My Little Xeno 2 - Equinox Knights

The evening after the discoveries in the Inner Sanctum, Antonius maintained the storm bolter. It still was in a surprisingly good condition and merely required some cleaning and lubrication.
Luna was sitting next to him, watching and learning with interest.

He had just finished his work when his PDA signalized an incoming call.

“Yes?” he asked as he fetched the device.

“Antonius? This is Spike!” the dragon, appearing on the screen, said.

“Oh, hello, Spike! Does that mean that Twilight’s mission in the other world is over… or…”

“‘Or’, I’m afraid,” Spike told him,
“Twilight and her human friends got trapped by Trixie and her band!”

“Huh? Trixie? Mrs. Great and Powerful? She’s evil in this other world? With minions?”

“They’re not minions, they’re just a music group, and I don’t think they really are evil, but they are under the sirens’ influence!”

“I’ll be there in a few seconds.”

Antonius quickly donned his armor and turned to Luna:

“Could you…”

“Teleport us to Spike? Certainly,” she finished and lit her horn.

A moment later, they were in Twilight’s castle, right in front of the mirror. At the moment, Rarity and Fluttershy were standing guard, and they actually were present and awake!

“Hello, together,” Antonius greeted, then he turned to the little dragon:
“Okay, Spike, let’s go.”

“Take care,” Luna said,
“and remember: Stay hidden and use a minimum force approach whenever possible. We do not want to disrupt this world more than absolutely necessary.”

“I’ll be careful,” Antonius promised and stepped through the mirror, accompanied by Spike.

On the other side of the portal, Spike had turned into a dog again, while Antonius still was himself.

“Lead the way,” Antonius said and they got going.

They just got to the road as some sort of conveyance approached them and came to a screeching stop. Probably a personal, civil transport. Behind the controls was an abhuman girl that Antonius knew - at least from sight. He had seen her when he had been in this world the first time, and he also knew her pony counterpart: Vinyl Scratch.

“So much for staying hidden,” Spike mumbled, then he shouted:
“Wait! Her headphones! Perhaps she is protected from the siren’s influence!”

“Hmm,” Antonius pondered,
“if she’s willing to cooperate, her conveyance could speed things up quite a bit.”

“Good thing she’s late and comes through here. Let me do the talking,” Spike asked,
“I’m somewhat less terrifying than you.”

Yeah, of course.
Talking dogs were less terrifying than armored and armed… oh.

Spike walked over to the driver’s door and shouted:

“Hello! Could you give us a lift? We need to get to the ‘Battle of the Bands’ as quickly as possible.”

Much to Antonius’ surprise, Vinyl just nodded. Quite steady nerves, that girl.
Getting onboard the vehicle was a little complicated, since it definitely hadn’t been manufactured with Primaris Marines in mind, but he managed to squeeze most of himself onto the passenger seat.

“And now, please gun the engine,” Antonius told her, and she complied.

Racing through the town in a way local authorities would not really have been fond of, they arrived at an amphitheater with a central stage. On this stage, Antonius spotted three abhuman girls singing.
The sirens.
Antonius was sure of that. He could feel their wicked magic - as well as the urge to test his newly acquired storm bolter on some witches.
Still, freeing Twilight and her friends had priority.

Vinyl stopped at a parking lot and they quickly disembarked. For a moment, Antonius wondered why they hadn’t proceeded right to the stage, but he quickly realized that the terrain was not suitable for a conveyance like the one they used.
With a Rhino… or even better: a Land Raider - things would have gone… a little faster.

They circumvented the auditorium and arrived at a door that led to a room under the stage.

“Twilight and her friends are in there,” Spike said.

“Not for much longer,” Antonius replied and grabbed the doorknob.

Then, he overpowered the lock and forcefully pushed the door open. As he did so, he could hear some ruckus coming from inside. Once the door was open, he saw the source of the noise:
Seven girls were lying on the ground, obviously victims of his brute force door opening.

“No need to bow that deep before me,” he joked.

“Antonius!” Twilight exclaimed,
“Spike!”

Spike hugged her and explained:
“Sorry I took so long. I had to find somebody who wasn’t under the sirens’ spell to help me get you out.”

