Black Horizons

by SFaccountant

Sanctuary

Black Horizons
By SFaccountant

Chapter 7
Sanctuary

---

Harvest of Steel
Deck E-661 – Strategium Tertius

“The last pockets of resistance have been snuffed out. We’re allowing the enemy to set up defensive lines in the underhive, but I do not anticipate any further counter-attacks within the hive city. The leadership has been decapitated and the population properly terrified.”

General Harlin gave his report through a flickering holoscreen, tapping at a dataslate and occasionally mumbling to someone out of sight. Sliver loomed on the holoscreen above him, waiting silently, while Kaelith’s numerous glowing optics lit up the screen below. A larger holoscreen tallied the results of preliminary scans and compiled inventories, updating frequently as Scavurel teams on the ground marked material for capture and salvage.

“Situational: Material recovery is proceeding at 112% of average operating speed. Explanatory: Additional capacity was brought online to compensate for earlier delays. Analytic: Sub-optimal. Units will be more vulnerable to sabotage and error due to accelerated timetables,” Kaelith droned.

“You keep your crewss from committing error. I will protect them from ssabotage,” Sliver interjected. “I am rotating combat patrolss through the operational ssalvage ssitess and enhancing our guard within the city. The entrancess to the underhive are being thoroughly mined as we sspeak. You will ssee no internal interference.”

“What of external threats, Lord?” Harlin asked. “When we assaulted Xenith, there were several armored divisions redeployed to another region as a ruse. They may regroup and launch a counter-attack while we’re spread throughout the hive interior, perhaps bolstered by the other hive cities’ forces.”

“They may indeed. You will leave that prosspect to me, General,” Sliver replied.

“Projection: Allowing for the possibility of extant confounding factors, likelihood of operation success within optimal parameters is 83.19%,” Kaelith buzzed.

“Excellent,” Solon announced, turning to a screen that showed the fleet’s formation. “I am currently organizing the material onboarding and our eventual withdrawal plan. When the firsht Shcavurel-“

The door to the strategium hissed and slid open, and Solon halted. He glanced behind him and saw that there were a pair of Iron Warriors striding purposefully into the room.

“… Ish shomething the matter?” the Warsmith asked. Neither of the Chaos Space Marines were officers, so he wasn’t sure why they would be interrupting his conference when any important news should have been transmitted to him directly.

Solon got his answer when the Iron Warriors parted. “This little one demanded to speak to you, Warsmith,” grunted one of the soldiers. “Should we return later?”

Spike stood at the Iron Warriors’ feet, smiling anxiously with a scroll of parchment clutched between his claws. He waved awkwardly at the armored behemoth and then pointed to the scroll he was holding.

“It sheemsh we have a report from the expedition shquad,” Solon announced, swiveling back to the holoscreens. “You all have your objectivesh; shee to them. Thish raid ish almosht complete.”

“Of course, Warsmith. By your leave,” Harlin bowed, and then his screen winked off.

“Mission update concluded; terminating uplink,” Kaelith hissed before his screen also disappeared.

Spike approached while the other Iron Warriors turned around and left. Solon beckoned him toward the strategium projector podium.

“Now then, what do we have from Shparkle? Good newsh, I hope?” the Warsmith asked.

“Not good news,” Spike admitted. “In fact, pretty bad news. Real bad.”

“Did Missh Rarity die?” Solon asked immediately.

“NO!” Spike snapped, green flame puffing from his nostrils, “But it’s not looking good, and they need you to send a new transport to go get them!” He wagged the scroll at the hulking cyborg sternly, as if he might swat Solon with it.

“A new transhport? What happened to my Thunderhawk?” Solon asked.

“Twilight says they had some issues on approach and got shot down, but managed an emergency landing. The Thunderhawk didn’t make it,” Spike unrolled the scroll.

“Foolish to rely on the cloaking field alone to ssee them to the infiltration point,” Sliver hissed. “A diverssion or key ssabotage could have kept Imperial augurss fixed on the fleet. Perhapss then you could have even ssent additional unitss to ssupport.”

Solon and Spike looked up at the glowering helmet in the holoscreen.

“… Shliver, wash there shomething elshe you wished to shpeak with me about? We can resholve it before I addressh the expedition,” the Warsmith offered.

“No. No, there iss nothing at the moment,” Sliver said, glancing off-screen in a manner probably meant to look nonchalant. “I’ve already relayed my orderss, sso I thought I would hear what it iss you’ve ssent the equiness into thiss time. An expedition, you ssaid? It sseemss like a needlesss rissk.”

“Princessh Shparkle inshishted on thish misshion,” Solon explained. “I gave Equinought Shquadron all the asshishtance she requeshted.”

“You didn’t even ssend the Techpriesst with them!” Sliver scoffed accusingly.

“Missh Gaela is shtill being repaired! And you know the other Techprieshtsh don’t lishen to the poniesh!” Solon protested.

“That would be your excusse, wouldn’t it? You don’t even expect your sservantss to follow your orderss unlesss they feel like it!” Sliver growled, his voice rising dangerously.

“Wait, how did you know Gaela isn’t with Twilight?” Spike asked suddenly, pointing at the holoscreen. “I thought everyone always assumed they were together all the time now.”

“I… I have accesss to the noosspheric duty rossterss, of coursse,” Sliver said, trying to sound stern but failing. “I needed to enssure that I… I could deploy a sstrike force, if necesssary! Sso I wass… checking on them.”

Solon and Spike stared at the holoscreen silently.

“I need to reconfigure ssome patrol routess,” Sliver said suddenly, turning away from the screen in embarrassment. “I leave thiss matter to you, Warssmith.”

“Okay,” Solon said awkwardly before the holoscreen winked off.

“So. Anyway.” Spike coughed, returning his attention to the parchment in his hand. “Dear Solon, I hate to request additional assistance so quickly, but the situation on Ulaisse has deteriorated. On approach, the Thunderhawk was detected and shot down by Imperial patrols. We managed to escape into some tunnels and are trying to pursue our original objective, but Planetary Defense Forces know we’re here. No contact with any refugees so far. We require another plan for extraction. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Detected? By what meansh? Imperial augur arraysh have never been able to pierce my cloaking fieldsh, even the archaeotech sensoria!” Solon insisted.

“I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t say exactly what happened,” Spike admitted.

“Pen a reshponshe and shend it back. I need further detailsh if the extraction team ish to avoid the shame fate,” Solon ordered. “If she hash any other data, shuch as geo-coordinatesh or potential landing pointsh, she should relay them ash well.”

Spike started shuffling through a bag of writing supplies while Solon summoned several new holoscreens.

“If I can get a broad regional location, I can inshert Chryshalish before shending a larger extraction force,” Solon mumbled, tapping away at the squares of refracted light.

“Uh… yeah, about that…” Spike winced. “She’s already down there.”

Solon paused, his armor-plated index finger hovering over a slowly rotating ident-rune. “… How?”

“She left with them. Twi sent me a message right after they left the Harvest and warned me that if they get back and Chrysalis isn’t with them then we need to screen everybody to make sure she didn’t kill and replace someone.”

Solon mulled that over for a few seconds. “She’sh become much more cynical and shushpicioush of late.”

“Heh! Yeah, she kinda has, huh? Twilight’s had sort of an edge to her ever since she lost her eye.” Spike chuckled lightly, trailing off into an uneasy silence. “So, uh, can you rescue her?”

“Potentially, yesh. We have a great many toolsh at our dishposhal, and the Imperialsh, dogged ash they are, have little idea what they’re dealing with. But it ish the will and ingenuity of the sholdier that will shee them to shaftey.”

“Maybe the refugees can help?” Spike asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe they will be a burden. Or shomething worshe.”

“Something… worse? I don’t… I don’t really understand,” Spike admitted.

“Thingsh may be ash shimple ash they sheem: a cruelly pershecuted people on the run from tyrantsh and Inquishitorsh. Or there may be better reashonsh for their plight than we imagine. The preshence of an artifact certainly doeshn’t shuggesht thingsh are shimple, but I don’t know.”

“What… What should we do?” Spike gulped.

“Get her location and ash much data ash you can about where she’sh going,” Solon ordered. “I will give her the chance to eshcape Ulaisshe. But her shurvival ish in her handsh now. Erm, hoovesh.”

“Yes, Sir!” Spike barked, saluting stiffly and then scampered over to a table with quill in hand.

---

Ulaisse – smuggling caverns

Dest crept toward the intersection in the tunnel, his nerves on edge and his talons extended and ready for combat.

Pebbles cracked constantly under his greaves, betraying any serious attempt at stealth. The pilot’s armor was grafted permanently to his flesh, which allowed for his movement to be somewhat more natural and fluid than mundane Space Marines without the rattling of loose shoulder padding or squeaking joints. Still, his sheer weight crushed the ground flat with every footstep, and these tunnels funneled noise particularly well. He could easily hear the even heavier footsteps of a Contemptor Dreadnought far behind him, for example.

Reaching the corner, he pressed one hand against the wall and leaned out, glancing down the tunnel to his left. The tunnel was pitch dark, but that was no impediment to his vision. Every granular detail was rendered perfectly through his visor, albeit presented in a crimson monochrome. He wasn’t sure if that was a feature of his modified armor or the daemon in his head, but he didn’t bother to question it; the daemon in his head rarely had a useful answer for such questions.

Seeing nothing down the left tunnel, he peered down the right. This route was just as empty, but that tunnel narrowed sharply before curving further. Such a route wouldn’t accommodate a Dreadnought, which made the decision simple.

Dest reached an arm back, and then summoned a puff of flame into his palm, letting it burn out immediately. Almost immediately, he heard the distinctive din of galloping power armor racing up the tunnel behind him. A few seconds later, a floodlight beam splashed against Dest’s back, illuminating much of the intersection and casting a vicious-looking shadow against the tunnel wall ahead.

“Nothing so far?” Twilight asked as she reached earshot.

“No. Taking a left at this intersection. Log the turn,” Dest commanded before moving ahead.

“We been movin’ fer an hour now. How far does this thing go?” Applejack grumbled. “Ya said these were smuggling tunnels, right? People bringin’ black market widgets and such?”

“Correct. With such a heavy security presence in the city and in the air, a smuggling network has to make quick deliveries far from the hive and then swiftly take the goods underground before an air patrol picks up on it,” Serith explained. “I’m certain the local elite pay very well for such service, which the scoundrels invest back into their business. Surely you realize that they don’t navigate these caverns on foot, don’t you?”

“You’re saying they drive through these tunnels?” Chrysalis asked, squinting at the ground to see if she could find some tracks.

“I am. There’s a reason there’s sufficient clearance in here to accommodate the pink one.” Serith paused briefly before speaking up again. “That may have to do with our leisurely progress so far; we’re not moving with great speed, yet our pursuers haven’t caught up with us.”

“Maybe they got lost? There are a surprising number of detours and intersections in here,” Rarity reasoned.

“Our trail is not difficult to follow,” Serith countered, “but while it is easy to track a Contemptor Dreadnought, neutralizing one requires equipment that may not be readily available. They will wait for heavier support or proceed very cautiously as they track us. But make no mistake: they ARE tracking us.”

“Yeesh, if I’d known it was going to be such a hassle just to get around in it I would have just left it at home,” Pinkie grumbled, her Dreadnought’s vocalizer booming through the tunnels.

“Eh, if we definitely have bad guys on our tails, then I’d rather be easier to find but have the Pain Train and a shape-shifting monster with us,” Rainbow declared.

“Daaaaaash! Don’t call it the ‘Pain Train!’” Pinkie whined.

“Also, don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Chrysalis added sharply.

“Do you mind being called a shape-shifting monster?” Twilight asked.

“Not really, no,” Chrysalis admitted, “but it bothers me when it seems like you don’t care.”

While the others bantered, Rarity glanced over at Trixie and Suuna. The human woman was as quiet and resolute as ever despite the terrifying circumstances she had been dragged into. It couldn’t have been easy to recover from a transport crash and a bombing raid without so much as a helmet, and Rarity imagined that Trixie surely regretted bringing her assistant along.

While the former slave rarely said much, the same obviously wasn’t true of Trixie, and Rarity almost gasped when she realized that the magician hadn’t spoken since they escaped the bombing raid. Was the other unicorn shell-shocked? Overcome by regret? Stewing in frustration and helplessness? Rarity could understand any one of those reactions to the catastrophe that had followed their approach to the planet, but they all seemed quite uncharacteristic of the boisterous magician.

“Trixie, darling, are you well? You’ve been awfully quiet,” Rarity finally remarked.

The magician slowed, turning her head to meet the bright pink glow of Rarity’s visor. Trixie’s expression was hidden beneath her helmet, of course, but the motion seemed hesitant.

“Trixie…” she paused and ducked her head, and Rarity could imagine her grimacing beneath her helmet. “Trixie just hopes we reach these refugees soon. This is not the adventure that Trixie…” again, she paused, and then shook her head. “That Trixie had in mind.”

“Well, if I may say so, I’m glad you did come along after all,” Rarity said solemnly. “I don’t think Serith and I would have been able to save us from crashing on our own.” A weary sigh issued from her vox grille, and then she tilted her head to the side. “Speaking of which… far be it from me to complain, but… what exactly did you DO back there? My horn still stings a bit from whatever it was.”

“Trixie just… hm?” The magician perked up her head and stopped. Dest was walking toward them into the light, his bolter drawn.

“The tunnel opens up ahead into a larger series of caverns. There’s some old construction but much of it looks like recent improvised excavation. We’ve found the underhive,” growled the Rhino pilot.

“That’s great!” Twilight said brightly.

“It is not great,” Dest retorted, much to her surprise. “The approach is mined. There are bodies, too. Not fresh, but not that old. Most didn’t die to the mines.”

“Ah, more unexpected defenses! Lovely,” Chrysalis sniffed. “Do you have a rapport with these ones, Sparkle, or would you like to unlock my warforms again?”

“I… I don’t, no. But if we can meet with them and talk before anyone kills one another I’m sure they’ll listen to reason!” Twilight insisted.

“Could you identify the faction of the corpses?” Serith asked.

“They were Imperial… mostly,” Dest grunted. “The others I couldn’t tell. Badly mangled, and their equipment was looted. They were all human, however. They’re not defending this entrance against Orks.”

“Perhaps our smugglers had an unfortunate run-in with our refugees,” Serith mused.

“Wait, what? Wouldn’t all the criminals be working together?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Perhaps, but it’s just as likely the smugglers would turn them in. The smuggler breaks the law for fortune, the refugee for survival. Presumably the smugglers’ main clients are the nobility who wish to bypass the capital’s heavy security, and refugees rarely have much money. It would be quite characteristic of smugglers to sell tips on fugitives to some Captain of the Adeptus Arbites for a bounty or a pardon.”

“In any case, let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Twilight said, slowly lifting up off the ground. “Dash, you’re with me. We’re going in elevated, and try not to touch anything. The rest of you approach with Dest in case we need some support, but be careful not to expose yourselves.”

Rainbow let out an excited whoop and jumped into the air, swiftly jetting past her squad leader and zipping down the passage.

“Hey! Dash, I said with me! Slow down!” Twilight yelped as she sped after the pegasus.

The others watched the pair disappear into the darkness, and then Dest gestured to the rest of the group.

“Keep a careful watch on our rear. Lord Serith, if you could take point,” the driver requested.

