Title: In the Grim Darkness of Ponyville
Author: moosemousse
Genre: Diary
Notes: The title comes from the Warhammer 40,000 tagline 'in the grim darkness of the future, there is only war' and the place Ponyville in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series. This is a cross-over between the two, featuring canon characters from MLP as well as OCs.
As this is a diary it will feature many different genres as the story progresses, so expect a lot of genre changes.
I don't know how I'll handle an update list, but I'll figure something out. For now, just say if you'd prefer a PM or a tag and I'll do that.

 

Prologue

The lights on the bridge flashed bright reds and blues as the ship rocked and shook from the impact of enemy fire. Warning runes were lighting up everywhere and the bridge crew were frantically trying to control the ship, avoid enemy fire, and return fire on the enemy ships surrounding us. Only the Inquisitor was calm and sitting motionless. He was just watching and waiting.

A console exploded, killing the man stationed at it. Another of the bridge crew strode over to it and pulled the corpse out of the seat without blinking and just sat down at it. I watched as he tapped away at the controls to work around the damage before settling into it like there was nothing going on.

The bridge lurched violently, spilling me from my seat. Something fell on my head as I landed hard and dazed me for a few moments. As I shakily stood up, I looked over at the Inquisitor I wondered if I could ever be as good as him. He was always calm, always prepared, and always in control. Compared to him I was little more than a grunt in the Imperial Guard and not the Inquisitor in training I was supposed to be.

As I sat down, I saw a glimpse of something on the view screens. "Sir, there's something there, ahead and to the port!" I called out over the noise and chaos of the battle.

The Inquisitor flicked his eyes towards to smudge of putrescent light, then back at his controls. After tapping away, he bellowed out "enemy weapons are charging, unknown signature! Brace for impact!"

The smudge on the screen grew larger in size. At first I thought it was just because it was getting closer until I realised that it was doing both. I gripped the arm rests hard as the ball of light got started to dwarf our ship. We could not avoid it and there were no evasive manoeuvres to take. All I could do was take a deep breath and close my eyes.

The sickly light filled my vision and slowly faded to black.

 

Dear Diary,

Today has been the strangest day of my life. I might be young, but this will be hard to be. Mutations I can deal with. Daemons and chaos spawn are literally all in day's work. But this? This was nothing that the Inquisition could prepare me for. I think the only way I can make sense of it is to start at the beginning.

Well, diary, you can probably tell that I survived to tell the this tale as I'm writing this now, but for me it was the pounding headache that told me I was still alive. There was light, I could tell that much from the gentle glow through my eyelids. It wasn't too bright though, but my eyes still ached. I went to rub my eyes and instead of my relatively soft fingers I got hit in the face by something hard. I tried rubbing my eyes again, but still, the same hard thing and not my fingers smooshing into my eyes.

"Twi! Twi!" came a voice, "Twi, she's awake!" There was the plodding of small feet hurrying away from me.

I cracked my left eye open and waved my hands in front of my face. There must have been something wrong with my eyes because I saw hooves and not fingers. Opening both eyes, the picture didn't improve at all.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," cam another voice, this one female and cute sounding. "I was wondering when you'd wake up. You've been out for days."

Groaning, I rolled over to face the voice expecting to see a medicae or someone from the Inquisitor's ship. Instead, I saw a purple unicorn.

I think my reaction was something like "GYAH!" and falling off the bed. Putting my front hooves on the bed, I peeked over it to get a better view. It was definitely a purple unicorn with a purple mane. Peeking out from behind her was a purple dragon with green spines. I repeated the "GYAH!" and fell over backwards.

"WHAT IN THE EMPOROR'S NAME IS GOING ON?" I yelled from the floor. "WHY DO I HAVE HOOVES? AND IS THAT A TAIL?"

The unicorn peeked over the bed to where I was lying on the floor, "you have hooves because you're a pony. And yes, that is a rather fine tail. I'm rather jealous, it's prettier than mine but-"

"But I wasn't a pony! I was normal!" I was starting to hyperventilate. I knew that much but I was finding it very hard to calm down.

