His name was Lazarus Briehl, Librarian of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter. Not the Librarian that simply sorts books and watches a mere library; nay, Lazarus was one of the Chapter’s powerful psykers. His mind was a weapon that could mold matter, space and time to his will. He could look upon a man with his purple-blue eyes and read his thoughts as if it were a book. And he could read the thoughts of this small xeno with as much ease.

He walked down the halls of the mighty Omnis Arcanum, a ship which spanned 8,510 meters from bow to stern, clutching a cage decorated with paper and wax seals, describing many glorious and powerful litanies of sealing and security. Young Apple Bloom sat in that cage, staring at the darkness of the metal hallways with fear.

Lazarus could feel that fear, and he delighted in it. The small xeno would learn its place under the foot of mankind well with that fear. It would make breaking her all the easier.

But that had to wait. First study.

Knowledge was power, after all.

Lazarus walked open to a door, which slid opened as he approached, revealing a large room, inhabited only by a large machine with a glass tube, and another armored giant.

“Brother Gravius,” Lazarus greeted.

Gravius merely nodded, acknowledging him, but little else. Lazarus wouldn’t hold it against him. Gravius was a Techmarine, one of the few Space Marines that were trained in the use of machines, and the rituals of appeasing a Machine Spirit. Even now, Gravius was appling the holy lubricant to one of the many moving parts of the containment unit. He muttered under his breath as he did so, his ritualistic chanting never stopping as the massive, claw-like arm on the back of his armor held a censer of burning incense.

Apple Bloom looked between the two. The two seemed completely different. While the giant holding her had blue armor, decorated with red, the other seemed to be completely red; and while the blue giant had his face open and exposed to the world, the other wore a helmet not unlike the giant she had first seen. In fact, after a closer look, the only similarity between them was the black bird logo that sat on their left shoulders.

Lazarus waited a moment or two, letting the Techmarine perform his ritual in silence.

Finally the chanting stopped, and Gravius stood, the large, bulky claw folding down to hang from his back.

“Is the containment unit ready?”

Gravius nodded. “Yes. Brother Kasbiel had offended the Machine Spirit, it only needed to be appeased. It should function perfectly now.”

Lazarus nodded his thanks. “Excellent. I shall begin my inquiry with the xeno then.”

“And I shall leave you to that,” Gravius said. “Do not push yourself, though. This Machine Spirit does not suffer the touch of the Warp.”

Lazarus nodded. “I shall do what I can.”

Gravius nodded, before exiting the room, leaving Lazarus and Apple Bloom alone.

The blue and red giant then approached a pad, covered in runes that reminded Apple Bloom of numbers. He quickly keyed in a series of digits before the glass tube lifted with a hiss.

Placing her cage down in the center of the tube, Lazarus opened it and dumped Apple Bloom into the containment unit. The tube quickly closed down on her, keeping her trapped inside.

“Now, little xeno,” Lazarus said as a different rune-pad slid up to his hand, “you are going to talk…”

“W-What do ya want ta know?” Apple Bloom asked.

Lazarus looked up, halfway surprised. “You speak Low Gothic?”

“Ah speak Equestrian…” she offered.

Lazarus raised an eyebrow, before returning to the rune pad. “Unfortunately for you, however, I did not mean talk in the literal sense.”

Apple Bloom stared up at him, with wide eyes, confused and scared.

He felt both.

“A proper interrogation would take days, even weeks. Lately we cannot afford such a luxury. Besides, this way, we will be able to tell if you are lying.”

And then his eyes burst into purple light.

Apple Bloom’s mind shuddered as a presence rammed into her consciousness. It grabbed at her mind, ripping into her mental walls and forcing its way in.

Images flashed through her mind, dragged up from the depths of her memory. Equestria, Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, the farm, her home, her family, and with each image came a burning, mental song that ripped at her very being like a fork.

The song filled her conscious, drowning every thought and memory with a chorus that threatened to tear her in two.

She screamed.

But she could only hear the song.

The memories were starting to move faster, flying through her mind as the Psyker flipped through her life.

Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Miss Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville Castle, Canterlot, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Manehatten, Babs Se—

The images froze, and the song went quiet.

