Celestia could but only helplessly flap her expansive wings, kick her firm legs out and tug at the iron grip of the space marine with her graceful hands. His grip around her throat was not actually tight at all, but was so solid the princess could have been fooled into thinking somepony had caste a cement block around her neck. She strained her features in utter panic, eyes filled with tears and blurring her vision, blurring the world around her down to far more basic blobs of colour. She could make out down the dark bronze of the corridor she was being dragged down a collection of colourful blobs made their way closer to her ever moving position. She could make out a chorus of various voices blurting out from the colours, all sounding out in some kind of protest judging by their tones. The marine that dragged her along by the neck seemed to be utterly unphased by whatever the voices were saying, however, as he continued his relentless march onwards, titanic bootsteps thundering down the corridor. After several seconds of blurry surroundings, disorientating motion and a multitude of barking voices the princess was brought to a stop, allowing for less than a second of reprieve before she was catapulted up and into a nearby wall by the space marine's powerful arm, his hand releasing it's grip on her neck before his armoured forearm shot up and pinned the alicorn up again the metallic surface of the wall behind her. Celestia's eyes shot open in shock to stare into the marine's own, their fiery golden depths burning with utter hate.

"What was...that!" The alien barked at her, his tone just as furious as it was helplessly confused.

"Sergeant! I am ordering you to release her!" Errithius barked from behind the space marine that assaulted her.

"Just another detail you just happened to forget to mention?! You tell us everything, now!" Varadoch growled, his voice so tense Celestia feared he'd soon be spitting blood at her.

"I said let her go, Ellisior!"

Varadoch seemed to stay his efforts for a moment at the mention of what Celestia could only assume was his first name. An armoured hand grabbed Varadoch by the front edge of his left pauldron and wrenched him back, spinning him around as he was thrown back, dropping Celestia to slump to the floor in a weakened, sad state. Varadoch and Errithius locked eyes, their faces no further than six inches apart, features tense and eyes unblinking. Celestia could have likened the stand off as that between two lions.

"This is wrong." Varadoch hissed.

"It is, and I'm stopping you from making it worse." The captain growled back.

"Worse? It's already worse. It's been worse every second since we left that holding cell. We need to leave, Captain, we need to leave this planet now."

"The barracks, Ellisior. We'll talk later." Replied Errithius in a low tone.

Varadoch stared on, his face bubbling with fury as his very posture shifted with tense frustration before his head finally snapped away from Errithius' gaze, the marine stomping away in what seemed like a temporary defeat. Not four paces away and Varadoch turned around for a moment to stare at Errithius once again, a finger jabbing at him viciously.

"Heed my words, Captain! This planet...these people...they are cursed!"

With that the marine turned to march off again, turning a corner to finally disappear from sight, allowing a sense of cold relief to wash over Celestia. Errithius stared on for a moment before letting out a sigh and closing his eyes, his head dropping slightly. Celestia had only just now noticed her fellow ponies were gathered about her, Twilight holding her limp hand and the rest equally eager to ensure her well-being. Twilight spent a few seconds gently stroking the back of her former mentors hand before she turned to stand up and face the space marine captain. Even though the giant alien was over a foot and a half taller than her and outsized her in raw bulk a few times over, the young princess stared up at him as if her very gaze would melt the armour right off his flesh.

"I don't know about where you come from, but here, throttling a princess isn't exactly something that makes you many friends." The comparatively tiny princess said sternly, her eyes fiercely looking up at Errithius who didn't seem to react at all to her implication.

Instead, the marine slowly extended his large hand and with its back side gently moved Twilight out of the way, earning himself a very insulted look from the purple alicorn. Once moved out of his line of sight of Celestia, the captain looked down at her with a relaxed, yet slightly tense expression before talking in a firm tone.

"I believe there are some issues we should discuss."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The discussion had been going on for over two hours now, and yet Commander Gerin'Gov's eyes had yet to truly adjust to the meeting rooms seemingly endless darkness, the central luminary bulb suspended above the central table providing light that only seemed to travel to every chair surrounding the table, but not an inch further. Gerin'Gov was growing tired of the ramblings, the dissecting of specifics and the needless observation of implications and opinions. The situation was as simple as they come:

The Federation was under attack.

"I say we pull all units off world. We prime kinetic-batteries now and we can fire a volley into the planet's surface as soon as the last drop-ship leaves the atmosphere." The commander grumbled as he lent his elbows on the table before him.