“Why me? Am I to search for any psychic signs of occupants?” the Sorcerer asked, stepping up to the other Astartes.

“That would be helpful, yes. Mostly I just wanted to ensure that any snipers would waste their opening shots, as your head is not a vital point. I saw several areas that would make ideal fire points.”

Serith offered a disgusted snort, but didn’t object further before continuing ahead of the others.

“Anythin’ we should keep an eye out fer?” Applejack asked.

“Yes. Any opening, crevice, stray box, or vent should be checked for ambushers,” Dest explained. “We are not alone in these tunnels, but the enemy may yet fear to face us directly. A surprise attack is their best, and likely only, chance of victory.”

“I thought we were here to save the people in these tunnels or something. Did that change because they laid out some traps?” Chrysalis asked.

Dest didn’t answer right away, heading back down the tunnel after giving Serith an extended head start. “… We are here to save them,” he said eventually, “but that doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. Something about this feels… wrong. I don’t have much more to offer than that.”

“Frankly I think we’ve had more than enough danger for one mission, but it would be terribly irregular if things started getting any better before we’re back on the flagship,” Rarity sighed.

“Just stay sharp and stay close to the walker,” Dest retorted. “Assuming Sparkle’s sorcerous communications worked, you’ll be back to troubling the Warsmith soon enough.”

---

Rainbow Dash shot out of the mouth of the tunnel and cut her boosters, moving into a hover so she could better observe her surroundings.

The cavern network ahead was massive, with the tunnel exit opening up into a much wider hall space that continued along the same route until it reached an expanded plateau. Bridges were placed on the edge of the plateau at several points; one of them was a heavy, reinforced crossing, but many others had been improvised from spare cables, poles, and slats of wood or scrap metal. The bridges extended over a deep breach in the cavern floor going every which way. Some of them linked the plateau to other broad stone platforms, but others tilted up toward crawlspaces in the cavern ceiling or down into secondary platforms positioned in the breach. Some of it was unlit, leaving vast sections of the complex cloaked in darkness, but there were a surprising number of lumens set up in the area to illuminate the paths.

Rainbow spent a moment marveling at the cavern, but then brought her attention to the area she was hovering in. The hall was roughly twenty feet wide, with numerous alcoves drilled into the walls. The alcoves were mostly empty or filled with trash – filthy blankets, wrappings, or rusted metal bins – but a few hosted dead bodies. A large construction lumen was pounded into the ceiling, casting the entire length of the hall in a dim glow that was more than sufficient for Rainbow’s light-enhancement visor, but the central beam of light was aimed squarely at the middle of the hall ahead. Right under the beam, obvious enough that any mundane wanderer would have noticed them, were numerous small metal disks scattered across the path.

“Dash! C’mon, be more careful!” Twilight complained as she flew out of the tunnel and joined the speedster. “If I can’t see you, I can’t summon a shield or anything if we need it!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Rainbow chuckled as she floated out further. “Check this place out, though! Never seen anything like it!”

“I have. There are underwarrens in Ferrous Dominus that bear a resemblance to this. Although those were entirely carved by macro-drillers and mining pony teams. These caverns look mostly natural,” Twilight explained before her visor shifted downward to the mines. “Although the traps we have in the underwarrens are MUCH less conspicuous than this. Gaela would be embarrassed if she saw.”

“Do you think this is some kind of trick?” Rainbow asked, looking further down the hall. “Like, we laugh off the mines so that we end up tripping something later?”

“Possibly. OR it’s a highly visible warning that this area is protected and its occupants are armed, to try to scare off intruders,” Twilight mused. Then she turned to look at the corpses stuffed in the alcove next to her. “It’s probably that first thing, though.”

“So how do we continue? I don’t see any other traps. Should I just jet out there and fly a few laps to see what happens?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight frowned under her helmet, and the pykant circuit running through her horn case lit up. A cloud of violet fog gathered around her head and then blasted forward, trailing flickering sparks. The fog spread across the length and breadth of the hall, sweeping across the entire space before emptying out into the cavern beyond.

Rainbow tilted her head to the side. There were numerous glittering sparks hanging in the air behind the wave of magic fog, sitting in long lines. Most hung low to the ground, but there were a few more that stretched at an angle, crossing from a point on the wall to one on the ceiling.

“Tripwires,” Twilight mumbled. “I think it’s safe to say the mines were a distraction, then.”

“Wow. Where did you learn to do that?” Rainbow Dash asked with an impressed whistle.

“The underwarrens again,” the Princess said. “Although honestly, I was expecting laser trips like we had there, not physical wire ones. These smugglers seem have a lot of mechanical equipment, but perhaps not the more sophisticated technology or expertise.”

“Wonder what kind of trap it is,” Rainbow mused, her shuriken catapult leveling its aim downward.

“Well there are only so many… WAIT DASH DON-“

A flurry of monomolecular-edged blades shot through the hall, and several of the wires snapped with a sharp twang.

The ponies were more than twenty feet away from the traps, so Rainbow was confident that whatever was lying in wait had plenty of room to lash out at nothing. Twilight was not so confident, and a violet energy shell flashed in front of them just before a series of rapid snapping noises rang through the cavern.

Several needle-tipped metal shafts shot out of hidden spots in the alcoves, whipping across the hall to embed in the other wall. The projectiles resembled simple crossbow bolts, albeit without the fletching to stabilize them in flight. Instead the spikes had thick metal cylinders welded onto the back end that sizzled dangerously from a fuse coiled around it.

Twilight yelped and turned around in the air to flee, but there wasn’t enough time. The explosives detonated, blowing large holes in the earthen walls while blasting the surrounding area with shrapnel. Several mines also went off as a result, blasting craters into the path ahead. The explosions in turn ripped apart several more tripwires, and several more explosive spikes shot through the hall.

“Okay, this is a little much!” Rainbow shouted as the metal arrows lodged in the floor ahead and burned down their fuses. “Good call on the shield! I didn’t-“

One arrow shot at the upper edge of the barrier, glancing off and flipping over and behind it. Twilight’s panicked noises became a terrified shriek, and the barrier flickered as her concentration strayed.

Rainbow didn’t waste any time, shifting her flight pack to spin in the air. One leg lashed out, striking the explosive spike and sending it flying back into the tunnel they had emerged from.

A few seconds later a bright light flashed from the tunnel exit, followed by the sounds of crashing metal.

“Well… that could have gone worse?” Rainbow said with a nervous chuckle.

Twilight was thinking up something appropriately scathing when an ident-tag flashed on her visor. Serith emerged from the tunnel and strode into the hall, walking purposefully toward the mares with his force halberd in one hand. The other hand was missing. The power armor for his left arm was missing up to the elbow sleeve, and the plating that remained was warped and blackened from a recent explosion.

Serith stopped in front of the flying ponies. Then he sharply turned his helmet left, and then right, as if searching the area.

“I detect no snipers or ambushers,” the Sorcerer said loudly, as if he was speaking to nobody in particular but wanted everyone to hear. Then his blood-red visor fixed on Rainbow Dash, who was hovering right in front of him. “However, there are OTHER hazards in our path, it seems.”

Rainbow quietly hovered further away until she was slightly out of polearm range.

After several seconds the others emerged from the tunnel as well. Dest came out first, his boltgun in one hand and Serith’s dismembered arm in the other.

“I knew it was wise to have you take point,” Dest mused, his voice carrying just a slight tone of amusement. He held up the armor piece to the other Iron Warrior, and with a glance from Serith it floated up out of his hand.

“Well, this entrance seems to be… well-protected,” Twilight said while Serith reassembled himself. “At least as far as the temporary measures go. I haven’t seen any indication of a living defender, and if any were around they would have surely noticed us.”

“So where do we go from here? place is huge!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“The entrance to the underhive is there,” said Dest, pointing to one of the larger bridges. “There’s a vault door on the other side of the cavern that would lead to the outer complexes. If we can open it without damaging it, it may be an effective barrier against pursuit, as well.”

“Don’cha think it’ll be defended like this spot is?” Applejack asked.

“I do. I recommend Lord Serith take the lead again,” Dest replied. He walked further down the hall and then kneeled down, gingerly picking up one of the mines that hadn’t yet detonated. “Anti-personnel mines. Not even an STC pattern. Basic powdered charges with simple mechanical triggers. These traps are dangerous, but crude. A far cry from the sort of equipment we dealt with topside.”

“That’s… good, right?” Chrysalis asked.

“Somewhat. Our enemies aren’t likely to have sufficient ordnance to remove a Dreadnought, which is nice,” Dest snorted. “But I’m sure they’ll have something more clever waiting for us as we close in on their den. Whoever ‘they’ are, of course.”

Rainbow flew out ahead of the others, flying a recon circuit of the caverns. It was a lot of space, and not all of it was well-lit. Piles of old construction materials sat in one area almost completely untouched by the lumens, while a large section of mostly empty plateau was illuminated by several overhead beams that had obviously been oriented that way on purpose. That area had several stalagmites and discarded metal slats that would have provided decent cover were a firefight to break out. There were also several bodies laying on one side of those barriers, surrounded by bullet holes and laser scarring, suggesting that the cover wasn’t as decent as it appeared.

Another bridge led from that shadowy battlefield to a vast wall made of plate metal and rockcrete. A huge vault door was built into the wall, easily tall enough for a walker twice a Contemptor’s size. Huge metal braces and clamps were mounted along the edges, all of which were in surprisingly good condition. Rainbow decided that if anybody used this passage, then they didn’t do it by force.

“First time for everything!” she chuckled before spinning around to face the rest of her squad.

Rainbow flew back to the others, noticing that most of the ponies were surrounding Twilight. The young Princess had a scroll floating in front of her; apparently she had received a communication from the flagship while Rainbow was doing reconnaissance. Serith and Dest were studying one of the alcoves on the wall, poking at a dead body there. Trixie and Suuna were hanging behind the others, quietly watching the entry tunnel where they had come from. Chrysalis stood apart from the rest, waiting eagerly at the edge of the hall for Rainbow’s return.

“Well? What’s out there? Do you know who we’re fighting yet?” the changeling asked.

“Bunch of rocky dark spots, more dead people, and then the vault door,” Rainbow Dash slowed to a hover and shrugged her shoulder pads, causing the chain of bolter shells to rattle. “No sign of whoever left the traps as far as I could tell.”

“You said dead people. Who?” Chrysalis demanded.

“More Imperial soldiers, I think. The bodies were obviously looted though, and I didn’t move in for a close look,” the speedster answered.

“Tch! If we can figure out who rules these spaces, then I could disguise myself as one of them,” Chrysalis grumbled. “That would give us an edge in talking them down from hostilities… or an edge in suddenly escalating them, depending on what we find.”

“That does sound like a good idea, actually. But I don’t think you want to take on the forms of the guys riddled with bullet holes down there. They don’t like those guys.”

“It seems our fugitives don’t have many friends,” grunted Dest, joining them. “Upon closer inspection, I believe some of these bodies belong to the smugglers as well.”

“Isn’t it more likely the soldiers and smugglers were fighting each other?” Chrysalis asked.

“I would not expect the winning side to stash their dead alongside that of their enemies,” Serith explained as he followed the Rhino pilot. “Smugglers are tight-knit, and tend to be less violent and more sentimental than most other criminal networks. They would not want to leave more evidence behind, either. I am confident this is the work of a mysterious third party.”

“Then what do they need a rescue for? Looks like they’ve got this handled,” Rainbow asked.

“Did you already forget how we were welcomed here?” Dest asked.

Rainbow grimaced under her helmet. “Right, right... So then my next question is how come they lasted this long when the Imperials could squash them at will?”

“Difficult to say. We know nothing of how far-reaching the Imperium’s patrols are or how long since they’ve begun. But the ultimate conclusion can hardly be in doubt; this is not a world where it is possible to sustain military resistance against the Loyalist dogs,” Serith sneered. “Eventually the Imperium will dig in the right place or the fugitives will slip in their retreat. Once that occurs these hapless souls are finished… unless we carry them out of the Imperium’s reach, of course.”

“Sparkle, are we ready to proceed?” Dest barked, turning toward the other ponies.

Twilight was scribbling on a sheet of parchment, grumbling to herself as she tried to sketch a coordinate map over the tunnel network they’d followed so far. “There has to be some way to adjust this spell to send data packets as well as vellum… okay, I think that will do it. For now, anyway. I can’t really predict where we’re going to surface when we get out of here.”

“Where do we go next? There’s a lot of different paths down here,” Rarity noted.

“There’s this big vault down this way just past where a bunch of people got shot to death, mostly in the back,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing a leg toward the largest bridge. “I think that’s the best path!”

Rarity cringed. “Are there… any other options?”

“Unfortunately, there may not be. The vault should lead into the underhive. The other paths likely lead to various surface exits where the smugglers bring their wares,” Dest explained. “We do not have the luxury of exploring the tunnel network extensively. We have to get as deep as possible before the Imperial pursuers catch up.” Then he looked over at Serith.

“I’m not taking the lead again,” the Sorcerer snapped. “Make the Dreadnought do it!”

“If we’re being ambushed or led into a trap it would endanger the rest of us to have our path obscured by the mass of a Dreadnought wreck,” Dest pointed out. “What if Sparkle unlocked the changeling’s abilities again and she turned into a Dreadnought and led the way?”

Chrysalis perked up. “Yes, I can… wait, you just explained why that was a bad idea!”

“Presumably you would shrink to a more manageable mass after you expire,” the Rhino pilot said, shrugging. “Or not. Either way, Pie shouldn’t take point.”

“Why don’t YOU lead us, driver?” Serith sneered. “Surely the imbecile coiled around your soul could sniff out any hidden assassins before they trouble those of us behind you.”

Dest paused for a moment, turning his head away from the others. “Yes.” A few more seconds passed. “Who did you THINK he was referring to?” He flexed his free hand irritably, the talons growing visibly longer from frustration. “He’s not even here!”

Applejack groaned as Twilight finally sent the message, the scroll vanishing in a burst of purple light. “Twi, Ah think the big guys’re gettin’ antsy. We should get a move on.”

Twilight didn’t respond, and slowly turned her head away. It looked like she was watching something in the gloom, but Applejack couldn’t see anything there. Switching through visor modes did nothing. The area Twilight was watching looked completely empty.

“Er… Twilight? Ya there?” the farmer asked.

“Just a second,” the alicorn mumbled back, still watching absolutely nothing.

A ghostly form moved through the darkness of the caverns, slowly creeping alongside one of the smaller maintenance bridges. Its body was a white, mist-like shape that roughly approximated a human, and it seemed to glow in the shadows once it left the patches of light spread by the old lumen banks.

It reached the end of the bridge and then dashed across the ground toward a massive pile of construction supplies. Twilight suddenly broke into a run, racing to the edge of the massive canyon that the bridge spanned.

“Lady Sparkle, is something amiss?” Serith asked.

“Did you spot someone?” Dest demanded, bringing up his boltgun again.

Twilight kept staring. For almost a minute she stood silently, head lowered, watching the massive pile of piping, rebar, and dusty rockcrete blocks. Then she raised her head and turned around.

“I found a way through,” the young Princess announced.

“What? How?” Chrysalis demanded.

“There, under that huge pipe.” Twilight created a tiny globe of light at the end of her horn, and then floated it down the path, like a violet firefly. “I think it’s a secret entrance. The vault path is a trap, or at best it will take us away from our objective.”

