My Little Xeno

The rest of the night was uneventful. As Antonius woke up from his ‘fluffy pony’-induced sleep, he noticed that Luna was also just opening her eyes.

“Good morning,” he greeted,
“how did you sleep?”

“Surprisingly well,” Luna yawned,
“it really is a little odd that you are so effective against nightmares, even though you do not have any magic… or do you?”

“No… apart from that friendship thing, maybe. Perhaps ponies just feel safe around me since I am sorta good at fighting daemons - even without magic.”

“Hmm…” Luna hummed thoughtfully and got up to lower the moon.

Celestia raised the sun immediately after that and bright rays flooded the room. That woke up Rarity, who started mumbling:

“Ugh, I should have remembered to bring my sleep mask along… Oh, good morning, everypony. I have to say, I slept quite well, at least during the second part of the night. Now, I better get my mane done! Might I use the bathroom?”

“Sure, be my guest,” Antonius said as he sat up and put Rarity down on the floor.

She quickly vanished through the bathroom door and shut it behind her. When Antonius wanted to get up, too, Luna put a hoof on his chest and held him back.

“Tony, I have a favor to ask of you,” she said with an urgent tone,
“please, come with me to the realm of dreams.”

“Are there daemons to fight? Can I even do that there?” Antonius inquired.

“Yeah,” Luna replied, obviously somewhat glum.

“Okay.”

Luna lit her horn, and a few seconds later, Antonius was asleep again.

He was standing in front of a large, but derelict castle somewhere inside a dark forest. The Everfree? Probably. He was wearing his armor and he was also armed, but as he looked around, there were no daemons to fight, only Luna was standing next to him. Why had she brought him here?

“Please follow me,” Luna said and entered the castle.

Antonius did as she had asked him to. Inside, there was a long and high hall, with tattered banners with sun and moon symbols hanging from the ceiling.

“Celestia’s and my old castle,” Luna explained,
“or at least the dream version of it.”

She led him through the castle to another large room with two thrones at its end, one of them dark blue with a moon banner above, the other one golden with a sun banner above.
This room had definitely seen better days. Its roof, once made of glass, was shattered, as were the windows. The walls were in bad shape, too. This was not just due to abandonment and passage of time, it looked more like battle damage.

“Your old throne room?” Antonius inquired.

“Yes,” Luna told him curtly, then she motioned him to wait and walked up the stairs that led to the blue throne.

She stopped when she was standing on a small platform with a broken railing between the two thrones.

“I am sorry,” she sighed.

“For what?” Antonius asked with a sense of foreboding.

“A few minutes ago, we agreed that you were really good at fighting daemons,” Luna said glumly,
“now, with the Nightmare Lord on our doorstep, I must know… I must know if you can defeat her…”

‘Sense of foreboding’ did nowhere near describe the bad feeling Antonius now had.

“I must know if you can defeat… me.”

Now a dark smoke came into existence around Luna and engulfed her, lifting her into the air. Antonius had seen this smoke before… the nightmare forces had used it.
In addition to that, another shred of dark smoke came through one of the destroyed windows and united with the swirling miasma that surrounded Luna. He had seen this shred of smoke before, too… the last time, it had been fleeing from him after meeting a round of shot.

Oh shit. Antonius immediately put on his helmet.

Suddenly, maniacal laughter resounded through the throne room and the smoke cleared - revealing a dark, armored alicorn with slitted pupils and serrated teeth.
Nightmare Moon.

Antonius immediately grabbed his bolter… but how effective would the dream version of a bolter be against a creature that specialized in nightmares?
Well, there was a way to find out… but would this hurt or even kill Luna?
Damnit… perhaps the melee approach he had used against Nightmare Rarity was more appropriate for this situation… or his hesitation would cost him dearly. His last encounter with this daemon had taught him that it was quite strong, and now it had possessed an alicorn instead of a unicorn, and they were WITHIN A FRIGGING DREAM!
Probably not the best preconditions.

“Finally!” Nightmare Moon cheered,
“back in the body that rightfully belongs to me!”

“I strongly doubt that you even know what ‘rightfully’ means, daemon,” Antonius hissed.

“Oh, if it isn’t the upstart who had dared to attack me while I was in the body of this unicorn. Don’t think it will be that easy for you this time, giant. But just to be sure…”

She lit her horn, and Antonius’ weapons were gone. Okay, a melee it would be.

“What?!” the daemon suddenly shouted,
“getting rid of your weapons was hard enough, but getting your armor out of the way is impossible! And it’s not just the pathetic spells Luna had used to shield them, it’s as if that stupid armor was a part of you, ingrained deeply in your subconscious!”

Antonius was truly thankful for his training. While weapons could change, he indeed saw his armor as a part of him. Well, with the neural link, it actually was a part of him.

“This will not be the only thing you’re going to fail at,” Antonius stated.

“Huh? Do you think you can fight me? Do you think you can defeat me?”

“As the Emperor commands, so it shall be.”

“Your emperor is not here to help you!”

“He already helped me. He made me an Ultramarine, guardian of mankind, and now I will show you why we are also called ‘the Angels of Death’, daemon!”

“You are very confident. Well, this will be gone very soon. I will kill you, and then, I will finally return to my Lord. The news of your demise will be a nice gift for him after all those centuries.”

Well, at least that was some good news: The daemon had not dared to return to its master while still ‘defeated’, it wanted to have something to show, a victory it could present, so it would at least not get reinforcements - if Antonius could prevent it from escaping.

“A naive fallacy,” Antonius said,
“just release Luna and crawl back into the shadows, or you will be defeated a second time.”

“We’ll see,” Nightmare Moon grinned, spread her wings and took off.

She circled high above Antonius, firing bolts of dark blue magic at him. Thanks to his reflexes, he was able to dodge each one of them.

