Chapters 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..."
A prefab concrete warehouse. Endlessly churning factories. Groups andd groups of young machines. Innocence? Ignorance? These were the things that Crisis dreamed about as his power slowly restored. The first of his memories were beginning to return.
Twilight, AJ and Rainbow had scoured the entire perimeter of the everfree forest searching for;
"A heartless villian!"
"A rare creature!"
"A cheating rival!"
In other words, Crisis. They had been looking since sunrise, and it was fast approaching midday.
"Ah bet it fell raht into the everfree forest.." muttered Applejack, as the trio searched in vain.
"No way!" Rainbow protested, "I told you a thousand times! It landed on the outskirts!"
She glared at AJ. The searching had made Applejack and Rainbow Dash cranky, and this was starting to look like yet another argument.
Before the two could get started on another shouting match, Twilight butted in.
"Girls! We still haven't tried north east. We should search there."
The farmer and the pegasus eased off and turned to follow Twilight, when suddenly...
"Ah've found it!!"
As AJ turned she had noticed a blackened patch of grass. There were drag marks leading off from the spot, and also...
"Footprints?" Rainbow wondered aloud. "But the only person who lives around here is..."
All three ponies turned to look at each other.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight gasped.
Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Oh she didn't..."
"That monster must've tricked her!" Applejack pointed out.
"In that case, we've got to hurry! She might be in danger!" Twilight shouted to the others, as she began to sprint north towards Fluttershy's cottage. AJ and Rainbow followed suit.
Crisis booted up. Power levels were normal, crash damage was repaired, free will was...
Still there, like a candle in the dark.
Crisis analysed his surroundings; He was in a small wooden room, wrapped in a thick patchwork quilt. He pushed the quilt to the floor and sat up. A tiny window in the corner showed that he was on the outskirts of the forest, a place that...
Yet again, Crisis suprised himself.
The forest scared him. That was the free will talking, the machine on the other hand put forward a more convincing argument about the forest's danger.
There were high levels of GR energy within the forest. That explained the danger.
GR energy was volatile, erratic and extremely high concentrate. In other words, whatever was emiting that energy was very powerful.
Suddenly, he heard something. There was a light patter of footsteps approaching the room he was in. Crisis extended his hidden wrist blade. Better safe than sorry.
Fluttershy had been feeding the other animals, when she heard the sounds of the strange creature waking. After taking it home, she'd done her best to wake it up, but to no avail. It was unlike any animal she'd ever seen before!
The creature was silver in colour, and cold to the touch. It had no fur, no eyes and no mouth that she could see, just one strip running across it's head. The creature also didn't appear in any of her animal books. Whatver the creature was, it was rare.
She opened the door slowly, so as not to startle it.
Crisis watched carefully as a yellow creature with twirling pink hair entered the room. Body language indicated fear, or unrest, and it moved slowly. The hidden blade retreated. There was no danger; the creature was clearly terrified.
"Good morning sleepy head!" fluttershy called softly to Crisis.
For a split second, machine and free will fought furiously over which would speak. This time, emotion won.
"Good morning. Where am I?" Crisis spoke, trying to remove the machine's influence on his voice. Unlike the others he had talked to, this did not have the desired effect.
Instantly, Fluttershy froze up, a look of shock on her face. She hadn't expected it to talk! If it could talk, then that meant it wasn't an animal! She could talk to animals fine, but people...
She turned red from embarassement, and her shyness stuck out. "You...," she whispered, "you.. you can t... talk?"
"Yes," Crisis replied. "I am able to talk." He was trying his hardest to make a good impression on the yellow creature, and it clearly wasn't working. Fluttershy was terrified! Maybe he was speaking too harshly...
He adjusted his voice to sound more like her, adding in pauses and speaking softly.
"You seem scared. Is.. is everything okay?"
Fluttershy was only able to squeak in return. The gravity of the situation had hit her, as she finally realised what she was talking to.
A tall.. intimidating..
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on her door.
"Illjustgetthat!" Fluttershy squeaked, grateful for the interruption. She darted from the room, leaving Crisis confused.
Fluttershy answered the door, and was instantly knocked to thee ground by Rainbow Dash. Rainbow noticed who she had tackled, and flew into the air.
"Sorry Fluttershy, I thought you were that cheater!"
Rainbow was followed in by Twilight and Applejack.
"Ooh," Fluttershy said softly, "visitors. Yay."
She smiled happily at the trio, but was met by stoney faces.
"Where's it at Fluttershy?" AJ asked.
"Where's what at?" replied Fluttershy, a look of confusion on her face.
"That flying loser!" shouted Rainbow. "The one who thinks it's funny to cheat! When I get my hooves on him..."
"Not before me!" Yelled AJ. "That there monster threatened Applebloom!"
"Girls!" Twilight interjected before yet another argument developed. "I'm sure there's an explanation for both those things, but first we have to find it, and talk to it. Fluttershy, did you find a silver creature near the everfree forest?"
"Oh yes Twilight!" Fluttershy sang happily. "The poor thing looked hurt, so I took him in." Her voice became more concerned. "Except, I don't think he's an animal at all..."
"That's cause he aint," muttered Applejack. "He's some sort of... evil... being..."
