Antonius, Celestia and Luna arrived at Canterlot in the evening.

“Across half of Equestria in half a day. Damn, I love Land Speeders,” Antonius grinned,
“but now, I should probably maintain and refuel it.”

“‘Now’, you should probably help us unpack,” Celestia smiled,
“you will have enough time to play with your Speeder tomorrow.”

“As you wish, your sunbutt-ness.”

Celestia darted him a glare and Luna snickered, then they unloaded the Speeder and went to the Throne room.

“Aunt Celestia! Aunt Luna! Antonius! You are back!” Cadance greeted them.

“Has anything noteworthy happened?” Celestia asked.

“No, everything went pretty smooth.”

“Did you take a liking to ruling?”

“Well, I have to admit it wasn’t bad. How was your trip?”

Celestia took a breath:

“We found the base, entered it, got an ally, received some plans to help us against Chaos, got our worldview destroyed, things like that.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that? Could you please explain?”

Antonius took over and told Cadance what had happened.

“Oh dear,” Cadance said,
“that’s quite some news. It could be worse, though. With those ‘STCs’, we will hopefully be able to keep Chaos at bay. Especially when our new friend is okay again. I’d say it was a successful trip.”

“It certainly was, Cadance,” Luna opined.

“Yeah,” Celestia agreed,
“but please excuse me now, I think I’ll retire. Goodnight, everypony.”

“I’ll retire, too,” Cadance said,
“it was a stressful day, after all, even without the news you brought. Goodnight.”

The two princesses left the throne room.

“And what are we going to do?” Luna asked.

“Well, taking a nap doesn’t sound too bad,” Antonius opined,
“or do you have better ideas?”

“No, a little slumber will certainly be useful. I need to be wide awake tomorrow when we tell Twilight and her friends what we found. After that is done, I will hopefully be able to return to my usual night-day cycle.”

“Then, goodnight, Luna.”

“Goodnight, Tony.”

They left the throne room and Antonius went to bed.

Antonius was walking through the wide streets of Magna Macragge Civitas. Wherever he looked, he saw happy faces. Humans, talking and laughing. The times of war seemed forgotten, even the last bit of grief replaced by joy.
Antonius smiled. It was a quite simple-hearted dream, but still a nice one.
If he managed to get Al’s STCs to the Imperium, reality would at least approach this nice little dream. A second Golden Age.

Suddenly, he spotted Luna approaching him through the crowd of humans.

“Hello, Luna,” he greeted,
“you are Luna, right? I mean, the real one?”

“I am,” Luna answered,
“this is really a beautiful dream you have.”

“Yeah, hope in a time that had forgotten hope.”

“Unfortunately, not all dreams tonight are as good as yours,” Luna continued seriously.

“Oh. Who is having a nightmare? Anypony I know?”

“Quite. It’s my sister. Her worries torment her in her sleep.”

“I am sorry to hear that. You think I can help somehow?”

“Indeed. Please come with me.”

“Agreed.”

Luna lit her horn, and the scenery changed. They were standing on a little, green hill. Antonius looked around: trees, flowers, meadows, a road.

“Hmm… that doesn't look particularly nightmarish,” he opined.

“The road,” Luna said.

Antonius’ eyes followed the road, then he saw what Luna had been talking about.

“Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No. This is my sister’s fear.”

A fair way off on the road, there was a cart. On this cart, a human was sitting, holding the reins of the harnessed horse in front of the cart: Celestia.

“Okay,” Antonius said,
“let’s go there and tell her that humanity has no intention of enslaving her or your species.”

“Sorry, but that would be too blunt,” Luna explained,
“she has got to realize that for herself, or this dream will keep returning.”

“Fine, you’re the expert. What do you suggest?”

“We must meet her on an equal hoofing.”

She lit her horn again, and now they were on the road and there was a second cart - drawn by Luna! Thankfully, she had at least gone without this ‘bit’-thing.

“Please get onboard,” she said.

“This feels wrong somehow,” Antonius mumbled as he climbed onto the cart and grabbed the reins,
“do I have to say ‘giddyap’ now?”

“Not necessarily,” Luna said flatly and started to pull the cart towards her sister.

