Twilight Sparkle and her friends galloped as fast as they could down the halls of the Crystal Empire's royal castle.

They were spurred onward by the battle damage, fearing the worst, and the sounds of fighting coming from the throne room.

They finally made it, ready to face King Sombra...only to see that it was already over.

What they thought were the sounds of fighting was actually Aries beating something into a formless bloody stain, it was only the torn robe and smashed armor that told them that it used to be King Sombra.

Twilight tore her eyes from the gruesome sight long enough to search for anypony else, and found Cadence tending to the unconscious forms of Tempest, Neighsay, and the Crystal Guard while trying to keep her mind off of the War Hound.

After motioning to Cadence, Twilight and her friends made their way over to her, with Rainbow Dash and Applejack having to help Fluttershy and Rarity look away from carnage beside them.

"Cadence, uh, I see that Sombra has been...dealt with. Uh, would you mind explaining?" Twilight said while throwing a hoof in the War Hound's direction.

"Sombra used his magic to trap Aries in his worst fear and...well, while I am grateful that Sombra failed to turn him with his magic, I wish that he had managed to get out of the throne room before Aries caught him. Do you have any idea what he's afraid of?" Cadence asked.

Twilight came up with numerous theories but none that she could prove so she just shook her head.

"RRRRAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!" Aries delivered a final blow to the red stain upon the cracked floor before staring at it with clenched fists, as if hoping that it would move.

"...Uh, Aries?" The War Hound turned to the voice of Rainbow Dash, and at last realized that the Element Bearers had arrived. "Are you okay?"

Aries looked into the eyes of the Pegasus, where the other ponies seemed to be afraid of him for his gruesome display, the boastful athlete showed concern for the astartes.

"...No, but I'll survive." With that, Aries made to leave...only for Rainbow to fly in front of him. "Whoa whoa whoa, hold it big guy. No one's going to hold it against you if you're a little shaken. It's okay to be afraid, and we'll support you. That's what friends are for."

Aries' expression was hidden behind his helmet...barring his clenched fists. "I do not need your help. And my task here is done. It is almost nightfall, and I will be needed to help Luna and the others repel the night's invasion."

Aries shouldered past the Pegasus and made his exit. Rainbow Dash doubted that he had spoken with Tempest and Neighsay, both of whom had been sent to join him before all the craziness, and she knew for a fact that Luna wasn't expecting him tonight, but she decided to let him go. "Fine! You can have a night of punching things to cool off! But in the morning, I'm plANNING TO HAVE A TALK WITH YOU ABout thi-"

The rest of Rainbow Dash's statement was unheard as Aries turned a corner on his way out. But he could guess the rest.

Friends, Xenos considered themselves his friends. He thought he was past this, he thought he had made his peace with the path he had chosen, but hearing the Emperor's own voice name him a heretic...but had he?

Aries realized that he had never actually heard the voice of the Emperor, and that what he believed was His voice had in truth been that Witch's doing... To think that such a thing was cut from the same cloth as Twilight Sparkle only served to remind him of his own bloodline.

Damn it all. Damn that Witch. It has poisoned his mind with doubt, and he needs to clear it. He needs to purge the Daemons that seek to despoil Equestria. To know how desperate the Great Enemy is to ensure that the Elements of Harmony never reach the stars and drive Chaos back beyond the veil from whence it came, once and for all.

Canterlot

Aries was starting to rethink his mistrust of Unicorn magic. Heretical or not, it would've saved him a lot of time. He was now several hours late...at least the PDF was expecting to cover the night without him, he was supposed to be in the Crystal Empire for the night.

But he finally made it...in time to see Luna bidding the PDF farewell?

Striding up to her allowed Luna to notice the astartes' arrival. "Ah, Aries. Twilight sent me a letter detailing what happened. Or at least, what she knows."

"I don't know why you've sent the PDF home for the night, but I need to join in defense of the Dream realm." Aries stated.

"Not all of us. We're still here." Aries turned to the voice of Spitfire and saw her, Pharynx, Buck Wild, and Trixie standing ready...or at least, all but the latter standing ready.

"We were prepared for an invasion, but it appears that the Ruinous Powers are still reeling from their defeat, the only Daemons that are spawning tonight are those born from the Nightmares of Ponyville. And they're hardly something requiring the entire force, especially with most of them still in recovery, so I left it volunteer only." Luna explained.

"I volunteer." Aries said with no discernible emotions. He doubted that they were actually reeling, more likely they had seen what happened and wanted to fuel his doubt. But was this the truth, or was he just finding excuses to justify continuing his heresy?