"We don't know that AJ," said Twilight, sounding irritated. "We shouldn't judge it until we've talked to it. So, where is it Fluttershy?"
"It's in the back room," The yellow pegasus replied.
All four ponies turned to look at the bedrom door. "Okay," gulped Twilight. "It's time to solve this mystery once and for all..."
She raised a hoof, and pushed the door open.
Standing alongside the bed, in a fighting stance was the creature they had all been seeking.
Crisis.
Rainbow Dash immediately flew across the room, tackling him to the ground. Twilight and AJ rushed over to join her, leaving Fluttershy standing alone in the doorway.
"P... please be careful," she begged. "Don't hurt it..."
"Alright wise guy!" snarled Rainbow, pinning Crisis to the ground. "Your game is up! Who are you?!"
Twilight pushed rainbow off him. "Come on girls, lets be civil." She then adressed Crisis. "You've got some explaining to do! Who are you? What are you? Why are you here?
Crisis spoke with no emotion this time, he was worried by the aggression he sensed in these creatures. "I am Starfuel unit 774273 code named Crisis. I have no memory of my origins or purpose on this planet."
"No memories?" Twilight asked.
"Well why did ya'll threaten my kid sister?!" asked AJ indignantly.
"I have no memory of threatening any of this planet's species."
"You don't remember much do you?"
Twilight and Applejack looked over at Rainbow. She was scowling intently at Crisis.
"My memories were damaged in an explosion during my decent to this planet. They will finish restoring in time."
"But until then, you're lost." said Twilight sadly, a look of pity on her face.
"Don't tell me you're on his side!" Rainbow protested, sensing the sympathy in Twilight's voice. "He might be lying! He's dangerous!"
"Ah hate to say it, but this time ah agree with Rainbow Dash." AJ said, looking at Twilight. "Who knows what that thing is?"
"Um.. if... maybe..."
The trio turned to see Fluttershy nervously trying to speak.
"Maybe.. that is to say... perhaps... he's just.... lonely."
Twilight thought carefully. Finally, she looked up at the group. "I agree with Fluttershy. We shouldn't judge him this early on."
"Crisis," she spoke directly to the silver warrior. "What do you want to do?"
To complete the objective, and avoid corruption through conflict said the machine.
To be part of something, said the emotion.
"To be alone," said Crisis. This time, the machine side was right. He couldnt risk the mission failing.
Twilight's face fell. "Okay Crisis, you're free now. None of us will chase you anymore. She sounded defeated.
She felt defeated.
Applejack, on the other hand, felt shocked. "You're just letting him go??!!"
"Yes," Twilight replied, and she moved aside to let Crisis past. "It's not up to us. It's up to him."
Crisis strode past her toward freedom. There was one more obstacle however. Fluttershy.
Eyes wide an teary, she looked up at Crisis. "Please don't go." she whispered. Her kind nature picked up on something, despite Crisis' cold appearance and nature...
He was lonely.
Crisis hesitated, then walked past the weepy pegasus, and out the front door.
The machine was right. There was no time for friendship.
Before he left however, the metal figure turned, and looked at the assembled ponies, before uttering one word.
"Sorry."
Then he was gone.
The four stood in silence for a few minutes, before AJ finally spoke up. "Ah feel sorry for that thing."
"Me too," replied Twilight, sighing. "I think we should ask Celestia for some advice. If there's anyone who'll know what to do, It's her."
Satisfied, AJ and Twilight left the cottage, accompanied by a still teary Fluttershy.
Rainbow was not convinced. So he's managed to trick them with his cheater magic, that still doesn't change the fact that he could be dangerous.
She left the cottage, and flew into the still sky. All I have to do..
Is prove that it's dangerous!
Part of her wondered if maybe she was only doing this out of spite, but she tried to ignore this fact as she followed the low flying Crisis.
Crisis was thinking about a number of things; The confrontation with those creatures, these new found feelings and in particular...
Himself.
He knew from an internal database that he was a Biomech, so that meant that at one point he had been small.
Biomech were built as "children", then sent into the universe to absorb energy, and gain experience. They energy intake would prompt growth in nanobots, and in Crisis himself, thus saving his creators vast amounts of money.
Young Biomech lacked instructions, and just flew naively from planet to planet, gaining experience the hard way. They had young minds, that were overridden as the child reached full size.
Being small... there were other memories there, but it was almost as if they had been badly plastered over. Erased, or at least an attempt at erasing. All biomech had their memories blocked when they grew to full size, but Crisis had no idea why this was. Strangely, he could feel cracks in the plaster. Maybe these memories would return alongside his objectives.
His emotional side cried out in sadness. What was he? Why was he here? Where were his creators?
Emotions were hard work, he realised as his thoughts continued.
But they were worth it.
Spike, was going through a thought process not unlike that of Crisis. He was sitting on a fallen tree, watching as a group of dragons flew overhead in an ordered formation.
A part of him wished he was up there with them.
Of course, he loved his adoptive family; the six ponies he had lived around since his time in ponyville were an irreplaceable part of his life. They cared for him, and helped him through both easy, and hard times.
Still though, Spike wanted to meet other dragons, and not foolish ones like he had met during the migration.
