Red Sky At Dawn

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Danger Zone
Chapter 2: The Wizard
Chapter 3: Crisis In Stringhalt
Chapter 4: The Family
Chapter 5: Capture And Flames
Chapter 6: Weaponisation
Chapter 7: Loose Ends
Chapter 8: A Dark Purpose

Chapter 1: The Danger Zone

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 1: The Danger Zone

Crisis.

Space. A cold empty vaccume, filled with dust, rock and radiation. My home, I guess if you could call it that. Now imagine a galactic freighter, slowly drifting into view, tiny metal men drifting around it, fixing, analysing the vast metal hull. Our owners were too weak to enter this desolate vaccume, yet we served them. It confused me.

I'd seen a stage 6 Biomech once. It was coated in talons, missiles the works. If our masters could control that, then they must have some advantage over us. Maybe I should explain myself first. That would make sense.

I'm a level 1 Biomech, identity code... Ah I keep forgetting that. It's just a load of useless numbers, not like my callsign. 'Crisis'. A good callsign, and one that I'm proud of. Just in case you don't know what a level 1 looks like, I'll do my best to describe it. I'm small compared to those around me, tiny in comparison to a level 6, minuscule in comparison to the ship. I'm still learning my capabilities though, and learning is hard. I can create sparks, that's a start. I still haven't learned to fly yet though.

That's why I'm here on the side of the ship, clinging desperately to the hull as my classmates push off and move childishly through the vaccume. Our teacher Luminum is staring at me.

"It is your turn 774273. Follow the others."

I remained clinging to the side of the ship. I couldn't drift like the others could, they could all catch the solar currents and move with ease but me...

"774273. It is your turn."

The other level 1s were already drifting away from the ship. I hated these lessons, why did I need them? When I learnt to fly, solar sailing would become redundant. I'd jet through space, outperforming all the others in my group. In all the groups. The waiting became too much for Luminum, and he flew closer. A stream of electricity from his hand shocked me off the side, and into space. I frantically tried to move, but to no avail. My frantic scrabbling and thrashing was ignored by Luminum, who flew to help the others. As he passed me, he spoke in a cold unforgiving voice. "You are a failure 774273."

Then I was left floating alone. The ship wasn't far off... If I could ride a heat stream to there then I could continue to frantically cling to the hull. I concentrated my CPU, and tried to remember what Luminum had taught me about locating the streams. In time, my senses would do that automatically, but for now I'd have to measure the temperature in search of heat. There was coldness around me in all directions, except... There was heat! A stream of solar energy! Feeling smug, I pushed myself into it, and allowed it to carry me. Big mistake. I should have noticed that it was too hot on the scale; this wasnt a solar stream, this was a solar tsunami! I was dragged into its current, frantically trying to disable my drift. I was getting further from the ship, the solar wind taking me away into the darkness.

"Luminum!" I called out in fear.

The teacher saw me, but turned away. "774273, you must learn to ride these winds the hard way. It is how machines work. You chose a stream that was too strong. Leave it."

A machine, that's what I was, and I was no failure. I came up with a plan, find a crosstream, ride that back to the ship and prove to Luminum and the others that I was not a failure! Okay, I thought to myself as the temperature monitor engaged, lets find a crosstream. There was no stream. I kept looking. Still no crosstream. The solar wave pulled me further and further from home. Still no crosstream. I looked up to find that the others were gone, in fact everything was gone. I'd been tugged away into the darkness by these rough solar winds that, even now, were pulling me away. I disengaged my drift, and floated alone in the void. Silence filled my audio receptors, and agoraphobia kicked in. There was nothing anywhere, just darkness! Massive empty dar...

And that's when I saw it. Behind me, was a blue ball. A perfect little orb, with milky white mixed into the deep blue. It was beautiful. It was also hope. I re-engaged my drift, I already had it figured out; land on the planet, hone my skills in a calm gravity enriched environment, return to the ship after that! Perfect!

The solar winds bought me closer, and closer to the ball until it wasn't a ball anymore. It was a colossus, filling the view in front of me, and now I could see green mixed in with the white and the blue. I could also see something else. I was coming in too fast! I disabled my drift, but to no avail, I'd left the solar winds and fallen straight into the clutches of this planet's gravity.

I got closer and closer and closer until... I was in the atmosphere, crying out as the friction burned me. Then I fell, with no jets, anigrav or anything to slow the fall. The green landscape below rushed up to meet me, and I closed my eyes, ready for the impact.

Then there was darkness.

A shooting star passed over the Equestrian nights sky, before vanishing over the horizon. Ponies across the country might have seen its clestial presence if it were not for the smothering grey clouds that coated the sky, blocking out all signs of the star.

Except, it wasn't a star that was flying past. It was something else altogether, something strange and unknown. Crisis had landed, in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Equestria was in a dictatorship, it's vast lands controlled by the merciless Shadow Stallion.

The sun began to rise, it's rays attempting to speak heat across the green landscape only to meet a wall of darkness.

The sky above those clouds was a deep red.

Crisis had landed.

I took in my surroundings; a field... Some trees... Looking good so far! I still felt rough from the crash, and looking at the scratches on my body, I could tell that the nanobots hadn't finished their work. The gravity was easy to adapt to, and the trees seemed to indicate that I picked a good planet to land on. Or rather fate had picked a good planet. Then I noticed something. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" I groaned aloud. There was a fence running along the length of the field, and fences meant...

"Civilisation..." I muttered. This was one of the worst things that could have happened! Even a desolate moon would be better than this! Civilisations had armies, and I wasn't exactly the cream if the crop in my group. I couldn't even solar glide... What was I going to do here? There was no way of leaving the planet until I learnt to fly, a process that could take months.

Typical. This was just my luck. Well there was no use sitting around moping all day, eventually someone or something would come along and see me. I kept imagining all the horrific species that could live here... Giant toothy monsters, horrific parasitic insects... Urgh...

Then I saw something overhead, moving steadily through the sky. A strange creature, with a brown feathered head, a beige body and wings. My database pinpointed it as something recognised. It strongly resembled a griffin, a mythical creature from my owner's history. The creature had almost flown past, when it stopped midair, and swerved towards me increasing its speed. I must have attracted it by reflecting the sunlight! My logic circuits thought furiously for a wat to handle this... and came back empty handed, I was on my own. I focused as hard as I could on creating lightning, small blue sparks dancing in one palm. If I could charge an attack...

The creature landed, and stepped towards me, speaking in a garbled language. My universal translator, one of the few gadgets I'd mastered, activated turning everything he said into binary, and everything I said into... Griffinese? Universal translators, self repair nanobots and an unlimited power source. There were definitely some bonuses to being a superweapon!

The griffin was rough and gnarled, with a scar running across the side of his face, and hatred in his eyes.

"What the..." he snarled, staring at me angrily.

"I... Come in peace?" I replied carefully. The griffin just stood there looking at me before commanding;

"Designation."

Wait, I could remember this... Come on Crisis! At last I remembered it. "774273" I related proudly. Nailed it. The griffin just looked blankly at me, before angrily snarling,

"I meant, what species are you!"

"Bio... Mech..." I replied carefully. This conversation was like flying through asteroids, and I was afraid of saying the wrong thing. Just play it safe, and tell the truth, I thought to myself. He won't be able to process what he doesn't know!

"All non protected species are to be taken in for identification." he smirked.

Rats. Didn't see that one coming... So now what? Do I go with him or try to escape? I chose the latter. It was the wrong choice. As I turned to run, a lasso tightened around my neck. There was something coming off it, some kind of poison. The poison had no effect on me but the dragging, on the other hand, did. The griffin pulled me to the ground, and stood over me.

"Show me your identification." he announced authoritatively. I looked back blankly at him.

"Didn't think so." he leered. "You and me are going for a little walk!"

This is why I didn't want civilisation... I thought to myself, as I was dragged off by the guard. My first planet, and I'd already been arrested.

He dragged me for a while, before ordering me onto my feet. We walked the rest of the way, until reaching a town, cramped and uneven and filled with creatures similar to griffins. In fact, the creatures strongly resembled... Nah, couldn't be. Ponies? Brightly coloured ponies? Another thing I noticed was that hanging from every lamppost was a dark banner, a crest adorned on it. The banners rustled in a small wind, and seemed to symbolise something dark.

The guard pushed me into a building filled with cages, most of which were taken up by a vast assortment of strange animals. Some were trying to reason with the guards, while others were just growling.

"Check out this one," my captor snarled at a pony sitting behind a desk. "You ever seen anything like it?"

The pony looked up, and I was horrified to see that it also looked war torn. He thought for a minute before replying; "Never. Is it intelligent?"

"You can see for yourself!" the griffin replied, kicking me to the floor. "Now where's the reward?"

A bag was exchanged between the two, and the griffin examined the contents. "Four lousy bits?" he cried angrily. Next time I might not bother! He turned away angrily, and left me alone with the pony... and all those cages. The sound of the animals, and the awareness that the intelligent ones were watching this exchange unnerved me. I had to prove myself a wary foe!

The pony examined a piece of paper... wow these guys were shockingly similar to my masters. Eventually he asked me, "Can you talk?"

I held off from answering, and he sighed putting pen to paper. That's when I chose my moment to speak, "You know, when I'm a level 2 you'll regret this."

He looked up surprised, just the effect I had hoped. The look didn't last long. "Okay," he replied, once again confident, "That's a good enough answer. What about species eh? What species are you?"

I thought carefully. Lie? No, I may as well tell the truth, he wouldn't have heard of a Biomech anyway. "I'm a Biomech," I answered.

"Biomech?" the pony said quizzically, a horrible smile still on his face. "That's a new one. So you Biomech, what abilities have you got?"

Abilities? Somehow I didn't think that he'd take solar drifting as an answer. "Define... Abilities..." I replied, trying to sound calm. I didn't feel it.

"Never mind," the pony replied, taking notes on the sheet in front of him. What was he writing about me? I couldn't see from down on the... Floor? I stood, causing him to look up from his notes momentarily. He put down his pen and asked, "Do you have a name little 'Biomech'?"

"Crisis."

"A strange name, but I've heard stranger."

He smiled at me. "What's with the armour, are you a warrior?"

"More like a weapon." I replied, liking the confused look the statement created.

"I've been an animal processor for a long while now Crisis, but I've never heard of a Biomech before." the pony stated, that leering smile back on his face.

I shrugged.

"How old are you Crisis?"

This question stumped me. My actual age was 2 years, but that wouldnt be relevant here... Ah well, maybe 2 is a normal age here. I hoped for the best as I told him my age, "2 years."

He continued to stare at me before replying, and I could tell that he didn't like my answer.

"That's awfully young Crisis, are you sure about that?" the smile was still there, and he added a hint of sarcasm into his voice. "Nevertheless, what about parents? Do 'Biomech' have parents?"

"No," I replied. My desire to leave was beginning to grow with every second. The door was wide open, and the pony didn't look very fast. A quick dash, and I'd be out.

"Hmm..." the pony sighed as he flicked through some papers. Eventually he turned to me and announced, "I think we should talk again later, now step into a cage Crisis."

I froze. "What?"

"You heard. Step into a cage."

"And what If I don't want to?" I was edging closer and closer to the door. The other animals (well the intelligent ones anyway) were transfixed as the conversation continued.

"Well," the pony replied, the smile still firmly on his face, "Then you'll be forced to." As if on cue, two guards stepped out from the shadows behind his desk. I bolted.

I ducked and dodged through crowds of shocked ponies, as the guards pursued me through the streets. As I ran, I couldn't help but notice that the entire town was filled with those banners, the ones that I'd noticed on the way in. I ran into an alleyway, with the guards hot on my heels. Dead end. I whipped around to see the guards edging closer, lassos held tightly between jaws. This was it, I was going to be captured. What good was it being a superweapon, if I couldn't use my weaponry??!

The guards edged closer, and I backed off. I tried to make sparks, but they just danced uselessly in my palm. Closer and closer, lassos ready. I backed up further, bumping against a wall. Good job, I thought to myself, stuck in a corner. The guards edged closer and closer until...

They stopped and backed off, looks of fear on their faces. I felt movement on my arms, and looked down to see blades clicking into place. A defensive mechanism, I realised, and it gave me the upper hand!

"That's right, back off!" I called bravely to the guards. "Now drop those lassos!"

The guards obliged, albeit hesitantly. "Now tell your boss, that Biomech are not your average monsters! Also tell him..." I leaned forward for effect, "That he got lucky this time. Next time, I might use these sooner!" I raised the blades, and began to climb the ally wall. Upon reaching the top, I took a bow... And fell off backwards.

Directly into a squadron of guards. I'm sure that by now you've guessed that luck isn't really my thing. Before I knew it, I was trapped in a tight cage at the mercy of that pony, still wearing a leering smile.

"Have a nice trip?" he asked mockingly, "Oh and one more thing," the pony leered in closer. "Next time you try anything like that, you'll get another trip straight into one of the cages in sector 3! Then you can meet some real monsters."

At he said this, he pointed to a large metal door behind which lived creatures I could only guess about.

Then he went to process another unfortunate creature, leaving me alone in a cage.

Damn, I thought to myself, as I created tiny blue sparks in my hand, this had gone terribly...

And it was only day 1.

Chapter 2: The Wizard

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 2: The Wizard

Astral

I finished tidying my master's books, fitting the last few back onto the shelf. From the looks of things, he'd been testing out a new theory, something to do with perpetual motion. That was odd; my master usually referred only to books on magic and the ancient arts, as science wasn't really his thing. He had gone out to town in order to pick something important up, leaving me with free reign of the mansion.

I checked all the rooms, hoping to find an open window, and a chance to finally escape from this place. The windows were all firmly locked. That was probably for the best, after all, what would I do after escaping? I had nowhere else to go, and no way of lasting alone in the wilderness. Escape was futile.

I sat down on the plush library carpet, and opened a book, continuing to read where I left off. It was a book created by my master about a group of ancient relics and I must have read it about four or five times in the past 5 months, as the other books were about advanced magic that a filly like me wouldn't be capable of.

Elements Of Harmony, And The Six Bearers.

That was the name of the book. My master had conducted research into the elements of harmony, and over the course of a week had managed to find out near everything about them. There were six elements, each representing a different quality. From what I had read, I decided that if there was any way of overthrowing our ruler, then it was these elements. After my parents' disappearance, laws imposed by the stallion made me a slave. All around, I saw suffering and discontent caused by the ruler, and I saw only one way to end it. Harmony.

As I sat on the carpet reading the book, and waiting for my master to return, I decided that if I ever escaped.

I'd gather those elements.

Crisis

Day four in this stupid cage. I've made little progress with my sparks, haven't heard anything from the cruel smiling pony (who I now know is called Branding), and was in the process of trying to pick the lock with a piece of straw. I was feeling pretty low.

I sighed to myself, listening to the maddening sound of the various animal cries. There had been nonstop noise since I got here, squawking growling and some noises which I couldn't even identify. Here I was, a sophisticated weapon locked up with a bunch of animals. Luminum was right, I was a failure. I noticed Branding approaching my cage, a gloating smile on his face. This didn't look good. He hadn't spoken to me since the first day, so I was surprised when he remembered my name.

"Crisis!" he exclaimed in an overly cheery voice that was quite clearly fake, "How's my little Biomech faring?"

I looked up at him, unspeaking. Four days in a cage does that to me.

"Forgotten to speak again? Well you'd better remember pretty fast, because you've got a visitor!" he gestured to the desk, where a blue stallion was waiting. I was freed from my prison, and bought over to the blue stranger who examined me closely. The stallion was slim, and smart, with a striding black cloak, and a top hat. He finished examining me, and turned to Branding.

"Incredible." he said in a cold, quiet voice that implied high status. He seemed to ignore my presence completely, talking instead to my captor. "And you say it's intelligent?"

Branding kicked me. "Talk, Biomech." he ordered. I thought worriedly about what to say, before settling on something simple. "Hello." damn.. a bit too simple maybe... Ah well, the damage was done, or not in this case.

The blue stallion handed over a considerably large bag of coins to Branding, and announced; "I'll take it." he then turned and strode from the building, leaving me and Branding.

"Off you go," Branding smiled, "Don't leave him waiting." This was it! I was free! But there were still some questions I had.... who was this guy and why was he prepared to pay so much in order to free me? I hurried up to the stallion. "Who are you?" I asked.

He seemed to notice me, but kept his eyes facing forward. "You shall refer to me as the Wizard. I am your new owner."

Owner? But I already had an owner! Or rather, owners... Still though, this guy couldn't just come along and claim me for himself! "Actually..." I began, "I already have an own..." I didn't finish my sentence.

The Wizard turned to look at me and, for the first time, I noticed a long pale horn on his forehead. The horn glowed a sickening blue, and I felt intense pain surging through me. The shock of the energy knocked me to the ground where I lay, dazed. The Wizard kept on walking. "You will speak when spoken to, now stand up and follow." I was about to answer back, but thought better of it, remembering the pain. Okay, this guy was clearly crazy. I got ready to escape, and turned to run... Only to be hit by yet more intense pain. I collapsed again, feeling drained. The Wizard strolled over, and looked down at me. "You will follow me home. Any more disobedience, and you will be punished more severely. My instincts were to attempt escape again, however I couldn't risk more pain like that. It was unlike anything I'd experienced, filling my body and crowding my CPU. I lowered my head and followed obediently, hoping to avoid more pain. This planet was very strange.

It was also cold and emotionless.

Astral

My master returned with someone, or rather something. A small knight, in a suit of flawless armour. I was puzzled about what the thing was, but I knew better than to question my master. He would only get angry at my questions. The creature looked bewildered at the mansion, and i found myself wondering whether or not it was intelligent. My question was answered immediately.

"This is my assistant Astral. She will help you adjust to living here. You are to meet me in my study in 4 hours." He pushed the metal creature in my direction. "Remember," he said addressing both me and the creature now, "If you obey my commands, then all will be well. If you disobey my commands, then the consequences will be severe. Do not disturb me, I am working."

He entered his office and slammed the door leaving me and the metal creature alone. There was an awkward silence, before the creature finally spoke.

"Uh... Hi..." I could tell just by the way he talked that he was male. "I guess you're Astral..." He looked around the mansion hallway. "Nice place you've got here."

I looked at him blankly, and he on turn looked at his feet. "Don't tell me you're cold too... everyone seems to be cold here..."

"I'm not cold." I replied.

"I don't mean temperature, I mean..."

