My Little Xeno

Some days had passed since Luna’s day shift and now the dark blue alicorn mare was getting ready for her usual night shift.
First, there would be dinner with Celestia and Antonius, then she would raise the moon, go on a patrol to keep her subjects safe and finally, she would watch out for nightmares and guarantee restful sleep everywhere in Equestria.
Luna had to admit, she really liked these duties better than the insanity her sister called her ‘average day’.

Much to her surprise, there was a knock on the door. Wondering who that might be and what urgent business they could possibly have, she called:

“Come in.”

The door opened and Celestia entered her quarters.

“Hello, Luna,” she greeted,
“I hope that you slept well?”

“I did, sister,” Luna answered,
“but tell me, what brings you here that could not wait the few minutes until we would meet for dinner anyway?”

“I have a plan, Luna, and I need your help to execute it.”

“You know you can count on me, sister, but why did you not wait for… wait… you do not want Tony to know. Oh, is it a surprise for him?”

“Well, it certainly will be a surprise for him. I want to reform Discord.”

Luna stared at Celestia for a few seconds, blinked and said:

“I am sorry, sister, but for a second, I thought you said you wanted to…”

“…reform Discord.” Celestia finished.

Luna stared at her sister again.

“Has the insanity of your schedule finally rubbed off on you?” she exclaimed,
“seriously, sister, that is certainly one of the worst ideas ever… and Tony will not only be surprised, he will be downright livid. Discord is something like a Chaos daemon, after all. He will not risk anypony getting harmed and will probably fight him at once.”

“That’s why I need you, Luna. I have use for Discord’s magic, but he must be reformed first to serve good instead of evil. I am planning to task the Element Bearers - and Fluttershy in particular - with reforming him, and I need you to distract Antonius so that he won’t intervene.”

“Distract?” Luna asked.

“You could travel to Horseshoe Bay together and spent a few days there,” Celestia explained,
“you know, like a normal holiday. I don’t think he will suspect a thing and we will be able to take care of Discord.”

“But… Tony will finally find out… when we return to Canterlot at the latest. He will see this ‘distraction’ as treason, and he will be right. You want me to betray him!”

“There is no chance of reforming Discord if Antonius is around trying to kill him! We must get rid of Antonius for a while. When he sees that we have successfully reformed Discord, I’m sure he will calm down rather quickly.”

“And why do you want to reform Discord in the first place? I have to admit that reforming villains is a good thing, and that a creature of his power could be quite useful, but the risk…”

“Is worth it, Luna, and I have my reasons for taking it. Trust me.”

Luna took a deep breath. She did not like the plan. It meant betraying Antonius, but if she refused to play her part, wouldn’t she betray her sister?

“Do you have any idea what you demand from me?” she asked quietly.

“I do, Luna,” Celestia replied compassionately,
“and if there was another way, I would take it, but I see none.
I can’t just tell him to leave for a few days with no further explanation. I also can’t invite him to this vacation myself. There is the Royal Summit I have to attend, and while we are friends, we are not close enough to just go on a vacation together. You are.”

“Perhaps we could talk to Tony and explain…”

“Too unreliable. As you said, Antonius would never take the risk of Discord harming anypony - much less the Element Bearers. He must not know what is going to happen. Please, Luna, help me.”

Some seconds went by, then Luna said:

“Okay, sister. I will help you. Even at the risk of ruining my friendship with Tony.”

“Thank you, Luna. Let’s have dinner now. Antonius will already be waiting for us.”

Probably. But he certainly had no idea that he was also waiting for being betrayed. Luna hated what she was about to do, but it was Antonius or her sister… and she just couldn’t betray Celestia. Not again!

Antonius entered the refectory on time only to find it empty. That was a little odd, since Celestia usually was the first one present when it came to meals.
He did not have to wait long, though. Celestia and Luna joined him after just a few minutes.

While the dinner was delicious as always, Antonius noticed that Luna was not as talkative as usual. He wondered if something was bothering her, but decided to wait for her to open up.

After dinner, he got an explanation as Celestia said:

“Before we part, Luna wanted to ask you something.”

Antonius turned to Luna and waited for her to start talking. She looked a little stressed, and her smile was somewhat forced.

