Hope descended on wings of flame.

Rarity could do nothing but stare in awe at the massive metal… thing in the sky above her. It was as if somepony had cut a train car in half, then strapped inflexible wings to the sides. It was bright red, somewhere just short of scarlet. All manner of strange pipes and tubes jutted out from it, all facing forwards. It hovered in the air for a moment before what seemed to Rarity to be the thing’s mouth opened wide.

Out of it leapt five strange creatures. They had the same basic body shape as the chanters, and their stony skin was of a similar shade. However, that was where the similarities ended. Each of the five had a massive growth on its back with two cylinders which spewed flame. They bore strange, winged tattoos on their chests, and were covered in all manner of ornate decoration; golden cords, wax seals, rubies cut in the shape of tears, and so on. Three of them carried small killing boxes, and two wielded long, metal sticks that seemed to have teeth on one edge. The other one bore what seemed to be a solid slab of metal on its right foreleg, and in its left, it carried something akin to a builder’s hammer. This hammer, however, was to Applejack’s tool as Celestia was to a newborn foal; it was massive, with a haft that could easily stretch from the creature’s hooves to its huge shoulders, and with a head the as long as a teenage mare and wreathed in crackling blue energy. The last two of these strange fire-winged creatures carried long tubes. The first three had similar frozen faces to the chanters, though the tube-bearers seemed to have been a different tribe, or possibly different species, as their faces were elongated, coming to a point and looking for all the world like the heads of ravens.

Before these five could descend even halfway to the ground, more followed. The first four of this second wave were similar to the first in colour and shape, but still distinct. Their frozen faces were a bright gold. One of them carried a sword akin to that of the foremost of the chanters, though it was a brilliant bronze in colour. Like the hammerer, this creature carried a massive slab of metal on its right foreleg. The other three were largely identical to each other, though more distinct than their red-faced brothers. Each of these three had a different face, one with a sort of snout, another with laurels sitting above the standard frozen face, and the third with a series of spikes running from ear-to-ear over the crown of its head. They each carried a different device in their hands: the first carried another bronze sword, and had in its right foreleg what seemed to be a smaller version of the tubes the first five carried; the second had what seemed to be a killing box if one were to cut the top half off and replace it with one of those fire-spitting pipes the chanters had; and the last of them simply carried one of the tubes its red-faced brothers wielded.

All this Rarity saw and processed in but an instant, filtering the information away for later consideration. For at that moment, her attention as firmly fixed on the last three to soar from the metal bird. Where their forebears fell on gouts of flame which were only metaphorically wings, these magnificent specimens were possessed of true wings. Two of them were bright gold in colour, with snow-white wings on their backs. Fire roared from their backs as they soared to battle. One had a small killing box mounted on its left foreleg, while its right foreleg seemed to grow into a massive hoof with strange, talon-like appendages on the end. The other carried a massive, blue-bladed sword and had mounted on its left foreleg a strange device with a glowing green coil on its top. The last of the winged three had skin as white as Rarity’s coat. Its wings were the colour of blood, as was the blade of its sword. A strange, complicated device sat on its right foreleg, which carried a jewel-encrusted golden cup.

The twelve creatures struck the ground with the force of a thunderstorm, throwing the chanters off balance and causing the last few pillars in the former boutique to collapse. One chanter cried out in pain, its body crushed beneath two landing creatures. The rest of the chanters turned their attention to the new interlopers, knives and fists at the ready.

What followed was as swift as it was brutal.

The gold-faced sword-bearer thrust its blade at the foremost of the chanters and shouted. “Ho, heretic! When your rotten soul faces your masters in the Warp, tell them it was Orlando who sent you!”

The sword-bearer, this ‘Orlando,’ lunged at the foremost. Behind it followed rest of the dozen.

Rarity watched in awe as these gleaming warriors leapt into battle, like heroes out of ancient myth. The toothed sticks began to whir, the teeth moving too quickly for the eye to catch. They and the sword-bearers rushed past Orlando, charging headlong into the fray. Rarity flinched as whirring metal teeth caught on the stony skin of the chanters.

A chanter fell, its skin torn open by the whirring teeth, blood spraying from its wound like rain. Another died half a moment later, a combat knife driven deep into its neck. One of the gold-faced creatures slung its tube over its chest and grasped the head of a chanter, twisting it as the gold-face continued its charge. A wet snap signalled the end of that chanter. Then the sword-bearing gold-skin made its kill, impaling a chanter on the end of its glowing blade.

The white-skin was next, its crimson sword flashing as it cleaved through the chanters’ skin like high-quality scissors through thin fabric. Two chanters died beneath the white-skin’s blade, their chests torn open and their blood cauterized by some strange force Rarity could not perceive.

The last two chanters struck back as fast as they could, slashing at the interlopers with their cruel knives. The short blades scratched the stony skin of their new foes, leaving deep gashes in their wake. However, if such wounds mattered to the interlopers, they did not show it.

The gold-skin with the massive hoof punched a chanter. The upper half of the chanter exploded in a shower of gore, crimson blood and hunks of flesh splattering across the field.

