My Little Xeno

A few days later the silversteel from Saddle Arabia finally arrived. Antonius and the princesses accepted the consignment personally and took it to the armorium. There, the best armor smiths of Canterlot got to work.

“I never thought that I would ever have the privilege of wearing an armor made of silversteel,” Luna said.

“Neither did I,” Celestia remarked,
“and even though I still wish it wasn’t be necessary, I am determined to put those armors to good use.”

“We will, sister. Protected by such armor, we will show Chaos that Ponykind is a force to be reckoned with.”

“Good armor is invaluable,” Antonius agreed,
“but every armor can be broken, and a power-armored Chaos Space Marine will be a formidable opponent. Perhaps we can boost your strength or the armors with magic…”

“Sorry, but that won’t work,” Celestia explained,
“while such spells do exist, they wear off too quickly to be of any use.”

“Pity. Well, once you have your armor, we will at least intensify your training.”

“What about the Element Bearers?” Luna asked,
“should we send for them so that we can create armor for them, too? We should have enough silversteel.”

“Yes. They also need the best protection we can offer. Furthermore, I should start training them. Even though their primary weapon is the Elements, it can’t hurt if they can defend themselves in other ways as well.”

“Agreed,” Celestia said,
“I will send them a message. I must say that their presence will be quite convenient, too - perhaps Rarity can help increase the wearing comfort of the armor by putting some soft, yet durable fabric underneath it.”

“Yeah,” Luna added,
“although silversteel is pretty lightweight, chafing armor is most annoying.”

“You are really not used to wearing armor,” Antonius grinned.

“We aren’t used to wearing chafing armor,” Celestia corrected,
“tell me: does your armor chafe?”

“No.”

“See?” Celestia and Luna grinned.

That evening, Luna was walking through the hallways of the royal palace, heading for the imperial base. She had noticed that something seemed to bother Antonius, so she wanted to distract him from whatever it was that kept his mind busy.

She found him outside the base, staring at a light crystal on the wall.

“Tony?” she asked carefully,
“is everything okay?”

“Oh, hello Luna,” he replied, taking a short look at her and then turning back to the crystal,
“can you tell me how those crystals work?”

Huh? That could not really be what bothered him, could it?

“Well, it is a special kind of crystal,” Luna explained,
“a simple light spell was cast on it.”

“Can you cast other spells on those crystals, too?”

“That depends on the size and purity of the crystal. The ones we use for lighting purposes are not the highest quality, so no, using them as a source of light is pretty much their only useful application.”

“What about crystals of higher quality?”

Hmm… he really took an interest in that topic… but certainly not as an end in itself.

“You can cast quite a lot of spells on those, or even combinations of spells. One of my personal favorites is a combination of levitation and light, creating something of a hovering lantern.”

“There are spells to increase a pony’s strength, speed or stamina, correct? Spells for protection, too?” Antonius inquired.

“Yes, there are, but…” Luna answered, then she finally realized what it was that was keeping Antonius busy:
“You want to use the crystals to enchant the silversteel armor, am I right?”

Antonius turned to her and grinned:

“Exactly. Since we don’t have access to standard power armor, I thought about creating magic power armor.”

Luna thought about his proposal. Usually, such amplifications were casted directly on the pony in question and wore off pretty quickly, as her sister had explained. Charging crystals with them and use them in armors was a completely new idea, and one with a few problems.

“I am afraid it will not be as easy as you might think,” Luna told him,
“since the spell is cast on a pony, you need to attune the crystal to the pony so that the spell can work properly. And that only works if the pony in question is a very powerful magic user.”

“So, it would work for you and Tia?” Antonius inquired.

“Hmm… that should work… perhaps it would also work for Twilight, but I am much less optimistic when it comes to her friends.”

“But you do think it would work for you and Tia?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then, let’s give it a try. Do we have such crystals?”

“Plenty.”

“Perfect. We should start as soon as possible so that the armor smiths can adapt to our plans. We’ll need Tia, too... so, tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Luna agreed, then she added with a smile:
“tonight, I have something else planned - for the both of us. Care to join me?”

“Of course,” Antonius answered.

A short time later, Antonius and Luna entered the princess’ quarters. A screen was set up in front of the couch, together with a projector.

“Remember when you said you wanted to see a pony movie about space?” Luna asked with a grin.

“Yes, that was when you were blind and I fed you that green stuff…” Antonius replied.

“Exactly! I know, it took quite some time, but here it is: Star Trot! It is a classic, or so I have been told…”

“By whom?”

“Shining Armor. He recommended the movie. And as a snack… I have made these!”

Now Luna hovered a tray with some kind of cookies over, clearly expecting Antonius to sample them. That reminded him that he should better intensify his cooking lessons before Luna accidentally managed to overload his preomnor… well, no matter how bad those cookies probably were, he would at least try them.

So he picked one and took a bite.
Then his eyes went wide.

“These are my Moon Rock Crunchies,” Luna explained, a bit worried,
“do you like them?”

Antonius took a look at the rest of the cookie in his hand, then he turned to Luna:

“Luna, your Moon Rock Crunchies are fantastic!”

Luna was visibly relieved and Antonius didn’t even have to lie. While the Princess of the Night had the wondrous power to turn just about anything she cooked inedible, those cookies were probably the best snack he had ever eaten.

“You made them yourself?” he asked.

“Yes. It is about the only thing I can cook or bake without causing a mass extinction among gustatory nerves.”

“Well, they are truly amazing.”

“Thank you! Now, do you want to start with the movie?”

“With pleasure.”

They both seated themselves next to each other on the couch and Luna lit her horn to start the projector.
After a while, Luna leaned against him, and he put his arm around her to make it more comfortable for her.

When the movie was over, Luna asked:

“And? What do you think about it?”

