Steamlord

Chapters

Steamed scanning
Unfortunate encounter
Trapped within books
Gem search
Sunrise
Spinning cogs
Drunken cider
Dawn of ash
Monster hunters
9.1
A fine and calm day
The Crusaders crusade
Battle mode: ENGAGED
Nano-configuration
Celestia's verdict
Grinding gears
Templar's observations

Steamed scanning

The man woke up with a grunt and a difficulty of getting out of his airbag prison. He automatically shut off the gentle alarm ringing in his ears as he looked upon his current situation. The status screens showed several damaged areas throughout the ship, most notably being the engine and the hydraulic systems. The window of the cockpit was completely covered with trees and other plants, making everything quite dark. Fortunately, the main power-room was unharmed. If it was, then it's one meter thick walls would have been pointless to build. However, he needed to get to the intelligence room and see if the scanning equipment was damaged. God forbid if they were. A quick manual opening of the once automatic-sliding door allowed for a quick exit as the gears holding the door rolled with it. The man ran through his ship and stopped at a door near the engine room, only to have THIS particular door opened on its own.

"Thank goodness. This one still works. I damn well hope that everything works like it should. I really need to know what's out there, and if I can breathe in the air. Now then." said the man as he straightened his jacket.

The room was rather small, but had many screens and keyboards everywhere. Some of them only showed gittering as well as a large white line fluttering on the screen, while the rest seemed to work perfectly.

"The one's that aren't working are...the long-range scanner...the threat level scanner...damnit, the atmosphere analyzer?! How am I supposed to know if I can breathe out there? Great. Well, while I fix the ship, I might as well activate the rest of them. It's a good thing a made that gravity manipulator. Quantum singularities are a doozy to make, but damn are they sturdy!"

The captain left the room as he walked back to where he had come from and stopped at what looked like a plain golden wall. A hit on the wall, and several segments pulled back and slid into the openings of the two nearby walls. Cogs and steam announced the correct function of this mechanism, as a strange machine slid slowly forward and a compartment opened underneath it. A very small rectangular "plate" allowing a circular object to be placed upon it. The man opened up some drawers underneath this object and started to fumble through the choices.

"I hate these old CDs. One would think that during the time that they existed, people would have used the light-disks. It's small, hard to lose, and can contain over ten terrabytes of information. PAH! But they preferred to keep the cd. Let's see, which one, which one...hmha!"

The man took a small case out from the organized row, and opened it up with a "click". He placed the disk onto the opening and, with a simple button press, inserted the disk into the machine, which started up almost immediately.

"Well...it's not one of my favorites, but it will have to do. Time for the internal repairing!"

Many things had to be repaired, but the main system needed to be fixed was the computer's AI. After a few wiring and reprogramming on different terminals, the man wiped his hands with a grayish cloth and shouted:

"Security system, on!"

A loud noise resembling a hard drive struggling to activate resonated in the area, followed by an intense expulsion of steam which was soon followed, itself, by a female electronic voice:

"Yes?"

"Scan computer systems as well as connections throughout each piece of machinery of the ship."

"Scanning...analyzing...processing........"

"Well?"

"......Analysis complete. Hydraulics are offline due to damaged gearing and damaged power couplets. Multiple exterior hull breaches. Engine failure in numbers two and three. Stabilizer engine failures in numbers four , seven, and eight. Fuel leakage contained. Cabling failure in automatic doors. Unable to determine precise doors at the moment. Generator is intact and working at full capacity."

"Good. What about the computer systems?"

"Computer systems optimal. Several errors detected. Correcting now."

"Perfect. How about the scans?"

"Scanning has shown area to be optimal for regrowth of plant life as well as survivability for Steamlord to be at eight five point forty three percent."

"What?"

"Short-range scanners have detected creatures of a high threat level within the vicinity. Chemical scans detect extreme levels of fear. Chance of attacks at point five percent and slowly rising. Sensors have also detected intelligent life North-east from current position. What are your orders?"

"Initiate auto-repair capabilities on all systems."

"At once."

The sounds of clinkering could be heard, and a massive swarm of a copper-colored cloud erupted from the roof of the ship. The cloud started to seep within every nook and cranny of the damaged vessel, and sounds of soldering and cable cutting could already be heard, as well as pieces cogs and gear work being replaced as well.

"These nano-bots are something else. I'm very glad that I created them and put them under your control SS." the man said while sterning.

"Then perhaps you could exit the ship and scout the area? If my databanks are correct, you have yet to build a scouting drone."

"*sigh* Fine. Just let me grab my things and I'll be going."

"You will need your bodyguards as well. Shall I bring their capsules to the exit of the ship?"

"Sure."

"Confirmed."

The captain of the ship walked directly towards the exit, a bit of quick walking helped speed things up. He grabbed what looked like a giant mechanical "X" with a blue ball in its center. Upon closer inspection, one could see several gears turning and rotating together within it. This object barely gave off any sounds and ticking and/or clankering. The man took his jacket off and placed it on his back, upon which the "arms" of the contraption bent themselves to grab hold of its wearer's shoulder and lower ribs. Another object, this time circular, was placed within his pocket. It was an old-fashioned pocket watch that the man had repaired awhile ago, and kept it to tell time at the precise second he needed it. He wasn't the kind to be tardy.

Another object, which looked like a mechanical gauntlet, was placed on his left wrist. It engulfed the surface of his hand, but stretched in a way that it didn't go in between the fingers, but rather, it went over the little portions that it reached. Whatever it was, it was very loud and ticked like a grand-father clock. It was colored just like the ship. Anyways, as the man put his jacket back on, three holes formed in the ceiling, from which three giant capsules descended.

"Opening capsules." said the AI.

The man walked slowly towards the now opened capsules, upon which he stretched his hand out and rubbed the objects being held.

"Ah, the Crusader Knights. My best creations. MY bodyguards. The first things I managed to create using that damn liquid Loptimum. Who would've thought that just making these things into my personal bodyguards would have brought about the destruction of an entire race...well...the past is the past and I must not linger upon it, or else I will have no future."

The man stepped backed and yelled "Activate!"

But nothing happened, at first. However, the three beings within the capsules were humanoid and followed the same design shape. They were rather smooth in every part of their body, except for the areas that needed proper flexibility. These parts were "cut" but still flattened and very smooth. The helmets had a type of almost unnoticeable jagging forward, but they still had it. However, only two rectangular black holes were punched into the "heads". These were certainly the "eyes" of the machines. However, they all carried a gigantic claymore which they seemed to hold proudly on their chests, and they all had a different pattern design as well as some added "decorative features".

"Activate, Templar. Activate, Hospitaller. And finally, activate, Teutonic!"

Each robot bearing the respective scheme of each ancient crusading order activated almost immediately. Each robot's eyes gradually illuminated, turning brighter, all but the one named 'Teutonic'.

"Hm? Is it malfunctioning?"
The robot saluted its creator, causing the man to hit his forehead.
"I had forgotten! Your eye-cameras don't illuminate like the other two. Now then, form a line."

The three robots stomped forward in a weird mechanical manner.

"*sigh* Why did I make that their default walking pattern? All-range movement authorized."

The robots seemed to give off a faint crack, but they didn't move.

"Good. This is a scouting mission. I want you to watch over me as we go deeper into the forest and try to find the "intelligent life" that SS was talking about. You shall only use lethal force when I am TRULY in danger. Understand?"

The three robots nodded once and placed their claymores on their backs, revealing the three different cross shapes each bared on their bodies.

"We shall go into cloaking mode, for a better chance at staying unnoticed. Activate your cloaking now."

Once again, the "Crusader Knights" did as told and, with a little phasing out, turned completely invisible. The man tampered a bit with his goggles but quickly stopped as a smirk formed on his face.

"Perfect. Now I can see you. Now to activate my own cloaking system."

The man stretched his left arm to reach the arms on his shoulders. With a few clicks, the mechanism started to clicker and clank, eventually reflecting light off of him, turning him invisible.

"Hm? Hm? Perfect. Security system, open the doors. Also, consider the cloaking device for the ship as being the priority module for repairs."

"Okay."

The door for the exit slowly opened, a bit of static electricity leaving the gears as the door forced itself to open up. However, the ship had tilted, and was somewhat high above the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't a problematic height, and all four bipeds managed to jump down without any difficulty. With a quick scanning of the area, the four creatures moved on as the only entry to the ship closed difficultly.

The four had already gone far into the forest that the human tapped on the module resting on his right hand. A holographic map appeared, upon which the details of the scanned landscape appeared clearly. A quiet beeping could be heard, and the man used his fingers to slide the map across, only to find the location he was searching for was quite the distance away.

"Damn. Well then, Teutonic, you stay near me. Templar, you go five meters to our right and watch over us from there. Hospitaller, you do the same, but from the left side. Understand?" They all released steam from their helmets as a sign of agreement. "Good. I don't feel it in this jungle. Let's just hope that the humans here are peaceful ones, despite what seems like a low level of technology. Ah yes! I was forgetting. Activate your biological scanners and scan everything in your path. Store all biological data on your temporary drives so that the information can be uploaded to SS."

The scanning was noisy, at best. While it would help with cataloguing the plant species here, it would certainly attract the attention of the dangerous beasts that Security System detected. And, indeed, a monstrous creature appeared before the group. It looked like a scorpion made of stars. It seemed quite capable of seeing the human and its single companion.

"What's this? Interesting. It looks like a scorpion. What's it doing? Oh crap!" yelled the man as he jumped out of the way of a pincer movement.

A loud revving noise was heard from Teutonic as it unsheathed its blade and sliced the claw off, causing the scorpion to make several steps in reverse as it howled in pain. It didn't have time to react, however, as the two other bots decapitated as soon as it stopped howling. A loud *thump* greeted the creature to its return upon the ground.

"That is very nasty. I really need to develop heat blockers...hiders...dispersers... whatever they are called. Reform previous movement pattern and follow me. We are almost at destination."

As the group crept closer to the edge of the forest, the human issued a regrouping command to his bodyguards. They wouldn't move without his order, and stayed perfectly still behind the trees and bushes they were hiding behind.

"Is that...a pegasus? It's yellow and has long pink hair. Strange. It must belong to someone who...lives in that...tree. Meeehhh. It's unique, but why is that pegasus feeding those animals and singing as well? I hope these aren't the creatures SS talked about earlier. She doesn't seem to have noticed my ship... how oblivious."

Suddenly, a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail jolted right in front of this pegasus and dragged her without her own consent. It looked like it was something urgent. The man just watched them fly off in one direction, leaving the animals to fend for themselves for a short while.

"Hm. Okay then. Enter that building and try to find any indications to the name of this world. I need to know everything about this place. Especially its technological level. I wouldn't want the same...incident...to happen twice. Go! And keep your cloaking devices on!"

Unfortunate encounter

The man and his three body guards had some trouble getting into the house, but they managed to stand tall in it. It was so peculiar. Everything looked about the proper height for that small pony outside. The human was starting to doubt his suspicions earlier. Perhaps these "ponies" were the dominant species on this world. Then that would mean:

"Damn! I went off course?! I knew that dimensional traveling wasn't a good way to travel. Okay. Templar and Teutonic, you stay down here and start searching for anything that could be of intelligent value. Maps, letters, notes, drawings, anything. Hospitaller, you're coming with me upstairs. Let's see if we can find anything else. Oh, and one more thing, deactivate cloaking systems. Let the Loptimum batteries recharge themselves."

The bots did as told and revealed themselves to the world. Unfortunately, a few of the tiny critters in the house got frightened and ran away. The bots were about to follow them, but their creator stopped the Crusader Knights immediately.

"No. If we are to use lethal force, it should only be against real threats like the monster we encountered in the forest. For now, only use non-lethal subduing methods. Besides, what can a few tiny rodents and birds do?"

And with those words, the man went upstairs with his bodyguard to fumble through whatever he could find. Checking his pocket-watch, he saw that it had been a full fifteen minutes since they had been searching through the place. However, they meticulously replaced everything the way it was as to not arouse any suspicion to his existence in this world. However, Hospitaller stopped searching through and stood up unexpectedly.

"What's wrong Hospitaller? Your brothers found something?"

Hospitaller cracked and moved towards the exit of the bed-room they were in and went down the stairs. The whirring of the three bots started to worry the human, who instinctively climbed down the stairs on his own and went in front of the bots who were seemingly staring down something in front of the door.

"What are you doing? We need to get the maps and leave here at once! What are you staring at?"

The three robots pointed each at the door. After turning around, the creator saw a the little yellow pony from before scrunched down against the floor and shaking as a leaf as the gigantic creatures stared at her. The man crouched and extended an arm, taking this "animal" for a pet of some sorts.

"Hey there. What're you doing here? It could be dangerous. You don't know where your-"

"AAAAAHHH!"

"What?"

The little pony screamed and ran out of the door and seemed to speak.

"RAINBOW DASH, THERE ARE MONSTERS IN MY HOUSE!"

"What?! Is this a joke?"

"No, look through the windows."

"Why? I don't see...dear Celestia. What ARE those things? They look pretty cool."

"Shit. Break down the wall. We have no time to dilly-dally here. Once we get into the forest, activate cloaking systems."

A steam release for approval, and the machines teared down a portion of the house, allowing for a quick escape.

"Hey! Come on everypony, we have to catch it. It destroyed Fluttershy's house."

Several pegasi and earth ponies started to chase after the creatures, while most of them stayed back in fear. This actually meant that just a few of the ponies gave chase. However, Rainbow Dash looked closer at the strange metallic objects on the being wearing a black jacket, and realized that they looked similar to the thing that destroyed a large portion of Cloudsdale.

"Wait a minute...I'm not going to let you go!" she screamed from the top of her lungs.

"Damn! Start cutting down the trees to slow them down. These blasted cloaking devices are faltering again." While the bodyguards took out their claymores and started slicing trees and rocks and propulsing them further away, the man activated the communications within his goggles. "Security System, how are the repairs to the cloaking device?"

"Thirty-five percent complete. Just enough to cloak the exposed side of the ship."

"The activate it and open the entrance, we're coming back inside the ship."

"An error has occurred?"

"Yes. I think I have invoked the wrath of the local population."

"They are not humans?"

"No. And one of them is flying at incredible speeds towards-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the rainbow maned pony was about to reach him. She was just one centimeter away. Unfortunately for her, Teutonic detected her proximity to its creator and grabbed her tail, just to throw her further away with great strength. The other ones were getting closer, but the trees falling down, as well as the rocks crumbling over slowed them down just enough.

"There it is! Quick, Teutonic, pick me up and jump into the entrance."

After returning to his safe haven, the door shut more easily this time. The man looked through one of the few viewports on the side of his ship to see the rainbow-maned pony shooting straight for him , but stopping immediately and looking around for something. The way she just stopped despite her speed defied all laws of physics the man knew. however, the other ones who came were walking and were looking around just like she was. After a few moments of heavy breathing, the pegasus spoke to the others:

"We lost them. Let's get out of here quickly, we're already too deep in the Everfree forest."

"Everfree forest? Talking, colorful ponies? Flying ones too? I think I will find great satisfaction in studying this world as I get the dimensional surfer working again."

Once the ponies were out of view, the man slouched back against the wall and started to gasp for air as his heart beat with an extreme pace. The three bodyguards just bent over and stared at him.

"You three, All-range mode defined as neutral movement pattern. Do you comply?"

The three bots started to "wirr", and the sounds of clockwork happened in almost a second. They soon nodded together.

"Good. Help Security System with the heavy manual labor while I start working on the generators energy distribution system as well as the dimensional surfer."

The man went in the opposite direction of his favorite creations and, instead, went directly towards the gigantic gray doors leading to the main generator. But, before inputting the codes to access this key room, he called upon SS once more.

"How are the long-range scanners SS?"

"They are operating at seventy-five point thirty-seven percent capacity. They are good for one wide-area scanning, but results can be faulty and ridden with errors."

"It is good enough. Perform long-range scans for the areas near that "house" that we were unfortunately caught in."

"Roger."

"Good. Well, while you do that, I'm going to perform the scanning on the generator to make there are no leaks, no matter how small."

A few button presses, and the door started to open. First, the giant metal circle shown slid to the left side, the two giant golden gears and strong wires all retracted into the walls. Then, finally, extremely thin bars descended into the bottom of the ship. The man stepped forward to observe the only thing truly keeping him and his ship alive. It was an orb within a sturdy, transparent casing. It alternated between blue, green, and purple every so often. The casing was held with a very tall and wide stool which transported the energy via giant black cables throughout the ship. The machine itself gave off a gentle humming. As the man went to the side of this black room, he hit the walls again. A small compartment slid open, revealing a wide variety of scanning equipment as well as soldering tools. He went straight to work. If there were any problems with this generator, the explosion could bring about a WIDE problem within this world.

A few hours passed and it was night time outside. The sounds of violent creatures waking and roaming around the forest could be heard a mile away. It was finally time to eat and soon rest. As the man exited the generator chamber and passed through decontamination, he quickly went to the bathroom to take a shower. A few minutes and he was already out and was given clothes that looked exactly like the ones he was already wearing. The man seemed to rub his left arm quite a lot as of late.

"I'll need to check my arm soon. It's acting up on me."

"Steamlord," Security System shouted.

"Yes?"

"Long range scans are complete. There is a fourteen percent probability of errors, but a large community has been detected further away from the location of your previous visit."

"Excellent. What about this community?"

"Bio-scanners have noticed-"

"-Weird ponies with strange abilities. I know."

"Yes, well, many of them have a strange aura surrounding them. These ones appear to have singular protrusions on their frontal lobes."

"Horns on their foreheads?"

"Affirmative. One seems to have a more powerful barrier surrounding it in what appears to be a center for knowledge. If you go there, you could find the data you have been researching."

"That sounds like a good plan, but, for now, I will rest, and so will my Crusader Knights. They need a proper recharge and system scanning. Our cloaking systems went haywire today."

"Steamlord" left for his room, where food and bed waited for him. Despite the heavy tilting of the ship, his gravity generator made up for the problem. He would need to be in good form tomorrow. He wouldn't want to meet this "Rainbow Dash" the yellow pegasus called upon. That, and his presence would likely be spread throughout the town or city they lived in. Everything was really going smoothly for him today. Well, at least his ship was sturdy enough to withstand any outside attacks, and SS would properly detect any outside presence deemed a threat.

Trapped within books

As the human awoke from his long slumber, a loud yawn resonated throughout the ship. He slid out of bed and put his boots back on with a loud "creak". Instead of going directly for the bathroom he shouted:

"Security System, how far are the repairs for the ship?"

"Ship's previous condition of functioning was at seventeen percent. Current condition now at thirty-five."

"That fast? At this rate, I'll be gone from this world in three days."

"Incorrect."

"The hell you mean by incorrect?"

"There is an anomaly in the system as well as energy fluctuations disturbing the Yohiz energy flow throughout the ship. If source of fluctuations is not detected and streamed out, the probability for ship repairs rises from three days to five months."

"WHAT?! And none of the scanners have found anything?"

"Affirmative."

"I feel like being a truck driver for a few seconds. No. I'm too educated for such language. Prepare the Crusader knights and my equipment while I do my business."

"Roger."

A few minutes later, and the man had come back to the front of the ship, where his bodyguards were waiting for him. Templar following with its innocent looking red "eyes", Hospitaller staring its creator down with it' serious white "eyes", while Teutonic simply gave the feeling of emptiness when looking at where the "eyes" should be. Their creator put on his back-device as well as the wrist machine and activated the cloaking systems to check if they were working again. His pocket watch was aready in his pocket, and he needed to check the time again.

"Perfect. My mobility pack has never truly failed me before. And my multi-purpose wrist gauntlet is always useful. I just hope my arm doesn't start acting up again. Alright then..where are-of course...there we go. Follow me closely this time. I can't afford to have any of you captured this time. When I freely gave your...less-potent blueprints out, that ended in catastrophe. I don't want anything here to copy you directly. Got it?"

The bots expulsed steam once more. The door opened without a sound as the gears moving it along worked perfectly, like they had just been recently oiled. The human couldn't help but compliment SS on its good work, and jumped out. Still staying near his ship, he checked his MPWG for the location of this "data reserve".

"Found it." whispered the creator. "Do not engage once out of this forest. If we are seen directly in the city, we are doomed. I just hope that these beings aren't too dangerous in themselves, or too violent. Let's head out."

Following the same trail he did the previous day, the human passed by the house he was unfortunately found in to see that the wall was already repaired. However, the yellow pegasus looked more terrified than she was before. Unlike the others who chased him and his bodyguards down, she seemed rather sensitive. Instead of happily feeding her pets and singing joyfully like she did yesterday, she was now crouched in fear, and the animals surrounding her started to reassure her about something.

"What a fascinating relationship. But what's with those tattoos on...hmmm... 'her' posterior? Strange. It might be tradition to bear one, although I've only seen these sort of things with the males of the human race. I wonder how those one works?

The group reached a path behind the house which seemed to lead directly to a stone bridge over-looking a stream.

"...what's the point of making an "arc" bridge for something so small?" the man whispered to himself."

He checked the surroundings and soon departed, his mobility pack ticking ever-quietly as it continued to bend the light around its host. The town was already in view, and its designs looked daringly similar to the cottages of humans during the late medieval era, albeit, with some "slight" changes.

"What a peculiar species." he whispered to himself." They even have similarities to our ancient culture with some more modern aspects. Now then, where is that place? Oh no. Against that wall, quickly!" the creator issued to his creations.

The man started to panic somewhat, but the Knights placed their hands on his chest to have him calm down slightly. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. There were three tiny ponies. One was orange and had very tiny wings and a rebellious purple mane and tail. Another was white and its mane and tail looked like they were well attended to. Streaks of both pink and purple comprised the coloring. The last one looked the most adorable. This one was of vanilla coloring with a red mane and tail, although she had a giant bow in her "hair". That one spoke to her friends with a country accent. The creator obviously noticed the lack of marks on their posteriors. This confirmed his theory for those "tattoos" to be given to those becoming adults.

He easily overheard their conversation:

"So what're we gonna do ta get our cutie-marks taday?" said the one with a bow.

"I don't know. We've tried almost everything." responded the orange filly in annoyance.

"I've heard that there was a monster sighted near Fluttershy's house." said the white one.

The three stopped.

"What? Where did it go?" asked the country filly.

"Um, I think it went into the Everfree forest."

"That's dangerous! You all remember what happened with the cockatrice, right?"

"I've heard about that too. I think Rainbow Dash said that when she and the others chased after them, there were no monsters in the way, and they were destroying everything just to slow them down. They eventually got away , but Rainbow was SO CLOSE to catching them."

"Wait, "THEY"? What do you mean by "They"?"

"There were four of them, Sweetie Belle."

"So they are smart enough to have names. The white one's name is Sweetie Belle, and the pegasus chasing me is called Rainbow Dash...hmm...quite befitting. I need to move, but I'm afraid they will hear us. Damn it!"

"Four? Well, maybe we'll have ta get permission from our family members."

"We won't, Applebloom." replied the orange pony.

"Well, we have gotten through worse... do you know your way around the forest Scootaloo?"

"Yup!"

"Then let's get our backpacks ready." said the Sweetie Belle.

The human leaned closer as he saw them put their hooves in what looked like a "group hand-shake."

"What are they doing?"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER HUNTERS!

"OW! MY EARS!"

The three little fillies started to gallop away in an unknown direction, but at least they were now gone. Another quick peek around the corner and two more, much larger ponies walked by. At last, the coast was clear, and the group sprinted in the direction the holographic map was pointing them. Once they were near the location, they hid in the shade created by a tree, a very big tree.

"Okay...let's see...what? The data says it's in this tree? That can't be right!"

Templar shoved its creator's shoulder and pointed upwards.

"What is it? What in god's name?!"

They were sitting under a tree that had been hollowed out and was being used as a building, yet it was still alive. The man couldn't help but step back as he gazed at this towering marvel of science. He just HAD to acquire a piece of it for studying. Who knows what kind of technological marvel it could lead to! However, he had no time to take a specimen, and asked Hospitaller to check for an entrance and make sure no one was in there. It had only been a few seconds that Hospitaller returned and confirmed that the area was devoid of any presence. Upon entering this marvel, the human awed at the sight. This was a library! And it was packed with books! Although it wasn't as big as he had hoped.

"Alright. Spread out. Try and find encyclopedias and books related to history and the geography of this place. Keep your cloaking devices on. It might take longer to recharge once we're back to the ship, but it's best that we don't ignite anymore problems."

The bots gave out another release of steam and started to fumble through the shelves, carefully only picking out the books that gave the best impressions of relating to the information that was needed. Everything was placed on a table in the middle of the room. The human started fumbling through those he found unnecessary and placed others he found interesting within a pile on the ground. Checking his watch, the man saw that twenty-three minutes had already past. He was very stingy about time indeed. However, voices could be heard outside. Instead of expecting the creatures to pass, the voices came closer, and the order of spreading out and not making any noise came to be.

In came a lavender colored pony with a dark blue mane which had a pink and purple stripe going through it. She had...a horn? She was a unicorn, therefore, she must have some form of "magical" power. Next to her stood a small bipedal lizard who was carrying paper bags that were obviously too big for him. By judging his voice, one could easily tell that it was a male, although a very young one at that. The four intruders carefully followed the creatures entering the library.

"Wow. Pinkie really makes the best pastries." set the little dragon as he entered another room to rid himself of his luggage.
"Yeah. Too bad she eats them all. What?" Obviously, she spotted the books and maps that were out of place.
"Hey Spike, did you forget to place the sign on the door again?"
"What? No! It's on the door. Look."

Twilight turned around and opened the door to see that her assistant was right. But then, what made this mess?

"Besides, it's not like everypony comes to the library. I mean Zecora comes every now and then, and Rainbow Dash practically stays here when she starts to read her "Daring-Do adventures", but those are the only two I know who come here."

"Spike."

"Yeah, Twilight?" The pony started to eye the room frantically.

"Did you hear about the new creatures spotted in the forest after that giant thing crashed into Cloudsdale?"

"Yeah...why? Oh no...are they here?"

"I don't know, but I sense a presence. Stay in the kitchen."