He wanted to visit the mighty kingdom of Whitewing. Whitewing was one of the only known dragon empires, and this in itself was amazing. Dragons were either solitary, or part of a clan, and so a city of dragons was usually unheard of. Unlike the various clan dragons, Whitewing dragons were civilised, and were in many ways not unlike the ponies of Equestria. In fact, King Whitewing himself was an age old friend of princess Celestia, and as a result, Equestria and Whitewing were great allies.
There was however, still a level of secrecy upheld even in Whitewing, meaning that little was known about it. Spike longed to go there, even if only for a day.
"Huh, but I can't leave Ponyville without Twilight's company," Spike muttered tp himself. "And theres no way she'd let me visit whitewing..."
That's when Spike noticed movement behind him. A metallic figure stood against the hill behind him, sunlight relecting off it's alloy body. It was a majestic sight, uniform metal against wild, free nature. Standing out, yet blending in. Spike could only stare in shock.
As for Crisis, he had only stopped to analyse the strange creature before him. It was a reptile of some kind his database decided. Too small to pose a threat, and most likely unintelligent.
So Crisis was slightly suprised when the baby dragon spoke.
"Uh.. who are you"
For what felt like the thousandth time, he related his identification.
"Starfuel unit 774273, code named Crisis."
The same old designation. Why not just call himself Crisis? His serial number meant nothing to the reptile.
Also, Crisis had a nice ring to it.
Wow.. thought Spike. This thing is weird. He'd never seen anything like it, even through Twilight's seemingly endless supply of books. He looked carefully at Crisis, before turning away to watch the last dragons vanish over the horizon. Whatever this metal thing was, it seemed to be a one off.
Like him. Spike held back tears. Why couldnt he just be a pony like his friends? Why did he have to be the odd one out? The last dragon disappeared over the horizon.
Crisis was also watching as the last dragon vanished. The pair remained in silence for some time, before Crisis finally spoke.
"Why are you not with your kind?"
Spike instantly looked up, stunned by Crisis' statement. He thought for a while before replying.
"My... my kind live in this town. I guess I'm more of a pony than a dragon..."
Pony: Young horse. Resemblance to the creatures Crisis had previously spoken to. So they were called ponies. The machine refused to note this fact, however the emotion noted it with ease. Then the two sides returned to fighting. Crisis examined Spike. "You are alone in your species."
"Yeah..." replied Spike. Don't get me wrong, I love Ponyville. It's just... sometimes I feel that I'm the odd one out. That I'm not... wanted."
"I see." said Crisis. There was more silence.
"I'm probably wrong," said Spike. He looked up from the ground, at Crisis. "Still though, It would be nice to meet other dragons. Whitewing dragons that is."
"I could take you."
"What!!?" both Spike, and the machine side exclaimed. The machine horrified, Spike delighted.
"To the Dragons. You could fly with me."
"I... I..." Spike was torn. He wanted to go to whitewing and meet other dragons, but he felt guilty about not telling Twilight. she was his closest friend... almost a sister. Then again... It's not as if he'd be gone long... just a couple of hours, then back in time for dinner. Twilight would never know!
"Okay!" said Spike, a determined look on his face. "I'll go."
Crisis nodded. He had finally made a connection with someone. Him and Spike were both out of place here. They were both alone, in species. Crisis' emotional side noted something else about him and Spike. They were now friends.
The baby dragon leapt aboard Crisis' cold alloy back, and then Crisis engaged his boosters. Twin scramjets launched him into the air, and far into the distance.
Spike was amazed; he'd never seen anything this advanced. He'd also never flown this smoothly, and efficiently. Still though, his thoughts kept returning to his friends, and how they would worry if he wasn't back on time.
It'll be okay... though Spike. Twilight would never find out that he was gone, after all, nopony was watching.
However he was wrong.
Somepony was watching. A brightly coloured pegasus...
With a look of horror on her face.
TO BE CONTINUED
The next thing he knew, the unicorns fired parallel beams of light that overpowered his armour and blasted him backwards.
His energometer responded to the attack by analysing. GR energy, and in large amounts too. The ponies had the upper hand, or rather...
Hoof.
"He what!?!" Twilight exclaimed in horror, as Rainbow told her where Spike was.
"That 'Crisis' guy took him!" Rainbow explained again. She herself was shocked at seeing Spike leave, after all, he was part of the family!
Tears welled in Twilight's eyes. "Why would Spike want to leave?" she wept.
It seemed that the details of Spike's trip had been lost in translation, Rainbow had been quite far away when the conversation happened between Spike and his new friend. Now everypony thought Spike was leaving permanently!
All of Twilight's friends were gathered in the library. They had dropped their various tasks the moment they heard about Spike leaving.
"If he was planning on leaving, then why didn't he tell me??" cried Twilight as Rarity comforted her.
"Because he was persuaded to leave!" Rainbow Dash said bitterly. "Crisis must have tricked him into going!"
"Well one things for shure!" Applejack said, glaring at the other ponies. "We've gotta get Spahk back!"
"I agree!" Rarity whined. "Oh I do hope he hasn't hurt my poor little spikey-wikey!"