As they approached Celestia’s cart, Luna left the road, turned around and waited for her sister to come closer. Then, she pulled her cart back onto the road next to Celestia’s.
The Princess of the Sun looked miserable. She wore a harness similar to the one depicted in the book she had found in the library. In addition to that, her wings were tied to her body and a darksteel splint was covering her horn.

“Sister?” Luna asked carefully.

Celestia had her head hung, now she barely moved it to regard her little sister:

“Luna. I would love to say it were a pleasure to meet you, but not here, not now, and not under these circum… AH!”

The human on Celestia’s cart had whipped her and shouted:

“Silence, horse!”

Then he turned to Antonius:

“You shouldn’t allow your horse to talk, either. And you should properly restrain it. Remember, they are slaves.”

Damnit, Celestia’s opinion of mankind was really low. Time to change that. But swinging the moral club would probably be in vain, because of this low opinion. A mainly logical argumentation would probably be better for a start - or even better: weird, but plausible, that should certainly catch her attention!

“You should not hurt your horse,” Antonius said calmly.

“Why not? It is my horse, and I hit it whenever I want to.”

“If you see the horse as your property, it is especially stupid to harm it.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“Simple: By harming it, you damage your own property and decrease its value. Furthermore, its capability to work will be reduced. So, by hurting your horse, you hurt yourself twice.”

The human looked somewhat dumbfounded and Celestia seemed to listen - judged by her ears.

“Well, you have a point there. That still doesn't explain why your horse is not properly restrained, though,” the human said.

Antonius grinned:

“Oh, that’s simple. She - her name is Luna, by the way - is not my slave, but my employee.”

“What?”

“If I kept her as a slave, I had to control her, shelter her and feed her. That’s the problem with slaves. They cost a fortune. Especially if you have to defeat insurrections. Pretty expensive and annoying.
By setting her free and paying her, she can take care of herself and I do not have to spend so much money on control and security. And the best part is: Pay them enough, and they will even become customers! They will stimulate the economy!”

“But… isn’t paying them more expensive than keeping them under control?”

“Depends on the way you look at it. If you take the potential troubles of both ways into consideration, I think the ‘free worker’ approach is much better and cheaper in the long run.”

“That sounds… weird.”

“And you have another benefit from free workers: They are generally happier and thus more productive than slaves. I can really recommend it.”

“Hmm… if you phrase it that way, it kind of makes sense.”

Okay, now it was time for the moral club - the moral thunderhammer of the Ultramarines!

“And this is just the material part,” Antonius continued,
“always remember that humanity is more than just the name of our species. It is a task, a sacred duty: We are humans - a beacon of light, sanity and reason in a dark galaxy. We fight alien abominations and dark powers, we do not enslave fluffy little ponies. That would be a disgrace! Beneath our dignity! We are the children of Holy Terra, and the Emperor smiles upon us! Do not cause him to frown over ignoble behavior.”

“You are right!” the human shouted,
“what did I think behaving like that? I am better than this!”

Now Celestia turned her head and regarded Antonius.

“Mankind is better than this,” she said with a smile.

The next moment, Antonius, Luna and Celestia were standing on the hill where this dream had started. The carts were gone, as were the harnesses, they were normal again. At least as normal as you would call a winged unicorn that can moves celestial objects around - from a human point of view.

“Thank you,” Celestia said,
“I don’t know what came over me. I was so worried that I saw humanity as nothing but an amoral crowd of slavedrivers.”
She turned towards Antonius:
“But humanity is better than this, you are a living example to prove that. Thank you for helping me see the truth.”

“Well, I guard mankind - even from premature accusations,” Antonius replied.

“And thank you, too, Luna,” Celestia continued,
“without your help, this night would certainly not be restful for me.”

“No problem, sister,” Luna smiled,
“that’s my job, after all.”

The shared dream ended.

The next morning, Antonius and the princesses met for breakfast.

“I will tell Twilight and her friends to come to Canterlot this afternoon,” Celestia informed them,
“then we can tell them what we know. Do you really want Lyra Heartstrings to be present, too, or was that just a joke because of her infatuation with mankind?”

“Well, her opinion would certainly be interesting,” Antonius opined,
“and it would be a chance to show her our gratitude. She has always been a valuable source of information about humans on this planet.”

“Okay, I will tell Twilight to bring Lyra along. Now, do you have plans for the morning?”