"That's a pretty stupid plan. You see what's wrong with it don't you?" The female Officiator, Megna'Gilith, said with an amused huff.

"Indulge me." Gerin'Gov growled in frustration at the Gilith's smug implications.

"Well first, your plan involves destroying Federal property worth a substantial amount, and second, the official logging reports would take years to complete. Not to mention the capital will demand a report on why we destroyed such a valuable investment like the facilities we have on this planet just because we couldn't destroy one ship."

"Alien, Gilith, one alien ship." Unal'Gov, an apparently very tired scientist working in the facility they were currently in said weakly.

"Please, our readings revealed the ship was a quarter the size of one of our cruisers, and we have a Giga-craft in system three times that size. When we find out where they're hiding, destroying them will be like a Benefactor squashing an insect." Megna'Gilith chuckled.

"One shot. Their craft took one shot after being bombarded by over twenty weapon units. Their scanners read clean through our entire ship in less than eight milliseconds and found one of the ship generators that fed the rear stabilizers. One shot cut through a hundred and fifteen decks, destroyed the generator, fried the power conduits throughout the cruisers stern and left the crew sprawled or splattered on whatever surface was directly behind them as the ship fell back like an anchor!" Unal'Gov blurted, his tone growing more desperate by the second.

"Heh, the way I understand it, they got a lucky shot. It would seem they were aiming at the cruisers engines and managed to hit the stabilizer generator by coincidence. Plus, now we can anticipate their attacks and re-calibrate our ships shields to counter their weapons."

"No. No we cannot. They didn't hit that ship with any kinetic attack whatsoever. They used some energy based weapon that the cruisers shields completely ignored."

"That's stupid, everything in the universe has kinetic value."

"Does light? Heat? Gravity? Radiation? All of them can be affected by kinetic values, but they also bypass kinetic registers. I don't remember the last time I walked outside and was thrown to the ground because the sunlight was hitting me with kinetic force!" The scientist said almost helplessly.

"What are you saying, that they shot us with sunlight?" Gerin'Gov asked sarcastically.

"They shot the cruiser with...I'm...I don't really know what they used. It was some form of laser weapon that also emitted a powerful energy blast. It was like the weapon was a multi-stage energy emitter, the energy pulse that crippled the cruiser was somehow shot down the length of the laser that fired a fraction of a second beforehand."

"Sounds like you admire them." Megna'Gilith inquired suspiciously.

"It's hard not to admire the elegance of such a powerful weapon. It's also worth noting that that was a single weapon system, one weapon out of over a dozen others the ship had. If they catch another ship unawares or unprepared again, I don't think we'll be so fortunate to get away with a half-salvageable, crippled craft." Replied the scientist grimly.

"I've heard enough of these theories and fears. We take action, right now. I propose we cut this joke of a planet loose." The commander growled.

The Feds were quiet for a moment, some looking at each other, some just thinking to themselves.

"Benefactor Supreme, you engaged these aliens, what do you think our next move should be?" The science facility Attendant asked.

Benefactor Supreme Yuni'Gov had hardly said a word after giving his debrief of the situation his last mission devolved into. The Benefactor was still wearing his armour and battle dress, and even though it'd been almost a whole day since first contact with the alien creatures in the subterranean facility his white battle plate still had the dark red of Fed blood spattered on it at the shoulder and knee. He stared at the table as if under a spell, his hands rested before him on the table, tightly gripping one another.

"We should destroy this planet. No kinetics, no re-settlement, just get a Punisher in orbit, destroy the entire planet."

Gerin'Gov gave an amused huff, throwing his arms up slightly in defeat at such an outrageous proposal. The other officials and officers seemed to hold similar opinions to such a claim, some seemingly outright tickled by the proposition as they emitted squealing chuckles.

"A Punisher Giga-craft? Of course, why didn't I think of that? Are you seriously comparing the danger of fighting a single alien ship with the spread of the unliving virus across an entire planet? You're saying that this situation is as bad as what happened almost a hundred years ago?" Gerin'Gov spat.

"No, I'm saying it's worse you stupid, old fuck! There couldn't have been more than fifty of them, and they chewed the insertion force to pieces! You've all read the mission report, you've seen how many waves of reinforcements I had to call in just to get our military assets out of there!" The Benefactor shrieked hysterically.

