My Little Xeno

A few days had passed since Antonius, the Royal Sisters and the Element Bearers (and Spike) had returned from the Crystal Empire. Antonius and Luna were taking a stroll through the palace and just passing a window as Luna said:

“Ah, what a lovely eve! The Moon is a ‘waxing crescent’… or is that a ‘waning gibbons’?”

“You really have problems telling them apart?” Antonius asked in disbelieve.

Luna shrugged with a smile and continued:

“Whatever it is, ’tis a beautiful night not to be banished to the moon.”

Antonius and Luna started laughing. It was nice that she was able to make fun of the darker parts of her history.

“Yeah,” Antonius grinned,
“such a beautiful night should last forever!”

Luna rolled her eyes, still in an excellent mood, and replied:

“Oh, maybe we should ask my sister first. She probably would not be too thrilled by the prospect of her sun being ousted by…”

They were just passing the open doors to the throne room. Inside, they could see Celestia. While it was not that unusual that she was in the throne room at this time of day, the construct she stood before was definitely unusual. And she was casting a spell on it, making it spark to life.

“… my moon?” Luna finished in bewilderment.

“Is that another magic portal mirror?” Antonius asked, equally dumbfounded.

As if the mere existence of this mirror had not been bad enough, Celestia now jumped right through it!

“Oh, shit!” Antonius grunted and ran up to the mirror, followed by Luna.

“Sister?” she asked insecurely.
“Celestia?” she continued with more vigor as she touched the mirror, finding it deactivated.
“SISTER!” Luna now screamed, grabbing the mirror with her magic and shaking it in the air in a futile attempt to make Celestia fall out,
“GET THINE HINDQUARTERS BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!”
Realizing that her actions were for naught, she put the mirror back down and turned to Antonius with a shocked expression:
“Oh dear.”

“You can say that again,” Antonius replied,
“I think we might have a little problem here…”

“Princess Luna? Lord Varus?” Kibitz asked as he entered the throne room,
“is something wrong? I heard you shout out loud. Did you accidentally have a little mishap?”

“It is not us who is responsible for the situation we have to face now!” Luna stated,
“my sister is by stepping through this magic mirror!”

“Princess Celestia left?” Kibitz asked in surprise,
“whereto?”

“We do not know!”

“Isn’t this mirror another portal to the world Twilight visited?” Antonius asked.

“I do not think so,” Luna explained,
“I have to admit that I am far from sure, though. The only thing I know is that Celestia and Star Swirl have a history of studying that mirror.”

“If Princess Celestia is not back by the break of dawn, the population will panic!” Kibitz predicted.

“I wouldn’t count on her being back,” Antonius grumbled,
“it’s just a hunch, but I think if she only planned a short, secret trip, she would have hidden the mirror somewhere, not placed it in the throne room.”

“That makes sense… the ponies of Equestria will be frightened to death by the news of their beloved princess disappearing! And who will do her duties?”

“Well,” Luna muttered,
“thankfully, there is still the a little less-beloved princess. I will try to impersonate my sister and assume her duties until she returns - just stay away from me with your lists.”

“And with the also somewhat less-beloved Space Marine to help you, we should probably be able to keep things going somehow,” Antonius added optimistically.

In truth, he was not that optimistic. Although Luna had some experience with her sister’s duties, impersonating her would be difficult - to say nothing of controlling the sun.

“Okay,” Luna said,
“so we have a plan. We will keep this absolutely quiet, only the three of us may know what happened. Kibitz, I need makeup - and wigs!”

“I’ll do my best, Princess,” Kibitz promised and left.

“Tony, please help me prepare everything else.”

“I’ve got your back,” Antonius assured her.

The rest of the night was pretty hectic as Antonius, Luna and Kibitz prepared for the morning. One of the many things they did was relocate the mirror to another, private room.
When it was time to raise the sun, the princess and the Space Marine went to the Royal Garden.
At first, Luna lowered the moon, then she took a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing,” she mumbled and lit her horn again.

It was a tremendous effort, but the sun slowly appeared over the horizon and kept rising.

“Phew!” Luna panted,
“I have done it! Now, let us transform me into my sister!”

They went into Luna’s quarters where everything they needed was at the ready. Luna tied up her hair, then they started applying the makeup.

“It’s more pink than white,” Antonius noted.

“It is the only color Kibitz could get in large enough quantities, according to this note,” Luna told him,
“it will have to do.”

So they slathered the greasy substance all over her body.

“Hmm… your cutie mark wants to shine through,” Antonius commented as he applied copious amounts of makeup to Luna’s flank.

“Yeah, but we will have to take care of the cutie mark anyway,” she replied.

‘Taking care’ emerged to be Antonius painting a sun over the cutie mark. With clown wigs cut into shape and a spare set of Celestia’s regalia, Luna was ready - more or less. The color of Luna’s eyes was wrong, the cutie mark proved that Antonius was not an artist and the regalia didn’t fit.

“I really hope that the ponies who see you today are… dumb,” Antonius remarked with a concerned smile.

“I know it is far from perfect,” Luna admitted,
“but that is where you come into play: follow me wherever I go and look a little grim. I want all ponies to keep some distance, so they hopefully will not notice that something is wrong.”

“This will certainly be interesting.”

The ponies they encountered this day looked a little confused, but thankfully nopony voiced a suspicion, they just went along with the new way Celestia looked - and behaved.

When it was time for dusk, Luna lowered the sun - with great effort - again and raised the moon - with comparatively less effort. After that, the day was far from over: the makeup had to be removed from Luna’s body for the night.
She was standing in her shower and Antonius scrubbed the greasy stuff off her.

“This is not exactly an enjoyable procedure,” she noted.

“Sorry, but it sticks like glue,” he apologized and kept scrubbing.

When Luna looked like herself again, she said:

“I do not think that we should solely rely on my sister returning some time. We should rather investigate the conundrum of that mirror, mayhaps we will be able figure out something. Let us search the libraries!”