At the same moment, the hammerer struck. A flash of light and a ground-shaking ka-boom, and then there was nothing left of the unfortunate chanter.

The centrepiece of the battle, however, was the duel between the one called Orlando and the foremost. Their swords clashed with a great shriek. The foremost was vicious and brutal in its attacks, each blow swung with the might of a hydra’s bite. Yet it was to no avail, for the foremost had only strength on its side. Orlando matched it in brute power, and was an artist with the blade. Orlando moved as though dancing, deftly avoiding every one of the foremost’s wild swings, until at last the time for conclusion came. The one called Orlando raised the slab of metal on its foreleg and swung outwards, slamming away the foremost’s latest strike. Orlando then lunged forward. The first slash missed its mark.

The next did not.

The foremost died screaming, two deep gashes like an ‘x’ running across its chest. Its sword and small killing box fell to the ground, soon followed by its corpse.

The interlopers regrouped. Overhead, the metal bird roared and soared away, heading towards the centre of town.

Rarity gawked at the interlopers, her heart pounding in her chest. Now that she could truly consider them, she realized the true extent of their magnificence. Their bodies may have been strange, but they clearly had a refined aesthetic. It was not, however, perfect, and Rarity’s mind was already at work, designing improvements that would make them look exquisite.

“Rarity!” Applejack’s voice broke through the fashionista’s thoughts. Rarity turned to see Applejack standing over her, a worried look plastered on her face. “Ya alright, sugarcube?”

“Oh, Applejack?” Rarity mumbled, her eyes never leaving Orlando. Such mastery… wielding a sword like a needle and thread… “Aren’t they just magnificent?”

“Rares, yer bleeding,” Applejack said. The farmpony started poking Rarity’s head, checking the wounds. “Rarity, listen, yer bleeding from yer ears. I think ya might have a concussion. Rarity! Listen ta me!”

While Applejack groaned in annoyance and Rarity kept staring dumbly, the one called Orlando spoke. “Brothers! Rejoice! We have won a swift victory here. But be wary! Our battle is not done yet.”

Orlando leveled its sword in the same direction the metal bird had flown off in. “The vile servants of Chaos still infest this place, and it is our privilege to wreak upon them the Emperor’s Holy Vengeance! To the skies, brothers, and fly with the speed of angels to battle!”

“Just y’all wait a minute!” Applejack shouted, turning to face the twelve stone-skinned giants before her. “Just what’s goin’ on here? Who are y’all? Who are these?”

It was at this moment that Pinkie Pie chose to re-enter Rarity’s vision. “Yeah, and why did these meanies want to ruin my party? I had enough cake for everyone!”

Orlando and the white-skin looked at each other. The former cleared its throat.

“Greetings, strange, colourful xenos,” it said. It paused, as though it could not find any words. Then it sighed. “Brothers, let us depart. The battle is to the west, and I’ll not have us found dawdling.”

“But Champion,” one of the tube-bearers said as it stepped forward. “They are xenos. Does not the Codex say…”

“Still your tongue, Brother Severin,” Orlando said calmly. “You are young, brother, and have many lessons to learn. The Codex is wise, but it has its place and its limitations. The Chaplain advised caution, and caution I shall exercise.”

The white-skin chuckled. “Well said. Come on, brothers. Chaos is afoot, and my blade is still hungry.”

With that, Orlando turned to leave, and the rest of the interlopers followed. A blue streak, however, blocked their path.

“AJ asked you a question,” Rainbow Dash said, glaring at the interlopers. “Just who the hay are you? And why is Ponyville on fire?”

Orlando sighed. “Please get out of my way, tiny blue xenos. I have more important matters at hand than answering petty questions.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, only to be shoved out of the way by Orlando. Before Rainbow could react, the interlopers’ strange back growths roared with flame, propelling the twelve across the river and towards the centre of town.

“Hey! Get back here! We’re not done with you yet!” Rainbow yelled, shaking her hoof in aggravation.

“Rainbow, get over here, now!” Applejack called. “Rarity’s hurt, and we gotta get her somewhere safe. Right now, Ah think that’s Fluttershy’s cottage.”

“AJ, we don’t have time for that!” Rainbow flitted about anxiously. “In case you haven’t noticed, Ponyville is burning! We’ve gotta do something!”

Applejack sighed as she considered the situation. “Fine. Here’s the plan. Rainbow, you an’ Pinkie head over there, see if’n ya can find Twi. She’ll know what ta do. Ah’ll take Rarity to Fluttershy’s, then catch up with ya.”

“Alright,” Rainbow said. Pinkie nodded and raised a fresh pie.

“Sounds good,” she said with a strange, almost psychotic glint in her eye. “I have a special pie I need to deliver.”

As Applejack left her friends, carrying a still-dazed Rarity on her back and leaving her other two friends to save the day, she reflected on Pinkie’s expression. The farmpony shivered as she realized that had been the scariest thing she’d seen all day.
______

As far as days went, it had not been a good one for Twilight Sparkle.

