They spent the rest of the afternoon in a richly decorated room with a large, also decorated conifer and a lit fireplace. There were stories, small talk, pastries and cider. Then, after dinner, they all gathered in front of the conifer.

"I know that ponies usually don't open their Hearth's Warming presents until tomorrow," Celestia said,
"but since we are all together today, I suggest we open them this evening, starting with the youngest pony, Stormy Skies!"

"This is a great idea!" Stormy grinned.

Celestia waved a hoof and a few servants came in, carrying a multitude of presents. They put them under the tree, bowed and left.

"Your turn, Stormy," Celestia smiled.

The filly darted towards the presents, a huge smile on her face. It did not take her long to find what she was looking for.

"To: Stormy, From Antonius," she read the label, grinned and opened the present.

Antonius was curious what Stormy would think of his little gift. He certainly had not a lot of experience in coming up with presents, but he was sure his idea had been good, and he had trusted Fluttershy to realize this idea.
He had been right.
Stormy pulled a blue plushie out of the small box, but not just any plushie: it was a custom made Space Marine plushie, knitted by Fluttershy.
Stormy laughed and hugged her present, while the other ponies and Spike grinned or snickered.

"Thank you!" Stormy said.

"I thought it could be useful if you feel the urge to hug a Space Marine and I'm not around," Antonius grinned.

"I'll call him 'Tony'," Stormy declared and put the plushie onto her back like a rider, holding it - or him - in place with her wings and continued looking for something with her name on it.

She got a little knickknack from everypony, then Moonlight and Blackwing came out with their main present:

"Stormy," the newly minted mother asked,
"what would you say if we moved to Ponyville, so that you could spend more time with your friends?"

Stormy stared at her in total surprise, then she ran up to her and hugged her and Blackwing.

"That would be great!" she shouted,
"but... will I still be able to see Antonius and Princess Luna?"

"Of course," Luna told her,
"Ponyville is not far away, and in addition to that, we will meet in your dreams."

"And as soon as the Land Speeder is operational, the journey to Ponyville will just take a few minutes," Antonius added.

"It will?" Rainbow Dash asked in surprise.

Antonius just grinned as an answer. He would show her that human technology could be a more than adequate replacement of the ponies' magic-enhanced... everything.

"I'm already looking forward to the first trip," Luna said.

"Remember that I already booked the second!" Twilight remarked.

"Don't worry," Antonius replied,
"I haven't forgotten. As soon as I have tested the Speeder, everypony who wants to will get a ride."

After several expressions of interest, Celestia said:

"Now, I think it's Antonius' turn to open his presents."

"Okay," Antonius agreed and started looking.

He quickly found his first gift; it had the shape of a hastily wrapped cylinder.

"That's mine for you," Rainbow said.

Antonius unwrapped it and found a dumbbell. Certainly a nice idea, a little small and light, perhaps, but it would certainly be useful.

"Thank you," Antonius smiled and fetched the next present, rectangular and much bigger than the first.

"Mine for you," Twilight told him.

It was a twelve-volume encyclopedia about Equestria and its neighbors. Well, that would definitely come in handy sooner or later. Knowledge was power, after all.

Antonius said thanks and grabbed the next present, this time from Pinkie Pie. After unwrapping, he saw that it was a transparent plastic bucket, about the size of his palm, with a black lid, that contained a viscous blue liquid. It was labeled

"'Ultramarines Blue'?"

"Yes!" Pinkie beamed,
"I thought you could mend the scratches on your armor with it. Do you like it?"

"Definitely. The hue is perfect. Thank you."

How did she... No. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Or a paint bucket.

The next present was Applejack's. A black stetson, big enough to fit him.

"To protect you from the sun, if you want to help me on the farm again someday, for example," she explained.

"To protect me from the sun?" Antonius asked with a grin.

He had a quite stupid idea, and he couldn't keep himself from doing it: He grabbed the hat like a shield, and took a defensive stance towards Celestia. She just looked at him in confusion.
Antonius then turned back to Applejack and told her:

"Works. Wasn't attacked."

Luna laughed, the other ponies snickered. Even Celestia obviously found it funny.

Antonius put his hat to his other presents and opened the next one. It was a bathrobe, following the Ultramarines color pattern, just like the other clothes he had gotten earlier.

"I hope you like it," Rarity said,
"I have to admit, I'm really starting to grow fond of this compilation of colors.

