My Little Xeno

Antonius scratched his head. The timing for the return of Chaos could not possibly be worse. The Elements of Harmony had probably become unavailable and there had been no time to find a replacement. Al wasn’t ready, either, the only assets they had were shotguns, flamers, and an untested tank prototype.

“Perhaps it’s just a false alarm,” Celestia suggested.

“You may hope for that,” Antonius replied,
“but we must not count on it. Instead, we will assume the threat is real.
Put Equestria under martial law. Send for the PDF, they must be ready to move out as soon as we have localized the Chaos incursion. Make sure that they are equipped with the guns we produced… damnit, I wish we’ve had time to actually train them. Now, a crash course must suffice.”

“What about the tank?” Luna inquired.

“Ready but untested. Guess it’ll be ‘trial by fire’ for it, too.”

Now Antonius fetched his PDA and called Twilight.

“Hello,” she answered cheerfully.

“Twilight,” Antonius said,
“Chaos has probably returned.

“Please tell me that you’re kidding,” she said as she paled.

“Unfortunately, I’m not. We still don’t know any details but we’ll take it with the utmost seriousness. Get your friends and revisit the Tree of Harmony. See if it releases the Elements. Then call me and report on the situation.”

He closed the connection and voxed Al.

“Hello,” Al answered,
“how can I be of service?”

“Al,” Antonius told him,
“we have a probable Chaos incursion.”

“Oh no! That really is more than just inconvenient! We are not ready yet. We have no new units, no new weapons, not even the production facilities. I do not even have the new reactor ready!”

“Calm down. I am well aware of that. We’ll have to stick to the equipment the ponies produced. Can you mask your energy signature? Chaos must not find you.”

“I think so… but I can’t continue replacing my reactor while doing so.”

“Doesn’t matter. Mask your signature and maintain radio silence. Only use the vox if absolutely necessary.”

“Our communication is already encrypted, but in addition to that, I will narrow down the wave band and keep to your order, that should make it much harder for them to locate me.”

“Good. I will send some ponies over to seek shelter in your core halls. Over.”

“Understood. Over.”

“You want to send ponies to Al?” Celestia wanted to know.

“Yes,” Antonius told her,
“if we can’t get the Elements, Twilight and her friends. I any case, we’ll send Cadance, Shining Armor and a few other selected ponies who will hide there and await the arrival of my chapter if we should fail.”

“Why them? And who are the ‘selected’ ponies?”

“Twilight and her friends will wait for the tree to release the Elements. Cadance and Shining Armor are a leader couple and can keep your culture alive. The ‘selected’ ponies must either have a connection to mankind to convince my chapter that your species really is worth being rescued, or other talents that make them especially valuable.”

“So… Moonlight, Blackwing, Stormy Skies?”

“Yes, also Zecora for her knowledge of Poison Joke potions and the engineers who work in the armorium… Rapid Cure and Redheart, too, since they are familiar with daemonic wounds and Astartes anatomy.”

“This… selection is… troubling.”

“Yes, but necessary.”

“And what do you want us to do?”

“We’ll take on the forces of Chaos.
Tia, supervise the preparations and advise the population to seek shelter. They should get ready to fight for their lives.
Luna, get your armor. You and I will locate the enemy.”

“Hey,” Celestia retorted,
“not so fast! I know that you have more experience than me when it comes to fighting Chaos, and I don’t want to badmouth your plans, but Luna went with you the last time. This time, it’s my turn.”

Antonius shook his head:

“I’ll select the pony to join me. Luna is a better fighter than you are.”

“Maybe, but I have the more powerful magic. And as I said, it’s my turn.
No arguments! I’m still the princess of Equestria, the older sister and I must insist on you listening to me! I’ll go get my armor.”

Celestia quickly left and Antonius turned to Luna, who did not exactly look happy.

“She’s kidding… or insane. We are well attuned and you are the better fighter. What has gotten into her?”

“She either thinks that it really is a false alarm,” Luna opined,
“or she wants to keep me safe, away from the front lines.”

“We could just leave…”

“No, my sister can be incredibly stubborn. I do not like to admit it, but I guess that she is going to accompany you this time.”

“Great,” Antonius grumbled.

“Hey, it’s… not that bad. She is more powerful than I am, after all… and perhaps she had one of her visions and knows that she must go on this mission with you!”

