Chapters Transformers: Harmony
As a new day began in the Great Equestrian Desert, the fiery red sun slowly crept over the horizon, lighting up the harsh unforgiving desert with its life giving rays. The beams of light beat down on the dusty red landscape, animals of all shapes and sizes scattered for shelter. Some burrowed underground, while others sought cooler accommodations within the walls of the many canyons that dotted the landscape. So cruel and unforgiving was life in this massive desert that many ponies found it surprising that life could survive here for even the briefest period of time. However, as noted pegasi chaos theorist Ian Falcon had been known to say, “Even in the harshest, most unpredictable locations, life finds a way.”
And find a way life had. Situated in the far south-eastern corner of the desert, atop an area of farmable fertile soil, sat a small western town by the name of Appaloosa. And as any local of the humble little town would tell you, it was no easy task getting the town the way it is today.
When the settlers first arrived in the desert, they had faced many hardships, from discovering the land they had purchased was absolutely devoid of any useful resources, to finding out that the ground was so dry and lacking in nutrients that even the tiniest blade of grass refused to grow in the worthless soil. It wasn’t until the discovery of a nearby river that Lady Luck began to shine brightly on the struggling colony.
With the discovery and irrigation of the river, the town’s farming business began to boom. The river provided the settlers’ crops with precious life giving water that the skies refused to give up allowing them to grow all kinds of food to provide to the nearby markets. Soon, the settlers chose and paid for a large plot of fertile land near the town, and began setting down an apple orchard. Over time, the orchard grew in size, and the townsponies began to use it to its full advantage, selling the apples to nearby markets, as well as using the lumber from fallen trees to build more homes and increase the size of the town.
As time continued to march onward, the orchard became the central business of the town. Ponies would come from far and wide to work on the large, blooming apple trees. In fact, most days in Appleoosa wouldn’t even start without workers heading into the orchard to buck the trees that were ripe for picking and bringing the apples back into town for washing, preparation, and dispersal to the nearby local markets. However, on this particular day things would start a little differently in the town of Appaloosa as a stranger rode in.
………..
The stranger in question was an earth pony of medium build; his bright yellow coat and loose black mane were matted down as his body continued to sweat in the mid-morning sun. Being pulled along behind the pony was a mid-size iron carriage, the kind usually used to give rides to people in a park on a nice cool evening. The carriage itself was of a lightweight build, primarily painted yellow with black paint adorning the frame and a stripe along the side. The spoke wheels were made of high grade wood with steel wrapping around each one. The pony’s bright blue eyes squinted against the glare of the hot burning sun as he continued on his way into the little western town, the only clue to his identity being the cutie mark imprinted on his flank: a single buzzing bumblebee.
Entering the little western settlement, the strange yellow pony began looking around every which way he could. All over town ponies continued with their daily chores and work. Some could be seen hauling in bushels of apples from the nearby orchard, while others took them off to be baked into all kinds of goods, from apple pies to apple fritters. Those not involved with the apple picking process could be seen doing any number of jobs, from cleaning the streets, to building new homes for the ever expanding population, even to drawing horse drawn carriages. Everywhere the strange blue-eyed pony looked there were signs of thriving life even amidst this harsh environment. The pony was very impressed.
“It ain’t often we get strangers ‘round these parts,” a voice from behind the yellow pony suddenly boomed.
Spinning around, the stranger came face-to-face with a dark black moustache. Stepping back a bit, he could see the moustache was attached to the snout of a tough looking earth pony, his brown coat and black mane hiding under the blue vest he was wearing. On the leather vest, the stranger could see a large silver sheriff’s badge, matching the one on the pony’s flank, alerting the stranger to the fact that this was the local law enforcement.
“What’s yer name son?” the blue eyed sheriff asked, holding a hoof out to the stranger.
The stranger smiled, taking the sheriff’s hoof and shaking it vigorously. “I-I’m Bumblebee,” he replied.
“Bumblebee, huh? That’s a bit of a strange name.” the brown stallion laughed. “I’m Sheriff Silver Star, son.”
“And you say my name was weird,” Bumblebee said, cocking an eyebrow.
The Sheriff chuckled in a friendly way. “Well, I suppose that’s true. So, what are you in town for boy?”
“Oh, I’m just passing through.” Bumblebee sheepishly grinned.
“Well then son, why don’t ya put that carriage yer haulin’ up, and I’ll give ya a tour of our humble little town?” Silver Star smiled, gesturing towards a nearby building where ponies could leave their wagons and carriages without the need to worry about their belongings being stolen.
“While I do appreciate the offer for a tour, I think I’ll keep my carriage with me, if it’s all the same to you,” the yellow pony said. “We’re kind of attached,” he chuckled.
“Well, alright, I s’pose,” Silver Star said, walking in front of the yellow stallion. “And he called me the weird one,” he muttered under his breath.
………
As the two walked together through the town the excited sheriff gave Bumblebee a brief history of the town and the nearby orchard. Only paying half attention to Silver Star’s story, Bumblebee dropped back slightly, glancing down every darkened alley, under any shady tree, and behind any structure someone could be hiding behind. Satisfied that no one was following them, the bright-eyed yellow stallion turned his attention back to Silver Star’s story, just in time to run right into the older pony’s flank.
“Somethin’ wrong, boy?” the Sheriff asked turning around and giving Bumblebee a cocked eyebrow.
“Um…sorry,” Bumblebee stuttered. “I wasn’t paying attention. I, uh…got lost in the town’s…beauty?” he said quickly, hoping his choice of words would please the glaring authority figure.
“Well, then, that’s something I can understand!” Silver Star shouted, catching the yellow pony off guard, causing him to bump into his carriage out of surprise. “Anyways, we’re at the first stop of our tour!” he continued.
Bumblebee looked up at the tall two-story building Silver Star was gesturing towards. The building was of wooden construction, painted green and brown to cover up any imperfections in the long wooden boards. Finally, on the front of the building, situated in between the two floors, was a sign with the word “SALOON” printed on it in large friendly letters.
“Come on in boy, I’ll buy you a salt,” the sheriff laughed.
“Um, that’s alright; I don’t lick,” Bumblebee replied, grinning sheepishly.
“Ya sure boy?” asked Silver Star. “That carriage has got to be gettin’ heavy. Ya sure ya at least don’t want a glass of water?”
“No, I’m fine,” Bumblebee assured the mustachioed pony.
The sheriff gave Bumblebee a strange look. “Well, alright then. Anyways, so this here’s the saloon. It’s owned by Morton Shaker, and was one of the first places of business the town got set up,” he explained.
Suddenly, the doors to the saloon slammed violently open, causing Bumblebee to jump to high alert, ready to face any threat that emerged. After a few brief seconds, an old pony with a brown coat and dirty blonde mane came flying out and crashed on to the dusty road nearby.
“And stay out, you old coot!!” a grey stallion with a handlebar moustache yelled as he watched the old pony get up and drunkenly stagger away.
Bumblebee calmly watched the drunken pony wander off when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Bumblebee caught sight of something slowly emerging from a nearby alley that sent him instantly back into high alert.
Creeping its way out of the dark, shady alley was a strange, complex vehicle. It had two mid-size spoke wheels at the back, with one large steel wheel at the front. Mounted on the iron framework above each of the two back wheels was a powerful steam engine chugging away as it released excess steam from the six large steel pipes that wrapped around the framework. The large steel wheel was mounted to the front of the vehicle by two long pipes that terminated in a pair of long twisting handlebars; and finally, situated on the front of the vehicle where the two iron poles intersected with the handlebars, was a small dragon skull. The entire vehicle looked like some demonic, mechanical carriage from the underworld. Sitting atop a seat mounted above the powerful steam engine was a dark black stallion giving bumblebee a sadistic smile as he glared at him with blood red eyes.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sheriff Silver Star,” Bumblebee said, turning his attention back to the rambling mustachioed pony, “but I have to get going.”
“What? Are ya sure son?” The sheriff said, breaking his rant to turn and face the yellow pony. “You just got here; we haven’t even finished the tour!”
“I’m sorry, you have a very lovely town, and I enjoyed the part of the tour I got,” the yellow stallion said, glancing behind him to see the steam bike had moved out of the alley and was slowly drawing towards him, “but I have to leave right now!” he emphasized.
“Well, alright then,” Silver Star sighed, but before he could finish his sentence, Bumblebee rushed past him galloping at top speed, leaving a trail of dust in his wake as his carriage passed behind him.
Turning to look after the strange yellow pony, Silver Star had to grasp hold of his grey Stetson as a massive gust of wind came up behind him. Looking to see the source of the strong wind, the sheriff pony caught sight of the malevolent black and green steam bike as it chased after Bumblebee.
“I hope that boy’ll be alright,” Sheriff Silver Star stated as he turned around and made his way back into town.
……….
Bumblebee moved as fast as he could, desperate to draw his pursuer as far away from the little western town as possible. Looking back, Bumblebee could not only see that the steam bike was beginning to catch up, but that it had been joined in its pursuit.
The newcomer was a large, pitch-black stallion with white streaks running through his coat and a dark purple mane. He stared down Bumblebee with red eyes that looked out over his gold colored snout. Trailing behind the stallion was a large iron prisoner transport carriage. Large and cubic in design, plates of reinforced iron covered the frame of the menacing carriage. The only way in or out of the carriage was a large, armored door on the back that had heavy iron bars mounted in the window. The entire carriage had been painted black with white accents to match its supposed driver. Painted in white script above the carriage’s back wheel well were the words, “To punish and enslave.”
“Barricade,” Bumblebee growled as he saw the two vehicles and their drivers rapidly approaching. “It’s time to pour on some speed!” Bumblebee shouted. Suddenly, in a burst of light, the yellow stallion disappeared, and the mid-sized yellow carriage began to move under its own power. “Let’s see how they like this!” the carriage roared as two metal cylindrical tubes flipped out of a hidden panel on the carriage’s underside. The tubes unexpectedly unleashed a stream of fire and exhaust, propelling the carriage forward at unbelievable speed.
Growling, the black and green pony atop the steam bike disappeared in a flash of light, similar to Bumblebee, as the engines on the bike kicked into overdrive and rocketed after the yellow carriage.
“What’s the matter, Autobot? Not gonna fight like a real bot?” the bike sadistically laughed, pulling up beside Bumblebee.
Suddenly, the bike seemed to explode into a million metal shards as the front wheel split in half, large metal fingers emerging from each half. The seat folded up as the two engines flipped outward, forming a pair of legs and feet. Finally, a panel on the furnace of the bike opened, revealing a large head contained within a glass dome.
Now fully transformed the large metal robot leapt at the yellow carriage with surprising agility. Barely missing as the yellow vehicle sped forward, the robot instead chose to swing its massive wheeled arm like a bat, slamming it into the side of the fleeing vehicle, sending it flying off the dirt road.
Still sailing through the air, the carriage quickly began to change its own shape. Two arms emerged from the carriage’s underbelly as the back end flipped outward and twisted around forming a pair of legs. The vehicle finished its transformation as the front end of the carriage split and flipped down, forming a chest, leaving a pair of panels hanging off the back, allowing a head to rise up out of the fully formed chest piece. Its transformation finished, the yellow robot hit the ground hard and continued to roll, coming to a stop fifty feet away from his attacker.
“What did I tell you Barricade?” the steam-bike robot laughed as the large prisoner transport pulled up, its own holographic pony disappearing as it too assumed its true form. “No Autobot’s gonna beat this Decepticon!” he yelled, pointing to himself.
Barricade roared as he slammed his large clawed fist into the steam bike Decepticon’s chest, knocking him to the ground. “You almost blew our cover, rookie!”
“Oh please!” the smaller Decepticon barked as he lifting himself up. “Don’t give me that scrap! You knew it was him the whole time; I didn’t blow anything!”
“Watch it, boy,” Barricade growled through clenched teeth. Barricade was larger than the steam bike robot, and slightly bulkier. His black paint glistened as the hot sun reflected off the iron bars sticking out above his shoulders. The wheels on his the sides of his shoulders and top of his hands spun in agitation as he looked out at Bumblebee’s crumpled form lying in the dirt. A sick smile crossed his face. “He’s still alive, rookie.”
“WHAT!?” The steam bike Decepticon shouted giving the yellow robot in the dirt a quick life scan only to find that his superior was right. “Alright then,” he growled. “I’ll just have to fix that.”
…….
From his place face down on the dusty desert floor Bumblebee continued to try and play dead. Behind him, his two Decepticon attackers continued to bicker over what to do next.
“Oh please,” Barricade growled at the smaller Decepticon. “Don’t make me laugh. You couldn’t finish that Autobyte even if you tried.”
“Oh yeah?” Oil Slick snapped. “Watch me,” he said as a small nozzle like weapon emerged from a hidden panel on his left forearm. A translucent hose arose from the back of the small arm-mounted weapon and snaked its way to the back of the small steam bike Decepticon, hooking into a large canister mounted between his shoulders. “One taste of my acid gun and that Autobot will be deader than Cybertron.” Oil Slick grinned as he began to make his way towards the little yellow Autobot.
Bumblebee continued lying face down in the dirt. He could hear Oil Slick’s footfalls coming closer and closer and he the sickening sound of Oil Slick’s acid cannon charging as he continued forward. Bumblebee slowly closed his eyes and began to concentrate; if his plan was going to work he’d need to time things just right.
“Say good night, Autobot.” Oil Slick sadistically smiled as he finally reached his target pointing the nozzle of his gun at the back of the Autobot’s head.
“GOOD NIGHT!” Bumblebee suddenly roared, pushing off the ground with his arms, using the momentum to propel himself into the air before bringing his feet slamming into the Decepticon’s chest, sending him staggering backwards. Flipping around in midair to face Oil Slick, Bumblebee’s arm began to transform as his hand slid into its socket as multiple casings flipped out over each other, culminating in a barrel at the end of the outstretched limb. Hitting the ground, the yellow Autobot instantly began firing into the steam bike Decepticon with his battle pistol.
Oil Slick yelled as the Autobot blew the dragon skull off his shoulder, forcing the Decepticon to jump behind a nearby boulder for cover. “Barricade, I could use a hand!” he roared over the sound of the Autobot’s weapon.
“Told you; you couldn’t handle this rookie,” Barricade barked. “Looks like I’m gonna have to pull your aft out of the fire!” he roared, charging at Bumblebee, the wheels at the end of his arms changing into a pair of serrated saws. He brought them down across the yellow Autobot’s back, causing him to shriek in pain.
Bumblebee quickly spun around and began firing at Barricade, who easily dodged the laser blasts going in for another swipe at the Autobot’s abdomen with his saws. Bumblebee yelled out as the saw grazed his stomach, slightly spluttering energon out onto the desert floor.
“Don’t forget about me, Autobot!” Oil Slick laughed coming out from behind the rock and opening fire.
“You’ll have to do better than that, Decepticreeps!” Bumblebee yelled, clutching his stomach as he ducked under Barricade’s arm as it came around for another swipe. Quickly, the little yellow Autobot grabbed hold of Barricade’s still moving appendage, using the momentum to pull the Decepticon in the way of the steam bike ‘Con’s blast.
Barricade roared as the putrid green acid splashed across his back, slightly eating away at his heavy iron armor. “Watch where you fire that thing!” he hissed.
“What’s the matter, Barricade? Can’t handle a little bit of your partner’s acid?” Bumblebee laughed as he upper-cut Barricade in the jaw, sending the Decepticon sailing backwards. Before either Decepticon could react, the little yellow Autobot leapt off the Barricade’s falling body propelling him into the air. The two Decepticons quickly moved for cover as Bumblebee began to rain plasma bursts down on them from his place in the sky like hail in a bad winter storm.
Oil Slick suddenly roared in pain as one of Bumblebee’s shots hit home, the Decepticon’s acid container exploding on his back, covering his upper body in the sickly green, corrosive material.
Bumblebee hit the ground and instantly began firing on the remaining Decepticon, pinning him behind the rock he had taken cover under.
“Frag this,” Barricade growled. “I’ve got better things to do than die,” he said, transforming back into his vehicle form and peeling out, leaving Bumblebee and the dying Oil Slick in his wake.
Bumblebee continued to fire on the retreating Barricade until he was well out of range, before turning his attention back to the wounded Oil Slick. Under normal circumstances, Bumblebee would have at least tried to help the wounded Decepticon, but he could tell it was too late to do anything, as the corrosive acid was already eating away at Oil Slick’s spark chamber.
Oil Slick laughed, wheezing as the acid slowly seeped into his vocal processor. “Ya’ got me pretty good, Autobot, come closer and I’ll tell’ya a secret,” he wheezed, weakly reaching up to grab Bumblebee by the collar and pull him closer.
“You be sure to tell Optimus…” Oil Slick began before having to stop, struggling to speak as the acid continued eating away at him. “You be sure to tell Optimus, that Megatron is on his way home.” Oil Slick chuckled at the shocked look on Bumblebee as his eyes went dim and he slipped offline.
“Don’t worry…I will,” Bumblebee stated, standing up to observe his surroundings. With no natives in sight, Bumblebee lifted Oil Slick’s corpse from the ground and began to drag it to a nearby cave hollowed out of the large red, stone cliff.
Transformers: Harmony
High above the rocky grey landscape that dominated Equestria’s more mountainous regions, hidden within a mile-thick layer of self-generated storm clouds, the massive Decepticon flagship, the Nemesis, slowly crept its way forward through the darkened skies above the immense Appaloosan Mountain Range.
The massive, jet-black, alpha-class battle cruiser glided silently through the air, its two-mile long hull easily slicing through the heavy cloud cover the ship was creating from a small, built-in, disguise generator. At its rear, a set of four, pursuit-class engines, powered the ship forward through the thick black sky while onboard navigation kept the massive vessel from crashing into any unseen obstacles that might appear out of the murk. All across the ship’s smooth, steel surface, sensor arrays constantly scanned the landscape below, searching for any signs of the ship’s sought after target.
The Decepticon flagship had arrived in the planet’s upper atmosphere precisely two years ago, after making the journey from the world’s moon where the Nemesis had resided for nearly four million years after it had crash-landed there, following its passage through an unstable spacebridge outside its home planet of Cybertron. Unfortunately for the Decepticons on board at the time and now, the ship’s more “sentient” programming had been completely obliterated during the crash landing.
Inside the dark, weapon-clad warship, numerous Decepticon soldiers scurried around the large, multi-layered bridge, manning different stations, and checking readouts. Their leader, Megatron was expected to arrive any day now with news of how to finally end the war with the Autobots. Shouting to one another in Cybertronian, the spike-covered Decepticon troopers attempted to get all the Nemesis’ systems online as they made their way about the ship, double-checking each other’s work, hoping to make things perfect in fear of the Decepticon Tyrant’s reaction to finding his flag ship not operating at full capacity.
“Quickly, quickly! We must have everything ready for our glorious leader Megatron,” the ship’s captain, a large, silver Decepticon snarled, sarcasm dripping from every word he spoke as the wings on his back twitched up and down in agitation. His shifty red eyes were inset into his boxy, black head as he looked about the bridge.
Starscream watched in annoyance as the soldiers below scurried around on the floor, checking relays and testing power stations. It made him sick to think they were all doing this just to please Megatron. Turning to face the monitor on his right the Decepticon seeker was much more content to observe the soldiers and miners down on the surface. They were in the process of removing large, blue crystalline rocks from the mine they had found buried in the mountain miles below the ship. The crystals sparked with energy as the miners began to cut them into more manageable sizes.
“Energon!” Starscream exclaimed to himself, rubbing his clawed hands together in anticipation.
The lifeblood of the Cybertronian race was being excavated before his very optics. Following the precious mineral, Starscream watched as it was slowly moved from the mine’s entrance to within the Nemesis’ tractor beam where it would be brought aboard and stored for refinement.
This is what the war is about , the air commander thought to himself as he placed his hands behind his head and set his feet atop the control panel in front of him; the gathering of resources and the total destruction of one’s enemies . He slightly chuckled.
“Don’t get too comfortable, Captain Starscream,” a large, cobalt Decepticon boomed from the other side of the bridge, pulling the red, blue and silver flier from his thoughts. The massive, heavily-armed Decepticon spun around in his chair to face his fidgeting captain. “You might not have everything you need to kiss Megatron’s skid-plate ready in time!” he chided, grinning as the two metal pylons hanging from his back began spinning.
“Silence, Blackout!” Starscream barked. His vehicle mode’s second set of wings swayed at the hip as he lowered his legs back to the floor and stood up out of his chair. The propellers attached to his back mounted wings lazily whirled round in response to the sudden motion.
Blackout growled; a puff of hot air he usually used to inflate his alternate mode’s gasbag escaped his metal lips. “Why don’t you try and make me?”
“Return to your post, soldier!” the silver Seeker sneered, resisting the temptation to fire his weapon into his fellow Decepticon’s skull as the primitive machine guns mounted on his forearms spun slightly in agitation.
“I think not,” the cobalt-blue Decepticon growled, challenging Starscream’s authority.
“You will do as I order, Blackout! I am your commanding officer!” the winged Cybertronian roared, readying his weapons to fire at the insubordinate soldier.
“Not for long you won’t be,” Blackout snarled, reminding Starscream once more of the impending return of Megatron before spinning back around and placing his clawed fingers on the console in front of him.
Starscream glared at the back of the cobalt Decepticon’s head with intense fury. If there weren’t so many witnesses around the silver seeker would have gladly put a round through Blackout’s core processor. However, Starscream couldn’t risk it; he was on thin ice as it was. After his failed coup during the final days of the War for Cybertron, when Megatron had been supposedly killed by the Autobots, Starscream was lucky the Decepticon leader had allowed him back into his ranks.
A sudden alarm woke Starscream from his thoughts as he looked down to see a blinking light on his command terminal. Pushing the rapidly bleating button he was greeted with the holographic image of Barricade’s scarred and pitted face.
Starscream sighed in exasperation. “What is it now, Barricade?” he asked, growing tired of the hunter’s repeated calls. Every time it was some ridiculous demand for more and more energon since he spent such lengthy times outside the ship.
“Bad news, Scream.” Barricade spoke over the comm-link. His voice was noticeably rasping, as if he’d taken heavy damage. “Oil Slick is dead.”
“WHAT!?” Starscream roared, his voice echoing across the bridge causing a few grunts to look up from their work at him. “How could you allow this to happen, Barricade!?” the silver seeker growled, slamming his fists on the console in front of him.
“Hey! Don’t blame me for this!” the Decepticon hunter snapped back. “We set up an ambush for the Autobot’s scout and the kid jumped into the fray before I gave him the word!” he growled, energon sputtering from the damaged parts of his mouth. “It ain’t my fault Bumblebee’s tougher than he looks.”
Starscream balled his clawed hands, opening and closing them in irritation. He felt like opening fire and killing everyone on the ship and was fighting to resist doing so.
“Fine,” Starscream spat in annoyance. “I will send Incinerator to deal with the Autobot!” He glared at Barricade through the hologram, daring him to backtalk.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” Barricade asked, cocking an eyebrow. “You know he ain’t too good at keeping cover.”
“DO NOT QUESTION ME, BARRICADE!” the air commander shouted, rage filling his voice as he finally snapped. “Just return to the ship and get medical attention! You are useless to me and the entire Decepticon army if you’re leaking energon faster than Blot leaks that foul substance from his hide!!!” The silver captain exclaimed, throwing his arms wildly as part of one of his typical overly exaggerated gestures.
“Alright, alright, calm down,” Barricade sighed, switching off the com-link as his face disappeared from the command terminal.
Starscream slammed his head on the terminal in exasperation. One dead Decepticon, insubordinate soldiers, and Megatron set to arrive at any moment, he thought to himself.
Today was not the air commander’s day.
…………
Meanwhile, miles away from the Decepticon flagship and the exasperated Decepticon air commander, Bumblebee silently walked the dusty dirt roads outside Equestria’s capital city of Canterlot. In the distance, gleaming in the rising sun, the yellow, the holo-matter pony could see the massive, spiraling towers of Princess Celestia’s castle rising against their mountain back-drop, its many colorful flags flying strong as the powerful winds from the valley below billowed though them. Bumblebee stopped and stared at the castle for a moment, its sheer beauty never ceased to amaze him. But, that was not the little Autobot’s current destination.
Turning off the barely visible dirt road he had been traversing, Bumblebee walked into the nearby woods, not following a predetermined path etched into the ground, but following a path he had memorized over the course of the three years he had lived on this planet. He could still remember their arrival to the small, green and blue word like it was yesterday.
As he navigated through the weedy, overgrown jungle, avoiding branches that nearly lashed across his face and pits that wished to stall him, the yellow Cybertronian eventually reached his journey's end: a large, stone cliff buried within the depths of the wood. Etched into the face of the rock was a large symbol. Its many straight lines and heroic curvatures matched the one imprinted on the side of Bumblebee’s carriage door. It was the symbol that had given so many Autobots hope during the darkest hours of the Great War, and that is why they had adopted it as their own.
Suddenly, a ray of light burst forth from the emblem’s eyes, scanning Bumblebee up and down, left and right, before vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared. The sound of massive, iron tumblers filled the quiet, lonely jungle, sending wildlife scurrying in a flurry of directions. Birds and timber wolves shrieked and roared as the very cliff face began to split down the middle and open like a cell dividing upon itself during the process of mitosis. Light began pouring through the growing crack in the wall as a deep, thundering voice rang out.
“Teletraan-1 welcomes Autobot Bumblebee to Autobot Outpost, Celestia-1!”
Bumblebee watched as the massive metal doors slowly slid open. The now gaping entrance was large enough to fit a full-grown dragon through. The opening entryway reminded Bumblebee of the doors onboard the ancient starship that had ferried him and the rest of the Autobots away from their dying home world, The Ark. Entering the immense doorway the small yellow scout continued thinking back on the ancient starcraft and its fateful journey. At the time of the journey Bumblebee had been rendered completely mute after a run-in with the tyrannical Decepticon leader, but luckily Ratchet had been able to repair him during their stay on the command hub. The smaller Autobot jumped slightly as he was pulled out of his memories by the renewed sound of iron tumblers. As soon as he had entered, the large iron doors began to rumble again as they skidded shut behind him.
Not wanting to waste any more time thinking about the past, Bumblebee flashed his holo-avatar out of existence and quickly transformed into his robot mode before rushing down the massive hallway. He passed by numerous computer terminals showcasing all sorts of information about the base and the world outside along the way. As he rounded the hall’s corner, leading into the central command center, the Autobot scout began to catch sight of the mech he was looking for.
The Autobot in question had his back to Bumblebee. He was observing a series of numbers as they flashed by on a computer terminal in front of him. His red and blue color scheme was illuminated by the fluorescent lights shining in the base, while his massive, almost heroic, stature was framed by the smaller computer terminal that sat before him. Bumblebee could see small wafts of smoke emitting from the dual smokestacks sitting in front of both his wide round shoulders, a usual sign that he was concentrating and shouldn’t be interrupted, but the small, yellow Autobot knew what he had to say couldn’t wait.
“Optimus!” Bumblebee shouted, causing the Supreme Commander of the Autobot army to turn in the direction of the young scout. The lights in the base caught the antennae on the sides of his head as he turned around, giving the Autobot leader an almost angelic glow. He quickly approached Bumblebee and placed a hand on his fellow robot’s shoulder. A look of deep worry was dancing in his bright blue optics.
“Bumblebee, there you are!” Optimus exclaimed; the concern in his booming voice was readily apparent. “When we received your distress signal we feared the worst.”
“Oh it was no big deal, Prime,” Bumblebee sighed, shrugging as he referred to his commanding officer by the ancient title in which he had been given. “Barricade and Oil Slick set a trap for me, but I was able to handle it!” he exclaimed, making a motion with his arms to detail how “smooth”’ he had gotten out of the predicament. He turned his head and gave Optimus a wide smile.
“Were there any casualties?” Optimus asked sternly, a serious look crossing his face.
“Y-Yeah,” Bumblebee stuttered, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. The smile on his face instantly vanished. Even though he couldn’t see it behind Optimus’ silver faceplate, he knew the Autobot leader was frowning as he said those words. “I-I accidentally burst Oil Slick’s acid container. It sprayed all over him. Th-there wasn’t much I could do…”
Optimus brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose above his faceplate. He sat there in quiet contemplation, mourning the loss of yet another life to this horrendous war. Had all those on Cybertron not been enough? Even if Oil Slick was on the wrong side and he knew Bumblebee had to do it out of self-defense, the loss of another Cybertronian life weighed heavily on the spark of the Prime. An awkward silence hung in the air as he continued his silent grieving.
“Um…Optimus?” Bumblebee asked, cautiously approaching the massive red and blue Autobot, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Oil Slick wanted me to pass on a message to you.”
Optimus looked up, curious as to the information the scout had gathered. It was very rare that a Decepticon would wish to pass on a message before death. They usually preferred a silent, honorable death reflecting their backgrounds as warriors and gladiators.
Knowing that the larger Autobot was already upset about the loss of another Cybertronian life, and that he might be even more upset about the news he was going to deliver, Bumblebee couldn’t bring himself to look his leader in the optic. Instead he focused on Prime’s torso, where the round bolted face of a steam locomotive poked forth. It was one of the remnants of Prime’s vehicle mode still visible in his robot mode, along with the iron ladder that led from face of the steam locomotive down to the cowcatcher on his waist.
“He asked me to inform you that Megatron will soon return.”
Optimus stood motionless, gazing off into space as the severity of what Bumblebee said began to sink in. The wheels in his legs spun in agitation and the coupling rods chugged along with them as he thought. Quietly, he moved back to the console he had been standing in front of and began punching commands into the terminal at a rapid pace. It looked like he wasn’t concerned with this development at all.
“So…uh, what are we gonna do?” Bumblebee asked, a little confused at Optimus’ sudden, almost uncaring, actions. This didn’t seem much like the Prime he knew and idolized.
“I will take Ironhide with me to warn Princess Celestia of this troubling turn in events.” Optimus said, once more rising from the computer to face the yellow Autobot scout. His rounded forearm rose in the air and pointed towards the smaller Autobot as he continued issuing orders. “You and Bluestreak will begin patrolling around the countryside for signs of further Decepticon activity. I want you to begin with Ponyville. After the incident with the Decepticon allied cider salescolts a few months back it would be a good place to start.” He stared down at Bumblebee as the Autobot saluted his commander. “Ratchet, Prowl, and Wheeljack will remain here at base and keep an eye on the scanners for any sign of Megatron or the Nemesis, understood?
“Sir, yes sir!” Bumblebee shouted in response.
“Good. With any luck we will be sufficiently prepared for whatever awaits us when Megatron returns,” Optimus stated, walking towards the exit of the command center in search of his trusted friend and weapons specialist.
Bumblebee stared, watching as the Supreme Commander of the Autobot forces slowly left the room. It was moments like this that he was proud to be called an Autobot. Even in the face of the fact that his most hated and dangerous enemy was returning, Optimus didn’t lose his cool or panic even for a second. He simply gave orders like he always had, keeping a level head and never letting slip a sign of worry. Maybe that’s why Bumblebee considered Optimus to be his hero.
Not wanting to waste any more of his time or keep Prime waiting Bumblebee spun around and went off to find Bluestreak. He couldn't wait to tell him about their new assignment.
Transformers: Harmony
The sun shone brightly in the afternoon sky as it looked down upon Sweet Apple Acres, the home of Ponyville’s resident branch of the massive Apple family and Equestria’s number one supplier of apples and apple-related products. Sweet Apple Acres had been around for generations, ever since Princess Celestia herself met with, blessed, and encouraged the travelling Apple family to begin tilling the land outside the fledgling town of Ponyville. But now, in these more modern times, the proud, successful farm had been passed down into the hooves of a new generation directly descended from those blessed workers.
In recent years, as the farm’s apple harvest grew bigger and bigger, the modern Apple family members began to realize that keeping the work a family business was a near impossible task and began reluctantly looking for help outside the family. But now, with this year’s harvest looking to be the biggest in a decade, the young, tired owner, Applejack, was going to need all the help she could get.
………
Wiping the sweat from her brow, Applejack looked out across the southern fields of Sweet Apple Acres. The green, tree-dotted hills rolled on for as far as her emerald-colored eyes could see. She and her friends had been working hard to clear the trees of their profitable bounty, but they had barely been through a quarter of the field; and it was already midday, and Rainbow Dash, her supposed “best friend,” wasn’t helping much by lazily flying through the air and kicking the trees with a force Applejack’s little sister Applebloom could match. Applebloom was currently on the other side of the field helping their older brother, Big Macintosh. The little filly was still slightly depressed after her cousin from Manehatten had left the farm earlier that week.
“Come on, Rainbow!!” Applejack yelled up to her cyan-colored, pegasus friend, who was hovering at the top of a nearby apple tree. “You’re gonna have to kick the dang thing harder than that!” she shouted, blowing a stray hair of her blonde mane out of her cross face.
She turned around and used her powerful hind legs to ram the tree behind her with every ounce of strength her body had to offer. The tree shook violently, as if it had suddenly been caught in a hurricane, before it dropped its precious load of ruby red-fruit into the wooden baskets the orange earth pony had placed at its base. Applejack smiled to herself as she walked over to the next ripe and ready tree.
“Easy for you to say,” Rainbow called back, idly backstroking through the air with her wings. “You’ve been doing this your whole life!” she shouted, pointing an accusatory hoof at her orange-coated friend as Applejack repeated the process of kicking a nearby tree to obtain its harvest.
“That don’t mean a dang thing and you know it!” Applejack retorted, the anger in her voice rising. “You’re just bein’ lazy! Applebloom could buck these trees better than you!”
“Will the two of you please stop your pointless bickering?” Rarity, a white-coated unicorn, asked, using her natural-born magic to lift the apples out of a nearby tree and place them in a number of barrels sitting next to her. “It’s already bad enough having to work in this dreadful heat,” she complained, wiping some sweat from her brow and throwing it away in disgust. “We don’t need to hear you arguing constantly as well!”
The orange earth pony snapped, rearing to face the purple-haired unicorn. Applejack had always had a problem with Rarity’s negativity towards “dirty work” as she called it and the heat; combined with the stress on her mind, it was making it very hard for her to swallow her friend’s bad attitude. “Well maybe if you tell Miss Lazy Bones up there to do her share of the work, I wouldn’t have to yell!” she exclaimed.
“Applejack, please calm down,” a quiet, timid voice sounded from behind the angry blonde-haired earth pony.
Turning around, Applejack could see both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looking at her with concerned faces. Both of them seemed as tired as she was; in fact, Pinkie’s normally bouncy pink mane was almost completely matted with sweat, and Fluttershy’s wings sagged at her sides, drooping from all the flying the poor pegasus had done that day to help her friend.
“I’m sorry for snappin’, y’all,” Applejack sighed, letting out a long, cool breath. “It’s just that this year’s harvest is the biggest it’s been in a long time, and I’m just stessin’ over getting all these apples out of the trees and out to market.”
Applejack looked at the ground, ashamed. She didn’t mean or want to act like this towards her friends. But, with her mind so preoccupied with the tasks of keeping the farm alive after the recent drought and getting all the apples out to market so she could pay the farmland’s extensive bills, she was just having trouble keeping a positive outlook right now, and she was starting to take it out on the ponies around her.
Fluttershy calmly sighed, shaking the sweat out of her long pink mane as she approached the distraught earth pony, wrapping her hoof around her friend’s shoulder. “Everything will work out in the end, Applejack. I’m sure of it.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Applejack exhaled, looking around at her assembled friends, taking note of their worried expressions.
Suddenly, as if in response to Fluttershy’s assurance, a massive, dark shadow began to pass by overhead. The blanket of darkness completely engulfed the five ponies, causing them to look up in alarm. Circling overhead, like a vast flock of predatory birds, had to be about a thousand ruby-red apples. Each one lazily rolled through the air, being supported on a barely visible waft of violet, magical energy.
Twilight Sparkle hummed as she came up over a nearby grassy hill, galloping towards them as the horn atop her head burst with magical energy, keeping the thousands of fruits afloat in the sky. “How are things going on this end?” she asked, watching as her friend gawked at the sight of the apples dancing in the air.
“Oh! Sorry,” the violet unicorn exclaimed, blushing slightly. “Applejack, is there a place you’d like these?” she asked as the orange coated mare wordlessly pointed towards a couple of old wooden carts nearby.
Moving quickly, Twilight gently set the apples down, making sure not to bruise the fragile fruit, and evenly dividing them amongst the carts. Quietly, the embarrassed, lavender mare turned back towards her dumbfounded friends.
“Gee, Twi,” Applejack whispered, approaching the violet-haired unicorn. “You’ve sure gotten stronger since last year’s harvest, I can remember back when you were only able to lift one tree’s worth of apples.”
“Yeah…well,” Twilight stammered, blushing as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof. “It-It’s really nothing special…just a levitation spell Princess Celestia taught me back when I was a filly,” she explained, making reference to her time spent as the personal protégé of Equestria’s ruling body, Princess Celestia.
“Just a levitation spell!?” Rarity exclaimed, running forward to look Twilight in the eye. “Dearie, this is far more than just a simple levitation spell! A simple levitation spell is me lifting a yard of fabric I wish to look at,” she explained, mentioning her job as a fashion designer. “This is something incredibly gifted, Twilight!”
“Why, I bet with you here, we might be able to get this whole field done by sundown!” The orange farm pony exclaimed, the hope and cheer in her voice clearly evident. “Come on, y’all!” Applejack yelled to the rest of her friends as she rushed forward, dragging Twilight along with her. “Let’s get a move on before we lose daylight!”
...……
Meanwhile, deep within the heart of Ponyville, the Autobots Bumblebee and Bluestreak silently patrolled the streets of the quiet little town, keeping a keen optic open for any sign of Decepticon activity. The little village of Ponyville sat in a small valley hidden behind a range of tall mountains located to the south of Appaloosa. The placement of the town allowed for it to be protected from dangerous forms of weather, but also made it more difficult for the town to get rain and other essential weather when it was needed. This lack of weather was the driving force that required the local weather patrol to constantly plan out, and prepare the weather for Ponyville by physically bringing it to the town when it was needed.
Much like its dry western cousin, Ponyville’s roots could also be traced back to the planting, harvesting, and selling of apples; however, while apple-harvesting was still the main source of business in Appaloosa, Ponyville had stepped out of the shadow of its apple-bucking history and added many other financial outlets, such as; a successful one-pony fashion enterprise; and a small, but famous bakery, that ponies from as far as Manehattan would eat or order from. All in all, the little town had come a long way from its humble beginnings, and while most still looked down on it as a “hic” town, it was still recognized as being a successful one when compared to its desert-based cousin.
Disguised in their wagon alternate forms, not one local bothered to give the pair of Autobots a questioning look or try and stop them for small talk as they went about their appointed task. Moving swiftly through the crowds, their holo-matter avatars gently pushing people aside, the duo convened at the town center to discuss their next course of action.
“So, you really think Megatron’s coming back?” Bluestreak asked, his red “mane” and silver coat rippling in the wind as he turned to face his companion while a concerned expression played across his face.
“Optimus seems to believe it, and personally, if he believes it, then so do I,” Bumblebee replied, scanning the crowd for anything that might even remotely resemble a Decepticon ally.
Having spent more time studying Equestria than any of his fellow Autobots, there were things Bumblebee knew about the planet that many of his comrades did not, save for Optimus. For example, Bumblebee knew that hidden amongst the population of the planet were Equestrians who had actively joined the Decepticon army, hoping to gain money and power. One native Bumblebee knew in particular, as he had spied on him for weeks at a time before he reported him to Optimus, was an earth pony by the name of McCullen. His company had personally crafted each of the Decepticon’s more advance alternate forms in exchange for money and small amounts of Cybertronian technology. It baffled Bumblebee’s processor to think any native, especially one as intelligent as McCullen, would willingly join with Megatron’s army.
“You’re such a fanboy,” Bluestreak chuckled, punching Bumblebee on the shoulder and pulling the scout out of his memories as he to continued scanning the crowds. “Always hanging on Optimus’ every word.”
“I am not a fanboy!” Bumblebee exclaimed in annoyance, turning to face his friend as he bumped his bright yellow cart against Bluestreak’s own. The quick motion left a nasty scrape along the side of his companion’s cart, cutting through the thick black line that ran across the silver paneling.
“Hey! Hey! Watch the paint,” he hissed, observing the damage done to his true body. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Bluestreak sent a flash of energy down the side of his iron body, easily repairing the cosmetic damage the Autobot scout opposite of him had caused.
“Next time watch what you call me,” Bumblebee sarcastically remarked, playfully glancing at his still annoyed friend. “I’m not a fanboy.”
“Yeah, yeah, learn to take a joke,” the silver unicorn mumbled as he scanned the crowd for a third time. “Arrgghh,” he growled. “Standing around in the center of this town is getting us nowhere; how about we split up and look at places a little farther outside of town?” he suggested.
“Good idea,” Bumblebee stated after taking a moment to mull the thought over in his mind. “How about you head for the outskirts of the Everfree Forrest,” he started, nodding his head in the direction of the massive, shady woods, “and I’ll go check out Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, Bee,” Bluestreak said while using his onboard computers to judge how far off the Everfree forest was from his current position.
“Then let’s roll out!” Bee exclaimed as he began to gallop off in the direction of the massive apple farm.
“Yeah, he’s totally a fanboy,” Bluestreak chuckled as he watched Bumblebee disappear into the distance. Giving the town square one more quick look, he sprinted away, heading off in the direction of his new target.
…………
Twilight wiped the sweat from her brow as she once more ignited her horn, lifting the loads of the three nearby apple trees high into the air before gently setting them back down into some nearby carts. Letting out an exhausted moan, Twilight plopped down, outstretching her legs and burying her face into the cool, crisp grass beneath her. It had been a long time since Twilight had used this much magic in one go. She was exhausted.
“Everything alright, Twi?” Applejack asked, walking over to check on her fatigued friend. She laughed a little as she saw how Twilight was sprawled out into the grass.
“Yeah, I’m just a little tired,” the purple-haired mare yawned, breathing in the heavenly smell of the grass surrounding her.
“Well, how about you take a break, sugarcube,” Applejack suggested, looking out across the field of cleaned-out trees framed against the setting sun. “You did a mighty fine job today, and I don’t know how I’m gonna repay you for all the help.” She smiled.
Twilight smiled back at her friend as she lifted her head from the grass. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Now Twilight, you know I can’t do that,” the orange earth pony exclaimed, displaying a slightly cross look on her face. “We Apples always pay back our dues,” she grunted, stomping a hoof against the ground to make her point.
Twilight nodded, accepting her friend’s response, before trying to lift herself off the ground. Unfortunately, as soon as Twilight managed to get back on all four legs a wave of nausea and exhaustion overwhelmed her, almost causing her to fall back over, but luckily Applejack was there to catch the collapsing unicorn.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay, Twilight?” Applejack asked, the concern in her voice ringing as she used her body to support Twilight’s weakened form.
Twilight wheezed slightly. “Yes…I’ll be fine; I just used way too much magic way too quickly. I’m starting to feel a little sick,” she explained, closing her eyes as another wave of nausea passed over her.