"On that subject, Commander Reem'Gov is less than impressed in how your little field trip spent six whole drop-ship's worth of troops. He was under the impression he'd have the rest of that evening free to focus on digi-work." Megna'Gilith said with a stern expression.

"He can go and get fucked! I needed to get out of there! You all wanted the immortals and their hardware to come back intact!" Yuni'Gov continued spitting in hysterics.

"Indeed we did, but that's because we thought you where going to arrest a group of rebel morons, not engage an alien military detachment." Gerin'Gov snorted, Yuni'Gov shooting him a profanity in the form of a hand gesture in response.

"Doctor, what did the bio-teams find through examining the corpses of our troops?" The Attendant asked Unal'Gov.

"Their small arms fire is...well, it's hard to really call it small arms fire at all really. Massive kinetic value is shown to be used by each round fired, we calculate through observing battle-footage, via a small rocket thruster located behind each round. Once the rounds penetrate the armour of our Benefactors and enter their bodies, each round seems to 'wait' until it has reached the center of mass of its victim before violently detonating. As much as the bodies are riddled with dense shrapnel, really, the initial detonation is what destroys the target, leaving them in...well, leaving them in quite a messy state."

"What countermeasures do we have for this?" Gerin'Gov asked.

"Here? None. The only way we could out match their ground troops is if we had twice as many Immortals as they have infantrymen." The scientist said with a huff, seemingly amazed by his own statement.

"That's ridiculous. You can't expect the Federation to commit to deploying a whole division of the Immortals corps just t-" The Gilith official began before being cut off.

"You don't see it, do you?! Have you even watched the battle footage from the encounter?!" The young scientist blurted before typing on his wrist-tablet, a holographic image being projected to the center of the table for all to see.

The footage that was revealed was a first-person perspective view from a Benefactor who was in the middle of a firefight in some dark, seemingly crystalline environment. Red Magna-rounds zipped and sizzled through the air, snapping off wall and floor, but also off of the armour of large, bulky figures that stood ahead of the Benefactor. More fire came from beyond the sight of the camera, presumably coming from the rest of the squad the Benefactor they observed belonged to. Again, more rounds hit home, striking at the aliens before them in the chest, legs and shoulders, but to seemingly no lethal effect as the aliens continued standing and delivered their own fire at the Feds that attacked them, each shot soon followed by a sickening, meaty pop, some even followed by agonized screams of the wounded and dying.

"Look at this! Their firing positions, their resolve, their commitment. Everything we threw at them did little more than scratch at the surface of their armour, suppressive fire has little to no effect in pinning them behind cover and this is them in a tactically deficient condition, caught unawares and terribly ill informed. Now they've regrouped, they have a mobile stronghold that we can't find and their very nature seems to indicate their not ones to shy away from the proposition of a fight, a fight this trigger-happy Supreme had no trouble inviting them into." Unal'Gov growled as he gestured to Yuni'Gov.

"I could shoot you for your disrespect!" The Benefactor barked as he stood from his chair.

"Make as many threats as you want, it won't change the fact that you could have just started a war. Why is all reason has no one asked the biggest question yet? Where do they come from? What if there's more of them, lots more, what if there's more of them than there are of us? If we've started a war with a space-faring faction of aliens that outnumber, outgun and so utterly outmatch us on every level in conflict, we could be facing the extinction of our entire species!"

None present uttered a word, every officer and official keeping their mouths firmly sealed tight and sheepishly looking down at their hands.

"But no, we don't want to think about that, do we? We don't want to think about how almost everyone in this room could be held responsible for the single greatest threat to our species in all of history. Not that it'd matter much, since we'd all be dead shortly after our trials either way."

"Alright, that's enough. We can think on the implications of this situation for weeks and still get nowhere. The question remains; What do we do now?" Asked Gerin'Gov after a short sigh.

"Let's say the rolls are reversed, for a second, and we come under attack by an alien faction. Say a single ship of ours is lost in uncharted space, then what? Would the Federation simple shrug off the disappearance? If these aliens are even a fraction as smart as they appear, they are not going to ignore one of their ships simply going missing." Said Unal'Gov.

"If you'd checked the research report on the underground facility you'd know the residue of the cell the ship was held in was over a thousand years old. I'm willing to bet whatever 'empire' they belonged to stopped looking for them a long time ago. Assuming their empire even still exists." The facility Attendant snorted.