They did so until it was time for Luna to go to bed - she had a long day ahead of herself again, after all.

The next days went pretty - or awfully - similar: Celestia’s duties at day, Luna’s duties and searching for clues at night. Antonius took over most of the nightly patrols so that Luna could concentrate on looking for information about the mirror. In addition to that, he and Kibitz took turns keeping an eye on the portal. All the time, they hoped that Celestia finally would return, yet she didn’t.
Each day, Luna had to strain herself more to move the sun, and some ponies started getting a little suspicious. While this was a positive testament to the intelligence of the species, it was rather unfortunate for Antonius, Luna, Kibitz and - by extension - all of Equestria.

When almost a week had passed, Luna wasn’t able to completely hide her fatigue anymore. Even through the layer of makeup, she looked exhausted.

“Excuse me, Lord Varus,” a stallion named Fancy Pants whispered as they were outside and out of Luna’s earshot,
“but I have noticed that Princess Celestia looks a little… different today, and somewhat tired. Would you mind telling me if there is a particular reason for that - if it’s not confidential, of course.”

Okay, so now the first pony had dared to ask this well justified question, and he had been too polite for Antonius to just brush him off.

“Princess Celestia is… trying a new style,” Antonius lied.

“Really? I wonder why she should do that, we all admire her the way she is.”

Nice of them - for Celestia, not for Antonius.

“Midlife crisis,” Antonius continued.

“An immortal alicorn can have a midlife crisis?”

“Apparently.”

“And the midlife crisis made her shrink a little? How is that even possible?”

This stallion was a little too smart in Antonius’ opinion… now he needed an excuse…

“Umm… magic!” Antonius ventured,
“you don’t need to worry, though. I can assure you that this is only a short phase, and that Princess Celestia will be back to her familiar self in no time.”

“Ah, I’m glad to hear that,” Fancy Pants said,
“thank you for your honesty.”

If this guy knew…

That evening, Luna was standing in the royal garden and taking deep breaths to prepare herself for the exertion of lowering the sun, Antonius at her side.

“This time, I’m going to raise the moon first,” she told him,
“it is easier, and I feel like I should start with something easy.”

She lit her horn and the moon appeared in the sky.

“Sun and moon together,” she mumbled,
“just as it should be with Cellie and me.”

Then she lowered the sun. The effort was so big that she collapsed to the ground, raising a hoof towards the sun and slowly crawling forward as if that could help her control its movement.
Antonius knelt down and supported her, unable to really help her.

Luna whimpered and cried, but finally, she had made the sun set - and fainted.
Antonius picked her up and carried her to her quarters, where he put her in the shower to clean her. She stayed unconscious most of the time Antonius needed to remove the makeup and make her look like herself again.

While he was rubbing her down, Luna whispered:

“Tony… it is too much… I cannot take it any longer. The sun is my sister’s domain. I fear I will risk my magic if I continue to control it.”

“What can I do, Luna?” Antonius asked,
“do you think Twilight could help?”

“Yes… get Twilight and her friends… there must be another library… Star Swirl’s original library… perhaps they can find it…”

“Okay,” Antonius stated,
“I will call Twilight and her friends. You go to bed. I’ll wake you when they arrive.”

A few hours later, when the Element Bearers and Spike had arrived, Luna was awake again and they all gathered in the room with the mirror. Antonius relieved the exhausted Kibitz as guardian of the portal, then Luna explained what had happened and briefed them on the current situation.

“As you can see, we have a little bit of a problem,” Antonius commented.

“But you also have a cunning plan,” Twilight said,
“that’s why you called us, to help you execute that plan.”

“Well, I would not call it a ‘cunning plan’…” Luna admitted.

“More like a faint idea,” Antonius finished.

“Well… that’s much better than nothing,” Twilight opined with a forced smile,
“so, what can we do?”

“Come with me, we will talk on the way,” Luna told them.

“I’ll stay here and keep an eye on the magic mirror,” Antonius stated.

The ponies (and dragon) left.

Some time later, Luna and Spike returned.

“Twilight and her friends are looking for Star Swirl’s library,” Luna told him,
“all we can do now is wait.”

“And I’ll get you your hot cocoa!” Spike offered,
“I’ll also get us some board games, that should make the waiting more bearable!”

He left and Antonius and Luna were alone.

“We really just wait and play games now?” Antonius asked.

“I am sorry, Tony, but I am still quite exhausted. I would really appreciate the opportunity to relax a little. If you would prefer to leave and…”

“No,” Antonius interrupted,
“after bustling about the whole week, it will be a nice change… and I certainly won’t leave this stupid mirror - or you - unguarded now.”

Luna answered with a smile.

Soon, Spike returned with a couple of board games and three cups of hot cocoa - one of them Antonius’ supersize cup.

“Nice,” Antonius grinned.

“Yeah,” Spike told him proudly,
“I’m not called Twilight’s number one assistant for nothing!”

So they had cocoa, played games and waited.

Antonius and Luna were just being fleeced by Spike in some strange board game that seemed to promote ruthless capitalism as the Space Marine heard something; a rumbling noise that obviously came from one of the walls. He got up and drew his chainsword.

Suddenly, a picture on that wall swung open and - much to the surprise of everyone - the Element Bearers fell out of a secret passageway.

“Huh?” Antonius wondered and put his sword away,
“I really need a map to the secrets of this castle.”

“Princess Luna!” Twilight beamed when she was back on her hooves,
“we found something!”

“Twilight Sparkle! You astound me…” Luna smiled with relief,
“tell all.”

“That mirror leads to another parallel universe besides the one I’ve already been to. Isn’t that neat?”

Well, it was as much as Antonius had guessed… and he was not really sure if ‘neat’ was the right term to describe it. The more important question, however, was…

“…so…” Luna asked,
“how do we get through the mirror to find Celestia?”

Yes, that was the more important question.

