Chapter 11

The Final Battle For Equius, Part 3

*****

(Hallway, Solar Wing, Castle, Canterlot, 2:15 AM)

All of the happy memories that Sterling had with both his harem, his family, and with his Royal Elites.... had become red with a fury that became unmatched by even the anger of the Princesses within the room that was more than a few floors down. And all that he could see, even with his actual vision focusing on the hybrid creature above him, was his desire to never allow his enemy to live another day.

And then.... just when Leviathan had already begun to get a swollen head for having killed a member of royalty....

The ground below started to shake. And Leviathan had looked into the eyes of the Captain of the Royal Elites.... but only to see his eye color surrounding the entire pair of globes while his enemy gave a look of the deepest hatred, rage and vengeance.

.....

"What type of sorcery do you plan to use on me now, Sterling?" the dragon-gorilla hybrid taunted at him, not allowing any fear to show in his tone.

.....

.....

"THIS!!!!" Sterling growled from within the level of power that he never felt within him, for all that he knew. After placing the body of his fallen Prince below him gently, Sterling then stood up to his feet and began to fully pressurize the surge of power within him.

The smallest waves of water evaporation had been replaced with the surges of power that flew up to the skies as a life-threatening quake had begun to fully emanate from the grounds below him. Even Leviathan had begun to feel the true rage that had poured out from the new reserve of magic from his hated opponent.

"No.... this cannot be!" Leviathan nearly squeaked, fearing what he had deduced the influx of magic to be. "It's.... the Alicornian Instinct! But! But.... only Alicornian's experience this wrath! Or can they?" he said mysteriously as his body trembled at the marvel of the spoken power being displayed.

"KILL HIM, YOU ROYAL FOOLS!!!!"

A trio of pseudo-silver trails of magic then entered the hallway from the window just twenty feet away from himself. The resulting action had sent Leviathan flying towards the stone walls, along with his body going against many stone columns through his whole body, before Sterling was able to hear the hybrid scream from the pain that he was feeling before the Captain, from his view in the hallway, had seen the leader of the Rex Brutes fall to his death by a major fall towards the courtyard below.

"And thus ends the tyranny of Leviathan Di'Nihilous!" Sterling shouted out in his newly discovered Instinct.

(Within various key areas of the city of Canterlot, 2:45 AM)

"Fixer, do you feel that?" Onyx called out while sending his counted Rex Brute and Dire Wolf bodies to a nearby pit of fire.

"I feel it, Onyx! Our leader is majorly pissed off!" Fixer confirmed as he sent a few more magical bullets into a monsters head.

"But this power from Odin-Will is not one that I have ever felt in the whole time that I have been with him!" Brandon commented while keeping up his part in the fight.

"Seems the poor sweetheart saw something that finally got him to snap," Quinn half-joked, knowing the severity of the situation. "But if he doesn't find a way to calm down, then even this city won't be able to stand alone!" he then shrieked, feeling the same power flux coursing through him as he fired another set of magic rounds against a few dozen Changelings.

"Captain...." Baltic sighed after feeling the power from the sewer lines.

(Extractor Room, 2:50 AM)

"Oh no...." Blueblood shivered as he too felt the Alicornian Instinct from a ways away.

"Princess? What is this new power that I am feeling?" Twilight asked with a shake.

"'Tis the power of the Alicornian Instinct, Twilight," Luna said. "But only we Alicornians can access this reserve of power! Right, Celestia?" she asked her sister near her.

"Indeed, Luna," Celestia nodded. "But it seems that this power has been accessed by our hopeful savior. He is the youngest male Magician in all of the world of Equius that has ever found the powers of an Alicornian within them. The youngest female to receive this power, as we all know, was you, Twilight," she then said to Twilight, who betrayed a slight blush.

"Really?" the youngest Princess asked.

"Yes, Twilight," Celestia smiled to her. "But Sterling Caliber is indeed the youngest man, in all of the recorded history, who has ever become an Alicornian from a sort of ascension. But this pre-ascension wrath is the first step to becoming exactly like us," she explained to her.

