The chariot carrying Antonius, Luna and Stormy arrived at sunset. Shining Armor was already waiting for them, together with Twilight and half a dozen guards.
So Celestia had sent the captain of her guard to meet them? Not the best omen.

"Hello, Princess Luna. Hello, Antonius and Stormy," Shining Armor greeted,
"I have order to take you to Princess Celestia. Stormy, you are supposed to accompany my sister to your quarters."

Oh. Celestia wanted to get rid of the filly? That was a downright bad omen.

Antonius took a look at Luna, but she just shrugged. He knelt down and told Stormy:

"Okay, Stormy, go with Twilight. I'll meet you in our quarters soon."

"Okay," Stormy answered and left with Twilight, her parasprite on her back like she had been carried by Luna not too long ago.

Antonius got up again and covertly unlocked his bolter. He was not keen on picking a fight here, in fact, it was the last thing he wanted to do as it would ruin everything he had achieved until now, but after this welcome he would definitely be alert.

Shining Armor and the guards escorted him and Luna to the throne room and opened the door.
The Space Marine and the princess entered and the door closed behind them. Antonius immediately checked his surroundings.
Nothing. Not even guards. Just Celestia, waiting on her throne.
They stepped up to her and she greeted them with a faint smile:

"Hello, Luna. I thought you would tell him what has happened. Hello, Antonius.
To make one thing clear: I know that the rumors are nonsense. You are our friend. I'm sure of that."

"HUH?" Luna shouted,
"YOU KNOW? Well, I thought that you knew, but after that welcome, I was really worried."

"It was necessary to show everypony that I take this matter serious. Now I want to dispose of those rumors as soon as possible. I already summoned Blueblood."

"So you want to try and convince him that Antonius is not our enemy?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure if Blueblood himself thinks Antonius is our enemy, or if he just wanted payback for being put-down."

"Sabotaging my attempts to save your species because of petty revenge? That's quite... disproportionate," Antonius opined.

"It is," Celestia agreed,
"and that's why I hope we can end this subject here and now."

The door opened again and Blueblood came in.

"You wanted to see me, aunt?" he asked.

"Indeed," Celestia answered,
"it was you who started this rumor, wasn't it?"

"Which rumor do you mean, aunt?"

Oh, he played the fool. Could a fool play the fool at all?

"The rumor that our friend Antonius Varus is an enemy who wants to subject us ponies."

Blueblood pretended to be thinking, then he said:

"Well, that does not sound too far-fetched, does it?"

Boy, that pony was obnoxious. Time for Antonius to join the discussion:

"Tell me, pony, why should I expend that much effort just to subject you? Why pretend to be your friend and not just use force?"

Blueblood turned to him:

"Why should you take something by force when you can make us give it to you voluntarily?"

Antonius suppressed a groan and replied:

"Because it would be much easier for me. You think I belong to an invasion force? Then, I would have a void ship in orbit, containing said invasion force. So, pretending to be your friend and staging the events of the past days would require way more effort than to simply attack you.
First, an orbital bombardment would wipe out your seat of government, disorganizing you, then the ground forces would be deployed to round you up - with air support to catch the pegasi.
I estimate that subjecting you would take about two hours. Perhaps three.
Just wiping you out of existence would be even faster.
Now, do you still think that I am an enemy who takes an 'easy way'?"

Blueblood was downright ashen now and the princesses did not look too cheerful, either. That explanation had obviously been a bit much for them.

"Y... You could... do that?" the princelet finally asked.

"If I was part of an invasion force and your enemy, then yes, of course. All told, the fact that you are still alive to accuse me of being an enemy proves you wrong.
I am not your enemy, quite the opposite. I promised your aunts to help you fight the very real threat of Chaos, and I will keep my promise. Do not let petty thirst for vengeance hamper my efforts."

Blueblood was silent, as were the princesses. It took a while until Celestia said:

"We all thank you for your honesty, Antonius. Prince Blueblood, you may go now, just do not spread your lie further. Let Lord Commander Varus do his work, so that we can hope to survive the return of Chaos."