Spike moved away from the open doorway, but kept one eye around the corner to see what exactly Twilight Sparkle was going to do. Her horn glowed bright as the windows and doors were shut tight.

"I know you're here. I can sense you. What do you want with my books?"

She started to look carefully around, until she sensed something and threw a bolt of energy at the bookcase.

"OW!" yelled a voice.

A little bit of what looked like static electricity started to spruce up into the air as a giant fear-inducing being came into sight. Twilight's jaw fell open as she stared at this giant. What was it? It looked so...werd. But before she could regain herself, she felt something hit her in the neck, causing the lavender pony to feel light headed and fall to the ground. The sounds of Spike's voice only rang hollowly within her now blackening mind. She was knocked out.

The man looked over the bodies and scanned them with his MPWG, cataloguing their biological information. He then saw a basket on the ground. This is where he placed the lizard, and his bodyguards had seen a bed on the shelves further away. Teutonic picked her up and placed the small creature in its bed, not bothering to place the blanket over her.

"Damnit. How did she know? Well, at least the cloaking device is working again. I hope that these books won't be a real nuisance to us while we return to the ship. Try and keep a low-profile now. I hope this machine over cloaks-yes!"

It seemed that the light bending affected whatever object the four beings held. This was perfect, and there were few to be carried within the lot. A quick look back and forth again outside of the library, and the group sprinted back to the location of the ship. It took awhile, but they had finally reached the crashed vessel. As the knights automatically went to the engines room, "Steamlord" went to a terminal close to the cockpit, and took a copper colored cord and placed it within an insertion point. Security system reacted almost immediately.

"Hmm?"

"What is it?"

"Both biological readings match the descriptions of dragons and unicorns."

"So I arrived in a fantasy world?"

"Somewhat. Scanners have detected some manner of technology, such as trains and electrical appliances. Yet technology seems to be the lesser focus point for these beings. Further study is required. I shall analyze the books that you have retrieved as well and narrow down the data to more crucial information required for understanding this world."

"You sure you'll be able to handle it?"

"Affirmative. The Crusader Knights have taken over repair operations for engines, and further repairs concerning secondary systems have been halted until a counter-measure is produced for energy disturbances."

"Fine." sighed the man as he let his gloved hand slide through his hair. "Any leaks detected with the generator?"

"Negative. Will you be resting for the day?"

"Yes."

"Would you like some music?"

"Mmmm, I'd like something ancient-like this time. Something that would SEEM cultural for music."

"Choosing...choice found. Playing."

"Ahh. That's a good beat. It reminds me of the invasions of the mighty vikings and other germanic tribes. Well, while I'm resting for the day, I might as well go in my room and read some of the books I've managed to save."

Going into a door next to the cockpit, yet again, the man found himself in his rather ubiquitous room. It might have stretched everywhere in one way, but it was also very small. It just had a screen embedded with thin the walls facing his bed. Above this bed was a small, circular window. Just enough to get a perfect amount of light inside it. The human jumped humorously on his bed and stretched a bit on it. He then bent over and pushed a button on his short night table and a small shelf lowered itself from the ceiling with "tchoofs" and gear rolling. He started to finger through them, allowing each row to go back as he fumbled through the next one that would lower itself.

"Pum pum pum...aha! Perfect. The history of the Teutonic order. Nothing like a good history book to calm the nerves."

Apparently, this man liked history quite alot. The most interesting aspects for him being the crusading orders. However, night time had fallen, and, based on his pocket watch sitting on his night table, it was already ten P.M. He was about to stretch and call it a day when the alarms went off in his room.

"AUGH! Deactivate the alarms! What's the emergency?"

"Three locals are approaching the ship. Are they looking for us?"

"Yes and no. They seem to be looking for us, but they also seem lost. Okay then, let's see what we have here." said 'Steamlord' as he stretched a bit more and twisted his back.

After reaching the exit of the ship, he sighed, rubbed his eyes, and lazily fell against the wall and looked outside the window. He immediately sprung back to life as he saw the three infants from earlier today looking around, seemingly stranded. That "Scootaloo" did indeed know her way around the forest. A few minutes of looking at them, and decided that they stayed in the forest long enough. It was no place for a child, especially three. Thinking up a quick plan to get them out of here and into safety, two came to mind.

The first consisted in taking them inside the ship. That was out of the question. The second would be to send one of the bodyguards to attract their attention and have them follow it until they reach the end of the forest. The latter option was more appropriate. So, the man called upon Templar, who appeared at once.

"Templar, you see those infants outside?"
It responded in the usual fashion.

"Good. I want you to get them out of the forest indirectly. Attract their attention with your red lights. Once you leave the ship, deactivate camoflauge and drag them out of the forest. Preferably near the cottage that we had encountered yesterday. Think you can do that?"

The robot nodded.

"Good! Then get going! I don't want to know that I'm the source of even MORE deaths in yet ANOTHER world. I have enough weight on my shoulders."

"I thought ya said we were near the exit of the forest!" yelled Applebloom.

"We...we are..."stuttered Scootaloo.

"Yer lost aren't ya?"

"N-no..."

"Then how come we haven't gotten out yet?" whined Sweetie Belle. "We've been here for hours!"

"I don't know! Everything changed ever since that gigantic...metal thing came crashing through Cloudsdale."

"It was made of metal?" wondered Applebloom.

"Yeah! I was nearly hit by it when it fell through Cloudsdale. I was at one inch to being swept away."

"Hey girls..."

"What?"

"What is that!?" Sweetie belle said shakingly as she pointed to what looked like a short creature with two glowing red eyes."

"It m-might just be another cockatrice. We need ta keep our eyes clo-" before the little bow-maned filly could finish her sentence, the small figure stood very high, little pieces of tree branches chipping and bouncing off it in the rustling of dead leaves. It seemed to have several portions of its body that glowed red. Most notably was the one on the main body, which looked like a red cross.

"That must be one of the things Rainbow was talking about."

"It's huge!"

"I ain't never seen somethin' like that before. Hey, wait!" exclaimed the small country filly as the creature started to walk away.

"Hold up. We don't want ta hurt ya!"

"But I thought we came here to capture it." said Scootaloo, determination in her eyes.

"We're lost. It might be able to help us out."

"Then let's just hope it isn't evil. Rarity is going to kill me if we ever get out of here."

The three fillies started to gallop after the creature through the devastated part of the woods. Unfortunately for them, the closer they got to it, the faster it went. Soon, however, the three fillies started to tire and the created went out of sight.

"C'mon girls. We've almost got it."

What happenned later could be considered a two-sided blade. Applejack, Rarity, and their four other friends were near the entrance to the forest and had been searching for any clues as to the whereabouts of the three little fillies. Scootaloo announced their presence first:

"Hey Rainbow Dash!"

Everypony turned around to see the three fillies finally out of the forest and galopped to their location. Applejack and Rarity, at first, were quite happy to see their little sisters, but quickly started to scold them.

"Applebloom, do ya know what could've happened ta ya three in there?!"

"But Applejack we-"

"There are no buts. What you did was irresponsible and dangerous. You didn't even talk ta use 'bout your little expedition."

"That's right. You could have been gravely wounded."

"Rarity!"

"No! I will not have that from you. When we go home, you are grounded."

"Yeah. I know you want to be cool like me, but these sort of things are out of your league. You're too young."

Scootaloo started to pout.

"Didn't you even hear about the creatures that have appeared suddenly in the forest? I don't know what could have happened to you three if it caught a hold of you." said Twilight with worry.

"But we went in there to find them and take a picture to prove that they exist." yelled Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah. We even found one of them. It...it helped us out of the forest. Ya must've seen it. It passed right through here!"

The six mares looked at each other.

"I didn't see anything." said the soft voice of Fluttershy." Even the animals here say that there wasn't anything coming out of the forest besides you three."

"Yeah! And my Pinkie sense didn't feel anything either! You must be really tired. How about a party to help that?"

"Pinkie, now is not the time." sighed Rainbow Dash as she face-hoofed. " You girls are coming with us. You're in big trouble."

The three fillies bowed their heads in shame and replied to all six ponies:"Yes m'am.", and followed the mares back to Ponyville. They looked back one more time, sadness painted on their faces like the stars in the night sky overhead, until the saw the creature standing right at the edge of the forest and watching them. It soon disappeared within the confines of the forest. This just proved that they weren't having hallucinations. Unfortunately, a frightening yell from Applejack brought them scurrying back to those responsible for them. Well, "somewhat" responsible in the case of Rainbow Dash.

The inventor was waiting patiently at the entrance of the ship, only to see it open and have Templar jump back inside, still clean and effective. The robot turned to face its creator, who stared back. His eyes were impossible to decipher behind the goggles.

"I trust your mission was a success?" he said in a very serious tone.

The robot nodded. The tension coming from the man suddenly disappeared as a smile formed on his face.

"Great! Then I can get some peaceful sleep. You did good tonight Templar. You did very good."

The creator returned to his room as the robot followed him with its "eyes", only to return into its own capsule for ITS rest and recharging.

"Today was a great day" the man thought to himself."Now I'm freakin' grateful to myself for creating those three. I certainly couldn't do anything outside the ship without them. Well, time to get some shut-eye."

Gem search

The man and his bodyguards were all in the medical room. The little yellow dragon was inside of a horizontal capsule and was receiving antibiotics as well as a water directly into her veins. However, what she really needed now was food. Upon closer inspection, this little creature's scales were of a surprisingly bright yellow. On her eyes was what seemed to be two diamond-shaped green scales. The base was barely noticeable, but the majority of the scales elevated themselves above their location and bent slightly back towards the rear of the head. On the head of this dragon itself was a strange layer of green scales which elevated themselves slightly as well. They followed a specific pattern and, near the neck, seemed to detach themselves slightly to serve as some form of extension comprised of scales. A type of "neck tail" if you need a comparison. This "teck", as one would have it, only went as far as the normal tail, who was rather long and sleek for a young dragon's tail.

This poor creature was breathing heavily, and this worried Steamlord, who was looking over her capsule.

"Security system, how are vitals?"

"Vitals are stabilizing quickly, but her body is in a dire lack of nutrients. She requires sustenance in the form of solids as soon as possible."

"Any acceptance to receive liquid nutrients?"

"Negative. Host's body requires unknown food source."

"Wait...plants and synthetic meat has been refused?"

"Affirmative."

"Crap..."

The man started to walk in circles while his bodyguards just watched him in their respective corners. Their creator started to mumble to himself and then snapped his fingers after a sudden realization.

"The library!"

"Yes. That would be the best place to find information on what these reptiles eat. Although, I can't drag you three along this time. You must watch her closely. If she wakes up, open the capsule gently and try to keep her in place. SS, I can trust that you know your way around calming minds?!"

"What makes you think that?!"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Perhaps."

"Right. I'm going alone to the library this time. Don't send the three until I send a distress signal."

"Yes sir."

As the man was about to exit the ship, he pushed himself back.

"One more thing, how are the repairs for the scanners?"

"Total scanner repairs at ninety percent. You will soon be able to send an orbiting probe drone to the upper atmosphere and scan the surface of this planet."

"Perfect. Well, I'm off."

The inventor jumped out of his ship and landed on the ground. His determination in finding the specific book needed to save this child was a type of burden for his heart and mind, but he wouldn't have another life lost by his hands. There will never be a second Ash Fall, and he was there to be certain of it. This time, he went directly through the forest and ignored the safe route that he and the Crusader Knights usually took. Instead, he literally ran right through the non-devastated parts of the forest, literally passing right by the dangerous beasts that were lurking about. Sprinting through the trees and arrived almost immediately at the small tow, but he didn't stop here. No. He quickly checked his MPWG for the location of the library. Once he found it, he literally knocked over three ponies passing by. They looked around in confusion as they stood back up.

Steamlord stopped in front of the door to see the lavender pony and the dragon from before exit the place. He entered before the door had time to close and turned off his cloaking device. With fury and valor, the man valiantly tore through the shelves, hopelessly looking for a book that could help save the dragon he found. Suddenly, the book he was holding was forced shut, and all entries and exits looked like they were sparkling with a strange sparkling purple magic. Steamlord dropped the book as he looked around himself in irritation.

"I don't have time for this." he yelled out loud.

"Don't have time for what? And what did you do with my books?" said a voice behind him.

It was the lavender pony from before.

"What are you and what are you doing here?" Steamlord ignored her and tried to pull out another book. "Ah! You aren't taking another book. I'll ask again before I start getting serious. Who or what are you and what are you doing here?"

"I don't have times to play with you, little pony. I'm looking for information on dragons."

"Are you trying to enslave them or use them?"

"Are you nuts? For what purpose would I have to control dragons?"

"Then why do you need to find information on them?"
"Because I found a baby dragon who is terribly sick and I need to know what they eat."

"Terribly sick?" the magic faded away from the books. "What do you mean?"

"I found a baby dragon laying down near its dead parent. She had apparently not eaten or drank for the last five days. I have the necessary for her medical needs and liquids, but she has nothing to feed on. And, so far, she has refused to eat any plants or meat."

"That's because they eat jewels and crystals." said the lavender unicorn with a know-it-all look on her face.

"What? Do you know a lot about Draconic physiology?"

"Not much. I only know as much as I know about Spike."

"The little purple dragon?"

"Yeah. The one you knocked out along with me the last time you came here." there was more aggressiveness in her tone.

"Then I need you to come with me. She needs more detailed medical knowledge than I can provide."

"I'll come with you. But don't knock me out."

"No. I'll simply blindfold you. I don't want you to know where I am. Agreed?"

"*sigh* Fine. But no funny business."

"I was going to say the same to you."

As the man took a piece of cloth from his pocket, one used for cleaning his goggles, he placed it around the lavender pony's eyes. While he did this, the pony asked him an obvious question:

"And how are you going to get me out of here without anypony noticing?"

"I have that covered."

"If you say so." she said sarcastically.

As the barriers disappeared, Twilight heard the door open and felt herself bounce as she was carried on this creature's back. Instead of hearing screaming and gasps, she heard nothing. She didn't understand it, but it was happening. She wasn't sure if she was being kidnapped or if this creature would get her back to her home, but it was too late to go back now. In a quick moment, she could smell the scent of pines and thick foliage. She was in the Everfree forest.

"Wha-? Are we in the Everfree forest?"

"Yes."

"But it's dangerous here!"

"Tch, so?"

Twilight couldn't help but get frustrated at the non-chalance of this creature. But she didn't have time to react as she felt herself get pulled down by the gravity of a jump and land with some sort of hollow, metallic "tink". She was gently placed on the floor. However, the nano-second a single atom of her hooves touched the floor of this area, she heard extremely loud sirens deafening her along with the sound of a mare's voice:

"SECURITY BREACH! INTRUDER ON DECK NEAR THE ENTRANCE!"

Besides the sounds of three claymores seemingly unsheathing, and the choking feeling Twilight started to have in her neck as she gulped carefully, her blind-fold was ripped off rather violently by a hand that wasn't the one of the creature that brought her with him. No. This one was mighty scary and was white with black figures "painted" all over it. It had a giant claymore which was separated from the unicorn's neck by a single millimeter. Twilight stared nervously at the blade as she noticed that two other similar looking beings had their's pointed towards the sides of her neck.

"That's enough. She is a guest who will help the young dragon heal."

The robots looked up at their creator and removed the blades almost immediately, hitting their chest with a fist in their way of showing their understanding. The lavender pony sighed in relief.

"What are they?"

"My bodyguards."

"Bodyguards?"

"Yes, my "Crusader Knights". Now please, let's just get going. I don't want you to stay here any longer than necessary."

"Sound like somepony is trying to hide something."

"Maybe I am. Now follow me. The medical room is near the engine bay."

"Engine? Where are we?"

"Somewhere under the sea in a city full of crazy people."

She looked skeptically at Steamlord.

"You never asked our PRECISE location." Steamlord said with a smirk.

"Fine. Don't tell me."

"Here we are."

The man opened the door leading to the medical room. Twilight was still too small to see what was in what looked like a glass casing on a single, giant table stretched out in the middle of the room. As they walked forward, Twilight couldn't help but look at all the strange things around her. They looked like flashing lights and weird screens similar to her lab, but this equipment looked much more advanced. The creature stood next to the table, while the bodyguards went to the corners to watch everything that would happen.

"Security system. Lower the table please."

The table lowered itself, as if magically. Yet, this creature didn't seem adept with any form of magic.

"How did you do that? You don't seem to be able to use magic...unless you're like Discord." said the pony as her eyes squinted.

"Who?"

"Nevermind. Oh no!"

Twilight quickly jumped over to the still sleeping baby dragon.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know. She was in a humid cavern for five days. She might have a sickness. Could you check her out for me?"

"Of course."

Twilight started to check every part of the sleeping dragon, even opening her eyes. This revealed beautiful lime-green iris to be the dragon's eye color. After manipulating a bit of light with her magic, the unicorn saw that the baby dragon's pupils retracted.

"So...what's your name?" asked Steamlord.

"It's Twilight Sparkle. Yours?"

"I have a name, but I will speak of it to no one. Instead, you can just call me Steamlord."
"Well "Steamlord", heh, you seem to have taken good care of this little dragon. She's in good health now, but she still needs food."

"For the healing, you can thank Security System."

"The pony who shouted earlier?"

"PERSON. And she's an AI. An artificial intelligence."

"Oh. Well, um, thank you Security System."

"You're welcome." Twilight preferred to not ask where that voice came from.

"Now then, about the sustenance...where can I find gems and jewels?"

"They're in the diamond dog plateau. There are tons of them, but, as the name says, there are Diamond Dogs there."

"Dogs made of diamonds?"

"No. They're just dogs who love to dig for jewels."

"Hunh...YEOW!"

The man grabbed his left arm and fell against a bodyguard which caught him before he fell.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. Help me get this jacket and shirt off Hospitaller."

The robot helped its creator seeing as this one could, apparently, no longer move his left arm. When his shirt came off, Twilight gasped as she was taken aback by what she saw. The man finally took off the single black glove on his left hand, revealing the entirety of the thing that served him as an arm.

Besides his unimpressive muscle-mass, a portion of his left side was missing. He had lost his entire left arm, shoulder included. In its place was a golden-colored mechanical arm. It seemed to be made up of a type of flexible framework, and looked akin to a skeleton's arm. Many protected wirings flew through the arm like veins as cogs spun whenever the arm would move slightly with every motion the man made.

"Security System..."

"Already preparing...proceeding."

Gigantic mechanical arms and other appliances descended from the roof and started to work on Steamlord's arm. A shot to the muscle around the mechanical body-part, and the man could not feel anything at that particular location anymore.

"Much better."

"What...what happened to you?"

"This? This is what happens when you try and fight your own technology."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Perhaps some other time. When I can trust you. In the mean time, SS!"

"Yes?"

"Have you found this "Diamond Dog Plateau"?"

"Affirmative. Mineral deposits indicate a large amount of "precious" minerals."

"Good. Teutonic and Templar, you two go to that Plateau and try to find a maximum of jewels as you can."

They released steam and headed out.

"Wow. They really obey you."

"They're my best robots. They take care of me and I take care of them. Ungh!" Hospitaller had a hard time holding his creator up, but Twilight held him in place with her magic.

"Interesting. Thank you. You can let go now Hospitaller."

"You're welcome."

"Before you say anything else, would it intrigue you to know just how far I had to go to fight against my own creations?"

"I'm not sure I do..."

"Then I'll just take off my goggles."

Struggling with his left arm, Steamlord simply raised his goggles up for them to rest in his hair. He kept his eyes closed and warned Twilight that she might be shocked with what she would see, but this one dismissed the possibility after seeing his arm. However, she still looked appalled.

Steamlord had lost his left eye, yet, fortunately, his right was still intact. In place of the left eye was machinery. The pupil was a single glowing blue orb, while, behind it, several discs were rotating around the stem holding the blue orb in place. Twilight couldn't help but put a hoof to her mouth.

"That's...terrible."

"Member loss is nothing compared to what I had to endure, but I accept my past. I tend to look forward instead of back, and my robots as well as Security System have allowed me to do this."

Twilight looked around the room before returning to the sleeping baby dragon. She was moving again, and the gentle beeping of the machinery helped the unicorn to feel reassured about the health of this little dragon.

"So...what the fillies said about you helping them with their bullies is true?"

"You mean the ones who Templar helped out of the forest?"

"That was you too?"

"No. That was Templar."

"Who is Templar?"

"The robot in white and red."

"Oh. The one who left with..."

"Teutonic." Steamlord said in irritation.

"Ah. The ones who left to get the gems?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you worried about them?"

"They killed one of those scorpion things made of stars in two seconds, so I think they can deal with some dogs."

"They...they managed to kill a scorpios?"

"So it even has the name of the constellation? This world is very interesting."

"So you really aren't from around here?"

"No."

"Then where are you from?"

"That is one of the things I won't tell you until I know I can trust you."

"Hmph. Fine. Don't tell me."

"They have returned." announced SS.

"Great!"

The sounds of metal hitting the ground did indeed announce the return of Templar and Teutonic. They came into the room, their arms full of gems and jewels of various colors and sizes. Twilight looked amazed at everything they had found in such a short time, but jumped when they just dropped everything, causing a loud "thud" followed by the little clicking sound of jewels rolling onto the floor to resonate once more throughout the room.

"Now what?"

"Just let me deal with this. Um... Se...Security System?"

"Yes?"

"D-d-do you have a cup or a small bowl?"

"Affirmative."

A compartment under the table opened up, showing a small grey bowl with a spoon in it. Twilight put the spoon aside and levitated some gems into the air. She actually managed to break them into miniscule pieces after trying hard enough, and placed the pieces within the bowl, much to the amazement of Steamlord.

"So...thanks again for saving the girls and this baby dragon."

"You should thank Templar there for saving the "Cutie Mark Crusaders"."

"Oh...so you heard that?"

"Yes."

"Well, thank you very much Templar. Without you we couldn't have found them."

Templar straightened himself proudly at these thanks. The man, on his part, just realized something. There were one of these talking ponies within his ship, and she had one of those tattoos. A chance like this would never come by again!

"Umm, one question Twilight Sparkle."

"You can just call me Twilight."

"Okay then, Twilight, what are those tattoos on your posteriors? I've seen nearly every pony with them wherever I have gone."

"These? They aren't tattoos. They're cutie marks."

"...Beg your pardon?" Steamlord looked skeptical.

"They appear when we discover our special talent. My special talent is magic."

"...Really now? Because I thought that all unicorns had magic."

"Yes..."

"It's okay. I get it. You're more adept with it than anybody else."

"Well...not everybo-pony else."

Before Twilight could continue, grunts started. The little dragon was waking up.

Sunrise

Fortunately for Steamlord, the little dragon had rolled over to Twilight's side, so the first thing she would see when waking up was that pony and not him in his...unfortunate state. His arm was still being repaired, twitching every now and then as the wiring and gearing was replaced or repaired. As the little dragon struggled to open her eyes, Twilight took the spoon and filled it with the little pieces of gems in the bowl and placed it near the nose of the baby. A quick sniff and she was chomping down on this haven of flavor.

"Careful! You don't want to bit the spoon do you?" said Twilight in a caring voice.

"Watch it. Only give her five spoonfulls."

"Why? She hasn't eaten for five days. I think that's a proper reason to give her the whole bowl."

"There's a thing called "eating yourself out". Her body isn't used to eating anymore, so her stomach might collapse if too much food is introduced."

"Oh."

After the fifth spoon was empty, Twilight removed it from the tired dragon's mouth. She started to move like she was begging to have more, but the pony tried to reassure the little one that she couldn't have anymore. This baby still looked dazed and was breathing heavily as the lights shone brightly in her face. Nothing but muffled sounds reached her ears, and something bright and purple was moving in front of her eyes. The little dragon couldn't make out what it was. As her eyes started to readjust themselves to the brightness of the room, she realized she wasn't in the cave next to her father anymore. She quickly hopped up and started to panic, her "teck" flinging in every direction as she looked around frantically, trying to figure out where she was. Twilight Sparkle was the first to try and calm her.

"It's okay! It's okay now. You're safe. At least I hope so."

"Where's my dad? Where is he?!"

Twilight couldn't say anything, even though her mouth opened up to tell the baby the inevitable.

"Where is he? And where am I?! DAD! DAAAAD!" she screamed as she tore the medical tubes out from her arm and ran out the door.

"Shit! Crusader Knights, catch her!"

The robots immediately sprang out of the room to chase after the running baby dragon. Steamlord's arm repairs had just finished, and he was, once again, wearing his shirt, coat, and glove. The man was already standing tall and stomped out of the medical room, Twilight following anxiously behind.

"Don't be too rough on her! I don't think you need to use violence to keep her in...this place."

"They won't be rough. I only told them to catch her. She can't leave the ship right now. She's too weak, and she would only try and find the corpse of her father."

"But how are you going to tell her that he is gone?"

"The same way I ever did anything...directly and without detours."

"But-"

"If a castle is just missing one stone in its foundation, it will constantly crumble. But if you place that missing piece, it will stay stable for the rest of its existence. It might take some to place the stone, but when it's finally in there, the castle becomes a sturdy structure of strength and fortitude."

It took the lavender unicorn a few seconds to understand the metaphor Steamlord employed, but it had finally reached her. It's true that, if the baby dragon was never told that her father was dead, then she would constantly try and escape to rejoin him, but.......announcing such a thing to an infant could keep her will to live from continuing. It seemed that Steamlord had something in mind if he was going to say that sort of thing directly.

The Knights returned with the dragon in Teutonic's arms. The little dragon had obviously regained a bit of her strength as she was frantically fighting to get out. Steamlord grew tired and grabbed her arms and looked her directly in the eyes. She had fury in them as she stared at this strange creature with a frown.

"Listen to me and listen closely. Your father is DEAD!"

"No! NO he isn't! He's just sleeping!"

"Oh really? For how long?"

"..."

"FOR HOW LONG?!"

"..."

"He's dead. For you to look forward, you must know this. He isn't coming back. You were in there for five days. He is long since gone."

"...N-n-no! You're lying! He's just really tired is all. He'll come find me and he'll bash you." she said as her voice started to crack and her eyes started to water up.

