My Little Pony & Robot Friends: Infiltration

Sunli Nevla. That was the name of an atypical blue mongoose with the ability to speak, standing triumphant over the defeated remains of Lord Shockwave. His trusty steed, a sea green Little Pony by the name of Fizzy, and he were standing atop of pile of grey and lifeless rubble left over from the furious battle that just taken place. It was long, hard, and Sunli was low on energy- yet strangely, his perfect blue coat had nary a blemish.

Sunli's long, flowing silvery mane billowed in the wind, his sword held high as he prepared to deal the final blow to the heartless Decepticon buried under the rubble below.

"No...no, please!" The normally emotionless Shockwave begged as Sunli raised his sword to deliver the final blow. "Have mercy, O Sunli The Magnificent!"

"You have no mercy, Shockwave." Sunli snarled, "And now, you beg for it. I thought-"

BLEEP BLEEP!

Within the Autobot base, Sunli's tall tale was interrupted by a rather annoyed bleeping from Bumblebee. The Littlest Pet Shop Pet had seriously exaggerated the story of how he helped Bumblebee out earlier today.

"What's his problem?" Vinnie, Sunli's camp gecko companion, asked of Bumblebee's translator, Raf. But Raf couldn't understand him, so Raf needed his own translator – which was where Pinkie Pie came in.

They had been conversing for the last few minutes, discussing the excited day they had. Pinkie carried Zoe's inquiry over to Raf, who translated Bumblebee's thoughts without the muted Scout even needing to voice them.

"He says Sunli isn't telling the story right." Raf answered, which Pinkie translated into a whinny that Vinnie understood.

"And we should know!" Pinkie added. "We were there, for pete's sake!

"So what is the story?" Vinnie rather impatiently demanded, over the clicking and computerized beeping of Ratchet's work in the background.

Bumblebee bleeped out his response.

"He says he'll tell if Sunli promises not to interrupt again." Pinkie translated.

"Fine...but my story had a better ending!" The mongoose shook his paw at Bumblebee, earning a dismissive whir from the Scout.

Yeah, right. Bumblebee scoffed in his bleep speech. Pinkie and Raf knew they didn't need to translate that.

Bumblebee made a noise of crackling static. To Pinkie and Raf, it sounded like he was clearing his throat. To the Pets, it sounded like he was dying.

Ahem! Let's start from the beginning. I'm Bumblebee, and I want to tell you a story.

The story how, earlier, today, I totally ruined Twilight Sparkle's wedding.

[center]Hey little sister what have you done?

Hey little sister who's the only one?

It's a nice day for a white wedding.

It's a nice day to start again.

White Wedding - Billy Idol,

INFILTRATION

Story 4

(Tran)Sister(tor) Of The Bride, Part 1

(It all started during the mornin'...what am I, Scottish, now, or something? mornin'...I mean, morning. Princess Cadence and Twilight's friends had taken us – that's me and Team Prime- to go and explore the Crystal Empire and learn about it. Naturally, Optimus jumped at the chance. Smokescreen wasn't invited, as he was assigned to Equestria anyways...Ooh, I remember when we got there. It was the first time any of Team Prime had seen the Crystal Empire up close. On the edge of town, Optimus stopped and gazed up wistfully at the looming spires of the Crystal Castle...)

The Ponies and Team Prime noticed that Optimus was lagging behind them.

"What's wrong, Optimus?" Cadence asked.

"It is this place." Optimus answered. "It reminds me of Crystal City, a city we had on Cybertron before the War. I wonder if it has been restored..."

"Oh..." Ratchet moaned sadly and turned to face the same spire Optimus was looking at. "I guess it does kind of resemble the once great Crystal City of Cybertron..."

"Yeah, okay, nope, nope, nope!" Cadence insisted, and the members of Team Prime that were now longing for a return to a simpler time before the war found themselves being dragged across the ground by their feet against their will.

"This is going to be a happy occasion, Optimus." Cadence growled, horn aglow. "None of this mourning and longing! You are going to stay here, you are going to enjoy yourselves, and everypony will have a good time!"

(Ha ha. That really shut Optimus up good. Cadence gave us the royal tour of the entire Empire and all its districts. When we got close to the Crystal Castle, Arcee and Rainbow Dash had to leave to deal with a slight nuisance. But that's a whole nother story!

Where was I? Oh yes! After Rainbow Dash and Arcee departed, Cadence had the great idea that it would be good idea to have us all stop by the spa and get genuine Crystal Massages from genuine Crystal Masseuses By the AllSpark, they just have Crystal Everything, don't they? What's next? Wait, let me guess! Crystal...Shampoo! Crystal Oil! Wait, that might actually be interesting, actually.