Apple Bloom whimpered in pain.

Princess Celestia shot back into her mind, before a new image, one of a man she had never seen before, shot into her view. He stood, a giant among giants in massive golden armor, and long, flowing dark hair.

Back to the Princess.

The man.

Celestia.

Man.

Princess.

Emperor.

The word smoked in her mind, hissing like red-hot metal dunking in water. It was not from her, the meaning was from the force outside her, the one that was forcing itself in. His mind tied the word to the image of that man, not hers.

The song stopped, and Apple Bloom sucked air into her lungs as she laid on the freezing floor of the containment unit. Frost clung to glass and the machine below her groaned and rattled angrily beneath her.

Lazarus stared down at her from outside the glass, the light in his eyes dying and a headache coming on. Hopefully Gravius would forgive him.

“This makes things difficult…” he muttered.

Apple Bloom shuddered, and curled up into a ball, before a sob racked her body.

Lazarus rolled his eyes. "Silence yourself, xeno. Tears will give you nothing."

Apple Bloom heard him, but she really didn't care.

Lazarus had returned the little xeno to her cage, and now carried her quickly to another section of the massive Battle Barge.

His footsteps echoed through the halls as he moved as quickly as he dared to his destination.

This little alien was proving to be quite interesting.

Too interesting.

Dangerously interesting.

This was a matter outside of his area of expertise. He needed help with this.

He chanced a look down at her, and he saw her curled on the floor of her cage, trying not to whimper as dull pain coursed through her body.

He shook the cage. "No crying," he ordered.

She wiped her eyes dry.

She was an odd creature, he decided. A child in her own world, and an outcast at that.

In many ways she was...much like another child he once knew...

He shook these thoughts away as he came up to the door he was looking for and knocked.

It opened to answer him, and a massive, black-armored figure with a skull-faced helmet filled the door frame.

“Brother-Chaplain Baltus,” Lazarus greeted, bowing as he did so. “I need your counsel.”

Gabriel Angelos stared at Librarian Lazarus Briehl for a long time. The Chapter Master's one, living, piercing green eye hardly blinked as his leveled his gaze at the young psyker, who tried not to shift under his gaze.

Chaplain Baltus Imam sat between them, staring between the two.

Apple Bloom sat on the floor, resigned to let these giants determined her fate.

Gabriel sighed. “Tell me again, one more time.”

Lazarus nodded. “I believe that this young xenos is, in her own way, a citizen of the Imperium.”

Gabriel nodded, his face impassive, before his massive, armored hands met his face. “And the explanation, one more time?”

Lazarus nodded. “While I was scouring her mind, I came across something very interesting.”

“Another xeno…” Gabriel said.

“Unlike any I had seen before,” Lazarus continued. “She was taller than any other of her kind, and inarguably the leader. A princess, she was called. Princess...Kelastia?” he asked, unsure how to pronounce a word he had only seen in young Apple Bloom’s head.

“Celestia,” she corrected quietly. “Princess Celestia.”

“Yes, Celestia,” the Librarian agreed. “Now, this one xeno was quite powerful, and was credited with raising the sun on this planet.”

“And you said that she actually does raise the sun?” Gabriel asked.

“The evidence does suggest this is so,” Lazarus confirmed. “Which leads me to believe two things, the first is that this xenos is from a different universe, one where the laws of physics that we know and understand do not necessarily apply.”

Gabriel nodded. “Possible, I suppose.”

“The second…” Lazarus paused. “Well, I hypothesize that it is possible that this Princess Celestia is another avatar of the Emperor…much like the Omnissiah of the...Adeptus Mechanicus...”

Gabriel glared at him.

“I brought this idea,” Lazarus added quickly, “as well as the young xeno to the chaplains, to both ask for their guidance, and correction should I be wrong, but...well…”

Gabriel’s eyes focused on the chaplain. “Brother-Chaplain Baltus?”