"And when he feels the power within him grow to the final stage, he will become just like us," Luna confirmed as well.

"BUT!!!" Blueblood shouted. "He will still be too late to save you, dear aunties and cousin," he then taunted, not even acknowledging the youngest Princess. "And now, we shall see if the same powers of this Extractor will take your magic!"

And within a second, Blueblood had pushed down the lever and activated the machine.

The crystals at the center of the room had begun to glow a light that indicated the machines full charge.

"Take from the Royal ones, with force, what they need to live!!" he commanded the machine.

The smallest wedges from the Princesses necks had begun to move closer to the neck bone, cracking the nerves that made the Princesses scream in the agony of the pain that they all felt. And as soon as all of their mouths were open, the powers of the Alicornian Princesses had turned into a quartet of streams that tortured the spirits of the hostages into coaxing them to give up their life forces as it gathered to the center of the glowing crystal orb.

"Yes! Yes!! YYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!" Blueblood cheered as he saw the power being forcibly taken by the Extractor.

"NOO!!!" was shouted by five familiar voices that soon tackled the man who wanted to see the Princesses dead.

Blueblood then looked to see that it was Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy coming to the rescue of their beloved rulers and friends.

"You are too late, peasant scum! My Alicornian Magic Extractor has already been activated, and there is no way for any of you commoners to destroy it!" Blueblood laughed tauntingly. "Even if you have some great power within, the same taker will force your power into its hungry void!" he stated to them, as if the machine was a living deity of the apocalypse.

"You! Do! Not! GET IT, DO YOU?!?!" Rarity screamed angrily, using her inner strength to push the evil man into a wall, making a crater from his body. "If you take the power of the Princesses, then there will be no defense against the King of the Brutes!! And all of the deaths of the people will be ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT!!!" she then shouted as she then forced more of the crater in front of her to grow larger with every slam of the Princes body. And after a final body slam to the floor, Rarity then huffed out a heavy breath that didn't know that she had. "And you have no idea how long I have been waiting to do that to you."

Blueblood had then wheezed out from his now bloody mouth a squeak that echoed through the room, save for the whirring of the machine that kept going with its magical extraction.

"Rarity?" Applejack spoke up.

"Yes, darling?"

"Remind me to never make ya angry, 'mmkay?"

"Noted, love."

"Come on, girls! We need to deactivate the machine somehow!" Pinkie jumped up, obviously more focused on helping the Princesses from their binds. "And even my party cannon won't be able to do that!"

The same women within the room then nodded as they went up to the machine to find some hope of shutting off the Extractor. Switches, levers, buttons, anything to stop the work.

(Hallway, Solar Wing, Castle, 3:55 AM)

Sterling had felt his rage go down, and not a moment too soon or late. And as his power lowered down enough, the sights of the battle, from his viewpoint at the hole that overlooked the skies and ground, was something that he truly wanted to see.

The Nordic legions were taking their air-ships as they fired their steel spears to where the Nightmare Monsters were attacking their allies on the ground below the mountain. The Stirrupean and Chameleon armies were taking point against the ground units of Shadow-Walkers that would very nearly infiltrate the city from the sewer lines. The Griffons were also taking their strength in both the air and the ground with the bloodthirsty convicts who had taken many of the material items that would flaunt a small portion of wealth for any nobleman and noblewoman. And even the small militia formations had taken it upon themselves to get a piece of the action.

But what he had not counted on was how the citizens from the different cities and towns of Equestria, including the citizens of the Crystal Empire, had also joined in the fight against the enemies that wanted to destroy their lands and kill their fellow citizens. From down below, he had heard one of the commanding soldiers shout 'For Equestria!', prompting more of the enemy lines to falter from the courage of both the citizens and the soldiers who were fighting against them.

