lasht thing your victimsh shee before they depart thish life. It ish the image carried back to their homesh, to be dishcushed among the shurvivorsh, and deshcribed to their comradesh in hushed, fearful warningsh."

Beneath the clusters of machinery stood a four-legged mass of gunmetal and ebony. Luna stood with her head down and her legs locked stiff, letting the servo arms work around her even while constant pinpricks of pain needled her body.

"Daemon armor ish... yet more than that. It ish a living thing, an extenshion of your will ash well ash a shield for your flesh. It ish a shell that growsh and changesh ash you do, and consumesh the mindsh and shpiritsh of your enemiesh."

Solon chuckled as Serith approached with the completed daemon core.

"There are many waysh to turn men into monshtersh. Cult worship, witchcraft, mutation, apotheoshish... but thish hash alwaysh been my favorite. Lift your head, Princesh."

Luna did as instructed, feeling the grinding resistance of the layered plating over her neck. Her field of vision was a dim patch of red, and sound seemed to ring in her ears through the metal carapace covering her head.

There was a very conspicuous socket in the middle of Luna's chest plate, and Serith carefully moved the vessel into an upright position before moving it toward the hole.

The moment the daemon core touched the armor, a whip of bright red energy lashed out from the point of contact.

Luna flinched back clumsily, but Serith calmly held his own position.

"It resists," the Sorcerer chuckled, "it fears its new mistress. Fascinating..."

Luna didn't really know what to make of that. She supposed it was better for monsters to be scared of her than the other way around.

"The sheer pshionic power you poshesh ish rather... overwhelming, Princesh. The daemonic mind fearsh being shmothered," Solon explained, "unfortunately for our little friend here, we don't care. Sherith."

At the unspoken command, Serith pushed the core into the socket.

There were many more crimson sparks as it was slotted into place, but Luna remained still while the locks around the daemonic vessel were sealed.

Almost immediately, a rush of energy seemed to fill her. The armor's systems came on-line, and Luna felt an excited tremor run up her spine even as her new nerve sockets burned painfully.

She had been expecting some kind of communication from the daemon once the armor was active; a voice in her head, perhaps, a rush of foreign emotions, or maybe even some text on her visor. The reality was far more subtle. She could feel the creature around her, both in the physical and psychic sense, and could even feel the point at which its consciousness touched and interacted with her own. But that consciousness did not speak to her, much less try to worm its poisonous energies into her soul.

It was a little anticlimactic, honestly.

"All shyshtemsh are on-line. Vox and nooshpere nodesh eshtablished," Solon said as his hololiths tracked the armor's boot sequence.

Luna took a step forward, and her leg moved without delay or resistance. She took several more steps, and several hoses were tugged free of their ports, dropping down behind her and spraying cloudy vapor over the floor.

Luna's wings were already spread to fit into the flight pack housing, and she twisted her head to look at them. Great black sheaths of metal covered the bulk of the wings, giving way to plates of etched crystal vaguely shaped and positioned in such a way to resemble feathers. She tensed her wings, and the crystals flared blue as they carried her straight up a few feet. A moment later she dropped back down, falling onto the iron flooring with a mighty clang.

Luna concentrated, and her horn casing flashed before a reflective square appeared in front of her like a full-length mirror.

The daemon armor was colored in black and trimmed with gold, with the Iron Skull shining on her chest with its eyes blazing red. In stark contrast to the other suits of Centaur-pattern power armor, Luna's mane and tail flew freely behind her; her hair was for most intents and purposes ethereal, so she could let it out without compromising the armor seals.

"... Most satisfactory," Luna said as she turned her head to one side and then the other. The horn casing formed a black spire over her head run through with webs of bleeding red, and she could feel the magical energy around her with a level of sensitivity that she had never experienced before.

Then the alicorn turned her head toward Solon. "And our weapons?"

"Here," the Warsmith pointed to a set of heavy, shielded cabinets. "It wash not eashy to think of waysh to complement your conshiderable power," he admitted as he deactivated the locks, "there were only two obvioush improvementsh I could make to a category alpha pshyker. One wash to give you a connection to a daemonic will in mechanical form."

