P.O.V. Twilight Sparkle.

“Anyone want to go for a ride?” he asked.

“Can we Princess?” I asked while looking up to the white alicorn.

“I don’t see why not,” responded the Princess.

“Alright… Ordis, let’s get this show on the road,” responded Excalibur with a hint joy.

“Yes Excalibur.”

I sat there and listened to the ship come to life. It made this loud roaring sound. I watched as we began to take off. I couldn’t believe that we were flying without wings.

“Ordis, lets make a pass of the town.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

“Here everyone, step towards the window and take a look,” Excalibur stepped out of the way allowing everypony to look out the window. I watched as we began to reach the edge of Canterlot and began to turn to the left. I couldn’t believe how amazing this view was. I could see all of Canterlot… There were no words to describe the beauty of the town.

“Everypony looks like ants from here,” hollered Pinkie, clearly she was awestruck by the site.

I looked back toward Excalibur to see him standing there with his forelegs crossed. I could tell what he was thinking, he was happy to see the stars in our eyes. He had been through so much the past couple days, he really needed to see the joy we were giving him.

“Why don’t we check out something else? Ordis, pick a direction and go with it,” he ordered the ship.

“Yes Excalibur.”

We just sat there and started out the window. I never knew how beautiful Equestria looked from up there. I guess that’s one of the downsides to being a unicorn. But this... this was a peaceful moment; I would never forget it for as long as I lived. We just sat there for a few minutes and enjoyed the sites until.

“Here, I’ll be right back,” said Excalibur while walking down the ramp to the lower part of the ship, leaving us in our thoughts.

A couple more minutes passed until, “Yes Excalibur, deploying it now,” said Ordis, obviously replying to one of Excalibur’s orders.

“Deploying what?” asked Rainbow.

“Look out the window,” he replied.

We continue to look out the window, only to see the horizon. Until... Excalibur flew right up in front of the ship. He was going the same speed as the Liset, but he had these metal wings attached to his back. He rolled over on his back and gave us a mock salute, then rolled back over.

“Princess Celestia, what is the highest a pegasus has flown?” Excalibur asked, his voice filling the ship.

“The record is about 20,000 feet, why?” she answered.

“No reason.”

He’s clearly planning something.

“Ordis, black out the window, and follow me. I want this to be a surprise,” he told the ship.

“Yes Excalibur.”

We sat and watch as the window went dark, leaving us in silence. I really wanted to know what he was planning. That’s when I felt the ship begin to rise up and accelerate yet again.

“Everyone… all my species ever wanted to do was to make the impossible, possible. We wanted to fly… we made it happen. We wanted to explore the depths of the oceans… we made it happen… if we could imagine it, we were going to make it happen. We made all these advancements in technology… well, you can see what came out of it. But what we really wanted to do… was to touch the heavens themselves. Ordis, open the window.”

We sat and watched as the window brightened, revealing… THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH! And the stars… they…were… AMAZING!

“I-I… can’t believe this,” I said awe struck.

“Were at about 33,000,000 feet, or the upper atmosphere… welcome to my life,” said Excalibur, floating by the window with open forelegs.

It was so beautiful, this is what he sees every day… what I wouldn’t do to join him.

He placed his hooves on his flanks, “Hey Ordis, kill the artificial gravity for a moment.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

After Ordis said that we began to float in air.

“Woah nelly!” screamed Applejack as she began to float into the air.

“What’s going on?” screamed Shiny.

“Weeeeeeee this is fun!” hollered Pinkie.

“How is this possible?” I asked out of utter confusion.

“This is space, without atmosphere; there is no gravity to hold you down. Making you essentially weightless,” responded Excalibur.

We continue to float around, bumping into the walls, ceiling, and each other for a few minutes, laughing like mad mares.

“Fun isn’t it?” asked Excalibur.

We were all speechless; we just nodded our heads with huge grins while looking out the window.

He let off a light chuckle and with a hushed tone he said, “I forgot what it was like to share a moment like this with such wonderful people.”

Once again we sat there in silence, soaking in moment.

After a couple more minutes of goofing off and floating around Excalibur said, “Alright, Ordis, activate the artificial gravity, but do it slowly please.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

“Awwww,” responded everyone in unison.

We slowly dropped to the floor with a little bit of sadness, we were having too much fun for it to end.

“Alright Ordis, I’m coming aboard.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

We watched Excalibur disappeared from view.

We all huddled around each other.

“That was… AWESOME!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

“That was a lot of fun,” replied Fluttershy.

“I would have to agree with Fluttershy on this one, that was fun!” responded Rarity.

“I think I’d rather keep mah hooves on the ground,” Applejack appeared to be a little nervous.

“DID YOU SEE ME!?” screamed Pinkie while laughing hysterically.

Letting my friends and I have our little moment, I happened to notice Cadence and Shiny snuggling up to each other.

“Isn’t this romantic Shiny,” whispered Cadence.

“As much as I would hate to say it, it is beautiful,” he said while putting a foreleg around Cadences shoulder. I couldn’t help but feel happy for them as a smile crawled across my face.