Her admittedly fruitless research project had been interrupted first by a strange ripple in the magical field, and then by a mission from Celestia. That mission had turned sour, leading to a desperate escape from terrifying alien invaders. Then, horribly, she, Starlight, and Spike had arrived too late to save the guests at Pinkie’s party. And now they were trapped in a hopeless battle against alien invaders in the middle of Ponyville.

“Lyra! On your right, watch out!” Twilight called. The mint-green mare jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a volley from several of the alien killing boxes. Twilight aimed her horn at the crimson-skinned chanters and unleashed a volley of her own, driving them back a few steps. She turned to a trio of unicorns currently struggling to keep an increasingly fractured shield intact. “Come on, girls, hold on!”

Twilight poured some of her own magic into the shield, repairing the fractures and giving the trio a momentary respite. However, she could not spend more than a couple seconds on it, as she was needed elsewhere.

She took to the skies for a moment, throwing up last-minute shields for what amounted to Ponyville’s aerial defenders: half a dozen of the local pegasi, dropping debris on the heads of the invaders. If Twilight still had room in her mind to consider the matter, she would have wept; just a short while earlier, there had been twice that number in the skies. Back then, in the frantic early minutes of the battle, the pegasi had thrown themselves at the invaders, trying to pummel them into submission with their bare hooves. The invaders had proven to be faster than their slow advance and heavy stone skin had implied, and the remaining pegasi quickly found other avenues of attack.

“Twilight! Over here!” a voice cut through Twilight’s thoughts. She looked down to see Starlight calling up to her. Twilight landed next to her pupil.

Words were not needed; Twilight could see perfectly well what Starlight needed. The two leveled their horns at a quartet of advancing chanters. A flurry of magical bolts ground them to a halt, but neither put them down nor drove them back. If Twilight had been a more worldly mare, she would have cursed. It was the same with all the chanters; they could be stopped, but they simply refused to give up even one step.

Starlight breathed heavily next to her. “I don’t know how long we can keep this up.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Twilight said, her own breathing growing ragged with each minute. “If we don’t hold them, they’ll kill us all.”

“I know,” Starlight sighed. “I really hope Spike got that letter sent.”

The moment they returned to Ponyville, Twilight had sent her beloved assistant back to her castle to send a letter to Celestia. That was the last time she’d seen him.

“So do I,” Twilight said.

“Say, Miss Twilight, could I request some assistance?” Twilight turned to see Doctor Whooves motioning for her.

Twilight gave Starlight one last look. “Gotta go. Keep up the good work.”

Whatever response Starlight gave was lost as Twilight burst through the air. She kept low to the ground, using the ruins that had been Ponyville as cover against the endless fusillade from the invaders’ killing boxes.

“What is it, Doctor?” Twilight asked as she arrived.

“The Wall is collapsing, and I need somepony to shore up the bindings,” he answered. “I’d do it myself, but the sonic screwdriver won’t work on wood, and anyway I’m needed for the catapults.”

Twilight nodded and turned to the makeshift Wall the defenders had put together. Constructed from whatever could be found, from furniture to debris from buildings destroyed by the invaders, it was their last redoubt. Held together by chewing gum, magic, and the Doctor’s strange screwdriver, the Wall was surprisingly a sign of hope for what remained of Ponyville’s defenders. It had been hastily constructed after the initial counterattack had so horribly failed, and as the battle wore on it came to represent the ponies’ determination. As long as the Wall stood, so did Ponyville.

The obvious problem with this was, of course, that the Wall was structurally unsound and made of materials that stood little chance against the invaders’ killing boxes.

Sweat forming on her brow from the endless exertion, Twilight reinforced the wards on the Wall. It was not much, but it would keep it together just a few minutes longer, and that was all they could hope for now. Unless they got a miracle, Twilight doubted Ponyville would last another hour, if even that.

Twilight took a moment to look over at the last earth ponies in town. Almost twenty, all hard at work gathering chunks of debris for the makeshift catapults some local architects and carpenters had thrown together. So far, these were, after the unicorn’s magic, the most effective weapons the ponies had been able to muster. While the pegasi were good at harrying the invaders, it was the catapults that could actually stop them.

However, it was still not enough. Whatever stone the invaders’ skin was made from, it was beyond anything Twilight had ever seen. Hunks of rock shattered on impact, doing nothing more than delaying the invaders’ advance. Had it not been for the battle, the scientist in her would have been ecstatic at the idea. Today, it was infuriating.

A scream stole Twilight’s attention. A pegasus stallion fell from the sky. He hit the ground with a thud, still screaming. Twilight had to fight a wave of nausea as she saw what had brought the poor stallion low. Half his body was burned, and there were still flames on some of his fur.

“Starlight, cover me!” Twilight yelled as she dashed towards the Pegasus. She would not lose him; too many were gone already. Bolts of teal light told Twilight her student had heard. The lavender alicorn reached out with her magic and lifted the fallen pegasus. She skidded to a stop, spun around, and dashed back behind the Wall, killing box blasts exploding all around her. “Nurse Redheart!”