"Not even four hours in, and even the citizens are wanting to fight for what is right?" Sterling smiled, somehow feeling his old self coming back to him. "This.... is.... major!" he sighed as his feet went back to the scene behind him. "But I must find the room that Shining was trying to point to me!" he resolved to do as he moved his already tired body and feet towards his targeted destination. Skimming through the pages of the book that he then picked up from near Shining Armor's body, he found the room from what felt like an incredulous puzzle from the way that his enemy was writing about the construction. "It's below the service staff rooms, but not before the Honor Guard quarters? How convenient!"

Sterling had then followed the mental map in his head, knowing exactly where to go in this situation. But what he found was nothing more than an empty space between the service staff's rooms and the Honor Guards quarters. It was just a wall. Not wanting to believe it, he then saw a grouping of shoe prints near the same wall. And all of them were small enough for him to deduce that the prints came from a group of women.

"Rarity.... Applejack.... Fluttershy," he breathed out, scared of how they too just disappeared from his point. "But... how? How does this wall even begin to show where the Extractor is?" And with that question asked, he looked around to observe any clue as to how the room could be opened. This took him nearly about five minutes before he went to another wall behind him, thudding his head a few times. "Think, Goddess-damn it! Think!" he pressured himself. With another breath out, he peered his head left and right to find a clue.

His eyes had spotted a single blue bow on a candelabra on the other wall, along with a note. Sterling found it almost too easily. He then saw the note that read:

Pull on the candelabra, Sterling! -Love, Pinkie Pie!

"Again: Convenient," he sighed, shaking his head as to how even Pinkie Pie, the most random of women that he loved being with as a great friend, was able to find it for him. "But I thank my Goddesses for making such a wild woman come into my life!" he chuckled loudly before he used his magic to pull on the wall decoration.

*Click-click-click-click-click! Fwooom!*

A secret panel had then been revealed within a few seconds before it opened up to reveal a long and dark hallway that looked to have no light at the end.

"I am so going to give Pinkie a kiss on her lips when I save them all."

After having said that to himself, he took to the tunnel and began to trot his way through the darkness.

(Extractor Room, 4:45 AM)

Somehow, someway, Blueblood was able to blindside the other five girls who were hard at work to find any switch or knot that could stop the machine. And after being tied up like the Princesses, the Council of Friendship had their magic taken away from them. And just like the Princesses, their eyes had begun to show a gray color. The kind of gray that showed a near limbo experience for all concerned.

"And here I thought that the wrath of a woman would kill me," he laughed evilly. "But it's made me all the stronger for it."

"Blueblood.... how could you do this to us?" Twilight asked him in pleading, her tears staining the floor below her.

"Because I plan to rule the kingdom, along with the world. Simple as that," Blueblood smirked at her. "And now that I have even taken the powers of your friends, I am even more powerful than even your precious Royal Elites," he had said just as he lifted and pushed another set of levers to point the machine at himself.

"Who cares about ruling the world, Bluey? Even the rulers of the world will oppose you, you know?" Pinkie spoke up, hoping to only delay the power being taken by her shared captor.

"Oh... they will bow to me, Equian filth! And so shall all of you!" he pointed to his captives as the machine had then taken a few whirs to the precise location where the Prince was. "And when I have taken the power of the magic of Equestria for myself--"

"You will die in the hands of the King of the Brutes!!!" a voice then shouted out from the other end of the room. Before Blueblood could even react, Sterling had taken a warhammer and slugged the Prince's stomach, causing the machine to stop turning, thus keeping the Prince from completing the extraction and absorption.

"AAAAHHHHH!!!!" Blueblood screamed as his blood was coughed up before falling on the ground with a violent fall.

"And if you complete the cycle, Rex Muta will not only kill you, but Leviathan as well!" Sterling said to the fallen opponent on the ground. "Basic villains class 101 says: 'Never! Trust! A Traitor!' And you so happen to be guilty of high treason, heresy, and the conspiracy of plotting a murder against the rulers of this great country! You will never set foot in the courts again!" he screamed as his rage had come back.