“This is pretty impressive, isn’t it Luna?” asked Princess Celestia while looking at her sister.

“We would agree with you sister, this is impressive,” answered Luna.

“So what do you think?” asked a deep male voice.

We all turn around to see Excalibur standing in the middle of the ramp.

“It’s beautiful,” I answered.

“Yes it is. Anyway, were gonna head back to the castle. I suggest you take one more look.”

I didn’t want this moment to ever end. Everything I looked at through a telescope was right here in front of me. I felt a tear forming. I heard him walk up to me, so I looked up at him with my sad eyes.

He looked at me, “I’ve seen that look before; you don’t want this to end, do you?” I gave him a slight nod in agreement, “Here, I got an idea. Everyone line up in front of the window,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” asked Cadence out of confusion.

We all got in front of the window waiting for him to give us another order.

“Just smile and act like you care,” responded Excalibur with a hint of sarcasm.

We watched as he pulled out a little device, open it, and held it up to his head.

“I hope no one’s camera shy?” he asked.

“Wait what?” asked Rainbow.

“Oh don’t tell me you guys haven’t invented the camera yet?” responded Excalibur, lowering what I’m guessing is a camera. He also sounded a little frustrated.

Princess Celestia giggled a little bit while putting her hoof in front of her mouth, “Yes we have Excalibur.”

“Good, one less thing I need to explain. Now smile.”

We sat and waited for the usual flash with smiles on our faces.

Nothing happen until Excalibur said, “Alright there we go. Ordis, upload that pic to your data base a print off eight copies please.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

“I’ll have those ready be the time we get back to the castle.”

“Why are you doing this for us?” I asked while everyone began to move around.

I’m a little lost at his sudden act of kindness. He was so aggressive with the changeling attack, and with the fight he had with my brother. And now he’s so… nice, I couldn’t quite understand it.

“Just because I’m a super soldier, doesn’t mean I don’t care,” he turned his head to look at me, “Now just relax and enjoy the ride,” he gave me a light pat on the head and left to go to the lower part of the ship.

I sat and watched as we began to descend back to earth.

‘I wonder what he was thinking when he first landed here in Equestria. It must have been a beautiful site.’

After a few more minutes, I decided to go ask him a few questions. I descended the ramp to find him petting Storm. He hadn’t seen her a few days, and I knew that she was worried sick about him. She must have been so happy to have her master back.

“So Excalibur, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?” I asked.

He glanced at me before looking back at Storm, “Sure go for it,” he answered, not taking his hooves off of Storm.

“What’s life like on your planet?”

He let out a heavy sigh and said, “My planets been desolate for a few hundred years… when I awoke from my cryo chamber," he looked at me, "I found out the hard way that my planet had fallen... I searched high and low for answers," he looked back at Storm, "but all I got was a data file saying that the Orokin had let loose a biochemical that caused all plant life on Earth to grow at an overwhelming rate, leaving it an overgrown forest.”

I raised my hoof to my chest and let my ears fall, “Oh… I’m so sorry.”

He rose to his feet and faced me, “It’s alright Twilight, it’s something I learned to accept over the years.”

“So what were those metal wings you were using earlier?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

Leaning against the wall and crossing his forelegs he said, “It’s called an archwing, it’s a pair of jet thrusters attached to a harness, they allow me to… well… fly.”

“How do they work?”

“They attach to my waist, with some simple thoughts I can pilot them where ever I want to go, or Ordis can when I’m not using them. Much like when I saved you and your friends.”

“You used them to save us?”

“Well… mostly your friends. I was shielding you with my body, *huff* that wasn’t very fun,” he said while jerking his head a little.

“You used yourself as a shield?” I respond, shocked by his statement.

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to let you die like that. You have your whole life ahead of you, and it’s my job to make sure you live that life.”

“But why would you sacrifice your life for a strangers? And… an alien’s at that!”

“Whos life is more important, mine? Or the all the innocent civilians of your town princess?”

I was a little caught off guard by his comment, mainly because I’m not an alicorn princess.

“I believe all life is precious,” responded Celestia. I jerked my head back to see her standing there, I didn’t even realize that she was behind me.

She walked up and stood beside me, joining the conversation.

“As do I, which is why I defend it with honor. I’d rather die knowing that I saved a life then…” he trailed off.

“Then what?” I asked.

“Then knowing each and every day I could have done something more to save them,” he responded with sorrow.

This conversation wasn’t going very well, everything seemed to lead to something depressing from his life.

“Anyway. Ordis, how close are we to the castle,” he asked the ship.

“ETA, five minutes.”

“Thank you Ordis… oh and are those picture done yet?”

“Yes Excalibur you *BZZT* HAVE FOUNDRY ITEMS READY TO CLAIM *BZZT*” responded the broken cephalon.

He let out a light sigh, “Thank you Ordis.”

He walked past me and Celestia to his foundry and grabbed eight slips of paper. I assume those were our pictures. Once he had them, he approached Celestia and held them out.

“Here you are your majesty. I hope you enjoyed your trip to space,” he said with a hint of joy.

She took them with her magic and said, “Thank you Excalibur,” she looked down at me and gave me a picture and said, “Here you are Twilight.”

