Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm

Starscream managed to find the latch which opened the access hatch to the ancient Autobot base. After waiting roughly ten minuets the hatch sunk down further before splitting down the center of the Autobot insignia with a loud hiss followed by screeching as it opened.

"Well then, the door works." Starscream muttered to himself as he switched his optics to night vision and jumped down the hole.

He didn't bother with his jets as the fall wasn't long enough for the landing to do any damage. Upon landing at the bottom the hatch above sealed itself as the soft white lights of the base came online, each one making a loud booming sound that resembled thunder. The halls were shaped like and egg, and they were at least one-hundred foot tall. The hallway seemed to be in perfect working order, no signs of rust anywhere, and all the lights were functional. This brought curiosity out of the former Decepticon, as it is an ancient Autobot base on a planet that isn't on any star charts and it seems to be in perfect working order.

Starscream walked onward slowly, cautious of any booby-traps that might lay waste to him, the ancient Autobots were know for leaving them in their cities during the first civil wars long before the fourth war that they are still waging today.

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The Dinobots were in bad shape, they had attempted to battle Megatron and the Decepticons without their leader, and they had been beaten to a smoking and leaking pile of scrap without the ability to transform.

"Me Slag tired." Slag said, his voice cutting in and out.

Swoop looked at him, Slag was holding his left arm in his right hand, and his red visor was flickering.

"We can rest for a little while, but we have to keep moving to warn Ultra Magnus about Megatron." Swoop said, thus sitting on a large rock nearby.

"Snarl say let them deal with Decepticons." Snarl groaned as he put down the makeshift stretcher with Slug laying on it.

"Yeah, let Autobots fight them, Dinobots too tired." Slag said in agreement.

Swoop was about to punch Slag in the faceplate when Cosmos flew into the meadow that they were resting in and transformed.

"What happened to you guys?" Cosmos asked the once proud Dinobots.

Before any of the others could say anything Swoop stepped towards the green Autobot.

"We fought Decepticons, they damaged us badly, now the Decepticons are preparing to attack Autobots." Swoop said, his vocabulary failing him as he spoke.

"Stay here, I'll warn Ultra Magnus and get a medic out here to retrieve you!" Cosmos said as he leaped off the ground and transformed into a flying saucer.

"Thanks!" Swoop said as he and the other Dinobots all entered emergency stasis.

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Pinkie Pie was surrounded by all of her closest friends, minus Rainbow Dash who went to Canterlot to deliver a message to Princess Luna.

"I'm glad that they were able to help you and that you weren't too badly hurt Pinkie, but promise that you won't run off like that again!" Twilight snapped at her pink friend who was wrapped from head to toe in bandages even though the unicorn doctors had healed her lacerations her skin was still frail when they regrew it.

"MMMHHHMMNNNMM" Pinky replied to which Fluttershy kindly translated.

"She said that she would wait next time but she met a really nice metal Dragon who tried to help her rescue the princes but a giant metal spider took her away." Fluttershy said.

"Darling, I truly do not know how you can understand Pinkies mumbling." Rarity said, putting a hoof on the yellow pegasus's back.

"Oh, its really simple." Fluttershy said, but she wasn't heard.

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Jetfire stood near the hospital with his two fellow Autobots, they looked at the nearby town. The town was plastered with many different colors and was a wondrous sight to behold.

"All this waiting is driving me crazy." Springer says, pulling out his sword to sharpen.

"We will wait until we are needed, we don't know if these Decepticons are planning on attacking the natives, and this is the closest settlement." Jetfire replied to his impatient friend.

Meanwhile, Arcee had made a friend with a blue-green pony with a white mane and tail.

"So you are a sentient machine from another planet?" Lyra asked the female Autobot.

"Yes Lyra, I am." Arcee said with a smile at how cute the natives of the planet are.

"So if I said I wanted hands, could you make me a pair?" Lyra said, leaning in as she spoke and making rather large, pleading eyes.

"That's not really my department, but if you ask an Autobot scientist like Jetfire, or Wheeljack I bet that they could help you out." Arcee replied, confused as to why this pony wanted hands so badly.

"Okay, which one would be faster to find?" Lyra asked, tilting her head.

"Jetfire is right over..." she began to say as she pointed with her finger, but the pony had rushed right up to Jetfire.

"Excuse me, Mr. Jetfire!" Lyra said, trying to get the attention of the massive Autobot but to no avail, for he seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

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Grimlock stalked the woods until he came to an area that was much different than what he had seen on the rest of the planet, though it was surprising still as colorful. He was standing in a desert canyon, it had a few cacti growing here and there alongside a few fauna here and there, but aside from that it was just sand and ravines. He transformed to get a better look around and took a few steps, he sank into the sand a few feet, but didn't get stuck, though he still decided to transform back into dino-mode so he could distribute his weight more effectively and move quicker.

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Prowl found the signs of battle between two large beasts, one he knew to be Grimlock, the other he wasn't to keen on. Observing the area he found tracks similar to Grimlocks, but larger, they lead off into a cave. Prowl moved towards the cave with his blaster out, when a pegasus in golden armor landed in front of him.

"That cave belongs to a rather large Dragon Autobot, I wouldn't go in there if I were you." the rough voice of the pegasus eminated up to the transfomer.

"I'll take your word for it." Prowl replied, only looking slightly confused.

"The name Sergeant Slaughter, I figure we ought to team up to find Princess Celestia, Prowl." The pegasus says as Philimena lands in a nearby tree.

"Fine by me Slaughter, you know this planet a whole lot better than I do." Prowl says as he begins following Grimlocks trail again, but now with Sergeant flying next to him.

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Rainbow Dash watched as the obvious Autobot and the Royal Guard talked and followed the large tracks in the muddy ground, but something caught the corner of her eye. In a nearby tree was a six legged metal bug with a large light for a head, before she could get to close to it, it burst into dust. Apparently it liked her just as much as normal bugs did, on that note she didn't mind too much. She jumped down to the ground and heard a twig behind her snap.

"Who's there?" she shouted a little too loudly.

She heard a growl and saw a Siberian tiger with wings dash off into the darkness as an even louder roar filled the air. Rainbow Dash turned around to see a Dragon crawl out of its cave with bad looking burn marks covering most of his head and one of his wings torn to shreds.

"Who dares trespass in my territory!" The dragon booms as Rainbow Dash backs up into the cover of an overgrown bush in hopes that it might hide her.

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"Its almost time to enact my plan dear princess, almost ready!" Tarantulas said as he salivated in his beast mode as his little metal bugs built up a machine that resembled a large circle with many tendrils coming off of it.

Celestia noticed on of his monitors light up with Prowl and one of her Royal Guard, and then Rainbow Dash getting close to the camera as the monitor went dark.

"Drat, I may have more company soon, oh well, I look forward to the Autobots, their energon will make an excellent source of power for my machine, as for the organics, I do so enjoy a good meal." the deranged Predacon said as he burst into laughter.

Author's Note

Okay, sorry it took so long writers block hit me for awhile there, but I am back to writing now. It took me a little while who I should introduce into the story to make it more interesting but still fit into the plot without getting sidetracked. I promise that the next chapter will be more exciting!