Beast Wars: Friendship is Magic

Above a distant planet, a rift tore apart the very fabric of space and time, creating a portal that peered through its never-ending void.  Two vessels emerged from the mouth of the warp as flashes of green laser fire were propelled from mounted turrets, tearing into each other's already scarred hull from prolonged combat.  Explosions showered the outer layers as the bolts of concentrated heat singed the surface alloys that protectively coated the ships, causing chunks of debris to be dislodged into the endless black horizon.

The first craft, the Darksyde, was ahead of the second, as it had been for a while, the occupants now fugitives on the run from the authorities of Cybertron for having stolen an ancient relic; the Golden Disk.  It bared the red insignia, that of which resembled an insect-like creature's head, the Cybertronian people knew this symbol very well; the Predacons.  This particular crew was being led by Megatron, a power-hungry tyrant who sought galactic domination and had stolen the ancient Golden Disk which would lead him to a powerful source of Energon that could provide the entire Predacon fleet with enough power to launch a crusade of conquest. Megatron was dead set on being at the spearhead of this fleet, and he wouldn't let anyone stand in his way; especially his pursuers.

The second ship, the Axalon, was close behind, sporting a bright green colored banner that resembled a sabretooth tiger, they were loathed by many predacons; Maximals.  This crew was led by Optimus Primal, who had been tasked with stopping Megatron's plight but this proved to be a difficult endeavor. He had expected it, however as Megatron was never one to shy away from a fight, let alone come quietly to face charges for his crimes without one.  The Maximals fired at their enemy's cruiser with all they had but, despite the damage they sustained over the voyage, the Predacons were still very capable of defending themselves.  Their own cannons had done a number on their pursuers' ship: Patches of missing metal had infested the surface, black char smeared from the many laser projectiles hurled at it, the damage was finally catching up with the spacecraft and began to shake violently, sending a tense tremor among the Axalon's crew.

"We have a hull breach in sector seven; guidance systems are failing!" the youngest crew member shouted as his optics scanned the vessel's diagnostics. Another violent quake rattled the bridge.

"Oh man, this is ridiculous! We're an exploration ship, not a battle cruiser!" groaned one of the pilots bitterly as he wrestled the controls to keep their craft steady.

"No choice, our ship was the only one that could lock onto Megatron's warp signature!" Optimus reminded his pilot, narrowing his optics at the fleeing Predacons ahead.

"Shields are doing a major fade!" the younger Maximal warned as the shield statistics on the screen began to flicker a dangerous shade of red.

"Plasma cannons to full power!" Optimus quipped and the weapon slowly hummed as it gathered its energy.

Meanwhile, aboard the Darksyde, things weren't faring much better for the Predacon occupants as their ship had been rocked from the Maximals' tenacity and constant weapon fire.

"Their shields are down!  Destroy them!" snarled one of the Predacon officers, who sat beside Megatron's flank.

"Now where's the fun in that?" the Predacon leader replied, a sadistic smirk forming across his face. "A little torment first, I think, yes.  Prepare the side gun!" his orders were carried out at once.  The Darksyde shifted to the left and decelerated, allowing the Axalon to catch up; soon both cruisers were side-by-side. Megatron chuckled to himself; right where he wanted them. "Fire!" shouted the Predacon leader.  Several hatches on the top of the Predacon ship erected upward, each revealing twin sets cannons that cracked as white flashes of energy shot out from the barrels, crashing into the side of the Axalon, sending another wave that sent the crew reeling.

"We've got a rupture! The stasis hold is failing!" the young Maximal yelled.  A loud groan echoed across the ship.  The Axalon's engines had been knocked offline!

"We're going down," solemnly concluded a larger crew member.  The ship was ultimately lost and it would only be a matter of time before the planet's gravitational pull would suck the crew into the planet's atmosphere.  Optimus cursed inwardly at himself; there were other protoforms on board the Axalon and it was unlikely that they would survive the crash, lest they take serious damage from the impact.

He wasn't going to take that chance.

"Launch all protoform pods, get them into safe orbit!" Optimus ordered, not allowing panic to overtake him.  The cruiser's stern hatch shot open and several pods were ejected into the orbit of the planet below, leaving a long row of capsules that would decorate the sky.  Optimus sighed with relief; for the time being they would be safe.  Now, with that potential crisis averted, Optimus returned his attention to the Darksyde, which was currently in the course of spinning around, preparing to take off and leave the Maximals to their fate.  Not this time; he was not going to let Megatron get away like this, if he was going to perish on this world, he was going to take this tyrant with him.