“Not bad,” Antonius answered truthfully,
“it shows a pretty optimistic view of space, and the gadgets are funny. There is just one thing I don’t understand…”

“Yeah?”

“Why did nopony think of putting some sort of plating on the hulls of those ships? You could think they’re made of paper!”

Luna laughed and hugged him.

“Another one next week?” she asked.

“Okay!” he answered.

About two weeks later, the silversteel armors were ready (and not chafing, thanks to Rarity) and the princesses had enchanted the crystals for their armors.
Antonius now wore his power armor whenever he trained them, so that they could get used to fighting such an enemy.

While the Element Bearers, who trained once a week, were not bad, they were still no match for a Space Marine. At least, they were pretty good at retreats, always taking turns at fighting and getting some distance between them and their attacker. That would give them everything they needed: some space so that they could use the Elements of Harmony.

The princesses, on the other hand, who trained daily, were starting to get seriously dangerous. With their new magic power armor, they were a match for a Space Marine - if they fought together. Then, they put Antonius in need quite often, and he had to use all of his skills to prevent them from defeating him.
Until one day, he failed to do so and ended on the floor.

“Oh, did we hurt you?” Luna asked worriedly.

The princesses, both panting, dropped their weapons and crouched beside him to see if he was okay.

“I’m fine,” Antonius told them,
“in fact, I’m more than fine - I’m proud of you. Your prowess is remarkable.”

“HUZZAH! Chaos shall learn to fear us!” Luna cheered.

“If you can force them into a fair melee,” Antonius deadpanned,
“otherwise, they will use ranged weaponry - or fight dirty. No matter what happens, you two must fight together and try to get your enemy between the both of you. Attacking from opposite sides, you have a really good chance to win, especially since you can use all of your magic then.”

“Let us test this tactic, sister,” Luna grinned,
“with an armored cuddle attack!”

Having said that, she plopped down on Antonius and hugged him. A second later, Celestia followed her example.
Antonius returned the hug with a grin, then he said:

“Okay, now get up.”

“Umm… sorry, but… I cannot, ” Luna admitted after a few failed attempts.

“Neither can I,” Celestia confessed,
“I’m totally exhausted.”

“A short nap? An hour or so?”

“Great idea, sister.”

Now the princesses became suspiciously quiet.

“Umm… girls?” Antonius asked, but only got quiet snoring in response.

This fight had really pushed them to the limit. And since Antonius was not really well-rested, either, he decided that this nap probably was a good idea.

Days and weeks went by. They trained together - Luna even got chainsword lessons at her own request - and they goofed around together.
When Blackwing was allowed to leave the hospital again, Antonius and Luna went to Ponyville for a joint dinner to celebrate his recovery. All told, the batpony stallion had made good progress.
The projects in the armorium were making good progress, too: they now had a small arsenal of shotguns and flamethrowers, plenty of ammunition and the tank was almost ready for the first tests. All told, things went pretty smooth.

Then, one day, Luna was especially excited as she entered the refectory for lunch. Instead of her necklace, she wore a teeshirt.

“Good morning, Luna, you are all smiles today,” Antonius greeted her,
“and up at an unusual time. Is there a specific reason?”

“You bet,” Luna grinned, then she shouted - together with Celestia:
“Today is Summer Wrap Up Festival and Hoedown in Ponyville!”

“I won’t even pretend to know what that means,” Antonius said flatly.

“It means that the both of us are going to take a chariot to Ponyville to join in on the fun!” Luna cheered,
“once there, we will DOMINATE the Summer Wrap Up Games!”

“Whoa, little sister,” Celestia interjected,
“don’t you think it’s a little unfair if you and Antonius form a team? I mean, it’s hard enough to compete against you if you team up with a normal pony, but with Antonius? I’m afraid that would ruin the games for the other ponies.”

“But he will not even wear his armor!” Luna pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Luna, but this still would be anything but fair.”

“Ugh, fine. Then I will have to look for physically fit pony in Ponyville. You are still coming along, Tony, are you not?”

“Of course I’ll come along,” Antonius assured her.

“Maybe you could compete against each other,” Celestia suggested,
“that way, the games would be even more exciting!”

“But then there is nopony to cheer me on!” Luna protested.

“Calm down, Luna. I’ll cheer you on,” Antonius stated.

“Well, if you don’t want to compete with Luna, perhaps you would like to compete with me?” Celestia grinned.

“In what way?”

“Oh, I have a booth there. You’ll see, Tony.”

After lunch, Antonius and Luna took a chariot to Ponyville. The town was bustling. Countless booths were set up just about everywhere and the roads were crowded with ponies. So, that was the (in)famous ‘Summer Wrap Up Festival and Hoedown’. While Ponyville never got boring, today clearly was something special.

As the chariot came in to land on the outskirts, they heard an announcement that the games Luna was looking forward to were about to start.

“Would you mind me flying down now?”Luna asked,
“I need to find a physically fit partner for the games to increase my chances of winning.”

“Fly and have fun. I’ll join you once the chariot has landed,” Antonius replied.

Luna jumped out of the chariot and flew down, loudly introducing herself to the citizens of Ponyville. She was so excited that she even used her slightly archaic speech patterns again.
Antonius smiled. Luna was always adorable, but excitement doubled this adorability. He could only just see her approaching Big McIntosh, Applejack’s brother, then the chariot got too low and he lost eye contact. He wondered how a normal pony was supposed to keep up with the incredible amount of energy Luna seemed to have at the moment, but earth ponies were quite resilient…

When the chariot had touched ground, Antonius hurried to the racetrack. Luna - who had done her mane in a ponytail now - had really managed to get Big McIntosh as a partner for the games; their front legs were tied together for a race, and they were in the lead. Unfortunately - for the stallion - Antonius had been right with his earlier suspicion: Keeping up with Luna was hard for him: she almost ripped his leg out… that was what it looked like, anyway.