Blueblood nodded and left. When his steps had faded away, Luna turned to Antonius:

"Were you just trying to frighten him or was this really the truth?"

"Of course it was the truth," Antonius answered,
"what chances do you think a single country on a single planet would have against a pan-galactic empire with our prowess, dedication and advanced technology?"

"Point taken."

Well, that was a little dark to finish their talk, Antonius had to cheer them up a bit:

"On the other hand, imagine being an ally of said empire: If someone tried to attack you, the fool would regret that quickly - and dearly."

"And you are sure your Imperium would see us as allies?" Celestia asked.

"I'll write a detailed report on my findings and your abilities and attitude. If the Imperium arrives some day, this should help you. Ideally, my chapter will find you, then there should be no problems."

"Would be a really bad joke if we defeated Chaos just to be wiped out by your Imperium, wouldn't it?"

"Yep, that would be serious... shit.
Now, don't be pessimistic. The Imperium may have a tendency towards xenophobia, but we're not mindless brutes. So, even if you're found some day, your chances will be quite good.
If you'll excuse me now, I need to tell Stormy that everything is all right."

"I'll join you," Luna said and they left the throne room.

Twilight did her best to keep Stormy busy and distract her from her worries. It did not really work, probably because she had worries herself. She had heard the rumors, but she did not believe - and did not want to believe - that Antonius could be an enemy of ponykind.
They were friends and he had even saved her live at least once. Twice, if you counted Hope. Now, this almost invincible warrior was suddenly a victim, a victim of malevolent whispers. Instead of being grateful, some ponies regarded him with contempt. That was just not fair!

Luckily, Stormy did not know those rumors, but she had of course realized that something was wrong. She clung to Antonius and now she had to witness him being led away by the Royal Guard. Thankfully, Princess Luna was at his side.

Thankfully? Why thankfully?

Antonius was led to Princess Celestia, and the Princess surely knew that those rumors were nonsense. Of course she knew. She was Princess Celestia, after all.

Then, why was Twilight still nervous?

Stormy had her new knitted parasprite in her front hooves. It was time for another attempt at keeping her busy. She had declined playing a board game, perhaps she wanted to read a book? Twilight always was happy when she did that.

"Wanna read a book, Stormy?" Twilight asked as blithely as she could,
"I have a nice book about..."

Twilight stopped talking as she saw the book she had brought. 'Advanced transfiguration spells'? What a stupid choice... she was probably more distressed by this situation than she had thought.

"No, I don't want to read," Stormy (thankfully) answered,
"but you can tell me what is going on."

"I'm sure it's nothing serious. You don't need to worry."

"Yeah? So half a dozen guards and their captain led Antonius away just for fun?"

Hmm, that filly certainly was nopony's fool. Twilight thought about what to answer as there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" she almost shouted, excited to hear any news regarding this messy situation.

The door opened and Antonius and Princess Luna came in. Well, that was a relief.
Stormy jumped up and darted to Antonius. She took off and wrapped her front hooves around his neck.

"Good to see you," Twilight said.

"The same to you," Antonius answered and hugged the filly back.

"Antonius, what is going on? Why did the guards lead you away?" Stormy asked.

Would he tell her?

"Just a misunderstanding. Some pony was worried I could be some sort of villain," he explained.

Well, 'misunderstanding' was a nice way to put it.
Stormy looked thoroughly surprised now.

"What a doofus," she said blatantly.

Luna snickered and Antonius answered with a big smile:

"Yes, absolutely. I really like your assessment of the situation."

"Did you convince him that you are our friend?" Twilight asked, still a bit worried.

"I think so," Antonius replied.

"How did you do that?"

"I just told him what would happen if I really was your enemy."

"And what would happen?"

As Twilight had asked this question, she realized that it was not very intelligent to ask that now. The answer would probably not be very nice and Stormy was here.