But I'm getting sidetracked. She led us into the spa, where Twilight's brother joined us. He kept giving Optimus the evil optic. I'm starting to think he doesn't like us, for some reason.)

"Here it is!" Cadence exclaimed, gesturing towards the building that was actually large to hold a Cybertronian or two or four, in this case. "Go right on in!"

Optimus ducked his head and made his way inside, careful to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling of the door frame.

(I have to admit, I'm impressed by the Crystals' extravagance. This was a building they made 1,000 years ago, and it was big enough to let Team Prime and I in!)

Inside, Crystal Ponies were diligently at work, scrubbing the manes of clients with relaxing crystal shampoo. Bubbles of frothy pink formed on their heads as the masseuses' hooves went to work scrubbing every lock of hair and with it, every knot of tension the client may have had formed in their bodies.

Princess Cadence hadn't just brought the Team here on a whim; they were raised platforms of steel bars everywhere, each at a specific height to corresponded to the Autobot it was meant for. The Crystal Ponies had been prepared for this visit. Cadence directed each robot into their respective places and blew a whistle, giving the order for the masseuses to come forward start their work on each robot. Each team of ponies went up the platform's ladders and reached their hooves through the bars to start working out the kinks in each robot's shoulders. How machines got kinks in their shoulders, the Crystal Ponies didn't know. The due that was working on Optimus' right shoulder, however, managed to accidentally bust his shoulderplate open, exposing a piece of branch that was tangled in his wires.

"How did that get there?"

Optimus remained silent, unusually so.

"An excursion with the Princess gone awry, perhaps?" Ratchet grumpily suggested, before moving his arm to give his masseuse better access to the sensitive parts. "Oh, right there! Apply some pressure directly below the collaborator..." The Masseuse didn't understand what he was talking about and just proceeded as normal. Ratchet turned his attention back to Optimus. "You have been spending some time with her, as of late..."

Optimus looked away bashfully. "Please, Ratchet. Remember what Her Majesty Mi-"

"Optimus! You know I don't like my full name being used!"

Optimus nodded in Cadence's direction. "Remember what Her Majesty Cadence said. This is to be a happy occasion."

"All right..." Ratchet reluctantly admitted. "But we do need to have some talk about that some time. I'm worried some of Princess Celestia's..." Ratchet gazed downwards, unsure what to say. "Mischievousness will rub off on you."

Optimus' optics droned as he looked away again.

(I stood there nervously. No pony seemed to notice my own masseuse hadn't arrived while all the other bots were getting tickled and rubbed. I wasn't jealous, per se, just...felt like I had been singled out.)

"Ooh!" Cadence whined in sympathy, noticing how no one was attending to Bumblebee. The Princess looked around for the masseuse scheduled for him and came to the conclusion that she hadn't shown up to work today because she was sick or something. "Is nopony attending you, Bumblebee?" Cadence asked the small mech, her voice laced with the kind of concern a grandparent gives their grandchild when they see they've run out of milk to go with their cookies.

Bumblebee nodded shyly.

"Here." Cadence volunteered, flying from Optimus' platform to Bumblebee's. "Let me fix that..." Cadence stepped in place nervously, and looked at Twilight, still on the ground. "This will be new! I've never given a neck message to a robot before!"

"If anypony can do it, it's you!" Twilight assured her former foalsitter.

"Wish me luck..." Cadence muttered, before cricking her neck. Cadence cracked her wings against, beating them on each other to remove any stiffness that might interrupt Bumblebee's neck message. "All right..." Cadence reached her wings through the bars of the platform and applied her feathers to the side of Bumblebee's neck. "Is here good?"

Cadence didn't notice Bumblebee's optics dilate. Unbeknownst to her, she had touch a sensitive spot; the very spot where Megatron had held Bumblebee's throat while crushing his voicebox. Bumblebee's neck had healed since then, repaired over countless time by wielding meant to deal with more recent battle damage from more recent battles. Yet, he still felt it.

Bumblebee saw him. Bumblebee saw Megatron, holding his throat. Twisted shrapnel pointed upwards. The wreckage left over after Megatron had finished rampaging through the forward base. Fire and pillars of ash twisted and wove through the air, the glare of the heat painting Megatron's silver body as black as his Spark truly was. Megatron's sharktooth fangs visible as he grimaced from Bumblebee's refusal to divulge the information the Decepticon Lord sought.

Bumblebee readied his blasters, and perhaps the fact he could access them now when he couldn't have during that event should have tipped him off to the fact this wasn't actually happening, but merely a traumatic echo of what happened. It didn't matter in his mind, though; all that mattered was getting out and escaping.