“VICTORY!” Luna cheered as they crossed the finish line.

Big McIntosh also seemed happy; if this was caused by winning or surviving was impossible to assess.

There were quite a lot of other competitions, rather normal ones and… less normal ones, then there was a pie eating contest. As Antonius saw Luna dunk her face into her pie, he thought it might be a good idea to get a bucket of water and a face cloth. When he had acquired those and returned, Luna came to meet him, her face covered with red goo.

“We were defeated this time,” she informed him a bit grumpily.

“Well, it was not exactly a test of prowess, fitness, or intelligence,” Antonius replied flatly,
“and may I suggest using a more… subtle approach to this challenge the next time?”

“And lessen our chances of victory? NEVER!”

Antonius laughed and helped Luna clean herself. Now that the sporting activities seemed to be over, Luna removed her hair tie let her mane flow down her neck again. When they were almost done, she spotted her partner and started giving him instructions for the next challenge, a scavenger hunt. She wanted them to go separate ways and compare their findings after an hour. The stallion seemed to be a bit absentminded, though. Finally, Luna gave him a part of the list for the hunt, hugged him - or tried to break his neck - and said goodbye. Then, she turned to Antonius:

“Celestia certainly would not mind the both of us working together for the scavenger hunt, since the only advantage we get is more fun. Do you agree?”

“Absolutely,” Antonius replied.

“Then, let us start. Hmm… Where would one find a horse shoe amongst this lot?”

Working through Luna’s list led them through most of Ponyville and they met almost all of their friends. The Element Bearers, Moonlight, Blackwing and Stormy, Lyra and Bonbon, they all enjoyed the festivities. They also met Rapid Cure, who was deep in conversation with Zecora.
While those encounters were not really surprising, since they all lived in or near Ponyville, seeing Trixie again so soon was definitely unexpected. The unicorn mare had set up a puppet show and was telling stories of her own heroism.

“The version Twilight told me was somewhat different,” Antonius whispered into Luna’s ear.

“I suggest trusting Twilight,” Luna whispered back with a grin.

“Well, at least Trixie is happy again… I guess.”

When the hour was over, they waited for Big McIntosh at the place where they had gone separate ways. Unfortunately, he didn’t show up.

“I wonder where he has got to,” Luna grumbled,
“we have been waiting here for ages.”

“Yeah, ten loooong minutes,” Antonius teased her.

“If he has betrayed me, I will exact vengeance!”

“Luna, it’s only a game. Who knows, perhaps an emergency occurred and he had to help. And even if he just backed out: You had fun having him as a partner, didn’t you? So, be merciful.”

“Perhaps you are right. I should show him my gratitude for assisting me - if I see him again.”

Now Antonius and Luna strolled through Ponyville, trying to get to see the rest of the festival they had not already seen during the scavenger hunt. So, they came across a special booth:
‘Test your strength’ - Celestia’s booth!

“Seriously?” Antonius inquired,
“that’s what you do here?”

“As you can see,” Celestia smiled,
“it is actually a joke, since - as an alicorn - I am stronger than any other pony, but perhaps you would like to test your strength?”

“You are challenging me? What am I supposed to do?”

“It’s a hoof wrestling contest. Are you familiar with the rules?”

“I think so. Challenge accepted!”

Antonius sat down face-to-face with Celestia and got into position, grabbing her hoof.
Almost immediately, the ponies watching started whispering, a second later, they started placing bets. Unsurprisingly, most of them trusted their princess to win, but there were also a few who put their bits on Antonius.

“The contest is actually meant to be just for fun,” Celestia remarked,
“but if you agree, we can allow them to bet on the outcome.”

“Sure,” Antonius replied.

“I will be the arbitrator!” Luna offered and they all got ready to start.

“GO!” Luna shouted.

Antonius quickly increased the push, but so did Celestia. Their arms were barely moving.
A little surprised by the strength of the alicorn mare, Antonius choose not to use all of his power, but to wait for Celestia to try and beat him. This attempt happened after a few seconds, but Antonius was able to keep her at bay. Antonius’ little shot at unnerving her was not very successful, though. She looked a little surprised, but she increased the push further. Antonius was about to reach his limit when the push started stabilizing.

Celestia had reached her limit, too. It was incredible how strong she was, being able to match a Space Marine in raw strength!
Antonius’ muscles were bulging, and even through her fur it was visible that Celestia was in the same condition. Still, their arms were barely moving.
So, this competition would be decided by endurance rather than strength.

Antonius kept pushing, Celestia kept pushing, and the ponies around them were reverently quiet.
Both contestants started sweating now.

For a disturbingly long time, the situation did not change, then Celestia showed a first sign of fatigue: she clenched her teeth.
Antonius had no reason to cheer, though: he did the same only a moment later.

Some time later, their arms started trembling and they were muttering inarticulate sounds. Celestia had her eyes closed and Antonius was staring at at his hand, still unable to defeat his royal opponent.

Suddenly, a blue magic field wrapped around their arms and Luna exclaimed:

“Cease your struggle! This contest has gone far enough, we will not allow one of you to get hurt!”

Antonius and Celestia stared at their arms, then at each other.

“Call it a draw?” the Princess of the Sun panted.

“Agreed,” Antonius replied and they both relaxed.

Now Luna cancelled her spell and turned to them:

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Antonius said, ignoring the fact that he definitely felt his overused arm.

“I’m fine,” Celestia stated, regarding Antonius, who looked right back at her.

Despite not being able to defeat the princess, the Space Marine had to grin now. This test of strength had taken a toll on both of them, even if neither of them was willing to admit it in public.
Celestia also grinned; she was well aware of that, too.