The magical light landed on the surface of the pipe in question, illuminating it slightly better for the group. It was at least 15 feet in diameter, with rockcrete construction and a cage of rusting metal layered over the outer surface.

“That explains the ‘what’ but not the ‘how,’” Chrysalis pointed out.

“Does it matter? Sparkle was right about the shrine. Let’s check this secret passage of hers before stepping over the next pile of corpses,” Dest volunteered, walking past the changeling.

“It matters to ME,” Queen Chrysalis griped. “We’re not being chased by aircraft this time, so I think we could spend a moment to talk about it.”

“Lady Sparkle was the only one who received this cry for help via psychic transmission,” Serith explained. “She also, somehow, received knowledge of its precise geoplanetary coordinates. It is hardly beyond possibility that the message planted other clues in her mind.”

“Do you think it’s… wise to trust it?” Rarity asked anxiously.

“It would have been wise to stay on the other side of Ghessheim V, inside the flagship, and let these treacherous fools butcher each other as they see fit,” Serith replied, “but as that is no longer possible, navigating a secret passage left by desperate witchcraft is our least-bad option. Lady Trixie! Slave girl! Hurry!”

Trixie and Suuna jerked to attention at the Sorcerer’s command, and then quickly followed him past the rest of the ponies. Suuna hesitated slightly as she approached the bridge, watching her power-armored compatriots make their way over it, but after it failed to buckle under the train of heavy armor she followed along.

Chrysalis huffed and jumped into the air, her wings buzzing noisily. The other flying ponies followed, speeding over the gorge the separated them from the pile of construction supplies. Pinkie was the last to cross, the maintenance bridge straining under the weight of her Contemptor shell. The span held, however, and soon she stepped off onto hard rock flooring again.

Dest walked over to the pipe and looked inside, scanning the interior with his boltgun at the ready. “Pie. Illuminate this.”

A floodlight moved behind Dest, filling the interior of the pipe and casting a long, spine-riddled shadow along the bottom. Several scuttling creatures hisses and scattered from the lumens, rushing out the other end of the tube. Dest briefly tracked them with his gun, but held his fire.

“… I think I see it. There’s a hole down here, large enough for a human,” the Rhino driver explained, stepping into the pipe.

“Then it would seem Lady Sparkle is correct again,” Serith said, glancing over at Chrysalis.

“I didn’t say she wasn’t! I’m just suspicious,” the changeling grumbled. “I don’t like it when solutions are just… given out of the blue like this. I prefer to work for my intelligence.”

“Stealing it, you mean,” Rainbow Dash corrected.

“Stealing can be a great deal of work,” Chrysalis replied, not obviously offended by the accusation. “Besides, we’re all pirates now, aren’t we?”

Dest stepped out of the pipe and gestured to Pinkie Pie. The Contemptor Dreadnought joined him, and then seized the edge of the pipe with its power fist. Dest took hold of it on the opposite edge of the opening circumference, and with a grunt they started to move it.

Stone cracked and dirt shifted as the enormous cylinder was rolled out of the spot it had occupied for years. Squeaks and hissing came from the darkness, and more local animals scurried away from the disturbance and into adjacent cracks and crevices. One such creature – a long, black thing over a meter long that moved on dozens of legs – scuttled toward the rest of the explorers before slipping into a crack in the ground. Rarity yelped and flinched back at its approach, and Fluttershy cooed gently at it before it vanished.

“A little more,” grunted Dest, his greaves digging into the rock underfoot. Augmented muscles pulsed under the plates of armor, and his armor sleeves bulged at the joints as his body shifted to meet the demands of the task at hand.

Applejack fired her gravity lash near the top of the pipe, and the zero-point engine within her tail armoring hummed louder as she added her own effort to shift the pipe aside. Several rock outcroppings in the way cracked apart, and the massive cylinder rolled another few meters away from its initial resting place. Dest sighed and finally stepped away, and Pinkie Pie gave the pipe a solid smack on top as if she was setting it in place.

“There! Look!” Twilight beamed some magic light over the long, shallow trench where the pipe used to sit. There was an opening near the middle of the cylinder’s length that had clearly been made deliberately and carefully; the mouth of the tunnel was ringed with a metal frame to protect against corrosion and damage, and a ladder of the same material extended downward. The tunnel entrance was also much wider than the hole made in the construction piping, which was a relief to Pinkie Pie.

Before anyone could warn her otherwise, Rainbow Dash arced up into the air and dove straight into the hole.

“Hey! Dash, stop! Did you already forget how many traps were set up in the last entrance?” Twilight complained.

“Relax, Twi!” Rainbow shouted from below. “This is the special secret entrance! Nobody traps these th-“

Her reassurances were cut off by a sharp bang and a vox-distorted shriek.

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” Chrysalis said while she stepped past Twilight Sparkle, “aside from the noise, this seems like a perfectly good way of clearing obstacles.”

“Shut yer fanged yap ‘fore we make you scout out the next bit!” Applejack snapped. Fluttershy quietly rushed past her, leaping down into the tunnel to rescue the other pegasus.

“Wait for me, Fluttershy! Everyone else, wait until I give the all clear!” Twilight galloped to the tunnel, light spilling from her horn to illuminate the way. Then she jumped into the hole, her flight pack spreading behind her.

“Uhhhhn… okay… maybe I deserved that,” Rainbow Dash groaned, lying in a heap. Shrapnel was lodged into her side and left foreleg plating, still smoldering from the explosives.

“Dash! Don’t move, okay? Let me check your injuries,” Fluttershy said, floating down the passage and scanning the other mare with her visor. “You have two breaches under your wing and one in your leg.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Rainbow hissed. “The other ones are no big deal, but that leg wound cut kinda deep.”

“What happened?” Twilight dropped down from the tunnel, and then bobbed in the air above the metal flooring. “Did you see what hit you?”

“Yeah, barely,” Rainbow sighed as Fluttershy lifted her leg, the small servo claws unfolding from her chest plate. “It was some kind of bulb stuck onto the pipe. It didn’t even look like a bomb or have any wires or anything! How was I supposed to know it was a trap?”

“Set your visor to composite analysis scan and then concentrate on anything suspicious,” Twilight replied. “Explosives come in all different types, but they use very similar engineering patterns: charge, fuse, detonator, and casing. Your helmet cogitator can recognize them easily.”

Rainbow waited quietly while Fluttershy carefully extracted the metal shard from her leg. “… OR, I can let you take point from here on.”

“That was my FIRST suggestion, while you were still blasting ahead of everyone!” Twilight huffed. Then she tapped her vox link. “All right, the immediate area is secure. You can join us now. Just don’t wander off down here.”

Twilight was expecting the others to descend via the ladder, and thus she was quite startled when Applejack suddenly slammed into the floor behind her. The metal walkway groaned underhoof, and the scaffolding above and below rattled loudly.

“Hmmm…” The farmer stood up straight and looked around. The hole above dropped into a wide tunnel, where a series of heavy metal slats formed a path suspended above the tunnel’s bottom by a web of construction rigging that was drilled into the surrounding stone. Lumens were built into the topside scaffolding, and though their intensity had dimmed with age, they still kept the area lit much better than the caverns above.

“So where’re we now? This some kinda sewer?” Applejack asked.

“I think it would have been, with a few more months of construction work,” Twilight said. “These dimensions suggest this area was being excavated for a pipeline and it extends beyond the underhive periphery. My first guess would be a waste pipeline.”

Rarity descended the ladder gingerly, her greaves awkwardly mag-locking to each rung as she made her way down. “I suppose it would be too much to hope for a service elevator in a secret entrance, wouldn’t it?” she griped.

“Is that flooring stable enough to hold the Contemptor?” Dest asked. He was sliding down the side of the hole opposite the ladder, his claws dragging down through the bare stone surface to slow his descent.

“It’s fine,” Applejack said, slamming her boot against the walkway repeatedly. The plating didn’t buckle, but Twilight cringed as the scaffolding rattled and creaked all around them. “Just give us enough warnin’ to get outta the way!”

As Dest dropped to the floor and started to look around, Serith descended after him. The Sorcerer was free-falling with Trixie carried in his arms, his cape fluttering above him. At the last second, less than a foot from Serith’s greaves striking the walkway, a rush of air suddenly blasted out all around him and the psyker’s plunge was suddenly stopped. Serith stood up straight, still floating just inches off the floor, and then walk down onto the flooring as if he was getting off the last step of a stairway.

“Thank you, Serith,” Trixie said calmly, hopping out of his arms.

“I am ever at your service, Lady Trixie,” Serith murmured.

“Once we’re all here we’ll proceed down the walkway. But watch out for traps!” Twilight warned.

Serith turned around to face her. “It is not merely traps that may impede our path, Lady Sparkle. We are no longer alone here.”

“You sense others?” Dest asked.

“Yes… quite a strange clutch of minds, at that,” the Sorcerer mused. “They are not quite as… afraid as they should be.”

“Why should they be afraid? Ain’t we here to rescue them?” Applejack asked.

“Of course, but they probably don’t know that,” Rarity replied.

“Far be it from me to judge the security disposition of a band of refugees and outlaws,” Dest grunted, “but as a rule when power armored reavers barge into your secret tunnels, substantial fear is warranted.”

Suuna reached the walkway and quickly stepped away from the ladder to join Trixie. A giant spider – coal black in color, with a patch of aqua over its head – scuttled down the opposite wall and crawled out onto the ceiling of the tunnel. In a flash of green light Chrysalis reverted to her normal body, dropping down and flipping upright to land on her hooves.

“Look out beloooooooow!!”

Pinkie’s Dreadnought hit the walkway in a crouch, and the slat of reinforced metal wobbled dangerously. Loud creaking came from the scaffolding below as it flexed under the strain, but ultimately the shaking stopped and the Contemptor stood back up.

“Okay, we’re all here. Serith, where did you sense other people?” Twilight asked.

“Down the path, where it narrows.” Serith pointed down the tunnel. The walkway appeared to head straight out in both directions without any turns, but further out the lumens had been removed or broken, cloaking that section in darkness. “They’re clustered there. And aware… I believe it’s some manner of checkpoint.”

“I see more of those bombs, too,” Rainbow Dash grumbled while she stood back up. She tested her wounded foreleg, and then gave Fluttershy a grateful nod. “Don’t wanna get close to those metal bulb things.”

Twilight focused on one such trap, and her augmetic bracketed the object. It was only a bit larger than a hand grenade, and had a bulbous outer casing that tapered to a small, rounded point that appeared to be some sort of sensor. The other end was stuck to a handrail and secured with tape. The bombs were obviously constructed out of scrap metal, and much of the body had been hammered into place and welded from dissimilar and poorly-shaped alloy plates.

“Huh… It says the trigger is ‘electromantic.’ Never seen that one before,” Twilight mused.

“Those types of proximity sensors are used specifically to protect against sophisticated combat systems and automata without detonating due to local fauna,” Dest warned. “Vox systems, many augmetics, some advanced weapons, and, of course, power armor all generate sufficient magnetic fields to trip them. They are harmless to unprotected and unaugmented humans or random animals.”

“How fortunate, then, that Lady Trixie thought to bring her servant!” Serith chuckled. He pointed his force halberd down the walkway. “Slave, you may advance. Remove the explosives, and then disable them. Surely there’s a switch you can use or detonator you can remove.”

Suuna looked alarmed at the request, but Twilight swiftly interrupted. “OR… I can just pick them up with magic and get rid of them without anybody touching them at all.”

Twilight’s purple aura flowed around her horn and then engulfed the distant bomb. It quivered briefly, and then the tape securing it to the railing ripped away. The trap flipped around in the air, exposing a tiny red indicator lumen and a button. Twilight’s magic depressed the button, and then the lumen winked off.

Detonator inert

“I stand corrected,” Serith grumbled as Twilight floated the bomb into a crevice in the tunnel wall. “It would seem there was no point in bringing her along at all. Simply one more body to be lost within this doomed labyrinth.”

Trixie made a noise that sounded vaguely like agreement and walked past Serith, moving to join the others. Rarity and Twilight were removing the charges from their path while Applejack stood between them, searching carefully for any other hazards. Once the unicorns dispensed with the traps immediately ahead, a beam lumen in Applejack’s armor cowl clicked on, shining a light further down the tunnel.

“Armored door. Ah see weapon slots,” Applejack warned.

“Serith, are they behind there?” Twilight asked while disarming another bomb.

“Yes. And they’re quite alerted, as well,” the Sorcerer said.

“So what do we do? Should we have Chrysalis go talk to them?” Rainbow asked.

“And say what? None of us have even seen these creatures; I have no idea what to say to them!” the changeling barked.

“Would Lord Serith not be the ideal choice? If he can get close enough he can read their thoughts more precisely,” Dest pointed out.

“Darling, having seen Serith’s attempts at diplomatic engagement, I can confidently assure you he is not ideal,” Rarity quipped.

Twilight considered their options, and then turned up her vox system’s caster volume.

“GREETINGS, REFUGEES FROM THE IMPERIUM OF MAN!!” she shouted, her voice booming through the tunnel. “WE COME IN PEACE! I HAVE HEARD YOUR PLEAS FOR ASSISTANCE FROM ACROSS THE SYSTEM, AND AM HERE TO HELP! PLEASE OPEN THE WAY FOR US!”

Several seconds passed. Then a vision slit on the door opened up. A second later it slid shut again.

“I don’t know who you’re supposed to be, but you don’t look like you’re here to help us!” cried out a voice from behind the door. “Turn around and come back where you came from! There’s nothing here for you!”

Despite the content of the reply, Twilight perked up considerably upon finally hearing one of the individuals they were presumably here to rescue. “Please, excuse the wargear! It hasn’t been a quiet journey!” She chuckled to herself. “I received a vision, a message, from someone here! I know the Imperium has been pursuing your people and you’re on the brink of being hunted down and wiped out! We can save you!”

There was no response for several seconds. Then the barrels of lasguns and autoguns poked through the firing slits in the door, aiming down the walkway.

“Twi, Ah don’t s’pose yer magic visions told ya how to deal with twitchy, unfriendly guards, did they?” Applejack mumbled.

“No, unfortunately not,” the alicorn said regretfully.

“What, you can’t simply befriend them?” Chrysalis sneered, grinning. “Isn’t that supposed to be what you equines are best at?”

“We are! But the friendship angle would be much easier without a door and several guns in the way.” Twilight pointed a boot toward the end of the tunnel. “Pinkie, could you help with that?”

The others parted as Pinkie’s Dreadnought stomped down the walkway, the scaffolding shuddering with every step.

“Don’t worry, guys! We’re gonna get you out of here and leave those meanie Imperials behind and then we’ll get back to the ship and have a big happy welcome party and we’ll be BEST FRIENDS!” the Dreadnought boomed as it approached, its vox caster giving Pinkie’s voice a decidedly malevolent edge.

The guns set in the door opened fire, spraying slug rounds and low-intensity lasers against the encroaching walker. The small-arms fire spanked harmlessly against the Dreadnought’s leg and torso armor, and Pinkie made a tsking noise that transmitted very poorly out of the Dreadnought’s helmet.

“Hey now! Blind-firing down a hallway is dangerous! Not to me, but maybe Suuna, I guess.” She stepped up in front of the doorway and reared back her power fist. “Knock, knock!”