“And you got Antonius… and Vinyl Scratch? I’m not surprised that Antonius is immune to the sirens, but why isn’t Vinyl under their spell?”

“Never takes off her headphones.”

Now that the group of allies was defined, the girls came up with a pretty strange plan to defeat the sirens.

“You want to out-sing them? Seriously?” Antonius sighed.

“Of course!” Rainbow Dash cheered,
“our band is awesome enough for that!”

“The music activates our magic; that way, we can use the magic of friendship against them,” Twilight explained.

“Well… okay, it’s your mission, after all. But I suggest we take the same approach as back then in Ponyville when Trixie caused trouble.”

“Hmm… okay, but please wait for as long as possible before you intervene.”

“Acknowledged.”

The girls and Spike left, and Antonius hid next to the stage, checked his storm bolter and drew his sword. Should Twilight’s plan fail, he would jump onto the stage and deal with those siren witches - in a very final way, of course.

In the meantime, he waited and watched Twilight’s squad. They took up position on a hill just beyond the auditorium. How they were supposed to start their weird music-battle from over there he had no idea. While he was not an expert when it came to music - like, not at all - he was quite sure that being heard was essential, and the sirens had an electrical sound system while they just had their voices and instruments.

A moment later, they also had Vinyl’s car. For what ever reason, the girl had driven it up the hill.
Well, Antonius was quite used to unconventional plans and surprises, but when the car started transforming into some sort of sound system, he was left gaping at the scene.
Seriously, that required a level of technology he had not expected on this world… there had never been any hint that they were that far advanced here… but what of it? The main thing for now was that it worked. The conundrums had to wait.

The song-battle was about to begin, and it was high time. The sirens’ wicked magic got stronger. Antonius could feel it ineffectually scratching at his mind, protected by his abilities and his training (he had to admit it sounded pretty good, though). The abhumans among the audience, however, lacked such protection. Their expression changed into pretty stupid ones as the sirens’ mind control set in.
The witches themselves started mutating right there on the stage; surrounded by a sickly red glow, that seemed to originate from their necklaces, they sprouted wings - or fins - and started hovering. It really was high time.

Finally, Twilight and her friends started singing.
Yes, using his bolter as an impromptu percussion instrument would have shortened this weird conflict immensely, but he adhered to the plan, just as he had said he would.

The abhuman six now started mutating, too… into half-ponies.
Seriously, there was way too much mutating involved here…

The sirens obviously recognized them as a threat, for they summoned avatars made of light and magic. Those things looked quite aquatic, a similarity to the human legends Antonius had heard of.
The battle, while still sung, turned more physical now, as waves of magic smashed into each other and the combatants.

The fight went back and forth for a while, then the sirens managed to bring Twilight and her friends to their knees with a combined attack. Twilight dropped her microphone, and Antonius knew that the plan had failed. Time to intervene.

He had just grabbed the edge of the stage and was about to jump when he saw Sunset Shimmer pick up the microphone. The ex-daemon wanted to save the day?
Well, she was having sort of a hard time due to the atrocities she had committed. If she managed to help now, it would be beneficial for her in more than one way.
Antonius grinned. He had become weirdly considerate… perhaps his relationship with Luna gave him sort of a soft spot for redeemed villains…

Be that as it may, the girls still needed a few seconds to be ready again, and he doubted that the sirens would be generous enough to just wait that long.
Indeed, they - respectively their avatars - were charging another attack right now. So, he had to kill them before they killed his friends.
Unless…

A distraction might be enough. If he broke the sirens’ focus, he could buy Twilight and company enough time to try and defeat them with Sunset Shimmer’s help.

So, instead of jumping onto the stage and thrusting his sword into the sirens, he memorized their exact positions and dashed through the still open door under the stage. There, he thrust his sword through the wooden planks that formed the stage, so that it arose immediately in front of the sirens.

Surprised screams were his reward, as well as the insight that his distraction had worked.

“What’s that?” he heard one of the sirens scream.

“Looks like a sword,” another witch answered.

“I can see that, Sonata, but what is going on?” the first siren snapped.

“Quiet, you two!” a third voice shouted,
“the Rainbooms are ready again! This was just a distraction. Hover higher, we’ll take care of the sword-wielder later.”