“Miss,” he commented drily from time to time, trying to anger her enough so that she would come down and into his range.

After a few dozen shots, she did exactly that. Dodging became more difficult, but Antonius waited until he was sure he couldn’t miss her. Then he jumped and grabbed her left hind leg.

“What?” Nightmare Moon roared.

“Gotcha!” Antonius grinned and smashed her into the ground.

Before he could lift her again, she fired at him. This time, he wasn’t able to evade the blast and it hit his chest. Pain shot through his body, and he had to release her and take a step back. There was a black spot on his armor and the upper layers of ceramite showed visible cracks.
Okay, a daemon possessed alicorn was definitely more powerful - and faster - than a daemon possessed unicorn.

While Nightmare Moon was getting back onto her hooves, Antonius quickly attacked again and managed to punch her just when she was standing again. His fists had an effect on her, but unfortunately they were not as effective as they had been against the daemon’s first incarnation.
Still, a little was better than nothing.

The daemon was not content with being beaten, though, she beat back. While Antonius was able to deflect most of her punches, a few hit his armor and left dents.

This fight was much more balanced than the Space Marine was comfortable with. He didn’t mind a challenge, but since Luna’s life was probably at stake, he would have preferred an easy victory. But what was this victory supposed to look like?
Just hurting the daemon until it released Luna did not work. Perhaps if he killed it? Would killing the daemon harm Luna? He didn’t know.
It dawned upon him, however, that he could not allow himself the luxury of being considerate of Luna in this special case; the daemon was too powerful for that. He had to use all of his power and try to kill the thing. He wasn’t comfortable with his assessment, but he had to do his duty; the daemon had to die. And there was still a decent chance that his friend would be freed instead of harmed.

He thought about the numerous times he had fought Luna. Those fights had always been symphonies of movement, displays of skill and prowess. This fight here was a nothing but a brutal brawl.
A brawl he had to win. Perhaps he could use the environment to his advantage?
Hmm… despite the damage, those old walls did look pretty solid…

Antonius changed his fighting style a bit and slowly shoved Nightmare Moon towards one of the walls. Then, as she reared up to attack him, he ducked and jumped forward, ramming his pauldron into her chest and lifting her off the ground. He sprinted straight towards the wall - and slammed the daemon into it.

Stone blocks were sent flying as the wall burst and Antonius involuntarily entered another room of the castle.
Unfortunately, Nightmare Moon was more durable than the wall had been. She looked battered, but was still in fighting condition. She latched on to him and charged her horn. A punch did not stop her from doing so.

Then, she fired a magic blast at point blank range at Antonius’ helmet. His HUD went dark, and he could hear ceramite crack.
His helmet was destroyed, just a broken piece of armor now that obstructed his view. It would not be able to stand another blast, so he ripped it off his head and dropped it.

Nightmare Moon charged her horn again, and this time, it would be a lethal shot. Antonius was aware of that fact.
Punching her would not be effective. He knew that, too.
He was running out of possible means to stop her, and he was running out of time.
There was just one thing he could do now to prevent certain defeat.

Antonius opened his mouth and emptied his Betcher’s Gland into Nightmare Moon’s face.
Finally, she let go of him, screaming in pain as the corrosive poison bit into her skin.

He punched her as hard as he could, sending her flying through the room. Not wasting a second, he dashed after her. She was lying on her back, still screaming and whimpering, and he closed in to stomp her into the ground.

Nightmare Moon was faster, though. She bucked with her hind legs and sent Antonius flying right back where he had come from. He skidded to a halt on the stony floor. The pain he felt was almost paralyzing, and the blood he tasted not really a good sign.

He just wanted to get up again, as the daemon smashed her hooves onto his chest armor and pinned him down.

“This is your end,” Nightmare Moon hissed, drooling out of her partly eaten mouth.

Once again, she lit her horn.

Antonius was on the edge of defeat. Again. He moved his arm to start a last attempt at punching his enemy as he touched something lying on the ground.
His broken helmet!
He grabbed it, and - using every bit of strength he could muster - smashed it into Nightmare Moon’s already damaged face.

The helmet shattered and the daemon rolled off him, screaming an agony.
Antonius got back to his feet as fast as he could and saw his enemy lie next to him. Then she opened her wings and started rising. Obviously, she had enough of the fight and was trying to escape.

Antonius had no intention to allow her to do so. He put his boot between her wings, forcing her back down to the floor. Then, he grabbed her wings and started pulling.
Bones broke and sinews snapped, but that was all but drowned out by Nightmare Moon’s screaming. Finally, with a last wet crack, the wings came loose with two fountains of blood.

Still, this fight was not over. The daemon couldn’t fly away anymore, but it was still a lethal enemy. To change that, Antonius plopped down on his knees - and on his enemy. He flung his left arm around her neck, and used his right hand to grab her horn.
He pulled, twisted and leveraged.
Nightmare Moon set her horn ablaze, trying to force Antonius to let go of her.
Now, it was a question of what was more durable: the daemon’s horn or the Space Marine’s hand.

With superhuman effort, Antonius eventually managed to rip the horn out of Nightmare Moon’s head. Her screams had been almost deafening, but now they quickly changed into whining.
Antonius let go of her neck and turned her onto her back, holding the horn like a dagger.

“I… will… be back!” Nightmare Moon hissed.

“I will be waiting for you,” Antonius replied and stabbed the horn into her chest.

Nightmare Moon opened her eyes wide for a moment, then she started turning into the black smoke her kin seemed to be made of. Most of it just dissipated, it was only a small shred of darkness that slowly crawled away, and Antonius had the satisfying feeling that this fight had taken a heavy toll on the daemon.

Any positive feelings were gone as looked back down. In front of him, Luna was lying in her blood, impaled by her own horn.