"And if you'd read my report you'd know that what we could analyse from their ship suggests their communications have been offline that entire time, and came back online soon after their craft came back online, meaning they can start calling for help. And I'm willing to bet any civilization able to build anything like that ship builds to last, for a long, long time. There's evidence to suggest that their ship itself was actually centuries old. And judging by the crafts performance, I don't think their technology really has a sell-by date." The scientist remarked.

"So what's your point?" Yuni'Gov hissed.

"The evidence that stands confirms that we cannot achieve a long-term win scenario. Even if we somehow managed to destroy their ship, there's a high probability that reinforcements will arrive here, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a years time. We have to initiate a diplomatic arrangement that allows for them to be given safe passage off-world in exchange for the Equestrians."

"You want to try and arrange a compromise with those...things?!" The Benefactor spat.

"What makes to think they'll cooperate?" Megna'Gilith growled impatiently.

"I don't. I think they're going to stay in this system and cook us alive in our own spacecraft. Then I think their buddies are gonna come to see what's happening as join in. I think they're gonna squeeze us until we sing the name of our home world and every bastion from here to there. I think they'll finish a feud we started, and I think the rest of the galaxy'll just keep spinning on, having long since forgotten us many years after the last of us have died. But I also think that if there's any chance of saving us from such a future, it lies not in firing every gun all our ships have at a planet we, quite frankly, need and cheering as we destroy another few billion innocent families, but instead dropping to our knees, putting on our best pouty faces on and pleading for cooperation." Unal'Gov said plainly.

"The Federation does not negotiate with terrorists." Megna'Gilith said with a heavy sense of pride.

"What little dream world do you occupy? These aren't terrorists, they are a vastly superior alien military organisation, one we have really, really pissed off. One that seems to have taken a shining to the native population of this planet, the very people that still mostly hate our guts. If there ever was a time to grovel and negotiate, it would be right now!" The scientist blurted hysterically.

Again, the room was silent for a half a minute, all present left with their own thoughts. Gerin'Gov himself hated everything the immature little turd of a scientist had said, but the thing he hated most was that everything he had said was based on solid evidence that none of them could ignore any longer. As much as he was sure every Fed on this planet would have taken not a second to vote to blow these aliens and this whole planet to the darkest corner of the universe, he knew in doing so he could well doom all the Federation to the same fate that revealed itself in the holo-screen that floated before his eyes. Since the scientist had first spoken, the feed had displayed the footage from the battle from the previous day, and had ended a few seconds ago, the Benefactor the camera had belonged to having since been shot dead, the camera now lying on the crystal floor at an angle, half of the lens spattered with the owners dark red blood.

"Alright, I'm going to convene with the other military chiefs to instill a cease-fire. I'm to assume your department will be responsible for instigating and sustaining negotiable terms with the aliens?" The commander asked the Officiate nearby.

"Commander, are you sure this-?"

"Yes. You've been presented the evidence just like the rest of us have. It's not the evidence any of us wanted, but it's just what we have to deal with. Now I'll ask again; Can we rely on your department to fulfill it's functional requirement?" Asked Gerin'Gov in a slow, stern tone.

"Of course." Megna'Gilith replied after a short pause.

"You can't seriously be considering this?!" The gore-stained Benefactor yelled to the entire room, arms flailing.

"Yuni'Gov, I advise you spend the rest of the campaign in a less interactive position. You've already been through too much to be assessed as entirely combat effective, and we will need everyone on the ground at 100%, even if things don't turn out for the worst." The commander said in as bland as tone as he could manage, trying to cover his feelings of magnificent amusement for how much this would get under Yuni'Gov's skin.

"You can't do that! That's not fair!" The Benefactor practically shrieked.

"I can. I vastly outrank you."

"Under Federal military law I am not obliged to follow any order you give me that I see as misguided or unreasonable." Yuni'Gov growled through gritted teeth.

"Of course, but any order you don't follow that then causes combat inefficiency will be considered a crime you have directly committed. If any loss of life occurs under your command you will be held for each death as though it were a murder." Gerin'Gov shrugged.

The two locked eyes, the Benefactor Supreme staring in an enraged state into the Commander's own, of which remained far more relaxed. With a grunt of frustration, slamming his fists on the table in juvenile protest, the Benefactor marched out the meeting room's automated doors, leaving the rest of the occupants silently sitting in an awkward silence. Besides the Commander, who seemed very pleased with himself.

"How, exactly, do we contact the alien ship to discuss negotiations?" Megna'Gilith groaned impatiently.