“Weeeeeell…” Twilight answered,
“that’s really the only answer I didn’t find…”

Great. So, the Element Bearers’ little excursion was not as successful as they had hoped. This lack of true success was rendered moot a moment later, as the mirror sparked to life.
Antonius whipped out his sword again, ready to face whatever might come through the portal, and hoping that it was Celestia who finally came back. Of course he wouldn’t need the sword in that case, but the Princess of the Sun would certainly not get off scot-free for the stunt she had pulled.

“What…? Sister!” Luna exclaimed as Celestia’s silhouette appeared through the mirror, then she immediately started chiding her big sister for her actions.

While this was actually appropriate, Luna should have taken a closer look at Celestia, for she was clearly battered. She had obviously been in a fight, and since Antonius knew the strength and resilience of alicorns, he guessed that it had been a pretty rough one.

“Do you know what this kind of stress does to me?” Luna ended, just in time to see Celestia collapse to the floor.

Well, that was bad news, so Antonius decided to postpone telling Celestia off until she felt better.
Meanwhile, Luna rushed to support her sister.

Suddenly, something - or rather somepony - else appeared in the mirror.

“King Sombra? No!” Twilight screamed.

She was right. The creature in the mirror looked like Sombra.
Well, Antonius had not killed him in this universe, but this other version of the tyrant would not be that lucky.

“Sister!” Luna pleaded,
“I did not mean it! I love stress! Wake up!”

Well, Celestia would not be necessary for dealing with Sombra, for now Antonius stepped in front of the mirror, his chainsword roaring, ready to slice his enemy to pieces, but the portal closed as abruptly as it had opened, and the mirror was back to being a mirror again.

Antonius grunted, but it was no use getting irritated now at his inability to use his sword, so he put it away again and turned to Celestia and Luna:

“How is she?”

“She’s unconscious!” Luna answered,
“we need to help her! Patch her up!”

“I’ll get the dressing material.”

Just a minute later, Antonius was back and lifted the still unconscious Celestia onto a table. He took off her battered regalia and started treating her wounds. She had lots of bruises and cuts, but thankfully she wasn’t in a critical condition.

As Antonius was about to finish patching her up, she finally opened her eyes again - or one of her eyes, to be exact. The other one had swollen to the point that she could barely open it more a few millimeters.

“Tony?” she whispered.

“Indeed,” Antonius told her,
“as well as Luna, Twilight, the rest of the Element Bearers, and Spike. Now hold still while I take care of your eye.”

Celestia adhered to his instructions, and soon she was lying on the table more comfortably.

“Sister, how are you feeling?” Luna asked.

The Element Bearers used that moment to voice their concerns or offer their services, but Celestia answered with:

“I’m fine, thank you, everypony.”

“FINE?” Luna now thundered,
“you tumble out of a magic mirror into a lifeless heap and you are fine? Where have you been? What happened?”

“I was… in another world,” Celestia answered,
“I was attacked.”

“Could you perhaps explain it even more generically?” Antonius deadpanned.

“We saw King Sombra in the mirror,” Fluttershy told her,
“is he the one who attacked you?”

Well, that question was unnecessary. Of course he was.

“What? No!” Celestia exclaimed, much to Antonius - and everypony’s - surprise,
“of course he didn’t! He’d never… I mean…”

“Uh… princess, he’d never what?” Applejack asked.

“Of course he would, he’s a villain!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“No, he’s not,” Celestia stated with determination,
“not where I was.”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed, voicing what everypony thought,
“Princess? What’s going on?!”

“I would like to know that myself,” Luna grumbled.

Now Celestia finally revealed some details about the other world and the portal mirror. Apparently, it was a prototype that could lead to different worlds, and the one she’s been in was ruled by a good version of Sombra… which meant that Antonius once again did not get to kill a Sombra.
Now, ‘something’ had started binding both worlds together, and Sombra’s fight against the evil there started influencing this Equestria and Celestia.

“Then we shall go into this other world and smite the enemy!” Luna declared and nudged Antonius,
“I have been anxious for a good scuffle for months.”

“Excellent idea,” Antonius grinned,
“any threat to this world has to be taken seriously. We will pacify this other world as quickly as possible and return.”

“No!” Celestia screamed,
“Luna, you and I cannot be involved in this… and neither can Antonius.”

“What?” Luna snarled,
“perilous journeys are what I thrive upon!”

“And I was literally created for combat,” Antonius added,
“so let us go through the portal, vanquish all evil we find, and come back to celebrate our victory!”

Antonius had to admit that he was looking forward to fighting alongside Luna. He knew from their training that they were an excellent team, and it also meant that the Element Bearers would stay in the safety of Canterlot.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia started and Antonius felt the urge to facepalm,
“I need you and your friends to take the Elements of Harmony through the mirror.”

Now, that was way beyond simple facepalm levels.
Antonius just had enough patience to let Celestia finish explaining the mission to Twilight (something about unimaginably powerful, yet flawed villains), then he asked as calm as he could:

“So you want to send the invaluable Elements of Harmony and the just as invaluable Element Bearers through a magic portal into another, unknown world to face some very powerful evil all on their own?
WHAT THE HELL?”

“YEAH!” Luna agreed,
“and just why can you, Tony and I not do this ourselves? I know a thing or two about powerful yet flawed malefactors.”

“Luna,” Celestia started explaining,
“we cannot go because we are the evil that is encroaching upon that land. We… we’re the villains.”

Well, that was some news… but it sort of made sense… a good Sombra, an evil Celestia, and evil Luna… and?

“What about me?” Antonius asked insistently,
“is there also an evil version of me there? Perhaps a disgusting traitor Marine? A creature I just have to annihilate?”

“No, I have never even heard of another, evil version of you there.”

“At least a little bit of luck,” Fluttershy mumbled.

The discussion still went on after that, and it was pretty lively. According to Celestia, only the Elements of Harmony and their Bearers could be sent through the portal without messing up the balance of both worlds, because the Elements didn’t exist in the other world. For some reason, she did not want Antonius to accompany them.