"I understand what you mean, and the statement still stands. I'm not a cold person, I've just been around cold people for so long."

"Like the Wizard?" Crisis asked. I saw him recoil upon saying that name, and a wave of disgust rolled over me. My cruel master had used the pain spell on him. I ran over to the creature and pulled him into a hug.

"You poor thing! Did he use that spell on you? Did he?"

The creature seemed shocked at the hug, and stood there blankly, before replying in a small voice.

"Yes."

He broke free of the hug. "But I'm fine." He didn't sound fine.

I led him to the library, where we could talk comfortably, both of us lying parallel on the carpet. I began to tell him my story, the story of my life so far. A sad story.

"My parents were fine unicorns, who were heralded as incredible spell-casters. My father worked on magical theories, and the development of new spells, while my mother was the main doctor at this town's hospital. She could heal even the worst wounds with magic, and was loved throughout the neighbourhood. When I was born, all eyes were on me from the townsfolk, and I didn't disappoint. Even from just a few weeks old, I was using complex magic that my parents had to control carefully. I grew up under their influence, and was destined for greatness. Then one day, they disappeared. As it turns out, some of the things my father was writing offended the Shadow Stallion, and my parents were never heard of again." I felt tears well in my eyes as I continued the story. "I was taken to an orphanage, but my skills were deemed too dangerous, so I was moved to an institute for unicorns in Stringhalt..." I allowed the tears to flow freely now, "I hated that place, so when I was offered a chance to leave, I jumped at it." I gestured to the room around me. "As it turns out, 'freedom' is worse." I wiped tears from my eyes with a hoof, then looked to Crisis. "What about you? Where are you from? Do you have any family?"

Crisis didn't respond for a while, and just sat there in the flickering of the fireplace. Eventually he spoke, his voice confident and lacking the fear I had heard earlier,

"I'm from a far off place, one you wouldn't know. As for family... Heh, don't need any! Us Biomech have no families, friends relatives or any of that stuff. I had a teacher once, and a unit. I guess they were the closest thing I had to family." he noticed my facial expression.

"Look, where I come from the idea of a family unit just seems pointless. It's not viable! I ended up here by accident, and now it's my job to get back home."

"And you called my people cold..." I replied. "What about a name? Do you have a name?"

"Crisis."

"What sort of a name is Crisis?"

"What sort of a name is Astral?"

"Fair enough..." I sat up. " You know what Crisis, you puzzle me."

"How?" the Biomech replied, looking puzzled himself.

"I've never seen anything like you before, through all my masters books. You call yourself a Biomech, yet I've never heard of a Biomech before!"

"Well I hadn't heard of a pony before either," Crisis replied sounding indignant.

"You... You really don't know what's going on do you?"

"On with what?"

"The world. Current affairs."

The Biomech sat up too and said casually, "Why would I care about your people's problems?"

"Because," I replied angrily, "While you're stuck here, they're your problems too!"

"Good point."

And so we passed the next few hours with me teaching him all I knew about Equestria, and him listening casually. There was something about his carelessness that annoyed me, his blatant disregard for others and his selfishness striking me as prominent in his character, but I didn't let them affect me. For the first time in a year, I was talking to someone my own age...

And they were talking back.

Crisis

Astral taught me all kinds of things about her world. Did you know for example, that there were four types of pony; earth, unicorn, pegasus and alicorn. Did you also know that the vast lands of Equestria were ruled by just one person, an alicorn named the Shadow Stallion. According to Astral, he ruled with evil influence, and was the reason for all trouble in Equestria. She had some dream of one day gathering six sacred rocks, and defeating the Shadow Stallion that way. I had a more reasonable idea:

"I sure I could beat this guy!"

Astral snorted. "You can't even fight off a bunch of guards. What chance do you stand against the Stallion himself!?"

"That's the beauty of it!" I exclaimed proudly, "If I train hard enough, then I'll become more powerful! Flight, awesome attacks... What can the Shadow Stallion do about my awesome attacks?"

"Block them with magic..." she replied.

That stumped me. "Magic. Can all ponies use magic?"

"Nope," Astral replied, "just unicorns." she lowered her head so I could see the horn. I flinched away from it, causing a look of intense pity to wash over her. She hugged me (again!) and tried to comfort me. "There, there...." she soothed. "It's okay..." I pulled free from her.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Astral looked surprised. "I was trying to sooth you, make you feel better," she said with those wide eyes of hers.

"Well don't. I'm a hardened warrior, not a child. Well... not a young child anyway."

Then I felt something inside my head, a voice pushing painfully into my CPU.

"You are needed in my office."

"Looks like I've gotta go," I apologised while getting to my feet. Astral remained on the ground, her head held low. She muttered some advice sadly, "Don't fight him. You'll only make it worse."

I entered The Wizard's office, and found him standing against a desk. He noticed me coming in, and spoke plainly. "Sit."

I remembered Astrals words, and obeyed without hesitation. The Wizard stared at me, before pointing to an item in the desk. "Tell me Crisis, what this item is."

I looked at the desk, and saw a small stopwatch, coated in copper and ticking gently. "A watch, I replied."

"Good. A watch. But what is a watch? A mechanism. Do you know of any other mechanisms Crisis?"

I shook my head, and felt pain begin to set in, as his horn glowed slightly. "Let's not lie Crisis. You and I are both aware of what you are in fact, a mechanism yourself." He hissed the last two words. "It seems that the Shadow Stallion isn't satisfied with living guards, and he has resorted to creating mechanisms to fulfil his evil deeds. So, mechanism, who is your master?"

"Master?" I replied, feeling the pain increase.

"You mentioned a master on the way to my home. Who is your master? The Shadow Stallion? Tell me!"

I felt the pain steadily increase, and finally succumbed to the agony. "Yes..." I lied, "He is my master."

Satisfied, The Wizard wrote something down. He then turned to me, the glow from his horn dying, and the pain inside my body vanishing. "Was that so hard?" he asked simply. "But there's one more thing I want to try..." he lowered his horn, and it began to glow again. This time there was no pain, only a slight fizzing as the energy charged. He released the energy into a bolt which flew into me, flooding my body with high concentrate GR energy. "There are still a few tests I'd like to make Crisis." he smiled, a cold heartless smile that filled me with dread. "And I'm afraid, they might hurt a bit."

Astral

I stood by my master's office door, listening to the sounds of magic. What was he doing in there, teaching Crisis about unicorn magic? Part of me, a more logical part, understood the reality. I had heard snippets of the conversation between my master and his new possession, and now new thoughts began to circle my head. A mechanism... was that all Crisis was? An advanced stopwatch? As for his previous owner, was Crisis really one of the Shadow Stallions creations? The thought filled me with dread.

The office door opened suddenly, shocking me into attention. My master kicked the curled up body of Crisis into the hallway. "He has been most beneficial to my tests. Take him away, and when he awakes tell him that the meeting shall continue tomorrow at four." he looked down at me, with uncaring eyes. "I will be leaving tonight for a matter of urgency. Keep watch of the house, and of the mechanism, if he escapes I will hold you responsible."

With that, my master strode over the body of Crisis and towards the front door. His horn glowed, and the door slammed open, then he was gone into the night. The door closed slowly leaving me and Crisis alone. I looked at the little metal creature, and began to cry. Why was life so unfair?

Crisis

I awoke slowly, my body cramped into a little ball of pain. I was back in the library, lying on the carpet next to Astral. She was engrossed deeply in her book, but immediately looked up from it as I awoke.

"Crisis! Are you okay?!" She pulled me into yet another hug, which I pulled away from, then looked at me directly. " Crisis, you need to tell me the truth. Are you.. are you a mechanism?"

I nodded, and she replied looking at her hooves. "In that case... your master... is.. is..." she looked up suddenly, "Is your master the Shadow Stallion?!"

"What!" I replied shocked, "No, my master is... Look I think there's something I should have to you from the beginning." I prepared myself for her reaction. "I am a mechanism yes, but that shadow ruler ain't my creator." I pointed to one of the library windows, where the clouded night sky was visible. "I was created by an advanced race from another planet. I crashed here, and I need to find a way off of this rock. In answer to your question, my creators are my masters."

Astral was silent for some time, and I thought she didn't believe me. Then, she spoke;

"Your creators? You... You don't seem like a mechanism." she smiled. "We're still friends right?"

I looked blankly at her. "Friends?"

"Yeah!" the unicorn replied ecstatically, "We're still friends?"

"I didn't think we were in the first place... fine, I guess we're friends."

Astral hugged me again, and I grimaced. Why did she feel the need to comfort me constantly?

"Where's the Wizard?" I asked.

Astral relinquished her grip on me. "He's on urgent business. He'll most likely be back by dawn, and speaking of dawn..." she looked at a clock hanging over the fireplace.

"It's late, we should go to sleep." she nestled down by the fire in a small nest of pillows, and was soon fast asleep, a look of peace on her face. She could sleep all she wanted, but I had other things on my mind. The window on the far wall.

I strode across to the window, paused, then punched it with all my strength. The window held, without any sign of trauma. So The Wizard used reinforced glass... Interesting... I placed a palm against the clear surface, and directed a pulse through the window pane, shattering the glass instantly.

There was more than one way to break a window. I began to climb through the jagged frame, and suddenly stopped freezing midway through the escape. What about Astral? It was her dream to escape this place as well, and she'd been here longer than me, 5 months longer in fact. Could I really just walk out and leave her? My conscience finally caught up with me, and I reluctantly returned though the window and back to the sleeping form of Astral. She has been the only kind person that I've encountered, and also my only friend. Those words felt alien to me, but I did my best to ignore that, instead shaking Astral awake.

"Whaa..." she moaned, then saw me and sobered instantly. "Crisis, what's the matter?!"

I gestured to the shattered window, and she gasped. "Crisis! What did you do!? We'll both be punished for this!"

"Nah," I replied calmly, "You can't punish something that isn't there. Now I'm getting the hell out of here, and you can either join me, or stay. It's your choice."

Astral sat, stupidly staring at the broken window pane, before turning to me. "I'm coming with you."

Great, I thought to myself, now I've got company. It's like I keep saying...

Luck ain't my thing.

Astral

At long last, I was free! The cool night air rustled my mane as Crisis and I ran through the empty streets, ducking at every shadow, and recoiling from every noise. Who would have known that freedom could be so easy to loose yet so difficult to gain. For 5 months I had been imprisoned in my master's home, and I had no desire to go back there.

While jumping through the shattered window, I had gained some small cuts and they were beginning to hurt as I frantically sprinted. I also noted, with slight envy that Crisis landed with ease, and was completely unaffected by the sharp glass. Not even a scratch tarnished his metal body, and he ran with more stamina than I'd ever have. Maybe being a mechanism has its advantages...

We reached the town border, and there it was stretched out ahead of us; the Phantasm Forest. The grouped trees seemed dark and forbidding, and knowledge of the creatures that lived within nearly made me turn away. The protection that Crisis provided coupled with the fear of punishment from my master, however, were enough to keep me running.

Then I stopped, and fell to the wet grass as pain wracked my body. From the corner of my eye, I saw Crisis mimic my action, collapsing like a puppet with his strings cut. My master stood behind us, his blue glowing horn hitting us with agonising rays.

He was using the pain spell.

"How dare you disobey me!! You insolent little wastes!! I shall punish you deeply for this..." his horn began to glow brighter, and the pain began to increase more and more. All my dreams of harmony, all my dreams of freedom.

Stamped out by a single colt.

Suddenly, Crisis rose and using the last of his steadfast resistance, raised his arm. A shocking line of blue light appeared in his palm, and then shot across to my master, forcing the cruel stallion to lose concentration. For a split second, the intense pain ceased to be, and I didn't waste that second.

I grabbed Crisis, and concentrated as hard as I could pushing magical energy into the pair of us. There was a fizzle of energy, and a burst of light as we vanished from the hillside...

And reappeared in a forest clearing.

All I knew was that the pain had stopped, as I fell into a deep exhausted sleep. The pain had stopped and I finally free

Chapter 3: Crisis In Stringhalt

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 3: Crisis In Stringhalt

Astral

I was awoken by somepony shaking me gently. I opened my eyes expecting plain walls and familiar surroundings and found to my surprise that I was lying in a mossy forest clearing. Crisis knelt next to me,

"At last! I thought you'd never wake up!"

I looked blankly at him. How had we... then I remembered the previous night's events, the run to freedom, the confrontation and the teleport. Not to mention freedom, a feeling that blanked out all pain, and discomfort.

"What happened?" Crisis asked, "How the hell did we end up here?"

"Teleport."

"Wait... ponies can teleport?"

"Unicorns can, though usually not very far. How did we get all the way in here?" I looked at my surroundings puzzled.

Crisis joined me in looking. "So... do you know where exactly you teleported us to?" he asked.

I couldn't hear any sounds except for birdsong and the whispering wind. I had no idea where we were. The Phantasm Forest? A different forest? When I didn't reply, Crisis sighed deeply.

"So now we're lost. Great." he sat down next to me. "What's the point of teleportation if you don't know where you're going?"

"It might have saved our lives back there! My master was furious!"

"So what do we do now? Stay here or try and find a way out?"

I searched the landscape around us for any signs of direction, and found none. "If we can find running water, then we could follow it. That will help us reach the edge."

Crisis nodded, and we both got to our feet, me moving clumsily out of fatigue, and Crisis nimble as ever.

We walked through the deep woodland for hours, and each step that we took seemed to lead us no closer to the exit. The trees went on miles into the distance, and as the sun began to set I realised that we were still going to be here after dark. Crisis seemed to sense this too, but didn't react to it, even when I suggested making a camp in one of the many clearings.

"Do you want to stop here for the night?" I asked. "This forest is bigger than I thought..."

"Stop? Why would we need to stop?"

"We need sleep! I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted..."

"Why don't you just teleport us out of here?" Crisis asked and then, seeing my look, sighed.

I created a pile of sticks and dead leaves in the centre of the clearing. If there was one thing that I was not doing, it was staying here in darkness. "Help me to make a fire!" I called out to my metal friend. "Rub some stones together to create sparks. Instead of following my suggestion, Crisis raised one arm, and focused it towards the pile of dry sticks and leaves.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to light this thing..." he muttered. "Without rubbing stones either..." Tiny blue sparks danced around his outstretched hand, and then a small line of lightning arced out into the sticks, instantly setting them alight.

We gathered by the warm fire, the night slowly creeping in. "I didn't know you could do that," I said to the Biomech.

"Well you learn something new everyday. Here's another fact for you." he gestured to the steadily growing darkness, "We Biomech can see just as clearly in the day as in the night. To us the two are no different, so sleep is an unfamiliar concept."

"You don't need rest?"

"Only after draining my power, and that can hardly be called sleep..." he looked up. "Its a thing."

I lay down in the fire's warm glow while Crisis sat nearby, looking up at the thick clouds that smothered the sky. He probably thinking of his home. It was strange really, to think that far above us, and all the conflict evil and cruelty of Equestria, there was a mass of metal moving through the void. Beyond that? Who knew. Thoughts of infinity circled my head as I drifted slowly but surely into a deep sleep.

Crisis

I looked up at the clouds, searching for a gap in the grey wall or for any sign of activity. There wasn't a chance of my owners searching for me, It wouldn't be viable. Instead they would expect me to make my own way back to the ship. When you thought about it from the point of view of a pony, the life of a Biomech was pretty harsh. I glanced down at Astral, asleep by the roaring fire. Ponies were strange creatures themselves. No technology, yet natural ability at emitting energies. I raised my hand, and practiced my own energy attack, the one weapon I had managed to master.

Electricity. The sparks danced in my hand, before turning to flickering lines of power. They lit up the darkness with a blue glow, that waxed and waned in time to the volts. I closed my hand, snuffing out the sparks. The blue glow remained. Shocked, I looked carefully into the darkness, and noticed for the first time, tiny glowing blue orbs circling a cave. Some kind of insect? Whatever they were, I was interested! I looked back guiltily at the sleeping form of Astral. I should probably stay and guard her, but then again...

"I won't be gone long," I muttered to myself, heading towards the blue lights. Besides, she still had the fire.

Astral

I awoke rapidly, sitting up. The fire had died out, leaving just glowing embers and Crisis was no longer sitting where he was. "Crisis?!" I called out in panic, "Crisis! Where are you!?"

I frantically listened for a reply, and heard none. Where had the Biomech gone too... He said that day and night were the same for him, so maybe he just wandered off. Then in the dwindling light of the campfire embers, I noticed tracks leading away from the clearing into the darkness. I cast a soft torch spell, and began to follow them, my spine crawling with the thoughts of all the night monsters that might be nearby. Without the fire, or Crisis to scare them off I'd be defenceless!

The tracks led to a small cavern, and upon raising my head, I saw tiny blue lights drifting around its body, lighting the tunnel ahead. There was no need for my spell, so I ended it. These insects would provide all the light I needed.

I followed the tunnel down, getting deeper and deeper into the cave, my path lit by these strange blue orbs, each one lazily drifting in the cool night air. The tunnel ended in an opening, and so I rushed towards it hoping to find my friend. The sight that met me in the cavern ahead stunned me into silence.

Darkness had flooded the room, so it's edges were hidden, but the centre was lit up by hundreds and hundreds of the blue orb-insects, surrounding a standing figure, Crisis. The sight of my friend wasn't what amazed me the most however, for in the centre of the room stood a well detailed majestic statue of an alicorn, and it was an alicorn that I knew very well.

Golden Jubilee, one of the original bearers of harmony! The element of laughter... I had read all about him in my master's book, and I simply couldn't believe that I was where I was.

We had found Golden Jubilee's tomb!!! By a freak teleport at a crucial time we had found the tomb of a bearer of harmony! This had to be fate, working to help us! I called out to my metal friend who looked up from the blue lights shocked.

"Astral! What are you doing here... is it morning yet?"

"Crisis! How did you find this place?"

"I just followed these things," he replied, gesturing to the gathered insects. " I think they like me! They must be attracted to my LEDs..." he saw my shocked expression. "Wait Astral, what are you gawping at?

"The statue Crisis! The statue!"

He looked behind him at the monument, it's hard worked details lost in the low light. "Yeah, it's of some pony... Golden something..."

"Golden Jubilee," I answered joyously, "the element of laughter! This is the tomb of an original bringer of harmony!"

Crisis looked more carefully at the statue, no doubt noticing the wings and horn. "Oh, so he's one of those alicorns! Does that mean there's an element here then?"

