The Grimdark 6 Vol One: Lost Loyalty

"Well, now that the threat has been dealt with, would you mind explaining...what exactly transpired?" Luna asked him.

Aries sighed internally, in spite of his greatest efforts, this xenos world had still been invaded through him, and now he had to make a choice, continue struggling to remain neutral, or assist the aliens in their fight against a common enemy.

He stared at the alien psyker called Luna, he had been on guard from any sensation of the witch trying to probe his mind throughout the entirety of their alliance, and yet even now, she made no such attempt, if nothing else, she was more tolerable than the treacherous Eldar.

With a silent prayer for forgiveness, Aries decided that he would aid these xenos. "I was sent to your world by the ruler of these Daemons in the belief that I would destroy it myself, but I refuse to be their pawn, however, it appears that my compliance may not be necessary."

Luna was skilled in the art of controlling her emotions, Aries doubted that a non-astartes would've picked up the subtle hints of worry and confusion that he had seen clear as day. "Well...as grateful as I am that you refused, can you expl-"

Luna's question was cut off as Aries began to fade.

Elsewhere

Aries gripped his head as he was engulfed in pain, he pulled himself from the cave floor, his surprise at Luna's disappearance immediately dismissed as he realized that he had simply awakened, he was grateful that it did not happen during the battle against the Bloodletters.

Aries surveyed the cave, he could tell that the light outside came from a moon, and by the position of the cave that barely three hours had passed since he had rendered himself unconscious.

He doubted that Luna would seek him at this time, as she had duties to tend to, thinking about it, Aries found that assigning trusted psykers to oversee the minds of dreaming mortals, children especially, was actually a good idea.

Aries took a step towards the exit of the cave, only to step on something metal and flat.

Aries looked down and beheld the sight of his ruined helmet.

He grit his teeth and cursed internally, it was all he could do to refuse the need to destroy, but it had costed him a far too valuable, and now irreplaceable, piece of equipment.

Aries snarled audibly and threw away the now useless helmet.

He barely heard the sound of the helmet crash into the cave wall and fall to the floor, he seethed in frustration at his situation...and all that had led to it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a lavender flash of light, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared with popping noise, but then reappeared with a hum. "Hello, is anypony here, uh, Princess Luna sent me.."

Aries saw the xeno long before she saw him, it seemed to be of the same sub-species as Luna, possessing both feathered wings and a conical horn that glowed with lavender psychic light.

Aries entertained the idea of attempting to conceal himself, but he had already committed himself, and Luna had undoubtedly sent this alien to gather information on the new threat.

Repeating his prayer for forgiveness, Aries stepped into the alien's view.

Moments Prior, The Dreamrealm

Twilight was one half second away from adding the final ingredient to her experiment when Princess Luna teleported into her personal space, startling Twilight, who applied too much of the final ingredient, resulting in an explosion that left both princesses coughing and covered in ashes.

"Pr-Princess Luna, what brings you here?" Twilight asked as soon as she recovered.

"I'm here to enlist your aid Twilight Sparkle, I fear that Equestria is in grave danger." Luna explained.

Luna then retold the nights events to Twilight, who was as excited by the news as she was terrified.

"Unfortunately, he awoke from his slumber before he could explain anything more, and you above all ponies are skilled in taking notes, so I wish to give you the means of finding Aries and leave the situation in your capable hooves until my sister raises the sun and my duties end." Luna concluded.

"I won't let you down Princess." Twilight ensured her as she willed herself to awaken.

Twilight shot out of bed in a burst of adrenaline, trying to keep her mind focused on the task at hand in spite of her excitement of enacting first contact with a new race that was so unlike anything she had heard of, a minotaur sized bipedal knight that fought with the ferocity of a dragon lord.

Twilight had more questions than she could ask, but she would save that for when she had found him.

She focused her magic on the memory that Luna had given her on the feel of his aura, and found it within moments.

Luna's words hadn't done him justice, his presence was that of Wrath made manifest, as if he hated everything around him and sought it's destruction.

Twilight was determined to find out why he was so angry and help him overcome it if possible, and with this determination driving her, she teleported to within ten feet of his location.

Twilight found herself in almost complete darkness but for the moonlight behind her, the feeling of solid stone beneath her hooves telling her that she was in a cave.

Twilight channeled magic from her horn to serve as a torch and, not wanting to startle the angry 8 foot demon slayer, called out to him. "Hello, is anypony here, uh, Princess Luna sent me..."

Twilight walked forward, and then felt her hoof land on something made of metal, she looked down to find an odd disk with jagged edges, she couldn't figure out what it was.

She was torn from the sight of the disk by very loud footfalls.

When the owner of these footfalls came into view, Twilight was completely incapable of hiding her shock, gasping audibly and taking an instinctive step back and staring slack jawed.

He was everything Luna had described, a minotaur sized bipedal knight with white and blue armor, but there were two noteworthy differences.

He had no weapon, let alone the screaming sword with teeth that Luna had described, but the most terrifying difference was that he had no helmet, giving Twilight a clear view of his face.