“How about closing your booth and taking a stroll through the town with us?” Luna suggested to her sister,
“after such an effort, you deserve some rest.”

“I think that’s a splendid idea,” Celestia answered.

“But… what about the bits?” a pony asked,
“neither of you won, so who is going to get the money?”

“Donate it to charity,” Celestia smiled and they got going.

While walking through Ponyville, they came upon a wooden display, showing two strange creatures with holes where their heads were supposed to be. One of those creatures, Antonius was familiar with:

“That’s Chrysalis! Why did you put up a picture of her?”

“So that ponies can ridicule her,” Celestia explained,
“it’s a way of dealing with the terror she brought upon us.”

“And who or what is that second creature?”

“That’s Discord.”

“The daemon you told me about?”

“Yes.”

“You do not see him in all of his ‘glory’, though,” Luna added,
“he is only half as ugly without his face.”

Celestia, Luna and Antonius kept enjoying the festival. Later, when the princesses had turned the day into night, they encountered Big McIntosh again, and Luna invited him to take a ride on the Ferris wheel to thank him for his help earlier. Celestia and Antonius stayed on the ground and waited for her.

“Tony, how is your arm doing?” Celestia suddenly asked.

“Much better now. The few hours since our competition allowed it to heal completely,” he answered.

“Hmm… I still feel my front leg. How about a massage when we get back to Canterlot?”

“No problem. Once Luna has finished the ride, we…”

He did not finish the sentence. He looked up at Luna and Big McIntosh. Celestia followed his gaze and saw what had caught his attention: Luna had just kissed Big McIntosh! On the cheek, but it had still been a kiss.

Celestia had to admit that she was a little worried about this situation. What would Antonius do now? How would he react?

“Tony?” she asked.

“Hmm?” he replied.

“It was just a friendly peck on the cheek, nothing to be jealous about.”

“Jealous?” Antonius inquired in confusion,
“I’m not jealous. What makes you think that I’m jealous?”

“Well,” Celestia told him carefully,
“you seemed a little bit startled.”

“Hmm… I was… sort of… but I don’t think that I have a reason to be jealous.”

“That’s true, as I just told you. It was just a little ‘thank you’.”

“That still doesn’t explain why I was startled in the first place… weird.”

“Don’t think too much about it. Such things happen from time to time,” Celestia said with relief.

Since Antonius - as far as she knew - didn’t really have experience with such close friendships as he had with Luna, she had been worried about him running amok in a fit of jealousy, but thankfully those worries had been without any reason.
Still, they way he had reacted was prove enough that he actually felt something for her little sister, even if he really had not realized it yet.

Celestia thought about what Luna had told her about Antonius and how his psyche worked. Then she factored in what had just happened and came to a conclusion:
Luna’s plan to protect Antonius would not work. Sooner or later he would realize what was going on, he already started questioning his reactions.

Perhaps, there was a chance of a little romance for her little sister - if Antonius was able to handle the truth and make the right decision. And Celestia was almost sure that he would be able to do that. Sooner or later. She was not really thrilled by that prospect, but she knew that such things were almost impossible to control.
So maybe, Luna would get a special somepony - unlike her.

Celestia closed her eyes for a second.
Those damned memories kept resurfacing, and the more she thought about Luna and Antonius, the worse it got.

“That was a fun ride!” Luna exclaimed, leaving Big McIntosh and running up to them,
“and I was able to show the citizen my gratitude.”

“I bet he’ll try to help you more often from now on,” Antonius grinned.

“Oh… you have seen the peck… do you mind my demeanor?”

“No, but you should probably be more careful. It looked like you had blown some of his fuses.”

They stayed and enjoyed the festival until it was late at night, then they returned to Canterlot.

A few days later in the morning, Antonius was walking through the palace to welcome Luna after her nightly patrol, just as he always did when she took some Night Guards with her (instead of him) to allow them to gather experience.

Suddenly, he heard a well-known voice at a also somewhat well-known volume:
Luna was shouting.
Something about the duties of the royal family.
Curious about what might be going on, Antonius approached her assumed position - and met Celestia. The princess had a mug of coffee in her magic grasp, was wearing a dressing gown - and a slightly wicked smile was on her face.

“Good morning, Tia,” he greeted, already suspicious,
“I heard Luna shout. Did you two have an argument?”

It was not too far-fetched to suspect that. While they really appreciated each other, minor disputes happened quite often - a sibling thing.
According to Celestia’s smile, she had probably won this argument.

“Not really,” Celestia answered,
“it’s just that Luna thinks she can handle my duties, so I give her a chance.”

“Huh? I know Luna is experienced in dream-walking, patrol duty and fighting in general, but did she ever have to deal with governmental affairs?”

“No,” Celestia answered curtly as she walked past him, taking a sip of coffee from her mug,
“and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t help her. She thinks she can handle everything on her own, after all.”

Celestia was gone now and Antonius wondered where Luna might be.
Throne room? Worth a try.

Just as he was about to enter said room, Luna dashed out of it with a long list, the Royal Scheduling Advisor, Kibitz, and an opossum in tow.

“Good morning, Tony!” she cheered,
“Guess what! Today I will show my supercilious sister that her duties are not harder than mine!”

“What?” Antonius asked in surprise,
“did she claim that?”

“Not directly, but she certainly meant it! But I am going to show her that I can handle all of her responsibilities, and she will…”

“Excuse me, Princess,” Kibitz interrupted her,
“we are now four minutes behind schedule. We really should get going!”

“Right!” Luna exclaimed,
“excuse me, Tony, but this schedule is somewhat important.”

“Could you at least tell me why an opossum is following you?” Antonius inquired.

