More than two weeks had passed since Celestia had been abducted and violently rescued by Antonius. Their friendship was still not in the best shape and they were more polite than cordial in their interactions.
Furthermore, a lot of rumors about those events ran through Canterlot, but they were contradictory - reaching from insane ponies to changelings - and most ponies had chosen not to believe any of them.

To pacify those who were somewhat unsettled, the princesses had issued a formal letter of appreciation in which they thanked Antonius for everything he had done for Equestria. That was, of course, awfully general, but since the princesses were (apparently) content with whatever had happened, so were the ponies.
Their blind faith in their rulers really had its perks.

In addition to calming the population, Antonius had been able to gather ponies who would help him to build weapons to fight Chaos, especially the Leman Russ tank. Now smiths, metallurgists, engineers and other experts were working in the armorium. This was probably not helping him with his sunny host, but it had to be done.
He was just inspecting a piece of metal that would become a part of the vehicle’s side armor when a messenger entered the armorium.

“Lord Varus?” she said,
“Princess Celestia asks you to come to the throne room.”

“Almost on my way,” he answered, then he turned to the ponies helping him:
“Carry on, you know what to do. If there are questions, best ask Al while I am busy.”

Another progress had been made that made this possible: Together, they had managed to grant Al access to the base’s systems, so that he could use the internal vox speakers, sensors and displays.

Antonius left the armorium, casting a glance at a display that showed the Leman Russ STC. It would still take quite some time, especially the necessary machines still had to be built and an explosives expert had to be found, but he estimated that the prototype-tank should be ready for the first tests in about a year.

He arrived in the throne room where Celestia and Luna were already waiting for him.

“Hello, Tony. How is it going?” Luna asked friendlily.

“We’re making progress. It might still be a little soon to plan the first tank-powered field trip, though,” he replied.

“I hope you are ready for a speeder-powered field trip,” Celestia said.

“Sure. What is the problem?”

“The Secretariat Comet will pass over Equestria in about a week. It will boost the power of every magical creature all over the country, so we have to take precautions. I will make sure that Canterlot is safe, Luna will go to Manehattan, and I would like you to take care of Las Pegasus.”

“What exactly am I supposed to do there?”

“Inspect the guards on site. Make sure that they take the matter seriously. Once you have nonviolently shaken them up a little, please return to Canterlot. I would like to you to be available as an emergency intervention unit.”

“Okay. Which creatures do you expect to show up there?”

“Hard to say. Could be any magical creature in Equestria. Just make sure that everypony is on guard.”

“When should I depart?”

“As soon as you can.”

“Why the rather short advance warning time?”

“This is due to the veil around our planet,” Luna explained,
“we only see unusual celestial objects when they are already quite close.”

Antonius nodded:

“I will leave Canterlot in about an hour.”

“I am glad you two get along at least a little better again,” Luna told her sister when Antonius had left the throne room,
“you still have to return to ‘Tony’ and ‘Tia’, though.”

“Once he has completed this mission without causing mayhem,” Celestia answered a little glumly.

Luna raised an eyebrow.

“That does not sound like a heartfelt friendship, more like a ‘tactical’ one,” she noted.

“Perhaps it’s a little bit of both,” Celestia sighed,
“I must admit that I still have a few problems returning to ‘business as usual’ regarding Antonius, but I have accepted that it is not really his fault. Antonius is basically a living weapon. I cannot change that and I cannot fully control him, but I can point him at a problem and let him do his thing. That way I should be able to contain the damage - especially the damage to my subjects.”

“Oh, come on, sister!” Luna exclaimed indignantly,
“he is much more and much better than that!”

She could see her sister swallow her ‘real’ answer, then Celestia closed her eyes and mumbled:

“Sorry. I’m just…”

“Condescending towards him and his kind,” Luna finished.

“Yeah, you are right. I have to admit that. Sorry.”

“Do not apologize to me. Apologize to Antonius.”

“What? Why should… okay. Once this is over, Luna. Probably.”

“Always remember, sister: His methods may be… somewhat grim, but everything he does, he does to protect us, and without him, you would probably be dead, and we all would follow.”

As Antonius entered the hangar, he saw Luna sitting in the Land Speeder. She waved as he approached.

“Hi, Tony!” she said,
“ready for the trip?”

“Armor and weapons are in good condition, as is the Speeder. However, I think we have to go in opposite directions.”

“I know. I just wanted to say goodbye, and…”

“And?”

“Tony, your friendship with Cellie is still rather… cooled down. You could help mend it by using a minimum force approach from now on.”

“Hmm… actually, I prefer an ‘appropriate force approach’, which is already quite close to what you suggested… but okay, I promise I will be as… considerate as possible.”

“Thank you! Oh, and there is something else… I wanted to show you this.”
She lit her horn and levitated her PDA out of her saddlebags.
“I thought about taking it along!” she beamed.

Antonius showed her his own PDA and laughed:

“Okay, so this comet transition can’t possibly get as bad as the wedding. Now, let us depart. The sooner we leave, the sooner we return. We’ll stay in touch.”

As Antonius entered the Speeder, Luna jumped out of it and shouted:

“Let’s race to the hangar door!”
Before Antonius could even start the engines, Luna had already left the hangar and cheered:
“Huzzah! I triumphed!”

Then she was gone. Antonius left the hangar a few seconds later with a grin and turned towards Las Pegasus.

His mission there proved to be quite easy. Black Harrow had already gathered a group of PDF recruits in Applewood a few kilometers to the east, and the local guards and police force seemed to be quite competent.
Antonius still perused the defensive plans. Without knowing what exactly they had to expect, he could only make general suggestions, but they were accepted with thanks and immediately implemented.