“Oh shit,” Antonius mumbled and gently put his hand beneath her head.

Now Luna opened her eyes - and smiled at him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Then she died and the dream ended.

Antonius almost fell out of his bed and immediately looked at the spot where Luna had been standing before her little ‘experiment’ started. She was lying on the floor, in the same position she had been lying in the dream. Fortunately, her wings and horn were still where they were supposed to be. There was no sign of blood, either.

Now she opened her eyes - and smiled at him.

“Hi,” she said.

Antonius grabbed down and picked her up.

“Are you… INSANE?” he shouted, holding her with arms extended.

“Well, I have to admit that it did not quite go as expected,” Luna answered,
“I was so worried about the Nightmare Lord that I forgot that the Nightmare Moon daemon could show up even earlier.”

“You don’t say,” Antonius sighed and hugged her, relieved that she was alright.

Luna also flung her hooves and wings around him.

Then, the bathroom door flung open and Rarity pranced out. She immediately froze and said:

“Oh, sorry. Should I leave?”

Ending the hug, Antonius answered:

“We all better leave. There’s breakfast and a lot to discuss.

After quickly getting ready for the day, they met with Celestia in the refectory.

“That news worries me,” the Princess of the Sun said once she had heard about the events of the night,
“three attacks of such severity in just one night!”

“I think it was more like two plus one attack,” Antonius opined,
“the Nightmare Moon daemon just used an opportunity, it did not coordinate its actions with the rest of the nightmare forces. Still, I am sure an attack is imminent.”

“I’ll put the Royal Guard on high alert and have them patrol the area.”

“Good. And tell them not to engage the enemy before they have reported the sighting.”

“And I will order my Night Guard to prepare for intensified patrol duty,” Luna added,
“I guess the nightmare forces will wait for the night to attack.”

“It would be easier if we knew their target,” Antonius stated,
“there are at least two possibilities: the Element Bearers and Luna. I think the best course of action would be to gather the potential targets at an easily defendable location and barricade up there.”

“And if they attack someplace else?” Celestia interjected,
“we would neglect the safety of the other citizens!”

“Well, being daemons, it is possible that they’re going to attack the civilian population to cause as much suffering as possible,” Antonius admitted,
“but we cannot guarantee the safety of everypony. The Element Bearers and Luna take priority.”

“I do not want to be safe while our subjects are in danger!” Luna replied,
“we should take care that our forces are evenly distributed and able to fight back wherever the enemy attacks!”

“While I understand your feelings, I have to say that your proposal is not very wise,” Antonius remarked,
“perhaps it would be a compromise if we split up the guard; one half in Canterlot, the other half in Ponyville. That way, we should be able to defend the capital and the hometown of Twilight and her friends. I will use the Land Speeder to quickly get to the location where the attack will take place - as long as there are not so many daemons that they will attack several locations at once.”

“I know that there are at least about two dozen daemons,” Luna told them,
“but I do not think that I have seen all of the Nightmare Lord’s minions. There are probably many more.”

They all looked at each other, then Celestia sighed:

“We just don’t know enough about our enemy to prepare properly.”

“Correct,” Antonius stated,
“that’s why we have to focus on the most important issues. I say, we defend Canterlot and Ponyville. And we should give the Element Bearers the Elements of Harmony, so that they can use them without delay.”

“Okay,” Celestia said,
“you know how to wage wars against daemons, after all. We will split up the guard and do as you suggested. Furthermore, you, the Element Bearers, Luna, and I will gather in Ponyville to draw the daemons there and lure them away from Canterlot. Agreed?”

“Agreed!” Luna and Antonius answered.

Now that they had a plan (of sorts), Antonius, Luna and Rarity teleported to Ponyville, right in front of the Carousel Boutique.

“I will talk to Blackwing,” Luna said,
“he can come to Canterlot with me for the briefing. Furthermore, we can start our first patrol right now.”

Having said that, she left, and Antonius and Rarity entered the building.

“Really, Antonius, you don’t need to keep me company anymore,” she told him,
“I’m fine.”

As the door to her workshop caught her eye, though, she suddenly froze. Noticing that, Antonius asked:

“The room in which your nightmare has taken place?”

Rarity just nodded and kept staring at the door.

So she was afraid to enter her own workshop… the nightmare forces had managed to spoil her enjoyment of the place where she did was she loved most of all. That had to be corrected.
So Antonius unceremoniously opened the door and stepped into the room.

“Oh, Emperor,” he suddenly mumbled.

“What?” Rarity screamed from outside the room,
“are the nightmares back?”

“No, but this room is a mess.”

Now Rarity entered the room, too, looked around and said defensively:

“This isn’t a mess, Antonius. It’s organized cha… I mean ‘organized disorganization’. It inspires me! I need it for my work.”

“Then, you could start working, don’t you think?”

Rarity looked at him, then she nodded:

“Yes, I can get back to my work.”

The unicorn did just that, and a few minutes later Antonius left the boutique. In the sky, Celestia was approaching Ponyville. Once she had seen him, she descended and landed right next to him.

“Half of the Royal Guard are taking up their stations and going on patrol in Canterlot,” she informed him,
“the other half will leave within the next hour and head to Ponyville.”

“Good,” Antonius replied,
“but that’s a message for a vox. Is there another reason you came here?”

“I just can’t shake the feeling that something’s going to happen soon.”

“Well, Luna said that the attack wouldn’t start until nightfall. Maybe she’s right. Night and nightmares, it fits somehow. She still wanted to start the first patrol immediately, though. Ah, there she is!”

At some distance, Luna and Blackwing were rising over Ponyville before heading towards Canterlot.

“These hours are going to be hard, especially for Luna,” Celestia sighed.

“She will be relieved all the more once we have destroyed the Nightmare Forces,” Antonius answered confidently.