“Yes, I want to set up the recharging units for the PDAs Al gave us. Then, I’m going to have a look at the Land Speeder.”

“Could you please add another point to your plans?” Cadance asked.

“Depends on that point. What do you want?”

“You have trained ponies and my aunts with great success. Could I also get a lesson or two? As a princess, I should be able to defend myself, after all.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll take care of the PDAs, then we can start.”

“Perfect!” Cadance smiled.

After breakfast and setting up the solar recharging units on a balcony, Antonius and Cadance met for their first training session, supervised by Shining Armor.

“I still don’t get why you won’t train with me,” the stallion complained.

“Come on, Shiny,” Cadance smiled,
“if the two of us really fought, with all the sweating and panting, close to each other, do you really think we would be able to properly focus on the training?”

“Oh, okay,” Shining laughed,
“now I get it.”

“Shall I leave you two alone for a few minutes?” Antonius asked flatly.

“No, no,” Cadance quickly answered,
“let’s begin!”

“Without armor?”

“My ‘Armor’ is standing right over there. But seriously, I don’t think armor will be necessary. Just don’t impale me or something - and no jokes from you, Shining!”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything!” Shining defended himself.

Now Antonius and Cadance started fighting. Her technique reminded him a bit of Celestia, but she lacked her aunt’s strength. Still, she was not as bad as her title ‘Princess of Love’ suggested. After a few minutes, she suddenly reared up, reaching back with her sword. Antonius knew this move quite well. He jumped forward and slammed into Cadance. She lost her balance and toppled over backwards.

“Ow! Well, I think I have lost now, haven’t I?” she asked, lying on her back.

“Not necessarily,” Shining interjected.

“Shining,” Cadance started, but Antonius interrupted her:

“He is right, Cadance. You are a pony, after all, and your hooves are in a good position to buck. So, when your enemy approaches, send them flying.”

“Oh, that’s good! I’ll remember that,” Cadance smiled and got up.

“Enough for the first time?” Antonius asked.

“Yeah, I think so. Thank you, Antonius.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Tomorrow, same time?”

“Okay.”

After this training, Antonius did a quick maintenance of the Land Speeder. Everything was in pristine condition and he refueled the vehicle.

In the afternoon, Twilight, her friends, Spike and Lyra arrived. Together with Antonius, Celestia and Luna, they gathered in the throne room.

“Thank you for coming, my little ponies,” Celestia greeted them,
“I have called you over to tell you what we have found out about mankind - and also about ponykind.”

“Did you find a prove of a connection between our two species?” Lyra blundered out,
“oh, I mean… sorry, I’m a little excited.”

“It’s okay, Lyra. You are right, we found a connection.”

Lyra beamed.

“What kind of connection, Princess?” Twilight inquired.

Now the princesses and Antonius told them about the base, Al and the origin of ponykind.
The Element Bearers stared at the princesses.

“Well, that’s unexpected,” Twilight said slowly.

Lyra fainted with the biggest grin possible.

“Oh,” Antonius said,

“I’ll better take her out onto the balcony to get some fresh air. I can also fetch the PDAs.”

He picked up Lyra and left the room.

Celestia looked around. Everypony was deep in thought. She wondered if she should start the discussion that had to take place now, but that idea became moot almost immediately.

“I am not a pet,” Rainbow Dash stated,
“I’m too awesome for that!”

“Nopony here is a pet,” Twilight said,
“but our ancestors were created as pets. What if mankind wants to make us pets again?”

“I don’t know, but… maybe it would be nice to be a pet?” Fluttershy opined quietly.

“What?” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Well, we all love our pets and care for them. Being loved and cared for doesn’t sound that bad,” Fluttershy explained.

“Whoa, Fluttershy, are you kidding?”

“Don’t you love your pet?”

“I… umm… I won’t deny that! I also won’t confirm it!”

“Please calm down, everypony,” Celestia said,
“while the ramifications of this knowledge could be quite severe, it is also possible that mankind will accept us as what we are, rather than as that what our ancestors have been.”

“It is also possible that they don’t want us as pets because we are too alien for them,” Applejack commented drily.

“Right, but that actually is a problem we can’t influence. We’ll have to wait and see what mankind thinks about us once they arrive,” Twilight opined.