With the area of Las Pegasus and Applewood on the best way to become as secure as possible, he called Luna. It took a few seconds, then her face appeared on his PDA.

“Hello, Luna. Good news: Las Pegasus should be safe. How’s it going in Manehattan?” Antonius asked.

“Not bad, I guess,” Luna answered with a little blush.

“Huh?”

“Well, it is possible that I am still on my way, but I will be there soon.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Yeah, I admit it. I am not too good at navigation. I had to fly along the shoreline, but I can see the city of Manehattan now.”

“Okay. I will stay here for one or two days to oversee the preparations, and in case the ponies here have any further questions. Then I will return to Canterlot.”

“Okay. Bye, Tony!”

“Bye, Luna!”

Now, he called Celestia to report in. At least he tried to. When she did not answer, he called Al:

“Al, please check the status of Celestia’s PDA. She doesn’t answer my calls.”

“Just a second,” Al replied,
“the PDA is on standby. I think she left it…”

“In her room,” Antonius sighed.

“Probably. The signal is strong, so the device must be in Canterlot or in the city’s vicinity.”

“So much for taking my improvement suggestions to heart.”

“Shall I call Twilight or one of her friends?”

“No, not necessary. I’ll visit Ponyville on my way back to Canterlot.”

As Antonius finally arrived at Ponyville, he could easily see that something had happened there. The ponies were cleaning the town of a strange, green slime and he could see remains of cocoons.
He stopped in front of Twilight’s library and jumped out of his Land Speeder. He was immediately greeted by Spike:

“Hello, Antonius! I’m glad you are here!”

“What happened?” Antonius asked.

“The Changelings attacked Ponyville!”

“Damnit! I knew this war wasn’t over. Any casualties?”

“No, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders got fillynapped!”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah, Twilight and her friends have started a rescue mission.”

“With the Elements?”

“No, there was no time to get them.”

“When?”

“Yesterday at sunset. They told me to stay here and try to get a hold of Princess Celestia.”

“Any success?”

“No, I’m just form lettered and she doesn’t answer to calls with this vox thingy.”

“Oh, perfect! Have the Element Bearers at least taken their PDAs with them?”

“Umm… I don’t think so.”

“Okay… okay. I will save my tantrum for when this crisis is over. Now, I better follow them. Where did they go?”

“West at first, but I saw them turn south later.”

“A little bit more exact?”

“Well, I don’t know. Chrysalis sent them a magical map that guides them.”

Antonius blinked twice.

“They are using… a magical map… SENT BY THE ENEMY???”

“Yeah, but they did not have a choice. The Crusaders’ lives are at stake, after all, and they only got three days!”

“Right. You haven’t incidentally made prisoners I could interrogate?”

“We have caught a few Changelings, but they only hiss. I don’t think they can answer questions.”

After testing this by punching them in the face and not getting an useful answer besides ‘south’, Antonius decided not to waste more time with the interrogation, fetched his PDA and tried to call Celestia. No success.
He called Luna.

“Hello, Tony!” she greeted,
“I have good news: I am in Manehattan! Unfortunately, finding the right precinct proves to be a little difficult.”

“Luna, Changelings have attacked Ponyville and fillynapped the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Twilight and her friends are trying to rescue them. I will follow them as fast as I can.”

“Do that. With your Land Speeder, you should be able to catch up with them in no time.”

“Unfortunately, I only know that they are going southwards, and I can’t follow their trails at such speeds. I’ll have to follow them on foot.”

“Well, then better get going. I will finish my mission here as soon as possible and then try to find you. And, Tony: May your Emperor be with you. You are going up against a whole swarm and probably into a trap.”

“I know, Luna. We’ll stay in touch.”

Antonius closed the connection and turned to Spike:

“Okay, Spike. I will leave now to rescue Twilight, her friends and the four Crusaders.”

“Three,” Spike corrected.

“Huh?”

“Only Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got fillynapped. The Changelings just took the Crusaders with a connection to Twilight’s friends.”

“Damnit, that downright screams ‘TRAP!’. Where is Stormy? What about her family?”

“They are in hospital. Moonlight got injured when the Changelings captured her.”

“Damnit. I don’t have time to pay them a visit. I’ll have to call them while I’m on my way. Now, I better get going.”

“Yeah, if I can’t get ahold of the Princess, I will get going, too. To Canterlot, in my case.”

“Good luck, Spike. Bye.”

And so Antonius left Ponyville, constantly following the hoof prints of the ponies. Spike had been right, they had turned south. He used his vox to call Stormy. Fortunately, she had thought about taking her PDA along.

“Hello, Antonius,” she greeted,
“I’m glad that you call. Changelings invaded Ponyville!”

“I know, Stormy,” Antonius answered,
“are you and your family alright? I heard you are in hospital.”

“Yeah, mom got punched in the belly when she beat up a Changeling. Then we got stuffed into gooey cocoon-thingies.
When Twilight and her friends freed us, we went here because mom was in pain, but Doctor Cure said it was nothing serious, and she will be home with us by tomorrow.”

“Good to hear. Sorry that I can’t pay you a visit, but I have to tell the Changelings how much I dislike their actions. Please greet your family.”

“Okay, Antonius. See you later!”

“Bye,” Antonius said, then he closed the connection and made another call:

“Al?” he voxed.

“Yes?” came the prompt answer.

“Connect to my armor again, perhaps I will need your knowledge of this planet and I will certainly not have the time to explain things then.”