Bumblebee raised his blasters and fired at Megatron's face. Even Bumblebee's most well-executed barrage of laser fire only seemed to phase through Megatron's body, prompting Megatron to laugh, mocking Bumblebee's inability to hurt him. Bumblebee shrieked and went for the simple approach, clawing at Megatron's face with his hands, trying to scratch his face. Megatron didn't laugh so much at that.

Meanwhile, to those who didn't accompany Bumblebee to La-La Land, The Crystal Ponies ran and ducked when Bumblebee started firing randomly through the spa for seemingly no reason. Ratchet raised his arms to block Bumblebee's shots from hitting a pony or two, and Twilight and Cadence could only watch in horror; Bumblebee was clearly on a mission, and there would be no easy stopping him.

Mercifully for everypony, Optimus specialized in doing things that weren't easy.

"BUMBLEBEE!" Optimus shouted and grabbed his Scout by the shoulders, applying enough pressure to snap Bumblebee out of his mirage, but not so much so the smaller mech's armor would crack.

(I felt so ashamed. Optimus was angry with me. I just had nearly shot organics, one of our biggest no-no's. I looked around and saw all the pits and smoke wisps rising into the air from where my shots had seared the walls. But- but it wasn't my fault! I didn't mean to! I saw Megatron's face! Optimus!)

Bumblebee looked up at the larger robot who had him held firmly, and his widened optics told Optimus all that Optimus needed to know.

"Bumblebee..." Optimus muttered silently, closing his optics. "Come here..." Optimus took his hands off Bumblebee's shoulders and bent down to hug him, patting the Urbana 500 on the back. "Come here, solider...he can't hurt you anymore... it's all right."

Bumblebee bleeped sorrowfully and wrapped his arms around his father figure's back.

Seeing the shots had stopped, everypony and bot began rising up from their covers, to see the sight of Optimus holding Bumblebee so tightly.

Cadence put her front hooves on the bars, and looked at Twilight on the ground. Twilight shrugged with as much uncertainty was Cadence was feeling.

Shining Armor raised from his cover. "I hope you're giving some good reprimanding, Optimus..." Shining muttered, and he was infuriated when he saw Optimus not just not reprimanding Bumblebee, but hugging him! Shining's muzzle rolled like a revving engine as he growled.

Optimus gave Bumblebee one last pat on the back before separating from him and putting his hands on Bumblebee's shoulders in a much more comforting manner. "All better, Scout?"

Bumblebee bleeped and nodded.

I'm sorry, Optimus...

"Princess Cadence." Optimus said seriously, turning towards the Crystal Matriarch. "I believe it would be best if any further festivities were postponed."

"Of-of course..." Cadence nodded, putting her hoof to her mouth sadly. She meant when she said this was going to a happy occasion, but she could see trying to force the events she had planned wouldn't be stubborn, it would be stupid, so she let Optimus decision pass. It saddened her that it would come to this.

"Nice going, Bumblebee!" Shining Armor scolded. "Cadence said this was going to be a happy day, and you singlehandedly ruined it! Very nice, Bumbler!"

But...but...oh!

Bumblebee ran out of the building, his car doors swinging up and down on their hinges, beeping sadly and rapidly in lieu of the ability to properly wail and voice his depression.

"Hmph." Shining felt rather pleased with himself that he had brought a big, bad Autobot to tears, but that dissipated when he turned around and saw Optimus snarling at him. The disapproving glare of the Last Prime, to Shining, felt like he had dunce cap slapped on him, sprayed with dog training water, and then had a metal pole shoved into his spine.

Optimus pointed his finger rigidly at Shining, and Shining prepared himself for a long-winded lecture about overstepping his boundaries, but instead, Optimus humphed and turned towards the door.

"Twilight Sparkle, if you would accompany me..." Optimus said.

Twilight looked to her brother, humphed in his direction, and pranced behind Optimus' leg out the door.

Shining watched her go, then noticed his wife looking at him as well.

"Shining...is something going on?"

Shining rubbed the back of his neck sorely. "Yeah..."

Elsewhere, in the rebuilt Kaon, while Optimus and Twilight struggled to comfort Bumblebee in the Crystal Empire, the imposing Decepticon enforcer Blackout lumbered through the halls, a half mind to visit Shockwave in his laboratory.

Shockwave had recently rendered all access to his lab null and void, announcing he had a secret project. The Decepticons knew, when Shockwave said something was a secret project, that meant he had a secret project. Any Decepticon foolish enough to barge their way in Shockwave's lab despite his warnings could very well find himself reallocated to a job managing scrap, regardless of their actual function.