“What does Antonius think about all that?” Rarity asked,
“as the only representative of mankind on this planet, he could theoretically stake out a claim. Has he shown any intention of doing so?”

“No, he has not,” Luna told her,
“and I am sure he will not.”

“So, we won’t have to get used to wearing collars? That’s good. Having to take collars into consideration when designing dresses would have been awful. I should probably still come up with some necklace or collar designs, just to be sure.”

“Rarity, would you please take the matter a little more serious?” Twilight asked,
“this is about the freedom of our species!”

“If I end up as a pet, I will end up as a fabulous one!” Rarity cried.

“My little ponies, please calm down,” Celestia said,
“as Twilight said, we can’t influence mankind. We can just hope that they are as reasonable and friendly as Antonius.”

At that moment, Antonius and Lyra returned - the mare with the equipment Al had given them in her magical grasp.

“There we are again,” he said,
“did we miss anything?”

“No,” Pinkie answered cheerfully,
“we were just freaking out about the idea of being turned into pets.”

“Hmm… I understand that you see that as a problem, but it could also be a solution.”

“Care to explain that?” Celestia asked.

“Well, I thought about all of this, too. I told you that mankind does not have the best experiences with aliens. Until recently, you were aliens, and that would have been reason enough for some humans to kill you.
Now, with the knowledge of your origins, I could - theoretically - declare you pets, and thus, since I discovered you, property of my chapter. And I can assure you, no human would recklessly dare to damage or destroy property of the Ultramarines.”

“So, if meeting your species goes awry, you could save us by enslaving us?”

“It sounds less beneficial if you phrase it like that, but basically, yes.”

“What if your chapter finds us? In that case, your plan wouldn’t work.”

“In that case, my plan wouldn’t be necessary.”

“Then I really hope that your chapter finds us first. I don’t like the thought of being made a pet.”

“Excuse me, but I think you worry too much,” Lyra opined,
“I mean, there may be some problems, but our ancestors were created to bring joy and happiness into the hearts of humans. That’s not bad at all.”

“At least it’s better than being created as some sort of attraction and possible weapon,” Spike grumbled.

“You are right, Spike,” Twilight stated,
“we were so worried about us that we totally forgot about the other species on this planet! What about them? We have even less influence on that matter!”

“True,” Celestia said,
“it seems, the only thing we can do is wait, and have Antonius’ plan up our sleeves.”
Everypony agreed on that and Celestia continued:
“Now, we have another problem: Should we tell the ponies that they were created by mankind? I see that you have taken it rather well, but will everypony remain so calm?”

“Some will probably freak out,” Twilight opined,
“perhaps they will even say it’s a lie to justify invading and enslaving us.”

“I can assure you,” Antonius grinned,
“I still do not have an invasion force up my sleeve.”

“We all know that,” Luna smiled back,
“and that is actually part of our problem. With an Ultramarine presence on this planet, we would not have to worry about Chaos anymore.”

“The threat of Chaos will be greatly reduced once Al is fully operational again,” Celestia remarked.

“Now that you mention Al,” Antonius said,
“let’s allot the PDAs and chargers.”

He took the devices from Lyra and handed out one to each pony present - and Spike. Then, he took one for himself.

“One is left,” he said,
“I suggest this one is for Cadance. And since they have a built-in vox, we can redistribute the imperial voxes. I suggest we should give one to Shining Armor, one to Zecora and one to Stormy Skies. The last one should be given to Shadow Stalker.”

“Sounds good,” Celestia agreed.

“Now, how do you turn them on?” Twilight asked as she inspected her PDA.

“Well,” Antonius said,
“there is no user manual, but this rune here looks promising.”

He carefully pushed the rune, and the PDA lit up. It displayed some signs and words written in the ancient human language that had been used on the signs in the base, then those words suddenly changed into proper Low Gothic. A second later, Al appeared on the screen.

“Hello again,” he greeted,
“I ventured to update the language settings. That should make it easier for you to use the PDA.”

“Convenient. So, you have remote access to those PDAs?”

“Of course. It is better and safer that way. Believe me, there are users who should not have admin rights and someone has do do the setup.”

“Okay,” Antonius said, then he turned to the ponies:
“watch what data you save on those devices.”

“Oh, come on,” Al complained,
“I’m not that nosy. You can activate your PDAs, I promise to respect your privacy and if you want to be unobserved, just turn the privacy mode on.”