"Yeah, what would you do?" the little mare asked.

Great. Twilight had to admit, that was her fault.

"Well," Antonius stated in a matter-of-fact tone,
"we would cuddle you into submission!"

Now he cuddled Stormy, much to her enjoyment. It was actually very nice to see.
When he was done, Stormy smiled at him and asked:

"That is not really what you would do, is it?"

Yep, that filly was definitely cunning.

"To be completely honest, no, not really."

"Good!"

"Good?"

"Yeah, because I only accept cuddles from a friend."

Twilight smiled. That was adorable! Stormy got another cuddle as a reward, then Antonius turned to Twilight:

"Thank you for keeping her company."

"No problem," she answered,
"well, I think I'll retire now."

"Wait!" Stormy exclaimed,
"couldn't we all play the board game you brought?"

"Oh, now you want?"

"Yep."

"Fine, one game, then I'll have to go."

Antonius agreed to join the game. It was quite simple and Antonius was even familiar with it: He knew it as 'Parcheesi'.
What he did not know was Stormy's board game prowess. The little mare almost obliterated Luna, Twilight and him. Until now, he had had no idea that you could lose so badly just by throwing some dice.
So, after this crushing defeat, Twilight said goodnight and left.

"Luna, could you stay a few more minutes? I require your help," Antonius said.

"Of course," Luna answered,
"What's the problem?"

He turned to Stormy:

"Stormy, please open you wings."

Stormy did so, and Luna opined:

"Well, you need preening... Oh, you want me to...?"

"Yes," Antonius answered,
"since you have wings, I thought you should know what to do."

"Yes, I do. Stormy, if you would like me to help you, we will get you wings immaculate again in no time."

Stormy agreed and put her parasprite onto her bed, then both mares sat down on Antonius' bed. Now, Luna started the preening procedure while Antonius watched. An interesting fact was that Luna did barely use her magic, she seemed to prefer doing this manually, or - since she used her muzzle - orally?

However you wanted to call it, she carefully, almost tenderly tended to Stormy's wings. The little mare seemed to enjoy it; she had her eyes closed and seemed to be thoroughly relaxed.
Hmm... he better had to learn this, too.

It took Luna quite a few minutes until all of Stormy's feathers were rearranged, then she told the filly:

"So, Stormy, we're done. Now, get ready for bed, okay?"

Stormy got up and went into the bath, looking very content.

"Hey, Luna," Antonius said,
"can you teach me how to do this? Stormy seemed to really like it."

"Haven't you seen enough to replicate it?"

"Seen, yes, but seeing something and doing something is not quite the same, especially if Stormy is to be my first 'victim'."

"Well, that's true, but Stormy is already freshly preened, and the only wings in this room are... mine... but they are of course immaculate!"

Hmm... weird... Luna seemed to be a little bit agitated.

"I did not want to insult you, I just wanted you to teach me your standard preening procedure," Antonius assured her.

Luna sighed:

"You did not insult me. It's just that... preening is something we wouldn't do in public. That's why I asked Stormy if she was okay with me doing this."

"'In public'? I wouldn't call my room 'in public'."

Luna hesitated a second, then she slowly said:

"Well, you are right... somehow... okay, sit down next to me - and take of you gauntlets."

Antonius did so and Luna put one of her wings onto his thighs. Now, she instructed him what to do and he carefully followed her orders. This was probably the fluffiest thing Antonius had ever done in his entire life.
The wing was done rather quickly and Luna changed over to his other side and put her other wing on his lap.

"Now, try the second wing yourself," she said.

Antonius started preening again. Like Stormy before, Luna looked really relaxed now. Something told him that this preening was more than just a maintenance procedure, but he had no idea how exactly to categorize it.
He finished the wing and nudged Luna.

"Okay, I think I'm done," he told her.

She took a look at her wings.

"Excellent, really good work," she said and sat up,
"but please do not tell anyone that you preened my wings, okay?"