“Listen, Celestia,” Antonius said angrily,
“if you think I’ll let them go alone, you are very much mistaken. You said it yourself, I don’t have an evil counterpart and therefore won’t mess up this precious balance, so I will go and protect them!”

“You can’t!” Celestia replied,
“you may not have an evil counterpart there, but you are not from this world! Letting you go would be an incalculable risk! Our worlds could crumble or collide just by you taking a step through the mirror”!

“I also visited the other, human-like world without causing an apocalypse.”

“Yes, but this is… different… please trust me.. it is hard to explain…”

“To somepony who doesn’t understand magic. I know this sentence all too well by now.
Damn those stupid magical impediments!”

Antonius took a deep breath. The problem - one of them - was that he could not assess the risks of using the portal, so he had to rely on Celestia, even if he had his doubts about her telling the whole truth.

“Fine… I’ll stay with you and Luna,” he finally said.

Celestia was clearly relieved to hear that, and while Spike fetched the Elements of Harmony, she gave Twilight a last briefing on how to return or send a message, then the Element Bearers, the Elements and Spike passed the portal and were gone.

Luna turned to her sister and hissed:

“And now you and I are going to have a little chat about all this.”

“Hmm,” Antonius added,
“I’d like to have a word with you, too.”

Celestia gulped.

Then, she finally told them what had happened in the past:
In short, Celestia had had an… affair with the other world’s Sombra, throwing both worlds out of balance. And now, she had repeated this obvious mistake.
Antonius could hardly believe it. Usually, Celestia was a capable and caring leader of the ponies - even if she had an inappropriate, much too peaceful moral code.
On this matter, however, she had screwed up so badly that Antonius had put a bolt in her head had he not known her better. Such a disregard of her duty… or common sense!

He had to close his eyes to concentrate and force himself to keep calm. He could hear Luna and Celestia talk, but he also had to ignore that. Beating the crap out of Celestia for her stupidity would probably have been somewhat satisfying, but it would certainly have been counterproductive in the long run.
So he just kept calm and followed the princesses as they went onto a balcony to get some fresh air.

Suddenly, Celestia went down, as if hit by something.
Well, she could at least have waited for him to hit her…

This incident, however, brought Antonius back to reality. His anger had to wait - there obviously were more urgent problems to deal with.

“Celestia?!” Luna exclaimed,
“sister! Are you alright?”

“The rift,” Celestia mumbled, and Antonius was all ears,
“they can’t harm her… I was afraid of… this.”

Antonius understood.

“So, this is the real reason you wanted me to stay here,” he grumbled,
“you were afraid that I’d put a bolt into the other Celestia’s head and kill you at the same time.”

“Sort of…” Celestia admitted ruefully,
“I also think it would be unwise to leave a lot of your bolts in the other world. We must keep the worlds strictly separated.”

The hypocrite really should have told that to herself…

Luna screamed for parchment and a quill to write a message to Spike about this unfortunate connection of both worlds, then she suddenly touched her muzzle as if it had been hit - which had probably just happened in the other world.

Now, that was a serious problem - how could you stop (or kill) the villains without harming the princesses?
…
Magic.
Probably magic.
Antonius was about to freak out.

As Luna was frantically writing the letter, Celestia turned to her and said:

“Tell them they have to save him… I love him.”

Now Antonius Varus, Ultramarines 2nd company, the Lord Commander of Equestria’s PFD and good friend of a lot of ponies, finally snapped.

“DAMNIT!” he roared, making the princesses wince,
“first, you deliberately endanger two worlds just to get laid, now, instead of fixing your damned mess, the Element Bearers shall focus on saving your stallion?!?
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG IN THAT BRAIN OF YOURS?
If you think with your brain at all - you seem to think entirely with your friggin’ libido!
Damned, am I glad that the Emperor had had the wisdom to deactivate my reproduction system, otherwise I might have been prone to such reckless, unbelievable stupidity, too!”

The only sound now was the crying of Celestia, and Luna looked thoroughly shocked - and at Antonius’ hip.
It took him a second to realize why - he had his hand closed around the hilt of his combat knife. He opened the hand again and took it away from the weapon.

“I need to get some fresh air,” he stated and left the balcony… into the castle.

Antonius stomped through the hallways of the castle with no particular destination. He just had to get away from that pony before he really lost his temper and introduced her to one of his weapons.
He took a deep breath - anger always was a bad advisor.
But seriously…
No, no excuses. Anger reduced his effectiveness, and as bad as things were now, he could not afford that.
And a libido was not even a real organ… ah screw it.
He had reached the gardens by now and took a look at the sky. A swirling, greenish sky.

“Oh damnit,” he mumbled and raced back to the princesses.

“Seen the sky?” he asked as he entered the room.

“Yes,” Celestia answered sadly,
“the barrier is fracturing. Our worlds… they are colliding… and it is all my fault.”

“Now is not the time for blaming yourself, now is the time for crisis management. You say the worlds are colliding? Well, if your evil counterparts come here, I should be able to surprise them. They have never seen a Space Marine, after all. We must make use of that.”

“So, you have calmed down a little?” Luna asked carefully.

“Not really, but I’m quite good at prioritizing. So what do you think we should - or can - do?”

“We have to put out trust in Twilight,” Celestia answered.

So, that meant more waiting. Antonius wasn’t happy about this, but he went along with it - for now.

He walked around the room, alert for suddenly appearing threats and anything else that could give him information about the situation. Celestia was staring at the unnatural sky. Luna, however, was lying in front of the mirror and feeding her pet.
Despite the grim circumstances, Antonius had to smile. Luna really was an oasis of calmness in those troubled times. He was walking up to her when he heard a loud crack.

Suddenly, Luna was sent flying towards the mirror. Antonius’ transhuman reflexes kicked in and he jumped forwards to catch her. It was a close call, but he managed to save her… at least he thought so at first.

“Hey, Luna,” he said,
“what was… Luna? LUNA?”

“Luna!” Celestia screamed and ran up to them, but Luna still didn’t answer; she was unconscious - or worse.

