Beast Wars: Friendship is Magic

Blitz Streak had been keeping up with Pinkie Pie for the duration of the trip, coming up on a large treehouse.

“That’s a library?” Paragon called out from Blitz’s back.  “Poor design choice, if you ask me.”

“Well, maybe that’s just a personal preference?” Blitz speculated.

“Uh, kid--?”

“I mean, what if it’s a library and a house at the same time?”

“Kid--?”

“Some archives back on Cybertron can function as both a library and home to the owner.”

“KID!”

“WHAT?!”

“SLOW DOWN!”

Blitz hadn’t noticed it, but he had gotten so caught up in his own mind that he failed to realize just how fast they were coming up on the door of the treehouse.

And Blitz was about to get a mouthful of the front door.

“Aw, slag...”

Colliding with the door, the Maximals barreled into the living room of the library, rolling until they hit a shelf, burying themselves in a massive pile of books.

The Mane 6, Spike, Zecora, and Princesses looked on, startled at the sudden barge of these unexpected guests.

Blitz poked his head out from the pile of books, Paragon coming after.

“Sorry…”

“Would you watch where you’re flyin’ kid?!” Paragon exclaimed.

“I said I was sorry already!” Blitz growled, his forehead pressing against the diamond dog’s.

“Sorry won’t fix anything if we get slagged because of your unawareness!”

“Guys!” Rainbow’s voice rang out, bringing the attention of the Maximals to the equines (and single drake) in the room, most of which stared at them with flabbergasted expressions.  Getting a good look at them, the two Maximals saw a light purple unicorn with dark purple mane, and single pink streak going through it; a bright orange earth pony with a blonde colored mane, and cowgirl hat placed on top of her head, a much more milky yellow pegasus with a pink mane, who visibly flinched at the sight of their interruption; a white unicorn with a purple mane groomed into curls; a grey equine, like the others, but with stripes and a Mohawk-styled mane; and there were the two alicorns, one a heavenly white, the other a dark blue, both wearing royal attire, complete with tiaras.  The white alicorn was taller than the darker coated one, however.

To say that was uncomfortable would be putting it mildly.  Blitz cleared his throat, trying to shake off the awkward feeling.

“Oh, um… hi?”

The silence that followed didn’t exactly alleviate the embarrassment.  Finally, Twilight broke the ice.

“Who are you, and why did you just barge into my house?”

“Oh, right… that… sorry, again.” Blitz scratched the back of his head.

“Blame him, not me.  He flew, I just rode.” Paragon jetted a thumb at the rookie.

Rainbow landed beside Blitz and Paragon.

“Twilight, let me explain.  Pinkie and I know these two and it might pertain to this meeting.” she said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

“Yeparoonie!” Pinkie chimed in.

“I’m not sure I follow, Rainbow?”

“Let me introduce them; this is Blitz Streak and Paragon.” Rainbow gestured to the Maximals as they dug their way from the mound of books.

Rarity gave Paragon a good, long glare.  Given her past experiences with such uncouth animals before, one could imagine how much distaste she still had for them.

Paragon became aware of the looks he was getting and narrowed his eyes.

“Why’re you starin’ at me?”

“No reason, no reason at all.” Rarity broke off her gaze.

“I met Blitz at the academy not too long ago and--” Rainbow would have continued had she not realized that Rarity was looking at Blitz, then at Rainbow, then at Blitz again.

“Met him at the academy, you say?” the fashion unicorn asked, gaining a pernicious grin.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes.

"Wait, what’re you giving me that look for?”

Rarity rubbed her chin, the mischief in her face never leaving or fading.  “Just how long have you known each other, exactly?”

“A few days, at least.  We met Paragon just yesterday.”

“How interesting.” Rarity pronounced in a tone all too familiar to Rainbow’s ears.

“Wait a minute, I know that tone!” Rainbow zipped up to the Unicorn, inches from her face. “You think I’m dating him, aren’t you?!”

Having been found out, Rarity resorted to her primary tactic; play innocent.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about darling!” she denied, giving the most innocent smile she could muster.

Her smile betrayed her words.

“We are NOT dating, okay?!  NOT!  DATING!” Rainbow yelled, feeling the temperature rising in her face.  Whether it’s from anger or embarrassment could have been any pony’s guess.  It was likely both, knowing her.