Now the ponies turned on their devices and Al appeared on each of them.

“I see some ponies I have not yet met. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Al, the artificial lifeform in command of the Phoenix research facility.”

“Umm… nice to meet you?” Rarity said insecurely.

The other ponies offered somewhat awkward greetings, too, with the exceptions of Twilight and Lyra.

“Hello, Al. As I understood, you have some sort of big library attached, filled with the complete knowledge of humanity?” Twilight asked eagerly.

“And you know everything about them?” Lyra added.

“Well,” Al answered,
“I do have access to every STC mankind has ever created - at least up to the point when they left this planet. Furthermore, I have a vast database of educational information and leisure activities. If you are interested in text, audio or video, just use your PDAs to access the information.”

“I will probably ask you quite a lot of things,” Twilight grinned.

“Feel free to do so.”

“Okay, now she is going to lock herself up in her library working with her PDA and not seeing anypony for a long, long time,” Spike sighed.

Twilight darted an angry glance at him, but Al told him:

“Even if she decides to lock herself up, she will still be able to communicate with the other PDA owners. The PDAs are capable of video calls. Let me demonstrate…”

Now Twilight’s device started a call, and Antonius’ PDA beeped. He accepted the call and Twilight appeared on his screen.

“Hey, that’s nice,” Twilight said.

“Would be even nicer if the runes were a little bigger,” Antonius mumbled.

“Indeed,” Al added,
“the PDAs are made to fit normal humans. Once I am fully operational again, I will create a device more appropriate for your size.”

“I think Stormy would like be able to make those video calls, too,” Spike suddenly opined,
“perhaps we should switch - a vox for me, a PDA for her.”

“Oh, that’s really generous of you, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity said with a smile.

“Yeah, you know me,” he answered proudly, puffing up.

The ponies grinned and Antonius collected the voxes from the ponies, relabeled them and gave one of them to Spike in exchange for his PDA.

Now the ponies spent some time getting used to their new devices, calling each other or accessing Al’s database for stories, music and even videos. Once they had found out that those media could be recommended to the others, they got really busy.

“Funny,” Al told Antonius,
“just like humans. I can remember a lot of this sharing going on back then.”

“How were they able to work with all those interruptions?” Antonius asked.

“Most of those interruptions occurred during their free time. If you don’t want to be interrupted, you can silence the notifications.”

Antonius shook his head. Mankind surely had had some strange customs. But listening to the ancient music and watching those videos from Holy Terra… incredible. Somehow, he could understand the ponies’ fascination. It looked almost like in his dream - and he had thought that this dream had been simple-hearted. It had obviously been closer to reality than he had realized. And he had the chance to restore this former glory, to bring hope back to mankind.
But how should he get all that knowledge back to the Imperium? He needed time to think about all of this.

“Will you please excuse me for an hour?” he asked,
“I have a thing or two to discuss with Al, and I would like to do that in the quiet of my room. I will return once I’m done.”

“Sure,” Celestia smiled.

Antonius left and went to his quarters. Having closed the door behind him, he turned to the PDA:

“Okay, Al, please silence the notifications for an hour.”

“No problem. What can I do for you?”

“Tell me possible ways of getting your data back to mankind.”

“As I told you, one way would be to rebuild my long range communications array. This solution would be rather quick, but not very reliable, since we don’t know if humanity will be able to receive us, much less answer our calls.
Another option would be to build a warp-capable ship and fly back to the Imperium. More reliable, but it will take decades to build even a small vessel.”

“Hmm… perhaps there is a third option… didn’t you tell me you could hack into other systems?”

“I can.”

“Does this include doors?”

“Of course.”

“Perfect, I will soon need your services. But now, let’s talk about those warp-capable ships, just in case.”

“Do you think it… overwhelmed him a little?” Twilight asked as Antonius had left the room.

“Well,” Luna opined,
“first, he finds the Elements of Harmony, a weapon against their archenemies, and cannot give them to his people. Then, he finds the key to a second Golden Age, and cannot tell his fellow humans. Now, he sees so much of his species, at its peak even, and this reminds him of his inability to restore this former glory.”

“Poor Antonius,” Fluttershy said,
“we should cheer him up somehow.”

