My Little Xeno

Antonius had brooded over the imminent battle all night. He had gone through every even halfway suitable tactic the Codex Astartes offered, and the result had always been the same:
Defeat.
While the cultists were not much of a problem, there was just no way to successfully deal with about 30 Chaos Space Marines. The closest he had gotten to winning was when he had assumed that most of them were morons, perpetually surprised and without helmets. Which was - unfortunately - highly unlikely.
Well, actually, they were morons, since they worshipped Chaos, but that sadly was a kind of ‘moron’ he couldn’t use to his benefit.

Now it was almost time for sunrise. Soon, the princesses would wake up and ask him for his plan, and everything he could tell them was that it would come down to a last stand in which they could fight valiantly to the end.
What a giant pile of shit, but if it was going to be the end, it would be an end Chaos would never forget.

Celestia stirred first and moved her head. In doing so, she touched Luna’s muzzle with hers. That woke both mares up. They opened their eyes wide and immediately moved their heads to a safe distance, making their discomfort verbally known.

Antonius started laughing, thankful for this delay of the bad news he had for them.

“Great,” Luna grumbled,
“possibly the last display of physical affection I get, and I get it from my sister.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Celestia replied,
“and I am sure you’ll have time to get more such ‘displays’, right, Tony?”

“I’m not going to ‘make out’ with her now,” Antonius stated.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m aware of that, but honestly, this goofing around is much more enjoyable than the news I’ve got for you.”

Both princesses went silent, then Luna asked:

“You didn’t find a way to defeat the forces of Chaos?”

“I just don’t know how to successfully engage 30 Chaos Space Marines… no matter the strategy or tactic, I couldn’t make up for the disequilibrium.”

“So… we’re doomed?” Celestia asked.

“Not exactly,” Antonius answered,
“we just have to do our best and fight. Perhaps, an opportunity will show up that I didn’t think of. Still, we should be prepared for the worst. Tia, Luna, if the imminent battle goes awry, I want you two to withdraw. Teleport around like crazy, so that Chaos loses your trail, then hide in the ancient base with the other ponies.”

“And hope that they do not find us there?” Luna inquired with obvious discontent,
“that means abandoning our subjects! And what if the forces of Chaos find us?”

“That could take time. While 30 Chaos Space Marines are a serious threat to anypony and anything they encounter, their number is quite small when it comes to combing through a whole country - unless they manage to open a warp portal, then thousands of daemons will swarm the planet, but the veil should prevent that from happening.
If they find you, try to hold them off and hope that my chapter arrives in time. If it doesn’t…”

“Yeah?”

“If everything is lost, use your magic. Deny Chaos the Elements, and spare the creatures of this planet the atrocities they would undoubtedly do to them. Grab the sun and the moon and crash them into the planet.”

Several seconds of shocked silence later, Celestia mumbled:

“You want us to kill every creature on this planet? And destroy the planet itself?”

“It’s better than allowing it to fall to Chaos.”

“What about you?” Luna asked.

“I will fight here to the end to buy you enough time to escape,” Antonius told her.

“No. Way! We need you, and if we have to withdraw, you are definitely coming with us.”

“Luna…”

“Luna is right,” Celestia interjected,
“you are too valuable for us to die here. Either, all three of us get away, or none of us will.”

“And they will look for us anyway,” Luna added,
“so it will not matter if you accompany us or not. Furthermore, we will need you for our last stand…”
Quieter, she said:
“… and if we all die, we should at least die together.”

A prolonged group hug later, the princesses got ready and put on their armors.

“Two knight-mares, ready to become nightmares for our enemies,” Antonius grinned.

“I should probably slap you once this is over,” Luna opined with a sad smile.

“Now, let’s get the… crappiness of our situation out of our heads,” Celestia said,
“we’ve got to encourage our ponies if we want to have a chance. So, no more frowns. And as Tony said, something unexpected may happen and save us.”

“What about the Emperor?” Luna suddenly exclaimed.

“Huh?” Antonius wondered.

“Mayhaps it was him who helped me reach Macragge. You know, the golden light I told you about. In that case, he might be aware of our predicament and help us.”

“Well, there are reports of inexplicable events… Space Marines suddenly becoming unstoppable or even ghostly armies, wreathed in flames, popping up out of nowhere and vanquishing the enemies of mankind…”

“See?”