Antonius put her down immediately and checked her life signs.

“She’s alive,” Antonius said with relief,
“but somehow in a less than fortunate condition… the other Luna probably got hurt.”

“You’ll be fine, Luna…” Celestia said as she put a hoof around her sister,
“I’ll get help…”

“I can’t believe that this is Twilight’s doing,” Antonius stated,
“she - or the others - would never attack the other Luna in such a way.”

Hurting villains was more his MO, after all…

“It isn’t,” Celestia told him,
“my evil counterpart did that. Please, Antonius, get a first aid kit or something.”

“I think I rather stay here.”

“Please, Antonius. I know that you are disappointed, and that you don’t trust me anymore, and I can’t even blame you for that, but please get something to help Luna. I promise I will watch over her in the meantime… I will protect her with my life!”

Celestia was right. Antonius did not trust her anymore. But Luna really did need help.

“You will only be able to disappoint me one more time,” he grumbled, jumped up and dashed out of the room, looking for a first aid kit.

Thankfully, there was a stock of them not too far away, but just as Antonius had grabbed one, there was a loud rumbling and a moment later, the room around him started to crumble. But it wasn’t just the room - the whole world was doing the same. Cracks started appearing in the very fabric of reality and he was uncannily reminded of warp rifts.

Antonius commented on this with a barrage of profanity and tried to return to Luna and Celestia as fast as he could, but suddenly he was standing on a dirt road in a gray environment.
He looked around, trying to grasp what had happened. He had probably gotten through one of the cracks in reality - there were lots of them all around - and was in the other world. There was a castle not too far away, and either they had put on a light show of some sorts there, or there was a magic battle going on.

Antonius put the first aid kit to his belt and grabbed his bolter. Since the situation had deteriorated that badly, there was no room left for the ponies’ typical ‘minimum violence solutions’. The evil Celestia had to be stopped, no matter the cost.
He started running towards the castle.

While on his way, he could see both Celestias battling it out in the sky. One of them had a purple and green glow around her - probably the evil one - the other one was ablaze.
…
Celestia could set herself ablaze?
That was an interesting piece of news, but it did not really change anything.
He kept running.

The ponies really weren’t idling around. Both Celestias now got encased in glowing bubbles, and a moment later, the Element Bearers were also floating in the sky next to them.
Damnit, getting to that stupid castle seemed to take forever…

Something seemed to happen to the bubbles, then suddenly, another pony attacked Twilight and her friends. Sombra?
Wasn’t he supposed to be the good guy? Was this an effect of the merging worlds? No matter what it was, it was also treason!
Unfortunately, they were still out of range.

Now, the ‘light show’ continued, and Sombra was obviously in the center of it.

Antonius just arrived when the lights stopped. His friends seemed to be fine (even Luna was back on her hooves), and there also were the other versions of Celestia and Luna, as well as Sombra.

Now, what the hell had happened?
Were the worlds still entangled?
What about the other versions of the princesses?
What about Sombra?
And could he finally kill a villain now?

At least one of his questions was answered when he took a closer look at Sombra and the stallion opened his eyes: He looked pretty much like the Sombra he had helped defeat.
Villain? Villain.
He must somehow have sucked the evil out of the evil princesses… so it was a sort of sacrifice. Still, this stallion knew way too much about Equestria for Antonius to allow him to run around as a villain.

Antonius just leveled his bolter as Sombra took off like a rocket.

“Oh, come on!” Antonius groaned and adjusted his aim.

“NO!” Celestia shouted and jumped at his bolter.

So, Sombra was gone now, another threat that would probably come back to bite them some time in the future, but the weapon’s muzzle was aiming right at Celestia’s chest, and for the fraction of a second, Antonius thought about pulling the trigger anyway. He looked into her tear-dimmed eyes and realized that she knew that too well.

“Do not tempt me like that,” he grumbled after taking a deep breath and lowered his bolter.

He just wanted to turn to the alternate versions of Celestia and Luna to see what was going on with them as he felt a strange pull.
The world - now green and vibrant - seemed to repair itself, and the pull came from a nearby crack that was closing. The ponies all jumped - or were pulled - through it, and Antonius understood that there was no time for checking in on anything.
Of course, there was the mirror, but due to the destruction he had witnessed in Canterlot he did not count on it still being intact.

“Luna!” Celestia shouted, but she was talking to the ‘other Luna’,
“take care of him!”
Oh, for Emperor’s sake…
“Take care of your Equestria!”

“Celestia,” she answered,
“I’m so sorry! Thank you…”

Antonius did not hear more. He had dashed towards the closing rift and now he tackled Celestia through it before it was too late.

They got teleported - or whatever you wanted to call this method of traveling - to Canterlot, right into the room with the blasted mirror. It still was intact.
So was Celestia, thanks to Antonius having the presence of mind to catch his weight with his arms instead of turning her into a pancake (or ponycake?).

“Everypony back?” he shouted as he got up.

Thankfully, the ponies all answered in the affirmative.

“Good,” Antonius stated.

At least Celestia’s ‘stunt’ had not inflicted any casualties.
He looked at the mirror.
His first idea was to destroy it and thus close the portal forever, but there was an evil Sombra in the other world who knew of this world. He had to keep a way open to go there and deal with him should he cause any trouble. Of course he couldn’t let Celestia have control over this portal for rather obvious reasons.

Antonius walked towards the mirror and asked:

“Those gems - are they just decoration or enchanted and important for the portal to work?”

“They are enchanted,” Twilight told him a bit confused,
“without them, the portal doesn’t work.”

“Difficult to enchant?”

“Yes,” Celestia answered, just as confused as Twilight,
“only Star Swirl had the knowledge and power to perform such enchantments. But why do you ask?”

Antonius ignored her question and whipped out his combat knife.

“What are you doing?” Celestia shouted.

“I’m taking precautions,” he grumbled and used his knife to lever out one of the gems.

“What?”

“To be honest, I don’t think you have the mental strength to resist the temptation of going back and trying to rescue this stallion,” he told her bluntly and levered out two more gems.