Twi tilted her head before climbing off the bed the way she climbed onto it. She walked round the bed and sat down next to me, crossing her front hooves in front of her. "Why don't you start from the beginning. What's the last thing you remember?"

I just nodded and took some deep breaths, like the Inquisitor taught me. "The last thing I remember was chasing some chaos cultists. There was me, the Inquisitor, and five others, plus the ship crew. It was a trap. They surrounded us and then they fired this weapon. And that was it." I looked at the purple unicorn. "Am I really a pony? Are you sure I'm not just a mutant?"

She smiled, "I'm sure you're not a mutant." She stroked my mane with a hoof. "Well, the day we found you there was this big ball of light in the sky. Something fell out of it and there was a big explosion. Everyone pony in Ponyville rushed out to have a look. It was terrible. Ponies were lying everywhere. We only found six survivors."

A tear threatened to spill down my cheek, but I blinked it away. "Can you describe the survivors?"

Twi thought for a few moments. "One of them has a strange metal leg, one is kind of muscular and well built, one is kind of small but looks like she's a good flyer, one is kind of average but I get the feeling that she's got some powerful magic in her, and the last one is a mystery. Every unicorn pony who knows how to heal others tried to do something but magic just wouldn't work around her. We had to send her to a friend who uses potions to heal, but she'll be fine."

I sniffed. It sounded like all of the Inquisitor's retinue had survived, even if the Inquisitor was dead. "Thanks." I looked at the unicorn pony. "So, um, who are you? And what was that purple thing that called you 'Twi'?"

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, favoured student of Princess Celestia!" She looked proud when she said this. "And that purple thing? His name is spike, and he's a dragon. Well, a baby dragon."

A dragon? That did not sound good. I shuddered. "I think I need more sleep. I would like to see the other survivors though."

Twilight Sparkle nodded and helped me to my feet- er, hooves. "Spike is very good at writing, so if you think it'd help you could tell him to write things down for you."

I crawled onto the bed and under the covers. "I think I'd like that. Can you send him in?"

She left and Spike came in after a few moments. I'm finding it kind of weird to be dictating this to a dragon. Not least because this one is kind of cute looking. Hopefully I'll be able to write this myself soon. Until then, I guess I'll have to rely on Spike and hope he doesn't tell anyone anything.

And now, I think it's time to try and sleep some more. Maybe this will all be a bad dream, or something. Here's hoping it is.

Yours,
Kalyn Frakes

G'night Spike.

You don't have to write that bit.

No, really, you can stop writing now.

Twilight Sparkle? Can you make him stop writing, please?

 

You know, I am kind of vehemently opposed to the cute and fluffy, but I am really liking this! More please!

 

Wow, it's been a long time! I'm re-reading Fallout: Equestria and I'm inspired to write more of this. I've got two more parts written already so I should be able to keep ahead of myself this time.


Dear Diary,

Today was a strange day. Being a pony was the least of my problems, it seems, but it was the first problem I had to deal with before I could deal with anything else. I've seen buildings withstand massive fire from titans only to fall to well placed bolter shell. This pony thing is the bolter shell to everything else. Back before all this, I would have been the first to put these ponies down as mutants, but now that I am one of them I find myself lost and confused. I needed to talk to someone.

That someone was Jina Greaves, the Inquisitor's personal pilot. As a pilot she couldn't let anything get to her. Nothing was allowed to surprise her as surprise led to mistakes and mistakes led to death. She took everything in her stride so I figured that she'd cope with this as well.

Not sure how to actually get up, I shuffled over to the edge of the bed and fell off it. "Twilight!" I called, "Twilight Sparkle!"

The door opened softly and she peeked in. "You called?"

I flailed my hooves pathetically in the air a little, "can I have a little help?"

Twilight didn't say anything, but her smile was kind as she stepped towards me. Her horn lit up with a gentle glow and the same glow soon enveloped me. The feeling of weightlessness followed as I was lifted up from the floor and turned the right way up. After being gently lowered to my hooves, I was a little relieved to see her horn was still glowing, if only a little.