“Tony,” she started,
“I was wondering if you would like to… I mean, only if you do not mind… that mayhaps we, you and I, could… umm…”

“My little sister wants to invite you to go on a vacation to Horseshoe Bay with her,” Celestia explained.

“Yes!” Luna agreed.

Okay, something was wrong here. Antonius knew Luna long enough by now to read her body language and behavior with sufficient precision to notice that. She was way too nervous, and there was a flicker of sadness in her eyes.
Still, being her friend, he would not urge her to tell him what exactly this ‘something’ was.

“A vacation?” he asked,
“a time of being as unproductive as possible somewhere away from home?”

Luna nodded, her smile even more forced than before. Perhaps she was uncertain if he would like to accompany her? Well, that was a sorrow he could ease.

“Of course I would like to go on a vacation with you,” he smiled friendlily.

“Great!” Luna exclaimed.

While she did sound joyful, there was also something else; a little bit of… was that regret? Well, once they were on vacation and Luna had time to relax, she would probably open up and tell him what was bothering her.

That night, Antonius prepared the Land Speeder for the trip and in the morning, they started. The journey itself was pretty uneventful and they soon arrived at their destination.

“Horseshoe Bay Resort,” Antonius grinned as he took a look at the hotel they were going to stay in,
“where your level of stress is lowered almost as fast as the amount of bits you possess.”

“You do not need to worry about that,” Luna replied.

“Actually, it was meant to be a joke.”

“Oh… sorry.”

Okay, so much for his first attempt to cheer her up. He would keep trying, though.

When they were on the beach that afternoon, Luna finally started to loosen up. While she didn’t tell him what had bothered her, she now enjoyed the time they spent together.

They even took part in a sandcastle competition; with Luna’s magic and Antonius’ knowledge, the miniature sand ‘Fortress of Hera’ they built was vastly superior to every other sandcastle and they won in a rout. In order to make up for totally outperforming them, they bought the other participants (mostly foals) ice cream and everything was fine again.

“This was a fun day!” Luna cheered as they were back in their room late at night.

“Definitely,” Antonius agreed,
“it really was a great idea to come here.”

Damnit, there it was again, this bit of regret in her eyes.
Caused by his reassurance that he liked the vacation? Did that make sense?

“Luna,” he finally asked,
“is something wrong?”

“What? No!” she exclaimed,
“what makes you think so?”

“You seem to be a little unhappy at times. Right now, for example.”

“No… umm… you must be mistaken.”

Antonius did not really believe her, but if she needed more time, she would get it.

Since the hotel was not really equipped to accommodate a creature of Antonius’ size, he made camp on the floor while Luna used the bed. They said goodnight - but none of them really slept.
Antonius was keeping an eye on Luna, who was tossing and turning, only dozing off for a few minutes before waking up again.

It was past midnight as Antonius asked:

“Luna?”

“Yes?” she answered.

“What is bothering you?”

“Why do you think something is bothering me?” she asked worriedly.

“You are restless, and you have never been prone to intermittent sleeping before.”

“Sorry, I will be quiet from now on.”

“No, that’s exactly the opposite of what you should do,” he said, got up and sat down on her bed,
“what’s wrong, Luna? Something’s bothering you. We are friends, you can tell me.”

Luna looked like she was about to panic. She sat up and looked around as if she was looking for an escape.
Whatever was going on, it had to be serious.

“Luna,” Antonius said as gently as he could,
“don’t bottle up, that’s not good for you. Tell me.”

Now Luna regarded him, then she lowered her head and mumbled:

“Do not be that nice to me. I do not deserve that.”

“Huh? Why shouldn’t you deserve me being nice?”

“Because… because…”

“Hmm?”

“Because I betrayed you.” Luna whispered and started to tear up.

“What? I can’t imagine that. How? And why?”

“I will betray my sister if I tell you.”

“Oh crap, what is Tia up to?”

“Forgive me, sister,” Luna wept,
“but I cannot keep it a secret… Celestia wants to reform Discord.”

Antonius stared at her in utter bafflement.

“You mean this Chaos daemon?” he inquired incredulously.

Luna nodded. Antonius picked her up, looked her in the puffy eyes and continued:

“What is her plan? What do you know? Tell me!”

“She wants to task Fluttershy with reforming him.”

“She wants to unleash a Chaos daemon on the Element of Kindness?”

Antonius thought he had misheard. This plan was so insane that it was a wonder it was not instantly sucked in by the warp.