The sound of scrambling feet came from the other side of the barrier, and then Pinkie’s fist smashed into the door. It bent inward, the metal shrieking under the stress of the impact, but ultimately held. Pinkie simply braced the Dreadnought’s legs and dropped its shoulder, and then made a second push into the massive armor plate.

The hinges snapped, and the door fell forward with a heavy thud. Pinkie Pie pushed into the next room, swiveling left and right to take in the new area. Men in dirty clothes and ramshackle armor were scrambling away from her, clutching their weapons. A barricade made of old crates and garbage stood ahead of her, and a woman wearing a gas mask hoisted a missile launcher resting atop her shoulder.

Pinkie slammed the Dreadnought’s foot onto the edge of the fallen door, flipping it up in front of her. The krak missile blasted across the room and slammed into the much-abused barrier, ripping it in half and spraying hunks of metal shrapnel across the Contemptor’s front.

“Hello! I’m Pinkie Pie!” she chirped, waving the Dreadnought’s power fist while bits of the blasted door still rolled across the floor. “We come in peace!” The butcher cannon levered downward, aiming squarely at the woman with a missile launcher.

She froze at the sight, but the other gunmen in the room raised their weapons at the Dreadnought. None opened fire again, grimly aware of how badly they were outgunned by the siege walker, but they still tracked the pink Dreadnought nervously while it walked forward to clear the entrance.

“Okay, everyone just calm down!” Twilight said, entering the room from between the Contemptor’s legs. “We’re not here to fight! We’re here to save you!”

The defenders seemed appropriately subdued before the Contemptor Dreadnought despite its unorthodox colors, glittering colored charms, and the bizarre balloon decorations drawn onto its armor plating. Upon seeing a pony in full power armor emerge and speak to them, however, most of them seemed perplexed. More of the four-legged pirates stepped into the room, every one of them encased in power armor of varying design.

Finally, a trio of Iron Warriors entered: One with a cape and a halberd, another with strange servo-limbs tipped with blades, and a third in less elaborate power armor holding a chainsword. The defenders shrank back from the armored giants immediately, lowering their weapons and murmuring to each other. The woman at the barricade placed her empty rocket launcher at her feet and then addressed Serith.

“Astartes? Here? What do you want with us?” she demanded.

“I want nothing with you,” Serith sneered. “Lady Sparkle is the leader of this fool’s errand. You will listen and obey.”

The defenders looked over the intruders again, and one of them pointed past the Chaos Space Marines to Suuna, who was standing behind them. “Is that… Lady-?”

“Lady Sparkle is me,” Twilight announced, coughing and tapping a boot against the ground.

“Is… Is this a joke?” one man asked.

“I personally find it most amusing that a band of miniature horses have evaded the grasp of the Imperium, infiltrated the most heavily defended world in Ghessheim, and stormed your defenses to force this confrontation,” Dest said with the very barest trace of mirth in his voice, “but no, it is not a joke.”

“We don’t have much time,” Twilight pressed. “I heard you were in danger. Is this true?”

“W-Well… yes,” the woman admitted awkwardly. “Uh… and you’re… here to help us? Really?”

“I am!” Twilight stepped ahead of the others, and the defenders backed away nervously. The seams of her helmet popped open, and with a pulse of violet magic her helmet lifted off her head. “I heard a cry for help echoing through the Warp! It told me where you were and that you were being hunted down! We have a fleet with us, and if we work together, we can get your people to safety!”

“’Safety’ being a relative measure, of course,” Serith added. “You will find little comfort or mercy upon the Harvest of Steel. But we’ve come this far, so we may as well-“

“Lord Serith, didn’t you say I was in charge here?” Twilight asked, her voice far sweeter and higher-pitched than normal. “If you want to be the leader you just have to say so~!”

The Sorcerer fell silent and began quietly studying the construction of the bunker’s wall.

“… Okay! Now, as I was saying.” Twilight attached her helmet to her gorget and stepped closer to the barricade. “There was someone here who transmitted a message into my dreams. I don’t think he was a psyker himself. He used… something else to do so. Some kind of artifact. Does that ring any bells?”

“Byron,” one defender said immediately. “That’s got to be Byron, right?”

“You’re serious? You mean it worked?” mumbled another.

“Byron? Is that his name?” Twilight interrupted, “and he’s the one using an artifact to send psychic messages?”

“It’s got to be him.” A different gunman shook his head. “We couldn’t send any other transmissions because it would help the Imperial kill teams find us and they’d just jam it anyway.”

“We didn’t even know who to send it to; none of us knew that there was a fleet in-system,” someone else pointed out. “But Byron kept saying that there was another way. That he could find someone else…”

“Byron was right,” Twilight said, “can you take us to him?”

The woman nodded reluctantly. “Well, if you wanted us dead you certainly didn’t need to go to the trouble of tricking us first,” she turned around and snapped her fingers. “Get that door back into place and rig up some more mines! I don’t expect our rescuers strolled into the underhive with a fragging heavy walker without anyone noticing!”

She gestured to the intruders to follow, and then headed deeper past the barricades at a swift pace. The rest of Equinought Squadron followed eagerly, racing past the ranks of gunmen. Dest glanced at Suuna, and then they followed behind the Contemptor Dreadnought. The silent Iron Warrior trailed after them, barely following within earshot of the main group.

“My name is Erin Whyd, by the way,” the woman grunted as she led the way through the underhive tunnels. She was dressed in torn fatigues extensively patched with many old scraps of other clothing, and had a dusty shawl around her neck and shoulders. Her hair was thin and black, and mostly wrapped up in her shawl. Her respirator mask covered the lower half of her face but left her eyes exposed, betraying her unease as they darted from one power armored visitor to another.

“Hello, Miss Whyd! I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, from Equestria! I’m here on behalf of the Iron Warriors 38th Company!” Twilight said brightly.

“What are you, though?” Erin asked before the other mares could introduce themselves. “And why are you commanding Astartes?”

“I’m a pony!” Twilight volunteered. “And I don’t command them, really, but I’m taking the lead on this particular mission with them!”

“You’re a… pony. A miniature horse,” Erin said, clearly skeptical. “A purple miniature horse, that can talk, and has a horn on its forehead.”

“And wings!” Rainbow interrupted. “Some of us have wings, too!”

Their guide didn’t look any less flustered at this information, so Dest spoke up. “They are a mutant species of equine-like creature found on a remote frontier world. They bear some physiological resemblance to Terran horses, but it may be a coincidence born of similar evolutionary circumstances.”

“Xeno abominations,” Erin grumbled.

“Yes. But we find them rather pleasant,” Dest replied.

“Awwww, we like you too, Desty!” boomed the Contemptor Dreadnought, much to Erin’s discomfort.

The group exited the main tunnel leading to the defensive checkpoint, and then stepped into another cavern. This space had been excavated by machine and reinforced to prevent cave-ins, but hadn’t obviously been developed much beyond that. Huge support columns and beams cut through the cavern, and sheets of scrap metal had been placed to make a path over the rough-hewn stone flooring. Shacks and tents were scattered across the cavern, while the walls – some 40 feet high – had alcoves drilled into them large enough to serve as living units. There were a number of people here squatting around cook fires, hauling objects to and fro, or lounging at the mouth of their homes. They wore rags or dirty street clothes that were in the process of becoming rags, and every one of them stopped to gawk at the convoy of heavily armed pirates stomping through the middle of their community.

“Even for an underhive slum, this is pitiful,” Dest remarked. “Those wretches at least enjoy the luxury of a functioning power lattice. You’ve barely managed to keep this place alight.”

“That’s true, yes. Circumstances were never kind to us, and recently they’ve become much worse,” Erin griped. “We’ve had an explosion in population, and a concurrent increase in attention by the Imperial defense forces. Resources are more scarce than ever, and we can’t easily scavenge without risking attention by patrols.”

“How many of you are there?” Rarity asked.

“Recently it changes every day one way or the other, but right now, in this colony? About sixty people. Two weeks ago it was less than half that.”

“That’s not too bad. Two Thunderhawks could carry that many, right? Maybe three?” Rainbow asked.

“What do ya mean ‘in this colony?’ There other camps down here?” Applejack asked.

“Yes. Many others,” Erin confirmed. “We know the location of a few other groups, but I have no idea how many there are. The underhive is vast, and it’s linked into a network of cavern complexes and smugglers’ tunnels as well. And this isn’t the only half-finished hive ruin on Ulaisse hosting mobs of Imperial refugees and cast-offs, either.”

“Sounds like you’ve got an army of your own, jus’ about,” Applejack remarked.

“As if,” Erin snorted. “We rarely coordinate or work with the other groups. Tensions are high, supplies are scarce, and many camps have more guns than rations and good sense. But even if we could mingle for more than a day without someone getting robbed or killed, even if we could unite – all of us – against the Imperials hunting us down, we still wouldn’t stand a chance against them.”

“She’s correct,” Dest grunted, slowing to glower at a man who seemed to be sneaking up behind the procession of guests. “Look at how easily we overcame their defenses. They are not capable of repelling a determined assault upon their slums.” The man shrunk back and then slunk away toward the wall without explanation. “It’s a wonder you’ve survived for this long.”

“Part of it has to do with being well-hidden, but honestly the Imperium only started making a serious effort to hunt us down recently,” Erin admitted.

“Why is that? What happened?” Twilight asked.

“Byron can explain it when you meet him, I think,” the refugee said, “but what matters is that the Imperial defense forces are launching more expeditions every day, and every time someone fends them off they return with tenfold the number and firepower. We trapped the vault entrances, we’ve picked off scouts, we’ve collapsed tunnels, we’ve reduced the number of scavenger teams… it doesn’t matter. Eventually they’ll get here, too. Just a question of whether they gun us all down on the spot or ship us to the mines on the fourth planet.”

“By the time they get here you’ll all be long gone,” Twilight insisted. “We’ll get you out of here.”

Erin stared down into the firm, sincere gaze of the purple pony, and then looked back at Dest, a power armored giant covered in vicious blades.

“Get us out of here… to where, again?” she asked cautiously.

“We have a fleet. We care nothing for the crimes you may have committed against the Imperium of Man. And we have ample need of laborers,” Dest rumbled. “Your time amongst the 38th Company would not be easy, but we grant you that choice against the certain fate of being hunted and defeated by Imperial forces.”

“We can save you,” Twilight said. “Perhaps… Perhaps not all of you. We didn’t know what we’d find down here and escaping Ulaisse may not be easy. But we will help as many of you as we can.”

Erin looked bewildered, but then her eyes softened. “I… I’d like to agree. But I can’t speak for anyone else here. I’m not in charge.”

“Is this Byron person in charge?” Rarity asked.

“No. We’re led by Lady Nacellus. She’s the one who established this haven for refugees and ran the supply routes to the smugglers. We mainly have her to thank for surviving this long,” Erin explained.

“I see. Well, let’s meet with Byron first, and then we can speak to Lady Nacellus,” Twilight proposed. Then she twisted her head around to address the rear end of the procession. “And when we do, PLEASE keep your snide comments to yourself, okay Serith?”

Twilight waited for a response, but didn’t get one. “Lord Serith?” She couldn’t see the Sorcerer from where she was, and she turned around completely and walked over to Pinkie’s Dreadnought to check behind it. “Serith? Where did Serith go?”

“Who’s Serith?” Erin asked.

“He’s the other Iron Warrior who was with us,” Applejack explained. Then she glanced at the Chaos Space Marine standing silently behind Dest. “Er, the third, Ah mean.”

“I only remember seeing two Astartes,” Erin said.

“You don’t remember Serith? Twilight addressed him by name when he interrupted her to talk to you,” Rarity reminded her.

The refugee furrowed her brow. “I… that sounds right… but… urgh!” She suddenly placed a hand to her forehead and leaned against a support column, wincing.

“Okay, yeah, he definitely snuck off on purpose,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Did anyone else see him?”

“I’m not sure when Lord Serith left, but Mistress Trixie is also gone,” Suuna volunteered.

Erin shook her head and stood up straight, glowering down at Twilight. “Is this some kind of trick? Are they Imperial spies?”

“Definitely not,” Twilight replied. “They are, however, kind of obnoxious and not QUITE as devoted to saving you all as I am. I’d really they rather not be wandering off on their own.”

“I’m not picking up their armor signums. They must still be in non-detection mode,” Dest grunted, surveying the cavern. “There are several potential routes out of here. Should we begin a search?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not yet, no. We just forced our way into here and I’d rather meet this Lady Nacellus and Byron first. Besides, if Trixie and Serith are both missing, that means they’re traveling together, and Trixie is pretty good at keeping him in line.”

“… Really?” Rarity asked after a moment of hesitation.

“Please don’t make me defend that assertion,” Twilight grumbled.

“It sounds too dangerous to leave them. I volunteer to go search.” The unnamed Iron Warrior spoke for the first time, his voice a grating snarl.

Twilight turned to stare at the Chaos Space Marine, her eyes narrowed to slits.

“Don’t worry, Sparkle. I’ll make sure to stay... close.” Without further explanation the Astartes broke off from the group and walked toward the entrance to a side tunnel. Twilight and Dest watched him go, but neither objected or tried to hinder him.

“ANYWAY,” Twilight said impatiently, “take us to Byron, please.”

“Right… this way…”

---

Ulaisse – underhive ruins
Geocoordinates unknown

The sound of metal greaves trotting across unfinished rockcrete echoed lightly through dimly-lit tunnel.

Trixie walked through the side passage at a good pace, stepping around garbage lying on the ground and occasionally checking behind her. This tunnel had several blockaded rooms and exits branching from it, although most of the barricades and trash piles used to seal the entrances showed signs of being recently opened. Lumen strips flickered silently above, casting a weak, inconstant glow on the path while they clung to the last few scraps of energy they had available. A child’s laughter echoed from further down the hall, sounding almost haunting in the decrepit gloom.

Trixie’s low-light visor helped her make her way to an alcove tucked away behind a half-wall of trash bags. An old, rusted hatch was on the ground there, locked down with a simple mechanical seal. The lever to open the seal was attached to the middle of a length of chain linked to either end of the hatch and held taut, effectively locking the entrance to anyone without a means to break it.

Trixie sat down in front of the hatch, and a pink glow sparked around her horn. The magic energy coiled around the spike-shaped helmet casing, and the circuitry delicately carved into the reactive shielding started to hum.

The magic aura darkened dramatically, turning from a bright pink to a bloody red. It lashed out from Trixie’s horn, quickly and quietly, and two of the links fell to pieces. The chain went slack, severed on either side of the seal lever, and now useless to impede the opening mechanism.

Trixie reached a foreleg for the lever. A blade swung down from behind her, stopping barely an inch from her shoulder pad and hovering there.

“Where do you think you’re going?” drawled Serith, holding his force halberd with one hand.

Trixie flinched away from the blade, and then scrambled to turn around. “Serith! Don’t scare me, uh, don’t scare Trixie like that!” she protested with a gasp.

“You can drop your tiresome charade, daemon,” Serith snarled, “you barely fooled the equines. I know what you are, and how you got here.”

Trixie remained silent for several seconds. “… Well, this is embarrassing,” she admitted, “I thought I had done a good job! When did you figure it out?”

