Contrary to popular belief, Our Prince does not always rest upon his Golden Throne. We often find him tinkering here and there with some system or another in his Palace, the Nexus, and he does walk about for physical exercise and keep his psionic skills sharp through meditation and manipulation of that strange energy. He also eats, though not as much as we - his subjects - do; he exists on a diet of normal food and (I expressed disbelief when I heard this from him) the psionic energies he wields! Despite this, he will never be on par, physically at least, with the Alicorn Princesses of Equestria; indeed, though he possesses psionic power unfathomable physically he is less stronger than the most average of unicorns. Additionally, an ancient - though still binding - oath he took before he came here to Equestria outright forbids him from engaging in combat by any mundane means.
This, then, is why he so heavily depends upon the cloaked Observers, the slow but fearsome Reavers, the small yet powerful Sentries and other formidable technologies of the Nexus called Equusweyr - and, lest we not forget, the ponies whom are his Templars - to protect him as he in turn watches over us all. Yes, I said 'watches' over us all. You see, along with being physically weak, our Prince is painfully shy and reclusive and is most happy when ensconced upon his Golden Throne at the heart of Equusweyr, with the Weyrmind above, the great Khaydarin Core behind, Templar at his call, ever watchful, and little foals playing happily at his feet. There he doesn't mind other ponies being with him for he is in his Sanctum; a place he knows and trusts.
That is not to say he doesn't venture outside Equusweyr; he does, sometimes. Such a thing is a rare sight, and if you envision him as a 'liege lord' striding haughtily out to 'inspect' his city with disdainful eye and sneer at us his subjects in disgust--don't, for you are not seeing him properly. He does not see himself as a Prince; thus when he comes out there is no fanfare, or grand royal parade. On the contrary, his escort - a single Templar, bearing no weapons and clad only in a teal sash embroidered with the symbol of Akilae - appears to coax him to follow, rather than act as an escort! The Prince himself does not walk 'furclad' among his subjects; on the contrary, the clothing he wears is the most spectacular we mortal ponies have ever seen.
A 'triple-loincloth' like garment - called a shendyt by our Prince - drapes over his rear (a hole exists for his tail to exit through), and also covers his flanks that his, well, sheath might not be seen. Covering the shendyt, is golden-metal barding, forged from something he calls Psi-Steel; the result of first manifesting a small amount of the purest form of psionic energy into reality as a solid construct and then passing said construct through a device called a replicator! Atop the barding, our Prince wears a long flowing jade-green, rune-adorned robe, its only modification being the slits cut from it for his rarely-used wings. About his right foreleg there rests a bracer to which a mysterious device is attached and atop his head he bears the 'crown' we ponies made for him, though 'crown' is a misnomer; it is in fact a half-circlet of silver with a crystalline 'cap' for his impressive horn.
Covering the horn as it does would normally impede the casting of magic--not so for our Prince! When the forgers of his crown saw the cap - something, he said, that he had added himself - they scoffed, until our Prince told the craftsponies what the cap was for. The cap, he said, was forged of a special crystal called Khaydarin--a crystal that served only to increase his reserves of psionic energy and strengthen his already formidable power. He demonstrated this. The craftsponies never scoffed at him again... ah, but I ramble. As I stated before, when our Prince ventures out there is no fanfare, or grand royal parade; his escort merely walks, or perhaps guides, him throughout the city, and wherever he goes, the Prince always has upon his face an expression warring between awe and stunned disbelief. He wonders why we built the city for him, I think; that and I believe that he believes he is unworthy of a city so grand.
Of course, it wasn't always so grand. Our fair city began as a small and humble village, unwelcome and unwanted by our Prince, at first. Princess Luna had whispered unto the dreams of those Equestrian Ponies, whom were dissatisfied with her sister's rule, that another Alicorn had appeared... and so we ventured forth to find him. He, however, dwelt deep in the darkest heart of the Everfree Forest; to journey therein just to find a place away from the rule of Celestia... the notion surely was foolhardy, wasn't it? Nevertheless... onward we went. We were only thirty in number, at first; a shabby group of all three pony races, and the journey was difficult. This new Alicorn - whoever he was - did not want to be found! But we persevered... and oddly, the closer we drew to where he dwelt, the easier our journey became; no beasts of the Everfree ever crossed our path and we seemed to be moving as though something was inexorably guiding us with an invisible hoof.