"All plasma cannons fire!" he barked.  The ship's guns discharged numerous blasts that struck the Darksyde, leaving large holes within the hull. The Predacon vessel soon halted its ascension and the gravity clenched around the Darksyde, pulling it downward alongside the Axalon.  Megatron let out a yell of anger and frustration at this sudden turn in events.  His chances of escape, his vision of leading a galactic conquest, and basking in unimaginable glory had just been dashed by these persistent Maximals!  The cruisers of both factions began to violently descend toward the surface of the planet below.  As both ships continued their plummet, they began to separate, flying in different directions while red casings of fire began to take shape, encompassing their hulls.

"Everyone, get to the escape pods!" Optimus said over the spacecraft's increasing rumbles.

"What?! You're saying that we should abandon the Axalon?!" shouted the pilot in shock at the prospect of leaving the vessel he's flown many voyages with over the years.

"Would you rather get vaped?!" the younger Maximal yelled, leaping from his post and made a mad dash down the ship's hall.

"Optimus is right; like it or not, we can't save the ship this time.  Going down with it won't change that." added the larger crew member.  The pilot gave a conceded groan of despair but eventually nodded and the two headed off in the same direction as the other maximal while Optimus ushered them, not wanting to leave until he was sure his crew's safety was ensured first.  Once the others had left the bridge, the Maximal leader took off after them.  The crew stumbled about on their way to the pods, clinging on to whatever they could in order to keep themselves from falling and potentially being thrown about the corridors.  The Maximals rushed into a holding room where numerous escape pods remained stationary.  With a few pushes of buttons here and there, the tops popped open and the crew leapt inside, shutting the lid afterward.  The pods were promptly ejected from the ship and four large capsules soared across the sky, gaining distance from the ship that plunged towards the surface.

Out of the corner of Optimus's optic, he could have sworn that he had witnessed some pods being launched from the Darksyde as well.  Now ten pods were descending towards this unknown world below them.  The capsules began to light up from entry and several bright shapes soared across the night sky.  The last thing Optimus saw was his pod smashing into the ground, dirt being propelled upward from the impact.  The Maximal leader was thrashed about in his pod before everything went black.

In the small little town known as Ponyville, everypony had settled in for the night and had gone to sleep to help prepare for what tomorrow might bring.  Everypony except for one that is, it was a unicorn mare, with purple fur, a dark colored mane and tail with a pink stripe going through both, and a cutie mark.

Her name was Twilight Sparkle.  She lay on her bed staring upward, looking like she had no intention of sleeping.  Why was she wide awake staring up at the ceiling while her friends slept peacefully?  Well while Twilight would love nothing more than to drift off into slumber, she just couldn't stop replaying the events that had transpired only mere hours ago: she, her friends, her sister-in-law, and her brother worked together to stop the evil King Sombra from taking over The Crystal Empire and taking the Crystal Heart.  Princess Celestia even said that she had passed her test!

So why wasn't she taking this opportunity to close her eyes and drift off into slumber land?  What possible reasons could there be?

She had two reasons.  The first was that no matter how many times she has done it by this point, it was still hard for her to grasp just how surreal this all felt.  Before moving to Ponyville she was just known as Celestia's faithful student, now she's Celestia's faithful student, and a bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony, and has managed to help save Equestria on numerous occasions by now.  No matter how much it kept happening, Twilight still had a hard time believing this was actually real.  The second reason, is that the more times she and her friends save Equestria, the more nervous she feels about what threat comes next.  It feels like every time they stop a threat in its tracks, another more terrifying threat comes to takes its place. She knew that over-thinking it like this wasn't going to do anything, but sometimes it was hard for her not to think about it.

Twilight sighed before sitting up and looking out her window at the night sky, hoping that she could relax her body just a little.  It was then that she noticed a group of bright flashes falling from the sky.

Well that's odd… Twilight thought to herself, Princess Luna said that she wasn't planning on doing another shooting star shower for at least another month or two.

Figuring it was a matter that could wait until the morning to investigate or at least make some plans to consult with Luna about this unexpected incident, Twilight decided to at least try to get some sleep; key word being "try".

Little did Twilight, or anypony else for that matter, know that this was not the true nature behind this supposedly cosmic phenomenon.  This was an event that had a scale none would have seen coming, one that would likely change Equestria forever...