//------------------------------// // July 7th (Of Friends and Elements) // Story: Equestria Legends Online // by Shadowflame //------------------------------// Neon Fire and Siren Siren stood at the counter in the house’s kitchen, preparing a meal for a couple of foals. She and Neon had taken a side quest that involved babysitting two, little, crystal foals, which included keeping them happy, and feeding them as well. Sure, it seemed like a long side quest, since the two mares had to watch the kids for the majority of the day, but the pay was surprisingly good. Almost fifty thousand bits to watch a couple of kids for a day, which was seriously overpriced, but Neon and Siren didn’t care. It at least saved them the effort of having to search for multiple side quests in a row. At the moment, Siren was cooking lunch for the foals, while Neon entertained the kids. Since she hadn’t ever babysat before back in the real world, Siren figured Neon had better experience with handling kids and keeping them laughing. Not that Siren complained about that either, because she actually liked cooking whenever the opportunity called for it. Humming to herself, Siren prepared lunch for the foals, herself, and Neon. Right in front of her was a window in the wall of the crystalline house. From the window’s view, Siren got a pretty good view of the empire from where she stood. It was almost Noon, so the sun was high above the crystal city, giving it a dazzling sparkle to its crystalline structures. It was a pretty sight, and Siren was also grateful that none of the crystal houses gave off a burning glare from the sun, which she was most certain would happen in the real world. But as she gazed out the window, which was just on the same level as the street, she saw two individuals trotting down the street passing the house. It was Cinn and Sharky. Since her morning had been nothing but hanging around kids, she figured a little bit of intelligent conversation would be a nice comfort at the moment, not to mention she knew next to nothing about either of the two, besides the fact that Cinn was a bit edgy by nature. She opened up the window and called out to them, “Hey, Cinn, Sharky!” Having caught the two stallions’ attention, Cinn and Sharky stopped by Siren’s window. Sharky was the first to reply, “Hello, Siren! Are you doing a side quest right now?” She nodded, “Yup. Me and Neon are babysitting some foals, and the bits we’re getting for it aren’t bad either.” She held up half of an apple she’d been cutting, “Right now, I’m making lunch for us.” Cinn gave her a questioning look, “You’re a cook?” Siren smiled a bit, “Well, not professionally, but I like to cook when I can.” “Really?” Sharky replied, “Then I’d love to try some of your cooking later, preferably when we’ve bought the Crystal Palace as a home.” “Yeah, I hope you can whip me up something special.” Cinn smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at Siren. Siren blinked in surprise, Was that… is he trying to flirt with me? Oh, no… this isn’t going to end well. Cinn continued, giving her a male-brovado smile, “You know, I wouldn’t mind it if we got to know each other at least a little bit better.” Siren, not wanting to flat out reject the guy, faked a smile, “Um, yeah, I guess.” Cinn only took that as a sign to keep going further, leaning an elbow up on the window sill, “Hm, I wonder… could you make me a little something for lunch? I bet a sexy girl like you could make something…” He grinned suggestively, “… nice and hot.” Siren internally cringed, Oh, no… this definitely won’t end well. ___________________________ Shadowflame and Midnight5ky Sky and I stopped when we saw a few of our group members at the end of the street. I raised an eyebrow, “Is that Cinn and Sharky?” But then something else caught my eye, “Wait, is Cinn trying to flirt with Siren?” About every hair on Sky’s body pricked upwards, “Oh, hell, no!” In a flash, which would’ve been literal if Sky could teleport, the unicorn ran forward and placed himself between Siren and Cinn, which caused Cinn to stumble back from the window. By the time I caught up, I could hear Sky’s resentment towards Cinn, “What do you think you’re doing?” Cinn had a peeved look on his face, “Chatting with a group member, demon boy. Got a problem with that?” Sky’s eyes narrowed at him, “Yes, I do have a problem with that. You can’t expect to go flirting up a storm to Siren when I’m around.” “It’s not like she’s your girlfriend!” Cinn retorted, “Last I checked, she’s open game for anybody to pick her up.” “Is that all you’re trying to do?” Sky countered, “Just pick her up like a slut at a bar so you can get laid?! You even try something like that to her and your health bar will be below red before you even say, ‘oops’!” Meanwhile, off to the sidelines, Sharky tried to step in, “Calm down, you two! If you’re going to talk about this, then you might want to take it somewhere else, away from here.” I caught onto the reason why he said that, because in the window frame where Siren stood, watching the conversation, the