Now that the battle started anew, this time with Sunset Shimmer, Antonius retrieved his sword and peeked out of the door to see what was going on. The new band member soon turned into a half-pony-hybrid, too, then they all started hovering. Antonius had seen this before, and he knew what it meant: Some powerful rainbow-magic was about to happen.
The girls shot a ray of light skywards. It created a magic sphere and…
…
Seriously?
An alicorn avatar. Made of light and magic.
Wow. This was something he had NOT seen before. It was so sappy and awesome at the same time, it should actually have been impossible.

The alicorn avatar did not waste any time and blasted the sirens’ avatars as well as the witches themselves with a beam that reminded Antonius a little of a volcano cannon. In opposite to the imperial weapon, though, it was nonlethal - at least for the witches. Now they were on their knees, and their necklaces were shattered. That was a good omen.

When they started singing again, Antonius knew that the battle was over. The wicked magic was gone, and their singing sounded aweful. The audience was freed from their spell and started pelting them with food (which they obviously had brought here for some reason). This nutrient assault made the sirens leave the stage in a rather hasty manner - and they fled right in Antonius’ direction. So he took a step back into the darkness and waited.

The witches jumped down from the stage, landing with a severe lack of grace. Defeated and exhausted, they stayed on the ground for a few seconds, then the yellow one muttered:

“One day, we’ll come back for this cursed Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms!”

Well, that was downright a cue, so Antonius left the shadow and said in a matter-of-fact tone:

“Actually, you should thank them.”

The sirens looked up, and there was fear in their eyes. Nice.
To amplify that, he fetched his sword and pointed it at them.

“Had they not defeated you in this shockingly non-lethal manner, you would have gotten to know my sword way better than you would have been comfortable with.”

Having said that, he used his free hand to grab them by their hair (their plaits were really useful for that) and ‘helped’ them regaining their feet. They looked as if they were about to soil the ground.

“What are you going to do with us?” the yellow one cried.

“Please don’t hurt us!” the blue one begged,
“we promise we’ll be nice!”

“Yes!” the third one added,
“this once, I agree with Sonata!”

“It does not belong to me alone to pass judgement on you,” Antonius informed them,
“we’ll wait for the princess.”

“What princess?” Sonata asked.

“This princess,” he said as Twilight and her entourage approached them,
“hello, Twilight. What about those sirens? Should we take them into custody and back to Equestria?”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight replied,
“in Equestria, there’s magic and that could tempt them to cause harm again. Here, and without their pendants, they’re just three harmless teenage girls. You can release them.”

Antonius nodded and turned to the sirens:

“You heard her. Now, the choice is yours: If you should try to take revenge, I will return and you will die - or you can accept defeat and continue your lives as harmless members of this society.”

“If those are our options,” the yellow one said,
“we won’t try to take revenge. We’ll just stay here without causing further trouble.”

“Wise decision,” Antonius remarked and dropped the sirens.

They quickly scurried away into the darkness.

“Now that they’re dealt with,” Sunset said,
“I’d like to have a look at the remnants of those pendants.”

“We’ll join you,” the other girls told her.

“I’ll better stay here,” Antonius stated,
“no need to draw unnecessary attention to myself. Better yet, I’ll return to Equestria, or do you think you’ll still need me?”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight answered,
“and if I do, I’ll just call again. Thank you, Antonius.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot,” Sunset agreed.

After receiving more ‘thank you’s from the other girls, he bowed slightly and wanted to say goodbye, then he remembered that he still had a question:

“Before I forget, was I the only one who thought that Vinyl’s transforming car was somewhat unusual?”

“Now that you mention it,” Sunset replied,
“it certainly wasn’t something you see every day. Getting her to explain it could take some time, however, since she’s not really talkative. If you want, we can try to find out what’s going on with that car and I can write it to Twilight.”

“Okay, sounds good. And now, I’ll return to Equestria. Goodbye!” Antonius said and left.

Back in Twilight’s castle, he was expected by Luna, Rarity and Fluttershy.

“There you are again!” the princess greeted,
“were you able to help Twilight?”

“Where is she?” Rarity added,
“did she not return with you?”