His sword had come back to his right hand, along with a shield in his left arm, signalling to the Princesses and the Council that he was ready to take the action needed.

"You just can't be this powerful! No man in the world should ever have the Alicornian Instinct!" Blueblood screamed in fear. "And you are just nothing more than the hybrid of a pair of Equestrians who did not allow themselves to follow the Purity laws!" he further shouted.

"The Purity Laws are revoked and nullified, asshole!" Sterling snapped at him. "The reason for that is because of greedy, arrogant, ugly-faced, racist, homophobic, narrow-minded, war-mongering, corpse-fucking, evil traditionalists who want the world to never change! And you are nothing more than the worst example of a person who believes that everything should be handed to them on a silver platter! But that is where you are wrong, dick-less Titan child!" he shouted more at the royal man below him. "A war does not make a man, nor a woman, into a better person! It turns them into a creature that cannot have even the smallest hope for redemption! And there is no veteran of any recorded history of the wars from before who cannot say the same truth that even I can speak of! Nor will there ever be a person or creature from this world who wants to fight for the sake of fighting! Or even the control of a power that will kill you in the end!"

"And I am more than entitled to say what comes from within my heart and soul, Blueblood, because I know.... I really know... that it is not war, nor a brawl, that makes a person into a great one. It is both how they wish to stop the fight, and how they are able to conquer themselves. For it is within the powers of friendship, love, charity and empathy that any person, common or noble, will always draw upon. And even if you were to take every last bit of the existing magic from this world, you, my filthy heretic, have forgotten one.... minute, but always important.... detail!"

"*cough-cough!* And what would that be, Sterling?" Blueblood growled at him.

"That the power of friendship... and love... will always conquer even the most evil of hearts."

*CLINK!! SSCCHCHPPPPPPPFFFFFTTT!!*

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"

A rather large sword had pierced through Blueblood's heart, creating a massive spurt of blood that ejected from the chest.

"u]Never send an Equestrian to do a hybrid's job!" another familiar voice shouted from another part of the room. Sterling was able to see that it was Leviathan once again killing another Prince in front of him.

"But.... how?!" the man wanted to know.

"Easy: Your Ethereal Possessions had beaten the evil out of me!" Leviathan said plainly. "And even though I was reluctant to say it at first.... you were always right about me, older brother of mine," he then said, smiling a smile that even the Princesses never saw from the enemy. "The power of Rex Muta had not taken its full hold on me!"

"Leviathan....?" Sterling almost cried if not for his impending desire to save his Princesses.

"Yes, Sterling.... I intend to help your rulers out of the machine," Leviathan nodded to him. "But if we are to do this, then you must listen to all of the instructions that I give to you now!" he then instructed, prompting Sterling to listen in.

"How do we stop this machine from taking anymore powers?"

"The Alicornian Magic Extractor is known for forcefully taking nearly all of the life force that all people have. And by all rights, the machine itself is an abomination that must be destroyed! Or else all of the world will fall beneath Rex's toy! But it cannot be destroyed unless a person is willing to sacrifice their magical abilities, thus returning the magic to the rightful owners!" Leviathan stated to him as he pulled his foster brother towards him while speaking the same steps to his face.

"So you're saying---" Sterling gasped.

"Yes, Sterling! If I give the last of the dark powers that Blueblood gave to me to this machine, then all of the world will be safe from the power of the Extractor," Leviathan nodded grimly. But before he could protest against Sterling wanting to do the same, he felt his brother knock him upside his head.

"And you think that by doing this, your sacrifice will stop the resurrection of the King?!"

"There is no choice in the matter! The both of us are needed to stop the real leader of the Brutes! And if I don't do this, then everything that you have worked for will be in vain! So help me, or get the fuck out of my way!" Leviathan shouted at Sterling before swiping his hand to force the Captain back to the levers. "Take from me, extractor, what keeps my soul from flying!"