“Oh, that’s Tiberius! I found him tonight! He’s my new pet!”

“Umm… pleasure?” Antonius said, looking down at the little critter.

To his surprise, Tiberius waved a paw at him. So, probably another one of those disturbingly intelligent ‘animals’ that were almost normal around here.

Since he had nothing urgent to do this morning, Antonius decided to accompany Luna and her entourage.
First, they went to a watch tower to ‘look out for threats’. Finding none, they continued with listening to the morning report of the Royal Guard. Once again, they proved to be a ceremonial unit: the ‘highlight’ of the report was one of them being scared by an opossum.
Antonius suppressed the urge to bang his head against something hard and just followed the equally annoyed Luna.

Some of the duties Luna had to do actually made some sense, others seemed to be ranging from unimportant to downright pointless. As if this weren’t already bad enough, Kibitz’ insistence on keeping to the excessively timed schedule started to get on the Space Marine’ nerves. The advisor almost constantly criticized Luna and praised Celestia’s superior time management skills. Did he realize that he was talking to the Princess of the Night? Well, he dealt with the Princess of the Sun on a daily basis, so he probably was a little indifferent to this fact. Antonius still thought about convincing him to show a little more respect, but unfortunately, he did not have his chainsword with him. So, he just kept accompanying Luna on her partly weird duties.

Did Celestia really do all of those tasks on her average days? Or was this an elaborate prank at the expense of Luna?
The dark blue alicorn already looked somewhat tired, so Antonius decided to figure this out before his friend actually overexerted herself.

So he excused himself and took his PDA to contact Celestia.
She did not answer, so he called Al:

“Al, do you know where Celestia is?”

“No,” Al answered,
“I can only tell you that her PDA is still in or in the immediate vicinity of Canterlot.”

“Great. Any ideas how I could find her?”

“After the last time she went missing, I researched a solution to this problem. The life signs of regular ponies and alicorns differ a little. By connecting your auspex to your PDA, you should be able to find and track her.”

“How difficult is establishing this connection? I’m not a Techmarine, you know.”

“It’s not that difficult. Half an hour at the longest.”

Antonius returned to his quarters, put on his armor and equipment and followed Al’s instructions to create a scanner sufficient for finding alicorns.

“Bingo! Two alicorns!” Antonius stated,
“Now, let’s see… I think this one is Luna… so let’s go and find Tia.”

Following his scanner’s readings, Antonius was soon standing in front of a derelict building.

“‘Keep out. Condemned by Canterlot City Works’,” he read on a sign that was affixed to the wall,
“this doesn’t look right… but the alicorn lifesign is clearly inside this building. Has Celestia managed to get abducted again?”

“If so, she is remarkably relaxed about the situation,” Al stated,
“according to her lifesign, at least.”

Okay, so Antonius would not just break down the door and kill every non-alicorn inside.
Instead, he knocked on the door.
A slider was opened and a pony asked:

“What’s the password?”

“Just open the door,” Antonius replied.

“Wrong!”

The slider was closed again.

Insolence! Who the hell did they think he was?
He knocked again, a little more forceful this time.

Opening the slider, the pony said:

“What’s the… you again?”

“Open the damned door or I will break it - and continue with your skull,” Antonius hissed.

The pony was obviously not stupid enough to take this as an empty threat, because now the door was opened and revealed a large room that was somewhere between luxurious and decadent. Antonius immediately entered and took a look around. On the wall, there was a sign:

‘Welcome to Elite Equine Spa’.

“A spa?” he asked.

“Well, yes,” the pony answered,
“and we would really appreciate it if you didn’t disturb our customers.”

“I need to talk to Princess Celestia. Tell me where she is.”

“Umm… what I just said about not disturbing our customers…”

Antonius groaned and shoved the pony out of his way, then he used his scanner to find Celestia.
She was lying on a massage table, a gleeful expression on her face.

“Hello, Celestia,” he greeted.

“Antonius?” Celestia asked in surprise,
“what are you doing here?”

Antonius turned to the massagers and said:

“Leave.”

They quickly followed his order and he turned back to Celestia:

“I wanted to know if this precious schedule of yours is truly authentic or if you’re just messing with Luna.”

“Can’t that wait?”, Celestia answered,
“I’m here to relax.”

“Does that mean I have to drag you out of this temple of decadence to ask you a question?”

“Fine, let’s talk,” Celestia sighed and sat up, wrapping her towel around her in a quite human way,
“it is authentic. Why do you ask?”

“It is overstuffed and excessively timed. What kind of moron came up with it?”

“Well, that moron was me… together with Kibitz.”

“Tia, seriously, as an Ultramarine I am quite fond of meticulous planning, but this schedule is the most ridiculous piece of garbage I have ever seen. Unimportant tasks that should be delegated to lower personnel, no buffer times and a lot more things to criticize. I thought you mucked your schedule out some time ago?”

“I did! There is some time for our training now!”

“And Luna has to put up with this nightmare of a schedule now while you are ‘relaxing’.”

“That’s her own fault! This evening, she will certainly know what I do for our subjects and Equestria!” Celestia explained herself, then she added:
“How is she doing, by the way?”

“Although tired and out of her element, she’s persevering. You should be proud of her.”

“Tony, I am proud of her. She may be your friend, but she is also my SISTER. I am sure she’s doing everything to the satisfaction of everypony. Especially since Kibitz is there to make sure everything gets done.”

“Ah, the ‘Royal Scheduling Advisor’,” Antonius grumbled with a trace of contempt.

“Is something wrong?” Celestia immediately asked.

“I think he’s not showing Luna enough respect.”

“Tony, I really appreciate you being a little protective of Luna, but please remember that we want to be treated like normal ponies. Honestly, it took me quite some time to get Kibitz to talk upfront with me. So, please don’t blame him for behaving the way he’s supposed to behave.”

