“That was too close.” I say as we all land at what seems to be a rest stop for chariots.

“At least we got away.” The mare that I now know as Ditzy Doo says as she looks over her wagon for any damage.

“Save for the fact that the teleportation scrambled my spell matrix.” Steel Hooves says from inside the Sky Bandit, as Calamity had called it.

“I already offered to heal you, and you refused.” I tell him, only to earn a ‘humph’ in return as Little Pip did something with the armored pony.

“Okay, so let me see here. You are one of the last three Alicorns on the planet?” Little Pip asks me. She had woken up a few minutes into the flight after I teleported us away from the Enclave’s flying battle ship.

“Yes, unless you count the false alicorns as well.” I answer the short mare.

“And you came here to help me fix this?” She asks, gesturing to the wasteland around us.

“Correct.” I answer before looking up to the sky to see that the clouds were covering the sun back up.

“Why do the pegasi cover the sky up?” I ask in idle thought, not really expecting an answer.

“It happened right after the mega spells hit Canterlot.” Calamity says as he comes out from under the Sky bandit.

“The pegasi back then decided to wait before coming to the rescue, but that was a load o’ lies they told everypony to keep ‘em up there, and not see the truth.” He finished.

“So in other words, it is so the Enclave could forget Equis as a whole, and live with the sun as it is.” I replied before spreading my wings.

“I’ll be right back.” I say as I crouch to preform another sonic rainboom to clear the skies again.

“Wait!” Little Pip shouts to me. I stand up, and look to her with a brow raised.

“If you clear the skies again the Enclave will know where we are, and send even greater numbers to try and kill us.” She tells me.

“So you’d rather that I let them cloud the skies until after they are gone?” I ask with a tilt of my head, “It seems to me that the Enclave needs to be dealt with.”

“Prince, y’all aren’t thinkin’ ‘bout goin’ up there are ya?” Calamity asks me. I nod as I fold my wings.

“I believe that the pegasi need to see what is going on down on the surface, and to do that I need to clear the skies, but if you wish to travel in silence, then I will go up there myself, and finish what the war had started.” I say before lighting my horn, and sending a bolt of magic at the clouds, causing them to thin away in mass amounts.

“But I see that this would be wrong, so for now, I will use my magic to clear the skies while keeping our location unknown to the Enclave.” I look up to the now partially cloudy skies, and see pegasi looking down to see why the clouds were breaking up.

“Prince, why do you wear such old fashioned armor?” Velvet Remedy asks me as she returns from the inside of the rest stop.

“This is my royal battle regalia. Is there something wrong with it?” I ask her. She shakes her head.

“No, just that with the weapons the wasteland’s bad ponies use can tear through that armor without much resistance.” She tells me with a tilt of her head.

“Then I will have to create new armor for myself once we get to a settlement.” I answer before looking to my armor, and sighing. This armor had saved me too many times for me to just throw it away.

“Or instead of a new set I could upgrade your current armor to be better made for the Wasteland’s harsh environment.” Ditzy offers with a smile.

“That would be nice, but I don’t have anything to repay you with.” I tell her with a return smile.

“Oh, don’t worry about paying me. This would be my way of saying thank you for healing me.” She tells me as her right eye wanders away from me.

“Are you sure?” I ask her. She nods with a big smile.

“All we have to do is make it back to New Apploosa.” She replies before stepping into the back of her wagon.

“Where we go is up to Little Pip though.” I say as I turn to her. Her eyes widen before looking at me.

“I have no clue where we should go next.” She says to me before looking at the others in her group.

“Ah’m fine with wherever you want to go Pip.” Calamity says to the young mare.

“A trip back to New Apploosa would be nice, but if you have somewhere else in mind then that’s where I’ll go too.” Velvet says as she floats food out to everyone.

“I need to get back to the other Rangers soon.” Steel Hooves says before looking up to Canterlot in the distance.

“We also need to go get Star Sparkle from Canterlot soon as well.” He says after a little bit.

