Not even three days after the arrival did more battle brothers begin to arrive on the battlefield, it was a godsend. Already we had a full organization of battle brothers for the second companies, it was beautiful... and the absolutely lovely roar of bolter fire... It would make me sad when the thrill of battle was over because I could no longer hear the songs of angels from our holy guns.

But I am getting ahead of myself, one of our most interesting encounters with the changelings is when they tried to impersonate the Empress Celestia's adoptive nephew, Prince Blueblood the First. It was quite... a display when we found out that a changeling got to him.

-{DW}-

I stood alongside Empress Luna as we listened to the combat plans coming from what remained of the Empire, all we had were the Griffons, Zebras and Minotaurs, We had already lost the library of knowledge to the enemies' leader, and now the Cliff Wolves had gone into hiding after losing almost their entire population to the corruption that had spread through the land, The dragons seemed to refuse to help, some of them had even become more feral and joined the chaos which got my blood boiling every time I thought about it.

“They are making their way to this very castle, possibly even to the monastery of these warriors that have been appearing for you, it is still unfair that you refuse to help us by making our warriors like them to combat this threat!” The leader of the minotaurs, Chief ThunderPunch growled.

I placed a fist on the table to silence him, they had all known to fear the strength of the marines, “We would give you soldiers if we could, but as it stands the process is barely understood and we are still in the training stages for many new battle brothers, trying to make sure that they will survive the transformation.” That was enough to make them all get their eyes on me, “And as we are there are too few of us to fight on the front lines while keeping you all safe, too many risks are at stake to leave this place and fight, as much as we would like to.”

That seemed to appease them for now, but they would bring it back up eventually. I silently sighed as I watched them go back into the conversation about the defenses, the monastery had begun to function like a small town, a self-sustaining one fortunately, we had all the essentials at least... and a few more 'feral' livestock...

… what? We marines still had an anatomy close enough to a human... I ain't givin' up my bacon. And screw anyone who tries, I even got Luna to try it just because she was curious to how I could enjoy it, and she found that little piece of heaven that comes with every bite... although she learned real quick that she couldn't devour a plate of it without getting sick, so she resigned herself to a 'once in a blue moon' often.

All of a sudden a warning on my HUD began indicating the direction of the door just before it opened, revealing Lieutenant Blueblood, but instead of the usual blue indicator he was faintly outlined in red as my scanner silently began to examine him.

It was impossible, how could he be a defector? He was actually one of the most honorable ponies I knew... It did me proud the day he commanded his squad to flank the enemy and win us back Trottingham, THAT... was a damn proud day, it was what got him promoted to Lieutenant.

“Auntie Celestia... Could I have a word in private?” He asks. Aw, HELL no! Now that I got you in my sights you ain't going anywhere.

I saw Nick tense up just before I sprung, grabbing his throat and pinning him to the wall.

I'll admit... That caused a bit of a scene... not a big one, just one that caused each of the leaders to get up in surprise and get Celestia to begin asking me, quite loudly, what I thought I was doing.

There was a satisfying 'Ding!' from my helmet as the scan finished, with the Traitor struggling in my grasp, I had an almost demonic grin when I saw the results of the scan. “Terminating a Changeling...” I said in the dead silence that followed Celestia's outburst.

Now, I know what you're thinking... “Why didn't Celly just use her magic to separate us?” Well, that's because she found out real fast that when we do something, we do it for a damn good reason.

“A... Changeling?” She asked in a stunned tone, honestly, I was hearing that tone a lot these days, what is it with ponies being so... Trusting? I mean seriously, the enemies we have can DISGUISE themselves as our populace, why not get at least a little paranoid about that?

The pony, scratch that... Changeling, in my hand stopped struggling as he realized that I knew and I could see that lovely fear in his eyes, it was practically intoxicating, I knew that it was wrong, but that fear... oh that fear... if I could taste it, I bet it would taste like pecan ice cream. Why? Because that's my favorite ice cream.

“Brother Magron... Your sidearm please.” I say evenly as he walks over to me, nodding once before placing the grip of the bolt pistol in my outstretched hand. I brought the muzzle right up to the base of his horn. “You have five seconds before I pull the trigger... Where... Is... Blueblood?” I say with a growl.

