Aries had managed to keep himself busy throughout the week by hunting for recruits to the Planetary Defense Force, though he had only managed to find two recruits.

It was now the eve before he would officially meet with his forces. He anticipated turning away more than half of them, but hoped that he was wrong.

For now however, he would sleep, and be at the peak of his performance tomorrow.

He stepped into the room that Twilight Sparkle had assigned to him for the first time since he had arrived in this castle.

The bed had been magically enlarged to accommodate him. He had thanked the Equestrian for it's hospitality while privately despising their over-reliance on magic, believing this to be the sole reason that their technology was so primitive.

Of his armor, he only removed his helmet and the battery pack. Then he committed himself to a few pre-sleep exercises while his armor was deactivated, allowing him to feel it's full weight.

After the last pushup, he crawled onto the bed, which held his weight, power armor and all. He was asleep within moments.

Aries opened his eyes to the sight of Bloodletters charging him, he had his helmet and battery pack, along with a chainsword.

Aries thumbed the activation rune and relaxed slightly at the familiar vibration crawling up his arm.

As the first Bloodletter charged into range, Aries swung...only for the Daemon and it's kin to disappear in a flash.

Aries straightened himself and looked in the direction of the telltale wing flaps of Princess Luna. "We thought that we would prevent the peril of your last slumber before it began."

"A good strategy, one that I had planned to employ myself." Aries said, attempting to mask his disappointment.

"Meaning that you had wanted to face them yourself...this wouldn't have anything to do with nails in your head, would it?" Luna asked.

Aries hid his shock well and spoke in an unimpressed voice. "What do you know of the Butcher's Nails?"

"Only what young Sparkle has told us. She wanted her means of investigating you to be kept secret for fear of...retribution." Luna answered.

"I had expected her to probe my mind for fear that I was hiding something, I just want to know how she did it without me realizing it." Aries explained.

"Twilight is a magnificent sorcerer, as dedicated to magic as you are to war. Which brings us back to the Nails." Luna said, making the same assumption.

"Yes, I am required to fight or I will go mad. I had planned on controlling myself this time now that I am aware of the enemy's plans, but now..." Aries was already planning to return to the Everfree Forest for a hunt, praying that he could find something capable of appeasing the Nails.

"Now you are in the Dream Realm, a realm that I govern. If you allow me into your mind, I can find memories of enemies unrelated to your anger and reconstruct them in the hundreds for you." Luna stated as a fact.

Aries started at that, though only another astartes would have noticed. "That...could work, providing all that I've seen doesn't drive you mad."

Luna smirked. "We have lived longer than 1,000 years, and Equestria earned it's peace. We fight not to prevent madness from seizing our world, but to prevent it from doing so again."

"And as for what you've seen. When showed us the tragidy that was Istvaan III, I noticed another World Eater loyalist carrying a weapon that was superior to your screaming sword, a more practical blade that glowed with magic and cut through armor like a hot knife through butter." Luna added.

"You speak of a power sword, it does not use magic, though I myself do not know how it works outside of what you have described." Aries clarified.

"Ah, well, I hope you don't mind that yours does use magic." Before Aries could reply to that, a sword materialized before him with the Imperial Aguila as a crossguard and the crimson teeth of the World Eaters atop it in the center. The hilt was colored in the pattern of his armor, while the blade appeared to be polished steel.

"This is a replica of the weapon I had forged as your badge of office. Within the crossguard is the legendary Alicorn Amulet: a powerful artefact that, when worn by a unicorn, increases their magic to the levels of an alicorn. Special crystals forged into the blade allow the amulet to encase the weapon in field of magic theorized to mimic the 'power sword'...of course, the blade was only completed in the final hour of sunlight this day, so we have yet to test it." Luna explained.

Aries stared at the blade, contemplating it. He knew that he would have to accept a new weapon eventually and had been ready for a simple sword or ax, but a magic sword is something that he did not expect.

He was already allied with the xenos, accepting their help and returning it in kind, and yet every time he encountered something that opposed the Imperial Truth, his first instinct was to reject it.

But his logic would then remind him of the situation at hand, and he couldn't deny that a power sword, even a fake one with magic, would be a magnificent boon against the Daemons. And then there was his suspicion that Equestrian magic was feared by the Great Enemy, if so then this sword could prove their bane.

Aries took the weapon in his hand and tested it's balance with a few practice swings.

"A switch hides itself in the lower jaw of the teeth, that will activate the magical field." Luna stated.

Aries felt around the World Eaters icon, and sure enough the center of the lower jaw could be pressed inward. Aries did so and the blade was enveloped in a bright crimson power field. "Give me an opponent so I may bloody this weapon." Aries 'requested' of Luna.

Taking no evident offense, Luna's horn began to glow. She closed her eyes and stilled for a moment. "...Ah, perhaps this shall suffice." Aries watched as Luna's body began to glow and change along with her voice.

Aries recognized the harmonizing voice before the glow faded, revealing an Eldar Farseer with midnight blue armor, a moonlight colored Wraithbone sword and Luna's cuite-mark in place of any craft world insignia.

"I would prefer if I did not have to hold back, did you not say that you could create images in the hundreds?" Aries complained, wishing to kill his enemies. "We can. But we can't die in the Dream Realm, so there is no reason for you to hold back, and we wish to experience your skill first hand." Luna said, twirling her sword as she struck a fighting pose. "If you insist." Aries said as he charged the Eldar.

