"Ouch" was the first thought that came to Antonius Varus' mind when he regained consciousness.
At the moment, his whole world consisted of darkness and pain. It took a few seconds for his hazy mind to become clearer. He realized that he was lying somewhere, his eyes closed. The attempt to open them was thwarted by his anguish.
This whole situation was wrong. A Space Marine should be able to open his eyes. He shouldn't even fall unconscious in the first place.
He couldn't get rid of the darkness, so he started to analyze the pain he felt: an almost electrical burning in every cell of his body. Quite uncomfortable, but it slowly faded away.
He checked his other senses: He could taste a bit of blood and smelled a trace of ozone.
He was familiar with that; the side-effects of teleportation. Now, his memory came back.

He had participated in the boarding operation of a Chaos cruiser and was about to teleport back when the charges they had placed on the traitors' warp drive detonated. Didn't he hear the explosion of the Chaos warp drive as he dematerialized? Well, be that as it may, he was alive. He had made it back to his company's strike cruiser.
The pain he had felt was gone by now, that meant there wasn't any teleporter-accident. Those were especially nasty and lead to new levels of agony, but he was ok. He smiled. Good.

He finally opened his eyes, expecting to see the ceiling of the teleporter-room, perhaps the ceiling of the infirmary. What he saw was... sky. Bright, blue sky, including fluffy, white clouds, everything with a tinge of red sunrise. Wait, what?
His smile faded at once. What had happened? This was clearly not the cruiser, this was a planet. But there wasn't any planet in range, so he couldn't be here. Yet, he was here. He sat up and checked his surroundings.
He was sitting in the middle of a small clearing of a forest. The trees looked old and dark. He heard the distant chirping of birds, but saw no animal.

A strange thought came to his mind: Was this the afterlife? He discarded the thought at once. In the afterlife, he should meet the Emperor to be judged, but this place had a serious lack of 'Emperor'. So he would proceed on the assumption that he was still alive, and had somehow teleported to this planet.

Antonius used the built-in sensors of his helmet to analyze the air. The main constituents were seventy-eight percent nitrogen and twenty-one percent oxygen. Some noble gases and carbon dioxide completed the mixture. No hint of poison, neurotoxins or other harmful gases. No sign of noteworthy pollution.
Terra-compatible. This was a terra-compatible planet.
He reconfigured his respirator to use the planet's air and took a breath. The air was rich, he could smell the surrounding forest and traces of flowers, really, this planet's atmosphere was more than just suitable, it was perfect.

He stood up and checked his equipment. His armor was covered in dried, black daemon-blood, but had suffered only a few scratches. His bolter was also in good condition, but the ammunition was not. The current magazine had twenty-one bolts left, and he had only one full magazine in reserve. Fifty-one bolts in total. Not much, so Antonius set the bolter to single-fire mode. The chainsword he got from his former sergeant of the 7th on their way back to the extraction point was fully functional, its promethium tank almost full. His combat knife was also in good condition, but he had no grenades left.

After this little survey, he thought about a plan what to do now.
He had to find a way back to his chapter.
Well, that was nothing he would call a plan, more a declaration of intent. There was a decent possibility that this planet had been colonized by the Imperium, it was terra-compatible after all. But the lack of pollution meant that the society here - if existing - was on a low level of technology. Not too good. But perhaps they had a working vox-system.
He activated his own vox, scanned through the frequencies and listened. Nothing.
He thought about sending a message, but discarded this idea at once.
What was he supposed to say?

"Hello, I'm a lonesome Astartes, separated from my chapter. Please come and kill me"?

So, no vox messages.
Antonius reconfigured his vox to only use the external speakers, not the radio. But he left the receiver on, perhaps he would pick up something later.

He looked around again. A light breeze was rustling the leaves of the trees. The sun was apparently just above the horizon, and a few meters into the forest, everything was dark. No matter where he looked, the sight was the same.
Waiting here would not be useful, but which direction should he go?
Damned lack of information. The only thing he definitely knew was that he knew almost nothing of this world.

Of course, the Codex Astartes had a standard procedure for such situations: Find water and food. Gather information. Stay undetected.
A scouting mission.
As a member of Vorolanus' squad he had some experience with that. With his usually bright blue armor, this would have been quite a problem, but the filth that covered him at the moment provided a good camouflage.
So he picked a direction at random and started walking, his bolter in his hands.

The forest was really dense and dark with a lot of undergrowth. It did not really slow Antonius down, although he moved cautious and quietly.
After a few kilometers, he discovered a clearing with a pond, fed by a small stream, and checked the water. It was fresh and clean, so one part of his quest was solved.
Also a good opportunity to clean his armor, once he didn't need the camouflage anymore. But for now, he would stay dirty, despite the fact that he hated being covered with the blood of one of those warp-spawns.
He committed the location of the pond to his memory and moved on.