After a while, Antonius arrived at the entrance to what was probably an abandoned mine, with statues of dogs in front of it and a giant diamond carved into the lintel.

“Al, is this an old mine? Who ran it? And what’s the matter with those dog statues?” Antonius asked.

“This is indeed a mine, it was obviously run by Diamond Dogs, hence the statues.”

“I think I read about them. Well, let’s go in.”

Antonius checked his bolter and entered the mine. It was rather dark, but with his superior senses, Antonius had no problem seeing every detail. The mine really looked abandoned, including the obligatory skull lying around.

As Antonius progressed further into the mine, he entered a large cavern and encountered a creature he was not familiar with: It was a giant, bipedal creature, wearing a loincloth - and it had a heart-tattoo? He immediately aligned his bolter, just in case.

“A cave troll,” Al told him,
“not overly aggressive, but very possessive.”

“Possessive?”

Now the troll spotted him.

“WHAT SHINY BLUE THING ARE?” the creature thundered, staring at him.

Okay, so this ‘cave troll’ was not overly aggressive, and it was obviously curious. Perhaps Antonius could get past it without having to resort to violence. Just because it was big and kind of in his way at the moment did not mean it automatically deserved death, after all, and he could give this ‘minimum force approach’ a try. So he lowered his bolter and said:

“Greetings. I am Antonius Varus, Space Marine of…”

“SPEHSS MAHREEN!” the troll exclaimed happily and started stomping towards Antonius.

“Crap. Is it mad?” Antonius asked.

“I’d rather say it’s happy,” Al answered drily.

The troll tried to grab him, but Antonius evaded the creature’s hand. He would give it one chance to stand down the attack.

“STOP IT!” Antonius roared, his voice amplified by his armor’s speakers.

The troll really stopped his attack and cried:

“BUT WANT SPEHSS MAHREEN!”

“I’m not for sale, and even if I were, I think hardly anyone could afford me,” Antonius answered.

“The troll apparently thinks you are some kind of toy,” Al voxed.

Well, he was probably right. A Space Marine - a toy! This idea was so weird Antonius had to shake his head. But what was he supposed to do about this troll, a creature that acted much like a child? Kill it just because it wanted a toy? While he did not really believe in anti-authoritarian education, this seemed a little harsh to him.

“WANT SPEHSS MAHREEN!” the troll exclaimed.

Now, Antonius spotted something: At the far side of the cavern, there were six pony puppets, made of wood, rock and vine. That gave him an idea:

“Listen, creature. You cannot have me to play with, but if you let me pass, I will create a Space Marine puppet for you.”

Yeah, the idea was weird, but it obviously was the way how Twilight and her friends had passed this troll, and he even had done something like that before: The mannequin he had built with Rarity.

“ACTION FIGURE!” the troll insisted.

“Yeah, fine. A Space Marine action figure. Do we have a deal?”

“DEAL!” the troll exclaimed and extended a hand towards Antonius,
“ME JIM!”

“I’m Antonius,” Antonius said and shook one finger of the giant hand.

Now, he collected material and quickly started to build the ‘action figure’. When he was about halfway through, he received a call.

“Hello, Tony. How are you doing?” Luna asked.

“Fine, except for the fact that I’m working as a toy-maker now.”

“Huh?”

“I encountered a cave troll, and instead of killing him, I thought it would be nicer to build a toy for him so that he would let me pass.”

“Well, good decision.”

“Thanks. What about you?”

“Manehattan’s defenses are rallied, including the PDF. I am still going to stay here; I can feel something big is about to happen.”

“Any idea what it could be?”

“No, it’s just a feeling… or it could be a giant marshmallow pony!”

“Luna, I think that’s rather unlikely… but somehow awfully specific…”

“That is because I just spotted it! I have to go now, wish me luck!”

“May the Emperor guide your… whatever you intend to use. A giant twig and an equally big fire, perhaps?”

“Funny. Now, please excuse me.”

“Good luck, Luna.”

He closed the connection and focused on his building task again. When the Space Marine puppet - or ‘SPEHSS MAHREEN ACTION FIGURE’ - was completed, Jim was overjoyed.

“SPEHSS MAHREEN!!!” he shouted and picked up the puppet.

Antonius had done a good job - it stayed in one piece.

“Now, I can go, I assume?” he asked.

“YEAH, BUT BEWARE OF FUZZY TEDDY BEAR! HE GRUMPY.”

“Thank you. Goodbye,” Antonius replied and continued his way, following his friends’ hoof prints.

“I wonder what the meaning of Jim’s warning is,” Al said.

“I guess there is some bad tempered furry creature in this mine. Well, we’ll see,” Antonius answered.

He came to a spot where the hoof prints vanished, but there still were Jim’s foot prints, so he followed them instead. Not that he had much of a choice; there was only one way forward, the other directions blocked by cave ins.

Antonius finally entered a cavern with derelict rails and spotted the exit of the mine. He did not immediately rush outside, though. Giant cobwebs and pools of a strange liquid told him that this cavern could be less empty than it seemed.
He was proven right when four large and one gigantic creature lowered themselves down into the cavern.

“Megarachnids,” Antonius mumbled, but he also noticed that most of them were wearing clothes.

Were they intelligent? He raised a hand in salutation. He would try the peaceful approach again. It had already worked once during this mission, after all.

“Greetings,” he said,
“I am Ant…”

He interrupted himself as he had to dodge a projectile made of sticky spider silk. The creatures wasted no time and scurried towards him.
Okay, so they liked to be dealt with the hard way. No problem. The creatures would soon be close enough to engage in melee, so Antonius drew his chainsword and activated it.