And just like that, a streaming aura of black and green had been plucked out from the hybrids chest, filling up the orb within the center of the room. And when the last of the magic had been taken, Leviathan fell back to the switchboard with his head slamming to the ground below.

"NO!!!" Sterling and the women shouted out as the Captain of the Royal Elites stepped towards the new dying corpse. A few erratic breaths had been huffed from the creature below him as he wrapped his hands at the back of his head. "Leviathan! What have you done?" he cried out to him.

"The one thing.... haaaa.... that.... *gasp* will help.... you.... to rescue your precious rulers.... and girlfriends.... heh-heh-heh-heh-heh....... aaaaaaahhh."

.....

.....

A moment of silence had passed by. Never before, in the history of war.... has any leader of the Rex Brutes.... been willing to give their lives for the ones that they loved. And even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna knew this much.

(Somewhere near Ground Zero....)

AND NOW!!! I COME TO THE LANDS TO DESTROY ALL LIFE!!!!, an ominous voice shouted out, causing all of the ground and air forces to halt their progresses. MY RESURRECTION WILL NOT BE HALTED!!! AND THE WORLD WILL FALL BEFORE MY HAND!!!

A dark, unnatural cloud with an unnatural pair of red glowing eyes and an equally red malevolent smile with sharp looking teeth had begun to float towards the battleground where the Rex Brutes and Royal Elites were all fighting in, along with all of the monsters and criminals. While the same nihilistic cloud had taken flight, the soldiers and Elites would have been killed instantly, just as the enemy did, had it it not been for the protection spells that had been given to them by their superiors.

"I certainly hope that the Captain has a last trick up his sleeve if he can hope to stop that cloud from destroying us," Quinn gasped.

"Me too, Quinn, me too!" Faith nodded in agreement.

As the cloud moved closer, all of the Rex Brutes, criminals, Nightmare Monsters, Dire Wolves, Timberwolves, Changelings and Shadow-Walkers had begun to dissolve into nothing but ashes that clouded the vision of the people who were now afraid of what was to come.

(Extractor Room, 5:15 AM)

The scenes from Sterling's life before and during his time with his three girlfriends had flashed back. All of the dates from before, his parents giving him a warm smile, and even seeing the look on Fixer's face when he saved him. It all came flooding back to him as he approached the machine.

The pleas of the Princesses and the Council of Friendship for him to not sacrifice his power had fallen on deaf ears as Sterling took his last steps to the machine.

He then took a last breath in his chest and said:

"Take from me, unholy war machine, the power to destroy your creator. And in doing so, I ask that you release the magic against the Rex Brute's King."

The machine had then taken his magic in a stream that had slowly, and quite painfully, been moved to the crystal orb at the center. But as Sterling saw this, he was able to observe that the powers from before had ejected themselves from the center, moving back to the Princesses that had warmly received their force back, along with the other women. The room had then begun to glow the same aura that Sterling possessed as the chains that held the royalty on the wall had broken off from their arms.

"Everyone! Evacuate the room, now!!" Celestia ordered everyone around her as she displayed her wings before taking flight from her spot to the hallway. The others had followed suit while Fluttershy had tried to stop her friends from trying to save her from some gruesome fate.

Sterling then looked to where the group was leaving, knowing that he would not be able to follow them. He then felt every last drop of his power entering the weapon, as he so commanded his power to do.

(Above the Castle Tower, 5:55 AM)

NOW!! TO SEE HOW MUCH POWER WILL BE GIVEN TO ME!!! the dark cloud, revealed to be none other than Rex Muta's spirit, had shouted before he saw an explosion destroy much of the tower, revealing a drained Magician underneath the now turned machine. NO. NO! NO!!

Too late, the Extractor had turned its power against the cloud with a silvery beam of magic that penetrated against the evil spirit.

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

*KABOOOMM!!!*

The resulting explosion had then expanded its force, causing a sonic boom to sound out throughout the whole world. This sound had indicated the true death of the King Brute. And thus, after seeing the cloud turning into a volley of streams going towards the sky, fireworks of different colors had exploded all across the night sky.