“I knew what happened as soon as you breached the Warp, but I began to doubt when Lady Trixie’s behavior didn’t change immediately after the crash landing. You didn’t take her mind right away, which was clever of you. But when we entered the shrine I knew I was right all along.” He shifted the force halberd slightly, so the spike on top hovered just in front of Trixie’s eye lens. “You did well enough to hide your nature from the others, but your mannerisms ring false. Lady Trixie would never ignore casual predictions of her servant’s doom, or remain silent for such an extended period.”

“I suppose you have questions, yes?” Trixie asked, her voice shifting to an almost sultry purr that sounded completely foreign coming from the mare.

“No. I have no questions,” Serith retorted, “I have a demand: leave Lady Trixie at once, her mind and soul restored to its condition prior to your infestation. Only then will I permit you to leave this plane for the Empyrean once more.”

Trixie stared, dumbfounded. Then she started laughing. “Oh, Serith! How bold of you! You truly are our sad, lost child!” The laugh sounded completely unnatural, like the creature inside the power armor had heard laughter described by someone second-hand before and was trying to replicate the sound by barking into the helmet grille.

“Lost child, hm? That would make you a Tzeentchian,” Serith hissed. “I would have thought your kind more skilled at subterfuge and deception.”

“Yes, usually. But it takes a… special sort of spirit to reach these ponies and eclipse their heart,” Trixie chirped. “But anyway, you’re being a bit too bold, aren’t you? If you were really going to get rid of me, you would have already skewered me. You can’t threaten me with banishment when it would involve killing your little pony friend…”

“I am not threatening you with banishment. On the contrary, defiance will ensure you stay here,” Serith retorted.

“Uh… here? In this… tunnel?” Trixie asked uncertainly.

“No. Here, on this plane. Locked in the Materium, trapped within some petty item created at the whim of our Warsmith,” Serith spat. “We have torments we can inflict on daemonkind much more permanent than sundering your feeble material shells. Perhaps you can live out the rest of eternity locked in a brooch or knife, or perhaps you’ll becomes some pony’s cursed wargear. Is that fate more to your liking, wretch?”

“That would still require my violent extraction from your friend here,” Trixie said, sounding slightly nervous. “If you let me complete my task, then-“

“I care nothing for your ploys,” Serith sneered. “You have heard my ultimatum, daemon. Leave her.”

“Why try and force the issue if it would mean hurting the pony? I’m telling you that I’ll leave her after I-“

The force halberd twisted suddenly, activating its energy field with a sharp crackle. Then it pulled back, slicing its blade across the neck of Trixie’s armor. She yelped in pain as the disruption field ate through the frame and grazed the flesh underneath, and she scrambled away as best she could.

Serith didn’t let her retreat, lunging forward and seizing the face of Trixie’s helmet with his free hand. Her horn casing flashed, flooding with magical energy. His gauntlet flashed in response, draining it almost as quickly. The dispersal rods sprung from the hidden sockets in the psykant occulus, and a deep hum reverberated from the armored hand beneath the shriek of scraping metal.

“Hey! Let me go!” Trixie shouted, squirming violently against the Sorcerer’s grip. Her hat slipped off and landed on the floor next to the hatch.

Serith’s visor pulsed with crimson light, and several cracking noises came from Trixie’s helmet as the other seals came apart. Trixie lurched backward and stumbled onto her side, while Serith pulled his hand away with the mare’s broken helmet in his grip.

The Iron Warrior stared down at the unicorn in grim silence, his force halberd drawn back for another strike. Trixie’s eyes, now finally exposed to the gloom of the tunnels, had turned from their usual bright purple to orbs of gleaming pitch. Veins bulged around her horn, easily visible through her coat. As daemonic possessions went it still qualified as being subtle, but no one could have mistaken this for Trixie’s natural self without her helmet to obscure her features.

“Stop this! You don’t know what you’re doing!” the possessed unicorn yelped. Her voice rose and fell in pitch seemingly at random, as if the daemon was still learning how to use a voicebox. Blood dribbled from the steaming cut on the side of her neck, darkening her chest fur to a muddy purple.

“You have chosen defiance, then,” Serith snarled, raising the force halberd in preparation to strike. “Very well.”

“Whoa! What’s that?!”

“Ah! Is it a machine? Should we tell Papa?”

Serith turned his head at hearing the voices behind him. Two young children, both of them filthy and dressed in rags, watched the confrontation in fascination. One was crouched atop an empty crate while the other peeked around the side of the container.

Trixie didn’t waste any time, and her magic lashed out to pull the latch lever while also reaching into the confines of her hat. The hatch seal opened, and a fragmentation grenade rolled out of her hat with the pin bouncing away.

Serith lurched backward as the explosive rolled across the ground, initially unsure what kind it was given the poor resolution of his low-light vision mode. A fragmentation grenade was almost completely harmless to him, but an anti-armor charge could easily render a limb useless if he was careless. A lingering glance at the weapon confirmed the daemon’s desperate ploy: it was a frag grenade after all.

“Hey, what’s that?” cooed one of the children behind him.

Serith dropped to one knee, and then slammed Trixie’s empty helmet down atop the grenade. The explosive detonated, and the helmet jumped in the Chaos Marine’s hand. A jet of hot dust blasted out of the bottom, and both eye lenses cracked as shrapnel hammered them from the inside.

He looked up just in time to see Trixie’s cape vanish into the access tunnel, and then the hatch slammed shut.

“Whoa! Are you okay? Was that a bomb?” asked one of the children, peeking out from behind Serith’s greaves. “Uncle Byron makes bombs. Should I go get him?”

Serith stared wordlessly at the hatch entrance as he stood up again, and then he lifted Trixie’s helmet to his eye level. The broken, empty shell stared back at him.

“Mister? Hey, Mister!”

Serith calmly mag-locked the helmet to his belt, and then walked over to the hatch to pick up Trixie’s discarded hat. Finally he turned to address the children directly. “Begone, vermin. There is nothing here for you.”

The kids seemed reluctant, but they drew back and then turned away to leave as requested. They moved with surprising speed and agility once they retreated, bolting through the tunnels and hopping over obstacles without stopping. One of them suddenly jumped onto a wall and ran across the vertical surface for several seconds to avoid an oily spill, which was a curiously advanced technique for someone that Serith estimated to be maybe seven standard Terran years old.

Serith watched them go until they turned a corner and vanished from sight. He lingered, still staring down the tunnel, and then finally turned around and started walking the other way.

---

Ulaisse
Underhive complex Sanctus Vellum

“Look alive, people! We have guests!” shouted Erin Whyd as she pulled open a large shutter blocking the path.

A pair of men with lasguns jumped to their feet at the shout, standing firm with their weapons ready. They watched in stony silence as Erin emerged from the entrance with an Iron Warrior following closely behind her. Their expressions faltered somewhat when a train of armored ponies followed behind the Astartes. They stumbled back in alarm once the Contemptor Dreadnought ducked into the room, its massive frame barely fitting through the doorway.

“This is our medicae ward, and over there is where we try to grow enough food to keep everyone alive,” Erin said, gesturing to one side of the room and then the other. The area reserved for growing was blocked off by several small doors, but the medical center was a section of open space surrounded by dirty sheets that were held up by hanging cables and scaffolding. The sound of high-pitched wailing came from within the makeshift tent, and the ponies hesitated.

“What… What is that noise?” Rarity asked cautiously. She was unfortunately as familiar as anyone with the howls and screams of dying humans, but this sounded distinctly different.

“Another birth. Honestly, I should probably call this the natal ward instead,” Erin said wryly. “We have so many pregnancies that if anyone gets shot or breaks a bone we patch them up in the barracks instead.”

“Wait, someone had a BABY?!” Pinkie shouted suddenly, the vox amplifier broadcasting her shout across the room. “There are human babies here?! I wanna see!” The Dreadnought immediately turned toward the medical tent, dashing across the room and causing the floor to vibrate with every step.

“Wait! Pinkie, no!” Twilight shouted in alarm. “Leave them alone! Or… Or at least get out of the assault walker first! You’re going to step on something!”

The Dreadnought dug in one heel, carving a meter-long divot in the rockcrete ground before it came to a complete stop. Then the head of the walker bounced up into the air, and a bright pink pony shot out of the gorget. Erin and the guards gaped, having no idea what they were seeing.

“I, um, would also like to see the human babies, if that’s okay?” Fluttershy said, suddenly appearing in a shimmer of colored light.

“GWAUGH!!” Erin lurched back at the sight of another pony appearing near her feet, and resisted the urge to draw her sidearm. “That one was invisible?! Just how many of you freaks are there?”

“If we’re talkin’ here, in yer tunnels, then there’s just one more, not accountin’ fer Serith and Trixie,” Applejack admitted. “But there’s a lot more freaks back on the ship, o’course.”

“Another one? Where?” Erin demanded.

“Ah dunno. She’s even sneakier than Fluttershy.”

A delighted gasp came from the medical tent. Pinkie and Fluttershy were peeking under a sheet at the edge of the ward, their backsides still visible to the rest of the group. Pinkie was obviously more excited by whatever she was seeing than Fluttershy, and after a few seconds of excited cooing she pulled her head back out of the medicae tent.

“Twilight! Babies! They really have human babies here!” Pinkie said repeatedly, hopping up and down.

“Stay OUT of the medicae,” snapped one of the guards, suddenly finding his nerve to address these bizarre visitors. “On orders of Lady Nacellus, no one is allowed in there except patients and caregivers.” He stalked up to the mares, glaring harshly, and they both quickly retreated back to their friends.

Pinkie jumped up onto the arm of her Dreadnought and then started climbing up to the gorget again. “Just think, Twilight! If we take them home we’ll have a bunch of human children around! We can make a Chaos nursery!” she said brightly before jumping back into the walker. The helmet of the machine slid back into place, and then the eyes started glowing as power was restored.

Fluttershy said nothing, casting a lingering glance back at the medicae tent. Then she ducked her head down and vanished from sight again.

“Yes, fine Pinkie. That’s great,” the alicorn said wearily. “Try not to get distracted, please. We’re in a hurry.” She turned to address Erin, who looked increasingly disturbed. “Sorry about that. Please, continue. Where’s Byron?”

“He’s probably in the workshop,” Erin said. “But before we go any further I really must insist that both your mysterious invisible friends come out into the open.”

“You may insist all you like,” Dest replied before Twilight could. “With every minute you delay your eventual escape becomes more difficult and costly. You will take us to this Byron, or we will find him ourselves.”

Pinkie’s Dreadnought stepped up behind Dest, it’s colorful, charm-laden butcher cannon scanning back and forth across the room.

Erin stared down at Twilight frostily, and the alicorn nervously smiled back. “Yes, well… while your concerns are obviously justified, we really do have to get a move on. There’s a lot we still need to know if we’re going to organize a way out of here!”

“… So be it,” the refugee said grimly, finally continuing along the path. “The workshop is this way. We use it to make weapons, as you might expect.”

“Like those strange mines outside the entrance?” Rarity asked.

“Yes. They’re very useful for taking out servo skulls scouting the ruins for Imperial strike teams without closing off the routes for our own use,” Erin explained. “We heard exactly one of them go off right before you arrived, so I guess they’re not as effective against a unit of power armored intruders as we’d hoped.”

“They still sting like crazy, though,” Rainbow Dash grunted.

“My apologies,” Erin said dryly. “We didn’t actually expect anyone to come help us, or else we would have been slightly more welcoming. Honestly, we were debating whether to detonate the tunnel entirely when we realized you’d gotten past the charges that were supposed to collapse the entry gangway.”

“Why didn’t ya?” Applejack asked. “Not to sound ungrateful fer not bein’ buried under a million tons o’ rock, but Ah don’t reckon ya had much of a chance against a Dreadnought otherwise.”

“That half-finished sewer is by far our safest route to the surface and our best path of retreat if there’s an attack on the refuge,” Erin explained. “Even then, we probably would have blown it except I had the missile launcher as a first resort.”

They walked past another stretch of hallway with numerous doors. Some of them were open, with the sanctuary’s weary residents peeking or gawking at the train of armored visitors. Pinkie waved at them cheerfully, her Dreadnought’s massive power fist swinging back and forth through the air. Rarity studied the residents while they passed, her eyes lingering on each of the women.

“… The people here sure are…” Rarity trailed off for several seconds, trying to think of the best way to put it. “… fertile for a populace on the brink of annihilation, aren’t they? You said the number of births was overwhelming your medicae, and many of the other women are showing. We’re around humans a lot these days, but I don’t think I’ve seen a pregnant one before today.”

Erin sighed and nodded. “Yes. Very fertile. It’s a bit of a problem, honestly. We don’t have enough food for everyone anyway, and most of the women here are eating for two.” She lowered her voice. “On the other end of it, it also makes it bloody hard to put together decent scavenger patrols. Most of the women are in no shape to make a run and the men keep using the long excursions to knock up the ones who are. Randy dolts.”

“Well, Wyatt did say the mercs could use some fresh blood. Can’t get much fresher’n that!” Applejack chuckled.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Twilight warned. “We need to meet with this Byron person first.”

“Then let me introduce you,” Erin said, reaching another armored door and stopping outside it. “Byron! You in there?! You’ve got visitors!”

The group waited for about a minute as muffled sounds came from within the workshop. Then the heavy latch lifted, and the door opened.

A man probably no more than twenty-five standard years old peered out hesitantly, and then gaped when his eyes fell on Dest. His hair was dark red with streaks of lighter brown, although it obviously hadn’t been washed in some time. His build was average, if not a bit lean from insufficient food, and his hands were stained with machine oil. A pair of spectacles sat on his head, and he clumsily moved them down over his eyes while staring in awe at the Iron Warrior.

“Th-That… You… Then it…” the man sputtered uselessly for several seconds and stepped out of the doorway, his eyes locked on the grim crimson lenses of Dest’s visor. “You… heard me. You’re actually here. I’m-“

Dest suddenly stepped backward.

“Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle!” announced Twilight. “I received your request for aid! I’m here to help you!”

Byron looked down at the purple pony, uncomprehending. Then he looked back up at Dest. He furrowed his brow and pointed hesitantly to Twilight. Dest nodded slightly, and then crossed his arms over his breastplate.

“I know it might seem confusing. You humans aren’t used to dealing with friendly aliens,” Twilight explained, “but we have the will and the means to get you out of here and bring your companions to safety!”

Byron continued staring for several seconds after that, and then his expression slowly broke into a smile. “This… This is incredible. It worked. It really worked! You’re here to save us! YES!”

“Yes, well, speaking of that,” Rarity interrupted, “what is the ‘it’ that worked, exactly? We still don’t know how you spoke to Twilight. Are you a psyker?”

“No. No, not at all,” Byron said, shaking his head. “I used a… well, an artifact. My name is Byron Hess. I’m a tinkerer at this refugee sanctuary. Not a tech-adept, or anything like that, but I know my way around military explosives, at least.”

“Both Byron and I are deserters,” Erin grumbled. “I was conscripted and brought to Adrast almost a solar year ago for training so I could be shipped off to die in the Imperial Guard. I… made some decisions there that didn’t sit well with the local Commissariat and I decided to take my chances in the wilds instead. Byron left more recently.”

“Ah, traitors then. I think we’ll get along very well,” Dest said, his voice a fierce rumble that immediately set the humans on edge. “But first we need to assess our circumstances. We must secure this artifact, meet your leaders, and determine how many of your people we can plausibly rescue. Assuming we can assemble an escape plan, exfiltration will be swift, and probably violent.”

