Crisis In Equestria

When Crisis rebooted, he rose immediately, taking in his surroundings. The machine analysed the situation for a correct resolve. The free will simply panicked.

He was in a crude cage, housed within a dusty building. A single word rose to mind; Agriculture.

The cage was badly made, formed from strips of wood. For a small animal it would have made a satisfactory prison. Crisis, however, was no small animal.

"Ah wouldn't do that if ah were you." came a voice from the corner. Sitting on one of the hay bales was the creature that knocked him out. An orange equine sporting a hat and a scowl that would have curdled milk.

Despite the fact that the creature posed no threat, Crisis stopped, and turned to listen to her.

"Jist you wait till twahlight gits here!"  AJ said, her eyes unblinking. "She'll know what to do with ya." Applejack felt cruel about keeping the thing locked up, but her mind kept returning to those blades, and Applebloom.

Kill her. Crisis recoiled in shock. The machine was telling him to break out and kill her. The free will was horrified. Luckily for AJ, Crisis had no intentions of causing harm. He sat within the cage staring at her, as his logic circuits worked themselves into a frenzy.

"Can yah talk?"

"Ye..." Crisis began, before realising the free will was speaking. He reverted to cold speech.

"I am capable of communicating with other sentient beings."

"What's that mean?"

Crisis tried to fight it, then lapsed into natural speech.

"It means that I can talk."

A question formed in his mind.

"Who is Twilight?"

Applejack studied him carefully before replying. "She's the best wizard this side of Canterlot."

Crisis realised that part of him was enjoying this exchange. He silenced it. There was no point staying here, not when there was a danger of being confronted by "Twilight".

With a small burst of flame, he blasted through the cage, then the barn roof before controlling his flight path, and accelerating into the distance. The sound barrier was left in tatters as he sonic boomed across Ponyville.

Applejack stood and stared at the hole in the roof, her mouth agape. This was NOT good. Not good at all.

Crisis soared across Ponyville, relaxing in flight, and allowing himself to be free from restriction. Surprisingly, instead of leaving the town, he found himself circling it, and flying over the expanse. There was something about the way the creatures lived that was incredible. The peaceful, friendly lifestyle, and though he was kicking himself for thinking this...

Crisis longed to join them.

The machine had other ideas. It interrupted him as he soared across the town to bring up his radar. There was something following his tail, and boy was it fast.

Rainbow Dash was furious. Who the hell was this guy?!! A rejected wonderbolt? A royal flyer? Well whoever it was, they'd just managed to pull off a sonic rainboom...

Minus the rainbow!

Dash increased her speed and began to catch the aero-imposter.

Twilight and Applejack stood together in the barn. "It flew up through there!" announced AJ, "Jist crashed straight through!"

"This is incredible!" replied Twilight. "I've never seen one before! I always thought they were just an old mare's tale."

"Mirror walker you say?" inquired Applejack, a look of confusion upon her face.

"They appear from nowhere, then cause chaos!" Twilight replied, smiling. "They're harmless really. I can't believe I'm finally going to see one!"

"Harmless!!?" AJ exclaimed. "This "mirror walker" was ahhmed with gahnt blades!"

"The book never said anything about giant blades..." Replied Twilight, deep in thought. She thought for a second, then made up her mind. "Split up, and search the town. AJ, you handle the south, and I'll search the north!"

"Sure thing sugarcube," muttered AJ. "Ah want me a second round with that thing..."

Crisis was in trouble. The blue creature was almost upon him. It was faster than he first imagined, a skilled flier even without jets!

Something about the way it chased him relentlessly made him feel amazed. It also made him secretly envious of the creature, it's natural flight and thoughts completely free of commands and directives.

 If he hit full nitro, then he'd easily leave her in the dust, however it would drain energy, and weaken him for hours. It would be impossible to outmanoeuvre her, not at this speed, and weaponry was completely out of the question. There was no way that Crisis wanted to hurt that persistent blue creature!

Rainbow was so close, yet so far. She wasn't sure how long she could continue flying at this speed, yet she was nearly next to the silver blur that had evaded her for the past few minutes. By now, the sky chase had a huge audience, as the ponies below stopped to watch Rainbow and the metallic stranger.

Among the crowd members, was Twilight Sparkle. She had no idea that mirror walkers could fly, but that didn't deter her. Her horn glowed as she sent a costly psychic message to Rainbow saying;

Catch it at all costs!

Rainbow lost concentration, as a message appeared in her mind. "What does she think I'm doing, playing pin the tail on the pony?" muttered Rainbow sarcastically as she grew ever closer to the stranger. And lost him completely.

Crisis couldn't take it any more, the blue equine was too close. He engaged full nitro, and hit first nitro 1,   then 2, then 3... Until at last his engines hit nitro 9. Crisis released his dampners, and blasted into the distance, leaving only a strong headwind, and a smell of burning.

"Now that's just cheating!" cursed Rainbow, as the stress caught up with her, and she flew to a stop, wings aching from the extended flight.

Crisis streamed across the landscape at impossible speeds, his boosters hitting full velocity. The machine told him to stop, and to land somewhere hidden.

The emotion told him to keep going, and unfortunately this time it won.

He looped far into the distance enjoying the flight, yet strangely longing for the thrill of the chase he'd just escaped from. With the emotion side possessing his body fully, and for the first time muffling the machine, Crisis was unable to check his status. Big mistake.

Crisis' jet engines cut out, and he lost power rapidly, an action that shut down his components. His last memory was of falling, and then blacking out.

For the third time that eventful day he had shut down. If there was one thing that he could say about free will, was that it's taxing.

Rainbow hovered above the ground, her aching wings begging to land. She was furious, who the hell was this guy? How could he possibly overtake her!?

Thats when she saw the diminishing speck begin to rapidly fall, reminding her of Rarity in the best young flyer's competition.

"Heh, looks like I'm not the only one who gets tired!" Rainbow called down to Twilight. "That silver loser just crash landed!"

"Where?! Where did it land?!" Asked Twilight, trying to make out the speck.

"Looks like the edge of the everfree forest to me!" shouted Rainbow. She began to glide towards the ground.

"It's too dark to search today..." Twilight muttered. "We'll have to go tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me!" yawned Rainbow. "I'm gonna need one hell of a nap after that flight!"

Fluttershy skipped through the forest, closely followed by her critter friends. It was getting late, so she would have to hurry. A branch had fallen on a birds nest, and she needed to get the baby birds to her house for treatment.

It was then that one of the animals, (A squirrel) noticed something out of the ordinary. The setting sun was reflecting off of a heap of metal, alone lying just outside the everfree forest.

"Huh? What's wrong hazel?" Fluttershy asked in her quiet nervous voice. "Are you hurt!?"

The squirrel pointed at the heap of metal.

Fluttershy's eyes grew wide as she too noticed the crumpled body of Crisis.

He twitched slightly, as a motor self tested.

It looks hurt... Fluttershy thought to herself, instantly worried for it's wellbeing. She rushed over to help him, regardless of what he was or the danger she could be in.

Then again, that was Fluttershy.

TO BE CONTINUED

Next time:

As AJ turned, she had noticed a blackened patch of grass. There were drag marks leading off from the spot. There were also...

"Footprints?" Rainbow wondered aloud. "But the only person who lives around here is..."

All three ponies turned to look at each other.

"Fluttershy!" gasped Twilight.

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed. "Oh she didn't..."