“Canterlot or Ponyville?” he asked.

“I do not know,” Luna answered.

Hmm… hopefully Celestia had taken some precautions, like a special room, secured by powerful spells or something like that. Such a room would probably be in Canterlot…

“Please do not hate me,” Luna whispered.

“Pack your things,” Antonius commanded as he let go of her,
“you have five minutes.”

Those five minutes were a delay, but compared to the whole day that had gone by, they were almost negligible, and they were a concession.
Luna quickly packed - with her tail between her legs - while Antonius put on his armor and four minutes later they left their room.

Storming past the reception desk, he looked back and noticed that Luna had put on a brave face as she paid their bill. Only by knowing her better one was able to see her inner turmoil.
Antonius went ahead and prepared the Land Speeder for departure. When Luna had caught up with him, he put her in the Speeder and a few moments later, they were on their way back to Canterlot.

As they speeded through the night, Antonius thought of the terrible things that could have happened by now. Fluttershy, the Element Bearers and a damned Chaos daemon… well, they had defeated the thing once, and the Elements were a powerful weapon, but daemons, especially those of Tzeentch, were devious and not dumb at all.

He took a quick look at Luna. She was crying.
Damnit. Even if the Element Bearers had been able to handle the daemon, Celestia’s plan had still caused quite some damage: to Luna.

Antonius couldn’t take care of her now, he had to go back to Canterlot as quickly as possible. He had to defend Fluttershy and her friends against Discord, that took top priority.
Furthermore, Luna actually had betrayed him by participating in Celestia’s plan, so it was just and consecutive that she felt terrible, right? Right?

Wrong.
She had only had the choice to either betray him or her sister, and after the Nightmare Moon incident…
Damnit.

Antonius slowed the Land Speeder down and stopped. The engines quieted down enough to allow for a conversation without having to shout and he turned to her.
She looked at him in fear and he moved a hand in her direction to put it on her shoulder, but she closed her eyes and winced as if she…

“Oh, damnit,” he said,
“you really expect me to hurt you?”

“I know you hate traitors,” Luna whispered,
“so you have to hate me now, too.”

Antonius thought his stomach turned.

“No, Luna,” he said, gently putting his hand on her shoulder,
“I don’t hate you. I might be a little… disappointed, but I understand your dilemma. It was either me or your sister, and I came off second best. The important thing now is making sure that the Element Bearers are okay. Can I count on your help?”

“Yes,” Luna nodded, a little bit of hope in her eyes.

“Oh, one other thing, Luna: Should I ever try to harm you, you may assume that I suffer from some kind of mind control or temporary insanity. In that case, you have my permission to blast me - without killing me - and subsequently use the Elements of Harmony to restore me.”

Antonius accelerated the Land Speeder again.

It was early in the morning and Celestia was content. Her plan to reform Discord had worked perfectly, thanks to Fluttershy. Now, she could use him and his powers for good.
There was only one problem left: Antonius.
He certainly wouldn’t be too happy about the whole affair, but nopony had been harmed and everything was fine. Well, she still had some time to come up with a way to tell him everything.

At least she had thought so. As the doors to the throne room opened and revealed Antonius, she knew that her sister had spilled the beans - and that she had to improvise. She immediately got up and walked into the room - to greet Antonius and to have some space for evasive maneuvers.

“Guards. Leave,” Antonius commanded and Celestia nodded her approval.

So, he probably wanted to argue with her without undermining her authority in front of her guards. If he was still that considerate, it couldn’t get that bad…

Once the guards had left, he asked:

“Did you free the daemon?”

“We freed Discord,” she answered, trying not to be worried by the anger in his distorted voice,
“and we - respectively Fluttershy - reformed him successfully.”

“I seriously doubt that, but the Element Bearers are okay?”

“Yes, I can assure you they all are fine, and I left the Elements with them, just in case Discord really wants to mess around again. You see, everything is okay.”

“Where is the daemon?”

“Fluttershy’s cottage, and he’s behaving impeccably.”

Now Antonius calmly removed his helmet and then his right gauntlet. Celestia wondered what he could be up to, and got the answer as he slapped her with his now bare hand.
Her head was forced aside and she had to move her hoof to keep her balance, but she also recognized that this attack was more a sign of discontent that an attempt to actually hurt her; it was just not powerful enough to cause actual harm.