pegasus mare was blushing profusely, probably both out of embarrassment and agitation from the two stallions fighting over her. Unfortunately, Sky and Cinn ignored everything Sharky had said. Cinn glowered at Sky, “I can hit on her all I want. It’s your own fault you never grew a pair and made her your girlfriend.” “Says the guy who never had the guts to fight in a single boss battle before.” Sky retorted, “Stay away from Siren! And why don’t you find a special somebody of your own while you’re at it?! They’d probably cure your crummy, a**hole personality.” That’s when something inside Cinn suddenly snapped. In one swift movement, the unicorn drew his katana and lunged his blade at Sky’s neck, only for the safe-zone effect to kick in and stop the blade from seeping deeper into his skin. Sharky and I tensed up, ready to restrain the two of them if needs be, but to our surprise, not one of them moved from that position. Sky looked at Cinn with an angry expression, knowing full well that Cinn couldn’t hurt him here. But Cinn looked back at him with a look full of rage. His eyes, normally cold and collected, were wetting with tears, as he spoke in ragged breaths, “I already had someone I loved in this goddamn game. But thanks to bronies like you, she’s dead!” Cinn looked like he was ready to murder, barking into Sky’s face, “Everyone I ever cared about in this living hell are all dead! My love, my brother, my team… you can’t understand what it feels like, demon boy! But Cinn wasn’t done there, “I heard about the time you decided to go rogue on your group. You ran away! You left behind everyone! My team died, while you left yours behind! Someone ran a sword through my little brother’s chest while I fought to protect him, yet you left yours behind to die while you went solo! “The one girl I cared about died in a place far away, where I had no hopes in trying to save her! By the time I heard, she was already dead!” Cinn pointed the tip of his sword towards Siren in the window, “But while I was mourning the loss of her and my brother, you left Siren behind on her own! Don’t you dare tell me she’s yours to love, because if you really cared about her, you would have stayed for her, you selfish bastard! At this rate, everyone you love is going to get killed because of yo-“ The sound and force of Sky’s punch showed that he had had enough of Cinn’s rant. A single hoof thrust into the side of Cinn’s cheek, the force behind it sending him tumbling backwards. The blow didn’t hurt him, but it was enough to push him away. As soon as Cinn recovered, he shot an icy glare towards Sky, who returned one of his own. Sky’s mouth was twisted into a grinding of teeth, “Shut up! I know what I did. I left them behind to protect them! But I came back, because they needed me!” He glowered at Cinn, “Before you say I don’t deserve my friends, you should know that I swore never to betray them again. I will protect them, even from the likes of you!” “That’s enough, Sky!” Siren shouted, before flying out the window and placing herself between the two unicorns. She turned to Sky, putting her forehooves on his shoulder, trying to calm him, “Please, Sky. Stop fighting with him.” “But, he-“ Siren cut him off, repeating herself as gently as she could, “Please. I don’t want a fight started over me.” Everything stayed silent, including Cinn and Sky. However, even though Siren was standing between the two stallions, she was short enough that the two could still see each other over her. Neither Sky nor Cinn broke eye contact, as if they were trying to fight for dominance over each other, to see who would submit first. The two of them were like motion-detector land mines, both would explode in violence if either one of them moved. Then tension between them could’ve easily been cut with a knife, both figuratively and literally, depending on where the weapon was pointed. Finally, one of them withdrew, “Whatever.” Cinn grumbled, as he put away his katana, “I don’t know why I was even bothering to flirt with her in the first place. I’m not into mares, only girls, anyways.” Without another word, Cinn turned his back on everyone present and galloped off through the city. “Oh, boy.” Sharky sighed, “I better follow him, before he does something foolish.” The blue unicorn galloped down the street after his partner, until they were both out of sight from us. Though the worst part was yet to come, I figured. Turning back to Sky and Siren, I could see that the mare of the duo was not pleased at all. “What do you think you’re doing?” Siren asked, flustered. “I was making sure that guy wouldn’t bother you anymore.” Sky replied, “I don’t want his type around you, ‘cause sooner or later he’d-“ Siren stomped a hoof against the ground, yelling, “So what? You were trying to protect me from someone I could’ve handled better than you did just now? At least if you’d let me handle Cinn, he wouldn’t have tried to take your head off your shoulders!” Sky faltered, caught off guard by Siren’s outburst. He cringed slightly, “Siren… I-“ “No.” Siren cut him