“Well, you said you came from a fleet, right? Meaning you took your own ship to get here. How many can it carry?” Erin asked.

“The transport we used to make planetfall can currently accommodate zero passengers and crew,” Dest said blandly.

“We, uh, had a bit of a rough time on the way down,” Rainbow Dash chuckled.

“I… I see. Well, this isn’t precisely what I was hoping for, but it’s more than I was expecting.” Byron admitted with a weary chuckle. “Come. I’ll take you to the artifact.”

The man closed the workshop door and then led the party further down the tunnel, talking the entire time about the colony and its evacuation. His mood seemed to shift between grim anxiousness and giddy excitement sentence to sentence, in stark contrast to Erin’s consistently glum fatalism.

“As Miss Whyd said, I was part of the Imperial military in Adrast before I deserted. Unlike her I wasn’t really in particular trouble with them. I just… I couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Couldn’t do what?” Applejack asked. “Until we arrived didn’t y’all spend yer time fightin’ Orks?”

“They’re the primary target for the search-and-destroy missions here on Ulaisse, yes. But that’s not what I’m talking about,” Byron said. “About a month ago. Something… Something happened. There was some kind of incident in a barracks, or a garage or something. I have no idea of the particulars, but in response the government of Ulaisse began a purge.”

“A purge? A purge of what?” Twilight asked.

“I can’t be totally sure, but the explanation we were given is that we were searching for mutants,” Byron explained. “Adrast is a high-security settlement, so there’s always been lots of randomized inspections and scans such that we capture mutants and psykers more often and earlier than most other hives. But after the incident they took it to a whole other level. Inspections were stepped up tenfold. Officers were screened daily. Raids and seizures went from a weekly affair to an hourly one.”

“I’m sorry, can we step back a moment, please? I think we’re missing some context,” Rarity asked. “What’s this about mutants and psykers?”

“The Imperium does not tolerate mutants and psykers within the civilian population,” Dest interjected. “When physically aberrant offspring are found, they are put to death immediately. The psykers… most often suffer a fate to make them envy the mutants.”

“What?! That’s awful!” Rainbow Dash sputtered. Many of the other ponies froze in shock.

“Yes,” Erin agreed, her voice bitter. “They claim it’s necessary. I don’t know, maybe it is. But often the family tries to protect an aberrant child, and so they’re dealt with harshly as well. Entire households are often summarily executed or shipped off to the mines after being torn apart, all because of a random accident of genetics.” The ponies flinched at this, and Twilight gaped.

“But it kept getting worse and more inexplicable,” Byron sighed. “The stepped-up raids never found any mutants or psykers that I’m aware of, but the families were detained all the same. Hundreds, thousands of individuals were seized for no apparent reason, and they just… just vanished. Never to be seen again. No custody trail. No prisoner logs. No explanations. The officers and Commissars were ruthless with anyone who dared to ask questions or tried to help a citizen who seemed obviously innocent. Fear and paranoia spread throughout the regiments.”

He shook his head, looking back at the visitors with a sad smile. “I knew I couldn’t help by challenging my superiors, so I left. I found a family that was to be arrested and helped them escape. I heard of a refuge in the underhive ruins and made my way here.”

“But it wasn’t enough for them,” Erin growled. “They couldn’t let us rot down here in peace. They’re coming for us, they won’t stop until every one of us is dead, and they won’t even tell us WHY.”

“Dest, do you know what could cause something like this?” Twilight asked. “At first I thought maybe the Imperial forces were agitated because of the Iron Warriors’ fleet, but it seems this was going on before we got here.”

“I cannot say,” the Rhino pilot admitted. “There are any number of incidents which could cause an Imperial settlement to conduct more extensive purges. Most often they ramp up when some problem arises from a psyker or mutant that previous sweeps missed.” He shrugged his armored, spine-ridden shoulders. “Whatever the reason, the Imperium’s loss is our gain.”

“If your fleet really does want to offer us a trip off this moon, you’ll find plenty of takers,” Erin agreed, “present company included.”

“Of course! I’m just relieved we were able to meet with you without any violent misunderstandings!” Twilight said.

“Except for blowing me up,” Rainbow reminded her.

“Yes, fine. Except that,” the young Princess added quickly. “Byron, do you think any of the other refugee groups would be willing or able to join us for evacuation?”

“I don’t think so, no. We’re not on very good terms with each other,” he admitted. “Mostly they’re arming up to fight the inevitable Imperium incursion. If we told them to join us in escaping, they’d think we were leading them topside into a trap. None of them would believe us.”

Byron led everyone around a corner and into a larger room with an inclined floor. This room was completely unlit, and Pinkie Pie turned on her walker’s floodlight to illuminate the path ahead. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all roughly carved stone, with a few construction beams placed as support columns. Trash was everywhere, scattered across the floor and piled up in the corners.

“When I first found this place the refugees here were using it as a garbage pit,” Byron explained as he carefully advanced through the room. “Apparently it was already choked with debris when they found it. I organized a scavenging effort for useful scrap and parts. Then I realized there was something else here.”

He reached a small passageway at the bottom of the incline. “This tunnel was behind an armored seal when I found it. It took our only melta charge to break through, but it was worth it.”

“Possibly,” Erin added.

“Too small for a Dreadnought to navigate,” Dest noted. “Pie, disembark.”

“Okay!” The head of the Dreadnought tilted to one side, and Pinkie Pie shot out of the massive walker to land on Dest’s backpack. “Ready to go!” she announced, hugging the Possessed Marine’s helmet.

Byron stared. Erin also stared, although her eyes lacked the same element of baffled shock since this was the second time she’d seen the Dreadnought’s unlikely pilot.

“Please, go on,” Twilight said. “Is it much further to the artifact?”

“Is… Is nobody going to explain why a pink fluffy thing just came out of that siege walker?” Byron asked, pointing to the war machine.

“We can’t explain the Dreadnought, so we typically don’t try,” Rarity said bluntly.

Pinkie Pie fished around in her own mane for a second, and then pulled out a small remote control. She jabbed one of the buttons on it, and then the Dreadnought head fell back down into place. The entry hatch locked, and a chirping noise came from the war machine twice in rapid succession.

“It’s only going to make less sense the longer we wait here,” Twilight warned their hosts.

“Right! Yes. Sorry. Follow me, uhm, folks,” Byron said awkwardly, continuing into the tunnel.

The room beyond the tunnel was well lit at least, and the party trudged through the debris littering the passage while Byron continued describing his work.

“I’m not completely sure what possessed me to keep digging my way into the artifact chamber. Strange images haunted my dreams and mysterious whispers seemed to follow me through the dark,” Byron explained. “But I did keep digging, and after a few days of work we found it in this chamber ahead of us.”

“What’s ‘it,’ though?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I still don’t know. We have no name for it other than ‘the artifact.’ It’s obviously not of human design or construction, and there’s no obvious interface or mechanism with which to use it.”

“But you did use it, didn’t you?” Twilight asked. “You contacted me.”

“Yes. I… I did. There was another attack. Imperial forces deployed several macro-canisters of nerve-shredder gas and some of it made it to our tunnels. A dozen healthy refugees were dead in minutes, and we barely managed to seal away the poisoned tunnels in time to save the rest of us. In the midst of despair I think there was a point at which I simply sank to my knees in front of the artifact and began to pray. That’s when I heard… something.”

“You heard ME,” Twilight corrected him.

“Yes, I imagine so. I didn’t get a look at you, though, so you’ll have to forgive my surprise at my savior being an armored pony heretic,” Byron said with a slight chuckle.

“I assure you, no other manner of heretic would have deigned to undertake such an unlikely rescue,” Dest said darkly, idly reaching up to scratch Pinkie along her neck. The bubblegum-colored mare squeaked in delight, leaning into the contact and wagging her tail.

“We probably wouldn’t have been able to go either, but our Warsmith Solon was fascinated by what I saw of the artifact and wanted to recover it,” Twilight admitted.

Byron reached the end of the tunnel, and then stepped out into the room to clear the path for his guests. “Well, have a look for yourself. Behold, the saving grace of this refuge, and the key to our salvation-“

“Mistress Trixie!” Suuna shouted, suddenly bolting past Dest.

The artifact room was a large, circular pit with a central pedestal and numerous construction lumens set in the walls. The artifact itself was quite obvious: an octahedron just a bit bigger than a human head situated on the pedestal. It was made of an ivory white material, but it wasn’t obvious at a glance whether it was stone, metal, or some sort of other, more extensively processed material. It also seemed to balance inexplicably on one of the six corner tips, as if it had been glued in place or was supported by some other invisible means.

Despite the presence of the mysterious object, what seized the attention of the space pirates was Trixie Lulamoon. She was laying against the pedestal, unconscious but apparently alive. She was still wearing her power armor, but her helmet was missing. As a result, the entire group could see a shallow cut across the side of her neck; the wound looked relatively fresh, but at least it didn’t look like she was actively bleeding.

“Erm… may I assume that you know why there is a blue armor horse here?” Byron asked.

Suuna didn’t answer him, rushing up to the pedestal and dropping down next to her “employer.” She carefully checked the unicorn’s pulse, and then cradled her head. “Medicae! Quickly! I think she’s okay, but she’s lost some blood! I can see it dried onto her gorget!”

The sound of galloping ceramite greaves came from the tunnel, which initially perplexed the refugees because all the visible ponies had frozen in surprise. Then Fluttershy’s cloak fell, and Byron stumbled backward as the pegasus rushed to the side of the fallen pony.

“Wh-What was… d-did it just…?” he stuttered in confusion. “How many more p-ponies are there?”

“I think there’s another one on top of those two, actually. But they won’t tell me where it is,” Erin grumbled.

The rest of the pirates emerged, approaching the artifact and the mare lying underneath it. Most of the equines were concerned about Trixie, but Twilight reasoned that the magician was being well cared for already and kept her focus on the artifact.

Material analysis: ……… Error
Molecular scan inconclusive
Radiation analysis: ……… Complete
Isotope scan negative
Thermal scan normal
Particle scan neutral
WARNING
Trace psykant patterns detected

“A psychic artifact…” Twilight mumbled, staring at the data screeds that crossed her visor. “Do we know where it came from? I mean, other than this room?”

“No. As far I know it’s always been here,” Byron said. “I’m pretty sure it was found by excavation teams working on this corner of the underhive before it was abandoned. I don’t know why they left it… what few records I found buried in the trash pit were so corrupted and ruined to be basically useless.”

“Maybe it killed the workers who found it,” Erin suggested with a suspicious eye toward the object.

“I’ve seen nothing to suggest it is capable of such a thing, nor have I seen any human remains among the debris,” Byron replied in a frustrated tone that suggested it was not the first time he’d had this argument. “If it killed the work crews, where are the bodies? There would at least be some bones left over.”

“Maybe it disintegrated them. Maybe the corpses were eaten by varipedes and dissolved entirely,” Erin retorted. “I’m not saying the blasted thing is dangerous, I’m just saying that if it is, we’re not going to know until it’s too late. You handle enough bombs that you could show a little more care in dealing with weird alien crystals!”

“Well, with any luck it won’t be our problem anymore and you can bother the ponies about it from now on,” Byron huffed, walking up next to Twilight.

It was about at this time that an exhausted groan came from the mare on the ground.

“Mistress Trixie! Mistress Trixie, you’re all right!” Suuna said, gasping in relief and trying to restrain tears.

“Trixie sure doesn’t feel all right,” Trixie grumbled, cracking her eyes open. The first thing she saw was Fluttershy’s ram head helmet looming over her, and the magician winced. “What the hay happened? Trixie feels like she’s been sleeping for days…” Trixie’s eyes were bloodshot, and her fur looked quite unkempt and dirty compared to when they had last seen her.

“You tell us,” Applejack snorted. “Ya ran off without us while we were lookin’ fer the psychic gizmo, and now we find ya asleep right under it.”

Fluttershy backed away, retracting the needles of her narthecium. “Other than the neck wound, I’m not sure what might have happened to you. It almost seems like you’ve suffered a concussion, but there’s no external cranium stress.”

“Lucky you!” Rainbow interjected. “That’s the worst part of concussions!”

“Concussion? Neck wound? What are you talking about?” Trixie asked, squinting at the ponies around her. “… Wait, where did Trixie’s helmet go? And Trixie’s hat?!”

Applejack sighed. “Ah don’t suppose ya know where Serith ran off to, do ya? We thought y’all were together.”

“Serith’s missing too?” Trixie asked, groaning. “Do you mean you’re missing all of him, or just a few parts? As long you have the chest you can usually track the rest down.”

“I don’t think she’s going to be much help,” Rarity whispered to Twilight.

“If the Sorcerer is the only one still missing then we need to find him. Let’s not waste any more time,” Dest ordered. “Sparkle, secure the artifact and then go meet this sanctuary’s leader. The rest of us can split up to search the nearby tunnels.”

“Okay, good idea.” Twilight’s horn started to glow, much to the alarm of Erin and the fascination of Byron. A purple aura surrounded the artifact, and Erin took several steps back so that she was the farthest one from the pedestal.

Several seconds passed. The artifact didn’t move, and Twilight’s expression contorted into one of confusion, then concentration, and finally concern.

“We may have a problem,” the young Princess admitted, her horn dimming. “It won’t move.”

“Really? It’s not nearly as heavy as it looks,” Byron said.

“You touched it?” Erin asked.

“Of course I have. It’s completely safe, as far as I can tell. Also, it seems it can balance on any corner, not just that one! Haven’t really figured out how yet, but-”

“Someone is coming!” Dest barked suddenly, turning to face the entrance. His boltgun was in his hands immediately, although he kept the weapon lowered.

“Is it Serith?” Twilight asked.

“Negative. Multiple contacts.” He peered into the gloom beyond the artifact chamber.

“It’s probably some of our guards. It’s not like you were quiet on your way in,” Erin said, stepping up next to the possessed Astartes.

“I believe you’re correct.” Dest glanced back at Byron. “Do your people hold any superstitious aversion to this place?”

“Some do, sure. Enough that no one has stolen the artifact and tried to trade it for meat jerky and ammunition,” the young man said wryly. “We don’t post any guards or anything here.”

Erin squinted while she stared into the tunnel, trying to identify the approaching refugees. “It’s Lady Nacellus!” she shouted suddenly, backing away and holstering her own weapon. “It seems she’s come to meet us.”

“She’s not alone,” Dest observed, still holding his boltgun ready.

“Your squad is exceptionally well-armed and some of you seem to be witches,” Erin pointed out, “why would she face you alone?”

“Please try to keep all references to potential violence to an absolute minimum, please,” Twilight said anxiously, using her magic to quickly smooth her mane. “Dest, you don’t have to put your weapon down, but can you at least move behind us, please? You really tend to dominate the encounter, otherwise.”

The pilot nodded and did as requested, moving back around the artifact pedestal and standing behind it.

“Does anyone want to explain to Trixie who this person is and why we should care?” Trixie asked. “Trixie would really like to get a head start on finding her hat.”

“We don’t have time to get you up to speed!” Rarity hissed. “Just be polite and PLEASE, for the love of Celestia, don’t say anything!”