“Well, shoot,” Applejack exclaimed. “If you had told me that I wouldn’t have asked you to do all this!”
“It’s fine Applejack,” Twilight smiled as she continued leaning on her friend for support. “Like I said, I was happy to help.”
Applejack started to breathe deeply, adjusting her body slightly so she was under Twilight’s two front legs. With one mighty heave, the orange earth pony tossed her unicorn friend a few inches into the air, allowing her to slip underneath and let the exhausted Twilight ride on her back.
“Now where did all those varmints get off to?” she wondered, scanning the horizon for their missing friends.
Twilight exhaled, grabbing the blonde earth pony’s attention. “I think they’re over there, Applejack,” she said, pointing a hoof in the direction of a nearby grove of trees.
As Applejack squinted in the direction Twilight was pointing, sure enough, she could just barely make out the silhouettes of two pegasi, a unicorn, and another earth pony.
“Good eye, Twilight!” Applejack exclaimed, adjusting the unicorn’s position on her back before heading off towards their friends.
Traversing the large open fields that made up her farmland, Applejack made haste to reach her friend’s location before sundown. Fortunately, being an earth pony, she was not slowed down by the weight of Twilight on her back, but, as she approached her friends, she noticed something was wrong. Each one of them was standing motionless in place; their heads transfixed looking up into the sky. The whole scene looked rather eerie to Applejack.
“What’s going on here, gals?” Applejack asked, placing her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, hoping to break her from the trance-like state she seemed trapped in.
“We’re trying to figure out what that thing is,” Pinkie explained, using her pink hoof to point up at a vague location in the sky.
Following the direction of Pinkie’s hoof, Applejack scanned the air until she caught a glimpse of something miles above them flying in circles through the sky. At first glance, it almost looked like a bird. But as she continued to focus on it, she soon realized it was far too angular to be any kind of animal, and it appeared to be made of iron.
“What in tarnation?” the confused earth pony asked as she noticed two large propellers keeping the strange machine aloft in the air as it searched for its target.
“It kind of looks like that weird contraption you used to hang out with me and Gilda, Pinkie,” Rainbow remarked as she blew back a piece of her rainbow-colored mane that had fallen into her eye.
“Oh yeah…I guess it does,” Pinkie remarked, tilting her head to the side, hoping it would give her a better view of the strange machine.
“Well, whatever it is, I ain’t got time to worry about it!” Applejack exclaimed, drawing the group’s attention back down from the sky and towards her. “Now if y’all haven’t noticed, I’ve got an exhausted Twilight on my back, and I need yer help getting’ her back to the house so she can lie down,” she explained, referring to the now sleeping unicorn on her back.
“Alright, alright,” Pinkie sighed as she and the rest of the group began to follow Applejack back towards her house, leaving the strange machine flying through the air.
……….
Soaring high above Sweet Apple Acres, the mysterious flying vehicle watched in silence as the six ponies, miles below it, slowly walked away, heading for the house atop the hill.
“Yes, run little ponies,” Incinerator chuckled, watching as the pink one tripped and rolled back down the hill. “Were I not so preoccupied with my hunt, I would ensure you’re quick deaths,” he spat, spinning about so he could continue his search for the elusive Autobot scout.
Transformers: Harmony
As Celestia’s golden sun began to take its final steps across the fleeting red and orange sky, it beat its last rays of harsh heat down upon the rolling fields of Sweet Apple Acres, illuminating the land below with sunset light and unbearable heat to match. When she was a little filly, Applejack loved to come outside during this time of day and play with her brother, Big Macintosh. But now, the knotted grassy hills she called home, seemed to stretch on for an eternity as she struggled to continue onward. She stopped briefly to wipe the sweat from her muzzle and readjust the sleeping unicorn on her back.
Grunting in pain, Applejack fought hard as she put one hoof in front of the other; not even an earth pony of her strength could go on forever before tiring out, and she was beginning to feel Twilight’s weight bearing down on her aching back. Not that it upset her; she knew she was just helping out a friend who had helped her immensely throughout the day’s harvesting.
“Applejack, you doing okay?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew up ahead, looking her orange-coated friend in the emerald colored eye. “You’re starting to look tired,” she observed, a hint of concern filling her voice. “Do you want to stop for a sec, or maybe let Fluttershy and I carry her the rest of the way?”
“No,” Applejack grunted, beginning to push forward again, moving past her rainbow-maned friend. “I’ve got this- we’re almost there,” she explained, huffing a bit as she spoke. “Just over that next hill.” The earth pony lifted a hoof and pointed towards an identical green hill sitting not too far in front of them.
Suddenly, just as quickly as she’d started, Applejack had to stop her trek again as she felt movement and shuffling on her back. Twilight was beginning to stir.
“A-Applejack?” Twilight asked, waking up and groggily looking around the grassy green fields. “You don’t need to do this anymore; I think I can walk the rest of the way,” she stated, wiping the sleep out of her eyes as she attempted to lower herself from the apple-bucking pony’s back.
“Are you sure, Twi?” she asked, bending down slightly so Twilight could stand on her legs. She noticed the lavender unicorn wobble slightly and grab her head whilst wincing in pain.
“Yeah…yeah, I’ll be fine,” she reassured her friend, breathing a little heavily. “I’m just a little tired, and I’ve got a headache, but the nausea is gone,” she explained.
“Well, if you’re sure,” Applejack said, with a look of apprehension on her face. “My house is just up ahead, but if you start to feel tired again, just let us know, okay?” she asked, gesturing to their surrounding friends, who were nodding in agreement. In fact, Fluttershy and Rarity had already moved beside the tired mare to help her in case something happened.
The group of tired ponies slowly made their way up and over the curving hill, watching as Applejack’s farmhouse, silhouetted against the sunset in the distance, came into view. It was only a couple dozen of yards away now; its large, wooden frame looked both warm and inviting to the exhausted friends. They could see the small wind vane mounted on the roof wheeling around as it was blown by the light breezes passing by the homestead and wished they could be up there, catching the cool breezes as they blew by.
But, as the six of them slowly continued towards the two story structure Applejack called home, they began to notice something a little out of the ordinary; an earth pony hauling an iron wagon was standing and waiting at the front door of the house. He appeared to be yellow in color with a short black mane. His carriage almost matched him in color with the bright yellow paint being accented by a long black stripe running down the side.
“Oh, what is this?” Applejack muttered to herself in annoyance as she and the rest of her friends moved towards the stranger and her house. “Is there somethin’ I can help you with, sir?” she asked, drawing the stallion’s attention away from the door and towards her.
The blue-eyed earth pony turned around to face the mare he was speaking to. “Um, yes, I was wondering if you were the owner of this farm.”
“Indeed I am, sir; the name’s Applejack,” she explained, stretching out her leg to shake hooves with the mysterious stranger. “These are my friends, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie,” she clarified, pointing out the other members in their little group to the strange yellow pony.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Bumblebee,” the stranger explained, returning the gesture as all around him the group of assembled mares gave him their hellos and greetings.
“Well, Bumblebee,” Applejack said, her voice taking on a more serious, business-like tone. “What can I do for you today? If you’re lookin’ for work, we can use all the help we can get with this season’s harvest.”
“No, I’m sorry to say that I’m not looking for work at the moment.” Bumblebee frowned slightly as he saw Applejack’s face fall with a disappointed look. “I’m actually with Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard,” he explained, shaking off any concern he had for the farm pony and getting back to business.
Twilight suddenly stepped forward, giving him a quizzical look from her place next to Fluttershy. “My older brother was Captain of the Royal Guard for years and I never remember him mentioning you.”
“Er…well, yes…” Bumblebee stammered, surprised to be so easily caught in his lie; he desperately searched for a recovery. “I…uh… joined up after your brother left to live with his wife in the Crystal Empire!” he exclaimed, grinning whilst sighing in relief on the inside. He noticed Twilight was still giving him a strange look.
“But, I must say, noticing I wasn’t under your brother’s command? You must be very smart Miss Twilight,” he stated, flashing the lavender mare a cocky smile and causing her to look away, slightly flustered.
“Anyways,” Applejack began, drawing Bumblebee’s attention back to her. “What can I do for ya then?” she asked, repeating her earlier question. She too was beginning to get a little suspicious of the stallion’s behavior.
“Oh, yes!” Bumblebee cried, looking around the group as he did so. “I’ve been on patrol around the area lately and I was wondering if any of you had seen anything strange.”
“No, we ain’t seen anythin’ lately,” Applejack stated, lying to the yellow earth pony. She knew she was the Element of Honesty, but she’d be darned if she told this stallion anything. He just showed up out of the blue on her door step, claiming to be part of the royal guard and every red light in Applejack’s mind was flashing a warning on high alert.
Pinkie started hopping up and down as she remembered the strange vehicle they had just seen flying around Sweet Apple Acres about an hour ago. “Well, what about that weird whirly-bird thingy?”
Rainbow Dash nervously laughed, desperately trying to use her eyes to signal Pinkie and tell her to shut up. The cyan flyer had picked up on what her usually honest friend was doing and was trying to help keep the information from the strange yellow stallion. She didn’t trust him either.
Bumblebee happily stepped closer to the pink party pony. “Please Miss Pie, tell me everything you saw,” he asked, flashing another smile at her.
“Well, I didn’t really see it up close,” she began, lifting her hooves into the air and spinning them around as Bumblebee watched. “It was waaaay up above us flying around in little circles. It kind of looked like it was looking for something,” she explained as she lowered her hooves back down to the ground and stared at the black-haired stallion.
“Please, Miss Pie,” Bumblebee sheepishly grinned, all around him the other mares were giving him strange, untrusting looks. “Could you go into a little more detail?”
“Oh, okay!” Pinkie smiled, happy to be helping a friend. “You see, it kind of looked like this weird spinney top thing I made once when Rainbow Dash’s mean friend Gilda was visiting an-OH LOOK THERE IT IS!!!” Pinkie suddenly shouted, thrusting her hoof into the sky.
“WHAT!?” Bumblebee shouted in alarm, spinning around to find the iron-clad, dual-propeller, steampunk helicopter screaming down through the sunset sky towards them; its weapon was drawn and charging.
“LOOK OUT!” Bumblebee roared, watching in horror as the bolt of blood-red, plasma burst out from the barrel of the Decepticon’s weapon and began rocketing down towards the ground below.
Thinking fast, and running out of time, Bumblebee hastily activated the booster rockets hidden in his undercarriage, bringing the iron vehicle swinging around in a massive arc and knocking the six mares surrounding them out of the way. Suddenly, before Bumblebee had a chance to move himself, his entire world exploded with fire and erupting earth.
………..
Twilight screamed out in panic as she suddenly went flying backwards, the force of the massive fiery explosion knocking her into a nearby barrel. Landing upside-down, she slammed her head into the hard dirt ground, instantly causing her to grab her forehead in pain.
Clambering to her feet, the violet unicorn desperately tried to regain control of her scrambled senses; she could feel the burning nausea rising up again as she spun her head looking around the immediate area for any signs of her friends, praying that they hadn’t been hurt by the explosion or whatever caused it. As the ringing in her ears died down and her vision began to clear, Twilight slowly came to the realization that there was another sound nearby. Spinning around, the mare almost screamed in shock to find the massive flying vehicle only inches above the ground and a only few feet from her, its propellers chopping through the air like a knife through butter, making the sound she had heard. Suddenly, the entire vehicle began to explode.
Twilight watched in horror and awe as the strange vehicle began to dismantle into thousands of dark metal pieces, each one combining and recombining with others to form a new shape or silhouette. The bottom of the craft began ripping itself apart, spinning around and unfolding as a pair of large, silver, spiked feet emerged and crashed down onto the dirt surface of the farmland. Farther up on the body, the entire remainder of the vehicle began spinning as the cockpit arose and folded in on itself as the glass window moved up and split apart and to form the sides where the creature’s chest might be. The entire tail of the aircraft soon followed, rising up to sit on the being’s back while the two wings suddenly broke and folded down each one flipping and rounding in on themselves as the propellers moved to the side, revealing a large hand with razor-sharp claws underneath. Finally a large, rounded head emerged from within the divided cockpit to stare at Twilight with glowing, blood-red eyes before it started laughing.
“Well, what have we here?” the giant asked, his voice ominously booming as he lowered one of his bright blue arms and outstretched his massive clawed hand. “Looks like I’ve found a prize,” he grimaced, swiping his claws at the smaller pony, only for her to quickly dodge out of the way.
Twilight was a smart unicorn- even a sophisticated one, some might say- and if there was one thing she believed, one thing she spent all her time studying, it was the advancement of ponykind; whether it be through the advancements of magic or science, she didn’t care, but she knew that even the most advanced races had to give into instinct sometimes. She ran. Galloping as fast as her tired legs could carry her away from the titanic metal predator. She dared not look back as she wildly ran forward, not sure of where to go. Her mind was completely running on instinct. Behind her, she could hear the enemy snickering, his laugh bellowing up into the setting sky.
“A chase, is it?” the massive metal being queried, eyeing the unicorn with his optics as he stepped forward. Instantly, he closed half the distance between him and his fleeing target. “This should be fun,” he rumbled, smiling.
As she ran, Twilight could hear and feel the massive footfalls behind her; every time one of the giant’s feet would make contact with the earth, she lifted off the ground and was forced into the air a little bit. Her eyes closed tightly, she continued running blindly forward, her legs burning from the strain as they desperately tried to keep her aloft. She could feel the intense heat in her mouth, closing her throat and making it difficult for her to breathe or scream. Her heart skipped a beat as another foot came crashing down, this one so close she swore she brushed past metal. Suddenly, Twilight felt something grab her from the side and pull her behind the nearby barn and out of the way just as another footfall slammed into the ground.
“Twilight, are you ok!?” a familiar voice rang out.
“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked slowly opening her eyes to see the pink party-pony standing in front of her, a look of wild concern on her face. Before she knew what she was doing, Twilight threw her arms around the pink earth pony’s neck, wrapping her in a hug. Never before had the violet mare been happier to see one of her friends.
Pinkie chuckled nervously. “Gee, Twilight, I’m glad you’re not hurt like the rest of us,” she said, causing the purple haired unicorn to look up from her place buried in Pinkie’s neck and realize that all her friends were surrounding her. Just as the premier party pony had said, none of them had any visible damage after the earlier explosion.
“How cute,” the booming, threatening voice sounded, pulling Twilight back into reality as she spun around to see the iron titan peering over the roof of the large red barn house they were hiding behind. His clawed hand dug into the corner of the wooden structure as he rounded stepped around the building, coming into full view and looking down at the assembled Equestrians. “Looks like I found the whole set!” he exclaimed. He laughed as a series of small metal panel on his shoulder folded away, allowing a large, black cannon to emerge and take aim at the ponies.
Seeing her friends in danger, Twilight suddenly found herself with a second wind of energy. Quickly jumping in front of the group of ponies, she positioned herself in between them and the charging weapon. The lavender mare stamped her feet into the ground, ready to defend her friends in spite of her weakened state. If she was the leader of the Elements of Harmony, then she was going to protect her friends’ lives at any cost.
“Twilight, what the hay are you doing!?” Applejack yelled, cursing as she watched the violet unicorn attempting to stare down the metal monster.
Fighting back her headache, the waves of nausea racking her body, and the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion that was creeping into her mind, the determined unicorn continued to stand her ground, observing the iron giant, waiting for him to fire.
“Oh, please,” Incinerator sighed, releasing a bolt of energy from his shoulder-mounted concussion cannon and directed towards the severely weakened mare.
As she watched the bolt of energy leave the barrel and head straight for them in slow-motion, Twilight began to focus, gathering every ounce of strength her tired body had to offer and igniting the horn on her head. Instantly, a bubble-like shield of energy burst forth from the horn, surrounding the six friends with its protective barrier. But, much to Twilight’s horror, like a bat smashing through a glass vase, the second the beam of energy slammed into the shield, she saw it begin to splinter and fragment as it attempted to absorb the force of the blow.
Within seconds the shield exploded, sending fragments of the glass-like magical projection in every direction and forcing the out-of-control, excess energy to backlash into Twilight’s horn. The young mare screamed in pain as the energy surged back into her body, sending it flying backwards and slamming against the hard wood wall of the Apple Family’s barn.
“TWILIGHT!!” Rainbow Dash yelled in alarm, watching as her unicorn friend slammed into the barn and slumped to the ground.
“Too easy,” the enormous monster chided as he took a step closer to the remaining Equestrians.
From her place on the ground, Twilight desperately struggled to lift herself back up, but her tired, defeated body was fighting against her. She could see the looming titan slowly approaching her friends, the weapon on its shoulder beginning to charge again as a sadistic look crossed its face. She had to get up; she had to save her friends; it was her responsibility as the leader; she couldn’t just lay here and let them die. She could feel tears beginning to well in her eyes as she realized the hopelessness of the situation.
Suddenly a flash of yellow and black caught the corner of Twilight’s eye. As she turned to face the sudden burst of colors, she was surprised to see Bumblebee charging towards her friends and the metal giant. The bright yellow stallion was moving at a seemingly impossible pace; his wagon, trailing behind him, almost looked like a blur. As he passed by her, she could see the look of rage and determination on his face.
Watching in awe, Twilight was shocked when, in a flash of bright, white light, Bumblebee disappeared into thin air, leaving behind his empty cart to roll towards the giant at an extremely rapid pace. Much to Twilight’s horror, however, as the cart drew closer to the iron titan, it began undergoing the same process the monster had earlier. The yellow-and-black vehicle began splitting into several separate pieces of metal and wood, each part rearranging itself into a different configuration and shape. A pair of arms emerged from beneath the transforming wagon and slammed themselves onto the ground, propelling the whole vehicle skywards where it finished its alteration.
Sailing through the air, Bumblebee, now in robot mode, delivered a resounding punch to Incinerator’s head, before falling back to the ground where, like an acrobat on the stage, he grabbed hold of the Decepticon’s failing arm and used it to swing himself up onto his opponent’s shoulder. Moving as swiftly and delicately as his insect namesake, the yellow Autobot somersaulted over Incinerator’s head and delivered a flying kick, knocking the Decepticon’s shoulder mounted weapon to the ground below.
“If you’ve got a safer place to be, you might want to get to it!!” Bumblebee yelled down to the assembled ponies, trying to warn them of the immediate danger. “I’m not gonna be able to hold him off for long!” he shouted before being muffled as his head disappeared into Incinerator’s hand. The towering Decepticon had grabbed hold of him, ripped him from his shoulder, and flung the young Autobot back onto the ground.
“Come on, y’all,” Applejack yelled, watching as the smaller, yellow giant slammed into the ground. “Let’s move! We’ve gotta get Twi and get out of here!!” she ordered, running up to the injured unicorn and once more lifting her up onto her back.
“But, Applejack,” Twilight weakly protested, wincing as Rainbow Dash wrapped her hooves around her stomach and helped her up onto the earth pony’s back. “What about the farm?” she asked, looking over her friend’s shoulder at the two titans duking it out in front of the earth pony’s house. Bumblebee had just dodged a swiping blow from the larger monster that cut down a nearby tree.
“My farm ain’t more important than my friends’ lives, Twilight,” Applejack gently explained as she began galloping towards the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, the injured unicorn barely hanging onto her back.
“Well, what do we do now!?” Fluttershy screamed, the panic in her voice overtaking her usually quiet disposition. She flew up alongside Applejack and looked her in the eye while placing a hoof on Twilight’s back to help the struggling unicorn stay aboard. “We need to tell somepony about this; maybe we should send a letter to the Princess,” she suggested.
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’ll work,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically remarked, rolling her eyes in disbelief. “Uh, Princess? We need your help…there are these giant robots attacking Applejack’s house!” she cried out, cynically mocking the possible letter to the princess.
“Well we have to do something!” Rarity stated, shooting Rainbow Dash a dirty look for mocking Fluttershy’s suggestion. “We can’t just let them destroy Applejack’s farm!”
“My farm is fine!! What’s more important is everyone’s safety, understand?” she asked, reasserting her earlier position. “So, the first thing we’re gonna do is get Twilight home, so she can rest; then we’ll figure out what to do about the robots and my farm.” Applejack ordered as the other members of the mane six followed her off of Sweet Apple Acre’s property and down into the little town below.
………..
Sailing through the twilight sky, Bumblebee slammed into the ground for the umpteenth time as Incinerator kicked him across the open field outside the farm’s main house. Lifting himself up onto his forearms, Bumblebee watched as Incinerator began running towards him, arms raised to attack. The Autobot scout quickly jumped to his feet transformed his arm, and brought his battle pistol to bear, opening fire on the approaching Decepticon.
The brutish warrior laughed, continuing to charge forward as the Autobot’s shots pinged off his armor. The propellers on his arms began spinning rapidly, transforming themselves into a pair of makeshift saw blades that he swung towards the defenseless little Autobot.
“Geez!! How many of you guys have those things!?” Bumblebee questioned, recalling his earlier encounter with Barricade. He yellow Autobot quickly leaned back and used his arms for support as he dodged the massive arm and the spinning blade attached to it. But before the younger Autobot could recover from his impressive maneuver, Incinerator brought his other arm down, delivering a powerful hammer strike to Bumblebee’s torso and driving him to the ground.
“Sorry to have to do this to ya, kid,” he growled, reaching into the tail assembly on his back and pulling out a large rifle. “But old Starscream’s given me orders to take you offline…something about killing Oil Slick.” He cocked the weapon before pushing the barrel up against Bumlebee’s rounded head.
“I had a feeling that would come back to bite me,” Bumblebee sighed, wincing as he waited for the fatal shot to be fired.
The Decepticon hunter bellowed in surprise, swatting at a small, silver Autobot with a slightly rounded helmet and black arms that had appeared on his shoulder.
“Hey, there!” Bluestreak shouted, easily jumping over the Decepticon’s fist as he took another swat at him, missing and smashing the armor on his shoulder. “Watch where you swing that thing- you might hit something important,” he joked, ducking as the large metal hand passed by again.
“It’s about time you showed up; I was about to get my head blown off!” Bumblebee shouted up to his friend while struggling to get out from underneath the Decepticon foot that had him stuck to the earth.
“Oh, calm down, you knew I’d save your aft,” Bluestreak nonchalantly stated, briefly leaning against one of the large metal pylons on the Decepticon’s shoulder as the brute continued to try and shake the agile Autobot off. “HEY, THIS LOOKS IMPORTANT!” the Autobot spy suddenly shouted, plunging his fist into the mess of wires connecting the Decepticon’s neck to his torso and pulling out a long winding hose. Energon and steam quickly began sputtering out of the torn end.
Incinerator screamed in pain, bringing both his hands up to apply pressure to his damaged and leaking neck. As he struggled to hold the wound on his neck and knock off his stealthy attacker, he accidentally released his foothold on Bumblebee, allowing the Autobot scout to slip free and resume firing at the injured Decepticon.
Moving quickly so as to join his companion on the ground, Bluestreak leapt high into the air, using his wheeled legs to repel himself off the massive Decepticon by kicking him in the face. As he hit the ground, he quickly transformed his arms into a pair of dual blasters and joined Bumblebee in opening fire on the wounded ’Con, chipping off bits of armor and shattering the glass windows built into his chest.
“Frag this!!” Incinerator roared, releasing one of his arms from the wound on his neck so he could block the incoming laser fire. “If Starscream wants you dead this bad he can come and do it himself!” The Decepticon bellowed, transforming back into his assault chopper mode and taking off into the sky, putting as much distance between him and the two smaller Autobots as possible.
“That was way too close,” Bumblebee sighed, shifting his arm back into its natural form as he looked around the makeshift battlefield. Fortunately most of the collateral damage had been contained. The main house and barn appeared to still be standing and the only damage the scout could see was a few snapped trees in the front yard.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Bluestreak replied, pulling Bumblebee’s attention back to him. “You almost got your fragging head blown off!” he barked; the angry expression on his face matching the tone of his voice.
“Oh, come on!” Bumblebee complained. “You know I would have been fine; you’re always there to pull my aft out when I get in too deep,” he explained, flashing his friend one of his cocky grins and lifting his arm for a high-five.
Bluestreak sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in between his two yellow optics. “Let’s just get back to base and report this to Optimus,” he suggested, transforming back into vehicle mode and flashing in his pony-avatar before taking off for the farm’s main entrance.
“Really!?” Bumblebee shouted after his friend. “You’re just gonna leave me hanging?” he asked, pointing to his still outstretched right arm.
“Move it, or lose it, Bee!!” Bluestreak shouted back to him from up ahead.
“Ugh…fine,” Bumblebee grunted, transforming back into vehicle mode himself and running off to catch up with his friend.
Transformers: Harmony
The sound of a rooster crowing filled the air in Ponyville as Princess Celestia’s morning sun began to peak over the horizon, bringing another day to the land of Equestria. As the fowl’s early-morning trumpet resonated throughout the air, the little town began to wake. Soon, shops and businesses all over the village were unlocking their doors, and throwing open their windows, ready to embrace the shining new day; all of them, except for one.
It wasn’t long until the rays of morning sunshine and the flamboyant rooster’s call began pouring into the town’s quaint, tree-house library, entering the bedroom of Twilight Sparkle through the large window placed adjacent to her bed. As the bright light beamed down on the sleeping unicorn, she began to mumble under her breath, lost in the land of dreams.
The small, lavender unicorn quietly began shifting, desperately trying to ignore the rays of sunshine and noises beginning to drift through the open window into her ears. The annoyed mare quickly pulled her star-covered comforter up over her head, hoping to preserve her slumber by blocking out the blinding light. Snuggling back into her crisp white sheets, Twilight stirred as the noises outside continued to prick away at her ears. Soon, the drowsy pony started murmuring softly to herself, slowly coming back to her senses.
Despite her best efforts, the lavender unicorn could feel herself beginning to wake up. As her mind gradually regained consciousness, she began coming to terms with where she was. The strong smell of oak made it obvious that she was in her house, and the scent of her shampoo on the pillow beneath her head led her to believe she was lying in her own bed.
As she began to squirm about on the white sheets, her eyes slowly opened, her vision slowly focusing as the light poured into the room. She yawned loudly and stretched as she lifted herself off the bed, using her hooves to rub any remnants of sleep out of her eyes. Gently setting herself on the floor, she yawned again, bigger and louder than the one before. She wearily made her way to the creaky spiral staircase that led down to the first floor of her tree house home.
Leaving her bedroom and descending the rigid wooden staircase of her large tree home, she stepped onto the main floor of the Library. Looking around the massive room--filled with towering red bookcases and thousands of different books--it was hard to imagine that it had been carved out of the inside of a powerful, sturdy, and towering tree. How the enormous leafy tree managed to thrive with over eighty-percent of its internal structure cleaved away was a mystery unto itself; however, most ponies attributed it to the powerful magical forces that seemed to be infused throughout the mighty oak.
Twilight sighed, passing by the young, purple dragon dusting some nearby bookcases as she made her way to make some breakfast. Her head was still slightly spinning as she opened her cabinets in search of something to soothe it.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted, clambering down the ladder and following her into the small, modest kitchen. “Are you alright? When the others brought you home last night it looked like they were freaking out,” he said, explaining the mystery of how Twilight ended up back in her bed when the last thing she could remember was working on Applejack’s farm.
“Oh, I’m sure they were just tired from spending all day working at Sweet Apple Acres,” she suggested, walking over to the sink and filling a slightly dirty cup with some water so she could swallow the semi-translucent, blue pill in her hoof. “I must have passed out and they had to carry me home.” She chuckled.
“I guess so,” the small dragon replied. He walked by Twilight and reached under the sink to grab a frying pan so he could begin cooking some breakfast for his tired friend. “Did you sleep well?” he asked while rummaging through the fridge for some eggs.
“No,” Twilight sighed, a distraught look was displayed on her face. “I had a horrible nightmare about this giant metal monster chasing me around Sweet Apple Acres trying to kill me,” she explained, shaking a little bit as she thought back on the supposed dream, “and when I tried to use my magic to save everyone, it just blew it apart; we had to be saved by another monster,” she explained, somberly looking at the blue medicine sitting on her hoof, before she swallowed it and chased it down with a swig of water. “I failed Princess Celestia…” she sniveled, as she wiped away a drip of water from the corner of her mouth.
“Um, how exactly is that failing Princess Celestia, Twilight?” Spike cautiously asked as he continued his search through the fridge for an egg, throwing out some old lettuce as he did so.
“Think about it, Spike,” the lavender unicorn snapped, finishing off her cup of water before setting the empty glass back down on the wooden counter. “Whenever the Princess comes to visit or whenever we go to see her she always addresses me before anyone else in the group. It’s pretty obvious she considers me the leader of the Elements of Harmony,” she explained, walking over to the little dragon so she could find out what he was cooking. “Therefore, as leader, she expects me to keep them all safe.”
“Are you sure?” Spike asked, looking up from his pan. “That seems like a pretty tall order to fill, and I don’t think the Princess would want to put that much pressure on you.”
A sudden knock at the door pulled Twilight and Spike out of their conversation. The slightly agitated unicorn quickly glanced in the mirror sitting by the stove, straightened her mane, and wiped the remaining sleep out of eyes, before leaving the kitchen. The knock at the door rapidly continued as Twilight crossed the floor where, just last night she could imagine her friends dragging her unconscious body into the Library. She blushed slightly in embarrassment. Reaching the now visibly shuddering door, she threw it open, and was instantly met with a pair of bright-blue eyes and a long yellow-and-black snout.
“Hey, Twilight!” Bumblebee shouted a huge grin on his face as he looked at the lavender mare in the doorway.
“OH MY GOODNESS YOU’RE REAL!!!” she screamed in terror, shuffling back into her house as fast as possible, bumping into her rear living room wall as she desperately tried to get away from the yellow stallion in front of her.
“Twilight, calm down,” the Autobot scout said, entering the doorway into her book-filled living room. “It’s just me, Bumblebee. Remember me from yesterday, at Sweet Apple Acres?” he asked, cautiously approaching the panicking mare that had pinned herself against the wooden wall.
“Oh, you’re way more than just Bumblebee,” she snapped at the stallion, seething through her teeth. “You’re one of those metal monsters that tried to kill me and my friends!”
“What’s going on out here?” Spike asked, suddenly appearing in the kitchen’s doorway spoon in hand as he was mixing something in a small green bowl.
“Spike, run!” Twilight shouted in alarm as she looked at her companion. “It’s one of those monsters that attacked me yesterday at the farm! It wasn’t a dream--they’re real!” she exclaimed, throwing herself at Bumblebee in order to protect the baby dragon.
However, as she leapt through the air to tackle the Autobot scout before he could her harm her childhood friend, she passed right through his body like a ghost through a wall. She continued on her trajectory and slammed into the hard oak planks comprising the floor behind him.
“What the--?” Twilight asked, rubbing her head out of pain and confusion.
“Relax, Miss Twilight,” Bumblebee ordered while turning around to face her again. “You’re not gonna be able to touch my holo-matter avatar; it’s just a way for me to communicate with you in a more comfortable fashion. I can make myself as tangible or intangible as I wish,” he explained, readjusting his tangibility so he could help Twilight to her feet. “Also, I’ll have you know I have no intention of hurting you or your friend. There are two kinds of us robots here: the ones who want your head on a pike, like the guy who attacked you; and the ones who want to keep your planet from becoming their playground, like me.” He smiled.
“Whoa!” Spike exclaimed, drawing the attention of the scout and the mare. “You’re planet? Does that mean you’re some kind of alien?” the little dragon excitedly asked, having caught on to what the holographic stallion was saying.
“You got it, shorty,” Bumblebee responded, winking an eye at the younger dragon. “And right now, I need to take Twilight to see my leader. He’s very interested in meeting her.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Twilight exclaimed as she slowly back up towards her front door while never taking her eyes of the untrustworthy stallion. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”
“Oh, come on, Miss Twilight!” Bumblebee sighed in exasperation. “All your friends are already waiting for you,” he explained, pointing his hoof past Twilight and out the front door.
Twilight quickly spun around in the direction Bumblebee was pointing and, sure enough, there were her friends. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were sitting in the back of what Twilight recognized as Bumblebee’s real body, the one that had transformed and attacked the other monster on the farm. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy on the other hoof were sitting in a different wagon, a silver-and-black one almost identical to Bumblebee’s except for the silver-coated, red-haired unicorn standing in front of it. She could only guess that this was another of the strange robots like Bumblebee.
“Hi, Twilight!!” Pinkie Pie shouted from her place in the back of Bumblebee’s vehicle mode. “This is Bluestreak! He helped Bumblebee drive the big mean Incinerator off Applejack’s farm,” she explained, wildly pointing at the unicorn attached to the silver painted buggy. He simply bowed his head to acknowledge Twilight’s presence.
“What are you all doing!?” Twilight cried out in dismay. She refused to believe her friends could have been foolish enough to have just gone along with these two aliens. They had to have been captured or something, she thought to herself.
“Oh, do calm yourself, Twilight,” Rarity stated, looking out from behind Pinkie as the pink party-mare continued bouncing around the back of the small, yellow wagon. “These two are actually quite the charming gentlestallions,” she explained. “They simply wish to take us to their leader who has requested our presence, being the Elements of Harmony and all.”
“They destroyed Applejack’s house,” she retorted, beginning to remember more and more about the battle that had occurred at Sweet Apple Acres the evening before.
“Actually, my house is fine, Twilight,” Applejack chimed in, breaking off her conversation with the two pegasi next to her. Fluttershy looked to be having about as much trouble as Twilight was with the situation, but Rainbow Dash was holding her by the tail to make sure she didn’t fly off out of fear and panic at the prospects of meeting aliens. “There were some broken trees out front, but they honestly tried their hardest to make sure I didn’t lose my home,” the earth pony added.
“See, good guys,” Bumblebee spoke, approaching Twilight and standing next to her. He could still see the nervous look on the unicorn’s face. “You can trust me Twilight.” He smiled as he held his hoof out to the anxious mare.
Twilight sighed loudly after standing and staring at Bumblebee’s hoof for about a minute. She gently and nervously wrapped her hoof around his as the Autobot scout led her outside towards his main body.
“Hey! What about me!?” Spike asked, following Bumblebee and Twilight outside where he could see the yellow stallion helping the mare up into his wagon.
“Sorry kid,” Bumblebee shouted, looking back at the small purple dragon, still carrying his spoon and mixing bowl. “We were just told to grab these six, maybe next time!”
“Aw, ponyfeathers,” Spike cursed under his breath as he watched Bumblebee reattach with his cart and begin galloping off down the cobblestone path leading away from the Library. His friend was following shortly behind.
In the back of Bumbebee’s carriage, Twilight nervously stared down at the wooden floorboards. She twiddled her hooves in little circles as a million thoughts ran through her head. What if this was all a trap? What if they were doomed to become alien experiments? She looked sick as she peered out at the moving trees as Bumblebee continued moving down the road.
“Twilight, you have to calm down,” Rarity sighed, placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder to reassure her. “You are a scientist, right?” she asked as Twilight nodded in agreement. “Then you should consider this a great honor! You get to be one of the first Equestrians, save for the princesses I hope, to meet an alien race of beings! Think about that!” Rarity encouraged, looking her friend in the eye.
“Y-Yeah, maybe you’re right Rarity,” Twilight said as a small smile appeared on her face.
…………
The ride up to the nation’s capital city had only taken a few short hours, during which time Twilight had remained silent, staring out into space as she concentrated on what she and her friends could do if things went wrong and this whole thing turned out to be some kind of trap after all. Next to her, Pinkie and Rarity were actively engaged in a conversation about Rarity’s new summer line and how Pinkie was trying to give it a “fun” name. She wondered how they could not be at least a little scared. As she looked around at the passing scenery she eventually fixed her gaze on the massive marble building rising against the city backdrop. Princess Celestia’s royal castle was framed against the deep blue sky as Twilight looked up at it, wondering if the Alicorn Princesses inside knew about everything that was happening, the aliens, the fighting, and the alien base right outside the city limits.
As the small convoy of vehicles turned off the main cobblestone road and onto an old dirt path that circumvented the city walls, Twilight turned her attention to the fake stallion pulling the cart along. Bumblebee seemed to be looking for something in particular, continuously staring at the thick, brambly woods that stood on the right of the road, scanning for something she could not see. He stopped the cart as he glared at a particular patch of forest.
Bumblebee let out an excited laugh as he pushed his hoof down on a small, mossy boulder sticking out from behind a patch of dried, gnarled trees.
“Sorry it took me a second there--we don’t usually use this entrance very often,--but I thought it would be better than taking you ladies through a mile of jungle to reach the main entrance,” he laughed.
“Why, thank you, Bumblebee!” Rarity exclaimed, looking down at the ye;llow-and-black pony. “It would be a shame for a lady, such as me, to have leaves and twigs sticking out of her hair when she meets a military officer such as your commander,” she stated, using her hoof to flick at her long purple locks.
Suddenly the ground began shaking around them as Bumblebee depressed the boulder even farther into the muddy earth in front of him. Up ahead, the dirt road began to split apart as sand fell into a rapidly growing crack in the ground and pebbles bounced around on two iron doors that were slowly sliding open. As the shaking ceased Twilight could see a large, dark passage had been revealed, hidden beneath the roadway.
Twilight’s heart skipped a beat as Bumblebee began moving towards the now-visible tunnel. This would be her last chance to escape; if she didn’t leave now, and something did go wrong, it would be all over. But, despite how much she was beginning to panic, something was keeping the young unicorn from leaping out of the cart and running the nearby city. She didn’t know if it was the fact that none of her friends were afraid, or if it was her innate scientific curiosity, but something was keeping her pinned to her seat as the group descended into the ink-black darkness as the doors began to rumble shut behind them.
……..
They walked in total blackness for a little while, slowly moving forward as Bumblebee and Bluestreak navigated the murky tunnel. There were times when Twilight thought she could hear a small clang in the darkness and she’d look in its direction (even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to see anything.) Behind her, she could hear Fluttershy starting to hyperventilate out of fear as Rainbow Dash desperately tried to calm her down, and in front of her, she could hear Pinkie softly humming the tune to a song she thought she might know. The whole tunnel had a strange, almost haunted feel, and that wasn’t helping Twilight’s nerves.
Unexpectedly the two aliens stopped at a dead-end wall. As Twilight’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see a strange symbol inscribed on the barricade that matched the one on Bumblebee’s and Bluestreak’s bodies. Two, barely visible, beams of light began shining down from the symbol’s eyes as they examined Bumblebee and Bluestreak, determining whether or not they had access to what lied beyond.
“TELETRAAN ONE WELCOMES AUTOBOTS BUMBLEBEE AND BLUESTREAK TO AUTOBOT OUTPOST CELESTIA ONE!!” A booming voice filled the cavern, sending many of the ponies into a slight panic, especially Fluttershy, who almost ripped her way out of her multi-colored friend’s grasp and had to be held down by the much stronger earth pony sitting next to her.
Suddenly, a bright light began to fill the cavern, temporarily blinding Twilight, whose vision had grown accustomed to the darkness after the fifteen minutes they had spent in it. The symbol began to split in half as two massive, iron doors started slithering apart, revealing a long, winding hallway behind them. Not wasting any time on the slow moving gate, Bumblebee and Bluestreak took off down the hallway once the gap had grown large enough for them to fit through. They galloped at top speed down the snaking corridor, knocking the ponies in their carts off their feet. Fighting to regain her balance, Twilight was just about to yell at Bumblebee to slow down when they suddenly left the metal hallway and entered a large, spacious room. The unicorn’s jaw immediately fell from her face.
Entering the massive cylindrical room Twilight could see at least four more massive, metal robots staring down at her and her friends. Bumblebee and Bluestreak slowly circled towards the center of the chamber as Twilight’s head spun around in awe, taking in the presence of the alien visitors. One of them, a large, black one with massive cannons and a scar over his right eye, stepped forward to get a better look; while another, this one predominately red, with white accents running throughout his body, soon joined the first, smiling as he gently waved at her and her friends.
The other two, much to Twilight’s fright, didn’t look very happy to see them at all. The white-and-black one frowned at her when she looked up at him, the wheels on his back spinning in irritation and anger. The other one looked more annoyed than upset, but she couldn’t really tell since half his face was covered by a serrated metal plate not unlike a surgeon’s mask.
She quietly began walking about the room, watching as, all around her, the aliens and her friends were beginning to intermingle. Pinkie in particular was leaping around the area, jumping up and down in place as she examined each robot. Finally she stopped in front of the large, black one.
The pink party pony looked up at the alien, her jaw dropping to the floor as she did so. “What’s your name?” she sang, hopping in figure-eights around and through the robots towering legs.
“The name’s Ironhide,” he replied, smiling nervously at the much smaller life form as he tried to avoid stepping on her as she continued to thread between his feet. Suddenly, and much to his confusion, she stopped jumping and stared up at him, wide-eyed with the most startled look on her face.
“Applejack!!” The pink pony suddenly screamed, spinning around and grabbing her friend’s attention from across the massive, open room. The earth pony she was attempting to address was unsuccessfully trying to have a conversation with the white-and-black alien that had been glaring at them, earlier.
“What is it, Pinkie?” she asked, walking towards her after having given up on talking to the uninterested robot.
“He sounds just like you!!”
Laughing aloud, the red-and-white Autobot standing next to Ironhide slapped his ally on the back before taking a look around the room himself. As he walked from place to place, he noticed a small, beige pegasus cowering in the corner near one of the Teletraan terminals. She was covering her eyes with her hooves. The Autobot leaned down to get a better look at the shaking pony. He could see tears of fright running down her face and mingling with her long pink mane.
“Pl-Please go away,” she cried, refusing to look at him. “D-Don’t hurt me, please.”
“I would never dream of hurting you, little one. It would go against the oath I have taken,” the smiling Autobot happily stated in his gruff voice. “My name is Ratchet; I am the chief medical officer here. What is your name, my dear?” he asked, gently reaching forward and placing his smallest finger on her back to reassure her. The finger almost looked to be made of wood as did the rest of his forearms, but upon closer inspection it appeared to be made of a hard metal overlaid with the texture of wood.
“M-Medical officer? D-does that mean you’re a doctor?” the cowering pegasus asked, lowering one of her hooves so she could look at the strange robot with one of her baby-blue eyes.
Ratchet chuckled, happy to see the small pegasus beginning to open up to him. “In a way yes, I specialize in both surgical and on-field repairs,” he explained.
“I’m Fluttershy,” she finally said, answering the doctor’s earlier question while removing her other hoof so she could look up at him with her full attention.
“What a lovely name,” Ratchet said complimenting the pony, overjoyed to see her smiling back up at him. “It is nice to meet you, Fluttershy.”
From afar, Twilight watched as the robot known as Ratchet slowly made friends with the shy pegasus she had come to know over her years in Ponnyville.
“Maybe these aliens aren’t as bad as I thought,” Twilight said to herself as she continued to walk around the room observing as Applehjack, Ironhide, and Pinkie discussed Applejack’s life on the farm, and Rarity asked the robot with the faceplate, who’s name turned out to be Wheeljack, why it was that the “ears” on the side of his head lit up every time he spoke. Wheeljack’s door wings fidgeted and his shoulder mounted wheels spun in annoyance as he answered the white unicorn’s question. Suddenly, as she observed the amazing, mechanical life forms before her, a thought occurred to Twilight and before she knew what was happening her scientific curiosity got the better of her and she blurted it out.