As I looked it over, I still couldn’t believe that we went to space. We all looked so happy, well… I… mean, we went to SPACE! I just wish my, OUR, savior was in the picture with us. I looked up to see that it was just me and the princess in the lower compartment. I guess Excalibur left to get ready for our landing.

I turned and headed up the ramp to join everypony else. When I reached the top of the ramp, I saw Excalibur and all my friends looking out the window.

“Ordis, you can land in the courtyard.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

I stood there and listened while the ship began to come to a roaring stop and slowly make its descent to the ground. Excalibur turned around and began to go down the ramp yet again. We all followed close behind, knowing that our little trip was finally over.

The rear ramp opened and we began to make our leave, except Excalibur, who was standing in this on this little pad with two flat things on each side.

“Excalibur, are you coming?” asked Princess Luna.

“In a minute. I want to grab something,” he said.

We sat and watched as a screen popped up in front of him. He played with it for a moment and stopped. Probably finding what he was looking for. He raised his right foreleg to his face and, SHING! That small disc of his opened up in his hoof, he held it to his side and I watched as a robotic leg came out and grabbed it from his grasp. The same leg came back out with a ferocious looking weapon, which he took and placed in the crook of his lower back. He fiddled with the screen again, but while he was doing so he asked,

“So, who here knows where my weapons are?”

“They are in the armory,” responded Celestia.

“When can I have them back?” he asked, not taking his attention away from the screen.

“I can have a guard retrieve them for you if you’d like?”

“No, I’d rather grab them myself; I don’t like anyone other than myself touching my Skana,” he sounded a little angry.

“What’s a Skana?” asked Rainbow.

“My sword,” he deadpanned.

“We can stop by and grab your weapons on our way to dinner,” responded Celestia.

We continued to watch him while he continued to play with the screen, until that little appendage came out yet again holding a different weapon. It was a small device resembling the other one I saw on his leg when my friends and I first met him.

He took it and with a jerk of his hoof a small cylinder popped out the left side. He took a moment to look at it and closed it with a jerk in the opposite direction and placed it on his lower leg and stepped off the pad.

“So what are these weapons called?” asked Shiny with a hint of disgust.

“The sword is called the Mios, it’s a bone forged sword made from infested flesh, with a tendon whip and hook hidden in the handle,” he answered calmly.

“I-it’s… made…. from… flesh?” mumbled Fluttershy, she was clearly scared.

“Yes.”

“That’s disgusting,” said Rarity trying not to vomit.

“It’s better than most weapons,” he replied.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked while trying to hide my own disgust.

“Grineer weapons are bulky and tend to fall apart or jam. Corpus weapons overheat and melt. I only trust Tenno or Orokin made weapons, but infested melee weapons tend to do a good job at maiming the enemy.”

“So what innocent creature did you have to kill to make that… that…that thing!” screamed Fluttershy while pointing to the sword on his back.

“That innocent creature was a disease ridden Grineer trooper! He was eight feet tall and probably weighed 350 pounds! If anything I put it out of its misery!” barked Excalibur.

An uncomfortable silence fell on everyone.

‘What did he mean by disease ridden trooper?’

He took a deep breath, “Can we go now?” he asked with a calmer tone.

“Yes, right this way,” responded Celestia.

We left the ship, walked across the courtyard, and entered the castle. Celestia opened the door and we walked in awkward silence. I looked at the massive sword on his back, 'Was it really made from a large bone and flesh?' But before I knew it we were in front of large set of doors with two guards posted in front.

“Here we are,” said Celestia.

She opened the doors and stepped inside. The room was full of swords, spears, bows, and sets of armor. Excalibur looked around the room trying to find his weapons. Once he did, he walked over and grabbed the longer metal one.

“So what does that do?” I asked while I watched him examine the weapon.

“It’s called the Soma Prime; it’s a light machine gun calibered in .223, it has a 200 round magazine and can fire at a rate of 15 rounds per second.”

“Come again?” asked Cadence.

“I’ll take it that you haven’t invented the gun yet?” he lowered the weapon and gave Cadence a glance, “That’s probably a good thing,” turning his attention back to his weapon.

He placed his… Soma… on his back and reached down to grab his smaller one. He brought it up in front of his face and grabbed the top back half of it and gave it a light tug. I watched as the part he pulled slipped forward and closed with a click. He placed it on his left lower leg and grabbed his Skana; he gave it a quick glance and placed it on his back.

He looked like he was ready for war; I mean he was armed to the teeth! It was a little intimidating, but at the same time I’ve never felt safer.

“So now what?” he asked looking at Celestia.

But unfortunately my stomach gave the answer with a loud growl. My head shot down immediately when I heard it; I looked up and felt my face begin to heat up,

“Hehe, sorry. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast,” I said felling a little embarrassed.

“Why don’t we get dinner?” asked Celestia.

“Awe yeah, I’m starved!” screamed Rainbow.

“Lead the way you majesty,” said Excalibur while waving his hoof in front of him.

With our minds set on our stomachs, we left and headed for the dining hall.

Author's Notes:

IN SPACE.