off, “You’re just like everyone else back in the real world. You think I’m nothing but a little girl who needs to be pampered and protected, but if you didn’t notice, that’s the reason why I came into this game in the first place! I wanted to escape! I wanted to be able to do things on my own, without anyone trying to do them for me!” She turned on her hooves, looking away from Sky. But what I noticed, that Sky couldn’t see, were the tears in her eyes. Siren held back a sob, trying to stay firm, “I’m going to find Cinn and apologize for what you did, since I know you’re never going to do it yourself. I know I don’t want him trying to flirt with me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want him as a friend.” Siren spread her wings, in preparation to fly, but before she took off, she paused. “And Sky?” Her eyes went back to him, and only then did Sky see the tears falling from her eyes. Siren choked on a sob, “If… you really loved me, like you said you did… then you would have known better. You would have known that I am my own person, not just a girl who’d hook up with the first guy that comes along. I hope you remember that, if I ever talk to you again.” With that, she took off into the afternoon sky, leaving Sky and I behind, the former in a daze. Sky grimaced, cursing to himself under his breath, “Frick… what did I just do?” “She’s really angry about this, isn’t she?” I muttered. “Hmph, you don’t say.” Sky replied, though not coldly, to my relief. He sighed to himself, “What am I going to do now? She’s not going to forgive me for this easily, if not ever.” I shrugged, “Then you should probably go apologize to her right now.” Sky blinked at me, “What? What about the-“ “The Elements?” I shook my head, “Don’t worry about them, I’ll finish talking to the others.” I gave him a reassuring smile, “Right now, all you need to do is fly after Siren and apologize to her. After all, your relationship is probably going to get worse if you don’t do it now, and she’s also another element bearer. If you don’t settle things with her now, I’m thinking it might be almost impossible to activate the Element of Kindness.” Sky nodded, “Good point.” He paused for a moment, before sighing, “Better get this over with. I’ll find you again once I’m done.” Sky’s body evaporated into black smoke, before racing off through the sky, following where Siren had gone. _____________________________ Siren Siren flew through the Crystal Empire at top speed searching for Sharky and Cinn, but Cinn mainly. There was a chance that Sharky had lost his partner when he ran off, but Siren didn’t really care about that. Everything had happened so fast, ever since Sky first jumped into the argument with Cinn. Siren quietly scolded herself for not acting sooner, instead of watching it unfold from the sidelines like she had done. Watching the two of them argue had flustered her, up to the point of her yelling at Sky for what he did… it still pained her to think of the hurt look Sky had given her before she had flown off. Cursing to herself silently, Siren admitted that she had been a bit ‘in the moment’ at that point. All of the pent up anger she had just pushed her to let it loose, but Sky was the closest one she was angry with. He got the full brunt of it, and Siren knew she would have to make it up to him. But for now, she just needed to find Cinn. It took a while, but Siren finally found the unicorn, clear on the other side of the city. From the air, Siren could see him alone on a single street, his pace slowed to a slow walk as he weaved through a few crystal ponies. Siren dropped down from the sky and lighted onto the ground in front of him, “Cinn! Wait a minute!” Cinn stopped, giving Siren a level look, but he said nothing. He merely turned around, and started walking away from her. “Wait, Cinn!” She flapped her wings until she was hovering alongside Cinn as he walked, “Look, I’m sorry about Sky. I’ve known him for a while and he can be kind of blunt when provoked.” Cinn merely humphed in response, turning away in another direction, yet Siren still followed. She gave him a pleading look, and a hopeful smile, “Maybe there’s something I can do to make it up to you. Please?” Again, Cinn gave the same unvocal response and turned away. Siren felt her spirits droop, as if they had been given a pair of crippled wings. She sighed, defeatedly, as she let herself drop to the ground. She looked towards Cinn, who still walked away from her. Calling out one more time, Siren shouted, “Can I at least ask you a question?” Cinn paused, giving her a sidelong look, but still said nothing. Siren took that as a sign to ask, “How… how did she die? How did the girl you loved die?” Cinn seemed hesitant at first, as if he were wondering if he should speak the truth. He appeared doubtful, even fearful, as if the memories would come back to bite him in the butt. But after a moment pause, Cinn replied, in a hollow voice, “She died… during a Haters’ Guild ambush.” Siren blinked in surprise, trying her best to remain gentle, “I- what? How? Didn’t you say