“So, if you guys are robots, then who built you?” she asked.
The entire room went quiet upon hearing the unicorn’s question. She stammered a bit, trying to recover after asking such a strange question, but all that earned her was outlandish looks from all the assembled aliens and even her friends. She blushed profusely as the long, unending silence floated through the room like a bad odor.
“We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron,” a booming voice suddenly sounded from behind Twilight, catching everyone’s attention. “But you may call us Autobots for short.”
Twilight spun around to find the source of the voice and saw a seventh robot walking into the room from a nearby hallway. This robot, or rather “Autobot,” as he said they were called, was much taller than the others, and, based on his commanding presence and almost regal look, Twilight could guess that he was the Commanding Officer that Bumblebee had brought them here to meet.
“I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots,” he explained, looking down at Twilight while unknowingly confirming her hypothesis. “I am sure you all have many questions regarding why I asked Bumblebee and Bluestreak to bring you here,” he stated as the other ponies in the room began to assemble at his feet, staring up at him in awe.
“Yeah! I’ve got a question!” Rainbow Dash shouted flying up to look at the stoic Autobot leader eye-to-eye while poking him in the chest with her hoof. “What are you guys doing on our planet?” On the ground below, Twilight cringed slightly, wanting to facehoof at Rainbow’s actions; this was not the first impression she had been hoping to make.
“We are here to protect your world from the Decepticons,” Optimus calmly clarified, apparently satisfying the cyan pegasus’s question as she slowly floated back down towards the ground.
“Decepticons?” Twilight asked, glancing up at the Autobot leader hoping he would recognize her confusion.
“Remember that second group of bots I told you about? The ones that want to put all your heads on a pike?” Bumblebee piped in, answering Twilight’s question as she looked back over her shoulder at him. “Yeah, that’s them,” he stated.
“Okay, then; why are the Decepticon’s on Equestria?” Twilight asked aloud, turning back to face Optimus while raising an inquisitive eyebrow towards the massive red-and-blue Autobot.
“A fair question, Twilight,” Optimus admitted. He had taken a lesson from Rainbow Dash’s actions and leaned down onto one knee so he could better look the Equestrians in the eye. “They are here, in part, because our planet is no longer inhabitable; ravaged by millennia of civil war,” he explained.
“Ugghh,” Rarity gagged, sticking out her tongue. “Why in all of Eqauestria would you want to fight a war?” she asked as she shook her hooves in disgust. “Don’t you know that only leads to violence and death?”
“Indeed, Miss Rarity,” Optimus sighed as memories of thousands lost began to flood back to him, depressing the tone in his voice slightly. “But, we were fighting this war not for pleasure, but for control of our planet’s vast supply of energon, the fuel and lifeblood that powers all Autobots and Decepticons. It was our duty to keep it and the whole planet from falling under Megatron’s twisted control.”
“Megatron?” Twilight asked, raising another confused eyebrow at Optimus’s story.
“The Lord and Master of the Decepticons,” Ironhide explained, stepping forward to stand next to Optimus and look down at the assembled Equestrians.
“So what does any of this have to do with us?” Applejack asked, eyeing around the room at all the Autobots and at her friends hoping to find an answer.
“Megatron has not been seen or heard from in sometime,” Optimus indicated, his voice suddenly taking on a grave and much more serious tone. “But if his return is as imminent, as I fear, than we will need all the help we can find-- including the Elements of Harmony,” he warned, looking down at the shocked Equestrians below him.
…………
Miles away from the Autobot base and the alliance that was being forged inside, the Nemesis silently patrolled the skies over the Appaloosan desert. The massive starfighter was now hovering over a large mesa, its built-in cloaking device giving off the impression of a random desert storm. Inside, Decepticon soldiers desperately scrambled as alarms and klaxons blared throughout the ship; they ran about, back and forth, rushing to input a final cable into a nearby terminal or making sure the ship’s weapons were sufficiently stocked with ammunition.
“Captain Starscream, we have a visual sighting!” one of the small, generic Decepticon soldiers shouted as his clawed fingers flew across the console in front of him, typing in a dozen commands at once.
“Bring it up on the monitor!!” Starcream hissed, swinging his clawed arm through the air as he continued barking orders to the panicking crew.
The silver Seeker watched as the gargantuan monitor on the Nemesis’s bridge slowly hummed to life, flickering on as the troopers below quickly typed in the appropriate commands and coordinates. The screen finally began to display the image of the picturesque, blue sky located outside the ship’s cloaking device. At first, Starscream could not see anything out of the ordinary; but then, from the corner of the screen, the silver Seeker he saw it; the reason for all the panic onboard the mighty Decepticon vessel. A large, silver, Cybertronian gunship was screaming through the air, heading directly for the warship.
“All Decepticons are to report to the Nemesis docking bay immediately!!” Starscream roared, slamming his fist onto the intercom controls and bringing them online.
“Our glorious leader has finally returned.”
Transformers: Harmony
Scattered across the rolling, sandy, hills near the little town of Appaloosa, drenched Equestrians continued with their daily activities and chores despite the unusual downpour falling upon them. Not one of the hard-working locals expected the sudden, out-of-place, storm to be masking a force of such great destruction that it had arrived on their world with only one purpose: ending all life as they knew it.
High above the damp ponies on the ground below, the Nemesis hovered, sitting in the upper atmosphere like some sleek, deadly bird of prey, ready to act on a moment’s notice. Within the massive warship, all stood silent as the massive, silver, form of the Decepticon founder flew into the open landing bay. Transforming in mid-air, he landed with a loud thud, leaving a small dent in the metal flooring. As he passed, several of his soldiers lined up at attention, his large, spiked, shoulder pads ominously glowed in the dim lights decorating the Nemesis’s landing docks. His blood-red eyes darted left and right, scanning each of the assembled soldiers as they continued to hold their attention, awaiting his command. With a wave of his clawed hand, he dismissed them, sending the nervous troops scattering back to their respective outposts throughout the ship. He silently continued forward, making a straight line towards the Nemesis’s current captain: Starscream, leader of the Seeker Air Brigade.
“Lord Megatron,” Starscream announced, bowing at the waist, his wings, twitching in fear as the Decepticon leader approached. “Allow me to be the first to formally welcome you aboard the Nemesis; we have been eagerly awaiting your arrival,” he hissed, watching from the corner of his eye as the Decepticon soldiers continued to flee the area.
The colossal, Decepticon Emperor growled, passing by the bowing Seeker as he made his way towards the large hallway that would lead throughout the ship and, eventually, up to the Nemesis’s command center.
Looking back to where Megatron had entered into the massive warship, the trembling Seeker could now see a few dozen silver, jet-class Vehicons flying into the hangar before transforming and landing perfectly at attention, waiting for their next orders. Aside from the new color palette, Starscream could sense that there was something different about this group of drones, but he couldn’t quite place his clawed finger to it.
“If I may ask, my Lord,” the Seeker chimed as he watched the Decepticon Leader briefly look back at him. “Who, or what, are your new friends?” he asked, referring to the lines of drones now assembling in the hangar entrance.
“A new breed of Vehicon that I agreed to test for Shockwave before leaving Cybertron,” the Decepticon Emperor explained. “Now, accompany me to the bridge, Starscream,” he rumbled. “We have much to discuss.”
“Permit me to begin by saying I am overjoyed you managed to safely make the difficult journey through space, my liege,” Starscream nervously chuckled, quickly catching up to the fast moving Decepticon leader. “But before we discuss the reason for your return, I must inform you that we have located numerous, natural Energon deposits littered across the surface of the planet,” he continued. “I believe that if we begin a full excavation of these spots immediately, we will procure more than enough Energon to crush the Autobots under our mighty heel!” the silver Seeker growled, lifting his arms in a triumphant pose.
“I am not interested in simple Energon mining, Starscream,” Megatron flatly stated, continuing to walk forward down the long-winding corridor as, all around him, Decepticon soldiers dropped what they were doing to salute him.
Starscream stopped in confusion, making sure he had heard the silver tyrant correctly. It didn’t make any sense for Megatron to reject the chance at gathering more Energon. Whatever he had found during his sojourn through space must be of immense personal interest to the Lord and Master of the Decepticons.
“You’re not?” the silver Seeker queried. Cautiously, he resumed his pace behind his towering commander. “Then what are you interested in?” Starscream raised an inquisitive eyebrow, curious as to what the Decepticon leader might have brought on board the ship. The propeller mounted on his chest lazily spun along as he continued to think.
You will know shortly, Megatron thought, turning to eye the Decepticon Seeker with his glowing, red optics. He didn’t trust the fidgeting Decepticon as far as he could throw him. Ever since Starscream’s brief time as leader of the Decepticons during his extended absence from the chain of command, after the incident involving Optimus and his walking, pet city, Megatron had been weary of the Seeker’s antics. After all, it was Starscream’s grandiose spending of Energon at the time of his reign that caused the Decepticons to rush in their efforts to vacate the dying planet. Megatron loathed the fact that the silver Seeker was the only one competent enough to run the ship and its Energon mining operations during his absence.
“I desire to know the status of my ship, Starscream.”
“Ah ha, yes!” the Air Commander exclaimed, nervously intertwining his fingers as he spoke. “The status of the ship! Well, as you can see,” he began, slightly clearing his vocal processor as Megatron glared at him, baring his razor sharp teeth. The small, batwing-like appendages at the sides of Starscream’s boxy head let out a small puff of steam due to the stress the seeker was currently enduring. “We have all weapons online, full power being supplied to all sectors, and the crew is all present and accounted for. Except for Oil Slick…” he explained, quickly muttering the last part, hoping the brutal tyrant would not hear him.
“And where is Oil Slick?” Megatron asked, turning back around to continue his small journey to the command deck.
“Destroyed, by the Autobot Bumblebee,” Starscream timidly stated, gulping as he raised his clawed hands to his face in a vain form of self-defense.
Silence slowly filled the narrow corridor as Starscream finished his report. The silver Seeker stepped back slightly as Megatron suddenly came to a halt in front of him. All around them Decepticon soldiers had stopped their work to watch, hoping they would get to see Starscream torn apart and strewn across the ship. Eyeing his leader’s deadly, right-armed fusion cannon, the veteran Air Commander readied himself. He would either need to dodge, or grab one of the nearby soldiers and use them as a shield. An eternity seemed to pass before anything happened; nobody dared to move when the Decepticon tyrant finally spoke.
“Where is the body?” he growled, not even bothering to turn around.
“Somewhere in the desert below,” Starscream explained, watching as Megatron started moving again. They were almost to the bridge now. “Barricade needed to return to the ship for medical repairs and had no time to search for it.
“You and I will go to retrieve it, once I have everything I need sorted,” Megatron hissed as he reached the door leading to the Nemesis’s bridge. He paused for a moment, allowing the computers to scan his identity before the door opened and he stepped through onto the open bridge. “Now, where is Soundwave?” he asked, scanning the deck for his loyal Communications Officer.
“He is at his observation post in the mountains outside Canterlot,” Starscream explained, watching as Megatron moved across the bridge, looking over drone’s shoulders at the data flashing by on the consoles in front of them. “Why do you ask?”
“Because, I need him to translate something!” the Decepticon leader snarled in his slightly raspy voice, the bright lights of the console behind him reflecting off of his bucket-shaped helmet, casting a shadow across Megatron’s face that served to intensify his frightful visage.
Reaching into his personal subspace pocket, the Decepticon leader pulled out a small book that barely fit in the palm of his hand. The book was made of old, brown leather, and had bright gold highlights running through the bindings. On the cover was an image of a powerful sword stuck inside a stone, surrounded and by ancient Cybertronian writings. The pages on the inside were yellowed and extremely old, yet somehow still intact. Starscream’s ruby-red eyes widened in shock as recognized the artifact in Megatron’s palm.
I-Is that, what I think it is? the Seeker thought in reverence as he approached Megatron to get a better look. If it was, then this was a find worth more than the rediscovery of Space Bridge technology made by Shockwave ages ago in the Sea of Rust. Before he knew what he was doing, Starscream found himself slowly reaching out towards the tattered book.
“Plucked from the hidden tomb of the Knights of Cybertron’s very leader,” Megatron explained, drawing his hand back as to not let the treacherous Air Commander touch the precious treasure. “Gaze upon, the Tome of Prima!” he exclaimed, holding the ancient manuscript high into the air so the entire bridge could watch in awe.
“The legends state that the secrets found within the Tome of Prima have the power to change the universe itself,” Starscream worshipfully stated as he cautiously circled around behind Megatron to get a better look at the faded collection of texts.
“Indeed, Starscream,” the Decepticon leader snarled, opening the book slightly to look at one of the faded pages. “And, from what I have been able to translate myself, I have already discovered one of those secrets to be buried here, on this very planet,” he explained.
“And what might that be?” Starscream absentmindedly asked, mesmerized by the thoughts of what power the ancient tome could give him over Megatron, should he obtain it.
“The Creation Matrix!” Megatron exclaimed, instantly catching the attention of every living being on the bridge.
“The what!?!?” Starscream exclaimed, snapping out of his trance and looking up at his leader. “Surely you jest, my Lord! The Creation Matrix? Hidden away on this pathetic, mud-ball of a planet?” he questioned as he raised his arms helplessly in confusion.
“Apparently, the ancients did not see this planet to be as pathetic as we do,” Megatron stated, nonchalantly observing another nearby monitor as he ignored Starscream’s emotional outburst. “For all we know, this planet could be far more than meets the eye.”
He rose up from the console and turned his attention back towards his second-in-command. “But, in order to be certain, and to find the Matrix’s exact coordinates on this world, I must have Soundwave translate the rest of the Tome,” he explained.
“Of course, my Lord!” Starscream exclaimed, humbly bowing at the waist. “I shall take the ship to Canterlot at once and pick up Soundwave in order to carry out this important task.”
“Oh, no, Starscream!” the massive, silver Decepticon hissed, suddenly drawing in very close to Starscream’s face so he was looking the smaller Decepticon eye-to-eye. “You and I have a little trip we need to make, to recover something you lost, remember?” he menacingly growled, referring back to Oil Slick’s dead body hidden somewhere in the desert.
“But, I…” the Air Commander began to say before being cut off by a wave of the Emperor’s clawed hand.
“BLACKOUT!” Megatron roared, drawing the large airship Decepticon from across the room towards him. “Starscream and I are leaving to retrieve our fallen comrade’s body. It is of the utmost importance that we do not allow our technology to fall into the native’s possession,” he explained as the larger Decepticon kneeled before him. “You are to take the Nemesis and land in the valleys to the south of Canterlot; you will allow Soundwave to board, and you will tell him to translate this,” he commanded, handing the loyal airship the Tome of Prima. “Tell him he needs to locate the exact coordinates to the Matrix’s location before he translates anything else.”
“It will be done, my Lord,” Blackout boomed as he took the tome from Megatron’s outstretched hand.
“Oh, and Blackout?” the silver tyrant stated, making the cobalt Decepticon look up at him. “Should I discover that you have taken even the slightest peak at this book, I will not hesitate to do to you what I did to Slugslinger after he failed me during the battle at Tyger Pax,” he warned.
“O-Of course not, sir,” Blackout stammered as the memories of his fellow Decepticon’s dying screams filled his head.
“Good…now come, Starscream!” Megatron ordered, motioning for the Decepticon Air Commander to follow him as he made his way back towards the bridge’s exit. “And have the new flyers accompany he us,” he demanded, referring to the new, silver Vehicons that were awaiting orders in the hangar. “I have a feeling I will be seeing an old friend while we are out on this little trip.” He smiled.
………..
Silence wafted through Autobot Outpost, Celestia 1, as the assembled group of ponies stared in shock at Optimus Prime. The Autobot commander had just requested their aide in dealing with an extraterrestrial threat to their world. Unsure of how to respond, they slowly took their eyes off of the towering robot and looked around at each other.
Time seemed to slow down for Twilight the moment Optimus mentioned the ancient artifacts of Equestrian lore. Millions of thoughts began racing through her head as she tried to figure out where this alien being had heard about the relics and how much he knew about them. But, what worried her most of all was his request for their help in stopping Megatron. The purple unicorn simply didn’t know what effect the Elements would have on an extraterrestrial life form, if they would have an effect at all. She knew they worked well enough on beings whose power was of magical origin, but if Incinerator was anything to take a lesson from, then the Decepticons likely wouldn’t be bothered by magic, as evidenced by how quickly the massive robot had torn through her shield. What if all of her friends did help the Autobots, and the Elements had no effect on Megatron? They would be slaughtered…
“How do you know about the Elements of Harmony?” Applejack asked, breaking the long-standing silence in the room as she drew everyone’s attention towards herself.
“I saw the tales of your heroic actions painted on the stained glass in Celestia’s castle,” Optimus calmly explained, answering the concerned earth pony’s question. “I had assumed you to be legends from Equestria’s past up until now.”
“Wait!” Pinkie suddenly exclaimed. “You know Princess Celestia?”
“Indeed,” Optimus stated, smiling at the excitable pony. “She was the first of your kind we met upon our arrival to this planet, and she has proven our ally ever since.”
“Is she going to help fight Megatron, too?” Rainbow Dash queried, continuing the bombardment of questions on the Autobot’s leader.
“I have been led to believe that is the case,” Prime answered, reassuring the group, as he watched most of them sigh in relief. “But, I still believe it would be beneficial to have the legendary Elements of Harmony there to aide us in our struggle.”
“And what if we refuse?” Twilight suddenly asked in a somber, almost depressing tone of voice. Her eyes remained fixated on the floor as she asked her question.
A dark, subdued atmosphere entered the outpost as Twilight muttered those words. Every one of her friends turned and gave her a peculiar look as they tried to figure out where this sudden negativity came from. The usually happy unicorn didn’t move, standing motionless whilst looking at the hard, concrete floor. The tension in the air seemed to thicken immensely as the assembled ponies and Autobots waited for Optimus Prime to respond to the lavender mare’s question.
“Freedom is your right,” Optimus stated, looking down at her. “If you make that request, we will honor it.”
“Yeah, but we aren’t going to make that request, right girls?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, turning to see Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all nodding their heads in agreement.
“Wrong, Rainbow,” Twilight stated, earning a shocked, angry look from the cyan pegasus. “We can’t help them,” she asserted, stepping forward to face her confused friends.
“Umm…would y’all kindly excuse us for a moment?” Applejack asked, looking embarrassedly up at Optimus and the rest of the Autobots as her friends looked at each other like they were ready to start a brawl.
Moving quickly, and with strength given to her by her earth pony heritage, she grabbed Rainbow, Twilight, and everypony else and dragged them to the other side of the room. She decided it would be best to get as far away as possible from the source of the tension before they tried to work out a solution between the lavender unicorn and cyan pegasus. Applejack sat them all down in a circle, looking over each one of them, before she joined them in discussing their next course of action and Twilight’s sudden, negative behavior.
“She knows we’ll still be able to hear them, right?” Bumblebee whispered to Bluestreak, who only shrugged in response.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Applejack asked once she felt they had moved a sufficient enough space away from the alien warriors.
Twilight hissed at her friends, suddenly putting on much more emotion than she had a few seconds ago. She looked around at each of their confused faces. “Are you all crazy!? Are you trying to get us all killed? Why in Equestria are you telling them we can fight an alien warlord!?”
“Maybe because we can?” Rainbow Dash sarcastically replied as she lifted her hooves to her face to display a faux look of shock.
“No, we can’t,” Twilight bluntly stated as she regarded the flyer’s mocking expression.
“We’re the Elements of Harmony!” she snapped back as all around the circle the others nodded in agreement. “We can do anything!”
“No, we can’t,” the lavender unicorn repeated. “The Elements have only worked in the past because there was historical precedence. Princess Celestia and Luna used them on Discord thousands of years before we did, and Princess Celestia used them against Nightmare Moon a thousand years before we did,” she explained to her listening friends, “and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this Megatron guy was here thousands of years ago for the Elements to be tested on him.” She glared at the cyan-colored pegasus before her.
“So what?” Rainbow asked, flaring her wings as a primitive show of dominance. “We’ll just give it a shot, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll think of something else.”
“Are you even listening to me!?” Twilight growled. “If we go up against Megatron and the Elements don’t work, he will slaughter us! I mean look,” she explained, pointing hoof back towards the waiting Autobots who were having a small discussion themselves. “If even they’re afraid of fighting him, what chance do we have should the Elements fail?” she asked, taking a step towards Rainbow Dash in anger.
“Alright, that’s enough!” Applejack barked, forcing her way in between the two furious mares. “The two of you are fixin’ to come to blows over this,” she said looking at her two friends with a worried expression. “Twilight, even if the Elements don’t work that doesn’t mean we’re completely defenseless.”
“Oh, really? How so?” Twilight asked, sarcasm dripping in her voice while she cocked her head to the side, waiting for her earth pony comrade to answer.
“Well, for one thing we’ve got you,” Applejack countered, a little more than annoyed at the lavender unicorn’s sarcasm. “You’re one of the strongest unicorns I’ve ever met.”
Twilight’s face fell as Applejack said those words. Oh, how she wanted to affirm what the hard-working farmer was saying, to tell her she was absolutely right, but deep down she knew it wasn’t true. There were times, she felt, where her friends trusted in her magical abilities too much. Not even her magic could stand up to the Decepticon’s weaponry; that had already been proven to her.
“It won’t help, Applejack,” she sighed, closing her eyes in despair. “You saw how easily Incinerator destroyed the shield I raised to save us yesterday.”
Rainbow Dash growled, throwing her arms forward in exasperation.
“You were tired! You said so yourself!” she fought, trying to get Twilight to see her point of view.
“That’s irrelevant,” Twilight replied, looking up at her now hovering friend. “I was giving my all to protect you guys and it still didn’t work.” She rubbed her temples in pain as she thought of what might have happened if Bumblebee hadn’t been there.
“You were just having a bad day,” Rarity calmly replied, placing her hoof around the purple-haired mare’s shoulder as she stepped forward. “I’ve seen you do amazing things with magic; remember how you were able to lift an entire Ursa Minor by yourself?”
“There’s a difference between a lost baby animal and an alien warlord, Rarity,” Twilight glanced at her friend, annoyed at how the white unicorn could even compare the two in a situation like this. “Besides, why are you all getting on to me; it’s pretty obvious Fluttershy doesn’t want to do this either,” she indicated, pointing to the shaking, cream pegasus who looked at her with panicked eyes.
“Fluttershy’s fine,” Rainbow stated as she hovered down between Twilight and her fellow flyer. “I want to know why you’re so against this. We’ve faced down dragons, manticores, an entire changeling army, and who knows what else!” she exclaimed, looking at her the lavender unicorn with an expectant look.
“Yeah, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, jumping up from her spot. She quickly began to hop around the visibly annoyed unicorn. “How come, how come, how come, how come, how come…”she repeated every time she leapt into the air as she came back down.
Twilight gritted her teeth as Pinkie continued to hop in circles shouting the same insistent question. Everything hurt as she rubbed her temples again, her brain, her body, her ears. Why couldn’t her friends just see she was trying to help them? To keep them all safe and alive? She knew what the Autobots and Celestia were doing was important, but she also knew there was a chance they couldn’t do anything to help them. As the pink party pony stopped bouncing and began moving her head closer and farther from Twilight’s ears to create a Doppler effect with her question the unicorn finally snapped.
“BECAUSE I DON’T WANT YOU ALL TO THROW AWAY YOUR LIVES FIGHTING A BATTLE I KNOW WE CAN’T WIN!!!” she yelled, knocking the pink pony backwards onto her back. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize she had screamed loud enough for everyone in the room to hear and the nearby Autobots broke off their conversation to return their attention to the natives below. Twilight was breathing heavily as she looked around at all the surprised faces.
“Throw away our lives?” Applejack asked as her voice unexpectedly took on a much angrier tone and her face soon changed to match. “I don’t know if I need to remind you Twilight,” she spat, shoving her hoof into the unicorn’s chest. “But I have a little sister who lives on this here planet, and if that Megatron feller is threatening this planet, then he’s threatening her!! So, if wanting to protect my family equates to throwin’ away my life, then I’ll gladly do it!” she exclaimed, glaring at the now confused unicorn.
“Applejack, no, that’s not what I meant,” Twilight replied reaching out with her hoof to touch the earth pony, but meeting only air as she moved away. Applejack was no longer listening; Twilight had insulted her too much. “I’m just trying to keep you all safe.”
“Well, I don’t need you to keep me safe, Twilight,” the orange-coated mare spat, not bothering to turn around and look at her friend. “I need to keep Apple Bloom safe,” she explained, referencing her younger sister.
“Neither do I, Twilight,” Rarity said as she stepped forward, taking her place next to Applejack. “I would be willing to give everything if it meant saving Sweetie Belle.”
“And me for Scoots,” Rainbow added, referring to the small, orange pegasus filly she had recently begun taking a big sister role towards. The cyan pegasus flew down from her place in the air to stand with Rarity and Applejack.
“And I’m in it for the awesome robots!” Pinkie exclaimed, trotting up to her assembled friends before sitting down. “And maybe Pound and Pumpkin,” she stated as an afterthought, thinking back to her employers twin babies, who looked up to her as a role model and big sister.
Twilight stared at the four ponies now standing defiantly in front of her. Her friends each had a reason for staying and fighting what she thought was a hopeless battle, each one of them had a glimmer of hope shining in their eyes as they thought of what or whom they were risking their lives for. There was no possible way she was going to get them to change their minds; they would put their lives on the line no matter what she said. She felt defeated on the inside, she had failed; each one of her friends was going to get themselves killed and there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to cry.
“Twilight!” Pinkie shouted in surprise, watching as the unicorn slowly walked away from the group.
“Optimus Prime,” Twilight said, looking up at the Autobot leader. “I thank you for your hospitality and the offer, but I must be honest and tell you that the Elements have little chance of working on an enemy they have never faced before. However, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all wish to stay and help you, because they have something to fight for; but Flutterhsy and I do not,” she continued, blatantly lying to the towering robot as she ignored the thoughts of Spike and her brother and his wife floating through her mind. “So, with your respect, we will take our leave.”
“I understand, Twilight Sparkle,” Optimus said, looking down at her with concerned eyes. “Sometimes we all need something to fight for and give us the strength we need to persevere. It grieves me to see you go, but remember, we will be here if you change your mind.”
“I know,” she replied.
“Well, no point in long goodbyes,” Prowl stated, lifting his arm towards the hallway Bumblebee and Bluestreak had brought them through earlier. “There’s the door; Teletraan will let you out.”
“Come on, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, turning back around to address the timid pegasus that was standing apart from the other four ponies.
“I told you Fluttershy is fine!” Rainbow Dash yelled towards Twilight, taking a defensive stance in front of her lifelong friend.
“No, Rainbow,” the timid pegasus squeaked as she began to walk towards the lavender mare much to her best friend’s shock. “Twilight’s right; you’re doing the right thing by fighting to protect Scootaloo, but I won’t be able to help much in this fight,” she said as she got up from her place on the floor.
“Fluttershy, are you serious?” the cyan-colored pegaus asked in disbelief as she saw her friend begin to walk towards Twilight.
“I’ll find out what’s really going on with her,” she whispered into her fellow flyer’s ear as she passed by her. She received a relieved and understanding nod from the angry pegasus before she joined Twilight in leaving the Autobot base.
Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all watched after the two retreating mares as they disappeared into the dark hallway. They turned to face each other with worried expressions. Deep down, they all knew Twilight had lied to Optimus, she had Spike, Cadence, and especially Shining Armor to fight for. As they turned around to rejoin the Autobots standing behind them each one hoped the timid, beige pegasus would be able to solve the mystery of Twilight’s peculiar behavior.
Transformers: Harmony
Within the Autobot’s secret mountain base, a somber mood hung in the air. Optimus Prime watched with great sadness as the four remaining ponies silently shuffled towards him. They had just lost two of their close friends in an argument resulting from his own carelessness. He should not have been so blunt in asking for their help; he should have led up to it and tried to assure them in their worries. He truly believed this was his fault.
He had never meant for the meeting to go this way. He had hoped all six of them would at least be willing to offer their help, but he could not refuse Twilight’s desire to leave; it was her right as a sentient being. But, as Optimus watched the lavender mare and cream pegasus slowly walk down the exit corridor his second-in-command had pointed them towards, he couldn’t help but feel something was out of place. Twilight Sparkle had lied to him when she said she had nothing to fight for--he could tell by the tone of her voice. So why? Optimus was beginning to believe there were deep emotional problems occurring beneath the young mare’s exterior, the problems of a leader. Problems that he, himself, had faced before.
As the massive Autobot leader leaned down on one knee to offer his condolences and comfort to the four approaching locals, Prowl suddenly spoke up.
“So, when do we get rid of these four?” he asked, crossing his arms over his locomotive chest. He looked at Optimus with inquisitive optics while, nearby, Ironhide rolled his own in annoyance.
Rainbow Dash instantly bolted, flying up into the larger Autobot’s face and glaring at him in the eye. “What do you mean get rid of us?” she growled. “We’re staying right here to help you guys fight off these Deceptidons, or whatever they’re called!”
“Optimus,” Prowl sighed, shoving the smaller organic creature out of his face as he walked up to the still kneeling Prime. “You said so yourself, we needed ALL the Elements of Harmony, if two of them left, logically, there’s no point in keeping the other four here.”
Ironhide and Ratchet silently shifted in the background, moving behind the remaining four ponies. They knew Prowl wasn’t the most appreciative of the locals and might try something drastic to try and get them to leave. Both of them could remember their first meeting with the royal sisters. Prowl had ended up trying to take a couple of pot shots to drive off any members of Celestia’s royal guard he deemed a security hazard. He would have succeeded had Ironhide not been there to interfere. So, if he was going to try something like that here, then the two much larger Autobots would be there to drop him before he could.
“Hey, just ‘cause Twilight and Fluttershy ain’t here anymore doesn’t mean we’re completely useless,” Applejack snapped, stomping her hoof against the cold concrete floor. Around her, the other members of her group nodded in agreement.
“Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in as she looked up at the annoyed, winged Autobot. “Rarity’s got magic, Applejack can kick really, really hard, I can do all sorts of cool stuff, and Rainbow Dash can do a Sonic Rainboom!!” Pinkie rose on her hind legs and reached farther and farther into the air with her hooves as she listed off her friends special abilities before falling over as she finally got to Rainbow.
The cyan pegasus was now hovering next to Prowl’s helmeted head, playing with the large red crest on his helemet as she smirked at him. “See, Sonic Rainboom--what do you think about that?
“Can you seriously do a Sonic Rainboom!?” Bumblebee blurted out, running up to Prowl and the flying pony. “That’s so awesome!” he exclaimed, remembering how he read about the supposedly mythological flight trick during his time studying the planet and its culture.
“Shut up, Bumblebee,” Prowl growled while shaking the annoying blue pegasus off his head. “Optimus, we are in clear violation of the Code of Interplanetary Conflict! We can’t let them remain here!” he shouted, approaching his commanding officer, who appeared to be having a conversation with the white one called Rarity.
“Prowl, do not lecture me on the Code,” Optimus ordered as he rose from his position on the floor. “I am well aware that-”
Suddenly, the base exploded to life as klaxons and alarms began blaring throughout the base. A red warning light began to flash across the ceiling above. The Equestrians on the ground had to dive and dart out of the way as the massive Autobots began running in every which direction, manning consoles and bringing up displays screens on the numerous monitors. Trying to keep up with the larger robots, the three land-based ponies ran after Optimus as he approached one of the terminals, while Rainbow Dash flew up beside Wheeljack’s shoulder. She could see nothing but a green grid-layout on the screen and what appeared to be two red dots moving across it.
“Wheeljack, what’s happening?” Optimus asked from across the room.
The mid-sized blue-and-silver Autobot instantly went to work on the console in front of him as Rainbow Dash watched over his shoulder. His large metal fingers flew across the control pad, typing in numerous commands and bringing up multiple windows on the screen in front of him. The first thing he did was turn off the deafening alarm. Watching intently, the cyan pegasus saw two yellow lines emerge from the moving red dots on the screen, followed by a long list of strange symbols and letters that she could only guess was the alien’s native language. Finally, what appeared to be the robotic equivalent of a heart monitor, appeared beneath the pair of red points.
“Teletraan’s detected two Decepticon energy signatures flying over the Apaloosan Desert,” the Autobot mechanic shouted over his shoulder towards Optimus and the other Autobots.
“OH MY GOSH!” Pinkie panicked as she jumped into the air. “Is it him!? Is it Megatron?” She flopped around in the air like a dying fish as she asked the question.
Optimus looked at the flailing pink pony with concern before he turned his attention back to his head inventor. “Wheeljack?” he asked, carrying over Pinkie’s question to the blue-and-silver Autobot.
“Not sure,” he replied. “I’m only getting base energy levels and nothing more. Whoever they are they’re too far out.”
“Then Ironhide and I will investigate,” he ordered, stepping towards the large, black Autobot and placing his hand on the other bot’s shoulder. “What’s our ETA to the Apaloosan Desert?” he questioned, watching as Wheeljack typed in a few more commands, the cyan pegaus hovering over him like a shoulder angel.
“If you stick to the tracks, don’t run into any other trains, and kick in your nitro boosters, you should be able to make it there in under an hour and a half,” Ratchet explained, replying for Wheeljack as the mechanic continued his work on the terminal.
“We’ll depart immediately,” Optimus responded. “But Wheeljack, continue work on the Ground Bridge--we need a faster way to travel across this planet.”
The leader of the Autobots turned and began rushing towards the command center’s exit with Ironhide close in tow. He had rushed into battle a million times over the course of his time as the Prime, but he would still feel a little anxious before doing so every time. At least he had his old friend to accompany him; it had become quite the popular rumor in both armies that when he and Ironhide teamed up, no Decepticon had a chance of surviving. He would need all the help he could get, because, deep down, Optimus had a gut feeling he would be seeing am old acquaintance soon.
“WAIT!” Pinkie shouted after the two departing Autobot, trying to get their attention. “What about us!?” she asked.
Optimus stopped in the doorway leading to the base’s built-in train station. “Remain here with Ratchet and Bumblebee. We will continue our earlier discussion once we have returned.” He slipped out of the room leaving the four remaining members of the Elements of Harmony in the care of his fellow Autobots.
………..
The air in Canterlot was hot and humid. This was due, in part, to the brief, sudden summer shower the capital city had just enjoyed about an hour prior. Ponies all over the city sought shelter from the sweltering heat, slipping into nearby stores, stopping to chat under the shade of a tree on the street corner, or even remaining near the fountains that were dotted around the city’s many shopping centers in hopes of catching a small splash of the cool, refreshing water as they desperately tried to cool off. Everywhere across the sprawling, urban area, ponies tried to continue with their busy day despite the miserable weather conditions, but none of them were having quite a day like a certain lavender-coated mare.
Twilight was standing in line for the ticket booth at Canterlot’s open-air, central train station. As the line trudged forward in response to the salesman’s request for the next customer, the annoyed unicorn began tugging on one of the many twigs that was lodged in her purple-striped mane. Apparently, the Teletraan-whatever-it-was that the Autobots had, had decided not to let Twilight and Fluttershy exit from the tunnel entrance Bumblebee had brought everyone through by the roadside. Instead, the two tired mares had to trek half a mile through wood and jungle in order to finally reach the roads outside the capital city. It had not been a fun trip. She finally managed to yank the barbed branch out of her hair with a small, quiet yelp as the line began to push forward again. Looking around and observing all the ponies waiting on the numerous trains entering and leaving the station she began to flash back to the last time she had seen the Canterlot station so full.
She had been a small filly and her parents were taking her to see the summer solstice ritual performed by Princess Celestia. Twilight would always remember that momentous day for two reasons. One, she had actually gotten lost in that very train station for almost half an hour before her big brother, Shining Armor, finally found her; and two, that was the day she first saw Princess Celestia perform magic so powerful that it moved the Sun. From that day forward Twilight had devoted her life to magic and studying; devoted her life to becoming like her newfound hero, Princess Celestia. It had been the greatest day of her young life when she was accepted not only into Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Young Unicorns, but as Princess Celestia’s personal student.
Twilight sighed aloud as, for the hundredth time that afternoon, she could once again feel Fluttershy’s cerulean eyes burning a hole in the back of her skull.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” she asked glancing over her shoulder at the beige pegasus.
“N-Nothing,” the timid flyer responded, shuffling her hooves together out of nervousness.
“Well, obviously it’s something or you wouldn’t be staring at me again,” Twilight retorted, putting extra emphasis on the last word.
“Thank you, Mr. Legotron!” the salesman exclaimed, ruffling his bushy brown moustache as he waved a green-and-black pegasus stallion away from the window. The green-coated, black-haired stallion walked off into the train station and sat down next to a brown coated earth pony wearing a tie--a pony Twilight new from Ponnyville called, the Doctor. “NEXT!!” the salesman called.
Twilight walked up to the counter with Fluttershy in tow as she used magic to levitate a small pouch of money up to her hoof. “Two tickets to Ponyville, please,” she requested.
“Alright, that’ll be twenty bits,” the older stallion rambled as he watched the small purple unicorn magically lift two gold coins out of the purse and place them on the counter. He took the money and handed them their tickets before pointing off down the station. “Your train will be leaving from platform nine. It’s about three-quarters of the way down.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said as she took the tickets. “Come on Fluttershy, we can talk more once we’re on the train,” she explained, motioning for her friend to follow her away from the ticket booth.
As the two ponies walked down the cement platforms lining the tracks, a sudden, bellowing whistle filled the air. They watched as a massive, Grand Royal Steam Locomotive passed by. Its blue and red colors shined in the sun as its two, small, side mounted smokestacks billowed out thick black clouds in conjunction with the larger one on top of the boiler. The gold highlights on the rims around the boiler and the intimidating cowcatcher caught Twilights eye the most. Attached to the locomotive was a worn, beat up military boxcar with a massive turret attached to the top. Its windows were all bolted shut and one of the wheels seemed to be jammed slightly, almost as if this boxcar had been through the underworld and back. The small train seemed to rush by without stopping for anything or anyone before continuing down the track towards Apaloosa.
Was that… Twilight thought to herself, before shaking her head and resuming her search for platform nine.
…………..
The quiet, peaceful meadow outside the capital city of Canterlot lay silent, basking in the glow of the beautiful sunlight provided by Princess Celestia and the celestial object she had been charged with. “The Hanging Meadow,” as it had become known by the local inhabitants of Canterlot, was named so because of the fact that it lay within a hanging valley high in the towering mountains that overlooked the bustling capital city. Tourists and locals would come from all over, risking their lives on the treacherous slopes of the mountain, just to see the magnificent view the valley provided. But not today; today, there was only one being who had made the life threatening climb up the steep slopes in order to reach the hanging valley and he was quickly approaching the massive black starship that sat in the clearing outside the forest.
The Nemesis lay in the expansive valley like a beached whale. Under normal circumstances, the ship would not dare set down this close to the capital city of Equestria, but the Hanging Valley rose so high up in the air that it was impossible for the inhabitants to see the looming space cruiser. The built-in disguise generator was now producing a thick, murky fog around the top of the mountain in order to divert the eyes of any of the pesky flying natives that may soar to close. Had it not been for the orders of the Supreme Decepticon Leader, himself the Nemesis and its crew would never have taken such a risk.
As he continued to watch over the busy city, he heard a gruff, loud voice calling him from the entrance of the mighty Decepticon flagship. A sudden, metallic shriek filled the evening air as the silver-haired unicorn disappeared in a flash of light, and the mid-size carriage began to break apart, reforming itself. The metal continued twisting and bending as a pair of legs emerged from underneath the dark blue carriage. Following suit, multiple panels began swinging, compressing, and folding in on themselves as they formed a large torso, with two elongated arms terminating in a pair of razor sharp hands. Finally, the last few panels of the torso slid away, allowing a head to emerge from within.
“Soundwave, reporting,” the dark blue Decepticon responded, his monotone voice resonating in the air as he approached the massive cobalt Decepticon flyer standing in the doorway. He spoke through the large metal plate covering his face.
“Good to see you, Soundwave,” Blackout’s gruff voice hissed. “Here’s the Tome Megatron wanted you to translate; I suggest you get onboard and hop to it,” he suggested, handing over the fabled book and pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the inside of the ship.
Soundwave took a moment to examine the book sitting in his palm. He opened it, flipped through the pages, and looked at the cryptic writing before closing it again. His head slowly rose to stare at Blackout through his blood-red visor.
The large Airship Decepticon rubbed the back of his neck in response to the awkward silence that had filled the valley. “So, umm, can you translate it?”
“The translations will come easily with the aide of the Nemesis’s computers,” Soundwave explained, watching in disgust as puffs of hot air escaped Blackout’s lips as he sighed in relief. “The challenge will be finding where the coordinates match on an ancient map of the planet.”
“So, what do you need me to get you?” Blackout asked. “An almanac, a cartographer, what?”
“Negative,” the Decepticon head of communications replied, rolling his eyes beneath his visor. “I am aware that Princess Celestia’s personal student is well-versed in the knowledge of ancient Equestria. I am also aware that she is preparing to board a train as we speak,” he explained.
“Okay?” the other Decepticon asked, a little more than confused as to what Soundwave was getting at.
The sound of metal folding in on itself suddenly began to echo throughout the Hanging Valley as Soundwave’s back began to open and unfold, allowing a massive pair of metallic wings to emerge. The metal feathers glistened in the sunlight as they detached themselves from the cavity in the Decepticon’s back using a pair of powerful legs that ended in razor sharp talons. Finally, the mass of metal in between the legs and wings transformed as it took the air, revealing a powerful, spiked tail and a long, winding neck that ended in a serrated beak attached to a small round head.
“Laserbeak: Deploy,” Soundwave growled into the evening air, watching as the Decepticon bird took flight, heading towards Ponyville. “Operation: Retrieval.”
Transformers: Harmony
The conductor looked at his gold pocket watch as the train’s whistle billowed out into the evening. Making one final call for any late arrivals, the large black stallion with a little blue hat, quickly stepped inside and closed the door of the quickening train car. As the large, iron-clad locomotive released a cloud of steam and began to pull away from the busy Canterlot station, he began walking off towards the first car to begin punching tickets. He stared out the windows as he passed. Starting off at the pace of snail, he noticed as the large steam-powered engine gradually began moving towards the outskirts of the capital city.
The process of moving through the crowded outer areas of the city took several minutes as the train had to take its time building up steam and speed. Finally, as it approached the edge of Canterlot the powerful locomotive was able to shake free the shackles of its urban environment and begin speeding forward as it entered the vast open countryside. The steam engine’s destination was the small farming community of Ponyville and it was expected to arrive there later that night. It let out another shrill whistle as the engineer pulled down on the string attached to the bellows. However, unbeknownst to the conductor, the engineer, and all the oblivious passengers inside, the rail-riding transportation was being followed.