“Well, that's what our ancestors were created for,” Lyra stated,
“let’s see if we still have it!”

“Huh? What do you want to do?” Rainbow asked,
“go to him and say: ‘Hello, you know I am not a pet, but please treat me like one and cuddle me until you feel better’?”

“Since when has cuddling ever been limited to pets?” Lyra asked,
“a good friendship-cuddle should do wonders!”

“Be careful,” Pinkie grinned,
“according to what we know, a belly rub might make you a little loco.”

“If that information is still valid,” Twilight interjected,
“it is thoroughly possible that our species has lost this trait over the millennia. Perhaps we should try to find out if we are still influenceable in such a way?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow deadpanned,
“let’s see if he can mind-control us by giving us belly rubs. Any volunteers for being turned into cuddle-zombies?”

The following silence lasted for a few seconds, then Applejack suggested:

“Perhaps we should draw straws?”

“That’s not a scientific method!” Twilight protested.

“Well, it’s sort of a random experiment,” Celestia said,
“still, I would prefer another solution for this problem. One that is less awkward. And we don’t even have seven straws.”

“Seven, sister?” Luna asked,
“more like nine.”

“You want us to participate?”

“Of course! We can’t expect our subjects to take a risk we do not dare to.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes a little and regarded her sister.

“I think Princess Celestia is right,” Twilight opined,
“if there are… unfavorable effects, it would be better if somepony who is not a princess was affected.”

“But you are the Elements of Harmony,” Lyra said,
“if you got affected, it would be terrible, too! There is only one pony in the room who is ‘expendable’. And that’s me. So please excuse me now. See you later.”

She left the room and followed Antonius.

“She is not really going to…” Twilight asked incredulously.

“She is,” Applejack stated.

“I’m not sure if I should be relieved or jealous,” Rarity mumbled absentmindedly.

All eyes were on her. Especially Spike did not look amused. Luna also looked a little miffed.

“Sorry,” Rarity apologized with a blush.

Antonius was just having a look at (relatively) easy-to-build voidship designs as he heard a knock on the door. One hour of quiet and solitude was obviously too much to ask for.

“Come in,” he said, and Lyra entered his quarters.

“Hello, Antonius,” she smiled,
“I thought I should keep you company. You seemed a little sad, you know.”

“I can assure you that I am fine.”

“Are you sure that do don’t need a FRIENDSHIP HUG?” Lyra shouted with open front legs.

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary,” Antonius laughed.

“Come on, don’t let me stand here all dressed up and with nowhere to go.”

Antonius laughed again and hugged her.

“Better now?” Lyra grinned.

“Most certainly,” Antonius grinned back.

“Good! And do you know what would be even better?”

“What?”

Lyra opened her mouth, but hesitated and closed it again.

“No, that doesn’t work…” she mumbled.

“Huh? What's the problem?” Antonius asked, mildly confused.

“You know, we talked about our ancestors being created as pets,” Lyra started to explain.

“I know, Lyra. I’ve been there.”

“Right. But you weren’t there when we talked about… umm… belly rubs.”

Antonius blinked.

“You talked about… oh, of course! The ‘quick method of bonding’! Yeah, Celestia was quite appalled by this idea. But seriously, how big an influence could that possibly be? You certainly don’t think it’s some kind of mind control or something.”

“Well, actually, that’s exactly what we were afraid of,” Lyra admitted.

“Nice. And you are… what? The ‘guinea pony’?”

“Sort of. I thought that compared to the princesses and Twilight and her friends, I am the most expendable one.”

“And they just let you go?”

“Yes. But I was quite fast. Now, however, I think it’s a bit too awkward to ask for a belly rub.”

“I concur,” Antonius agreed, then he started grinning:
“So, you are afraid of being mind controlled by belly rubs and being treated like pets? Lyra, I have a nice little idea.”

“I can’t believe Lyra is really doing this,” Twilight mumbled.

“Believe it, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said flatly.

“How is she going to pull it off? Is she just going to walk up to Antonius and demand belly rubs? That’s awkward! And embarrassing!”

“Gotta admire her dedication, I guess,” Applejack opined.

“I’m curious if Rainbow is right and she comes back as a cuddle-zombie,” Pinkie added.

“Pinkie, I wasn’t serious,” Rainbow told her,
“seriously, what are the chances of something like that really happening?”