Luna stepped up to the cabinets, an eyebrow arched behind her helmet. "And the other improvement?" Luna asked.

"Handsh." Solon opened the containers, revealing a pair of large, black, mechanical gauntlets. They were slightly larger than Astartes power fists, and each one had a ruby lens set in the palm.

Luna reached out to the objects, pulling them out of the cabinets and toward herself.

"... Intriguing," she mumbled, noting how easily the heavy objects moved. Her telekinetic magic seeped into the objects rather than gripping them, and they levitated as she wished without any sign of the usual magical aura. "Thou hast a remarkable talent for constructing arcana for one who professes to possess no magic," The fingers wiggled in the air with a thought, and she smiled.

"I've had long practice," Solon admitted, "now, ash for theshe gauntletsh-"

"We shalt refer to them as the Iron Gage," Luna declared, clenching both gauntlets into fists as she turned toward Serith, "with these weapons, We shalt deliver unto thee the necessary toll in blood to establish thy Dark Portal. The Ork menace WILL be stopped."

The two Iron Warriors shared a glance.

"Well, 'Iron Gage' ishn't bad," Solon admitted, "I wash afraid you'd call them 'Luglovesh' or shomething."

Serith bowed to the alicorn, his visor glittering. "I eagerly await your... contributions, dear Princess."

"Aye! There will be many foes to vanquish!" Luna barked. Then she looked down at her leg armor. "So, how doth one remove the plate once battle is complete?"

Solon and Serith didn't answer right away.

Then Serith looked over at the Warsmith. "You didn't tell her?"

Solon hesitated. "I, uh... I thought she knew. I thought EVERYONE knew."

Luna blinked. "Knew what? What hath We not been told?"

"The armor..." Solon began, feeling rather embarrassed that he had forgotten to mention this before, "... doeshn't really come off. Ever. The helmet can be withdrawn, but the resht of the plating ish a permanent fixture upon the body."

"Over time the carapace will actually bond with your flesh, strengthening it further," Serith explained, "such as it is with all those who bear daemon armor."

Luna didn't like the sound of that, and found herself rather incredulous at the idea.

"Art thou serious? Such an article would be a gross impediment to thy everyday life!" she complained.

"Chaosh Shpace Marinesh don't have much of an 'everyday life'," Solon confessed, "anyway, what'sh done ish done. You won't be taking that armor off."

Luna's horn started to glow, and Solon took a cautious step back as the pale blue light washed over her.

Then Luna's daemon armor vanished, along with the Iron Gage, leaving her in her usual black collar and silver shoes.

"Ah much better," the alicorn said approvingly, flexing her wings and giving them an experimental flap, "the dimensional wardrobe spell is quite a convoluted and grossly unnecessary enchantment, but these circumstances suit it perfectly."

"... Well, that changesh everything," Solon mumbled, "I shupposhe if you actually CAN remove the armor and do sho frequently, then it probably won't form a dermal bond."

"What an... unconventional psychic power," Serith noted. He could see that Luna's collar, which was normally branded with a crescent moon, bore the Iron Skull instead. Perhaps the daemon armor was actually contained in the item now?

Luna smirked up at Solon. "While thy creations art most appreciated, We hast no wish to eternally seal ourselves inside one of them."

The Princess's horn flared again, and the armor reappeared in a wave of blue light.

"We shalt require practice, of course," Luna said as the Iron Gage plucked a piece of scrap metal off the floor and held it up, "We hope thy schedule for this evening permits thee rest, Warsmith. Thou hast earned it."

"We'll be quite bushy tonight, I'm afraid," Solon said as he remotely activated Luna's visor. She blinked in surprise as her display was replaced by a diagram of the solar system, complete with a new set of ugly red indicators.

"More Orks," Serith noted, "more war. More blood. More... power."