“Yes, still in the other world, and no,” Antonius replied,
“in that order. I just opened a wooden door, stabbed a wooden board and prevented the sirens from escaping until Twilight decided to let them go. All told, nothing too noteworthy. As for Twilight, she wants to spend a little more time with her friends in the other world.”

“So, everything’s okay?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes. I’ll return to Canterlot. Please call me when Twilight returns or if new problems arise.”

So, Antonius and Luna returned to the capital.

“See?” Luna smiled as they were back in his quarters,
“you got your chance to be useful. So, we know that you can defeat megalomaniac centaurs, open wooden doors, stab wooden boards…”

“And detain de-powered teenage girls. Huzzah,” Antonius deadpanned.

“Do not forget your mightiest property.”

“What property?”

“You are cuddly.”

“Huh?”

“Like an oversized teddy bear.”

“Oh, great… well, actually, that probably isn’t the worst of properties… but my cuddliness is still far inferior to yours.”

“So you see the superiority of ponykind?” Luna grinned.

“Ahem…”

“Just kidding. Now, let us rest.”

“Yes,” Antonius agreed,
“Twilight will probably return in a few hours, and we should be well rested by then.”

Luna raised an eyebrow:

“Do you think something is about to happen?”

“I’m not sure… but I have a feeling that there might be more to Twilight’s new castle than meets the eye… I hope such inexplicable hunches are not a bad sign.”

“Perhaps it is a new ability, like a lesser version of my sister’s premonition… or you are just paranoid.”

“Of course I’m paranoid. That’s what keeps me alive.”

“But you died…”

“Well… haven’t been paranoid enough…” Antonius grinned,
“must be more paranoid… what are you hiding behind your back?”

“Umm… nothing… just my wings?”

“AHA! I better inspect them.”

“So… you want a hug?”

“A want to conduct a close inspection… the 100 percent similarity to a hug is just a coincidence…”

“Of course,” Luna smiled and hugged him.

The night went by without incidents. It wasn’t until after breakfast that Twilight herself called Antonius to tell him that everything’s alright.

“So, the sirens didn’t bother you again? No attempt at revenge?” he asked.

“No,” Twilight answered,
“me, Spike and the girls just spent some more time together, then we returned.”

“Good. Any plans for today?”

“Well, I want to find out why I got this castle. I think there must be a reason.”

“I think so, too. I’ll take the Speeder and support your efforts. See you in a few minutes.”

Shortly thereafter, Antonius, Twilight and her friends entered the throne room of the crystal castle. Spike was already inside, taking a nap.

“Let’s go through this one more time,” Twilight said while her friends sat down on their thrones.

“We’ve been over it like a million times, Twilight!” Rainbow sighed,
“we found all six keys, defeated Tirek, and got this sweet castle! End of story!”

“A somewhat abbreviated version,” Antonius added,
“I agree with Twilight. As weird as it may sound, the Tree of Harmony seems to have plans of its own. One of these plans is for some reason built around me, and I think this castle is part of another plan built around Twilight… or rather, all six… seven of you.”

“I dunno,” Applejack opined,
“maybe it’s just Twilight’s new house and there ain’t nothin’ more to it than that.”

While Rarity swooned over the castle and Fluttershy agreed with everypony - even though they had stated contradictory opinions - Antonius tried to use magic to examine the throne room.

“There’s a lot of magic around here,” he told his friends,
“but I can’t say if that’s just the residue of the castle’s creation or if there’s more to it.”

“Hmm… that’s what I found out, too,” Twilight replied,
“I also don’t know if there’s more to the concentration of magic here, but there is one thing I do know: As princess, I’ve been chosen to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. So why would the Tree of Harmony want us to sit in a castle in Ponyville? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Perhaps this is meant to be your headquarters?”

“Maybe, but I’ve found nothing that makes this castle look like ‘headquarters’. For all I could see, it’s just a castle. Magically made of crystal, but still just a castle. As I said, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Having said that, Twilight plopped down onto her throne. Suddenly, the cutie mark symbols on the thrones - and the mares - started glowing.

“‘Sense’ incoming?” Antonius inquired, just as the thrones cast lights on the area between them.

Then, with a lot of rumbling, rows of crystals started growing from the thrones. Within seconds, they met in the center of the room and created a crystal table. Once it was completed, a translucent map came into existence there.