“Hmm… a glimpse in the future could almost convince me to settle for her despite actually wanting you to accompany me.”

“I would also like to go with you, but knowing my sister, that will be impossible. Report back as soon as you can, I promise the PDF will be ready, and we will come with our new weapons and our tank to vanquish the enemy!”

Now Celestia entered again, her armor and the Poison Joke grenades in her magic grasp.

“What are you waiting for?” she called,
“let’s go and see what’s going on!”

They all went to the hangar. While Celestia took on her armor and buckled up, and Luna taught her how to use the auspex, Antonius made the last preparations to start the mission.

“See you soon, Luna,” he said when he was ready to enter the Land Speeder.

“See you soon,” Luna answered and hugged him,
“may your Emperor protect you.”

So Antonius and Celestia left the hangar and headed west at full speed. As they crossed a little hill, he took a look into the rear view monitor. There was Canterlot, the heart of ponykind, his home for more than a year.
He had a strange and unsettling feeling, as if he would never see it again, but he pushed that thought aside. Despite his… infractions, he still was an Ultramarine.
No fear, no mercy, no remorse.
Courage and honor.

“You are not exited about me joining you,” Celestia suddenly stated.

“As I said,” Antonius replied,
“I’d have liked to pick the pony to accompany me on this mission.”

“I already watched my little sister putting herself in unknown danger once. This time, we’ll find out what’s waiting for us first.”

After a while, they got a call from Twilight and her friends:

“Princess Celestia, Antonius, I’m afraid I have bad news: we couldn’t get the Elements. The Tree of Harmony won’t release them.”

“A pity, but hardly surprising,” Antonius grumbled,
“I guess there is no way to… forcefully acquire them?”

“If you mean we could cut down the Tree: no,” Celestia told him,
“the Tree and the Elements belong together, one can’t exist without the other.”

“Twilight, get to Canterlot as fast as you can. Luna will give you further orders. Goodbye, my friends.”

He closed the connection, then Celestia said:

“You know… that sounded a little… final.”

“That remains to be seen.”

“What remains to be seen?” a familiar voice cut in.

“Discord,” Antonius sighed.

“The one and only!” Discord grinned, hanging on one of the Speeder’s control surfaces.

“What do you want, Discord?” Celestia asked.

“Oh, I just noticed that you tried to retrieve the Elements of Harmony again, so I wanted to check if you were going to use them on poor, unsuspecting me.”

“Even if your ego never allowed you to come up with the idea,” Antonius grumbled,
“we actually have a bigger problem than you at the moment.”

“Oh, and what could be more terrible than the Lord of Chaos?”

“A Chaos warband.”

Discord was quiet for a second, then he asked:

“You mean the dark gods worshipping, mass murdering, evil kind of Chaos?”

“Exactly. I don’t suppose you could help us get rid of them?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Discord answered seriously,
“my powers might be too close to their dark magic, so it’s possible that I could accidentally help them if I tried to defeat them.”

A little surprised by Discord’s seriousness, Antonius said:

“Then go to Canterlot. Help wherever you can, but listen to Luna’s orders.”

Discord nodded and vanished in a flash of light.

“Even he seems to take the matter serious,” Celestia remarked.

“Hmm,” was everything Antonius replied.

Antonius and Celestia followed the lit beacons, and after a few hours they arrived at Coltport.
On the mountain range near Hope, the outermost beacon of this line of beacons was still burning.

“Hope,” Antonius stated.

“Again,” Celestia added.

“Maybe they followed the trace the first Chaos Marine has left. Let’s look for refugees and question them.”

Unlike last time, there were no refugees from Hope to be found, but the population of Coltport was on edge. A few had already left, some were preparing to leave, others had barricaded themselves up in their houses.
It took Celestia’s authority to restore at least a little order.

“Perhaps the lighting of the beacons was a mistake,” Celestia said hopefully as they were back at the Speeder,
“if there are no refugees…”

“They would have put out their beacon by now,” Antonius told her,
“and you know that. No refugees just means that nopony was able to escape.”

They divided Celestia’s Poison Joke grenades equally between them and continued their journey towards their final destination: the town of Hope.

As they arrived there, they left the Speeder close to the outskirts and used the auspex to scan the area.