Right on cue, the door opened and Lyra entered the room - sporting a stupid grin and an idle glance.
Oh dear.

“Lyra?” Twilight asked with concern.

Lyra changed course and walked up to Twilight, keeping her unsettling facial expression.
That was not a good sign. Could the effects of a belly rub really be so dire?

“Lyra, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

Lyra stared at her for a second, well within her personal space, then she shouted:

“I LOVE MANKIND!”

Twilight skidded backwards.

“AND SOON, SO WILL ALL OF YOU!” Lyra continued.

What the hay?

“A cuddle-zombie!” Pinkie cried.

“Sometimes I hate to be right!” Rainbow mumbled.

At that moment, the door burst open and Antonius stepped into the room, hiding something behind his back.

“Lyra!” he shouted,
“I told you not to run away!”

Lyra looked at him as he quickly walked up to her. When he was standing next to her, he produced a spray bottle from behind his back and sprayed her in the face!

“Bad pony!” he chided her,
“the belly rubs were supposed to be a surprise, after all.”

“He’s goin to cuddle us into zombies!” Pinkie screamed,
“RUN!”

Despite the whole situation being incredibly ridiculous, hell broke loose. Twilight and her friends made a run for it, and even Celestia was retreating from him with a shocked expression.

Suddenly, Twilight heard Lyra burst out laughing. It was not an evil, crazy laugh, just her normal laughter. Twilight turned around and saw Lyra collapse to the ground. She was not the only one in the room who was obviously highly amused. Antonius also guffawed.

“What?” Twilight asked, completely confused.

“Oh, damnit,” Rainbow grumbled,
“they pranked us!”

“HUH?”

“Indeed,” Antonius grinned,
“seriously: belly rub mind control… this idea is too weird not to make fun of.”

“Nice to know that you think our worries are that amusing,” Celestia chided him,
“I really hoped you would take this matter more serious, but as I can see…”

She could not finish her sentence - Antonius sprayed her in the face!
Never before had anypony done anything like that!
Everypony was quiet as Celestia and Antonius stared at one another. After a few moments of tension, though, Celestia started laughing. Soon, everypony had joined in.

“I hope you are not mad at me,” Lyra said when they all had calmed down again,
“but I thought this was a fun prank, and I wanted to help Antonius.”

“Don’t worry, Lyra,” Twilight smiled,
“we can take a good prank.”

It had worked. Antonius had defused the ponies’ worries. With pure nonsense.

“Now, my little ponies,” Celestia said,
“we still have to decide whether we tell everypony where our species comes from or not.”

“We should tell them” Lyra opined.

“There is another aspect we have to take into consideration,” Antonius stated,
“if we tell everypony what we learned, they will want to know where this knowledge comes from. And we have an undefended base out there.”

“You want to keep everything a secret?” Luna asked,
“our origins and the base?”

“That depends. Tia, do you think we can supply Al with the resources he needs without drawing too much attention?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Celestia opined,
“a lot of transports are in transit in Equestria every day. I will order a group of reliable guards to take care of the matter. If we scatter the origins of those transports throughout the land, nopony will become suspicious.”

“Perfect,” Antonius replied,
“then I say we keep everything a secret. Only the eleven of us present in this room… plus Cadance, twelve… plus Shining Armor, thirteen… only the thirteen of us are allowed to know about the base and the origin of ponykind.”

“Won’t the ponies who get the voxes and Stormy wonder what is going on?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll just tell them we were able to salvage some equipment from the imperial base beneath Canterlot. That should do,” Antonius said.

“So, we have a plan,” Celestia concluded,
“if you want to, you may return to Ponyville now. Thank you again for coming.”

“Umm…,” Lyra started,
“if you don’t mind, Princess, I would like to stay in Canterlot for a night and meet some friends of mine tomorrow.”

“Sure, a guest room will be prepared for you.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

Later that evening, when Twilight and her friends had returned to Ponyville and Lyra was in her room, Luna paid Antonius a visit in his quarters.

“Hello, Luna,” he greeted.

“Hello, Tony,” she said a bit tensely,
“I think we have forgotten something.”

“Really?”

“Indeed. Your prank overshadowed the question if a pony can be influenced by a belly rub.”

“That? I already know the answer to this question - and so do you.”