"There is nothing you can do but give him your respect and continue your own life."

"He isn't-"

"HE'S GONE! ACCEPT THISS TURN OF FATE! You may be just a child now, but you'll understand later on. SS, seal the exit. Teutonic, you can let her go."

The robot nodded and placed the little dragon on the ground. She looked like she was fighting back her tears for some reason, not sure what she could believe anymore. And she tightened her fists and her breathing started to "stutter", Steamlord lowered himself and put his left hand on her shoulder.

"Don't keep them in. Just let them out. Trust me, you'll feel much better after."

The baby dragon looked up at him with watery eyes. She looked furious, but she finally let go, and started "flooding" the area with tears and the echoing of her cries of denial. She hung onto Steamlord's leg while she cried. He didn't know what to do and just soot there like an idiot. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, walked around the man and started to rub the little dragon's head in compassion.

"....It seems I did more harm than good..."

"No. You did the right thing. What are you going to do with her now?"

"She's still too weak, so she needs to stay here under the watchful...uh...monitors of Security System."

"Then what? You're going to dump her back in the forest?"

"No. I'll have to take care of her. It's the least I can do."

Twilight leaned over a bit more towards the crying dragon and asked her as she started to calm down:

"Do you have a name?" asked Twilight. The dragon shook her head. "I thought dragons had names."

"They must call each other by nicknames or receive them later on. I'm guessing her parents would call her by a specifically rhythmic roar. I suppose that we should name her?"

"Well, I did name Spike."

"...Let's try something creative." Twilight threw an angry look at Steamlord who seemed to care about as much as he would care for a rash."Let's see...she's a bright, beautiful yellow...perhaps we can call her Sunrise?"

"That sounds perfect."

"Now, I would ask you to leave, but you would know where I am, so, Teutonic, blind-fo-"

"There's no need for that. I can teleport back home."

"Teleport? That's preposterous. There's no such thing as-" Not wanting to hear the rest of his speech, Twilight disappeared from the ship of Steamlord in a bright pink flash, leaving him stumped.

The man was now stuck. He didn't know what to do. Taking care of semi-sentient robots and machines were one thing, but a truly living creature? This would be hard.

"Now, I'm not asking you to call me "father" or anything of the like, but I just want you to stay here while you heal up. Are you okay with that?"

The little dragon nodded.

"Good. I'm sure you need some alone time now, so I'll show you where you'll sleep. Come on..." the dragon would not budge now that she let go of Steamlord's leg."Ugh. Fine, I'll carry you there then."

Back to his room, the man asked SS to hand him a large cushion, which Steamlord placed at the foot of his bed. He lowered the little dragon on it, who felt the comfy spot and stared at this strange creature whom she felt hatred and thanks towards.

"What? It's yours. It's a soft cushion. You can sleep on it. I will poke you with the soft cushion if you don't like it, and I'll take out something even worse if it isn't comfortable enough for you." Steamlord gave out a creepy aura." I will have to take out... THE COMFY CHAIR!"

The dragon just looked at him strangely. Steamlord simply straightened his jacket and left the room, needing to tend to other things. Sunrise was left on the cushion to think things through as she was now alone. Her mother was long gone before. She had hoped that the same ailment wouldn't have affected her father, but he was now dead. She was sure that she would catch whatever it was that they had and that, she too, was going to leave this world.
Meanwhile, looking over the data come from the biological scans in the medical room, Steamlord was intrigued by the specific genetic make-up of this dragon. She apparently had the same dna assembly as the giant who had perished, but she a little added something. Apparently, her generation had grown a resistance towards a type of infectious bacteria.

"Hmm. I didn't think I would be able to see the marvels of evolution anymore. Quite intriguing. I wonder if there are other types of dragons in this world? Or maybe she's just a female of "Spike's" species."

The human lowered his sheets and stared at the pile of gems on the floor and thought of several things while looking at them. Out of curiosity, he started fumbling through the multiple crystals in the pile and found one that was the exact same color as Sunrise's scales, although it was beat up.

"Hospitaller, could you carve this into the shape of a sun with several wavy "arms"? You know, kind of like a non-lethal, eight-branched ninja-star."

Hospitaller took its claymore and started to cut off pieces gently while holding the tip of the weapon.

"Now what to do with these 'rations'...meh. I'll just have them placed within storage. Templar, Teutonic, help me get these gems into the food and liquid storage room. We'll just place these in a pile until I can figure out how to properly organize them."

Some annoying back-tracking later, Hospitaller was still waiting in the Medical room with a rather small carving in hand while his two "brothers" were already in the engine room.

"What's this?" said Steamlord as he looked at the carving.

It was beautifully carved and, for some reason, looked the symbol of the sun that was depicted in the books to represent the one supposedly capable of moving the sun. It wasn't what he had imagined exactly, but it was very close. He turned the gem around for a bit, and noticed that it had a tiny hole drilled into one of the arms . Through this hole was a small sturdy string made for placing around the neck. As he stared at it, Steamlord lift his head to stare at Hospitaller for a long, silent moment. Their creativity and abilities sometimes scared him.

"Thank you Hospitaller. This is a true work of art. I'm sure it will please her." Upon closer inspection, Steamlord noticed that the face of the "father" had been mysteriously "carved" on the inside of the jewel. His head showing proudly like a three dimensional image. " How did you...? Hmph. Impressive! You are a true artist Hospitaller! Now go back with the others. While you work on the engine, I'll work on the scanning equipment as well as the isolation of the exterior energy fluctuations...and on the mind and soul of that little dragon..."

Hospitaller punched its chest with a strong release of steam and headed out towards the rear of the damaged ship, leaving Steamlord alone in the Medical room. Looking one last time at the sun jewel, he headed back to his room, only to see that the Sunrise had cried herself to sleep. Instead of waking her up, he gently placed the jewel on the floor right in front of her cushion, and quietly left the room. Despite his best efforts, he had still managed to wake the little dragon. Sunrise looked at the door than at the jewel and brought it near her. Upon seeing the face of her father, tears slid down her cheeks and she held it close to her before putting the "necklace" around her neck and going back to sleep. Today was too much for her to deal with.

It had already been two days since Sunrise was rescued from the cavern, but she wasn't doing too well...mentally. She may have been eating and drinking, but she did few of both. Steamlord and SS had noticed this. With an annoyed sigh and a face palm, Steamlord equipped his things and called upon the crusader knights. He was going to bring Sunrise to that lavender-colored unicorn, but, this time, his arrival would be different. Instead of going in under cloak, he and his bodyguards would go in fully revealed. He couldn't hide any longer as it seemed that he would be staying in Equestria for a long time. And the needs for him to contact the local population were starting to increase, so he might as well reveal himself fully to the general public.

The door to the outside opened as Sunrise took in a huge waft of cold, fresh-air to the face. She still felt...empty, but found some comfort in the jewel that dangled gently around her neck. She was picked up by Steamlord as the group jumped out of the ship to land hard on the ground. Even when she looked back, the little dragon still could not see what they jumped out of, but she was gently placed on the dirt. This feeling of the soft ground underneath her toes was a sensation she hadn't felt for so long, and she enjoyed it. However, there was no real time to stay in the forest, and Steamlord pressed forward.

This part of the forest of the forest was so new to Sunrise, yet it seemed heavily damaged and traces of skid marks on the dirt hinted to the possibility of something big falling down here. The only creature big enough that she knew who was capable of doing this was a dragon. This mystery started to intrigue her evermore. Out of the forest from another angle to avoid startling that yellow pegasus again, the slightly larger group decided to pass by the school again. This was trading one sense of panic to the possibility of children dying from a heart attack.

As they got closer and closer to it, Sunrise tried to hide behind the legs of Teutonic, who paid absolutely no attention to her. It made the inventor why the dragon wasn't afraid of his creations despite the ponies being easily
frightened...well...almost easily. Checking his pocket watch again, he saw that it was around ten a.m. again, and this meant that the children were in the playground again. Upon seeing the four giants, they immediately stopped everything they were doing. Those near the swing sets were less fortunate with the stopping...The two fillies that Steamlord had warned awhile ago were at it again, even though the Cutie Mark Crusaders were staring at the four giants figures with their mouths open.

The man walked near the short fence with his hands in his jacket's pockets, and Templar right next to him.

"Hey!. Hey you two! The one wearing the plastic tiara and the other one who looks like she's a fifty year old midget."

"What? Like, who saiii...oh no!"

"Oh yes! What'd I say last time I saw you two, hmm?" A huge grin adorned the face of Steamlord as the other ponies turned around to face the two terrified bullies. "Don't remember? Then allow me to refresh your memories. I believe I said that my pal here would shorten you of a head if you were making anyone again. And now I see that you didn't heed my cal. So. I'm going to. Have to. Stick to my words. Templar?" the man said casually

Following his orders, Templar unsheathed his sword and slammed it into the ground, causing the two bullies to both turn as white as Celestia and flee back into the school. After seeing this, Steamlord burst into laughter while Templar brushed the dirt off its sword and put it back into its resting place.

"Pahahaha! Hi girls. Pfffphth"

"Hi Steamlord! Hi Templar." the three fillies said in unison as Steamlord's group started walking towards the town.

The human could easily hear the others starting to gossip about how those three knew him and his creations. Sunrise was slightly terrified by what the man said and stayed behind Teutonic's leg. The inventor caught sight of her terrified face and tried to explain himself:

"Pfff. You don't need to worry. As if I'd ever do THAT to anyone. Besides, the Knights will never...well...you know...do THAT to anything without my permission. And I was only teasing those two ponies you saw not two seconds ago. This isn't helping is it? Oh well. Eventually you'll understand. And look! We're in the town now!" he yelled with joy.

Sunrise looked in awe at these tall structures that were so varied and full of color. One of them looked like it was made of...something she didn't know about, but something in her mind was telling her that whatever those thing were, they were delicious. However, something wasn't right. Even though she had no trouble with the ponies, they all seemed to run away screaming whenever she got near. She didn't understand that it wasn't her scaring off everypony, and she started to feel bad.

"Heh. You'd think seeing monsters worse than the way I look would get them used to my presence in their town. Don't worry Sunrise, we're almost at destination."

The little dragon felt slightly better at this remark, knowing that she wasn't the source of the screaming, but she was even more stunned to see the giant tree that they were in front of. It looked very much alive despite the strange things on it. Steamlord pushed the doors open and entered the library like if he had always done this and yelled:

"TWILIGHT! I'M BACK!"

To his surprise, she was having some tea made by a sparkly white pony with a well groomed purple mane. Spike was too enchanted by Rarity to notice anything unusual happening in his center of existence.

Spinning cogs

There was only silence in the room as Steamlord and his bodyguards just stood in front of the door. Twilight herself was still shocked by how casually that creature entered her house.

"T-Twilight...what IS that thing with-" Rarity suddenly noticed the clothes the man was wearing and started to talk smugly:"- SUCH a HORRID taste in style?!"

"Vhat? Take the pony AVAAAAY!" said Steamlord in a bad dutch accent.

"What are you talking about? Your taste is terrible!"

"Rarity, I don't-"

"Are you kidding me? This was the best fashion statement of the year where I came from."

"Ha! Then noone has a good sense of style." Steamlord leaned closer to the white unicorn, causing Spike to react to the darkening of the area and jumped immediately against Rarity.

"Hmhm. Perhaps fifty years where noone is able to do anything seeing as they are all dead could give a cause for the stalling change of style." Steamlord said with a smile.

The way he said it gave a cold feeling of death throughout the library. Thankfully for everyone, Sunrise appeared right behind Teutonic after sliding away slightly. The sight of her beautiful scales and her strange "teck" formed from the equally bright green scales caught the attention of the three standing in front of Steamlord.

"Hey Sunrise! Are you feeling better now?" Sunrise didn't talk, causing Twilight to start to feel bad.

"What is that MAGNIFICENT little dragon over there?"

"Her name is Sunrise. She's...an orphan now."

"How horrible! But then, where did she get that jewel? That SPLENDID...shiny...gem."

"Hospitaller carved it." Steamlord said while pointing at the black and white giant next to him.

Sunrise looked at her gem than up to the robot and felt great happiness as her eyes started to sparkle. She jumped out from behind the legs of Teutonic and hugged Hospitaller as hard as she could. The "eyes" of the being slid slowly towards the baby dragon on his leg. Twilight didn't like these three beings and felt horror in the ways they looked at everything, especially the one called "Teutonic". That one had no eyes so it felt like looking into the sockets was like staring into an empty pit into which your soul will be sucked into, but the way Hospitaller lowered its arm suggested no aggressiveness whatsoever, but Rarity didn't feel the same. Spike tried to help her "save" the baby dragon, but the other two seemingly just appeared in front of the two, their arms crossed.

The robot finally grabbed Sunrise and raised her slowly to make eye-to-eye contact. Twilight felt unease at the way Steamlord was just looking around, not caring.

"Steam...is that a good idea to let your bodyguards do that sort of thing?"

"Hmm? Huh. Would you look at that."

Hospitaller was holding the yellow dragon in its arms and Sunrise looked quite happy. Being a robot, its arms felt no fatigue, so it would certainly be caring the dragon for a long time. Rarity suddenly felt tired of these bizarre creatures and the way they were acting. She just needed some answers.

"Ok Twilight. Tell me what these things are. I need to know."

"They're the ones that knocked me and Twilight out!" hissed Spike. The three robots turned their heads and looked creepily at Spike, who felt himself shrink suddenly.

"Is this true Twilight?"

"Y-yes but-" Rarity ran at Steamlord and pushed against him.

"You would hit a lady? AND you would steal from one? Then I suppose a ruffian such as yourself wouldn't mind if I rough him up a bit myself?" Steamlord lowered himself to eye level.

"Isn't that adorable. A fashion pony who thinks she can hurt me. HA! Now then...what was I here for? Mmm...ah yes! Twilight, I came here with Sunrise to see if you could help her."

"What made you think I could help? She's obviously being well cared for."

"Thank you for that compliment, but I don't think being stuck in a building will help her in her developpment...especially when she starts to get bigger."

"Heheh. We don't...umm...grow bigger with age..." stuttered Spike.

"What do you mean? You need a ritual or something?"

"Actually, dragons grow bigger the more their greed increases. We had to deal with a little incident awhile back..."replied Twilight.

"That's preposterous. That defies all laws of physical developpment and evolution."

"I don't know what you're accustomed to, but that's how it works here."

"I can see that." Steamlord said tiredly.

The man looked back at the white unicorn who, despite his best attempt to resist, looked too adorable to not stare at. He just wanted to grab her and squeeze her between his arms, but he wasn't like that. Instead, he asked her name, in his fashion...

"So, white unicorn, what's your name?" Rarity huffed.

" Atleast you have enough politeness to ask my name first."

"Hey! I've been alone for fifty years. I think it's a bit normal that my politeness has been slipping."

"That's still not-did you say alone for fifty years?"

"Yup."

"My word...but what about those three? They've just joined you?"

"They're my creations, and they're devoid of vocal boxes. I tried giving them one, but they never used it."

"That's terrible. I know I would go crazy if I was alone for that long... By the way, you wanted to know my name?"

"Yes."

"It's Rarity." said the mare as she acted like she was spreading the sides of a dress. This amused the man who smiled a bit and lift an eyebrow. "What is yours?"

"Oh...I can't speak of my real name, but you can call me Steamlord." he said as he bowed down.

"That's sounds...egocentric."

"So I've been told."

A moment of silence flew through the room until Steamlord broke it once more:

"So Twilight, I believe that, seeing as you know a bit about dragons, and seeing as Spike is one, then Sunrise should feel perfect here for the day."

"You're dropping her off?"

"Pff. No. I rescued her. It's my responsability to see that she's well taken care of, and bringing her to social interaction is the best way to do it. And seeing as she already knows you, you were the perfect choice. You can put her back on the floor now if you like, Hospitaller."

The sounds of cogs spinning filled the library with yet another new sound that it wasn't accustomed to. The sounds coming from the robot scared the two mares and the purple dragon. It quickly stopped and Sunrise found herself lowering down to the floor. Back on the ground, where she felt infinitely smaller, Hospitaller pat her twice on the head and stood back up. Twilight was curious about those three "robots".

"Steamlord." she said.

"Yes."

"I thought you said your bodyguards were built by you."

"Yes, I did. Wha-NO! You won't get their blueprints! NO WAY!" Twlight was thrown aback by this sudden rise of
aggresiveness.

"N-no! I didn't mean that. You said that you built them, but then, why do they seem to...umm...how to put it..."

"Have emotions and a personality?"

"Yes."

"That's a special thing. We'll say that I made their programming to grant them semi-sentience. They aren't completely alive,
but they still have a mind of their own, and that's why they're my favorite robotic creations...well...not the MAIN reason."

Spike walked closer to Sunrise and put his hand out:

"My name's Spike, what's yours?"

Sunrise hesitated and didn't really want to talk, but the existence of another dragon about her age let her feel some comfort.

"Well...I...I didn't really have a name...but he gave me one. I'm Sunrise."

"Wow. That's an awesome name, and you're jewel looks cool."

"Thanks."

"Spike, you didn't hear me call her name earlier?"

"Daaahhh...I didn't hear..."

"Uhuuuh..."

Steamlord grew tired of this situation.

"Can we start with how we're going to cheer her up? She did go through some hard times."

"Well, if she needs some fresh air, than we can go to the Apple family farm."

"An apple farm, eh? I LOVE apples! Perhaps..." Steamlord looked at Sunrise in curiosity as she looked back in confusion.

"Twilight, are dragons capable of eating foods other than jewels?"

"Yes. They can. It's just not the best thing for their diet."

"Than we'll be going to the farm! Ohoho, just wait 'til you taste cinnamon apple pie or a candied apple or even a caramel covered apple, Sunrise. Apples tend to have the best desserts. Knights, wait for us outside, please."

A beat to the chest and the robots were already outside.

"Are you coming with us Rarity?"

"No. I have work to do and I can't get that awful dirt all over my delicate hooves." Steamlord gave her a bemused face. "Have fun at the farm Sunrise."

"Bye Rarity." blabbered Spike.

"Hmph. Shall we go then?"

"I'm not sure how the other ponies will react to seeing you and your creations."

"Who cares?! I certainly don't! I haven't had apples for forty-three years. I'm not giving up this chance."

"Okay, but promise you won't attack anyone."

"What's with the sudden fear of aggression? The ones you should say that to are my bodyguards. I've already issued nn-
lethal defensive protocols regarding your species when I'm attacked, so they'll attack anyone aggressive to me anyways."

"Can't they tell the difference being true aggressiveness and friendly aggressoveness?"

Steamlord sighed in irritation at these questions. Twilight really didn't want him to get out.

"They have minds of their own, so they can easily tell the difference between both. Now let's go! Sunrise needs fresh air."

"Fine! I'll lead the way."

"Of course. I don't know the location of the farm."

"Spike, are you coming?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure!"

The little purple dragon quickly followed this increased group, even if he decided to stay near Twilight. He didn't trust this creature or his creations one bit and would be sure to keep a close eye on them. However, he could trust Sunrise as she was another dragon who had obviously been through alot. As Steamlord and his bodyguards walked through the town, everypony stepped away from Twilight as they stared at those following her. It was interesting to see that there were people who actually feared him rather than laugh directly in his face. Steamlord felt a sense of statisfaction, but, ultimately, he didn't like being feared. The little purple dragon whispering in Twilight's ears after jumping on her back unnerved the man. He didn't feel a great deal of comfort in this world, but, perhaps, he just needed to get used to it.

Finally reaching the farm, Steamlord ran forward to see something he hadn't seen for so long. A massive orchard of rich, healthy trees stretching as far as the eye could see. Sunrise was equally pleased to see all that after being in the cave for so long. She was pleased to see all this verdoyant green compared to the mucky swamp colors that were abundant in both the cave and the forest. Taking a deep intake of fresh air, Stemlord was satisfied. He was too used to ignoring everything nature had to offer in this strange new world, but he was pleased. His robots seeemed as indifferent as usual.

"Look at this Sunrise. It's the painting offered to us by Mother Nature. Her paintings can only be seen once, so admire it and put it in your memory so that you manage to have something colorful to remember every night you go to sleep."

The end of his sentence was filled with a depressive tone, and Sunrise felt some compassion and tried doing her best to give him some good feelings as he seemingly stared off into the ocean of green and brown. Her best way of doing so was giving his leg a hug.

"Thanks Sunrise."

"Hey! What're ya doin' 'ere?! Scedaddle ya buckin' monsters!" yelled a deep country voice.

On the horizon, a bulky red stallion started to charge at Steamlord and his bodyguards, while paying no attention to Sunrise. The little yellow dragon hung onto Steamlord's leg a bit harder, causing her claws to pass through the thin fabric and scrape the man's leg. He cringed at this sensation, but still ignored the incoming red missile. This stallion, as soon as he was five millimeters away from Steamlord, found his head dug deep into the dirt by two cold hands. This action threw a bit of dirt into the air as the stallion's efforts to get out of his hold were pointless.

As soon as Twilight arrived, her concerns came to fruition. Galopping as fast as she could, she tried to tell Big Mac that the creatures weren't a danger, and even tried to tell Hospitaller and Templar off as they held the pony's head firmly in the dirt. Unfortunately, Applejack had arrived with a basket of apples on her back. She quickly dropped it and ran to her big brother while threatening the creatures. However, she was also a victim to the speeds of the bodyguards and found athe tip of a blade at point-blank range from her throat. She had no choice but to stand down. Twilight quickly manage to interject herself and yelled loudly:

"WAIT! They're with me! Steam, let them go!"

"You heard her knights."

The robots released more steam and returned next to their creator. Big Mac was helped up by Applejack and Spike. Applejack needed to yell herself:

"Twi! What are those things?! 'Nd why did they attack us?"

"We didn't attack you. That red pony there charged at us aggresively. We simply defended ourselves. We mean no harm. We just wanted some apples, but, I guess we won't have any." Steamlord said sadly as he lowered his head and started to walk with his hands in his jacket pockets.

Sunrise looked back and forth at the pony and guardian in panic. She wanted to complain about the situation, but didn't know what to do. So she looed at the orange cowpony with big sad eyes and walked away. Applejack didn't notice the little dragon and asked information from Twilight. Afew seconds of slow walking later and Applejack said:

"Alrighty then. Y'all can have some of our apples."

"They also wanted some apple pie."

"Really? Well, ah suppose ah cuold have Granny Smith bake up one o' er special pies."

"Thanks alot m'am!" said the little dragon.

Steamlord and Twilight were surprised that she was so polite, especially as she grew up with dragons. They weren't exactly known for their kindness.

"Aw shucks. Don't mention it. And how 'bout you? Mah names Applejack." said the country pony after grabbing Steamlord's left hand and shaking it violently. The man formed a grin on his face as he held the orange mare's hoof tightly.

"Um, Applejack? I don't think you should shake-"

*crunch*

"Ahh!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you too."

Applejack pulled her hoof out of the creature's clutches and shook her own hoof to get the blood circulating again.

"Wow. Ya sure have a tight grip. Never seen anythin' like it."

"That's because this arm is special." Steamlord said with mockery.

"Ah can see that. So, ya wanna taste the apple family's apple pie?"

"If possible. I haven't had any apples for forty-three years. I believe being able to taste my favorite fruit again will bring pleasure to my taste buds."

"Yer favorite fruit? Ah think we'll get along just fine. Ah'm not sure about Big Mac or your friends there."

"Bah! Don't worry about it. To the pie!"

"If ya say so. Ah'll present ya to the family once we're inside."

Drunken cider

The inside of this barn house was surprisingly well made. It was even made of a material that was long since deemed illegal if used back on Earth. That material was wood. For as long as Steamlord could remember, trees had nearly disappeared from the surface of the planet. A law had been introduced in 2056 that placed any and all trees under protection, and any trees cut down would add to a fine of about ten million. The sum amounting to the monetary value of the country that said heinous act was committed within. However, it had all been for naught, as the birth of Steamlord would bring about the "Ash Fall" in the far future, and the trees that had so abundantly grown had all turned gray husks of dust and decay. Such a desolate landscape that scraped the eyes of any who looked at it with sharp claws and freezing ice shards.

But, in this new future, Steamlord could appreciate what he was seeing. Sure, he didn't like trees being cut down, but he was sure that the creatures of this realm wouldn't cut down trees for no real reason. They seemed to use everything for useful reasons, and not just to get one toothpick per Sequoia. Walking throughout the hallway, the human could notice Big Mac looking at him and his bodyguards with ill intentions. Not surprising seeing what they did to him earlier. Applejack stopped them in the kitchen, where a rather large table lay. Being told to be seated, Sunrise, Twilight, and Spike did just that. The only problem being that the human was MUCH bigger. Applejack thought up of something and rolled in a barrel. It was the perfect size for the man as he sat down and adjusted his tuchus to the roundness of his seat. The first thing the Apple family was going to do was introduce themselves. Of course, Big Mac decided to stay out of it, but Granny Smith and Apple Bloom weren't as reluctant and gladly came in. The first was Granny Smith:

"Well howdy there! Ah didn't think ah'd meet anypony new 'round these parts."

"It's good to meet you too m'am."

"Oh? 'N he's polite too! Doesn't look too strong though. A bit of workin' on the farm'll fix that right up."
Steamlord was irritated by that comment. He wasn't too proud of his physique, but he didn't like it when others commented on that.

"I don't think I'll need any of that." he said while following the old hag who went closer to Sunrise.
The little dragon didn't exactly like this old Granny, and started to worry, but the worries had no real founding.

"Aw. Lookitchou! Yer just the cutest little dragon ah ever did lay eyes on." she said as she rubbed Sunrise's head harshly. Spike grew jealous but didn't speak.

"That's enough Granny. Now why don't ya bake yer special apple pie fer our guests and show these two just how great the Apple family's pies and apples are."

"Well said! Ah'll be back in just a jiffy." Twilight gave a light chuckle.

"Wow Applejack. I didn't expect you to get so used to these two so quickly and even let them into your house."

"A friend of mah friend is still a friend, Twi. Now then, Applebloom! Come say hi ta our new guests."