Blackout's three-fingered claws fiddled with a tanker of oil. The mustachioed, grasshopper like Decepticon stared the tanker, giving off an unusual pink bubble from inside, and reconsidered whether or not he really wanted to go through with this.

Blackout closed his optics and sighed.

"Hey!"

Blackout opened his optics and turned around – something that wasn't easy for him and his large bulk in the hallway, barely enough to keep a Leaper inside. Blackout saw that Barricade, a mouthy little speed demon of a Con who turned into a police car, ironically.

"What ya up to, Blackout?" Barricade asked. It was rare for anyone to dare to even come close to Shockwave's laboratory after the announcement Shockwave was beginning work on some super-secret project.

"Nothing," Blackout fibbed, trying to hide the tanker in his claw behind his back.

"Oh come on!" Barricade protested, trying to hop over and look over Blackout's large back. "I know you got something! What are you doin', huh? So close to Shockwave's lab, to boot?"

"I'm..." Blackout hesitated. "Playing a prank on him."

Barricade whistled. "Whoa! Really? Playing a prank on Shockwave? That's...like, playing a prank on...well, actually, Shockwave's such an emotionless dweeb I can't really think of a good comparison- hey!" Barricade was so caught up in his rant, Blackout had time to enter the entry code into the door to Shockwave's lab, slip through the door, and by the time Barricade noticed, Blackout was already on the other side with the door closing.

"See ya!" Blackout waved at Barricade through the closing doors. Barricade fumed.

On the other side, Blackout saw Shockwave at work, pushing buttons on a terminal that was mounted on a very, very large tube full of yellowish green liquid of questionable nature.

Shockwave continued his work, then stopped abruptly, sensing the presence of an uninvited guest. His shoulders tensed, and he turned around. "You better have a good reason for intruding on my work, Blackout."

Blackout was always impressed with out how Shockwave's tone could express contempt while still maintaining an even tone of voice.

"Er, yes..." Blackout muttered, noticing that there appeared to be a shape within the tube. "I've made this experimental new fuel, Lord Shockwave."

Shockwave gave Blackout an interested optic, as though he might just forgive Blackout for intruding on his experiments. "Illogical...I mean, unusual. I did not take you for a scientist, Blackout."

"Well..." Blackout muttered. "It was actually something of an accident, really... I'll just leave it here, on your table, and you can try it when you need to refuel."

"Very good." Shockwave agreed. "Now leave me be!" The thing in Shockwave's tube, whatever it was, seemed to twitch. "I have much work to do!"

"Of course, My Liege." Blackout bowed and made haste to leave the room. Once outside, Blackout sighed, putting his claw on the wall in remorse. At least Barricade had left, so Blackout didn't have to deal with his mouth.

"Is this really what Megatron would have wanted?" Blackout asked himself, knowing he would not get an answer.

Blackout took his claw off the door and started walking down the hallway. "Is this the path he would have me walk down?"

Blackout left the tower, heading towards a landing pad attached just to the side of the tower. Blackout looked around, contemplating all he saw. Cybertron's artificial sun burning brightly in the sky. The glow of Changeling Batteries assuring the populace the world was alive and well.

Blackout converted into his vehicular mode and flew loops around Kaon, eventually passing enough towers that he transformed again and landed just in front of a huge statue of Megatron that had been erected in the late Lord's honor while he was still alive.

The area around was as desolate and empty as the grave. It still looked dead, despite the fact Cybertron was very much alive now. As no one was there, Blackout had the whole area all to himself. Blackout looked up at the amazingly accurate statute. The sculptor had gotten everything right, from Megatron's pauldrons, to his claws, to his fangs.

Blackout contemplated the statute for a moment, before dropping to his knees. Being so large, he made a particularly heavy and forceful thud as he bowed, begging for his dead master's forgiveness for any mistake he may have made in giving Shockwave the experimental fuel.

"Come what may, know that everything I do, I do for you, My Liege."

Everypony stopped whatever they were doing when Optimus Prime came into Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle at his side. Mothers stopped watering their plants, lumberjacks ceased cutting up wood. The sight of Optimus was still breathtaking to him, as despite his best efforts to relate to them on a personal level, they still found him to be as intimidating as the idea of Celestia walking into town unannounced. Optimus did not show his botheration that ponies were staring at him, merely carrying on his way as he walked Twilight to the library.

"Thank you for walking me home, Optimus." Twilight passed platitudes towards him as she put her hoof on the door to her treehouse home. "You're a real gentlecolt, hahaha..."

Optimus maintained a neutral expression. Twilight wasn't surprised he wouldn't laugh at his joke. Getting him to give anything but a neutral or grave expression was feat into itself.