“Still, we shouldn’t count on it… but in any case we can show Him that we are worth His help by fighting as good as we can.”

They left the hotel and while Luna lowered the moon, Celestia raised the sun. She managed to create a beautiful sunrise, but what became visible in the light was even more beautiful: a multitude of pegasi approached, carrying with them the equipment and the tank they were expecting.

“A lovely dawn,” Luna commented.

“A dawn of war,” Antonius smiled grimly.

As the pegasi were about to land, the Wonderbolts showed up and reported ready for duty. Shortly after them, the batponies of the Night Guard returned and gave an account of the events they had witnessed:

“On their way here, the Chaos forces found the Blue Depths, a cave system. All but one Chaos Space Marine stayed there, but the cultists and the Marine are still closing in.”

“Thank you,” Antonius said,
“now rest. We’ll need you for the battle.”

The batponies left, and he turned to the Wonderbolts:

“Split up. Keep an eye on the advancing enemy force and the other Chaos Space Marines. Should you see some kind of weird discharges, notify me immediately.”

Spitfire and her team saluted and took off.

“You think that they are trying to open a warp portal, right?” Celestia inquired.

“The only reason I can think of that would prevent most of them from joining the battle,” Antonius replied,
“Tia, Luna, do you know those ‘Blue Depths’? Can we make them collapse onto our enemies’ heads?”

“I am afraid this cave system is too large for us to completely destroy it,” Celestia told him,
“and everything below total destruction would not suffice here, I think.”

“True. Well, can you discern if the veil is somewhat weakened?”

Both princesses closed their eyes and lit their horns for a second, then Celestia said:

“The veil seems to be fine… I will keep monitoring it and tell you if it looses integrity.”

“Good. Now, let’s get our PDF armed and ready.”

During the next hours, the final preparations for the battle were made. Ponies were armed and instructed, more barricades were built and the princesses dug trenches with their magic. The tank was also brought into position and the Wonderbolts continuously reported on the progress of the enemy army.

As the forces of Chaos finally appeared on the horizon, everything was ready for the most important battle ponykind had ever fought up to that day; 84 PDF ponies were expecting a superior number of cultists. Now, it was time to boost the morale of the soldiers.

“Ponies of the Planetary Defense Force,” Antonius boomed,
“you see the enemy approaching. A bunch of frenzied madmen who fight simply for destructiveness and mayhem.
Remember why we fight. Not for such insane reasons, not even for reputation or glory. We fight for our families and friends. For our loved ones. To protect them from the tide of madness that is coming our way.
We will break it. We will stop the forces of Chaos right here and teach them that attacking ponykind is a grave mistake.
We will not back down, we will not yield, and we will not fail!
For all that is good, for our families and friends, WE FIGHT!!!”

An affirmative cheer told him that his little speech had fulfilled its purpose. Yes, technically, the plan was to get the princesses out of here if things went south (and they had insisted on him joining them), but since this strike force consisted mostly of cultists and just a single Chaos Space Marine, it should not come to that.

Chaos approached further, surely over-confident as they generally were. Antonius spotted the traitor Marine among them, wielding a large chainaxe. As they were almost within weapons range, they suddenly stopped.

“What the hell?” Antonius mumbled.

It was highly unusual that Chaos cultists did not charge into battle, and even the Marine - who had a fondness for Khorne judged by his weapon of choice - showed a distinctly above-average amount of self control.
That meant that their hitherto unseen leader did not only have a plan, but his subordinates also well under control.
Not the best news.

“They want us to meet them in the open field,” Luna mused.

“But we won’t take the bait,” Celestia stated.

“Not unless we have to,” Antonius said,
“how’s the veil?”

“Still fine… you think they want to buy time?”

“I’m afraid so. We can’t wait for them forever, we have to defeat them and then take care of the other Chaos Space Marines before they can open a warp portal.”

“Then, we should take the bait?”

“Yes, but differently than they want us to. Tia, Luna, how about some magic shields?”

“Oh, this is going to be good,” Luna grinned.

So, the PDF left their positions and started advancing towards the enemy forces while the tank started maneuvering around the trenches. The Chaos worshippers cheered like crazy, thinking their plan was working flawlessly. As they leveled their weapons, the princesses and the unicorns created magic shields that covered the whole frontline.
With surprised howls, the Chaos forces opened fire. Lasbolts and stubber rounds hit the shields and were deflected.