“One weak life sign… pony… near the center of the town,” Celestia said.

“Let’s have a look,” Antonius replied and checked his bolter.

They carefully entered the town through a side road. There was a lot of battle damage; holes left by bolter rounds and scorch marks left by lasbolts. The walls and the ground were stained with blood in some places - but there were no bodies.

“Undoubtedly Chaos,” Antonius said,
“send a scroll to Luna. The PDF shall rally in Coltport.”

“I guess it would be too much to ask for if I hoped that the ponies had made it out of here alive?” Celestia whispered as she sent the scroll.

“Quite,” Antonius answered, his bolter ready to fire.

They proceeded towards the main road that would lead them to the central plaza.

“Another life sign,” Celestia told Antonius,
“even weaker than the first one… the pony must be on the main road.”

When they took a look into that road, Celestia paled:
There were two rows of impaled ponies, like a macabre alley.

“Where is the life sign?” Antonius inquired calmly.

“What? How can you stay that calm when you’re seeing… this?”

“Training, and it’s honestly not the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in my life. Now, where is the life sign located?”

Celestia consulted the auspex and pointed him in the right direction.
A few seconds later, they were standing in front of an impaled mare, transfixed by a wooden spear from her back to her belly. Antonius touched her head, and her eyes snapped open.

“Oh dear,” Celestia mumbled and lit her horn.

Antonius was well aware that she tried to heal the pony, but he estimated this to be a futile attempt. Meanwhile, the mare tried to talk, but she wasn’t able to say anything, she just gurgled a bit and blood was running from her muzzle. Her mouth still formed words Antonius could interpret: ‘Kill me’.

He turned to Celestia:

“Are you able to help her?”

“I… I… don’t think so… but I must try! We can’t let her suffer like this… but the next hospital is so far away…”

“Right,” Antonius agreed and changed his grip on her head.

“What?” Celestia asked in confusion.

“May your soul find the way to your ‘Great Beyond’,” Antonius said and snapped the impaled mare’s neck.

In the last moment of her life, her expression had changed from pain into one of relief.

“WHAT?” Celestia exclaimed,
“we are here to save them!”

“I just did that,” Antonius said and carefully let go of the mare.

“This is… probably not wrong… oh damnit, I hate all of this.”

“I’d certainly prefer being in Canterlot spending time with you and your sister to being here and euthanizing victims of Chaos, too, but we’ve got those traitor bastards to blame for that. Now, what about that second life sign?”

“Still there, stronger than the first one, but still very weak. We must hurry if we want to save that pony!”

“Let us proceed, but keep an eye on the auspex.”

They carefully sneaked along the rows of dead ponies, until Celestia whispered:

“Your auspex is only showing this life sign, nothing else… couldn’t we hurry up a bit?”

“No,” Antonius answered,
“they might have left us some unpleasant surprises. Be alert - and watch the… auspex…”

“Did you notice anything?”

“What’s wrong here, I mean with the impaled ponies?”

“Besides the fact that they are impaled and dead?”

“There are only adults… where are the foals?”

“You’re right! That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

Antonius slowly shook his head and continued advancing towards the central plaza. When they had finally arrived there, he peeked around the corner of a house.

“Found the foals,” he said tonelessly.

“Are they… they are not well, are they?” Celestia inquired worriedly.

“Not at all.”

Celestia now walked up to Antonius and took a look herself. Then she immediately jumped back and closed her eyes.

“No,” she whispered.

Antonius had to admit, it was a gruesome sight, even for him:
When the inhabitants of Hope had rebuilt their town, they had planted a tree in the central plaza, to symbolize their home thriving again after the first attack of Chaos. Now, the bodies of Hope’s dead foals were nailed to that tree.

“I… I… I can’t,” Celestia whimpered, then she forcefully ejected her last meal.

“I know it’s cruel, but we still have this life sign to inspect. Let’s go.”

So they both entered the plaza and advanced in the direction the auspex showed them - towards the tree.

In front of it, there was a wooden table that had been turned into an improvised torture rack. On that rack, there was a pony, the chest still moving - the life sign.

“Goodness!” Celestia cried and dashed past Antonius.

He only just managed to grab her by her tail and yank her back. She turned around, a mixture of confusion, horror and anger written on her face.