"No problem, but would you please tell me why?"

Luna hesitated again, then she told him:

"Well, preening is... sort of private."

"'Private'?"

"Yes, like... well, would you take a bath in public?"

"No, although I came close to it when the Element Bearers dragged me into this spa. I still get what you mean, though. At least I think so... hey, wait a second... doesn't that mean that I just..."

"No, don't worry. I just taught you how preening works, it's not that serious. Just keep it to yourself, as explaining the circumstances would take a while."

Whoa. Pegasus wings were complicated.

"Anything else I should know about pegasus wings?" Antonius asked.

"Just don't touch them."

Well, perhaps this was an opportunity to get some more information:

"What does it mean if they are unfolded without apparent reason?"

"Can mean a lot of things, impossible to be more precise."

Damnit.

"What about unicorn horns?"

"Concussions can impede the use of magic, so: don't touch them, either."

"You know, for such a hug-loving species, you are quite sensitive," Antonius grinned.

Luna stuck out her tongue for a second, then she smiled back at him.

"You could start with hugging earth ponies if the other kinds are too difficult for you."

"Good idea. I will call Applejack and tell her you ordered me to hug her as an exercise."

"Oh no you won't!" Luna said, still smiling, and playfully punched him.

Yes, they were goofing around again.

"Oh, there is another issue I wanted to talk about," Antonius said.

"What is it?" Luna asked.

"I realized that you use 'bits' as a currency. Now, I don't have any, so I couldn't even buy a little present for Stormy."

"That's all? Just tell the vendor to invoice me with the things you buy. Just do not start buying whole neighborhoods or something like that."

Convenient. Another problem solved.

Now Stormy came out of the bath and yawned.

"Okay, I'm ready for bed," she proclaimed, grabbed her parasprite and crawled into her bed.

Luna looked out of a window.

"It's almost time for the patrol," she stated,
"I bid both of you goodnight. We'll see again tomorrow."

Luna left and Antonius got ready for the night, too. As he went to bed, Stormy asked:

"Antonius?"

"Hmm?"

"Is there someone you admire?"

Well, that question surely was unexpected, but answering honestly couldn't hurt. He thought about it for a second, then he said:

"Yeah, there is. I think the man I admire the most is my chapter master, Marneus Augustus Calgar. He is not just a formidable warrior, but also a great leader and his wisdom matches his fighting prowess."

"Marn... huh?"

"Marneus Augustus Calgar."

Stormy seemed to think about that for a second, then she said:

"You know, I need to give my parasprite a name. I think I will call him 'Calgy'."

WHAT???

Antonius almost burst out laughing. Now, that was a particularly weird surprise. To make things even funnier, this knitted creature was even blue, so the color fit. He chuckled.

"Is that okay?" Stormy asked.

"Sure," Antonius answered, grinning broadly.

So, there they were: Antonius, Stormy - and Calgy the knitted parasprite.
They said goodnight and were soon asleep.

After a restful night, Antonius and Stormy got ready for the day and met the princesses, Twilight and Spike in the dining room. Calgy stayed at home.

After breakfast, Luna went to bed and Spike was sent into the archives to look for information about mankind. Antonius and the other ponies walked down to the armorium.

"I'm curious if our casting of the first engine part worked," Celestia said as they approached the workbench.

She lit her horn and removed the sand out of the frame, then she had a look at the casted component and turned to Antonius:

"Looks good. What do you think?"

He took the engine part and examined it carefully.

"Hmm, a little bit of polishing and the component is ready."

"Excellent! Twilight, please take care of the polishing, I'll build the other molds in the meantime. Antonius, if you want to have a look at the second engine of your Land Speeder, feel free to do so. We should be able to get this done without your help."

"Okay, Tia. Just call me if you need my help."

"TIA?" Twilight blurted.

"Of course," Celestia snickered,
"I am neither Antonius' princess nor his commander, but we are friends, so he calls me by a nickname."

"But... you are an alicorn princess..."