The little yellow filly hopped inside the kitchen with a large smile on her face and was about to shout out the good 'ol fashioned family hello, but when she opened her eyes, Templar uncrossed its arms as it recognized the little filly. Steamlord gave an uncompassionate grin and an eyebrow lift as he recognized the little bow in the pony's mane. Applejack noticed the tension in the air that she mistook for a negative one and tried to break it up.

"Uh, is there a problem?"

"Nnnnope. Hello, Applebloom." Steamlord said as he placed his head on his crossed arms.

"Hiya Steamlord. Hey Templar."

Applejack was taken aback by this common way of speaking. How did they already know each other?

"See AJ, ah told ya the monsters in the forest were real!"

"Well, ahum, monsters is actually a harsh way to describe us. We didn't exactly do anything bad... as far as I know."

"So yer the one who helped mah sister 'n her friends when they were stuck in the forest?"

"N.O. That was Templar over there. The one with red."

Applejack walked towards the metal giant and grabbed its hand and shook it hard as well.

"Thanks a lot. Ah didn't know what I was gonna do if ah lost mah little sis."

Templar simply expulsed steam, scaring the cowpony a bit.

"...Can't ya talk?"

"They don't. I've already tried, but they never say a thing. They prefer to communicate with body language."

"Huh. Is that why they don't sit down?"

"It isn't connected, but that's a reason."

Applebloom noticed Sunrise sitting at the table and walked over to the shy dragon to greet her a hello.

"Hi. My name's Applebloo, what's yours?"

"It's...it's Sunrise."

"Pleased ta meet ya Sunrise. Woah. That gem around yer neck sure is pretty. Who made it for ya? Was it mister Steamlord?"

"No. It was...um...mister..." Sunrise had forgotten the name of Hospitaller and had to ask the man. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to call him.

"Yes?"

"What's his name again?" she asked as she pointed towards the black and white robot.

"Hospitaller."

"Oh. Thank you." she said as she turned back to face Applebloom." He's the one that carved this for me."

"Wow. Wait, how did he carve the face in the middle. It doesn't like it was cut in half."

The two looked at Hospitaller who stared back, then they looked at Steamlord, who simply shrugged. Even he didn't know some of the things his creations were capable of, although he was certain that System Security had something to do with the inner carvings. While Sunrise and Applbloom talked, and Applejack and Twilight gossiped, the only two left were Spike and the human who were both bored. Seeing as Big Mac wasn't there, they could only talk to each other.

"Sooo...anything interesting you'd like to say to me? I suppose we could right the wrongs between us..."

"Why? You knocked me and Twilight out when we saw you."

"Yes, that was to keep my existence a secret. I thought that if I put you in your beds, you would think seeing me was just a dream. What would you do if you ended up in a world you knew nothing about? Prance about like an idiot?"

"I...I guess you're right. You never wanted to-"

"Hurt you? Of course not. My Knights were given the non-lethal defensive protocols, so you're safe. That, and they can tell the difference between friendly aggressiveness and true aggressiveness."

"Uh...what?"

"They won't hurt you."

"Oh."

Granny Smith came in with two apple pies that were already somehow cut in eight pieces each. She even came with plates on her back while the pies balanced dangerously on her head, occasionally tipping and threatening to fall on the floor.

"Here ya go!" she said proudly."The best apple pies in the whole of Equestria! Well, not exactly."

"What're ya talkin' 'bout Granny Smith?" wondered AJ as she was irritated by what her own granny said.

"Of course! What about them zap apples?"

"Oh yeah! Ah forgot about that."

"Mmmm. Zap apple jelly..." drooled Spike.

"Zap apples? What're those?" wondered Steamlord.

"Well, Zap apples 're these magic apples that Granny Smith says was the reason why Ponyville was founded."

"Really?"

"Yeah. In fact, they're magical apples too."

While Steamlord and Applejack started to discuss about the zap apples, the others each took a slice and started chomping down. Except for Sunrise who was hesitant at eating this weird contraption. It took some persuading from both Applebloom and Spike to get the little dragon to start eating her pie. It would seem that spike was quite happy to know about the existence of another dragon like himself. However, no matter what he said, he still didn't trust Steamlord and would keep a watchful eye on the creature in a more discreet manner. After awhile, Steamlord took a bite out of the cooled off pie piece and marveled in the flavor. As he leaned back slightly, as to not fall off the barrel, he spoke to Sunrise in a joyful tune:

"See Sunrise. I told you apples had the best desserts. MmmMmm. I wonder... Applejack, do you happen to have Hard Cider?"

"Yeah, why? Oh! Ya wanna try some? I dunno, it's pretty strong."

"Pff, I've tasted much stronger."

"Are ya sure?"

"Please. I've only tasted dull foods for so long. I need some good drinks!"

"Fine by me. Wait right here. Oh, y'all want some of it Twi?"

"No. I don't like hard cider."

"Whatever."

Besides a few questions coming from Sunrise on what hard cider was, everything was quiet until Applejack came in with a barrel full of the beverage. She threw a keg at Steamlord who immediately drank the whole thing. After awhile, both he and Applejack were full down drunk. The Knights seemed "nervous" as they didn't like the thought of their creator being intoxicated. Steamlord and Applejack were on the table dancing to a tune that the human had started playing on his MPWG. It was an old tune that reminded him of the old fairs and inns of the medieval times. Even Granny Smith got into the tune. The Knights, despite their nervousness, were clapping to the beat and rhythm.

Sunrise didn't understand what was going on and joined in on the drunk dancing. Eventually, Steamlord said something that he would never say out loud to anyone:

"Ah! This takes away my guilt of causing the Ash Fall."

"What?" asked Twilight in confusion.

But before Steamlord leaked anything else, the Crusader Knights grabbed him and Sunrise and jolted out of the farm, making sure to activate their camoflauge. What he said left a load of confusion in the farm as Applejack collapsed on the table. It was apparent that this creature knew just how to rile someone up even if they were only two. Unfortunately, back in the crashed vessel, Steamlord had been placed inside of his room and locked in there by Security System. "She" knew more about him than anyone else and this turn of events scared Sunrise. A few hours later into the night and Sunrise, despite getting a free pass to walk outside by SS (accompanied of course) couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong with the creature who rescued her. Everything had flown by so fast that she was still trying to understand what was going on.

Once she was taken back inside the ship by Hospitaller, her curiosity took her to the now unlocked door of Steamlord's room. She leaned against it, but no sounds could be heard.

"You want to see him?" asked Security System.

"Y-yes."

"Then be careful. He tends to be...aggressive when drunk. It seems that he found a way to get around my protocols."

"What?"

"Whatever drink he had contained alcohol. A fermented substance which can cause several problems to a body if drunk in excessive quantities. Steamlord has had a poor tolerance for the substance and, despite his liking for the taste, tends to become easily intoxicated with the beverage. I have the capacity to produce alcohol, but I have never done it."

"And he liked 'alcohol' a lot?"

"No. Only the more "refined" substances, such as wine. He is not a drunkard, and prefers to have at least one glass of wine to start a new year, although so many years without anything of flavor can indeed render anyone insane. I suggest you proceed with caution beyond this door. The Crusader Knights are on stand-by in-case of arising problems."

"Oooookaaaayy..."

Sunrise barely understood any of that, but went inside the room to see the man with his goggles on the floor as well as his shirt and coat off, revealing his mechanical appendage, still silently clinking and clankering in the still atmosphere of the room. The inventor was sitting quietly on his bed with his legs crossed and staring through the window. The angle of the ship allowed him to stare into the emptiness of the sky. Despite Sunrise's efforts to get in quietly and sit next to the creature discreetly, the claws of her feet ticked on the ground, announcing her arrival. Steamlord lightly turned his head but went back to staring at the night sky.

Sunrise couldn't help but stare at the metallic left arm and the gears spinning inside of it. She tried to say something, but ended up rubbing her arm and looking on the floor.

"I'm sorry for earlier, Sunrise. SS was right, I shouldn't drink alcoholic beverages. I'm just not suited for them. I also apologize for what you heard before we were carted out. Although I hope you liked the pie."

"I did.......What did you do to your arm?"

"Oh, this?" he said while raising his arm:" I'm sure that you heard about what I said with the "Ash Fall" earlier?"

"What is that?"

"It's something I'm the cause of, and all the replaced parts of my body, like this arm, are my attempts at trying to stop the unstoppable."

"Parts? You lost more?"

Steamlord turned around and showed his mechanical eye. Although Sunrise took a step back at first, she eventually hopped on the bed and sat next to Steamlord, who looked back into the night sky. The silence was peaceful now, and the man liked it that way. After all, he lived like this for so long, he could barely remember any other way to exist.

"Ummm...what can I call you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure if I should say 'mister' or 'Steamlord' or 'Mister Steamlord', because I feel closer to you than the others."

"Really?"

"Well, you did save me, and Hospitaller took me back to see my father's grave*sniff*. I didn't think you cared about me, but you still took care of my father even though he-"

"No need to dig deeper. I paid my respects to at least one person. Why are you bringing this up?"

"I just wanted to know if you..."

"If I...?"

"Could be my...replacement father..."

"A step-dad?"
Steamlord thought deeply at the possibilities and things that this would imply, but they weren't displeasing. After all, he did help her out a lot and didn't have any problems with her living in the ship. Perhaps, when she gets older, she could help him out with his creations.
"Of course. I would be happy to be your dad. BUT!" he yelled as he held Sunrise back."Never call me a replacement father again. I cannot replace your true father, but I sure can try and be as great as he was."

Sunrise's eyes glittered in joy and she gave a big hug to her new father as he hugged her in return. Steamlord felt himself starting to become free of guilt and torture, but it still hung onto him like a leech. In his world of darkness, ironically, Sunrise wit that ray of light that seemed to be waiting for him at the end of the tunnel.

"Now then, I suggest you go to bed. We're going to go back to that town tomorrow."
"Okay."

Even though the man readied himself to sleep, Sunrise stayed on the bed, thinking fo something.

"Is there a problem?"
"Dad." she said. This name rang in the ears of Steamlord like the chiming bells of a church."What's the Ash Fall?"

The man cringed at this question. He couldn't come up with anything, but SS came up with something.

"You will know when you aged more. Right now is not the time nor the place to ask such questions."

The little dragon decided to listen to the voice, as she seemed to be very smart and knew quite a lot. The yellow dragon hopped off the bed and went back onto her cushion, only to see that it had been turned into a basket like Spike's. This time, it really was Steamlord she could thank, and she did just that. With a good night and the lights turning off, it was time to sleep. However, Steamlord's past was going to haunt him in his dreams tonight. He kept the memories of the incident deep within his mind and never wanted to remember them, but now, they were going to come back full-force and with reinforcements.

Dawn of ash

It was late at night, and everyone inside the ship was either sleeping or in sleep mode, except of course, for Security System. It had already been five hours and Steamlord was screaming violently in pain. Sunrise was awoken by his screams of agony and torture as he mumbled nonsense in his sleep, occasionally grabbing the wounded parts of his body. Trying to help her new father out, the little dragon struggled on the bed and held on tightly to the human's chest. But, what exactly was he dreaming about? Let us start at the beginning of his nightmare, where he had just unveiled his Loptimum metal discovery and everything he had built with it:

It was a bright, sunny day, and Steamlord was still dressed up in a white lab coat. Here, his hair was short and perfectly groomed. He had both his eyes and looked quite happy. He was even shaking hands with the mayor of the city he was in. If his invention worked, soon, he would be part of the High-Class Engineering and Robotics Institute. Something he aspired to work in all his life. Standing in front of a podium, he thanked the mayor of the city. This city was of a bright white. A bit normal, seeing as in 2075 new energies for transport had been discovered and several cleaning drones had been invented. In the four corners of the area were skyscrapers as high as the eye could see. A massive group of people had come to witness the unveiling of this prodigee, and they were very eager to see what he had created.

Clearing his throat, he went towards the mic:

"People of Earth, yes , Earth! I have created marvels of technology that took me a very long time to create. Why did I not give up? Because I wanted to help you all have better lives! Now, I know you are all nervous and anxious to see it, but here is just a small fragment of the Loptimum metal my co-workers and I have managed to engineer. This metal is ten times more sturdy than diamond, and, unfortunately, still has the drawback of weight, but where there is science and engineering, there is always a solution! So I present to you, the new and improved static car."

One of the covers behind Steamlord dropped to show a magnificently crafted car with strange wheels not made of rubber or anything. These cars, in fact, used static electricity generated from the specially created roads which allowed for a more advanced solution to travel. The energy would go from the hollow wheels through a conducting cable which led directly into the engine, allowing for the pistons to move. Using the theory that no energies are lost, just transformed, the pistons themselves produce static electricity by friction in their tubes. This new static is then sent through a different cable back into the streets, where the car before this vehicle would receive said new produce, and the cycle restarts all over again.

"A new airplane! Hell, why am I stopping here...a new everything!"

Almost all of the sheets dropped to reveal different helicopters, boats, and such 'n 'such. But Steamlord was not finished there, oh no, he had three more surprises.

"And finally, as my greatest robotic creations, my Crusader Knights!"

Three distinct beings flung out from behind the curtains and revealed themselves. These Knights seemed less advanced than their actual counter-parts.

"Using the best in robotics and memory cores, they are the most powerful AND the most advanced robots in the world. Like Security System, they are semi-sentient, and can learn from their mistakes as well as learn other things. They are my finest creations!"

Everyone started to cheer and shout at these marvels. Better security? Faster traveling which saved up money? Of course everyone was glad. It was mainly the new energy he had discovered. There was a single generator in every capitol of every country, and these were tightly guarded and controlled. They gave out enough power to energize entire countries, and more! Of course, this made them highly dangerous, but at least there would be no radioactive fallout if they exploded...

As Steamlord waved and cheered in joy, he felt a hand touch his left shoulder. This hand was militaristic and the person at the other end was quite old, although he had many decorations on his suit. This is when the nightmare started to turn awry.

The city started to crumble and the sky turned dark and red. Everyone was screaming and there were many dead around. The next thing Steamlord knew, he was wearing a brown-leather suit and pants, as well as leather shoes. He was holding several electronical devices while his Knights were holding their claymores like never before. There were two groups of soldiers fighting to get to him, and a third army could be seen not too far away. The first two had one group in orange and sky-blue, while the other one was completely black. The ones in the distance were wearing green. Either way, Steamlord was horrified by what he had done. By selling his blue-prints (although less performant versions) to other companies in hopes that his creations could be better produced and in greater quantities, the military got a hold of them as well and started to develop everything into weapons. Even simple mining lasers were turned into weapons of mass destruction. Gigantic mechs derived from the Construction bots were literally walking through buildings and shooting at each other while helicopters and other various airborne creations hovered above. Some flew right above, dropping bombs somewhere in the destroyed city, while others fell down in flames. Ultimately, Steamlord had to use his electronics to short circuit everything derived from his mind, or destroy it and everybody in it before it was too late.

Running through the cross-fire, Templar and Hospitaller protected his sides with their blades as Teutonic sliced through the soldiers, much to the horror of the creator. Seeing two tanks arriving, the man activated his devices, causing the engines to explode and thus, deactivating the machines. Even when there was so much more to see, the nightmare went directly to where Steamlord paid the price of creating his inventions and handing them out carelessly to the world.

He had just deactivated one of the mecha, who came crashing down to Earth. Unfortunately, a huge shard of metal came flying down and tore off Steamlord's arm, causing him to scream in pain and agony. Knowing that it would be for naught if he didn't stop this madness at least here in the world, he would never be able to see anyone ever again. He forced himself to run while his bodyguards continued to literally cut through armored vehicles and armored battle suits. How did all these things be created from construction and mining equipment? These questions tortured the human evermore as he deactivated an aerial aircraft carrier, sending it plummeting to the ground and collapsing in a torrent of flame and metal. Even though, on his own, he was beating the two opposing armies back, the green one had just arrived, and they were fresh.

Trying his best, Steamlord also cut swaths through their vehicles, although, unfortunately, he was caught by surprise by an unexploded bomb. This one, though, was a shrapnel bomb and was made to explode after a time. As he stood there with his mouth open, Teutonic hopped in front of its creator and placed it's claymore in front of the man. Once the bomb went off, it tore through the bodyguard, but barely wounded Steamlord, save for an eye carved out by a piece of metal. He could barely take anymore of these pains. First an arm, now an eye?! He would stop this insanity, but was stopped by troops who shot at him, ignoring the struggling, heavily damaged robot beside him.

They shot his right foot, burning it off, and did the same for his left leg, but at the knee. After a few moments of increased suffering, the guards fell to the ground, in two pieces each. Steamlord could hear a voice speaking, one he was familiar to. It was Security System. She had ordered the two remaining bodyguards to bring back Teutonic and the creator to his ship.
It was hidden under tons of debris and the carcasses of vehicles. Once inside, Teutonic was taken to the repair bay, while Steamlord was taken to the medical area. He was near death, and he was in great pain, literally clutching every part of his body that was lost. He was shown on a screen, the damages still happening outside. As SS found that everyone was heading towards the main generator core, the ship took off into the air, much to the protests of the creator. The medical arms started to mess with the man's wounded parts. They had to cut off his lower left leg, which sent him screaming in pain. It was literally like he was reliving everything.

The mechanical pieces were starting to be put into his body, while the nerves were being connected to very small cables and were, themselves, being arranged by nano bots of the latest design. As the man stared at the monitor, he saw a stray shot coming from one of the giant walkers going directly towards the generator, causing a massive blue explosion which disintegrated everything around it and sent the ashes high into the air, along with some other by-product Steamlord didn't recognize. He suddenly realized what it was and slammed his left hand onto the table as he continued to scream in pain.

"N-no! Those idiots! They used the ancient blue-prints and didn't even follow basic regulations! Now they're all going to go off!"

And indeed, he was right. The cores were made by using the prototype blue-prints, but built to look exactly like the better version created by Steamlord, just to save on money! These ones had a nasty habit of created an ash-like by-product that was more toxic to anything than radioactive fallout. During his workings, he had developed an immunity that was furthered by a serum created by SS. While he and his robots would get nothing, everyone else would die by poisoning and, if any were to survive, by lack of food and water. The fatal error with these generators is that they were all linked directly to provided an all-time surveillance and perfecting of the generators in-case a problem arose. The cores could be taken care of by people who were literally in another country. This created its own problems, and thus, the Ash Fall had happened.

The man could do nothing but feel an immense form of regret and sadness as he screamed "No!" to everything being destroyed and dying. He screamed even more as his mechanical parts were being built directly into his body. The physical pain was nothing compared to his mental pains. By his fault, everyone had died. By his fault, everything was dying. By his fault, the planet in its entirety had been destroyed. Everything, gone, in the blink of an eye. This did not render him insane, no, just disgusted of himself as he stared at the monitor which showed that the skies had now become gray, and that the sun would never be seen again until all life was gone. Trillions of lives gone because of his creations. The animals, the people, the insects, the plants, there was nothing left.

As Steamlord's nightmare intensified the pains, he quickly found that they had dissappeared. He was now in a completely dark area, sitting on some type of machine joint. There, he looked at his new extensions which clicketed in the manner of his old creations. He preferred the old ones and their appearance. After all, his ship, even if it was upgraded, was left with the old clockwork look as that suited his tastes more than just plain old flat metal plating. He touched his eye which was also clockwork. His body now had a miniature energy generator which was further modified by SS to fit him perfectly.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he grabbed an invisible hammer and started to hit something, throwing sparks up in the air as they soon disappeared in the deathly coldness and quiet of the dark room. All his creations were starting to show. All the new versions of his bodyguards, the ship being enhanced even further. The quantum gateway, the surfer, even the scanners. Everything was showing up whenever he hit a hammer onto his anvil of shame, forever cursed with the ability to live for a lengthy amount of time. Every hit reminded him of his lost family. Every hit reminded him of the lives lost by his fault. Every hit reminded him of something that caused his downfall and loss of heart and hope. Yet, after trying to hit the anvil yet again, the hammer made the sound of shattering into a thousand pieces.

Steamlord was blinded by a light at the far end of the room, only to see something yellow yelling out for him:

".....a........a.....d!.....uikly.....ere.....!"

He couldn't remember who that was, but as he stood up, the three armies appeared suddenly in front of him. Their masks frightening him more than anything. They represented everything he hated and feared about himself. They were his inner demons. He was about to sit back down and start hammering again after taking another one, but the little yellow thing at the far end screamed out for him, and, this time, he heard it:

"Dad! Come here! Quickly! Get away from them! You don't need to suffer anymore!"

Steamlord tried to say something, but only ash left his mouth. He was furious, and now, he was going to charge through everything. As he did so, the three armies opened fire at him, but he ran straight through, ignoring the bullets and lasers whizzing past his face. He needed to make it...he HAD to make it! Coming closer to the light, the giant walker that destroyed the core and caused the chain-reaction was there. It was tall and towering, and was aiming at him with its gigantic rail-guns. Unfortunately for it, the Crusader Knights appeared in a totally new form. They ripped the beast apart and charged at the armies standing behind their creator. These ones didn't give off a feeling of shame like the ones he currently had. No, they gave off a feeling of hope and happiness. They were the next upgrade for his bodyguards. They saluted their creator and ran off as the man ran closer to the light. He immediately recognized Sunrise who was waiting for him with open arms. The dream, unfortunately, wanted to take another dire turn of events as the same bomb that took away the inventor's eye was falling directly at Sunrise's spot.

"NO! I will not have another life destroyed by my inventions. They are MINE! And I COMMAND THEM!"

He sprinted like a mad man and caught Sunrise in a roll and hugged her like mad when the bomb exploded. The man suddenly found himself awake with the little dragon clutching his chest tightly and crying. Steamlord looked around in gasping as the situation became clearer. He pat Sunrise on the head, who looked up at him with watery eyes.

"It's okay now. I was just having a nightmare."
"But I thought*sniff* that you were going to go away like my first dad. I didn't want*sniff* to lose my new one now that I just got him." she hugged Steamlord's chest tightly again as she started to wallow out all of her fear currently stocked up.

Steamlord looked at her while rubbing her head in an effort to comfort her and thought:

"If everything created for the people is always changed into warfare, then I will never reveal the blueprints of my creations upon this world. Nothing will force me to do it.! The Assmiltive generators will only be within me and this ship. This world will remain clean and Ash free!"

Monster hunters

After a heated night, Steamlord slept for quite a long time with Sunrise on his stomach like a purring cat. However, after waking up, Sunrise was taken outside for a little stroll by Hospitaller while Steamlord worked on the plans for the future versions of his Crusader Knights. They were currently at version seven point three, and the creator planned on skipping at least seventeen generations of updates and have the bots go directly to version nine. Naturally, SS helped him along the way with his planning. Although, now that he was a "father", he needed to think about Sunrise's proper education. SS, although a very intelligent and competent A.I., she would over-explain things in terms not understandable by those not versed in engineering and sciences. Perhaps Twilight could help, what with Spike living with her. Although he didn't exactly seem to be the brightest of children. Then perhaps that school would be more appropriate? After all, Apple Bloom studied there, and the two bullies were warned enough, so it might be a proper place to go. Hopefully, they were used to dragons, what with Spike being Twilight's assistant and frequently walking around.

"Hmm. What if I replace this flux capacitor with a uni-cell? Perhaps even create triple segmented ball-joints for super movement. The double-joints seem to work... but then that would require a greater energy charge that their Loptimum batteries don't have." Steamlord mumbled to himself as he continued with his sketching in his work-room.

He was sitting in the planning entrance. This is where all his blue-prints were stocked, each sorted out depending on what they were directed towards, such as energy production or hull upgrades. While the creator sat on a simple metal stool and was hitting a pencil on his chin, the shelves full of blueprints ornated the walls around the room. Two doors were available to him. One was the exit, while the other lead to the experimentation room, where new models were made and tested. The sounds of claws ticking on the floor lead to Sunrise entering the room and startling Steamlord.

"So? What are we going to do today dad?"

"Well...first we need to find you a place to learn the basics."

"What? Why can't I learn from you?"

"Because I'm as adept as this chair in teaching you. What I know is far too advanced, so until you have the basics noted down, I won't be teaching you anything about my robots." Sunrise started to pout. "There's no point in doing that. Nothing'll change. Welp, I guess it's about time we consult Twilight for this. CRUSADER KNIGHTS!"

The robots appeared directly in front of the exit with Steamlord's gear. After putting them on, the group exited the ship. Security System was going to look over the initial blue-prints of the Nine-point-oh versions of the Knights and make her own modifications while she continued to analyze data on the unicorn magic. She had gotten fifty-three percent analyzed already and both she and the creator had been hard at work trying to find an isolation method. So far, nothing worked, but the vessel's hull was fully repaired, although the camoflauge was still semi-operational.

Even so, the group's trip to Twilight's house was still greeted by everyone's shock and dismay at these towering beasts walking around with a little dragon in tow. A quick hello and everyone, except for the bodyguards of course, were seated within Twilight's library.

"So Twilight, how's it going?"

"Okay...what do you need?"

"Directly to the point? Well then, I need to know what your money looks like and I need a single coin to reproduce them, but that's the least important thing."

"Then what's more important than forging money?"

"Sunrise's education."

Twilight leaned to the side to see Sunrise and Spike talking about what those who looked over them did with the majority of their time. Twilight looked skeptical at this sudden mood change. She also wanted to ask him about what the "Ash Fall" was, but she could see that he had just gone through something bad, so it would be best if she didn't ask yet.

"So you want me to teach her?"

"Uhhh...no offense, but I don't think you are the most qualified in educational purposes."

"What do you mean?" Steamlord started tapping his fingers against each other as his eyes were unviewable behind the goggles. "Fine. So, you're thinking about putting her in the school that Apple Bloom goes to?"

"That would be a good idea. What do you think?"

"I'm not sure, although, seeing as she already knows Apple Bloom a bit, she could talk with somepony after getting there and not feel left out."

"That's good! I suggest we go tomorrow then."

"You go. I have things to look over for the princess."

"You work for royalty?" the man said in a seeming of disgust.

"Well, I am the personal student of princess Celestia."