They both looked at Luna and Blackwing, flying through the sky towards the capital.
Suddenly, a black cloud appeared out of thin air, exactly in their flightpath.

At the same time, the moon suddenly started rising, making its way towards the sun and creating an unnatural twilight. This was not the moon as Antonius knew it, though; on its usually bright surface, a black grimace was visible.

“Oh, my goodness, no!” Celestia shouted.

“Bloody hell!” Antonius agreed.

He may have been armed with a ranged weapon, but the events that unfolded now where too far away for him to intervene. To have a chance of changing that, he started dashing towards the looming battle in the sky, while Celestia took off and did the same.

Luna and Blackwing turned around and sped back towards Ponyville. The cloud started chasing them, getting closer and closer.
Luna fired a magic bolt at it, but it created a hole in its shape where the bolt passed through without hitting it.
Then, Blackwing stopped in mid air, shot a crossbow bolt into the cloud and made a sally.
His heroic attempt to buy Luna time to escape was about as effective as Antonius had expected; without slowing down, the cloud swallowed him and spat him out again, leaving him falling earthwards.
Luna dived, trying to escape the cloud. She fired again, and again it was without effect. At least, she was getting closer to Ponyville.

Antonius was still way too far away to help, but Celestia was close enough now to fire a magic blast of her own. Unfortunately, the cloud evaded her attack and kept getting closer to Luna.

“Sister!” Luna screamed in desperation, then the cloud swallowed her - and was gone.

“NO!” Celestia roared.

The defaced moon was now blotting out the sun, the grimace on its surface seemingly laughing at them.

Antonius slowed down for a second. The Nightmare Forces had abducted Luna.
He felt burning hot anger rush through his veins, but he knew that it was useless - at the moment there was nothing he could do about it. There was something he could now, however.

He sped up again and ran to the area where Blackwing had hit the ground. As he approached, he could hear the batpony scream in pain.
Well, at least that meant that he was still alive.

Following the screams, he saw him. A tree had slowed his descent and probably saved his life, but half of his right wing had been ripped off, and judged by the pose of his legs, a few bones had also been broken.

Antonius knelt down next to him, and Celestia landed right beside him.

“Forgive me, your Highness… I have failed,” Blackwing wheezed.

“You have done everything you could,” Celestia told him, lighting her horn.

Blackwing was engulfed in a golden yellow shimmer, easing his pain.

“The nightmare forces have caught us unawares,” Celestia noted.

“Yeah,” Antonius agreed,
“they did not waste time. Luna was sorta right, though. They did wait for dusk, they just created it themselves.”

“Go and get a doctor for Blackwing. I’ll heal him in the meantime. Make haste!”

Antonius dashed towards the hospital. Halfway to his destination, he met Rapid Cure and Nurse Redheart, carrying saddle bags.

“Hello, Antonius,” the doctor greeted,
“we saw what was going on and thought we could help.”

“Follow me,” the Space Marine said and a short time later, Rapid Cure and Nurse Redheart were taking care of Blackwing.

“We have to go now,” Celestia stated,
“we’ll gather Twilight and her friends, fetch the Elements of Harmony and go to the moon to rescue Luna!”

“This will take quite some time,” Antonius pointed out, feeling a strange uneasiness and restlessness he had never felt before,
“and we have no reconnaissance data. Can you somehow get me to the moon immediately? I want to gather intelligence, draw their attention, or do whatever I can to make sure we can obliterate the daemons and rescue Luna.”

Celestia thought about his proposal and answered:

“I could try to… ‘shoot’ you to the moon. It is risky, but with your armor and constitution, you have a good chance of riding it out.”

“Then, shoot me to the moon!”

Celestia hesitated a second, then she said:

“Antonius, just to be clear: the priority is to save my sister, not to kill daemons, okay?”

“The Nightmare Forces won’t set her free if we just ask nicely. Hmm… when you got abducted back then, Luna’s order was to rescue you no matter the cost,” Antonius told her flatly.

“Huh? Do you want to insinuate that I don’t really care for Luna?”

“Do you want to insinuate that I don’t care for her?”

“Okay,” Celestia said after a second,
“I get what you mean. Still, this is not the time for a dispute.”

“Agreed. Please start.”

“Do whatever you can. I trust you.”

Having said that, Celestia lit her horn again, and Antonius was engulfed in her magic. Then, he started flying skywards like a rocket, heading for the moon.

“Al,” Antonius voxed.

“How can I help you?”

“Connect to my armor.”

“Connected… are you… flying?”

“Yes. To the moon to rescue Luna. Record the vid-log and show it to the ponies. Every bit of information will be useful.”

“Okay.”

As Antonius approached the moon, he could hear a voice over his vox, quiet at first, but it was getting louder:

“I am your nightmare. I will come for you.”

This message reiterated over and over again. So, the daemons were able to mess up the vox…

“Al here. I receive some unusual interferences.”

“That’s the work of the daemons… seems they can disrupt or even intercept vox messages… and perhaps data, too. Damnit. I have to deactivate my sender. Saving vid-log to internal database. Radio silence until I tell you otherwise.”

“Understood. Good luck, Antonius.”

Antonius deactivated his sender and his vox and continued approaching the moon. As it grew bigger in front of him, he could make out mountains and large plains. For a second he wondered if being shot to the moon without a ship or something similar really had been a good idea, but he knew that their options had been somewhat limited.

As he entered the moons atmosphere, he noticed that he was flying - respectively falling - straight towards a steep mountainside. That should allow him to decelerate without being turned into a pancake. Really, he had to commend Celestia for her accuracy.
He looked around and saw some kind of castle not too far away from the mountain. Black clouds were circling around it, and it looked dark and evil.
His objective.

He turned around, so that his feet now pointed downwards and made contact with the moon close to the mountain’s summit. Skidding down the mountainside in a not too dignified way, he finally managed to come to a halt at the bottom of the mountain.