I've gone around on all fours before, but this was a whole new experience. Going around on hands and knees is one thing, but having four legs? If Twilight didn't have a faint hold on me I would have fallen over for sure. It was still a disorientating feeling and I came close to falling over with the only thing preventing me from landing on my face was Twilight's magic.

It took ages just to get to the front door, and I was worn out from the effort of just trying to walk.

"Wait a minute," I panted, sitting on my butt as Twilight let go of her magic. "I don't think this walking thing is working out."

She walked over to me and put a hoof on my head and rubbed it gently. "Something seems not quite right with your head. I think I'd better get the Princess to have a look."

Leaving me by the door, she went over to Spike. "Spike, I have a message for the Princess." She waited until the dragon had a small scroll of parchment and a quill ready before continuing. "Dear Princess Celestia, my guest is awake but seems unable to walk without my help, and even then it's a bit precarious. I don't know any magic that would help. Please come as soon as you can. Yours, Twilight Sparkle." I watched as the dragon rolled the scroll up tightly and sealed it before belching a small burst of bright green flame at it. It turned to ash in his hand(was it a hand?) and it was gone.

My eyes widened at the display of fire, usually something of Chaos and the warp, and I fell against the door with a thud.

Twilight looked sadly at me and she shook her head. She didn't wait for me to try and stand, she just levitated me up to where I had been sleeping and tucked me into bed before getting me a cup of tea.

I returned to normal after I had drunk it all but it has been a long day, so it's now time for sleep. I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Yours,
Kalyn Frakes

Hey, Spike, can you turn the lights off?

And are you going to always keep writing until I get Twilight to tell you to stop?

 

Dear Diary,

I had a royal visit today. I had never thought of royalty as being a thing before, even when I had met kings and queens and rulers of countries, worlds, and even solar systems. Travelling with an Inquisitor meant that even these people who held power were beneath me. We still had to obey the law but if a kind was deemed heretic then they would not be spared. Everyone was equal in our eyes, regardless of how much local power the had or how much wealth they had gathered.

Princess Celestia was a world apart, and I was awed by her.

She stood there taller than Twilight Sparkle by a good height, like a Space Marine standing over an Imperial Guardsman. Despite her height she seemed gentle and kind and friendly. She was white with a long flowing mane and tail of greens, blues, and pinks. On her flank I could see a sun burst in golds and yellows. Her crown was gold with a purple gem in the centre and she wore a matching collar. Unlike Twilight Sparkle, she had a long horn and wings.

I didn't realise I had been staring with my mouth hanging open until Twilight leant over and closed my mouth with a hoof and wiped my chin.

She sat next to me and stroked my forehead with a hoof. "Tell me about yourself," she said, with nothing but kindness in her voice.

I swallowed hard. "I'm not sure you would believe me."

"You'll just have to tell me and see," she replied, "I'm very open to new things."

I nodded and thought hard. "My name is Kalyn Frakes. I was orphaned when I was too young to remember my parents. I grew up in an orphanage, raised by, well, we called them the Sisters of Battle. They were strict and hard on us, but they were also fair." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I was 15 when the Inquisitor came and found me. He took me into his care and I have been serving by his side ever since. That was, well, I guess that was ten years ago."

Princess Celestia nodded and smiled, "and what of you? You told my pupil that you thought you were a mutant, and that you weren't a pony?"

"Oh, that," I said. "I keep hoping this is a dream, but it's not, is it?"

"I'm afraid not," she tried to console me, and it kind of worked. "What would you wake up to if this was a dream?"

I rubbed my chin with a hoof and thought hard. "Do you know what a human is?" I asked. "Because I was human. I had arms and legs and hands and feet. I wore a uniform and I wore a hat. It was a nice hat." I wanted my hat back.

Princess Celestia put her hoof back against my forehead and her horn started to glow. It felt like honey was seeping into hy head, a nice warm and slightly sweet feeling. Images of myself from before flashed through my mind. Images of my childhood and the Sisters of Battle, images of the Inquisitor, images of our spaceships and our many, many battles. I had lost count of all the times I had killed but now they all came flooding back.

Looking at the Princess, I saw her eyes welling up with tears. She wrapped her front legs around me and hugged me close. "It's ok," she said, "It's all going to be ok."