“Running into a booby trap s NOT advisable,” Antonius told her urgently and pointed at the ground between them and the pony.

There were several wires that all lead to the table.

“I… did not notice them,” Celestia admitted,
“what kind of… and why do I even ask…”

This whole situation was a bit much for her. Antonius wondered for a second if Luna had probably fared better, but what pony would have been able to swallow such levels of cruelty?
Nopony. Here, the training of an Astartes was needed, the dauntless performance of one’s duties no matter what.

He encouragingly patted her back - she really needed that - and approached the table, careful to avoid the wires. Ignoring the pony for now, he took a look under the table and found the booby trap.

“A melta charge,” he grumbled,
“oh damnit, it’s rigged. I don’t think I can disarm it.”

“What if I teleported it a hundred meters out of Hope?” Celestia asked.

“Good idea. Just make sure it doesn’t detonate during dematerialization.”

A moment later, the charge was gone. Another moment later, they heard an explosion outside of the town.

“Perfect, thank you,” Antonius said and turned to the pony on the table.

It was another mare, nailed to the table and partly skinned or shaved. Her whole body was covered with cuts, bruises and burns.
Antonius took a look at her cutie mark, barely visible on her bare, tortured flesh, and realized that he knew her.

“Gentle Breeze?!” he exclaimed.

The mare opened her eyes - which were unnaturally grayish - and asked weakly:

“Lord Varus?”

It really was Gentle Breeze, sergeant of the PDF, who had gone to Hope to train new recruits.
Celestia immediately lit her horn.

“I’m sorry,” she coughed,
“we were not able to stop them… too many… too strong…”

“How many?”

“30 Chaos Space Marines… about a hundred human cultists… some ponies who defected… we couldn’t stop them… we just… the beacons?”

“Lit,” Antonius told her,
“that brought us here.”

“So, at least we did not fail completely.”

“Nopony who does their duty can truly fail,” Antonius stated and looked at Celestia.

“She’s in a bad shape,” she said,
“but better off than the other mare. I think she might survive, but we have to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.”

“Then let’s make haste. I’ll remove the nails, you work your healing magic… and keep a look on the auspex.”

While Antonius did as he said, he noticed that Gentle Breeze’s legs were broken multiple times, and she whimpered and cried as he freed her. The pain had to be tremendous - and it would stay like that at least for some hours. If only her survival would be certain, but as it stood, it was possible - even probable - that she suffered only to die in the end. A look at Celestia’s expression told him that the situation really was as grim as he had estimated.

“Gentle Breeze,” he said,
“I know your pain must be extreme. Do you think you can prevail or do you want me to end your life and deliver you from your pain?”

She seemed to think about that for a few seconds, then she said with determination:
“No. it is… tempting, but I don’t want to give them that satisfaction. I’ll try to stick it out… if I can.”

“Good. I would have hated euthanizing you. Too many ponies have died already.”

Relieved, Antonius continued freeing Gentle Breeze, then he carefully picked her up and they started their way back to the Land Speeder.

When they had almost reached the border of the destroyed town, they heard a voice, rasp even through the vox unit that amplified it:

“Leaving so soon?”

“Goodness,” Celestia mumbled as she froze,
“I forgot to check the auspex.”

“Seems so,” Antonius replied, also stopping dead in his tracks.

They slowly turned around and saw the actually all too expected problem that had still managed to surprise them:
A Word Bearer.

Antonius wanted to kick himself for being stupid enough to get ambushed like that. The only reason he was still alive was the tendency of Chaos to gloat - and Word Bearers were quite talkative at that.

He automatically checked his enemy’s equipment and noticed that the traitor was a normal Chaos Space Marine, armed with a bolter - already in his hands - and a knife.
While that meant that Antonius was actually better armed, he couldn’t make use of it, since he was carrying the grizzly wounded mare.
He also couldn’t ask Celestia if she could take her, since the traitor would certainly open fire as soon as he thought he was about to loose his - admittedly massive - advantage.
Not even the poison joke grenades he and Celestia carried would be of use, ‘thanks’ to his helmet.

So Antonius answered:

“Yes. We are kind of in a hurry.”

“To try and save this creature you’re carrying, I presume?” the Word Bearer asked.