“So, you keep ‘relaxing’ and I should just stand around while Luna is annoyed by this ridiculous schedule AND the advisor?”

“To cut a long story short: yes,” Celestia told him with a smile,
“just let her do this on her own. Allow her to make this experience instead of taking the work out of her hooves.”

Antonius was not exactly thrilled, but he nodded and left the spa.
On his way back to the palace, he got a call from the armorium: the engineers wanted him to be present for the first test of the tank’s combustion engine. Since this task concerned his mission to protect the ponies, it took priority over his concern for Luna, so he immediately went to the armorium.

The tank’s engine performed flawlessly, raising Antonius’ spirits. Now, he would look for Luna to see how she was doing.
His good mood was immediately ruined as he found her: Kibitz was dragging her across the floor by her tail!
This lack of respect was intolerable!

“HEY!” he roared, and within moments he was standing next to them and glaring at Kibitz,
“what the hell do you think you are doing?”

Maybe Kibitz was used to working with the princesses of Equestria, but dealing with an acerbic Space Marine (who had unconsciously put his hand on his chainsword) was obviously a bit different.

“I… I’m just making sure that Princess Luna adheres to…” the unicorn stallion stammered, releasing his magic grasp of Luna’s tail.

“Say ‘schedule’ and DIE!” Antonius thundered.

Now that Kibitz was quiet and had let go of Luna, Antonius turned to her.

“Hi, Tony!” she smiled,
“your presence is most pleasant!”

“Yeah, it’s nice seeing you again, too,” Antonius smiled back and picked her up from the floor.

“And thank you for putting Kibitz in his place,” she whispered into his ear.

“Now, what is the next duty on this precious list?” he asked when Luna was standing on her hooves again.

“Well,” Kibitz answered,
“we need to go over choreography for the torch lighting ceremony.”

“I suppose talks of dancing and fire will be interesting,” Luna assumed and Antonius went along.

She was wrong.
The delegates from the Crystal Empire somehow managed to make the meeting so incredibly boring that even Antonius had some problems focusing. Luna was far worse off, however: She visibly fought to stay awake, and her coffee consumption skyrocketed.

Then, finally, she fell asleep for a second and her head hit the table - respectively a cupcake that had the misfortune of standing there.
She immediately woke up again, but from that moment on, her sleep deprivation started getting the better of her. She got erratic and incoherent to the point that Antonius thought about picking her up and taking her to her bed, but the other ponies had already come up with the ridiculous idea of increasing the efficiency by doing all of Luna’s remaining tasks at once.
As an Ultramarine, Antonius was an expert in the field of efficiency, and he knew that this was not the right way to increase it.

“Shall I end this and get you to bed?” he whispered to Luna, who was just staring into space now.

“No,” she answered blankly,
“those are my duties and they have to be done.”

The ponies executed their plan, and soon Luna was surrounded by dresses, flowers, Wonderbolts, some kind of circus and even a frigging dirigible!
Antonius wondered how Luna was able to stand all this as he saw her twitch.
Okay, so now things would get interesting.

When Kibitz expressed his delight about the time they were saving, Luna finally snapped. She seized his pocket watch, threw it out of the window, reared up and roared:

“ENOUGH! SILENCE, SUBORDINATES!”

Luna really was a force of nature when she got angry and Antonius watched with a grin how she stuffed Kibitz’ schedule into the stallion’s mouth.
Then, with a sigh of relief, she turned to Antonius:

“Lord Varus, take your place at my side, please.”

Oh, an official command!
Antonius immediately did so and Luna ordered the ponies present to form a line. Then she listened to everypony’s concerns and helped them to their utmost satisfaction.
Instead of keeping to a schedule, she was doing things her way now, and she truly excelled at it. Even her sleep deprivation seemed to be forgotten for the time being.
Antonius, for his part, played her honor guard and tried to mirror her mood with his facial expression, which meant smiling friendlily most of the time and only having to glare once at two ponies who had committed a fraud.

The rest of the day went past in this manner until finally, Celestia appeared again.
Then, the (thankfully) inevitable reconciliation followed. Celestia expressed her thanks and told Luna that she was free to take over the day every time she wanted, while Luna explained that she now realized how difficult Celestia’s duties were and that she appreciated her sisters work.

“I think you may have the day back for a time,” she concluded,
“I am perfectly happy with the night.”

So, it looked like a happy end of this weird day. At least until…

“I’m glad to hear it,” Celestia yawned while turning to leave,
“Well! It’s been a long day. I’m off to bed. Goodnight everypony.”

What? She was not really doing this, was she?

“Hey,” Luna said in disbelief that quickly turned into desperation,
“come back here! I want to go to bed, too!”

Celestia did not care.
Suddenly, Antonius noticed how much the sun on her flank looked like a target, but he pushed that thought out of his mind. Still, what Celestia was doing now did NOT find his approval. If she wanted to have a little fun with her little sister, fine, but now she was overdoing it. This triple shift would endanger Luna’s health; she was already deprived of sleep, staying awake for several more hours was definitely not advisable.

“Go to bed, Luna,” Antonius suggested,
“I’ll handle the night shift for you.”

“Thanks, Tony, but no,” Luna replied,
“I will not make you do my duties… just a second… do you think my job is that easy that you could just do it without preparation?”

“Huh? Luna, calm down! You know damned well that I do NOT think that!”

“Yes, of course,” Luna admitted,
“I am sorry. I did not mean to snap at you… I am just a little tired…”

“Would you like me to get you some tea?” Kibitz offered.

“I would prefer coffee,” Luna replied.