“Well,” Little Pip starts, “We should go get Mrs. Sparkle first, and then drop Steel Hooves off at Fetlock before heading to New Apploosa to get Prince Artermis some better barding, and then we’ll head to Tenpony tower to make sure Mrs. Sparkle has a better place to stay.” Little Pip says with a nod.

“Then I will go where you go.” I say with a nod.

“So will I.” Calamity says after me.

“You can always count me in.” Velvet says to us.

“I will follow as well.” The zebra known as Xenith tells Pip.

“I’ll be going with you to get Mrs. Sparkle too.” Steel Hooves says from inside the sky bandit.

“I wish I could go, but I need to get back to Silver Bell.” Ditzy says as she comes out of her wagon with a weapon of some kind on her back.

“What is this?” I ask the blonde pony.

“Something that you might need soon.” She tells me before holding the weapon out to me.

“Whoa, Ditzy when did ya get that?” Calamity asks as I pick up the magic energy weapon with my magic.

“I have had this for a long time now, and it was given to me by an old friend of mine. I never use it, so I figured that you should have it Prince.” Ditzy says as I look over the weapon with mild interest.

“What does it do, and how do I use it?” I ask aloud.

“Well, Ah reckon Ah could set up a quick shootin’ range if you want to see and try ‘er out.” Calamity says before zooming off into the rest stop, and return with a dozen bottles in his grasp.

I watch with mild interest as he sets the bottles out around the station at varying distances.

“Alright Prince, here is how you use a projectile weapon.” Calamity says as he faces the small line of bottles that have now been deemed fit for ‘target practice.’

“All ya have ta do is aim down the sights of the gun, and pull this here trigger to fire.” He teaches me while pointing to certain parts of the magic weapon.

“Now before ya’ll go and start shootin’ I’ll need to tell ya what this gun does.” He continues, “This here is what I like to call a, ‘long range lightnin’ rifle’ or for the sciency term, a long range lightning recharger fire-arm.” I look over the weapon in my magic grasp with a new found respect.

“Now, once again I gotta tell you something. Don’t ever point that beautiful weapon at anyone that you think is friendly, as it’ll kill with just a few shots.” He tells me with his eyes closed.

As he continues to ramble on about safety features I lift the rifle up to aim down the sights, and line up the small iron protrusions on one of the nearby bottles.

Crack-throom

The rifle releases an arc of pure lightning straight into the bottle I had aimed at. I quickly move to my next targets.

Crack-throom

Crack-throom
Crack-throom

Crack-throom

I pulled the trigger once more, but the gun fizzles at me. I lower my weapon, and look at what is left of the five targets. Small glowing pieces of glass were all that was left of each bottle, and I didn’t miss a single shot.

“Holy shit! I thought ya didn’t know ‘ow to use a gun!” Calamity shouts to me.

“I don’t, but it is very similar to firing cannons. Only that I can take down more targets faster than any cannon of old could ever even try to attempt.” I say as I watch my rifle slowly start to glow and cackle with magic energy again.

“What in tarnation is a cannon?” Calamity asks me. I look to him before looking down to his small long mini cannons.

“Those fire small projectiles, yes?” I ask him.

“Hm? Yeah and they always hit their mark.” He says with pride. I smirk before looking over to the rest stop, and lighting my horn with heavy telekinetic magic.

The sound of lots of metal being torn and reshaped is heard for a few minutes as I make a rusty cannon from the metal that was once the rest stop.

“This is a cannon.” I tell him before lifting the small metal ball, and placing it into the long barrel.

I focus my magic into a small compressed explosive mass behind the cannonball as I aim the cannon at a large sign that is about thirty meters away from us.

I let the compressed magic release itself in the explosion that I created, and watch as the cannon roars, and spits the metal ball straight into the sign, tearing it to shreds from the low velocity shot.

“HOLY CELESTIA!” Calamity shouts as he takes in the damage my cannon produced.

“Prince! Is everything alright over there?!” I hear Little Pip ask as she rounds the corner of the Sky Bandit.

“Everything is fine Little Pip. I was demonstrating what a cannon is to Calamity. I apologize if I startled any of you with the loud boom.” I say before looking back to the cannon I had made rather swiftly.