A flash of red-and-silver metal came screaming down from the sky and stopped just above and to the rear of the train. Soaring as low to the ground as he felt comfortable, Laserbeak began scanning the transport, searching for the target his master had sent him after. The Decepticon spy hated being this out in the open. Had it not been for Soundwave’s specific orders to capture this target quickly, the deceitful buzzard would have probably tracked this mare for days before making his silent, stealthy strike. He hissed into the air as he located the pony he sought sitting a few cars up from where he currently was.
Taking flight back into the air Laserbeak spread his wings and swooped down, gliding over the tops of the moving passenger cars. He stopped once he reached the gap where the car his mark sat in met with the one in front of it. Landing on the coupling joint the Decepticon flyer chuckled as he began firing two ruby-powered lasers from his eyes at the bars connecting the two cars.
………….
Meanwhile, within the train’s third passenger car, seated in a small, but comfortable, booth Twilight Sparkle had her forehead presses against the cool glass of the window. She sighed inwardly, watching lazily as the rolling plains and sparse trees zoomed past the frame at top speeds. The soft, satin booth seat seemed to swallow her bottom and back as she listened to the sound of the train rhythmically rattling on the tracks. She wanted to fall asleep, but she knew she had to do something first; moving her eyes from the window, Twilight could see the cream pegasus nervously looking at her. She really didn’t want to do this.
As Twilight peeled her face from the window, she looked at the coy pegasus, sitting on the booth across from her, staring at her with concern-filled eyes. An eternity seemed to pass in the little, square room; neither pony was quite sure of what to say to the other. Finally, Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak.
“Fine, Fluttershy, you want to talk? Let’s talk,” Twilight sighed, cutting off her animal-loving friend before she could speak. “Something’s been bothering you, so what is it?”
The timid pony nervously shuffled her hooves together as she looked down at the floor. Slowly she built up the confidence to do what she promised Rainbow and find out what was wrong with their unicorn friend.
“Why did you lie to everypony?” she asked, barely whispering as she said it. She looked at Twilight with the most innocent eyes the lavender mare had ever seen.
“Listen, Fluttershy,” Twilight answered, closing her eyes and speaking in a smooth, calming voice like a mother trying to reassure her child. “There’s no need for you to worry about that. Trust me, everything is okay,” she explained, putting on a fake smile.
“B-but it’s not okay,” Fluttershy squeaked, getting up from the sofa.
“Fluttershy, I-” but before she could finish her sentence the cream-colored pegasus had crossed the small wooden floor of their booth and was now standing not more than a foot from her snout.
“Twilight, you’re one of the bravest, smartest, ponies I know,” she began, looking the lavender unicorn in the eye. “You and I both know you have a family worth fighting for; there’s Spike, your parents, and Shining Armor and Cadence.” She listed off each one while pointing her hoof at her friend’s chest. “You should be back at the Autobot’s base with the others; not here. Why did you lie?” she asked, restating her earlier question with a surprisingly more confident tone.
Twilight hesitated to answer. Should she tell Fluttershy the truth? No matter how hard she fought it, the lavender mare could feel the crushing weight of her own guilt, not only at having lied to both Fluttershy and Optimus Prime, but for failing to keep her friends safe by letting them stay with the Autobots. She had to tell someone, and now Fluttershy was listening. She slowly closed her eyes and lowered her head as a single tear left her eyelash, rolling down her cheek to the floor.
.“I-It’s my job to protect all of you and now…I’ve failed,” Twilight stuttered, fighting back tears as she spoke each word.
“Excuse me?” Fluttershy asked, raising an eyebrow. She was more than confused about what the depressed unicorn had just said. As far as she was aware, none of their friends were dead or anywhere close to death. “Twilight, what are you talking about?”
Again Twilight hesitated, wanting to word what she was about to say very carefully. Slowly, Twilight responded to the beige pegusus’s query. “Fluttershy, would you consider me the leader of our group?” she asked, looking at the floor and lazily kicking it with her hoof.
“I guess so…” the perplexed flyer responded. She scratched the back of her head with her hoof as she continued mauling over Twilight’s question. “You are the one Princess Celestia seems to talk to whenever we all go see her…”
“EXACTLY!” Twilight suddenly shouted, causing the timid pony to leap back in fright and fall on the bench she had been sitting on.
“Do you two mind!?” a fedora-wearing stallion in the booth opposite of them groaned in irritation. “I’m trying to work on a script here!” he complained. He got up and slammed the booth door shut, hoping to block out the two chatting mares.
Twilight blushed slightly. She hadn’t meant to cause such a commotion. She felt like going over and apologizing to the blue pegasus, whom she vaguely recognized as somepony called Snapperworth who was a frequent visitor to her library back home, but she decided it would be best to just continue her conversation with Fluttershy. She had to get these feelings of anxiety off her chest and the poor, timid flyer was her current target.
“Exactly,” the lavender mare repeated, turning back around to face her friend. “Princess Celestia thinks I’m the leader and therefore it’s my responsibility to keep you all safe,” she explained, waving her arms frantically in the air.
Fluttershy put on a small, soft smile. “Twilight, I think your jumping to conclusions; I don’t think the Princess would want to put that much pressure on you. She cares too much. She’s almost like a second mother to you isn’t she?” she asked, referring to the amount of time Twilight had spent with the Princess when she was younger.
“But that’s the point, Fluttershy!” the upset mare exclaimed, leaning forward on her two front legs. “I have known the Princess that long! That’s why she trusts me enough to not only make me the leader but to keep you all safe as well! I mean, what would happen to the Elements of Harmony if one of us died? It would be a disaster! All of Equestria would fall into chaos!!” she exclaimed, answering her own question in a panicked voice. Her body was now beginning to visibly shake slightly as her natural anxiety and paranoia began to affect her.
“Twilight, please calm down!” the frightened pagasus desperately pleaded.” I think you’re over thinking things; you’re starting to panic!” She reached out and wrapped her hooves around the shaking unicorn in an attempt to relax her.
Twilight shouted in anger, not caring if she interrupted the writer next door anymore as she ripped herself from Fluttershy’s hug. Everything was now starting to explode out of her like a block of dynamite. Nerves, anxiety, worries, everything was coming out of the small, lavender mare, and it was all directed at the timid, but caring, friend sitting in front of her.
“Calm down!? How can I calm down when I know I’ve failed the Princess because I couldn’t keep you all safe; because Rainbow Dash and the others had to go all gung-ho and fight a war that’s just going to get them all killed!? she yelled, throwing up her hooves in anger; tears were beginning to run down her face. “You want to know why I lied to Optimus? I lied because I wanted to get you out of there!” she exclaimed pointing towards the pegasus. “You didn’t have a reason to stay and fight! I just wanted to be sure I could at least keep one of my friends alive! I just wanted to make sure one of you was safe!” she cried, slumping down to the ground as tears began to flow from her puffy violet eyes.
Fluttershy cautiously approached her weeping friend and began rubbing her back with her hoof. “Twilight…this isn’t about failing the Princess…isn’t it? You know she would never want to put you through that much stress. So, why do you think you have to protect us?”
Twilight waited to answer, quietly letting the cream pegasus continue to rub her back as she finally built up the nerve to speak again. “The six of you are the first real friends I’ve ever had that weren’t my big brother,” she whimpered from her place on the floor. She began to dry the tears from her eyes as Fluttershy continued to message her back and shoulders. “I don’t want to lose any of you; you’re the best things that have ever happened to me…”
“But, Twilight,” the cerulean-eyed pegasus sighed as she listened to her friend finally reveal the truth, trying to understand her mindset. “Why are you so worried about this now? We’ve had to stop Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and even Sombra. We were all in danger then, weren’t we?”
“Yes, I guess so, but I wasn’t worried about that because I knew that all of those threats had been beaten before, Nightmare Moon and Discord had been defeated be the Elements; Chrysalis is a constant threat to the kingdom and is beaten back all the time; and Sombra was sealed away long before we had to fight him,” she explained as she slowly lifted her head off the floor and looked up at Fluttershy. “But, we’ve never faced anything like Megatron, he could just shrug off anything we throw at him; you saw how easily one of his soldiers almost killed us if Bumblebee hadn’t been there.
“But Megatron can’t be completely unbeatable, Twilight,” the timid pegasus protested. “Optimus said they’ve been fighting their war for millions of years! If Megatron really was unstoppable, then he would have won the war a long time ago!”
“I-I guess so,” twilight stuttered as she laid her snout back onto the floor.
Fluttershy sighed and smiled. Finally she was getting somewhere and Twilight’s strange behavior was beginning to make sense. Unfortunately, she didn’t really know how to help her depressed friend. In a way, the animal-loving pegasus could understand her friend’s pain. All Twilight wanted to do was keep her friends safe. She knew every time they had gone on one of their world saving adventures in the past few years, she, too, had been afraid of losing everypony she cared about. The distraught flyer looked out the nearby window as she thought of her cyan colored-friend. She wished Rainbow were here, she’d know how to help Twilight. As she continued to stare out the window, Fluttershy noticed something very peculiar.
None of the trees were moving.
“H-Have we stopped?” the cream flyer asked in confusion. She lifted her hoof from Twilight’s back and approached the window. Peering outside she could see that it appeared the train had stopped.
“What?” Twilight sniffed, wiping away the last of the tears from her eyes as she joined her friend in looking through the frame. The moon was just beginning to rise, peaking out over the still landscape. “This is strange; why would the train stop?” she wondered aloud.
“Come on,” Fluttershy said, grabbing the lavender mare’s hoof. “Let’s take a break and go find out what’s going on,” she suggested as she opened the door to their booth and led Twilight into the hall. “We can talk more when we get back if you want.” She smiled.
“O-Okay,” the unicorn stammered, returning the smile.
The two mares quietly began walking up the carpeted hallway outside their booth. The only noise in the cart was the eerie clacking of Snapperworth’s typewriter leaking through his door as he continued his script. As they continued moving through the car they couldn’t help but think something was very wrong. Where was the conductor? Certainly if the train was malfunctioning he’d be around, telling ponies of the delay in arrival. They reached the door leading to the next car and, with a bit of effort, managed to push it open.
They were greeted with a sight they had not been expecting to see: nothing but fresh air and the track stretching on ahead around a large green hill. The entire locomotive and the front end of the train were gone. Surprised and confused the two ponies gently stepped off the car’s railing platform and onto the soft ground below. As they looked for clues as to what could have happened, neither of them noticed the sound of flapping wings and a rocket screaming through the air.
…………
The explosion was deafening. For the second time in the course of two days Fluttershy felt herself flying uncontrollably through the air, being propelled by a force of heat and pressure so great it singed her wings as she spread them. The pink-haired pegasus hit the ground hard, smashing her snout into the gravel bed of the railway track. Looking around, the flyer thankfully noticed that the train of remaining cars seemed to have survived the explosion and she could see other ponies desperately scrambling out of the far end.
As she turned her head away from the fleeing ponies, she caught her first look at their attacker. A large metal bird hovered in the night sky, flapping its massive, bladed wings in order to stay aloft. Without moving, she tried to examine it closer, taking note of what looked like fans built into its wings and a long winding tail that ended in a razor sharp pair of blades. Then she noticed the bird’s focus was entirely directed towards the purple pony who was trying to lift herself off the ground beneath it.
Before the pegasus could yell a warning to her friend, she watched in horror as the monstrous buzzard spun around and slammed its long, heavy tail against Twilight’s head. The lavender unicorn rolled a number of feet before coming to a stop and slumping onto the ground. In the light of the moon, Fluttershy could just make out her friend’s chest rising and falling in rhythm, telling the worried pony that Twilight was just unconscious, rather than dead as she had feared.
“Twilight Sparkle!!” the bird growled in a raspy, hissing voice. Fluttershy viewed in silence as the bird flew over to Twilight and hovered above her briefly before continuing. “I have come to collect you on behalf of the Decepticon Empire!” He suddenly lunged forward trapping the unconscious unicorn between his razor sharp talons.
The pain roared through Fluttershy’s body as she struggled to get up off the tracks and save her friend. Her body ached from the force of the impact and was actively fighting against her as she rose from the gravel bed. But, it was far too late; as she managed to clamber up onto her legs, she turned and saw the large Decepticon bird disappearing into the night sky, carrying the unconscious Twilight with it.
………..
Sparks erupted from the Ground Bridge as Wheeljack sat inside, welding a support beam into the matrix of beams that covered the back wall. He took a step back to admire his handy work. All the beams were evenly aligned in a crisscross pattern stretching the length of the back surface. Branching from them was a series of metal rings that lined the rocky cave walls all the way towards the entrance. As he moved in closer to weld another support in place, he signaled down to the orange earth pony at his feet. Following the engineer’s orders, she used her powerful hind legs to hold the beam in place as he began welding.
Wheeljack had mastered his craft over the course of thousands of years and was the best there was in the Autobot army. Ever since the first battle of Altihex, where Optimus Prime had personally rescued him from his Decepticon sieged laboratory, the engineer had devoted himself and his mastery of mechanical science to the Autobot cause. Welding along the outer, grooved edges of the metal bar the Autobot engineer carefully watched to make sure he didn’t accidentally slice clean through the large piece of iron. He hated working with non-Cybertronian materials they were so easy to break or damage. One wrong move and his entire project could be ruined. Still it was better than what they had on Andegea.
Andegea, as Wheeljack remembered, was the planet the Ark had crash landed on after its fateful trip through the space bridge during its escape from Cybertron and the Nemesis. Luckily, no one had been hurt, as they were all able to make it to the Ark’s escape pods in time, but now the mighty ancient starship was forever a part of the foreign planet’s rocky terrain. Things began to look up for the stranded Autobots, however, when they discovered an ancient Cybertronian space station orbiting the planet; they quickly transformed the station into the new Autobot Orbital Command Hub. Wheeljack had his own crackpot theories, involving the mythical Knights of Cybertron, about where the station came from but he usually kept them to himself
A tired groan from below him drew the Autobot engineer out of his remembrances of the past and back to the orange-coated mare that had agreed to help him.
“So, you say you’re a farmer?” Wheeljack asked as he shielded his eyes from the sparks coming off his blow torch. His other hand hovered over the local he was addressing; making sure none of the hot sparks fell down on top of her as she held the support beam up.
“Born and raised,” she grunted in reply, quickly sliding one of her front legs out of the way as a spark fell off the top of the Autobot’s hand and crackled against the floor nearby. The blue-and-silver robot gave her a thumbs-up to indicate he had finished his welding. She gladly sighed as she lowered her hind legs back to the floor.
Wheeljack walked over to the left curving wall of the bridge and opened an electrical panel to check the wiring. “Must be tough,” he said, tugging on a small green wire as he continued the small talk.
“Yeah, especially this year,” Applejack sighed while she looked at the floor. “What with the draught and all not givin’ us enough rain to grow a good amount of certain crops,” she explained, kicking at the metal floor in despair.
“Well frag, I can make it rain,” Wheeljack absentmindedly replied. He pulled a small round monitor out of his arm so he could check the electrical pulses of wires running throughout the wall.
Applejack stared open mouthed at the large silver Autobot. Her brain came to a standstill as she tried to determine if what she had heard was correct. “What did you say?”
“Frag,” Wheeljack replied, shrugging slightly as he began pulling on the same green wire again. “It’s like a swear word we use, kind of like how you called me a-”
“Not that,” the earth pony snapped at the larger robot. “The other thing!”
“Oh, yeah, I can make it rain. It’s actually really easy,” he explained, dropping the green wire and instead deciding to start running the little white scanner along the whole length of the metal wall. “In fact, I’ve got a Sky Seeder here in the base somewhere. I brought it over form the Orbital Command Hub when Optimus set up shop here about a year ago.” He stopped scanning the wall and began tapping on a small section of it with his knuckle. “Anyways, I never could figure out why I brought the thing, but it’ll be good to give it some use. You know, if you want,” he stated. He turned around to face the shocked earth pony and waited for her to say something.
Before Applejack could reply, a blaring klaxon began to fill the room with is deafening wail. She snapped her ears against the side of her head and gritted her teeth as the cacophonous sound echoed through the hollow metal tube she was in. The sound reminded her of the time Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo tried to earn their Cutie Marks in musical instruments.
Wheeljack growled. Clenching his fists, he stomped out of the Ground Bridge tunnel and headed towards the main Teletraan control terminal. Applejack followed in suit. “What is it now!?” the engineer demanded as he once more began to type commands into the Autobot supercomputer.
“Teletraan has picked up an intruder within the base’s perimeter,” Ratchet explained, walking up to his long-time friend and comrade. The Autobot medic was followed closely by Bumblebee and the remainder of Applejack’s friends. He had been giving them a tour of the outpost.
The large screen above the computer terminal hummed to life as Wheeljack punched another set of commands into the control pad in front of him. At first, the screen showed nothing but the dense, gnarled jungle outside the Autobot’s base. But then they saw her. A panicked pegasus flew by the security camera at top speed. Her cream coat and feathers were singed with black soot and she had a wild look of fear in her cerulean eyes.
“Fluutershy!?” Rainbow Dash shouted in alarm as she looked at her friend flying madly across the sky towards the main entrance.
Transformers: Harmony
It took what felt like several minutes for Twilight to start coming to her senses. Her entire body burned as she began to stir. An overwhelming scent of oil wafted into the young unicorn’s nose, making her gag and wretch, forcing her to wake up. She looked around, hoping to figure out where she was, but her vision was still blurred from the blow to the side of her head the massive, metal bird had given her. Her entire body suddenly snapped to alert as she remembered the large bird blowing up the train and attacking her and-. Where was Fluttershy!?
Hopping to her feet Twilight frantically began searching around her for the undoubtedly scared pegasus. She was standing on a small platform about twice her size that was completely made of metal, leaving her little area to search. The shy, pink-haired pegasus was nowhere to be found. As the worried unicorn looked in all directions, the only things she could see in her immediate area were massive, iron bars. Looking up at the flat, featureless roof and down at the identical floor Twilight began to piece together what was going on. She was in a cage.
What was she doing in a cage, she wondered? Had the metal bird placed her in here? Did it kill Fluttershy before taking her? Twilight grabbed her head, trying to calm herself as she thought of what the buzzard may have done to her friend while she was unconscious.
The lavender mare poked her head out through the bars to try and get a better grip on her location and look for any clues about her missing friend. The room around her was shrouded in shadow. The only light emanated from a couple of mounted screens lining the far back wall; they cast a mysterious, almost frightening, glow out onto their surroundings. From the small details she could make out, Twilight knew she didn’t want to be where she was. The entire room seemed to be made of metal. Spikes jutted out from random spots along the wall and floor; while broken chains hung from the ceiling, dangling and swaying in the slight breeze that wafted through the room. The whole area reminded Twilight a bit of the dungeons in Princess Celestia’s castle.
As she scanned the shrouded area, trying to make out some more details she caught sight of a pair of blood-red eyes staring at her from the darkest corner of the room.
“Soundwave,” a voice hissed form the darkness, filling Twilight with dread. “She awakens…”
Suddenly the sounds of massive falling footsteps filled the room as Twilight looked up to see the roof of her cage being lifted. A large, blue Decepticon stared at her through a blood-red visor before reaching down and trying to grab her with his clawed hand. Twilight instantly tried to dodge the hand and fire off a bolt of magic at her attacker, but, much to her horror nothing happened. Looking up, she could see a small metal ring had been placed around the base of her horn. As she tried to figure out how the ring was blocking her magic, the Decepticon took the chance to grab her with his large, clawed hand and pull her out of the cage.
Twilight screamed and struggled as she desperately tried to free herself from the Decepticon’s grip. But it was no use. She watched helplessly as this “Soundwave” carried her over to the bank of computers lining the wall and set her down on one of the terminals. She carefully watched as he briefly turned his attention away from her to recalibrate something on one of his computers.
Seeing her chance to escape, she tried to run for towards the edge of the panel and jump to the floor, but she was stopped when the Decepticon’s slammed his open palm down in front of her. A large shoulder cannon emerged from the mech’s shoulder and took aim at her, daring her to try and run off again. He silently glared at her before speaking.
“Twilight Sparkle,” The Decepticon’s face plate moved up and down as he spoke. His creepy robotic voice was different from the other aliens; it was one that the unicorn would have expected a robot to actually have. “You will aide me in locating these coordinates,” he demanded pointing towards a long list of numbers flashing across one of the middle screens. “They were written using a method of map making no longer used by your culture. I do not have the required data, nor do I have the time to gain said knowledge of how to convert these ancient coordinates to the standards used by your maps today. You will do this for me and tell me where they lead,” he ordered.
Twilight stared back up at the Decepticon in shock. This Decepticon who had kidnapped her and held her in a cage was now demanding her help? “You’re out of your robotic mind if you think I’m going to do anything for you!” she spat, turning her back on the Decepticon and stomping her hoof against the cold, hard metal that made up the command terminal.
Soundwave waited silently for a moment before responding. He slowly leaned over to the computer on his left and began punching in a command. He didn’t take his eyes off his prisoner for even a second. The monitor suddenly changed as he continued typing on the controls beneath it. No longer did it show a series of red flashing text like the other screens; now it showed a picture of Twilight’s Library home and the small, purple dragon working outside it.
“If you do not aide me, then I will send Laserbeak to destroy your home and bring me the head of this little one,” he replied, pointing towards the monitor at Spike.
The lavender unicorn watched as the blood-red eyes that had reported her to the Decepticon earlier emerged from the dark corner of the room, revealing the large, metal bird that had attacked her earlier. It hissed at her in delight as a pair of back-mounted guns spun around wildly.
Twilight stared up at the monitor where she could see Spike, running around the house trying to catch her pet owl, Owluysius. She dreaded to think of what the crazed bird behind her would do to the young dragon if she didn’t comply. The dragon was part of her family. She had no choice. As much as she didn’t want to she closed her eyes and solemnly asked;
“Where should I start?”
………
Under normal circumstances, the Autobot’s medical lab in Outpost Celestia One boasted as being one of finest, most well-stocked, medical centers in the Autobot military. If a bot needed fixing, they knew they could find what they needed at Celestia One, but not now. Now, the Autobot’s chief medical officer and surgeon, was throwing open drawers and cabinets as he frantically searched for the few items he had that could treat a wounded organic life form.
Finding what he was looking for Ratchet quickly returned to his patient’s side and slowly ran his diagnostic scanner over the shaking pegasus’s body, checking to make sure she hadn’t suffered any internal injury during the explosion she claimed to have gone through. “Alright, Fluttershy,” he asked. “One more time, explain what happened.”
All around the fast working medibot Fluttershy’s friends watched on anxiously. Only minutes before had she burst into the Autobot base screaming and ranting about Twilight and Decepticons and giant, evil birds before she collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. Ratchet had been quick to move her into his medical bay so he could check on her and make sure everything was alright. He had discovered several burn marks on her wings and was able to ascertain from her that there had been some kind of explosion. Since then, however, the timid pegasus had been silent.
“Flutterhsy,” Ratchet repeated as his usually cheery voice was replaced with a much more professional one. “I need you to talk to me, what happened?” he repeated.
“Th-There was an explosion,” Fluttershy stated, finally speaking up again. “And th-then we were attacked, and then T-Twilight was taken by a Decepticon,” she exclaimed.
Looks of shock and disbelief spread amongst the other members of the Elements of Harmony like wildfire. Each one had to turn to the other to double check what they were hearing. Had Twilight actually been taken captive by the Decepticons? Why? What could they want with her? A small wave of panic and worry rode through the assembled mares as they thought of what the evil robots might be doing to their friend.
“Describe it for me,” Rathcet ordered, ignoring the panicking mares below him. He carefully began using his pinkie-finger to rub a strong smelling liquid into Fluttershy’s wings hoping it would cool some of the burns.
“He looked like a really big bird,” Fluttershy answered, wincing as the liquid stung her wings slightly while Ratchet continued to massage it in.
“Laserbeak!” Bumblebee growled. The yellow Autobot had been sulking in the corner of the pristine, white medical bay, watching the others talk. Seeing Fluttershy hurt had really upset him. He felt that maybe if he had stepped in and prevented Twilight from leaving, or at least offered to escort her home none of this would have happened.
Rainbow Dash bolted into the air flying straight towards the small Autobot scout. “Who’s Laserbeak!?” she demanded poking her hoof at Bumblebee’s chest. “And why does he want Twilight!?”
“Laserbeak is one of the minions of Soundwave,” Bluestreak explained as he calmly walked into the medical bay through the sliding glass door. He had returned from patrol early once he learned Fluttershy had come back to the base wounded. “And if Soundwave’s involved, there’s no telling what he could want Twilight for or what he is doing to her. Soundwave’s about as mysterious as they come,” he explained, looking down at the ponies on the ground. He took note of their worried expressions and wished he could tell them something positive.
Bumblebee growled into the air and slammed one fist into his open palm, a usual sign that he was burning up inside and wanted a fight. “We’ve got to do something!” he shouted, pumping his fists into the air. “Bluestreak’s right, Soundwave could use Twilight for anything! We’ve got to go recue her!”
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in agreement while she hoof-bumped Bumblebee. On the ground, Rarity nodded along, while Applejack and Pinkie Pie rushed up Ratchet’s operating table to help Fluttershy who had begun to try and stand up.
“And how do you expect to do that!?” Ratchet snapped, turning to face the two younger beings. He couldn’t believe Bumblebee was suggesting this. “Laserbeak will have taken Twilight to the Nemesis and you know very well we have no way of tracking its location!” he ranted, pointing at the small black-striped robot.
“Well, we have to at least try!” Bumblebee argued, pointing back at the older medic. “It’s our fault this happened! Someone should have escorted her and Fluttershy home and you know it!” he growled. He took a step towards his superior officer as if he was challenging him to disprove his point.
“And what would you do if you found the Nememis Bumblebee, hmm?” Ratchet retorted, tilting his head as he asked his question. “Launch a one-bot assault to rescue Twilight? Have you forgotten that there is the chance Megatron is on this planet now?” he asked. He, too, took a step forwards and made a gesture with his arms, begging the smaller scout to think his plan through. “Do you want to risk Megatron being there and give him another chance to destroy your voce chip?” he barked, as he made reference to the brief period of time late in the war where Bumblebee had been temporarily robbed of his ability to speak.
Fluttershy fidgeted and groaned as she lifted herself back onto her legs with Applejack and Pinkie Pie’s help. She slowly walked forward and tapped on the back of the medic’s leg to get his attention. “Ratchet, I don’t know if it will help find this Nemesis thing, but I followed Laserbeak as far as I could before I decided to come back here and get help,” she explained. She winced in pain again as she tried to fold her splayed out wings back to her sides. “I saw him carry Twilight up to the Hanging Valley”
Ratchet sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes. It was quickly becoming clear to him that these young ones weren’t going to listen to him, all they were concerned with was saving there friend. Admittedly however, he could see their stance; he would do anything himself if Ironhide or Wheeljack were in danger. No matter which way he looked at it, the midibot knew he wasn’t going to win.
“With Optimus and Ironhide gone, and with Prowl out on patrol, I am in charge,” Ratchet explained looking wearily over at the two younger Autobots. “Bumblebee, you have my permission to take Bluestreak and scout out the Hanging Valley.”
Bumblebee would have jumped for joy if he didn’t know there was a chance he could land on Rarity, who was standing next to his foot. “Alright Docbot! You’re awe-”
“If you find the Nemesis,” the older mech growled, cutting off Bumblebee mid compliment. “You are to return to base immediately! We will not even consider a strike on the Decepticon flagship until Optimus has returned. Am I understood?”
“Yeah, totally docbot.” Bumblebee smiled. He knew Ratchet hated that nickname.
“We’re going to,” Applejack proclaimed as Pinkie Pie nodded along next to her. As an experienced seeker of the truth, the orange earth pony could tell Bumblebee was going to try and rescue Twilight regardless of what his superior officer had just told him. And if he was going to do that, then she was going to make sure she and the others were there to help rescue their friend.
“Absolutely not!” Ratchet exclaimed. “If they do manage to find the Nemesis, it would not be safe for natives such as you,” he informed, waving his arm in a wide arcing path. “If the Decepticons spotted you, they would not hesitate to reduce you to piles of bone and ash in an instant!”
Applejack stomped her hoof against the huge metal table in an act of defiance as she stared down the larger robot. “With all due respect Ratchet, we aren’t a part of your army and therefor aren’t under your orders. So, if Twilight’s in danger we want to be there to help find her,” she declared as all around the room the other mares nodded in agreement, backing up the earth pony’s statement.
“Ughh…very well,” the older medic sighed, grabbing at the bridge of his nose again. “But Fluttershy remains here with me. She is still injured and I want to make sure her burns will heal properly.”
“That works for me,” Applejack stated as she and Pinkie hopped off the operating table to rejoin Rarity on the floor. She looked back up to give Fluttershy a reassuring glance; to let her know everything was going to be okay.
“Alright!” Bumblebee excitedly exclaimed as he suddenly transformed into his vehicle mode and ignited his holo-matter avater. “Let’s roll out everyone!” The yellow stallion roared, emanating his idol before immediately galloping off through the open door to the medical bay and down the hall with Bluestreak and the Elements of Harmony in tow.
Ratchet rolled his optics and turned around to take another look at Fluttershy’s damaged wings. He lowered an extending lens down over his right optic so he could get a closer view. As he looked across the burnt feathers, he couldn’t help but nervously bite on his lower lip. Deep down the medic had a gut feeling that something was wrong.
…………
As night set in around the vast Apaloosan desert, Princess Luna’s quiet, calm moon rose high in the sky. On the ground below animals of all shapes and sizes desperately escaped to their shelters for the evening. Where Celestia’s golden sun brought harsh rays of heat and light, Luna’s moon brought with it the dangers of the cold night. The desert, some would say, was even more dangerous after hours then it was during the day. At night, the temperatures dropped well below zero degrees, and the rock wolves, a distant cousin of the timber wolves, were free to prowl the sandy hills for any unfortunate creatures that were unable to find shelter.
But tonight something was different. The cool air billowed throughout the dark desert, whipping up sand into the night sky and scattering it to the farthest reaches of the sandy plains. The only noise that could be heard across the cold, dusty, oasis was the sound of the tiny particles of sand, pinging away at the large, metal train that was slowly coming to a standstill on the tracks that ran through the open area. Coming to a complete stop Ironhide and Optimus Prime transformed, assuming their true robotic forms.
“The last recorded location of the two energy signals is in that canyon over there,” Optimus indicated, looking up from a small computer built into his arm. He was pointing towards a large gap in between a series of tall red plateaus that dotted the dark landscape to the west.
Ironhide grunted and shifted the cannons on his arms. He was anxious. “I don’t like this,” he growled. “It feels like a trap.”
“I agree old friend,” Prime responded. “But we must discover why the Decepticons are here in this part of the desert. I was under the impression that they had already sucked this area dry of its energon veins,” he explained, remembering back to the numerous Decepticon mining operations they had dealt with in this area in the past.
The two metal titans began walking towards the canyon to the west. As they went, they could feel the sand seeping into their joints as their heavy feet sank into the dunes. A small sandstorm began to whip up, obscuring their vision and forcing them to cover their eyes as to keep the granules from interfering with their optics. They couldn’t see anything let alone the canyon they were supposed to be heading towards. Ironhide growled in annoyance as the sand continued to lash across his body, it didn’t harm him of course, but he hated the feel of the grainy material in his joints. This entire desert reminded him too much of the Sea of Rust.
After about five minutes of fighting through the small sandstorm, the pair finally reached the plateaus and the canyon they formed. Peering into the large, open area, they found what they were expecting--nothing but a flat empty space surrounded on all sides by towering red rock. The wind blew through the canyon, creating a whistling noise that sent shivers down the black robot’s back struts. He already didn’t like this place. It was the perfect spot for an ambush. His warrior instincts were screaming at him not to go in.
“I don’t like this,” Ironhide repeated while taking another look around at the canyon walls. They were far too steep to climb. If someone managed to get in behind them and block the entrance, they’d be trapped.
“Stay on your toes my friend,” Optimus said as he cautiously stepped into the open canyon. He stealthily reached behind his back and pulled out what appeared to be the main smoke stack of his train mode. Within moments, the harmless smokestack had folded in on itself and rearranged its parts to form the Autobot leader’s iconic and legendary Ion Blaster. “Be on alert for anything that may seem out of-”
Optimus was cut off by the sound of jet engines screaming through the night air. Diving down from the sky like an eagle catching sight of its prey, a large Cybertronian gunship flew straight towards Prime at mach speed. As it approached its target, the vehicle suddenly straightened out and flew right over the Autobot commander’s head, before veering up towards the top of the canyon. The massive ship transformed into robot mode and landed on top of the large plateau looking down into the canyon. Slowly, the bulky, silver Decepticon turned to face his age old enemy.
“Optimus!” Megatron exclaimed, almost happy to see his eternal opposite as he looked down on him. “Been well?” he asked, taunting his opponent. “I knew you couldn’t resist the chance of tracking me down.”
Ironhide growled and cocked his cannons. He was ready to fire a round off at the Decepticon leader, but the Autobot commander placed a hand on his arm to restrain him.
“Why are you here, Megatron?” Optimus asked, looking up at the Decepticon leader with the utmost hatred in his eyes.
“Me?” the Decepticon tyrant continued to chide. “Why I am only here to collect one of my fallen soldiers. To prevent the beasts that inhabit this world from laying their hooves on it,” he explained while waving his arm outward in a grandiose display of triumph. “However, once I learned that it was here where the body of poor, departed Oil Slick lay, I couldn’t help but to set a little…surprise for you, my old friend!”
He began laughing as the cold, night air suddenly filled with the sounds of dozens of jet engines. Appearing from the darkness in the sky about twenty or thirty of Megatron’s jet soldiers flew down and transformed, landing on the ground around the two Autoobt warriors. Optimus and Ironhide were surrounded. The Decepticon soldiers slowly drew their weapons; there ruby red visors, the only feature visible on their featureless faces, glowed in the light of the moon as they took aim at the trapped Autobots.
“DESTROY THEM!!” Megatron ordered, laughing as the hordes of Decepticon troopers began to advance forward on the Autobots.
Transformers: Harmony
Bumblebee stood silent in the bushes, watching as two Decepticon soldiers patrolled the outskirts of the Nemesis. Fluttershy had been right; the imposing Decepticon flagship was just sitting in the massive, hanging valley. A gutsy move , Bumblebee admitted to himself. Parking their flagship this close to the capital city was a huge risk to security. Whatever they had Twilight working on inside had to be important. The yellow Autobot quickly ducked down into the leafy foliage as one of the genericons glanced in his general direction, its red visor scanning the area. This was going to be a mission requiring all of Bumblebee’s skills as a scout.
Surrounding his feet were the remaining members of the Elements of Harmony that weren’t captured or injured back at the base; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. In his mind, Bumblebee was running through each pony’s strengths and weaknesses as they had told him, formulating a strategy.
Rainbow Dash was a fast flyer and could make for an effective eye in the sky; he seriously doubted any of the Decepticons would be able to hit her if she got caught anyways. Applejack, one of the two earth ponies, from what she and her friends told him, the orange-colored mare could punch through sheets of metal with her powerful hind legs, but would she be strong enough to punch through Decepticon armor? He wasn’t sure. Probably best to keep her near me , he thought. Rarity on the other hand was a magic user, not as good as Twilight, apparently, but she could still hold her own in a fight. She should at least know a couple of spells that could disorient the Decepticons and allow her to escape should something go wrong. Finally, Bumblebee came to Pinkie Pie. He actually had no idea what the pink mare could do and opted to keep her close as well.
Rainbow Dash drew her head out of the bushes and shook the leaves from her mane before turning to face Bumblebee. “Alright, Bee; what’s our plan of attack?”
“Attack?” Bluestreak piped in, looking down at the small rainbow-hued pegasus. Even in the dark, her mane stuck out like a sore thumb. “We promised Ratchet we would make sure the ship was here and then return to base and wait for Optimus.”
“And what if the ship isn’t here when we come back?” the yellow scout hissed quietly. He turned around and looked up at his friend. “You said it yourself Blues. This is Soundwave we’re talking about. There’s no telling what he could do to Twilight in the time we’re gone.”
“I’m with Bumblebee,” Applejack whispered. She quietly approached the group from where she had been scouting. “We can’t risk Twilight being in there too long.”
Bluestreak sighed and closed his eyes. Deep down he knew they were right. There simply wasn’t any time to wait for Optimus and Ironhide to return from the desert; it could take them up to three hours or more to get back. Twilight’s chances wouldn’t look good if they left right now, especially if Megatron was on the ship with her. He hated it when Bumblebee was right.
“Alright,” the silver-and-black Autobot said, relenting to the majority vote.
“Okay then Bumblebee,” Rainbow Dash repeated as she flew up next to the Autobot’s rounded head. “What’s the plan? How are we getting past those guys?” She pointed towards the two Decpeticon guards outside the ship while she leaned on one of his helmet spike, listening intently.
“We’ll need a distraction…” he stated, rubbing his chin in thought. “Something that will keep them occupied, but will bewilder and confuse them so much they just won’t shoot it.”
All eyes and optics turned to the pink earth pony doing cartwheels on the ground.
………
The two Decepticon troopers silently stalked the outside of the ship, patrolling the designated areas given to them by Captain Starscream. Every once in a while they would switch spots or raise their weapon in the direction of a small noise. With the Nemesis temporarily grounded so Soundwave could carry out his work, they were sitting ducks. Security was of the upmost priority at this point in time and they intended not to fail. If they did it would be a quick trip to the scrap heap.
“So, do you think the rumors are true?” One of them asked the other as they both stopped momentarily in front of the entrance.
The other one did a quick sweep of the area with his gun before returning his attention to his friend. “What rumors?”
“The ones about Lord Megatron finding the Tome of Prima?” the first one stated. He looked in the direction of some bushes he thought were rustling. He slowly turned back around and began walking along the hull of the ship.
“Of course they’re true, I was on the bridge when he showed it to everyone,” the second replied, taking a brief break to look up at the stars and try to pinpoint Cybertron. He knew it was impossible of course. From what he had been told, Cybertron was located about thirteen star systems over and was impossible to see from the Equestrian sky.
“Were you?” the second asked again as he approached his comrade and joined him in looking up into the sky.
“HI THERE!”
The sudden voice caused both of them to snap their attention away from the stars and constellations, and back towards the hard ground beneath their feet. There was a small, pink earth pony waving at them. She had a huge smile on her face. They both took aim with their battle pistols.
“Look what I can do!” the pink pony shouted as she placed a hoof over her muzzle and began to blow into it. Shockingly, appendages that resembled fingers emerged from her adjacent hoof.
Dumbfounded, and a bit scared, both Decepticons lowered their weapons and looked at her with confused faces, or as confused as they could get, considering their faces were featureless masks. “How did you-” one of them began to ask before she began talking again.
“And check this one out!” she shouted. She began sucking in vast amounts of air into her lungs and held it there as her torso began to inflate like a balloon. “Pretty cool, huh?”
The two Decepticons stared at the strange pony, unsure of what to do about the current situation.
………
Bumblebee moved silently through the night, staying as low to the ground as possible while he moved through the bushes. Fortunately, his plan to have Pinkie Pie distract the guards seemed to be working. He hadn’t heard any gunshots yet, but, just in case, he had given her one of his smoke pellets to make an escape with. Stopping at the edge of the forest he peeked out to make sure the guards’ attentions were on the premier, party pony. Their backs were turned, watching as Pinkie did something strange with her hoof that Bumblebee couldn’t quite make out. With a wave of his hand, the Autobot scout signaled for his companions to follow him as he stepped out into the open field.
Staying silent, the Autobot carefully moved across the grassy plains. He looked around, constantly checking for any branches or rocks that could alert the guards to his presence should he step on them. Behind him, the remaining members of the Elements of Harmony and Bluestreak followed his lead, being cautious towards any noises they might make. Like a well-trained team of assassins, the group crossed the open fields and reached the hull of the massive warship without alerting their enemies.
This was the difficult part though. Looking up and down the sleek black hull of the Nemesis, Bumblebee was relieved to see the guards had left the door wide open. This would be much easier than having to hack the lock. Motioning for the others to follow, the yellow Autobot inched his way along the large, black exterior of the ship, keeping his back pressed against it. Using hand motions he had picked up from eons of practice, Bumblebee signaled his fellow Autobot to tell the ponies to stay as far inside the shadow of the Nemesis’ wings as possible. They slowly made their way to the entrance and Bumblebee looked out to check on Pinkie. She was now showing them a trick involving a bag of flour she seemed to have pulled out of nowhere.
Reaching the doorway, the two Autobots helped lift Rarity and Applejack inside while Rainbow Dash flew in behind them. Bumblebee quickly turned and gave Pinkie a thumbs-up to let her know they were inside before he stepped into the doorway and disappeared around the corner.
The interior of the Nemesis wasn’t much different from the outside. The walls were made of a deep, purple metal while the floors and ceilings were simply chromed. Sure, it was lighter in color than the pitch black exterior, but it was still mostly featureless metal with the random spike poking out here or there. Moving quickly, and checking the ceiling for security cameras hidden amongst the glowing, fluorescent lights, the group eventually reached a small crossroads where the hallway split into four different directions. Bumblebee checked down all four halls to make sure no one was coming or going before he stopped his team to discuss their next course of action.
“So, what do we do now Bumblebee?” Rainbow Dash whispered. She was continually flying between the four hallways to watch for anypony’s presence.
The Autobot scout mulled the question over in his mind a bit before he came up with what he felt like was the best answer. “The Nemesis is one of the largest starships ever built, in fact, I think it used to be a massive Decepticon,” he explained, looking around at the surprised faces of the Equestrians. “If we’re going to stand a chance of finding Twilight in this place we’ll need to split up, understand?
The ponies and Bluestreak all nodded in agreement with Bumblebee’s plan and anxiously waited for him to give further instruction. The longer they stood in the middle of the crossroads the more they felt exposed.
“Alright, Rainbow Dash,” he called, grabbing the flying pegasus’ attention. “Can I trust you to scout on your own?” he asked, watching her eagerly nod to assure him. “Just stick to the shadows and if you get caught just run. There’s no way they’ll be able to catch someone as fast as you.”
“Yes sir!” Rainbow declared loudly. She saluted the small, yellow robot before rocketing off down the hallway on her left.
Bumblebee waited a minute to make sure Rainbow safely made it down the plated corridor before continuing. “Bluestreak old buddy, I think you’re good to operate on your own, but, Applejack and Rarity, I think it would be best if you just stick with me. You’re not as fast as Rainbow so, if escape is necessary, you’ll need some cover fire,” he stated as he transformed his arm into battle pistol mode. As he did this, the silver-and-black Autobot next to him checked down the nearest hallway. Giving a silent nod, he disappeared around the corner and darted off.
“So, where should we get started?” Rarity asked as she walked in circles, examining the different passageways.
“I ain’t too sure,” Applejack responded. “Bumblebee, what does that sign say?” She pointed up to a sign stationed above one of the passages’ entryways. The sign was written in a series of strange symbols and letters she couldn’t read. She guessed it was the native language of the Cybertronians.
“Engine room,” Bumblebee spoke aloud, reading off the sign.