“As always, the Ultramarines will do their best to set right what you did wrong.”

“How valiant… and emetic! Well, I have to admit that this one was quite resilient. Not even our servants who have taken a liking to Slaanesh could convince her to talk. You’re still wasting your time, though. This creature was supposed to survive just long enough for you to find her, and now she will die painfully… unless you grant her a quick death. Or do you want me to do it for you?”

The traitor was really enjoying himself… but at least that gave Antonius the chance to come up with some kind of plan… theoretically, this is.

“She is a citizen of Equestria,” Celestia stated,
“and you and your kin will let go of her!”

While the Word Bearer laughed, Gentle Breeze mumbled:

“Drop me. And then get him!”

That may have been a plan, but not a good one. The reflexes of a Chaos Space Marine were about as good as his own, there was no chance he could be the first one to open fire… and every plan that involved Celestia had to be communicated to her first.
The traitor would not give them that time.

“You must be Celestia,” the Word Bearer stated,
“yes, we have heard of you. The other inhabitants of this town were quite talkative - especially the parents were quite easy to properly motivate.”

Unfortunately, it was not too difficult to imagine what he had meant. He continued:

“And so we also got to know of your sister, Luna.”

“You will leave her alone!” Celestia blurted out.

“How could we? Why should we? She was once a part of the glory that is Chaos! A daemonhost for a daemon of Tzeentch! But then, she betrayed us! She will pay for this infamy!”

“Betrayed traitors whine the loudest, I guess,” Antonius commented, barely able to contain his anger - and his desire to kill that bastard.

“If you want to hear loud whining, wait until we find her!”

“Luna is free now!” Celestia shouted,
“and you will NOT defile her with one of your dark creatures ever again!”

“Oh, you are mistaken,” the traitor said with a disturbing amount of glee,
“we will not grace her with a daemon, we will use her to make an example:
We will torture her in ways you can’t imagine, flay her and nail her to the lintel of the fortress we’ll build here, atop the ruins of your capital. There she will stay, kept alive by a the powers of Nurgle, to suffer for all of eternity! Maybe her blood will even form a little rivulet… Isn’t this a fitting punishment for her? Eternal suffering of unimaginable scale? Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face… seeing it, helping with it will be incredible!”

Antonius was extremely tempted to drop Gentle Breeze and attack. No creature deserved such a fate, especially not his dear friend Luna! The mere thought of something like that almost made his stomach turn.
This Word Bearer would die, and he would die now!

Just at that moment, Antonius noticed a bright, golden yellow glow next to him.
Was that Celestia?

The traitor looked in that direction, seemingly mesmerized - and surprised - by whatever it was that was happening now.
Unfortunately, Antonius could not risk to take a look himself. There was no chance he would take his eye off his target.

The glow rose a little higher, and the Chaos Space Marine followed it with his gaze.

Then, just as the Word Bearer made a step back and wanted to raise his bolter - which almost made Antonius drop Gentle Breeze and grab his own bolter - a beam that looked like pure sun plasma crossed the distance to the traitor and hit him in the chest, accompanied by an unbelievably vitriolic

“DIE, BASTARD!”

Celestia???
This was Celestia’s doing…
So, that’s how it was like when the Princess of the Sun was pushed beyond her friendly and peaceful behavior…

Not even a second later, the beam erupted from the back of the traitor and drilled a hole in the ground a few meters behind him.
Wow, the armor piercing of that beam was obviously pretty high - something like the magical equivalent of an energy lance…

Now fire shot out of the joints of the traitor’s armor as he was burned to ashes inside - without even getting the opportunity to scream.
The now empty, molten and completely destroyed armor collapsed and the beam vanished.

Antonius turned around to regard Celestia, but the creature he saw was not the Celestia he knew.
He had seen her angry before - even ablaze back when she fought her evil mirror version, but this now was different.
Her mane and tail had turned into fire, her body was glowing brightly, her eyes were shining with the intensity of a sun. While her wings were unfurled, she did not flap them, she just hovered, held aloft just by her magic - or by sheer force of anger. She downright radiated power.

“Holy Terra,” Antonius exclaimed,
“why did you never tell me that you could do that?”

Celestia turned to regard him, and the fact that she still bared her teeth did not bode well.

“YOU!” she thundered,
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOU LED THEM HERE!”