“What? I was not present as you gave Lyra a belly rub.”

“Neither was I.”

“Huh?”

“I did not give her a belly rub.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay! But then how do you know if a belly rub can influence a pony or not?”

“Remember the time when you had lost your eyesight?”

“Of course.”

“When I showered you back then… I think that could count as belly rubs, don’t you think?”

“Oh… well, you are probably right…”

“And I did not only rub your belly, but just about any other part of your body, too. Do you feel especially obedient?”

“No,” Luna answered, then she added with a grin:
“Master.”

Antonius groaned and Luna laughed.

“So, I am the only pony whose belly you have rubbed?” she said as she had calmed down again.

“Yes, definitely,” Antonius told her.

“Well, despite those belly rubs not having a negative effect on ponies, we should keep it that way.”

“Okay, you have the belly rub monopoly.”

“Good!” Luna said almost enthusiastically, then she fell silent.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, she asked:

“Umm… any plans for the evening?”

“Indeed,” Antonius replied,
“care to join me in some exploring?”

A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the door to the Inner Sanctum.

“Al, can you hack this door and open it?” Antonius inquired.

“Okay, I will try,” Al answered.

Outstanding. The door to the Inner Sanctum was about to be…

“Sorry, can’t,” Al told him.

“What? Please try again. Do you always surrender that fast?”

“Usually, no, but in this case, yes.”

“And why, if I may ask?”

“There is a note in the locking system:
‘Hello Al, do NOT hack this door. It MUST NOT be opened prematurely. Under no circumstances. This is IMPORTANT! Greetings, Al.’”

“Huh? You left a note for yourself not to open that door? Is the note genuine?”

“The signature is correct. It is genuine.”

Great. Just great. What secret did this place hold?

“Pity,” Luna said,
“but perhaps there is another way in.”

“According to the plans on this base, it’s the only entrance,” Antonius told her.

“That’s not what I mean. If we can’t open this door, we can perhaps ignore it.”

“I strongly advise against repeatedly bonking your head on the door,” Al interjected.

“I was talking about teleportation, Al.”

“Damnit!” Antonius shouted,
“why didn’t we think of that in the first place!”

“I would think that the architects of this place took some precautions to prevent that,” Al said.

“Hmm… possible,” Antonius admitted.

“Then, I will first probe the area behind the door,” Luna told them and lit her horn,

“Nothing. This part of the base is shielded. Probably dark steel… or a powerful spell. Impossible to teleport through.”

“So, our little journey was in vain,” Antonius grumbled.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say so,” Luna smiled,
“it may have been a failed experiment, but it still increased our knowledge. And taking a little walk is always nice, especially if we add a stroll through the gardens to it.”

“You are right. With both points. So, let’s go.”

The next day after breakfast with the princesses, Antonius and Cadance met for their training, again supervised by Shining Armor. Antonius used that opportunity to give them their new equipment and tell them about yesterday's decisions, then they fought.

After the training, Shining walked up to Cadance.

“Exhausted?” he asked.

“A bit,” she answered with a smile.

“Then, it would be a good opportunity to ambush you?”

“Huh?”

Now Shining used his magic and levitated a little box in front of Cadance’s face. Antonius wondered what a strange kind of ambush that was. Shining opened the box and revealed a golden ring with several white gems.

“Cadance,” he started,
“will you…”

“YES!!!” Cadance shouted and tackled him.

Now Antonius realized what this ‘ambush’ had been. And this meant one thing: Now things would get mushy. And there was only one thing to do now: retreat. He quietly left the room - probably without the two love-birds noticing.

He met them again for dinner, where they explained their plans for a wedding in just a few days.

“Before Antonius can accidentally smash Cadance,” Shining laughed.

“Okay, okay,” Antonius said,
“no training until after the wedding.”

“Until after honeymoon!” Cadance rectified.

“Fine, whatever. Just tell me when - or if - you wold like to train again.”

“A lot of preparations will have to be made,” Celestia said,
“we need a cake, music, food and drink, the guests must be invited, bridesmaids selected, and so forth!”

“I already have bridesmaids,” Cadance told her,
“I met Lyra Heartstrings this morning, and I thought it would be a nice gesture to offer her and her friends this position.”

“Okay,” Celestia smiled,
“one point checked off!”