“Ah!” Rarity exclaimed. “That may not help us find Twilight, but it has given me a wonderful idea.” She used her hoof to flick her hair into the air as she spun around to face Bumblebee and Applejack. “In my line of work there’s a little thing we like to call industrial sabotage, have you heard of it Mr. Bumblebee?”
The yellow scout’s face lit up as he realized what the unicorn was suggesting. “Oh ho, ho, I like the way you think Miss Rarity.” A mad smile spread across the Autobot’s lips as he brought his hands together in a devious formation.
Not wasting any more time the trio, quickly rushed down the hallway in hopes of both finding Twilight and as causing as much damage to the Decpeticon warship as possible.
………
With a mighty roar, Optimus swung his energon blade around and cleaved off one of the approaching Decepticon’s arms, leaving the genericon weaponless.
Miles away from the Nemesis and the strike team on board, Optimus Prime and Ironhide fought for their lives against Megatron and a seemingly unending swarm of Decepticon Jet troopers. Dodging laser fire from the advancing Decepticons, the two veterans could feel themselves being forced towards one another. The jets were trying to get them back-to-back; to surround them. Unless they acted quickly this canyon would become their tomb. On Optimus’ orders, the two Autobots brought their heavy weapons to bear and took aim at the Decepticon soldiers.
They began returning fire, hoping to thin out the large crowd. It was rapidly becoming apparent to them that it was to no avail. There were simply too many of the mass produced drones. When one was gunned down, another two would take its place, advancing towards the trapped Autobots and firing on them with unyielding power. It was an unrelenting force of sheer numbers. Soon, the two veterans could feel the hot stings of the Decepticon’s plasma bolts burning into their thick armor as they were corralled inward.
The Decepticons were quickly gaining the advantage. They were close enough now that Ironhide had to resort to melee punches to knock them back while Prime used the butt of his rifle to smash in the face of one of his would-be attackers. Suddenly, a pair of troopers, still in flight mode, swooped down and fired a pair of rockets at the ground beneath the Autobot’s feet. Shattered earth and debris went flying as the Autobots were knocked to the sand below. The advancing soldiers quickly began to swarm them like ravenous wolves. They began scratching and clawing, desperate to tear the two Autobots to pieces. Above the sound of laser fire and shrieking metal they could hear Megatron laughing.
“Can’t you see your struggle is pointless, Optimus?” Megatron continued to laugh, watching the carnage below him. “Tonight, I will bear witness as you will finally become one with the Allspark!”
Optimus grunted, still trying to fight off the swarming Decepticons. “That outcome is inevitable, Megatron,” he growled. “BUT NOT ON THIS DAY!!”
Nodding silently to his partner, Optimus gave Ironhide the signal as to the next part of their plan. Years of working together had allowed the two to gain total understanding of how each other’s minds worked in battle. Verbal command was no longer a necessity. With all the strength and power they could collect, the two Autobots slammed their hands onto the ground and propelled themselves upward back onto their feet, knocking the advancing Decepticons off of them in the process. Immediately taking advantage of the break in the never ending wall of force, the two Autobots brought all of their available weapons to bear and charged forward in opposite directions.
Optimus rushed the group on the left with his ion blaster in one hand, his energon sword in the other and a large, iron shield mounted on left forearm. Swinging the shield in a wide arc he bashed aside the first row of five soldiers and followed up with his blade, slicing through the middle of the next wave of enemies with ease as he sent them crumpling to the ground. He took a brief pause to glare up at the only target that truly mattered, Megatron.
The Autobot leader continued to clear a path through the small militia of Vehicons as he made a beeline for his age old enemy, hacking and slashing as he went. Using skills honed over millennia of battle, he kicked one of the troopers square in the chest to knock him back into another. Simultaneously, he used his ion blaster to destroy the head of a third who attempted to jump him from behind. In front of him, one of the troopers managed to get off a rocket shot at the red-and-blue Autobot. Prime quickly raised his left arm and managed to block the explosion…at the cost of large hole being punctured in his shield. He tossed the protective cover down on the dusty, red ground and charged forward once more, using his ion blaster to gun down Decepticons as he continued towards Megatron.
On his opposite, Ironhide made headway with his own path of destruction. The weapons specialist was starting to make short work of the Decepticon soldiers now that the tables had turned. Setting his arm-mounted plasma-cannons to full power he quickly began to blow massive holes in the torsos of every Decepticon he came across. Practically dancing across the battlefield, Ironhide dodged as one of the faceless goons took a leap at him. Grabbing the sailing Con by the arm, the dark-colored Autobot flung him hard to the ground and finished him with a cannon shot to the face before continuing on his way. The old war vet didn’t have much in the way of close range melee weapons, but an old hunting knife he kept stored in his left leg seemed to be getting the job done as he drove it into the visors of any enemies that got too close.
Deep down, he knew something was wrong though, there were far too many soldiers compared to the number that had originally landed to confront them. Either they were managing to build more troops in the midst of battle, or something else was going on. As Ironhide looked behind him he saw two of the ones he stabbed in the face getting back up and redrawing their weapons on him.
That was new.
“Prime, I think we’ve got a problem!” Ironhide shouted as he noticed many of the vehicons he was fighting were the ones he thought he’d previously destroyed.
The vehicons were now relentlessly marching on them again. Prime and Ironhide looked on in dismay at their situation. Many of the mindless drones, or at least the ones that still had heads and arms, were continuing the assault. Their damaged, shattered bodies continued to shamble towards the two Autobots, firing on them with their weapons. In return, the two desperate Autobots continued to try and gun them down, hoping to put an end to the madness.
From his place high atop the plateau, Megatron laughed as he watched Optimus run two more drones through the chest with his blade while two more rose up from the ground behind him to continue the attack. Shockwave would be glad to hear his new design for a more durable vehicon was working wonders, he thought to himself. The new drones were by no means invincible, but they were almost nearly impossible to permanently destroy. They had been made from the most durable materials available on their dead home world.
The silver tyrant knew this couldn’t go on forever though. Prime was smart, he’d figure out the drone’s weren’t indestructible soon enough. Megatron needed to make his leave and quickly. As he scanned the canyon below, he couldn’t help but growl in frustration. His second-in-command was nowhere to be seen.
Where was Starscream with Oil Slick’s body!?
………
Back within the crisp, featureless halls of the Nemesis, Bluestreak moved swiftly and silently, searching for the captured unicorn he was somewhat friends with. He stopped by each door he passed and used his acute sense of hearing to determine what was on the other side. He had already gone by several doors in the long, winding corridor and he was still no closer to finding Twilight, or Soundwave’s laboratory, then when he had started. He was beginning to lose hope when he suddenly heard a voice coming from around the nearby corner.
Ducking into an open maintenance closet, Bluestreak patiently waited for the deep voice to reveal itself. Slowly, a hulking, tank-class vehicon rolled around the corner on its treaded feet. It silently scanned the hallway with either great determination or great stupidity. Bluestreak couldn’t tell. Its blue-and-silver paint reflected the florescent lights above it as its shoulder-mounted cannon turned in unison with its head. It was completely oblivious to the fact that the small, silver Autobot was only a few feet away, hiding in the shadowy alcove of the maintenance area. A smile spread over Bluestreak’s face as the large vehicon began to roll away.
He silently emerged from the closet and snuck up right behind the massive Decepticon before leaping up onto its shoulders. The mindless vehicon began struggling under Bluestreak’s grasp as the small Autobot ripped open its head casing and began to rearrange a few wires.
“Don’t make too much noise, buddy,” he chided, hushing the squirming vehicon as he worked. “I’m going to need you to show me some very important information.”
Transformers: Harmony
“Aright, whatever you do, do not cause an explosion; we don’t need the attention,”
Bumblebee and the two mares at his feet slowly snuck around the inert engine deck. The gargantuan, pursuit-class engines were still cooling from their flight down to the Hanging Valley. The trio carefully weaved their way across the large metal floor, making sure to be extra careful not to entangle themselves within any of the cables or conduits that lay strewn about the hard, metal surface.
Rarity looked around the spacious room with a fashion designer’s eye for detail. On each of the massive, four engines she tried to spot anything that looked vital to its functionality. She took note of any marked off cables, sealed off buttons, or anything that was left exposed for easy repair; these were the signs of important equipment. She may have been the Element of Generosity, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to play the game of sabotage.
However, much to the white unicorn’s confusion, their stoic, yellow protector bypassed the engines and continued deeper into the chamber. As they snaked their way through even more loose wires and tubes, Rarity couldn’t believe the state of the room. Apparently these Decepticons had no interest in tidiness or organization at all; just as long as their equipment worked they left it in a heaping mess. She couldn’t blame them, though, as she knew very well the advantages of having a messy workstation. Her own workroom back home looked like Rainbow Dash had dropped a Sonic Rainboom in it. But, it was where she got some of her best work done.
A light began to flash in the unicorn’s eyes, breaking her train of thought. She and Applejack followed Bumblebee into a smaller room attached to the large, engine chamber. A massive, nightmarish machine sat in the middle of the room.
The machine was made of a dark, black metal and appeared to be in the shape of a pyramid. Thick, pulsating spikes seemed to rise out of the base of the pyramid like demented, gnarling claws reaching up to the heavens. On each of the pyramid’s four sides, gaping furnaces with entrances like fang-filled maws glowed with rupturing, sparking energy. Whatever energy leapt from the furnace’s mouth was instantly absorbed by the spikes surrounding it. Above the strange machine, nests of wires and cables shifted about as they traveled from one end of the room to the other. Rarity watched as one of the wiry tentacles snaked across the floor to a conveyor belt emerging from the left wall. There, it picked up a glowing, pink cube and brought it back to the machine. It tossed the cube into the furnaces. The machine roared and spat out morsels of electricity as it feasted on the cube it had been given.
“This is the main energy converter for the engines…I think,” Bumblebee explained, placing his hand on the glowing, hellish machine. “All power for the Nemesis’ engines comes from this puppy right here. Think you can do anything with it Rarity?” He gave the massive furnace a tap with his knuckle as it belched out even more particles of energy to be captured by the grasping spikes.
“Hmm…” the white unicorn thought to herself as she examined the machine with the same precision she had with the engines. “If Applejack here is willing to help me snap off a couple of these spikes, and I can get into the wires beneath them, I believe we should be able to at least get a start.” She leaned down and carefully looked at the small, twisting wires that filled in the crevice between the spikes and the actual furnace.
“Well, then let’s get started!” Bumblebee exclaimed, rubbing his hands together as he watched Applejack rear up onto her front legs and take aim at the nearest spike.
………
Soundwave did not speak. Instead, he watched quietly as the unicorn below him continued translating coordinates and inputting them into his computers. It had taken her time to learn how to operate the control pad, but he had kept the image of her home and the younger dragon inside on one of the screens; an ever present reminder of what would happen if she were to fail. It appeared as if the adolescent reptile would get to live to see another day; Twilight Sparkle was nearing the end of the list. It would now only be a matter of moments before Soundwave would know the location of the sacred relic his leader so desperately sought.
A small alarm over his personal com-channel alerted Soundwave that something was wrong on the ship. Turning his back on the hard-working unicorn for a moment, he began typing in security codes for the sector of the ship from which the alarm had sounded. In a matter of moments, an image of two ponies and the Autobot scout appeared on the screen. They were destroying the Nemesis’ main power converter, the machine that provided energon to not just the engines, but the entire ship itself. The intruders would need to be destroyed immediately if there was to be any chance of scavenging the converter. He would deal with these three personally.
Fools , Soundwave thought to himself as he powered down the monitor. Did they really believe they could keep their actions hidden from him, the Decepticon spymaster? Compiling knowledge was one of his favorite pursuits, especially knowledge from around the ship that he could use to his advantage. Ever since the early days of the war, when the Decepticon movement first emerged from within Cybertron’s planet-wide military under the command of Megatron; he had served as its ever loyal spy and intelligence gatherer, collecting information on whatever Megatron might need to forward the Decepticon cause. It had been him who first alerted the Decepticon leader to Optimus Prime’s attempts to evacuate the planet during the waning days of the war, and it had been him who first began the process of gathering Equestrian allies when the Decepticons arrived on this new planet millennia later.
He sent a coded, burst message to his avian minion, telling him to watch the prisoner while he attended to the situation on the engine deck. Laserbeak confirmed Soundwave’s request and the Decepticon head of communication was out the sliding metal door and down the hall.
Laserbeak floated down from his perch at the top of the room and landed behind Twilight Sparkle. He was twice her size and could easily eviscerate her if he so pleased. He leaned in close and began to hiss into her ear.
“Are you done yet, little pony?” he whispered. “I sincerely hope not. I have always wanted to feel the bone of a dragon skull splintering between my talons.” He smiled with glee at the thought of murdering the small, purple dragon.
“Here!” Twilight growled, using her hoof to push down on a final button. “There’s the last of your stupid coordinates translated. Now, how do I show this on a map so you can see for yourself, you stupid bird?” she angrily demanded. She gave Laserbeak a glare that most others would not dare to give the Decepticon bird. She wasn’t afraid of him, not anymore; not after learning he was just an underling to a much more frightening Decepticon.
She watched as the metallic buzzard hissed at her in anger, splaying his wings in a show of dominance before he began hopping around the keypad, punching in commands with his long serrated beak. The screen, in response, brought up an image of the planet from outer space. It began to zoom in closer and closer, travelling northward along the planet as it closed in on the coordinates she had translated. Finally it stopped over a city far to the north of Canterlot. Twilight’s eyes widened, her heart skipped a beat, and her brain entirely shut down; she knew that city and, more importantly, who lived there. No , she thought to herself. No.
“The Crystal Empire!” Laserbeak shrieked in excitement, splaying his wings outward again. “Of course! To hide a treasure one must surround it with even more treasure to disguise it, how clever!”
A sudden knock on the large metal door behind them drew both the bird’s and the unicorn’s attention away from the wall of monitors. The knocking continued as Laserbeak flew over to the door and pressed a large red button which allowed the portal to open. Standing in the doorway was a large, white-and-silver, tank Vehicon staring at the floor.
“Well, what do you want? You worthless drone!” the Decepticon buzzard shrieked.
Unexpectedly, the large Vehicon tumbled forward, face first into the floor, revealing a mid-sized black, silver, and red Autobot standing behind it with his weapon drawn.
“Surprise, bird brain!!!” Bluestreak shouted as he opened fire into the room.
Laserbeak screeched in terror at the thought of being in such a close-range blaster fight. As he dodged the bolts of plasma that flew past his head, one sailed straight past him and into the terminal Twilight had been working on. It melted the computer instantly. Enraged, the Decepticon took a swipe at Bluestreak with his tail, but the Autobot dodged. Laserbeak quickly took advantage of the situation and soared out of the confined room over Bluestreak’s head before setting off to find Soundwave and tell him what was happening.
“Bluestreak!” Twilight cried out in relief. She hopped down from the melted terminal and ran up to the small Autobot, wrapping her hooves around his leg in a gesture of thanks.
“Twilight, are you ok?” he asked, looking her up and down to check for any damage. “What did they have you do?” He reached down and carefully pulled the metal ring off Twilight’s horn, freeing her magic in the process.
“They had me convert some old coordinates so they could find something called the Creation Matrix!” She watched as Bluestreak stared at her with shock and disbelief for a moment before he began rapidly punching few keys on his wrist communicator. “Bluestreak, what’s going on? What’s the Creation Matrix?”
“It is a sacred relic to our race, thought to have been lost for generations, akin to your Elements of Harmony,” he explained as he continued to try and work his com-link. “I’m trying to get in touch with Ratchet back at base to let him know what’s going on, but Soundwave’s got the entire channel scrambled as long as we’re on the ship.” He finally stopped fiddling with his wrist and turned to face Twilight again. “Come on, we need to find Bumblebee and your friends and get out of here.”
The two of them cautiously peeked into the hallway outside Soundwave’s lab. They began to move quietly down the right hand side of the corridor once they were sure it was safe. A few moments of silence passed between them before they had to stop and wait in the shadows while a small group of Vehicons passed by, talking about a strange mare sitting outside the ship. As they began moving again he couldn’t help but notice Twilight seemed depressed. Her face had the telltale signs of something bothering her.
“What’s wrong?” Bluestreak asked as he poked his head around a nearby corner. Nothing to see coming or going on either side, he thought.
Twilight hesitated a moment. She sighed and continued to follow the silver Autobot as he moved down the next hallway. “I just wanted to apologize,” she admitted, looking at the floor as she ran. “If I had just stayed at your base for a little longer, none of this probably would have happened.”
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” the Autobot replied as he traced his footsteps through the massive ship in his mind, trying to find the way out. “Why did you decide to leave? You don’t really seem like the type that would shrink away from something this important.”
Twilight sighed again before responding. “I left the base to save Fluttershy,” she explained. “She and the others are the only friends I’ve really ever had…I just wanted to make sure I could keep one of them safe if the others wanted to fight in your war; to…you know…protect them.”
Bluestreak stopped dead in his tracks outside the maintenance room he had hid in earlier that day. He slowly turned around and looked down at Twilight with a look of concern. Years of experience, unfitting for such a young Autobot, emerged on his face as he spoke. “Twilight, I know it must be hard, but you can’t let yourself get upset if something were to happen to your friends, trust me.” The grave tone of his voice frightened Twilight a bit and forced her to take a small step backwards.
“Wh-Why?” she asked very confused at Bluestreak’s very sudden, alarming change in behavior.
“I’ve seen what happens to the people who think like that, especially when they fail to protect those people they consider being their friends and loved ones,” he explained. He didn’t move his optics off of hers for even a second, maintaining perfect eye contact. “I’ve seen the long stretches of depression, the self-loathing, and the bouts of rage that can make you do things you would never even consider doing otherwise.” He glared at her with concerned optics.
Twilight was stunned. The seriousness in which Bluestreak had said his words; the passion he had employed when describing the dangers of her thought process really shook her to the core. All she wanted to do was protect her friends. She almost didn’t want to ask the question filling her head. “Y-You have? With whom?” she cautiously asked.
Bluestreak hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to share this his story with her.
………
The strike of Optimus’ blade knocked the approaching Vehicon backwards, unbalancing him and sending him to the ground. Moving quick to deactivate the drone, he slammed his sword downward, piercing through the Decepticon soldier’s head and carving straight through his central processor. The Autobot commander pulled his blade from the wreckage and raised it into a defensive position. Another two drones were getting up from where they had been laying on the cold, hard ground. Both of them were missing limbs but continued advancing on him like the mindless machines they were. This was beginning to get ridiculous.
As they continued towards him, Prime rushed the closest, slicing his sword through the air once more to deliver a glancing blow from the Vehicon’s shoulder down to his opposite hip. Sparks and shavings of metal flew everywhere, but the drone still did not halt its progression. Instead, it leapt at the Autobot leader, forcing him to drop his sword as he grappled with his attacker. Surprisingly, even with just one arm, the drone had a bit more strength than Optimus had been expecting and he found himself being forced backwards by it. These were definitely not Megatron’s typical Vehicons; this batch had been augmented somehow. He shuddered to think how many more of them the insane tyrant still had.
Focusing on the task at hand, he began to push back against the Vehicon, forcing it to back off. It was now a struggle of sheer strength; on one end, the legendary leader of the Autobots and on the other, an augmented Decepticon drone. Optimus let out a bestial roar as he began to overpower his opponent, using the force gifted to him by his sheer size; he ripped the Vehicon’s remaining arm from its shoulder joint and threw it across the canyon. Before the drone could react, the Autobot whipped his Ion Blaster out from behind his back and fired a point blank shot into its head, sending it crashing to the dusty floor.
Now all that remained was the first drone’s accomplice. Turning, Optimus could see the Decepticon soldier marching towards him. As he raised his sword to strike the drone down it suddenly stopped in its tracks. The drone stood there for a moment, its arms were slightly swaying in the breeze. It collapsed and fell to the ground. Puzzled Optimus cautiously approached to see what had happened.
A large, gaping hole in the Vehicon’s back was spraying a familiar, pink liquid into the air. Optimus instantly recognized it as Energon. Of course , he thought to himself. To Autobots and Decepticons, Energon was the equivalent of what organic races would call blood. Energon provided nourishment and sustenance to the much more important innermost Energon that was responsible for keeping a Cybertronian’s spark alive. Every so often, Cybertronians would need to cycle out the old, dirty Energon in their bodies and bring in new, cleaner Energon in order to continue providing fresh nourishment to their innermost Energon and spark. But, to non-sentient Transformers such as drones and vehicles, Energon was nothing more than a fuel source, like fossil fuels being pumped into a transport. Once they ran dry, they would need to be refueled. That was the key to defeating these new drones.
“Ironhide!” Optimus called out to his nearby friend. The black Autobot in question was currently a few yards away, smashing two drone’s heads together in an attempt to bring them down. “If you can’t destroy their heads, than we need to bleed them dry!” Optimus ordered, picking up his sword and running it through the chest of a nearby drone.
“Can do, Prime!” Ironhide shouted in response. The old war veteran quickly rammed his hunting knife into the stomach of a nearby Vehicon, puncturing its fuel tank. He gave the knife a sharp twist before ripping it out to ensure the wound stayed wide open so it could begin leaking its precious contents onto the desert floor. Ironhide then proceeded to punch the drone in the face.
From atop his rocky perch, Megatron looked down in annoyance. Prime had figured a way to bring down the Vehicons faster than he had expected. At least the test run of the new drones had been a success. Despite this one, minor flaw they were still very effective. Unfortunately, the drones he and Starscream had brought with them to the canyon were the only ones Shockwave had made. In hindsight, that may have been a mistake, he admitted to himself. Once he had the matrix he would return to Cybertron and tell the one-eyed, mad scientist to begin mass production. He noticed that Optimus was glaring up at him.
“Amazing, Optimus!!” he exclaimed, applauding his enemy’s efforts. “Even after all this time; still at the top of your game!!” He smiled as another group of Vehicons attacked the Autobot leader in a desperate attempt to restrain him. Megatron needed to leave right now. He had far more important things to attend to.
Turning away from the battlefield, the silver Decepticon tyrant opened his com-link and began honing in on Starscream’s signal. After a few brief moments a click sounded, indicating that someone had answered on the other end.
“Starscream, where are you!?” the Decepticon leader hissed into the com-link. His rage at his treacherous second-in-command was starting to boil over. He was going to shoot something soon.
“Lord Megatron!” Starscream replied over his end of the channel. “I am directly beneath you; I apologize, it took longer to find Oil Slick’s body than I expected.”
Megatron walked over and glanced down the other side of the plateau he was standing on. Down on the dusty, red floor he could see the lanky, red-and-blue form of the Decepticon air commander dragging a mangled hunk of metal out of a nearby cave. After studying it for a moment he was shocked to discover the smoldering pile of scrap was, in fact, the remains of Oil Slick. Apparently the fallen chemist had taken much more damage than Megatron had been led to believe. The Autobots would pay for this disfigurement of a Decepticon warrior.
“Return Oil Slick’s remains to the Nemesis now, Starscream,” he ordered into the com-link. “I will join you shortly.” He watched as the smaller, red-and-blue Decepticon flipped over on himself and transformed into his hybrid bi-plane mode. A pair of grapple claws emerged from beneath the hull of the plane and grabbed hold of Oil Slick as it took off into the air.
The sound of metal rolling across stone drew Megatron’s attention away from the retreating seeker. Sitting on the ground next to his foot was one of his elite Vehicon’s heads. He slowly sauntered over to the side of the cliff that was hosting the battle in the canyon below. He could see Optimus and his worthless bodyguard had torn through most, if not all, of his drones and was now running towards the base of the plateau.
“Bravo!” Megatron chided, observing as Optimus began futilely climbing up the cliff side to reach him. “Now, if you’ll be so kind as to excuse me, I have more important matters to take care of. Specifically to have Soundwave give me the coordinates to the Creation Matrix’s location on this planet!!” he howled. Leaping into the air, he transformed and took off just as Optimus reached him.
Optimus pulled himself onto the plateau and his mind slowed to a crawl. Had he just heard his nemesis correctly? The Creation Matrix, the legendary artifact of the Knights of Cybertron, the relic that was said to have guided the legendary Knights through their journeys across the cosmos, that which was sacred to their people and had been a symbol of leadership for generations, was here; on this planet? The Autobot leader quickly opened his communicator and began to contact the base.
Regardless of whether or not Megatron was bluffing, he said he had coordinates to the sacred relic’s location, and that was a risk Optimus Prime was not willing to take
………
Continuing to make their way down the long winding corridors, the Autobot and violet unicorn next to him walked on in silence. Not much had been said between the two after their earlier conversation. Bluestreak felt horrible for snapping at Twilight and telling her that caring about her friends’ well-being was not a good idea, but he had to make her understand, he didn’t want her to fall into a state of never-ending torture and depression. He desperately wanted to apologize, but, before the young Autobot could open his mouth to speak to her, he heard the familiar, robotic voice of Soundwave drifting through the hallway from around the far off corner.
Moving quickly, he shoved Twilight into the nearby maintenance closet and told her to stay hidden until he had dealt with things. As he pulled himself out of the room, however, Soundwave turned the corner and spotted him. The two stared at each other in dead silence. The silver-and-black Autobot frowned as he realized what he was going to have to do. He would have to fight Soundwave in order to give Twilight the chance to escape.
He instantly whipped out his pistol and began firing a barrage of plasma at the unmoving Decepticon. Soundwave roared and ducked out of the way, allowing the plasma bolts to sail over his head and strike the surface of the hall behind him. Taking off down the corridor, moving much faster than the small Autobot could track, the Decepticon spy closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds. Desperate to land a hit, the smaller Autobot began wildly swinging his fists to try and knock Soundwave back, but the Decepticon simply blocked his blows with the sides of his forearms.
Twilight watched with fright from the maintenance room as her Decepticon captor quickly turned the tide of the battle against her friend. Soundwave began landing nasty blows against the sides of Bluestreak’s head, knocking the smaller Autobot about and keeping him from regaining his balance. Suddenly, Soundwave flung his left arm around like a whip and seized Bluestreak by the throat. The enraged and annoyed Decepticon lifted the struggling Autobot scout high into the air. His right arm transformed, straightening out and becoming almost dagger-like in appearance.
With deadly speed, and before Twilight could scream or Bluestreak could make a desperate, futile attempt to dodge, Soundwave thrust his right arm forward and ran it deep into the Autobot’s chest and spark chamber.
The howl that escaped Bluestreak was deafening. It reverberated throughout the halls of the ship and forced Twilight to cover her ears; not out of pain, but out of not wanting to hear someone she considered a friend scream. Another noise quickly mixed in with the Autobot’s fading yell; the horrible shrieking of metal tearing through metal. Unseen by the cowering unicorn or the Autobot in his grasp, Soundwave had deployed a series of hidden blades across his pointed forearm and now, they were lodged into the circuitry and delicate machinery that ran through Bluestreak’s torso.
Time seemed to slow as, with savage fury, Soundwave ripped his arm back out of Blustreak. His blades tore through the Autobot’s vital components, sending them scattering to the ground. Metal shavings, sparks, and energon splattered into the air as Bluestreak’s chest seemed to explode apart. He howled again, but this time it was not a scream of pain, but a scream of despair, the scream of a dying life form. Soundwave lowered his energon soaked hand to his side, a mixture of pink and blue liquid running down its smooth surface. He pulled the small Autobot towards him and gazed into his dying optics.
“Y-you’re too late, Soundwave,” the Autobot wheezed. His eyes flickered as he tried to maintain his stare. “Sh-She’s already l-long gone; o-off to tell Optimus the Matrix’s lo-location…” He smiled as the enraged Decepticon threw him to the hard, cold ground and turned around. Soundwave walked off towards the bridge, leaving the dying Autobot in the middle of the hall. Someone would clean it up later.
Twilight did as the fatally wounded Autobot had asked and waited for Soundwave to leave before bolting out of the closet towards her protector and friend. Tears fell from her eyes, she looked over Bluestreak’s wounded and wrecked body. Two different colors of energon pumped out of his chest like an overflowing drainage pipe while shredded wires and machinery sat, soaking in the pools created by the equivalent of his blood. She turned and noticed he was staring at her, weakly.
“H-Hold on Bluestreak, I-I’ll find a way to get you to Ratchet. He’s y-your doctor right? He can fix you!” she exclaimed, watching as a small smile spread over the dying robot’s face.
He slowly reached out and laid his hand against the side of her face, telling her to look up at him. “Kid, there are some things, not even the docbot can fix,” he paused. He grunted in pain as a bolt of sparks leapt across his devastated torso. “C-Can I ask you to do something?”
“What?” the crying unicorn asked.
“D-Do you remember what we just talked about a minute ago? Not letting this kind of stuff get to you?” He watched as she slowly nodded her head. “It-Its okay if you care about protecting your friends, b-but, pr-promise me…p-promise me, you won't...” but before he could finish, his voice died down and his head fell to look towards the floor.
Twilight stared at Bluestreak in despair. Her mind was struggling to accept what was happening before her eyes. Tears fell from her face to the floor, mixing with the spilled energon that was pooling around her bottom.
“I-I promise…” she cried, putting her hoof in his hand so they could shake on the unsaid agreement.
She listened as the sounds of some great machine powering down and dying filled the air. She watched as the bright, blue lights slowly flickered and faded from Bluestreak’s eyes. His arm grew limp and fell to the floor. Finally, his entire body began to fade to various shades of black and grey. He was gone.
Twilight was now all alone inside the Decepticon ship, weeping over the body of her fallen protector and friend.
Transformers: Harmony
Twilight looked out across the vast openness of Autobot Outpost Celestia One. A somber atmosphere hung in the air, lingering like a thick, black fog. She sat by herself, far out of the way, with her head to the floor. She didn’t want to speak to anypony nor be spoken to. She watched silently as Ratchet rushed by, carrying some strange looking tool covered in little tweezers and spikes. She knew where he was going and she knew she didn’t want to be there.
All that was in there were the remains of a fallen hero. Someone who had only tried to help her…
………
The escape from the Nemesis had gone smoothly…after what happened to Bluestreak. As Twilight remembered it, Laserbeak found her soon after Soundwave had left. He had found her sitting next to the Autobot’s motionless body and would have killed her if Bumblebee and her friends had not arrived shortly after he did. Luckily, it only took a small volley of laser fire to drive off the Decepticon attacker. Afterwards, Bumblebee insisted on carrying Bluestreak’s remains out of the warship; not wanting to leave them for the Decepticon’s to pick over.
At first, the lavender unicorn had been glad to hear that they would be able move the fallen Autobot, but, as they did so, she noticed that Bumblebee didn’t seem very phased. She had been under the impression the he and Bluestreak were friends. Was Bumblebee not saddened by his fellow Autobot’s death? Or, had he just seen so much of it that it didn’t even give him pause for thought anymore?
They had worked their way through the snaking corridors of the Decepticon flagship; surprised not to run into any resistance. Twilight assumed that Soundwave took what Bluestreak had told him to heart and didn’t even bother with trying to find her. Why would he? He had already taken what he needed from her.
Along the way, Twilight could remember her friends expressing their happiness at having found her and that she hadn’t been hurt. Sighs of relief and hugs had been exchanged, and, when they asked what happened to Bluestreak, she told them the truth. They gave her condolences and assured her that there were some things you just couldn’t control and that she shouldn’t hold herself responsible for them. Funny, she had thought, that was pretty close to what Bluestreak had told her.
Only when the group had returned to the base did things start to get a little out of hoof. Rather than Optimus, as they had been hoping, it was Prowl who was first to meet them when they entered. He had not been happy. The Autobot second-in-command was enraged that Bumblebee had launched a gung-ho attack on the Nemesis without orders. He tried to charge the smaller Autobot with blatantly disobeying a senior officer’s orders and for inadvertently causing the death of a fellow soldier. His attempt to court martial Bumblebee did not go well as Twilight and her friends desperately tried to defend the scout’s actions. Prowl wouldn’t have even bothered listening to them had Twilight not mentioned the Creation Matrix.
Almost instantly Prowl had turned his attention from the Autobot he was attempting to arrest and gave it to the lavender mare beneath him. She answered the second-in-command’s questions, telling him about how she had been forced to decode the matrix’s coordinates for Soundwave. He had not been happy to hear that. She told him how Bluestreak had rescued her before sacrificing himself to make sure she had a chance to escape from her Decepticon captors; and, lastly, she told him about the strange book Soundwave had been reading her the coordinates from. For whatever reason, it wasn’t until Twilight mentioned the old, raggedy tome did Prowl believe her. After that he stopped asking her questions and ran off to try and contact Optimus on one of the Teletraan terminals. Finally, Ratchet came along and offered to move Bluestreak’s body into his medical bay.
………
That had all happened about two hours ago. But, for Twilight, it felt like days. All she wanted to do was go home, crawl into her comfortable bed, and sleep off this horrible nightmare. Was that too much to ask? From the corner of her eye, she could make out Applejack approaching her from across the room.
“You doing alright, Twi?” the farm pony asked before sitting down next to the depressed unicorn. She could see the bags under Twilight’s eyes and could tell her friend was in desperate need of some sleep. “You’re lookin’ a little worn down,” she noted.
“I’ll be fine Applejack. I’ll get my second wind soon enough.” She yawned, long enough and wide enough that someone could drive a train into the tunnel formed by her mouth. Her thoughts were a mess and her head still hurt a little from the ring-like device Soundwave had placed around her horn to block her magic.
An awkward silence filled the space in between the two ponies. Applejack continuously glanced over at her friend, struggling to figure out what to say next. In response, Twilight continued to stare at the floor. Neither one was very comfortable under the current circumstances. The sounds of heavy metal footfalls filled the empty air.
The orange-coated earth pony hesitated just a moment longer before she continued speaking. “Ya know, Twi, Fluttershy told us about what was botherin’ you,” she stated, cautiously watching her friend for a negative reaction. “Now, I do regard you somewhat as the leader of our little group, but you really shouldn’t be worryin’ yourself by thinking like that. We’re mighty capable of keepin’ ourselves safe. You do not need to put that much stress on yourself; it can do bad things to ya.”
“Thanks,” the lavender unicorn sighed in response. “But I’ve already been told that once today…”
Applejack looked at Twilight in confusion. “You have?” She watched as Twilight finally lifted her head off the ground and slowly looked in the direction of Ratchet’s medical lab. The earth pony quickly put two-and-two together. “Oh, sorry…”
“I can understand that Twilight, trust me,” she explained. “Now, I hate to do this since you’re still upset and all, but the others sent me over here to ask you something…” The true nature of the earth pony’s visit to Twilight was starting to come to light, and the mare could see her unicorn friend raising a curious eyebrow. “It’s just that, with everything that’s happened, you getting kidnapped and Fluttershy getting attacked, we were all wonderin’ if you’d change your mind about helping the Autobots. Fluttershy already has and we’d really like you to as well. We think we’d be a little safer if we all stuck together from here on out.”
Twilight hesitated to answer. At first, she didn’t know what to say. Her friends were still in danger of getting themselves killed, and she still wasn’t sure if her magic, or the Elements, would even work on the Decepticons. But, soon enough, memories of the past few hours began to come back to her; especially the ones about Bluestreak and how he too had expressed a desire for Twilight to change her mind. She sighed and smiled lightly. She knew what she was going to need to do.
“Okay,” she finally said much to the Earth pony’s delight. “I’ll do it for Bluestreak, but you have to promise me to keep yourselves safe, okay?”
“Don’t you worry about the rest of us Twilight, we’ll be fine.” Applejack chuckled as she instinctively reared herself onto her hind legs out of excitement. “I told you, and Bluestreak told you, you don’t need to be stressin’ yourself out over this, we ain’t your responsibility.”
“I know,” Twilight sighed. “But it would make me feel a little better if you just promised me anyways.” She gave the orange mare a shy, awkward smile.
“Well then, I promise we’ll do our best to keep ourselves safe while we’re saving Equestria from an alien invasion,” she replied. She placed her right hoof over her heart to show her sincerity to the magical mare before her.
“Good,” a masculine voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
Whipping around, both mares were shocked to find Prowl looming over them. How somepony so large and made of metal had managed to sneak up behind them they would never know. An annoyed look was displayed on the second-in-command’s face as he looked down on them.
“If you two are done, you are to report to the briefing room immediately,” he ordered in his gruff, scratchy voice. “We have a lot to discuss before we roll out to recover the matrix.” He quickly turned around and walked off in the direction of a nearby hallway.
………
The Autobot’s briefing room reminded Twilight of the many Science Fiction novels she had read when she was younger. The room was almost pure, blinding white in color; while black, wall-spanning monitors hung from the rounded surfaces of the chamber. In the center sat some kind of large, cylindrical slab. Small, bright lights were being emitted into the air from the slab’s cold, black tabletop. Surrounding this central spire were rows of seats slowly ascending on a slope up the sides of the round room. Each row contained a long, winding desk running along in front of them. Finally, hanging from the center of the room was a metal, cone-like stalactite that seemed to be picking up the lights coming off the tabletop below it.
As she entered the wide circular room, Twilight followed Applejack onto one of the benches and took a seat. All around her, she could see her friends and the other Autobots patiently waiting for Prowl to begin the emergency meeting. Behind them, the Autobot in question stepped into the room and closed the door after him; he hastily made his way down to the central floor. The room remained silent as the Autobot strategist began punching in a series of commands into a hidden keypad somewhere on the small, white slab. Suddenly the room dimmed and the cylindrical projector roared to life. It displayed the image of one of the most beautiful objects Twilight had ever seen.
The strange object in question appeared to be made of some kind of gold-orange alloy that had been formed into a perfect, hollowed-out sphere. The sphere almost seemed cracked open in the middle, like a fruit, allowing one to view the inside through a small, hexagonal opening. Surrounding this sphere was a pair of large, silver brackets that came together above and below the center of the rounded metal, giving it an appearance not unlike a ringed planet. Finally, in the center of the sphere, visible through the hexagonal opening, was a large, crystal orb. It glowed with a bright, blue light, which seemed to have a calming effect. The more Twilight stared at the blue light emitting from the projected image the more she wanted to try and touch it.
“This is the Creation Matrix,” Prowl explained, snapping Twilight out of her trance. He had his arms folded across his chest as he began the briefing. “To us Autobots, it is an ancient symbol of leadership and power amongst our culture.” He looked around the room, watching as the remaining Autobots nodded their heads. They all knew this story. It had been told to them since they were proto-forms. “Up until now, it had always been assumed that the Matrix was merely the stuff of myths and legends. But, new information has been brought to light on the part of Twilight Sparkle.” He paused and pointed towards the lavender mare.
Twilight blushed slightly and sank in her seat as the room’s attention turned towards her.
“According to Ms. Sparkle, during her captivity onboard the Nemesis, she was forced by the Decepticon Soundwave to translate a series of coordinates that he claimed led to the mythical Matrix,” the Autobot’s second-in-command continued. “I have consulted with Optimus Prime and he has confirmed that, during his encounter with Megatron in the Apaloosan Desert, the Decepticon Leader did reveal that he had found coordinates pinpointing the Creation Matrix’s location on this planet. I myself am a little skeptical, but it is a risk we cannot take.”
“So what’s the plan?” Wheeljack asked, raising his hand as his “ears” glowed in the darkness. He had always been a Bot more accustomed to action than words.
“The coordinates, as provided by Twilight, lead to here.” Prowl paused briefly and began punching a few more orders into the unseen terminal. The hologram flickered and the matrix was replaced with the image of a massive, crystalline city. “The Crystal Empire. Fortunately, thanks to the Sky-Spy we sent over the Nemesis in the last half hour, we know Megatron has yet to return to his ship and receive the coordinates from Soundwave. This gives us at least a little bit of time to form a rudimentary strategy.”
He turned to his audience and waited for all that he had said so far to sink in before continuing. This is where it was going to get complicated.
“Unfortunately, we are now one Autobot down because of Bumblebee’s rash actions, and Optimus and Ironhide are still several hours out from the base. We do not have the time to wait for them; Megatron could return to the Nemesis at any moment.” Prowl explained. “And, even with their warship damaged, thanks in part to Bumblebee, Rarity, and Applejack, most Decepticons have flight capable alternate modes and will easily be able to reach the Crystal Empire, and, more importantly, the Matrix, before we do.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Bumblebee asked, repeating Wheeljack’s earlier question. He was a little more than annoyed that the Autobot strategist continually blamed him for Bluestreak’s death, but, at the same time, praised him for sabotaging the Nemesis. The little yellow scout was getting impatient and was ready to start a fight. He had just lost his best friend and he wasn’t happy.
Prowl turned to face the yellow and black-striped Autobot, giving him a cold, steely stare before proceeding to speak.
“However,” he sustained. “In order for the Elements of Harmony to work it is imperative that you all stand united, correct?” He watched as the six equestrians nodded in unison. “So, I ask you, Twilight Sparkle,” He pointed upwards towards the lavender unicorn again. “Do you fight with us? I have read your profile and understand that both your brother and his consort live within the Crystal Empire, so your excuse of not having anything to fight for will not work here.”
“You can count on me, Prowl,” Twilight exclaimed as she stood up and saluted the ranking Autobot officer.
“Good,” Prowl replied, returning the salute.
From the far side of the room, where he had been sitting quietly, Ratchet stood up and cleared his throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. “That is all well and good, but it still doesn’t solve the second problem, Prowl. Even at our fastest available speeds it would take us hours to reach the Crystal Empire. In the time we will have spent travelling there; Megatron will have already flown back to the Nemesis to receive the coordinates and beaten us to the city.” He briefly stopped and scanned the faces of the assembled Autobots and ponies in the room. “If we are going to succeed in this mission, then we are going to need a faster way to get to the Crystal Empire.”
Wheeljack suddenly stretched his hands outwards and cracked his large, mechanical knuckles in the process. “Don’t you worry go worrying about that, Docbot! I’ve got the perfect thing to get us there faster than a turbofox can run through an Iaconian rust field.” Underneath his serrated, metal faceplate, he was grinning like a lunatic. Every other Autobot in the room looked at him with extreme worry.
………
The pale light of the moon reflected off the surface of Megatron’s Cybertronic Gunship vehicle mode as he streaked through the skies. It had been a long night. Every one of the new drones had been destroyed by Prime. But, that didn’t matter; Shockwave would build more at his request. Whether he wanted to or not.
Megatron took a brief moment to stop focusing on his flying and turn his attention to the celestial object in the sky above him. It was very different than the twin, metal moons of Cybertron. He scoffed to himself. He still couldn’t believe these simple animals believed their “Princesses” had any control over the movement of their planet’s star and moon. Very soon, the glowing orb of rock and ore would give way to its much brighter, gaseous counterpart. There would be no aid from any princesses; no aid from any magic. The morning was coming. And Megatron would have his long anticipated victory at sunrise.
He swooped in low as he made his approach into the hanging valley where his mighty warship awaited his return. In front of him, he could see Starscream, still carrying the half decomposed body of his former chemical engineer. Starscream’s vehicle form had seven, massive propellers, a bit much in Megatron’s opinion. Two were mounted in between each set of his double-decker wings, one was attached to the front of the cockpit, and two more sat in front of his twin tailfins that stuck off the back of his vehicle mode. The only thing more disgusting than the amount of propellers the silver seeker had chosen to attach to his vehicular form, was the pair of water-based landing gear situated to the front of and below his cockpit. As if Starscream would ever allow himself to fly that close to the ground.