“Admit it, you deserved that,” Antonius stated as she turned towards him again.

“For successfully reforming Discord?” Celestia asked, a slightly mocking tone in her voice.

“No, for forcing Luna to deceive me. Have you any idea what you did to her? The treason you made her commit tortured her the whole day, and as I found out, she even was afraid of me hurting her.”

“You didn’t…”

“OF COURSE I DID NOT! I saved that for you, but I never want to see her wince before me ever again! And I do NOT want you to use her like that ever again!”

Crap.
Celestia had been so busy worrying about how Antonius might react to Discord that she somehow forgot to worry about how he might react to Luna’s part in the plan, or her, the creator of that plan!
Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten angry at her sister, but now he was mad at her. Perhaps she could allay his wrath?

“It was necessary,” Celestia said,
“I had to try and reform Discord, and you would never have agreed to such a plan.”

“Damned right,” Antonius grumbled.

“So I had to distract you, and Luna is the only pony I know capable of doing so. I have to admit that I hated this part of my plan, that I hated using her that way, but I had no choice. As I said, it was necessary.”

According to Antonius’ facial expression, he was neither convinced nor allayed, but Celestia saw not getting slapped again as a good sign.

He put his gauntlet and helmet back on and turned to leave.

“What are you going to do?” Celestia asked.

“Check in on the daemon,” he answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Discord is reformed, please don’t do anything that might compromise our success!”

“You clearly have no experience with daemons,” Antonius said and left.

Celestia quickly fetched her PDA and called Twilight.

Antonius found Luna in the hangar where he had left her.

“Ponyville. Fluttershy’s cottage,” he told her and jumped into the Land Speeder.

Luna wordlessly followed his example and they left the hangar again, heading for Ponyville.

They had almost reached Fluttershy’s home as they spotted the Element Bearers - sans the yellow pegasus. The ponies waved at them, and Antonius brought the Speeder to a stop right next to them.

“What’s the situation?” Antonius immediately asked,
“did the daemon attack?”

“No,” Twilight answered,
“everything is okay. We just wanted to make sure that you don’t do something… rash.”

“Celestia called you, didn’t she?”

“Well, yes. Still, I told you the truth… right, Applejack?”

“Yeah, Discord really seems somewhat reformed,” Applejack confirmed,
“we all had our doubts at first, but Fluttershy really did it.”

“See?” Twilight asked with a slightly nervous grin.

“Daemons are treacherous,” Antonius stated,
“it probably only pretends to be reformed to prepare some sort of atrocity.”

“I don’t think so… of course, it’s a possibility, though. That’s why we have the Elements of Harmony at the ready.
But I think we should give Discord a chance instead of just condemning him… by the way, could you please use ‘him’ instead of ‘it’ when talking about him? It really would be nicer.”

“Daemons are to be condemned, Twilight, for they are made of pure evil. Everything they do, they do with malicious intent.”

“This presumes that Discord actually is a daemon, but we can’t be completely sure of that. He could also just be a very, very weird creature… with a preference for chaos magic…”

“Seriously?” Antonius deadpanned.

“I just say that we should give him a chance,” Twilight summarized,
“what about a joint lunch? You could get to know him that way and see for yourself how he behaves or what he is.”

“I would lose the element of surprise.”

“Well, you have all the Elements of Harmony with you, so you won’t need the element of surprise, don’t you think?”

“Hmm… the risk still is quite high…”

“Antonius, I really appreciate that you want to protect us, but do you think you could just trust us this time?”

“You aren’t entirely confident yourself.”

“Maybe not, but with my friends at my side, I know that everything will be fine.”

Antonius took a deep breath. This course of action was incredibly dangerous, but patronizing his friends could lead to even more harm than playing along.

“Fine,” he finally said,
“prepare your joint lunch. But don’t tell Discord who or what I am. I need to see his reaction when he finds out.”

“Okay,” Twilight agreed,
“now, let’s go to the library while our friends prepare everything.”

Once they were in the library, Twilight recapitulated everything she know about Discord and their past encounters.
Antonius had to admit that he really wasn’t a typical Chaos daemon, but that didn’t make him harmless… perhaps he was just pursuing an especially convoluted - and devious - plan.