"Definitely." I replied, "All we have to do, is summon it."

"Summon it?"

"We need to prove ourselves worthy... Um... So it's laughter then... Crisis, do you know any jokes?"

The Biomech stared at her. "I'm a superadvanced other-worldly weapon."

"I guess that's a no then..." I began to think long and hard for a joke or anything that would convey laughter but was stopped by Crisis, who stated something, almost to himself.

"Heh, looks like someone lost something."

I followed his gaze to the base of the statue, where there lay...

A small toy pony. I gasped, eyes widening in shock. Somepony had already been here... And maybe, somepony had already claimed the element! Was this a good thing or a bad thing? I honestly didn't know.

Crisis seemed to sense my anguish, and he glanced at me. "What's up with you?"

"The toy! Somepony must have left it here, and that means that we're not the first ones to find this place! They might have already taken the element..."

"Or more likely, some local kid left it here."

"Local?! We're in the middle of a forest!"

"Oh yeah... well it must be a kid, who else would leave a toy?"

"That isn't the issue here. We need to find out if the element is still here! Tell a joke!" I glared at my friend.

"You tell one!" Crisis countered.

"Uh..." I wracked my brains for a joke, and came back empty hoofed. Comedy had never been my strong point, and nearly a year of misery and imprisonment hadn't improved that. How could we check if the element was taken?!

"Listen, there's no point sitting here all day."

Crisis looked bored, and he leant rudely against the mighty statue. "Just cut your losses, and try the next place. If there are six elements then there must be six statues right?"

I nodded. "Okay then," he went on, "We'll just say that this one is gone for now and try the next statue. Problem solved!" he crossed his arms, and tilted his head back against the statue's leg. "I dunno why you're getting so worked up though, they're only necklaces!"

I replied by pushing him off the statue, and spoke angrily to the Biomech. "They're the only thing that can save our world!"

"Why do you care? This place is horrible! What would 'saving' it change?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Could someone really be that selfish? "That's easy for you to say Crisis, you don't have to live here the rest of your life! You'll just grow your wings and fly back up to wherever you came from!"

Crisis looked a little hurt, but he carried on regardless, "But why elements? How are a bunch of necklaces going to save the world?" he stood up straight, in a fighting pose, and spoke in a cocky voice. "The only way that you can change a world is in a hail of missiles."

Missiles? They were probably something from his world. I continued my argument,

"Well I think that the elements are the only way! It's not the elements that matter though, it's what they bring..." I paused for effect, then continued, "they bring harmony. That's what this world needs, harmony."

Crisis gave up, and returned to my side. "So if someone's already taken this element, isn't that a good thing? It means that there are other groups like us aiming for the same goal!"

"But what if they have all of the elements?"

"Even better right?"

I looked down at my hooves. "It should be... but still..." tears began to appear in my eyes, and I closed them. "I wanted to help. It was my dream to one day help restore harmony, and now I'll never get the chance."

Crisis sat alongside me, speaking in a comforting voice. Or at least an attempt at one. "Don't worry Astral, if they'd gathered all the elements of umm..."

"Harmony," I helped.

"Yeah, that. If someone had them all, then it stands to reason that they'd have defeated umm..."

"The Shadow Stallion?"

"Yeah, that guy. Look, what I'm trying to say is that if they had all the elements, then surely they'd have defeated him by now. So that means..."

"They're still searching!" I replied, hope returning.

"Yeah. So all we have to do is..."

"Find them, and help them!"

"Uh, actually," Crisis replied, "I was gonna say find the others before they can, but that works too." he patted me on the back. "All we have to do is locate the remaining elements."

"And we've got one advantage!" I exclaimed, tears vanishing. "We've got this!" I levitated out the element book from my saddlebag. "This book was written by my master during one of his phases. It's filled with information! Look, it even shows where each element it!" I gestured at a map on the back cover. "It's also a one off, there's no replica. This means that we can find all the other statues in no time... and we can help whoever it is that's searching for them!"

Crisis looked uncertain, but eventually he agreed. "Okay, fine. Where should we head first?"

"That's the beauty of it!" I exclaimed gesturing to the map, "Because of this we now know our location! The Braeburn forest... Wow..."

"What?" Crisis asked.

"My teleport... We travelled so far..." I pointed to the map. "I've never heard of anypony teleporting this far before... especially not a filly! How did my teleport work so well?"

"Fear?" the Biomech questioned.

"Fear? Why fear?"

"When I was cornered by those guards, my fear enhanced my abilities. Like a defence strategy!"

"I guess...."

Crisis shrugged. "Soo... which element first?"

"We could try loyalty..." I muttered, pointing out a location on the map. "But that's in Hock... it's pretty far." I looked up at my friend. "Do you think you can handle it?"

"Handle it? Some poxy walking? Heh, it won't effect me. What about you?"

I questioned that myself. Months of being trapped indoors had made me unfit, and I wondered if I could take the endless miles of walking. "Okay, we'll pass through there and there..." I said gesturing to a number of cities, "We can stock up on food and supplies there... That reminds me Crisis! What do Biomech eat?"

"Experience." he replied.

"What?"

"We grow through winning battles, pulling off certain moves while flying... Basically we get better by getting better."

"I see..." I replied, not understanding.

I returned the book to my saddlebag, and turned to leave the chamber. Crisis followed, carrying something.

"Why are you taking that?" I asked, "It's filthy!"

Crisis examined the purple doll. "It looked lonely." he said simply.

"Crisis... It's just a doll. It can't feel anything, it's not aliv..." I stopped myself remembering Crisis' origins. "I mean... let's take it." I used magic to levitate the doll into my bag, and we left the chamber.

In order to reach Hock, we would have to pass through a number of towns and cities, not to mention vast forests and grassland. It looked like a journey and a half! We left the cavern, and I looked around at the surrounding forest before groaning loudly. "A compass! We can't make the journey without a compass!"

"A compass?" Crisis asked. "Don't need one!" he clicked his fingers, an act that bought up another small wave of envy within me. "Check this out! Inbuilt compass..." he looked around carefully and pointed. "That way!"

We walked the way he had suggested, and soon left the forest's dark embrace. Part of me was glad to leave that place, but part was more worried about the road ahead. There were griffin patrols all over these parts, and we were out in the open without any identification. Crisis didn't seem share my worries, and he walked calmly along the dirt path, ignorant of the danger we were in. I didn't dwell on his arrogance however, there were more pressing matters on hand.

Stringhalt. To reach Hock we'd have to pass through Stringhalt, the town where I had been imprisoned in that school. I still feared that town, and I did not want to go there.

But I would have to. For harmony.

Crisis

Agh, so boring! We've been walking for days now, and nothing has happened, no towns, no landmarks... Heck even a patrol squadron would be fine now, anything to get away from this boredom!

Astral seems to be worried more than ever, looking around constantly and refusing fire at night. She's determined to find those elements of harmony too, for some reason. I guess that if it was my planet then I'd want to save it, but by gathering jewellery?

Along the winding road to wherever, my time had been taken up by either education from Astral, or practice at my own moves which were steadily growing stronger. As for the education, I found most of the stuff she told me irrelevant. It was just stupid stuff about her planet's history and discoveries. Despite the boredom of her knowledge, I said nothing, instead allowing her to teach me. She seemed to enjoy relating her knowledge, so I just let her. It felt like the right thing to do. Not everything she taught me was boring however, her knowledge of magic intrigued me, after all, when you find a weakness you need to study it!

All of a sudden, Astral stopped waking, and looked up wildly. She then grabbed my arm, and pulled me into a roadside ditch. The next thing I knew, a flock or group or whatever of griffins flew past. They didn't see us, and were gone in minutes, vanishing over the horizon.

"How did you?" I began.

"I saw them coming! If you kept your eyes on your surroundings, and your head out of the clouds then you would have too!"

"I was just.. caught off guard."

"If I hadn't been there, you'd have been captured Crisis!" she looked concerned, and I felt really bad.

"Sor... sorry Astral. I'll be more careful next time."

She softened a little. "Sometimes I worry about you Crisis. You're so headstrong that you don't think! Just be careful."

We continued to walk, and I began to look around at the sky, the land anything. I felt terrible about the way I had been just minutes ago... hoping for a guard patrol just to liven up the day! As we walked however, the feeling left and my confidence returned.

We scaled a small hill, and there it was. Stringhalt, a huge city surrounded by a thick wall. Ponies, griffins and god knows what else bustled through the gates in and out of Stringhalt. This was the first major city I had ever seen, and it did not disappoint.

"Oh no!" Astral cried out.

"What's up?" I replied glancing at her. She was staring horrified at me.

"Crisis, how are we going to get you into Stringhalt!? You'll never get past the gates looking like that!" She hung her head in her hooves. "Why didn't I think of this before?! We can't go around this city, it'll add days to our journey!"

I patted her comfortingly. "Don't sweat it Astral! I've got a way around that."

The distraught unicorn looked up from her hooves. "How?"

I gestured to myself. "Cloaking device!"

"Cloaking what?"

"It's... like invisibility... only cooler."

"And you can do this? For long periods of time?"

"As long as I concentrate I'll be able to keep it up for as long as I want!" I was lying. I'd never used my cloaking abilities, and I had no idea how long I could sustain them for. The tactic worked however; Astral brightened instantly.

"That's amazing! Come on then, let's head inside."

I concentrated, and began cloaking myself, fading into nothing, and disappearing from visibility.

Astral gasped, looking at where I stood, and I gasped too. This cloaking device took a huge amount of power to sustain, and the initial activation tugged on my energy. I had maybe... an hour before I shut down from fatigue. It was already starting to hurt, and the toll on my CPU weighed me down like a lead cloak. Astral heard my initial gasp. "Crisis, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

Replying was a nightmare, my brain clouded by strained energy. "Yeah... I'm fine... It's just... been a while..."

She looked uncertain, but we continued to the gate nevertheless. I nearly groaned again when we arrived outside the wall, as there was a huge queue of ponies, and pony lookalikes waiting in line to gain entry. At this rate I'd run out of power before we got inside!

After what seemed like an endless queue of ponies, it was our turn, or rather Astral's turn. I was safely hidden by my cloaking device, and the guards simply looked through me. The toll keeper was a red-coated guard pony who looked wearily at Astral. "Name" he called out hoarsely, and in the manner of a word that has lost all meaning.

"A..." my friend began, then changed her mind, "Alice. My name is Alice." the guard didn't seem to care and, while writing down her name, continued questioning.

"Tribes?"

"Tribes...? Umm..."

"Sponsor? Family?"

Astral looked blankly at him, so he sighed wearily and asked, "Where are you from kid?"

"C... Canterlot?"

The guard looked carefully at her, before writing another note. "Toll's 2 bits kid."

Astral gasped aloud. "Bits! I completely forgot... oh no!"

The guard sighed once again. "Just this once kid, and only because I'm too busy to care. Next!" he pushed the sheet of paper, freshly stamped, to Astral and we walked past the checkpoint into Stringhalt.

The city inside was part beautiful grass, and part tiled wall. White houses surrounded the flowered parks, and earth ponies occupied the well worn streets. "We should get some food," began Astral and then, remembering the money situation, stopped.

When I didn't respond, she looked around worried. "Crisis? Are you still there?"

"Yep..." I strained.

Relieved, she walked to a grassy area and sat, the cut grass moving gently in a breeze. "How are we going to get money?" she said to herself.

An idea hit me, and one that Astral would not like. I had to distract her first... "Let's... keep walking..." I said painfully.

She glanced at where the voice had come from and nodded. We carried on walking, heading for one of the bustling streets, or rather she carried on walking. I stayed right where I was, waiting until Astral was gone. I then made a beeline towards a family sitting on the short grass. A mother and a father with three children were picnicking, completely unaware as I approached. The father was a noble grey stallion, and the family practically screamed 'nobility'. I moved as slowly as possible towards the picnic, and reached out towards the packed basket. Who needs money for food!?

A hoof came down on top of mine, and one of the older sisters screamed jumping back in surprise. Damn! I lunged for the basket, but my movement was slowed by the strain of cloaking. A number of hooves pinned me to the ground, and I released the cloaking device out of shock. I wasn't the only shocked one.

The family screamed once again at my alien appearance, and they jumped back allowing me enough room to grab the basket and run, dodging and jumping over townsfolk in an effort to escape. My cloaking device was neglected as I ran, and the surrounding patrol guards gave chase as well. By now the entire park was in uproar, as ponies struggled to get a glimpse of me. More lassos flew around me as the chase thickened, forcing me to run faster. There was no way I was gonna get captured again! I leapt onto a cart, then clambered onto the roof of a house running away instantly. The guards, unable to climb that way, began to look for an alternative way up.

I sprinted along the rooftops, jumping over gaps in ecstasy. That was awesome! I felt full of life, and the thrill of the chase made that life seem even more poignant. My thoughts returned to Astral. She was going to flip if she found out about this! I began to slow, and re enabled my cloaking ability, scouring the street below for a sign of Astral. The thrill of the chase had been left behind, and now I began to worry. The whole of Stringhalt would be out looking for us now! I had just gotten both of us in trouble again, leaving our relative secrecy in tatters.

Not that it mattered, my mission was complete, the basket was mine! Headstrong? Hell yeah!

Astral

It was while walking along a cramped street that I heard shouting behind me. Something had just happened in the park, and by the sounds of it, something big. "Come on Crisis," I muttered and continued to walk, increasing my speed. I ducked into an empty side road, and spoke to my friend directly. "What do think happened back there?" There was no reply. "Crisis? Crisis are you there?" still no answer. I poked the air in front of me with a hoof and it passed straight through. Crisis was gone! But where had he g... My mind returned to the commission earlier. "Crisis!!" I shouted, and when no answer came I ran back into the street, heading for the park. What had he done now?!!

Crisis

The cloaking was beginning to tire me out, so I leapt down into a deserted alleyway turning the cloak off as I fell. I'd rest here for a bit, then find Astral. My sight fell on the stolen picnic basket at my feet, and I opened one of the flaps. It was full of food! There were sandwiches, cakes, pies all kinds of stuff! Astral would be so happy when I returned with this... wouldn't she? What if she asked where it came from? I pushed these thoughts aside and sat in the centre of the alley, examining one of the sandwiches. That's when I heard the voice.

"Hello..."

I glanced to my left, and there in the shadows stood a little pony. As it walked out from its hiding place, I noticed black and white stripes running along its body. I also noticed ribs poking at the skin of its stomach and thin frail legs. This thing looked starved! The little striped pony continued talking in a sickly voice, "Mister... please can I have some food?" I could now see that it was a boy, and a young one at that.

I stared blankly at the pony before nodding slowly. "Sure kid, help yourself." the creature brightened instantly, and sat on the floor before dragging himself over to where I sat. He looked really ill, and I wondered how long it had been since he'd eaten.

"I'm Zee. Who are you?" Zee moved his mouth to the basket lid, and lifted it weakly.

"The name's Crisis... you look pretty hungry kid..."

Zee nodded, and I held out a sandwich. The thin pony snapped it up instantly, and swallowed it whole, before looking at me with those wide eyes of his. I fed him some more sandwiches until at last he sat up, coughing. "Do... do you have any parents?" I asked.

Zee shook his head. "Nope I got a big bruver though. He's somewhere..." the striped pony looked sadly at me.

"So you're alone out here?"

"Yea."

We continued to look at each other for a while, Zee coughing every so often and shivering in the cold.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again; There's something wrong with this planet...

Zee

After eating, I just sat on the floor next to the silver thing. Was he a giant silver coin? I'd never seen anything like him before. Crysus was his name, and he stood on two hooves. Still though, I should have been scared but I wasn't. He gave me food, so he must be nice right?

Eventually Crysus spoke again. "You mentioned a brother?"

"Yep!" I replied proudly, "Soulstance! He's the best bro ever!"

"Where is he?"

"Umm... I don't know... I got lost. I think he's looking for me though."

"When were you separated kid?"

"Umm?" I didn't know. It was a while ago... I decided to tell him about Soulstance instead. "My bro is the best ever! He can use shadow majic, an, an make potions'n stuff!"

"Shadow magic?"

"Like... shadows!"

Crysus nodded. "Stands to reason..."

"Do you have a bro?"

He seemed to pause for a second, before answering. "Kinda... I've got nine."

"Nine bros!"

"But... they're not really brothers see?"

I shook my head. "Not really.."

"Never mind."

He started to speak again, but paused as someone else appeared in the alley.

I turned to see a pony walking towards us, only this wasn't any pony, this was a unicorn! The unicorn saw Crysus, and ran towards us.

I smiled widely at her as she approached.

Unicorns were fun!

Astral

Crisis was sitting next to a small zebra who, on closer inspection, was thin and malnourished. "Crisis, what's going on!" I called out to him. "People in the park told me they saw you steal a..." I noticed the picnic basket. "You didn't!"

The Biomech nodded. "Those rich ponies didn't deserve this food. We needed it more!"

I walked over to the pair, and kicked Crisis angrily. "You stole it!? Now the whole of Stringhalt is out looking for you!" I looked down at the zebra. "Who's he?"

"His name's Zee. I found him here."

"Well come on Crisis, we need to go!" I looked down at Zee. "Zee, do you have anyone to stay with?" the zebra nodded enthusiastically, before hugging Crisis.

"Crysus!" he exclaimed.

Crisis stood, and shrugged at me. "What can I say?" he said cheerfully, "everything I meet loves me!"

"Except me."

"Except you."

I groaned aloud. "Okay fine, he can come with us, now activate your cloaking device, and let's get the heck out of here. This city is giving me the creeps!" Crisis sparked, and dissolved into thin air, while Zee looked on. "Crysus! Where ja go?"

"I'm still here kid." came the reply from thin air. "It's just invisibility."

"Like shadow majic!"

I nodded. "Kind of, now lets go!"

We walked out of the alley, and continued down the semi-busy street. Zee limped alongside us, and as he did, I began to feel concerned for him. We should probably take him to a doctor, and get that cough checked out.

"Guys.." came Crisis' voice from thin air.

"Not now..." I muttered. We had just entered a town square filled with ponies, many of which were guards. I continued to walk tensely and Zee, seeming to sense the situation, stuck close to me fearfully. We had reached the centre of the square, when Crisis spoke again, "Guys... I... I really don't feel so good..."

"Crisis!" I hissed. Luckily, the noise from the crowd blocked out our conversation.