It was a human, one of the creatures from Sunset Shimmer's dimension, he had dark brown hair with skin that could have been a pale white before years under Celestia's sun (or at least, A sun) had tanned it, he also seemed to have been hurt in his fight with the demons as he bled from a wound on his forehead, but what disturbed her was that something had long ago pierced his face, just behind his lips, leaving his face fixed in a permanent snarl anytime he opened his lips.

"You needn't fear me xeno, if I wanted you dead, you wouldn't have taken that step." The human, Aries if Twilight remembered correctly, stated as a fact, making Twilight gulp down the excess saliva that was building in her throat.

"G-greetings, Sir Aries..." Twilight began, bowing to the knight. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna sent me to you in the hopes that you could inform us of this new threat to Equestria."

"I have agreed to inform you, and I will honor that agreement, but I will have no more of this "sir" nonsense, refer to me as Aries alien." The knight said, baffling Twilight.

"O-oh, okay then, umm...alien?" Twilight gestured with her hoof as if she were holding the word in question.

"Aliens, or xenos as they are also called, are sentient races that are inhuman, yours is the first xenos race that I have encountered that was not hostile at first contact, so pardon the mistrust, I have simply learned to expect every creature in the galaxy to be my enemy... I merely offer you the first strike." Aries explained, giving Twilight one answer and several new questions.

"Well...uhh...you don't have to worry about that from us, Equestria is a peaceful place, my people value Harmony and Friendship above all else, but that doesn't make us strangers to violence, we've learned that some creatures cannot be reasoned with, and if what Princess Luna told me about these demons is true, we're not going to solve this with a rational conversation." Twilight explained.

"Certainly not, these foul abominations are the manifestation of war, rage and slaughter, born from both the mad xenos races who fight to rule and oppress all life in the galaxy, and mankind's will to defy them, they only know how to spill blood in the name of their heinous master, the self proclaimed 'Blood God' Khorne." Aries confirmed her fears, causing another gulp.

"Oh...well, I think I can figure out why they're targeting us then." Twilight hypothesized.

"And what would that be?" Aries inquired.

"Well as I said earlier, we respect Harmony and Friendship above all else, I may have left out that we actually have a guardian diety called the Spirit of Harmony, who draws powers from six emotions that we call the Elements of Harmony, it sounds to me like they would be a perfect foil for this Blood God." Twilight explained.

Aries seemed to ponder this information. "...I doubt that this spirit poses a threat to the Great Enemy...but it could if given time to grow and adapt...a lot of time."

"Well, you haven't seen the Elements in action yet, you see, we have used the Elements of Harmony to drain the power of a magic devouring demon, a different demon, not these guys, anyway we also turned another demon to stone, but our biggest accomplishment by far is using them on a ruler who had gone insane and changing them back to normal." Twilight explained.

Aries pondered this. "...If such is the case, then that would explain why they sent me here, instead of their more demented followers."

"Oh yeah, Luna told me that they expected you to destroy us, is it because you haven't met a friendly race yet?" Twilight asked.

"Among other reasons, yes, but this has nothing to do with our current enemy." Aries stated.

"Oh, right, um, so other than hacking them apart with a screaming sword made of teeth, do you know any other ways to stop them." Twilight inquired.

"The Daemons come from a Realm called The Warp, within this Realm, emotions become physical beings, these Daemons, as I said before, are embodiments of pure hatred, as such, they cannot exist in the material plane without a blood sacrifice, or possessing living beings, it isn't uncommon for one to do the latter in order to enact the former and bring forth an invasion, so long as Luna keeps an eye out for them invading the minds of your people, it is doubtful that they can launch an effective attack, but in preparation for such a thing, the best course of action would be for me to train your military for a full scale war." Aries explained.

Twilight shivered at the thought, Equestria had not known a true war for over a thousand years, on occasion, this has come back to bite them, such as the invasion of the Storm King, but now they face an enemy that won't put the ponies in chains until Twilight and her friends can rescue them, but a hateful force that was out to slaughter them out of spite.

"I see, I will inform Princess Luna and Celestia of these developments, do you wish to accompany me, there's no reason for you to stay here." Twilight asked him.

"Yes, there is." Aries said, clutching his head as though it were in pain, and glancing at the metal disk that Twilight saw before.

Twilight looked again, and realized from the similar design and color that it was his missing helmet. "Did you do this?" Twilight asked as she picked up the helmet with her magic.

The human looked at her, pausing only to wipe at the blood from his wound that forth far slower than Twilight thought it should. "...yes, there is an explanation, but I am not ready to give it to you, I will only say that I stay in this cave for your safety."

Twilight saw only the truth in his eyes...as well as shame, and sadness "Luna told me that you were fighting people wearing the same armor as you in your dream, you don't have to answer if don't want to, but if you don't give somepony the whole story, they may imagine something worse than the truth." As Twilight said this, she repaired his helmet with a spell and gave it back to him.

Aries took it and looked at her with no expression. "Not if the truth is worse than anything you could hope to imagine." He said as he put on his helmet, the glass eyes lighting up orange.

Twilight bowed to him as a goodbye and teleported to Canterlot, the flash of lavender light failing to bring with it a single sympathetic tear.