"But still a pony. I enjoy Antonius treating me just like that."

Now Antonius and Stormy left Celestia and the slightly dumbfounded Twilight and went to the Land Speeder. The Space Marine continued his maintenance while the filly got comfortable on one of the seats.

He had just taken out the second engine as he heard another pony enter the armorium.

"I'm sorry to disturb, Princess, but we need you in the throne room," the pony said,
"there is a dispute you need to settle."

"I'll have a look at the matter. Twilight, please continue building the molds while I am gone."

"Of course, Princess," Twilight answered.

Antonius heard Celestia and the other pony leave and attended to the engine again.

Some time had passed when he heard strange noises coming from the armorium. It sounded like Twilight, but what exactly she was doing was beyond his grasp.

"Stormy, could you please have a look what Twilight is doing?" he asked.

"Okay," she answered, jumped out of the Land Speeder and walked to the door to the armorium.

She took a look, turned around and ran back to Antonius with a confused expression.

"Twilight is lying on the ground, mumbling something and petting her tail," she reported.

"Twilight is what?" Antonius asked incredulously and got up.

He entered the armorium and found everything just as Stormy had described. Twilight mumbled something like:

"I can't do it. I'm failing. I'm a failure..."

Huh? What was going on?

"Twilight?" he asked.

She did not react, so he went over to her and picked her up. As she was hanging in his grip, her mane a complete mess, she stared at him with a almost panicky expression.

"What is wrong, Twilight?"

"I can't do it!"

"You can't do what?"

"The molds! I can't create a stable hard light construct! It keeps collapsing! I'll disappoint the princess! She'll send me back to magic kindergarten!"

"HUH???"

"Look!"

Twilight lit her horn and created a hard light construct from the plans Celestia had made. Then, she put it into a wooden frame and filled it with sand. Unfortunately, the sand trickled into the space of the construct.

"See? I can't do it! I'm a failure!"

Wow. Twilight was really stressed out. Time to intervene.

"Easy, Twilight. If you have problems with these hard light constructs, just build the wooden frames for the molds. That way, you would still contribute to our efforts without overexerting yourself."

Twilight stared at him.

"WHAT? I am supposed to build the molds, not just the frames! But I'm failing! I'll be sent back to magic kindergarten! I will lose all of my friends!"

She started hyperventilating.

"Okay, that's enough. You'll take a break now!" Antonius commanded and carried her into the hangar.

"NO! I must build the molds!" she screamed.

"Shut up and enjoy your break," Antonius said firmly.

As he passed the control panel, he hit the button to open the hangar door. It slid into the wall and he sat down in the opening. Twilight was sitting on his lap, pinned to his chest by his hand to prevent her from doing something stupid.

"Take a deep breath and calm down," he ordered her.

"But I must..."

"You must take a deep breath and calm down, nothing else."

It did not really work. She was still tensed up and her heartbeat was raised.
How could you get a pony to relax to prevent her from snapping? Antonius thought about everything he knew about this little creatures, until he remembered the old pictures.
Unconventional, but worth a try.

He slowly and carefully started stroking Twilight's head, down her neck to her shoulders.
It worked. She slowly started to become quieter. He could feel her heartbeat slow down, until it felt normal again.
Finally, she sighed and asked:

"You are stroking me to help me calm down?"

"It works, doesn't it?"

"Hmm..."

Twilight relaxed now and leaned back a bit.

"What will Princess Celestia say when she sees the unfinished molds?" she asked.

"Don't worry. I'll just tell her I needed someone to cuddle and dragged you away or something like that," Antonius quipped.

"Huh?"

"I think that's totally believable," Stormy, sitting next to Antonius, opined.

"If you say so, Stormy," Twilight snickered.

With Twilight feeling better, Antonius stopped the stroking. They stayed seated a few more minutes, though, as Twilight made no move to get up.

Then they heard hoof steps approaching and Twilight jumped onto the ground and ran back to the armorium. Antonius and Stormy followed her.