Oh.
Uh-oh.
Celestia was still livid… and Antonius still had Gentle Breeze in his arms.
Should he drop her now - to be able to dodge a possible attack - after she had even survived the encounter with the Word Bearer?
No, definitely not.
He did not move, he just looked at Celestia and said emphatically:

“Tia… we’re done for now. The Chaos Space Marine is dead. Now, we should get Gentle Breeze to a hospital, don’t you think?”

Celestia still stared at him, with way more fire around her than Antonius was comfortable with.
Then, her eyes suddenly widened and she shuddered. The fire vanished and she set her hooves on the ground again, becoming the Celestia he knew - just her armor was still glowing a little.
Her facial expression had also changed: she looked troubled, downright horrified now.

“I…” she started,
“I killed… and I almost…”

“Please, Tia, let’s just hurry back to the Land Speeder, okay?”

Celestia nodded and they continued their way to the vehicle.

So, a second time Antonius and a princess of Equestria rushed from Hope to Coltport to try and save the life of a mare who had proven to be a loyal warrior.

When they arrived at their destination, they stopped right in front of the hospital and immediately entered it.

“One pony, mare, severely injured!” Antonius shouted, and within seconds a doctor and a nurse appeared - two ponies Antonius knew quite well.
“Rapid Cure? Redheart? I thought you were going to the north.”

“And leave you alone?” Rapid Cure replied,
“no way! We are the ponies with the most experience when it comes to daemonic wounds, so we insisted to be sent here. Princess Luna was so kind to teleport us with some special spell. She and most of the PDF should arrive tonight.”

More hospital staff showed up now and they immediately took Gentle Breeze into an operating room, leaving Antonius and Celestia alone.

“I hope she makes it,” Celestia whispered.

“So do I,” Antonius answered.

As they left the hospital, they could see a group of five pegasi approach Coltport from the east. They came closer, and Antonius recognized the Wonderbolts, led by Spitfire. Landing right in front of them, she greeted:

“Hello, Princess Celestia, Lord Varus. We came as fast as we could. Any orders? How can we help?”

It did not take a genius to see that they all were quite exhausted from their journey, but he urgently needed some aerial reconnaissance, so Antonius said:

“We need to locate the enemy forces. They should probably be somewhere between Coltport and what’s left of Hope, but we know that they aren’t making a beeline for us, else we would have stumbled upon them. Try to find them, but fly high and come back as soon as you’ve found them. Do NOT engage them! This is a reconnaissance mission. Once we know where they are, you will get time to rest.”

The ponies saluted and took off again.

“And what are we supposed to do?” Celestia asked.

“When the first PDF troops arrive, we’ll see to it that they are properly accommodated. After that, we’ll build some fortifications. How fast can you build a trench?”

“Within seconds.”

“Good, that means we can postpone that until we know from where the enemy will strike. Now, let’s go to the Coltport Inn and requisition a room for tonight. You’ll need it later.”

They had just had time to get a room, then they were called outside again by some ruckus: The PDF unit from Las Pegasus and Applewood, led by Black Harrow, had just arrived.

“This is not a drill, is it?” the stallion asked with some worry in his voice.

“No,” Antonius told him,
“commandeer quarters for your soldiers. Then, barricade the roads that lead out of town. When you’re done, tell your ponies to rest while they can. They must have their equipment ready, though, as we might have only little advance warning time.”

“Yes, my Lord!” Back Harrow saluted and led his subordinates away towards the hotel.

The next unit to arrive was Shadow Stalker’s from Vanhoover, and as the day progressed, more soldiers arrived and took up quarters.

In addition to them, a score of Night Guards joined them and were ordered to start their nightly patrols as soon as the sun set.

As the afternoon turned into evening, the Wonderbolts returned and Spitfire reported in:

“Princess Celestia, Lord Varus, we have found them! They were north of the road in the forest and are now moving towards Coltport. I guess they will arrive before noon tomorrow.”

“Well done, Spitfire, and well done, Wonderbolts,” Antonius said,
“now, report your findings to the Night Guard. They have taken up quarters in the town hall. Then get a bite and rest. We’ll need you again tomorrow at sunrise.”

The ponies saluted and left, and he turned to Celestia:

“Resting might be a good idea, Tia. You look like you could use some sleep.”