The night that followed was not the least bit funny. Luna’s coffee consumption reached alarming levels and the sleep deprivation took a heavy toll on her. When she was about to go on her nightly patrol, Antonius had to intervene:

“Luna, you stay here. I’ll go on patrol for you.”

“But…” Luna started.

“You’re in no condition to fight,” Antonius stated, looking at her reddened eyes and the heap of empty coffee cups on the floor,
“you stay, I’ll go. Don’t follow me!”

So he left Luna, collected Night Guards on duty and stuffed them into his Land Speeder. Perhaps he woke up a few ponies as he left the hangar, but he did not really care. However, he got the idea to somehow transport the Speeder onto Celestia’s balcony and show her how loud its engines could be. Of course, he did not do that, there were more urgent things to be done now.

The patrol took a few hours and it was close to sunrise as Antonius finally returned to Canterlot. He immediately looked for Luna in the throne room, and he found her.
She was standing on a veritable mountain of empty coffee cups and similar objects, her eyes even redder than when he had left, her wings spread, her expression deranged.

“I feel like I can do ANYTHING!” Luna shouted,
“I’ll bet I could fly!”

Shit. The combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine was obviously a quite unfortunate one.

Celestia was standing at the foot of coffee-mountain and regarded her sister with a slightly annoyed look.

“I’m switching you to decaf,” she stated.

Sure, as if this whole mess was Luna’s fault!

As Antonius stepped up to them, Luna cheered:

“Hello, Tony! Want to fly with me?”

Antonius regarded her for a few seconds, then he turned to Celestia:

“Tia, seriously: If you ever dare to force another triple shift upon her, I’ll accelerate you sunny butt into orbit.”

Without waiting for an answer from the stunned princess, he turned to Luna and reached out for her.

“Come, Luna,” he said, and she jumped into his arms with a happy

“Whee!”

As Antonius got moving, Luna asked:

“Where are we going?”

“To bed,” Antonius told her.

“Huzzah! Let us go to your room!”

“Fine by me.”

“Umm… Antonius?” Celestia called, but Antonius ignored her and left the room with Luna, followed by Tiberius.

Who would have thought that getting back at Celestia - even in such a minor way - would be so satisfying? Well, there was no time for complacency, the Princess of the Night had to be tucked in, but how hard could that be?

Some day, he would learn not to tempt fate in such a way, and he would also learn not to underestimate the effects of a caffeine trip.
For as he entered his quarters and put Luna down onto his bed, she was somehow wide awake.
While Tiberius hung himself to a scone, Antonius took off her necklace, tiara and shoes.

“Now sleep,” Antonius said,
“you deserve some rest.”

Luna just smiled at him with open front legs.
Perhaps she wanted a hug?

As Antonius approached her, she said:

“No, not while you are wearing your armor! Put on your pajamas!”

“Huh? You’re the one who’s supposed to sleep!” he noted.

“I will not sleep until I get an appropriate cuddle!”

“So, if I don my pajamas and give you a hug, you promise you’ll sleep?” Antonius sighed.

“Absolutely!” Luna snickered.

So, Antonius fetched his pajamas, but then he hesitated. Seeing Luna’s grin, he should probably change his clothes in the bathroom, but he wanted to keep an eye on her.

“Do not worry,” she grinned,
“I promise I will look.”

“You mean you promise you won’t look…”

“Oh, I will not promise that,” Luna cackled.

Oh dear, this combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine was worse than he had thought…

Antonius retreated behind a piece of furniture and took off his armor, keeping a wary eye on Luna. She was still lying in the bed with a playful grin on her face, but didn’t do anything else.
Just as he averted his gaze to reach for his pajamas, he suddenly felt something - or rather somepony - jump on his back.

“GOTCHA!” Luna cheered.

“Luna! Damnit, get down from me!”

“Try and make me!”

Okay, now he had two objectives:
He had to get Luna back to bed and he had to put his pajamas on.
Good thing he was not easily embarrassed, but at least it couldn’t get worse.

He decided to put at least some pants on before dealing with the snickering mare on his back, but as he wanted to seize them, they were engulfed by blue magic and hovered just out of his reach, accompanied by more cackling from his back.

“Seriously?” he asked.

Luna just kept laughing, so he changed his mind and decided that he had to get Luna back to bed first. He tried to grab her, but only got her tail. After some careful pulling, he was finally able to put her down onto the bed again.

For about a second. She jumped at him again, this time hanging in front of him.

“Luna! Would you please let me put on my pajamas? We agreed that you would sleep if I put them on,” Antonius reminded her.

“And as long as you do not wear them, I do not need to sleep!” Luna shouted.

Damnit, he had been fooled by nitpicking - once again.
Well, it was not a typical behavior of Luna to do something like that… she behaved almost like she was drunk.

“Did you, perchance, spike your coffee?” Antonius asked.

“No, I did not put Spike into my coffee,” Luna cackled,
“what a silly question.”

“Hey, you’re the one who is behaving silly!”

“Maybe.”

“Go to bed!”

“Make me!”

“As you wish,” Antonius grumbled and got onto the bed himself, dragging Luna with him.

There he kneeled down, then he bent a little forward, grabbed her front hooves and loosened her grip on him. Finally, she was lying in the bed, and she couldn’t get up again, as she was pinned down underneath him.

“So,” he stated, a little complacent,
“now you…”

“BOOP!” Luna laughed and touched his nose with her front hoof.

“Luna!”

“BOOP!”

“Luna, don’t…”

“BOOP!”

“Okay, that’s enough!”

Antonius grabbed her front hooves with his hands and pinned them down, too. Certain that he had her playfulness under control now, he sighed with relief.
Unfortunately, he had somehow forgotten that ponies have pretty long necks. He was reminded of that fact when Luna raised her head and kissed his nose.

“Gah! You have it in for my nose, huh?” he asked.