"Mhmm..."

"What?"

"Nothing. Sunrise!"

"Yes, dad?" said the little dragon quickly running back to her new 'faja'.
Spike and Twilight's jaw dropped after she said "dad".

"Did she say 'dad'?"

"Aye. I'm her adoptive father now."

"...I...I don't know how to react..."

"Then do you know anything we can do before we get her to her school tomorrow?"

"Well...maybe we can go to Sugar Cube Corner?"

"What's that?"

"It's a bakery where my friend Pinkie lives and works."

"What's a bakery?" asked Sunrise. Steamlord interrupted Twilight before she could answer:

"It's a place where you make lot of tasty things like cakes and cupcakes. Those two being the most atypical things that many thing of first when they're told about a bakery."

"Cake?"

"You'll see if we go there. Shall we go there?"

"Well, I suppose I can leave for a few moments. Come on Spike."

"Cool! Can we get-"

"Yes. We can get your gem cupcake."

Both Spike and Sunrise started watering at the thought of such a things. Steamlord rolled his eyes at seeing her stare at him.

"Yes. We're going to the bakery for you to try out new things anyways, but don't think this'll always be like this."

Sunrise nodded her head in joy as both she and Spike left the tree, accompanied by the Crusader Knights. Walking side by side, the creator and the librarian seemed to be causing quite a ruckus with the ponies in town. The inhabitants of Ponyville seemed less impressed by the four beings and the new dragon with Twilight Sparkle around., although they were still quite impressive. Walking through the town, the group spotted a building that Steamlord had seen before. It looked like it was made of gingerbread, chocolate, cream, and a few candy canes. This was definitely the bakery. However, as Twilight, Sunrise, and Spike walked through the door, the human found himself stopping to a massive spark illuminating the ground near him and throwing far away from the bakery and onto his side.

Steamlord's Knights helped him up and unsheathed their claymores, scaring the residents.

"Who did that? Show yourselves!" screamed Steamlord.

"We did, heathen! We cleave thee in tway for your villainous ways."

Further away stood two ponies who were quite weird. The first was a rather atypical deep-orange stallion with a yellow mane, not too dissimilar to Applejack, although he wore a grey armor over his body and held a sword aloft by magic, while a deep-blue mare also with a yellow mane and a greenish armor and wielding daggers attached to her hooves stood before the human, who immediately lost all interest in the situation and started heading back into the bakery. These two smelled of cliché and over-dramatic music themes. However, the sword held by the orange one smashed right in front of Steamlord as he nearly reached the steps.

"Hey! You dare ignore Flameblade-"

"-and Icey Storm?!"

Even their names were lame. With a face palm, the human turned around to ask them:

"*sigh*. What do you want?"

"We are monster hunters! Employed by Celestia herself!"

The ponies around started mumbling, while Twilight tried to peek her head out, Steamlord motioned his hand for her to go back inside. The man's grin reassured her in knowing he had full control of the situation.

"Oh really? And what makes you two old-timers think I'm a monster?"

"OLD?!" yelled Icey.

"Calm down. We heard that a giant golden machine fell from the sky, tearing away a portion of Cloudsdale. coincidentally, your appearances happened right after the thing crashed deep within the nearby forest. We were tasked by the sun princess herself to investigate and kill the one responsible."

"Cloudsdale? 'the hell is that?"

"It's a town. Surely you are the creator of that contraption?"

"Even if I was, I don't recall plowing through an entire city. You don't just ignore that sort of thing."

"Fine. You are still, however, a beast terrorizing this town and you must be stopped. We shall take you to the princess seeing as you are of limited intelligence."

"LIMITED?! THE CREATOR OF A NEW ELEMENT AND ENERGY?! THE CREATOR OF DESIGNS YOUR TINY LITTLE MINDS CANNOT HOPE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT?!Crusader Knights, subdue them...in a fun manner for yourselves."

Hospitaller charged directly at Flame while Templar charged at Icey. However, as the clanking and slamming commenced, only two beings did nothing to intervene. Teutonic was simply standing and watching while Steamlord entered the bakery. The man dodged a flying cupcake in time, only to see a pink pony holding some type of giant cannon. Twilight and the two dragons were sitting at a rather small table as the two Cakes were both holding candy canes shakily.

"Pinkie, that's him!"

"Oh! Sorry about that! I just needed to test my cupcake cannon and I thought a scary monster coming into the bakery would be the best target."

"Monster? I am offended." Steamlord said in a mocking tone as he went towards Sunrise.

"You should be." Steamlord turned around with a smug look as Pinkie did the same.

"Are you...mocking me?"

"I believe I am sir. You wanna fight about it?"

"I agree to your challenge *slap*" the human slapped the pink pony on the face with a spare leather glove he kept in his jacket.

"Challenge accepted!"

"Right. Now please excuse me while I talk to Sunrise."

"Fine..." Pinkie pouted for about a second until she returned to her shenanigans with the cannon.

"So, how's the cupcake?"

"It's delicious! Here, try a piece." Sunrise handed out a piece that shone with green jewel pieces.

Steamlord stood back in horror at seeing the dangerous shards approaching his mouth. He had to put his hand up to stop it.

"No thanks, sweetie. I don't think I can eat that sort of thing."

"Oh...okay then."

"So, Steam, why exactly did you become her adoptive father?" Pinkie seemed to have heard this question and was peeking "discreetly" at the giant.

"Well, Twilight, I guess I just wanted to and I had to."

"Why exactly?"

"Yes. I know I shouldn't intervene here, but we have two babies and I'm quite proud of having them. I wanted to become a father." Mr Cake hugged the Mrs while saying this:" But why exactly did you adopt her?"

"Yeah? Did you have a kid before?"

Steamlord stared at the ceiling for a few moments while thinking.

"Nnnnope." *BOOM*

"What was that?" asked Spike.

"Uhhh, it was nothing. Don't look outside."

"What's *BOOM*" Twilight was interrupted.

Suddenly, everybody left the bakery to see that Templar and Hospitaller were actually damaged and lying down on the ground, trying to get back up with their claymores. The two "monster hunters" actually proved to quite effective, although Teutonic was standing on them. They looked badly wounded and the weapons the two ponies carried were completely destroyed.

"Ugh. I knew this one was the leader." moaned Flameblade

"Leader? Pahaha!"laughed Steamlord.

"It...it even defeated us with its eyes closed." complained Icey.

"Pffahahaha!"

"What's so funny?!" yelled Icey.

"You two idiots have no idea that these three aren't more powerful one from the other. And Teutonic here HAS eyes, I just didn't make them glow like the other two."

"Then...ugh...then how did it defeat us?"

"I dunno." shrugged the creator as he smiled. "Teutonic, you can get off them now. I believe we won't be seeing them for awhile."

The robot expelled steam and slowly stepped off the two "hunters". The human bent over them with another smile on his face.

"How about you both leave now before I get mad. Hm?"

"Fine, but we shall return. We know that these things can be defeated, and we will do it as soon as we recover. You WILL be taken to princess Celestia." promised Flameblade.

"Yadda yadda yadda. No one cares about your life's ambitions."

Icey stood up and helped Flame out of his hole. With a final glare back, they both left while limping. Steamlord immediately dropped his good humor and ran towards his damaged bots.

"Shit, they're badly damaged. How the hell did they fail to these idiots? It seems like I need to implement the new upgrades now. Twilight."

"Y-yeah?"

"Could you watch over Sunrise while I'm gone? You could go see things with her."

"So your creations are more important than your 'daughter'?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean 'not exactly'."

"She may be my 'daughter', but these three protect us and have their own minds. I need to get these two fixed as quickly as possible for any future excursions into the woods or dealing with idiots like those two again."

The man walked forward and talked to Sunrise:

"I'm sorry that I'm not being a good father right now, but I must-" Sunrise stopped him.

"I know. I don't want them to disappear either. Especially Hospitaller. I mean, they ARE kinda like my uncles."

Teutonic, the one who seemed to be the most emotionless of the three Knights twitched at what Sunrise said, but didn't really move from its position. Steamlord noticed quite well but didn't say anything. He picked up a damaged Hospitaller and, with the aid of Teutonic, brought Templar back to the damaged vessel, leaving Sunrise behind with Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike.

"...okay then...who wants to play a game?" asked Pinkie.

"Ooo, I do I do!" replied the little yellow dragon."

"YES! Let's go get some balls!"

"Oh no..." moaned both Twilight and Spike.

Meanwhile, back at the ship, all three robots were placed within capsules in the experimentation room. It was a giant room where many mechanical arms, tools, and other bizarre contraption hung about. There was even a forge built within the ship. The furnace burned bright and hot out of the three vertical lines that were within the door leading into the jaws of fire. However, Steamlord was working on the plans Security System created. It's amazing how fast "she" could create things and upgrade them. She even went so far as to "9.1" the plans. The new plating and pieces had already been created by taking things from outside and recreating the molecules.

Remoleculizing was a dangerous game, but the A.I. had all the necessary tools and steadiness to do it. All experiments done by Steamlord ended in disaster because of micro-shaking. The process is a tedious one involving the literal rearranging of protons, neutrons, and electrons into the specific quantity to produce the new atom. These new atoms were contained for stabilization nd then fused together. The result was turning steel into water and so forth. The same could be done with rocks and wood. This is how so many ressources were still created and being used by the creator. Of course, there were several issues and, like said, this was a tedious thing to do.

Either way, the robots were being completely reconfigured from scratch, readying to be implemented their new upgrades and be turned into the symbols of hope and strength as the man saw in his dreams.

9.1

Although Sunrise still wanted to return back home after it turned dark, Twilight refused to let her go into the forest alone and asked the little dragon if she knew the way, to which said dragon responded "yes". Although the lavender unicorn hesitated, she followed the little dragon, hoping that her powers would be enough to sway away any dangers. She looked around at every corner and creaked within the woods, determined to not be turned into stone again. However, as Twilight remained paranoid about the environmental dangers, Sunrise walked forward with a smile and holding three balloons made by Pinkie Pie. The further the two went through the forest, the more Twilight could start to see the damages caused by the monstrosity that crashed through Cloudsdale and slammed into the forest. The ground started to sway and move around wildly as several trees had been pushed away and collided with each other. The grass had just barely started growing back, showing little green stubs all over the funneled ground.

Not liking the fact that the visible damages seemed to be increasing, and that there were no living creatures in the area, Twilight tried to tug on the little dragon to get her out of the area. The little dragon refused and tried to run back to where she knew her "house" was. However, despite Sunrise's knowing of the house being a few feet up front, Twilight's fears got the best of her, and with a grab, she teleported herself and Sunrise away, back into the pony's library.

Meanwhile, at the experimentation room, the robots were getting their hardware upgraded by Steamlord, while SS operated the mechanical arms and the nano-bots to rebuild these bodyguards. They were currently "sleeping' as these processes continued throughout the night. The loud noise of mechanical tinkering, the buzzing of the mechanical arms, the sound of steam being expelled, and the ticking of cogs and gears filled up the empty ship. The creator hadn't stopped for the entirety of the night, and he was tuckered out. The first thing coming to mind as he slouched on the chair near the terminal connected to Templar's capsule, was how he was going to bring back Sunrise. He didn't think that rebuilding would take so long. It never took this long before, or perhaps, that was because he never noticed time fly in a world where none passes. Either way, as he left the robots to get their new joints, swords, batteries, and a whole lot of things requiring complicated terms to describe, the man looked outside the windows, thinking and hoping it was still somewhat bright outside. He was wrong.

Checking his fabled pocket watch, he saw that it was indeed late. It was eleven in the evening, and even if he used his cloak, many of the creatures in the forest could detect heat in many ways, meaning that they would easily find him. And just using his...other means of transportation wouldn't exactly be discreet. With a sigh of regret, the man went to the bathroom for his shower and change of clothes It was going to be a long and stressful night for him. What was Sunrise going to say at him "abandoning" her with Twilight? Moaning and sliding his hand over his face, and Steamlord fell asleep.

Sunrise woke up as Twilight shook her on her make-shift bed. The dragon yawned and rubbed her eyes, thinking that the sleep-over that Twilight managed to hash together last night went really well. Spike had prepared a small breakfast for everyone. Naturally, gems for the dragons, but an oatmeal cereal for the pony. However, as time went by, Steamlord didn't arrive, and Sunrise was growing impatient.

"Well, perhaps he's waiting for you at the school?" said Twilight, who looked at the little dragon leaning against a window.

"Why didn't he pick me up yesterday? I thought he liked me."

"Of course he does. I'm just guessing that without his "bodyguards", he can't leave your home."

"Well, it's true that I've never seen him leave our home without the Crusader Knights. I guess you're right."

"Don't worry Sunrise. I'm sure he'll appear dramatically and try and look all cool and stuff." Spike said while folding the top of a paper bag. He handed it to Sunrise.

"What's this?"

"It's your lunch bag. I had to make them for Twilight when she was still studying at Canterlot."

"...what's Canterlot?"

Twilight looked surprised, although it would be a bit normal for her to not know. Steamlord also seemed majorly ignorant of where he was. Where did he come from exactly? Twiilght just assumed that he came out of the forest in fear when the metal monstrosity fell, but there were too many things connecting him to it. It was painfully obvious now about where he came from, but where did he come from? She would have to corner him and ask these questions, but for now, Sunrise had to go to her first day of school.

"I'll tell you along the way to the school." said Twilight.

"Pfff...fine...what about Spike?"

"I don't need to go to school. I've got Twilight!"

"Oh...but I won't know anyone there."

"Apple Bloom is at the school, so I'm sure you'll get along great with her and her friends."

"I guess that's good. So, what's Canterlot like?"

With a smile and a wave to Spike, Twilight was off with the yellow dragon to reach the school. Everypony around were pretty much oblivious to that yellow dragon, although Pinkie Pie still popped up from nowhere and gave Sunrise a cupcake before disappearing into her bush again. The lavender unicorn was relieved when she saw both Applejack and Rarity talking to each other as they walked forward. They had just dropped off their little sisters at the school when they caught glimpse of their friend and the little yellow dragon. Rarity was the most impressed with the appearance of Sunrise.

"Hey there Twi! How're ya doin'?"

"Fine. I'm just going to put Sunrise here in the school that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle go to."

"What fer? That Steam guy lookin' after her?"

"He...he's become her adoptive father."

"Say what now?"

"You heard me."

"Then how come he ain't the one takin' her ta school? That's pretty bad parenting if ah ever seen it?"

"There was an issue yesterday, and he needed her to stay with me."

"It seems ta me that 'e trusts ya a lot. Wonder why..." Applejack squinted at Twilight, who blushed slightly.

Rarity, on the other hand, was completely astounded by the bright yellow of the little dragon, as well as her green "teck". What attracted her eyes, mostly, was the carved jewel around Sunrise's neck. How was such a thing made?

"Tell me, deary, who made that for you?"

"It was Hospitaller." Rarity threw her head back in confusion.

"Who is Hospitaller?"

"You remember those things that entered the library awhile ago?" Twilight said as she tried to avoid further conversation with AJ.

"Ye-You mean that beast with bad taste in fashion is...?"

"No. It was one of the things following him."

"What?! I thought those were mindless beasts!"

"HEY! Don't insult my dad OR my uncles. They're very nice to me. They even helped...me...and my real dad..."

Rarity realized that she said something very wrong and tried to apologize.

"Oh I'm sorry dear. I didn't mean to hurt you in anyway."

"It's okay. Just don't make fun of them. I don't like that."

"I understand. Well, I guess we should be off Applejack."

"Yeah. I gotta go check on the apple orchard. The apples're startin' ta come. See ya later. Have fun at yer school Sunrise."

"Thanks Applejack!" yelled the little dragon.

The two mares looked back at Twilight with a concerned glare. The lavender unicorn was certainly going to have much to explain. However, the school was more important now. It came strange to her that Rarity didn't say that Steamlord and his bodyguards were waiting in the school. Her assumptions came true as it seemed that there was nothing out of the ordinary at the school. Ponies were coming and going until every colt and filly were finally seated. Sunrise was saddened at the lack of her "faja".

"It's okay Sunrise. I'm sure Spike is right. He must certainly be waiting for you somewhere and will pop up out of nowhere. Maybe he's using that "invisibility" spell from before."

"I...I guess you're right."

With a disheartened look and motivation, the little dragon and the pony went inside the school. Cheerilee was about to write something on the board when the two interrupted her.

"Calm down now, calm down." she said to the mumbling little ponies. "Hello Ms. Sparkle. Who is this?"

"It's Sunrise. Her father wanted to put her in school here."

"Her...her father? But I thought dragons didn't care about these things!"

"Well-" Twilight gave off a nervous laugh:"-her father isn't exactly her "father". He adopted her."

"Oh..OOOOH I see. Well...welcome to our school, Sunrise. I hope you learn as well as the others here and that you make many friends."

The little yellow dragon said nothing.

"Hmm...where can you sit..."

"Over here!" yelled a recognizable country pony.

"Ah? Yes. There seems to be a spot near Apple Bloom. Go ahead."

As Sunrise moved forward, the sound of crackling resonated throughout the classroom, bringing about the gasping of the little ponies and causing Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara to squeal in fright. Even Cheerilee was frightened.

"Twilight! Look out!"

"What? Oh...it's you again." Twilight said angrily as she turned around. "Your...bodyguards look different."

"Yes they do. I literally skipped fourteen generations of upgrades thanks to Security System."

The robots were spectacularly different. The main thing about their new appearance was that each portion looked "segmented", and these "segments" in their armor was colored in a particular way, mostly resembling the less dominant color.. The lines formed by these "sections" created a variety of cross shapes along their bodies. They looked much more sleeker, and the helmets looked more pointed. The "nose" from before was much more present, but it gave more of a mysterious and scary look than anything else. The base color concepts were still there, and even the eyes were still present...or absent for Teutonic. However, besides their enhanced "segmented" appearance, the claymores on their backs were...strange. The hilts were still the same golden handle with two extra handle bars on the sides, but the portion of the blade near the handle was much smaller than the rest of the blade which widened into the proper size of a claymore.

Sunrise ran and grabbed Steamlord by the leg in joy.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there this morning. It took much longer to upgrade these three than I expected. I thought it would take a few hours, so that's why I asked you to stay with Twilight. I hope everything went well?"

"Oh yeah! I had a great time with Pinkie Pie! Twilight even showed me what a slumber party was like."

"A slumber party?" he man said unenthusiastically. He stared at Twilight in a "are you kidding me?" manner.

"S-s-s-so, you are h-her father?"

"Her adoptive father, miss...?"

"Chee-Chee-Cheerilee."

"Glad to meet you. I hope Sunrise behaves like she must. I want her to learn all the necessary basics, and when she is done, which should be in a few years, then I'll take the lead."

"I see. Well, it's good to know you take good care of your daughter..."

"Yup. Now where did I...*moan*"

"What is it?" asked Twilight.

"I made her lunch, but I see you took care of that. Well, at least I brought her a backpack with pencils and paper. Hospitaller, could you pass them to me please?"

The robot still expelled steam, but this exhaust seemed more intensified and loud. Hospitaller passed them over directly to the little dragon, who thanked both the robot and her dad.

"Have a fun time then."

"I'll...I'll try."

"Hey! No pessimism around me. You WILL have fun! Say it."

"I...I will have fun."

"LOUDER!"

"I WILL HAVE FUN!"

"THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"

The surprising resonance of Steamlord's voice literally deafened everypony in the classroom.

"Well, Miss Cheerilee, have a nice day."

As Steamlord waited for his robots to leave first, he heard a colt say out loud:

"So, if that guy is your dad, is Twilight your mom?"

Twilight turned into a new shade of red unknown on the color variance scales, while Steamlord had a rather different reaction:

"OH SHI-" *SMASH*

The man had literally tripped and fell through the door, tearing it off it's hinges.

"Prune, don't say things like that!" snapped Cheerilee.

It was a little, entirely purple colt whose face looked puckered up. This was certainly a reason why he was related to plums in some manner or form. Twilight simply jogged out of the school as fast as possible as Steamlord was dragged on the floor with his mouth wide open by Teutonic and Templar. Templar waved "bye" to the crusaders, while it Apple Bloom was the only one who waved goodbye in return. Many things were going to happen today, mainly at the school, but also in the small town.

A fine and calm day

It had only been an hour since Steamlord and Twilight..."left", and Sunrise was already feeling under pressure. She was having trouble with writing, and the fact that the others used their mouths for writing didn't exactly allow Cheerilee to teach the young dragon how to write with her hands seeing as the teacher had hooves. However, using an old teaching book, Sunrise had taken the pencil within her claws and painstakingly wrote to imitate the letters within the pages. Every now and then, though, Cheerilee would say something about the history of Equestria. Knowing that her "father" was also interested in that, she would frequently ask questions about these things, much to the dismay of the class.

After awhile, it was time for recess. Letting the children out, Miss Cheerilee sighed as she tried to relax in her now empty class. Sunrise stepped hesitantly outside as some of the other ponies gave her a glance that indicating their unhappiness at her needs to ask boring questions and lengthen their annoyance. Thankfully, Apple Bloom arrived to bring Sunrise to her friends:

"Hey Sunrise. You okay?"

"Hi Apple Bloom. No...I...I don't think the others like me."

"That's nonsense. 'course they like you. They just don't like being in class 'cause it's boring."

"True."

"Say, why d'ya keep askin' 'bout Equestria's history?"

"Because my dad wanted me to teach him about its history after coming back from school."

"Really? Ah thought he would've gone ta the library since ya both know Twilight so well."

"I...didn't think about that."

"Well, do ya want ta come with me and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

"Cutie what?"

"Follow me!"

Hesitantly, Sunrise followed Apple Bloom to see a little orange pegasus filly as well as a white unicorn.

"Hey Apple Bloom. Hey Sunrise." said Scootaloo.

"Um...hello? Who are you?"

"I'm Scootaloo."

"And I'm Sweetie Belle."

"You look a lot like Rarity."

"That's because she's my sister."

"Really? That's kinda cool."

"Hold on, the real question we need to ask you is who your "dad" is." said Scootaloo.

"Yeah. That's true. He don't look nothin' like a dragon."

Sunrise never thought of this. She never even bothered to ask what species her dad was. He wasn't a dragon, obviously. He wasn't a pony, also just as obvious. He was a strange being at best.

"I don't know. I never really asked him."

"Oh, well, that's okay. We just wanted ta know what he was."

There was a short moment of silence, but the little dragon broke through it with a question:

"Apple Bloom, what did you say earlier?"

"About what?"

"Something about "Cutie"?"

"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We try everything together to get our cutie marks." shouted Scootaloo.

"Crusaders? How come you have the same name as my uncles?"

"Huh?" the three crusaders said.

"Well, yeah. Those giant shiny guys are called the "Crusader Knights", and they're also three."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other in awe.

"And what do they do?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"They protect my father and have these cool over-sized swords."

"Maybe they figured out what their special talent is?" said Scootaloo.

"But-"

"Could we go see them after school?"

"S-sure. Why not?"

"Cool! We can ask them what they do an' we'll try 'n do the same."

Sunrise's muscles grew tense.

"Uhhh...you don't want to do what they do."

"Why not?" asked Apple Bloom.

"They've managed to beat those weird scorpion things that look like the stars as well as...what did dad call them? A Hydra?"

Everypony in the yard stopped all activities after overhearing the exploits of Sunrise's "uncles". Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were stunned, but they had massive smiles on their faces rather than abhorrent shock.

"That's AWESOME! Can we see them after? Can we? I really want to see how cool they are." Scootaloo shouted while bouncing around.

"I already said yes."

"Great! Then we'll have to get ready for later then." said Sweetie Belle.

"One more thing, what are cutie marks?" Sunrise asked with confusion on her face.

It had barely been an hour that Sunrise was at school and she already made friends. The little dragon was sure that she would enjoy school for a long time to come. However, it was going to be math time after recess. The worst enemy of students was readying to seep its venom-dripping fangs into their brains and turn them into confused and mindless zombies.

Twilight galloped as fast as she could to the library and slammed the door shut, scaring a few passer-bys by this strange action. What was wrong with that red unicorn? However, on the side of Steamlord, he was busy being dragged away by the Knights, who dropped him in the middle of the town. Their creator just wouldn't break out of his apparent trance. Scratching their heads, they started using a variety of simplistic ways of waking him up. They tried slapping him, but that didn't work. They tried hitting him on the head with their claymores, and that didn't work either. Security System was the expert in medical knowledge, not them. So, as they pondered the current situation, a cyan pegasus flying above at extreme speeds spotted the strange creatures bent over another one.

"Hey! They look like those creatures I chased in the forest. What are they doing here? Let's see what they want."

The pegasus dive bombed after making a sharp turn and stopped just in time to not hit the ground. A little tapping of her hooves on the dirt, and she was walking forward in a very stern manner.

"Who are you guys and what are you doing here?" she said loudly.

The bots barely turned their heads that they were already trying a new way to wake Steamlord back up by picking him up and slamming him on the ground.. Their ignoring of the pegasus annoyed Rainbow Dash.

"HEY! I'm talking to you! Don't just ignore me like that! Hey...helloooo!" she said as she fluttered close to Templar's head.

Rainbow Dash kept trying to move them away and have these "things" answer when the three bots suddenly stood up and jumped in front of the pegasus and the still knocked out creator. Their "segments" started to glow, and whatever the projectiles fying towards them were, they were deflected and thrown into the ground. Hospitaller had tossed the cyan pegasus onto Steamlord, causing her to head butt the unconscious man. He immediately woke up as he rubbed his head in pain and looked to his side to see a pegasus doing the same.

"What the? Who are you?"

"Owwww....I'm Rainbow Dash. Who are they?"

"My Crusader Knights. Why did you head butt me?"

"I didn't head butt you, whoever you are! One of them threw me at you."

"By the way, I'm Steamlord, a friend of Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps you know her?"

"Yeah. I do. What do you know about her?"

"HEY! What art thou speaking of?" yelled a familiar voice.

Steamlord facepalmed as he stood up and pushed through his bots in annoyance.

"You two again?! That was fast. And who are these newbies?"