The duo roared through the night. Soon, they made their descent down towards the large black ship that sat stationary in the valley below them. Transforming into robot mode, they crashed down on the ground and instantly noticed there were no guards watching the entrance. Megatron did not like this.
Stepping inside, the Decepticon leader ordered his air commander to take Oil Slick’s remains to the medical lab while he made his way back up to the bridge. Starscream saluted before running off down one of the nearby halls. As the tyrant Decepticon began moving towards the Command Bridge he couldn’t help but notice something seemed off. There were no drones darting up and down the halls trying to get there work done, there were no roaring cheers from spectators watching as two Decepticon’s fight each other to relieve their boredom, and there had been no one to greet him upon entrance, an unwanted, but very commonly practiced, procedure. Something was wrong with his ship.
The Decepticon leader didn’t even bother to wait for the door to the bridge once he had reached it. Instead, he blew it open with his fusion cannon, startling everyone in the room beyond.
“SOUNDWAVE!!” he roared, calling out to his loyal communications officer and spy. He stepped into the room and watched as the silver-and-blue Decepticon appeared from the far side of the room, pushing his way through several drones that had packed themselves onto the bridge. So, this is where they’ve all been hiding , he thought. He looked down as Soundwave kneeled on one knee before him. “Where are the coordinates to the Matrix’s location?” Megatron demanded.
“The coordinates you provided me from the Tome of Prima lead to here, my Lord.” The metallic sounding Decepticon held a small holographic projector in the palm of his hand. Being transposed into the air was the image of a large, crystalline city. “Unfortunately, I am not able to pinpoint the Matrix’s exact location within the city…”
“And why not?” the much larger Decepticon growled as he continued to study the transparent image of the Crystal Empire. In many ways, it reminded him of the long fallen Crystal City of Cybertron.
Soundwave paused, carefully choosing his words to avoid Megatron’s wrath. “During my translations of the coordinates, I found myself in need of aid from a local in order to convert the decoded numbers into a usable form,” The spymaster continued, still keeping his head looking towards the floor. He was hoping to avoid Megatron’s enraged gaze. “The Autobots stormed the ship to rescue her. During the firefight, my terminals were destroyed. I have not only lost the data the unicorn provided me on the exact location of the Matrix within the city, but the Autobot’s damaged the Nemesis’s central fuel pump. I am afraid to say that the Nemesis is not flightworthy at this point in time.”
Had it not been for Soundwave’s exemplary millennia of service to the Decepticon cause, Megatron would have killed him then and there.
Instead he had a bigger fish to fry.
“BLACKOUT!” Megatron roared again. He spotted the massive, cobalt Decepticon slowly trying to make his way out of the room. But, as it had been with Soundwave, there were a dozen or so smaller drones standing between him and the door.
“Come here.” Megatron slowly curled his finger towards himself repeatedly as he spoke.
“Y-Yes, my Lord?” Blackout asked as he pushed a couple of small, mining drones to the floor. He was now standing before the Decpeticon tyrant and, even though he was several feet taller, Blackout knew he didn’t stand a chance should Megatron decide to eliminate him.
“Did I, or did I not put you in charge of my ship?” the leader of the Decepticon asked, glaring up into Blackout’s much larger optics.
“Well, yes, but I-”
“Then perhaps you can explain to me,” Megatron hissed, cutting off the larger Decepticon as he drew closer to his face. “Just how it was possible that an Autobot strike team managed to infiltrate my ship, destroy Soundwave’s equipment, and cripple the Nemesis right before I am about to claim the Matrix for myself!! CAN YOU!?”
The massive Decepticon waited to answer. The drive to survive the next few minutes was clouding his mind and making it difficult to think. He had to say something though or Megatron would end his existence with one shot from his legendary fusion cannon. With that in mind, Blackout did the only thing he could think to do.
Beg.
“Please Lord Megatron,” Blackout pleaded, dropping on one knee to mimic Soundwave. “I know what I have done cannot be forgiven, but if you spare my pitiful life I will serve you faithfully until the last drop of innermost energon runs dry through my spark!” he exclaimed.
“Oh ho, do not worry about me killing you Blackout, not yet. Fate has played in your favor and I will need you in the battle against Prime for the matrix,” the silver commander growled in return. “You will accompany me and the rest of the fliers as we make the first strike on this so called ‘Crystal Empire,’ understood?”
“Yes, sir!” Blackout replied, saluting his commanding officer. The hulking Decepticon instantly turned around and started making his way towards the loudspeaker controls so he could announce that all flyers needed to assemble in the hangar bay.
“Good. Now, Soundwave,” Megatron rumbled, turning his attention back to his communications officer who had now risen back onto his feet. “You will order the engineers and miners to stay here on the ship and initiate repairs before taking the rest of the ground based Decepticons and following behind us flyers. You will be the second wave of attack on the Autobots and the Crystal Empire.”
“As you command, Megatron!” the blue-and-silver Decepticon exclaimed with his echoing voice. He quickly made his way to the bridge’s exit in search of the engineering drones.
Megatron laughed to himself as he watched the Decepticon drones scatter about the bridge, looking for work to do, or trying to figure out which of the higher ranking Decepticons to follow. Perhaps he would be able to salvage this catastrophe after all. He had a strategy of attack and a lead on the Autobots. Yes, this would all go according to plan in the end.
“DECEPTICONS!!!” Megatron bellowed, drawing the attention of all Cybertronians on the bridge as he spread his arms wide. “We attack the Crystal Empire at sunrise!!”
Transformers: Harmony
Twilight was a smart unicorn. A cultured unicorn, as she had heard others call her. Ever since she was a young filly, ponies had praised her intelligence and applauded her maturity. They called her such silly things as “a prodigy” and “a filly genius.” At first, the younger Twilight had found it all to be very annoying, her relatives would come over just to see how much more intelligent she had grown since they’d last seen her. But, she eventually learned to accept it; they weren’t wrong after all. She loved to read, and reading made you smarter. In fact, she would later admit to reading a little too much, claiming that it was one of the reasons she was so antisocial as a child and had to rely on her big brother for friendship.
In her home, before leaving to become Celestia’s personal student, she grew up learning to read all kinds of books with the help of her mother. She had nurtured her growing daughter’s intelligence and sophistication like a small, beautiful flower. Her mother always made her read stories about magic and how the world worked, but filly Twilight’s favorite tales were always the ones her big brother let her read; the ones about the heroes of old Equestria. Stories such as Poner’s The Odyneigh and The tales of the mighty Unicules filled the young filly’s mind with wonder and awe and drove her to learn everything she could about the ancient heroes. Before she met Princess Celestia and became enamored with magic, it was these ancient stories that the young Twilight had devoted her time to studying. She read everything she could get her little hooves on and studied the names of every pony, place, or animal that was mentioned in the stories. Over time, she became very fluent in describing the things and ideas of the ancient world. And that very knowledge was proving to be incredibly useful at the present moment.
She was standing in front of a gateway to Hell.
Wheeljack’s “Ground Bridge” portal roared and hissed as the group of Autobots and Equestrians approached it. It was a swirling vortex of green, blue, and white energy that looked like it had leapt from Twilight’s nightmares into the reality before her. She watched as it hissed again and spat an arch of plasma that sparked across the cold, concrete floor of the Autobot’s bunker, sending little spouts of flame and bolts of electricity scattering around the room. The entire portal reminded Twilight of the mouth of some monstrous hell-beast that only wanted to devour all who neared it. Were they expected to walk through it? The lavender mare wasn’t comforted by the sound of the Autobot’s head engineer cackling behind her like a bad, B-movie, mad scientist.
“Wheeljack…are you sure this thing is safe?” Prowl asked, looking at the raging portal before him. It looked like a star was literally about to go supernova in the middle of their base. He could see the ponies on the ground below had the same worries as he did.
“What!?” Wheeljack exclaimed. He feigned being hurt at Prowl’s accusation of his skills as an engineer. “It’s perfectly safe! I’ve used the best material I could find on Equestria or what I could get Huffer to send me from the Orbital Command Station!”
“Have you even tested it!?” Prowl growled towards his fellow Autobot. “Because I’m not placing a servo through that thing unless you have!”
“You want me to test it!? Prowl, you and Ratchet said you needed to get to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible. You don’t get testing with ‘as soon as possible’ it’s a rule!” the engineer proclaimed, looking at the second-in-command like he should have already known that.
“Wheeljack, with you, everything needs to be tested!!” he yelled, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“Fine, Prowl, fine!” the blue-and-silver Autobot conceded. He threw his hands up in a mock show of surrender. “Let’s not use the Ground Bridge. Let’s just let Megatron take the Matrix and ask him nicely: ‘Please don’t conquer the galaxy and kill every living thing on this planet.’ Let’s do that!”
Prowl sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. Wheeljack was right; they really didn’t have another viable option.
“Alright Wheeljack, I get it. There’s not much else we can do given the situation. But we still need to formulate the rest of our strategy. Bumblebee, Ratchet and I will leave to find the Matrix in the Crystal Empire,” he paused and turned to the Autobot mechanic to make sure he was paying attention. “Once we’ve left, I want you to go to Princess Celestia and retrieve the physical Elements of Harmony. You are then going to wait for Optimus and Ironhide to return to the base. Finally, you will open the Ground Bridge for them and follow them through, bringing the Elements with you. Do you understand?”
“Got it!” Wheeljack replied as he began punching the coordinates Twilight and Prowl had given him into the Ground Bridge’s control terminal.
The bridge shrieked and shuddered angrily in response to the mechanic’s tinkering. It sent a massive wave of energy bursting outwards as its coordinates changed and locked onto an area within the far off Crystal Empire.
Looking at the energy explode and pop in the air, Twilight began getting the sickly feeling that she was going to get some kind of radiation poisoning from the thing. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Prowl stepping up behind them; she was not going to get caught off guard again by the silent robot.
“Is everyone ready to depart?” Prowl asked as he looked around the group.
“Hold on a second, I’ve got a question,” Bumblebee asked. “What are you and Ratchet going to do about disguises? My wagon mode will work fine, but the two of you have railway alternate modes, there’s no way you’ll blend in.” Below him, Applejack and Rarity nodded along with the yellow scout’s observation.
Twilight was curious about this as well. She had been trying to figure out all of the Autobot’s vehicle modes and was only able to make a few guesses as to what they might be.
Prowl’s was easy to figure out. The presence of a steam-boiler chest with a cowcatcher attached to the front easily led one to assume he was a type of small locomotive. Ratchet was a little more complicated. She could guess, based on his overall boxy shape and the fact that his shins and forearms appeared to have the texture of wood, that he was some kind of boxcar. It would match with Bumblebee’s claim of Ratchet having a railway alternate mode.
Wheeljack, on the other hand, completely stumped Twilight in comparison to the other two. She honestly had no idea what he transformed into. He had a pair of door wings hanging off his back like Bumblebee but they appeared to be made of iron with glass protruding from the top of them. The mechanic also had four, iron wheels, one on each ankle and one attached to each shoulder. But, the weird thing was, they were each surrounded by a ring of rubber. Lastly, the Autobot had long, thin smokestacks curving around where his shoulder met his torso and pointed off towards his back.
“We’re not going in disguise, Bumblebee,” Prowl explained. “As much as I detest going against the Code of Interplanetary Conflict, I fear Optimus was right; desperate times call for desperate measures.”
With that said, the Autobot Second-in-Command stepped forward and looked into the gaping, ravenous gateway. He swallowed and stepped through, disappearing in a flash of blue-and-green lights.
One by one, the remaining Autoobts and her friends hesitantly stepped through the portal and vanished into thin air. Soon, Twilight was all alone, looking up at the sparking Ground Bridge. She repeated Prowl’s earlier action of swallowing as she closed her eyes tight. Oh well, never did want to live forever , she thought to herself. She charged into the open gateway at top speed and instantly regretted it as her body began to tingle and burn in all the wrong places.
………
Shining Armor yawned loudly as he sat up in his bed. Next to him, his wife stirred silently under the sheets, pulling them closer to herself as she tried to stay warm. The morning light of the sun was just peeking out over the horizon, refracting its rays through the walls of the great Crystal Castle. He carefully lowered himself to the floor, trying not to wake his lovely wife while he walked over to the balcony outside their room. The balcony overlooked the massive, crystalline city from about thirty stories up.
His bright, blue mane and white coat rippled in the slight morning breeze. The Crystal Empire began to awake from its nightly slumber. All over the city he could see crystal ponies slowly beginning their day, opening shops, flinging open their doors, and welcoming their first customers of the morning.
He could hear his wife approaching behind him. Apparently she was better at getting out of bed quietly than he was. She stretched one of her large, pink wings over his back and kissed him on the cheek. He looked over and chuckled slightly, her long, violet-and-purple mane was slightly splayed outwards in all direction; a classic case of bedhead. She was a stunning, pink Alicorn and Shining Armor was lucky to have her as his wife. However, Cadence was different from other Alicorns. For one thing, Shining Armor knew she did not have immortality like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and she was not in charge of any celestial objects like the two sisters were. She was also not nearly as powerful as the two demigoddesses.
“So, what are we going to do today?” Cadence whispered into his ear while snuggling up beside him. The brisk morning wind was sending shivers down her spine.
Shining Armor thought for a moment, running his hoof against his chin as he did so. “Well, you did want to try and get the Crystal Empire into the running for the Equestria Games, didn’t you?” He asked while looking into his wife’s beautiful, pink eyes. “Maybe we can start with that?”
“Hmm…I’d like that,” she replied, breathing in the morning air. She could smell the heavenly, baked goods being produced in the city below. Her stomach began to growl like an unfed dragon. “But, perhaps, we could get some breakfast first?” She blushed slightly.
The white-coated stallion turned around smiling. He was just about to have a little fun teasing his wife when suddenly, a deafening sound, not unlike a sonic boom, roared through the air.
The cacophony instantly reverberated throughout the glass-like walls of the castle, shattering some of the weaker structures such as the doors and windows. Shining Armor had to move quickly and pull his wife to safety as the chandelier hanging in their bedroom came crashing down, shattering, and sending its broken shards across the floor. All around the city the buildings were shaking from the shockwaves unleashed from the unseen explosion.
The royal couple quickly returned their attention to the outside world, searching the city below for the source of the ear shattering noise. They found it rather quickly.
Hovering in the skies above the city square was a large rift. The portal seemed to be ripping itself open, unleashing sparks of green-and-blue energy into the skies as it rotated and churned. The entire, swirling vortex of forces reminded Shining Armor of some of the powerful magic he had encountered during his time as head of Princess Celestia’s royal guard. His wife turned to him with a look of worry on her face.
Shining Armor watched the strange gate for a little longer before sighing in exasperation. He could see his little sister, her friends, and three massive figures emerge and land on the brick courtyard of the city’s square.
………
Twilight screamed as she fell to the hard, brick street below. Her entire body was either numb or asleep after the trip through the Ground Bridge and she couldn’t tell which it was. She was barely able to move as she tried to peel herself off of stone road beneath her. Soon, Fluttershy filled her view and offered to help her up off the ground.
As she stood back up with help from the timid pegasus, all around her she could hear the screams of crystal ponies panicking at the site of Prowl, Bumblebee, and Ratchet. Maybe Prowl should have given a second thought or two to his plan.
“Wow, way to make an entrance guys,” Rainbow Dash remarked. She was already rising up into the air. The rainbow hued mare watched in annoyance as the semi-transparent equestrians around her fled from the town square as the Autobot’s began to stand up. “Oh come on!! They’re not that scary!!” she shouted after some of the retreating colts and fillies.
Prowl was the first to regain stabilization and took a moment to run through his internals, checking for any damage. If anything had been destroyed or melted down he would kill Wheeljack once this was all over. Thankfully, it appeared everything checked out in the green. “Don’t worry about them Ms. Dash,” the Autobot strategist replied, turning his attention to the flying Pegasus. “We don’t need them to complete our mission.”
“Well, when they’re happy and not scared or gloomy, they can make this weird energy shield thingy around the city. I thought it might be helpful to stop the Decepticons,” she said, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.
Prowl stared at the cyan mare in disbelief. Was she trying to tell him that this city was equipped with a force field!? A force field powered by the resident’s calmness and joy!? And she hadn’t bothered to tell him that until after they dropped three aliens into the middle of their city square!?
“That was something you should have told me BEFORE we left the base!!!” he growled, pointing an accusatory finger towards Rainbow Dash.
“It doesn’t matter now, Prowl,” Ratchet said as he dusted himself off. “We need to find the Matrix before Megatron arrives. “If we can get it and take it out of the city before then, we may be able to avoid collateral damage during the battle. Twilight, do you remember exactly where the coordinates pointed?”
By now Twilight had gotten back on her own hooves and was stretching each of her four legs, trying to wake them up. They still tingled from the feeling of being asleep. She silently swore she would never travel by Ground Bridge again. “Yeah,” she replied to the medic’s question. “I think they pointed to the library down the street.”
“Good, then let’s get moving,” Prowl ordered. He was already leaving the group behind, searching down the upcoming street for the massive, Crystal Empire library. He carefully examined each of the glass-like structures, trying to determine which might be a library. He hoped a library meant the same thing here as it did on Cybertron.
“Um…Mr. Prowl,” Fluttershy meekly spoke as she flew up to the fast walking robot. “I-It’s that building over there.” She pointed towards a large, white building that appeared to only partially be made of crystal, unlike most of the buildings surrounding it. What wasn’t made of crystal looked to be made of a mix of marble and limestone. It was quite impressive.
“Thank you, Ms. Fluttershy,” the Autobot responded as he walked over to the building she was indicating. For some reason Prowl found it very hard to stay annoyed at this local and he wasn’t quite sure as to why.
Prowl ran his large metal hand up and down one of the marble pillars that supported the library’s entrance. He looked the building over from top to bottom, taking note of the large, crystalline windows and ceiling. The white-washed, marble walls that formed the sides of the structure seemed to seamlessly merge with the crystal. Peering in through one of the windows, he could see a large statue standing in the middle of the library. It appeared to be a statue of a very old looking unicorn with a long, flowing beard. He guessed it was that Star-Swirl the Bearded fellow he had always heard Celestia harping on about.
“So, where do you think the Matrix is hiding in there?” Applejack asked as the rest of the group caught up with the tall, white-and-black Autobot and the flying, cream pegasus.
Prowl was about to answer when his neural net picked up an approaching object coming from his left. Turning in the direction his onboard computers were screaming, he could see a cloud of dust moving towards them from down the street. The cloud in question seemed to be composed of a number of armored guards wielding primitive spears. They were following behind a white, male unicorn and a pink alicorn. The Autobot officer instantly recognized the couple leading the charge. They were Twilight Sparkle’s brother and his consort Princess Cadence, as depicted by Twilight’s profile.
This is going to be interesting
; he thought as the approaching group halted at his feet and aimed their spears upwards towards him. He crossed his arms and looked back down at them. He raised his eyebrow expectantly.
“Shiny!!” Twilight happily exclaimed. She ran to her brother’s side and gave him a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here, I could really use your help.” She let go of her brother and embraced her sister-in law as she spoke.
“Twilight, what are these things?” he asked, looking up at the towering, metal life forms. Up close, he could now see they looked to be some kind of robots, like the ones in some of the comics he had read during his time in the academy. He had never told Cadence about his former comic book reading days and he didn’t have any plans to.
“Shining Armor, Princess Cadence,” Twilight said, backing off from her family and taking a stand between them and the alien robots. “I’d like you to meet my friends, the Autobots; this is Prowl, Bumblebee, and Ratchet,” she explained as she pointed to each one individually. “And, you’re going to have to trust me when I tell you that they’re the good guys, big brother!”
“It is an honor to meet you, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor,” Ratchet said. He folded his right arm across his stomach and took slight bow in respect to the royal couple. “Princess Celestia has told us many tales of your adventures and I must say I rather enjoyed attending your wedding a few months back.”
“You were at our wedding?” Cadence asked. It was her turn to be confused and she raised one of her curling eyebrows to prove it.
“In the background of course,” the Autobot medic explained, rising up from his bow. “If it weren’t for us Autobots, there would have been a couple hundred more Changelings you would have had to deal with before the day was out.” He smiled as he revealed the Autobot’s secret role during the royal wedding.
“Ookaay…” Shining Armor replied as he awkwardly smiled up at the “Autobots” as Twilight had called them. “So why did you bring them all here, Twily?” He took notice of a couple of nearby ponies cowering behind a building, trying to avoid the alien’s line of sight.
Twilight spun back around to face her older brother before she began to explain the situation. “Shining Armor, there is a relic of great importance to their culture hidden somewhere near this library, don’t ask me how I know, I just do, okay?” she asked, continuing to look the taller stallion in the eye. “If we don’t find it before Megatron, the supreme leader of the Decepticon Empire, finds it, then we can kiss goodbye to all life on Equestria and all freedom in the galaxy!” she exclaimed. She was wildly waving her arms in the air.
Shining Armor turned to speak with his wife in private. He could tell by the tone of Twilight’s voice that she was being serious. He also knew that she had gotten into many, many world defending adventures in the past so this shouldn’t be anything new to him. They spent several minutes talking amongst themselves before finally facing his little sister.
“Alright Twilight, we’ll help you,” Shining Armor sighed. He smiled a little bit to show his sister that he was sincere. “There are some old caverns we found beneath the library a while back but we haven’t gotten a chance to explore them yet. Maybe what you’re looking for is hidden down there,” he explained. He glanced at the Autobots so he could address them. “The caverns are only big enough for an Equestrian to fit through before they open up later down the line. Twilight and I will go in first and find a way to get you three down inside, is that alright?”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Bumblebee exclaimed, clasping his hands together in excitement. “And I love it when a plan comes together!”
………
About fifteen minutes later, Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were following her big brother through a small cave hidden behind a series of metal doors in the basement of the Great Crystal Library. Shining Armor had explained how he found the caves during the King Sombra incident and meant to use them as an escape tunnel if absolutely necessary. But, he never found out where they led. The strangest thing about the caves was that they looked to be almost cut out of the rock. Twilight had the unsettling feeling that somepony or something had traversed these tunnels long, long ago.
Above her, Rainbow Dash flew ahead to scout the area while, next to her, Rarity continued to scan the walls with her horn. Twilight had brought Rainbow along in case a quick escape was needed. Likewise, she had asked Rarity to follow them into the tunnels because she remembered that, from the picture they had been shown, a large crystal resided in the center of the Matrix. She was hoping Rarity’s gem finding spell would be able to help them. So far, it had turned up nothing.
They soon exited the tunnels and entered a massive, spacious cavern. Twilight was awestruck by its beauty. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like the pearly, white teeth of some great giant and they dripped small drops of water onto the swirling, solid rock ground. Centuries of erosion must have given the rocky ground its beautiful waving shape. Sitting in the center of the cavern was a large pool of water surrounded by a series of tall stalagmites that stood guard around the edge of the water like long forgotten, decrepit knights. She looked up and could see the cavern’s domed ceiling easily reaching almost a hundred feet into the air. Were they really that far down?
“Well, looks like this is a good place for your friends to start coming down, Twily,” Shining Armor remarked as he examined another tunnel that was towards the back of the massive cavern. This cavern looked different from the rest, it was the only one large enough for something the size of an Autobot to walk through and it looked like it had been cut out of the rock wall with some kind of tool. It was far too smooth to be anything natural.
Twilight raised her hoof to her ear and gently pushed down on the communications bud Prowl had given her before making the decent. “Prowl? Prowl, can you hear me? This is Twilight.”
………
Up on the surface, Prowl and the rest of the Autobots and ponies milled about, waiting to receive the call from Twilight. To his right, Prowl watched as Bumblebee and Ratchet continued talking with Princess Cadence about how they knew Celestia while the remaining members of the Elelments of Harmony stood nearby and listened. Even a few locals seemed to be comforted by the fact that their Princess was sitting so close to the aliens and had come by to observe them. Maybe there’s still hope to use that force field after all ; he thought to himself. The sudden ring of his communicator pulled Prowl out of his thoughts.
“This is Prowl. Twilight, have you found an entrance?” he asked, speaking into his end of the com-link. Behind him everyone else had stopped their talking to listen in.
“Sort of,” Twilight replied over the link. “We’ve found a massive cavern with a strange tunnel at one end. The tunnel looks artificial, like someone cut it out of the wall. It could be a clue to the matrix’s location.”
Prowl quickly flipped open the scanner on his arm and began tracing the communicator’s signal. Twilight was surprisingly only a few yards to his right. She was about thirty feet away from the library’s entrance. How strange.
“Twilight, I’m right over you,” the Second-in-command explained as he positioned himself over the blinking red dot on his readout. “My scanners say there’s only about twenty or so feet between us and the top of the cavern. I’m going to blow open a hole in the roof with some det-packs I brought along. Teleport you and the others up here to safety, understand?”
“Yes sir!” the lavender mare exclaimed over the link before shutting it off.
Prowl quickly accessed his personal subspace pocket and pulled out three, small, handheld bombs he always carried with him in case of an emergency. Leaning down on one knee, he quietly set to work arranging the explosives in a triangular pattern on the floor around him. He had to be precise or the blast could do more damage than he wanted. Behind him, he could hear the distinctive popping noise of Twilight’s teleportation spell as she and the others appeared on the library steps nearby.
“Are you sure those explosions won’t cause any damage to the city?” Rarity asked as she watched Prowl prime the small mines.
“Not while they’re arranged like this they won’t,” Prowl explained. He didn’t even bother to turn around as he continued with his work. Bombs weren’t exactly his forte. “We’ll just blow a small hole leading into the cavern and then we’ll lower ourselves in to check it out, understand?”
“Prowl!” Ratchet suddenly exclaimed, running over and tapping the Autobot strategist on the shoulder. “I’m afraid we may not get that chance!” The Autobot medic was frantically pointing towards the morning sky.
Following the direction of the red-and-white Autobot’s arm, Prowl could see several dark silhouettes appearing against the background of the sun. They were moving fast and they were coming straight towards them.
“TAKE COVER!!” Prowl roared. He grabbed up Twilight, Shining Armor, Rarity and Rainbow Dash before instantly diving for shelter under some nearby trees.
Megatron and the Decepticons came screaming out of the morning sun, opening fire on the ground below…
Transformers: Harmony
The loud, thunderous noises of jet engines screamed down from the atmosphere as the Decepticons launched their attack on the crystalline city below.
Laser fire erupted from the sky, peppering the ground as dozens of flight-class Vehicons flanked the four primary Decepticons leading the charge: Megatron, Starscream, Blackout, and Incinerator. The drones swooped and swerved through the air as they came closer and closer to the bricklayer streets below. As they did so, Megatron banked towards his left and took point of the formation. A massive bolt of fusion energy burst from his top-mounted cannon and struck hard against the earth, scattering the three Autobots and the equestrians surrounding them.
Thinking fast, and fueled purely by the Cybertronian equivalent of adrenaline, Prowl rolled through the nearby trees and released his cargo, allowing the three unicorns and pegasus to safely drop from his grasp to the soil beneath him. Without taking the time to check himself for damage, the Autobot strategist reached into his subspace and whipped out his silver, handheld rifle. Prowl had always preferred the older, handheld weapons to the newer, built-in ones like Bumblebee’s battle pistol; there was something about actually feeling oneself squeeze the trigger that he liked. He closed one eye and took aim at a fast approaching drone that was far too close to the ground. He fired off a round from the muzzle of his barrel.
The acid pellet struck home against the Decepticon’s left engine and instantly began to eat through it. Within moments, the corrosive material had bored a hole through the armor plating and began to destroy the internal structure of the engine, sending the Vehicon into a careening tailspin. Prowl watched as the drone flew by overhead, catching fire before crashing into the ground nearby. Suddenly the Autobot’s sensory net began screaming warnings as a second Vehicon approached. This one, in robot mode, tackled Prowl from behind, forcing him to drop his gun and grapple with his attacker. The black-and-white robot desperately fought to prevent the drone from getting a clear shot at his head with its wrist mounted pistol.
“Prowl!!” Twilight shouted as she watched the Autobot struggle against the assailing Decepticon.
Rushing forward across the waving, green grass of the Crystal Empire’s central park, she instinctively ignited the horn on her head. To her surprise, the familiar red aura of her personal magic surrounded the flailing Vehicon and lifted it off Prowl and into the air. Her magic was working against the Decepticons! With a mighty burst of energy, Twilight sent the purple-and-silver robot in her grasp flying backwards into another pair of Vehicons that had just transformed and landed to continue the fight. All three of them collapsed to the floor upon contact.
“Prowl! Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she galloped up to the Autobot officer. Behind her, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and her brother were following closely behind. They had each recovered from the Decepticon’s first strike without taking any damage.
Prowl hauled himself up onto his feet and grabbed his head to slow the spinning world around him. “I’m fine, they got the drop on me that’s all,” he explained. “We have to get moving and fight back.” He explained. “Rainbow Dash, we’ll need all of you together once Wheeljack gets here with Prime and the Elements, go make sure Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack managed to escape the initial attack safely.”
He paused and watched as the cyan pegasus saluted before flying off into the now fire-and-flak filled skies. The city outside the park was already beginning to crumble under the weight of Megatron’s attack.
“Twilight, Rarity, and Shining Armor,” he resumed, addressing each unicorn before him by name. “Your magic makes you the most suited for dealing with the Decepticons; Twilight focus on using your magic as a weapon, get creative; Rarity, I don’t know if the information will be useful, but seeing as your Cutie Mark is a set of diamonds, you should know that the central processors of Vehicon drones are powered by Korlonium Crystals; Shining Armor, can you multitask?” he asked, turning his full attention to the older stallion of the group while Twilight and Rarity darted off, following the faint, multi-colored trail left behind by Rainbow Dash. The blue haired unicorn nodded his head. “Good,” Prowl reached into his subspace again and withdrew a small, red-and-silver, flat-topped pistol. He threw it on the ground in front of the amazed unicorn. “It’s time for you to use a real weapon and not a stick with rock tied to it.”
As a demonstration, the Autobot’s second-in-command quickly turned back towards the three drones Twilight had knocked to the ground moments before. They were just starting to get back up when he fired an acid pellet into the center trooper. Acid exploded against its chest as it let out a pained shriek; the corrosive material splashed against its flanking companions and soon their armor began to evaporate as well. Thank Primus these aren’t the more advanced models Prime mentioned running into in the desert , Prowl thought to himself.
As he watched the three Decepticons reduce to a puddle of slag, the smell of sulfur and smoke began to waft into Prowl’s olfactory sensors. Turning around his mouth dropped as he came to the realization that the entire park was beginning to catch fire. The Decepticon artillery coming from the sky was rapidly demolishing the city and the parks were now being set ablaze. The time had come for him to stop holding back. A pair of large, wire-guided, missiles emerged from his back and mounted over each of his shoulders. He took aim and launched the left missile directly into a large group of flying Decepticons. The resulting explosion was massive in size and incinerated most of the aerial combatants within its range. Anything or anyone that hadn’t been instantly destroyed in the fiery explosion tumbled to the ground below.
Satisfied, Prowl turned his attention elsewhere and rejoined the raging battle in the park.
………
Twilight darted left and right as she weaved through Decepticon weapons fire. She was desperate to escape the merciless onslaught that was quickly engulfing the world around her. Thinking quickly, she dove into the deeper woods that ringed the park, hoping to find protection between the tightly packed trees. The lavender unicorn was desperately trying to follow the rainbow-colored trail left in the air behind Rainbow Dash. She hoped it was leading her to the rest of her friends, but the thick canopy of the trees was making it difficult to see the sky, let alone the cyan pegasus that was zipping through them.
Next to her, Rarity was struggling to keep pace. The woods had already begun to catch fire and the smog and heat being emitted from the flaming trees was starting to cloud their vision and choke their lungs. Suddenly, a massive Oak collapsed from under its burning trunk and fell right in front of the two running unicorns, effectively blocking their path. Things were not going well for the pair.
Very soon, they began to hear the iconic sound of transforming Cybertronians filling the smoke around them. Twilight ignited her horn and Rarity stamped the ground behind her; they were ready to take on whatever was hiding in the suffocating clouds. Unexpectedly, and much to their dismay, twelve, jet-class Vehicons emerged from the black smog and surrounded them. They raised their weapons and took aim at the two trapped unicorns; their wrist mounted cannons hummed to life as they readied to open fire.
Twilight glanced nervously over her shoulder at Rarity, but the white-coated unicorn only gave her a confident nod in response. Hoping that she and Rarity were thinking along the same lines, Twilight returned the nod and began mentally preparing herself. As the Decepticons took a step forward to fire, the lavender unicorn unleashed a flash of magic and teleported herself and Rarity outside the circle of Vehicons.
Startled by the sudden burst of energy, the Decepticons opened fire. Their directionless blasts only managed to hit the barren ground between them and each other. Two of the twelve were instantly downed by headshots from the other’s respective weapons.
Not too far from the triumphant Twilight, Rarity leapt out of the way as another soldier, this one a bit dimmer than the others, attempted to crush her with its fists rather than just destroy her with a weapon. She gracefully sidestepped and jumped over the drone’s fist as he brought it crashing down on the ground again. Their game of leapfrog continued like this for several seconds until another pair of drones joined them. She frowned as these two were smart enough to draw their weapons on her. Realizing things were about to get dangerous, Rarity ignited the horn on her head. She remembered the little amount of information Prowl had given her about how the Vehicons worked and cast a powerful, gem gathering spell she had learned during one of her many trips to Canterlot.
Suddenly, the three drones’ heads were surrounded by the blue glow Rarity’s magic and began to shake violently. The sound of tearing metal and sparking wires filled the white unicorn’s ears; the Korlonium Crystals that drove the soldier’s processors ripped through the tops of their metal skulls and flew over to her. The three Decepticons dropped brain-dead to the ground while Rarity cooed at the strange, alien diamonds that now hovered in front of her face.
Now only three of the original twelve drones remained and Twilight was rushing to get rid of them. She grabbed the firing arm of the nearest Vehicon and used her magic to tear it clean out of the socket. The confused drone looked down at his now curiously vacant shoulder joint before being gunned down by the unicorn controlled weapon. Smiling to herself, the lavender unicorn decided it was time to end the little skirmish she and her friend were caught in. She turned the shooting arm against the last two Decepticons. Plasma bolts ripped apart the Vehicons’ weak armor in a matter of seconds, making quick work of their internals as they went. Twilight threw the arm against a nearby tree and let out an exasperated sigh of relief.
“That was splendid, Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed as she pranced over to her fellow unicorn. The alien crystals still hovered around behind her head. “And here you were worried your magic wouldn’t have any effect on the Decepticons.”
Twilight smiled at her friend’s compliment. “Yeah, I just hope it works as well on the bigger ones as it does on these drones.”
Twilight nodded in agreement and the two unicorns jumped over the fallen tree and headed deeper into the forest, hoping it would eventually lead out into the city proper.
………
High above the burning city, Megatron streaked through the smoky skies, traveling at a speed faster than he ever had before. His vehicle mode reflected the fires from below, giving it an almost demonic shape. He continued to take potshots at the mongrel beasts inhabiting the city when he could catch a glimpse of them through the thick, dark smoke. Starscream suddenly appeared next to him, the seeker’s propellers were clocking in overtime in order to keep up with the jet-powered, Decepticon leader.
“My Lord, we have scattered the Autobots across the city and have begun the destruction of anything that may serve as some form of defense,” the Air Commander reported as he flew up alongside Megatron. “Perhaps it would be wise to begin our own search for the Matrix. The Autobots seemed to be doing something outside the city’s library; perhaps it is a clue,” he suggested as he opened fire with his dual machine guns on the ground below. He thought he had caught a glimpse of the Autobot scout.
“I will concern myself with the Matrix, Starscream,” the silver tyrant growled. “You will continue to lead the attack on the Autobots.” Megatron gave his order before banking to the left and turning in the direction of the large, crystalline library.
“As you command, Megatron,” Starscream hissed as he flipped in the air and returned to the stage of battle.
………
“Please! Everypony calm down and form an orderly evacuation!!” Princess Cadence yelled. She desperately flew up into the air in an attempt to gain the masses attention.
All around the princess, frantic, crystal ponies ran in panic and fear as hellfire rained down from the skies and buildings crumbled around them. The entire street was clogged with the frightened citizens of the Crystal Empire as they scrambled over each other, trying to find safety. Fires were burning in the ravaged streets and the air was filled with toxic smog and debris. The entirety of the Crystal Empire had been transformed into a war zone within a matter of minutes. The pink Alicorn was desperately trying to evacuate her citizens to a safe distance outside the city; she was trying to give them a chance to survive the madness. Twilight neglected to mention she was bringing an entire war with her when she brought the Autobots here.
Cadence screamed as a group of drone fighters flew by overhead, releasing a horrible sonic-boom that shattered the large apartment building behind her. She clasped her hooves over her ears, making her unaware as massive shards of razor-sharp crystal began plummeting to the ground below. They would have landed right on top of her were it not for the sudden appearance of Ratchet. Before any of the lethal remains of the building could so much as graze the startled princess’s body, he had thrown himself over her, creating a makeshift shelter. The shards struck across the Autobot’s back making him howl in pain.
“Princess, you must fall back! It is no longer safe for you here!” Ratchet groaned as he straightened himself back out. Whatever parts of the building weren’t lodged in his back fell to the streets below, adding to the mess. Every street as far as the Autobot could see had either been bombed or torn apart by weapons fire. Piles of crumbled brick and twisted iron littered the roads.
Cadence spun around in midair and looked at the medic with a face of rage. “I will not leave my people when they need me the most, machine!” she exclaimed. “These ponies trust me as their princess and I will not let them down!” As she said this, she fired off a powerful beam of pink magic from the tip of her horn and devastated one of the flying Decepticons that had dared to try and make a second pass on the crowded street. Its remains exploded and rained down from the skies.
Ratchet was just about to apologize when he heard a distant cry for help. Looking in the direction of the frantic plea, he used an optical mod to zoom in on a small, grey-coated, pegasus colt a couple dozen yards up the street. Tears were streaming down the young colt’s face as he looked at a large fallen tree. Trapped beneath the mighty lumber, the Autobot medic could just make out the shape of a larger mare. A Vehicon drone transformed and landed right in front of the pair. Instantly, Ratchet took off running in the direction of the colt, leaving Cadence alone to tend to her retreating population.
………
“Mommy!” the pegasus colt cried as the Vehicon drew closer.
The small pony yelped with fright as the massive Decepticon transformed its arm into a long-barreled weapon. The young colt gathered his courage and bravely stood in front of his trapped mother in what would be a vain attempt to protect her. He flared his tiny wings outward in hopes of scaring away the robot; tears were running down his face.
From under the fallen tree, the mother desperately tried to free herself. She had to save her child, but her back left leg was trapped. As the massive alien looked down at her with its red, glowing visor it raised its weapon into firing position. She cried for her son to run, to save himself, but the little colt refused to leave his mother’s side. The Vehicon’s weapon began to hum and she closed her eyes, drawing her son close, holding him. She had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen.
“Not while I still function, Decepticon!!”
The air suddenly filled with the sound of the Vehicon shrieking in pain. The mother opened her eyes to see another robot attacking the first, using what looked like a large saw-blade attached to its right arm to cut through their attacker’s head and chest. Sparks and metal shavings flew in all directions as the new robot made quick work of the first one.
“Are you alright?” Ratchet asked as the Vehicon dropped dead to the broken street below. He retracted his saw and made his way over to the tree.
Before the mother could protest, or tell her son to run again, Ratchet knelt by her side and clasped the trunk of the fallen tree with his large, metal hand. With a mighty heave, the Autobot medic ripped the tree off of her and threw it into a distant part of the city. Below him the young, grey-coated colt gawked in fascination at this much nicer robot.
“Can you walk?” the medic asked as he scanned the mare’s hind leg. It appeared to be sprained; he hadn’t had the time to become well versed in Equestrian medicine, but he hoped a sprain was not lethal to their kind. He sighed a sigh of relief as he watched the mother pegasus stand up as her son ran over to hug her. A warm smile spread over his face as they thanked him.
But, Ratchet’s smile was quick to disappear as his early warning sensors began to scream to high alert. Turning in the direction they were indicating, he could see the massive, cobalt form of Blackout emerge from behind the corner of a half-destroyed building farther up the road. The Decepticon looked to have already sustained a large amount of damage. A lot of armor along the left side of his body, especially on his arm, looked to have been blown off. He was missing the two metal pylons that were usually found on his back. Numerous other scars and torn metal ran throughout his body. It looked like the Megatron loyalist had barely survived a massive explosion. He smiled a dark smile as he caught sight of the Autobot medic in the distance.
“GO! RUN!” Ratchet shouted down to the two pegasi he had just saved. “Blackout is not a foe to be taken lightly! If you stay, you will only end up hurt or worse!” The pair followed their new hero’s instructions and bolted off in the direction where Cadence was leading the evacuations.
Ratchet turned his attention back towards the approaching threat and began transforming his arm into its weapon mode. Panels folded over onto his outstretched arm as his hand retracted into his wrist. A large number of iron protrusions emerged from the underside of his arm and wrapped around the top, combining with the folding panels to form a rough, blocky shape. The shape itself suddenly unfolded a brace at both the front and back, and opened up, allowing a small, blunt barrel to slide forward. The Autobot medic opened fire with his mini-machine-gun, striking the Decepticon warrior in the chest.
Blackout wasn’t fazed by the doctor’s attack in the slightest and the much larger Decepticon began charging forwards, leading with his right elbow so that Ratchet’s rounds would easily bounce off the thick armor on that side. As he bounded towards the medic, Blackout began to change tactics and began winding his body to the side slightly. With a mighty blow, that the Autobot had not anticipated, the Decepticon unleashed his tightly wound back arm and slammed it against his opponent’s chest, shattering the glass that was held there, and knocking him to the ground.
Ratchet desperately scrambled to get off the broken street, but Blackout was too fast. The Decepticon grabbed him by the neck before lifting him into the air. “The Autobot’s medic,” the cobalt Cybertronian growled as a puff of hot air escaped his lips. “The only way to truly bring death to all Autobots is to make sure there’s no one to put them back together again!”
Before the medic could fight his way free, Blackout dropped him slightly and clasped his enormous, clawed hand around the red Autobot’s head. The airship-Con slammed Ratchet into one of the still standing, brick buildings, pushing his head as far into the structure as possible without breaking it off. Ratchet began to scream as the sadistic Decepticon began crushing his skull between his fingers and palm. Sparks and the sounds of stressing metal filled the hole Blackout had trapped him in and the Decepticon began to laugh.
Fighting to stay alive, Ratchet continued to struggle. He couldn’t see what was happening around him anymore but he began to kick outwards anyway, hoping that, by chance, he could strike his opponent and knock him backwards. He could feel the structure of his head beginning to collapse as more and more pressure was applied to it. He had to escape before it was too late. Suddenly, and much to the medic’s surprise, Blackout began to howl in pain and released his grip from around Ratchet’s head. Unsupported by the Decepticon holding him there, the red-and-white Autobot quickly fell out of the hole and plummeted back down to the shattered streets below.