Antonius said thanks and opened Fluttershy's present. It was a mug in the shape of an oversized squirrel; the creature's tail was the mug's handle.

"Umm... I must admit that I had problems finding a good present, but I thought you could use something nice to drink from," she said.

"Certainly. Thank you," Antonius responded.

Now he grabbed two boxes, a particularly big one and a small one, tied together with a dark blue ribbon.

"Mine for you," Luna beamed.

Antonius opened the small box first: It was a silver pendant, or probably a keychain, in the shape of Luna's cutie mark.
He said thanks, then, he opened the large box. He took a look inside it and said:

"Now what do we have here..."

Now, he pulled a sword out of the box, about as long and broad as his old, lost gladius had been.
Moonlight whistled, and everypony except the princesses was astonished.
The sword's crossguard looked like a crescent moon, and this symbol was repeated on various spots on the weapon. Fine lines, apparently made of crystal, were running along the blade. It really was a beautiful sword, and now Antonius wanted to test it. He picked up some wrapping paper and cut it without problem. Yes, it was perfectly sharp.
Suddenly, Luna lit her horn, and the crystal lines, as well as the sword's edge, started glowing.

"Try that again," she told Antonius.

He picked up some more paper and tried to cut it. This time, it did not work. He immediately examined the sword's edge.

"Blunt," he noted.

"Yeah," Luna smiled,
"that way, we can fight without you having to use your chainsword, and the risk of injuries will be greatly reduced, too. Without the enchantment, however..."
She lit her horn again and the glow vanished,
"... you still have a masterly crafted sword, probably one of the finest ever made in Equestria... and I helped forging it!"

Antonius made a few swings and twirled the sword in the air. It was perfectly balanced. He nodded approvingly:

"A really fine weapon, very convenient, well made... and marvelous. Thank you very much."

"Best present ever!" Pinkie shouted.

"Err... I don't think I should rank the presents I get," Antonius said cautiously.

"Nonsense! Presents from you special somepony are always the best!" Stormy exclaimed.

Everypony looked at her, then they turned to Antonius and Luna and finally back to Stormy.
Well, that was a little awkward.

"Yes!" the filly declared proudly,
"I didn't want them to be alone, so I set them up. Successfully!"

Her grin was so broad that she had to close her eyes to make it fit her face. The ponies stared at the new 'couple', and Antonius and Luna used this opportunity to wink at them and roll their eyes. Thankfully, they seemed to understand what was going on. They smiled and nodded.

"Now that it's official, you could at least put your arm around my sister," Celestia smiled.

Both Antonius and Luna gave her the evil eye, then he adopted Celestia's proposal. She smiled broadly and continued:

"Well, if you could maybe break free from Luna for a second, you could open my present!"

Antonius grumbled silently and did as he was told. Celestia really had way to much fun with this.
Her present, however, was also rather large and contained a canvas, depicting the galaxy as they had seen it when they had opened the veil.

"That is a great present, too," Antonius said,
"thank you very much."

"Glad you like it, and there is more for you, for Luna, and admittedly also for myself: A room has been redesigned and turned into a gym with equipment appropriately sized for the three of us. I thought it would help in our training, especially once you are done training the PDF."

"Good thought," Antonius agreed,
"we could start..."

"After the holidays," Celestia finished,
"that will also be an opportunity to work one or two pounds off..."

Antonius grinned:

"Agreed. Now, I think it's time for the princesses to open their presents."

"Go ahead, please!" Celestia told Luna, and the Princess of the Night started unwrapping her presents. Then, she had Antonius' present in her hooves.

"Oh?" she asked in amazement,
"what could that be?"

"I suggest you open it," Celestia grinned.

Luna did that and got her new socks, silver and dark blue. She looked amazed.

"Umm... for my legs, right?"

"Correct," Antonius confirmed,
"I was told they are great casual wear for ponies, and a thing I knew you did not have yet."

"Well, thank you," Luna said and hugged him,
"I'll try them on later," she added in a whisper.

After opening the rest of her presents, it was Celestia's turn. The first present she fetched was a scroll Antonius was familiar with. She read it and started smiling.

"It may not be much," Antonius said when she had finished reading,
"but I hope it is a suitable present."

Celestia walked up to him and hugged him.

"It's a perfect present, thank you."

It took quite a while until everypony had opened their presents, but when it was done, they were all content and happy.