“It’s so cute and tiny!” Luna chuckled.

HUH?

After getting another kiss on the noise, Antonius decided to put an end to this, but he heeded a free hand. So he moved Luna’s front legs upwards and under her head until he was able to grab both with just his left hand. While doing so, he also managed to get hold Luna’s mane, enabling him to actually pin her down this time - while still keeping a hand free.

Luna, for her part, was not the least bit fazed by her situation. You would think being pinned down under an unclothed creature twice her size would somehow disturb her, but she was still grinning and giving him a playful, happy smile.

Seeing this, Antonius realized that despite the troubles she had just put him through, he wasn’t annoyed at all. Quite the opposite, Luna’s playfulness seemed to be somewhat contagious.

He could not resist using his free hand to tickle her belly. She screamed and laughed and wiggled her body without being able to escape his grasp.
It took Antonius a few seconds until he realized how terribly inappropriate his behavior was. He immediately stopped and wanted to apologize to Luna, but the warm smile she gave him made him realize that an apology was unnecessary. Obviously, she had greatly enjoyed this unusual treatment… of course, she was an alicorn, after all, she could have broken free or tossed him through the room if she had really wanted to!

Well, she had an excuse for her behavior: The combination of sleep deprivation and way too much caffeine had made her somewhat silly, but what was his excuse?
This was not the way an Ultramarine should behave. He had done quite some unusual things since he had arrived on this planet, he had worked and goofed around with the ponies here, but this? This was way weirder than anything else he had done!

Antonius looked down at Luna. She was still grinning, now completely relaxed again.
The, she blinked and yawned. She dozed off! So, at least his actions had been productive after all!

“I love you,” she whispered with a smile and finally fell asleep.

Antonius took it as a reassurance of their friendship, anything else would never have come to his mind.

Now, he just had to get off Luna and out of the bed - without waking her of course.
He slowly and carefully let go of her, shifted his weight and rolled off her. Lying next to her, he just wanted to get up as Luna rolled around - and was suddenly lying on top of him!

“That can’t be true,” Antonius mumbled, now being pinned down himself by the sleeping mare.

He thought about his options for action, but found that they were somewhat limited.
Wonderful, simply wonderful. He was able to fight alien abominations and the daemons of Chaos, yet he could not manage to get out of bed or put on some frigging pants.
So, with a defeated sigh, he pulled the blanket over Luna and him, put his arms around her and decided to take a nap, too.

As Antonius woke up again, it was late afternoon, judged by the way the sun shone into his room. Luna was still sleeping soundly - as was Tiberius, by the way.
Antonius thought about waking Luna, but decided against it. She deserved her rest and having her lie on him was not exactly uncomfortable, either. It was… well, he could have described it as ‘soft’ or ‘warm’ (or ‘mildly embarrassing’), but those words did not do it justice. Actually, he could not think of the right word for the feeling of sharing his sleeping place with her that particular way.

Some time later, Luna started stirring, yawned and stretched herself, rubbing her body against Antonius in the process. She suddenly froze and opened her eyes.

“Tony?” she asked in surprise.

“Good morning… no, good evening, Luna,” he answered with a smile.

“Yeah… good evening,” she replied, then she lit her horn and lifted the blanket a little.

She craned her neck, took a look, tensed up and quickly turned back to Antonius:

“Are you naked?”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Did we…” Luna started, turning pale.

“What?”

“Umm… you know…” she mumbled, now blushing.

“Luna, wether I am dressed or not has no influence on the fact that my reproductive system is deactivated. So no, we did not. Even if I have to admit that our spatial orientation would somewhat favor suchlike actions.”

“And why are we in this situation?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No!”

“Well, the combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine has a peculiar effect on you.”

Luna stared at him in bafflement for a few seconds, then she asked:

“What have I done?”

“You wanted to cuddle, jumped at me, prevented me from getting my pants,” Antonius told her flatly,
“things like that.”

Luna pondered on that a little while, still baffled.

“You mean I am responsible for you not wearing your pajamas? And for lying on top of you?”

“Sort of, but don’t worry. It’s not uncomfortable.”

“Oh dear… this is so embarrassing!”

“It could be worse.”

“And how?”

“You could be wearing your saddle arabian outfit,” Antonius burst out laughing.

Luna stared at him for a few seconds, then she relaxed again and started laughing, too.

“Or my sister could charge into the room!” she snickered.

“Wearing your saddle arabian outfit…”

They continued laughing, then they abruptly stopped and Luna said:

“Seriously, that last thought is somewhat unsettling.”

“Indeed.”

“Well, I should probably get down from you and… wait a second… I think some of my lost memories are returning… did you tickle my belly?”

“Umm… yeah, I have to admit that. Shall I apologize?”

“No, as far as I can remember it, it was not…” Luna started, then her eyes went wide and she shouted:
“OH DEAR! Tony, do you remember me saying anything before I fell asleep?”

“You mean the ‘I love you’?”

Luna looked like she was about to panic:

“Let me explain…”

“Not necessary,” Antonius reassured her,
“I can still remember Cadance’s lecture about the different kinds of love and so on. It was an affirmation of our friendship.”

“YES!” Luna blurted, forcing a smile onto her face and sweating a little,
“an affirmation of our friendship! Nothing else!”

“Relax,” Antonius said, raising an eyebrow,
“it’s not like you spilled some sort of secret. Our friendship is widely known… especially to me.”

“Yeah, right… it is still high time to get up and prepare for the night!”

They got up and did so. Then, while they were underway to meet with Celestia for dinner, Luna turned to Antonius:

“Tony… I deem it best not to tell my sister in detail how we spent this day. While nothing indecent happened, it would still be difficult not to get the wrong impression.”

“You don’t say…” Antonius agreed.