When the final day of our journey ended - and we beheld the sight of the Great Pyramid before us - its golden-steel body and crystal capstone shining in the light of the setting sun - well, we were stunned and awed. What an utterly inspiring sight to see after such a long, long journey! Even better - rather than being an intimidating sight - feelings of warmth and comfort seemed to emanate from the mighty structure. 'Welcome' it seemed to say. Some of us dropped to the ground to give thanks to whoever made home within, whilst others among us took one look at the colossal structure and burst into happy tears. What manner of Alicorn lived in such a wondrous place, and would he emerge from within to greet us? Unfortunately, he didn't at first, and we were deeply saddened. Still, we began to settle within the mighty pyramid's shadow, first erecting tents which eventually became simple log cabins and thatched huts as we found within the Everfree the materials we needed. The pegasi among us even crafted a communal cloud house whilst they of the Earth crafted a communal garden.
And all the while, the Great Pyramid loomed over us, sheltering us within its watchful, protective shadow... and we soon discovered that the colossal structure possessed a power all its own--and that was but the first of its many secrets. Ponies whom quarreled with each other would become confused, wondering why they had done so; then compromise would be reached shortly thereafter. Ponies whom got lost within the Everfree would somehow be able to find their way back home. Vicious animals of the forest who saw ponies as an easy meal would suddenly become confused or lose interest once the Great Pyramid was in sight--or better, they would become docile and tame. Nowadays it's not uncommon for pony families of the Everfree Princedom to have a Manticore, a Timberwolf, or even a Cockatrice as a pet--but back then we all thought it was the most incredible thing!
Those ponies who'd gotten lost but had been 'returned' to us by the Great Pyramid - and those ponies whose lives had been saved from animals by it - soon rebuilt their houses closer to it, and often in the same shape as homage to it. We didn't think much of this at first... but then, one early morn - shortly after our city of tents had turned into a proper village - some of us saw several 'pyramid-blessed' ponies touching the structure's metal walls with their hooves and noses and even leaving gifts of food and other items before its mighty doors emblazoned with the massive icon of a dragon in flight. Once, a pair of ponies even attempted to leave their firstborn foal before the doors, strictly as some sort of sacrificial gift (said 'sacrifice' being the giving up of the foal, not the little pony's death!) but somehow the colossal pyramid reprimanded them and - bowing obsequiously in shame and thanks - they retrieved their foal and the huge pyramid seemed happy again.
Finally - roughly one year and six months after our little village had been established within the great pyramid's shadow, the doors of the great pyramid opened, and at last, our Prince emerged--but one must remember that he didn't consider himself to be a prince, yet. Thus, when he saw our humble village nestled within the shadow of his pyramid home... at first, he was furious! Why, thought he had we come here? He looked down upon us, at the houses we had built and was thoughtful; then he peered up at the cloud house of the pegasi and frowned; then he espied the many pyramid-houses built in homage to his own as well as the various pyramid-motifs here and there throughout the village - on signs, posts, and even some tools and the like - and he turned tail and fled into the Great Pyramid as if he'd seen Nightmare Moon herself!
A few months later, our Prince emerged again from his Great Pyramid but this time he tentatively made his way into our village, his steps slow and unsure--as if he wasn't used to the body that he was born with; as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Closing his eyes, our Prince inhaled a deep breath of the fresh, morning air or at least, he tried to. What he inhaled instead was air laced with black coal smoke from our Smithy, built by one Rusty Iron, an Earth Pony from Ponyville of all places. It was, unfortunately, the beginning of the end for Old Rusty, as we called him... or was it? There was naught wrong with Rusty's wares - he made hinges, locks, nails, fittings, tool-heads... you name it; if it could be forged of strong iron Rusty could forge it and forge it well - but the Prince cared not for this. As far as he was concerned, the Smithy - though situated at the outskirts of our village - was befouling the air about his home and he would have none of it!
His gaze cold, the teal alicorn entered the Smithy - startling poor Rusty whom was busy at work - and spoke to our Earth Pony Smith. We don't know what he said to Rusty, but shortly after our Prince entered the Smithy he emerged from it with Rusty Iron in tow and took our Smith back to his home! The next day, four machines - which we would later come to know as Probes, the Keepers of our Prince's home - headed to the no longer occupied Smithy and proceeded to take it apart stone by stone, until there was nothing to tell that it had ever been there! We all were so utterly dismayed. Why had the prince done this? We would soon find out, for no sooner had the Probes cleared the final remnants of the old Smithy away then they were returning to resurface the ground. Then, we watched in wonder as the Probes appeared to plant four seeds within the ground--but the things the Probes appeared to plant weren't seeds at all, for no sooner had they been planted than four swirling vortexes of light and power appeared where the 'seeds' had been sown.