“Wow, do ya think that ya’ll could mount that on top of the sky bandit?” Calamity asks me.

I look over the rather unstable vehicle before shaking my head.

“Not without it tearing the wagon apart the first time you fired it.” I answer before looking at other options for the armaments of the civilian transport.

“However, I could make smaller swivel cannons that could be mounted in the windows for defensive purposes.” I tell him. This catches his and Little Pip’s attention.

“That sounds like a good idea, but armor is more of a priority before weapons.” Steel Hooves says as he exits the sky bandit. I look to him, and see that his armor, not his skin, was working again. Little Pip must have rebooted the spell matrix within it.

“I agree with Steel Hooves dears, so Prince if you would be kind enough?” Velvet Remedy asks me. I chuckle as her balefire phoenix lands on her shoulder.

I eye the mutated immortal bird with a tilted head.

“What is causing Pyrelight to burn as this color?” I ask as my horn lights, and tears the cannon I made to pieces before placing them onto the sky bandit, adding about three inches of metal armor to the vehicle.

“Pyrelight is a balefire phoenix, so she burns with radioactive bale fire instead of regular fire.” Velvet answers me. I look to the bird before asking in its natural language if she would like to be a true phoenix.

Pyrelight tilts her head at me for a few seconds before asking if she could keep her radiation powered flames. I nod in return, and the phoenix takes off to me before landing on my back. I turn to Pyrelight, and light my horn with blood red magic. My magic flows into Pyrelight.

The bird of fire slowly starts to glow a more red for her darker feathers, and her golden hued feathers turn into the balefire green. Pyrelight nuzzles my neck in thanks before taking off back into the sky for a few seconds before giving a loud true phoenix screech.

“Wow.” The group of ponies, and zebra say as Pyrelight lands on Velvets back once again.

“Just as she wanted.” I say before turning to the remnants of the rest stop, and lighting my horn once more, and tearing the rest of the metal out of the building, and adding it to the sky bandit with ease. I finished after a few minutes of re shaping the chariot into something that could withstand much more damage, also I encased the spark batteries in seven inch thick metal plating that could only be accessed from the inside.

“There, now it should hold together even if nine inch cannons shot it.” I say as I finish making the cover for the driver. I look over my work with a smile. I had recolored the sky bandit as I went along my repairs and armoring of the chassis, and it now looked a lot like a flying ship than a chariot. I had magically painted the sides with the ancient alicorn flag of Equestria.

“How in the world did you do that?” Little Pip asks me. I look to the young mare and smirk.

“I used an advanced form of telekinesis to form the metal, and then heated it so it welded onto the ship.” I tell her. She squeals at the idea of magic being able to warp and shape metal.

“Could you teach me?” She asks me. I nod before looking up to the sky to see another huge warship heading towards us.

“What is that?” I ask as I point out the huge ship in the sky. Calamity looks up to it before dashing over to the driver’s spot on the Sky Bandit, and strapping in.

“That is an Enclave Thunderhead mobile siege ship. The Enclave only had four before you showed up, and destroyed the Glorious Dawn.” He says as the other pile into the mini gunship.

“How many ponies are inside it?” I ask as I ready my wings.

“Ah don’t know, a few thousand?” Calamity answers before looking back to me.

“Ya’ll aren’t thinkin’ about goin’ up there are ya?” He asks me. I look to him.

“Could you fly it?” I ask him. He looks bewildered at what seemed to be a death mission.

“I could, but I would need lots o’ help, but ya’ll can’t just go and kill ‘em all.” He answers.

“I won’t, I’ll give them the choice of landing first, and changing over to my colors.” I say as Ditzy tosses a strap to me. I catch it, and strap it to my rifle before slinging the energy rifle to my side.

“Get to New Apploosa. I’ll meet you all there with our without this thunderhead on our side.” I tell the group.

“Wait, I would like to go with you.” I hear Xenith say, before hopping out of the Sky Bandit.

“Do you have everything you need?” I ask her. The Zebra mare checks her bags before nodding to me.

