"Somewhere out there in the vast nothingness of space...

Somewhere far away in space and time...

Staring upward at the gleaming stars in the obsidian sky...

We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea.

Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape.

But tonight, on this small planet, on Earth..." I chanted to the skies, standing on top of Excalibur.

I then turned and looked at the lads who were standing beside Excalibur in the ground.

"We're going to rock civilization." I said finally, with a dark grin.

"Dude, that just reminds me of Motorstorm. That was ten fucking years ago, Jesus..." Barrel shouted up to me.

"One invention at a time." I retorted, jumping down from Excalibur's roof.

"Oh, so you want to invent motocross bikes and a dirt buggy?" Barrel said back, raising an eyebrow.

"It has to be a yellow buggy. And then we do a tour of The Badlands, The Everfree Forest and then finally Manehatten once it is falling apart." I replied, chuckling.

"That place won't ever fall down." Star edged in.

"Not without some 'encouragement..'" I hinted, sarcastically.

I mean, who would want to race around during city-wide destruction?

I was clearly not crazy enough.

"Yeah man, let me tape some water guns to the sides..." Barrel said, chuckling.

"We shall raze the ponies' cities! Build them anew in our own image!" I shouted, trying not to laugh.

"They'll be the exact same!" Armstrong replied before laughing.

"Fuck 'em, make them again!" I said, laughing harder.

After we took a few moments to calm down from laughing, we all sat inside Excalibur.

"So, she really works then?" Barrel asked, taking a seat in one of the six pilot seats.

"Well, duh." I scoffed.

I proceeded to do the same ignition trick I did the third time round and she started without a hitch.

The interior came to life, lighting up completely and air sealing the bay and passenger doors.

We started to slowly lift from the ground and I pushed on the throttle and she whirred as she propelled us slightly.

"See?" I turned with a smug smile.

"Didn't doubt you." Barrel replied, looking out the window.

I made sure that I remained close to the ground, at a steady speed so that we were not caught unless we needed to.

I tested her steering left and right.

Dead responsive.

That's one of the easy tests done.

"Right, hold on lads, this one will fuck up your lunch." I chuckled as I pulled up sharply.

True to the steering, she pulled straight up in a near ninety degree angle.

I quickly diverted us so that we were flying horizontally, not vertically.

Now we were a good twenty metres from the ground.

"Ooooh boy, this will get me over my fear of heights." I said, a little shaken by the sights before me.

"Next up, the brakes." I said, quivering slightly.

I pushed the brakes pedal softly and we started to reduce in speed.

"Hmm, seems to work." I said, observing the surroundings.

"How about if I..." I trailed off as I pushed forward, jerking Excalibur into a forty five degree nose dive.

"Brake now!" I shouted, slamming my hoof on the brakes pedal.

The shaking caused by the air resistance quietened and the quickly approaching ground never came.

"Phew.. Just imagine if they didn't work properly..." I laughed nervously, looking back at the other lads.

"You are the fucking worst pilot ever. I am never flying on a plane with you, end of story." Armstrong said, trying to keep his lunch down.

"Quit your bitching, your still alive, aren't you?" I smirked as I banked left and right, completing the last of the low altitude tests.

"You're all going to hate me..." I said, readying the engines for a little more speed.

"Why...?" Barrel asked, coyly.

I then banked the entire ship three-hundred and sixty degrees, completing a barrel roll.

"That's why." I laughed, levelling Excalibur out.

I was gaining the controls quicker than I expected. I was thinking that it would take me a few weeks at least to control her efficiently.

Well, I did build her.

I did receive a slap upon the head for pulling that stunt.

"Oi, no assaulting the pilot or I will have you escorted off the aircraft." I said, imitating the poshest captain voice I could pull off.

"Look out!" Star shouted, motioning to the larger-than-others tree that I was headed straight for.

I quickly turned around, realised our trajectory course and quickly pulled up, accidentally pushing the throttle at the same time.

In Layman's terms, we shot for the skies. My ears popped, my head felt a rush of blood and my eyes rolled back into my head.