"So, you really don't mind getting no present from me," Antonius noted.

"Not at all," Twilight smiled, then she added:
"but if you want to, you could read 'A Hearth's Warming Tale' to us. It's my favorite Hearth's Warming Eve story!"

"Okay, if we can find a book which contains that story, that is."

"No problem," Celestia said and lit her horn.

She took a book out of one of the room's bookshelves and hovered it over to Antonius. He grabbed it and asked:

"Could you give me a few seconds to skim through the text? I would like to know what it is about before reading it to you."

Antonius quickly paged through the story. Oh, there was some singing... perhaps he could avoid that.

"Hmm... shall I just read it to you or do you want to do a play reading? Your pageant this afternoon was really good, after all."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Pinkie cheered,
"I'll play the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents!"

Soon, the other characters were allotted, too:
Antonius was the narrator, Twilight Snowfall Frost. Applejack filled the role of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past and Luna completed the spirits by taking over the part of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet To come. Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy choose minor rolls while Celestia voiced the character of Twilight's - respectively Snowfall Frost's - less than friendly professor.
They all started reading.

It was a really good story, and the ponies played their characters immaculately. Antonius had to admit, however, that he was especially fascinated by Luna's singing. Again. The first time had been in Coltport, when they had paid Moonlight a visit. Back then, it had been a soft and nice lullaby for Stormy, now, it was a much darker song about strife and despair. That a pony digressed so much from the species' usual behavior and wrote such a song told him again how serious they took the matter.

After the story was at an end, Twilight opined:

"That was a great way to read the story! Although you managed to avoid every single song, Antonius."

Crap, she had found out.

"This is probably a coincidence," Antonius told her,
"and it certainly is better for your ears."

"Sooner or later we'll get you!" Twilight laughed.

They had some more fun - and more treats, then Stormy yawned and Moonlight said:

"Well, it is getting late. Stormy is tired..."

"No," Stormy quickly interjected.

"... and I honestly could use some rest, too. I think I'll retire. Stormy, what about you?"

Stormy yawned again.

"Okay, you are right. I'll go to bed," she said.

"I'll retire, too," Blackwing added.

The three ponies said goodnight and left, Stormy still with her little Space Marine on her back.

Twilight really was content and happy. This had really been an outstanding Hearth's Warming. Even Antonius had obviously enjoyed it. At the moment, he was watching the batponies and Stormy leave with a smile on his face.

Twilight turned to her friends, just in time to see Rarity put a mistletoe onto her horn.

"What are you doing? Take that off!" she whispered.

"Relax, darling," Rarity chuckled,
"that's a Hearth's Warming tradition, isn't it?"

Oh dear.

Antonius turned back again and spotted what Rarity had done. He pointed at her mistletoe and said:

"Hey, that's a mistletoe, right? You have a tradition about a certain conduct if such a twig is attached to a ceiling."

Oh? He knew?

"That's right," Rarity grinned,
"and the same 'conduct' is valid if a mistletoe is attached to a unicorn's horn."

"Aha. And who is supposed to participate in this tradition in this case?"

Please don't tell him he is supposed to be...

"What about you?" Rarity smiled.

Oh dear. Oh dear.

"Hmm," Antonius said,
"well, okay. Celebrating your holiday your way has been quite successful so far. Just a question: Do you follow the traditional way?"

Huh? 'Traditional way'?

"Uh-oh," Luna whispered, her eyes widening.

What was going on?

"Umm... yes," Rarity answered.

Twilight was sure her friend also had no idea what the meaning of that question was. Luna probably knew.

"As you wish," Antonius replied and got up.

Rarity also got up and walked toward him. He picked her up and...

"Whoa!" Applejack shouted.

"What the?" Rainbow gasped.

Fluttershy went crimson and Spike just stared at them.

Princess Luna also stared, but it was more one of those 'what have I done?' stares, which did not really make sense.

"That's the spirit!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

Well, at least one pony found that just funny...
Two. Two ponies. Twilight could hardly believe it, but Princess Celestia was obviously trying not to burst out laughing!
Twilight was thoroughly confused. The whole situation went over her head. Far over her head.

Antonius had just completed this instance of the mistletoe tradition and his Omophagea was feeding the results into his brain: no sign of familiarity.
Well, that was intriguing. A different result. Perhaps alicorns were the only pony kind that had this familiarity in their genes? But why?
This actually required further studies, but he could not run around kissing ponies of all kinds, not even with this strange tradition they had.