"This cloaking.... It takes up a... Lot of power... I think I'm gonna..."

Suddenly, there was a distortion in the air next to me, and a transparent Crisis appeared. He quickly became solid, then collapsed to the ground next to us sparking cries of horror from the nearby ponies. "Crisis! No!" I cried out. I looked up to find that we were surrounded by guards, slowly edging in closer. Zee clung to my leg, sobbing, and I simply stared in shock.

A circle of guards, edging closer and closer. With no way out...

What would happen to us?

Chapter 4: The Family

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 4: The Family

Astral

There I was, standing in a town square surrounded by guards. My metal friend lay next to me, and Zee clutched at my leg in terror as they advanced. What was I going to do?! They'd capture us, and that would be it! Freedom over! The circle grew tighter, and tighter, and tighter until...

"Stop! What are you doing?!"

The guards moved aside to reveal a well built stallion, grey in colour, with a puzzled look on his face. He observed my and Zee's terror. "Why are you frightening these children?"

"Sir, we believe that these are the ones responsible for the theft." a guard spoke up.

"The picnic?! If that was the case then why so many guards? There must be something else going on other than the theft of a picnic!"

"They are under arrest for theft sir."

"Those two didn't steal it!"

"Well... they're under arrest for harbouring a criminal." the guard gestured to Crisis' crumpled body.

"I retract my claim."

"I'm sorry sir?"

"They are forgiven for the theft. Let them go." the stallion smiled at us.

The guard, however, shook with rage. "But sir!!!" he cried out.

"No buts. They are forgiven." the stallion looked down at the guard. "Unless you are questioning my authority..."

"No sir!" the guard replied standing to attention. He then turned and spoke reluctantly to us. "You.. you can go free..." the guards dispersed, and soon the courtyard was back to normal, bustling with ponies. The stallion walked over to join us, his stride indicating influence and power. I looked down at the ground as he approached. "I'm sorry sir... we needed food, and had no money so my friend took it upon himself to get hold of some..."

"Nonsense!" the stallion scoffed. "There's no need to be sorry! You were hungry, so he took some food to help you! All he had to do was ask, and the three of you could have joined us!"

I was shocked. Where was the anger, the hatred? "You mean... you're not mad?"

"I'm mad with the guards for turning such a small crime into a full blown investigation. So then, what are your names?"

"I'm Astral, this is Zee and that's Crisis." I pointed to his crumpled body, and then remembered how he had fallen. "That reminds me! Crisis! Are you okay?"

There was no response, and I cried out in anguish. Next to me Zee collapsed onto the ground, lying with his frail head against my flank, and coughing painfully. The stallion gasped.

"Are you okay?"

"We're fine... we'll just have to find somewhere to stay for a while. Thank you again!" I took hold of Crisis' arm, and began to pull him in the direction of an alley.

"Come and stay with me and my family!"

I looked back at the stallion. "What? Oh no, that's okay..."

"I insist! Just until you get back on your feet! I assure you, I have more than enough room."

"Really? You'd let us stay?"

"And I think we need to take your friend Zee to a doctor, he sounds very sick!" with that, the stallion walked across to me, and helped me lift Crisis. Zee clambered onto my back. "Thank you mister." the zebra said.

"Please, call me Stark." we walked for a while in silence, before finally reaching a grand white mansion. "This is my home!" said Stark gesturing to the building. "Now come on inside to meet the rest of the family!"

"Family?"

"Oh yes Astral. While you stay here you're part of the family too!" Stark opened the front door, and smiled at me.

"Welcome to the family!"

Crisis

I awoke slowly, trying to recollect why I had shut down, then sat bolt upright as the memories returned. I had shut down in front of all those guards! Had we been captured? Where was...

"Shh.. there, there." came a soft voice. I looked to my right and saw a teenage pony standing alongside the bed. She looked a bit older than Astral, and wore a kind expression, but those were not the first things I noticed. She was silver. Her coat shone almost parallel to mine, and I was amazed by the detail of colour. Her mane was a light grey, as were her eyes, narrowed slightly with age and full of concern. "Where am I?" I asked her hesitantly, while looking at my surroundings. That's when I recognised her.

She was the older sibling from the picnic! The picnic I stole! I launched myself towards the window, only to find that my body, still weakened, moved sluggishly. The pony held my shoulders, and gently pushed me back.

"Don't worry, you're okay. There's nothing to be frightened about."

"There's everything to be frightened about! Surely you're... angry?"

The pony shook her head. "No. Why would I be? You were just hungry."

"I wasn't hungry, but my friends we..." a thought occurred to me. "Where are my friends?!"

"Astral is downstairs, and Zee is at the doctors."

"Doctors? I guess he was pretty ill.. so you just let them stay here?"

The silver pony laughed lightly. "Of course! You needed a place to stay."

I sat up once again. "Well, umm... thanks for your hospitality.. I'll just be going now..."

"You need rest Crisis."

"You know my name...?"

"Astral told us all about you."

"Uh... well in that case you probably already know that I heal faster than ponies. I'll just walk this off..."

"She also told us that you'd be reluctant to stay here."

I looked the silver pony directly in the eye. "You know my name, so what's yours? Fairs fair."

She smiled gracefully at me before replying. "My name is Serenity."

"Yeah, well I'm sorry Serenity, but this ain't my scene." I sat up once again, and pushed the covers off of me. "We'll get out of your hair... or rather mane now."

"Crisis, Zee's not the only one who needs to see a doctor."

"What, is Astral sick to..." suddenly I realised what she meant, and I sighed deeply. "Seriously? A doctor? For me?"

A look of concern crossed Serenity's face. "You collapsed Crisis. We need to make sure everything's okay."

"As much as I'd love to watch your doctor puzzle over me, I've got more important things to do, so...." I walked over to the bedroom door, and pulled it open, before turning back to Serenity. "See ya."

With that I left the room, and began to walk across the hall, limping and moving slowly. Serenity walked after me, and I felt a flicker of annoyance at her persistence.

"Crisis, you're limping."

"Yeah, I noticed."

I began to walk down the mighty marble staircase that linked the top and bottom floors, only to get halfway and stop. From midway on the stairs, I could see into the living room where...

The family. The family I had stolen the basket from were laughing happily and lovingly together, with an extra guest...

Astral was laughing with them. Serenity stepped up to my side, and spoke levelly to me, "This is why we want you to stay Crisis, so you can join the family. What to you say?"

I looked back to Serenity, and answered her question. "No." I the traveled down the remaining steps and strode to the front door of the mansion. "I don't do families."

Serenity looked on sadly, as I opened the front door... only to hear Astral's voice. "Crisis! Where are you going?" the unicorn stood behind me alongside the rest of the family, all of whom looked concerned. The sight made me feel sick.

Families made me feel sick.

Astral

I looked on in confusion, as Crisis stood by the front door. "Where are you going Crisis?"

"I'm getting the hell out of dodge."

"What?"

"I'm leaving. You coming?"

"What? Now? No!" I gestured to the family behind me. "I'm staying here until Zee gets better!"

"You... you are?" Crisis paused, then turned. To face away from us. "Okay then, I'll meet you in a few days."

"What do you mean!?"

"I'll stay out in the city, and wait for you. Families aren't my thing."

This time it was Serenity who spoke. "Stay Crisis. Please."

Crisis looked torn for a split second, but he quickly recovered. "No can do. I'll never understand you ponies. Hatred one minute, meaningless love the next. I can't handle that." The silver Biomech sparked, then faded into thin air as he began to cloak himself and the door slammed shut, leaving us alone. I sat down in the grand hallway, as loneliness began to sink in. Then I was pulled into a huge hug by the family, and the loneliness vanished instantly.

Crisis didn't know what he was missing here.

As for the family themselves, there was the father Stark, a leading businesspony, and an important figurehead in Stringhalt. He was a grey colt, who was wise and good natured. It was Stark who had taken us in, and I already understood that he had great power in this city.

Serene, the mother, was an important political worker who advised the mayor on ways to improve life for ponies in the town. Her coat was a luxurious white, and her pristine mane the same.

The youngest sibling Glance was a colt, just a bit older than Zee. Glance was already top of his class in school and was amazingly educated. He, like his siblings, had a silver coat that shone in the light.

The next oldest was Shine, a filly about the same age as me. Shine took more to adventuring than learning, and she spent most of her time attempting a vast variety of hobbies. She claimed that she was searching to get her cutie mark, and from the jumbled mix of her room, I believed her!

The final, oldest sister was Serenity and she was the most prominent in the family, and the one I bonded with most. Her coat outshone the rest of her family, and I found her grace and kindness incredible. Serenity was mature, and knowledgeable like me and we often talked about current affairs, and the various aspects of modern life in Equestria.

Of all the families that Crisis could have robbed from, he picked the kindest most understanding family in all of Stringhalt.

Yet he didn't want to stay with them.

Zee

I heard Crysus! He was going downstairs to see Astral, and that meant he was awake. I was about to call out to him, when Doctor Francis put a thermometer in my mouth. It was all cold, so I spat it out.

The doctor immediately placed it back into my mouth, and this time I kept it in. Satisfied, the doctor took the temperature, and wrote something on a piece of paper. I struggled to look at it, but the table it was on was too high... the door opened, and Serene and Serenity entered. Upon seeing them, I called out happily, "Hey!!"

Serenity smiled at me, but Serene was more serious, and she spoke with concern to the doctor. "Is Zee going to be okay Francis?"

The doctor looked at his notes. "He is very malnourished, but hopefully with a few weeks care and rest he should recover. Where did you say you found him?"

"He was living out on the streets! Can you imagine?"

I strained at the covers. I wanted to go play with Crysus! The doctor noticed my struggling. "What's wrong Zee?"

"I wanna play wif Crysus!"

Serenity and Serene exchanged a glance, and then Serenity spoke to me.

"I'm sorry Zee, but Crisis is busy. He won't be back for a while."

"Where is he!!??"

"He doesn't like us Zee." came a harsh female voice. Astal walked through the door, anger etched on her face. "He left because he doesn't like us."

"Crysus... doesn't like me?"

Serenity attempted to comfort me. "That's not true. He just feels out of place in family situations. He's going to wait until you're better, then return."

"We don't know that for sure..." spat Astral.

Serenity sat at the foot of the bed, and looked at me directly, her silver eyes shimmering even in the low light. "He will come back Zee. Because he loves you. Even if he doesn't realise it yet."

"Okay..." said Francis, packing up his equipment, "I think we should just let Zee rest for a while." reluctantly, the others left, and soon it was just me. Alone.

I started to cry, and laid back on the pillow.

Where was Crysus?

Crisis

It was a great day out, if you could call it that. As usual, forbidding grey clouds hung in the sky, and the light that reached Stringhalt was bleak and lifeless. A guy could get sick of clouds...

I was also sick with Astral, or more importantly, her decision to stay with that family. I muttered to myself as I walked down yet another deserted alleyway. Then I stopped.

There was a kid, about the same age as Astral standing in the alley ahead of me, an earth pony. I realised that I had neglected to activate my cloaking systems, and the kid was staring at me intently. He raised his head and shouted loudly, "CAWCAW!"

What the? why was he...? I suddenly realised what he was doing. He was signalling! But to who? I whirled around to find three older earth ponies standing behind me. What was this, some kind of kids army?

"Listen cub-scouts!" I called out warningly, "If I were you, I'd run back to my treehouse..." the irony was that they were older than me. They were about Serenity's age and looked pretty rough.

"Nice try agent of the Shadow Stallion!" the middle pony said extravagantly. "We've found you, and your evil ways of evil will be stopped!" his comrades cawed in response.

Shadow Stallion? I raised my hands, and started to correct them, then stopped myself. Maybe... I could let them think I was the Shadow Stallion's agent, after all...

I could use a fair fight. Just to test my skills on a weaker opponent. And now, I had three of them. I balled my fist. This could be fun!

"You got me! I guess you discovered my identity." I stepped forward, causing the three to step back in fear. "But I'm afraid I can't let you leave here.... What do you say to a fair fight?" I was met by a chorus of whimpering from the now terrified earth ponies, and then a cawing from... The rooftops? I looked up to find a huge number of very young earth ponies, stamping their hooves, and cawing. They covered the surrounding rooftops, and all looked angry. Oh heck, this was starting to look like a mistake! Why couldn't I judge situations correctly?

I raised my hands again."Okay, let's just.... uh... whatever happened to a fair fight?"

"Sickle Ravens never play fair with bad guys! Now get im!" cried the ringleader. With another round of cawing, the rooftop ponies began to throw stones at me. One or two stones might have been an annoyance, but that many? There were hundreds of stones pelting me, making it impossible to concentrate on the task at hand. Running away.

I ducked and dodged to avoid stones, only to run into the path of more, each one seeming to hit with deadly strength. This had gone horribly!

The three leader ponies advanced upon me holding in their mouths, the ropes of...

"A net?!!" I cried aloud. Okay, that was it, the show was over! I raised one hand, and conjured a ball of electricity, surprising myself, and my attackers. The motion stopped the flow of stones and the advance of the net, and silence fell about the courtyard. As more and more energy flowed into to ball, increasing its size, I spoke to the gathered crowd, my voice filled with malice."The next pony to throw a stone gets this in return."

There were gasps, and a few whimpers from the younger ponies. At last I had the upper hand! So this is what it felt like to be the master of a situation! To have unrivalled power! To instil fear into othe...

As if sensing my corruptive thoughts, the clouds opened up into a full blown rainstorm, with raindrops so thick that you could almost swim in them.

Not that I noticed this, after all, electricity and water don't mix. All that rain conducted the energy ball directly into me, forcing me to the ground as the Sickle Ravens ran for shelter. The power I had generated surged into me, flooding my thoughts with blinding energy, and my circuits with overloaded power. I cried out in pain, and then as the charge ended, lay twitching in the torrential rain.

I felt cold, useless and...

Lonely.

Serenity

I sat next to Zee on the warm carpet next to the fire while he drew pictures of the things he loved. There were pictures of an older zebra (his brother?) and the various family members. The young zebra also drew pictures of... Crisis. Crisis with the family, Crisis playing in the park. If only those pictures could come true for the little guy...

Astral sat on my other side, engrossed in a book I had given her, a classic work of fiction. Surprisingly, Astral had never read fiction before, and she seemed amazed by the concept of escapism that fiction created. My parents were out for the night, no doubt at some political party, meaning that I was in charge of the house. Glance and shine also sat with us around the fire, both of whom were also reading. Shine was reluctant to read at first, but after realising it could mean a cutie mark, she became immediately interested. Just as Zee finished a surprisingly good rendition of father, there came a weak knock at the door. Astral and I exchanged glances, then we both rose to answer it, the same thought on our minds.

I reached the door, undid the bolt and pulled it open to reveal...

Crisis. He was sitting in a puddle on the front step, and the rain was pelting his scratched body. There were burn marks along the metal, and he twitched every so often. "You.. should have seen... the other guy... he joked weakly, then collapsed onto the front step.

We cried out, and ran to him, soaking ourselves in the process, as the steady rain fell upon Stringhalt.

Astral

It had been a week since Crisis' return, and he had already managed to bond with the family, or at least partially bonded. He was reluctant at first, and was even scornful about certain aspects of family life, but he was still loved in return by all of us.

Eventually, the day came when Zee was better. The doctor deemed him fit, and I realised it was time. This week had been the best I could remember, but there were still more pressing matters at hand. In a house as warm and friendly as this one, it was easy to forget the steadfast clouds coating the sky, the slavery of certain races, and the brutality of others. It was up to us to sort these problems out, and that's what we would do, gathering the elements as we went.

And by we, I meant Crisis and I. Zee was not invited.

The little Zebra's face fell as I informed him that the journey was too dangerous for a foal, and that he would have to remain here. Then the tears began. It was breaking my heart to leave him, but it would break my heart even more to see him hurt. I was offered a permanent place in the family, as was Crisis, but we both refused. The mission came first, and we would leave.

Then came the tragedy.

After that, all of our plans changed.

Serenity

It was the last day that Crisis and Astral were staying, and I decided to join them on one last shopping trip for supplies. That way, they wouldnt feel the need to steal picnic baskets!

Astral and I picked out the essential items, while Crisis (hidden by invisiblity) and Zee mucked about together one last time. We finished, leaving the market place with everything on the shopping list, first aid, food, blankets, and we returned home.

Except it wasn't home. Not the way it was. The house was ablaze, flames roaring into the afternoon sky, the soaring blades of fire brushing against the cloud layer. I screamed in horror, and was about to dash towards the house, when Astral held me back. She pointed with one shaking hoof to a group of guards, shrouded in smoke from the fire. Why weren't they trying to...?! Then I saw the guards properly and realised why.

They were griffins. Which meant... this was the Shadow Stallion's doing. Without thinking, I dashed towards the guards, snorting with rage. "Where is my family!!!??" I roared into the face of a guard, tears mixed into the anger.

"I'm afraid that your family has been convicted of high treason. As have you missy." the griffin laughed cruelly. "You're under arrest." he pulled out a lasso from behind his back, and stepped towards me. I couldn't believe this was happening.. my family...

"Not in my neighbourhood!" came a voice from behind me. Crisis, ever the image of reason, sat on an overlooking rooftop, his legs crossed. When he spoke, he did so with a cocky accent filled with self assurance, and smirking courage. I had to hand it to him, even in a crisis the guy was headstrong.

The griffin guards didn't seem to know how to react, so Crisis answered for them. "Run Serenity!! I've got these guys covered!" I bolted, feeling the lasso scrape the air behind me. Astral and Zee grabbed my hoof, and the three of us began to run. "Crisis!" I called out, "Come on!!"

"I'll hold them off." he said bitterly. "Just get as far from here as you can!"

I listened to his advice, and soon the three of us reached an abandoned courtyard, far from that rich street where I had once lived.

Had once lived. I lay down on the cobblestone, and cried my heart out. Astral and Zee joined me, and finally, eyes still filled with tears, I turned to Astral. "I'm coming with you. We're gathering those elements, and if it's the last thing I do..." I looked up to the oppressive clouds above Stringhalt and called out in anguish. "I'm stopping the Shadow Stallion!!!!!"

Crisis

I sat on the roof as the guards approached. Was this a bad idea? Too late now... Well at least the others had escaped. If nothing else came from this, then so be it.

The roof of the mansion finally collapsed in sparks of fire, and the anger I felt conjured up more sparks.

Blue sparks.

I raised my hands and pointed them at the guards, before laughing hysterically.