Antonius countered with a little plan of his own:
The Element Bearers would go in fist, so that they would be together and able to use the Elements. Then, Antonius would appear, and Luna would bring up the rear.

Luna… she still seemed somewhat downcast, thanks to Celestia’s horrible plan. First the triple shift, now that… Celestia seemed to have taken a liking to torturing her little sister…

“Tell me, Twilight,” Antonius said,
“have you noticed changes or irregularities in Celestia’s behavior?”

“Huh? No, not really. Okay, as she brought Discord to us, I have to admit that I wondered what had gotten into her, but her plan worked.”

“Remains to be seen.”

“Come on, Antonius, you really should trust Princess Celestia… wait a second, you really don’t trust her, do you?”

Twilight looked completely flabbergasted. Well, Celestia had always been her role model, somepony she trusted completely. Almost all ponies trusted her completely. But now there was a Space Marine who questioned her motivations. Of course, Twilight didn’t like that, but Antonius would still tell her what he thought:

“Honestly? Not entirely. Some of her actions lately could be interpreted to hint at a beginning corruption.”

“WHAT? That’s insane! Princess Celestia would never…”

“Get corrupted?” Antonius interrupted her,
“she certainly didn’t ask for it, but it can still happen.”

“You must be mistaken.”

“Possible. But as an Element Bearer, you must be prepared to fight Chaos wherever it shows up. While I am aware of the fact that I can’t give you orders, I still beg you to stay alert. I have quite some experience with such… things.”

“Well… okay, but I can assure you that you don’t need to be worried.”

“I hope so.”

When it was time to leave for Fluttershy’s cottage, Antonius checked his weapons and they left the library.

As Twilight entered Fluttershy’s cottage, she was immediately greeted by Discord.

“Ah, Twilight!” he exclaimed,
“about time you showed up! You know, after our nice little dinner party yesterday, I did not even dream of having lunch with all of you today! And even with a surprise guest! What little pony did you invite for my - I mean our - amusement?”

“You’ll just have to wait a minute, he’ll be here soon,” Twilight told him.

“Oh, a stallion! Want to introduce me to your ‘friend’, hmm?”

“What? No!” Twilight stammered with a slight blush,
“he is my friend, but not a FRIEND friend. He’s just our friend, the friend of all of us.”

Now there was a knock on the door and Discord winked at Twilight.

“Well, I’ll let your ‘not FRIEND’ friend in, then we’ll see,” he said with a grin and went to open the door.

To say that Twilight was nervous would have been an understatement. Antonius encountering Discord - that could cause some serious trouble, but it had to be done.
She walked up to Discord’s side as he opened the door and revealed Antonius.

The Space Marine was standing there, fully armored and armed, but his weapons were still at his hip and he made no move to attack.

To be honest, Twilight just waited for Discord to make a snarky remark or something, and it took her a few seconds until she noticed the utter silence. She took a look at Discord and was thoroughly surprised:
The Lord of Chaos stood there slack-jawed and stared at Antonius. Finally, he started stammering:

“You… you are one of Rob’s boys… what are you doing here? Did he sent you?”

Such a reaction was unexpected - to put it mildly. While Twilight could not see Antonius’ face beneath his helmet, she was sure that he was quite surprised, too.

“Rob?” Antonius asked in confusion, confirming Twilight’s assumption,
“Roboute Guilliman? You dare to mention the name of my Primarch - and to profane it by abbreviating it?”

“Yeah, you are an Ultramarine… so prissy… now seriously, the old killjoy did send you, didn’t he?”

“‘KILLJOY’? ‘Killing’ the ‘joy’ of creatures like you is one of our most sacred duties!”

Uh-oh. Things were starting to go south.
Twilight just wanted to intervene, but Fluttershy beat her to it:

“Excuse me, but I think it would be best if you came in and just told Discord if your Primarch sent you, Antonius.”

Antonius took a deep breath. He was obviously angry, but he deferred to Fluttershy’s proposal.

“Fine,” he said and entered the cottage. Luna also did so a few seconds later.

“My Primarch,”Antonius now explained,
“the revered Roboute Guilliman, did not sent me, at least not in person, as it’s quite hard to give orders when you are mortally wounded and inside a stasis field!”

“He is WHAT?” Discord exclaimed.

“Quit playing games! There is no way you don’t know about the Horus Heresy!”