The beleaguered earth pony silently welcomed Twilight into the remains of town hall, which had been converted in a field hospital. Twilight placed the screaming pegasus next to a unicorn mare who had fallen unconscious from overexertion.

On any other day, Twilight would have stayed and tried to help. Today, she had more pressing matters at hoof. She exited town hall and turned her furious gaze on the source of this latest atrocity: the blue-skinned wizard.

Of all the invaders, from the red-skinned chanters to the rotten things slowly slopping their way to that one red-skin with the talons, it was the wizard who Twilight most feared.

The alien wizard’s spells themselves were nothing special, academically speaking: various methods of delivering fire from its hands to its foes. Dangerous, but nothing that a trained unicorn wouldn’t be able to handle. What frightened Twilight was not the spells themselves, but how the wizard was wielding them. Somehow, it was doing the impossible: casting spells without tapping into the local magic field. For all her well-honed and alicorn-magic-enhanced senses, even Twilight could only just sense a tiny disturbance before that wizard threw another spell. Even worse, Twilight had a poor time trying to block them; her shields could deflect volleys from killing boxes, but the wizard’s flames somehow passed through them.

Just another thing that made the part of Twilight’s brain that loved learning resented about this day where learning had to take a backseat to basic survival.

Nonetheless, even if she couldn’t block the wizard’s attacks, she had to do something. She was the only one who stood even a chance against that wizard. If somepony didn’t at least distract it, then there would only be more ponies covered in burns.

“Starlight!” she called.

“Yes, Twilight?” was her student’s response.

“Keep an eye on the Wall. If it looks bad, fix it,” Twilight said as her wings flared out.

“Wait, isn’t that…” Starlight tried to say, her words interrupted by Twilight blasting into the air. “Your job? Great.”

Twilight soared through the air, dodging killing box projectiles as she homed in on her target. Magic gathered at the tip of her horn. She may not be able to block the wizard’s spells, but she could still hit him.

The wizard was busy gathering another cone of flame when the first beam struck. It stumbled back, stunned. Twilight followed up with a barrage, beam after beam striking the wizard, every ounce of her magical might poured into the attacks. Slowly, the wizard fell back.

Then it looked up, a fire in its viridian eyes.

“So you come at last,” it said. “Good. I wish this embarrassment ended.”

The wizard raised its staff. Flames spewed from its tip, hurling an inferno into the air at Twilight.

She deftly dodged the fire and threw a few more beams at wizard.

So it continued; flames spurted into the air, and violet beams rained down from above. The two were locked in stalemate. The flames were too slow and too obvious to catch Twilight, who soared with the speed and endurance inherent in her alicorn body. The beams were incapable of breaching the wizard’s skin, and it seemed, like its brethren, to be utterly untiring. It was a battle that could last forever.

Then the balance changed.

A screech tore through the air, stealing the attention of every pony and invader in the field. All turned to see a massive, crimson metal bird soar over the town. The talon-hoofed invader roared with fury.

“Curses! The Angels come! Sons of Lorgar, servants of the Dark Gods, turn to the skies! Strike them down!” it commanded.

The chanters and rotten things turned their killing boxes to the skies, ignoring the ponies to concentrate their fire on the metal bird. Most of their attacks missed, flying off into the air. A handful of explosions littered the bird’s carapace, but nothing seemed able to pierce its protection.

Then the bird opened fire.

Killing boxes all over the bird pointed at the invaders and spat death. Explosions rocked the battlefield. Three chanters fell to the ground, torn apart by the fusillade.

The bird swooped between the Wall and the invaders, and without even slowing, dropped off its cargo. Then it flew off into the distance.

The thing that had dropped from the bird was like a massive metal box with legs and three long, sharp talons on each of its minotaur-like forelegs. A long metal pipe was affixed to the bottom of one of these forelegs, and a strange box with two pipes hung under the other. The metal box took a single step forward, and spoke, in a deep, booming voice.

“Even in death, I still serve!”

The metal box raised its talons. From the twin pipes burst a gout of flame that consume two of the chanters. The tube fired a strange orange-glowing dart that melted right through another chanter.

“Kill it!” the talon-hoofed invader ordered, its talons pointed at the metal box. “Get around it and destroy it!”

The chanters began intoning a deep, rumbling song as they steadily marched towards the metal box.

While Twilight was still processing this information, Starlight Glimmer made an executive decision.

“Ponies of Ponyville! Keep the invaders from getting past that thing!” she shouted. She thrust her hoof into the air. “For Ponyville!”

“For Ponyville!” the remaining defenders cried, their spirits restored by the arrival of this strange protector.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw the blue-skinned wizard gathering magic and aiming at the metal box.

“No you don’t!” she said as she dive-bombed the wizard with another barrage of magic beams. The wizard snarled and unleashed a flurry of flame after her.

The duel was back on, with renewed purpose; Twilight was still just delaying the wizard, but now, now there was a chance they could actually win this.

As long as they kept the invaders at bay just a bit longer.