One of them, a gray one, stopped dead in its tracks as the sword’s furious roar echoed through the cavern, a blue spider kept closing in while its green companion fired another round of spider silk at him - and missed again.

Antonius had already jumped towards the blue spider. His battle cry joined his weapon’s roar as he lashed out at his enemy and cut two legs off its body. The spider shrieked wretchedly and made a run for it. Despite its loss of limbs, it was still quite fast, but Antonius had already chosen another target anyway.

He dashed towards his green attacker. It had stayed offside and used ranged ‘weaponry’, but now he would force it into melee. The spider turned around and started running, but Antonius’ sword came down on its abdomen and cut deep into the creature's spinneret. A shriek and an oozing wound told him that it would not shoot its silk at anyone ever again.

While four spiders were running for their pathetic little lives now, the giant one made no move to do the same. It stomped towards Antonius, drooling and baring its fangs. Two of the spider’s eyes were glaring at him in fury, the other two were covered by eyepatches.
Antonius wondered if that might be a result of its encounter with Twilight and her friends, but pushed that thought aside immediately. Whatever had cost this spider two of its eyes, Antonius would cost it the other two.

The creature roared at him in anger, and Antonius stabbed his roaring chainsword into the spiders upper eye, then he immediately pushed it down and through its lower, bigger eye.
The spider roared again, in pain this time, and blindly tried to impale Antonius’ shoulder with one of its legs. His armor proved to be too resilient for this unaimed attack and Antonius swung his sword again, cutting off the leg the spider had used to attack him.

Now, the creature obviously had enough. It wailed and scurried backwards until its abdomen hit the wall of the cavern. Then, it quickly turned around and started climbing.
Antonius pondered if he should kill it, but decided against it. It had already paid a high price for daring to attack him, and, of course, he had promised to use this ‘minimum force approach’.

So, he left the mine and looked for hoof prints. He found what he was looking for, but unfortunately, they split up and led in different directions.
Why the hell had they split up? He followed the three traces. One of them just vanished after a few meters, so two ponies had either teleported or flown away. The other two traces led into a nearby forest, but they entered it in different spots.

“Great,” Antonius grumbled,
“two ponies gone, four others in the forest, divided into two pairs. I really need to talk to them about their tendency to split up.”

“What do you want to tell them?” Al asked.

“Simple: ‘DON’T!’” Antonius answered drily.

“Now, as things are, I suggest you pick a trace, follow it and hope that they will unite again.”

“Hmm, I haven’t much of a choice. Let’s see… This trace looks like one of the ponies has not walked, but hopped - Pinkie Pie. I think it would be a bad choice to follow this trace; she has a tendency to arbitrarily show up in places she had no chance of reaching, at least if you follow the laws of physics. Following her might be impossible. I’ll take the other route and hope the two ponies who left it stay on the ground.”

“Just a second, there are signs.”

“Yeah: ‘Forest of Leota’ and ‘Turn back’. How charming.”

Antonius entered the forest, following the trace he had picked.

Hours later, he was still following the hoof prints. Thankfully, they had been clear and it was not difficult following them. Until now.

He was in an area with a river and a lot of giant flowers when the trace vanished. He knelt down and examined the ground. The hoof prints did not just stop, they had been erased by other traces Antonius could not categorize.
He just wanted to ask Al for his opinion when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He jumped to his feet and spun around, drawing his chainsword. Some flowers were charging him!

“What the?” he mumbled and greeted his assailants with the sword’s roar.

The were not faced by this and closed in. Antonius decided to skip the attempt at introducing himself and attacked. His first swing cut the stem of two flowers, sending their blossoms falling to the ground while plant sap splattered out of the wounds. The other plants did not seem to care and continued their assault, now supported by vines that crept over the ground.

“Great, I’m being attacked by greens,” Antonius grumbled and Al added:

“Yeah, the forest seems angry.”

Antonius killed more of the flowers and cut through the vines, but there was no shortage of floral reinforcements.
Had those things attacked the ponies, too? The traces on the ground suggested that.
Had the flowers gotten the ponies, or had they been able to escape? That, he had to find out.

So, instead of fighting where he stood, he turned in the direction the hoof prints had taken until they had vanished and advanced that way, scanning the ground while repelling the hostile flora. Every now and then, he spotted a hoof print that had survived and followed them until they turned towards the nearby river.

“Of course,” he deadpanned as he stood at the riverbank where the pony-trace ended.

“They have probably jumped into the river to escape,” Al said,
“I suggest you follow the river to find them.”

“Yeah, I’ve made enough salad.”

Antonius killed another flower that was close by, then he started dashing along the riverbank. Outrunning his pursuers proved to be pretty easy. On the one hand, he hated withdrawing from a battle, but on the other hand he knew that he could not afford to waste more time - or chainsword fuel.
He took a look at the sword’s fuel gage. There was still some promethium left, but he decided to better save it - if possible.

It did not take long until he heard a thundering noise.

“I think I can guess what that is…” he mumbled and was proven right a short time later: a waterfall.

Antonius walked to the brink and looked down.

“That’s too high to just jump down,” he stated and took a look at the valley in front of him.

There, in the distance, he saw something and used his auto-senses to magnify his view: a variety of animals was chasing… what looked like… ponies!

“There they are!” Antonius grinned, but the next second, they were gone.

“There seems to be another cliff they just have fallen down,” Al commented.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t protect them from those animals.”

Suddenly, the animals started fighting each other.