"Aye. Let them come," Luna growled. One of the gauntlets closed into a fist, crushing the scrap metal it held as easily as paper. A second later its power field activated, and a shock of blue energy flashed around the Iron Gage, atomizing the metal. "No matter how many arrive seeking death and plunder, the alien fiends shalt NOT overcome us! Equestria WILL prevail!"

****

Epilogue

"Look, Boss, look! Mo' ships! Da boyz is heah!"

"All roight! Now we'z gonna get stuck in again, yeah? Time fer anudder scrap!"

"Mo' ships, mo' fightin', mo' lootin'!"

"Shut it, ya grot-lovin' idjits! Lemme take a look...... Feh. Dey ain't gonna last long."

"Wuzzat, Boss Coggz?"

"We ain't goin' nowheres. Dere ain't enuff boyz yet ta break da spikies, and we ain't done wif da supa-hevvies. Dem udda Orks is gonna get stomped, an' I don' wanna be dere wit' 'em."

"Okay, den... uh... ya wanna talk to 'em, den? Tell 'em wot's goin' on heah?"

"Shut yer gob, ya git. We stay heah, an' we lay low. Dere's a lot mo' boyz comin' 'round soonah or laytah. Now GET BACK TA WORK!!"

Author's Note:

After gradually bumping up the bloodiness and violence over the course of the book, I finally decided that the daemon summoning has officially crossed the line into gore territory and earned this story its warning tag.
For reasons I cannot imagine, this chapter was super hard to write. I really don't know why. Maybe because I was just trying to wrap up the most immediate loose ends so I could conclude the book. But for some reason that made my progress worse rather than better. I totally meant to have this chapter out by Christmas.
Oh well. Book 5 debuting in January!

Norris Delgan's backstory chapter takes place after this one, during the timeskip between Books 4 and 5.

Comments

[crumbydev]

Hi!

I made an account just to save I love this story and I really really appreciate the effort you've put into it these 600,000 words.
Definitely the best longest running humor fanfic I've ever read!

I have some specific critiques here and there but I'll bring it up later :-)

[SFaccountant]

5428936
Such flattery!
Are we really up to 600,000 already? Yeesh, it's only been a year.

[Heitomos]

Another rather wonderful chapter! It made me laugh quite a bit, and I've taken a real shining to the pitch black humor used. This book has been wonderful, and I eagerly await seeing the new one in Janurary!

The sudden recruitment of a lot of faceless ponies has me a little worried...

On the other hand, dual levitated power fists for Luna? That's just awesome.

REALLY curious to see where this goes. I haven't been this invested in a story in ages.

[Troscus]

Aces.

[Hey its that Pony]

The descriptions you handed out were really great. Especially the actual summoning.
I guess we might assume the Daemon summoned isn't of any particular affiliate of the Big Four?

Looking forward to book 5 in January. Hope you had a Good Holiday!

[Scruffy]

Huh. I never thought about it but I guess Celestia and Luna would be Alpha Plus psykers.
0_0 eep

[Hawk24731]

I love you. You're great.
Can't wait for book five.

[Aziraphael]

Words can not describe how much I want to see what Luna can do with her new armor. She was powerful enough already, but now that she has psychoactive armor that will learn and grow the more she kills, she's going to be STUPIDLY powerful before too long. Even without daemon armor she racked up a kill count that put most of the other Iron Warriors to shame. There's a very good reason the daemon is scared of her. Even don't bind yourself to a creature with the power to move suns who has spent multiple lifetimes wandering the worst nightmares of an entire race without a healthy dose of caution.

[SFaccountant]

5432773
Why does that surprise you? Blanks are incredibly rare, even in a galaxy with a billion-trillion humans. There's no particular reason why the 38th Company would want one, and ponykind isn't likely to be subject to the pariah gene.

[GBscientist]

This chapter isn't quite as funny or action-packed as some of the others, but I liked it none-the-less. My favourite bits were the interaction between the Ponies and the freed Tau, Applejack's meeting with the historians (particularly Dusty's new insect specimen), Luna's new armour and the way she gets in and out of it, and the Flim Flam brothers deciding to skip Ferrous Dominous.