The chaplain spoke for the first time, his deep voice rumbling through the office. “I and the other available chaplains listened to the young librarian, and upon hearing his description of both the xeno’s power and her personality, spent many hours debating his points. When we finished, we finally decided that what he had said is possible, but ultimately we cannot be sure one way or another. So we looked to young Apple Bloom, and we have found her soul to be pure. Despite her form, her soul is human.”

The Chapter Master turned back to the Librarian. “And the part about her belonging to the Imperium?”

“Well, it’s mostly hypothetical,” Lazarus said, “but if this Princess Celestia is an Avatar, then the kingdom which the young xeno belongs is a part of the Imperium.”

“Which means that she is, by extension, a citizen,” Gabriel finished.

“Provided I’m correct,” Lazarus added quickly.

“Provided you are correct…”

Silence echoed in the small office.

“This does not make the task of dealing with her any easier,” Gabriel said.

“This is why I’ve brought her to you…” Lazarus said. “Her soul is pure, her mind is clear, and her body is strong, yet to send her to a new planet to be a colonist would be the same as a death sentence from the ignorant.”

The Chapter Master nodded in understanding.

“We could keep her here,” Lazarus said, “but I am confident that any serf could do any job twice as fast as her. This is inefficient and therefore unnecessary on that front.”

Gabriel sighed. “Duly noted.”

“Placing her anywhere else in the Imperium would simply bring the Inquisition down on her, along with a painful, pointless death.”

Tears began to form in Apple Blooms eyes. These Giants, these Space Marines, they didn’t care about her. If they did they would take her, keep her in some dark corner of the ship, and do their best to keep her safe instead of just trying abandon her like this.

She was going to die.

It took every ounce of control to keep a sob from escaping her lips, but she tried.

Tears were not looked upon nicely by the Adeptus Astartes.

Still, Lazarus saw.

He saw, and cursed himself for the pity he felt in his heart.

But the librarian was not the only one who saw.

“If I may, Chapter Master,” Baltus said, speaking up.

Gabriel turned to him.

“I would propose a test,” the chaplain said.

Gabriel’s brow furrowed. “Test? What do you mean, test?”

Baltus held out a hand towards the young pony. “Young Apple Bloom, I believe, may be a gift from the Emperor.”

Both the Librarian and Chapter Master shot him an inquisitive stare.

“This young one is very brave, willing to stare down a charging Alpha Legion marine, and had the strength to dispatch him, a feat that many grown men are incapable of. She has a strength that even she may not be aware of.”

Gabriel nodded. “Fair.”

“On a side note, I believe that we are still holding onto a malformed gene-seed, correct? One that has not yet been thrown out? What a coincidence...”

And then the confusion returned.

“And the fact remains that Young Apple Bloom is the proper age for implantation.”

“What?!” Gabriel yelled, standing, and Apple Bloom fell from her seat in surprise as her ears started ringing. “You want to implant our Holy gene-seed into a xeno? Have you gone mad?”

Baltus was well aware that Gabriel’s hand was on his bolter pistol, but the nonetheless he continued. “Oh, no. Not the holy gene-seed. That would kill her, if only because she is female.”

Gabriel sat back down.

“But the mutated gene-seed. Well, there is a chance she could survive that…”

Both Space Marines blinked.

“B-Baltus…” Lazarus said. “The...the chances of her surviving such a thing is infinitesimally small.”

“Not to mention a mockery of the Emperor…” Gabriel added.

“Under normal circumstances, I agree,” Baltus said, before looking at the pony. “But you can hardly say Young Apple Bloom is normal.”

The two Space Marines looked down at her.

“Thus the test I have in mind,” Baltus said. “If the chances of her surviving are so slim, then I am more than prepared to accept her survival as a miracle from the Emperor, and this Avatar Lazarus speaks of. If she dies, then we lose nothing, and will no longer need worry about her. If she lives, we have both an answer to our question, and a new Marine to help our numbers.”

Gabriel blinked. “Injecting a xeno with a mutated gene-seed…” a part of him felt sick at the thought.

“As a test,” Baltus said. “She will most likely die, but if not...then we gain a new Brother.” He glanced down at the young filly. “Or Sister, as the case may be.”

Gabriel shook his head.

There was silence in the room once more, and Apple Bloom slowly stood, staring up at them with wide, confused eyes.