"ROYAL ELITES!! AND ALL OF EQUESTRIA!! THE REX BRUTES, AND ALL OF THE LEADERS, HAVE FALLEN!! AND NOW IS THE TIME TO REJOICE IN THE VICTORY OF THIS FINAL BATTLE!!!" Celestia shouted out to the world in the Royal Canterlot Voice, causing all of the people near and far to cheer for themselves as the Sun and Moon Princesses had lowered the sun to make way for the sun to rise from the horizon.

(Ruins of the Extractor Room, 8:30 AM)

A few hours had already passed by, and still there was no remorse being shared for the enemies that had taken the people who had fallen in battle, defending the crown Princesses with their lives. And even the memory of Blueblood was spat on, pissed on, and even cursed at. But none mourned for the loss of the hybrid known as Leviathan.

A cleaning crew, along with a few reconstruction people, had begun to rebuild the room from the ground up until they all saw a burn mark that had not been there before. This new addition to the scene had given the royalty cause to intrude upon the battle zone. But the royal ones were not alone. And as the other ladies from Ponyville had also seen the same thing, they began to panic. But there was still hope to find some evidence that Sterling was alive.

"Princess Celestia, we found a single burn mark on the ground," one of the guards began to say to the Sun Princess. "What makes it unique is that it's in the shape of Captain Sterling Caliber's Cutie Mark," he reported further.

"And no one has touched anything else?" Twilight simply asked the guard.

"We had to move some things around, your Highness, but we made sure to only move them as needed, ma'am!" the guard saluted to her.

"Thank you, Solar Armor," Celestia saluted back to the guard who had then left. "Hmm....."

"What is it, sister? Something intriguing you?" Luna asked.

"The same type of marking on this ground is familiar to me. Almost exactly as what happened when Twilight had ascended into an Alicornian," Celestia remarked as her head peered to her former student, who had a small blush on her.

"So then.... is it possible that....?" Twilight trailed off, thinking that the same thing was more than likely to happen than to just disappear from out of nowhere.

"Yes, Twilight...." Cadence patted her on the shoulder while hearing the other girls coming up to them.

"Twilight!" the group of her friends shouted out from behind.

"Did y'all find something here?" Applejack asked, afraid of hearing the wrong thing.

"We only found a burn mark that has Sterling's Cutie Mark in its design," Celestia said to her.

"Wait! A Cutie mark burn? *Gasp!* Just like the one that came from our Elements of Harmony in the Golden Oaks Library before Twilight became an Alicornian after fixing the spell that Starswirl the Bearded couldn't complete, thus turning into a Princess!" Pinkie jumped up and down in the possible hypothesis with some excitement returning to her.

"It is... quite... q.... quite-quite-quite," she repeated over and over again as a bright light had shined just above the tower of Twilight's Castle. In Ponyville. Luna had pointed at the light, causing the others to look at the same phenomenon that was now occurring.

"Come on, everyone! We need to get over there!" Twilight instructed to her friends and Princesses, flapping her wings up and down to pick up the speed for flight. Within a few seconds, the Council and the Princesses had descended towards the town of Ponyville from their own wings. Far below them, the Royal Elites had taken their own flight or run to the same destination.

"Last one to Sterling's home is a rotten dragon egg!" Brandon shouted out from the air-ship as Onyx snorted with his eyes rolled.

"But the first one to get there has to eat it," Rainbow shouted back, causing a minor race between the team.

"You're on!" they all shouted with a cheer as they all zoomed closer to the town.

(Sterling's House, 9:00 AM)

The river was now calm with the smallest current going at its own pace, peacefully granting the residence a sense of peace. The Dragon Vault had not been infiltrated. The food and drinks in the house had not been taken. And not a single bit of the furniture or appliances had been used at all. And even the bedrooms, where Sterling would more than likely keep his guests, should they even be desired to stay for a night, had not been entered.

