Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro. Support the show.
Warhammer 40K is owned by Games Workshop, and the Horus Heresy has many writers far better than me throwing their weight behind it. Support them, too.
I want to thank the Giant in the Playground forum's community for helping to build many details of this world, to Sanity-X, the deviantart artist who originally drew up the Space Mareines (and more) and to Lauren Faust for creating the show based on toys that is actually pretty dang good.
Warning: This IS going to be dark. Making Ponyhammer the happybright of the actual show would ruin the whole point of doing this in the first place. Ponies WILL die. Fittingly, sadly, even heroicly, but there will be death.
"I was there when friendship was magic. I doubt there are any others alive now who were, with the possible exception of daemons.
"I was alive when Lixie and Trixie were one and the same, when Luna and Celestia were closer than sisters, when Rainbow Dash led the Wonderbolts. I remember a time when Sapac produced apples from the heavens, when Mare-do-well was a vigilante, when dreams of eternal peace were just within hoofreach.
"But I was there afterward, too. I was alive when the Dark Angels were sundered in two by loneliness. I was alive for the Alpha Legion's split, for the death of Night Haunter. I remember where I was when I learned Pinkie Pie's fate was by her own hooves… And I saw when Luna's forces retreated from Equidae's homeworld of Equestria.
"We all know the story of the Heresy, of course. I have heard tales from many of you, of Trojan war machines long fallen, of the Space Dragons' many clashes with the Alpha Legion. Some tell of the founding of the Violet Wings. And still others tell of
"But... the more I listen, the more I realize how greatly our words twist the events. We make our smallest triumph a grand stand for all that is good and holy. We make our enemy's smallest failures as proof of the impurity of their ways, even in cases of misfortune, or when there was no chance for victory in any case.
"You speak as if the war between Luna and Celestia was a holy proving ground for our own philosophy. That even when Celestia had no worshippers, the Luna Heresy was a war between holy and unholy.
"My sisters – that is not what the Luna Heresy – or even the Great Crusade – was about.
"The Great Crusade sought to spread the magic of friendship to all of the galaxy, all of our sisters and brothers, all of our lost colonies…
"Night Haunter's death did not come about because she was weak, but because she wished for the end. Rainbow Dash's last act was not one of pointless futility or cowardice, but of honor and hope. Luna rebelled not because she hated Celestia, but because she didn't want to be tossed aside like trash. Pinkie Pie did not commit suicide – she died by her own hooves. There is a difference.
"So much has been forgotten with each retelling, I shudder to think of what might be thought of these events in the fifty-firstmillennium. I ask you now, my sisters… please listen, lest we forget our own roots…
"I am the last Mareine amongst the Night Ladies who remembers the Luna Heresy... And before.
"So for Mare-do-well's sake, listen."
Ponyhammer 40K - Fall Of Caliban, Chapter One
Coming... not soon. Not even soon-ish, really. College and working retail have the astounding ability to just swallow your time like Derpy swallows muffins.
Questions? Comments? Reviews? Please? It's the only way I'll get better and I'm determined to see this project/undertaking at least partway through...