"I expected as much, though I must insist that you have Rainbow's talk after a night of banishing the fears of others." Luna stated.

".....let us begin." Was the War Hound's only response.

Luna released a sigh, but said nothing more on the matter. She and Aries then joined the others. "Alright Trixie, you should have enough practice now to cast the spell yourself. Think you can manage?"

"Yes ma'am." Trixie replied, shocking everyone. Luna must've had a word with the show mare regarding her personality.

Trixie closed her eyes and focused, her horn lighting up a cross between lavender and pink before her eyes shot open in the form of twin white voids that poured forth from her eyesockets to engulf the gathered creatures.

The white void faded out, giving way to the Dream Realm. The dreams of Equestria floated around them, but where naive innocence was once common-place, now, it was rare indeed.

Word of the Awakening had spread like wildfire. Though only Ponyville's survivors dreamt of the true horrors, those who place faith in rumors were being haunted by nightmares lesser and greater than the small Chaos assault. Phantom invaders with indiscernable features, and some imaginary monsters harassed the ponies of Equestria in all but a few dreams.

"Alright everypony. My previous orders stand." Lunas stated. Gaining nods of understanding from the assembled group.

"Aries. Yellow Jacket is still having Nightmares of the astartes sorcerer that shattered her horn. We managed to pacify her earlier tonight, but her fears cannot be banished so easily, and the power the phantom wields is frighteningly similar to the real thing." Luna explained.

"I gave her permission to rest and recover. I will defend her as she does just that." Aries declared. He had praised the unicorn as though she were one of his brothers when he heard of her ordeal against the Traitor, described as a Dark Angel Librarian.

"That is the only nightmare that would require your attention...If we have enough time to ourselves, I could let you spend the night slaughtering more of those Ork creatures if you wish." Luna offered. Aries knew why she brought it up, but said nothing more as he departed.

Luna sighed as she watched him leave. She knows nothing of what he saw in Sombra's spell, but she had seen his past. His father's betrayal...his brothers' last stand...his death and damnation...truly, the younger princess had never seen a more tortured soul.

That was the thought on her mind when her eyes caught something peculiar. At first, she thought it was just a shadow, but this was disproven as it wasn't attached to anything.

Luna glanced around to see if anycreature needed her assistance at the moment, but they all had the nightmares well in hand.

And so, Luna moved in to investigate the shadowy spiral. It looked like a dream, but it couldn't be, the dreamer would've had to be completely dead inside.

As Luna got closer however, she realized that it could be nothing else. As curiosity turned to concern, Luna entered the dream.

Darkness, that was all she could see. Even casting light with her horn didn't help much.

She walked along the dark halls, searching for whatever pony could be so broken as to dream of this, and help them escape the darkness.

The hall ended before a single door, which she opened with ease...and nearly closed it in fright.

Luna recognized the beast only for her experiences with Aries, it was an Ork. She had once conjured a small army of the beasts to appease the Butcher's Nails when Aries was still a World Eater, but this creature was a farcry from the war hungry savages Aries believed them to be.

He was covered head to toe in scars both old and new, bound to the wall by barbed chains, and his eyes...there was no denying that this Ork was the dreamer.

But how? How was an Ork in Equestria? And what could possibly have put it in such a state of mind? The Chaos Marines? Could they have brought over a slave when they invaded that was left here when they were defeated? Only one way to find out.

Luna's horn glew brighter as she probed the Ork's mind. It didn't resist her...but part of her wish that it had.

She saw them: 'Dem Drew Gahry Gitz' as the Ork labeled them. They weren't the Chaos Marines, but Luna quickly found that they were on par with them, if not worse.

It was brief probe into basic memory rather than in depth look into the creature's life like when she recreated the Atrocity for Aries, but it was enough.

This creature suffered so much pain that it couldn't immediately remember anything else. It didn't know how it got here, where it was before, only that it suffered...and suffered greatly. It had given up fighting back, given up begging for mercy...it had even given up on begging for death, which it now desired more than anything else.

Luna was about to see where it was now, but the dream ended...the Ork awoke. Leaving Luna in the Dream Realm, puzzling what to do next.

Author's Note

I am so sorry that it's this short, but I had a hell of a week, and I caught a cold.

But next chapter is going to be better as focus shifts back to the Ork (who gets a name) and Luna starts investigating. Will she go to Aries for advice? And if not, then who will she turn to?

These answers and more, on the next exciting episode...of Dragon Ball Z (sorry, not sorry)