“The aquila has landed,” he mumbled with a grin as he brushed the dust off his chestplate, then he checked his armor and weapons and started making his way towards the castle.

Antonius had traveled for a few minutes as a creature showed up on top of a small hill. He immediately aligned his bolter - but he did not fire. He had seen this creature before. So he lowered his bolter, approached it and said:

“You’re Jerome, right?”

“Yes! You’re the big one from Ponyville! Wow, we’re really glad that you came to help us!” Jerome replied.

“Actually, I’m here to rescue Princess Luna. The Nightmare Forces have abducted her a few minutes ago. Can you give me some intel regarding the daemonic activity here?”

“Well, I think it would be best if I led you to our camp. Larry will tell you what happened.”

Antonius followed Jerome to a small camp that the denizens of the moon had set up. There, he met Larry.

“Hello!” Larry greeted,
“thank you for coming. We really need you assistance.”

“Actually, he is here to rescue Princess Luna,” Jerome told his friend,
“the daemons have taken her!”

“Oh crap,” Larry mumbled, then he turned to Antonius:
“They came here a few hours ago and attacked us. We fled out of our castle, but they still tried to kill us, even though we were already running away.”

“Yeah, they were really insane!” Jerome interjected.

“When they finally stopped chasing us, we set up this refugee camp here to treat our wounded. We hoped that our pony friends would realize what was going on and help us,” Larry explained.

“They are on their way,” Antonius told him curtly,
“in the meantime, I am here to gather intel and keep the daemons from hurting Luna. Do you know how many of those daemons are here? Are they all in the castle? Tell me everything you know.”

“There are two or three dozen of those creatures. Maybe more. They seem to be contend with occupying our castle - for now, at least. I know you came here for the princess, but could you help us, too? I just hope that they have not killed her.”

“Unlikely. They could have killed her in Ponyville. They want her alive, probably to possess her again. As for the help: Rescuing Luna will involve a lot of daemon killing. That should help you. Do you have any troops we can use? Not really, huh?”

“Unfortunately, you are right. We have no chance of opposing them.”

“Okay, keep hiding. When the ponies come, intercept them and tell them what’s going on. Tell them also that I’m going to sneak up on the castle to scout the war zone and kill stray daemons.”

“We will do as you said. Good luck!”

Antonius bid goodbye and continued approaching the castle, his bolter at the ready. He had to admit, there was a chance that the Nightmare Forces would kill Luna if she resisted them for too long and they grew impatient. That thought was truly unsettling.
Hiding behind a large boulder, he took a look at the castle’s doors.
No daemons. They had left the doors unguarded.

He crept up on the entrance, examining his surroundings and expecting an ambush - but there was none.
He pushed the doors open and stepped inside - still no sign of a daemon.
The entrance hall was empty. If not for the dark clouds swirling around the building, one could think it was abandoned.
Antonius sneaked through the castle, his alertness at maximum, while still having to keep his strange uneasiness and restlessness in check.

Then, finally, he heard something; a cheering of throats that should never have learned to make vocal expressions. He carefully closed in on the source of the sounds until he was standing in front of a large double-winged door. Behind it was quite a ruckus. He listened if he could make out any words.

“And soon, we will have Nightmare Moon back!” a dark voice shouted,
“with her help, we will plunge this world into eternal darkness and turn the lives of its pathetic inhabitants into living nightmares. We will dedicate their torment to all Four, and with their combined power, we will finally be able to break this damned veil and corrupt the whole planet, including its cursed artifacts.”

More cheering.

“Do not count on that, abomination.”

Luna! So she was still alive and herself.

“Oh, come on, Luna. Embrace the change! Don’t you want to be powerful again, revered by your subjects?”

“Revered? You mean feared! No, I will never join you!”

“I am sure I could convince you to change your mind… if only my lieutenant were here… I wonder where she is? Always busy scheming.”

Lieutenant? The Nightmare Moon daemon! So, the thing had not shown up yet. Good.
And Antonius would not wait until it did. Time for action; the well planned action the Ultramarines were famous for! So he started analyzing the situation according to the Codex Astartes:

Enemy units:
One ‘Nightmare Lord’, daemon, probably a greater one
About four dozen daemons (judged by the ruckus they made) of unknown strength, probably lesser ones

Ultramarines:
One Ultramarine, battle-brother, 48 bolts, chainsword, standard power armor
Additional information: main mission to secure the Elements of Harmony has priority

Allied forces:
One pony, alicorn, abducted, probably rendered harmless
Powers: dream walking, moving the moon, proficient in close combat, high level magic, probably no combat power at the moment
Additional information: dream walking not important, moon can be moved by Celestia, ponies got along without her for 1000 years
Reinforcements:
One pony, alicorn
Powers: Moving the sun (and moon), precognition, close combat skills, high level magic
Additional information: essential for continued existence of the planet
Six ponies, various subspecies
Additional information: Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, essential for main mission
Powers: Unclear, probably very powerful

Result:
Wait for reinforcements. Use opportunity to evaluate the Elements of Harmony.
Ultramarine unit is the only imperial unit available and therefore must not be put in unnecessary danger. Securing the Elements of Harmony for mankind has priority.
Abducted pony is expendable.

Antonius thought his stomach turned. That was the advice the Codex Astartes gave him?
He checked his analysis, but he couldn’t find any obvious mistakes. So, the cold, hard logic of the Codex told him to wait, because Luna was expendable.
As it was written in the Codex, so it had to be done.
No matter how uncomfortable it made him.
Usually, he was the expendable one, which offered him a great deal of freedom, but now…
Well, he could continue listening, at least. Perhaps he would pick up something useful.

“If your lackey does not come soon, she will be too late,” Luna said,
“I am sure a good friend of mine is about to arrive.”