Gabriel sighed. “So, xeno, would you be willing to join us? Would you be a Blood Raven?”

Apple Bloom didn’t quite know what that meant.

She just knew that she wanted to live.

Apple Bloom watched as yet another giant, this one dressed in brilliant white armor approached her.

She had been strapped to a massive, metal table, which sat under a single light and a circular tool rack, armed with massive needles and saws that were connected to cables to keep them out of the way.

The man in white moved slowly and methodically, picking up various tools and drills while ordering a small crowd of white-robed men.

They were all shorter than the giant in white, by no small amount, but they followed his orders with complete obedience. They shuffled and glided across the floor quickly, adjusting dials and preparing tools with long, metallic tentacles that slithered from underneath their robes.

“Veritas,” the giant said, addressing one of the smaller men.

“M’lord?” he asked.

The giant handed him a needle. “Prepare the recruit.”

Veritas hesitated a moment, looking up at the giant. “M’lord?”

“Yes?” the giant asked.

The man hesitated a moment more, before he bowed. “Right away, M’lord.”

Then he moved on to the table.

The shadow of the hood hid his face from her, but she could see the angry glint in his eyes. Another tentacle came up to her, and injected the needle into her arm. He spoke, low and a step away from furious. “Emperor forgive me for this sin I am about to commit.”

Lazarus stared on at the implantation room, behind a wall of glass that separated him from the room where more than a thousand Space Marines had been born.

He himself had been in that room, where they had implanted the 19 different organs that now seperated him from a normal man. He remembered those surgeries as if they were yesterday.

He watched as a long, flexible tube was then shoved down her throat.

It was as much to keep her from screaming as it was to help her breathe.

Gabriel and Chaplain Baltus stood next to him, watching as the small crowd began to gather around the table.

The Chapter Master’s face was impassive, but his living eye betrayed his interest. Lazarus understood, though. Ever since the Kaurava campaign, the Blood Ravens had been at less than half strength, a mere 432 marines. Any soldier to join their ranks was welcome.

Apparently even xeno soldiers.

He could feel the fear that was beginning to radiate out of her as the apothecary’s serfs descended on her.

He had known that fear first hand.

He quickly, almost automatically, squashed the sympathy that was rising in his chest. Sympathy was weakness. Weakness would not be tolerated amongst the Blood Ravens.

Yes, he knew that pain. They had all known that pain. It was that pain that gave them strength.

A metallic arm snaked upwards, grabbing a saw once they were sure the chemicals in her system were keeping her awake.

She would be awake, conscious, and she would never forget.

“At least she is young enough,” Gabriel muttered. “We’ve had too many that were too old. They can take their time with her.”

“Are you rooting for her, Chapter Master?” Baltus asked, a hint of humor in his voice.

“If she is a gift from the Emperor, then I will accept her,” he said. “If not, she dies, and saves me the trouble of pulling the trigger myself.”

The Chaplain nodded, satisfied with the answer.

Lazarus mentally agreed. Yes. If she is impure, then may her death be painful. That is how one is to deal with a filthy xeno.

Steeling himself, he sent out a tendril of consciousness to her panicking, fearful mind as her chest was being carefully cut open. “Remember this, xeno. This is what it means to be a Space Marine.”

“My armour is contempt.”—Imperial Thought of the Day

“Wow...that’s um...that’s kinda dark…”

Yes it is, your point?

“I...I thought they were supposed to be asleep when they did that.”

We’re not given any sort of indication as to what happens. Admittedly, though, I got this idea from C.S. Goto, and I thought this idea was perhaps the best thing he wrote in the Dawn of War novels, so I’m keeping that. Not much more.

“Goto? Who’s he?”

Someone you need not worry about.

“What, that bad?”

In said novels, he resolved the climax in a single paragraph, two pages from the end. And it was a pretty bad resolution at that.

“Huh…”

Yeah, don’t read him. Of course, most of this audience will know that by now, but I feel its something that’s worth repeating.

“Ouch…”

Anyway guys, be sure to comment and the like! We’ll see you next time!

“Bye!”