Celestia nodded wordlessly and turned to go to their room.
Usually, Antonius would have supervised the quartering of the PDF soldiers and the preparations, but Celestia gave the impression of needing some company, so he joined her. A downcast Princess of the Sun would have a devastating effect on the ponies’ morale, so consoling her was a high priority task - and she was a friend who needed help.

She did not get more chatty as she took off her armor and crawled into the bed. Antonius just sat down on the floor next to her and waited.
Despite her fatigue, Celestia lay awake and stared at the ceiling. Just as he had decided that it was time to finally say something, she beat him to it:

“Tony, please be honest.”

“I’m always honest, Tia… or let’s say most of the time,” Antonius replied with a small smile.

“What are our chances?”

Of course, that was a justified question. He just wished he had had a more positive answer than:

“Our ponies should be able to deal with the cultists… as long as the equipment arrives in time, that is. Against the Chaos Space Marines… well, I still have to do some calculations, but things don’t look too pretty.”

“Perhaps I could… use my powers again…”

“It would help, but it wouldn’t be enough. You needed more than five seconds to eliminate the Word Bearer, and that only worked because the arrogant moron was surprised. I don’t think the 30 of them will be surprised for two and a half minutes.”

“Probably not.”

“And you also can’t keep up a shield for this timespan when bolts and laser blasts rain down on you, I presume?”

“No, even with Luna and additional unicorns I don’t think we could stand their weapons for that long.”

“Hmm… I thought so… can you perhaps create a large explosion with the same armor penetration as that beam you used?”

“No large explosions. Damnit, I always thought this… ability of mine was terrible enough… I’d never have thought that I’d need even more destructive powers than my sun beam…”

“Just out of interest, why did you never tell me about this sun beam of yours?”

Celestia was silent for a few seconds, then she said:

“Because I wanted to forget that I could get that mad… and I wanted to forget the atrocities I committed…”

“You? Atrocities?” Antonius asked in disbelieve.

“Yes,” Celestia answered,
“nopony actually remembers by now, but there is still a subconscious fear of angering me…”

“I noticed that.”

“It was millennia ago, when Luna and I had not ruled Equestria for more than a hundred years. There was a border conflict with the griffons. Luna and I were visiting our soldiers when Luna walked into a griffon trap - rocks thrown from a cliff injured her badly.”

“And you sought vengeance?”

“Yes. After getting Luna to safety. Nopony knew if she would survive, and as I looked at my unconscious little sister I… freaked out. I hunted the griffon commander down and cornered him near one of their forts.”

“You killed him? But that’s no atrocity, that’s justified retribution.”

“I did not kill just him… his family had left the fort and run to meet him, and… his child got in the way. The little griffon jumped into my beam to protect his father. I killed a child… an innocent little child… because I was so filled with hate that I couldn’t think clearly.”

After a few seconds of silence, Antonius inquired:

“So, that’s the reason why you are so peaceful nowadays? Because of this child? You didn’t kill it on purpose.”

“This… incident taught me that hate and violence are never solutions. They just cause suffering. That day, I vowed to myself never to use brute force to settle a conflict, but to talk things out instead… but now…”
Now Celestia turned to Antonius and started to tear up.
“I am sorry, Tony. I am sorry for reprimanding you. You were right all along. I just couldn’t see it, or perhaps I didn’t want to see it. I was living in an ivory tower of peace and harmony, while you knew how the universe really is.”

Great. Now she had realized that violence was necessary sometimes, but the circumstances prevented Antonius from enjoying this realization.

“The universe? Maybe,” he replied,
“but this planet, your land Equestria, they are different. Your peaceful approach has its benefits here. Dozens of generations of ponies lived without knowing war, and that is something worth striving for. Damnit, that is basically what mankind is striving for! We fight so that we may live in peace one day, we wage wars to end all wars.
Tia, please don’t despair. Don’t let your morale be another victim of Chaos.”

“If my morale were the only victim… but look at our situation! Tomorrow, we all might die and the forces of evil might overrun the whole planet!”

Celestia was devastated, but unfortunately not entirely wrong. Their chances of winning tomorrow's battle were indeed not too good - and if Celestia did not get any sleep it would get even worse.