I pressed my muzzle against her and started to cry. We stayed like that until I couldn't cry any more. By that time I was exhausted and I only wanted to sleep.

Stroking my mane, she eased herself away from me. "I will have a look at what I have in my castle to see if I can help you. Your memories will always stay with you, but we might be able to get you walking." She smiled kindly at me.

"Thanks," I tried to smile and I think I managed it.

With that, she ushered everyone out of the room and I was left alone. I called Spike back in so I could write this, but now it is time to sleep. I feel like I could sleep for a week.

Yours,
Kalyn Frakes

G'night Spike.

 

I hope people are liking this as much as I like reading. It's kind of weird not getting any replies so it's hard to tell.


Dear Diary,

I felt refreshed this morning when I woke up. I had an apple for breakfast and I wobbled my hooves around, trying to get used to them. They still seem weird but if I think of it like wearing hard mittens it's not so bad. I tried walking again, but still had no luck. When Twilight came to my rescue I was on my back with my legs tangled up in the bed sheets looking rather pathetic.

After helping me untangle and sit in a chair, she sent for the Princess and we drank tea while we waited.

When the Princess arrived, she was accompanied by a guard in gold and purple armour. On the front was a star that looked like the star on Twilight's flank but without the sparkles. The two seemed to know each other as they gave each other a friendly greeting and a hug. After they had said their hellos, he rummaged in his saddle bags and brought out a package. The princess levitated it over to the bed and set it down, unwrapping it with her magic.

Inside thee paper was an outfit in an olive drab material. It was pony shaped but it looked a lot like the uniform I had worn. It didn't have any of the armour but it did have the Aquila across the front. I cried a happy tear when I saw it. I almost gave myself a black eye when I forgot I had hooves and I wiped the tear away.

The Princess smiled kindly, "I thought a little something would cheer you up a bit. You might not be able to wear it for a while, but you have something to look forward to." She wrapped it up again and put it somewhere safe. "And now, for the reason why I am here."

She crossed over to me and sat down in the chair where Twilight had sat. A cup of tea appeared and she sipped it slowly. "Twilight makes the most delicious tea in all of Equestria." She sipped again and put the cup down. "But that can wait, don't you think?"

I nodded, but I felt scared and I told her so.

"You'll be fine," she reassured me. "In fact, you'll be better than fine." She put a hoof on my forehead and closed her eyes, "now close your eyes and relax."

When my eyes were closed, I felt the warm honey feeling again. There was no resurgence of memories this time, and I was glad of that. Instead, I could feel myself, all of myself, as if for the first time. It started in my chest, spreading to my hips and shoulders, seeping along my neck and limbs, and ending in my hooves. I felt different, but I couldn't explain how. I still knew I was meant to be human, but I no longer felt wrong.

After the honey feeling had gone, the Princess looked at me, "how do you feel?"

I waggled my hooves and legs about a bit, looking at the way they moved. "I think I feel ok." I slipped off the chair and would have fallen over had she not caught me with her magic. She set me down again and I tried walking. I was still a bit of a mess but I was walking without any magical help at all! Feeling elated, I tried to canter and gallop, only to crash into a tangle heap.

I facehoofed, feeling the increasingly familiar touch of magic as I was untangled and righted.

Princess Celestia chuckled kindly, "I don't think I've known the phrase 'don't run before you can walk' to be so literal."

Feeling awkward and embarrassed at being so useless, I tried to get this walking thing under control. It took most of the day to get it almost right and I was still a bit wobbly, but I could get about on my own.

I think tonight I will talk to Twilight Sparkle and see what I need to know about Ponyville before I venture outside. I have a bad feeling that things will go very badly.

In the mean time, I think dinner is ready.

Yours,
Kalyn Frakes

 

I've only seen a few episodes of MLP: FiM and I'd never heard of Warhammer before, but I like this.

I like how Kalyn has to narrate to Spike, and Spike keeps writing until Twilight makes him stop. It's really sweet how Twilight and Celestia are taking care of Kalyn, and amusing how much she seems to miss her hat, of all things.

I hope Kalyn gets to moving about and exploring Ponyville soon! I get the sense her difficulty in walking is more than just getting used to a new body...