The front yard had glowed up with a familiar silver aura that had blanketed the whole area with a great fog like magic that made the place look a bit mysterious.

Within a few minutes of this silvery fog dispersing, it had disappeared just as quickly as it came.

The Princesses and the Council of Friendship, along with five members of the Royal Elites, had taken their descent to the ground to see what was about to happen. An unfamiliar globe had illuminated the area, showing the silhouette of a person with a glow that even made Twilight shiver with anticipation.

"Sterling? Is... is that you?" Fluttershy gasped as she approached the man who was now showing his whole body without a glow.

Within a fraction of a second, all of the women, and the three men near them, had seen a sigh that they never saw coming from even a normal man. Sterling Caliber.... now had a pair of large, eagle-like wings that were silver in color. And his hands had begun to glow the same aura that every Magician had.

Sterling Caliber.... had now become.... an Alicornian.

.....

.....

*GASP!!!*

The gasp made Sterling come back to reality, seeing his loving ladies and the Princesses look at him with wide eyes.

"What? What is it? Is there something wrong?" Sterling asked them immediately, hoping that nothing was wrong.

"Why no, darling!" Rarity gasped happily. "It's just that... well... you've now got a pair of wings, Sterling-dear!" she then cheered, unable to contain her excitement as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Wait a minute, Rarity. A pair of wings? Now how could I--?" Sterling was about to ask before he felt something on his back. Quickly, he saw that the metal-colored feathers were indeed real. The wings were real. "Oh, sweet mother of the Goddesses!!! I have wings?!" he shouted out from the top of his lungs, surprised from what he was seeing now.

"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, MY GOSH!!!" Rainbow excitedly chanted as she moved around the perplexed man. "Another new flying buddy? AWESOME!!!"

"Is this how all people look like when they've ascended into an Alicornian?" Applejack asked Princess Celestia who was near her.

"Indeed, for even a new Prince gets that look when they find out eventually," Celestia giggled at his face.

"A what?" Sterling gasped.

"Hold on a second!" Pinkie shouted before producing a glass of water. After taking a few gulps, she spits the rest out in a hilarious spit take. "A new prince?"

"That's right, girls. Not only has Sterling Caliber become an Alicornian, but he is now the Prime Royal Elite," Luna stated to the rest of the group. "The true leader of the Royal Elites, and the apex of true military wisom and power," she stated more to the group.

"Wait...." Sterling sighed out, causing the others to silence themselves. "Now I understand what Elitus Regium was saying when he said... 'You will become a greater Royal Elite than I've ever been'. But I didn't think that I'd become.... the Prime Royal Elite! Elitus was the first of us! How could this have happened?" Sterling then began to ask Celestia, hoping for the answer to be an easy one.

"It is because of how even the first, great Card-Summoner named Elitus Regium was not ready to take the responsibility of taking down the life of his former enemy when he was alive. And he never had the ability to stop him, even in the afterlife. But you, Sterling Caliber, had truly sacrificed your power as a Magician to stop the one evil that would have destroyed everything that is sacred in this world. Even at the cost of your own life. And it is with that knowledge, along with the wisdom of ages passed that Elitus was able to help you to become the Alicornian Prince of the Royal Elites. And as you learn both the responsibilities and the privileges of this entitlement, the world will bow to you, wherever you go," Celestia answered him with a monologue, hoping to clear the air of confusion that made Sterling a bit muddled. "The title of Prince, however, is one that must always be used for the purposes of the greater good. And even I believe that you truly understand what it all implicates, young Sterling," she smiled warmly to him as her hand rested on his shoulder.

Even with how his life was now changed for the better, Sterling was still anxious about becoming a Prince. And if anything, his behavior in the past had always said to the world that he was just a simple man. And then it hit him worse than what the machine did to him.

"If you start building a castle over my home or my new bar, Celestia, then I will not forgive you for that!" Sterling then declared to her. "My home and my bar are the only places that I am going to keep, despite whatever protest to the contrary will be used against me! I'm from Dodge City, and I will not allow even my garden to be upgraded to a terrarium!" he shouted out to her with a serious face, causing a few light gasps to be heard from the others.