“Abandon all hope, Luna. Soon, you will call me ‘my Lord’ again. In the meantime, let’s see if I can’t break your spirit.”

Oh shit.

Luna screamed.

And Antonius felt as if he was about to explode. His uneasiness and restlessness reached new highs, and he could feel burning hot anger running through his veins.
But the Codex told him to wait… and the Codex was right… he was an Ultramarine, he had to follow the Codex. Even if it meant letting his friend suffer.
As it was written… in the Codex… so it had to be… SHIT!

No. He would not stand around and idle like an asshole while some damned daemon was torturing Luna!
If the Codex disapproved of that, then screw the Codex!

Antonius quickly reloaded his bolter with the full magazine. He would need all 30 bolts without having to reload. Then, he set his bolter to full auto. He would need those 30 bolts fast.

With a prayer to the Emperor, he kicked the door open.

Time slowed down as the wings of the door flew open, revealing a large room. At its end, there was the ‘Nightmare Lord’ a giant, black, bipedal daemon with a beak, its throat and shoulders covered with feathers. In one of its claws, it held Luna, only her head and her hind legs sticking out. Some black, gooey substance covered her horn and was wrapped around her legs; so she was indeed rendered harmless.
Between Antonius and them, there were the daemons. About 50 black, shadowy things that cheered their master.

Even before the door was completely open, Antonius pulled the trigger and opened fire. The first bolt left the weapon’s muzzle, shot towards a daemon, and ripped it apart in an explosion of black blood and body parts. More bolts followed the first one, making heads and torsos detonate into clouds of gore.
Antonius guided his shots along the line of daemons. Careful aiming was not really necessary; an advantage when your enemy had a vast superiority in numbers. He just took care to not point the bolter in Luna’s direction.

By now, the daemons had realized what was going on, and turned to engage him. Half of his magazine was gone, but he put the remaining bolts to good use: More abominations exploded, their flying arms, legs - or bone fragments - impeding their disgusting brethren.
Now that they were facing him, Antonius realized that they looked like exaggerations of nightmares; some looked like ponies with glowing eyes and huge fangs, others like spiders with way too many legs, eyes and mouths, a multitude of aberrations.
They would all die, no matter what they looked like.

Another daemon was blown apart as Antonius heard the characteristic ‘click’ of an almost empty magazine. He continued firing and more daemons were blasted to smithereens. Then, the steady flow of deadly bolts subsided. His magazine was empty.
30 daemons were dead now, at least two more injured by shrapnel. A good start.
Considering the speed at which his enemies approached him, they would be in melee range once he had finished reloading, so he put his bolter to his hip and drew his chainsword, activating it in the process.

Antonius beheaded the first daemon that got into his range with a mighty swing of his roaring sword, then he stabbed another one. He pulled his sword out of the jerking body and slashed another one’s stomach. He stroke forwards and sideways with transhuman speed, slaughtering one abomination after the other.

Then, he felt a weight on his shoulders, and sharp claws tried to tear him apart, leaving gorges in his pauldrons. Antonius grabbed the thing on his back, lifted it over his head and slammed it into the ground in front of him. It was some kind of doglike monster, more a hellhound than anything else, but it died without further troubles as Antonius stomped his boot onto its head.

A nightmare spider jumped at him, hoping to bring him down. Instead, he impaled it with his chainsword, raised it further into the air and brought the weapon to full speed.
The thing jerked and squeaked as it was eviscerated, its blood raining down on the floor and staining his armor.

Antonius sneaked a peek at the Nightmare Lord and Luna and almost started laughing. He had never thought that a greater daemon could look dumbfounded. Luna’s expression was quite similar, but there was more; perhaps it was hope, or happiness, or whatever. There was not enough time to appropriately determine that.

The dead spider was turned into an improvised missile as Antonius launched it at another daemon, then he continued his gruesome but righteous work. If he had ever worried that his time with the ponies had had a bad influence on his prowess, here he had the proof that that was not the case. He had never been better. Speed, strength, accuracy, everything worked perfectly.

Before long, Antonius faced the last of the lesser daemons, looking a little like an old mare, but with a multitude of sharp, acicular teeth in its mouth.

“Where is my rus…” it started, but he stabbed his sword into its maw and cut it apart before it could finish the sentence.

Now Antonius faced the Nightmare Lord. Until now, the giant creature had not intervened. In fact, it looked a little disturbed.
Well, it was used to frightening ponies and killing harmless beings. Now, it had to face a Space Marine, dripping with the blood of its slaughtered lackeys.

“You have come a long way to kill me,” the daemon snarled,
“and I have to admit that you are not bad, but you are no match for me.”

Having said that, it extended its claws, and a dark shockwave came rushing towards Antonius.

“Look out!” Luna screamed, then a rope of dark goo - similar to the substance that covered her horn - wrapped around her muzzle, forcing her to be quiet.

The shockwave hit Antonius, but he did not even flinch. It had been a wave of fear, and while Space Marines generally were very resistant to fear, Antonius’ righteous wrath made him immune to the attack.

“Release her and I’ll make it easy for you,” Antonius told the surprised daemon coldly.

“Her? Luna? You’re here for… well, if that’s the case… fetch!”

Now the abomination threw Luna against the wall, hard enough to make the stones collapse over her.
Antonius was sure his hearts skipped a beat as he witnessed this. Had Luna survived?
He couldn’t take the time to check in on her…

“Oh, you missed!” the daemon grinned sadistically.

Now, while the gene-seed of the Ultramarines was generally regarded as one of the most stable, it was also rumored to have two flaws; the first was a tendency to adapt to existing hierarchy. One could argue that Antonius had already displayed that flaw when he had accepted Luna as his commander. The second flaw was a predisposition for increased aggression potential, and Antonius was about to display that flaw now.