Rarity was still hanging in his grip, looking a little bit worn out.

"My goodness," she mumbled,
"I really should visit your planet sometime."

Huh?

Suddenly, a golden glow surrounded Rarity's mistletoe and took it off her horn.

"This is obviously too dangerous as long as Antonius is around," Celestia grinned and put it onto a small drawer nearby.

Antonius put Rarity down again and asked:

"What do you mean by that? Did I make a mistake? I just honored your tradition."

"Well, Tony, to be honest..." Luna started, but was interrupted by Celestia:

"I assure you, everything is fine, and you honored this tradition excellently. Now, let's continue the less physical merriment."

Rarity stumbled back to her friends, who started chuckling, then the festivities continued. Antonius noticed that Spike sometimes gave him an evil eye, and Rarity winked at him with a grin once. Her friends noticed that, and they imitated this behavior with a chuckle.

Some time later - it was already close to midnight - Twilight and her friends said goodnight and retired, leaving just Antonius and the princesses in the room.

"Alas, my duties are waiting for me. Will the two of you be able to spend an hour without my presence?" Luna inquired.

"Sure, Luna. We'll wait for you right here," Celestia answered.

Antonius escorted Luna to the door and asked:

"Do you need my help?"

"No, thank you. I will just take a quick flight above Canterlot and Ponyville and check the ponies' dreams. I will be back soon."

Luna left and Antonius returned to Celestia. As he approached her, he froze. She had put on Rarity's mistletoe, and she had an incredibly innocent expression upon her face - just like her sister had had earlier.

"Et tu?" he asked.

"I sort of like traditions," she answered innocently.

Well, seemed his Omophagea would get another opportunity to analyze an alicorn. Although it was actually convenient, he was also a little glad that Hearth's Warming was just once per year.

After honoring the ponies traditions once more, he was curious for the result: Celestia's DNA also had this bit of familiarity, just as Luna's. So, his Omophagea probably was fully functional. It was the alicorns. A Genetor would maybe be able to solve this riddle, Antonius wasn't. He had to hope that he would stumble upon the answer somehow, or this would remain a mystery. Well, it would not be the only one.

Thankfully, Celestia put the mistletoe away, and now they just talked until she fell asleep on the carpet in front of the fireplace. The room was silent now, save for the crackling of the fire and Celestia's quiet breathing, and Antonius took a look at some of his new books to pass the time.

It did not take long until the door opened and interrupted his reading. Luna had returned and walked up to him as he put the book away.

"So, our subjects are safe and dreaming happy dreams," she stated, then she noticed that her sister was already sleeping.

"Not enough stamina, eh?" she chuckled.

"Should we tuck her in?" Antonius asked.

"We would only wake her up. No, we'll let her sleep. What about you? Tired?"

"No."

Luna scratched her chin.

"Then, what could we do? I know! I can finally try on my new socks!"

She walked up to her presents and fetched them with her magic.

"Now, which one goes to which leg?"

"Well, right or left should not matter," Antonius opined,
"but the socks for your rear legs should have a wider opening than the ones for your front legs."

Luna tilted her head a bit.

"Did you just call my thighs fat?"

Uh-oh...

"No! Just... buff... athletic?"

"That's better," Luna laughed,
"and by the way: you are right, two of them have wider openings."

She put the socks on and turned around.

"And? Do they suit me?" she asked.

"I think so," Antonius answered.

Luna walked up and down a few times.

"Zounds! They really are comfy!" she stated, then she walked up to Antonius and hugged him.
"Thanks again," she said,
"and... there is something I need to tell you. I just hope you don't get angry..."

"What is it?"

"Well," she started hesitantly,
"about this mistletoe tradition... tradition does not actually demand a 'big kiss', I sort of... made this up."

She looked quite embarrassed now, but Antonius just said calmly:

"I thought that something was amiss with this tradition, but no real harm was done and, in all honesty, I even gained some information about your DNA."

"Huh?"

"I have an implant called 'Omophagea', which allows me to analyze DNA. Because of your 'big kisses' I had some opportunities to use it."

"Oh? Then... what results did you get?"

"While Rarity's results were no surprise, yours and your sister's were."

"My sister's? Oh, I get it. Rarity's mistletoe."