“Horus? Heresy?!? Why should… what happened?”

While Twilight had no idea how it was possible, she was sure that Discord actually knew this ‘Horus’ somehow, he sounded surprised - and even somewhat concerned!
Antonius, however, was livid. He certainly thought Discord was just trying to annoy him, but Twilight wasn’t so sure about that.

“Just tell him, Antonius,” she pleaded.

“Yes,” Discord said with surprising seriousness,
“assume that I really have no idea what has happened.”

“Fine,” Antonius grumbled after a second and told the story of the Horus Heresy, as he had done many moons ago when he had first met the princesses,
“and in the aftermath of the Heresy, Fulgrim, now a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, stabbed Primarch Guilliman with a poisoned sword. Primarch Guilliman was interred in a stasis field the moment he died, and has been in this state between life and death ever since… until some months ago, that is. Princess Luna has managed to contact the homeworld of my chapter and cast a powerful healing spell on him. Maybe he is already back to full health by now… I don’t know.”

During the last sentences Antonius’ gaze had wandered to Luna, but now he was staring at Discord again.

The Lord of Chaos seemed to be in deep thought. It seemed so unreal that this was the same Discord who had played tricks on them just yesterday.

“Well, that’s quite some news,” he said.

“Content, daemon?” Antonius asked.

“Daemon?” Discord repeated, somewhat affected, then he suddenly changed back to his more familiar personality and proclaimed with a smile:
“Your story was really good. That’s the nice thing about the galaxy: there’s always something happening! If you’ll excuse me now, I’ve gotta go. We’ll have to make good for this lunch some time later. See you!”

A snap of his claws, and Discord was gone.

“What. The. Hell?” Antonius mumbled, totally confused.

That had not been the reaction of a daemon… unless it was part of a plan… but there was no way to figure that out.

“Discord seemed to be honestly upset about what happened to the Imperium and your Primarch,” Fluttershy opined.

“Unless his dismay was faked…” Antonius added for consideration.

“I don’t think that he faked it,” Applejack said,
“as much of a surprise that may be, but I think he was sincere.”

“Hmm,” Antonius started,
“we came here so that I could evaluate Discord, so that I could determine if he’s a daemon - which I had taken as a starting point - and what his plans might be. Now, I have to admit that I am uncertain… of course, he may be a daemon and that may be his intention, but he could also just be a strange creature with some rather daemonic peculiarities… I don’t know… Still, please be wary around him, and keep your Elements within range.”

“We will,” Twilight assured him.

“And now, since the discussions are finally over and we are all here together, let’s start the lunch,” Pinkie Pie suggested.

After the lunch, Antonius and Luna returned to Canterlot. They headed to the throne room, where Celestia already expected them.

“Welcome back,” she greeted,
“please follow me to my quarters. We can talk there without ruffle or excitement.”

Once the door was closed behind them, Celestia asked:

“And? What do you think of Discord?”

“I’m not sure,” Antonius answered truthfully,
“he is either a daemon with an intricate plan, or a very weird creature. It’s impossible to be certain at this point.”

“So, are you more at ease now with me freeing him?”

“You still took an incalculable risk.”

“Since the Element Bearers had their Elements, the risk was actually not as high as you may think.”

“A quick attack could have killed one of them before they would have had a chance to react.”

“Discord does not kill. He knows that he can only annoy ponies if they’re alive… come to think of it, he seems to have a general aversion to killing.”

“Which would make him the most unusual daemon ever… if he is a daemon… damnit, this uncertainty is unnerving.”

“So,” Celestia asked carefully,
“benefit of the doubt? You won’t take action against him?”

“Only if he starts showing malicious intent,” Antonius answered,
“as long as he’s… compliant, I’ll tolerate his existence.”

“Thank you. Now, there is something else we have to talk about: I heard you are worried that I might have been corrupted?”

It was as much an assessment as it was a question, and Celestia seemed to be a little worried.
Antonius, for his part, was a little annoyed.

“Is it even possible to talk to you or Twilight without the other one instantly knowing?” he grumbled.

“Please don’t resent her for it. She called me to tell me that your encounter with Discord was rather peaceful. When she started asking me how I was doing, I knew that something was amiss, so I ‘nudged’ her a little until she told me of your concerns. You really are worried about me being corrupted, aren’t you?”