Looking forward to more!

 

Sorry for the long delay, life got ahead of me with work and reenactment at shows and things.

Tarsier: glad you like it! If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer them. I hope I'll be explaining everything well enough in the story but I might miss something that seems obvious to me.



Dear Diary,

Today I got out of bed. This would have been a trivial and almost pointless statement had it not been for the fact that I did it on my own and I didn't fall over. It's the first time I have done it since I woke up in Ponyville. It's a small step but I felt good about myself. I even managed to get downstairs, sort of. I went backwards and one step at a time, but I didn't fall down at least. It seems that I am getting used to being a pony. I can't decide if I like this or not, but it's better than being floated around like an apple.

I sat at the table, eventually. Twilight had to hold the chair still for me but I climbed on by myself, I think. I didn't feel her use magic on me but I thought I caught a slight shimmer on her horn. As I munched on my breakfast, I thought about my next move.

"Twilight, I need to see the survivors," I began. "But first, I'd like some information."

She looked at me, her expression was hard to read. "What do you want to know?"

I took a deep breath, "tell me about Ponyville. All I have is the inside of this Librarium-"

"Library," interupted Twilight. "It's a library, not a 'Librarium'."

"Oh, ok," I stroked my chin thoughtfully. "I've only known them as Librariums. Any, that's not important. What is important is that I don't know anything about this place. Usually places have spaceports, taverns, arms merchants, smugglers, things like that."

Twilight's expression was blank and she just blinked at me a few times. "I don't know what any of those things are. We don't have anything that could take us into space, and pegasus ponies can only fly because they have wings. I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that we don't have anything that you're looking for. Sorry."

So, there's no space travel in Ponyville. Maybe that's a good thing. If the Imperium came here and found me like this? That would be bad, I think.

"Was there anything else?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"I'd like to see the small flying pony that survived. She's got a clear head and understands things quickly."

"You mean the pegasus pony? She's with a friend of mine, Rainbow Dash," she said. "I'll take you to see her."

I nodded, "thanks." Then I looked at the apple core on my plate. I couldn't pick it up with my hooves and eat it as it was to small for that, so I just stood it up and ate it off the plate. I had only had apples on the rarest of occasions before the incident that led me here, and I had always enjoyed them as a delicacy. Getting to eat them for breakfast was something I could easily get used to.

Before we left, Twilight Sparkle handed me a pair of sunglasses. "You might need these out there. Your eyes aren't used to the sunlight and it's a bit gloomy in here. It might take some getting used to but these will help." She floated them onto my face and adjusted them to make sure they were on properly. "There, they fit just perfectly."

I couldn't see a thing because it was too dark. When she opened the door I still couldn't see anything because it was too bright. I scrunched my eyes closed tightly, went stiff, and fell over. I seem to be falling over a lot lately.

When the door was closed, I struggled to stand up again. This time the door was opened slowly, very slowly. There was a lot of blinking and a lot of scrunching my eyes up, but eventually I took my first steps outside the Librarium where Twilight Sparkle lived. As my eyes got used to the light and I could see, all I could do was stare in wonder.

All around me were ponies of many different colours. Some were normal ponies, some were unicorn ponies, and some pegasus ponies were flying around while others were walking with their non-flying friends. Houses weren't that big and they weren't made of straight lines and harsh angles like Imperial buildings, and they were brightly coloured too. So much colour. I don't think I had ever seen so much colour since, well, I'm not sure.

"I think I'm going to go and hide inside," I said, before turning tail, literally, and dashing back inside. I hurried back upstairs and hide in bed.

Twilight brought me lunch and let me be until dinner. The outside is a scary place. I'm not sure I'll ever get anything done around here.

Oh well. At least I don't have to right my own diary. That's got to be something, right?

Yours,
Kalyn Frakes

Oh, and Spike, can you gives these sunglasses to Twilight Sparkle for me? Thanks.

 

I am learning a lot about Kalyn's universe from her reactions to Ponyville - apples are a rare treat where she comes from, and I imagine it must be mostly colorless. It's cute to see her having to hide from all the color of Ponyville. Good update!