“Shotguns! Return fire!” Antonius commanded.

The PDF soldiers obeyed immediately. Unfortunately, the few traitorous unicorns among the enemy forces had seized on the idea of magic shields, but none of them had the magic capacity of the princesses, so their shields would soon collapse.
Chaos was obviously aware of that, since they started charging towards the PDF, still protected by the fading shields.

“All ponies, open fire!” Antonius roared.

Now shotgun rounds and burning promethium replacement assaulted the advancing Chaos troops, and the first shield collapsed. A few cultists and a traitorous unicorn were set ablaze, but the majority of the enemy force kept advancing.

The well-known - and nicely close - sound of a combustion engine told Antonius that the tank had caught up with the main PDF force by now, so he ordered:

“Heavy artillery, fire.”

The tank’s main cannon thundered, and another enemy shield was obliterated - just as the cultists it had protected.

“It’s going quite well,” Luna mumbled.

As if on cue, the Word Bearer now charged through the cloud of dust and smoke the impact of the artillery shell had left. Wanting to save his remaining 18 bolts for the other Chaos Space Marines, Antonius immediately stepped forward to meet him with his chainsword.

“Blood for the Blood God!” the traitor yelled with a raspy voice.

“And cake for the princesses,” Antonius retorted drily.

Now the chainaxe came down on him, but Antonius managed to dodge the whirring axe head. While he and his opponent were about equally fast and strong, the axe was a much more cumbersome weapon compared to a chainsword, and he used this to his advantage.

After evading the first strike, he lashed out at the traitor, creating a shower of sparks as he hit the hip armor. Then, he jumped to evade the second strike.

The Word Bearer roared in anger and raised his axe above his helmeted head. Antonius used this opportunity and slammed into him, throwing him out of balance. As he took a step back to regain his balance, Antonius slashed at his throat, but the attack was blocked by the hilt of the chainaxe.

“You are not bad, almost a worthy sacrifice,” the Chaos Space Marine hissed,
“your skull will be a nice addition to Khorne’s throne.”

“It’s always skulls… this lack of variation must bore it to death,” Antonius replied and cut the chainaxe in half with his chainsword.

Before he could strike gain, however, the traitor grabbed his wrist, and he immediately grabbed his opponent’s other wrist.
They both tried to push each other backwards, but none of them succeeded.

It was time for a different tactic, so Antonius suddenly started pulling and caught his enemy of guard. Bringing a boot to his hip, he sent the Word Bearer flying over him. He jumped up at once to engage the traitor again when he heard him hiss:

“The princesses…”

He was right with that; Luna and Celestia were standing right next to him now.

“You don’t say,” Celestia hissed back and both alicorns lit their horns.

Just as the Word Bearer wanted to get up again, they put their horns together and fired a beam of magic in silver and gold at his head, eliminating him. Then Luna turned to Antonius:

“I hope you do not mind us helping you a bit.”

“They day I will mind a dead traitor will hopefully never come,” Antonius replied and looked for a new target.

The battle was now mostly a melee, with shotguns fired at point blank range, random shots out of lasguns and stubbers and a lot of stabbing and slicing.
A notable exception was the tank that still dealt out devastating blows.

Antonius was just bisecting a mutated cultist as he heard a fateful sound: the sound of a missile launcher. He looked up and saw the warhead approach the tank.
Damnit, the armored vehicle was a great asset, loosing it could tip the balance of the battle, but not even he was fast enough now to stop the missile…

At that moment, a pegasus shot past the tank, screaming, and slammed himself into the missile.
It detonated meters in front of the tank, blowing a few ponies and cultists alike off their hooves respectively feet, but it did not cause much harm - the tank in particular was undamaged.

The pegasus’ exceptional bravery and willingness to sacrifice had not gone unnoticed by the tank crew, however, and the main cannon swung around and aimed at the cultist with the missile launcher. The traitor just had time to look greatly perturbed, then he was converted into a cloud of gore, just as his companions around him as the tank crew avenged the death of their fellow soldier.

Antonius quickly scanned the enemy forces for another missile launcher, but he couldn’t find such equipment. What he found was that the number of the cultists had dwindled considerably. Unfortunately, the PDF had fared only a little better. Mangled corpses were lying everywhere and wounded ponies were screaming for help. It was no different from a battle of a human PDF against Chaos, with the exception that these ponies did not have as much training as their human counterparts. Still, their love for their home, family and friends made them surpass themselves. They really would win this battle. But those damned traitor Marines…

“Antonius!” Celestia suddenly shouted,
“the veil! It’s under attack!”