"We call the whole planet. Have every ship relay and project a single message through every manner of communication we can send it by. I trust you'll be as warm and inviting as is required for such a delicate situation?" The commander said as he leaned back in his chair, savoring the distaste and frustration coming from those he had grown to deeply dislike the whole time he'd been in this joke of a solar system.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"And you had...no way of knowing this condition was afflicting your sister?" Nitheleon asked, his tone a slight distrustful.

"No! No, of course not! I...I mean, we never had any reason whatsoever to believe that...she would return." Celestia said, just as panicked as she had been since being released from Varadoch's vice-like grip.

Errithius shifted in his marble chair, turning to the other ponies, each having taken a seat themselves.

"And what of the rest of you? Did any of you talk to Luna recently? Have you noticed anything odd about her behaviour?" The marine asked in a quiet voice, his mind a jumble of issues in need of sorting.

"Well, it was pretty obvious that Aunty Luna has been very unwell recently. She has been growing weaker by the day for the past couple of years, but we thought it was something to do with what the Federation was doing." Princess Cadence added.

"I have to admit, it is a little odd how weak she was getting compared to how the rest of us have fared. I mean, I don't feel I bear the same amount of magic I once had access too, but I feel far from being half-comatose. Do you think Nightmare Moon might have been, somehow, tromenting Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, concerned at the thought.

"I...I don't think so. At least not directly. What can we say we know about what's happened to Luna for sure?" Celestia asked to all the ponies in general.

"Well, for one, it's highly likely that whether consciously or unconsciously harboring Nightmare Moon, it took a lot out of her physically. Like a sickness." Twilight added first.

"I noticed, maybe a couple of times, it seemed like she was flinching. Like she was in actual pain, or startled by something like somepony talking to her. Maybe she was aware that Nightmare Moon was still within her somehow." Cadence said next.

"I couldn't help but notice that her mane was lacking its usual starlight glow and elegant weightlessness. I don't know if that has anything to do with how her magic was being affected." Said Rarity.

"We haven't spoken in months...not really. Just organizing resistance movements, sneaking from town to town to keep out of the Federation's sight. It's been so long since I actually asked her how she was, how she was feeling...anything. This is my fault." Celestia's heels were on the very precipice of tears, Errithius could smell the blood rushing to her head as her features tightened.

"Alright, I can believe you all had no way of knowing what was happening to the princess. But I do need to know what you know about this 'Nightmare Moon' character." Errithius continued, changing the subject as to keep the snow-white princess talking, he could ill afford any in this hall falling into an non-interactive state.

"She...well, it's a little complicated. In our world, out of all the dangerous wild creatures and powerful adversaries we have faced in the past, no enemy has been so expansive or had as many faces as Dark Magic. Dark Magic is an energy much like regular Equestrian magic, only it's nature is far more...unpredictable, far more volatile." Celestia begun, Errithius looking to Tyreth as what Celestia was talking about sounded frighteningly familiar, the Chaplain seeming to have nothing to say on the matter for now.

"Dark Magic has developed since the founding of Equestria, going from a form of otherworldly energy, to some form of intelligence, although quite a simple one. It tends to act like a predator, sniffing out emotions and magical spells that it can infect and feed from, such emotions being despair, anger, greed and jealousy. Luna...a long time ago her role in Equestria was so much less celebrated than it is today, and such isolation from the lives she felt she affected so much, along with their overall disregard for her led her to grow steadily more bitter over time. Just over a thousand years ago these feelings she harboured drew the attention of Equestria's Dark Magic, it burrowed deep into her mind, developing an identity of its own based off of Luna's own sorrow and her desire to be admired. This artificial personality eventually grew so powerful from my sisters growing instabilities that when she decided to confront me, when she decreed she would never lower the moon from in front of the sun for all time, the darkness festering within her took over her mind, followed immediately by her very physical form until all that was left was the wicked mare of darkness; Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon then made it well known from then on that her only goals in her mind were to dethrone me and bring about nighttime eternal."