I quickly gained concentration and started a decent without making us nose dive.

"Fucking hell... Talk about testing her out on the front lines..." I said with a shaken voice.

"I fucking hate you, bellend." Armstrong said with a tinge of green in his orange face.

"Enough of tests for tonight. She's pretty quiet so I'll land her as close to Ponyville without leaving her in plain view. You guys good with bringing the platform to me?" I said, hovering near the position we started at.

"Yeah, just let me have five minutes..." Armstrong said, a little worse for wear.

I touched-down softly shortly after and let the lads hop out of the passenger door as the bay doors were still pressurised.

"See you soon. I'll be waiting on the tracks we followed on the way here." I said, before re-locking the passenger door.

I quickly took flight and after a quick five minute journey, I was at the edge of the forestry near the tracks.

I touched her down softly without flattening trees or making a big scene. I powered her down and got out, trotting towards the tracks in the middle of the field.

Ten minutes later, I see three figures pulling a large platform come over the horizon.

"Finally." I mutter to myself, pulling myself off of my haunches.

Once I was clear enough to them, I pointed to the direction of where I parked Excalibur.

I got back to her and started her back up so that Star hasn't got to nearly shit himself as he lifts her back onto that platform.

They approached as close as they could without getting the forest so I flew over the trees and parked her on the platform.

I powered her down, jumped out and locked it from the outside.

"Cover her up please, dude." I said to Star as he unraveled the tarp we folded up and covered Excalibur up again before fastening her.

"Sweet, let's hit the deck. Once we get back, obviously." I smirked as Star fastened the pulling-rope around me.

--

I woke up exactly two minutes before that damn rooster cooed and woke me up.

"Beat you this time, bastard." I mumbled as I got up out of bed.

I showered and got ready as I was doing medium and high altitude tests on Excalibur today, as last night was a massive success.

I let the rest of the lads sleep, and I climbed downstairs, made myself a mild coffee and trotted out to the garden.

There she was, under the gazebo, facing towards me.

I looked everything over on the exterior while finishing my coffee, checking the engines and protective shield covering the core.

Everything was sound so I returned my coffee mug and climbed inside and sealed the passenger and bay doors.

"Today's gonna be a good day, baby." I muttered to myself as I started Excalibur up with the ignition trick.

I was so glad she didn't sound like a Boeing 747, because I was right next to the cottage. Vibration wasn't an issue either, which was another great thing.

And at this point, I really didn't care if anyone saw Excalibur soaring across the skies, because even the Princesses knew that I has something capable of such thing.

And nothing is knocking this thing out of the air.

I took her up into the air and flew her over the cottage. I scanned Ponyville's skies and it wasC relatively empty so I could fly around without swatting an pony-sized fly on my flight window.

I did not need that.

I pushed the speed to ten Knots and begin to increase my altitude slowly.

A few moments in, I decide to push the speed to twenty knots and elevate by a noticeable margin.

And that was completely fine.

As my confidence grew, so did my speed and altitude.

Before I knew it, I was quite high in the skies and I was travelling at over forty knots.

I decided that I should fly over Ponyville, to see if anyone wondered what was flying above them. And to my surprise, I saw tiny multi-coloured dots rising from the ground to see what I was.

And they were rising quite quickly.

Also baring in mind that most of my speed was dedicated to distance coverage, and not altitude increments.

I thought I should give them a run for their money and pushed it to fifty knots and rose at a forty-five degree angle.

I focused off my instruments and I could see the curvature of the planet. And that was a sight to see.

I knew that if I kept going at the angle I was at, I'd be in the stratosphere very soon. So I decided to level out and start to circle again and those multi-coloured dots were not even visible anymore.

Wicked.

If I had packed my Airtight Suit, I'd fly into low orbit. But I didn't pack it.

I decided to take her into low stratosphere to see if she functions on little to no air.

I kicked the speed up again and few at a thirty degree angle and I could tell that the skies were getting darker and the lush blue aura of the troposphere was passing me by.

It was then I saw it.

The black abyss above me.

Looming in a giant circle above and encroaching me with every second I spend ascending.