Spike, disturbed by the rumbling, woke up and yawned.

“Is that new?” he asked drowsily, staring at the map,
“I like it.”

The ponies were just as surprised by this new table as Antonius, who asked:

“A magical hololith?”

He tried to touch the map’s objects and noted:

“No substance. A hologram.”

“This is incredible!” Spike, now fully awake, exclaimed as he jumped onto the table,
“it’s got all of Equestria!”

“It’s a map table,” Antonius commented,
“definitely a piece of equipment that belongs in a HQ.”

Now, the mares’ cutie marks started glowing again, and images of the marks came into existence. They hovered above the map, then they came down as if to mark a specific location.

“But if this is Ponyville,” Fluttershy asked, pointing at the image of her town,
“why are our cutie marks over there?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted,
“but it seems like the map wants us to find out. The Tree, the chest, this castle, and now the map. How can we not follow it?”

“So, it seems the Tree of Harmony created this map to send you on missions,” Antonius ventured.

It took the ponies only a few seconds to agree on accepting this pretty obvious mission.

“Do you want me to join you?” Antonius inquired.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Twilight replied,
“and the tree called the six of us specifically… maybe it wouldn’t want you to join us..”

“Hmm… maybe… but take your PDAs with you. Report in every three hours. Should you miss a call, I will try to call you. Should this fail, I’ll assume that you’re in trouble and act accordingly.”

“‘Accordingly’?”

“I’ll take the Land Speeder to get to the marked location. Once there, I’ll fight my way to you and rescue you. While I can’t use the full potential of my sword yet, using it as a normal sword should suffice. And I have seven bolts. Together with my transhuman nature, I should be able to overcome most obstacles.”

“Right… I guess we should better not forget to call on time… or even better, we’ll just call you if we need help.”

“So you assume that you’ll never be separated from your PDAs? That’s a… bold assumption.”

“Antonius, this is Equestria. What is the worst that could happen?”

“Famous last words.”

“Oh, come on. Since I’m the Princess of Friendship, it’s probably just a friendship problem. It’s not like an insane pony is terrorizing the area we’re going to. And don’t forget we have six PDAs with us. One of us will be able to call for help.”

“I’m still not thrilled by your decision, but you ARE a princess. I can’t give you commands.”

“Okay, now that that’s settled, we can get moving. Don’t worry, Antonius. Everything will be fine… but if it soothes you, we’ll call from time to time to report on our progress.”

Twilight and her friends prepared to start their mission, and Antonius returned to Canterlot. There, he quickly made sure that the Speeder was ready for a potential rescue mission, then he concentrated on training with his sword.

He knew how to ignite it using the powers of the warp, and he knew how to use the local magic. So, it should be possible to ignite the sword using magic. He focused on his sword, and the embedded crystal started glowing.

Antonius allowed the magic around him to flow freely to his aid while he called up every detail of the weapon. The engraved runes started shimmering - but that was all that happened.

“Hmm… not too bad, but definitely not a total success,” Antonius grumbled.

Well, there were two ponies he could ask for advice. Since Luna was asleep, he would refer to Celestia. He went to the throne room.

“Hello, Tia,” he greeted as he entered and walked up to her throne,
“I need your advice on magic.”

“With pleasure, Tony!” Celestia smiled.

She generally was happy when she had an opportunity to teach some magic or answer questions about magic. While she preferred non-violent applications, she thankfully had realized that sometimes, you needed to turn plowshares to swords. So, Antonius told her what he had done and what he wanted to achieve.

“Hmm,” she said,
“let’s examine your sword. I think I have an idea what’s wrong.”

They both magically scanned the sword.

“The crystal…” Antonius noted,
“it’s attuned to the energies of the warp…”

“Exactly,” Celestia confirmed,
“that’s why you have problems using the sword’s full potential. But luckily, there is a spell for attuning crystals to magic. In fact, there are several spells, depending on what you want to achieve. Using the most potent one should enable us to attune your sword to our magic - even without loosing the warp attunement.”

“Well, that would be great. Can we start immediately? I want to be ready in case Twilight calls for help.”