So Twilight dueled the wizard, while Starlight led the other defenders in a last, desperate stand. Makeshift catapults hurled heavy chunks of debris. Pegasi dropped whatever they could find on the chanters. The last few unicorns pushed the last of their strength into a barrage of magic, slowing the chanter advance.

All the while, the metal box went to work.

“For Terra and Baal!” it roared as it stomped forward, its talons flexing. It sped up in its last few steps, slamming into the chanter advance with the force of a runaway train. The chanters sang, the killing boxes flashed, and some invaders threw strange exploding cylinders. It was all to no avail, simple annoyances as the box tore them apart one at a time.
________

Krev Gorudon was absolutely furious.

It should have been easy. The locals were weak cowards, unable to even muster a single warrior. They could not kill, and they fled at the first sight of his Chaos Marines. A simple attack should have left them slaughtered, sacrificed on the altar of the Dark Gods, while Krev himself could look for the mysterious power the Great Sorcerer Magnus had foretold.

So why was it taking so long to kill them?

After the initial attack, resistance had stiffened, grinding his assault to a stop. Warp bolts, too weak to even scratch the armour of his corrupted Astartes, somehow kept his forces from advancing. Winged ponies, so easily slain when they came in reach, now flew too high for his men to accurately hit, and so harried his advance further with rocks and logs snatched from the very buildings his forces were destroying. Then there were those plain ponies, the ones who should have been the easiest to slay! Through some sorcery they had assembled a full set of primitive artillery, and so furthered delayed his warrior-brothers!

Of all his warriors, only Iphotek was making any real progress anymore. His sorcery was able to bypass the ponies’ shields, and his warp-fire was quite capable of bringing the winged ponies down. At that moment, Krev was, in fact, taking no small pleasure in seeing just that, thanking Slaanesh for the sight of a half-charred pony.

Such pleasure dissipated just a few minutes later, when the lavender pony, the flying psyker, came soaring out of the tower to duel Iphotek. The Thousand Sons Sorcerer fell for the bait, and turned his psychic prowess from the battle to the flyer.

“How can you all be so incompetent!” Krev roared, firing two boltshells at a psyker-pony. To his irritation, one shot outright missed, and the other exploded pointlessly on that Warp-cursed wall.

His fury had only grown when the Stormraven arrived.

It had the oversized troop bay that he had seen all too often over the last year. Under other circumstances, he would have enjoyed a good laugh at the thought of the servants of the False Emperor committing what the ignorant Martians would call ‘tech-heresy.’ Today, however, it was simply another log on the fuel of his anger.

He mumbled a prayer of thanks to Tzeentch, the Architect of Fate, that only three of his warband fell to the Stormraven. He almost revoked that prayer when the Stormraven dropped a Dreadnought. Krev ground his jagged teeth as he issued his orders.

“Kill it! Get behind it and destroy it!” he roared. It was no use.

The Dreadnought seemed to have inspired the ponies for some reason Krev could not fathom. What hope could filthy xenos scum like them find in the Imperium? Truly, Krev thought briefly. These creatures are naïve.

But whatever mad reason the ponies had for rejoicing at the coming of the Blood Angels, rejoice they did, with battle. They redoubled their efforts, keeping Krev’s warriors from outflanking the Dreadnought. Growling with rage, Krev strode towards the Dreadnought, his ancient Terminator armour groaning with every step. When he was close enough he leveled his weapon and switched to the combi-plasma.

“Only through pain is truth discovered!” Krev quoted with a shout as he fired twice. The first shot struck true, but aggravatingly did nothing more than scratch the Dreadnought’s paint. The second shot misfired, overheating the weapon. Krev snarled at his weapon. “Useless trash!”

Then, as though Tzeentch himself had decided to screw Krev over, a voice he knew too well and hated just enough, entered his hearing.

“Battle-Brothers! Today we wreak our vengeance! Today Chaos fails!” Orlando, Champion of the Blood Angels IV Company, called. Though his head was hidden by his helmet, his smirk could be heard in his very words. “For Sanguinius and the Emperor, charge!”

Twelve Blood Angels slammed into the Word Bearers flank, destroying whatever semblance of order had remained. For a moment, Krev simply watched, frozen with rage, as his warriors died beneath Power Weapons and chainswords. Then he recovered.

“Very well,” he growled as he strode towards the new Blood Angels. He flexed his Power Claw. “If my warriors are so worthless, I will simply handle matters myself!”

Krev slammed into the Blood Angels like a thunderstorm of metal and death. Busied as they were by their battle with his warriors-brothers, none of them noticed Krev’s coming until it was too late. He chose as his first victim an Assault Marine carrying a meltagun. The hapless Astartes barely had time to turn before Krev’s claws had punched through his chest and crushed both his hearts. Krev laughed as the Space Marine fell dead to the ground.

“In the end, there is only Chaos!” Krev roared the quote from his gene-father’s unholy writings. “And all who deny that truth will burn!”

“Face me, traitor!” Orlando shouted. “Leave the Line Marines to their battle. Your death will be at my hand!”

Krev growled as Orlando charged, Power Sword raised above his head. Krev blocked the first strike with his Power Claw, then lunged for Orlando’s chest. The Company Champion fended off the blow with his shield. Both took a step back, readied themselves, then charged against.