"These are two of the elite of the princesses royal guards. We have asked them to lend us a hoof in apprehending you." said Flameblade.

"Yeah, and this time, you're going down! We know how your friends there fight! And we're gonna destroy them just for you." mocked Icey Storm.

Rainbow Dash looked perplexed and asked:

"Who are these bozos?"

"I dunno. Something about monster hunters and capturing me. They aren't worth it, just ignore them."

The four ponies looked irritated by his sheer open mockery of their abilities.

"Well then. Since you do not wish to come quietly, we will have to rough you up! Atta-"

At the exact moment that Flameblade pronounced the second "a" in attack, Templar and Hospitaller suddenly appeared on both sides, their claymores sticking out horizontally and with the blunt side being used. As they remained crouched, and everything around seemed to have been barely moving, the two bodyguards swung their claymores with great strength and speed, knocking the "elite" guards several feet away and tossing them through several houses along the way. When they were finished, Icey and Flameblade stayed immobile, but staring at Steamlord who was laughing maniacally with his arms crossed. Teutonic was simply standing a few feet in front of the hunters, but it didn't move.

Even as the two ponies regained their senses and the electrical message from their brains just left "home" and was heading for their muscles, the two ponies found that the white and black creature was bent over them as they were being smashed into the ground by its hands. Rainbow Dash watched in awe as these weird creatures not only looked awesome...in certain aspects...but they were also pro-fighters. A huge upheaval of dirt, and the three knights had their claymores unsheathed and were pointing the tips at the two monster hunters who were still in shock but could barely move simply from the force of impact caused by Teutonic. They were trying to stand up, but their bodies wouldn't respond.

"What...what did you do...to us? How...?" moaned Icey.

Steamlord walked forward in great laughter as he crouched to rub Icey's head, who retracted in irritation.

"We adapt and we evolve. Apparently, your pint-sized brains were incapable of distinguishing any different physical traits on my bodyguards. Just that would have told you that they had changed, but, of course, you decided to use simplistic maneuvers simply because you thought you knew them well." he stood back up." I have upgraded them, with the help of someone of course, and now you won't be able to anticipate their movements nor manage to ambush them."

Flameblade laughed as he coughed up some dust.

"That's what you think."

"Oh yes, that's EXACTLY what I think." he said with a grin.

Apparently, the two guards were back, their armor shattered in several places all at once. They had quietly walked behind the bots who were only looking at the two hunters. Taking the opening as a chance of attack, the two royal guards jumped up, planning on smashing their steel hooves onto the backs of the shining creatures. Unfortunately for them, part of the programming and upgrading that Steamlord had his bodyguards undergo endowed them with a better scanning capability, ignoring just a small portion of interference caused by the energy surges throughout this world. It was enough, as Templar and Hospitaller slammed their claymores into the ground and used them as a point to push against, and jumped up, kicking the Royal guards straight up into the air. The robots weren't done with just a kick, oh no. They literally pushed off the hilts of the claymores again and thrust the massive blades into the air. Using the blunt sides yet again, the robots grabbed their weapons with both hands as they pushed the royal guards down until crushing the stallions underneath the full force of the claymores, creating even more craters.

Simply looking at the two guardsmen laying on their sides, knocked-out, proved just how powerful these robots had become. Resheathing their claymores, the robots returned to the side of their creator as this one was having trouble breathing from laughing so hard. Rainbow Dash was more frightened by how fast the bots had gone as even she had trouble following them. Whatever they were, they performed excellently as bodyguards.

"Next time, try and come back with...oh I don't know...upgrades? Pffpth."

The hunters struggled out of their hole as Flameblade took a stone out of his armor and pushed on it. An aura started to surround the beat up ponies as Flameblade promised:

"We will return, and this time, we will have an army at our disposal. You have been deemed a threat to Equestria, and you must be erased from the surface of our world."

"Sure I will. I definitely haven't been through such petty things as battles with entire armies that were more threatening than you can imagine. Not the slightest. Therefore, I definitely don't know how to fight against all of you combined."

Icey Storm tried to throw a knife at the creature's neck, but the weapon simply flopped onto the ground. Soon afterwards, the four teleported away in whatever display that was. Steamlord picked the knife up to see that the hilt was made to look like a snowflake, while the blade itself looked like wavey and erratic icicle. After a long observation, he gave the knife to Teutonic, who firmly crushed it.

"Woah. I don't know what that was about, but you guys are totally cool! Not as cool as me of course, but you get the picture."

"So you think you're cool? What exists to support this fact?"

"Pff. I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. Is that enough proof?"

"I need to see live performance to be properly "impressed". Allow me to accompany you into the air."

"What? You don't even have wings! How do you expect to...oh."

While Rainbow Dash was questioning what this wingless creature was talking about, Steamlord had reached for the two arms of his mobility pack which were firmly gripping his shoulders. He pressed a few buttons, and with the sound of steam of spinning cogs, the thing on his back seemed to be remodeling itself under the coat. The man took off his jacket and handed it to Hospitaller. Steamlord now had some sort of pack on his back that used the same movement system as his ship. The main engines for movements, and the secondary engines for movement control. It was literally a jet with a brightly glowing blue orb in the middle. After the reforming, he jumped high into the air as his pack allowed him to stay up there. With a smirk on his face, he followed the cyan pegasus with his eyes as she looked at him suspiciously while flying up.

"This will be the perfect moment to have my MPWG scan the capabilities of these 'pegasi'. It will also be the perfect occasion to study the full extent of the Knights' mobility and agility upgrades. So, where shall we race to prove that you ARE indeed what you say you are?"

Rainbow Dash looked around while squinting and spotted the mountains near the swamp of Ponyville a bit further away.

"The mountains. We'll race to there and then back to here." she said.

"Great! Crusader Knights, follow me closely from the ground. This will be a perfect moment to test out your new capabilities."

The bodyguards expelled another dose of what seemed to be intense streams of steam, and their gears starting to "crink" wildly until suddenly stopping as all three readied to run.

"Perfect. Let's go!" yelled Rainbow.

"All right then. I wonder if Sunrise is doing okay for her first day of school." thought Steamlord before taking off at great speeds.

He was also going to take the time to learn more about this world and the characteristics of the pegasi from this pony.

The Crusaders crusade

The race between the two participants had ended with Steamlord standing without a sweat, even though Rainbow Dash had won the race. She was absolutely tired. It was surprising to her that such a being could keep up with her using that weird contraption. Even those shiny things ran a high speeds. The pegasus would need to train more in flying if she wanted to stay number one. Stretching a bit as Rainbow Dash panted, Steamlord opened a conversation:

"You are pretty fast.And I got excellent information here."

"I told you...I was the fastest...in all of Equestria..."

"Ha! I can see that. Anything planned later on? I'm planning on visiting Twilight." Steamlord said as his Mobility Pack detransformed, allowing him to put his jacket back on.

"Well...I've already finished with the sky patrol, and I need to catch up on the next part of Daring Do...sure, why not! And I'll be able to talk to your buds there. They wouldn't answer me earlier."

"Oh...well that's because they don't have voice-boxes."

"Huh?

Steamlord sighed.

" They don't talk."

"How come?"

"I just said why."

"I'm not following."

"Just know that they don't talk and let's get going already."

"Whatever."

The trip went relatively calmly, besides the occasional pony who would jump out of the way of the frightening Steamlord and his bodyguards. Apparently, the denizens of Ponyville were starting to get used to his presence, but they were still scared by his appearance. Arriving at the front door, Steamlord meant to knock, but Rainbow Dash smashed the door wide open and walked in casually, much to the annoyance of the creator.

"Hey Twi-Where's Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"She's right under that blanket there." responded Applejack.

"Honestly, I don't know why you're staying under there, dear. Did something happen at the school?" said Rarity.

"No! I want to stay under here. It's less embarrassing!" muffled Twilight.

Rainbow Dash was keeping a giggle from letting loose as the four giants were finally inside the building. Rarity spun her head twice once she recognized him.

"Well, well. I don't congratulate you on your still repugnant cloth-oh my."

"Hm?" moaned Steamlord.

"What ARE they wearing?!"

"Here we go again." complained Applejack.

Apparently, Spike was entranced by Rarity again as he was just staring at her like an idiot while thet white mare walked around the bodyguards who made no movements and barely paid any attention to her.

"They look simply stunning! This unique color design blends in perfectly with the shapes formed by these creases."

"Segments."

"And their shape is perfectly in synch. Not one looks more different than the other!"

"Yes...externally."

"Spike, be a dear and fetch me some paper, a quill, and some ink."

"Sure thing Rarity." Spike said before scampering off and bringing the material back.

Rarity picked them up with her magic and started to draw the three bodyguards on the papers. She had an idea and was planning on making it real.

"Rarity's craziness aside, what's wrong with you Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Nothing!"

"Oh come on! It can't be that bad that you have to hide underneath your blanket?"

"Yes it is!"

"Oh, I see what's wrong." said Steamlord. He walked towards the blanket and tried to pull it off Twilight, but it was held down by magic."Pff. Is this because of what that little colt said earlier?"

"N-no."

"A stutter. Yes it is."

"No it's not! Stop hearing things when they aren't spoken!"

"Now denial." Steamlord was smiling now. He even had a tone of humor coming from his voice.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Now refusal. Ooo. You're going through all the paces at a tremendous speed."

"I'm not bothered by anything the colt said!"

"Even anger and an attempt at avoiding the double negative."

"Grrr."

"What's goin' on here?" asked AJ.

"Hm? Well, when I got to the school to give Sunrise her lunch, I saw that Twilight was there. So on and so forth, boring side story. When we were about to leave, one of the colts sa-" Steamlord was cut off by a purple aura surrounding his lips and Twilight jumping out of her cover.

She was really red. So red, in fact, that even that brightest of paints would look pale and grey.

"Nothing happened. It's okay! You can both go back home now."

"Pfff. Yeah right. You came in embarrassed about something with m-HMPH!" Spike went under the same spell.

"Nope. Nothing." Twilight gave a nervous smile.

"Ya can't hide nothin' from us Twi. We know that there's somethin' wrong with ya. Why're ya all red?"

"I just ate something too spicy is a-....AH! CREEPY THOUGHTS!"

Steamlord started to laugh loudly, although it just sounded like muffled exhaling. Twilight gave him a pouting glare.

"What did you mean by "what the colt said?" asked Rainbow Dash, while being at "eye distance from Twilight's face.

"N-nothing."

"Come on Twi. Tell us."

"Tell you what?"

The spell Twilight cast on Steamlord and Spike was weakening. The purple dragon was still too small to have the proper strength to break it off, but the creator simply tore the magic off with his mechanical arm.

"One of the colts there thought that since Sunrise was my adoptive daughter, and that Twilight brought her to the school before I arrived, that she was her mother as well."

Twilight suddenly grew tense as her ears flopped down and she started to lower herself. AJ and Rainbow Dash just stared at each other and fell on the floor, laughing. This made Twilight angry and embarrassed at the same time. The unicorn stomped towards the man and tried her best to stand as tall as she could while staring at him in the eyes and whispering furiously at him:

"Why did you say that?!"

"What?"

"I didn't want them to know!"

"So? It was just the thought pattern of an infant. He didn't know any better."

"That's still not a rea-..."

"Something wrong?"

"AHHH!" Twilight yelled while clutching her head. "More creepy thoughts!"

Steamlord lift an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. He felt insulted but didn't know why. The two laughing mares had just gotten back up, their eyes all watery from tears of laughter. Rarity, on the other hoof, was still too caught-up in her tracing to listen to anything happening around her.

"Hey Applejack, the first fight between the loving couple."

"Yeah. Ah didn't know you two were tagether already."

Twilight started to become even more enraged, however, she had a sudden realization. Steamlord was here, and she could ask him the questions that had been bothering her.

"Ahem. IF YOU TWO ARE DONE, I have something to ask you Steam."

"Yes?"

"Several questions, in fact."

"What are these enigmas passing through your mind?"

"Well, firstly, what is your species? What kind of creature are you? I know there is nothing like you in Equestria. I mean, sure, the changelings had appeared awhile ago, but they were more hidden than seen."

"Well, if you must know, I'm a human being. Supposedly evolved from monkeys, which is why I have opposable thumbs."

"Haha! You're a monkey?" mocked RD.

"Yeah. Who knows what YOU derive from? Perhaps a snail at best." RD looked pissed at this comment.

"Where do you come from anyways? Is it somewhere outside of Equestria? And how come your technology is so advanced?"

"I don't know how far your world spans, but I am not from it."

"Equestria isn't a world."

"I'm well aware of that."

"Wait, so yah say ya come from outer-space?"

"Pfff. No. I come from an entirely other dimension. It was quite hard to break that dimensional barrier."

"But, how did you get here then? My books say nothing about dimensional traveling. Well, there is time-travel, but that is still limited."

"Interesting. I used my ship and a quantum flux generator. By destabilizing the walls, I managed to break through them. And by fluctuating the waves used to break the barriers I managed to create a portal to a specific dimension. Unfortunately for me, this dimension was a wrong turn. After entering it, the camoflauge system short-circuited, along with the engines, and I ended up crashing into the forest."

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chin as concern started to flood her face.

"As for my technology, I will not say anything more than that the base technology of my dimension is pretty elevated."

"Was your ship a huge golden thing that looked like a bird's head?" asked RD.

"Not exactly like a bird's head, but yes. Why?"

"So it was you who crashed through Cloudsdale."

"What?"

Even Rarity turned her head in shock as she heard what Steamlord had just said.

"I don't think I was low enough in altitude to plow through an entire city or whatnot. Besides, I couldn't see anything and I couldn't control the ship anymore. The only thing I'm sure I destroyed was a portion of the forest."

"Cloudsdale is a city in the clouds, Steam. It's where the pegasi near Ponyville live." said Twilight in worry.

"Wait, a city made of clouds? You must be pulling my leg."

"NO! Because of you, Half of Cloudsdale was completely destroyed, and many pegasi were wounded in the process."

Rainbow Dash was floating directly in front of Steamlord, who suddenly took a step back in horror. The robots suddenly moved their heads, catching the attention of Rarity, who hadn't finished with her sketching.

"I...I need some time to think." said Steamlord before leaving with his bodyguards.

"Yeah? Well don't come back!"

"Rainbow Dash, that ain't a way ta treat him!" exclamated Applejack.

"What are you talking about? He destroyed half of Cloudsdale!"

"Yes, well, I recall him saying that his ship was uncontrollable. I also don't think that he is an evil...whatever he's supposed to be. He looks sincerely distraught by what had happened. *sigh* I didn't even get to finish the sketches."

"But you can't just let him get away with this!"

"Rainbow, if I remember right, that portion he tore through was already damaged by a storm that YOU didn't steer properly. Sure, he went through undamaged parts, but I don't recall anypony dying, and he DID say that entering our world damaged his ship beyond control."

"I-"

"Just wait that he calms down, then you'll ask him if he can do something about what happened."

Rainbow Dash started to ponder on the subject, and a good flight outside would help her. However, Twilight was still confused about Steamlord. If that ship really was his, then it should have been in the forest, albeit heavily damaged. He did say the cloaking was damaged.

"Somethin' else botherin' ya Twi?"

"Yeah. Where is his ship? I mean, I went with Sunrise into the Eeverfree forest, and she seemed to know where it was. Yet, I couldn't find anything besides the devastated line that it certainly crashed through. I don't know how advanced his technology is, but he certainly doesn't want to be found nor does he want to share it."

"I wonder what happened in his world to want to come here?"

"Ah'm not sure he wanted ta come here. He said that he took a "wrong" turn in whatever that quanty thingamajig was and ended up here."

"I just hope he doesn't go into depression. Sunrise is happy to have him as her new father after all."

"Yeah, about that, when did he adopt her?" asked AJ.

It was the afternoon now, and the only thing there to welcome Sunrise outside of school were the Crusader Knights. Sunrise ran towards Hospitaller, who welcomed her with open arms. Templar waved hello to the Cutie Mark Crusaders who waved back at him. Teutonic was the only one to display absolutely no emotions whatsoever, and it's creepy empty sockets disturbed the CMC, who preferred to circle around it. After the hugging session was over, Sunrise was put back onto the floor.

"Woah. They look awesome!" yelled Scootaloo.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure my sister would love to sketch them and make some sort of dress."

"She would do that, wouldn't she?"

"Mhmm."

"So Sunrise, they're yer "uncles"?" Teutonic turned it's head unnoticeably.

"Well, somewhat, but I do consider them like my uncles."

Teutonic suddenly gave out the sound of winding gears followed by a loud "clank" sound. The other two Knights knew what the problem was, so they didn't react, but the other four seemed disturbed.

"That was...wierd." said Apple Bloom while looking at Teutonic.

"He always reacts like that when I say..." Sunrise leaned closer to the three fillies and whispered: "...uncle."

Teutonic still let out one of its strong steam currents, but remained the same nonetheless. Sweetie Belle had noticed something though.

"Where's your dad?"
"I don't know. Lemme ask Hospitaller. Hey Hospitaller? Where's dad?"

The robot made hand movements indicating that there was something wrong with Steamlord's heart and that he was at home.

"Oh. He's at home. I'm not sure if I can stay outside without talking to him first."

Hospitaller then made more movements indicating that it and the other two Knights were going to watch over her.

"That's great!"

The other three fillies were confused.

"Ya understand what he's doin'?"

"Yup! It took awhile, but I figured out a bit of what they mean when they do their body-signs."

"That'd kinda neat. So...do they do anything besides scare Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?" asked Scootaloo.

"Yes."

"Then what should can we do with them?"

"I dunno. Hey, Knights, anything you could do with the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

The three fillies gave puppy dog eyes, but it was the "crusader" in their group's name that caused a powerful reaction amongst the three robots. They unsheathed their claymores and slammed them into the ground, scaring everypony still around the school.

"W-w-what?" stuttered Sweetie Belle.

"I think they want to teach you three how to fight with swords."

"But we can't! It's too dangerous. Plus, Rarity wouldn't like it."

"Well, they are responsible, and I doubt we would be able to carry their weapons."

Templar ran off quickly with his claymore before coming back with four very long, uneven sticks. Staring at it, the four watched as Hospitaller carved the sticks into four distinct, rather small, wooden swords. It gave one to Sunrise, but modified the hilts to attach to the three fillies' hooves.

"Wow. Ah didn't know he could do that. Maybe our special talent is bein' sword fighters?"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SWORDSMARES!"

The group followed the three Knights eagerly until arriving at the hill where Steamlord and the Knights had spied the school from awhile back, and started the "training". This certainly wouldn't have any repercussions whatsoever.

Battle mode: ENGAGED

Well, it would seem that the fillies and Sunrise were quite energetic for the sword training, but they...were a bit hurt in the process. A big 'ol bruise here, a black eye there...The CMC found sword fighting cool, but they wouldn't try it ever again. Thus, the three fillies left for home in "Ow"s and other sounds indicating extreme pain. Templar wasn't exactly happy of the results and seemed quite angry, despite the lack of "facial expressions". Sunrise decided that she wanted to go home after saying goodbye to her friends. She was also in pain.

Grabbing her and speeding towards the location of the ship, the Knights accidentally passed through Fluttershy's yard, causing the yellow pony to scream in fear and scurry into her house as the Knights smashed through two bears the yellow pegasi was taking care of. Sunrise tried to apologize loudly, but she was already too far. Arriving inside the ship with her backpack, Sunrise couldn't help but look for Steamlord. She tried going into his room, but he wasn't there. She went to what was supposedly a kitchen, but he wasn't there either. Even in his development room, where she saw him writing the new plans for the Knights, he wasn't there. Perplexed, she called out to Security System:

"Security System, where's dad?"

"In the generator room. You are forbidden entry in that area."

"What? Why?"

"Because you could perish if you enter it without proper protection. Steamlord can enter it thanks to the development of an immunity, but you will not be so lucky, despite your initial mutation towards a disease detected in the atmosphere."

"Well, would you be able to teach me how to write?"

"...Affirmative."

"Great! Where can we go so I can get better at it?"

"In your room. Paper and pencils are already prepared now. Estimated learning time for subject is approximately ten hours."

"That fast?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, I hope it goes fast. I'm starving."

"Steamlord has prepared a meal for you as well. I have just placed it within the bedroom"

Sunrise was intrigued. Could her father cook, or was he just as bad as most males were..at least, that's as much as she heard. Entering the room, she couldn't help but embrace that great waft of vegetables and jewels. On a desk sat a plate full of vegetables and jewels, all piled neatly into a little decorative mountain. There were also some weird bars on the side of the plate. Sunrise picked one up and looked at it in curiosity. She took a bite out of it, but immediately spat it back out in disgust.

"What is this?"

"It is a protein bar. As you do not consume meat, your best option for a rich protein diet is the alternative you hold within your claws."

"But it's nasty."

"Unless you want to become a frail and weak creature, it would be wise to consume those bars. The best chance of consuming protein bars without rejection is to combine with the substances currently present within the plate."

"Ugh. Fine."

Besides the vomit inducing bars, the food was pretty good. SS said that it was really Steamlord who cooked that. It seems that, despite several years eating bars, he couldn't help but want to cook something again. It was apparently one of his few hobbies before the Ash Fall. Sunrise was actually managing to force SS to reveal her more human traits that the ai prefers to hide. Either way, Sunrise was surprisingly intelligent, and she was already capable of writing at a basic level in under four hours. SS found the little dragon to be surprising, and gave her an hour of respite before attacking simplistic mathematical equations. She was good in this too. Night time was already nigh, and Sunrise would have to go to bed early for tomorrow. She was worried about Steamlord. He was there for her, but he seemed so absent. The morning would certainly bring up good council.

"Time to wake up Sunrise."

"Wha-" the little dragon rubbed her eyes."Dad?"

"Yes. This time, I'M the one who is taking you to school."

"Great!"

"Woahwoahwoah! You know the routine."

"Ugh. Okay."

Sunrise had to do the "bath routines" of the morning that Steamlord had set up for her. Of course, she would brush her teeth, but after eating. It was already time to leave though, and everyone jumped out of the ship and slammed hard onto the ground. Besides the boring and quick morning, it was unusually cold in the forest, and a strong mist was obscuring the view.

"We'll have to move slowly out of here. Luckily, these goggles and the Knights are equipped with several spectrums, so seeing through the mist shouldn't be hard."

A slow walking through the forest showed signs of some strange red-eyed creatures moving about the forest. They were obviously frightened by the unknown creatures waltzing throughout what could be their domain. This sudden rising of mist was unusual for Summer. Apparently, arriving at the town, the ponies were also confused at this sudden happening. The group stopped to look around at the town which was practically unseeable through the thick fog.

"This is strange." said Steamlord as he scratched his head." What's going on here? Excuse me."

A yellow pegasi was walking around trying to make out certain objects.

"Y-yes?"

"Is this sort of weather normal?"

"No. Not at all. There wasn't anything even announced."

"Shit. Thanks anyways."

"No problem."

Steamlord turned back to Sunrise.

"Well, we're gonna have to be extra careful when we walk."

"Ok. I don't know why it's so cold though."

"Mist tends to form with the cold. It goes away when it starts to become hot...normally....So...did you learn anything about Equestria's history yesterday?"

"Oh yeah! A lot, like the founding of Equestria, the incident with Nightmare Moon, and-" *clink**clink**clinkclinkclinkclinkclinkclinkclink*

Teutonic had unsheathed it's claymore and was blocking weird projectile coming from nowhere. As these projectiles flopped onto the ground, Steamlord recognized them immediately and shouted out into the open:

"Hey Icey, why don't you stop hiding. You can't defeat the Crusader Knights."

"Ah? You recognize my projectiles already? This will serve you none!"

"How do you two even heal that fast? That's not even possible."

"Hmhmhm."

"I'm guessing that you're the one who created this icy fog?"

"No. Someponies helped. I AM much better fighting in the cold than anywhere else."

"An assassin."

"I prefer the term 'Paid killer'."

"That's the same thing. Is that why you decided to hunt for monsters?"

"They pay more handsomely for taking a beast like you down."

"Stay back Sunrise." Steamlord whispered

"Awww, isn't that adorable! You adopted a baby dragon? You're certainly going to turn into a monster to destroy everything. I'll have to get her first!"

"No! Icey, thou shan't harm an infant!" yelled another voice.

"Too late!"

(let's imagine this song while being in Icey's hooves)

Another knife flew towards Sunrise's back like a soaring needle, but Teutonic caught it, stared at it, and crushed it with a shaking fist. The sound of something screaming within its body could be heard. It sounded like a spinning saw blade. It screeched loudly and obviously hurt Sunrise and Steamlord's ears. Templar and Hospitaller let go of the hilts of their own claymores, just to see Teutonic observing the environnement. Finally, he caught sight of something, and jumped towards it. Screams of pain could be heard, as well as the destruction of whatever was near them. Icey was tossed from the mist to the feet of the creator, battered and bruised. Teutonic jumped off its perch and landed with a slam! Icey's head was right between the robot's feet. She shook in fear as she looked at the two shining pieces of metal right next to her, and scampered away and hid behind the man's legs.

"D-d-d-d-don't let him n-n-near meeeeee!"

Teutonic started to stomp slowly towards her, it's hands seemingly crushing stone with no effort whatsoever as it continued its march.

"AAAHH!"

"Hmph. Pathetic."

"Alright Stallions, that is enough. Disperse the mist."

The fog almost immediately disappeared, revealing an entire army of Royal guards, with Flameblade at the front. The inhabitants of Ponyville had to shield themselves from the wave of mist, but, ultimately, they all decided to run away from the sight of such a large force.

"Monster, you are now placed under Royal arrest. You have been charged of several counts of evil and destruction." yelled Flame. He took out a parchment and let it float in front of his face: " You have destroyed half of Cloudsdale with your flying contraption. You have avoided arrest. You have terrorized the town of Ponyville. You have even been seen with a baby dragon of whom you are not allowed to have."

"Hey! He's my dad! You can't say those things about him! He didn't do them!"

"Be quiet Sunrise. This is a far more serious matter than you think. I suggest you flee to Twilight and that yellow pegasi behind us."

"But-"

"No buts. Do as I say."

"Alright. Don't get arrested."