"Twilight Sparkle..." Optimus said seriously, catching her attention just before she went inside the open door.

Optimus crouched down to speak with her on a more equal level. "I would like to discuss Shining Armor's treatment of Bumblebee earlier today."

Twilight looked away. "Well... I'm not sure what's happening exactly, but I think he's blaming you and all the Cybertronians for things that Starscream and Megatron did."

"Mm." Optimus grunted, then turned to leave, his metal footsteps tromping across the grass. Tromp, tromp tromp.

"One last thing...Twilight Sparkle...do not think Toxin's tampering with the timestream has escaped my notice."

Twilight blanched and quickly whipped her head around, only to see Optimus had vanished into thin. Twilight wondered how he did that. Autobots couldn't do teleportation magic, or...any magic at all, as far she knew, Matrix notwithstanding, and if were a GroundBridge, she would have heard the whirring of swirling warp energies.

Twilight continued into her home, rather shaken from the revelation Optimus somehow knew about what Toxin did for her. How? Was it just a premonition that came with being a Prime? Did the Matrix of Leadership grant divine protection from manipulation of time or something like that? Twilight sighed and resolved not to think of it, or what Optimus was going to do about it. This was getting too stressful for her.

She trotted inside her house, bucked her door closed behind her, and took her usual roost at a table, levitating a book out from the shelf and placed it on the table, splitting it open for herself to read and forget about everything going on today.

Just as she started to ease into her chair, brushing away thoughts of The Institute and ridiculous scenarios of punishment from Optimus, she heard a knock on the door.

Twilight groaned in frustration, almost ready to use her magic and vaporize whomever was on the other side of the door for interrupting her time just as she was finally starting to unwind. She pulled the door open with her magic and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle waiting outside the door with innocent smiles on their face.

Twilight chided herself for thinking so silly, but their smiles seemed entirely too innocent. It didn't seem like they were trying to hide the fact they either wanted something or had just inadvertently unleashed an ancient evil deity (again). Rather, they seemed to just be happy about something that Twilight didn't know of.

"Hey, Twilight!" Apple Bloom greeted. "We heard y'all have been down lately..."

Scootaloo produced a tall glass cup from her wing, full of light colored juice that gleamed in the reflection of the sun pouring on it. "So we made you this lemonade!"

"Okay..." Twilight took the glass into her magic and stared at it for a little bit. After a moment of feeling like she was being watched, Twilight look up from the glass at the Crusader fillies, still eagerly gathered around her door and watching her with bated breath, waiting for her to sample the lemonade.

"Thank you, girls. I'll enjoy this while reading my books." Twilight took the lemonade into her house and magicked the door shut, before placing the lemonade on the table with expert precision, at a safe distance from her book where it wouldn't soak into the pages if it was unceremoniously knocked over.

Twilight heard the Crusaders groan from the other side of the door, disappointed they couldn't see Twilight's reaction to their heartfelt attempt to make some perking lemonade for her.

Twilight stared at the tall glass on her table, giving her best scrutinizing glare. There was another knock on the door that caught her attention, but before the unicorn could groan again, Applejack barged her way inside without any regard for whether or not she had been invited.

"Ah jus' saw Apple Bloom walk off from 'ere." Applejack relayed to Twilight. "She seemed mighty upset 'bout sumthin'. Any idea wut?"

"Yeah." Twilight gestured Applejack to come over to the table. "Take a look at this."

Applejack stepped forward and lowered her head so her head was even with the absolutely sparkling lemonade. "'Kay. Wut about it?"

"The Crusaders made this. Your sister made lemonade." Twilight explained.

Applejack frowned. "But that's not an apple drink..." Applejack sniffed cautiously at the edge of the glass. "Unless they put apples in the lemonade...?"

"I don't think they did. Look at it. Took a real close look at it..."

Applejack did as Twilight instructed, glaring at the lemonade with the burning hot intensity of an apple pony at heart being made to eat carrots in the winter or starve to death of frostbite and hunger.

"There's nothin' wrong wit' it." Applejack concluded.

"Exactly!" Twilight decried. "There's no- no funny colors, no tentacles popping out of the glass, no dark and ominous murmurings- it's just a flawless glass of lemonade – made by the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

Applejack thought about this for a bit.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were the reigning local queens of making simple tasks and things somehow go impossibly wrong. Oh, sure, a particularly clumsy little filly could cause a chain reaction that could bring the entire school studio's set of its most recent play come crashing down, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders doing the same thing would somehow result in dragons running loose through the school and most of town as well.