[SFaccountant]

5459342
They're going to SPAAAAAAAAAACE!!!
... Eventually, I mean.
And Twilight's unit is officially called Equinought Squadron, from now on.

[Aatxe360]

5459407

Ah, Pinkie-dog.

It's odd. They are clearly different and changing, yet still canonically identifiable. You have a masterful touch with these two crossovers. Maybe with the caveat of calling it "comedy" we've been disarmed in taking it too seriously. Maybe more stories should do this.

And I definitely would like to see more daemon summoning. I wonder how the Equinought Squadron would react to being witness to one?

Or maybe being part of one? The chills!

So much naivete from the Equestrians, it's interesting to see another's perspective on them. It gives food for thought.

I eagerly await the next installment.

[DracoDarastrix]

Okay I will be honest this is your best work so far! I found so far book 1 your best but book 2 and 3 although funny in their own right seemed not to have the same level of awesome funniness then book 1 had. But then this book 4... if this had to be described about how funny it was then I would say it would say the funniness was over 9000!

I laughed at the jokes both from the mlp and 40k. I'm also starting to suspect that Pinky is secretly a devote to Slaanesh. Slaanesh is god of excess which also include art, performances, exhibitions, theatre and of course parties. But enough said about my suspicions. Back to the humour.

1st off all the Orks... well when considering humour there really isn't a better faction to chose from. I can't wait till you introduce the shock attack gun..... or dreadfully let pinky get her hooves on one. There where so many funny moments if I had to pick which ones I like the most then I would say their approach on cloudsdale, their reaction to Trixie magic act and taking Hett as a pet. Yeah that really made me laugh so hard that my chest still hurts.

I also laughed at your subtle jokes such a Twilight failed heroic intervention and the nobs response to it. I also liked Hett for the subtle hints of his love for taffy. Actually the entire pinkie episode was hilarious, though he had not much screen time Tellis was also hilarious from his apology to his interaction with wonderbolts and of course the Ork invading cloudsdale scene.

Though some jokes were really subtle or even total obscured that you needed a very in deep knowledge of the 40k tabletop game and video games to spot them. Such as the name Relic Duster which of course is your subtle joke about the game designer company "Relic" the makers of the dawn of war series. People whom never played the game would not see that hidden joke.

Luna I had mixed feelings, her interaction with Rainbowdash and Solon was funny but somehow her Gung Ho on the Orc camp wasn't so entertaining. I actually enjoyed it more when she had spectators other then the Orks because of their reaction to Luna's actions. Orks are simple to simple minded to have really funny verbal response against a ponified Rambo/Terminator. Orks response are best reserved against Foes whom aren't as overpowered as Luna. For example against Twilight the responses actually worked. Also those between boss Coggz verbal response against Pinky Pie was better then that against Luna. Luna constantly tries to apply fear of death against a Race that we know has no fear from dying. Therefore all her verbal actions fell kinda pointless from the moment she was fighting Solo.

Now to the interaction between others beside Orks. I loved Relic Duster from her obsession from collecting history to the point that she is going to add a demon wasp to her bug collection. I hope to see more of her and interaction with Applejack. 2nd was Trixie although minor role it was great to see that she's still herself and how you showed in subtle ways that she's indeed deep inside a kind person layered behind all that boasting and bragging personality. The way she uplifted Twilight mood during the selection as well simple throwing that bucket of water over Fleur were indeed good ways to portray her. Again brilliant way to keep her character. I suspect you must have read the comics because the TV show really only gave us her stage persona and her alicorn possessed persona. With very little screen time the real Trixie. Not to mention Big Macnitosh as you give us references to comic Issue #9 and #10 about his interactions with both princess Luna and Wonderbolt Fleet hoof during the summer wrap. Brilliantly portraying of both Mac and Trixie btw.