"Twilight?" Celestia asked.

Before she could reply, Antonius said:

"Yeah, I had to borrow her for a little while."

Of course, Twilight blew this excuse:

"No, Princess, it's my fault. I couldn't create stable hard light constructs and got a bit... tensed up. Antonius helped me to calm down again. Sorry that I have failed you."

She hung her head low. Celestia looked honestly surprised now. She also lowered her head and carefully lifted Twilight's with her hoof.

"Twilight, my most faithful student," she said in a warm, caring tone,
"this is actually my fault. I expressed myself too mistakably. I wanted you to build the wooden frames..."

Hmm, hadn't there been someone who had suggested to do something like that?

"...You are exceptionally talented, but those constructs are high level magic and still too difficult for you to create. Come now, let's continue our work."

Twilight went to the workbench. Celestia smiled at Antonius and nodded approvingly, then she followed her.
Antonius and Stormy returned to the Land Speeder and continued the maintenance.

Luckily, the second engine was in a similar good state as the first one. Once he had reinstalled it, the next step would be to take a look at the steering and the electrics.

Before he could start, however, he heard another pony enter the armorium.

"Here is the lunch you requested, Princess," the pony said,
"is there anything else I can do?"

"No, thank you," Celestia answered,
"you may go back upstairs."

She had the lunch brought here? Antonius liked that, as it would minimize the time he had to pause his work.

Now, Celestia and Twilight came into the hangar, accompanied by a fairly big picnic basket floating in the air, a coiled blanket on top, surrounded by a yellow glow.

"Lunch time!" Celestia proclaimed,
"I hope you like a picnic? I thought it would be a good idea."

"I'm perfectly fine with that," Antonius assured her.

"Excellent! Let's go over to the outer door, we can enjoy the view and get a little fresh air there."

Soon they were all sitting on the picnic blanket and enjoying the food and drink.

"How does you maintenance go?" Celestia asked Antonius.

"Very good," he told her,
"the second engine is in good shape, I just need to reassemble and reinstall it."

"Nice to hear that. Once you're ready, could you join us? We will soon have finished building the molds and would appreciate your help for the casting process."

"Of course."

A short time later, Twilight asked:

"It's a nice picnic, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Antonius agreed,
"I'd have never thought that I would have a picnic in an imperial hangar."

With a bunch of xenos he actually called his friends, to make things even weirder.

"Multipurpose hall," Celestia quipped.

"Sort of," Antonius answered and continued eating his salad.

After a cake-heavy dessert, they went back to their work.
Antonius was just busy reconnecting the engine to the Land Speeder as Stormy asked:

"Antonius, can I do anything to help you?"

"Not at the moment," he answered.

"Oh, okay," Stormy answered disappointedly.

Hmm... of course she was bored by this maintenance, she had just sat around until now. Perhaps he could find something to do for her. Reinstalling the engine was too complicated, she couldn't help there. He looked around and found the Stormbird. That would work.

"Stormy, if you want something to do, come and follow me," he said and paused his work.

Antonius and Stormy went over to the dropship and he told her:

"You see the four engines?"

"Those thingies with the fans?"

"Exactly. Fly up to them and try to rotate the fans, but be careful. Try to neither damage the fans nor yourself," he said with a smile.

"As good as done," Stormy grinned and started.

She flew to the first engine, sat down on its rim and tried to move the rotor blades.

"Works!" she exclaimed as the engine started rotating.

"Very good. Now, the next one, please."

Stormy continued with the second engine, with the same result: The bearings were okay. Stormy flew to engine number three.
Antonius smiled. Imperial technology was as durable as anyone could wish. Really, there was no better...

"This one's broken!" Stormy exclaimed.

Antonius' smile was gone. Of course. Would have been too easy, wouldn't it?

"Doesn't move at all?" he asked.

"Not the tiniest little bit," Stormy answered.

"Okay, number four, please."