Shit.

“What’s its status?” Antonius returned, running towards her and Luna.

“Stable - at the moment. The attack was ineffective, but I don’t think it will stay that way.”

“Certainly not.”

“What are we going to do?” Luna asked.

Well, that was a damned good question. While the cultists were almost defeated, the Word Bearers were a much more problematic enemy. Even with the tank and the princesses, there was no realistic chance of winning. That’s what the Codex Astartes told him.

Unless…
Antonius thought about this whole situation, about what the Word Bearer had uttered…
Perhaps there was a chance to save the ponies, a way that was not at all compliant with the Codex…
But a way that might work… by making use of the specific kind of ‘moron’ the Word Bearers were… as an emergency backup plan.

“You two stay here and end this battle,” he told the princesses,
“I’ll take care of the Chaos Space Marines.”

“WHAT?” Luna screamed,
“are you insane? You cannot hope to win that fight! There are almost 30 of them!”

“Luna is right!” Celestia agreed,
“we should march to their cave with everypony we have left.”

“The weakened remnants of our PDF won’t make much of a difference. Even the tank could only kill a small number of them before they destroy it. And you two… I have no doubt that you would put up a memorable fight, but there are too many of them. They would either kill, or - even worse - catch you. I will not risk that.”

“But if they can defeat our PDF, the tank, my sister, me AND you, what do you think you can do on your own?” Luna asked.

“Whatever is necessary to save your species - and you,” Antonius answered.

“I am your friend, I will come with you!”

“No, Luna. This one time, I do NOT want you to accompany me. It would destroy my plans. Stay here, and help everypony defeat the rest of the Chaos cultists.
Do. Not. Follow. Me.
Trust me, it’s the only way.”

“You will die,” Luna whimpered.

Antonius knelt down in front of the princesses and took off his helmet.

“The Emperor will be with you - always,” he said.

While this was one of the most uplifting things to say in the Imperium, it seemed to be strangely insufficient here and now.
Especially for Luna, he needed something better, a better way to say… goodbye.

Antonius gently put his hand on Luna’s cheek and kissed her.
It was not the first time that they had done this, but somehow, it felt different now, like… actually, he lacked the words to describe it.

As their lips parted, he could see that she was crying, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Celestia was also about to tear up.
Such fine ponies, his friends. A little more than a year was not nearly enough time to live among them, but he couldn’t help it.
With a last smile, he put his helmet back on, got up, turned around and dashed to the Land Speeder.

On his way there, he waved at Spitfire, who landed next to him just as he jumped into the vehicle.

“Lord Varus?” she asked.

“Can you guide me to the Blue Depths?”

“Of course… wait, do you want to go alone?”

“Just get in and hold on, we have no time to buckle you up.”

Spitfire did as she was told, and they darted out of Coltport, bypassed the ending battle, and headed straight towards their destination.

A few minutes later, Spitfire shouted:

“It’s behind that little grove, just a hundred meters from here!”

Antonius stopped the Speeder and turned to his companion:

“Thank you. Return to the battle now.”

“We will come as soon as we can.”

“NO. You will not come here… and you will do everything you can to prevent the princesses from coming here.”

“What? How?”

“If necessary, bite into their wings. Or horns. Whatever, they MUST NOT come here!”

“Okay… good luck!” Spitfire replied a little dumbfounded and took off.

Now Antonius checked his weapons and started sneaking through the grove. He soon found the entrance to the cave system - as well as two Word Bearers guarding it - and took cover.

His primary - and somewhat codex-conform - plan was to fight his way into the cave system and kill every Chaos Space Marine he encountered. But since he knew that his chances of success were minuscule (respectively nonexistent), he had come up with another plan, an emergency backup plan. He prepared everything for this plan, then he muttered a prayer to the Emperor - and attacked.

A carefully aimed bolt hit one of the traitors right in the eye(lens), killing him instantly. The other one spun around and fired a volley of bolts in the direction the shot had come from, but only managed to graze Antonius’ armor.
The Ultramarine’s retaliation was more effective; one of the bolts he fired hit the weak spot at the Word Bearers’s throat, ripping his head off.