“Huh?” Antonius wondered.

“I think they are fighting for dominance over the right to eat the ponies,” Al explained.

“Well, that will slow them down, so it’s good. Now, we have to find a way down there and unite with our friends.”

It took Antonius quite a while to find a spot where he could jump down from ledge to ledge without committing suicide, but as soon as he was standing on the ground of the valley, he ran to the spot where he had seen the ponies vanish.
The ground was littered with dead, rabbit-like animals with antlers, shredded and mutilated by bite marks. There was also a living animal, a badly battered cat-like creature that was lying on the ground, gnawing on some of the corpses.

It jumped to its feet as Antonius approached. Since it had attacked the ponies, Antonius decided not try a friendly approach; he drew his combat knife instead. The creature jumped at him and he rammed his knife into its chest, stopping it abruptly. The cat-thing howled in pain as Antonius grabbed it’s throat and twisted the knife, then he pulled it out of the wound and stabbed it through the creature’s lower jaw into its head.
He dropped the dead animal, put away his knife and jumped down the cliff the ponies had gone off. Finding his friends’ hoof prints again, he continued his tracing.

Antonius finally arrived at a wall of rock with an inserted iron door standing wide open. He drew his chainsword and stepped through the gate. It bore a sigil that undoubtedly depicted a changeling. So, he had finally reached enemy territory.

And it was a devastated territory. He entered what was - or had been - a small village, overlooked by a castle, but every building and even large patches of the ground were covered in a green slime. It looked so organic and defiled that Antonius was reminded of the Tyranids once again, and he felt his anger rise.

Fortunately, the hoof prints were still visible. They led to the castle and Antonius followed them until he was standing in front of the castle’s door. He kicked it in and entered the building. The interior was a clutter of stairs and doors, a nightmare that did not seem to follow the laws of physics - or sanity. Abominable sorcery was at work here, he could downright feel it. His anger rose further. Then he heard a loud noise, like an explosion.
Damnit, the ponies needed him. Now.

He looked around, searching for a way to go. Checking every door would have taken quite some time, but fortunately, he noticed that one of them was open. Hoping that it was the right one, he started running.

Antonius entered a large room and quickly scanned it. There were changelings, cocoons, Twilight - suspended by a swirl of sickly green energy - and…
SYNAPSE CREATURE!

The thought flashed through Antonius’ mind as he saw this changeling. Larger than the rest of them and talking to Twilight. Queen Chrysalis.

“I can be very convincing,” she said and touched the ground with her horn.

Screams came out of the cocoons and Antonius knew what was going on. And he knew what to do.
Save the ponies. Kill the synapse.

“Stop it!” Twilight cried,
“Just… stop… I… I…”

Antonius realized that they were all so focused on themselves and each other that nopony had noticed him yet. He would make use of that.
He thought about using his bolter, but discarded this idea. Twilight was too close to the synapse and he could not risk her getting hurt or even killed. A flying bone fragment or piece of chitin could be enough, after all.
So, he would attack this Chrysalis in melee. He had to admit, he liked that idea. He stayed in the shadows close to the wall and silently walked into a better position while Twilight continued:

“These ponies are the most important ponies in the world to me. I would do anything to save them. ANYTHING.”

She wasn’t really going to trust that abomination?

“NO!” Twilight’s friends screamed.

They obviously went along with Antonius.

“Release them, I’ll stay,” Twilight said.

What?

“Twilight, what are you doing?”

That had been Applejack’s voice - oh, and one of the cocoons had her hat on.

“Excellent!” Chrysalis cheered and closed her eyes.

Time to intervene.

Excellent! Chrysalis was content. Everything was going according to her plan. She even experienced a moment of happiness - and she knew it would get better!

That was when she heard something; like metal clashing with rock in rapid succession. She immediately opened her eyes and turned towards the source of these sounds. And then she saw it, running towards her at ludicrous speed, waving a giant, roaring sword: the creature Celestia had called ‘Tony’.

“DIE, ABOMINATION!” he thundered and his sword came down on her.

Chrysalis immediately created a magic shield around her, and the weapon clashed with it. Much to her horror, it started cutting through her shield, so that she had to increase her power. Sparks of magical energy were sent flying as the sword damaged the shield as fast as Chrysalis could reinforce it.

What kind of weapon was this? Why was it so loud? And why was its edge so… blurry?
Well, it would probably penetrate her shield sooner or later, so she thought of a new strategy.

Chrysalis abandoned the shield and put all of her magic into increasing her speed and altering the flow of time to dodge the blade. She managed to evade the attack, but barely. She could see the sword directly in front of her eyes, and the reason for the blurry edge: metal teeth were spinning around the blade. What kind of sadistic monster had built such a weapon? She definitely would employ him.

Unfortunately, she had no time to ponder this further. Her enemy changed the direction of the sword in mid strike, forcing her to retreat.

Damnit, she was as fast as she could be, yet this Antonius was able to keep up with her. He struck again and again, and each time he came dangerously close to killing her. He advanced further, and another attack scratched her horn so that she had to lower her head.
It proved to be a mistake; Chrysalis had gotten too close to him. She got a knee to her chest and was sent flying. She made a hard landing and rolled over the stone floor. As she looked at her enemy, her drones were approaching to attack him.
Good. A smile crept upon her features.

It vanished again quickly. Antonius lashed out with his sword and cut the drones to pieces. They screeched as their blood and entrails were splattering on the floor, but the blue armored warrior still strode towards her, barely slowed down by the assaults.