“Lets put it that way,” Antonius replied,
“I have noticed behavior patterns that hint at a disregard for the wellbeing of your subjects - and those close to you.”

“Well, then I guess it is time to explain my motives,” Celestia said and turned to her sister:
“Luna, I know that I demanded a lot from you, and believe me I hated to do so, but I had to try and reform Discord. We will need his powers sooner or later.”

“If you really think we need Discord’s magic, you are expecting a lot of trouble,” Luna stated,
“please tell us what it so, so that we may prepare ourselves.”

Celestia took a deep breath and said:

“Tirek.”

“The mad centaur?” Luna gasped.

“A centaur?” Antonius inquired,
“another legendary creature. I sincerely hope they’ve been artificially created, too… the alternative would mean that the ancient humans had been somewhat too fond of the ponies they created…”

“This situation is actually too serious for jokes,” Luna told him,
“Tirek came to Equestria a long time ago to drain all ponies of their magic. My sister and I were able to defeat him and imprison him in Tartarus. It was a hazardous fight… fights against Tirek are always extremely dangerous: he has powerful magic, so you need even more powerful magic to stop him, but since he can drain ponies of their magic…”

“It is possible that instead of defeating him you strengthen him,” Antonius concluded.

“Exactly,” Celestia confirmed,
“that’s why I want Discord; not only can he feel the magical disturbance of the draining, his magic is also so… unusual that even Tirek will have problems absorbing it.”

“Hmm… while this sort of makes sense, why not just letting me put a bolt into Tirek’s head as soon as he shows up?”

“You don’t know Tirek, we do. I do not want to risk your life by sending you to engage a creature of his magical prowess.”

Now Antonius was honestly surprised.

“So all of your scheming was - at least partly - because you want to protect me?” he asked.

“We are friends, aren’t we?” Celestia smiled,
“furthermore, we still need somepony who is able to locate and track Tirek. And since I do not like to put all of our eggs into one basket, I can also tell you that we have another… ‘countermeasure’ in the works.”

“Oh, I am positive you will like that one!” Luna remarked eagerly.

“Reminds me of our conversation when I returned from the Crystal Empire,” Antonius mumbled absentmindedly, but seeing the princesses’ startled faces, he stated digging deeper:

“Twilight? She’s your ‘countermeasure’?”

“Oh dear!” Luna exclaimed,
“first, I betray you by agreeing to my sisters plan. Then, I betray my sister by telling you about that plan. Now I betrayed her again by enabling you to connect the dots of her second plan! Excuse me, I think it is better if I go now!”

Luna rushed out of the room, on the edge of tears.

“Luna!” Antonius and Celestia shouted, but she did not stop and vanished.

“Poor little sister,” Celestia said compassionately,
“this day was a little too much for her… and it is all my fault.”

“Mainly, but not entirely,” Antonius rectified,
“I think I also have my share of guilt… damned, I hate seeing her so upset… but why is she so upset? That Twilight and her friends, equipped with the Elements of Harmony, are something like your rapid reaction force is not exactly a secret, after all.”

“This is actually not about Twilight’s friends and the Elements, it’s about Twilight herself.”

“Huh?”

“I have this strange feeling that we shouldn’t completely rely on the Elements of Harmony, but have another option up our sleeves.”

“What are you planning?”

“Would you mind if I still didn’t tell you? As I already told you, even the slightest hint could destroy everything. You won’t have to wait for much longer, though. I feel that my plan will come to fruition soon.”

What a mystery-monger! Well, if she wanted to keep that plan a secret, she should have her way. At the moment, Antonius was more concerned about Luna.

“Fine,” he answered,
“now, I should take care of Luna. Do you want to tag along?”

“I would love to, but there is too much for me to do, too many duties… and I know she is in good hooves - I mean hands,” Celestia replied with a warm smile.

Antonius nodded, left and went to Luna’s quarters. The door was closed, and he knocked:

“Luna? Are you in there? Are you okay?”

“How could I be ‘okay’?” Luna cried,
“I obviously cannot not betray anypony!”

“Nonsense! Your first so called ‘betrayal’ was because you were loyal to your sister. The second was because you were loyal to me. The third did not even happen!”

Now there were some noises inside the room and the door opened a little.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked with puffy eyes.