Then came the thunder vortex.

Reams of energy, the likes of which I had never seen, poured from my hands, creating a hailstorm of electricity across the square. The flickers of light blocked out the burning mansion, and soon the air was turned a hazy, yet shocking blue. From the synapse like gaps in the storm, I could see the griffin guards collapse and writhe on the floor. This felt amazing! My true purpose, as a weapon! Killing guards, like flies!

Wait... killing?

I stopped the energy flow in horror, and reeled back. What had I done!?? I had lost control!! There were intense burn marks along the ground, and the six guards lay without movement on the cobblestone. The mansion continued to burn, and I found myself looking at the fire. I couldn't understand it.

What had possessed me? I had felt a strange power fill me as I opened fire... the same power I had felt in that alleyway fighting the kids. Was there some inner directive built into me, or was this a glitch, a virus designed to corrupt me. My owners, what had they created me for? All this weaponry and power... I dwelled on the subject a while longer, not noticing as the mansion slowly burnt away.

I was a monster... but why?

Serenity

The three of us sat in the square, no talking and now no crying. I felt that I had cried all my sadness away, and now there was only anger. Anger at the Shadow Stallion, his guards and anypony who took his side! I drew an inward gasp. That level of hatred wasn't like me, and so I focused carefully on forgiveness. One thing was for sure though. I would defeat the Stallion.

There was motion behind us, and we all looked around in unison. Crisis stood at the far end of the courtyard, black marks along his body and a troubled voice. "Crysus!" called out Zee happily.

"Let's go. I've seen enough of Stringhalt." Crisis replied.

"How are we going to get out?" Astral asked. "We're all Stringhalt's most wanted! There's no way that they'll let us leave without a fight."

"Then we'll give them one." Crisis muttered angrily.

"No!" I cried out. "We can't sink to their level!" I regained my calm attitude once again, and spoke levelly. "I know of one way out... a way to leave the city that nopony knows about. Follow me."

I led them along the strangely deserted alley streets. This was strange... where was everypony? I hadn't seem the streets this deserted since the aftermath of the child rebellion, last month.

Eventually, we reached yet another deserted courtyard, this one filled by an overbearing oak tree, it's branches weak and lifeless from lack of sun. I gestured to a single stringing branch, high above the ground and rendered small by perspective from our position on the ground. The branch hung just over the mighty Stringhalt wall. "We can climb that, then get over the top."

"Are you kidding!" Astral exclaimed, "A fall from that distance..."

"Not if we drift."

"Drift?"

I looked at the faces surrounding me. "It was a game I used to play with my older brother."

"Older bro?" said Zee. "Who's that!?"

"My older brother, Darrius. We used to climb the tree, then glide down using drifts." I pulled out a blanket from the saddlebag. "I can create a drift using this."

"By drift, do you mean parachute?" Crisis asked, his voice once again cocky. "Cause I really hope that's what you mean.."

"Parachute?"

The Biomech sighed. "Never mind..."

"What happened to your older brother?" asked Astral.

"He joined the resistance, and left Stringhalt. I haven't seen him in a year..."

"Then we'll find him." Astral reassured me. "We'll find him, and help him. But first... the tree.

Zee

The drifts were done! We had climbed the big tree, and we now sat on a branch, Astral holding me close, and Crysus standing freely. I wanted to be just like Crysus!

Serenity had given us each a drift, except me... why not? "Where's my drift?"

"Huh?" she said, eyes widening. "You and Astral can go together." I sighed. They were always babying me! I wanted a drift...

Serenity stood up on the branch, her hooves slipping a little. Then she jumped! I strained a little at Astral's grasp. "I don't wanna play drifts any more."

"Don't worry Zee, it's going to be okay." with that, Astral peered over the wall, hooves grabbing both me, and the branch. Serenity was standing next to her drift, miles and miles and miles down! Too far to...

"Jump." said Crysus.

Astral looked back, panicked. "I... I can't..."

"Then allow me!" he pushed Astral, and jumped at the same time falling beside us. The air rushed in, too fast, then the drift caught it and we glided. "Ohmyohmyohmyohmy!" Astral exclaimed. "If Unicorns were meant to fly, we'd be given wiiiiiiiiiiiiiings..."

We landed near to Serenity, and Crisis, both of whom were staring back at the wall. It was a big wall... And now, we were on the other side, away from the buildings! Into the forest, where I belonged! This was where me and my Bro lived before we came to Stringhalt! "Come on guys!" I called to the others. "Lets go!"

Gradually, they tore themselves away from gazing at the wall, and joined me.

For some reason, the three of them didn't look very happy... but why not? After all...

The adventure had started!

Chapter 5: Capture And Flames

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 5: Capture And Flames

Serenity

We finally reached it! Arc canyon, a huge rocky canyon that lay on the wasteland beyond the forest. It had been two weeks since we left Stringhalt, and the loss of my parents still hurt like it was yesterday. Zee examined the dusty red terrain ahead. "Why're we going here?" he asked, eyes wide.

"This is a shortcut to Hock." Astral replied, studying the map. "We can cross this, and save a week of travel!"

"That's great!" I replied levelly, "Should we start moving?"

The others nodded in agreement. Crisis had returned to his usual headstrong self, and looked nonchalantly at the canyon below us. "This is pretty wierd." he eventually said.

"Don't they have canyons where you're from?" Astral asked.

"They do, just not like... this." he gestured to the surrounding forest. "Those are two terrains that don't mix."

Astral shrugged, examined the map once more, and then led the way, descending the path into the belly of the canyon. The group followed, and soon we were surrounded by dust orange walls. There were small holes and caverns along the walls, and as we passed I made sure to avoid them. Who knew what was lurking in those dark crevasses...

After about half an hour of walking along the deep floor, we reached the other side of the canyon. A rocky path up the wall allowed us to exit that dusty tomb, trading orange sand for yellow sand. Crisis was right... this wasteland was a strange occurrence... it was surrounded by forest on all sides and had no logical explanation for being there. A griffin patrol flew past, miles and miles in the distance, and I watched them a feeling of dread in my stomach. The wastelands were not only a shortcut for rebels after all, they were a shortcut for rebel hunters.

And we were rebels.

Commander Hype stood in the blackened courtyard, griffin guards circling around him running various tasks. There were six unconscious guards lying on the blackened floor, twisted into various angles and only just beginning to twitch. When he first saw them, he thought that they were dead, something that both saddened him and excited him.

But they weren't dead, just knocked out cold. Close to comatose, and very intriguing. That metal monster, the one that the Stringhalt officials had been talking about, he was responsible for this. Now Hype wanted to find him. The commander turned to his fellow griffins, "Is it still in the city?"

"No sir!" squeaked a griffin nervously, after all commander Hype wasn't someone you upset in a hurry. "We think they've left the city sir, using these sir!" the guard gestured to a pile of blankets, that had been cut in places and modified.

"In that case," Hype said eventually, "Send a large group of guards to search north west of here, try the canyon, that's where rebels like to hide. Search the surrounding forest too, I don't want it to escape. When you capture it, bring it to me."

The head guard nodded. "And what of the others sir?"

"They are unnecessary. Kill them."

"Yes sir. Right away sir."

Commander Hype smiled to himself as a large flock of heavily armed griffins took off and began to head north west. He'd have that thing by the end of the day.

And he looked forward to it.

Astral

We stuck close to the ground, our colours blending nicely into the sand. Silver and white didn't stand out against the terrain, which was a bonus given the open space they were in. Zee sat on Serenity's back, his small hooves sore from walking, while Crisis, lacking all stealth and without any care for safety, stood up straight walking normally. "Crisis!" I hissed, "If you walk like that we'll be seen!"

The Biomech spun to face me. "Seen by wh..." he began before freezing. I glanced behind me and likewise froze, mouth gaping in horror. Griffins, a whole flock of griffins.

And they had seen us.

There had to be at least thirty griffins there, since when did they travel in packs of that size? Noticing my panic, Serenity also turned.

"Run..." she gasped, and we bolted. The griffins may have been fast, but they were far away. If we could make it to the forest then we might be able to outrun them. Zee clung to Serenity's back, eyes closed in terror. Bringing him had been a bad idea, he was too young for this kind of danger.

"Okay!" called Crisis. "I... I can only see one way out of this. I'll hold them off."

"No!" Serenity and I called back in return.

"Got any better ideas?" he questioned, then seeing our faces continued. "Look, they can't kill me. I can fight them off, then escape and meet up with you."

"It's too risky!" I replied eyes wide, and stomach hurting from the running.

"That's too bad," Crisis replied. "Cause I'm doing it." he stopped running, then spun to face the other way. "Run." he said bravely. "And one more thing... Don't replace me."

"Crysus!"

But Crisis didn't hear this, we had left him behind and reached the surrounding forest. As I pushed into the trees, I saw a huge flock of griffins circling Crisis, and something else.

Three griffins heading after us. "Serenity, we've got company!"

"We can lose them in the forest." the silver pony smiled. "Hide and seek."

We ducked behind a fallen log, and lay there panting. I strained my ears for any sound of movement. There was something...

Hoofsteps. Getting closer and closer. It only sounded like one guard, and a small one by the sounds of it. What would Crisis do in this situation? Fight back.

I began to charge a beam of magic, pushing energy into it from every pore of my body. The footsteps stopped and I seized my chance, springing out from behind the log, and releasing the bolt of energy straight into the guard. He flew backwards into a tree, and lay crumpled at the base.

As we left the safety of the log, and pelted off into the forest, pursuers left far behind, I prayed.

I prayed to Faust that the guard wasn't dead. I also prayed to Faust that Crisis was ok.

Crisis

My time to shine? Surrounded by heavily armed outnumbering guards, encircled by an enemy that surpassed me. Heh, I lived for this! "One at a time, boys!" I called to them, not a trace of fear in my voice. They seemed to sense my confidence, and shuffled uncomfortably. Who could blame them, I was a pretty scary sight. I raised my hand and summoned a ball of electricity... or rather I didn't. As I raised my hand, a lasso snapped around my wrist, and I was tugged to the ground by brute strength.

"One at a time? I'll take your challenge." a sophisticated, yet sadistic voice called out. I followed the lasso rope to find a single griffin standing, intimidating the others and strongly in charge.

"Sir!" another griffin began. "Umm.. we had this under control..."

"Like hell you did.." I muttered. I addressed the lasso holder. "And you are...?"

"Commander Hype of the Aerlion fortieth division. The boss around here. I think we should find somewhere nicer to talk... how about a cell?"

"No thanks." I replied calmly. "I'm fine where I am."

The commander smiled, reminding me horribly of branding. "I'm afraid It's not a choice."

"Got that right!" I replied, pulling down on the rope, and cutting it open on blades that appeared along my arms. Electricity flowed around my hands aggressively, as the blades clicked into place. My image had just improved by 100%, as had the terror of the guards...

All except Hype. He simply smiled in awe. "Incredible..." the earth pony muttered.

"Damn straight it is." I replied. "Now what? Still want a fight?"

"Oh yes." Hype replied, a twinkle in his eye. Then he suddenly shouted at the assembled griffins. "Companybattlestationnow!"

The griffins flew into order, then straight at me, all thirty hurtling through the air. This whole event took about a second, and anyone else would have been crushed by the attack.

But I wasn't anyone. My CPU immediately blocked the threat with a pulse of air that disturbed the flight, weakening the griffin charge. I threw myself backwards to avoid damage, then began combat, ducking to avoid beaks, claws and legs. My blades slashed into the legs, arms and bodies of those griffins who got too close, and I remained untouched. This battle was incredible! Never before had I fought like this, using skilled attacks and moves to such great effect. A beak lunged towards me, and I ducked it throwing the owner to the sandy ground. The attack was called off, as griffins retreated to lick their wounds and look fearfully at me.

"Any other attempts? I ain't got all day." I said, trying my best to sound bored.

"One more." smiled Hype. He drew a sword and grasped it in one hoof. "Me. I'm a fencing champion, so this should be easy."

"For me?"

"Perhaps." Hype smiled again. "Want to test your luck against a real warrior?"

I laughed. "Sure. Let's go." with that, I launched myself through the air at Hype, claws outstretched my speed allowed me to glide and then...

Fall. The sword strikes battered me to the ground, and I raised a hand to block the slashing. The power of the sword blows knocked my hand to the side, and I lay defeated on the sand. I felt Hype shackling my hands, and my blades retracting from defeat.

Typical. I just had the heck kicked out of me by a sword.

And now I was once again under arrest.

Luck... ah, I don't even care any more. I wonder if my friends escaped.

Astral

We dashed through the overgrown forest, ducking and jumping to avoid branches, and ever aware of two pursuers, following us with deadly speed. The griffin guards couldn't fly here, but they could gallop and boy were they galloping. I kept catching glimpses of them behind us, jumping and ducking as we were.

We left the forest suddenly to find a terrible drop in the landscape. A waterfall poured lazily nearby, and far down I could make out a less than lazy river forcing its way along the ground. There was no way to escape, we were trapped!

"Not... so tough now... are you?" panted a rough voice. The two griffins were stood behind us in the forest. They began to advance evil grins appearing. "Not that.... It matters. We don't... need you alive!"

At this point, one of the griffins lunged out towards me, and in reflex I stepped back. The guard toppled over the edge, falling to his certain death in the boiling waters below. The other guard blanched, and stepped back in horror.

"Karoyl?" he whimpered, expecting his gnarled friend to reappear over the edge. Then he looked at us in horror, and I finally realised something.

This griffin was a rookie! He wore no badges, and was smaller than the others I had seen. I lowered my horn, and pinned him to a tree with my magic, and found that he was weak too! Serenity stepped forward.

"What do you want?"

"Want?" the griffin stuttered, eyes wide with fear.

"What are your orders?" Serenity explained.

"Catchtheknightkilltheothers!" he squeaked.

"Catch the knight? What does your master want with Crisis?"

"I don't know!!!"

I noticed tears in his eyes, and I released him. The kid ran back off into the forest, screaming and stumbling.

Serenity looked me in the eye. "We have to save Crisis." I nodded, and we chased the kid back towards the canyon.

Crisis wasn't there. Nor were the griffins.

The space we had left them in was kicked up and uneven. Scraps of cloth lay in the sand, and I realised that this was the scene of a battle.

"Crisis must have put up a fight." muttered Serenity sadly.

"But he lost." I finished.

Decay

I lay in a crack in the mountainside, watching the party carefully. Their friend had been taken... captured by griffins.

Which left a huge hole in their lives, and one I intended to fill. I was thin from hunger, my wings brittle and curled and with little strength. I needed food soon, so I put my remaining energy into transforming.

My body changed, taking on a silver gleam and I stood on my back hooves as the change overtook my body. Of all the group, the knight was the most difficult to become but my acting skills were able to replicate him nevertheless. I practiced my voice, "Hello." No, no! I had to become him!

While following the group, I had heard him talking and I knew just how to replicate his voice.

"Hey." that was better. Much better in fact! "Miss me?"

Nailed it. I was ready, and as the group moved off back into the forest, I began to follow at a distance. Wait until they really miss him, then fill the gap.

Lots of love.

Lots of food.

Crisis

I had been taken back to Stringhalt, then bundled into a cart by good old Hype. I had to admit, I respected him. I respect most people who are better than me, I guess it's just in my programming.

"Where to now?" I asked Hype, sounding bored.

"Canterbury." he replied. "I think you'll like it there."

I looked quizzically at the grinning griffin. "Why?"

"You'll see." he replied as the cart suddenly lifted off the ground. We were flying, and I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"I'm looking forward to it." I said blankly staring into space.

"Oh, but not as much as me." Hype replied. "When I present you to the Stallion, I'll get promoted for sure. He loves new weapons."

The commander leered at me in the darkness of the cart. "And I love promotions."

Typical. Trapped in a flying cart with a sadistic commander and his crew, on a journey to god knows where to meet god knows what.

Lucky me.

Zee

We had escaped! The forest that is. We stood at the edge of the forest, staring out at a huge luscious field that carried on further than the eye could see. I ran out from the others and started to skip around in the grass laughing with happiness.

"Zee! Wait!" Serenity exclaimed. "There might be danger!"

"Come get me!" I replied, ducking into the tall grass. Serenity and Astral laughed then joined me, all thoughts of chaos, misery and sadness vanquished by the green landscape. We frolicked for an hour, then lay, tired out staring at the cloud wall above us. There were no guards here, no ponies either.

Just the three of us. Eventually Astral spoke up. "We should make camp, its getting dark."

Serenity nodded, and the two of them worked on clearing a space in the grass and lighting a fire, while I wandered off into the tall grass. It tickled my nose! I sneezed, startling a small mouse who ran away. Laughing, I gave chase, and followed the mouse deep into the field. Following it as the darkness grew, and surrounded me. Soon, I couldn't see anything. I stopped laughing, and stood in the grass. There was just darkness! Then I noticed something, fire! There was a glow of fire in the distance, and I ran towards it happy once again.

Friends!

Serenity

I sat down in vain. Lighting a fire was near impossible! I had rubbed stones together with all my strength, and not one spark had appeared. How had Crisis done it? Using magic I guess...

Astral saw my saddened expression, and comforted me. "Don't worry, a fire would only attract trouble anyway."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Do you miss Crisis?"

I nodded. "He's probably all alone... I can't bear to think of him being lonely..."

"You know Crisis! He's probably escaped by now."

I nodded. But against that many guards? Who could escape that? "I'm surprised Zee took it tha..." I began sadly, then froze. "Zee! Where's Zee??!"

Astral looked up at the surrounding darkness. "He was playing in the grass! Zee! Zee?!"

We leapt up from the camp, calling his name in fear. Then I saw it.

There was a small glow of fire coming from across the field. "No..." I muttered. "No..."

Then I was off charging across the field, oblivious to any danger and with only one thing on my mind.

"Zee!!!!!!!"

Decay

Damnit! I was close to the camp, and I heard them talking about Crisis. They missed him! If I had gone in then, I could have fed like a king! But that little zebra had gotten lost, and they had run off after him. Still though, I had chosen the perfect person to become. This Crisis was important to them, and they missed him deeply.

I slunk back into the shadows of the forest. There would be other times to strike. I could wait.

And I would wait.

Astral

I ran after Serenity, panicking. Who's camp was that!?? Was Zee in danger?!! Serenity was ahead of me, and in the darkness of night I could make out her form galloping like a fully grown pony.