Another Changeling - one of her armored bodyguards - jumped in his way, hissing a challenge, and died horrifyingly fast, Antonius’ sword cutting through the armor with ease. A few sparks, then a lot of green blood.

Damnit. Chrysalis was just jumping back to her hooves as she heard a new sound: The roar of her enemy’s sword was now interrupted by strange sputtering, and the motion of the metal teeth had become irregular. Suddenly, sound and motion stopped, and Antonius put the sword wordlessly to his hip.
It did not work anymore! Yes! That was her chance! Now, she could use her power to defeat him, then she would drain him and make him her personal slave.

Chrysalis threw back her head and laughed at Antonius’ misfortune, now that her victory was close again. This proved to be another mistake, however. She heard his steps in rapid succession, tilted her head back forward and reflexively lit her horn to stop him.

A giant knife was just one or two centimeters above her head now, engulfed by her magic, but still in Antonius’ unrelenting grasp. Had she not still been under the influence of the fading speed-spell, she would have been dead now.
She stared at the knife and fought against her enemy’s strength and determination to transfix her head with this weapon. She managed to prevent the knife from coming any closer, but she had to focus on that task.

She looked into Antonius’ face, and despite knowing that it was only a helmet, those red glowing eyes sent a shiver down her spine. So much hate, such a merciless intention to kill… it made her whole body tingle.

A moment later, Chrysalis noticed movement in front of her and sneaked a peek at it - just in time to see a blue armored fist smash into her face, sending her flying again.

Chrysalis hit a wall and almost lost consciousness. She wanted to kick herself. That his sword did not work anymore did not mean that he was harmless now, that he had a knife did not mean that he couldn’t punch her with his fist.

She managed to stay conscious, only to see that he had already closed the distance and that his knife was coming for her again. She quickly created a magic shield to protect her.

Not a second too soon. Antonius weapon hit the shield and was successfully deflected, but he immediately changed to his fists and smashed them repeatedly into the shield, forcing her to power it with all of her magic.

Damnit, this was not a fair fight. Now, Chrysalis usually liked unfair fights, but only if the unfairness was for her benefit!
At the moment, she had an unstoppable warrior in front of her who was busy thoroughly testing her shield.
She heard a cracking sound and for a second she wondered if it might have been her skull. Then she realized what was happening: her shield still protected her, but her enemy beat her shield - and herself - into the wall!
Crap.

She had to get away from this creature, but how? She needed magic to teleport, but as soon as she removed the needed magic from her shield, Antonius would brake it - and subsequently her skull.
He kept smashing his fists into her shield, and fissures started to appear.
Shit.

Now, she had no other chance to survive than to risk a teleport. So, when he reached back again for another attack, she dropped her shield and teleported.

Chrysalis was a little exhausted, but safe - for now.

Typical.
Instead of facing imminent death with at least some dignity, the xeno had chickened out and teleported away.

Antonius turned around and spotted her again, not too far away. He started running towards Chrysalis, but she lit her horn and some kind of green force field came into existence between him and her, enclosing a large part of the room: Antonius and the cocoons containing Twilight’s friend were inside, Chrysalis and Twilight outside.

Damnit, that meant Twilight was in danger. He had to break the shield - and he had to draw Chrysalis’ attention.

“Hmm… seems you are a moron,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone,
“despite knowing that your shields can only slow me down for a short amount of time, you still cast them. Or is that the only spell you are capable of? Huh? Are you that pathetic?”

So, those insults should keep her focused on him. Now, it was time to shatter this shield.
Antonius started slamming his fists against the green wall of energy.

Obviously, the insults had worked, for Chrysalis spat:

“PATHETIC? I will show you who is pathetic, you… blue… thing! I will show you my magic! Now, with the comet above us, it is stronger than you can possibly imagine! I will drain your love, and I will drain Twilight’s love! Then, you will obey me, and with your black hearts you will even kill the other ponies!”

Just as Antonius was about to tell Chrysalis where she could shove her magic, Twilight spoke up, her horn ablaze with light:

“You aren’t the only one that can feel the magic in them spiking… I can fight you! You can’t take away who I am!”

Twilight’s eyes were glowing now, too, and the shield started to show fissures. Antonius was surprised to see Twilight like this, but he really liked it.

“And you can’t take away my friends!” Twilight continued, charging at her foe.

Don’t get cocky, Twilight. In a few seconds, Antonius would be through the shield and end this fight.

It turned out that Antonius’ intervention was not needed anymore: Twilight fired obviously powerful magical blasts at Chrysalis, lecturing her about her shortcomings all the while, supported by her friends.
So, even after he had managed to crush the shield, Antonius choose to let Twilight handle the synapse - as long as she had the upper hoof. It was her fight now, and she could need a little combat experience, after all.
He instead used his knife to quickly free the ponies and was done with that just as Twilight prepared for her final attack on a visibly battered Chrysalis.

“Stop…this… nonsense. You can’t… defeat me,” the changeling queen stammered.

Well, if she believed that herself, she truly was a moron.

“Ponies who can’t do things themselves tell OTHERS that they can’t do it… I CAN STAND UP TO YOU,” Twilight hissed, now completely glowing,
“And I can WIN!”

Now Antonius witnessed a display of magic that was truly impressive. Twilight blasted the changelings and their queen across the room with an explosion of light. Even he raised his arm to protect his head as his auto-senses dimmed his view to protect his eyes. It took a few seconds before they returned to normal and Antonius took a look around.

The changelings were lying on the floor or sticking to the walls, none of them conscious. Twilight seemed to be unconscious, too, but the rest of the ponies was fine. Antonius walked up to her, but Rainbow Dash was faster.