He had half expected her to try and stop him, but she was just standing there with an expression of guilt and shame. Well, at least she knew that she had messed up.

Antonius looked at the three gems in his hand and suddenly, an old saying came to his mind.

“One for the Astartes, for we owe them the safety of mankind,
one for the Primarch, for we owe him the glory of the legion,
one for the Emperor, for we owe Him everything,” he mumbled, then he turned around and left the room.

He headed straight to his Land Speeder and left Canterlot. He needed a safe place for those gems, and that meant that he had to get them out of Celestia’s sphere of influence. Unfortunately, every single pony saw her as the flawless demigoddess of the sun and would give her those blasted gems without hesitation, but he didn’t really know any of non-ponies around here…
wait a second… he knew one non-pony, and it was somepony he could trust.

He drove eastwards, so that any observer would record the wrong direction. Then, when he was out of sight of Canterlot, he turned southwards. Finally, he started closing in on his destination by a devious route. While doing so, he received a call.

“Lord Varus?” Al asked.

“Yes?” Antonius answered.

“Could you be so kind and explain to me what happened? I got some sensor data, but it didn’t really make much sense… as if the space time continuum was turned upside down, which is impossible.”

“Not as impossible as you might think. Two worlds, dimensions, or whatever you want to call them were almost merged by some weird magic. Save the readings you got. Alert me immediately should such a phenomenon appear again.”

“Okay… I have to admit that even after all my years on this planet, and my observations of the ponies, their magic still is an enigma to me.”

“Not only to you.”

Some time later, Antonius arrived at Zecora’s tree, for the zebra was only trustworthy non-pony he knew.

He knocked at the door, and she opened.

“Antonius, what a pleasant surprise,” she smiled,
“please come into my hut, where it’s warm and nice!”

“Thanks,” Antonius answered, took off his helmet and entered her home.

“Antonius, you look a little concerned,” she stated as they had sat down,
“is there troubling news you have learned?”

“Tell me, Zecora, are you a subject of Celestia just as the ponies are?”

“No, as a zebra, free I can run,
but I would never oppose the princess of the sun!”

“What if you knew it were necessary?”

“What is wrong? What do you want me to do?
I beg you, please give me a clue!”

“I have three gems here. They are important, so I need someone trustworthy to keep them safe. In the hooves of Celestia, however, they are dangerous, so I need someone who is not her subject and just gives them to her. Simply put, I need you.”

“You don’t trust the princess? That’s…”

“Zecora, I know that this is highly unusual, but I have to ask you to just trust me.”

Zecora looked at him for a few long seconds, then she nodded and fetched a small chest.

“I promise to give them only to you,
Antonius, the mystery in blue,” she said with a slightly sad smile.

Antonius smiled back in the same way and put the gems into the chest. Zecora stowed it away again and asked:

“A little time ago, there was a peculiar show,
does this have anything to do with my vow?”

“‘Show’?”

“Cracks and rifts in reality’s face,
even around here not commonplace.”

“Sorta… you should keep this information confidential, though.”

Really, this society depended too much on its leader, the truth would cause quite a ruckus… to put it mildly.

“Don’t worry, nopony will get to know anything from me,
now, I really think we could use a cup of tea.”

Some minutes - and some tea - later, as Antonius was about to jump into the Speeder, Zecora said:

“Antonius, would you be so nice
and listen to a piece of advice?”

“Sure,” Antonius answered while putting on his helmet.

“With Princess Celestia you should reconcile,
even if it might take effort - and quite a while.”

“Probably,” Antonius answered, started the Speeder and returned to Canterlot.

On his way back to the capital, he thought about everything that had happened. Two worlds almost destroyed (especially this one), the Elements almost lost.
He wondered if he could he have done anything to prevent this course of events - apart from shooting Celestia last week.
No, that was nonsense. Even if he had the ability to travel back in time, he would not do that. Things had turned out alright, and he would not risk changing that by tinkering with something as complex as time itself.

Damnit, what the hell had Tia been thinking? What was wrong with her?
Machinations of Slaanesh?
No, this whole mess had started about a thousand years ago, if Slaanesh had known about the ponies for that long, this world would have been destroyed long ago.

So, it seemed to be ‘just’ some sort of emotional attachment that interfered with duty and common sense.
Well, since he had taken care that she couldn’t return to the other world, this attachment would hopefully weaken over time. The week Celestia and Sombra had spent together would be their last, and the two worlds would be strictly separated again to prevent another merging.

Suddenly, Antonius had an unsettling realization:
A week.
A whole week.
With nights.
And overall plenty of time.

He went to the room with the mirror as soon as he had arrived in Canterlot. The mirror was gone, however, and only Luna was in the room.

“Ah, you are back,” she said,
“I guess you have hidden the gems?”

“A plausible theory,” Antonius answered.

“So, you also do not trust me in that matter?”

“I just want to save you from conflicting loyalties.”

“It is a little late for that.”

“How so?”

“Tony, we are friends, right?”

“Of course.”

“Please remember that when I give you a piece of my mind now.”

As Luna took a deep breath, Antonius started regretting that he had taken his helmet off after arriving in the hanger a few minutes ago.

“How could you have been that harsh to my sister?” Luna shouted,
“have you not realized that she is already downcast enough? But no, Mr. Merciless Duty has to rub it in!”

“Oh sure!” Antonius shouted back,
“let her put her libido over the wellbeing of everypony and human without even mentioning how terribly derelict such behavior is!”

“This is not about her libido! She has been in love!”

“As if that would make it better…”

“She made a mistake. We all make mistakes! Have you never ignored a rule and done something because you felt an urge to?”

“Nev…” Antonius started, but fell silent. After a few seconds, he continued:
“I ignored the Codex Astartes to rescue you.”

Luna looked shocked now, and Antonius kept mumbling:

“But I just rescued you… I did not endanger a world, did I?”

Did he?
What if the daemons had not been that weak?
What if…

He could not finish his thoughts. Luna suddenly hugged him.