I blinked back tears as I ran behind her. If they had touched a hair on Zee's head, then they'd be sorry!

We burst into the clearing, and I reeled in shock. Zee sat alone staring at the fire. Serenity and I ran to him, pulling the little zebra into a hug. "Zee! Are you okay?!!" I asked desperately.

"Yeah! Why wouldn't I be?" he asked. "I'm sorry for running away... but you made a good camp!"

"We..."

"Yep! He gestured to the fire. It's all toasty and warm!"

"But Zee, this isn't our camp..."

"Who made this?" Serenity questioned. She looked into the fire. There's nothing here, just the fire.

I looked around the clearing. Nopony... So who made this?

Zee curled up next to the fire and yawned. "Whoever made this is nice! Giving us a fire!"

"Yes..." I echoed. "Giving us a fire..."

Serenity, Zee and I curled up together and drifted off into sleep, the flames casting a warm glow over our bodies.

Whose flames?

Crisis

It was late when the cart finally began to desend, and darkness flooded the cramped space of the cart. We crossed over a mighty black wall into yet more mighty black. A city of darkness, cobblestone making up the entirety of this shadow city.

It was a far cry from the environment I had been in previous, yet it was a welcome feeling. I had grown up in darkness...

Here was a city full of it.

The cart landed along a street, the wheels bouncing along the cobbles and juddering its occupants. The door swung open to reveal a huge row of griffin guards. Each brandishing a pike.

"Way to roll out the welcome wagon." I muttered. There was no reply, and I looked back to see that Hype looked worried. We left the cart, and Hype spoke to one of the pikemen.

"I didn't ask for any guards..."

"All prisoners are to be taken to the palace dungeon."

"Dungeon! What?! But he isn't a prisoner!"

The pikeman raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but he's going to the dungeon. No exceptions."

"But he's a special case!"

"No exceptions." the pikeman replied, as griffins gripped my arms, and pulled me away.

"Wait! No!" Hype called out in anger.

"If he really is a special case, the ask a prison commander for a release permit." the pikeman stated in a bored voice.

"Don't worry Crisis." Hype muttered. "I'll get you out of there."

Then he vanished from view, as I was dragged around a corner. Ponies stopped and stared as I passed, no doubt wondering what the hell I was.

I resisted the urge to fight my way out. Too many guards.

Besides, where would I go?

Commander Hype kicked at the ground in anger. Stupid regulations! Why couldn't griffins just act without protocol sometimes? Now he'd have to wait for a release permit...

It was strange to think it, but Hype found that he liked Crisis. Just another warrior from some other high command. Huge potential, heck they even had similar personalities! And when the Shadow Stallion heard of this weapon, and it's captor he'd be promoted.

Into the big leagues...

As for Crisis? Well warriors were all the same. He'd be weaponised.

Weaponised.

Decay

It was morning, and I had been following the party for half an hour. They were talking, without a single mention of Crisis and that annoyed me. I had to wait until they really missed him before moving in to feed. The more relief they got from my appearance, the more energy I would gain.

And I needed energy... I was thin, and painfully malnourished. I needed to act soon, or else. Then I heard the conversation.

"I wonder where Crysus is!"

"I'm sure he's fine. Probably heading this way as we speak!"

Perfect. Perfect.

Perfect...

Zee

Crysus! He stood behind us, tall and proud against the grass.

"Crysus!" at the sound of my voice, the others turned and noticed him as well. We ran to meet him, pushing him to the floor in happiness, and hugging him. Serenity laughed with joy, while Astral wiped tears of relief from her eyes.

"You made it Crisis!"

He seemed to pause, before replying. "I sure did!"

Decay

I lay beneath the loving hugs of Crisis's friends, and joy wracked my body. I was loved! Loved! Energy returned to me, and I began to grow stronger. I felt so... happy!

But a nagging thought lay in the back of my mind. They didn't love me. They loved him.

I was just a hated imposter living of their love. A tear appeared at my eye, and Astral looked at it puzzled.

"I didn't know you could cry Crisis."

"Well you learn something new every day!"

Hated. Hated.

Hated.

Chapter 6: Weaponisation

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 6: Weaponisation

Crisis

I was dragged down flights and flights of cobble stairs, moving deeper underground with every step. The corridors were dark, forbidding, and iced air filled them. The cold didn't effect my body, but it's presence on my sensors still made me shiver.

We arrived at my new cell block, deep underground. A row of dank cells stretched along a corridor into the distance, and I was pushed into a vacant one by the guards.

I noticed my neighbouring occupants, a scarred pony and a young colt around my (mental) age, both of whom regarded me with suspicion.

Then I was left, the unspeaking guards moving off to attend other matters. At first, there was silence, but then a quiet, low level of talking began to build up throughout the cell block. I saw the ponies in the cells either side and opposite, eye me up wearily. Eventually, a female earth pony in the cell opposite spoke up.

"What are you in for?"

"Wearing stupid clothes?" came a mocking voice from another cell.

"What are you anyways?" the young colt next to me asked.

I was quiet for some time, noting the way that the other occupants eagerly awaited an answer. Finally, I gave them that. "What is this place? Prison?"

"No," came the sarcastic voice again, "This is nursery!"

"May as well be." I replied casually, "This place is a piece of cake, I can escape easily!"

The stallion on my right, scars, and a look of serious wisdom on his face queried my logic with a chuckle. "Oh really? And how do you aim to do that?"

I had no idea. If I was a level two, then the hardest part of escape would be choosing the coolest way to do it, but as a level one? Right now, my CPU was searching desperately for a way out, and there didn't seem to be any...

"Are you supposed to be a knight?" the kid asked. He was an orange pegasus with a green mane and I noted that he, like me, sounded headstrong and cocky.

"More like a sword..."

"A weapon."

I turned quickly to see the scarred stallion, yellow with a grey mane, looking at me with understanding.

"Yeah..." I replied hesitantly. "How did you...?"

I returned my mind to escape. "I need to know some stuff about this prison."

"Ask away!" said the mare opposite me, a bubbly red pony who smiled widely.

"What did you lot do?"

"We're rebels." the yellow stallion sighed. "And you'll find more where we came from both in and out of this prison."

"Rebels?" since when were there rebels? Rebels were bad... that was something built into my personality, being from an empire myself.

The yellow stallion sighed. "Before we get into the details of Equestria, I think it's only polite to exchange names."

The orange colt grinned at me through the shadows. "The name's Blaze! You?"

Damn.. the kid stole my sentence starter... "Crisis."

The colt's grin deepened. "Woah... nice..."

"My name is Stoke." the stallion stated, then he raised a hoof and pointed at the red pony. "That's Mulbry."

Mulbry waved happily. "Pleased to meet you Crisis!"

"Yeah, whatever. Who are those two?" I gestured to the unseen ponies either side if Mulbry.

"Those... common criminals. Murderers, thieves."

The sarcastic voice came again. "Don't forget mutineers Stokey!"

Stoke sighed. "That one's a mutineer."

"I had no idea..." I replied trying to make out who sat in the cell. He sounded like a griffin, but would they arrest one of their own?

Stoke got my attention. "So then, Crisis. Remind us how you plan to escape."

At the words escape, all those in earshot ceased talking, and the section of cells became silent. I thought for a second, before examining the bars again. They were too strong for a Biomech of my level...

Then I noticed the lock, a crude metal construction clinging to the door. A solution formed instantly.

I placed my palm over the door lock, concentrated my energy then fired a pulse into the crude metal. The lock vibrated rapidly with the intake of energy, and its inner workings were mangled by the vibrations. The door swung open with a squeak of metal. "Hell yeah." I said flatly.

There were gasps along the row of cells, as I stepped out from my prison Blaze and Mulbry among them. Stoke, however, shook his head sadly. "That's step one Crisis. Now for step two, you have to ascend thirty four floors each filled with guards, leave the prison and escape without being noticed by griffin patrols, avoid the Draconequus night guards and leave the city."

"Sounds like fun! See ya!" I started to leave, and heard a cacophony of protest from other the prisoners. "What's up with them?" I asked Stoke.

The stallion sighed knowingly. "You're leaving, and they're jealous."

"Too bad. Now bye!"

"Crisis. Please, do me one favour."

I turned back reluctantly. "What, what do you want!"

"At least help us rebels escape."

I shook my head. "Don't have time. Enjoy prison!" then I walked off down the corridor.

"They'll kill us Crisis."

That stopped me in my tracks. "Y'what?"

"They'll kill us."

I allowed my gaze to wonder down the massive corridor. Eventually I reached a decision. "I'll release you three."

Stoke looked up at me. "Us three?"

"You, Blaze and Mulbry."

Tears appeared in Stoke's eyes. "Thank you Crisis."

I sighed. "You can thank me when we escape."

And escape wasn't going to be easy.

Or was it?

Astral

We were all together! Away from the guards, the corruption and the misery of the city. As it turned out, the field was larger than expected, and days later we were still walking through the endless luscious grass. We had seen no sign of the pony who created the fire, and Crisis assured is that it wasn't him.

Crisis himself had changed, and for the better! He was less arrogant, and seemed much happier with us. He also slept at night, his metal body seeming more organic than it had before as the four of us snuggled together. I wonder what happened to him that made the Biomech so happy all of a sudden. Maybe he had finally found his place, and could finally accept happiness in a family.

Serenity still seemed saddened at the loss of her actual family, and there were times when she hung back behind us so that we wouldn't see her cry. That was unlike her, usually she was very open about her emotions... It must have been really hard for her, to lose everything in one go, and without explanation. What did her family do to annoy the Stallion? The same thing my father did? All I knew was that it wasn't fair.

Zee, however, seemed to be having the time of his life! Him and Crisis would play together in the grass as we walked, rolling, jumping and hiding within the green landscape. The two had become inseparable as of late, yet another sign of Crisis' new personality.

And what about me? Life was good! I couldn't remember the last time I had felt this happy, and being with my friends made it all better. For some reason, the field didn't appear on my map, and I had lost track of where we were. The wasteland was on there, as was the forest, but a giant field? With nopony around? Stranger and stranger...

"Crisis, could you do that compass thing again?"

Crisis looked panicked for a second, before replying carefully. "Uh, I can't do that right now..."

"Really? Why?"

"Uh... I... I need to charge up my magic!"

Once again, I was confused. "Magic? But I thought you couldn't use magic..."

By now Serenity stood next to me, and we both examined the Biomech carefully.

"Yeah! I use some magic!" he exclaimed nervously.

This was starting to puzzle me, what was up with him? He never seemed nervous in conversation, and he'd never mentioned magic in his methods. I decided to let it go, and shrugged.

But I kept my eye on him. Something was up...

And Crisis was hiding it.

Decay

Agh! They were onto me! I could tell that they were suspicious, and that worried me more than anything. What if they asked me a question I couldn't answer? What would I do!?

I couldn't reveal myself this late, or I'd lose all love... they'd hate me! I had to try and act more like him, and respond better in tricky situations like that one. From what I had seen of Crisis before he'd been captured, I had noticed that he was...

Selfish. But I couldn't be selfish! It wasn't in my nature, and besides...

I didn't want to be selfish. Not around my new friends!

Zee and I have been together all the time, rolling in the grass and playing childish games. Then there was Serenity, one of the kindest most selfless ponies I'd ever met. She always had something nice to say...

Astral just seemed to know everything! She had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Equestria, and taught me stuff I'd never known, or understood before. It was from her that I gleaned our mission, to seek out the elements of harmony.

And I was with them all the way! Unless...

Unless Crisis returned.... but that was impossible, after all nopony escaped capture by griffins!

But then again, Crisis wasn't a pony...

Crisis

We were close to the top. Floor after dark floor had been left behind as the four of us ascended, and there was something that confused and worried me.

We hadn't seen one guard. Seriously, not one single guard. Surely they wouldn't just leave us down here without precautions? I guess I should be happy about the lack of guards, but it annoyed me. Where were they all? Was there some sort of procession going on, or a rebellion or what!?

We reached the top floor, and there were still no guards! The prison office was empty, and the great double doors stood open, showing the street ahead. There was darkness shrouding the cobbles, and nobody in sight. Suddenly, something passed the door, a horrific creature its body a mismatch of animals. Was it attacking the town? Was that where all the guards were? "What the hell is that..?" I asked Stoke.

"That," he replied sadly, "Is a Draconequus."

It answered my question, but not my confusion. "Where are all the guards? Do they just not care about security here?"

Stoke was just as puzzled as me. "I have no idea. Perhaps something is happening in the city."

"Good for us though!" exclaimed Blaze happily. "Means we can escape!" he looked quizzically at Stoke, "Right?"

The stallion sighed again. "We need to find a way out." he said eventually.

"The battlements!" Mulbry exclaimed, her mane bouncing in excitement. "We just climb them and..."

"Drop down?" finished Stoke.

"Well... maybe not..."

There was a loud screech from above us, and a flock of Draconequus flew overhead.

"Something big is going on..." said Blaze, and the orange colt hunched his shoulders, allowing his mane to fall over his face.

I walked through the door, and looked down at the street we were on. The Draconequus had vanished, and a thick purple smog filled the air. For the first time, I noticed that the air was cold, freezing in fact. My comrades joined me at the door, shivering, and looking wildly at the surroundings.

We hadn't picked the best time to escape. Oh hell no.

Granted all the guards were gone, but there was something big happening... which seemed worse. We were caught in the crossfire of some terrible event, and tension hung in the air alongside the purple smoke.

We walked slowly down thick obscured streets, feet clattering on the cobbles, and still found no one. The only signs of life that could be seen were the occasional Draconequus moving overhead with mismatched wings. The ground seemed to be flooded, shadows drifting at our feet, and distant roars only confirmed the danger we were in.

"There." said Stoke raising one hoof to point at a wall in the distance. "We need to reach that."

"Its too far..." muttered Blaze. "We'll never make it!"

"We haven't seen anypony yet, and hopefully that won't change. Now come on!"

"Guys..." Mulbry said carefully. "Look behind you..."

A Draconequus stood in the shadows staring greedily at us, huge claws and even bigger teeth.

Stoke, Blaze and Mulbry stepped back in horror, leaving me in front, frozen with either fear or confidence. The creature examined me carefully, saliva dribbling from his horrendous maw.

"So you're a Draconequus." I stated simply.

"What are you?" he hissed, edging closer.

"The guy who's gonna kick your hide unless you pick on someone your own size!" I raised my fists, moving into fighting stance. My friends moaned. Maybe insulting it wasn't the best idea...

The Draconequus snarled angrily. "I'll rip you limb from limb little one!" he retorted.

Okay, it was now or never. I raised a hand, conjuring a ball of electricity. By now, it was second nature and the ball formed perfectly.

"Little creature thinks he can scare me with poxy magic!" the mismatched monster laughed.

"Nope." I replied casually. "This ain't magic." I leaned in closer. "And it's gonna be more than just a scare."

My friends were paralysed with fear at this point, and were no doubt preparing for death. As the Draconequus got closer, I lowered my hand, taking aim at the beast's head.

In a flash, the Draconequus pounced, claws outstretched and a roar on his lips. I raised my hand to counter, and watched in wonder as, over the course of a second, the electricity spread down my arm, and turned the metal into a wonder-weapon. The Draconequus crashed into my shimmering arm, and was launched backwards as the lightning coursed through his body.

"Run!" I screamed at the others, and they obeyed disappearing down the shadowed street.

Then it was just me and the monster, his face red and inflamed by the electricity. "Truce?" I asked hopefully.

He responded by pouncing, and attacking like a dog on a ragdoll. I was tossed to the floor time and time again. My energy levels were low after that attack, and I had no power left to resist. Instead, I did the only thing possible....

I blacked out.

Decay

We had trekked on and on through the field, and here we were. The edge. There was a brief hill, and then below that..

"Hock." Astral read from her map. "The element of loyalty, it's here!"

There were cheers all round, and I felt my energy rise as I was congratulated. Then we descended towards the town, heading for the most obvious building, the chapel. Its wide body was visible, even from the outskirts, and I reflected on its strange shape.

"Okay Crisis, you'd better cloak yourself."

"W.. what?"

Astral looked blankly at me. "You know! Cloak yourself!"

"Uh.. I.. Um.."

"Crisis.. are you okay?" Serenity was looking worriedly at me as well. Even Zee was puzzled. This was it, my chance was up.

I had to leave. Unless...

"I don't want to go in there! Cloaking really takes it out of me..." I stood up proud, all hesitation leaving my voice. "I'll wait here for you."

"Uh.. Okay." Astral replied, still looking confused. "But Crisis, if there was anything wrong, you'd tell me right?"

"Yeah! Of course!" I replied.

Relieved, the others left and headed into Hock. Now would be the logical time to leave, I was near a town now! It was filled with people that I could mix with. But I couldn't leave. The time I had spent with the group was the best of my life, and I couldn't just walk away from that.

Changeling. That was my species, and I only knew that from insults that had been shouted at me. I was born alone, separated from others of my kind, without anypony to love me.

My earliest memory was as a foal, stealing scraps of food in an attempt to cure my hunger.

But I wasn't hungry for food. Love, I needed love. It wasn't long before I discovered my acting skills, and my shape shifting abilities. I could be an orphan, a long lost brother, anything! I gorged myself on love, was found out, and left for a new town only to repeat the cycle over and over. Then as the Shadow Stallion's influence began to grow more and more powerful, . Suddenly, love was hard to find, and hatred replaced it. I grew hungrier and hungrier, unable to join families over suspicion and xenophobia.

Hated.

Hated, Hated.

"Oi!"

I looked round in horror, to see a griffin guard behind me. He shouted loudly, "I found one!!"

Three more griffins appeared at the top of the hill and, upon noticing me, they rushed down.

"Yeah, this is definitely one of em!" exclaimed a griffin in a gravelly voice as he examined me.

"Wait, din't they a'ready catch this one?" cawed another.

"What I'm more concerned about is where the others are!" muttered the first one, glaring at me.

"You, me'al fing! Where your friends?" the second one said in his reedy voice.

"The town below!" I panicked.

"In that case they've already been captured!" chuckled the first one. "Alright, bring im in!"

I watched in horror as the guards approached, then I transformed disappearing from view. The guards were left in wonder as I hopped away, my newly formed cricket body moving freely in the grass. A transformation of this caliber would be impossible under most circumstances, a cricket was too small...

But the love I gained from my friends fuelled new strength, and I moved hurriedly towards town to help the others.

My friends...