“Oh, yes, she sent me a message that she’s going on a mission. That tree never ceases to amaze me… as for the sword, since it’s your weapon, you must attune it to our magic - and to your magic. I can help you, but you’re the one who has to perform the spell. Unfortunately, that could be a problem…”

“You think I’m not yet ready to perform such a high-level spell?”

“To be honest… yes.”

“Hmm… perhaps you’re right. Crap. I need to practice more.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve just started learning magic. Such things take time.”
She started grinning and added:
“Even if you don’t take my usual ‘scenic route’.”

“Thank you, Tia.”

Antonius left the throne room and went to his quarters. Even if he had no chance at using his magic to power up the sword, he still could try to increase his magical prowess. Over time, he would get powerful enough to modify the sword. He was sure of that.

In the afternoon, Luna woke up and they spend some time together. She helped him practice magic, and Antonius soon had mastered some basic spells, albeit with a peculiarity.

“You use your hands a lot,” Luna grinned,
“you wave them around like a stage magician.”

“Oh,” Antonius responded,
“you’re right… I hadn’t realized that… is that bad?”

“No. Just a little… garish. Feel free to continue using your hands, but you should also practice wielding magic without them, just in case your hands are occupied otherwise… with weapons, I mean… for example.”

“Thanks for the clarification, Luna,” Antonius grinned.

The next days, Antonius continued practicing magic, and Celestia even taught him a minor attunement spell, so that he was able to understand the basics of attuning crystals to magic.
Twilight had called from time to time and reported on the progress of their mission, but quite some time had passed he had last heard from her.

“I don’t like that,” he told Luna and Celestia as they were sitting together and having dinner,
“Twilight last called yesterday morning when they had arrived at a little town she thought was their destination.”

“Perhaps she’s busy solving the problem there,” Celestia guessed.

“Or something more sinister might have occurred,” Luna disagreed.

“Of course, encourage him,” Celestia grinned.

“I’ll better call them,” Antonius mumbled.

“Tony, Twilight and her friends can take care of themselves. But if you call them, the call might distract them at a critical moment.”

“Hmm… good point… but maybe…”

Antonius fetched his PDA and called Al.

“Hello, Antonius. How can I be of service?” Al inquired.

“Al,” Antonius started,
“can you reconfigure the PDAs of the Element Bearers so that we can access their sensors?”

“Sure. You want to spy on them?”

“I just want to make sure that they’re okay. They didn’t report in for quite some time, after all, and I don’t want to cause a possible distraction by calling them.”

“Seems prudent. Connecting to Twilight’s PDA… reconfiguring…”

The next moment, the display of Antonius’ PDA changed. There were wooden boards, two or three meters in front of the imager, as well as something that looked like the rim of…

“Another PDA on top of this one?” Antonius wondered,
“somepony heaped them up? Al, switch to another PDA.”

Each PDA showed the same image; they all were lying in a room, disorderly stacked on top of each other.

“Twilight and her friends would never treat their PDAs in such a way,” Antonius stated,
“that means that somepony - or something - has taken the devices away from them, fast enough that they had no chance at calling us.”

“Okay,” Celestia said,
“now I’m starting to get worried.”

“Al, amplify the audio signal, I think I’m hearing something.”

They all listened to the PDA. There was a sound…

“Is there somepony eating?” Luna wondered.

“The PDAs don’t show us, and we can’t be heard, right?” Antonius asked.

“Correct,” Al answered.

“Then make the topmost device emit a sound, a shrill beep or something.”

They heard the beep, then, a wooden chair that was pushed over a wooden floor, and finally, a pony’s head came into view. A unicorn mare with a lilac coat and a purple and teal mane.

“Ugh,” she grumbled,
“those things freak me out. As if their cutie marks weren’t bad enough, they also had those things that made them special… if only I could find out how they work…”

The mare left. According to the sounds, she had returned to her dinner.

“Who in Equestria was that?” Luna shouted,
“what has this villain done to the Element Bearers?”

“And why does she dislike cutie marks?” Celestia added,
“I’ve come across quite a lot of evil ponies over the centuries, but that is new.”

“While we don’t know who that witch is,” Antonius stated,
“what she has done to our friends, or what’s going on in that delusional mind of hers, we do know at least two things: She is the enemy, and she is in a small town to the northeast. I’ll leave immediately.”