So, Antonius grabbed the crying princess, pulled her onto his lap and put his arms around her. The hug was returned immediately.

“Thank you”, she whispered after a while,
“I needed that… but I must apologize again.”

“Why?” Antonius asked.

“This might be our last night… you should have spent it with Luna, since she’s… your best friend. Instead, I have taken her place.”

“Cuddles where cuddles are due,” Antonius grinned,
“now try to get some sleep, Tia. While Luna is indeed my best friend, we’re friends, too.”

“But what about tomorrow? Is there hope at all?”

“You know, when I came here, I would just have answered ‘hope is the first step on the road to disappointment’, since Space Marines do not need hope to fight. We fight because we were created to fight, because it is our duty and the right thing to do.
Now, however, let me answer with an ancient quote. I don’t know who said it, and I don’t know what else he or she said or did, but I think it fits our situation:
‘Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.’”

“We should tell Applejack,” Celestia smiled and got comfortable.

She was just about to fall asleep as there was a knock on the door.

“Perhaps some news,” Antonius mused,
“come in!”

Much to his surprise and delight, it was Luna who entered the room.

“Luna! It is an unexpected joy to see you that soon.”

“Well, I had a hunch that it was ‘unexpected’,” Luna grinned.

“Don’t worry, little sister,” Celestia said and got ready to get up,
“I only…”

“You may stay where you are, Cellie, just clear a little space for me.”

A few seconds later, Antonius had two princesses sitting on his thighs.

“Now that we are comfortable,” Luna said with a small smile,
“let me tell you about our preparations: The majority of the PDF is here, as is our equipment. At sunrise, it will be distributed amongst the soldiers. By then, the tank should arrive, too.”

“Good news,” Antonius nodded,
“are Twilight, her friends and the other ponies in the ancient base?”

“They are - mostly. Twilight and her friends were not exactly happy, but they obeyed. Cadance and Shining refused to go and insisted on staying to protect the Crystal Ponies - at first. I had to find some rather graphic examples of what Chaos would do to them, then Shining sided with me and convinced Cadance to go while he stayed to protect their subjects.”

“Hmm… I should have expected something like that… their conscientiousness is laudable.”

“Yeah, and Cadance told me that she will kick you should Shining get hurt. I told her that Chaos will first have to defeat us for him to get hurt… that gave her food for thought, I guess.”

“What about the others? I noticed that Rapid Cure is here.”

“Yeah, he insisted to help. The other ponies are on their way to Al. Zecora packed everything she needed to brew more poison joke potions.”

“Good.”

“Really ‘good’ would be a way to defeat Chaos. Do you have a plan how to achieve that?”

“I’m still running some calculations,” Antonius told her,
“tomorrow at sunrise I’ll be able to tell you what we are going to do.”

“Well, that is ‘good’,” Luna sighed.

“Now, let us sleep,” Celestia said,
“we need to be well rested tomorrow.”

The princesses cuddled up to him and were soon asleep.
Antonius smiled. Such a high level of concord had not always been between the three of them, but now, all those former little quarrels were forgotten in the presence of the forces of Chaos. Now, it was up to him to come up with a plan how to blast those traitors into oblivion.

He had been working on this problem for about an hour when there was another knock on the door.

“Come in,” he said, just loud enough to be heard - to not disturb the sleeping princesses.

It was Rapid Cure.

“Hello, Lord Varus,” he greeted,
“I just dropped by to tell you that Gentle Breeze is alive… in a coma, but alive. We had to make some… hard decisions, but she will survive.”

“‘Hard decisions’?”

“There was no way to save her legs. Also, I’m afraid she is blind. I’m sorry we couldn't do more.”

Rapid Cure really needed to be cheered up a little, so Antonius said:

“Considering her injuries, you have achieved a lot. Let me thank you for your commitment… also in the name of these two sleeping beauties here.”

This at least put a small smile on the stallion’s face.

“Well, I see that you are making the most out of the last night before the battle… with both princesses… at the same time.”

“Yeah,” Antonius grinned,
“my incredible manliness demands that.”

This good-natured nonsense made the doctor chuckle a bit, and he said as he left:

“Guess I will leave you to your two incredibly attractive mares and bid you goodnight. See you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight,” Antonius answered and turned his thoughts back to the problem of defeating Chaos.