“Twilight?! Are you okay?” she asked with concern, but did not get an answer,
“Twilight?! Twilight? Wake up!”

Antonius just wanted to check her life signs as Rainbow slapped her.
Yeah, that was sort of another method to see if she was alright.

“RAINBOW!” Twilight shouted,
“You didn’t have to HIT ME! OW!”

“She’s okay,” Rainbow stated with relief.

“An impressive display of your magical power,” Antonius stated,
“now, let’s make sure that the changelings are dead and head home.”

“You want to… what?” Twilight asked.

“Kill the surviving changelings and go home again,” he answered and walked up to the unconscious body of Chrysalis.

This creature surely was too dangerous for the ‘minimum force approach’.

“But… you can’t do this!” Twilight cried.

“What? Go home? Are there more enemies to fight?”

“That’s not what I meant! You cannot kill them!”

“Oh, so they are already dead?”

“NO! They are just unconscious.”

“Then, I should be able to kill them,” Antonius stated and picked up Chrysalis.

The changeling queen opened her eyes a bit as his hand closed around her throat and he got his knife into position.

“Antonius!” Twilight screamed and ran up to him,
“don’t kill her!”

“Huh? She is an enemy. She is dangerous. She deserves death,” Antonius told her.

“No. She may be dangerous and evil, but we do not kill our enemies.”

“So, you want to spare them? Let them walk around and commit their atrocities? Have you seen the condition the area around here is in? The changelings defiled the land and probably lived off the inhabitants.”

“That may be true, but we still don’t kill them.”

Antonius sighed.

“I know you are peaceful creatures, but your mercy is inappropriate. If you refuse to kill them now, you or others will have to pay the price for your mercy sooner or later, just like the inhabitants of this land paid the price for us not being able to kill them all when they invaded Canterlot.”

“Antonius… please… no.”

In the meantime, the other ponies had gathered around him and also pleaded not to destroy the changeling threat once and for all now.

Antonius sighed again. What should he do?
There was an enemy who would probably cause trouble again, and he had the chance to get rid of this enemy here and now. But he had to avoid alienating the Element Bearers - his friends - too.

“You know what risk you take?” Antonius asked.

“Yes,” Twilight answered,
“but if we start mercilessly killing our enemies, we would risk losing ourselves, and that is much more dangerous than anything Chrysalis can come up with.”

Antonius though about that for a while, then he put away his knife and turned to the now fully conscious, but silent Chrysalis:

“Xeno witch, be aware that it is the mercy of these little ponies that saved your worthless life today. Should you dare to harass them again, though, I will let divine justice prevail and wipe you from the face of this planet!”

Chrysalis swallowed hard, still in Antonius’ grip, and hissed:

“I’m not sure what’s worse; being killed by you or owing my life to Twilight and those ponies.”

“Take your time to think about it,” Antonius commented drily, knocked her out with a blow to her face and dropped her.

Then he turned to Twilight:

“Now that we don’t kill them, we should at least find a way to contain them.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Twilight smiled,
“I’ve got an idea.”

A little later, they had left the castle, but not without installing a magical guardian that seriously beat everything else Antonius knew when it came to weirdness. Twilight, however, had promised him that this containment method would work, and he trusted her judgement in regards to magic.

Antonius thought about calling the princesses to tell them what had happened, but he did not want to distract them; perhaps they were in the middle of a fight. He used his vox to call Al instead.

“Hey, Al, do you have news on the princesses?”

“Yes. They have repelled the attacks on Canterlot and Manehattan and are on their way to meet you. According to the signal strength of their PDAs, they shouldn’t be too far away now.”

“Well, that’s good news, but why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“They told me not to tell you, as they worried it could possibly distract you at a critical moment.”

“Okay, I understand the intentions, but next time, just tell me. I am used to processing information while fighting.”

“Acknowledged.”

Antonius took a look at the sky to see if he could spot the approaching princesses, and indeed, he saw them just as Fluttershy exclaimed:

“Look, it’s the princesses!”

Celestia’s golden chariot, drawn by two pegasus guards, landed close by and Celestia, Luna and Spike walked up to them. Celestia and Spike looked pretty battered, having made use of band-aids and bandages, and Spike even had an eyepatch, but they seemed to be okay otherwise. While they were talking with the ponies, Luna turned to Antonius:

“Hi, Tony. Is everything alright?”

“My chainsword ran out of fuel, but otherwise I’m fine. How about you? You seem to be in a better condition than your sister and Spike.”

“Well, let us say that I did not need dressing material as much as I needed a shower after my fight with that giant marshmallow pony.”

“Were there any more threats? If so, have they been neutralized, too?”

“A few chimeras attacked Applewood, but they were successfully repelled. I think this comet-crisis is over.”

“Good. Now, do we return immediately or do we camp here and return tomorrow?”

“I think we will stay here for the night, but we should better ask my sister.”

They walked up to Celestia just as Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity dragged the babbling Cutie Mark Crusader away from her and asked about her plans.

“First, let’s take care of a campfire, then all of you can tell me what has happened.”

A short time later, the fire was burning, the Crusaders were sleeping, and the ponies were telling a short version of what they had done and experienced.

“It sounds like quite the adventure…” Celestia opined,
“I can’t wait to hear all about it from you. But, please tell me, where is the changeling queen now?”

“Oh… she’s somewhere she won’t be able to break out of for a while…” Twilight answered with a suppressed smile.

“I helped!” Pinkie Pie added proudly.