Stormy tested the last engine. It worked. She came back to Antonius and said:

"Three out of four. Not that bad, is it?"

"No, not bad at all."

Antonius wasn't even lying. These tests had mainly been to give Stormy something to do as maintaining a Stormbird was beyond his abilities anyway. It still bugged him a bit that a part of this revered technology had surrendered to the ravages of time.

"Let's go back to the Land Speeder and continue our work there, shall we?" he asked.

"Okay," Stormy answered.

When Antonius had completed reinstalling the engine, he and his little protégée went into the armorium to have a look at Celestia's and Twilight's progress.

"Ah, Antonius!" Celestia beamed,
"excellent timing! We have just finished the last mold. And have a look at this!"

Hmm. Celestia really seemed to have fun working on this project. Perhaps this diversion from her normal duties was actually good for her. Working vacation, so to say.
Whatever the case might be, now she was nodding towards Twilight, and the unicorn hovered the already casted and now neatly polished engine part over to him. He grabbed it and examined it closely.

"Looks good, very good indeed. If we can keep up this quality for the other parts, we will soon have a functional combustion engine," he declared.

"We certainly hope so. The molds are ready, so you could activate the smelter," Celestia said.

Antonius lit some incense sticks that were lying nearby, prepared the smelter and activated it.
When the metal was molten, they casted the remaining engine parts.

"Done," Antonius finally said.

"Very good," Celestia opined,
"now we have to wait until the day after tomorrow to remove the molds and have a look at the parts, right?"

"Right."

"Then, tomorrow I will attend to my duties. Twilight, feel free to take a day off. Of course, this applies to Spike, too."

"Spike and I could continue searching the archives, Princess," Twilight suggested.

"If you want to, the archives will be at your disposal," Celestia smiled, then she turned to Antonius:

"What are you going to do tomorrow? Is the second engine ready?"

"It is," he answered,
"I can have a look at the elec..."

He stopped as he felt a little hoof nudge his shin. Looking down, he saw Stormy, giving him puppy dog eyes. He sighed.

"Or, we could visit Ponyville - yet again."

Stormy nodded enthusiastically. Celestia and Twilight laughed.

"Let's go upstairs," Celestia suggested, still smiling,
"dinner will be ready soon and Luna will also wake up any moment now."

Antonius closed the hangar door and they left the base. After closing the main door, they went to the dining room. Spike and Luna were already waiting for them.

"Hello you four," Luna greeted,
"did you have a successful day?"

After telling her and Spike what they had accomplished, dinner was ready.

"Spike, did you find any new information about mankind?" Antonius asked.

"No," the dragon answered,
"but the archives are huge. It may take a while to find something useful."

"No problem, take your time. I won't leave anytime soon, anyway."

"I hope you won't leave at all," Stormy said.

Antonius smiled at her.

"Certainly possible. Almost probable," he told her.

"Swell," she stated contently.

The other ponies and Spike looked a bit uncomfortable now. Of course, they understood the implications. Stormy, despite her obvious intelligence, was still a bit young. To her, Equestria was 'home', and why should anyone want to leave 'home'?
Well, as mattes stood now, Equestria would also be Antonius' home from now on, his 'home away from home'. He had to admit, if there wasn't his duty, if Chaos and all the malevolent xenos were gone, and if mankind lived in peace amongst the stars, this planet would be a place he could enjoy.
Unfortunately, humanity was not safe. There were still countless evils lurking in the void, waiting to eradicate everything he had sworn to protect. So, no leaning back and being content. If he found a way back to the Imperium, he would use it as soon as his liability towards the ponies would allow it. Just as his sense of duty and honor told him.

After dinner, Celestia left for some government business, while Antonius and Luna had another training fight, with Twilight and Stormy as spectators. Once this was done, they spent some more time together, until it was time for Stormy to retire. Antonius and the filly bid goodnight and went to their quarters.