For Krev, it was a refreshing experience. Nothing Orlando carried stood much chance of piercing Terminator Armour, and Krev’s only vulnerability was the slow speed imposed by his Claw. Orlando could land all the blows he wished, and would never do Krev any serious harm. Krev, on the other hand, simply needed to make one hit connect.

While these two masters of war struggled, the battle around them raged. In a way, the Battle of Ponyville had already ended; the ponies were for the moment doing little, afraid to attack lest they harm their mysterious new allies. Only Twilight still fought in earnest, dedicated as she was to distracting Iphotek. Her efforts were soon bolstered as Starlight leapt into the fray, adding her own considerable magical prowess to the duel.

Beyond that, however, it was now a battle of Astartes, a new front in the never-ending war between Chaos and the Imperium of Man.

Space Marines, Imperial and Chaos alike, struggled against one another in glorious melee combat. Chainswords whirred and combat knives flashed in the light of burning promethium. Priest Domenico tore through the depleting ranks of Chaos, his Crimson Knife drinking deeply of their corrupted blood. The Sanguinary Guards Durante and Flavio fought almost as one, the speed of the latter’s Sword Encarmine accentuated by the raw power of the former’s Power Fist. Sergeant Priam roared with delight as his Thunder Hammer crushed a Chaos Marine. The great Dreadnought Castello killed his fair share, his Blood Talons tearing through the armour of the Chaos Marines.

Not all, however, was uncontested victory for the Blood Angels.

One of their veteran warriors, Brother Cornelio, activated his Jump Pack and leapt over the ranks of the Word Bearers, landing right in front of the three Plague Marines. He thumbed his combi-flamer and unleashed a stream of fire. The Plague Marines grunted as the tongues of burning promethium licked their rotten flesh, but not a one fell. They leveled their weapons and returned fire. Cornelio’s armour brushed off the first few boltshells, but proved insufficient to stave off the heavy bolter’s fusillade. Cornelio died in pieces.

As for himself, Krev was doing quite well. Orlando still had not struck a single meaningful blow, and his strikes were becoming ever more desperate. Soon he would make a final, fatal mistake, and then Krev would have his victory. With his full strength behind the blow, Krev slammed his Power Claw into Orlando’s shield, sending him flying back. Krev laughed, savouring the moment as he slowly advanced on the dazed Champion.

For all its losses, Chaos was starting to turn the tide back. They were outnumbered and outflanked, but far from defeated. Given time, they still had a chance.

That chance, however, was firmly dashed just a few moments later.

“Sons of the Angel!” Chaplain Alessandro boomed across the battlefield. “Today we make praise to our Holy Emperor with the highest of prayers, battle in his Name! For blood! For vengeance! For Sanguinius and the Emperor!”

Krev made a sound somewhere between a snarl and a scream as he watched his accursed nemesis leading more Space Marines into the battle. Though none of the Chaos marines would admit it, their last chance was all but vanished. Over half his force was dead or missing, and now he was both sorely outnumbered and utterly outflanked. Victory was no longer an option.

Vengeance, however, was still on the table.

Krev abandoned Orlando where he lay. The Champion no longer mattered; he was annoying, but not the true object of Krev’s hatred. That dishonour was reserved solely for Alessandro.

“Five years!” Krev roared as he charged into the Tactical Squad. His Power Claw tore through the nearest Space Marine as he surged towards his target “Five years you have hunted me, interfered with my plans. No more! I am sick of your meddling, and today I will end it!”

“No, you accursed Son of Lorgar!” Alessandro answered, leveling his Crozius Arcanum at Krev. “Today will not be my end! The Emperor’s Wrath is upon you, and I am his Holy Instrument!”

Krev and Alessandro met in fury. Krev slashed through the Chaplain’s coal-black armour, his swift victory denied solely by the Chaplain’s Rosarius and its accursed energy shield. Alessandro answered with several swift and brutal strikes from his Crozius, battering Krev’s armour. The Terminator armour saved Krev from death, but even its might could not prevent the Crozius from leaving dents.

Alessandro retreated a few steps and shouted a swift order. “Dabriel! Activate the teleport homer!”

“As you will!” the Sergeant answered. He pulled out a small pillar and slammed it into the ground. “Homer active!”

To Krev’s already-volcanic fury, two new warriors materialized out of the Warp. One wore his Terminator armour in the same crimson hue as the other Blood Angels, a massive assault cannon underslung on his arm. The other wore armour of a blue colouration, with a deadly Force Sword in his hand.

“Took you long enough, Aless,” the Librarian Renato said with a chuckle. “Marco, Aurelio! Turn your flamers on the spawn of Nurgle. Dabriel, take the rest of your men with Paolo and reinforce Orlando!”

Dabriel gave a chuckle of his own. “Just like Farheld. Brothers, as the Codicier says! For Baal!”