I was expecting my engines to stall or me to struggle breathing, but the life support kept me conscious, I guessed.

After all, it was just pressurised oxygen slowly distributed across the interior of the ship.

Weirdly, the humming started to fade away, and the vibrations were all that was left. I lowered my speed to see that I was in fact, about two-thirds through the mesosphere.

And I needed to get back.

I looked around and I saw what we could use as exploration during the quest. And it was a slight asteroid field orbiting the planet, with whatever asteroids entering the atmosphere burning up on re-entry.

That was another thought.

Re-entry was going to be dangerous unless I took it really steady.

I observed the field and I saw small, collectable asteroids, along with a few mammoth sized ones, capable of smashing Excalibur off it's course and critically damaging it.

Looks like we'd need Star's shield after all.

I levelled out and started a very easy decent, careful to make sure that I didn't accidentally nose dive and cause myself to become the next burnt-up asteroid.

It took quite a few minutes to get back into high troposphere, but once I knew I was out of low mesosphere, I nose dived to see if I could handle the air pressure and speeds.

And she handled them no problem. I topped three-hundred and fifty knots on the nose dive and I easily recovered.

It felt similar to the Red Bull Stratos Jump that happened five years ago, apart from not streaming it to ten million people on YouTube.

Seriously, fuck that.

I got back to where I could see civilisation and even multi-coloured dots again.

Once more, they were flying towards me.

I decided to nose dive once more and outrun them, but that was before the Harmonious side dropped out and the Chaotic side took control of the core.

The engines burst into life, so I was no longer free falling under control, I was plummeting, with assistance.

My first instinct was to try the air brakes, but they are controlled in the Harmonious side, which helped me by zero percent.

I needed to pull up, or Town Hall was going to have a new tourist attraction: a crater.

I pulled as hard as I could on the stick and the engines whirred loudly as I tried to level out, mid-nose dive.

Once I had stopped the nose dive to a degree, the Harmonious side kick-started back up and I had full control again, which was lucky before I was now on a horizontal collision course with Town Hall.

I slammed the air brakes and I was lunged forward from the momentum, but I opened my eyes to see that I stopped ten metres from Town Hall.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief and wiped my brow.

I was shaking, but this is why we test these things now, before the actual mission.

I pulled back and landed a mile from Ponyville Town Centre, which was just off the beaten track to The Everfree Forest.

I deactivated the engine and slumped in my seat, my head in my hooves.

I had to recompose myself, or I would have broken down, as that was the first proper time I nearly died.

And that shit was scary.

I finally got up into my hooves and unlocked the bay doors, to see about twenty Pegasi staring right at me from the moment I stepped out.

"Uhh, hi? I guess?" I glanced around, looking at all the eyes, fixated on me.

"Who are you?" One pony shouted.

"Are you from the skies?" Another shouted.

Before I knew it, I was being mobbed by these ponies.

"That's enough!" I shouted, climbing on top of Excalibur.

"I am a pony, just like you. Except I have built something that can fly, without wings." I was met with gasps and quipping from the crowd.

I even heard one pony say; 'How is that possible?'

If only they spent a week on Earth.

"Don't worry, I was only conducting experiments in the name of science and safety. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have modifications to complete."

I jumped down, resealed the doors, fired Excalibur back up and flew her to the gazebo in our cottage garden.

Followed by a few stubborn ponies.

I exited Excalibur, to see them hovering in my garden.

"Guys, I'll do a public unveiling after her maiden mission. But I need you out of my private property." I exclaimed, with the lads looking out the windows.

The ponies flew away and I entered back inside, greeted by three shocked ponies.

"Dude, why did you take it out again?" Armstrong asked my, genuinely concerned.

"I was just doing some tests, and it was a good thing I did. I got some more safety mechanisms to implement. So I'm going to crack on with that." I gave a normal smile, and walked into my planning room, which was also our office and studying room.

I needed to do seat belts, put the air brakes on both systems or at least a failsafe and construct an altitude meter.

I had a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it in.

Hopefully, the Mane Six don't get involved in this.