Stormy was already sleeping - and cuddling Calgy - and Antonius was in the bathroom, wearing his pajama pants and inspecting his torso's neural interfaces as he heard a quiet knock at the door. He immediately went to open it to prevent this visitor from waking up Stormy. To his surprise, it was Celestia.

"Hello, Antonius. May I come in?" she asked.

"Of course," he answered and made way for her.

Once the door was closed, Celestia took a scrutinizing look at Antonius and slowly circled him.
Okay, what was she up to now? He would certainly find out soon; this feeling of impending doom was a clear sign.

"My goodness," she finally said,
"Antonius, are you allergic to something?"

"Huh? Allergic? Me? No, what makes you think so?"

"Just look at you! Your whole body is totally swollen!"

What? Swollen?

When Celestia could barely contain a laugh, Antonius knew she was just goofing around again, and he finally understood what she meant. He smiled back.

"Don't worry, I'm going to cover my swollen-ness for you."

Having said that, he went into the bath and donned his pajama jacket. As he came back, he grinned:

"So, better. Sorry for disgusting you with my 'furlessness'."

Celestia immediately and a bit hastily answered:

"Oh no, you did not disgust me, not at all. You're looking good. No, didn't mean to say that!"

Celestia started blushing a bit, and Antonius raised an eyebrow and asked:

"So, I don't look good?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean, umm... don't get me wrong, I don't want to say that you are not looking good in a certain way, but... umm... crap."

Her blush deepened. Yes, she definitely was Luna's sister.

Now it was Antonius who could barely contain a laugh.

"It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who has problems handling that sort of jokes. But now, jokes apart, why did you want to see me?"

"I wanted to thank you for helping Twilight today. She's always so afraid of disappointing me..."

"Hmm. I just wonder why. She was afraid of being sent to 'magic kindergarten' and subsequently losing all of her friends."

Celestia nodded.

"Hmm. It's not the first time she's been afraid of this. I just wonder what I've done to cause such a irrational fear. Months ago, she was afraid I would banish one of her friends and throw her in a dungeon in the place I banished her."

Antonius stared at Celestia.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's true," Celestia answered.

"Seriously, Tia, are you known for cruel or weird punishments?"

"NO!"

Now Celestia swallowed hard, then she continued quietly:

"I just banished my little sister to the moon."

Ouch. Antonius knew that Luna had a fully grown guilt complex, but Celestia also seemed to be rather prone to this.
Sisters, for better or worse.

"As far as I know, you banished a daemon, not directly your sister, and you did not have much of a choice."

"I didn't. But for a thousand years, and even now, there are questions I keep asking myself: Was there really nothing I could have done? Could I not have seen Luna's condition? Could I not have helped her before she got corrupted? Nightmare Moon is not just Luna's fault, it's also mine. But I digress..."

Antonius could see that Celestia was biting back tears. He knelt down and put a hand on her neck.

"Do not worry about the past," he told her,
"and let go of your remorse. It's just a waste of energy."

"What about the future? If the nightmare is a descendant of Chaos, and Chaos returns, they might try to corrupt Luna again."

"You don't need to worry about that, either. I promised Luna to protect her from Chaos and the nightmare, and you can believe me I will keep my word."

Celestia looked surprised now.

"You have promised to protect her?"

"I have."

A smile appeared on her face.

"Thank you," she said,
"you are a good pony."

Oh my, that 'compliment' again!

"I see no reason for insulting me," Antonius deadpanned.

Celestia laughed and turned around to leave.

"Again, thank you for helping Twilight. A little fresh air and some distraction can really do wonders."

"They can indeed."

Especially if they were accompanied by a little stroking.

Celestia left and Antonius went to bed. Before falling asleep, he thought about Ultramar.
Would he ever return to continue his duties there? Unlikely, he was too far away.
Would they even look for him? No, of course not. He was on a exploding ship, they had to think he was dead.
Well, he could still do his duty by fighting Chaos on this remote planet.
Nobody in the Realm of Ultramar would remember his actions here, but not every Ultramarine could become a hero, right?