He jumped forward, roaring, and thrusted his chainsword deep into the daemon’s stomach. The attack was so powerful that it forced the daemon to take a step back, even though it was twice as tall as the Space Marine. It screamed in anger and pain as its intestines were falling to the floor, but it was far from defeated yet.

The daemon reached back with its fist, and Antonius realized that he had been an idiot.
His chainsword was so deep in the bowels of the creature that he had no chance of yanking it out in time. So, he only had two options: to let go off the sword or to try and deflect the blow.
Not willing to loose his weapon, he choose the latter.

The fist came down and Antonius left arm rose to deflect it. He managed to stop the fist, but two cracks - not to mention the spike of pain - told him that he had taken damage in the process: the armor on his left arm was broken, as was his left lower arm.

Antonius managed to free the chainsword and jumped backwards before the daemon could hit him again.
The first ‘round’ was over, and both of them had taken damage. The weakness of the lesser daemons had lulled Antonius, and while his blunt attack had been somewhat satisfying, he had to change his tactic to ensure victory against this stronger enemy.
And he did just that.

Instead of powerful attacks that were so slow that the daemon got a change to strike back, Antonius attacked faster, only cutting now instead of eviscerating.
The Nightmare Lord’s blows only hit the ground or nothing at all, while Antonius dodged and attacked whenever he had an opportunity.

They fought this way for a few minutes, and Antonius noticed the daemon getting slower and weaker. The thing was bleeding out of dozens of wounds, and the Space Marine took care not to slip on the wet ground while still evading attacks.
His enemy had several cuts on its right wrist, and with his next swing, Antonius managed to sever the daemon’s clawed hand.

The thing screamed and took a step back, then it attacked again, mad with rage, and slipped on the same floor it had graciously supplied with its blood. Its head hit the ground, and Antonius saw his chance for another - and hopefully final - powerful attack. He jumped onto the daemon’s back and stabbed the chainsword into its neck.

The creature jumped up and tried to shake him off, but Antonius managed to hold on and forced the sword deeper into the cursed flesh.
The chainsword gurgled, torrents of blood streaming out of the wound, and finally, the daemon fell on its knees and toppled over.

Antonius jumped from its back and had his sword at the daemon’s throat only a second later.

“This is not over,” the abomination insisted, spitting blood,
“my lieutenants are still out there… they will avenge me!”

“If they’re not vastly better than you were, this isn’t gonna be much of a challenge,” Antonius spat and cut off the Nightmare Lord’s head.

A last twitch, a last scream, and it was over.
Antonius had won.

He had no time to savor this victory, though. He immediately dashed to the pile of rubble that had buried Luna and started digging with his hands. He did not care for his broken arm; while the armor’s shell and his bones were broken, most of the armor’s internal structure was still intact and prevented his arm from being ripped off by the effort.

Finally, he found Luna. She had multiple cuts and bruises, but she was breathing and the strange black mass was gone. Antonius took off his helmet and carefully examined her; her spine seemed to be alright… in fact, he couldn’t even find a broken bone. Alicorns really were resilient, even more than normal ponies…

Thanking the Emperor for this, he locked his left arm joints to favor his injured limb, carefully picked up Luna and turned to leave the castle. She breathed quietly, as if she was just asleep, and not knocked out by a greater daemon. He felt the little movements she made and the softness of her fur… the neural link to his armor really was great.

They had left the castle and were just descending the steps from the main door as Luna woke up.

“Tony?” she asked weakly,
“is it over? Are the daemons dead?”

“As dead as I can kill them,” Antonius replied with a smile.

“And you?”

“I am positive that I’m still alive.”

Luna smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but are you hurt?” she inquired.

“My left arm is broken, so is my armor in that place. The Nightmare Lord’s doing. Other wise, I’m fine.”

That was right. Even this strange feeling of uneasiness and restlessness was gone. Okay, he was tired, but that didn’t matter; he felt downright great!

“Your arm?” Luna asked, stunned,
“but you are carrying me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve locked the arm joints,” Antonius explained,
“my arm won’t fall off. Or do you want to be put down?”

“Not necessarily,” Luna snickered.

Antonius reactivated the vox and the sender and contacted Al:

“Al, frequencies are clear.”

“Affirmative,” Al replied,
“downloading your vid-log.”

“What about the ponies?”

“On their way. You should meet them soon.”

Not even a minute later Celestia, the Element Bearers and the denizens of the moon came into view.

“You’re okay!” Celestia cheered.

“More or less,” Luna answered.

“You managed to defeat the Nightmare Forces?” Larry asked.

“Yes,” Antonius replied,
“and you decided to come and help.”

“Yeah. While we knew we had no chance of winning in a fight, we thought we could still try to distract the daemons and protect the ponies.”

“Commendable. No righteous effort is in vain.”

“So,” Rainbow Dash grinned,
“we came here just to see you carry Princess Luna and you have already kicked all of the daemons’ butts?”

“You should have seen him!” Luna cheered,
“they did not stand a chance against him! He mowed them down with bolter and chainsword, only the Nightmare Lord managed to harm him by breaking his arm, but even that did not stop him!”

“Whoa… okay…” Twilight said.

“Anything we should take into account now?” Celestia asked.

“The remains of the daemons are all in a large room… you should bring the biggest mop along you can find,” Antonius told her,
“but seriously, we should burn the corpses, just to be sure.”

“We will take care of that,” Larry insisted,
“it’s the least we can do.”

“Thank you,” Celestia said,
“then, let’s head home.”