"Yeah. Okay. Ah see yer point. Sumthin's not right 'ere. Wut do y'all think we should do?"

"I don't know..." Twilight shook her head, causing her mane to sway. "Just … go talk to them. See if something's getting them down, or- I don't know..."

"Ah will..." Applejack nodded and left the house, calling her sister's name for a hopefully brief talk. "Hey, Apple Bloom!"

Twilight used her magic to close the door, then took another glance the flawless lemonade. Lemonade. From the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that had absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Twilight shrugged. "Well, I suppose that since the only thing that's wrong with it is that there's nothing wrong with it..." Twilight levitated the glass to her muzzle and took a sip. Putting the glass back down, Twilight smacked her lips to judge the lemonade's taste.

"A bit on the sweet side." She concluded, before going back to her book.

Then she felt something like a spring going sproing in her head. She rubbed at her forehead, feeling for any unnatural bumps or unusual occurrences.

"Okay, well, that was weird...maybe there was something in the lemonade after all." Twilight massaged her temples for a little while, trying to think of what the worst-case scenario would be so she could take precautions against it. For once, she wasn't able to think of it, but that may have been because she was just distracted from the odd feelings.

"That's funny..." Twilight murmured to herself. "I have the strangest..."

Seemingly automatically and without thinking about it all, Twilight's hooves moved up and closed her book, before her horn lit up and carried the book back into its place on the shelf.

"Spike!" Twilight called. "Could you come here, please? I want to write the Princess about using the Space Bridge!"

"Coming!" Spike quickly appeared, waddling down the stairs with some papyrus and an ink-soaked quill, freshly plucked from a healthy bird of some sort. "Where do you want to go?"

"Kaon." Twilight answered. "Cybertron. Shockwave's lab."

Spike was confused and uncertain about this. "A-are you sure, Twilight?" Spike scooted his foot across the floor, trying to appear innocent so Twilight would maybe take pity on him and listen to his advice. Not that she ever did. He was determined to try, though. "I've heard awful stories about what happens when somepony gets into Shockwave's laboratory without his permission."

Twilight's posture immediately turned disapproving. "From whom, Spike? You better not be hanging out with Grimlock...he's a bad influence."

"No, no. Smokescreen."

"Oh...well, that's...no, actually, that's still a bad influence, but it's better than Grimlock, at least. Yes, Spike, I'm sure. I've got a pretty good feeling about this one, and I'd like talk to Shockwave."

Twilight was sure, but Spike still was not. Twilight kept him informed of all the meetings and social and political things she had to attend to, being the Princess' student. Granted, he didn't always retain it, but he thought he'd be able to mention if Twilight had offhandedly mentioned, "Oh, hey, I have a meeting with the DECEPTICON LORD next Tuesday."

Spike wanted to continue to argue against it, although he hadn't discounted the possibility she did mention it and he forgot. Unable to come up with anything that would be a sufficient deterrent, he scribbled on the quill and breathed fire on the letter, magically transporting through realms in ways similar yet completely incompatible to a GroundBridge.

In short order, a Space Bridge appeared just outside the library, which Twilight stepped into after stepping out her abode.

Spike sighed and shrugged, the Space Bridge's lights going away as quickly and smoothly as they had appeared. He never liked it when Twilight met with the Decepticons for peace talks. They had been responsible for the destruction of several buildings.

There was another knock on the door that Spike knew it would be left to him to answer. Something about perturbed Spike. It sounded like a metal knock, like on a Cybertronian, but it was much too quiet sounding to actually be an Autobot or Decepticon.

Nervous, Spike pulled the door open and saw the strangest Autobot he ever laid eyes on. Granted, he hadn't seen several well-known Autobots in person yet, but that didn't change the fact that this was one was strange.

He was only a head or two taller than a human. His colors were familiar to Spike, and it took him a moment to realize that was because they were the same blue with yellow zigzags as the Wonderbolts' costumes. His face had a brown visor and silver faceplate, along with a rounded forehead bump and two antennae on either side. They seemed rather emotionless, even for a Cybertronian. Spike wondered if perhaps the disjointed neck was evidence it was not his face, but a helmet.

Spike had heard of Mini-Cons, but from what he heard, they turned into weapons or something else that was connected to their larger partner, like a drone jet or tiny engine. This Autobot had two pillars on his back that seemed to be currently unemployed cannons and two gun emplacements on his forearms, and appeared to turn into a jet all his own, as evidenced from the cockpit in his chest.

"You're a small Autobot." Spike commented.

"Yeah." The Autobot answered. "I'm what's called a Micromaster. Means I'm tiny. Name's Tread Bolt. Is the master of the house home?"