"I was such a fool," said Twilight, staring into space. "I should never have let Crisis go... Spike would never leave on his own... Crisis must have done something!"
"Well what're we all waitin here for?" called AJ, pushing the front door open. "Let's go!"
"Oki doki loki!" shouted Pinkie Pie. Being Pinkie Pie, she hadn't really realised the full gravity of the situation.
The others however had.
Spike was feeling nervous and guilty. Maybe he should have told someone before he left... He looked behind him at the empty blue sky. Crisis hadn't reached Whitewing yet, and they were still cruising miles above the ground.
He hadn't realised how far Whitewing was from Ponyville... At this rate he'd have barely any time to spend there before he would have to return!
"Umm Crisis?" he asked, "Are you sure we'll have time to fly back?
"Fly back where?" Crisis replied, feeling confused.
"To... to Ponyville..."
"Why would we need to return there?" Crisis enquired.
"Wha!!!" Spike gasped. "That was the plan wasn't it?!!"
"Negative," Crisis replied. "I thought you wanted to find more dragons."
"Not permanently!!!!" Exclaimed Spike.
Crisis flew to a halt, hovering high above the ground. He felt concerned for his new friend. He was a dragon, why would he want to be among ponies?
This idea of family confused Crisis, but then again, after spending years alone in the emptiness of space, he wasn't exactly used to company.
"I apologise Spike. Do you want to return to Ponyville?"
"Yes... Please," Spike gasped. He could now see the stupidity of this situation. What was he thinking?! Twilight and the others would be searching all over for him!!
Crisis turned and sped off in the opposite direction. He felt slightly envious of Spike's family, and connection with Ponyville. Spike had a home. A purpose.
The two friends were both silent. Eventually Spike spoke up.
"You know, you're pretty clueless for a super advanced warrior aren't you?"
Crisis laughed along with Spike until he realised he was laughing alone.Something had caught Spike's eye. There was something ahead, flying towards them.
"Rainbow...?" he began but before he could finish, the pegasus swooped in, snatching him off Crisis' back.
She then carried Spike to a group of ponies on the ground.
Puzzled, Crisis turned to follow, only to be tackled out of the air by a rainbow blur. He wasn't expecting the tackle, and so he didn't have time to stabilise himself crashing unceremoniously to the ground.
Rainbow flew down to join the other ponies.
"Crisis!" Twilight shouted. "I trusted you! Why did you kidnap Spike?!!"
Kidnap? Crisis thought. Why did they think he'd kidnapped Spike. He felt envious again, as the other ponies fussed over Spike.
The only pony not riled up was Fluttershy. She just kicked at the ground, hoping desperately that there wouldn't be any fighting.
Unfortunately for her, there was.
"Wait Twilight..." Spike tried to say.
The other ponies didn't hear him, as they moved into battle formation.
The machine attempted to engage Crisis' high tech weaponry, but it was cut short by the emotion.
This battle would have to be fought without weapons.
Crisis couldn't bring himself to hurt the ponies, even as they prepared to capture him. There were however other options available...
"Listen girls, I think we should take him to Celestia. He's alone! He needs friends... Even if he doesnt realise it." Twilight said to the assembled group.
The other ponies agreed, Rainbow Dash reluctantly, as the group got into formation.
Unicorns up front, the earth ponies either side, Rainbow Dash above and...
Fluttershy? Behind the others.
Spike panicked. What had he done!!! He'd gotten Crisis into trouble, that's what...
Crisis himself prepared to fight. This battle would be difficult without weaponry, but he couldn't bring himself to harm the ponies. Besides, he thought to himself, I can still use some attacks...
What about after the battle though, he thought to himself. Where would he go afterwards? To Ponyville with them? To another city in this country? Or more likely...
Away. Alone. The curse of being a machine.
His thoughts were interrupted by two beams of light. He looked up to see the figureheads, (Twilight and another pony he did not know) charging some kind of attack. The two had glowing horns that were emitting an aura of light.
The next thing he knew, the unicorns fired parallel beams of light that overpowered his armour, and blasted him backwards.
His energometer responded to the attack by analysing. GR energy, and in large amounts too. The ponies had the upper hand, or rather...
Hoof.
His thought processes went into overdrive; GR energy was an exceptionally powerful high concentrate energy. How were these organic lifeforms using it?!
The machine urged him to fight back properly, guns blazing and lazers burning. The stronger, emotion urged him to stand his ground, after all.
He still had a secret weapon.
BLAM!! Rainbow flew into him, knocking him off balance and onto the ground where he felt something tighten around his waist.
A lasso. He was trapped.
Without blades, there was no way of escaping the rope that pinned his arms to his side.
The ponies began to congratulate themselves on a successful capture, before Twilight turned to Crisis.
"Don't worry Crisis," she said reassuringly, "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to help you out, so we're taking you to a friend of ours!"
"And don't chu even think bout trying to break out of that rope!" joked Applejack. "Apple family rope is the strongest you'll get."
The other ponies laughed.
Crisis lay, unspeaking.
Concerned, Twilight attempted to talk to him. "Listen Crisis, we think you need some help to discover who... who you truly are. Also, we can't have you running around causing chaos! We're not doing this to be mean... We just want to have a famil..."