"Pfff. I've seen FAR worse."

A confident nod, and Sunrise ran towards Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. In normal circumstances, Twilight would have intervened, but these matters were far too much. To have so many royal guards out at once meant that this was business that even she couldn't stop.

"What say you?"

"You know, if the princess wants to meet me, she just needs to send an invitation."

"But that will never happen. Either you come with us without a fight, or we will be forced to kill you and your three friends."

"Then I guess that I will be resisting arrest."

"So be it."

"Crusader Knights. Initiate Battle Mode. Non-lethal force."

The sounds of clinking and the clockwork mechanisms starting to rotate kept the soldiers in place as they stared confusingly at the shining giants. Suddenly, the sounds stopped, and the robots were already smashing through the guards ranks.

"Wh-wha- GUARDS! Pull yourselves together! Start hitting them with aerial maneuver five!" yelled Flame.

Surprisingly, one would expect creatures without wings to be stuck to the ground, but Hospitaller and Teutonic flung into the air and grabbed two of the guards to throw them powerfully to the ground, smashing through a whole portion of the guards below. The others were just smacked away by the blunt-side of the claymores. The two Knights fell back to the ground and swiped the floor with their feet, tossing some guards lightly into the air. Templar then came through with a piece of armor taken from a struck down guard and threw it at one of the flying stallions. The strength by which it was tossed hit the first stallion with full strength, and caused the other five behind him to be caught in the strike and get thrown across the area and into a far away house. Even worse was when the guards started to unleash bolts of magic as well as magical nets and balls of energy. However, the three knights started to move erratically amongst each other, swaying randomly, but always having one of them in front when the other two disappeared behind.

Using the claymore, Teutonic struck the blade diagonally towards the feet of the middle unicorn, chipping off a piece of the hoof armor, but tossing him into the air. Templar and Hospitaller simply deflected the spells back to the attackers, but Teutonic preferred his method. Grabbing the other two unicorns, the Knight smashed the three together and let go, allowing the limp bodies of the guardsmen to flop on the floor.

"Wha-what are they?" stuttered Flameblade.

"They are my bodyguards. They are my best creations in robotics. They are the Crusader Knights, and I'm their creator,
Steamlord." he said as he kept his arms crossed and adorned a face of sternness.

"I believe they are too preoccupied with my soldiers to pay any attention to you." Flameblade said as he took out his own sword.

"You're right." Steamlord said as he slightly tilted his head forward and pointed lazily forward.

It would seem that the royal guardsmen were the ones destroying everything around them with their attempts at subduing the monsters. Templar even went to grab the "tower" roof of a damaged building, picking it up, and throwing it at several flying pegasi in the air, only, it went downwards. The outcome of the effect was quite obvious, even as Templar front-flipped and landed on the broken debris.

"Fine, then we shall duel. I don't think you know how to fight if you are back here."

"No. But I think my "scars" of the past will be enough to deal with you."

"Hyah!"

Yelled Flameblade as he took a strike at Steamlord, who dodged. Steamlord thought that this buffoon, and the now utterly terrorized Icey, who was hiding behind a crate, were idiots with no talent, but this unicorn knew what he was doing. Steamlord was being beaten. Another dodged swipe, but followed by one to the floor had the man fall onto the ground. Flameblade raised his sword and threw it at the creator, who didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"NOOOO!" yelled Sunrise. Twilight shielded the little dragon's eyes as she herself averted the sight. However the sound of metal hitting metal confused everypony. Looking back up, Sunrise could see that the sword had stopped on the right arm of her dad.

"What is this? That's impossible. This sword has been enchanted to pass through any creature's skin."

"Haha! So that's why it doesn't work." Steamlord said as he stood up. He bent towards Flameblade who was ready to intercept any attack. "My right arm isn't exactly made of 'flesh and bone' anymore ."

The man stretched his hand forward and quickly grabbed the blade. He easily bent it with his right hand, causing Flameblade to jump back in horror as this creature easily bent his favorite sword's steel. Still looking baffled at his loss, the monster hunter found himself being strongly smacked to the side of the face.

"You buffoon. Look what you have done. You threaten my daughter, you destroy this town, and THEN you accuse ME of these wrong doings? Like I said, tell the princess to give me a "call" and then I will gladly stop by. I am not here to hurt anyone or anything. Also, my bodyguards could have easily killed your soldiers, even with that building piece thrown at them. I told them non-lethal mode. Please don't force me to let the go lethal."

Flameblade's eyes widened, but he regained himself, cleared his voice.

"SOLDIERS! We are returning to the castle. We have been defeated. Take the defeat in as a lesson that must be learned for future encounters such as these. Citizens of Ponyville, we shall hunt this creature no longer. We will also pay for the damages. A building crew shall come to Ponyville and re-"

"That won't be necessary."

"Hm? Why not? I am kindly proposing-"

"I accept the kindness, but I believe I have a quicker solution to this problem. When you leave, I shall deploy it. Don't give
me that look. I told you, I am not here to harm anyone or anything."

"Fine. I will trust you, for now. I will also discuss this matter of your encounter with Princess Celestia. She knows not of what you are, nor of who you could be, so a proper encounter would be wise."

"There we go. Oh, and keep your pal on a leash. I think she will be too shocked and scared to move for awhile though."

"Icey-"

"AAAAH!" yelled the blue mare.

She looked absolutely terrified and was shaking so hard that, just by holding onto Flameblade's leg, the mare was causing stallion's armor to fall off. It would seem that Templar and Hospitaller were already back, standing proudly next to their creator, while Teutonic had appeared behind Icey. He literally punched through the corner of the wall in his way just to walk unheeded towards her.

"Teutonic, that's enough! Look over there, she is fine."

The bodyguard twisted it's head violently towards Sunrise and the two other ponies with her. That ear-splitting noise coming from it slowly quieted down before coming to a full stop. The robot walked back towards Steamlord and turned around to look at the two ponies, as well as the battlefield they created. They had finally managed to defeat an army by themselves. The same incident that happened before would not happen again. With a final nod from Flameblade, he left with a flash, certainly using the same contraption from before. Some guards had to pull themselves out of walls or craters in the dirt just to use their "teleporters".

Steamlord and his Knights gazed upon the ruins of the city and remembered the carnage that happened in the past. Only the creator and Teutonic were the most affected by the scenario. It was just like before. The only difference being that everything was still alive, and that there was Sunrise to "brighten" up the four survivors' day. She ran crying towards her dad and whining about what could've happened. Steamlord started to ponder about his existence in this world and if he should truly stay within it. Either way, he had to meet up with Twilight and that yellow pegasus. Class was certainly cancelled after that incident. Oh well!

Nano-configuration

"Hi Twilight." Steamlord said blatantly with Sunrise still hanging onto his leg.

"Steam, that was...I'm not sure if I should say amazing or horrible."

"Why horrible?"

"Your bodyguards single-handedly defeated an entire royal guard regiment. That's an affront to the princesses."

"So? And who is this?" Steamlord said while staring at a little yellow and pink ball who was shaking wildly.

"That's Fluttershy." answered Sunrise.

The little dragon was still sniffing, but she had regained herself.

"Fluttershy?"

"What's wrong?" asked Twilight.

"Hmmm...she looks strangely like that pony that I saw the first time I entered this world. The one who was tending to the animals. I think it's her house that we accidentally destroyed. I apologize and hope I can make up for it."

To this apology, the pegasi stood up and nervously looked at the towering beast in front of her. It wasn't so much his size that scared her, but rather, his appearance.

"It's okay. It was fixed up quite quickly. I understand why you fled when Rainbow Dash chased after you. You know who she is, right?"

"I've had an encounter."

"How was it?"

"It was...good at first, but then she taught me something I am still disturbed about...Either way, I must return home for a brief moment."

"I suppose I have to stay here?" complained Sunrise as she folded her arms and gave a pouty lip.

"What? No. We haven't been spending enough time together. I'll need you to help me with the canisters."

"Ooo! What's in 'em?" said a Pink pony that came out of nowhere.

"Pinkie Pie? Where did you come from? You almost startled me."

"Don't worry Fluttershy, I won't scare you. So, what's in the canisters you're bringing? Is it presents? Candy? PRESENTS?!"

"NO!" yelled Steamlord. "Come on Sunrise, Crusader Knights."

The five left quickly for the forest. While they were gone, the three mares started to gossip amongst themselves:

"Wow. Did you see what those three guys did? They were all like WHAM and then BAM! Then some SCRPROOH and more explosions! MICHAEL BABOOM!"

"Michael what?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"I dunno. It just came to mind. Hey Fluttershy, what do you think about him?"

"W-well...I think he's very nice. He did take in a little orphan dragon. And she looks so kind too. Her scales are also very pretty."

"I know. She just seems so...strange for a baby dragon. She's unusually polite too. I thought that dragons were violent and mean. I did see how the adolescent ones acted when I followed Spike during the migration."

"How did that go, anyways?" asked Pinkie Pie. Twilight gave a nervous smile.

"It could have gone better. Eheheheh."

"Twilight?! Pinkie Pie?! Applejack?!" yelled a pony.

Twilight recognized the voice and called for the mare:

"Over here Rarity!"

"Twilight? Oh! There you are. Hey girls."

Rarity had apparently galloped quite far. The scenery was quite troublesome as well.

"Wha...what happened here? Is this what all that ruckus was?"

Some ponies had already started to try and move the debris away, not trusting what the creature had said.

"Well..."

"Yeah! They went all BOOM and then KABLAM! MICHASPLOOSH!!"

"What?!"

Twilight sighed and took in a deep breath as she started to explain everything that had transpired, from the inky mist to the monster hunter being slapped. While Rarity was trying to get answers, the sound of metallic footsteps stomping on the ground crept closer to the group. Turning around, everypony saw Steamlord and the other four carrying large metal containers, looking similar to a barrel. They each dropped the barrels onto the floor next to the four mares. Even though the containers were too big for Sunrise, she seemed to have no trouble carrying one over her head. She didn't seem to notice, despite her obvious struggles, that Hospitaller was carrying the back of the barrel with one hand while carrying its own barrel on its shoulder.

Sunrise lied down against one of the barrels, sweating wildly, while Steamlord started fiddling with his MPWG. This enraged Rarity.

"Hey! How DARE you put this sweetheart into such tasks! YOU should have been the one to carry that barrel, not this poor dear." Rarity said while giving the sad face to Sunrise.

"Blahblahblah. She wanted to carry one. So, I gave her one. She's pretty strong, huh?"

"What?! You can't-" Steamlord lift an eyebrow. Rarity understood immediately. "I mean, well, yes. She does seem pretty strong for her age, but that's not a reason to do what you do."

"Bah! Don't worry. LIke I'd put her in any thrateningpositionandwillYOUSTOPTOUCHINGTHOSE!"

Pinkie Pie kept hitting the barrels trying to figure out what was in them. She stepped back and smiled embarrassingly after Steamlord yelled at her. The man shook his head after a sigh and continued to fiddle with buttons on his MPWG. However, the holographic screens started to pop up, allowing for 3d manipulation. The appearance of these things struck Twilight's curiosity.

"What is that?"

"It's my Multi-Purpose-Wrist-Gauntlet. It's something I created."

"It looks very advanced."

"It is. I don't think you have anything that can compare to the technological level that I wield."

"Ship repairs now at fifty-four percent." said a strange voice out of nowhere.

"W-w-what was that?" stuttered Fluttershy.

"That's just Security System. She helps a lot around our house." Sunrise announced proudly.

"What did she mean by "ship repaired"?" said Rarity.

"Nothing. Ignore that part."

"Steam, do you think I could borrow your technology so I can study it in my laboratory?"

Steamlord twitched, and Teutonic grabbed him while the two other knights stood in front of Twilight Sparkle.

"NO! NEVER! I'LL NEVER GIVE ANYONE OR ANYTHING MY TECHNOLOGY! NEVER! YOU'LL NEVER HAVE IT! I WON'T HAVE THE CUPIDITY AND AVARICE TAKE HOLD OF IT AGAIN! NO MATTER HOW "PURE" YOU ARE, YOU'LL CERTAINLY FALL JUST LIKE THOSE OTHER BUFFOONS DID!"

The surprising strength of Steamlord's voice was literally heard throughout the town, and even the Everfree forest, as some birds flew high into the air. The ponies stared with wide eyes at this sudden fury shown by the "gentle" Steamlord. Even Sunrise was terrified, and she still liked the Knights after their display. Quickly, though, Teutonic let go of its creator, who started tapping furiously on the symbols showing up on the screens.

"There. That should be it. I suggest you stay back Rarity."

"Why?"

*POP**POPOPOPOPOPOPOP*

The lids of the containers flopped off and what looked like sparkling black water flew into the air and landed on everybody in the area.

"Ew! EWEWEWEWE! This is SOOO gross! You could have warned me! Oh, it's going to take weeks to get this out of my mane."

"You find that disturbing? Security System, assume control of nanobots and begin repairs on the nearby damaged structures."

"Affirmative."

Rarity froze in shock as the "water" started to crawl off of her and everything around. An eye twitch and the white unicorn fell upon the ground, apparently unconscious. Pinkie Pie decided to mess around with these things and kept jumping in front of the massive wave, only to have the tiny legs of the nanobots scurry over her, tickling the pink pony wildly. However, Pinkie Pie stopped her games when she saw the massive "shadow" float over all the debris and make this one disappear. The waves would then go over a portion of a damaged building that the piece corresponded to, and rebuilt everything perfectly. The Ponyville citizens were surprised and watched these little contraptions rebuild their town.

"And that is how my nanobots save the day."

"I apologize earlier if I offended you Steam, but I must know, what ARE they?"

"Those are my nanobots. They each grab a molecule of the building pieces and use their sub-molecular scanners to find with which type of molecule the ones they currently possess corresponds to."

"So, basically, they're assembling puzzles?"

"That's one way to put it, yes."

"Umm, excuse me, but, um, can I bring Rarity back to her house?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Pinkie Pie, could you help me, if you want to..."

" 'Course I do! See you later!"

Twilight stood next to Steamlord and Sunrise, who just looked at what the nanobots were doing.

"So...um...Steamlord...could you tell me why you don't want to talk about your past." Twilight said while staring at the ground. Steamlord didn't move.

"When princess Celestia invites me to her castle. I will tell you and everyone else of my past. And you'll see just to what extent I went to try and stop the "Ash Fall"."

All in all, the day went pretty neatly, but there was still much for Steamlord to do before choosing to stay within Equestria. For today, however, he was going to spend some time with Sunrise. They were going teh explore teh sights, enjoy teh loevly telefone booths, and so on. He was going to need to get ready for the future audience with the princesses. He was sure that they would like old hags if they were as old as told by history. Heheheh. Funny things already started rushing through his head:

"I remember, back in the day, you see those windows? Well, we didn't have windows back then. We had holes in the wall. And we had to take turns blocking them with our bodies for the night."

Okay, so maybe not exactly funny, but still humorous if thought with the old lady's voice. Steamlord wasn't exactly known for having good humor. Heck, even Security System had better humor than he did. It was going to be a long waiting time...

Celestia's verdict

A week had passed since the monster hunters and their army were completely devastated by the Crusader Knights. The town had been completely repaired by the nanobots that were replaced in their containers and taken back to the crashed vessel after their work was done. It took awhile, but the denizens of Ponyville finally got used to Steamlord and his bodyguards. They were never scared of Sunrise, as they were already used to Spike. After thinking that she understood Steamlord, Twilight finally sent a letter to Celestia. The letter spoke of this creature and it's intelligence, as well as... the other things that it had. She also spoke of the man's personality and the adoption of Sunrise, seeing first-hoof in what condition the little dragon was in.

This letter managed to convince the princess that these four creatures weren't the evil beings she soon thought of them to be. "Looking high above the others in a shadowed environment with no joy and the denizens fleeing in terror as they marched forward" is how the princess saw them. Thinking this over, the princess needed some advice from the council which helped her with some things she couldn't take care of herself.

A day afterwards, Twilight was sent a message concerning the audience and looked everywhere for Steamlord to tell him. The elements were also invited to participate at the audience. When the day finally came, Steamlord was waiting in front of the Town hall with a massive smirk on his face. He said nothing, and neither did Sunrise. They had a surprise to show everybody. Two guards flew down with a carriage in tow, this one looking like it underwent some mcpimpin' in royalty standards. One of the guards stood forward and started to talk:

"Ms. Sparkle, you and your friends are invited for an audience with princess Celestia." the guard leaned towards the side to see Steamlord sitting on the stairs with his three body guards standing next to him and Sunrise on his lap." I suppose that you are the monster that defeated an entire regiment of the royal guard's finest."

Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack stared wildly at Steamlord.

"Ya did what?"

"How?"

"It wasn't me. It was my bodyguards who did everything. They were defending me after all."

"That's SOOO awesome! But I still won't forgive you for Cloudsdale."

"I'm not asking for it."

"So it WAS this thing that did that after all. This changes many things." said the guard."But, I would like to remind you that you have an audience, so I suggest you enter the carriage immediately."

As the ponies started to enter it, Sunrise stopped them.

"Hold on! My dad and I have a better way of travelling to the castle."

"Hmph. And how would you do this?" the guard asked in mockery.

"You can follow us into Everfree forest and find out. After all, since I crashed there, the beasts I have seen roaming around haven't bothered coming near the area." said Steamlord.

The two guards looked at each other in suspicion, but answered:

"Fine. We shall follow you. Don't do anything suspicious, or else."

"Or else what? My bodyguards beat down an entire regiment of yours. I don't think two little ponies with their shiny metal will be able to stop them."

The guards huffed but followed silently. Everypony had some trouble in the forest as they knew how dangerous it was. Well, everypony except Pinkie Pie had trouble. Finally arriving at the location of the cloaked ship, one could only see the pile of trees and rocks that were pushed up by the ship.

"Tada!" said Steamlord.

Everypony just stared in silence.

"There's nothing here." said Rarity.

"Sure there is. Can't you see it? It's shiny and golden! OOOO! Pretty!" yelled Pinkie Pie as she started hopping towards the spot. Steamlord was confused.

"Pinkie, this isn't the time to be messing around. There isn't anything here." said Rainbow Dash.

"Will you be quiet already? Hold on. It's cloaked."

Steamlord fiddled with a few buttons on his MPWG, and, with a bit of fizzing and some electrical sparks, the entirety of the ship came into view. Everypony threw themselves aback in shock.

"Woah! Awesome! Hey Rainbow Dash, look at that thing! It's HUUUUUGE." Pinkie Pie said while she widened her arms and fell on her back.

"Steam, I didn't know that you had made something this big." Twilight said.

"Um...how are we going to get inside."

*beep* The door opened up.

"Oh. I hope nothing bad happens."

"Don't worry. The Knights will get you inside."

Doing as said, the Knights grabbed the ponies and jumped into the doorway. After everything was finished, Sunrise and Steamlord entered the ship and closed the door. Rarity was intrigued and disgusted at the same time. The entire place looked so grimmy and dark with its gold, bronze, and yellow hues. Yet, she was also impressed by the clockwork decorations. This was a new style that she had never seen before.

"Wait...how are we supposed to spread our wings in here? It's too cramped!" whined Rainbow Dash.

"You don't, although I suppose I can help your needs for travel by disengaging the gravity generator. Security System..."

"I heard. Disengaging."

With the sound of something exhaling, the group started floating into the air. Rarity and Applejack were the ones who flailed the most. They were frightened alot. Rarity knew what it was like to fly, but she also knew how it was to fall, and was afraid of that happening again.

"Hehehe! I'm floating. Woosh! Woosh!" mused Pinkie Pie as she pushed herself off the walls to move around.

"Yes yes. Twilight." Steamlord said as he grabbed the little pony between his mechanical arm. "I need you to guide me towards the castle."

"Guide? Were in your ship?"

"Yes. The others can look through the windows to see. OH! I was going to forget. C'mere, Fluttershy."

"Eep!"

"Someone shy like you needs to see everything from the grand view."

Using his pack to boost him forward, Steamlord went to the cockpit with ponies and dragon in hand. The sight of everything here piqued Twilight's curiosity.

"What is this part? Do you use it to control the ship?" she asked.

"Yes. I might teach you how to pilot it one day Sunrise. So, you best watch carefully what I'm doing."

"Okay."

Steamlord started to fiddle and press buttons. The shaking and roaring of the ship becoming more and more loud.

"And finally, I pull on this...and there we go."

"W-w-w-w-what's g-g-going on?!" worried Fluttershy.

"Let's see if we finally isolated the cause of the energy distribution issues....YES! It's taking off!"

Seen from outside, more creatures started to flee the surrounding area as the trees and the ground started to shake wildly. Even Ponyville was feeling the tremors, and several of the denizens left their homes to see the source of the problem. Looking around, one of the ponies spotted something leaving the woods. The vessel of Steamlord was back in the air.

"Wow. I didn't know that Ponyville looked like this from up here." said Fluttershy.

"What? Don't you fly?" asked Steamlord.

"Yes but...not very high."

"Un...huh..."

The vessel turned by rotating the lower engines and soon moved slowly towards Ponyville. It was quite slow actually.

"Can't this thing go any faster? I thought you had "great" technology." said Twilight.

"I don't know where the castle is. I'm not going to turn on the main engines."

"Does this ship have a zooming function?"

"Aye."

"Then zoom at the mountain over there."

Steamlord pressed a few buttons, and a small square on the front window showed Canterlot castle sitting calmly on the side of the mountain.

"It should take us a few hours to get to there."

"A few hours?! Sunrise, hang on to me."

The little dragon floated towards her dad and hung onto his head.

"That...wasn't the best of things to ask. Turning on the main engines and...TURBO BOOST!! I feel like a kid again!"

The three main engines of the vessel expelled green fire in a massive explosion, sending the ship at extreme speeds and causing a huge gust of wind to flow through Ponyville, tossing many objects about as well as pulling flying pegasi towards the center of the air funnel. It had barely been five minutes that the vessel was already in range of the castle. A loud roar announced the arrival of the giant behemoth, of which several royal guards prepared themselves to fight. The ship gently landed in front of the castle, and the door slid open. A little ramp rolled forward than landed on the ground. The guards were nervously waiting whatever was going to come out. To their surprise, ponies came out. Applejack and Rarity were feeling mighty queasy and fell straight to the ground, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were trying to keep each other from falling over. They seemed to have appreciated the burst of speed. Finally, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy came out. Ironically, they had nothing. The two guards still inside the ship came out unscathed and saluted the guard receiving the group.

"Soldier, what is this thing? Did you not leave with a carriage?"

"Well...about that..."

"They left it at Ponyville." said a voice coming from inside.

"Who is that? Show yourself!"

"Calm down! I'm coming out."

Steamlord and Sunrise walked out of the ship, with the little dragon trying to hide behind his legs. Before being able to say anything, the three bodyguards came out of the ship, their armor shining brightly as their "feet" clanked upon the grounds and caused a few of the guards to flee in terror.

"So you must be the "monster" that I've heard about."

"Oh, monster is quite alot, and I've already gone through this scene. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get to the princess immediately. There are certain matters towards my presence that must be tackled immediately."

"A worker...I like that. Come. You shall meet princess Celestia and Luna at once."

"Good. Lead the way."

The inside of the castle was surprisingly spacious and decorated. Some fine tapestry here, some beautifully organized plants there, it was quite impressive. Steamlord exhaled in nostalgia as he remembered the labs he worked in which were as big and white as this one.

"So...when will we see the old ladies?" Steamlord whispered to Twilight.

"Old?! They aren't old!"

"Pfff. Over a thousand years old and they don't look old? I highly doubt that."

"Yeah? Well that's how it is. We're here now. Stay behind the door and I'll call you when you can come in."

"Fine."

The door they had stopped in front of was relatively high, but it wasn't too big. The food decorations on it, such as the golden grape vines ornating the rims of the door and other fruits flowing in the middle were quite the work of art. Yet, the man and his "daughter" had to wait behind a door. The creator leaned forward to try and make out the mumbling, but he couldn't come any closer. The guards at the door were staring at him, expecting something to happen, then suddenly, someone yelled. Her voice was much different than Twilight's. Steamlord, Sunrise, and the Knights started walking towards the door, but when one of the guards yelled "Hey!" at Sunrise and reached for her with a menacing look, Teutonic kicked the guardspony, who literally flew through the thick brick walls. The creator sighed in annoyance.

The room he was in was actually the dining room. A long wooden table sat within it, and it was covered with foods that Pinkie Pie was eager to dig into. As he went towards a spot next to Twilight Sparkle, Steamlord pulled out a chair for Sunrise, than he sat in his own and looked at everypony with a smile.

"So...where are the princesses?"

"We're over here." said one of them.

Steamlord turned around, only to feel himself sink at looking at the sun princess, Celestia. Her radiance made his heart melt. He mentally punched himself to get back to normal.

"You can't be the princesses. People who are over a thousand years cannot look like that...mmm...shall we say...beautiful?" he said, joking. Sunrise pouted in jealousy as the Knights seemed to roll their eyes while standing behind her.

"Oh? But we are. We also thank you for the compliment. Tell us, creature, what are you?"

"Can we eat already? PLEAAAASE?! I'm star-har-harving!" whined Pinkie Pie.

"Yes. You can." answered Celestia with a smile that made Steamlord feel uncomfortably warm.

"So, I'm a human. A supposed evolution of the primate."

"Interesting. And what is your TRUE name, Steamlord?" asked Celestia.

"That is something that will be forever stuck within my past. I will tell you about why I came here and what the Ash Fall is, exactly, but you must promise to not consider me any different than you see me now."

"That ain't exactly the most reassurin' of things darlin'" spouted AJ.

"My past is part of the history of my world. I must say how things transpired truthfully."

"Then eat before we speak of it. I must know more of you from your lips directly than from a letter." proposed Celestia.

"And we will know where you can go and what you can do." followed Luna.

Steamlord was quite happy to actually be able to eat solid food rather than synthetic ones. All the solid food he had, he would give to Sunrise. She was a growing dragon, so she needed the vitamins. Even though there was no meat, the taste buds of Steamlord screamed in pleasure and delight as the vegetables and fruits touched them. Pinkie Pie was the only other who was eating the same quantity of food as he was. The man was quite big compared to the average pony, so this came to quite a surprise, although everypony else seemed used to her ravenous appetite. After this delicious meal was taken care of, Steamlord sighed and rubbed his face.