"No..." Spike didn't know why, but he was getting a real bad vibe from this Tread Bolt guy. Maybe it was the aerial alt-mode – Spike didn't know jet modes were uncommon to Autobots, but not so rare as to be exclusive to Decepticons. Maybe it was the Autobot sigil rendered in gold.

"Great! In that case, you're going to take me to Twilight's secret laboratory."

Spike frowned. He didn't like Twilight's secret lab. It was a lab she kept in a warehouse away from Ponyville, connected to a GroundBridge in her home that specially locked the coordinates. Spike was aware of it because, like most everything, Twilight delegated the task of tidying up the messes she left in to him. He really didn't like what he saw in there; disembodied horns from Equestrian criminals, severed Vehicon claws from war victims... it wasn't pretty.

"No." Spike crossed his arms and sulked.

Treat Bolt glared. At least, that's what Spike assumed him to be doing. It was hard to tell with that helmet.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear..." Treat Bolt pointed the gun emplacement on his forearm emphatically at Spike's face. "You're going to take me to Twilight's secret laboratory."

Spike gulped, not keen on the idea of an Autobot frying his face. Come to think of it, he didn't like the idea of his face being fried at all, though his obvious crush on Rarity may have allowed her to coax him into letting her do it for whatever reason.

Held at gunpoint, Spike went down to the terminal controlling Twilight's customized GroundBridge, which looked like a trash can when not in use activating it, causing it and the entire library foyer to, well, transform. The 'trash can's' lid unfolded into a Cybertronian control terminal. The floor of the foyer broke apart into panels, pulling away in slices into other parts of the floor as a metal, silver platform rose out of the hole and covered in place of the pink wood previously there. On the platform was a silver arch adorned in Cybertronian runes and glyphs, as well a few ridges for structure support.

Spike pushed a button on the terminal, activating the GroundBridge within the arch. Green electricty shot from one side of the arch to another, before swirling around and forming a green circle that never stopped spinning.

"Thanks, kid!" Tread Bolt 'thanked' Spike for his 'cooperation'. "Oh, and, uh, tell anypony about this, and..." Tread Bolt pressed the barrel of his emplacement against Spike's neck. "Ka-pow. You get what I'm saying?"

Spike nodded. He got what Tread Bolt was saying, most certainly. Kinda hard not to when the person you're talking to is pressing a cannon against your neck.

"Good!"

Tread Bolt converted into his vehicular mode- a jet with the pillars on Tread Bolt's back as a sort of booster of some kind, and jetted through the GroundBridge.

Spike was going to push the button and deactivate the flow of Energon, and by extension, the whole Bridge, thereby trapping Tread Bolt in the laboratory, as it was in a warehouse far away from Ponyville, and only Twilight knew its real location exactly, but Tread Bolt flew out of the bridge, a piece of bundled up paper stuck tightly into the side of his nosecone and flew out the door. Despite Tread Bolt's attempt at being mindful by doing a turn, his wings still smashed through the door of the library, cutting a thin line into the walls, knocking the wood out of them onto the floor in the form of debris...

Debris Spike would inevitably be called upon to clean up. Spike sighed.

In Kaon, the Space Bridge materialized just outside the entrance to Shockwave's laboratory, much to the surprise of the loitering Barricade, who panicked and backed against a wall before Twilight stepped out. Seeing it was just a pony, Barricade relaxed, then promptly panicked when he saw it was Twilight Sparkle, the Student of Celestia, Element of Magic, First non-Cybertronian Winner of the Cybertronian Annual Spelling Bee and all sorts of other intimidating titles.

"Hello, Barricade." Twilight greeted him in an odd tone of voice. Barricade couldn't quite his servo on what was so odd about it. "Could I see Shockwave?"

"Ooh, I don't know, O Powerful Student of A Living Solar Goddess." Barricade humbly answered, laying on the flattery so Twilight wasn't tempted to smite him for his usual trash-talking mouth. Twilight didn't get it, not realizing that by Solar Goddess, Barricade meant Celestia, as in her mind, she wasn't a goddess. An extremely long-lived entity with the power over her planet's very sun and magics beyond the ken of modern unicorns, yes, but not a goddess.

"Shockwave doesn't like being interrupted when he's working on a project."

"Please, Barricade." Twilight asked him in a very...a very flat tone. "I insist."

"Ooo-kay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Barricade reached his claw over and pushed in the access entry code into the door control. The door slid away with a cross between a click and a hiss.

"Thank you." Twilight said to him before walking into the room.

"Oh..." Barricade muttered. His own social circles being mostly comprised of Deceptcions, he wasn't used to being the receiving ends of polite manners. "You're welcome!"