She trailed off. Crisis was beginning to glow as heat surged through his body. His core temperature hit 400 degrees, and he burned straight through the rope.
In an instant, he was on his feet.
Crisis raised one of his arms at the stunned group, and released his charged attack.
"Glitter Freeze." he said.
Ice blue light shone around his hand, and then a steady stream of chilling sparks bombarded the group. As the grass beneath them turned to frost, and the air began to steam, Apple Jack attempted to tackle Crisis.
She was frozen where she stood, as were the other ponies.
And Spike. The baby dragon was caught in the attack. That was unfortunate but necessary, Crisis decided.
Satisfied, he turned to fly off. They would thaw in around 40 minutes, leaving him plenty of time to escape.
What Crisis was not expecting was a voice. A soft voice, turned angry.
"Don't you dare leave my friends like that!"
He looked back to see Fluttershy, standing alongside her frozen comrades. Tears were once again welling up in her eyes. She was at the back of the group, and so she hadn't been hit by his attack.
Crisis was shocked at the harshness he heard in her voice, and the emotional side of him wondered If maybe he'd gone too far.
Nevertheless, he had no purpose here. He once again turned to fly off, only...
He couldn't turn.
Crisis was locked into position staring directly into...
Fluttershy's eyes. She was staring intently at him, a frown appearing on her usually peaceful face.
Not only was Crisis frozen in place, but his logic circuits were going haywire. There was an energy transmission occurring, between Fluttershy and him, a transmission that slowly began to sap his power.
He felt weakened, and to make matters worse, it effected his visual input, causing static and pixelation.
It was something to do with her stare!
Crisis tried to avert his eyes, but couldn't. He was locked into position.
This was impossible! There was no detectable energy present, so what was happening?!
Finally, Fluttershy spoke, unblinking, and still staring like mad;
"I want you to help my friends."
The machine objected at first... then began to realise Crisis' predicament. If this went on any longer, then there could be some very negative side effects.
Who knew what kind of radiation might be coming from her eyes!
These ponies were still surprising him, first the GR beams, and now this!
Crisis finally realised that there was. No other option.
He emitted a cure-all pulse.
A transparent orange ring radiated from him, thawing the ice in an instant and reviving Fluttershy's friends. As the newly thawed ponies began to look around, disorientated, Fluttershy finally relinquished the stare.
Crisis fell to the ground, feeling the effects of the stare begin to disappear.
"Thank you." Fluttershy replied in her normal voice. She smiled happily at the metal warrior, as he kneeled.
"I'm sorry I had to use the stare on you Crisis, but I really wanted to help my friends! Please don't be mad..."
Crisis did not reply, nor respond as the other 5 ponies began to tie him up with Apple family rope.
For the first time in his life, Crisis had been defeated by something without galactic weaponry.
And he did not feel good about it.
The cutie mark crusaders were carefully examining a small rock.
"I'm telling you!" Sweetiebell exclaimed, "It's a fossil!"
The others were not convinced.
"Maybe an archelology cutie mark isn't for me..." said Applebloom. She couldn't even say archeology, much less do it.
The three fillies sighed. Then one of them noticed something.
"Hey," Scootaloo began. "Arent those your sisters?"
The orange pegasus gestured to a group of ponies getting closer.
"Y'all right Scootaloo!" Applebloom exclaimed. "It's mah sis!"
The crusaders ran to join the older ponies, when they noticed something.
The older group were walking with someone.
Or something.
"The evil knaaht!" Applebloom shouted with joy. "Mah sis captured the evil knaaht!"
Crisis was being led by the ponies, arms firmly secured by rope.
The machine was furious. Use weaponry! It shouted, trying to engage guns, knives missiles or anything to escape this humiliation.
The emotion blocked it's attempts easily. Emotion had been winning these battles a lot more, recently.
Still though, despite the passiveness of emotion, Crisis wanted to be free. It was taking ever ounce of his strength not to extend his blades, cut the rope and jet out of there.
Maybe he would have, if it wasn't for something Twilight had said earlier, as the group walked.
"We're going to take you to a friend of mine, Princess Celestia. She can help you to fit in, and become one of us."
One of us. Friendship, family. These were things that the emotional side craved, yet they weren't the reason he was staying.
Princess Celestia. That name resonated within him. He'd heard that name before. It had something to do with those blank "childhood" memories.
And Crisis wanted to know why.
The crusaders were worried at first, keeping their distance from Crisis, but they soon warmed to him as Twilight explained the past events.
"Ahm sorry Crahsis.." said Applebloom, kicking at the ground. "Ah just thought you were a baddie..."
The other crusaders also apologised, and so the group kept walking. Walking to the train station.
Heading to Canterlot.
Spike had tried his hardest to persuade his friends to release Crisis from the rope, but they weren't taking any chances.
"Sorry Spahk, but Ahm just afraid he might fly off."
"Well why not ask him then?" muttered Spike.
"Crisis," Rarity asked "Honestly darling, if we let you go... Would you fly away?"
Lie, the machine told him.
Truth, the emotion told him.
Crisis told the truth.
"Yes. If released, I would leave."
"Does that answer your question Spahk?" AJ asked, pulling the rope tighter.