His optics were the first part of his, now damaged, head to reactivate. As soon as he could see and register that he was, in fact, still alive, Ratchet instantly began running diagnostics to make sure the larger Decepticon hadn’t destroyed any vital components. Looking up from the pile of bricks and rebar he had landed in, he caught sight of his savior in the not too far off distance.
Princess Cadence was flying in circles around Blackout, firing extremely powerful bolts of energy at him. The Decepticon was making clumsy attempts to swat her out of the air but he was no match for her grace and agility. As soon as his diagnostics checked out, Ratchet deployed his hand saw and charged forwards. It was now his turn to take a strike at the Decepticon.
A shower of curling bits of metal and sparks rained outwards as Ratchet brought his saw down and cleaved through the Decepticon’s weaker left, arm. Blackout howled in pain as the smaller Autobot next ran the saw against his face and followed up with a powerful kick to his chest that made him stumble backwards into a large pile of crystal debris.
“Glad to see you’re okay,” Cadence said as she drifted down next to the larger Autobot’s head. “I thought he had you for sure.”
“He would have if you hadn’t interfered. I apologize for doubting your strength and telling you to retreat,” he replied.
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled. “So are we gonna have to work together to bring this guy down or what?”
Ratchet watched as Blackout rose up from the rubble and turned to face them again. The Autobot medic revved his saw in response to the challenge. “It would appear that that would be the case, Princess Cadence.”
……….
Megatron transformed and landed outside the entrance to the great, crystal library. He quietly walked around the broken streets, looking for any sign of what the Autobots had been doing before he launched his attack. In the background he could hear the screams of Equestrians crying out as his soldiers continued their decimation of the city. It made him smile.
Finally he found something small and cylindrical buried amongst the shattered bricks that littered the street in front of him. Leaning down he recognized it as a damaged, and no longer functional, det-pack. So , he thought to himself. That’s their game is it? They were going to blow a hole through the street to somewhere, or something, down below. Perhaps they had found the Matrix’s location after all.
“Well, two can play at this game,” he growled to himself.
The Fusion Cannon mounted on his right arm began to change shape slightly as the barrel narrowed and the back-end began to extend and open up, revealing a series of purple, glowing tubes, spinning in a carousel-like cage. Finally the carousel of tubes stopped spinning and settled on a small, red one. The top suddenly plunged back down and Megatron’s fusion cannon began to hum with a strange, reverberant sound. A continuous beam of red energy began to fire out of the cannon’s thinner barrel and started melting through the street in front of him. It wouldn’t take long now to open the road and find out where the Autobot’s had been intending to go.
And then, the Matrix would be his…
Transformers: Harmony
Bumblebee moved silently through the war-torn streets of the Crystal Empire as he tried to find the Elements of Harmony. He ducked behind one of the large, broken buildings nearby to avoid a pair of aerial drones sweeping the area for survivors. As he held tightly to the wall he was hiding behind, he could feel it crumble and disintegrate at his touch. The smell of smoke, the burning skies, and the shattered, translucent structures surrounding him reminded the young scout too much of the Battle for Crystal City back during the later days of the War for Cybertron.
Crystal City had been home to Cybertron’s most elite, scientific minds. It was a beautiful city, constructed through the use of a special, stressed-crystal material that had been discovered by none other than the current head of Decepticon sciences, Shockwave. The inventions and technologies produced by the scientific minds within the walls of the city revolutionized the Cybertronian way of life for better and for worse. Just a few of examples of the groundbreaking tech to come forth from the city included holo-matter, data slugs, Realvision, and personal, subspace pockets; it was even rumored that the highly controversial, gestalt technology had been in development there.
Unfortunately, the proof of that rumor had revealed itself when the beautiful city of science fell during the fourth offensive of the Great War. Bumblebee himself had been the first scout to report on the incoming Decepticon attack from the neighboring city of Polyhex. The Decepticons’ artillery, at first, had little effect on the walls surrounding the city-turned-fortress, but it wasn’t long until Megatron deployed his secret weapon, the beast that would prove to be the destroyer of the Great Crystal City, the Decepticon monster known as Devastator…
The massive gestalt easily smashed his way through the walls surrounding the legendary, refracting gardens, allowing the Decepticon armies to swarm inside. From there the battle had not lasted long at all. There had only been a small regiment of Autobots stationed in the city to protect the few scientists that had refused the evacuation order. They were no match for Megatron and half the Decepticon army. Bumblebee had been the only member of his team to survive the slaughter and had to watch from a distance as the Cons reduced the once great city to a gargantuan pile of dust glistening in the sunset.
The yellow scout shuddered in disgust as the memories of Crystal City’s collapse resurfaced in his central processor. He silently thanked Primus that Devastator, and the Constructicons that composed him, were not part of the Decpeticons stationed on Equestria. He would not and could not allow what happened at the Crystal City to happen here. Suddenly, another sonic-boom rippled through the air, forcing Bumblebee to deploy his battle pistols and turn. He was ready to open fire on the incoming jet troopers.
However, instead of Decepticons hell-bent on killing him, Bumblebee was greeted with the image of another Ground Bridge portal appearing in the skies not too far away from his current position. The bursts of green-and-blue energy lashed out in all directions as the gateway began to slowly condense into a recognizable shape and open. A wave of relief passed through the scout’s body like the tide rushing up a beachhead. Now that Optimus and Ironhide were here they stood a realistic chance of repelling the Decepticon assault on the city. However, and much to his shock, only Wheeljack emerged from the other end of the Ground Bridge and landed in front of a large Vehicon drone.
“Wheeljack, look out!!” Bumblebee broke cover from behind the building and rushed towards his friend.
Responding to the scout’s sudden voice, the Autobot engineer turned around and shouted in surprise as he realized how close he was to the unusually large jet-drone. Wheeljack jumped out of the way just as the Vehicon took a swipe at him. Bumblebee’s plasma shots followed soon after and instantly began to tear through the weak, armor-plating surrounding the enemy’s head. The little, yellow scout unexpectedly flew into Wheeljack’s field of view as he delivered a powerful dropkick that knocked the drone’s head off its body. Wheeljack was impressed.
“What are you doing here, Wheeljack!?” Bumblebee questioned as he turned his attention from the deactivated drone over to the engineer. He reached down and offered his friend a hand in getting off the dusty ground. “Where are Optimus and Ironhide!?”
“Don’t worry about that, Bee,” Wheejack suggested as he stretched. “I still need to work out a few kinks in the warp field on the Ground Bridge,” he noted to himself. “Point is I’ve got the Elements of Harmony and Luna agreed to stay behind and open the bridge once Prime and Ironhide got back to the base, kay?”
Bumblebee stared at his mechanic friend with a confounded look that could only achieved after one hears the most foolish of things spoken. “Why didn’t you send the demigoddess to help us!?!?” he shouted while waving his arms in a panicked motion. “No offense, but I think she’d be a lot more useful in this situation than you are Wheeljack!!”
“Calm down, I know what I’m doing,” the Autobot engineer stated. “Now where are Twilight and her friends?”
“I don’t know! I was looking for them when you showed up!” Bumblebee exclaimed, filling in Wheeljack on the details he didn’t have.
“Well then, we better go find them!” Wheejack shouted while he transformed into his vehicle mode.
The vehicle in question was small, long, and not very wide. Wheeljack’s chest seemed to have formed a canopy folding over a cockpit that held two, leather chairs and a steering wheel. The four, rubber-ringed, spoked-wheels that adorned his robot mode had rearranged themselves and now sat on each side, with a pair in the front and a pair in the back. One pair sat under an iron hood that stuck out in front of the cockpit and the other rested under the back end of the vehicle as. Finally, the large, thin pipes that wrapped around his shoulders instead now wrapped around the back portion of the vehicle, above the rear wheels, and pointed straight into the air. Unbeknownst to any of his comrades, the Autobot engineer had invented a steam-powered car to use as his alternate mode.
A belch of white steam burst out of Wheeljack’s exhaust pipes as he barreled off down the road in search of Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony.
“HEY! Wait for me!” Bumblebee yelled as he transformed and took off after the speeding mechanic.
………
The battle for the Crystal Empire had been raging for well over an hour by now and Prowl was silently observing the landscape spread out before him. He could see numerous, crystal ponies making their way out of the main city. Their translucent coats glowed in the rays of the sun that managed to pierce through the thick layers of smoke that filled the sky. The ponies were heading towards the relatively untouched outskirts of their civilization, hoping their chances of survival fared better there. The Autobot officer and Shining Armor had managed to fight through the groups of Vehicons and arrive at the edge of the city in order to help with the evacuation efforts Cadence had been leading before she disappeared. The white, unicorn stallion had proven to be quite adept with the firearm Prowl had lent him and the Autobot was glad to have him tagging along as backup.
Unfortunately, Prowl had been forced to turn down his internal sensory array in response to the numerous enemy energy-signatures it had been alerting him to over the course of the past several minutes. Prowl was carefully studying one of the far off, rolling hills that his sensors kept picking up Decepticon activity at, but he had yet to find anything. All of a sudden he spotted something moving slowly up and over the hill and his optics widened in slight panic.
“GET DOWN!” Prowl shouted in alarm as he swatted the nearby Shining Armor to the floor. The Autobot leapt to the side just as a heavy, iron slug flew past where their heads would have been and struck the building behind them. The building instantly exploded from the force of the impact and showered the two soldiers with crystal shards and assorted other debris.
Lifting his head up from his cover, Prowl scanned the horizon again. His spark fell to despair as he saw battalions of tank and automobile Vehicons pouring down the hillside towards the city. Megatron’s ground forces had arrived.
“Umm…What are those?” Shining Armor asked as he spotted the new Vehicons rapidly approaching the city limits.
“Those would be Megatron’s ground based soldiers,” Prowl answered as he carefully studied the wind direction. “Which means this is about to get a whole lot more difficult.” He carefully began to aim his remaining shoulder missile into the crowd of approaching Vehicons and readied it to fire.
………
Rainbow Dash frantically flew through the blackened skies as she searched the ground below for any traces of her remaining friends. Her wings were beginning to get weighed down from the amount of soot sticking to them as she pressed forwards. Looking over her shoulder, she could see Twilight and Rarity on the ground below, managing to keep pace with her, but she needed them to move faster. They had to find everypony before something happened to them.
She screamed as she whipped her head back around. A Vehicon had emerged from the smog and was flying straight at her. She quickly darted upwards to avoid the dangerous obstacle. The drone flew under her without a care in the world; either it had somewhere much more important to be, or had somehow managed to not see her when she was right in front of it. She frowned, the skies she loved so much had been transformed into a warzone and everything was out to kill her. Maybe Twilight was right about helping the Autobots , she thought. Maybe it would just get her killed.
Before she could give the idea anymore thought, the cyan pegaus caught sight of a cream-colored pegasus flying close to the ground, desperately looking for a place to hide. Rainbow instantly recognized the long, pink mane attached to the mare’s head as belonging to her longest, living friend.
“FLUTTERSHY!!!!” she shouted as she rocketed down from the smoky atmosphere. She collided with her best friend and enveloped her in a hug as they tumbled down the broken road together. They finally came to a stop with Rainbow Dash standing over her friend. A huge smile was plastered on her face. Behind her, she could hear Twilight and Rarity sprinting to catch up.
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy squealed as she recognized who had dive-bombed her. She returned the hug and the cyan pegasus got off of her, allowing her to get back to her feet. “Are you okay? I didn’t think Prowl had gotten you to safety in time.”
“Yeah, well, he’s pretty fast for a robot,” Rainbow admitted as she rubbed the back of her neck. Twilight and Rarity finally galloped up next to her before stopping to catch their breath. They gave Fluttershy a slight nod to acknowledge her presence. “So, do you know where Applejack and Pinkie Pie are?” the pegaus asked as she looked back to her foalhood friend.
“Oh yes, I was scouting ahead for them,” the timid pegasus explained. A tone of worry and nervousness was beginning to fill her soothing voice. “Pinkie hurt her leg during the first attack that separated us. Applejack is helping her move, but they have to do it slowly.”
“Take us to them.” Twilight ordered. She had caught her breath and was ready to follow the pink-haired pony as she turned around and began walking in the opposite direction.
………
It had taken some time, but Fluttershy finally led the trio to a burnt-out, husk of a building sitting on a street corner. The building’s windows and crystal were shattered, and the bricks that formed its foundations and walls were crumbling to dust. What remained of the roof had caved in on itself. As Twilight stepped inside, she could see the twisted remains of sinks and hairdryers, leaving her to make the logical guess that this was the city’s former salon. In the corner, where the most intact walls were still standing, she could see Applejack tending to Pinkie who was lying down on a massage chair.
As she approached, she could see that Fluttershy had not lied about their bubbly, party-throwing, friend. Pinkie’s left hind-leg was covered in scars and blood, and appeared to be bent slightly in the wrong direction. Applejack was quickly wiping up some of the dried blood with a rag she was wetting in a nearby puddle under the broken sinks. The pink earth pony smiled at them as they approached, but winced in pain as Applejack ran the damp cloth over her wound again.
“Pinkie, are you alright?” Twilight asked. Concern for her friend filled her entire body as she trotted up to her. She let Pinkie reach up and hug her around the neck, but quickly released her so the pink pony didn’t move too much while Applejack was working on her.
“I’ll be fine, Twilight.” Pinkie grinned. She turned and smiled to all the other ponies in the room. “I grew up on a rock farm remember? I’ve been hurt like this before.”
“Twi, I don’t suppose you have any spells that could help us out here?” the orange, earth pony asked as she looked up from Pinkie’s damaged limb. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked to the lavender unicorn for help.
Before Twilight could answer with a ‘no,’ she felt the ground shake slightly beneath her feet. Looking down she wondered for a second what had caused it before she noticed that none of her friends seemed bothered by the sudden jolt. Had they not felt it? The ground shook again as Twilight was about to ask her friends for their opinions. The lavender mare began looking around the room for proof of the quakes when she noticed the puddle of water beneath the sink was rippling outward with each shake. By now, she could see her friends had started to pay attention to the miniature earthquakes that were filling the room and were starting to frantically search for the source.
The tremors came to a sudden stop, and an eerie silence filled the former salon.
Each member of the Elements of Harmony looked at the others, but none of them dared to make a move. Suddenly, cracked bricks, dust, and light filled the darkened room as the remains of the ceiling were ripped off the building like somepony opening a bag of chips or popcorn. The ponies in the room looked up through the exposed roof at the familiar face of Incinerator. He glowered back down at them and a sadistic smile spread across the Decepticon’s titanium lips.
“RUN!!” Twilight shouted in alarm. She cast her magic around Pinkie and lifted the party pony into the air before taking off through the side of the salon they had entered through earlier. Behind her the rest of her friends followed, desperately trying to escape from the towering Decepticon.
Incinerator bellowed in amusement as he watched the smaller creatures scramble. “There’s no escape!!” his thunderous voice boomed. He raised a foot and brought it crashing through the side of the building in front of him, sending debris spraying in every direction as he began to chase after them. The salon instantly started to collapse to dust the second Incinerator stepped inside.
Moving with a speed she didn’t even know she had, Twilight sprinted out of the entrance as fast as possible. She could hear the sounds of cracking stones and snapping glass as the crystal-and-brick building caved in behind her. Turning around, the lavender unicorn checked to make sure her friends had safely gotten out of the demolished structure. She could see Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all galloping after her; for a brief second she panicked when she couldn’t find Pinkie, but quickly remembered she was holding the party pony above her head on a waft of magic. She continued to look over her shoulder and caught sight of Incinerator’s glowing, red eyes emerging from the cloud of dust and debris lingering over the fallen building. He was charging straight at them. This was going to be just like what happened at Sweet Apple Acres.
The lavender mare returned her attention to the road in front of her. Many buildings along the sides of the street had been toppled over and were now blocking the side roads that led deeper into the city. As she continued to sprint forward, Twilight scanned the street for any opening that might give them a chance to escape from the psychopathic robot chasing after them. A small narrow passage between two, leaning skyscrapers revealed itself to them as they drew closer to the piles of fallen buildings.
A sudden burst of plasma flew over her head and struck one of the two skyscrapers that helped form the tunnel. The building groaned and cracked as the remains of its foundations were shattered by the bolt of energy. The entire structure began to splinter and split across the middle before falling inwards towards the adjacent skyscraper. The enormous tower viciously slammed into the neighboring building, releasing a massive cloud of debris into the air. As the cloud settled, Twilight could see that their only chance of escape was now filled with the rubble of the destroyed skyscraper.
“I told you there was no escape,” the large, silver Decepticon growled as he appeared behind them. He wasn’t even bothering to run anymore. He didn’t need to; he had them boxed in with walls of debris on three sides and himself at the other. “And this time, there’s no one here to save you.”
“Think again visor-face!!”
The six equestrians looked around for the familiar voice and soon spotted Bumblebee crouched on one of the walls of debris to their right. The little Autobot had a look of determination welded to his face as he stared down the much larger Decepticon.
As the scout continued his onslaught, the noise of a blaring horn drew the attention of the collected Equestrians away from the struggling Decepticon. Wheeljack was driving up to them and transforming back into robot mode as he did so.
“Ladies!!” he announced as he finished his alteration and stood proudly before them. “I believe these belong to you!!” The Autobot engineer opened his chest cavity and removed five, golden necklaces and a large, golden crown that each contained a gem in the shape of their respective owner’s Cutie Mark. As he set them on the ground for Twilight and her friends to collect, Incinerator’s massive arm swung by as he tried to tear Bumblebee off his body and slammed directly into Wheeljack’s chest.
“WHEELJACK!!” Twilight shouted in alarm as she watched the mechanic sail through the air and land face first in a nearby pile of broken crystal and brick. He appeared to have been severely damaged from the force of the blow. Looking at her damaged friend, an expression of pure anger and rage crossed over the young unicorn’s face.
“Alright ladies, let’s do this!” she growled in anger. She gently sat Pinkie down before using magic to attach the various necklaces around her friend’s necks and placing the large, golden crown on her forehead.
Not paying any attention to the Equestrians at his feet, Incinerator finally managed to grab hold of the elusive Autobot scout and fling him off and into a nearby building. As he turned to look at the Equestrians below, he saw that they were now wearing some kind of jewelry. “What? Do you come with accessories now?” he chided as he took a step forwards and readied his arm mounted, Gatling-gun.
Twilight breathed in deep as she felt the magic of the Elements of Harmony flow throughout her and her friends. The magic of friendship shared between them grew to its zenith, and the jewels on each of their respective Elements began to hum and give off excess energy in the form of their Cutie Marks. The familiar sensation of being lifted into the air soon flooded Twilight’s body as the Elements charged themselves with the magic from her and her friend’s bodies. A magical aura of protection surrounded the six equestrians as they began to hover into the sky. Almost instinctively, the magic rearranged the now airborne Elements of Harmony into a circular pattern.
“What the frag is this!?” Incinerator roared with fright as he watched the six ponies he had been hunting begin to glow with otherworldly energy. Nobody ever told him the fragging horses were capable of doing something like this.
From his place where Incinerator had dropped him, Bumblebee gawked at the sight of the Elements of Harmony with amazement. He was speechless. He knew Optimus had said the Elements were powerful but he had not been expecting this.
Twilight’s eyes were filled with a pure, white light as she slowly opened them to face down the attacking Incinerator. Twin rainbows of energy began to flow outwards from the crest on her crown, one started to loop through her friends assembled to her right and one looped through her friends on the left. The twin rainbows gained more and more energy as they passed through the gem on each pony’s necklace. Soon, the colorful arches met together behind the group of flying Equestrians and merged into one, massive, rainbow of energy that arced high into the air before thundering back down towards its intended target with a loud sonic-boom.
Incinerator roared in pain as the serpentine rainbow struck through his abdomen, creating a shower of sparks in the process. He could feel the unnatural sensation of every molecule in his body slowly transforming into stone. He watched in horror as his body was slowly turned into a statue before his very optics. Not willing to die a coward, the Decepticon raised his arm to fire only to find it instantly petrified by the powerful energy coursing through every part of his body. The last thing he saw before his optics turned to stone were the six equestrians he had tried to destroy glaring down at him with glowing white eyes. The magic ceased and all that remained of the once frightening Decepticon was a lawn ornament.
Slowly, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie floated down to the ground below. The magical aura around them began to wear off once their hooves touched the street; they were exhausted. As they opened their eyes and regained their normal vision they were shocked to see the statue of Incinerator standing in the middle of the street. That answered the question of whether or not the Elements had any effect on the Decepticons.
“THAT WAS AWESOME!!” Bumblebee suddenly shouted, startling the six equestrians as he burst out from around the other side of the statue. “You guys were amazing!! There was the rainbow, and the lights, and all the noises!! And then the rainbow hit Incinerator and it tuned him into a statue!? I mean wow!! I totally didn’t see that coming!!” The Autobot scout had the face of an excited colt as he mimicked the motions of the rainbow wave striking Incinerator with his arms.
Twilight blushed slightly at the Autobot’s compliments before a nearby groan caught her attention. “Wheeljack!” she shouted as she remembered the Autobot engineer lying face down in a pile of debris. She and her friends rushed to the blue-and-silver Autobot’s side and began attempting to help him up. But, much to their dismay, he wasn’t responding to their pleas. His entire body was covered in cracks and bruises and his body seemed to be rapidly leaking Energon.
“Bumblebee, what’s wrong with him?” Rarity shouted in alarm, looking to the yellow scout for answers. She had now moved aside so the younger Autobot could get a better look at his wounded comrade.
“Don’t worry, he’s only gone into Stasis Lock,” Bumblebee explained, breathing a sigh of relief and leaning down to the mechanic’s side. “It’s the equivalent of what you’d call being unconscious.” All around him, the mare’s mimicked his relieved sighs, happy to know that the Autobot mechanic had not perished at Incinerator’s hands before they stopped him.
Not wanting to leave their friend exposed, Bumblebee asked for Applejack and Rainbow Dash to help him move Wheeljack into a safer position. As the mares approached, he began scanning the area for a suitable location, preferably one with protection in the form of some kind of cover. So preoccupied was the yellow scout and Equestrians with this task, that they failed to notice the sound of a dozen or more airplane propellers filling the air around them.
As Bumblebee grabbed the downed mechanic by the shoulders, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Before anyone could react, Starscream appeared out of the smoke choked sky and instantly began dive-bombing straight towards the ground and the assembled Autobots and ponies beneath him.
Shocked at the Air Commander’s sudden appearance, Bumblebee quickly threw himself in front of the assembled mares, taking aim with his weapons. But, as he locked on, he felt the distinct impression that something didn’t seem right. Starscream was the kind of Decepticon that would pick you off from afar. It didn’t make any sense for the legendary Decepticon Air Commander to get this close to his target. The yellow scout anxiously watched as Starscream transformed and began flying low and fast across the ground in robot mode straight towards him.
The red-and-silver Decepticon was now drawing dangerously close and, slowly, Bumblebee began to put the pieces together in his mind. Before he could shout a warning to his friends, the treacherous Decepticon lashed out, knocking Bumblebee to the ground and grabbing Fluttershy in one swift moment. Suddenly, he ignited a jet engine hidden in his back and rocketed off back into the sky with a maniacal chuckle. The cream pegasus screamed for help as Starscream carried her into the air.
“Fluttershy!!” Rainbow Dash shouted in distress as she watched her best friend disappear into the thick, black smoke hanging in the skies. She unfurled her feathery, cyan wings and took off in pursuit of the Decepticon that had dared to kidnap her friend.
“Rainbow, wait!!” Applejack yelled as the rainbow-hued flyer flew away. “What the hay just happened!?” she demanded as she watched Rainbow disappear.
“Frag it all to the Pit!!” Bumblebee swore as he lifted himself back onto his feet. “He must have been watching your fight with Incinerator the entire time! He’s probably already figured out you guys need to stay together for the Elements to work and is trying to keep you separated!”
“Well, unfortunately, he’s doing a very good job at it,” Twilight snapped as she rushed back over to Wheeljack so she could check on the injured mechanic. Inside she was worried about Rainbow Dash chasing after the Decepticon, but knew there was little she could do about it now. There was no way she could catch up with the cyan pegasus.
Bumblebee growled with anger as he lifted Wheeljack out of the rubble and leaned him against a nearby wall. It wasn’t near the amount of cover he wanted, but it would do. He too understood that there would be no point in trying to chase down Rainbow Dash. They’d never be able to catch her. The rainbow-colored flyer was on her own now. There were no flying Autobots, like Jetfire or Silverbolt, on the planet to give her back up.
“So what do we do now?” Pinkie asked as she hobbled over to her friends with her bad leg. Rarity was being kind enough to act as a crutch for the pink, earth pony.
“Well, I’m no strategist like Prowl, but what I do know, is that we need a plan,” Bumblebee announced as he rubbed his chin in thought. “From what I’ve learned about Starscream, I would say that if he’s bothering to check in on guys like Incinerator, which is what he must have doing before you guys used the Elements, then it could mean the Decepticons are close to completing their mission.” Bumblebee explained as the mares nodded along. “Which means Megatron may be dangerously close to finding the Matrix. We have to send someone back to check on that cavern under the library.”
“Then here’s what were gonna do,” Applejack announced. She stepped forward and took on a much more commanding tone of voice. “Bumblebee will go and find Ratchet so we can get help for Wheeljack and Pinkie Pie; Rarity and I will stay here to make sure nothin’ happens to them while Bumblebee’s gone; and Twilight will go check on the library, if Megatron is there, and that’s a big if, she’s the only one of us who even has a remote chance of taking him on.”
“ARE YOU NUTS!?” Twilight protested. She looked over at Applejack as if the orange farm-pony had completely lost her mind. “I can’t fight Megatron!”
“Yes you can, Twilight. You’re not givin’ yourself, or your magic, enough credit,” Applejack calmly replied. “You’re the only hope of keeping Megatron from the Matrix until Optimus can get here. You know darn well what’ll happen to everything and everypony we care about if that maniac can get his twisted hands on that relic. Use that motivation to give yourself the courage you need to fight if you have to,” she suggested as she pleaded with Twilight to help. She walked over and placed a reassuring hoof on Twilight’s back. “The point is you’re the only one we can turn to right now…”
Deep down, the nervous, lavender mare knew Applejack was right. She was right about everything. Somepony had to stop Megatron no matter the cost. “A-Alright,” Twilight swallowed as she nervously looked back up at the orange earth pony standing in front of her. “But what if something happens and you need my magic here?”
“I made you a promise before we left the Autobot’s base and I intend to keep it!” Applejack replied as she placed her hoof over her heart. “We’ll be fine Twilight, I promise.”
With those last words of encouragement, Twilight Sparkle slowly turned and began to gallop in the direction of the Great Crystal Library and, most likely, Megatron. She didn’t like the idea of leaving her friends in the middle of a battlefield; there was a chance that they could be killed. And it would be her fault for leaving if they were.
No , she thought to herself as she ran. She had to remember what Bluestreak had told her. Together, Applejack and Rarity were more than capable of taking care of themselves and Pinkie, they would be fine. Twilight needed to focus on the task at hand.
She shook the negative thoughts from her head and tried to focus on what her orange, earth pony friend had told her. The lavender unicorn felt sick to her stomach, but she tried to center her thoughts on Spike, her parents, her brother and Cadence, Princess Celestia, and what would happen if Megatron managed to obtain the matrix. She knew she had to stop the Decepticon Tyrant; she had far too much to lose if she didn’t.
Transformers: Harmony
Twilight sprinted through the city square as fast as her four legs could carry her. All around her the Crystal Empire was burning and shaking from the force of the unrelenting Decepticon assault. Vehicon jet troopers patrolled the smoke riddled skies and she had noticed that ground forces were also beginning to join in the fray. In the distance, she could hear screams of help from various crystal ponies. She wanted to stop and help; to try and save them, but she knew she didn’t have the time to help them fight back.
Her mind raced as it frantically began to think up different strategies on how she could possibly keep the Decepticon leader from obtaining his prize. If he hadn’t accessed the cavern yet, then there was a chance she would be able to launch a surprise attack and keep him occupied until Optimus could arrive. If he had reached the cavern, she would, unfortunately, have to get his attention, and that would mean a direct assault. She prayed that it was option one.
As she rounded the corner of a nearby wrecked building, she could see the monolithic Crystal Library enter her field of vision; she also got her first look at the Decepticon tyrant.
His back may have been turned to her, but that didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat in fright. He was massive. He wasn’t as big as Incinerator, but he was ten times more intimidating. His broad shoulders terminated with pairs of razor-sharp spikes that looked like they had been ripped from back of a dragon. And from what she could see of his arms, they seemed to end with clawed hands and were covered in many serrated, metal plates. Mounted on his right arm was what looked like a cross between a cannon and a telescope. She could only guess that this was the dreaded fusion cannon she had heard the Autobots talking about.
Continuing to gallop towards him, Twilight watched as Megatron raised his weapon and aimed it at the hole in the street he’d been standing over. Suddenly, a burst of immeasurable energy leapt from the end of the barrel and detonated within the tiny crater. The explosion was so powerful; the resulting shockwaves shattered the crystal in the surrounding area and knocked Twilight off of her hooves.
Her head slammed against the broken brick road beneath her. If a blast of that magnitude didn’t open the way into the caverns than nothing would, the lavender unicorn thought to herself. She had to do something and fast. She quickly leapt back to her feet and began to channel every bit of magic her body had to offer into the tip of her horn.
………
Megatron took a step back and admired his handiwork. It had taken several minutes of melting through the stone road, and a final shot from his fusion cannon, but, in the end, he had gotten the job done. As the dust from the explosion cleared, he looked through the hole and into the dark cavity below. So, this is what they were attempting to hide , he thought as he continued peering over the edge into oblivion. In the dim light he could just barely make out that there were several structures within the cavern that were not natural.
Using skills learned from centuries of survival training, he estimated the drop into the cavern to be roughly a hundred or more feet. Not a problem for someone of his size, but he would rather not risk the minor damage it could cause to his robot form. He took a step back and readied himself to transform and descend into the darkness. That’s when he heard the sound of very soft footsteps approaching from behind.
“MEGATRON!!” an unknown, feminine voice shouted.
The Decepticon leader turned around to face the stranger and was startled to find a small, purple unicorn looking up at him. She had a look of anger and determination on her face. The horn sitting atop her head glowed with energy as she ran her hoof across the brick floor, preparing herself for a charge. Her short, purple mane was covered in soot and dust.
“I won’t let you take the Matrix!!” she growled.
Megatron stared in disbelief for a few moments before he began to laugh.
“THIS!? This is what Optimus Prime sends to stop me from claiming the Creation Matrix? A mongrel beast?” He laughed again. His thunderous voice rolled through the air with his amusement. “A simple animal of burden?”
Chided by his mocking, Twilight closed her eyes and continued to focus all the power she could into her horn. It didn’t take long for Megatron to cease his laughing and begin to approach her. The lavender mare didn’t know if he was just going to kill her or continue insulting her, but she knew she had to get him away from her, and fast. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes as she unleashed the building energy in her horn. Much to her shock, the Decepticon leader was standing right over her as she launched the magical attack.
Leaping off of her horn and into the Decepticon tyrant, the bolt of magic did far more than Twilight had been expecting it to. Megatron roared in pain as the beam of reddish energy lashed outwards across his chest before lifting him up and throwing him backwards through the air. With an explosive collision, he was sent crashing through many of the sturdy, marble pillars that supported the Library’s patio overhang. His flailing body finally came to a concussive stop as it was embedded into the outer wall of the Crystalline Archives.
As the clouds of debris settled from Megatron’s impact, she could see that she had actually damaged the Decepticon Leader. A long, wide, gash had been cut into his smooth, metal chest. The laceration ran right through his Decepticon insignia, right over where his spark chamber was hidden. Twilight couldn’t help but smile with glee at her success.
However, Twilight’s glee quickly metamorphosed into fear as Megatron began to rip himself out of the stone wall. His blood-red eyes glowed like wildfire as he looked towards her. With a thunderous sound of breaking stone, he freed himself from the temporary prison and slowly glanced down at the mark across his torso before returning his burning gaze to her.
“Alright then,” he hissed. Megatron let out a warrior’s roar as his fusion cannon transformed into a powerful, steel blade and he began charging towards the much smaller unicorn.
The lavender mare’s eyes widened with terror as she saw the massive Decepticon leader running straight at her. Nopony had bothered to mention he had a sword. She tried firing off more rounds of magical energy at the incoming Decepticon but, this time, the bolts of red energy simply rebounded off of his thick armor. Twilight mentally screamed at her legs to move but they remained frozen in fear at the visage of the metallic monster rushing towards her.
Finally, with a mighty heave, will power overcame fright and Twilight was able to leap out of the way as Megatron brought his sword slamming into the earth where she had been standing. Daring to take the presented opportunity, she fired off a spell into his face before turning to run. The Decepticon tyrant roared with fury again as he ripped his blade free and continued his assault.
Following the mental plan in her head, Twilight quickly turned down one of the streets that lay adjacent to the library, hoping to draw Megatron as far away from the crystalline structure as she could. However, as she looked down the street she had chosen she realized the folly of her plan; the street was a dead end. Just like what had happened with Incinerator, walls formed from fallen buildings and debris rose up on all sides, effectively blocking any chance of escape she had. Her cunning plan had only succeeded in trapping her.
.........
High above Twilight and the pursuing Decepticon leader, Rainbow Dash weaved her way through clouds of thick, black smoke as she continued in pursuit of the enemy that had kidnapped her best friend. She hadn’t picked up on what this Decepticon’s name was, but, based on what she had learned in the Autobot’s based, she could guess that this was Starscream, the Decepticon’s Air Commander and leader of the seeker air battalion. She had to admit, it was a fitting title. Starscream was extremely fast and very agile. Even in robot mode he had managed to speed ahead of her and loop around buildings like they were just a filly’s jungle gym.
As she drew closer to the flying Decepticon, she could just make out the sleek, red-and-blue robot ahead of her. Gripped tightly in his left hand was Fluttershy. The cream pegasus had a wide-eyed look of fear as her Decepticon captor streaked through the skies at subsonic speeds. Growling at her opponent, the cyan colored pegasus folded her wings back and gained an extra boost of speed, bringing her up on the seeker’s tail.
Before she knew what was happening, Starscream suddenly flipped over and began firing the miniature chain guns mounted on each of his arms.
Rainbow Dash screamed and banked to the right, barely dodging the merciless attack. Her eyes were wide with fright. The bullets whizzing past her head were far too close for comfort. She had to think fast if she wanted to free Fluttershy from her opponent’s grasp without getting mowed down by the Decepticon’s weapons. She banked back to her left, dodging another round of Starscream’s bullets as she tried to think. What could she do in this situation? She carefully looked her Decepticon opponent over before noticing that, strangely, despite using some kind of fire in his feet to fly, Starscream continued to keep the propellers across his wings spinning. An idea born of desperation began to form in her head.
“Hey you big bucket of bolts!!” she shouted at the Decepticon. “Let go of my friend!!”
“\Why should I?” Starscream taunted in return. “It seems that you ponies are far more powerful than we gave you credit for. So…I wonder…can I put an end to your little rainbow-powered weapon if I kill your friend here?” Fluttershy began to scream in pain as Starscream tightened his grip around her. He glared down at the frightened pegasus before turning his attention back towards the rainbow flyer. He smirked.
“STOP!” Rainbow shouted in panic. She could see tears beginning to form in Fluttershy’s cerulean-colored eyes.
Enraged and desperate to save her friend, Rainbow Dash decided it was time to throw her half-baked plan into action. She waited a brief moment, taking time to make sure Starscream was focused on her before rocketing straight up into the air. She coughed slightly as she tore through layer after layer of ash and smoke. As she went, she made sure to keep an eye on the Air Commander beneath her, making sure he didn’t leave her line of sight for even an instant. Luckily he was just staring up after her in confusion.
Once she felt she was high enough in the sky, the cyan pegasus arched and remained frozen in midair for a second. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she readied herself for what came next. Slowly and elegantly, she whipped around and began to dive bomb straight back down towards the silver seeker. She kept her wings pressed against her sides as she fell; she didn’t need enough speed to create a Sonic Rainboom, but she needed just enough to do some damage when she made impact.
“What is that coward doing?” Starscream asked his captive pegasus who only stared back at him with panic-stricken eyes.
Before the seeker could get an answer, Rainbow Dash was right over top of him. She flared her wings, dramatically reducing her speed as she somersaulted through the air and brought her leg up and around to deliver a powerful, judo kick. A kick she had used many times in the past to help Applejack demolish farmhouses and to help Fluttershy deal with more threatening animals. The momentum carried through by her drop allowed her leg to pierce through the light, metal casing surrounding the engines embedded in Starscream’s left wing. Almost instantly there was a reaction and the engines began emitting smoke as the propellers along the left wing ceased turning.
Starscream started shouting in alarm as he lost control and began to plummet towards the broken roads below. Rainbow had been right. Without the help from his propellers the silver robot couldn’t support his own weight in the air.
Amongst the panic caused by his sudden drop, Starscream accidentally relinquished his grip on the captive Fluttershy. Seeing her chance, the cyan pegasus swooped down, catching her friend right before she could join the Air Commander in his fall. The panicked pegasus was still shaking with fright as Rainbow held her in her arms.
“Fluttershy, are you okay?” Rainbow asked as she gently released the cream-colored pegasus so she could fly under her own power. “Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine Dashie,” she replied, taking a moment to calm down before hugging the rainbow-hued flyer in appreciation. “He just squeezed me a little too tight is all,” she giggled. Suddenly, the sound of wrenching metal drew the two friend’s attentions to the ground below. Starscream had finally collided with the street.
“Well, we better get out of here and find everypony else,” Rainbow suggested as she continued to look down. “That guy’s already starting to get back up.” She watched as Starscream flipped over onto his stomach and glared up at them with piercing red eyes. What remained of his wings had been broken and cracked during the crash, and all of his propellers were either wrecked or missing entirely.
He wasn’t going to be flying again anytime soon.
Fluttershy nodded in agreement and the two flew off to find the rest of their friends, leaving the damaged, Decepticon Air Commander in their wake.
From his place on the ground, Starscream looked up at the retreating pegasi and began to laugh. “Don’t get too used to winning you little freaks,” he sneered. “One day I shall have revenge for what you’ve done to me. It will only be a matter of time.” He leaned down and picked up some of the pieces of his crippled wings. He was done with this fight; Megatron could retrieve the Matrix on his own. He had already decided to return to the Nemesis for repairs.
………..
Smoke rose around him as Megatron continued to track his fleeing target. Catching sight of her down a dead-end road, he slowly turned and began approaching the much smaller unicorn. He chuckled as he watched the desperate mare back up against one of the shattered buildings and start firing off rounds of glowing, magical energy from the horn atop her head. Unfortunately for her however, even her strongest, magical attacks were bouncing off his metal skin, barely making a scratch. He wouldn’t give her the time to concentrate and gather her energy like he had last time.
“Is that really all you’ve got?” Megatron chided, his booming voice filling the air. He slowly raised his fusion cannon, taking aim at the struggling unicorn. “Honestly, I was expecting more after that first little show of force.” He sadistically laughed as his weapon began to charge. He would return to his hunt for the Matrix after he had taken care of this organic piece of filth.
The lavender mare closed her eyes, wincing in fright as she waited for the bolt of energy to strike her down. Twilight couldn’t believe she had been stupid enough to get herself trapped. She was going to die and Megatron was going to take the Matrix. He was going to destroy everything she or anypony had ever cared about and bring an end to her entire world. Tears began to prick at the unicorn’s eyes as she waited for the Decepticon leader to deal the final blow. She had failed to stop Megatron, and now, everyone and everything was going to suffer because of it. Her entire mind seemed to go blank and everything delved into silence as she listened for the sound of the fusion cannon firing.
Instead, the sharp, shrill sound of a train whistle rang through the air, pulling her out of her preconceived doom.
Twilight’s world exploded around her as Optimus Prime himself burst forth from behind a nearby building. His locomotive alternate form wildly span out of control on the brick-layer roads of the city, showering sparks in every which direction as he attempted to aim himself at his archenemy. Not wanting to be crushed, the unicorn leapt out of the way as Optimus slid by, slamming the full force of his body into Megatron as he began transforming into robot mode.
“PRIME!!!” The Decepticon leader roared as Optimus brought the full weight of his iron-clad, vehicle mode crashing against Megatron’s torso, easily knocking him to the shattered ground beneath them.
“Twilight, run! This is not your battle!” Optimus barked. He watched as the violet unicorn quickly ran away from the two, metal titans.
Finishing his transformation, the Autobot commander quickly rushed his ancient enemy, grabbing the Decepticon tyrant and slamming him into one of the nearby building just as he was regaining his balance. Prime let loose a battle cry as he began to repeatedly slam the silver Decepticon’s bucket shaped head against the brick wall he had him pinned to. He drew his fist back to deliver a brutal blow to the silver tyrant’s battle scarred face but was surprised to hear him laughing.
A massive beam of energy fired from Megatron’s fusion cannon, striking Optimus in the chest. The Autobot leader was immediately sent flying.
Amidst the fury of their battle, he had been foolish enough to forget about disarming his opponent’s signature weapon. Instead, Prime ended up colliding with the Crystal Library down the street, knocking down a number of the pearl-white pillars that supported the massive, crystalline structure’s roof as his body came to a stop. Recovering quickly, he rolled behind the cover of one of the still standing pillars as Megatron transformed and took to the skies.
Now in vehicle form, the Decepticon tyrant sheared through the smog-filled air, peppering the ground with deadly laser fire as he tried to execute his most hated enemy. Before Prime could draw his weapon and return fire, Megatron changed tactics, banking back into the upper limits of the sky where he transformed. Returning to his robot mode, he silently began falling back down with an incredible speed. A malicious grin grew across his mouth as he closed in on Optimus.
Still dazed from being knocked into the marble columns, Optimus was helpless as Megatron came down and cracked his fist into the side of Prime’s head. Sparks erupted from the impact and the Autobot commander was sent sprawling through the large, glass exterior of the building. He landed in a massive pile of wood and paper. He groaned in pain as he tried to stand, but, before he could recover or even formulate a plan, Megatron leapt through the hole, throwing himself on Optimus and pinning him to the wooden floor. The two leaders struggled against one another’s might as they fought for the upper hand.
“Ah, a library,” Megatron exclaimed, taking in his surroundings as the Autobot leader thrashed to free himself from beneath Megatron’s grip. “Quite appropriate…don’t you think, Orion?” He grinned, knowing he had struck a nerve regarding Prime’s former name. That time so long ago when the two of them had been the closest of friends.
Gathering his strength, Optimus grunted as he began to lift the Decepticon leader off of his body. Megatron had already taken the opportunity to begin pummeling Prime with his fists, hoping to keep him pinned to the floor. But, Prime refused to be broken so easily. As soon as he had moved the attacker high enough off his torso, he used his thick, tree-trunk-like legs to kick the tyrant in the chest and sent him careening back through the hole in the front of the building. Optimus quickly drew his Ion Blaster out of storage and pursued Megatron out of the library. He opened fire as soon as he spotted the silver Cybertronian rushing back up the street.