Of the main 6 Twilight, Pinky stole the show on the battlefield while Rarity and Applejack were best off the battlefield with the interaction between various persons. Both Fluttershy and Rainbowdash were a bit under shadowed even if the latter had the 1st real combat action and a wealthy amount of time with interaction with various characters from the wonderbolts to Luna nothing really funny or amazing stood out. With exception that she successfully annoyed Solon so much that she got power armour and her coolness rating. I'm actually curious what the coolness rating of each power armoured pony plus the main cast of the iron warriors themselves have. (You could put the inside joke that Trixie will have the highest rating when she uses her weapon summoning magic trick and her denial of believing it.)

I also constantly snickered at all the failed attempts of Twilight trying to get her weapon being called the Twi-blade. And personally I like the name harmonizer even better. The joke about the squad name was a bit meh from Rainbow to Applesquad. And really the final name is also about meh. I think personally it would have been funny if they would have ended up with the name M6 (Pinky should have suggested it then.) You know the inside joke we bronnies call them the Main 6 from the TV show.

So overall truly your best work so far, can't wait if you can top it in the following book but time will tell. Also about your blog might I suggest you do a trilogy with each faction? Book 1 to 3 should be Tau war, Book 4 to 6 about the Orks. That way you can truly expand and give each book a different stage. For the orks is book 4 is the 1st encounter, book 5 will be the attrition that each wave brings and how that reflects on the ponies psych of constant warfare, and finally book 6 will be the full waagh.

P.S. About 40k cannon lore. Although in the game mechanics we use level 1 to 4 to describe a psyker strength, both the imperial and their chaos counterparts use a different system. Called assignments click on the link below for more info. Luna would be Alpha Plus according to those rankings.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Assignment

[SFaccountant]

5526373
I learned to do crossovers during a full decade of writing Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. It lends itself toward the genre.
It also helps that one universe's cast is all OC's, so no one can really challenge me on characterization on that front.

5536962
Actually, Relic Duster's name is not a reference to the company Relic. It's just a reference to her job, like most pony names. She finds and cleans historical relics. Totally innocent.
I didn't know that the in-universe scale for psykers had so many tiers... enough to actually be useful. Methinks I'll have to go back and change it, then. Which also means I'll have to figure out where, exactly, Twilight fits on the scale...

[Aatxe360]

5551833

I loved that anime, mostly for the jingles of the opening/closing and the very idea of identity at the young age I came across the series.

[Wingnut]

Well, this book is great and all, but I have just one question: what's with Pinkie stealing dreadnoughts by disposing of their pilots? I know she's been shown as a trigger-happy murderer, but she's also incredibly friendly towards the humans, and I don't really see her as casually assassinating the pilots to get the dreadnought (I know she technically didn't kill them, but the first one was heavily implied to have been killed by Blueblood soon after, and the second one is as good as dead anyway, what with the orks and all.)

[SFaccountant]

5865604
For this matter I claim Refuge in Audacity and Rule of Funny.
Pinkie does it because there's no feasible way for her to get a dreadnought shell besides chucking out their pilots and jacking their walkers. She gets away with it because, actually, that isn't feasible either.

That said, this has probably been the most "controversial" plot point so far in the story, which honestly surprises me. I would have thought that people would laugh off anything Pinkie did as long as it got awesome results, and I had no idea anybody would actually care about what happens to the pilots.

[Luminos Ebonspark]

5906070 Well, yeah i mostly stick with the emperor side, we dont put every marine we meet in a shell. :P
I think its just the incredible hate that i feel towards pinkie pie since i first met her, stil great story :X

[Wingnut]

5865681
I don't really care about the ludicrousness or the pilots too much (even though it's not my thing), it's just a bit surprising to see Pinkie act is such a coldhearted/calculative manner. Sure Pinkie is a pony-shaped Eldritch abomination and all, which doesn't shy away from fighting for her friends, but those two traits - cold calculation and betraying/lying to her friends and her "friends" go pretty much against her character.

[SFaccountant]

5928698
Fair enough. I admit that I don't really worry much whether Pinkie's actions are in character or not. As long as I like the joke, it doesn't even occur to me.
Oh well!

[Shoggoth]

So, rather late to the party on this; Just found out about this series a few days ago, and finally finished book 4.