“Huh? Twilight, what have you done?” Celestia asked in confusion.

So Twilight told her about the ‘guardian’ she had installed and Celestia snickered.

“That was an unusual, but funny idea. But we should still take additional precautions,” Celestia said and fetched her PDA.

She activated it and made a call. A few seconds later, her secretary, Raven, appeared on the display, the armorium in the background.

“Yes, Princess?” the mare asked.

“Send two dozen guards, a few construction workers and equipment here. We need to turn a castle into a prison,” Celestia said.

“At once, Princess.”

Celestia deactivated the device and put it away again.

“The PDAs are really useful if you don’t forget them, eh?” Antonius grinned.

“Yes, I have to admit that,” Celestia replied, rolling her eyes,
“and until the prison is ready, your guardian should be able to contain them.”

“In addition to that,” Rainbow Dash said,
“Antonius could go to the front door every now and then and shout ‘I’m still here!’ or something. That should really keep them inside.”

Celestia gave Antonius a questioning look at that, and he told her:

“Helped defeat their queen. Killed a few of them.”

“Really?” she asked exasperatedly.

“Hey, I thought you were only arbitrarily annoyed by me killing traitors who want to kill you,” Antonius retorted.

“Wait, WHAT?” Twilight shouted,
“we heard some rumors, but they were contradictory and… weird…”

“Truth, short version: Some insane ponies tried to kill Celestia, I killed them first.”

The following silence lasted for a few seconds, only interrupted by Rainbow Dash mumbling:

“Being a super warrior sounds way cooler if you don’t know all of the consequences…”

Then Twilight asked:

“Why did you kill them?”

“Because they were traitors,” Antonius answered,
“they deserved death.”

“They deserved punishment, but not death! Remember our talk about losing ourselves?”

“Yes, but they posed an active and lethal threat to Princess Celestia and hence to the planet. That means that they also posed a threat to you, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. And since you are allies of the Imperium, I considered them to be a threat to mankind, too. Elimination was due, since all threats to mankind have to be eradicated. That’s the purpose and honor of the Adeptus Astartes.”

“What? Why were they so dangerous?”

Now Antonius told them a more detailed version of what had happened.

“Couldn’t you just have barged in, told them to stop and seized them?” Twilight inquired.

Antonius noticed a hint of a grin at the corners of Celestia’s mouth, so this was obviously her opinion, too. Well, as reasonable his actions had been to him, he should probably better try to explain himself to not alienate his friends further:

“Listen, Twilight; traitors are a special kind of evil.
While you could argue that xenos are malevolent because of their upbringing, that they live in a despicable society and were taught despicable things, or that their malevolence is even hardwired into their genetic code, traitors have no such excuses.
They were born into a good society, were taught good things, and were even set on a path towards becoming righteous and productive members of that society, but they ignored what they learned and left that path. Instead, they choose a path of greed, selfishness and destruction. Instead of thanking the society they owe so much, they spit on it in an attempt to gain power.
Such creatures deserve no mercy. So, in accordance with the Codex Astartes, I killed them.”

More silence, broken by Applejack this time:

“Don’t you think that this codex of yours might be a tad… wrong in that regard?”

“No, as the Codex is the wisdom of our Primarch, the revered Roboute Guilliman. Disregarding the Codex would mean putting your own wisdom over his far superior wisdom, and that would be heresy. Or do you want to say that you are wiser than Primarch Guilliman?”

Antonius had said it calmly, and without any malevolent intention, but Celestia immediately intervened:

“I can assure you that nopony wants to insult your Primarch, Antonius.”

“I know,” Antonius told her calmly, then he sighed and continued:
“You still have problems seeing why I had to do what I have done… Okay, let’s leave the Codex out, let’s leave the experiences mankind has made with traitors out.
The traitor I interrogated still told me that there were three capable unicorns among their ranks who were able to unite their powers somehow, and that they were attempting to cast a dangerous spell on Celestia. According to Luna, this spell would almost certainly have resulted in Celestia’s death, so they posed a lethal threat.
Now, psykers - and unicorns are a type of psyker - must not be underestimated, at least not if you want to survive and successfully complete your mission. And since I am not a psyker, the best chance I had was to kill them before they had time to cast any spells. That’s why I entered the room in the most distracting and confusing way possible - through the wall - and eliminated them as fast as I could.”

“Perhaps I should have gone with you,” Luna said,
“I could have stopped them…”

“No,” Antonius said firmly,
“I would never have allowed the only remaining ruling princess of Equestria to enter a room full of fanatical Luna-haters. I had to clear the area first.”

“So, the ten second delay…”

“Exactly. That way, you would have been a magical support if I had been too slow.”

“But…” Twilight started,
“why did you not - I can’t believe I’m asking this - just damage their horns instead of killing them?”

“Attacking a small body part is always more risky than going for the whole body, and knowing how important Celestia is I had to minimize the risks as far as possible.”

“And Cinch?”

“Killing the followers and sparing the leader would have been unfair, and as the initiator of the treason, she posed an undeniable threat, too.”

Another period of silence, then Celestia said:

“Logical. A cold, hard and ruthless logic I don’t want to promote, but I can at least… comprehend why you acted the way you did. Still… Antonius, please consider taking small risks if it means that you can save lives, even if they are the lives of traitors.”

“That depends on the ponies in danger. All of you here are way too important to take any risks if your lives are at stake, but I promise that I will try to only use lethal means if that is the case. So, as long as nopony really tries to kill you - or me, for that matter - I will do my best to find non-lethal solutions.”

“Thank you,” Celestia replied without really sounding content.