He swung the blade towards her, but she ducked under it and rolled behind him. He turned and parried Luna's counterattack with authority, stunning her long enough to kick her in the chest.

Luna rolled with the momentum and landed on her feet with her free hand crackling with energy.
HUZZAH!! Luna called out as she threw the spell towards Aries, who dodged to the side and started to charge, only to realize that Luna was already on top of him...and above him.

Aries parried her downward strike and grabbed her by the throat with his free hand before tossing her like a rag doll, charging in her direction before she even landed.

Luna threw another psychic blast at him. This time Aries tested the power field of his weapon by batting away the magic like a softball. Luna, expecting him to dodge again, wasn't prepared to intercept him.

The Farseer brought it's blade up, but Aries knocked it aside with the same blow that saw her head flying from her shoulders.

The Eldar disappeared in dark blue smoke. Aries followed the sound of a rapid heartbeat to Luna, who was back to normal but shocked still.

"I warned you." Aries said unapologetically. He expected her to show some anger at his harsh version of sparring, or regret to ignoring his warnings, either of which would've been followed with resignation as she realized that his aggressive approach would prove necessary, if not inadequate, against the Daemons...He did NOT expect her to smile and then start laughing.

"AH HAHAHAHAHA!! SO YOU DID! WELL FOUGHT WORLD EATER! WE HAVE NOT FELT A RUSH LIKE THAT IN CENTURIES!" Luna stated absolutely giddy in the afterglow of their duel.

"Hm, I did not expect you to appreciate the thrill of combat." Aries stated.

Luna stopped smiling as her blue cheeks turned red. "Oh uh..w-well do not tell our sister of this but...these years of peace, they are a bit..." Luna paused, knowing the word for it, but thinking it too harsh and searching for a softer one.

"Boring." Aries answered for her. Luna was shocked to hear it, not because she wasn't thinking it, but because realizing what it sounded like gave her a rather unappealing image of herself, causing her to hang her head in shame.

"Yes, boring...We fought hard for the life we enjoy, against Discord, against King Sombra, against the Changeling King Chitin who is only remembered through his daughter Chrysalis. But, as the war for harmony crawled to a halt. We, who saw to the defeat and disarmament of our foes while our sister saw to the reassurance and relief of our people, became less and less appreciated. More so when there was less nightmares throughout the land... On one of the few that I delt with, the nightmare was resolved prior to my intervention by a figment of the dreamer's imagination, my sister, keeping them safe." Luna lamented.

"You felt unnecessary. That you no longer had a purpose." Aries summarized.

Luna nodded. "In the end, this led to...a rather unfortunate chapter in my life."

Aries had a thought. "Twilight Sparkle informed me that you possess known as the 'Elements of Harmony' and that among their feats is turning an alicorn from madness."

Luna's face said it all: shock and fear, followed by shame. "My sister and I had an argument about my standing...shortly after, I began to hear voices. Looking back on it now, it isn't unlike what you described, it is possible that I fell prey to Demons from that dimension."

"And the Elements cleansed you, no wonder they want this world to burn." Aries stated.

"Do you think such could be done for your brothers?" Luna asked.

Aries seized, Luna's words implanting the first thought that it was possible that their betrayal may not have been theirs at all. His astartes mind running over a hundred scenarios and weighing every pro and con, before coming to a solution. "If we did, they would demand their own deaths."

Luna didn't seem surprised. "I thought the same thing once. I created a personal nightmare for myself to punish me everytime I slept... I guess that they wouldn't forgive themselves overtime?"

"I don't know what you did while under their thrall, but my brothers killed their own, violated their oaths, and I have no idea how many they've butchered across the stars since then. No, they won't forgive themselves, and even if they did, I couldn't, not after what they've done. I would only request of you to cleanse them so that they could die with honor." Aries concluded.

"I see." Luna lowered her head once more, grateful now more than ever of how short lived her reign of terror had been.

"I must go, there are other dreamers to watch over, enjoy yourself." Luna said, her horn glowing.

WAAAGH!

Aries turned to the ork horde with a concealed smile on his helmeted head, charging into battle as Luna left him to his dream.

Author's Note

Yeah, after realizing that I was 5 days ahead of the PDF recruits being official, I just couldn't wait that long. If it helps, I can rewrite the Wonderbolt chapter so that it's three days later instead of one.

As for the sword, I'm sure a lot of you were wondering how Aries was going to fight without his weapons, well now you know. What are your thoughts on my use of the Alicorn Amulet?

And finally, Luna. After she got some character development in the later seasons, and we see her being appreciated by those she helps in the Dream Realm (the CMCs mostly) it didn't really make since to me that her Trigger was 'Everypony slept through her beautiful nights and loved Celestia's days'.

So I mixed it up with Luna dealing with war prisoners along with Nightmares and Celestia being the poster gal for hope and prosperity which put people at ease and made them stop having nightmares. (This is backed up by the logic: if you lived through a tyrant's rise and fall, you wouldn't have nightmares like the CMCs did because that sort of stuff wouldn't worry you.)

Okay, coming up next: I introduce the PDF in it's entirety, and then...chaos stirs.