I like it. It keeps a nice balance between the two settings, and despite its lighthearted tone, it manages to have moments that are actually rather tense from a 'what could happen next' standpoint. Trixie and Serith are hilarious together, Voidsong and Jerriha are awesome(even of one of them is stoned), and Solon is a piece of hilarity. His own nature works against him to amazing degrees. It's also interesting in how his general apathy to non immediate threats helped the story along early on.

I also like the implication, intentional or not, that the two factions are mutually corrupting each other. Under normal circumstances you would never see a Chaos force or Equestrians ally with each other. But Friendship is Magic is the Warp, no? Chaos as we know it isn't the natural state of things anyway, if one goes back in history far enough.

I wills say however that some of the characters sound decidedly off at times, with their speech mannerism's sounding more like they are from the US city streets than the Imperium of Man. Tellis is the main offender, with Fennin being a close second. Admittedly, Tellis is insane and Fennin is fluent in an alien language, so they have excuses to a degree, but maybe in future works(obviously past book 5), you could be more careful with that if only for new parties. A decidedly oddball Chaos force having members with uncommon/unheardof(for 40K as a whole) accents and speech mannerism's is one thing, but if it's a consistent trend across the galaxy, it begins to be a tad jarring.

Another couple of things I will note are Pinkie being used as a plot device at times rather than a character(Use such antics as a means to an end, like in the show. Not as an end, like is popular for the fandom. Her best moments in the series were when she was dealing with her issues and interacting as a person, after all, and not just tooling her way through like a plot device.), A bit of repetition with certain behavioral trends(Celestia hates chaos, we get it, let her work towards picking things up. In the show she's managed to keep a nation running for over a thousand years against quite a few foes. She would understand that there's a time when the limiters and restrictions and taboo seals have to go./everyone keeps failing diplomacy checks with people they are already reasonably friendly with/Main 6 and others aren't seeing things from the Tau's point of view while Chaos is, when the ponies are supposed to be the more diplomatic ones/ Gaela seems to backslide in book 4 personality wise at points to her original more stiff attitude/Equestrian military is useless.(I mean, they haven't even started shipping F5+ Tornadoes or razorhail hurricanes or whatnot from their nation covering Weather Factory yet? Have some of the guard actually be capable of getting things done instead of being redshirt gags. You managed it with even some non Named Tau, so why not the Equestrians?)

Of course, I'm only about to start book 5, so as far as I know, some of these might be known already. Not gamebreakers by any means, but certainly things to take into account for future works.

Oh, and as others have said, Pinkie jacking the Dreadnaught's really doesn't work. If, perhaps, she gained the first one because it was cored and the husk was left behind, that's one thing. Intentionally positioning an ally to be killed, and for another captured and still possibly killed so she could get a new toy? No. It just doesn't fit her character, especially when everyone else is written with some degree of character conflict over such things. She's treating allies like candy wrappers for the sake of a joke. So is she a character in the story, or a joke in the story?

Finally, and this might even be in the next book, why no Changelings? They would be hilarious in this story, especially if they were pressganged into working with the Main 6. Oh, and to my knowledge as of book 4, the EoH haven't been used yet. That's a good thing, especially if you reserve them as the thematic items they are(Actual-Counter-Doomsday Artifacts as opposed to merely powerful tools). Save those for a genuinely interesting opponent. Maybe even years down the line.

[SFaccountant]

6203216
Thank you for the review and critique.
Some of the things you mentioned do develop next book (Celestia takes a more active role in dealing with Chaos and the Orks, and the Company learns about the Weather Factory). Others don't.
Specifically, Pinkie Pie doesn't. As you and others have pointed out, I treat her as a joke, not a character. Her existence serves no purpose but to tie in a few more gags into any scene where I see fit to give her speaking lines, and her character doesn't "develop" so much as it just bounces inconsistently to whatever I want it to be in a given scene.

I recognize this, and I will apologize for it. But I won't stop, because I love doing it anyway.