Antonius burst out of his cover and dashed towards the entrance to the Blue Depths. Shouting from inside told him that his little ‘hello’ gad gone about as unnoticed as he had expected.

As he had crossed about half the distance to the dark opening, another Word Bearer appeared. Antonius immediately fired again, and the third traitor met his doom.
This was going unexpectedly well.

He was about to enter the cave system when a volley of bolts forced him to take cover outside. Before he could fire into the cave passage, two more Word Bearers darted out of it.
Time for melee.

Putting his bolter into his left hand, he drew the chainsword with his right and attacked.
The traitor parried the blow with his bolter while his companion reached for his sword. Antonius managed to force the weapon down and shot his enemy in the face at point-blank range. With one of the Word Bearers down, he focused on the second one. They exchanged a series of blows, and just as Antonius sliced the traitor’s throat, a roar from behind told him that the melee was far from over. He tried to dodge the imminent attack, but he was a little too slow and his hud went dark with a crack.

He spun around and lashed out at his new opponent. He hit him, but he could not penetrate the defiled armor that easily. Rolling to temporary safety, he ripped the destroyed helmet from his head, for everything it did now was obscure his vision.
His enemy approached, wielding a thunder hammer. Three more Word Bearers appeared at his side, two with power swords and one with a bolter, and fanned out.

Outnumbered and outgunned, things started to turn darker now, but Antonius did not hesitate. He targeted the traitor with the ranged weapon and fired. The impacts of the bolts ripped his enemy’s arm off, preventing him from firing, but instead of yielding up to his fate, he jumped towards Antonius, drawing a knife.

He blocked the attack with his sword and leveled his bolter. With the characteristic clicking of an almost empty magazine, the bolts disintegrated the Word Bearer’s head.
It was the last time Antonius fired his bolter, though.
A blade, engulfed in unclean energies, cut off his left arm and left him with only half of his lower arm while his sacred weapon clattered to the ground.

Not taking the time to register the pain, Antonius curiously just regretted that a few superb bolts would never get the opportunity to make a heretic explode as he swung his sword and slit the throat of his attacker, killing this mission’s seventh Word Bearer. Then he dodged just in time to evade another strike of the thunder hammer.

It’s wielder rushed towards him, and he reached back with his chainsword as another sword thrust cut off his wrist and sent his sword flying, still in his severed hand’s grasp. It landed behind a large rock, but Antonius did not have the time to follow its trajectory.

Now completely disarmed - almost literally - his primary plan had failed, but he did not allow that to stop him. He kicked the Word Bearer with the sword, forcing him to take a step back, then an impact shattered his leg.
The thunder hammer.

Antonius turned around on his last remaining limb. Oddly, the Chaos Space Marine did not attack; he seemed to wait for something.
This ‘something’ appeared to be his companion, respectively his sword. Antonius saw it break through his chest armor after impaling him. As the sword was pulled out again, the hammer crashed into his damaged chestplate and swept him off his remaining foot.

Lying in the dirt in front of the entrance to the Blue Depths, Antonius knew that the fight was finally over. But a feeling of warmth at his back told him that his emergency backup plan still had a chance of success - if he had judged those damned Word Bearers correctly.

“What a shitbag,” a raspy voice rambled.

“Yeah,” another - equally disgusting - voice replied,
“but he should be a good sacrifice.”

Bingo.

“Can’t we just kill him here and now? He killed… seven of us, after all.”

“That is what makes him such a good sacrifice. A good warrior is worth more than a bad one. With his ‘help’, we will finally be able to open a warp gate and flood this damned world with daemons.”

“Still…”

Antonius felt a kick to his head, and his left eye went blind.
Pain was an illusion of the senses… that started making itself felt.

“Stop that. We can’t sacrifice a corpse, moron.”

Now Antonius was picked up and the traitor with the hammer looked at him.

“Call it a draw?” Antonius grinned in pain.

“Now what do you say about that,” the Word Bearer said,
“an Ultramarine with a sense of humor. Let’s get him inside… what are you doing?”

“I’m taking his severed arm,” the other Chaos Space Marine answered,
“later, I’ll make one of those ponies eat it. Should be fun.”

“That idea is disgusting… I like it.”

Now the Word Bearers started dragging him into the cave system.
Antonius had judged them correctly. They did not miss out on the opportunity to sacrifice an Ultramarine. And the heat at his back slowly grew stronger.