The door closed behind Twilight, trapping her in the room with what Barricade assumed to be an about-to-become-very angry Shockwave.

Inside the room suggested differently, however, as Shockwave was enraptured with whatever was currently floating inside his tube. Twilight could only vaguely make it out, but it struck her somewhat as possibly being something that was alive.

Twilight brought her hoof in front of her mouth to catch and lingering bacteria and cleared her throat. "Ahem. Lord Shockwave?"

Shockwave made a jerk and nearly fell against the test tube, barely reaching his claw out in time to grab onto the tube and prop himself up for support. He turned around to Twilight, and was quite obviously frazzled her unscheduled visit, more so by the fact he hadn't expected any one to come trotting into his expansive lair of a laboratory. "Twilight Sparkle. You startled me. I do not like to be interrupted when I am working..." He glared his cyclopean optic at her so she would get the thinly-veiled hint and exit the room posthaste before he made her leave.

"I'm sorry." Twilight said calmly. "I just wanted to...hang out with you."

Shockwave glared. "Hang out? I do not understand the premise of the notion. Regardless, I have much to do." Shockwave pointed his cannon-arm at the test tube.

"Uh-huh." Twilight noticed the experimental fuel Blackout had brought earlier and focused her attention on it. "Well, hanging out is something friends do."

"I would not consider us friends." Shockwave retorted. He meant entirely in a factual sense, but his words seem to wound Twilight deeply. In face, she was almost on the verge of crying. A beep came from Shockwave's wrist panel before he could contemplate the strange organic secretion forming under Twilight's optics.

"Humph. It would appear I have been working too long without recharging." Shockwave observed, examining the message on his wrist panel. Dimly remembering Blackout's words, Shockwave walked over to the desk, ignoring the emotionally wrought pony now sitting on her haunches on the ground, and grabbed the tanker. A wire unfolded from the Decepticon's back which moved through the air with all the grace of Soundwave's famous tentacles, then poked a hole into the tanker and began to siphon what was in it into Shockwave's fuel tanks.

When his refueling process was finished, Shockwave felt the same sproing go through his head as Twilight had earlier. Shockwave put a claw to his face and began calculating where the sproing came from.

"Blackout will need to be informed we will not be using this fuel." Shockwave murmured to himself, holding up the tanker, which he logically concluded to be the source of his unusual phenomenon. He looked down and saw Twilight, who was crying softly.

"Twilight Sparkle, why are you upset?"

"Be-because you said we weren't friends!" Twilight wailed, collapsing onto the ground.

"Twilight Sparkle..." Shockwave said again, this time in a much kinder voice.

Twilight stopped crying for a moment and wiped her tears off before looking up at him.

"Would you forgive my earlier rudeness if I..." Shockwave gestured to the test tube. "Allowed you to help with my project?"

Twilight sniffed, wiped a tear from her eye, and smiled softly. "I would like that, Lord Shockwave."

"Please." Shockwave put a hand to his chest. "Just Shockwave should suffice. That is what...friends do, is it not?"

Twilight followed behind Shockwave with a spring in her step and stars in her eyes, eager to put her own scientific knowledge to good use helping Shockwave's project- whatever it was- reach fruition.

The next morning...

Lying in his personal room next to Cadence in the Crystal Castle, Shining Armor drearily got out of his bed. With a yawn of his mouth, a stretch of his front legs, and a crick of his neck, he hopped down from his bed, leaving his wife to enjoy a few more minutes of precious, precious sleep.

Making his way out of the bedroom, he crashed into the hallway into one his Guards with a yellow coat and blue mane, causing them to tumble down the hallway and nearly roll over a passing serf-maiden, who shrieked and made herself scarce.

"Whoa, solider!" Shining gently scolded his wayward cadet, once they had stopped tumbling, which landed them in a dog pile, Shining on top of the Guard in a suggestive position, though neither of them picked up on it. "Where's the fire?"

"Sorry, sir." The Guard apologized, quickly raising a letter clenched in his hoof. "We received this in the mail yesterday, and thought you should be the first to know of this."

"What's this?" Shining took the letter with his magic and unfurled, making sure to work out the creases so it was easier to read. It was an awfully elegant letter, being pink with gold trim that curled around the border of the paper.

"Dear Shining Armor..." Shining read aloud. "You have been invited to the wedding of... no, that- that can't be right."

"What is it, sir?" The Guard questioned.

Shining Armor flipped the paper around so the Guard could it.

"Dear Shining Armor..." The Guard repeated, reading out loud... "You have been invited to the wedding of...Lady Twilight Sparkle ... and...

Lord Shockwave?"