Megatron roared as he charged his eternal archenemy, dodging laser fire left and right as he drew closer to his opponent. Moving swiftly, he stopped on one leg and brought the other arching around to deliver a powerful kick that knocked Prime’s gun from his hand. Following this brutal blow, he lashed out and grabbed the Autobot commander by the throat before lifting him high into the air. The small, rays of the sun that could peek through the smoke-filled skies reflected off Prime’s helmet and beamed directly into Megatron’s blazing optics.
“I am going to enjoy this,” the Decepticon leader smirked as he spun around, using the momentum to hurl Optimus down the street.
Landing harshly on the streets a few blocks away, the Autobot commander desperately scrambled to get back on his feet. He pushed chunks of cement and debris out of the way as he attempted to rise off the ground. Behind him he could hear Megatron slowly approaching. If he was going to turn the tide of this battle in his favor he was going to need to act swiftly.
“Do you really believe you can defeat me, Prime?” Megatron asked as he advanced towards the downed Autobot leader. “Once I’ve destroyed you, I will travel into the caverns discovered by your little animal, friends and claim that which is rightfully mine!” he exclaimed.
“You are not worthy to hold the Creation Matrix, Megatron.” Optimus growled as he rose from the rubble. Reaching up behind his back, he unsheathed his long, powerful Energon Blade. He rose it into defensive position and readied himself to strike down the Decepticon tyrant should the opportunity present itself.
“I beg to differ, Prime,” Megatron explained, he was now beginning to monologue as he watched the Autobot leader slowly get to his feet. “Need I remind you that it was I who freed Cybertron from the grip of the corrupt senate? That it was I who gave the citizens of Cybertron a cause to rally behind? ” he asked. Slowly the silver Decepticon raised his fusion cannon in the direction of his enemy.
“Only for that cause, and yourself, to become corrupt and poisoned by the very ideals you strived to destroy.” Optimus countered.
“I only acted in response to you and that fool Sentinel, Prime!” Megatron barked, the anger in his voice clearly rising. “It was you who wanted to remove me and my army from power!! You who wanted this war!!!” he shouted, charging his arm mounted weapon to fire on the one Autobot that had caused him so much trouble in the past. “This is what you chose Prime, when you defied me!!” The silver tyrant bellowed as the center of his cannon began to glow with a powerful light. “ALL OF THIS IS YOUR DOING!!!” he roared as the beam of energy fired at the Autobot leader.
Moving quickly, Prime jumped out of the way as the blast struck a nearby pile of debris, incinerating it instantly. Using his new found momentum, Optimus leapt at Megatron, bringing his elbow to bear as he collided with the Decepticon’s exposed chest, forcing the tyrant to stumble backwards and temporarily lose control of the cannon attached to his right arm.
“You would have never ruled with a just hand, Megatron!” Optimus shouted, swinging his blade through the air and cleaving through the seam holding the cannon to Megatron’s arm. The deadly weapon went sailing through the open air before landing in a pile of debris a few feet away. “Even for the brief moments you were in power, you took the citizens of Cybertron who wished to aide you, and stripped them of their sparks, transforming them into your now faceless army! All because they didn’t fit your idea of a perfect Cybertron!” he cried, bringing his free fist around to deliver a debilitating uppercut that sent Megatron sprawling backwards into a nearby building.
Unrelenting, Optimus charged Megatron again, driving his sword into his enemy’s now weaponless arm, holding him to the building as he began to wail on his torso. With savage fury Optimus began delivering blow after forceful blow to the Decepticon leader. Sparks and Energon flew in all directions as the Autobot leader slowly beat his way through the armor protecting Megatron’s chest and head.
“You truly believed you were the savior of our planet!?” Optimus snarled, slamming his fist across Megatron’s face. “You, who poisoned and killed our world with the foul Dark Energon? You, who killed millions of innocent neutrals who tried to escape the planet and met your blockade!? You, who took the lives of an entire village of Equestrians, just to draw me out of hiding!?”
“ENOUGH!!!” Megatron boomed. He used his free fist to knock Optimus back. “I END THIS NOW!!” he roared, tearing his enemy’s sword from his arm and charging forward.
“So be it, Megatron.” Optimus stated. He took a small step to the side as the Decepticon tyrant brought the sword slamming down into the ground next to him.
………
Cadence quickly dodged out of the way as Blackout swung his massive fist towards her, making another attempt to swat her out of the air. Even with while missing one arm, half his face, and almost all the armor across his body Blackout was a formidable opponent. He was a Decepticon warrior forged in the gladiatorial arenas of Kaon. He would not lose to a pink, organic ball of feathers and hair. The massive Decepticon bellowed in rage as he unleashed the last weapon in his arsenal: a powerful, spinning blade formed from the remains of the propeller attached to the back of his airship vehicle mode.
The ruler of the Crystal Kingdom screamed in fright as she spread her wings to bank and avoid her opponent’s wild swing. The rotating propeller grazed her mane, lopping off a few small locks as it passed by directly above her head. Cadence frantically looked around for help, but could find none. She spied the red-and-white, slumped form of Ratchet nearby in a pile of debris. The Autobot medic had been knocked unconscious a little while ago when Blackout had pinned him to the ground and delivered a savage kick to the side of his head. The blade swung by closer than ever on her right hand side; the force of wind coming off of it bent her wing in an unnatural shape. She yelped in pain as she tumbled to the ground below.
Seeing his chance to end the battle, Blackout slammed his massive, iron fist into the ground. The immense propeller blade moved up onto his remaining arm and began to rapidly spin in reverse, creating a grinding vortex that would slice through the pony princess, reducing her to bloodied ribbons. He laughed sadistically as he watched the grounded Cadence desperately try to sprint to safety. There was no possible way she could escape now, the force of the turbulence would overwhelm her tired body at any moment.
“And now you die, your Highness!” Blackout sarcastically growled. He was completely oblivious to the sounds of the heavy footfalls approaching him from behind. Before the Decepticon knew what was happening, his shoulder was grabbed and his face was met with a massive, black fist.
The winds pulling Cadence to her death instantly ceased and the pink alicorn began to look around in confusion. As she turned to face her Decepticon attacker, she was greeted with the sight of a massive, black Autobot savagely beating him across the head with his fists. She hadn’t been introduced to this one.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it ain’t nice to hit a lady!?” Ironhide bellowed in his thick country accent. He grabbed Blackout’s face in his metal hand and hurled the Decepticon overhead and onto the ground behind him. Not willing to give the cobalt robot the chance to retaliate, Ironhide charged forward in order to deliver a final blow.
The Decepticon warrior struggled to fight back, but it was far too late and he was far too damaged to make a proper stand against the legendary Autobot veteran. Before Blackout could even make an attempt to swing his blade at the oncoming Autobot, Ironhide swung in low and delivered a powerful uppercut that lodged his fist and lower arm into the underside of Blackout’s shattered torso.
Ironhide let out a mighty roar before unleashing the full fury of his arm mounted cannon into his Decepticon opponent’s insides. Instantly, Blackout’s spark chamber exploded and his head incinerated as the blast travelled through his shattered torso.
“Well, that takes care of that,” the veteran calmly spat, turning to look down at Cadence while throwing Blackout’s corpse off of his arm. The massive, metal body cracked against the brick floor and lay silent.
Cadence nodded in agreement before looking up at the Autobot soldier with a mixed look of fear, respect, and gratitude. But mostly fear.
Transformers: Harmony
From her hiding space amongst the crumbling, tattered buildings Twilight watched as the two titanic leaders of the Cybertronian race clashed with brutal fury. Her heart was gripped with fear and panic as sparks and shavings of metal flew into the air around Optimus and Megatron as they brawled. On more than one occasion, the two had gotten too close to her hideaway for comfort. They were landing blows against each other that would instantly kill anyone who did not possess the same endurance as the two legendary commanders.
Twilight knew she had to help somehow. Both combatants had been going at each other for a number of minutes now and Megatron still looked to be in good shape. Apart from the open and dented wound in the middle of his chest, and a few “bleeding” spots of Energon that had appeared in various places on his body he was holding up surprisingly well. Optimus on the other hoof wasn’t so fortunate. Even after reclaiming his sword, the Autobot was beginning to show signs of fatigue. The Decepticon tyrant had managed to land a good number of powerful attacks on his enemy even without the aid of his fusion cannon. Prime had smoke emerging from various cracks on his chest that Megatron had managed to open, and his entire body seemed to arc with loose energy from damaged internal systems. Small flows of Energon were running down the surfaces of his arms and legs.
From the sidelines, she watched as the Autobot commander took a desperate chance to make a strike at Megatron with his blade, hoping to lodge it into the tyrant’s skull. But the Decepticon was too quick and simply stepped to the side, making the blade miss by several feet; Prime was beginning to weaken severely. Winding his arm back, Megatron delivered a debilitating punch to the underside of Prime’s chin.
The lavender mare observed splintering, web-like cracks spread across Optimus’s faceplate as the fist made contact with his enemy’s chin. Optimus slid backwards from the force of the blow and used his sword to maintain balance. Very slowly Megatron was wearing the leader of the Autobots down.
“It seems you’re beginning tire out, old friend,” Megatron taunted, looking on as Optimus raised his sword back into attacking position. “Even without my weapons I am still besting you. But then again, what would one expect when a simple librarian goes against the former leader of Cybertron’s planetary armies?” The Decepticon let loose with a booming laugh, almost as if he was challenging Prime.
Twilight’s mind instantly froze as she heard Megatron speak. Optimus Prime had once been a librarian!? B-But she was a li-.
Before she could finish her thoughts, the Autobot commander unleashed a furious battle cry as he charged at the Decepticon with his sword again. The mare winced slightly as Megatron easily dodged each one of Prime’s swings until the Autobot leader was leaning in front of him, desperately trying to recover his strength. She had to think of something she could do or Optimus wouldn’t last much longer. She quietly began gathering herself and her thoughts so she could launch a spell at the Decepticon Emperor of Destruction.
“Do you know what the difference between the two of us is, Prime?” the silver Decepticon asked. He delivered a powerful, sweeping kick that knocked his ancient enemy flat on his stomach. “Unlike me, you choose to hide your true strength; you fight alongside your armies, your ‘friends’ instead of taking the fight into your own hands” he mocked. “That is why you lose!!”
Before Optimus could move, Megatron began delivering a horrifyingly powerful round of blows, burying Prime into the street. His balled fists came together as they slammed repeatedly into Prime’s back. Sparks and energon flew in every direction as the Decepticon leader continued with his savage attack. He smiled with glee as he landed every blow to his eternal enemy. He couldn’t help but relish the feeling of another Cybertronian’s Energon splashing against him as he readied himself to deliver the killing blow.
Finally, and with much effort, Optimus managed to block one of the Decepticon’s violent beatings with his still held sword and rolled away to counterattack. A deep impression had been left in the street where the Autobot leader had been lying.
Prime slowly lifted himself to his feet as Megatron took another moment to laugh and mock him. He frantically looked over his silver foe for any sign of weakness. Much to his confusion, he noticed a strange, glowing aura of purple energy was carefully snaking its way up Megatron’s lower left leg. Optimus looked towards the shattered buildings to his left and could see Twilight gently smiling at him, the horn atop her head was lit with magical energy. Putting two-and-two together, Prime stood up to face his mortal enemy once more for what would hopefully be the final time.
“You’re wrong, Megatron,” Optimus calmly stated as he stared down the tyrant optic-to-optic. “What you fail to see is that my comrades, my friends, those who I choose to fight alongside, are my true strength!!” he suddenly yelled. Before Megatron knew what was happening, the Autobot leader gathered all the remaining strength in his body and swung his sword back to deliver one more, powerful blow to his Decepticon opposite.
Acting just as he has before, Megatron quickly began to take a step backwards so he could dodge the oncoming attack, but instantly found that something was wrong.
His left leg was completely unresponsive.
Panicking, he looked down and was shocked to find his leg completely engulfed in a swirling mass of purple, otherworldly energy. As time slowed around him, he frantically began searching for the source of the strange power. It took only moments to spot the lavender unicorn that had challenged him earlier. She was hiding inside one of the nearby buildings and her horn was a light with energy.
“YOU!?” The tyrant roared in disbelief as he saw the young unicorn smirking at him.
But it was far too late. Optimus Prime unleashed his fury and sent his blade slamming against the Decepticon leader’s body. The edge of the glowing, Energon-powered sword instantly caught into the gash Twilight had made in Megatron’s chest earlier and tore it open with the sickening sound of wrenching metal.
The Decepticon Leader, one of the most feared beings in the galaxy, screamed in pain as his torso exploded outwards from the force of Prime’s strike. Energon, wires, and internal components sprayed into the hot, smoky air. From her place in the building Twilight released her hold on Megatron’s leg and the Decepticon leader tumbled backwards. He crashed to the broken ground as Energon began to gush out of his open wound, spilling to the road beneath him.
As Megatron tried to lift his broken body off the ground, Optimus walked over and pinned the Decepticon leader by placing a massive, metal oott onto the crippled Decepticon’s stomach. Prime slowly lifted his blade skyward and positioned it over Megatron’s now exposed spark chamber. The sword glistened in what little sunlight it could reflect as the Decepticon leader looked on with slight fear in his blood-red optics.
“This ends now, Megatron,” Optimus growled. “For all the lives you took on Cybertron and for all the lives you’ve taken during our stay on this world.” He looked Megatron in the optic as he spoke and tensed his body as he readied to deliver the final blow that would end their longstanding rivalry.
Suddenly, and before Prime could deliver the fateful blow, what appeared to be a blast of pressurized air flew towards him, knocking him off the damaged Decepticon tyrant. As the burst of air exploded across Optimus’s chest, it let out an earsplitting sonic-boom. The familiar blue-and-silver form of Soundwave emerged from the other side of a nearby building. He was rushing towards the two combatants while rapidly firing his large, Sonic Resonance Blaster in an attempt to ward the Autobot away from his damaged leader.
As the Decepticon master spy continued to sprint towards them, his back split open and Laserbeak instantly sprang out, taking flight into the air. The metallic buzzard shrieked and dove at Optimus Prime, attacking the Autobot commander’s face with his razor sharp talons, tearing off chunks of his cracked faceplate. While Prime was distracted by Laserbeak’s frantic and wild attack, Soundwave managed to get down next to Megatron.
“Lord Megatron, you have suffered immense damage at the hands of Optimus Prime,” Soundwave reported, stating the obvious: much to Megatron’s annoyance. “Celestia and Luna have arrived to provide the Autobots with reinforcements, we must fall back,” the Decepticon spymaster requested in his usual, reverberating voice. He gently began to lift Megatron off the ground and positioned himself so his leader could lean against his back and shoulder. “The battle is lost. Blackout and Incinerator have fallen and Starscream has taken heavy injury. He has already retreated to the ship for repairs. You must do the same if you are to continue functioning.”
Megatron coughed, sending drops of Energon flying from his mouth to the ground. “Is the Nemesis repaired?” he asked. If Megatron couldn’t keep his enemy from taking the matrix himself, than he’d blow it, and this entire Primus-forsaken city, off the face of the planet with the Nemesis’s cannons.
“It is flight capable,” Soundwave responded as he used his arm to help further support the toppling, silver Decepticon. “But the weapons are still offline; it cannot launch an aerial bombardment in its current state.” He informed Megatron, reminding the enraged Decepticon of his limited, mindreading abilities. “I highly suggest we make a tactical withdrawal, it is the only way to ensure your empire continues to exist after this confrontation.”
“Very well,” Megatron weakly growled. “Soundwave, contact any remaining Vehicons and tell them to commence with an immediate, full-scale retreat. Optimus Prime may have one this battle…but our war is far, far from over.”
The Decepticon’s communications officer nodded his head in affirmation and sent out a message detailing the retreat from the field of battle. He quickly received acknowledgement of the request from over a dozen, still-functioning Vehicons before turning to acquire a tighter grip on his wounded leader. Not wanting to waste the precious time Laserbeak was buying them; he leaned down and scooped Megatron up into his arms before igniting the jet engines he kept hidden in his legs in case of emergencies.
As Soundwave began to lift into the air, Laserbeak ceased his assault on Optimus’ head and took to the skies, following his master in retreat. Once at Soudwave’s side, the Cybertronic buzzard made a quick sweep of the scarred landscape before diving down to a point in the distance. He resurfaced moments later, carrying Megatron’s Fusion Cannon in his talons.
Prime chased after them for a moment before realizing it would do no good. The two Decepticons were already disappearing into the smoke-filled skies, too far away to be damaged with any of Prime’s close ranged weapons. And, by the time he would have found his Ion Blaster, Megatron and Soundwave would already be long gone. The Decepticon tyrant and Emperor of Destruction would unfortunately live to see another day. He lingered a few moments before finally accepting Megatron’s escape. Instead, the Autobot commander decided to turn his attention to the brave Equestrian who had aided him in Megatron’s defeat.
He found Twilight standing outside the crumbled structure she had been taking refuge in earlier. The small, lavender mare had a large grin on her face as he approached. Optimus leaned down onto one knee so he could more easily address the courageous unicorn. He took silent note of the numerous scrapes and bruises that covered her small body.
“Oh my gosh, you actually beat him!!” Twilight excitedly chirped. Watching Soundwave and Megatron retreat had lightened Twilight’s mood tremendously. It felt like a massive weight of guilt and worry had been lifted off her back. They had won! Megatron was defeated and the power of the Matrix wasn’t going to fall into his destructive hands. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“It is only thanks to you, Twilight. Had it not been for your last-minute help, Megatron may have finally gotten away with destroying me,” he stated. Despite the serious nature of his speech there was still a bit of lightheartedness in the way Optimus said the words.
“I-It was nothing,” Twilight stuttered as she blushed at the Autobot Commander’s praise. “But now that Megatron and Soundwave are gone what do we do about the remaining drones? Shouldn’t we try to destroy them before they can cause more damage?”
Optimus placed a finger on her back to reassure the young unicorn. “I am certain that Prowl and Ironhide will be able to handle cleanup, Twilight,” he chuckled. “In the meantime however, would you like to accompany me in recovering an artifact that should have been found a long, long time ago?”
Twilight nodded her head as she began to lead Optimus back towards the Crystal Library.
………
Optimus led the way as he and Twilight gently descended into the cavern that was hidden underneath the now destroyed library. They made their way in through the hole that Megatron had opened in the street tied to ropes that suspended them in the air as they made their way down; a special invention created by Wheeljack. They had been intended, and specifically designed, to support the weight of Cybertronians. As the pair traveled farther downward, Prime illuminated the three lamps that ringed the top of his locomotive chest. Instantly, the crystallized water throughout the cavern captured the light and reflected back, displaying a dazzling show for the two adventurers as they gently set their feet and hooves down on the wet, rock floor of the cave. Amusingly, Twilight had to fight to maintain her balance on the slick surface.
The lavender-coated mare looked around the cavern in awe. The massive stalagmites looked like towering, castle spires and the light shining from Optimus’ chest made the Flowstone, rock walls jump alive and appear to be moving like a vertical waves in an ocean. Flowstone, as she head read, was a rare kind of rock that was shaped when a sheet like deposit of calcites formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. Twilight thought it was some of the most beautiful stone in all of Equestria.
“Optimus?” she asked, confused by the Autobot’s unnatural actions. Her voice echoed across the cave.
He did not answer her. The only sound in the silent cave was that of small drops of water falling from the stalactites above to the pools below and, yet, it almost seemed like Optimus was being drawn towards the back of the cave as if he were being called on by a voice Twilight could not hear. The unicorn briefly wondered if Optimus had some innate connection to the Matrix. He was making a beeline towards the carved out tunnel Shining Armor had found earlier. Twilight stood in shock for a brief moment as she realized it had only been a few hours since she and her brother had explored this cavern. It seemed like ages.
Twilight cautiously followed Optimus into the strange, unnatural tunnel. Unlike the Flowstone outside, the walls of this passageway were smooth and had been cut by some kind of tool long ago. Iron beams had been laid into the rock on both sides and the ceiling in order to offer structural support to the aging rock. The remains of an aged, iron door sat slumped against one of the tunnel walls, almost as if whoever carved the tunnel intend to add an extra layer of protection, but either ran out of time, or was prevented from doing so by an unknown force. The lavender mare didn’t like the look of it.
As the duo rounded a bend in the path she was surprised to see that the tunnel was much shorter than she had been expecting. She could already see it exiting into a small, rounded chamber. She tried to warn Optimus to be careful, but he wasn’t listening. He was still moving forward in his trance-like state.
The chamber ahead of them was just as bare and empty as the tunnel they were standing in. The same dirty, brown walls and iron supports stood on all sides of the rounded room. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. The only feature across the carved, dusty walls was a strange, metal dome. It looked like somepony had rammed a giant, iron ball into the wall and left it there. But, as they entered the room she yelped in surprise as the seemingly lifeless iron began to glow with otherworldly energy and a loud, but somehow soothing voice filled the entire chamber.
“Welcome, Optimus Prime.” The peaceful, but commanding voice said. Twilight fell into absolute silence as she listened to the voice continue. “I am all that remains of the legendary Knights of Cybertron. And I have long awaited your foretold arrival.” The voice went silent for a few moments before continuing. It seemed as if it was trying to sift through memories as old as time itself. “Optimus Prime, throughout your time as the Prime you have proven yourself to be different from the long line of Primes that failed before you. You have transformed the lives of all those around you; you have led the people of Cybertron through the darkest of hours, the very death of Cybertron itself; and, despite all of this, you still find the courage to defend a new, much younger race in the face of evil. Primus has deemed you more than worthy, Optimus Prime. Are you ready to accept the token of the burden placed upon your shoulders by the Lord of Light, Primus, himself?”
“I am.” Oprtimus answered, slightly startling Twilight as he spoke up for the first time since entering the cavern. He stood completely still, unflinching as the other-worldly voice spoke resumed its speech.
“THEN BEHOLD: THE CREATION MATRIX!” the voice boomed, filling the chamber with echoes of itself. The metal sphere began to split in half and slowly fill the room with the same peaceful, blue light that Twilight had seen in Prowl’s hologram of the Matrix.
Then she saw it, floating in the center of the open, iron dome.
The Creation Matrix was just as beautiful as the hologram had led her to believe. The lights in its center danced and swayed, reflecting off its gold casings with a beauty unlike anything Twilight had ever seen. It mesmerized her as she stared at it; she could feel it reaching out and touching parts of her mind that had never been felt before. It truly was an artifact of great power and wisdom.
The Matrix unexpectedly began to emit a beam of the purest, white light Twilight had ever seen from its hexagonal core. The shaft of light struck Optimus Prime’s damaged chest and, in response, the Autobot leader’s chest began to change slightly. It split down the middle, opening like a kitchen cabinet. Instantly, the legendary relic of Cybertron flew from its place inside the metal sphere and lodged itself inside Optimus Prime’s chest. As soon as the matrix made contact, the blinding light began to expand and fill the small cavern like a dying supernova. Twilight was forced to throw her right leg over her eyes to prevent herself from going blind. The light seemed to sing like angels as it flooded the chamber.
As the glow quietly faded, and the cavern returned to normal and Twilight removed her leg from her face and looked at the Autobot leader. His entire body had been healed of the injuries inflicted by Megatron and he seemed to be glowing with a radiance she couldn’t explain. For some reason, to her, Optimus looked complete now. He looked down at her, and although she couldn’t see it behind his featureless faceplate, she knew he was smiling. She returned the smile as the two began to make their way towards the cavern’s exit…
………
The sun quietly began its final descent into the night as it looked out across Sweet Apple Acres, casting its radiance down upon the assembled ponies and alien warriors. In particular the light reflected off of the deep, red finish that adorned Optimus Prime’s body as he stood beneath one of the many, mighty apple trees that dotted the landscape. He watched as his soldiers and friends set about their work. He had granted the Autobots permission to reveal themselves to young Applejack’s family so that Wheeljack could keep a promise he had made to the orange-coated mare.
It had now been three weeks since the battle for the Creation Matrix had come to its end.
During the intervening time, the Autobots had done everything in their power to help rebuild the devastated Crystal Empire. It was under Celestia’s orders that the city’s residents had been sworn to secrecy about the battle, and the alien presence on their world. Deep down however, despite Celestia’s intentions, Prime couldn’t help but feel that the time for this world to know of him and his Cybertronian brothers would soon be at hand. Especially now that Megatron was once again loose on the planet. By the time the Autobots had returned to the Hanging Valley in hopes of capturing the wounded, Decepticon Leader, the Nemesis had long since disappeared, moving on to another part of the planet.
Optimus was not disappointed by Megatron’s escape. He knew there would be other battles, other chances to bring his old friend to justice. For now, he would take each day and each battle as it came, protecting the people of Equestria as best as he could until the day came where Megatron was either destroyed or behind bars.
Despite the heavy thoughts on his mind, the Autobot leader couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as he glanced down at the young filly on the ground below him. Applebloom, as she was called, was both Applejack’s younger sister and a child full of enthusiasm and drive. He watched as the young, red-haired filly ducked and weaved in and around Wheeljack’s large legs as the Autobot engineer put the finishing touches on the device he had been working on. The device in question was a large, iron block with many tubes and gears protruding at all manners of angles.
Moving carefully, and with calculated precision, Wheeljack aligned the long shaft sitting on top of the device with his calculated angle of trajectory and fired a large, metal slug high into the air. The slug exploded with a slight popping sound and, within a matter of mere moments, Optimus watched as the sky began to fill with dark, swelling clouds. They quickly blotted out the final rays of the setting sun.
The first, large drops of water began to slowly fall from the sky and ping off Optimus’s thick armor. Soon enough, the globules of water started falling more and more frequent until mass sheets of rain were pouring from the sky, bringing life to the dried fields surrounding him. He watched with amusement and pride as the ponies surrounding Wheeljack and the rest of the Autobots began to cheer and dance, thanking the engineer for what was such a simple feat by Cybertronian standards, but a miracle for them. As the rain continued to restore life to the dying soil, Optimus slowly turned and watched as the sheets washed over the fresh grave that was marked beside him.
Bluestreak , Optimus thought to himself as he watched the water run down the tombstone that had been placed beside the mighty tree. In the time the Autobots had spent on Equestria, as well as in and around Canterlot and Ponyville, Bluestreak had come to love the lands surrounding Sweet Apple Acres. Fortunately, Applejack and her family had been more than kind enough to allow the Autobots to bury their fallen comrade on their land. I wish you peace as you reside with your fallen friends and family in the All Spark, Bluestreak. As Optimus spoke these words in his mind he couldn’t help but notice that Twilight Sparkle had approached and joined him in looking over the red-and-silver Autobot’s grave. A look of sorrow was plastered over her young face.
Slowly, but carefully Prime fell to one knee and placed a reassuring finger on the bridge of her back. He smiled as she looked up at him. “Twilight, I promise that Bluestreak is where he wants to be now. He suffered through much trial and tribulation during his life, stemming from the fall of his home, Praxus, and the loss of his friends and family because of that. He always blamed himself for not being there to protect them when they needed him most, but, trust me when I tell you, he is finally at peace.”
“I know…” A small smile of her own formed on her lips as the violet unicorn responded to Prime’s claims.
As Optimus watched the small unicorn sitting under his index finger, he couldn’t help but ponder on what the future might hold for her. He began to think back to the words Celestia had shared with him after the battle in the Crystal Empire. Much to his surprise she had actually thanked him and the rest of the Autobots for bringing Twilight and her friends into the fight with the Decepticons. She told them that she had always expected the two groups to meet some day and had been planning on it. She spoke of how she believed the trials Twilight had faced during her time with the Autobots were the final signs she needed to prove that the young unicorn was ready to fulfill her ultimate destiny.
A destiny that, at this point in time, I am not sure I entirely agree with. Prime silently thought to himself. But, what Celestia had told him was true. By facing the trials that were set before her, he too was beginning to believe that Twilight Sparkle has the makings of a great leader.
Slowly, Optimus removed his finger from Twilight’s back and stood back up. He looked out into the sky, through the dark, rain-filled clouds, towards where he knew his far away home world lay. Raising his finger to the side of his head, inspired by the words Celestia had shared with him and the prospects of Twilight’s future, he activated his comm-link and began to speak, recording a message that may one day find its way into the hands of Cybertron’s future leaders long after the war and his time were over…
In any role in life there are times when we face trials that no other being would wish to endure. We are tried with the possibilities of failing the ones we care about and losing the friends and comrades we hold dear. But, it is how we face these trials that mark the greatness of a true leader. I am Optimus Prime. And I send this message so it may be recorded amongst the annals of Cybertronian history; in hopes that one day perhaps it will come in use to the future leaders of our race.
End
Transformers: Harmony
Acidic, corrosive rain fell from the tattered skies hanging over the once great Cybertronian city of Tarn. Before the Great War, Tarn had been Cybertron’s most militarily powerful city-state and had been home to the annual State Games. But now, after centuries of orbital bombardment from the now abandoned moon bases, and continual attacks from what little Autobot resistance remained on the planet, the great city-state had been reduced to a mere fortress of cobbled together walls and defenses. Early on in the war Megatron had planned to transform Tarn into a model Decepticon city, but those plans quickly fell apart to infighting after the inhabitants of the city launched photon missiles at their longtime rival, the city of Vos, home to Cybertron’s Air Command.
The remains of the city looked like a dark, hellish citadel, rising out of the ground like a demon’s hand. Towering, spiked spires clawed upwards into Cybertron’s destroyed atmosphere while ominous, green lights emerged from somewhere within the twisted, worn walls. Over the course of the war, the city’s defenses had been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that hardly any of the original Tarn remained.
The only remaining architecture from the old city was the monolithic watchtower that rose out of the citadel’s center like the stigma rising out of the bulb of a wrecked, dying flower. The watchtower reached into the sky and was formed from reinforced, cybernetic walls with many, massive windows wrapping around its structure. It was the only thing to be kept constantly powered in the dying city-state, as it was always keeping vigilant watch on the happenings of Cybertron and its remaining inhabitants.
Within the towering, obelisk-like building, a single, Cybertronian life-form sat behind the expansive array of controls. He watched as the wall of monitor’s flickered in front of him as the cameras hidden around the surface of Cybertron changed focus, showcasing what was happening around his city, and the very planet, at every waking moment. His large, purple hand flew over the controls as he carefully typed in a series of commands to order one of the monitors to begin displaying images from outside the city’s fortifications. His single, glowing, yellow optic watched as an Autobot scout scurried away from the camera’s sight and his behind the remains of a wrecked, Class-3 Ruination Tank. He would deal with the intruder later. For now he had other matters to deal with as the large, metal door slid open behind him.
“Speak.” The metallic, purple watcher ordered.
“Commander Shockwave, we have received word from Lord Megatron on the planet Equestria.” A large, green-and-purple Decepticon stepped into the watchtower control room. His silver faceplate moved against his blood-red visor as he spoke.
“And?” The Decepticon head scientist queried. He turned around in his massive, metal chair to speak with his visitor face-to-face.
“He is requesting more of the new prototype Vehicon model be sent to the Nemesis on Equestria immediately,” the second Decepticon reported. He handed Shockwave the holo-datapad with the orders on it.
Shockwave glanced at the information briefly before tossing it aside. In cases like this it was more efficient to gain information from word of mouth. “What happened to the four squadrons that I had already sent to aid him?”
“He reports that they were all destroyed in a trap that had been laid for Optimus Prime.” The green-and-purple Decepticon spoke nervously as he finished the report. He knew Shockwave would not be happy.
The head of the Decepticon’s science division sat still for the longest time. He did not speak and he did not move. His faceless head rested in the palm of his right hand, his only hand; the other had been lost long ago after a fight with an escaped experiment. Finally, he rose up from the metal chair he was resting in. The antennae at the sides of his head twitched in irritation as he looked down at the smaller Decepticon. Cybertron was in a state of crisis, the eons of civil war had ensured that their dying home world could no longer provide the energy needed to maintain the Decepticon war machine. And off world Energon supplies were coming in far too slowly to have any real effect.
“It appears we have reached an impasse then,” Shockwave calmly replied. He walked past the second robot and began heading for the watchtower’s elevator. He had decided to relive his anger at the situation by finding and killing the Autobot scout he observed earlier on the monitors. “It was under Lord Megatron’s leadership that Cybertron was poisoned by his foolish plan to use the mythical Dark Energon as an energy source; it was under Lord Megatron’s leadership that the Decepticon army was lost for four million years, slumbering on Equestria’s moon because he ordered the Nemesis launched from Cybertron before all safety procedures had been completed; and it is now under Lord Megatron’s leadership that we are continuously splurging resources and soldiers that Cybertron and the Decepticons do not have to offer,” he evenly explained as the smaller, second Decepticon walked silently behind him. “Lord Megatron’s leadership has finally surpassed the logical breaking point. It would appear that the time has finally come for Megatron’s illogical, emotionally fueled reign over the Decepticon armies to come to an end.”
“What do you mean sir?” the confused Decepticon asked as he watched Shockwave enter the elevator. He carefully kept an eye on the gun barrel that sat in place of the scientist’s left hand. He did not want to get destroyed for his trouble.
Shockwave very calmly turned around in the small elevator and glared at his fellow soldier. “What it means, Scrapper, is that very soon you, your team, and I will be paying Lord Megatron a visit to this so called energy rich world of Equestria…”
To Be Continued...
Transformers: Harmony
As Princess Luna’s moon crawled to its zenith in the midnight sky, casting its light on the world below, it almost seemed to stop for a brief moment, hovering over the large mountain buried in the deep woods surrounding the capital city where its stewardess lived. To a casual observer, it might seem as if the younger Princess had made a slight mistake, but she, like her sister, knew of the importance of this hidden fortress. Because, unbeknownst to any of the inhabitants living in the grand city of Canterlot, the stony peak hid a secret far more amazing than the Elements of Harmony themselves or the Great Mirror Pool hidden in the Everfree Forrest.
Living within this massive stone structure were alien soldiers of a far off world; soldiers who had arrived over three years ago to defend the planet from an invasion of unbelievable proportions, and afterwards, stayed behind to ensure the planet’s continued safety. Whether the threat be from further Decepticon attacks, or helping defend Canterlot behind the scenes during the Changeling invasion at Shining Armor and Princess Cadence’s wedding, the Autobots had stood steadfast in defending their new home. But now, they were preparing for something far worse; the return of an enemy not seen in years…
…………..
“And that’s what happened,” Bumblebee explained, watching as his commanding officer rubbed his chin in thought, mulling the situation over in his mind. “If I hadn’t transformed and attacked Incinerator, he would have killed those six natives.”
“You did the right thing, kid-- don’t beat yourself up over it,” a deep, southern voice grumbled from nearby as a large, black Autobot approached the smaller scout, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly. The veteran warrior smiled as he peered at the younger bot through the scar over his right optic.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not if it was the right thing to do, Ironhide,” a second voice scolded from across the room. “The point is he exposed himself and our operations to even more of this planet’s native population,” the speaker declared, approaching the pair and shoving an accusatory finger into Bumblebee’s chest.
The accusing finger belonged to a mid-sized Autobot, standing only slightly taller than Bumblebee, but much shorter than Ironhide. The Autobot’s black and white color scheme seemed to dim in the shadow of the large Autobot weapon specialist, but the gold ring around the locomotive face on his chest glowed, reflecting the bright lights of the base into the young scout’s optics. The wings on his back, formed from the coupling rods and front wheels of his vehicle mode, began moving up and down slightly in agitation as he glared at Bumblebee from under his round, red-crested helmet.
Ironhide growled at the Autobot second-in-command, cracking his knuckles while the two massive cannons on his arms began spinning rapidly. “Don’t you dare tell me you’re gonna try and court-martial him, Prowl!? The point is Bumblebee saved those mares’ lives,” he explained, grabbing Prowl’s hand and moving it away from his friend’s chest.
“Will the two of you shut up and stop fighting!?” another voice suddenly shouted out. The voice wafted through the air, emerging from a hole burrowed into the nearby wall.
“Stay out of this, Wheeljack!” Ironhide bellowed.
Looking down the metal-lined hole, the Autobot veteran could see the silver-and-blue Autobot mechanic tinkering with some electronic cables buried in the floor. The blue lights of his “ears” lit up the dark, almost pitch-black, tunnel, giving it an almost eerie feeling and making the shadows of the supporting ring structures wave around like cyber-jelly fish in the sea of rust. The “hole,” as Ironhide understood was actually Wheeljack’s latest invention; a supposed “Ground Bridge” that, once activated, could instantly teleport an Autobot to any place on the planet. Quite frankly, Ironhide didn’t buy it.
“Ironhide,” Prowl began, drawing the attention and ire of his fellow Autobot back towards him. “You have no right to defend Bumblebee; he has clearly violated sections six, eleven, fifteen and twenty-two of the Code of Interplanetary Conflict!” he stated, referring to the document outlined by Chief Justice Tyrest over six centuries ago. “If we choose to ignore this, we will be inviting immense consequences down on ourselves.”
“I don’t care if he slapped Primus himself in the face, Prowl!” Ironhide snapped back. “He was doing it to save lives!” The black Autobot took a step forward. He was ready to begin beating Prowl’s face in.
“Um, do I get a say in this?” Bumblebee timidly asked, awkwardly grinning as he raised his hand into the air. He had the strangest feeling that whoever won this fight, he would end up losing.
“No!” both parties shouted in unison.
“Where’s Ratchet!? I bet he can settle this!” the weapon specialist growled, referring to the Autobot’s chief medical officer, who was currently in his medical bay performing minor cosmetic repairs to Bluestreak after the battle with Incinerator. He and the medic had been friends since the beginning of the Great War. Ratchet would support him no matter the situation.
Silence filled the room for a brief second as Optimus continued staring down the two Autobots. Even Wheeljack, who wouldn’t normally cease work for anything, had poked his glowing head out of the Ground Bridge tunnel to listen in on what might happen next. Both lieutenants were now looking towards Optimus; an expression mixing both embarrassment and shame was plastered on their faces after hearing what their leader had yelled.
Prowl finally responded, breaking the silence that had engulfed the room for a full three minutes. “Forgive us for losing control of ourselves, Optimus. So, what is your verdict on Bumblebee’s actions?” he asked. He fully expected the Prime, the leader of their army and race, to uphold the legal laws of the Tyrestian-justice system.
Optimus sighed as he brought his hand to his face and pinched his nose between his fingers. “I find this whole situation to be highly curious.”
“What do you mean?” Bumblebee asked, stepping forward slightly to move past Prowl and get closer to Prime. The confusion in his voice was readily apparent.
“The six mares you described, I have seen them before,” the Autobot leader stated, sending looks of shock and surprise around the room. He slowly lowered his hand from his face and walked into the midst of the group to better explain himself.
“You have!?” Prowl exclaimed, cocking an eyebrow in disbelief as the wheels attached to his legs softly spun in circles. He hadn’t been expecting that to be Optimus’ response.
“Yes, on the stained glass in Celestia’s throne room,” Prime clarified, reminiscing about the numerous times he had gone to visit the princess in that room. “The images depicted the six of them saving Equestria from numerous threats using what appeared to be a number of golden talismans,” he explained.
“Whoa!” Bumblebee exclaimed, smiling as he piped up. “I guess that explains why they weren’t too panicked about seeing something as large as Incinerator!” He chuckled slightly. “Maybe they didn’t need my help after all.”
“Yes…” Optimus repeated as he stroked his chin with his free hand, contemplating on what the young yellow-and-black scout had said. Could it be possible that these six mares were capable of fighting Decepticons? But, if they were capable, why would Celestia not ask for their help in defending Equestria from the evil Cybertronians?
Ironhide finally began to speak up after the earlier incident. He stepped forward, placing a hand on the Autobot leader’s shoulder; a sign of the friendship the two had shared long before Optimus ever became the Prime. During the height of the Great War, after the death of Sentinel Prime, Ironhide had been the first Autobot to throw his support behind the newly chosen Optimus as the Autobot’s leader.
“Something on your mind, Prime?” he asked.
“I am concerned as to why Princess Celestia would keep these six mares a secret from us,” he declared, turning to face his old friend. “Surely if they are defenders of Equestria they would want to know of the threat the Decepticon’s pose to their home planet.”
“Well, they looked pretty young to me,” Bumblebee chimed in, raising his arms in a shrug. “Maybe Celestia doesn’t think they’re old enough or maybe she just doesn’t want them involved,” he suggested. “I mean, I don’t want to sound insensitive, but our battles can get pretty casualty-heavy, pretty quickly.”
Optimus turned to face a nearby wall and stood in quiet meditation for a moment. He crossed his arms, a thousand thoughts running through his processor as he tried to decide the best course of action. All around him, the room grew quiet as the assembled Autobots waited for their leader to speak. Even Wheeljack had popped back out of his hole in the wall, curious as to the conversation happening within earshot.
“Regardless of Celestia’s intent,” Optimus finally said, turning back to face his team. “I believe it is their right as defenders of this world to know of the threat their planet faces, and decide for themselves whether or not to aid us.” He had a serious look stuck on his face as he spoke.
“Optimus, what do you mean by that?” Prowl asked, the suspicion in his voice ringing loud and clear as he glanced towards the Autobot leader with a concerned look. Prime couldn’t possibly be suggesting what he thought he was suggesting.
“Bumblebee, tomorrow morning I want you and Bluestreak to return to Ponyville and bring those six mares here; it is time to introduce ourselves,” Optimus ordered, surprising everyone in the room. He watched in mild amusement as a shocked, almost flabbergasted look began to crawl across Prowl’s face. He couldn’t help but chuckle slightly when his second-in-command’s jaw dropped to match the face.
“SERIOUS!?” Bumblebee exclaimed as a huge grin began to grow on his appearance. Bumblebee loved the natives of this world and relished any chance he could get to “hang out” with them as he put it.
“Well, there goes the neighborhood,” Wheeljack sighed as he sunk back into his hole and resumed his work on the Ground Bridge. The thin, silver smokestacks running between his shoulders and torso puffed black smoke in annoyance as he did so. “Somebody dig me out of this hole once the nightmare’s over.”
“Optimus! Surely you’re joking!?” Prowl asked, turning back and forth between his commanding officer and the ecstatic young scout. “This is clearly in violation of the Code of Interplanetary Conflict!” he protested, the wheels on his legs and wings span rapidly in agitation. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend what he was hearing. Had Optimus lost his central processor?
“Trust me, Prowl,” the larger, red Autobot said, placing his hand on his first lieutenant’s shoulder to try and calm him. “I knew Chief Justice Tyrest, and I’m sure he would agree, given the current dire circumstances, that we are in need of any help we can get,” he explained.
Optimus watched as his young scout leapt into the air, shouting for joy at the prospect of getting to know more natives. As he watched Bumblebee land and run off to Ratchet’s medical bay in search of Bluestreak the Autobot commander could not help but smile a little under his iron faceplate.
For better or worse, he thought to himself, watching as Ironhide slapped Prowl on the back before laughing and chiding the second-in-command over their leader’s decision. Bringing these ponies into our home will change both our lives forever…