Just minutes later, Antonius steered the Land Speeder across the fields that surrounded Mount Canterlot and headed straight towards his destination. While he was traveling, he thought about the witch he was going to challenge.
For her to defeat Twilight, who as an alicorn, after all, and her friends, this mare had to be pretty powerful. Antonius, however, had not learned offensive spells yet. If only there was a way to use his warp-based powers…
Perhaps there was.

If you could attune a crystal to magic, perhaps there was a way to attune his psionic powers to the same magic? He had learned the basics of this attuning, so there might be a chance.
While still rushing towards his destination at top speed, Antonius started tinkering with his powers. Starting with simple telekinesis, he compared warp- and magic-based abilities. And he found a connection.

When the witch’s town came into view, he had made enough progress to be confident that he could show his enemies some righteous wrath.

Antonius choose a surprise attack. While the Speeder wasn’t armed, it still was three and a half tonnes of armored mass that should be devastating when brought into severe contact with a pony, especially at such high speeds.
So he darted into the town, rushing along right between the two rows of houses it consisted of, and straight towards a lonely house at the far end where the inhabitants had gathered for some reason.

Much to his surprise, he also spotted his friends among those ponies, so he slowed down to an abrupt halt just a few meters away from the group and jumped out of the Land Speeder, drawing his sword in the process. The ponies - all but six - yelled with fear and ducked.

“Antonius!” Twilight exclaimed,
“wait! The ponies here are our friends! Don’t hurt them!”

“Friends?” Antonius asked and scanned the group of frightened creatures,
“Where’s the witch? The lilac unicorn?”

“Huh? You know?”

“No time for chitchat, Twilight! Where’s the witch?”

“She’s gone.”

“Eliminated?”

“No, of course not. She fled into the mountains.”

Antonius stared at her.

“You let her escape?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, what should I have done? Hunt her down to kill… that’s exactly what you would have done, isn’t it?”

“Of course! Allowing her to get away just means that you give her a chance at revenge!”

“It also means that I gave her a chance to realize her mistakes!”

“You really are… incorrigible!”

“Well,” Twilight admitted,
“it may not be not the safest option. But I’m sure it’s the right option.”

Antonius sighed.

“I hope you’re right. It’s probably too late now to follow her, anyway.”

A white stallion insecurely cleared his voice and slowly got up:

“Umm… Princess Twilight… is that a friends of yours?”

“Friend, protector, and slayer of evil,” Antonius replied in a matter-of-fact tone and put his sword back on his back.

“Pleasure?” the stallion said.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight laughed,
“Antonius is a good friend, and a really nice creature. Hard shell, soft core, you know?”

“Before you tell them the story of my life,” Antonius deadpanned,
“better tell me what the hell happened.”

So, while the inhabitants of the town were preparing a party to celebrate that they got rid of the witch - named ‘Starlight Glimmer’ - the Element Bearers told Antonius what events had taken place since their last report.

“Quite an adventure,” Antonius remarked,
“I’ll call Celestia and Luna and tell them what happened and that everything’s alright now… to a certain extent.”

When he had done so, the party was about to start. His friends were taking a look at the inhabitants of the town. They seemed truly happy.

“Now those are real smiles,” Pinkie Pie stated.

She had barely said that, as their cutie marks started glowing.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Applejack said.

“I think it’s divine!” Rarity opined.

“A glowing butt is a weird sign of divinity,” Antonius joked, which earned him an eye-roll from Rarity.

“Does that mean that the map is calling us somewhere else?” Fluttershy asked.

“I have a feeling it means our work here is done,” Twilight answered.

While his friends continued talking, Antonius took a look at the mountains. The inhabitants of the town were freed, but the witch was still on the loose. He doubted that she would be so kind and just perish in those mountains, he rather had the feeling that she would cause trouble again. Well, by then, the might of the Golden Age would be at his disposal, so the witch would have to come up with something pretty severe to get them all into dire straits.

“‘Cause that Sugar Belle can bake!” Pinkie shouted and brought Antonius’ thoughts back to the here and now.

“Maybe we can stay a little while longer,” Twilight said,
“come on! Antonius, are you coming, too?”

“Yes,” he replied,
“I’ll keep an eye on you - and if there are baked goods, I can even combine business with pleasure.”