A woman emerged from the tunnel, flanked by four soldiers wrapped in dirty rags and carrying long guns. She was rather tall with weathered skin and wore robes that were probably at one point noble finery, but were now dirtied and torn from age and lack of care. She was much older than Erin, perhaps in her fifties, with graying blond hair and several blue stripes tattooed across her face and forehead in a pattern that probably held some unique familial significance. She cradled a baby in her arms; it was wrapped up in blankets and held against her chest so that its body wasn’t visible to the pirates, and seemed to be sleeping soundly. Pinkie’s eyes gleamed with delight at spotting the child, but she remained impatiently silent as the master of the refuge examined her guests.

“…… So, you are the ones that have come to aid us,” the elder woman said after a long pause. “Ponies. Huh. My guards told me about you, of course, but it’s still a remarkable sight to see.” Her voice was calm and soothing, and Twilight promptly felt some of her anxious tension melt away.

“I am Twilight Sparkle! For the purposes of this mission, I am the leader and your contact with the Iron Warriors 38th Company!” the alicorn announced.

“Twilight… Sparkle? What an interesting name. I am known as Lady Nacellus. I do hope you’ll forgive me for not introducing myself more… completely, but these are dangerous times to trust.”

“I completely understand!” Twilight said brightly. “As a gesture of our good will, we’d like to rescue you and everyone in your sanctuary!”

Lady’s Nacellus smiled broadly. “That would be quite a magnanimous gesture.”

“Yes, well, it WILL take some measure of trust on your part, of course,” Twilight chuckled. “I’m not sure how much of the situation in the Ghessheim system you’re aware of, but our fleet is currently plundering the hive world. We’ve already pierced the Imperial defenses three times now: first at the void refinery, then on the fifth planet, and now here, on Ulaisse.”

“This one was a little close, though. It’s gonna be a pain to get back out to the fleet,” Rainbow grumbled.

“They say they already lost their transport, but can still arrange a rescue,” Erin interjected. “Frankly I believe their story, if only because no Imperial spy could possibly be creative or insane enough to cook up a unit of space horses accompanied by some kind of mutant Astartes.”

“Two Astartes, actually,” Applejack said. “One of ‘em is missin’ though. He’s pretty weird too, but Ah don’t think he’s no mutant.” She paused. “Also maybe a third one?”

“Applejack, darling, tone down the honesty a little bit,” Rarity warned.

“If you truly can let us flee Ulaisse, then there is little to discuss,” Nacellus said. “We will do everything in our power to assist with an evacuation. What do you need?”

“We need to know how many individuals we’ll be expecting to take on, first of all. Then we’ll need the coordinates of a surface exit where our allies can pick us up,” Twilight explained. “Ideally the exit wouldn’t be actively guarded by Imperial forces, but I know that may be a difficult request. Fighting our way out may be our only option.”

“There’s an old smuggling tunnel that I use sometimes to make runs into the forest,” Erin said. “It leads to this abandoned Imperial shrine. The local forces have never found that entrance, to my knowledge.”

“You may presume that Imperial forces have now found that entrance,” Dest said.

“Oh blight, is that how you lot got down here?!” Erin demanded.

“Heh, yeah. Sorry about that. Not gonna want to use that exit again,” Rainbow chuckled regretfully.

“Unfortunate, but there are other routes,” Lady Nacellus said. “The forces of hive city Adrast have collapsed some tunnels, trapped others, and they guard the most often-used paths, but there are always more.” She paused to adjust the sleeping baby in her arms. “As for our numbers, you should expect to transport some thirty people.”

“Thirty? That’s a lot less than Erin said there were here,” Twilight noted. Their guide and Byron likewise seemed surprised at the number.

“Yes. There will be many that will not be making the trip,” Nacellus admitted sadly. “The children, the infirm, and the women too far along in their pregnancies will not be joining us.”

This admission stunned most of the group. Pinkie’s ears pinned down and her tail drooped. “Awwww… no Chaos nursery then?”

“L-Lady Nacellus, you can’t mean-“ Byron stuttered, only to fall silent at a shake of the woman’s head.

“I understand the ramifications of what I’m saying,” Nacellus said softly, “I have a contingency plan for those left behind. I have a pact with the deep pit skulkers and they can take over this sanctuary once we have evacuated. But of course the Imperial incursions will not stop…”

“They’ll be eradicated,” Erin whispered.

“Hold on, let’s not be too hasty here,” Twilight said. “We can take on some less capable people! At least, uh, the children should-“

“Lady Nacellus has made a difficult decision, Sparkle,” Dest interrupted, “but a wise one. Bringing only those of sound health and body will make the evacuation easier and also avoid further problems within the fleet. The Harvest of Steel is no place for children.”

“O-Okay, you have a point, but still-“ Twilight started, only to be interrupted again.

“My lady, please, reconsider!” Erin said, her eyes blinking away tears. “At least the youngest, who can be easily carried, should be brought along with us! Do you intend to abandon the child in your arms, as well?!”

Nacellus’s expression tightened, and she took a moment to hug the baby against her chest. “I do. I must,” she said firmly, a tear escaping the corner of her eye. “I have to believe that there is yet a safe haven on this world for them, but I must also look to the safety of the rest of the colony that look to me for guidance. In time, the pain we endure will be answered. But we MUST endure, and I will suffer with my people as always.”

“Are you hearin’ this? Did we really come all this way to save these cowards?” Applejack grumbled into her vox, tactfully switching off the external caster that would project her voice to the rest of the room.

“That’s a tad judgmental, darling. These people are being slowly exterminated by their own government. We don’t know what they’ve been through,” Rarity retorted.

“Ah’m sure they got their reasons, but it don’t sit right with me, abandoning their family down here so quick-like,” Applejack fumed. “She knows they ain’t gonna make it. We all know anyone left in this hole is doomed. They told us over and over.”

“Yeah, I’m with AJ on this one,” Rainbow Dash mumbled uncomfortably. “Like, I know we expect the way out to be dangerous, but we don’t KNOW that, right? It feels like she’s cutting these people loose before she’s even tried to save them. It’s weird.”

“Enough argument,” Lady Nacellus announced. “I have given you the number of survivors we will need to save. I will see to the arrangements of the rest before we depart. What more do you need?” Byron and Erin lowered their heads and stepped back, their expressions ashen.

Twilight gulped. She was also quite uncomfortable with the decision, but was also encouraged with how easily the refugees were cooperating. She had secured the artifact and the targets to be rescued. This part of the mission had gone as smoothly as she could have expected, and with some luck it would be over before nightfall.

“Y-Yes… we need any maps you have of the area. I imagine you’ll be guiding us directly, but planning a route will be important for contacting the fleet,” the Princess explained, trying to put the previous topic out of her mind.

“It will be done. We will bring our personal weapons, of course, but we have other armaments if we have more time to gather them. Largely improvised explosives. It’s nothing compared to your wargear, obviously, but they’ve saved us from oblivion more than once,” the elder explained.

“I don’t think it will be necessary, but they could be useful,” Twilight replied. “You probably won’t need much food or water for the trip, and I recommend leaving all personal items behind. But you’ll have time to gather whatever you have on hand for the trip; we still need to find Serith.”

“That will not be necessary, Lady Sparkle.”

The guards around Nacellus jumped and whirled around at the voice, aiming their weapons down the entrance tunnel. In the pitch black corridor a pair of floating red lights advanced toward them, accompanied by the sound of greaves crushing bits of rock and detritus underfoot.

Lady Nacellus turned with less hurry, and then tilted her head to the side as the Chaos Space Marine was gradually illuminated by the light leaking into the tunnel. “Hello, my Lord. I am Lady Nacellus. You would be… Serith?”

“Correct,” Serith said calmly, finally emerging into the light for all to see. The bodyguards backed away and surrounded the Sorcerer, but they lowered their guns without a word. Twilight bore an expression that looked torn between annoyed and relieved. And Trixie…

“Serith! You’re all right!” the magician said brightly, jumping past Suuna and Applejack. “And you have Trixie’s hat! Excellent! Trixie was afraid we’d find one of you and not the other! We’re all ready to get out of here!”

Serith stopped and stared at the blue unicorn. Then, after several seconds, he plucked the pointed, wide-rimmed hat from where it was sitting atop his halberd and tossed it at the ponies. Trixie immediately caught it with her levitation magic, and then carried it through the air onto her head.

“Well met, Lady Trixie,” Serith said. “I also have your helmet. But it is in… unsuitable condition to be used, so I will carry it for now.”

“Okay, sure!” Trixie chirped.

“Do y’all wanna explain just what happened that ya two ran off, got separated, and then found yer way here at different times with Trixie hurt and Serith carryin’ her headgear?” Applejack asked.

“Trixie already told you: Trixie has no clue what happened,” the unicorn protested.

“And I do not, in fact, wish to explain,” Serith added, much to the increasing agitation of the other mares.

“Sounds good! Now how about we get out of here?” Trixie asked eagerly.

“I will make preparations and get you those maps,” Nacellus said, turning away from the group. “I’m sure you have to prepare the artifact for recovery, anyway.”

“Have you touched the artifact, elder?” Serith asked suddenly, stopping her short.

Lady Nacellus blinked. “Me? No. I do not deal in such things.”

“Then what is the explanation for the dark whispers in your ear?” Serith said, much to the confusion of everyone else in the room. “The Warp clings to you, carrying thoughts of malice and deceit. Yet you do not command it. What does it say?”

The guards once again lifted their guns. Erin was completely baffled by the confrontation, but her hand likewise moved to her sidearm. Byron simply gaped and wiped off his glasses.

“Serith, what are you getting at?” Twilight demanded. She really wished she could simply blast off the Sorcerer’s head again and move on with their mission, but she didn’t think this was another of Serith’s aggravating games. The runic psyker was by far the oldest and most experienced of the group, and his talent for telepathy meant he could ferret out dangers that weren’t obvious to the rest of them.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nacellus said. “You speak in riddles. The Warp? Here?”

“If that is too confusing for you, allow me to ask you something simpler,” Serith hissed. “Do you dream, Lady Nacellus?”

“Is this a trick question?” she answered blandly.

“What do you dream of, elder? Are they images of your daily struggles, or is your mind taken with visions of the void beyond?” Serith asked, his voice almost accusatory. “Do you dream of spires of twisted flesh and chitin? A tide of teeth and claws? Swarms of ravenous locusts, stripping planets bare? Or a deep, gnawing hunger, fathomless in its scale, singular in its purpose, calling to you from across the stars?”

Nacellus looked alarmed as the Sorcerer spoke, and then she recoiled when Serith suddenly thrust his free hand toward her. Rather than unleashing any sort of harmful energies toward Nacellus, however, the baby wrapped against her chest suddenly jumped into the air, its blanket falling loose in the process.

“EEEEEEE BABY IT’S SO CUUUUUTE!” Pinkie squealed happily, not quite in tune with the mood of the rest of the room.

The child started to cry and flail about in the air. Its skin had a distinctive purple tint, and it possessed a third arm on its right side. Ridged plates covered the dome of its skull, and despite its age it already had pointed claws at the tips of every finger.

“What are you doing?!” Nacellus screamed, reaching for the baby suspended in the air. With a twitch of Serith’s finger it hovered slightly higher, remaining out of her reach.

“Is that a mutant?” Twilight asked. She and the other ponies were very confused by this revelation and unsure why it had made the Sorcerer so hostile.

“Yes, he is,” Erin said, glaring at Serith. “We’ve had quite a few of them being birthed recently. So what?”

“That is no mutant,” Serith said decisively. The guards still had their weapons aimed at him, but he paid them no mind. “It is no cruel whim of genetics that has shaped this child, but the willful and precise manipulations of the alien.”

Dest’s boltgun snapped up in an instant as realization dawned.

“This is not a refugee camp, sanctuary to the innocent victims of the Imperium’s iron fist,” Serith snarled, “this… is a Genestealer Cult.”

Author's Note:

Well I guess it wasn't much of a dramatic reveal since every single reader picked up on the foreshadowing from last chapter, so yeah its pants robbers

Sadly EZ isn't in great health these days, so I don't think we're going to see more chapter art for a while

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Eeyup, we gonna befriend the Genestealers now.

[Emperor of Jurai]

Genestealers eh....time to start a murdering.

[Neece]

Aww, Twiggles act of self-sacrifice in saving Solon from ostracism won them the tsundere somewhat-friendship of Silver! That pesky harmony is infecting indeed the 38th company, just like papa Nurgle likes

Pinkie would find the baby cute, indeed. Now onwards to Chaos saving the Galaxy from the spread of one more cult to the devouring swarm

I hope Suna survives this, but that demon's now likely in the artifact. It sounds like it could be wtaithbone, but and helmet made by Solon would be able to identify that.

[Portal of thought]

obligatory "There in the vents!", also let the purge begin or we might get Fluttershy taking up a similar title to the Queen of Blades

ether way next chapter gonna be fun

[Mitch H]

I don't think I've ever seen a W40K fic that managed to humanize genestealers or make them sympathetic. Even that fluffy chaos-snake story made the genestealers irredeemable except via dying and mass conversion via chaos-fluff. As much or more than Chaos, genestealers are the treacherous horror that justifies the Imperium's bottomless xenophobia and paranoia.

[Shoggoth]

Is EZTP ok?

Also, a great chapter as usual. I continue to enjoy Trixie and Serith being BFF's.

Is Rainbow finally having some sense blasted into her? Time may tell I suppose.

How will Twilight manage yet another well intentioned diplomatic disaster?

Finally, the second most important question: Does Pinkie's Dreadnought have a horn?

[egooo]

Ugh.
Serith, Serith, Serith.

Is it so hard, just for once be forthcoming with information?!

The knowledge that there was a posession and likely a daemon inside the artifact now is important to everyone's survival!

But, no, he seems to scheme and want to preserve Trixie's mental state in equal amount.
Fuk.

And I'm rather happy the team recognized the cult for what it is, even if not immediately enough.

I'd find it really weird if they go buddy-buddy with genestealers, however.
They already had bad enough experience with Tyranids before.

Here's to hoping the jeanstealers don't get to grab some of that sweet, sweet changeling genes walking about with a power complex and belief of utter invincibility.
That one would end up bad.

The named characters, the deserters, seem like nice people.
Would be a shame to see them die, but they are kinda tripping a lot of red flags too.

[N4rwh41]

10895290
Unfortunately, that's not how tyranids work. They don't really do the whole "spring hive-queen" thing, with the Norn Qu3ens being less personable nexuses of the hive and more akin to a glorified gene bank.

[Nevermore777]

Oh boy, this is going to be fun. I’m guess The thirty are the infected, or are they perhaps collaborators? Can’t tell if Erin and Byron have been infected or if they’re just ignorant and don’t understand who they are working for.

And the only reason I think that is the complete lack of a Patriarch seemingly, though they may be about to show themselves. It kind of seems like this Cult has been decapitated and might not have any pure Genestealers anymore.

[Nevermore777]

And Sliver going full tsundere is hilarious. He really does care as much as he hates that he does.

[Nevermore777]

I will say, well the twist of the Genestealers was somewhat obvious or a clear contender, the twist with Trixie being possessed is also really cool.

[DracoDarastrix]

I had my suspicion that this was a genestealer cult half way in the chapter. Well done sir, well done.

[Mix-up]

Yes... Friendship is finally starting worm itself into Sliver's heart and reveal it's secrets and truth before him

I would have thought that Ponies would count more as Mutants, abhumans of sorts or genetical modified live stock more then Xenos.