I hoped they were okay.

Serenity

We walked through a couple of busy streets, ponies of all classes and colours passing us. Turning onto a wide high street filled with market stalls and carts, we saw it.

The chapel of loyalty. It was a wide circular building made from black cobblestone, and there were a steady stream of ponies moving inside. I took a deep breath, and followed Astral, Zee clutching my hoof. There were guards surrounding the chapel, griffins not ponies.

What business did the Shadow Stallion have here? Surely he hadn't heard of the elements of harmony too... We blended in with the crowd to avoid detection. There were greeters at the door, who welcomed us into the chapel, and then we were inside. I was amazed by the beauty of the chapel, and at the money which must have gone into this. Astral, however, was more interested in something at the far end of the chapel.

A mighty Alicorn statue stood on a stone plinth, extreme detail etched into the stone. It was the most obvious part of the chapel, and stood out a mile. This was what we had come for, and this was where we would find the element.

Astral turned to me, smiling. "This is it! Step one!"

I returned her smile. "Okay! How do we get the element?"

The white unicorn started down the aisle. "Wait and see! I need to get in closer..."

Zee and I began to follow her, but were stopped. A hoof held me still, and I whipped round to see a griffin guard leering at me. I cried out in horror, and struggled to pull free. Zee darted towards Astral, evading his captor, and two more guards pushed through the crowds into the front of the chapel.

"Astral!" I cried out, my voice muffled by the crowd. The guard shook me, and pushed me to the ground.

"Shut it!" he roared. I saw Astral continue to walk away, ignorant of the danger she was in.

"Run Astral!" I screamed again, and this time she heard.

My friend looked behind her, and saw me. She also saw the guards edging closer.

"Run!!!"

Astral hesitated for a second, then bolted away, her size allowing for better movement between the crowds. Zee ducked into a row of seats, vanishing from sight and I felt a blow to the back of my head.

I was dragged from the chapel by rough hooves. "We found em!" the griffin holding me announced to a commander outside the entrance. He leered at me. "The others'r still inside!"

"Good." the commander announced in a stuck up voice. "Now then lads, find the other two."

"What do you want with us!?" I cried.

The commander looked at me with contempt before replying. "You are under arrest for resisting capture in Stringhalt, and for harbouring a known criminal."

"How did you know we'd be here!?"

He hesitated. "We've been tracking your movements for a while now. Take her to the cart."

He waved a hoof, and I was bundled rudely into a cart. I looked longingly back at the chapel. "Where are you taking me!?"

There was no answer.

I sat panting in the back, contemplating what would happen. Where would I be taken?

After what seemed like an age, the commander and two guards entered the cart. The commander scowled at me with enough hatred to crack a mirror, and I felt relief course through my body.

They had escaped! Zee and Astral had escaped!

"Go..." the commander muttered, and I felt the cart begin to move before taking to the sky.

We were moving...

But to where?

Astral

From my hiding place behind the Alicorn statue, I saw both Zee hide, and Serenity's capture. It took every ounce of my sense not to run after her, but I resisted the urge.

What use would I be if I was captured? I noticed the guards leave, and prepared myself to exit the chapel, only to stop in my tracks. The audience had grown quiet.

The sermon was beggining. Organ music seemed to blast from nowhere, and then a stallion burst onto a stage. From where I sat, I couldn't make out what he looked like, but I could certainly hear his voice.

"Loyalty!" he announced. "Pure loyalty!"

"Loyalty!!!" the crowd echoed, all keenly fixated on the extravagant speaker.

I lay listening to the exchange, and felt confused. What was this? I coughed lightly, and froze.

As did the speaker. He peered around the statue and, upon seeing me, gasped loudly. The audience followed his lead, gasping as I was bought out. Head held low, I braced myself for capture, only to notice a lack of guards in the audience. They were all gone!

"And who might you be?" queried the speaker, all attention on him.

"Um... I'm Astral..."

"And what business do you have hiding behind this divine statue?!"

I lowered my head even more, speaking in barely a whisper. "Nothing sir..."

"So you have wasted the time of all those here then! With your childish games!"

"Yes... sir..."

"No she hasn't!"

Oh no! Zee was standing in the aisle, a look of anger and defiance on his face. "We're here for the element of loyalty!"

"Zee no!" I called out.

"Crysus an Serenity 've been captured coming here, an we ain't leaving wifout the element!"

The speaker stood, shocked, before striding from the room angrily.

I collapsed to the floor, brutally aware of the audience watching me. Zee hurried over and lay next to me on the plinth. "Did... did I do something bad Astral?"

"No Zee..." I sighed. Then, we sat awaiting our fate. The speaker had no doubt gone to find some guards, and soon we'd be imprisoned by the griffins...

"Todays sermon is over!" called a voice, and I saw the speaker re-enter the room, accompanied by two ponies wearing similar cloaks. The audience gradually exited, leaving Zee and I alone with the three preachers.

"Please don't tell on us..." I whispered in fear. Zee hugged in close to me whimpering. The preacher hesitated, and spoke to us.

"Come children, we have much to discuss."

I looked up, hearing the kindness in his voice, and saw a fourth pony in the background a much older faded blue pony.

He nodded to the speaker, before talking. "We must discuss... the elements."

We were led away by the cloaked ponies, Zee sticking to my side. What was happening? More importantly...

Were we safe?

Crisis

"Incredible." said the griffin, staring intently into my visual receptor. Hype simply smiled, a hoof on my shoulder.

"I told you sir, this one is different!"

The griffin looked at Hype with a look of annoyance. "That is to be decided."

We were standing in the office of a griffin military leader, and Hype was trying to reason with him. I had been bought here after my fight with the Draconequus, and was surprised at the attention I was getting.

"Decided how?" Hype queried angrily. "This thing is the best warrior I've seen! He survived a mauling by a Draconequus!"

"But he may not be trustworthy." the captain replied, looking Hype squarely in the eye. "He's already affiliated himself with rebels."

"What... what happened to the others?" I asked.

The captain seemed shocked at my ability to talk, and hesitated before replying. "They are still missing. Rest assured, we'll find and execute them."

"No!" I sat up, causing a number of guards in the room to stand on edge. "Let them go!"

The captain ignored me, instead talking to Hype. "As you can see, it is disobedient."

Hype shrugged. "What he lacks in obedience, he makes up for in battle. So what's the verdict?"

The captain rustled some papers behind his desk distractedly, "I will decide that... in time." He looked disgustedly at me. "What species is this thing? I've never seen anything like it."

"I'm a Biomech." I replied.

"And it can talk."

"'It' has a name." I raised my head, "The name's Crisis."

"Hmm... well 'Crisis', I think I have an idea for you." the captain smiled an all too familiar smile, and I shivered. "I'm sure that while escaping last night, you couldn't help but notice... a commotion."

I nodded, and the smile grew.

"There was an attempt on the Shadow Stallion's life last night. Three assassins, attacked him."

The other griffins, who had no doubt been just as confused as me about the nights events, muttered amongst themselves until they were silenced. The captain returned his attention to me. "Two unicorns and a Draconequus. In fact, two fillies and a colt."

I looked blankly at him, prompting an explanation.

"Children Crisis. The assassins were children. And now our mighty leader wants them dead." He walked around his desk, and stood in front of me, contempt in his eyes. "Your test, is to find them and kill them."

"Kill... them?"

"You must kill them. It will decide your value to us."

I stood up defiantly, "and what if I refuse?!"

The captain sighed, and returned to his desk. "Then we will kill your friend."

"My..."

"We captured a silver earth pony in Hock. If you disobey us, we will kill her. So, what is your decision? Your choice?"

I sat down, defeated. There was no choice.

"I'll do it."

The captain smiled. "Good. It'l be a nice surprise for our leader to hear of their deaths. Also... they have stolen certain... artefacts from the Stallion. We need those too."

"How will I find them? You haven't exactly specified..."

"They will almost certainly be traveling together, and we have a rough idea of where they are. If you are the warrior commander Hype, here claims you are then you should be able to track them. A white, and a purple unicorn."

"And a Draconequus?"

"A young Draconequus. Find them, capture the artefacts, and return. Then we will trust you."

I nodded, and bowed my head sadly. "Yes."

The captain's smile grew once more. "Yes sir." he corrected.

"Yes... sir..."

"Good. The Shadow Stallion shall be most pleased..." the captain turned to look through one of the office windows. "He has always liked new... weapons."

"Weapons?"

Weapon. That's all I was.

A weapon.

Chapter 7: Loose Ends

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 7: Loose Ends

Decay

Sometimes, it feels like there's an emptiness within my mind. An unfilled void, that begs for voice and remains unfulfilled. If only I knew more about my race, my people and their abilities! Then maybe I could unravel the mystery of my life, and find a purpose.

I came close once. A librarian took me in as a pale unicorn, granting me access to rows and rows of books, any one of which could have been about Changelings. Unfortunately, that librarian was cleverer than she let on, and I was discovered in a matter of days, forced from the town and left without answers.

What is my nature? Are my people hated for a reason? Can I ever be loved honestly, and if so, how far would I go to be loved honestly?

Those were the questions I asked myself as the cart containing my friends took to the air, Serenity's face peering from between the bars. Was I really prepared to put myself in this much danger?

Yes. I had to, for my friends. Using the last of my energy, I took the form of a songbird and flitted up towards the cart. Transformations of this size took a lot out of me, but there was no other way, this was the only form suitable.

I landed atop the airborne cart, perching on the wood then clinging as the speed increased.

Traveling to where?

Wherever.

Astral

The faded blue pony, his robes gliding with every step, led us into the inner sanctums if the chapel. Leading us into danger or safety?

Zee stuck to me like a shadow as we walked, his strides mimicking mine, and I realised for the first time the way the Zebra idolised me. He looked up for reassurance and I gave him such, smiling in return.

We entered a grand library, and the blue pony led us to a table in the centre. Cloaked ponies worked silently around us, reading from the old books, and writing upon parchment. What was this? Since when did a chapel need a library of this size?

The old pony stood at the head of the table, and cleared his throat as we sat down. He then spoke in a weary, yet puzzled voice, "Who are you, and what business do you have with the elements of harmony?"

Do I tell the truth? Is he safe?

As if sensing my internal conflict, the old pony spoke kindly. "Do not worry young ones, I bear you no harm!"

I looked down at my hooves, before speaking. "We... we're here to find the element of loyalty. It should be here in the tomb of..."

"General Hurricane." the old pony finished sadly. "I'm sorry child, but that element has already been claimed."

I felt disappointment fill me, and I lay my head on the firm oak table. "Really?"

"Yes. It was claimed not long ago, by one not much older than you"

"It's gone!!?" Zee employed loudly, turning the heads of those reading and writing.

"So, which ones haven't been taken?" I asked carefully, trying to keep the disappointment from my voice.

The old pony looked down at me for some time, before muttering to himself. By now, our conversation had gathered a small crowd of cloaked ponies who were looking intently at us.

"I'm afraid that the other elements have already been claimed..." the old pony announced suddenly. "Figuratively, that is. The prophecies have already dictated that fact I'm afraid..."

"Prophecies? Figuratively? What do you mean?"

He sighed once again. "While the other elements may not have been claimed physically yet, it is only a matter if time before those destined to wield them shall."

"Maybe I'm destined!" I blurted, angered at the turn of events. "And even if I'm not in your prophecies, what's stopping me from claiming an element anyway?"

The crowd gasped in horror, and the old pony reeled back from where he stood. "No! You must not! If you were to interfere, and somehow claim

an element, then you could disrupt everything!" he softened a little. "I... I have no idea how you know of these artefacts, nor how you fit into this... Your presence is..." he struggled to find a word, and I finished his sentence blankly.

"Unwanted."

"No! Not unwanted, just... unexpected!"

I turned away from him. "Why should it matter?"

"I'm sorry. There simply isn't any way for you to fit into this. Go back to your family."

This time, I looked the blue pony straight in the eye. "My parents are dead. He killed them." I turned, and trotted away. "I'm going to kill him."

Zee followed me as I left, and none of the chapel ponies made any attempt to stop us.

Prophecy? I didn't care.

This was personal.

Serenity

I kicked at my shackles, feeling the cold metal against my hooves. How was I expected to walk like this? Any where was I, some prison? The surroundings were coated in black cobble, and darkness seemed to shroud the streets I was led down.

"Where... where are we going?" I panted. We'd been walking for some time now, and my legs were starting to ache. To my surprise, the one of the griffins leading me responded, his voice seeming bored as opposed to cruel.

"To some special prison area. For some reason, you've been deemed important to one of the captains."

Why would that be? Was he going to interrogate me about the elements of harmony?

There came a sound from a nearby alley, a crashing sound that caused the surrounding guards to freeze. There was nopony else around... just us and...

That.

We all eyed the alley nervously, waiting for something to happen. There was nothing, only silence. I noticed, with a dagger of fear, that there wasn't even the sound of wind. The air was still, and hung over the shadowed street without an impact.

Eventually, one of the guards laughed, and the others soon followed leaving me with a feeling of both relief and dread. Suddenly, there was a loud rattling, and a dustbin rolled out from the alley, striking my captors with great force. I gracefully leapt over the oncoming bin, and turned to see the guards scattered along the ground. As they began to pick themselves up, a female voice called out from the alley.

"Run!"

I followed the voice, leaving the dazed griffins and galloped into the alleyway, my once proud stride held back by the shackles. There was somepony running ahead of me, a red pony who occasionally checked behind her, no doubt making sure that I was still following.

After an age of running, she slowed and then stopped in a tight courtyard, deserted and foggy.

"Who..." I began, trying to keep order and grace in my exhausted voice.

"My name's Mulbry! I saw you'd been captured, so I helped!" she answered happily, bouncing as she talked.

I had no idea how she even had the energy to bounce, let alone the motivation! We were in a shadowy city teeming with guards, how could anypony be happy?

As of sensing my distress, the smile faded from Mulbry's face, and she scouted around, checking our location's safety. "No guards in sight... but it won't stay that way for long. Follow me!"

"Wha..." I started to say, as she grabbed my hoof, and pulled me down another street.

We vanished into the shadows, and silence fell once again.

What was this place?

Crisis

I pelted bolts of energy at my target, each hitting with lethal force. My enemy lay unmoving upon the cold cobbles, and I took pleasure in the sight. Don't know why.

It was only a scarecrow.

Hype applauded. "Amazing Crisis! You've proven yourself to be quite the marksman." he walked to the burnt straw figure, and examined the damage before continuing, "Not to mention your skills in magic!"

I shrugged. "Piece of cake. Those assassins won't stand a chance!"

Hype beamed at this. "So you've left your rebellious tendencies behind? That's good news Crisis."

His statement shocked me a little. In all the excitement of training, I'd forgotten about my friends! Had I switched sides? I was being trained to kill children... children who were probably no different from Astral, Zee and Celestia.

My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of another straw mannequin, guards wearily dragging it into place. I locked my arm, preparing to fire bolts of plasma. It was a new technique and I wanted to hone it.

"Wait, Crisis."

I looked back to Hype expectantly, and the commander leered at me. "I've seen that attack already... why don't you show me a different one?"

A different attack? Since the training had started I'd been learning new attacks constantly, but there was one that I knew would impress Hype. I hadn't tried it yet, but the abilities were there, stored in my CPU.

I braced myself, then released low power energy into the air around me, its invisible presence spreading undetected by the griffins. Then, I fired a spiderweb of high powered electricity into the cloud, the impossibly thin sparks spreading in lines.

Then, with a crack, voids opened along the lines releasing tiny rocks into the air. The rocks floated along the spiderweb, drifting around me.

"Wha..." Hype croaked in wonder.

"Collision Chaos." I replied then, with a final spark, I allowed the rocks to fall. "I pull void dust into this universe by creating tiny fissures."

"That's... incredible..."

I laughed. "You should see a level two doing that. Whole boulders..."

Hype nodded, still staring at the dust around my feet and I sat on the cobbles, suddenly exhausted from the use of energy. Then I yawned.

Wait... yawned? That was weird. I must have just picked it up from my friends...

The friends that I was saving, yet betraying. Was I a good guy or a bad guy?

I just couldn't tell anymore.

Astral

There was no place for me. I lay on the steps outside the chapel, sobbing while Zee lay alongside me, tears of sympathy rather than sadness upon his face. This was my dream! But I was not written into the future, and therefore I couldn't help.

No. I was going to gather the elements, the remaining ones, whether or not it effected the future. I wasn't going to stand back on the words of a prophecy, I was going to help!

"Come on Zee. Let's go get Crisis."

The Zebra nodded, but still seemed uncertain. "What about serenity?"

"There... there's nothing we can do for her." I answered, standing shakily on my hooves. As much as that idea hurt, it was true. Serenity was in too deep for us to rescue.

We trotted through the empty streets of Hock, heading for the hill where Crisis waited.

Or not.

"Crisis? Where are you?!" I called out to the empty grassland. There was no reply, only the sound of grass in the wind.

"Did the griffuns get him?" Zee asked childishly, and I nodded in reply tears trickling from my eyes. It was only us now, us against the world. I couldn't get support from my friends, nor from the others gathering elements.

"What now?" Zee asked, sounding defeated.

I stood up strong, staring intently into the swirling grey clouds, my voice full of confidence. "Now we find the other elements!"

Zee nodded enthusiastically, a huge naive smile of his striped face. That hurt me, to see him so happy when there was so much misery both around us, and ahead of us. Would he still be smiling after weeks of walking? Without his playmate? Without the care and kindness of Serenity?

I hoped so.

I really hoped so.

Decay

Damn it, floored by a bin! The shock from that nearly shook of my griffin disguise in front of the other guards, but I held my ground as Serenity ran into the shadows of the alley. I had to follow her!

I also had to shake off the other guards!

I was the first one up, and I tried to become a bird again, only for nothing to happen. I didn't have enough energy for a transformation of that level, and I'd have to do this as a griffin.

Part of me considered taking my natural form, but I pushed that thought aside. At least as a griffin, I could remain undiscovered. Instead of transforming, I chased Serenity into the alleyway, my new body feeling easier, and more natural than my previous transformations. I could run and I did so, moving closer and closer towards my friend. Then I lost her.

"What!?" I cried aloud in anguish. Where had she gone? There were about thirty side alleys to choose from, and any one of them could have been the escape route. I took my chances with the central street, and pelted down it at full speed.

"Serenity!" I called out in Crisis' voice, hoping that she'd recognise it. "Serenity!"