“I still have no idea what Celestia’s plan with Twilight is. And I swear I won’t even mention that there is some plan, so everything is fine.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“My sister is not mad at me?”

“No.”

“And neither are you? We are still friends?”

“I am not mad, there wasn’t even any malicious intent to be mad at. And I assure you that we will always be friends, Luna.”

She was clearly relieved to hear that, but she still looked rather glum… perhaps he could change that…

“Say, Luna,” Antonius started,
“I wanted to take a little nap now, but because of today’s excitement, I don’t know if will be able to relax properly. Would you mind accompanying me? You know that you have a soothing…”

“OKAY!” Luna exclaimed and immediately left her room,
“I will help you nap with pleasure!”

She noticed her slightly unfortunate choice of words and blushed a little, but Antonius just smiled and they went to his quarters.

When Antonius woke up from the improvised nap, he found Luna lying at his side, a hoof and a wing put across his body. Those napping/cuddling session really did wonders to her mood… and he had to admit that he was quite fond of them, too. He smiled.

Then he heard a familiar voice:

“Morning, darling!”

Unfortunately, Antonius’ arm was pinned under Luna, so he just turned his head.

“Discord,” he hissed.

“The one and only!” Discord exclaimed, waking up Luna.

She blinked, looked around in confusion, spotted the uninvited visitor and snorted.

“What do you want?” Antonius asked.

“Oh, I just wanted to chat a little,” Discord grinned,
“but as I can see, you are somewhat busy. I must say that I am truly shocked. I thought you were Twilight’s friend, but you obviously reach for the stars - or the moon, to be exact.”

“I have no idea what perversions lurk in that mind of yours,” Antonius said as he and Luna got up,
“and I do not even want to know, but…”

He was interrupted by Discord’s laughter:

“A Space Marine in pajamas! With smilies! HAHAHA!”

“Do not dare to laugh at Antonius for being comfortable!” Luna roared, but that only increased Discord’s amusement.

While the strange - and somewhat impolite - creature was distracted by Luna firing a blast of magic at his face, Antonius fetched his combat knife and hid it behind his back; he had an idea how to get another clue if this thing was a daemon or not.

He took position right in front of Discord and feigned trying to slap him - but he had chosen the angle and speed of the strike so that the creature had time to block with his lion-like arm, which he did.
Now Antonius stabbed the knife into Discord’s arm and immediately pulled it out again.

“OW!” Discord screamed and jumped backwards,
“that was impolite!”

A snap of his claws, and the wound was gone.

“I know,” Antonius replied calmly,
“so I thought it fitted you. And now tell me, what are you?”

“Huh?” Discord wondered aloud,
“you said it yourself: I’m a daemon.”

“A daemon that doesn’t kill, has powerful healing skills outside the warp and red blood? Unlikely. You seem like a daemon of Chaos at first glance, but I think you might actually be something else.”

Antonius had to admit that this assumption was just a shot in the dark, but perhaps it would surprise Discord enough to let slip a few words of truth.

“Of course! I am the LORD of Chaos!” Discord exclaimed triumphantly.

Or the attempt would prove to be futile.

“Now tell me: is your Chaos the same chaos that dwells in the immaterium?” Antonius continued.

Discord hesitated for a few seconds, then he said:

“Probably not.”

“So, I ask you again: what are you?”

“One of a kind,” Discord grinned.

Antonius realized that he wouldn’t get a satisfying answer out of the creature, so he had to look for other sources of information. He thought about his blood-stained knife.
Perhaps his omophagea could help? As long as he had no idea what the hell Discord was, ingesting his blood was an incalculable risk, though…

His considerations were rendered moot when a flash of light suddenly cleaned his knife, removing even the least trace of blood.

“You’re welcome,” Discord smiled.

Antonius took a scrutinizing look at the creature. Did he really just want to clean the knife - which was somewhat unlikely - or did he want to destroy the blood so that Antonius could not use it? But that would mean that Discord knew more about Space Marines than most creatures…

“Well, I think the two of you have more important things to do,” Discord said with a wink,
“bye!”

A snap of his claws later, he was gone.

“So Discord just dropped by to annoy us,” Luna grumbled.

“At least he got distracted by the chance to annoy us,” Antonius said.

“Do you really think that he is not really a Chaos daemon?”

“There is some evidence that he is something different, but that could all be part of a devious plan. So, in short: I have no idea.”