Well I only got the hint that this this was a Gene Stealer cult When Serif confronter her, but I should have guessed their were a Gcult from the start, still I did like the revile about them, I wonder if they are also a Chaos Genestealer Cult as well? I doner what is the artifact and the deamon's plan with it, I am guessing they want Twilight and plan to use that machine against her maybe turn her to Chaos finally. I can't wait to see how they will convince Shy to murder all those Gene babies, unless they can already start attacking them nearly from birth.

[Sarraceno]

Well, this is quite a cliffhanger. Ponies are well aware of what are the genestealers... this can be another line to be crossed for them, another cruel lesson of the galaxy to be taught to them.... This will end in tears

Also, Sliver trying to look hard and unconcerned

Also interested on what happened to Trixie

[Sarraceno]

10895410
The thing of the genestealer infection is that victim senses are somewhat unaware, they see the increased birth rate as something normal, just to begin with. The infection also makes them fiercely (beyond the normal, that is) protective of their mutant spawn, even if they looks like a plush genestealer. Probably almost all the colony is infected to some degree

[Uros]

Will the more human genestealers survive? Will any of the human refugees? Learn of their (possiblydarkandhorridfate) in the next and exciting episode... IN THREE MONTHS (Or more)!

But seriously, good chapter. Now I can't wait for the next.

[SFaccountant]

10895373
I don't think anything could possibly make Genestealers sympathetic. IMO they're the most terrifying nightmare monstrosities the galaxy over. They use treachery, manipulation, brainwashing, and an infection method that's way too close to rape, all for the purpose of making the native populations a little more chewable once the hive fleets arrive

10895382
He said he was sick (he said it wasn't COVID) and the recovery wasn't yet over. He's still answering DeviantArt notes, at least.

10895387
Unfortunately Serith got the cut-rate course in friendship from the local traveling magician, and isn't up to speed on the parts about trust (also, he hates everyone except Trixie so)
At least he didn't decide to keep the knowledge of the Genestealer Cult to himself or wait for a more advantageous opportunity

10895410
Oh, there's probably a Patriarch. They just learned that the cult existed; nobody there knows how big it is or where it's based. It could be a handful of people in that sanctuary or it could be pulling the strings of every dissident camp outside the hive city. I guess they'll find out eventually!

10895426
There was an amulet that tipped off most people in the last chapter, but if you didn't catch that there were a few other clues.

10895448
Nobody actually knows if Equestrian ponies were created from modified Terran equines or if they're a completely unique alien species. They're guessing aliens only because a modified species would leave behind a lot more proof and they haven't found much.

10895486
Trixie was possessed by a daemon.
Trixie got better.
Everything's fine now, no need to worry, just forget anything happened please

[Nevermore777]

10895526
Genestealers, or rather the Cults themselves instead of the actual Purebreds who start them, are in the same interesting grimdark sympathy as Chaos and even the Imperium itself. They’re all horrifically messed up, but you kind of feel sorry for them all because very few of them really had choice in the matter.

The fact that a lot of the Cults are essentially normal humans or just specifically designed mutants that got fully brainwashed, and are fully convinced that they are doing the right thing which is honestly kind of more messed up than Chaos which at least has some honesty in what it’s about or you figure it out pretty quickly but to late.

The Cults on the other hand live fully convinced that everything they are doing is good and in the event that succeed, continue believing it right until just before the Nids munch them too. It’s a sympathetic aspect to them that I feel like a lot media that includes them doesn’t really try to capture but this one has quite nicely.

[Cascades]

“I… I have accesss to the noosspheric duty rossterss, of coursse,” Sliver said, trying to sound stern but failing. “I needed to enssure that I… I could deploy a sstrike force, if necesssary! Sso I wass… checking on them.”

Oho, is Silver showing some concern for the ponies now?

[DarkhorseGunner]

10895410
It takes only one person infected or a hybrid to start a cult. Eventually, a Patriarch will arise from the firstborn purestrain genestealer and it will cascade from there.

[PuppetXMaster]

WOOOOOOOOO!

10895290
i would so love that

[geomease]

Oh my god its gene stealers!! …

As someone who only knows of warhammer through fanfic crossovers what are genestealers? Are they tyranids?

[Nevermore777]

10895806
Yes. They are a sub faction of Tyrannid who specializes in espionage and infiltration. They are a lot more independent that the rest of the Nids, and infest ships and such. They infect members of sapient race (humans most of the time but I believe it’s nearly any species) which drags them into their hivemind and causes their kids to be Genestealer hybrids. They form a Cult on planets, which is what we have here, and undermine and sabotage the occupying forces before sending out a Psychic signal to the a High Fleet, who then come and munch the planet. This is largely why they are so dangerous.

So. Very very bad. What they lack in the raw Nid numbers they make up for by actually being able use technology as well as being far smarter and capable of independent action than your normal Nid swarm.

[Nevermore777]

So, how is this going to go down? I have a few guesses.

The first obvious one is that they kill them all and escape and then have to deal with Genestealers on top of Imperials. The cover art shows Sisters of Battle, and we know there’s a Hive Fleet somewhere really just smashing the Imperium as only Nids can. I’m going to guess that those Sisters are either fighting the Nids, who get somehow redirected here by the Cult, and end up in conflict with the Iron Warriors too; or that they are heading there as reinforcements and end up redirecting to here because of Chaos.

I’ll admit, I don’t know to much about the Sisters, so I don’t know if they’re really stupid enough to think Chaos Pirates are a more pressing concern than a freaking Hive Fleet. Or they could being going their to kill the Cult themselves.

Another option is that Twilight somehow turns the Cult against the Nids and recruits them. Could happen a few possible ways. One is they off the leadership and Chrysalis takes over through Changeling mindfuckery. Another is Twilight gives the Patriarch the mother of all Friendship Speeches and convinced him to turn on the Nids. Unlikely, but could happen. Patriarchs have, rarely and not normally due to friendship, turned against the Fleets and gone rogue before. Chaos, especially Nurgle, would also probably help. The artifact seems to boost Psyhic powers, so maybe it could help somehow some way, and Twilight herself has technically already felt the Cult Hivemind deeply enough to get directions etched into her brain, so she seems to have at least some sort of bond with them now she might be able to use.

As for why, well, while Genestealers are dangerous, they are also damn good at what they do and would make ideal servants if the whole ‘calling the hive fleet’ thing could be avoided. They also breed like the crazy and the Company would never have to worry about manpower again. And Solon is honestly kind of crazy and has enough luck with unlikely servants that he may just try it cause why not?

[TinyPlaidNinjas]

SF LIVES! *stomp stomp*
SF LIVES! *stomp stomp*
SF LIVES! *stomp stomp*

[TinyPlaidNinjas]

10895448
There's a fan-written story here explaining how the equines came to be. It's not canon insofar as canon even has any meaning for fan-fiction anyway, but it's so good that it's canon to me. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/266565/5/iron-hearts-stray-shots-and-what-ifs/the-caged-maiden-and-grandfathers-children

[Sarraceno]

10895874
The Sisters most likely come, its like a matter of pride for them, heresy in the imperium is the main reason they exist. Besides they are a competent force that are self-contained, they may bend to the will of imperial commanders if it suits them.... and this is one case they may decide to go their way, besides while not always, they tend to have among them inquisitorial representation of some sort or Ministorum fanatics of some sort. If they sniff the presence of chaos they will go like piranhas trailing blood

[Arzoo]

Sliver was pretty funny. Seems he is annoyed that his favorite kill team is in trouble. On the plus side it's pretty convenient to have all the top leadership willing to take reasonable risks to retrieve you.

Of course, Intel regarding risks of an incoming hive fleet (a guy JUST sent out a psychic call that more than Twilight may have noticed, and this planet is already on the periphery of Tyranid forces) may compel an aggressive timetable on the exfiltration. The Intel they're getting here, even just knowing that the planet is infected and that the Imperium has known for a while, is probably more valuable than ancient relics; other than the Tyranids there's also the risk that an extermination force was already en route and the fleet is in danger of Imperial reinforcements far faster than expected.

Meanwhile I wonder how the confrontation with the cult goes. There has to be actual genestealers to be causing the babies, right? I'm unclear on if the mind control or whatever is something that can be fixed or if any of the humans here could be saved. Obviously the Iron Warriors will demand that none of them be saved now, since this is a not a risk you want to take, but we have yet to see whether Twilight is willing to treat them as damned so easily.

[SFaccountant]

10895991
The mind control is part of a deep genetic infection known as the Genestealer Curse.
Infected humans have their DNA manipulated and carry an instinctive urge to breed. They also work to assist the cult in other ways, because part of the infection is a kind of brainwashing that wipes away memory of the ambush where they were infected and forces them to assist the cult; subconsciously if they're unaware of the cult's activities and consciously if they are.
To my knowledge only Space Marines have been able to resist the infection to any degree, and there is no cure.

[Arzoo]

10896280
Wow that's nastier than I remembered. Seems even less likely there's any saving them, then. I guess they could become cyborgs to fix some of it? But if that's how it works then I doubt the Iron Warriors ever agree to bring them aboard.

[Pwniez]

So, what now? Is flutter butter going to seize control of the coming hive fleet? Is she going to ride into battle on a fukkin UNYUU-fex??

[SFaccountant]

10896422
A servitor's biological compulsions are necessarily neutralized when converted and obviously can't reproduce, so Genestealer-infected humans would still be perfectly usable as servitors but not any kind of cyborg that retains its free will.
But to be clear, the obvious conundrum now isn't what the Iron Warriors will do with the Cultists, it's what the Cultists will do to the rescue team. They don't take kindly to being exposed.

[Arzoo]

10896660
I was thinking more like the heavily augmented tech side of the human forces than outright servitors but maybe that's not cyborgy enough (edit: misread your post. Yeah if free will is the cyborgs cutoff for fixing this then there's no helping them). But you're right it's kind of irrelevant if the infected will generally attack upon exposure. The only question is if anyone remains uninfected somehow or if the cult has more firepower than they've indicated... And also what did the daemon do (my guess is it messed with or sent out a signal to the Tyranids).

Twilight is going to be disappointed, but as I said I suspect knowing what's going on here is incredibly valuable to the fleet, since it's Intel on risks they weren't aware of.

[Booster Spice]

Genestealer Hive Link verses Chaos backed Equestrians?

Are they going to end up with Pinkie doing the can can in the Prime Fleet and singing ten billion melta bombs on the wall or something, before Chrysalis eats the Primarch?

[SFaccountant]

10896798
That's way more interesting than what I have planned.

[Hey its that Pony]

I gotta say, there were a few moments that started to make me doubt how much of this group was a cult, but that got squished pretty quick when certain details came up. But that's just what a good gene-cult is, one your not sure is really there at all.
Wonder how much truth there is to there being multiple group/factions down there. Because, while the hybrids are one thing, I'm not super confident about our group needing to shoot there way through a hoard of pure strains. I've played Space Hulk: Deathwing, and that is a rough time.

The artifact is turning into a real head scratcher. Could the gang have hit the jackpot and stumbled across some Old-Ones tech? Assuming it's not an Eldar artifact. I'd assume it would be made of wraith bone if it came from the Eldar, but it could be something rarer.

The biggest question is where did the demon go? Did it buzz off back to the warp or is it hiding in the artifact? These are the most likely options but it's hard to be sure with warp creatures. And what the hell is it's grand plan?

[UrsaMajor]

Interesting. Obviously they were a Genestealer cult, but O wasn't expecting the possession or the weird artifact.

[Der Kaiser]

i cant wait for the after-action report.

[Bugsydor]

You like ponies, don't you, Sliver.

[verypeeved]

10895201 10895233
the duality of man.

[Venerable Ro]

10895874

I’ll admit, I don’t know to much about the Sisters, so I don’t know if they’re really stupid enough to think Chaos Pirates are a more pressing concern than a freaking Hive Fleet. Or they could being going their to kill the Cult themselves.

A Sister would wade armpit-deep through hormagaunts for a shot at a single chaos cultist. They're the militant arm of the Ecclesiarchy and they are even more rabidly fervent than that implies.

They also like fire. They really like fire.

[Emperor of Jurai]

10895412
It's not like I care or anything...-hoses person down with Nurgle's gifts- BAKA

[RanmaChaos]

Thanks for another great chapter.

[N4rwh41]

10909373
Turns out I'm a dingus. My bad.

[ABitterPill]

I wonder if all the refugees down there are aware of the Genestealer cult, or have been infected by it yet? Are any of them clean and can be saved? It would suck if they came all this way and couldn't actually save anyone from the planet.

What did the daemon that possessed Trixie want with the artifact? Why was the daemon so different from others? It didn't speak like your typical chaos daemon. I wonder if it's still there and Trixie has a new permanent roommate... or will by the end of this fiasco. And what is the artifact, exactly? Tzeentchian daemons considered it important enough to go out of their way to get to it.

Where did Chrysalis get off to, I wonder? She's nearby, but where exactly? That's going to come into play later. Also I still feel Chrysalis's character is continuing to evolve. She's seeing more, she's not acting as outright hostile, and frankly is trying to actually prove herself useful. She is out of her element, even if her pride won't let her admit it entirely. I am really interested to see where she ends up at the end of this journey she is on.

Is it strange that I hope when the Tyranids meet Pinkie Pie properly, that she is just as confusing to them and the Hive Mind as she is to the ponies? I would get a perverse pleasure out of her causing a minor mental breakdown of the Hive Mind as it tries to figures her out.

And Serith. Oh Serith... As ancient as you are... As old as you are, are you truly aware of what you did? You went out of your way to contain a frag grenade that would have done little to no harm to you, to keep it from harming some (apparent) children. You might claim it was to keep your diplomatic negotiations with the refugees from going sour when they died in your presence, but I think it was more than that. The ponies (Trixie in particular) has gotten to you more than you would ever be willing to admit, methinks.

It took me a while to read this chapter, but it was worth it. Ahh, I'm already hungering for more now that life is slightly less stressful.

Thank you so much for the fantastic update!

[SFaccountant]

10909906
I'm glad you liked it!

As far as the Tyranids are concerned, I'm not sure what Pinkie could do that would especially flummox them. To my knowledge the Hive Mind isn't concerned with analyzing aliens any further than what is necessary to defeat and devour them. I could see her throwing Tau, Eldar, and even Necrons for a loop, but Tyranids would probably be unbothered.

[ABitterPill]

10910374

I have only this to say: There is no eject button, but it's there anyhow. It should be impossible to remove entombed marines from dreadnoughts, but it happens anyhow. Dreadnoughts don't have car alarms, but it happens anyhow. She is Pinkie Pie. Your argument is invalid.

[SFaccountant]

10910662
You have a point, but I kinda have to conceive of such a thing in order to write it, and I'm coming up blank with Tyranids

[ABitterPill]

10911392

What if someone bet her that she couldn't cause the Tyranids confusion, with the prize for winning that bet her being allowed to throw a fully sanctioned party on the Harvest? Solon would make the bet, confident it was impossible. He really ought to know better when it comes to ponies by now. With that kind of prize on the line, I don't see her failing. Doesn't matter how the Hive Mind/Tyranids process information. No one is going to stop a Pinkie Party. Their logic is invalid.

The simple act of saying she cannot do something, that it is impossible, makes it possible. She is Pinkie Pie.

Anyhow, that's what I've thought during my lunch.

[Animatorsnake]

QUICK PROTECT THE JEANS!