"After learning what my sister had become, I found I was greatly outmatched by the raw power of her magic, and that my only option of saving Equestria was to use the Elements of Harmony. However, in doing so I could not wield them as effectively as I could with my sister, as we had done before, and the very nature of them being used against...against my dearest friend somehow threw off the very nature of the spell I was casting. I meant to cleanse my sister of the Dark Magic she was infected with, and even though I knew it would be quite painful for her to experience, I knew that afterwards I'd have my beloved sister back to the way she was once again. However instead of this, the Elements almost decided to instead imprison her within the moon for a thousand years. After all that time passed, she did indeed return as I had interpreted from the Elements, still bent on dominating all of Equestria. However in that time the Elements had chosen new, far more suitable bearers, and in doing so were far better suited for cleansing the darkness from within my sister, finally returning her to me. But...well this is where I just don't understand what's happening. The Elements should have easily been able to completely strip away the essence of Nightmare Moon from my sister, the only thing I could possibly think of right now as to how she still exists is that for some reason, one completely beyond my understanding, the Elements did not destroy her for an actual reason. Perhaps they saw some use for Nightmare Moon in Equestria's future."

"Like today?" Nitheleon asked in a soft, inquisitive tone.

All heads turned to the Sanguinary Priest, yet none spoke, instead everyone present simply waited a few seconds for him to explain himself.

"Nightmare Moon said, we all heard it, she said she wanted to save Equestria. That she actually had a way of evicting the Federation from 'her' country. I think perhaps, if she is so sure, she might just be able to do so. You just said yourself, Celestia, she's far more powerful than even you. Maybe she'll end up doing our job for us." The priest said.

"Yeah, but at the cost of eternal darkness! If she does manage to get rid of the Federation, as soon as she does she'll declare herself the new princess of all Equestria and will never raise the sun ever again. And without the Elements, the Tree, the Heart, there's no way we could stop her." Rainbow Dash blurted in frantic reminder.

"Just to get things into a clearer perspective, if Nightmare does, indeed, hold dominion over all Equestria she will bring about an unending night. And, what else exactly? I assume she'll be seeking to execute all of you?" Errithius inquired.

The ponies looked they were on the very edge of confirming the captain's assumptions before all of them stopping, mouths hung open for a second as they were just about to speak before slowly closing them, their expression seeming to display how they were trying to remember some time that held a reference for their confirmation. However after a few seemingly endless seconds none of them seemed to dig up anything to help their case.

"Y'know what, I don't actually remember a time when Nightmare Moon was actually tryin' tah...y'know...kill us. I mean, there was that thing with dangling us over a cliff." The farm hand added.

"That's true, but it seems a little odd considering the rest of the trails she put us through in our search for the Elements seemed more geared towards just scaring us off." Twilight seemed to think aloud.

"Yeah, and I guess when compared to those squid-heads I'd rather take on Nightmare Moon any day." Dash weighed in.

"I always thought Nightmare Moon was kinda cool." Pinkie said in her seemingly consistent cheery tone.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Twilight blurted, seeming to be almost directly insulted.

"Well, I mean sure, she was a big meanie. A queen meanie if you ask me. But the only thing I remember about her is how much she made me laugh with those silly tree faces." The pink girl continued, finishing the sentence with a not-so-graceful chuckle.

"I suppose when I look back on that whole evening I mostly just remember it as the best bonding experience I've ever shared with anypony. And if that's the one thing I remember best, I find it hard to truly call Nightmare Moon all that evil." Agreed Rarity.

"Girls, please, try to remember she does want to shroud the land in eternal night. No matter how tame her plights against you might have seemed, her ultimate goal does indeed mean the end of all life in Equestria and beyond." Cadence reminded with concern.

"I don't understand. Her motives seem to be centered around harvesting adoration and veneration. Seems entirely counter-productive to destroy those you wish to worship you." Nitheleon said, perplexed.

"Wouldn't be the first time a daemon's motives are invalidated by it's methods." Riveth growled in a low tone.

"That is yet to be concluded. I for one doubt she is a form of daemon entirely, based on how our flesh was not set ablaze as soon as she looked upon us." Errithius huffed.

"You say she was trapped...'within' your moon for a thousand years. What was your understanding of the effects of eternal night back then? What did you know of it's consequences?" Tyreth asked Celestia.

"Well I suppose back then...we wouldn't have known of it's scientific ramifications. I merely stopped her due to knowing how miserable ponies would be in eternal darkness. I suppose I...we never would have known how it would also eventually bring a deathly winter, or kill all plant life. Do you suppose-?" Celestia said, leaving the statement open.

"Of course! She's not trying to bring about eternal night to actually hurt anypony, she doesn't know it's going to destroy Equestria! She must just think that ponies will eventually get used to, and then eventually admire, her nighttime." Twilight finished, eyes wide in revelation.