she died because of a few bronies?” Cinn nodded, “Then how did she die when the haters attacked if they weren’t the ones who killed her?” Cinn sighed, realizing he was going to have to explain. He made his way back to where Siren stood in the street, “The girl I loved, her name was Sw33tcross, and back a few months ago, she and I were part of the same guild. Both of us were brought into that guild, because they convinced us that the admins were the ones who had released Discord, and they were fighting to take control of the game from them. “Cross and I both joined, not at the same time though, but when we did, they burned the guild’s symbol on the backs of our left ears.” Cinn twisted his ear to the side, which made Siren’s eyes widen as she saw the skull burned onto his flesh. “You’re… part of the Haters’ Guild?” Siren gasped. “I was,” Cinn corrected her, “But that was before I realized that the things they told us, about the admins being the ones who trapped us here, were all lies. The haters, the true haters who were there from the start, merely wanted an excuse to kill as many people as possible.” Cinn sighed, as a few memories passed through his mind again, “Cross was lied to as well, but she had been dead for weeks before I realized the truth. She had been assigned to an ambush party to go after a stray players, but she died in the attack.” He looked sorrowful at the ground, “And here I thought I’d finally gotten over her death. But it always seems to come back to haunt me.” Cinn was suddenly taken aback as Siren pulled him into a hug. Cinn blinked in surprise, while Siren merely replied, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about Cross, and about your brother, too. You’ve had it hard this whole time, and I can understand that.” Cinn gaped down at the girl, “W-why are you hugging me? Get off me!” Siren shook her head, “No, Cinn. You can’t push people away. You’ve been a solo player for this whole time, right? Without anyone else to lean on, I think a hug is exactly what you need right now.” Cinn was about to push her away, but her words registered in his head. Hesitantly, he calmed down, remaining silent. He had to admit, the hug felt good… A tiny smile came to his face, though barely noticeable. Maybe all he had needed really was just a hug… you don’t get many of those when you travel alone, after all. Though he didn’t return the hug, Siren withdrew from it, a satisfied look on her face, “Do you feel better.” “A little bit.” Cinn admitted. “Great!” Siren smiled, “But Cinn, just because my preferences are towards Sky, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be friends with you. I’m sorry for what Sky said, but I hope I can make it up to you for him.” Cinn paused for a moment, not quite sure what to say, before nodding, “I guess that’s alright.” He frowned, “Though don’t expect me and him to suddenly become buddy-buddy friends!” “Never thought you would.” Siren replied jokingly, “Now come on, let’s find Sharky. Heaven knows that he’s still searching the streets for you.” Cinn nodded, “I’ll find him on my own. You can go back to your own side quest. I’ll be just fine.” Siren smiled, “Okay, catch you later!” With that she took off to the skies, while Cinn trotted down the street to look for Sharky. But neither of the two noticed a small, black cloud of smoke listening in on them nearby, hidden behind the corner of a nearby building. If his cloud form had a mouth, Sky was sure it would’ve had a wide grin on it. After watching Siren’s conversation, the way she comforted Cinn, just added another jot to his list of things he loved about her. Even though he had seen the Haters' Guild mark on Cinn's ear, and was just about ready to jump between him and Siren, Sky had to admit Cinn's story pictured the unicorn as a victim. He had been deceived by the Haters into killing others, so it wasn't exactly fair to judge him harshly, but Sky still had his doubts. But what Siren had done, and how Cinn had reacted, put his doubts to rest, for now at least. To himself, mainly because he didn’t have a mouth to speak with, Sky mused, If that didn’t activate the Element of Kindness, I don’t know what will. With that, he flew back off after Siren. After all, he still had to apologize to her too. ____________________ Shadowflame With Sky away, I set off to find another element of harmony that needed to be activated. I flew off to the bigger part of the empire, which included more of the massive buildings, instead of just tiny, residential homes. In fact, the biggest structure I could see was the Crystal Arena, which had hosted the Equestrian Games in the TV show. But surprisingly, farther out of the empire, just outside of the stadium, was a lake. But that’s not what surprised me. What surprised me was who I found sitting at the water’s edge of the lake; it was Cross, sitting completely alone as he looked out at the lake. I wondered why he was there, and where the heck was Lexus? I sighed to myself, Well, I can’t ask for any better situation right now. I’d have to try and activate his