There was no answer, I'd lost her. I stood alone in the cramped side street, shivering at the cold. I felt hungry...

But all my friends were gone. I had to find Serenity, for her sake and for mine.

I continued to run through the darkened street, calling her name.

"Serenity!"

Crisis

"You've passed the training programme," announced captain Scool bitterly. "Well done Crisis, this means that you can finally move on to your first mission." he turned to once again stare out of the office window. "You will be flown near to their predicted location, and then you're on your own. We still have your friend..."

"Serenity." I whispered sadly.

"Her name is unimportant. What is important, is that your targets are removed successfully. Two unicorns..."

"And a Draconequus." I finished.

"You must retrieve the artefacts without damage, and bring them to us."

"Yes sir."

"Clamp him." Scool muttered to a nearby guard. A luminescent blue ring was placed around my arm, and it began to pulse upon contact.

"That is a tracking ring. Removal of the ring will paralyse you, allowing us to capture you. It will also update us with your location, so no running."

I scratched at the ring, irritated by its presence. It was emitting some energy that made my arm tingle.

Scool turned back to me. "Your mission starts now Crisis," he gestured to the guards, who began to leave the office.

I followed them from the room, and then into the courtyard, where a cart awaited.

Awaited to take me to my enemies, children no different from my friends. But the worst part was...

My arms were itching to test their new attacks.

On a living target.

Author's notes

Yeah, short chapter today... The next one will be longer though. I'll start writing after the next chapter of steadfast sky is released in order to stay in keeping with the host story. So yeah, comment!

Chapter 8: A Dark Purpose

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 8: A Dark Purpose

The head illuminator sat alone in the darkened library, his head deep in a book on the elements of harmony.

Or rather, another topic surrounding the elements, and one that turned his blood colder and colder with every sentence, the old pony's eyes steadily growing wider in time to the words.

At last, he finished reading and looked up at his dark surroundings, his breath fast and panicked. After a moment of thought, the old pony rose and bolted from the room to gather the other illuminators.

The page he had finished reading was an age old prophecy, regarding a fallen star, a weakened orphan, a lost soul and a torn parasite.

No to mention of course, the group's leader, an unfulfilled dreamer. Surely, the prophecy couldn't be speaking of... but there was a chance, a painfully large chance.

The prophecy's title?

The second bringers of apocalypse.

Crisis

Tracking was harder than it looked... Much harder in fact! I had been flown roughly near where the assassins were last seen, then abandoned with orders to return after killing them.

The terrain was rough and wild, with pine needles littering the hard ground. For the thousandth time, I felt like giving up and returning home, only to remember Serenity. She was imprisoned, and endangered.

If I gave up now, then she'd end up paying for it, and that was an idea that didn't bear thinking abo...

I stopped, looking carefully at something on the ground ahead of me, a tiny indent in the grass. A footprint, or in this case, hoofprint. It was small, so maybe it had been left behind by a foal.

A foal? My mind returned to the toy we'd found in the element chamber and suddenly I began to connect the dots.

These assassins were the elements of harmony! Why hadn't I seen it before now, it had to be them! So to make matters even worse, in order to save Serenity I'd have to kill the only ones capable of defeating the shadow stallion...

I realised that while these thoughts had been circling my processor, I had been absentmindedly following the hoofprints across the bitter terrain. From where I stood, I could see vast mountains stretching across the landscape. I could also see something else, something completely out of place, perched upon the mountain edge.

A pink citadel, shining radiance across the mountain range. It seemed to lack the misery and loneliness of the previous locations, surprising me. How could such a bright frivolous city exist in a place like this? At least I knew one thing...

Where my targets were.

Serenity

Here we were, Mulbry and I sitting in a derelict house, alongside her comrades. The fellow rebels had gathered around a fire, and after introductions, they told me the story of their escape. I couldn't believe it, it couldn't be true!

"But that can't be!" I protested. "Crisis was with us!"

Stoke, the obvious though undeclared leader, raised an eyebrow. "You know of Crisis?"

"We are good friends! He was captured and taken away by the guards! Are you telling me that he was taken here?"

"Yes. Like I said, he helped us escape."

I sat alongside the fire, thinking furiously. How could that be possible? Crisis had been with us the whole time!

Except... he hadn't really been with us at all...

The Biomech was kinder, more open and much less confident. Was it really Crisis? My thoughts were interrupted by Blaze, who was on guard watch, peering through the window.

"Griffins!" the orange colt hissed, and we stopped talking, the four of us keeping perfectly still until Blaze nodded.

"All gone!"

Stoke continued to speak. "I'm sorry though Serenity. I'm afraid that Crisis is... dead."

"Dead!" I exclaimed aghast.

"He was mauled to death by one of the Shadow Stallion's creatures. Nothing could have survived that."

I sat still in shock, eyes wide and mouth half open. The Crisis that had been killed... was it the real Crisis? Where was the fake one now, with Astral and...

"Zee!" I cried aloud, making Mulbry and Blaze jump. In all the commotion of my capture, I had forgotten about my friends! Had they been captured, and if so were they bought here?

"Are you okay Serenity?" Stoke asked, his voice concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, my mind still on Astral, Zee and Crisis. Call it intuition, but I had a feeling that Crisis wasn't dead. He seemed too confident to die unnoticed!

What bothered me more was the timing of events. The rebels had escaped with Crisis a day after he returned to us. There was no window!

Thoughts of capture and fake friends circled mind as the others talked late into the night.

There was no moon in the night sky.

Only cloud. Oppressive cloud.

Zee

We had been walking for hours, and my feet were starting to hurt! "Astral..." I moaned. She sighed, and looked back at me, for I was trailing behind.

"Tired." I announced.

"We're nearly at a city." she replied, continuing to walk.

"But I can't walk any further!" I exclaimed dramatically. "My legs might vanish from tiredness!"

The statement bought a giggle from Astral, who raised an eyebrow. "Vanish from tiredness?"

"Well if they won't, my tummy might!" I cried, my tummy growling in agreement.

"But we just ate an hour ago!"

"But that was a whole hour ago!" I protested.

She stopped, allowing me to catch up, and pointed to a town ahead. "Think you can wait till then?"

"I guess..."

Astral frowned at me. "You're always hungry Zee."

I shrugged, and my tummy rumbled again, prompting another giggle from Astral.

I was always hungry, because my stomach was always hungry!

As we reached the town, Astral suddenly stopped dead, and pointed into the opening street. There were no Shadow Stallion banners here! But there was something worse...

Everypony in the village seemed to be thin and weak, walking shakily through the desolate streets or, in some cases, lying upon the scuffed road. I looked to Astral for reassurance, but she continued to stare at the malnourished ponies.

"Astral?"

Eventually, she spoke, her voice uncertain. "Let's... just get some food and go. I don't like this place..."

As it turned out, getting food here was going to be hard!

Real hard!

Astral

"Are you kidding girl!?" roared the shopkeeper. "Don't you know what's going on here? Unless you got ration stamps, you ain't getting no food!"

"But sir!" I protested desperately, "I've only got money! I'm not from this town!"

The shopkeeper snorted in disgust. "We ain't got enough to feed our own people, let alone outsiders! Get outa here!"

"Fine!" I yelled childishly at him, before grabbing Zee's hoof, and dragging him from the shop. What was going on here? Why was there rationing? Surely the surrounding fields could provide food enough for everypony!

We paused in the town square, and that's when I saw it, sitting dead centre of the courtyard, ignored by the passing ponied. A beautifully carved statue, intrinsic detail worked into the stone and a lifelike look upon it's body. What! How did that work?!! We were nowhere near a tomb of harmony, besides...

The statue wasn't of an Alicorn. A painfully thin earth pony stood, eyes pointed skyward and a look of intense suffering upon his face. I rushed closed for a better look, pulling Zee with me. My master had misplaced a statue! His studies had concocted an error in the placement of the tombs! That explained the location, but the species?

I knelt down to read the carving in the base of the statue, and gasped at what I saw. A familiar, yet unfamiliar epitaph;

LORD DESPERATION SKILLED THINKER LOST FRIEND

What!!? That wasn't right! That wasn't right at all! I levitated the harmony book from my saddlebag, and examined the pages carefully. This was all wrong, he wasn't an element of harmony! But the similarities were uncanny... I must have been staring at it for a while, before Zee finally spoke up.

"Is it a harmony?"

I shook my head slowly. "I don't know Zee. In need longer to examine it. My master's studies only indicate six elements though..."

"Maybe he was wrong!"

That was a possibility. There had been a brief time during his studies of harmony, in which my master only believed five elements existed. The sixth, magic, remained undiscovered to him, and it was only through research of various legends that he found the existence of the sixth element.

I replaced the book carefully into my bag. It would be no use here, I'd have to act on my own instincts, and knowledge. The old blue pony's words echoed in my head;

'If you were to interfere, and somehow claim an element, then you could disrupt everything!'

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, and began to examine the statue. I wasn't leaving here without an element, regardless of prophecies or strange events.

This time, I wasn't backing down!

Decay

I silently patrolled the streets, examining everypony from afar in the hope of seeing Serenity. It had been days now, and I was growing less certain with every minute. The city was huge! Mammoth in size, and finding a single pony in this would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Actually, make that four haystacks.

I was growing more tired from every day of searching, and I could feel the transformation becoming weaker and weaker. If I couldn't find her soon, things would turn from bad to ugly! I couldn't find love away from the Stallion's capital, so what chance did I stand in misery city?

I noticed a small blue colt stealing an apple, unnoticed, from a market stall. We locked eyes for a split second, then the he ran full pelt down the street ducking and dodging around the crowds. He was about my age! I glanced down at my intimidating adult body, all beak and talons.

This form was starting to feel like a weight on my back.

"Oi!" called another griffin, glaring at me. "Its your turn on patrol!"

I moaned, and replicated his voice in reply, "okay, fine."

In actual fact, patrol was good. It gave me another opportunity to search the streets for Serenity, with no questions asked. So long as I wasn't partnered with another gri...

"Lowe, you're on patrol with him." the chief called, and Lowe dashed over.

He was a teenage griffin, just older than serenity, and had a rough untidy mane that bristled as he ran. Lowe reached me, and called out in an excited voice that was squeaky with youth, "Ready!"

I nodded reluctantly, and cursed my bad fortune. The last thing I needed was a partner in this! If I found Serenity, then what was I supposed to do?

Lowe was hopping on the spot, and I raised an eyebrow at his excitement. He immediately stopped, and stood looking intently at me.

"Okay," I grumbled, trying my best to sound authoritative. "Let's go."

To be honest, I didn't mind patrolling with Lowe, the kid was scatterbrained instead of sadistic and could be fun to talk to. He was also a source of food, his respect fuelling my energy in surprisingly large amounts.

"Which street?!" Lowe asked loudly then, noticing the dirty looks from passing ponies, he lowered his voice. "Which street?"

"Lets try some of the back streets." I answered, planning a route in my head.

"Aww... we always patrol those streets!"

I laughed simply. "You won't find many escaped prisoners on main street!"

"I guess.." he answered, disappointment fading. When you thought of it, it was a strange situation. I was younger than him, yet more concise, and intelligent...

I felt anger course through me, Lowe was a good person and he had been turned evil by the Shadow Stallion's orders. I shook my head once, then proceeded down a darkened alley, Lowe following close behind me.

"So what if we see any rebels?" he asked enthusiastically.

"We arrest them," I lied.

"Nice..." he muttered. Then I can get a promotion!

"Life isn't all about promotions Lowe."

"Huh?"

"What do you want to be? What are your dreams?"

Lowe answered by standing proudly and speaking as such, "I want to become a royal guard!"

I sighed sadly. "What if there were no guards? What if you were free to do what you wanted?"

"I'd still become a royal guard!" Lowe exclaimed, "And I'd be become known as the best around!"

Okay, this conversation was going nowhere... just like pretty much every conversation with Lowe about his future.

The Stallion's influence seemed to affect all the best ponies, or in this case, griffins.

We walked on into the shadows, Lowe continuing his description of a perfect life, and I listening sadly.

What was wrong with this world?

Astral

Zee sat by the side of the statue, looking, with boredom, at the passing ponies. They all appeared hungry and thin, with brittle legs and sunken eyes. What was happening here, an embargo on food by the Shadow Stallion? Also, what element did the statue hold? It couldn't be any of those from my book, I knew what all the statues looked like. Maybe this was an undiscovered element, one that no one had ever heard of! My master's ideas in the elements may have been incorrect, and there could be a seventh!

In all my excitement, I neglected to hear Zee's cries for food, and before long, the little Zebra was starved.

"Astral..." he moaned. "So... hungry.."

I looked down to reassure him, and reeled in horror at his limp form. "Come on then Zee, lets find some food." Surely there were other shops in this town, other shops where we could get hold of food without possession of ration stamps.

Apparently not. We searched the town for shops selling food and had only found three, all of which demanded ration stamps in exchange for goods. Zee grew hungrier with every minute, and I found myself growing desperate as we were turned down time and time again.

Finally, we returned to the statue in defeat. I looked down at the shivering Zebra, and hugged him gently. "I'm sorry Zee. Do you think you can last a night without food?"

He looked back at me in an expression that turned my blood cold, an expression of pain and suffering. "Yeah."

His voice was as weak as he, and the sound hurt me in a way that no weapon could have. "Please!!" I called to the passing ponies. "Some food please!!"

There was no response. Clearly, they were all suffering the same as him, and this cry was one that was heard all too often. It was getting later too, the darkness gradually growing as the evening began to arrive. I held him close, feeling the shivers that wracked his body, when a voice spoke out.

"You need food?"

I whirled around at the voice, "Yes!"

An old pony stood in the square alongside us, and he placed a small chunk of bread upon the steps. "It isn't much, but it's all I have."

Zee leapt upon the bread, and ate it hungrily while I spoke to the donator, gratitude flooding me.

"Thank you! But why..?"

He smiled back simply. "I can't stand to see others starve. Unfortunately, it's a bitter reality here."

I gestured to the town. "Why? There's food in all the surrounding fields!"

The pony shivered in the approaching night, and spoke in the voice of a skilled story teller. "Allow me to explain the situation we are in.

Many years ago, this was a thriving town known by all in the area. The mayor, was a wise earth pony who guided us through all hardship, and saved us from terrible disasters. He was respected by the whole town, and seemed to be able to solve any problem. However one day in late winter, he made a terrible mistake.

A strange pony came to town, a Zirocorn."

I looked at the storyteller, confusion on my face, "But Zirocorn are an old mayors tale!"

"I'm surprised that you've even heard of them! But yes, you could say that this whole story is an old mayors tale, after all it is simply a legend. I just choose to believe it."

"What's a Serocorn?" Zee asked, crumbs of bread upon his lips.

"An ancient sibling of the Alicorn, or a supposed sibling," the old pony replied. "They possessed strong shadow magic, and we're feared as a terrible omen."

Zee's eyes widened as the teller continued his story.

"So, a Zirocorn arrived in town, and naturally all the townsfolk were terrified, turning to their gallant leader for help. The Zirocorn, a mare, requested one simple thing, a meal. The leader refused her request, for he had no desire to deal with such a hated creature, then in a final act of stupidity, he cast her from the town. In return for his arrogance the Zirocorn cursed this town, that all the people, and their descendants should be forever hungry. She then gave the leader an item that she had found on her travels, a necklace, and left the town."

By now, darkness had flooded the square, and the tellers voice had taken on a malicious edge that unnerved me. "From that day forth," the old pony continued, "we have struggled to survive in this town. Those who leave take the curse with them, and those who stay remain hungry. Food bought into the town lasts only a single day, then becomes inedible, and our people suffer without relief. We go hungry, yet cannot die of hunger, leaving us in agony. The only one capable of reversing this spell is the ruler of these lands..." the storyteller's voice grew hushed. "The Shadow Stallion. We have tried to win his sympathy, but to no avail." at long last, the teller noticed the darkness, and turned. "I would invite you into my home, but I am afraid you may catch the effects of this terrible curse. Please, you must leave this place at once."

In a flash, the storyteller vanished into the growing darkness, and we were left alone in the square. I shivered, not from the cold, but from the effect of the tale. "Come on Zee, let's g..."

In that second, I saw it. Zee was wearing a necklace, one that had appeared from nowhere.

"Zee! Look!" I cried, and he responded by glancing down at the gem.

His eyes grew wide, and he poked the necklace with a hoof. "Where did it come from!?"

I glanced uncertainly at the statue. "I don't know..."

"It's like from the story! A necklace! It's an element!!"

"I don't know Zee..." I replied, staring fearfully at the gem. "It's not like any of the elements in the book. What does it symbolise?"

The gem resembled the core of an apple, thin and ugly, and I found myself feeling ill just from looking at it. What on earth could the element symbolise? My mind returned to the story, and goosebumps rose on my skin.

"Let's get out of here Zee."

He nodded happily, and then trotted after me, gem hanging firmly on his neck.

Suddenly the elements of harmony didn't seem so great.

They seemed... twisted...

We departed the town, and continued on the winding path ahead, the night's grasp enveloping us.

The gem glowed through the shadows with a sickly yellow light, illuminating Zee's face eerily.

Twisted.

Crisis

I was there, the outskirts of the pink citadel, crouched below its vast body. The steady flow of a nearby waterfall was the only sound I could hear, and even that seemed...

Beautiful. Figuratively speaking that is, after all, the water was crystal clear and free from pollution. My targets were hiding here, in this candy floss safe-zone, and that disturbed me. Could I really disrupt the one sacred place that I'd found in this twisted world? Disrupt it in order to kill three heroes, and young heroes at that.

I sat beneath the city, thinking over my options. Return empty handed, Serenity dies. Run away, Serenity dies. Kill the elements...

Serenity lives, but for how long and in what kind of world? Would I even be able to kill the elements, after all they had nearly assassinated this country's mighty shadow ruler.

Nah, of course I could! I was Crisis! When I saw opposition, I just laughed and... and...

Surrendered to work for them? Surely with these attacks and all this skill I could fight, not my oppressor's enemies, but my oppressors themselves. That settled it.

I rose, and raised my fists. I'd break Serenity out the old fashioned way, guns blazing and missiles soaring. I'd prove to my sudo-masters that I was more than just a puppet, a weapon for them to use.

I was an enemy.

I sprinted back the way I came heading, with all my speed, for that black cobbled city. It would be an intense fight, moving behind enemy lines.

And I'd win.