[The Warmaster]

6260370
ah, I understand. I have mostly read Space Marine Based novels, with only small parts of the Imperial Guardsmen. The one that is most dominant in my mind is "frak" or something like that. They usually use it like how you would say, "oh shit" So basically "oh frak."
Then there was fug, or something. Pretty sure it means fuck. Those are the two I hear the most. Though, when I actually look it up on google, people are actually putting up stuff for it.

[Bugsydor]

I liked how Luna is the kind of pony that gives daemons nightmares.

Also, those recruitment brochures were priceless.

Gotta say: I'm into this series on a similar level to how I'm into the Dresden Files books. That is saying something.

[SFaccountant]

6391547
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the comments!

[katarjin]

I just have to say these stories are great, you seem to really know 40K and do a god job of explaining it so non 40k fans can understand. (I just love what you have done with the CMC.)

[Blewfire]

7957232 Thanks for sending me the link to the pictures. I am not very familiar with Warhammer 40K so these picture nice to fill and blanks I mite have had.

[SuperAvenger3]

If Luna could take off any type of armor with that spell, then why did she even ask how the Daemon armor was taken off?

[SFaccountant]

8160891
Well, the idea of an armor suit that could never be removed would be strange to her on its face.

[SFaccountant]

8170491

Honestly, it is sort of sad to see Pinkie Pie throw a party only to kill its attendees, targets being Orks notwithstanding.

I have been informed in the past that my presentation of Pinkie is unusually cruel.
But I tricked all those same people into liking an obnoxious serial killer, so I can't tell what I'm doing wrong

...While Rainbow Dash's portrayal in this has not been my favorite, she is still capable of making me laugh.

If I'm not making people laugh, then there's no reason for me to do this

8170575
The Great and Powerful Trixie happily accepts your recognition of her skill and wit.
pre11.deviantart.net/2232/th/pre/i/2016/310/c/8/trixie_button_by_rubyw32-danj7gv.png

[Dusk Raven]

"Uh, back-tracking a bit, here... you mentioned a prisoner exchange?" Twilight asked. "I wasn't aware that the Tau had many human prisoners of war."
"They don't, really. All they have ish the shlavesh they freed during their attack," Solon explained.

Weren't the Tau trying to arm those slaves? They might have been useful as additional infantry.

As intriguing as the parts were, however, what was undoubtedly more interesting was a thin, weak-looking woman leaning over the armor pieces. She had dry, wispy hair and pointed ears, and was shackled and chained to the dais. That was weird.

Ah, an Eldar, sort of a pleasant surprise. The Eldar are actually one of my favorite races (behind the Tyranids, so that should tell you something), although their arrogance is extremely irritating. I was musing earlier that the Eldar do the sort of thing the Tau did to the pony's planet, on a regular basis... but at least the Tau actually are somewhat remorseful about it. The Eldar would just see it as sacrificing inferior races to protect a superior one. Of course, they're my second favorite because they're probably the race most committed to fighting the more evil races such as Chaos. They're just assholes about it, and ironically they might have had more success if they didn't view other races with such disdain.

By the way, there are probably still a bunch of Eldar former slaves wandering around after the Tau dumped them out of the transports a few books ago, following the raid on Ferrous Dominus.

"there were only two obvioush improvementsh I could make to a category alpha pshyker. One wash to give you a connection to a daemonic will in mechanical form."

Hmm, in a discussion on one of the earlier books I thought you'd referred to her and Celestia as upper Betas. Though maybe that was Twilight. As I always felt Celestia and Luna were Alphas, myself, I have no problem with this designation.

And thus, thanks to the absurd amounts of time I've spent reading this story lately, book 4 is done! Onwards!

[theflammablefiredragon]

*looks at title*
Iron Hearts: Book 4
Iron Hearts 4
Hearts of Iron 4
I have a problem

[Eric Longtooth]

8986127
Ooooh, thanks mate!

[A Wild Magikarp]

9184250
And that is why Twilight gets best pony award for this story. She recognizes the threat, but has that hope, AS the Princess of Friendship, that she can change them for the better. Celestia wants them gone, or wiped out, which is a reasonable response. The rest of the ponies don’t see what the problem is, only recognizing them as friends, trying to accept them ‘faults’ and all. Twilight is the one trying to redeem them from their corrupt path.