Thirty days later, Rusty Iron emerged from the Great Pyramid of our Prince--but what a change he had undergone. A powerful spring was in his once arthritic step, he could inhale enormous lungfuls of air without coughing, and he - dare I say it - seemed younger than when he first went in. No sooner had he emerged from the pyramid, then he looked to where his old Smithy had been... just as we ponies all witnessed something that made our muzzles drop open! Three of the swirling vortexes disappeared, leaving behind the most amazing structures we'd ever seen: three enormous cyan crystals which hovered in the air--without magic!--roughly six meters above the ground. Each giant crystal measured sixty one meters tall, had a twenty five meter radius, and weighed almost six hundred tons! Wrapped around the circumference of the central part of the crystals were enormous, golden psi-steel bands. These amazing things, we would learn, were called Pylons and they served only one purpose: to provide near-limitless power to the fourth structure that appeared in their midst.
When that structure came into being, Rusty Iron whooped with glee - he obviously knew what it was - and he made to enter the golden-metal building. Before he could however, several of us ponies intercepted him; we wanted to know what had happened within the Great Pyramid; what was our Prince like; what had he taught the Smith? The answers Rusty gave us made us all wonder whether he'd lost his mind. The Great Pyramid, said he, was no mere building; it was alive with a mind and soul of its own! Within, he'd properly met our new Prince, and he certainly wasn't one of Celestia or Luna's kin; he was rather small and frail for an alicorn--but rather shy and extremely kindhearted. "He was more scared of me than I was of him," stated Rusty. "As he was our Prince, I made to bow before him as was expected when greeting an Alicorn--but he wouldn't have it! He instead bowed to me and apologized profusely for removing my old Forge. But he had a reason for doing that, you see! The Weyrmind - the spirit of his house - had discerned that I would've died in a year from Black Lung!"
At this, we all let out cries of dismay, but Rusty held up a hoof for quiet, before he continued. "After giving me a medical check, our Prince he..." and here, he went silent, almost unable to find the words to continue; only prompting from his overjoyed wife allowed him to keep speaking, happy tears welling from his eyes, to run down his cheeks. "... he set me within a wondrous machine that he called the 'Autodoc' and it... it removed and replaced my heart, lungs, and kidneys, with brand new organs grown from cells of my own body! Our Prince... he... he gave me back my life... I..." At this point he hugged his beloved wife, Featherfall and wept into her mane and she wept with him. More than a few of us, too, found tears welling up in our own eyes and many of us swore fealty to our new Prince then and there despite the fact that we'd never seen him, nor been within his home. What a truly awe inspiring thing he had done for us!
"But that's not all" continued Rusty, once he was able to stop crying. His voice fueled with excitement, he went on. "The Prince took me deep, deep within his home, into the most incredible forge I'd ever seen in all my years. It was huge and intimidating, like nothing I'd ever seen before... but still, a forge was a forge; there was a flame and there were tools for shaping metal. The flame, however, was psychic fire - the energy of thought itself turned unto searing flame - whilst the tools were meant for shaping Psi-Steel; psionic energy turned into matter through force of will alone! 'This place is called the Psi-Forge, and when you learn how to use it courtesy of the Weyrmind, I will have one just like it constructed where your old Smithy once stood. I will gift you with a' - what did he call it? Ah, yes - 'a Neural Transceiver that you might learn the secrets of forging Psi-Steel from the Weyrmind. It's... a lot cleaner than working with Iron.' That said, he did indeed fit me with the Neural Transceiver" - he gestured with a hoof to a device embedded within his upper spinal column - "and then left me to my own devices. And I learned... oh, I learned!"
"What did you learn?" one of us cried.
"My special talent is of course, smithing," Rusty answered, "and combined with the tutelage I received from the mind of the Weyr? Well, my friends... I was soon crafting the most incredible things, shaping that steel as if it were more liquid than solid; it near-literally seemed to respond to my will alone! I made all of the things I normally make, plus other things that I just couldn't before! Once I had learned all I could, our Prince bade me goodbye and told me not to be a stranger. And well... here I am!" With that, Rusty made his way into his new clean 'green' Forge, leaving us to resume our lives. That was when our industry truly got started.