element anyways, so why not do it now? I lighted down on the ground behind him and approached the unicorn. Cross’ ears twitched at the sound of me approaching, and he glanced back towards me. When he saw me, he gave a half-hearted wave, “Oh, hey, Shadow.” I nodded back to him, “Hey, Cross.” I looked around, “Where’s Lexus? I thought you two were doing side quests together.” “He’s back in the arena.” Cross replied, “There’s an air-race side quest there that he wanted to try. He’s the only one out of the two of us who could fly, and I didn’t feel like watching, so I came out here to… be alone for a bit.” “Hm.” I sat down by him at the water’s edge, though being careful to give him plenty of space of his own. People tended to close themselves off when they thought they were being crowded, and that was the last thing I needed now. Both of us stayed silent for a moment as I prepared myself for the worst. In order for me to activate Cross’ Element of Laughter, I had to help him get over Cloud’s death. But you can’t just help someone get over the death of their best friend, at least, not in a single talk. Sighing, I spoke, “You’re still thinking about Cloud, aren’t you?” Cross paused, “…yeah.” Another moment of silence passed. “Do you want to tell me why you’re still thinking about him?” Cross didn’t answer. I sighed, “Cross, I don’t want to sound rude or disrespect Cloud’s memory in any way, but you’ve got to let it go.” “… I know.” He replied meekly, “It’s just…” Another pause followed, but I noticed that Cross’ body was shaking slightly. “It’s just that I watched him take his life right in front of me.” Cross shuddered as he said it, “I just can’t forget that. It’s like an image that’s been burned into my mind. Shadow, I-… I…” His eyes started tearing up, “I couldn’t save him, even though he was right in front of me. “Every night since then, I’ve been having nightmares; all of them replaying that one scene over and over again. I see everything, from Cloud shoving his own grenade down his throat, to… him disappearing into thin air, just like everything else does when their time is up.” Cross sobbed, “I can’t take it anymore! Why did it have to be Cloud who died?! Why couldn’t it have been me instead?!” The unicorn drove his hooves into the ground in pure frustration, with boiling tears rolling down his cheeks, “I couldn’t save my best friend in this game, and now he’s dead, both here and in the real world! He had family! He had friends who needed him! But now he’s gone, where nobody will see him again, other than at his grave; all because I couldn’t save him!” Cross turned his head to sky in pure, unbridled rage, but not towards anyone else; he was angry at himself, “I couldn’t even stop my best friend from killing himself! Why did he have to take his life when I could’ve done the same for him?! It should have been me who died instead! Every day, I wish that I’d died in that trap instead of Cloud! Every day,…” Cross trembled as he sobbed, “Every day, I wish I was dead!” My hoof instantly met the side of his face as I stood up and slapped him across the cheek. Instantly, Cross went silent, dazed by the sudden, unexpected blow. He slowly turned his head back from the strike’s recoil, looking back at me incredulously. I looked him dead in the eyes, careful to not blink and to keep my voice calm, but firm, “Cross, do you remember why Cloud sacrificed himself?” Cross paused, trying to recompose himself, “He… he died, so I could get out of the morality trap.” “Is that all he did?” I snapped. Cross didn’t reply. I narrowed my eyes, “Cloud didn’t kill himself just to set you free from that trap. Have you forgotten the reason why we were down there in the first place; Why Discord trapped you and Cloud in that trap? Cloud realized that you were the next element bearer, and without you, we had no hopes of defeating Chrysalis.” “Well… m-maybe I did forget about that, but-“ Cross tried to protest, but I promptly cut him off. “No ‘but’s, Cross. The fact is that, unless Cloud died and set you free, Chrysalis would’ve never reached zero HP. Had that been the case, the rest of us would either be dead or would still be fighting Chrysalis right now. Cloud gave his life to set you free so you could defeat the boss and save our sorry hides. In all reality, Cloud sacrificed himself to save everyone!” I paused for a moment, letting the statement seep in. Though I hadn’t thought too much of it before, Cloud really did save my life, indirectly as it may be. I’ve got to remember to give that little dragon my thanks soon, before things started getting crazy in this game. I glanced back to Cross, speaking in a bit calmer tone, “Cross, if you had taken his place and died to save him, he would’ve been stuck in the boss fight with us. Considering the fact that none of us could’ve defeated Chrysalis without you, killing yourself back then… well, you might as well have stabbed a knife into Cloud’s back, because all of us would’ve died in that fight.” Cross’ expression drooped as his mouth was left hanging open, “I-… I-…” He put his