"But--" Rarity was about to speak before seeing him raise his hand up.

"And to show how serious I am about my pride, I will use a portion of my money to create a large memorial for Shining Armor! He was able to fight with his life in order to protect his wife and child from the dangers of the world!" he further said against what would have been ordered by his equals. When he heard a giggle coming from Celestia, he looked at her with a confused look on his face. "And just what is so funny, hmm?" he asked her.

"Nothing that you need to be worried about, young Caliber," she calmly said to him, keeping her smile on her face. "The memorial will be built immediately. And I am more than happy to know that even with your new status as an Equestrian Prince, you would still keep your heart where it all belongs. As well as who," she pointed to the three ladies who had given a slight blush.

"Give me a week before I go to the Crystal Empire?" Sterling asked her before looking to his girlfriends.

"We'll see you there, Sterling," Cadence said as her wings took her to the sky above, followed by Celestia and Luna.

And as the ladies had waved goodbye to the ones flying in the sky, Sterling then remembered something that he was supposed to do.

"Say... Pinkie Pie?" he said to the curly pink-haired lady.

"Yes, Sterling?" she asked, curious as to why he was addressing her.

"I had almost completely forgotten.... to do this!" he said with a smirk before using a bit of his new wing power to glide towards the Equian baker woman. And before she was even able to react, Sterling had planted a full-on kiss on Pinkie Pie's lips. This action caused Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy to blush wildly as the animal caretaker had hidden her face while peeking through her fingers. Pinkie's eyes had grown as big as dinner plates from what was happening to her, but she quickly relented as her arms had wrapped around him to give him a kiss back to him. And when he parted from her, he stated: "That.... was for showing me the way to find all of you."

"Whoa, dude! And I thought you only had eyes for Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack here," Rainbow grinned, knowing the pouts on her friends faces were from jealousy.

"That's the absolute, Rainbow," Sterling nodded to her. "But that shouldn't stop me from doing what I wanted to do for our great friend here," he pointed back to his giddy friend.

"Is that true, Sterling? If... if you don't me asking, t-that is...." Fluttershy stammered at him, still feeling shy about what happened.

"Correct. I saw the note on the candelabra, along with this," he produced a small blue bow from his card pack. But before he could even try to speak even more about what was happening just hours before, he then felt his energy waning from him. And so, a large yawn had been produced. "But.... I think that we should just sleep through this whole day today. I'm tucked out, need sleep, need to... *yawn!* get my energy back. Just as all of you should."

As if on cue, the girls surrounding him were also just as depleted of energy as he was.

"Now that is a capital idea, my dear Prince," Rarity giggled tiredly.

"Again: don't use my title, girls. Just call me by my name," Sterling sternly said to them before he took the knob of his front door with his hand and opened it up. A few minutes later, Pinkie and Rainbow had taken a spare room that was closer to one of the other bathrooms while Twilight had taken another room. And when Sterling opened up the door to his room, he guided both Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy to his sides on his grand-sized bed. "Hey, girls?" he called to them in a whisper.

"Yes, Sterling?"

"Remind me to never do anything like that, ever again, will you?" he asked them as his eyes fluttered from how tired he felt from the battle that taxed his whole body. This made the girls at his side giggle before they each pinched on his nipples with a twist that made him grunt in the pain of the action.

"That was just so that you never do anything like that again, Sterling," Fluttershy giggled as her head rest on his chest.

"Eeyup," Applejack smiled with a girly chuckle.

"And you must promise us that you won't, dearest," Rarity cooed to him as she followed Fluttershy's lead.

"Not even on my new title, girls," Sterling softly said before the spell of natural sleep had hit him. And in the scene around him, the man and his three girlfriends were sleeping deeply.

And this was one of the many moments.... that he was always going to treasure for as long as he was alive.

*****