One... The changeling looks a little like he's trying to defy me, as if daring me to do it, oh I hope that he realizes that he's got no hope.

Two... I can see him begin to sweat as he sees my finger adjust itself on the trigger.

Three... his eyes are flicking between me and the gun, oh this is going to be lovely.

Four... I can see that fear again as he is mentally ticking his time to live.

Five... “HE'S IN THE MINES BELOW THE CASTLE!!!” He shouts desperately.

“Thank you for your cooperation...” He lets out a sigh, and I simply let out a chuckle before pulling the trigger, getting his head to splatter and spread greenish-black ichor all over the wall.

I hand the gun back to Nick and he gives me a nod. Celestia looks a little unhappy.

“HE told you where my nephew was! Why did you kill him?” She demands as she nearly gets in my face.

“Because I told him that I would...”

“You said he had five seconds to tell you or you'd pull the trigger!”

I slowly remove my helmet, revealing the scar that ran along my muzzle as I look at her with a neutral look, “I told him that he had five seconds before I pulled the trigger... the information was just a bonus...” I say quietly before putting my helmet back on. “He's a soldier of chaos... the fact that he exists is the fact that ponies can be corrupted, I fight that corruption... You should as well.”

I began to see them less like the Empresses, and more like civilians that simply needed to be protected... well... I saw Celestia that way, Empress Luna still held a place in my heart... Although, Nick might be a tad upset that I practically insulted Celestia.

Oh well, better to ask forgiveness than permission and all that.

That night, I got a major talking to from Luna... She wasn't happy that I did what I did, and I'm sorry... but it doesn't change the fact that I would do it again and again. I'm not insane, I expect the same results, not different ones since half the battle is convincing your enemy they've already lost.

What was I getting at with that? I don't know, but anyways, back to the mines.

-{DW}-

I led the mission personally, with only Alhardir and Navarre as my support we moved through the mines quickly. My helmet mapped our path and displayed what was close enough to a minimap to help us navigate with only a few errors. I had brought along with me the one weapon that I chose to replace my bolter only because I knew what enemy we were fighting... I brought an Astartes Hand Flamer with a full tank of ammo, which I was just itching to use.

A green glow roused me from my thoughts of slaying more chaos monsters in the name of the Empress... es. Getting to the entrance of the cavern I saw my target, the few bits of goo that they used to light the place up also illuminated a pretty roughed-up Blueblood being 'questioned' by what could only be deemed a changeling captain due to how much more intricate his carapace seemed compared to the regular drones.

Despite our REALLY big size, our power armor is actually REALLY quiet, which made sneaking up on the group of changelings so much easier, they really didn't see it coming... When my blade sliced through three of their rear guard without so much as a whisper my Wraith marines made quick work of the rest of them while I busied myself with pulling off the wings of the captain.

On a slightly related note, changeling wings make that same kind of crinkle sound as paper does, which slightly disturbed me and made me want to do it more.

With him bleeding from his missing wings I took that momentary distraction to completely snap off his horn, well... maybe not completely... I left a jagged stub from where it used to be. His scream was absolute music to my ears... even if the others tell you it was like hearing baby mario cry... I found it to be quite pleasant.

“Well...” Blueblood begins with a smile, I can see a few of his teeth were knocked out and he's sporting a pretty mean bruise just below his left eye. “You all certainly took your time... What happened? Did Auntie Celly get mad about the changeling and try to make you guys look bad?”

“You know Lieutenant... I could Just leave you here...” I say with a very unamused tone.

“But if that was true then you wouldn't be down here... you know you love my handsome mug...” He chuckles.

“Yeah... Right, you have only a face that a mother could love.”

“The changelings loved it pretty good so that disproves your theory.”

“Just shut up and let me untie you so we can haul your ass out of here.” Let it be known, that Blueblood was the only pony ANY astartes was on what one would call friendly conversational terms... aside from Empress Luna and I.

“Welp, I'm getting pampered while I get my wounds healed.” Blueblood says with a smirk.

“Yeah right... We all know you hate that pampering crap, you're just interested in that adorable sapphire-blue nurse.” I retorted.

He simply shrugged as I hefted him over my shoulder, “...Well... You're right...” We all laughed a little, although my laughter could've been from when I was watching all the remnants of the changelings burning from the heat of my Flamer.