forehooves over his head, his body curling up slightly more. He breathed, “You’re right… I…” The unicorn fell silent as his thoughts began to race, though I imagined it was more like a monster-truck derby, lots of crashing and senseless shouting inside his skull. I spoke quietly, but just loud enough for him to hear, “When you said you wanted to kill yourself, I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out at you. To me, it seemed like you were going to throw away the thing Cloud had sacrificed himself for; your life. To me, throwing away your life when a friend died to save it, is just as bad, if not worse, than betraying them.” Cross’ shoulder shook, his body curling even more into himself until it threatened to become a full fetal position. He sobbed, fresh tears flowing once again, “Cloud… I- I’m sorry… I’m being selfish, aren’t I?” Cross’ hooves wiped away at his eyes, sniffling, “But… he was my best friend. He meant the whole world to me in this forsaken game. But now, how can I keep going without him?” I paused, unsure of what to say. I knew I should’ve told him to move on without cloud, but how could I? They were both my friends, too. Sighing, I put a comforting hoof on Cross’ shoulder, “Don’t worry, dude. All of us, our group, we’re your friends, right?” Cross was hesitant, but his body went lax as he uncurled slightly. He turned his head to look at me, “Um… yeah, you guys are my friends, too.” “Then let us fill the gap, all of us.” I gave him a reassuring smile, “While we might not be the same awesome guy that Cloud was, we can all help. After all, ever since you started acting all ‘doom and gloom’, everyone’s been worried about you.” Cross blinked in surprise, “They have?” He then frowned, mostly at himself, “Well, actually… I already knew that… I guess I just wasn’t paying attention.” “Exactly, Cross.” I replied, “We’ve all been here the entire time, waiting for you to come to grips with what’s going on.” I wrapped a foreleg around his shoulder, like a small brotherly hug, “I know you wanted to die for Cloud, ever since he died for you. But that’s all in the past, and we can’t do a thing about it. But you can do for him now.” Cross frowned, as I pulled my foreleg away, “What?” “Well, in a team, you don’t die for your friends.” I grinned, “You live for them.” Cross’ eyes seemed to suddenly blink away a veil of dust in front of him, gaping at what he now saw something he’d missed before. His mouth closed, his eyes unfocused on anything, as he recounted, “You’re right… Back before Cloud sacrificed himself, he said something along those lines, but not about the group, but about my family back home.” He glanced up at the afternoon sky, “In the real world, my only family is my grandma. Both of my parents died in an accident, so she took me in. But even though my parents were gone and I mourned their deaths with her, she made me promise to keep smiling every day.” Cross’ eyes shed a loose tear or two, as he managed a weak smile. It wasn’t much, but it was the first time in days since the corners of his mouth had risen above the rest of his mouth. He chuckled just as weakly, “I guess I broke that promise, huh? It’s bad enough that she’s probably worried sick about me right now.” He sighed, looking back up to sky, where a small, single cloud lazily drifted overhead, “But before Cloud died, he gave me his last words. He said that I needed to keep that promise; that I needed to keep on smiling while we finished this game.” He laughed, “I’ve been too busy thinking about him being gone that I forgot to fulfil his final wish. Ironic, ain’t it?” That got a laugh from me as well, though I was more than relieved that I managed, by some miracle, to get through to him. I smiled, “So, does this mean we’ll see your goofy grin a lot more often now?” Cross shrugged, “Probably, though I need to apologize to the rest of the group for ignoring them for so long now.” I nodded, “Wouldn’t expect anything less from the Element of Laughter.” “You got that right.” Cross laughed, “I don’t think Cloud would want ‘Pinkie Pie’s replacement’ to be a gloomy, blue mess of depression.” I laughed again, “Ah, it’s good to have you back, Cross.” But now that my work here was done, I spread my wings for flight, “Well, I better get back to side questing with Sky, and you better get back to Lexus.” Cross nodded, grinning, “Right, time to get back to work.” Smiling, I took off to the air in search of Sky, because I had no idea where he was ever since he left to apologize to Siren… or maybe he chickened out like he usually would back home when faced with a cute girl. Although, I reminded myself that here, in this game, he was the Element of Willpower, so there was no way he’d grow cold feet at that… er, cold hooves, I mean. Either way, my train of thought distracted me enough to the point where I didn’t notice a gray pegasus with a spear, hiding in the only cloud in the sky. In hindsight, that cloud had been close enough to the ground for any pony on it to eavesdrop on a conversation on the ground from the sky. here.