"I suppose it's time I tell you all what the 'Ash Fall' is exactly."

"Yeah. Was your nightmare about that?" asked Sunrise.

"Yes. Now, please excuse me while I take my shirt and shoes off. This is to show you how far I went to try and stop that incident from happening."

The man lift his pants up to reveal the mechanical portions of his legs. He took off his shirt to reveal his mechanical arm. He even lift his goggles up to show his "golden" eye.

Rarity put her hoof to her mouth as this scene seemed to shock everypony in the room except for Twilight and Sunrise.

"By Equestria...what have you gone through?" Luna said in pure horror.

"Quite a lot actually. Now then, for my story, you must know that, near the end, there is much to speak of."

"Are you all ready?" asked Celestia.

"Pff. I was BORN ready! C'mon! I'm sure your past isn't THAT scary."

"The mouse brave enough to fight the lion was often eaten. Don't say I didn't warn you." he said with an evil smile.

Steamlord spoke of everything. Of how he was intrigued by the technology of his time, of how he went to robotics and computer sciences just to create his own robots. He even explained about how he discovered Loptimum and how it affected the lives of everyone. Then, he went to the unveiling of his new creations, and how an army general named "Prolovksi Mattenvich" tried to buy the blueprints off Steamlord for a heavy price, and how he refused. Several others came, but Steamlord refused every time. He was sure he couldn't trust his friends and co-workers, so he would always take the final blueprints into his ship. Unfortunately, the prototypes had always stayed at the labs. The generators he had built were made from the dangerous prototype, and they were sold world-wide.

Then the incident came. The armies would have to control each generator to have their own portion of Earth have massive amounts of energy, and they would use it for many good things, and more bad. Wars broke out all across the planet for control of these energy sources. Steamlord also spoke of how he went against the two armies who attacked his city, and even detailed how each part was lost. Everypony in the room looked appalled at the events that were told. Even the guards outside were gasping for air at the imaging of these events.

When he went to the time where he taken back to his ship by Templar and Hospitaller, he spoke of how the Ash blotted out the sun and some fell upon the Earth, killing many things. It had been his fault for not looking over the generators when they were built. It had been his fault for not watching the moves of every army. It had been his fault that trillions of lives were lost, and his punishment was living within that gray landscape while coping with a possible eternal life with nothing to eat but synthesized vitamin bars of horrid taste. Sure, he had stocked away some normal food, but it didn't last long. He had created the portal to reach a new Earth where he was never born. One where he could live peacefully, but his dimensional traveling was far from perfect, and he ended up in Equestria. The energies of Equestria had also disrupted the ship's energy distribution system, which is why his ship plowed through everything upon arriving in Equestria.

Silence rang throughout the room as Steamlord put the clothes he took off, back on.

"That...I..." stuttered Celestia.

"I have also decided that I would like to live here in Equestria. Your people do not seem so fond of destroying everything, although your army can prove otherwise."

"Please understand the our sister sent the monster hunters after you because of rumors, not facts." said Luna with a protective tone.

"I know."

"We have also dismissed the monster hunters."

"They weren't punished I hope?"

"We believe you did that in our stead." Luna started to think." That "Icey Storm" was sent to the psychiatric hospital because of one of your creations."

Everypony stared at Teutonic, who seemed to be watching over Sunrise, staying wary of the princesses.

"That was her fault for trying to attack my daughter." Steamlord said after rubbing the little dragon's head.

"Well. We must decided of a position for you to undertake in this world then." Celestia announced with a cautious face.

"Twilight Sparkle has told me of your kindness towards an orphaned baby dragon."

Fluttershy "awwed" at this.

"She has also told me that you will not be sharing your knowledge in technology."

"No. I won't have the "Ash Fall" happen again and destroy yet another world."

"Fair enough. However, you could help us in scientific studies and technological advancement?"

"Yes."

"Then you will work here in the Scientific Institution of Canterlot. You will be well payed, and I hope that your bodyguards can help us if there are any issues."

Steamlord gave a smile shadowed by the clouds flowing over the sun rays outside.

"I accept the position, and I hope I can be of great use."

Author's Note

Cliffhanger. U mad?

(The cliffhanger thing there is just to remember)

Grinding gears

The sky was as it had always been for the past fifty years, dark, cloudy, and expulsing nothing but black powder. The clouds, despite their thickness, still gave out a faint copper light to the dying earth below it. Although this light could barely be seen. The ground itself was still just as gray, and rocks dotted the barren gray landscape. There were a few trees here and there, but they were but black, leafless husks of their former selves. There were the remains of the human civilization dotted around the land. A few tilted skyscrapers here, some destroyed buildings lying against each other as if hoping to be able to withstand the test of time together. Every now and then, a gust of wind would kick up the dust resting upon the floor and would took it further away, where each particle would eventually separate and join other particles lost within time. Not a single plant nor animal was left. Everything had died out, and humanity would soon be the next step towards extinction, slowly dying off with hunger.

It had been so long since the world had died out due to the misuse of his technology, and only a few humans were still alive, barely surviving off the scraps left. However he had better plans for his own future. The only thing that came with color in the dead landscape was what resembled a giant golden bird's head. The plating looked like it was bolted together, and it was large enough to hold many people and things. Outside was what looked like a hollowed-out cube. Many cables, pipes, wires, and gears gears were attached to it, and a single man was busy typing something into the computer terminal linked to this strange arch. Everything seemed to clickety-clank as steam eventually exited its host. He liked these sounds very much, as they reminded him of a humanity that had prospered, even if it had been just briefly, with his technology.

He was quite tall for a normal human, reaching almost two meters. Although his average muscle size could be an explanation to his height. He wore black boots made of a strange, shiny material, while his pants seemed to sport a "lined" theme almost plaid-like, with the main lines being a pale white while the others were golden-brown. Instead of there being vertical lines, there were several black dots grouped closely together to give the same idea of "lines" when seen from afar. The shirt, however, despite it having pockets everywhere, was just of a plain copper color. However, the man wore a long, black coat that covered the majority of his body except the upper part of his boots. This jacket was also of the same configuration as the boots. The same material and color. Same thing with the single glove that covered his left hand. Occasionally, he would stop to rub it then continue his work. The character wore simple goggles to cover his eyes. These were circular, and the outing holding the lenses were painted a golden color. The lens themselves were tinted black, so the eyes couldn't be seen. His hair was of a brownish hue; although the rear right side was charred black and had a different consistency from the rest of his hair that ruffled just about everywhere it could. No, this patch stayed perfectly flat and in place.

The man was just about finished with his portal as he typed in the final coding and approached two disconnected cables.

"These things always seem to disconnect. Well then, let's see if this finally works."

With a click, the cube's lining started to glow a bright blue and pink until something started to spark within its center. This spark started to swirl more and more violently as its expansion widened evermore, only to finish into a stable portal of flashing pink and blue.

"Let's see what the terminal says...mhmm...That's about right...Put in these coordinates and voila!" The portal gave off a gentle spark."Perfect! I've been perfecting my theories for twenty years now. Let's see how the traverse is. I'll just have to get into my ship and find out, but, before I do that, let's put in the self-destruction sequence code. Once my ship gets through, the scanner should detect its code and activate the self-destruction. Hmhmhmmmmm...typity-type...and there we go. At least some good has finally happened. If I die, well, I'll finally be able to rest in peace."

The man ran to the entrance to his ship, situated on the right side, and quickly closed it. The staircase dragged itself back in as the golden doors closed themselves. He was already in the cockpit of the ship. Several little gears stuck out here and there, and were working quite furiously now that he was typing in the codes for activation, as well as pressing variously colored buttons all organized in rows. There was only one seat in the cockpit, but, then again, why would he need more? His chair was slightly tilted backwards and had decorative gears and special clockwork engraved onto it. He really liked this chair.

"Well then, into the void of the unknown. Let's see how this other Earth is doing."

The three exhaust ports in the back of the ships spewed flames in a righteous fury as the ship itself started to move slowly towards the portal. Another lever pulling and the ship blasted off the ground and went into the portal. As hoped, the computer terminal made the portal self-destruct. All that remained were a few pieces of the cube and the still intact terminal, which shut down due to lack of energy.

The inside of the portal was much less rough than the man had expected. He had thought that dimensional traveling would be very "bumpy" and cause him to bounce about quite violently. Instead, despite a few disturbances, the travelling was pretty smooth. He lied his head back against the chair and closed his eyes as he hummed a theme that came to mind while seeing the oscillating dimensional walls.

It had been a full five minutes since the ship had entered the dimensional tunnel, and the alerts started to chime in rhythm, along with the ticking clockwork and the occasional steam release, waking the man up. The end of the tunnel was near, and he was ready to act. With a grab of the handle, he started to stabilize the ship's eventual reentry into a new world. He was literally blinded by the light that engulfed him at the exit of the dimension.

He wiped his eyes as his cloaking system was activated in order to hide his entry into the skies. To his surprise, this place didn't have tall cities or planes in the air. It was still a verdant land, however, and all the surviving specimens he had in the storage facility of his ship would be given new life thanks to what looked a very fertile soil.

"Wait...is that a castle? How is it possible to even put a castle on a mountain at that angle? It should be taken apart by gravity. I will need to look more into this when I find a place to land."

An issue started to occur, however. The lower stabilizers keeping the ship in the air despite its lack of wings started to go haywire and began sparked with electricity and steam. An alert resonated in the cockpit as the entire system seemed to be messing up.

"What? Pressure error? System malfunction? Static reintegration necessary? But I reviewed everything before activating the portal. I even replaced a few gears! Damn! What now? Camoflauge error? Perhaps I should've taken into account the possible errors the energies of the dimensional tunnel could have had on these systems. I'm going to have to work hard in keeping this thing up and landing it somewhere it won't be noticed or searched for."

As the instruments on board the cockpit had said, the camoflauge had short-circuited, and with the announcement of thunder and smoke, the ship revealed itself before the world in a trail of black as it descended loudly and quickly towards the incoming ground. The human pulled upwards on the handle with all of his strength as vapor started to seep into his area and started to cloud the window, blinding him from the outside view.

"Damnit! This is NOT going well. HNNNGH!"

Without knowing, the ship plowed through a city made of clouds and tore apart a massive portion of it as it descended ever deeper from the sky. Sounds of screaming were heard on the speakers of the ship.

"At least the outside interceptors still work. Is that screaming? I'm too high for there to be any signs of human life yet. It must be the birds or some form of airborne creature native to this world," the man thought to himself.

The altitude meter on his ship showed him that his ship was getting very close to the ground. The 3d scanner showed that it was a very thick forest coming into view.

"Oh, so NOW the scanner starts working. I better activate the under-shields for better impact survival. There...I hope this works..."

As the massive golden monstrosity slammed into the forest, the ground shook with tremendous force. The ship slid for a few feet as the trees in its line of landing were uprooted and taken with the ship. When it finally came to a stop, the exhaust ports were still smoking, and electricity was jettisoning out of some slightly damaged parts of the ship. Meanwhile, the ship's captain was knocked-out from the crash, despite the protective airbags lining the chair he was sitting in. The only signs of life still being given from the ship were the occasional quiet beeping sounds coming from the red light above the knocked-out pilot.

Author's Note

I had a music video that I had linked to the tune humming of Steamlord. It's here if you still want it.

Templar's observations

It was morning already, and the human had "overslept". He sprung up almost immediately as he hurried to put his modules and clothes back on. Security System had to find a way to calm him.

"Steamlord, the scanning of biological data and the books is complete. Which information do you wish to hear first?"

"Uhhh...the biological ones. If there are really dragons here," the man took a sip from his warm cup of tea, a sign of satisfaction boiling over his face."Mmmm, then I wish to study them. Preferably, at least take an egg and study it very carefully."

"The chances of you surviving an encounter with such a beast are near zero percent probability."

"Why is this?"

"Readings of the reptile you scanned yesterday reveal that it has increased thermal perception. Even if you are fully cloaked, you will need thermal dispensers to be fully invisible."

"And what about the unicorn?"

"Analysis indicates that she is--"

"Wait...it's a she?"

"Affirmative."

"Huh.......I never could tell the difference with animals. And what has this analysis concluded?"

"She is the source of the large energy spike detected. There are less powerful energy disturbances all around the agglomeration."

"So these 'unicorns' possess some form of field around them? Is it akin to magic?"

"Further field observation required."

"Damn. Then we'll have to get out of here again. What about the books?"

"Data has been narrowed down to essential needs. We are currently in a location named 'Equestria'."

The man looked straight at the speakers in disbelief.

"The dominant species are the ponies you have encountered. Although dragons can easily destroy this species, they are too engulfed with fighting amongst themselves and hoarding valuables."

"Kind of like the orcs. Hmm. Go on?"

"Equestria is in the northern hemisphere of the planet...proper geographical measurements unknown."

"So we can't pinpoint our exact location...What about the society here? Anything?"

"It seems that they live under some type of monarchy."

"What?"

"The ponies are ruled by two distinct beings called 'alicorns'. They have the physical characteristics of the unicorns and pegasi, and are said to have great powers."

"Great how?"

"The alicorns, who are also princesses, are named 'Celestia' and 'Luna'. The eldest, Celestia, controls the orbiting of the sun, while the youngest, named Luna, controls the orbiting of the moon as well as occasionally rearranging the stars in the sky to create new cosmic shapes."

The man could not believe what he was hearing. If these beings were powerful enough to move celestial bodies as big as the sun, then he would need to get the hell out of this dimension as fast as possible. Who knows what they would do to him and his creations if he was ever captured. He started to panic and think as he asked another question.

"Are these "princesses" tyrants?"

"Negative."

"Ah. Pfiou. That's reassuring."

"Anything you have planned for today?"

"Mmm...yes. Those three infants from yesterday. If I recall correctly, one of them was a unicorn, although I doubt she can use her powers at such a young age. Do you have their bio-signatures?"

"Yes. They are regrouped in one central area."

"Could it be that they even have schools around here? TEMPLAR! HOSPITALLER! TEUTONIC! ACTIVATE!"

The three bodyguards already appeared near the exit of the crashed vessel.

"Eager to go already, are we? Templar." The robot straightened itself out as it followed its creator very keenly." We are going to observe those three infants that you helped out of the forest yesterday. What do you think?"

The robot "crinked" in agreement as the other two simply stared at their "brother".

"Good. Being semi-sentient doesn't mean that you don't have minds of your own. But, they might be in an extremely densely populated area, so be VERY DISCREET! We will be going to the area of their location and we'll try and study them properly. It will be good to try and figure out how these 'ponies' develop differently from those of my...old world."

The man stared at the ground in shame, but quickly retrieved himself and jumped out of the ship, soon to be followed by his bodyguards.

The group followed the same path out of the forest, but, this time, they didn't cross the bridge. No. This time, they continued straight. Several ponies were crossed, and the bodyguards took the tie to scan each and every one of them. The ray of blue light that blinded these beings left them in shock and confusion as they looked around to try and find the source of those lights. As soon as they reached what looked like a rising path, a strange, single building could be seen in the distance.

"Is that a...is that a school?" the man thought to himself.

The group quickly reached it to see a playground surrounded by fences that the man and his Crusader Knights could easily leg over. However, there was nothing there at the moment. Templar indicated that the creatures they were searching for were in the building.

"Wow. This is quite intriguing. A purplish pony whose tattoos are three daisies? Interesting. Hmm. She seems to be the teacher of the group. I hope that's a she. If it's a he...Ah? Look Templar, the three little ponies you saved yesterday." the man whispered. He gently scooched over for his bodyguard to see.

The other two bodyguards went in as well for a closer look. Besides boredom encompassing the entire class, the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" looked rather down. The man didn't understand why, until he understood something.

"Templar, at the exit of the forest, did you encounter larger ponies?"

The robot hissed steam in confirmation.

"So they got grounded. We need to further observations, so we'll stay here for the day. We'll observe them from that hill over there."

The human pointed to what was a single giant tree whose branches dangled sadly upon the floor. It was a perfect place for observation. He even brought some snacks for him. The only observational equipment he needed were his bodyguards. Teutonic stayed near him, while Templar and Hospitaller stayed at the school for close up scanning and studying. It had been awhile since the group was near the school, but the creator didn't know for how long. He took out his pocket watch just to see that it had been five hours. The exact moment the second hand reached twelve, the bells of the school resonated throughout the area. Knowing it was time to return to the ship, he and Teutonic returned to the school, only to see the three little ponies leaving it in sadness. They walked behind the school, waiting for their pick-up.

However, as soon as the group was about to leave, two irritating voices resonated within the man's ears. He turned around to see that there were two more of these infants. Yet, they had those "tattoos" on their rear. The theory of them being for adults was now proven false, as beings so young cannot certainly be allowed into adulthood. One of them was gray with a whitish mane and wore glasses. This one had a spoon as her tattoo. The other was pink with a purple mane bearing a white stripe. This one wore a tiara and looked quite snooty.

"The hell? One seems to have been born with the french wording 'Born with a silver spoon in your mouth', and the other wears a tiara and has that same shape on her posterior...what?"

However, the intentions of these two weren't good at all. This was easily heard by their, like, totally righteous way of talking.

"Like, you three blank flanks really need to, like, get away from here. Hey! Like, maybe your cutie marks will appear if, like, YOU three DISSAPPEAR." said, like, the grayish coated one, you know?

"Leave us alone? We don't need any problems right now. We've had enough." spoke the yellow filly.

"Tch! Like being a blank flank is enough? You too are SO lame!"

"So? At least we know our cutie marks aren't related to something lame like "wearing a tiara"." mocked Scootaloo.

"At least I HAVE a cutie mark."

"Yeah. One that's pointless!" Scootaloo started to laugh at her own joke.

The pink pony looked irritated and turned her back in a huff. Her friend did the same.

"Let's go Silver Spoon. We have more important things to do than stay around blank flanks."

"Like, totally. We don't want our cutie marks to-OOMPF! HEY! LIKE, WHOSE THE PONy whoooo....."

The two bullies found themselves blocked by two giants. One was freakishly scary while the other was very shiny and red. As they stared at the two beings with their jaws dropped, the shiny one dropped its claymore right in front of the two fillies, who quickly jumped in the air and held each other in fear. The Cutie Mark Crusaders just stared at these strange beings. Yet, the one with red started to spark something up in their memories.

"So." spoke the frightening one. "You two like to bully with lame speech patterns that are, like, sooo last century? I don't take too kindly to your kind, especially when they mock someone for a lack of something or because they have more than the mocker."

"W-w-w-what do you want?"

The goggles hid the psychotic intent of the creature, but its smile was more than enough. He crouched to be closer to these creatures.

"You see that other one right there with his giant sword?" the two little ponies looked nervously at the shiny giant then back at the scary creature and nodded. " Well, we're watching everything. If I find out that you are mocking them again, it'll shorten you two by a head. Understood?"

The two fillies eyes widened in fear as they understood what he meant. They creature galloped away while screaming and crying, their tails between their legs. The two giants watched the bullies flee in fear and the human found their reaction hilarious. A bit cruel, but hilarious nonetheless. His pants were tugged by something. As he turned around, he saw the adorable little pony with the bow in her mane. "Applebloom", if his memory served him correctly.

"Uhh...th-th-thank you fer that. They keep botherin' everyday."

"Yeah. It's annoying." exclaimed Scootaloo.

"Hey...isn't that the thing that was in the forest last night?" asked Sweetie Belle as she looked more closely at the shiny giant.

"Hey, you're right. It is!"

"Thanks fer helpin' us last night. What's yer name?"

The eyes of Templar stared down at the little fillies trying to thank him. Unfortunately, this gave the three ponies chills down their spines and caused them to back off slightly as the giant plucked its claymore out of the ground and placed it back on its back. The human just looked blatantly at his creation say nothing and shook his head.

"He doesn't speak, but I can tell you his name. It's Templar."

"Really? And what's yours?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"I can't say my true name, so you can call me 'Steamlord'."

"That sounds egocentric."

"What does tha mean?" asked Applebloom.

"It means that you think everything is centered around you." said the man.

"And why did you choose that name?"

"It comes from a nickname I used to get."

"GIRLS?! Where are y'all?"

Yelled a country voice. The fillies looked behind them to see that Applejack was looking for them.

"We're here Applejack!"

"Oh."

"Look sis! We found..." as the little yellow filly pointed in the direction the two beings stood at, there was nothing left. They seemingly teleported.

"What didja find?"

"But, they were right there!"

"What was right there Applebloom? Ya aren't makin' any sense!"

"But, the thing that helped us out of the forest last night, it was right there!"

"Yeah! There was even another one. It told us that the thing that helped us was called "Templar"!"

"That's enough! Now we're going back to the farm where you'll help us with the apple buckin'. Ya three are still grounded, don't forget."

"Yes m'am." the three fillies said in disappointment.

Back in the forest, the group had deactivated their cloaking systems and were waiting near the ship.

"...all data sent?"

The bodyguards expulsed steam as confirmation.

"Good. This time, we'll travel through the forest and catalogue everything we find. I just LOVE treasure hunting! If I'm lucky, I might find a dragon's egg in an abandoned nest. I won't steal one. It's against my principles."

After his personal pep-talk, Steamlord looked up at the sky after hearing the cracking of thunder. It was getting darker.

"Damn. Well, a little rain never hurt anyone. Let's go!"

Traveling through the forest and keeping his MPWG activated for more accurate scannings of the area proved extremely useful and amusing. A strange creature in the stream estranged the man. It looked like a purple sea serpent with a mustache and well-groomed hair.

"I'm sure the Scottish would have loved to sea that." he thought to himself while chuckling at his own terrible pun.

As they continued through the forest, they spotted a field full of multiple flowers in what looked like a crater. There was a little tower of stones made there, and, on these stones was what looked like a sentient plant. It had several heads which looked like various carnivorous plants. However, as one of the larger heads looked around, it spotted the group and growled. Keeping his calm, the man stared the beast down, then walked away. This looked like a safe haven for that strange creature, and he wouldn't bother it any longer than necessary.

A few short steps away, and Steamlord saw a cavern carved into the side of a mountain. Luckily, it wasn't very high, and a few minutes of climbing would allow him to reach it. Escaping the soon to come rain was only for seeing what lived within the caverns of this new world. It took another stroll through the forest, upon which yet another Scorpios crossed paths with the group. However, this one backed off carefully. It knew, somehow, about what happened to one of its kin because of these beings, and preferred to not get the same fate. The man laughed, and hurried to the cave as the deluge of water started to punch the land below it. Finally inside the cave after climbing, the inventor had to lean against the wall and catch his breath while Hospitaller and Teutonic automatically turned around and started to scout the inside of the cavern.

The view of the forest was similar to a rainforest now. One could even clearly see the devastation Steamlord's ship did to the forest as several trees lay scattered throughout the forest after being thrown away.

"Pfooo. I hate climbing. Running is one thing...but climbing...that's just too much. Templar, activate your cross-lights..."

The bodyguard did as told, and the cross on "its chest, along with the other red portions of its body lit up almost immediately.

"Ah. That's better. Thank you." the other two bodyguards quickly returned. "Did you find anything Teutonic?" The robot shook its head. "Shoot. Well, let's explore further down the maw of the warp then, shall we?"

The group, now accompanied by Templar's lights, was better at finding things in this cavern. There were spiders, strange snakes, humidity, and all the typical things found within a cavern. Except for the sound of sniffing that started to echo throughout this abnormally huge place.

"What the? Let's track down that sound."

The group soon started to follow the sounds made by whatever creature was the source, and ignored smaller tunnels as the sounds seemed to be only coming from the larger portions. Steamlord signaled his bodyguards to halt and stay behind the wall. As they watched the surrounding area, the man peeked around a corner to see a gigantic monstrosity. He immediately hid back behind the wall.

"A dragon?! Shit! But...why is it sniffing? Does it have a cold?"

Taking another peek around the corner of the humid cavern wall, Steamlord saw a tiny, bright yellow thing rolled up against the massive green giant. There was something wrong here.

"What? I better scan the giant with the MPWG."

Scannings revealed that, to the worst fears of Steamlord, the fully grown dragon was dead for a few days already. Scanning of the yellow ball near it showed the creature to be a "baby" by dragon terms. SHE was, after all, fourteen years old already, if scans were correct.

"Shit. She's considerably weakened. If these biological charts are correct, then she hasn't eaten or drank for five days! Wow, I thought she would've been dead by three without drinking. *sigh*. I can't leave her here."

The inventor stood up and walked slowly towards the rounded body of the dead dragon, as he approached the baby who was quietly crying, but still sniffing loudly. He was amazed to see that the baby was very tiny. He was even more amazed when he looked at the adult. "It's amazing how such small beings become such giants." he thought to himself.

Before he could explain it, he had already crouched down and picked up the weakened creature. She started to try and fight the clutches of the monster taking her away from her parent, but she was too weak to fight it as she was given the chance to look one last time at her father, her tears sliding off the hands of her captor as her head lay down calmly on the beast's arms. She heard something being muttered by the creature but only managed to make out "Rest in peace." She felt herself fading away as three more unfamiliar beings walked towards her holder. They each emitted a cloud of steam, and she found herself moving at incredible speeds even though she wouldn't move or bounce.

She was not flying in the air. No, she was still near the ground, but the sight of the outside helped calm herself. The little dragon was passed temporarily to one of the beings who was mostly white with strange black shapes on it. This one jumped off the cliff and slammed it's right hand into the cliff wall in order to slide down unhindered. Upon landing on the ground, the other three figures soon followed, and the little dragon was placed back in the arms of her initial captor. The passage through the forest was a quick one, but everything was starting to black out. Without realizing it, she found herself being put on something very comfy as another weird cup-like object placed itself on her face. The little dragon felt something sharp pierce her arms, and some weird cold thing entered her body. She couldn't stay awake any longer, and soon passed out due to sheer fatigue.

Author's Note

this.

This was placed before the moment Inventor approached the dead dragon.