“No,” she said insistently,
“you did not.”

Somehow, Antonius found Luna’s certainty strangely reassuring. Well, she was the best friend he had around here, if he couldn’t trust her, whom could he trust?
Which turned his thoughts back to Celestia, whose trustworthiness was somewhat undecided at the moment.

“Luna,” he said when they had ended the hug,
“I need your expertise on a certain subject.”

“Yes?” she replied.

“Can you empathize with your sister about this ‘being in love’ thing?”

“Well,” she said with a somewhat sad smile,
“I can at least try.”

“Good. Now please imagine you have a special somepony, and that the two of you have been separated for centuries. Then, you reunite. What would you do if given a whole week of time?”

“Well, we would certainly celebrate our reunification.”

“How exactly?”

“Umm…” Luna murmured, blushing.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Or more exactly, what I was worried about,” Antonius deadpanned.

“Huh? What are you worried about? Why do you ask me…
Oh.
Oh!
OH!
You think…?”

“I think it’s somewhere between possible and probable. And if they were ‘successful’, we still have a piece of this other world in our world that could destabilize the border between both worlds.”

“Wait a second… you really think my sister could be…?”

“Pregnant. It is certainly possible. We must inquire about that.”

“Tony,” Luna said flatly,
“Cellie just lost the pony she loved. You cannot just walk up to her and ask her if they mated and if she is expecting a baby now.”

“This question will have to be asked,” Antonius stated.

“Not now, Tony. Please give her some time… give her time.”

Three days passed. Celestia raised and lowered the sun on time, but beyond that, she made herself scarce. In fact, she had spent the last days in her quarters and refused to talk to anypony.

“How much time do you think she’ll need?” Antonius asked Luna, his patience slowly beginning to wear thin.

“I do not know,” Luna admitted,
“I tried to talk to her, but she did not even open the door. She just sent me away.”

“Maybe I should have a word with her.”

“Oh… that might not be the best idea…”

“Why? We can’t just let her mope around any longer, it’s time to set her back on her hooves. She must face and overcome the consequences of her actions.”

“Umm… you are not going to punish her, are you?”

“You mean, something like chaining her up and throwing her into the deepest, darkest dungeon, with the darksteel splint on her horn, which only comes off for her to move the sun while she has my knife on her throat to keep her from trying something funny?”

Luna looked somewhat disturbed as she answered:

“Something like that, yeah. You will refrain from such a thing, will you not?”

“Don’t worry,” Antonius sighed,
“I won’t do anything like that, no matter how much she’d deserve it.”

“That is good to hear… though admittedly a little unexpected,” Luna smiled.

“Yeah, I know. As a Space Marine, I should take action against anything and anyone who might impede the success of my mission… but despite Celestia’s irresponsible behavior, I… pity her… somehow. I think about how she probably feels, and since - for whatever reason - I still see her as a friend, I want to help her.
Damnit! I am supposed to be a merciless, remorseless Angel of Death, and look at me now: I am the tolerant, merciful friend of somepony who almost destroyed two worlds!
That must be your fault…”

“My fault?” Luna asked in surprise.

“I mean you ponies. Your lifestyle obviously made me go nuts…” Antonius told her half jokingly.

“I am quite sure that you are wrong,” Luna replied with a smile,
“you have always been a kind creature. Here, you just had the opportunity to let your true self shine.”

“Eh? Was that an insult?”

“That was a compliment, you doofus!”

They both laughed, then Luna continued:

“Okay, joke aside… what do you think we can do to help my sister?”

“That actually is a very good question,” Antonius admitted,
“I am no expert when it comes to such feelings…”

“You do not say…”

“… but I try looking at it from a logical point of view: Celestia feels down because she has lost her special somepony, so maybe we should try to replace him somehow.”

“Wow,” Luna said flatly,
“I think I should call you ‘Cadance 2’ from now on.”

“No, seriously: I think that might work… possibly,” Antonius said and called Al to get help with the selection,
“of course, we must be picky when selecting this pony.
Since Sombra was a stallion, his replacement should be male, too. Since Tia is rather big, we need a something of a giant. He should also be quite resilient, you know, because of the alicorn strength. And he should of course not be intimidated by Celestia’s godlike reputation. Any suggestions?”

“Yes,” Al told them,
“you match the specified parameters quite well.”

“WHAT?” Antonius and Luna blurted.

“Male, big, resilient, sees Celestia as a pony,” Al explained.

“No,” Antonius stated,
“seriously, no. No way. Thankfully, that wouldn’t even technically be possible.”

“According to my database, it should be possible.”

“Huh? And how is this supposed to be possible, hmm?”

Antonius knew that this question was a mistake as soon as he had asked it. He was not disappointed as Al answered:

“Example: Have you ever seen an anteater assault an anthill? Sort of like that.”

Antonius and Luna stared at Al’s picture on the PDA for a few seconds, processing what Al had just said, then Antonius exclaimed:

“DAMNIT, AL! That is…”

“Unsettling, disturbing, perturbing, and all around terrible!” Luna finished.

“Hey, you asked me…” Al said apologetically,
“and I came up with a factually correct solution.”

“That will probably give me nightmares,” Antonius deadpanned.

“Well, I would have to help you, since you are my friend and that is my duty,” Luna remarked,
“although I would NOT like to see those nightmares!”

“Let’s forget this whole idea - and the mental image… especially the mental image! We should still go to Tia and see if we can help her. We’ll have to improvise.”

“It is worth a try, but as I sad, she has always sent me away whenever I tried to talk to her.”

“Then I will go and talk to her. I just need my…”

Armor, weapons and the darksteel splint, in case Celestia should go haywire… no.
Meeting her ready for battle would be unfavorable, he had to be as harmless and friendly as possible, even if it meant taking a risk against the alicorn.

“You need what?” Luna inquired.

“Luck,” Antonius finished,
“I’ll need quite an amount of luck.”