Krev barely noticed these developments beyond the initial rage, however. His focus instead fell back on Alessandro. The both of them roared battle-cries and rejoined the battle, Crozius against Power Claw. A crash and a slash, a swift dodge and the creaking of ancient armour under a mighty blow. Back and forth they struggled, neither able to outdo the other. Somewhere deep in the miniscule part of Krev that still somewhat resembled the human he had once been, there was a flicker of fear. Alessandro was as much a master of war as Krev himself, and with the weight of a Crozius in his hands, he could be a threat even to the durability of Terminator armour. If Krev did not find a way to end this battle swiftly, he stood a good chance of losing, leaving his vengeance unfulfilled.

Such thoughts were banished in a flare of light, the sound of a mighty voice ringing in his ears.

“Enough!”
_____

As Celestia and Luna soared south, the Solar Alicorn’s mind was hard at work, trapped between trying to concoct a plan with almost no information on what was happening and struggling to rein in her powerful and wild imagination, which was creating fanciful and horrible scenarios that chilled her to the bone.

Images of dragons infused with dark magic played threw her mind, followed by a returned, somehow enhanced Tirek. Every horror she could imagine danced before her eyes in sequence, each image worse than the last.

Celestia shook her head. She was the Princess of Equestria, the longest-living ruler in history. She would not be broken by a bad night's sleep and a few unknowns. With an exertion of willpower she had not needed in years, Celestia turned her attention elsewhere. Her gaze fell on Luna.

Celestia felt a tinge of guilt. She was not the only one who cared about the ponies of Equestria, not the only one who suffered to see them hurt. Luna's pain and worry were plain on her face, as was the rage slowly building inside her.

"Be calm, Lulu," Celestia said, choosing her sister's nickname in the hopes it would lighten her mood. "Don't let the rage control you again."

Luna glared at Celestia. "I had a thousand years to learn that lesson, sister. I will be fine."

Celestia was quite sure Luna knew that she knew she was lying.

Before any conversation could carry further, they reached Ponyville.

It was far worse than Celestia had feared. Ponyville was not just in danger, it was devastated. Few were the times she had seen worse damage, and none save for Discord’s first return had been more recent than a millennium ago.

Half the town was on fire, and no more than a hoofful of buildings remained intact. The streets were soaked red with blood, and the bodies of ponies littered them. Roaring and screaming filled the air, terror and rage overflowing in every sound.

A fury rose inside Celestia’s breast that she had not felt in centuries, a thirst for vengeance, for battle, for b-

No! Celestia mentally screamed. She would not fall to that again. She was better, knew how to control it. I will not fall!

At that moment, Celestia wished dearly for a nice cup of calming tea.

But it was nothing more than a wish; tea and calming meditation would have to wait. For now, Celestia had a crisis to avert.

It had been almost six hundred years since she had last used the Royal Canterlot Voice, but the Solar Alicorn could find no alternative.

“Enough!” Celestia shouted. Her wings stretched to their full length, and she shone with the full glory of the sun as she spoke. The world itself trembled before her power. The battle ceased in an instant as every living thing in Ponyville turned its gaze to the skies. The ponies quickly shielded their eyes from the glare of a sun unleashed. The strange invaders left their eyes unguarded, but shook at the knees. Many of them seemed to almost fall to the ground, their strange, stony bodies shaking with the effort of resistance.

Celestia paused a moment, taking a closer look at these creatures, so alien, and yet so familiar. She froze as a dreaded memory rose up, of a Monster that haunted her…

Its body was clad in armour as dark as the space between the stars… Its left arm was better proportioned, and in its armoured hand the giant carried a mace which in length stretched from the thing’s hooves to its shoulders…

The mace rose in the air, and time froze for all but the poor little filly. Her body frozen in place, all she could do was watch as the mace slowly climbed higher and higher, as it inched its way towards the apex of its arc…

The clash of metal broke the dream, and to Celestia’s horror, when her senses returned, the battle was joined once again.
________

Krev’s gaze flickered for a moment, leaving this white version of the lavender psyker to take stock of the Blood Angels. His eyes widened as he saw them struggling to remain upright, their knees shaking and their legs almost demanding to bow. He knew not what could have caused such weakness, but he was never one to let an opportunity pass. With a smile, he raised his Power Claw and swung at the accursed Chaplain.
______

Chaplain Alessandro could not understand what was happening.

Like all the rest, his attention had been stolen by the arrival of the strange flying creature. That was no mystery; while he was Astartes, he, like all the mighty Space Marines, was still at his core human, and there was no human in all the Imperium who would not have turned at to see that sight.

The mystery was why his knees were trying to buckle beneath him.

It took all his superhuman strength just to remain on his feet, let alone stand tall. He felt dizzy, as though something in his brain were misfiring. His vision blurred and his grip began to loosen.

Then, a sound: the whirring of ancient mechanics, and the quiet scraping of metal fingers stretching wide. In the corner of his eye, Alessandro saw a crimson Power Claw rising into the air.

Whatever force had been compelling him to bow dissipated in the face of centuries of battle experience. In a single action, the Chaplain tensed, turned, and swung.