The forest was still as dense as it had been at the beginning of his journey, yet now, he could see some animals, birds he had only heard until now and small rodents.
Once his targeting system had scanned them, their shapes were outlined by yellow lines - neutral contacts, moderate threat level.
If he didn't find anything more suitable, that would be enough for the 'food' part of his quest. Although he would have to catch quite a lot of the little critters, considering the amount of 'normal' food a Space Marine needed.
Of course, he could use his armor's nutrient reservoir in addition, but fresh food was a lot nicer.

Some time later, Antonius noticed a difference in front of him: Daylight between the trunks of the trees. He was closing in on the edge of the forest. He slowed down and advanced carefully until he could see beyond the trees.
There was a small cottage not far away, surrounded by various kinds of animals. A short distance behind it was a village or little town. To his left, he could see some kind of farm not too far away behind undulating grassland, surrounded by fields and a large apple orchard. To his right was more grassland and more forest. He concentrated on the cottage again.

Antonius could see rabbits, different birds, a tiny horse... with wings... WHAT???
His gaze was glued to this strange animal.
He analyzed the air again, just to be on the safe side. No sign of hallucinogenic substances.
It really was a little, yellow horse, with a pink mane and tail, and most of all, with wings!
A pegasus! What the hell was a creature of ancient terran legends doing here on this planet?
He watched the creature more closely. It looked somewhat strange, although not in a negative way. Its head was too big for its body and its eyes too big for its head. Small child pattern made flesh.
How could evolution create such a ridiculously cute creature? It looked like straight out of a small children's cartoon. A cartoon even older audiences would probably watch.

Antonius kept on examining the animal. There was some kind of branding on its flank; three pink butterflies. That meant it belonged to someone, but to use it as a mount, this 'someone' had to be really small. The horse was just as tall as his legs!
When he looked again at the mane and tail, he noticed that they were styled. Styled! This was obviously more a pet than a mount.
Pet-mane-stylist. Strange profession.

And what was the creature doing? It had a bag in its mouth and moved over to some of the birds. Once there, it set the bag on the ground.
Then it spoke.
In a female voice.
It really talked to the birds, with a kind smile:

"Here is your lunch, my little friends, I hope you like it."

Antonius just stared at the creature. Low Gothic. It was speaking Low Gothic.
The Astartes came to a realization: This little horse was neither a mount, nor a pet of an inhabitant, it was the inhabitant. A xeno.
He reflexively aligned his bolter. The reticle, displayed by his helmet's targeting system, was directly over the creatures head.
Antonius hesitated. What was he supposed to do?
The Codex Astartes had no entry concerning such legendary creatures from ancient terra.

Should he really kill this creature that was just feeding its pets?
Courage and honor.
The creed of his chapter.
But he would not need any courage to exterminate this xeno out of his hiding spot.
And he highly doubted that killing this creature would bring him honor.
Yes, it was a xeno. But was that really enough to justify its death?
He thought of the Tau and the Eldar, who fought alongside the Ultramarines from time to time.
He thought of the Jokaero, who worked for the Inquisition. The Inquisition!
So, being a xeno was obviously not enough to warrant immediate elimination.
But being a threat to mankind certainly was.
Was this little horse a threat to mankind? Would it please the Emperor if he killed it now while it was doing nothing hostile?
No.
He lowered his bolter.

As long as this xeno didn't prove to be a threat to mankind, he would give it the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps, he could get some information from it. Unreliable information, but better than nothing.
That meant, of course, that he had to make first contact. Oh boy... He needed time to mentally prepare for that.

Antonius was pulled out of his thoughts as he recognized a movement to his right. He turned his head and aligned his bolter. It was a squirrel, watching him. Watching him with strangely intelligent eyes. He lowered his bolter again. No danger came from this creature. The squirrel continued watching him a few more seconds, then it jumped down to the ground... and ran right towards the horse.

"What the hell?" mumbled Antonius,
"is this squirrel going to..."

Yes, it was. It sat down in front of the equine, squeaked and pointed its little paw at the Space Marine, who could just mutter

"Oh crap."

The horse looked in his direction. Had it already seen him? It said:

"H.. Hello? Who's there? C.. Could you please come out of the forest? I.. I promise I won't hurt you."

Hurt him? Fat chance.

The creature slowly came closer.
First contact was imminent.

Then Antonius remembered that he was still covered with daemon-blood. Not really good as a first impression.
Furthermore, he was not the one taking action. The xeno got ahead of him in that regard.
Not good. Rather the opposite.
He would make first contact when he was ready for it, not when a little horse forced him to do so.
So, Antonius retreated. Fast, yet with barely a noise. He left behind a confused and scared alien.

Author's Notes:

Here it is, the first chapter of the first fanfiction I've ever written!
Please be aware of the fact that I'm not a native English speaker, so you will probably encounter some strange formulations and errors.
That's why I'm looking for a proofreader.
If you are interested and perhaps have a bit of WH40k background knowledge, tell me.
Anyway, I hope you like the story!