“Very well then, climb aboard.” I say as I lay down, and spread my wings for her to climb onto my back.

“Prince, make sure she comes back safely.” Little Pip tells me. I nod before taking off into the sky, heading towards the giant Pegasus machine that halted its descent in the sky.

“Is there a certain reason you decided to come with me?” I ask Xenith.

“I simply wish to see if you are a star born.” She tells me as we see a large ramp extend from the bottom of the Thunderhead. I could see a welcoming crew waiting for us, so I sped up, but stayed at a pace that would still allow a quick few words between me and Xenith.

“We are all star born Xenith, this entire world was created with the remnants of a dead star, and the life came from this world, all the matter was formed into shapes by the dead remains of a star, so don’t think so bad of the stars themselves, but what is born in the remains of them.” I say before landing in the belly of the Enclave warship.

“Welcome to the Thunderhead New Cloudsdale.” The Pegasus in the most decorated armor says as I let Xenith off of my back. I put up a shield between Xenith and I, and the pegasi that were surrounding us.

“As high general of the Grand Pegasus Enclave I ask that you come with me.” The now known general says before turning, and walking into the depths of the dark war machine.

“I’d rather stay right here.” I say to the general before strengthening my shield.

“Stay here under the clouds that you seem to enjoy tearing apart?” He asks me.

“Be mindful of who you are speaking with.” I growl at him. He chuckles and turns to face me.

“And who am I speaking with?” He asks with a grin. I scowl at the holier than thou general.

“We are the Prince Artermis Eclipse of Equis, and thou shalt show us respect as we can tear this ship in half with but a thought!” I shout at him in the royal ‘we’.

“Oh? And here I thought I was speaking with another would-be god.” He says in reply, with the smirk still on his muzzle.

I see the game he’s playing at, so I walk through my shield, leaving Xenith inside, gesturing for her to stay. Xenith nods to me, and I look back to the general to see many of the pegasi had their weapons pointed at me.

I start to chortle at their petty weapons, and I slowly increase my hysteria into full blown belly laughing.

“You think your little toys scare me?” I ask him while still getting my laughing under control.

“Please, I already have withstood greater blasts with my bear form, so if you must, then fire away at the only remaining male alicorn left.” I say to the pegasi around me.

They opened fire on me without a second thought, and I absorbed the magic energy they shot at me, adding it to my own reserves.

I let out more laughter as my horn grows longer, and my wings stronger.

“Cease fire!” I hear the general shout, causing the barrage of magic to halt. I am left chuckling as my power now was triple my own stores while I was at my best.

“You all have no clue what you just did.” I say in a multilayered voice. My whole body was sparking with the energy I had absorbed into my being.

“I AM THE FOURTH ALICORN, CREATOR OF ALL MOONS, AND FATHER OF CELESTIAL MAGIC!!!” I shout in the royal voice, causing everyone in the nearby vicinity to yelp in pain.

“DOTH THOU UNDERSTAND WHO WE ARE NOW?” I ask the general.

“Yes, and I apologize for my actions.” He says before bowing low, and spreading his wings in front of his self. An ancient Pegasus tradition for when bowing to royalty. This was so that if I was disappointed in him I could smash his wings easily. I grinned lightly at the gesture.

“Rise, my little pony and let us speak on amiable terms.” I say in a regular voice. The general stood up from his position before all the pegasi that saw what he did bowed to me in the exact same manner.

I gave a genuine smile at their change of heart.

“FOR THE TRUE PRINCE!” I hear them all shout at the top of their lungs.

“General, set a course for New Apploosa. I have a few ponies I want you to meet. Do so with much haste.” I say to the now reformed Pegasus pony.

“Of course.” He says with a nod, “Helms ponies start on a course for New Apploosa at full speed.” The general says into his headset. I feel the giant airship slowly change direction before the entire craft lurches into motion.

“Prince, if you and your Zebra come with me we can go to the control room, and wait there while we make way to New Apploosa.” The general says to me. I nod, and let Xenith’s shield fall before we both follow the general into the giant beast.