Lyra and a whole crowd of ponies had gathered on the hill from which Princess Celestia and the Element Bearers had started their rescue mission, waiting for them to return. Furthermore, the word had spread that Antonius had been sent to the moon in advance while the others had gotten ready.
A lot of ponies talked about that. They couldn’t understand what a single creature could do against a whole army of daemons, especially without the Elements of Harmony or any other magic.
Of course, Antonius had a reputation. Everypony had heard about the missions he had been sent on by the princesses, but those stories could be exaggerated. They had also seen him fight the Nightmare Forces when they had first attacked, and although he had played a key part in defeating them, it had actually been a group effort.
Lyra was not among the skeptics. She knew that the stories were true, and that Antonius could get along quite well, even without magic.

She did not have to wait long. The princesses and the Element Bearers soon returned - together with Antonius.
The whole crowd fell silent as the Space Marine touched the ground. His armor was soiled with a black substance, and it did not take a lot of imagination to realize that it was the blood of the nightmare daemons. In his arms, he held Princess Luna, and she seemed to be alright.

“Princess Celestia,” Mayor Mare greeted the princess,
“we are happy that you all are back safely - and that you were able to rescue Princess Luna!”

“Actually,” Princess Celestia answered,
“it was Lord Varus who rescued my sister. When we arrived, they were already on their way back.”

A murmur went through the crowd. Lyra grinned.

“And what about the army of nightmare daemons, if I may ask?” the mayor continued.

“Lord Varus took care of them,” the princess replied,
“they won’t be a threat to us anymore.”

More murmuring. Lyra’s grin grew even wider.
Everypony was staring at Antonius’ armor again, and now even the last pony realized what had happened.

“Really, we all have to thank our friend Antonius Varus,” Princess Luna now stated loudly,
“for he prevented the Nightmare Forces from raining doom upon us all!”

Then, she lit her horn and put the moon back to where it belonged at this time of day.

“If you’ll excuse us now,” Princess Celestia said,
“we would like to return to Canterlot.”

The princesses, the Element Bearers and Antonius left and boarded the chariots that had been waiting nearby.

“Do I have this right?” a pony asked,
“Lord Varus killed all the nightmare daemons, rescued Princess Luna, saved us all from an invasion, and that even before Princess Celestia and the Element Bearers arrived up there?”

“Yep,” Lyra smiled,
“you know, his kin isn’t called ‘Angels of Death’ for nothing.”

“Wow. Good thing he’s on our side,” the pony said.

Some time after they had set foot and hoof on the planet again, the whole moon task force was in Antonius’ room. While Luna and Celestia helped him out of his armor, Twilight and her friends kept asking questions about his ‘adventure’.

“Yes, Celestia shot me to the moon… no, I landed gracefully - more or less… no, I wasn’t afraid… no, I did not ‘kick their butts’, at least not verbatim… you know, just take a look at the vid-log, but beware, it’ll be quite… messy,” Antonius told them.

When they had removed his chest armor, the princesses tended to Antonius’ arm, then Celestia shooed the ponies out with a grin.

“Nothing to see here,” she smiled.

When Antonius had taken a shower and left the bathroom, he wanted to put on his civil clothes, but Luna stopped him.

“No. Bedrest,” she commanded.

“Huh? I’m okay,” Antonius objected.

“Your arm was broken. We may have healed it, but it is still a little weak. So, bedrest. And I will take care that you stay in bed to recuperate!”

“Telling you that this is unnecessary won’t be of any use, will it?” Antonius deadpanned.

“No,” Luna stated and gave him his pajamas, which he put on.

“Okay,” Celestia snickered,
“I’ll prevent him from escaping while you’re taking a shower, Luna.”

“Thank you, sister,” Luna said and vanished in the bathroom.

“You know, I did not plan to run away. While the rest is not strictly necessary, I don’t mind it, either,” Antonius explained.

“May I be honest with you - and perhaps a little blunt?” Celestia asked.

Oh, now he would be criticized for the mess he had made… well, he would endure it.

“Of course. Hit me,“ he replied.

Celestia closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again, Antonius could see that she was… moist-eyed?

Then, much to his surprise, Celestia suddenly downright jumped at him and hugged him - with her front legs and her wings.

“Thank you!” she cried,
“thank you so much for saving Luna! I thought I had to go through all that again… the loneliness, the guilt because I had been too weak to save her…
Do you know how often I stepped into her room, only to find it empty? Do you know how much I missed her every time I moved her moon? Do you have any idea how disgusting those Summer Sun Celebrations were for me, when I had to celebrate that I had been unable to save my sister? And I can’t even imagine how cruel those thousand years must have been for Luna… enslaved by a daemon, far away from the ponies she loved…”

Now the bathroom door burst open and Luna, obviously having overheard Celestia, dashed towards them, crying.

“Oh sister,” she screamed and joined in on the hug with quite some momentum.

Antonius lost balance and rolled onto his back, the princesses stacked on top of each other - and on top of him.

“My pleasure!” Antonius wheezed.

Since they made no move to end the hug, Antonius put his arms around them, too.

“Okay, enough cuddling,” Luna finally said and got up again,
“Antonius still needs to recuperate. And I will take care that he…”
She yawned.
“…does.”

“Maybe you should get some sleep yourself, Luna,” Celestia noted, also getting up,
“you can barely keep your eyes open.”

“Nah, I am fine. But you may go back to your duties, sister. It is not even noon, after all.”

“Right. You’ll probably want to skip lunch. I will bring you a snack in the afternoon. See you!”

Celestia left and Luna sat down on the edge of Antonius’ bed, yawning.

“You really should get some sleep,” Antonius suggested,
“I promise I won’t get up before I’ve completely recuperated.”

“Tony, I am worried you are taking this too easy. Your injury was cause by the Nightmare Lord! There is no way I am going to leave you unsupervised until we are absolutely sure everything is fine!”

“This wasn’t the first daemon I fought.”

“Less arguing, more sleeping. I will take care of you.”

Realizing the futility of any sort of objection, Antonius closed his eyes and was soon asleep.