The ponies boarded the train to Canterlot, leaving the crusaders at the station.
"Why can't we come with you?" Sweetiebell asked Rarity.
"I'm sorry dear," she replied, "but Canterlot is no place for fillys! We'll be back soon, I promise!"
The group boarded one of the train carriages. There were no other passengers on board, so the ponies could talk freely.
"So Crisis, what's your favourite, favourite, favourite best ever party game?!!"
Crisis did not respond, so Pinkie Pie continued;
"Mine's pin the tail on the pony! It's superiffic!"
Again Crisis did not respond.
Applejack sighed.
"What's up Crahsis?"
He acknowledged her, by turning his head, but did not respond.
Nervousness. That was new. This wasn't how he expected it to be... What if he said something wrong, and they all hated him? He felt like saying something, but what?
Instead the machine took over, and said nothing.
Twilight had an idea. "A soulgaze."
The other ponies looked up at her.
"A soul gaze might allow me to find out a lot more about Crisis." she turned to look at Crisis directly.
"For all we know, that thing might not even have a soul!" Rainbow Dash protested.
"Rainbow!" gasped AJ, "That's a terrible thing to say!"
"I didn't mean it as an insult.." pouted Ranbow. "I was just stating a fact!"
"Well, we'll know for sure now," muttered Twilight as she looked deep into Crisis.
As it turns out, Crisis did have a soul.
Who would have known.
Twilight looked deep into him, and felt dizzy as she entered his soul.
There was a room with two sides, both contrasting.
On the right side, there was a grassy floor, littered with flowers. That side of the room shone with light, for in it stood an Alicorn.
It was formed from pure rainbow, and it's body swam as it moved gracefully.
The other side of the room was different.
It was cold, emotionless and dark. There were no decorations and only one distinctive feature.
On that side of the room stood a figure, not unlike Crisis. The figure however, had skin instead of metal, and he was hidden behind dark glasses.
Contrasting mindsets. One cold and empty, the other bright and joyful...
Twilight wondered how anypony could live with this kind of conflict within them, but then again.
Crisis wasn't anypony. In fact...
He wasn't even a pony.
Twilight pulled out of the soulgaze, but continued to stare at Crisis.
The sooner they got him to Celestia the better.
As the train raced down the track, Crisis slowly began to get more and more involved in the group's conversation.
It stared with single words, but had progressed to full answers by the time they neared the station.
He listened to Rainbow describing her latest trick, Rarity describing a new dress and Pinkie describing...
Well to be honest, nopony really knew what Pinkie was describing.
Gradually, the conversation began to centre around Crisis, and he tried to answer the ponies' questions as well as he could.
"So..." asked Fluttershy, "What is your home like?"
"I've never had one. I was most likely built on some planet, but I have no memory of being there. I most likely hadn't been activated yet."
"Activated?" AJ asked, a look of confusion on her face. "Built?"
"I was created." Crisis looked out of the window at the rolling countryside as he spoke. "That much I remember."
"So, who created you? Do you have any family?" Twilight questioned.
"I have an owner, and a number of group-mates." the metal warrior replied, "but no actual family."
"So who taught you? Where did you learn all of those flying tricks? And the attacks! Who taught you those?" Rainbow exclaimed, swooping in the cramped space of the carriage.
"They were built into my coding. I have known them throughout my existence."
The ponies looked sadly at him. Eventually, Rarity spoke up;
"So what have you been doing all these years? Who was with you?"
"I travelled space alone, seeking planets." Crisis answered.
Suddenly, an announcement came through:
"Attention everypony! The train is now arriving in Canterlot!"
The ponies cheered, but Spike was not so joyous.
"Umm, Twilight," he said nervously, "Why is your brother testing his defence skills?"
"What?" Twilight replied, not understanding what Spike meant.
The baby dragon pointed at Canterlot. The city was surrounded by a purple shield.
"What the..." Twilight wondered aloud, "Why is there a..."
"Somethin must be up Twalight..." said AJ, pushing her signature hat back across her head.
The train passed through the shield, and everything within passed through as well.
Except one thing.
Crisis felt the raw power of the shield, as it prevented him from passing. The impenetrable purple wall pushed him back against the carriage wall...
And then straight through.
Crisis burst from the back of the train, leaving behind ruined carriages, and a trainfull of shocked equines.
The train continued into the safety of the bubble, leaving crisis alone on an empty track.
He pressed one metal hand to the shield, but he may as well have been pushing against a wall of steel.
It blocked his path and it blocked the ponies' mission.
But most of all, it blocked his feelings, and pushed the emotion back a notch.
He was not wanted here.
TO BE CONTINUED
Next time:
The silver alien ran through a list of attacks, before settling on something. "Watch and learn Spike," he said, trying to imitate the cockiness of Spikes voice.
Crisis raised both arms, and fired two missiles into the clear air, before flying up to join them. He directed the missiles to target him, then dodged and ducked to avoid them, his evasiveness systems easily avoiding them.
If the machine side could face palm, then it probably would have. Here he was a superadvanced machine, playing games to entertain someone.
The emotion applauded.