A short time later, he was standing in front of the door to Celestia’s quarters. He knocked.

“Go away, Luna!” Celestia shouted through the closed door.

Well, he wasn’t Luna, so he put his hand on the lock and started pushing. A crack, and the door swung open. Antonius entered the room and closed the door behind him.

“Hello, Tia,” he greeted nonchalantly.

The princess had been lying on her bed, but now she got up and glared at Antonius, though the glare was somewhat mollified by her puffy eyes. Her mane was a disaster and her fur had seen better days, too.

“I told you to go away!” she exclaimed with a quivering voice.

“Actually, you told Luna to go away. I am not Luna.”

“If I don’t even want to see my sister, what makes you think I want to see you?”

“This is not about what you want, but about what you need. You’ve been moping around for three days now, and probably even for all the wrong reasons.”

Oops. That definitely wasn’t the gentle approach he had had in mind, but now that he had said it…

“What do you mean? And I am not moping around, I just need some time alone to come to terms with…”

She did not finish the sentence, but started crying.

“Don’t cry for your personal loss, cry for your subjects you betrayed.”

Yeah, Antonius realized that he wasn’t good at being helpful in such a situation. Although he still saw Celestia as his friend, he also was still angry at her for neglecting her duty in such a way.

“Go to hell!” she spat.

Antonius slowly walked through her room towards the balcony door, thinking about that and his actions since he had arrived on this planet. Once at the door, he turned to Celestia and said:

“Maybe I will some day. The Emperor shall decide my fate.”

Celestia looked surprised for a moment, then she was back in her sad and glum state of mind.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Actually, I want to help you… but first I have to make sure that there are no loose ends that could endanger this world.”

“What do you mean by ‘loose ends’?”

Antonius could not think of a gently way to ask the question he had to ask, so he inquired with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer:

“You are not somewhat pregnant, are you?”

Celestia looked as if the imaginary sledgehammer had hit her in the gut and she screamed:

“That is nothing of your concern!”

“Actually, it is,” Antonius replied,
“as a hybrid of two worlds could cause both to crumble. You know that.”

Celestia was mad with anger. She took a step towards Antonius and roared:

“So what are you going to do? Punch me in the gut? Or do you have even nastier atrocities in mind?”

Yikes.
While that would probably technically work, it was a cruel and amoral way of keeping this world safe.

Antonius approached her while she was glaring at him.
Then, he crouched down and looked her in the eyes.

“I said a hybrid could cause trouble,” he told a now confused looking Celestia,
“but as far as I know, there will be some signs if the worlds are starting to collide again. We will have to watch for those signs. I am definitely not going to kill an innocent baby unless there is no other way to ensure the continued existence of mankind and ponykind, and even then I would be disgusted by this atrocity.”

Now Celestia sat down, and they sat in front of each other for some time. Suddenly, she said:

“I’m not pregnant. I checked it with a spell. You don’t need to worry. Now, please leave me alone.”

Antonius sighed in relieve, but stayed put.

“I still want to help you,” he said,
“I heard that you didn’t talk to Luna, but perhaps you could talk to me about… your feelings or something like that? That’s how such problems are usually solved, right?”

“‘Such problems’? You mean almost getting your subjects enslaved or even killed, endangering another species, letting everypony you know down and dooming the pony you love to an eternity of daemonic possession?”

“Umm… sorta?”

Celestia jumped to her hooves and took up a stance in front of Antonius.

“And why should I talk to you if I don’t even talk to Luna?” she hissed.

Damnit, her mood was dangerously fickle. One second, she was deeply grieved, then she suddenly was furious. This was as far as you could get from the even-tempered pony he knew.

Antonius remained calm and said:

“Because you care too much about Luna’s opinion of you. You are afraid of what she could think should you honestly tell her everything that bothers you. With me, you don’t have to worry about that. Let’s be honest, my opinion of you has suffered quite a bit lately, and you think I would murder a baby just like that. Despite all of this, I am still your friend, and I am here to offer my help.”

Celestia looked at him for a few seconds, teary-eyed, then she slumped down.

“I already told you,” she whispered,
“what I did was inexcusable, and because of my flaws, the pony I love has turned into an insane villain. I should have been encase in that crystal bubble, and he should have stayed himself. That would have been more just.”

“Sombra though otherwise. To him, your safety was more important than his own, so he sacrificed himself to save you. A valiant action. You can be proud of him.”

“It is hard to feel anything but grief when you have burdened yourself with that much guilt.”

Now Antonius picked her up and hugged her.

“I do not deserve that,” Celestia breathed.

“Maybe, but you need it,” Antonius told her,
“now enjoy the hug, then get your act together and resume your duties. Sombra did not sacrifice himself for you to spend the rest of your life in your quarters, but for you to continue ruling your land as successful as ever. Equestria needs you.”

“Thank you, “ Celestia said and returned the hug,
“you may be a somewhat difficult friend at times, but you really are a good one.”

“Yeah, you fluffy little ponies really start to rub off on me.”

Antonius helped Celestia make herself presentable again, then they left her quarters and went to the throne room. Luna was more than relieved to have her sister back, and the three of them spent the rest of the day together.

When it was time to retire, Antonius and Luna escorted Celestia to her quarters. After that, they went to Luna’s room.

“I owe you for getting Cellie to leave her quarters,” Luna said,
“I wonder how you have achieved that.”

“Frankly, I don’t know,” Antonius admitted,
“I guess I really had more than just a bit of luck.”

“Whatever you did, thank you. And now, good night and sweet dreams… oh damnit!”

“What?”

“Sorry, but I just thought about…no, I will not say it.”

“The mental image we agreed to forget?” Antonius deadpanned.

“How do you know?” Luna wondered.

“We both talked about having nightmares about it, so the subject of dreaming reminded you of it. I can empathize with you. Unfortunately.”

“So… I guess we will meet in a disturbing dream?”

“Either that, or, since we have a calming effect on each other, we could stay together and hope to prevent such dreams that way.”

“Good idea, let us go to your quarters.”