"Wait! Your telling me that Nightmare Moon is quote-on-quote 'evil' due to a lack of modern education?!" Rainbow Dash blurted.

"Makes sense Ah s'pose. No ponies would dare talk to her after she returned, an' I guess we were all just too caught up in stopping her that nopony ever really thought to explain to her what she was actually doing." Applejack said, giving the room a slightly ashamed shrug.

"I suppose what we can gather from this is that your Nightmare Moon holds no hostile intentions for Equestria, at least not directly, so that leaves us with only one other concern." Errithius said, his brow furrowed.

"My sister." Celestia said in a low tone, looking as her own interlinking hands.

"It's well within reason to assume she's still within the subconscious of Nightmare Moon's mind, considering her past experiences with her, however her fate is from this point directly tied with Nightmares actions. If Nightmare does something to endanger herself, she does so to Luna as well." The captain explained.

"Captain, why are we even discussing this? The fate of a single native, no matter how tragic or significant surely holds no priority over the fate of millions of others." Biemark added in a careful tone.

"First, she's my sister," Celestia began fiercely, "But beyond that, Luna's very essence of being is tied to that of the moon. Without her, although I can't be certain, I do believe that the moon itself will fall beyond perhaps anypony's ability to control, Equestrian and alien alike."

"Celestia, with all due respect, I fail to see the legitimacy of resting all the basis of our missions to come on a hunch." Biemark said again carefully, his hands held up to signify no ill will on his part.

"I...Look, I understand that this situation has gone recently from bad to worse. I understand that you hold no obligation to intervene in a problem that is, ultimately, our own to deal with. But please...I just can't lose Luna." As she finished, Celestia sounded utterly defeated, as though her very reason for existing was being taken away.

Errithius rubbed his temple for a moment, thinking on what all this could mean for the future of both this planet and even his own chapter. Dealing with this in an exemplary way would lead to a neat, tidy portion of the chapters history being written in the tomes. However to falter and stumble in such a delicate situation could lead to the scribes forever condemning the very name 'Errithius' for providing them such a complicated period of time to record and write down. Errithius sometimes greatly envied over chapters of space marines, specifically those who found no difficulty in saving themselves from the worries of compassion and charity, and one such time was right now. Many other chapters would have, most likely, escorted the Equestrians out from the alien facility before dropping them off outside the nearest native town and headed off to report the situation on the planet to the chapter at large. But instead the Hospilaters had a terrible condition, a genetic mutation that entirely replaced the Blood Angels more commonly recognized deformity known as the Black Rage. It was known amongst the chapter as having 'a conscious', something no space marine should have to bear the weight of. It was this dreaded mind-plague that made Errithius say this.

"We will find your sister, Celestia. However I have limited forces to choose from, so I can dedicate no more than a single gunship, maybe a second when I can, to survey the lands for traces of her." Errithius practically sighed.

"Thank you, Captain. All of Equestria is in your debt." Celestia said with a sigh of relief.

"And what of the data swipe? Where do we go from here?" Asked Nitheleon.

"Our plan remains unchanged. Miss Rainbow Dash will be deployed today and retrieve us the information we require. However, the sooner you return, the better." Errithius said, addressing the blue pegasus.

"No problem, Captain." Dash assured.

"Celestia, do you have any idea where Nightmare Moon might be? Do you think she is headed straight for your capital?"

"I think so, yes, it certainly sounds like her kind of approach. However I feel like she is, for some reason, taking her time getting there. I noticed she could have simply teleported closer if not straight to Canterlot, but instead she simply took flight. I think she might be approaching this slightly more cautiously than she normally would, attempting to perhaps assess her plan of attack as she approaches the city. She also might be trying to conserve her magic for the fight she's expecting." The princess said, deeply thinking over the possibilities that presented themselves.

"So you think we have time as our ally, for now?" Asked Errithius.

"Yes, I do, Captain."

"Captain. Situational update from the bridge." Unycrios' voice blurted through the halls speakers in such an assaulting, sharp manner Errithius could have sworn nearly every marine present was startled slightly.

"Yes, brother, go ahead." The captain said with a sigh.

"I am receiving several free-flowing, universal access transmission signals." The techmarine chattered.

"Alright. And this means what exactly?"

"I have significant reason to believe they are of Federation origin. I believe they are attempting to hail us."