[Daralyn]

You know it would be cool to have a spin-off to this series.
Imagine that after decades or even centuries of travel with Iron Warriors,Harmony got corrupted.
Twillight and Trixie become true Chaos Sorceresses and ovethrow Serith... Luna become Nightmare Moon-ish figure Equestria trully became the 38's recruiting world with Maybe Apple Bloom replacing Sliver as a full Nurgle veteran... so many posibilities

[Bahamuttone]

f your personal affects.

effects

[Notsae]

Considering Luna's powers, they should convert the entire moon into a massive daemonic fortress world which she could then pilot as if it were an actual ship without even requiring sublight engines. Her daemonic attack moon could serve purely as a defense for the planet if they can't or simply don't want to fit it with warp engines for long travel, but considering how fast she can move it on a whim and her enormous power, she may well be able to either keep up with warp travel by sheer ludicrous speed or just pull into the warp and continue piloting it as normal through either her own might or that of several thousand lesser psykers.

[Bahamuttone]

"Tiberius has arrived with the rest of your personal affects.

"I don't suppose there's a number we could come up with to convince you to part with your... personal affects?"

effects

[Sarraceno]

10715274
Right, didn't thought on that.... couple that with his aspect which is pretty much chaos Saitama...

[Wydril]

10387341
Hoping for this, or some weaponization of the moon. Since she's actually throwing it around instead of rotating the planet they're on, all kinds of possibilities open up. Plus the Orks did something similar to Terra, so it'd be karmic justice.

Still enjoying the story immensely!

[Popamile]

"... one rhino hull. Or what's left of it, anyhow. Same with the gunships and transports. We brought what would fit on the train, but some of the Tau vehicles are still intact and too big. Miss Duster had us bring 'em to the Ponyville train station and leave 'em there, but from here on out they're yers."

Did they also sell the Tau space ship? You know the one that's in a big crater where the orchard used to be. I remember in the negotiations they had that it was being offered separately from the rest of the Equipment.

[Popamile]

"That man is a Slaaneshi cultist, dear Princess," Serith answered with a grim chuckle, "from time to time we find a mercenary or menial has surrendered to temptation and dallied with powers expressly forbidden to the 38th Company. Such lapses in discipline are quickly culled before these indiscretions have a chance to spread among the weak-willed."

This has been bugging me for a while but is there a reason why they hate Slaaneshi specifically? I'd understand if the 38th was run by just Khorne worshipers but Nurgle and Tzeentch as well?

[SFaccountant]

11511412
They hate Slaanesh because the Emperor's Children tried to sacrifice the Iron Warriors' primarch to her.
Over time most of the Legion has gotten over it, but Solon loathes Slaanesh with an intensity at least equal to that of Loyalists and considers himself honorbound to slay Emperor's Children whenever he can.

[Popamile]

11511565
Thanks I was not aware of that bit of history. Nice to finally close the book on that mystery.

[Popamile]

11511565
Sorry one more question but don't the Iron Warriors serve Chaos Undivided rather than any one chaos god?

[SFaccountant]

11511641
As a Legion they are not aligned with any one Chaos God, but individual Iron Warriors have been known to serve a particular God. In Storm of Iron they had a Khorne Berserker squad, and I'm pretty sure the Warsmith was sworn to Tzeentch.
They tend to be skeptical of daemonic power that controls them rather than the other way around, though, so there are relatively few who really worship Chaos at all, and less still who take a Mark.

[TheBlackPony]

New idea!... the 38th never appears on centaur 3, the tau plan works, the orks storm the world, but instead of being obliterated, the ponies are forced to learn war to backup their magical might, and forged in the fires of cruel necessity, a new faction arrises in the galactic stage!

[SFaccountant]

11677006
How would ponies fight off an Ork WAAAAGH with no help or preparation? It seems to me they'd either be easily overrun or rely on magic to such a degree that ordinary warfare (weapon manufacturing, strategy, tactics) would seem like a complete waste of time.