Crozius and Power Claw clashed, the sound reverberating across the town. A half-second later, any echo it may have caused was drowned amidst the barks of exploding boltshells and the whirring of chainswords. The sound had snapped the Astartes, Imperial and Chaos alike, out of their reverie. With nothing restraining them, they turned to the very purpose for which they were made: war.

Alessandro slipped back a step, bent his knees, then lunged at the Word Bearer with a roar.

“Warp take you, traitor!” the Chaplain roared. “I’ll not lose another man to you!”

Their duel raged, both combatants too lost in the haze of battle to recall their xenos audience.

The rest of the battle, lopsided as it was, resolved quickly. Orlando, restored to the battle by the quick prodding of the Priest Domenico, had seized victory over the Word Bearers. What few of them had remained were no match for sixteen Blood Angels. Fists and chainswords and Power Weapons battered and tore and hewed the life from the Chaos Marines. One Word Bearer fell back a few steps, a grenade in each hand. He took aim.

He never threw them. Luna, though initially hesitant to join the fray in the face of her sister’s hesitation, could no longer deny the fury inside her. Eyes gleaming like a hunter’s moon, she fell on the last Word Bearer, crushing his skull with her hooves. Raising her head she half-howled her victory to the sky before she regained control, stifling the rage beneath her will. Though it was only noticed by one, a look of terror flitted across her face as she forced her breathing to slow.

The Plague Marines died in fire, their fetid bodies consumed by the combined fury of Marco, Aurelio, and the Dreadnought Castello. They were relentless to the end, returning fire until their very fingers melted away. The Blood Angels continued to scour their corpses with flame until the very last trace of their foul corruption was nothing but ash.

Even the Noise Marines soon fell. Having spent the entire battle locked in their ever-escalating music duel with Vinyl Scratch and her sister Octavia, they were utterly unprepared when Dabriel and Paolo led the Tactical Squad against them. One Noise Marine noticed the charging Blood Angels and turned his Sonic Blaster on them, slaying a Tactical marine with the barrage. Dabriel took vengeance immediately, severing the Noise Marine’s head with his Power Sword. The other Noise Marine remained oblivious, distracted as he was by the climax of his duel with Vinyl. Sick beats and rad chords streamed together in a concert of two. It ended suddenly, the Noise Marine’s chest obliterated by the roar of Paolo’s assault cannon.

Thus the battle came down to Krev and Iphotek against all comers. Krev had not yet noticed, however, distracted as he was by his all-consuming desire to slay Alessandro. Iphotek faced similar problems.

Iphotek scowled as he raised a wall of flame, buying himself a few precious seconds. The lavender pony had been bad enough; though she could not hurt him, her attacks were enough to ruin his aim, thus requiring him to waste time trying to burn her from the skies. Matters had only grown more sour when that blasted pony psyker had joined the fray, forcing him to split his efforts.

That, of course, was nothing compared to the arrival of Renato.

Iphotek and Renato had clashed several times before, with neither ever able to claim a proper victory. They were equals in their mastery of the Warp, and their Terminator armour left martial competition unproductive. Today, however, Iphotek was spent and distracted, while Renato was fresh to the battle and in the company of psychic allies.

“Curse you, Renato!” he spat. “Why could you never just die?”

“Come now, heretic,” Renato said with a tone of camaraderie that simply infuriated Iphotek. “If I died, who would there be to thwart you? The Emperor has only so any Librarians.”

Iphotek stumbled as he accidentally backed into Krev. Without a word exchanged between them, the two took up positions to protect each other’s backs; if they were to die this day, they would take as many of the accursed Blood Angels with them as they could.

“I said enough!” the white flyer shouted again. It landed in between Alessandro and Krev, snorting in anger. “You will be still, and you will answer my questions. Is that understood?”

Iphotek whispered to Krev. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yes. Kill Alessandro,” Krev answered.

As one, Iphotek and Krev raised their weapons, taking aim at Alessandro. They cared not for the white flyer, not for their fates afterwards. They cared only for one last chance at revenge.

Before anyone could react, a tear opened. Strange, maddening colours spewed out of it. Krev and Iphotek fell into, screaming, and they knew only darkness.

Author's Notes:

“Conclusion coming soon.” Whoops. Sorry about the delay. I hope the longer chapter makes up for it.

Also, for a few of the battles here, I actually rolled for the results (roughly speaking; I had to fudge a few rolls for plot’s sake). The “white-skin” actually got three kills! I took one away so I could leave some Word Bearers for the last two, And Orlando actually succeeded on his 6+ invul save (For those who don’t know, that means he needed to roll a 6 on a 6-sided die to avoid getting hurt, and he did), and Krev actually rolled that badly when shooting the Dreadnought.

And for those who may be annoyed at how easily the Chaos band was defeated: I’m sorry. Castello, the Dreadnought, was a late addition in my planning, and I forgot to compensate for that with more Chaos Marines. That combined with a need to keep a certain number of characters alive through this battle and the outflanking the Blood Angels ended up performing pretty much sealed the Chaos Marines’ fates. Don’t worry though, Chaos will have a much better showing soon.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Comments and criticism appreciated.