"Correct, but bear her no ill will. It was actually useful, since I could verify your result."

"And that result was?"

"A bit of familiarity."

Luna looked thoroughly surprised:

"Familiarity? What do you mean by that?"

"It's hard to explain. There seem to be some aspects of your genome that I have encountered before. The best term to describe it is 'familiarity'."

"But... how can you be familiar with alicorns? That does not make any sense!"

"I know. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Sort of. Do we have a chance to figure out this conundrum?"

"I don't think so. The Omophagea works best with blood or flesh, though, but I refuse to bite anypony. And even if we got some blood or something, I couldn't guarantee it would work."

Luna though about that for a while, then she said:

"Well, I think it is worth a try."

She fetched Antonius' new sword with her magic and rolled down the sock on her left front leg.

"Hmm... I didn't think this sword would ever really draw blood - especially not yours!" Antonius opined.

"Do not worry about that," Luna deadpanned,
"it already has."

"Huh?"

"Let us say I had a little accident while testing its sharpness. Now, would you please start? Without cutting my leg off, if possible?"

Antonius took the sword from Luna and inflicted a little cut on her leg. The, he sucked blood out of the wound and the Omophagea started working once more. The results were clearer now, but not less confusing.

"And?" Luna wanted to know.

"Usually, the implant reads the evolutionary adaptations to a creature's environment and transmits them to the brain as a series of memories and experiences," Antonius explained,
"but here, something is... off. The results don't make much sense, the adaptations seem... somewhat arbitrary. I cannot think of an environment that would cause them. But at least, I got a little more information about this strange familiarity."

"That is good news. Please tell me," Luna said, healed the little cut and rolled up her sock again.

"Well, Luna, what are you compared to 'normal' ponies, you know, of the three main kinds?"

"I am bigger, faster, more powerful... and perhaps a little more beautiful," Luna grinned.

"Yes," Antonius confirmed.

Luna's grin grew.

"Umm... I mean... you know what I mean," he added,
"now, does that remind you of anyone? The first three parts, at least?"

Luna thought about that for a few seconds, then she said:

"Well, the same could be said about you when compared to normal humans, could it not? Hey, just a moment, do you want to suggest that..."

"I'm not sure. I don't think it's actually a real gene-seed, but it seems to operate in a similar way. That was the familiarity I noticed."

"Intriguing... but wait... does that mean that my sister and I were... somehow... altered? I mean, that is how you were 'created', after all!"

"Logic conclusion. That means that there must have been someone who... oh... just a moment...
Now, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but when I think about the time when you and your sister where born..."

"A few years after the imperial base below us was established."

"... and who we think could have been the leader of..."

"One of your lost Primarchs... You think he might have had something to do with this? That he is somehow responsible for us being alicorns instead of normal ponies?"

"I have no idea," Antonius admitted,
"it's a crazy, far-fetched theory, but it fits the facts we know. Could be true, could be rubbish. We need more information to verify it. Until then, we should just keep it in mind without paying it too much attention."

"Agreed," Luna said, then she started grinning:
"You know that this would make us cousins of some kind, right?"

Now Antonius was completely dumbfounded. The idea that a human could be somewhat related to an alien was heresy!

"HUH? What? Well, no, not really. The methods used to upgrade us might have had some similarities, but we are definitely not related. I think that any two humans - or two ponies - have more genes in common than the two of us have."

"That's good," Luna smiled,
"then we can go on playing 'couple' for Stormy without it being weird."

"You mean 'weirder' as it already is," Antonius grinned.

Luna snickered.

"Well, I think we put on quite a decent show. But now, I think I should take a little nap. Would you wake me up in an hour?"

"Sure."

Luna walked over to her sister and lay down beside her. She fell asleep quickly.
Antonius sat down and looked at them. The still crackling fire cast alternating light patterns on their fur and seemed to bestow them with a flickering aura of light. It was a picture of peace and quiet.

Antonius thought about the princesses of Equestria.
For members of royalty, they were actually very affable. They really were his friends, and he honestly liked them. Luna and Celestia showed a great mixture of seriousness and playfulness. Sure, they had pulled his leg with this weird mistletoe tradition, but he didn't really mind that.

It had been a fun day and he had gotten lots of useful information about the ponies, the princesses and probably even the ancient base of mankind on this planet.
Yes, this day had been thoroughly successful.