Celestia awoke, not to Luna's nudging, nor to her own body clock but to the last remnants of a dream circling her head. When a princess has a dream, it is usually always symbolic, and that was what scared Celestia the most. The dream she had awoken from was simple, a boiling red cloud rising from Equestria. The same dream she had been having the past week. Celestia could only guess at what it meant, yet there was one thing for certain; it was not good. To make matters worse, Dischord had once again escaped, his statue broken and hollow in the castle grounds. He was no doubt hiding in the everfree forest, biding his time.
The dreams however, they didn't involve Dischord. They involved something else, something light, uniform. Something metal.
A purple shield appeared around Canterlot, and an army of Pegasus guards dispersed from the castle to various points around Equestria.
Princess Celestia was not taking any chances.
Crisis was flying again. He entered the atmosphere, and began to head earthwards, cutting through the heat and friction generated across his alloy body. The booster rockets had engaged fully, and he could now see the green landscape below. He could also see the clusters of settlements across the green; towns, cities and even a castle. His logic circuits uploaded a note to his database:
Inhabitants: Sentient
Course of action: Destroy regardless
Crisis engaged his missiles, and prepared to attack. He felt no remorse, after all...
He was just a machine. Until the blast.
It happened in an instant, one minute he was descending normally, the next he was blinded by an explosion of colour that overpowered his senses, and frazzled his CPU. The blast sent him spiralling towards the green landscape that just seconds ago had seemed like such an easy target.
After that there was just the tiny humming from within his circuits as nanobots, began to repair the crash damage. It wasn't that serious, he'd been through worse. However, as the nanobots finished repairing the damage, something else glimmered within the wires. A tiny intruder worked into the machine. A tiny spark of beautiful shimmering rainbow, amongst so much metal.
"What do ya think it is?"
"Whatever it is, it's bad..."
"Look, It's waking up!"
Crisis rose from the crater he had formed, and took in his surroundings. He had crash landed after the blast, forming an impact crater. All of his systems were in working order, except....
Memories. There was a blank point where his memory banks hadn't finished loading. The crash must have knocked out his memories and, unfortunately, memories were the slowest at restoring. The basic functions were still fine, but the much more volatile recorded memories could take days to reload, and until then...
"Who.... Who are you mister?"
There was that voice again. Crisis' universal translator easily carried the voice into binary, enabling him to understand what was being said.
He turned to see three creatures staring intently at him, looks of concern upon their faces. They vaguely resembled equines, only with more developed features and...
Brighter colours.
The colours from his surroundings dazzled him in a way they had never achieved before. Everything seemed vivid, and full of life. As for the creature talking to him, it was yellow in colour with red hair, and shining green eyes. It was also quite clearly sentient.
Identify yourself, his logic circuits announced, but what came out was;
"Who... Are you?"
Crisis froze, shocked. What was that!? He had spoken differently, without the malice that usually possessed him. For the first time, he felt...
Free.
His computer systems were screaming at him to get back on track, however he felt another presence among all the circuits, free will.
The creature replied, seeming more at ease after Crisis spoke, almost as if his humanity comforted her.
"Ahm Applebloom, this here's Sweetiebell, and that there's Scootaloo! What about you?"
This time, Crisis was able to control himself, and he answered formally.
"Starfuel unit 774273, code named Crisis. State the current location"
For some reason, answering in that way felt wrong. Crisis longed to try out his new found voice, a voice filled with emotion and naturalism, however he opted to talk with authority, and tried to remain cold.
Applebloom seemed put off by the cold voice, and grew more nervous. What was this thing anyways?! It looked like a suit of armour, so maybe...
She gasped! It might be a dark night come to invade ponyville! There was no sword, but still... Another thing that unnerved her was the way it stood on two legs, appearing unnatural among the gathered ponies.
Determined to scare the intruder away, Applebloom lied;
"The locayshin is... Ahhngate!! Yeah, ahngate! This here's where all the strongest warriors in all of equestria come!"
"Irongate?" Crisis wondered aloud.
"Equestria?... Powerful warriors... POWERFUL WARRIORS!!"
It was then that Crisis realised something. The multicoloured explosion. Someone had shot him down!
Weapons systems engaging, Crisis became alert and paranoid. If they had weaponry of that caliber, then he was in trouble. He was still feeling the impact of that shot, and these new feelings of emotion and freedom had to be related to the blast in some way.
He had been shot down on a mission... A mission to do what though? Try as he might, the memories would not surface.
He turned to talk to Applebloom, only to find that she was gone. As his weapons engaged, missiles rising on his back, blades appearing along his arms, the three young ponies had galloped away in fear. Now, as they bolted, towards sweet apple acres, and the comfort of Applejack, there was only one thing on Applebloom's mind;
Ponyville was in danger.
Applejack was nearly finished for the day. She had bucked a whole field of apples, down to the last tree, and boy was it a big tree. It was bursting with apples of all different colours. That was the thing with Mixm trees, you never knew what you were gonna get. As AJ turned to buck the apples, she heard something that made her blood run cold. Somepony was screaming, and it sounded like...
"Applebloom? APPLEBLOOM!!!" called Applejack, eyes wide in panic.
The yellow filly was closely followed by Sweetybell and Scootaloo, both of whom had looks of terror on their faces.
Applejack rushed to them, and pulled the crusaders into a hug.
"What's wrong? What spooked you girls?"
The orange Pegasus spoke up, her normally confident voice shaking with fear. "There's someone or... someTHING trying to invade Equestria!"
"Invade Equestria?!!" Applejack replied, a look of shock upon her face. Her mind returned to the changelings, Discord and Nightmare moon. Surely there couldn't be something else trying to invade! The fillys must have just been over-reacting. Still though... A part of her believed them. Eventually, Applejack spoke in a low clear voice;
"You fillys go get Twilight, and the others. Ah'm gonna confront this beast!"
"But sis!" Applebloom protested, her thoughts returning to the sharpness of the blades on the thing's arms.
"No buts!" replied Applejack, "Now hurry and get the others!"
Crisis looked into the clear cloudless sky. He felt... different. More open, more natural, yet at the same time, he felt an internal conflict raging within him. The cold harsh machine fighting this new found emotion. It was hard to tell which side was winning. On the one hand, the machine wanted to recover its memories, and finish the mission without any contact, or hindrance.
The emotional side wanted to, and at this point Crisis felt surprised at himself; fly. The emotional half wanted to fly, and not just to get somewhere...
It wanted to fly for the sake of flying. For the sake of touching the sky. Quickly, Crisis banished this thought to the back of his CPU, only for it to be replaced by another thought. Now that the three creatures were gone... he felt...
Lonely. He wanted company, conversation and most of all, Crisis wanted to try out his new found feelings and humanity, and become...
Become what, friends? The machine part interjected. It's pointless! They're pointless!
Crisis, torn between mindsets stood on an outcropping rock and stared at the cloudless sky, wondering.
That was new. Wondering.
Applejack hurried through the orchards to the place crusaders told her about.
"It was a giant crater!" Sweetiebell exclaimed, "Like that time Rainbow messed up the triple twister!"
"She didn't mess it up!" protested Scootaloo, "The wind was too strong!"
By now AJ had reached a hilly part of field 65, and she could see for miles across the acres. There it was.
Just outside the farm was a blackened mark on the emerald grass. AJ hurried towards that spot, making sure to keep low.
It didn't look like a monster to her. It was staring intently at the sky, unmoving. Then again, she thought to herself, even the most harmless looking things could be dangerous.
It was then that she studied the thing's arms more carefully only to find that those ridges were actually...
Blades. Jutting outcrops of sharp metal, designed for war.
AJ was furious, rage building inside her, as she realised the level of danger the crusaders had been in.
"If that monster touched a hair on their heads..." she muttered. Well, it seemed that the crusaders were telling the truth. That thing was dangerous, and it could have dark plans for Equestria!
"Well that all ends here..." AJ muttered as she prepared a lasso. "That thing aint getting away..."
Crisis stared intently as, distantly, a winged creature flew slowly across the brilliant blue sky.
His memories had made little progress, and he predicted that it would be days before he found his purpose here. The machine told him to find a cave, a gully, anything and to sleep there until the memories returned. The new part of him, the emotional part was slightly different.
It wanted to fly, it wanted to swim, to explore and to take in the surroundings. But most of all it craved company. How many years had he been in the cold vaccume of space? That part he remembered; Flying from planet to planet on some forgotten mission. He'd never needed company before, in fact it had never even crossed his mind. Finally, Crisis broke his gaze at the sky, and made a decision. He'd find somewhere safe...
Then explore the surroundings. Compromise. Perfect.
It was then that he focused, and heard something behind him. A low twirling. Crisis turned, but it was already too late. The lasso looped over his head, and closed around his waist, leaving him at AJ's mercy.
"Okay partner!! Now y'all in trouble!". Applejack called out as she tightened the knot and pulled him in.
Crisis was able to cut through the rope easily, but unfortunately due to his clashing mindsets, his reactions were slowed.
AJ knocked him out cold with a single buck to the head. After all, apple trees and super villains were similar in that sense. It only took one buck.
Twilight sparkle was in the middle of a complex thaumic charging spell when she heard a familiar buzzing.
"Crusaders?" she wondered aloud.
Suddenly, there was a flurry of frantic knoUcks at her door. As Spike had the day off (and was most likely drooling over Rarity), Twilight had no other choice. Reluctantly she broke the spell and answered the door. She'd been so close that time...
Seeing the looks on the crusaders' faces, Twilight immediately dropped her own troubles and became worried.
"Ponies! What's wrong? What's going on?"
"There was a monster!" cried Applebloom,
"It had giant claws!!" Sweetybell exclaimed,
"It was gonna take over all of Equestria!" Scootaloo declared.
"Monster?" Twilight asked, "what kind of monster?" She searching her memory for what it could be.
If it had giant claws, then it could be an ursa minor... But an ursa minor wouldn't be interested in taking over Equestria...
"It was all silver, and shahny!" Said Applebloom, as she stared intently at Twilight. "AJ said she was gonna go get it! She told us to gather everypony!"
"Okay," said Twilight. "Fillys, go gather the others. I think Applejack is going to need all the help she can get!" Twilight had realised the creature that the description matched;
A mirror walker.
To be continued....
NEXT TIME:
"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 could 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."