Blitz felt his own face burn red in the cheeks.

“I’m not even organic, how would a relationship like that even work?!”

"Wait, what did you just say?” Twilight beamed at Blitz.

Rainbow and Rarity stopped arguing, the former shocked at Blitz’s sudden revelation.

“Did you just say that you weren’t organic?  What’re you talking about?  You’re a pony, what makes you think you’re not?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Paragon crossed his arms, sighing at Blitz.

“And they said I had no sense of tact.” he deadpanned.

All eyes were on them once again.

Princess Luna, in particular, already had a feeling about these two since they crashed through Twilight’s door, but that little sentence just peaked her instinctive hunch that something was off about them.  If there was something she always had, even before her banishment, it was intuition, and it was blaring within her head.

There was definitely more than meets the eye with these newcomers.

Paragon knew what nervous was, having personally seen and experienced what it was like himself under countless circumstances.  But out of all his experiences, he had never seen anyone quite as nervous as Blitz Streak was right now.  The small puddle of sweat forming beneath his already quivering legs was quite a clear indication of this.

With the attention of so many individuals on him, Blitz felt a crushing weight of pressure on his shoulders.

What would Big Bot do in this situation?!

“Well… you see…” Blitz began, but he bit his tongue, finding it difficult to formulate the correct words.  That’s when Paragon stepped in to lay it down nice and easy.

“We’re aliens."

"WHAT?!" Mostly everyone shouted in unison, with the exception of four individuals.

Two of them being Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, who were too flabbergasted to make any coherent response.  Another was Zecora, who was at first taken aback, but studied the Maximals more closely once she recollected herself.  The fourth was Princess Luna, who stared down the two intently.

"Paragon, what the heck?!" Blitz stared at his companion, eyes wide and slack jawed.

"They were going to find out sooner or later.  I'd rather it be sooner so we can get it over with." Paragon shrugged. "Besides, you gave away our cover.  Might as well come clean."

"Well you could have let us ease everypony in on this instead of blurting it out!" Rainbow blurted.  As the realization of what she just said hit her, Rainbow immediately cupped her hoof over her mouth.  She darted her eyes about the group and noticed that she was the center of everyone’s focus this time.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “You knew about this, Dash?”

"And you didn't bother to tell us sooner?!" Twilight added.  The fact that one of her own friends had hid something as big as this was hard to digest.

"I was going to tell you guys! Honest!" Rainbow reasoned. "I just didn't exactly know how to tell you!”

"But I thought it was easy to explain" Pinkie interjected herself into the conversation, "There are two factions of robots, The Good Guys being called Maximals and The Bad Guys being called Predacons, that were battling in space and during said battle, they crashed, and both of them landed in Equestria and now the two factions are trying to regroup so they can continue their epic battle of good vs. evil, and now two of the robots on the good faction have been discovered, and they're asking for our help so we can all help save the world!"

Nearly everypony in the room blinked at Pinkie Pie, who gave a bubbly grin in return.

"She's just about got it right." Paragon leaned on Blitz's back.  Paragon looked over the ponies, and caught Luna’s eyes still locked on them.

"What is it with you ponies and staring intently at others?  Is that just somethin’ you guys do?" Paragon asked, annoyance starting to creep its way back into his tone.

Luna seemed to ignore the outburst and turned to Pinkie and Rainbow.

"Let's get things straight.  You’re telling us that these two are associated with the "good guy" robot team, or "Maximals", as you call them?"

Both nodded.

"What is thou's proof of this?" Luna asked.

"Blitz hasn't attacked me or anypony else since he got here." Rainbow said.  “Plus, Paragon can't beat a monster to save his life; literally.”

"Hey!" Paragon whined in the background, though nobody paid him heed.

"Very well." Luna returned her gaze to the Maximals, "Then answer me this; what do these "Predacons" look like exactly?"

Blitz rubbed his hoof against his chin, contemplating his words, but was intercepted by Paragon.

"Well... the thing is... we don't know. They could look like anything, really. These aren't even our true forms; they're just disguises and a means of protecting ourselves from the radiation of the massive Energon caches on this planet." Blitz said.

Applejack furrowed her brow. "So, how do we know neither of y’all aren't actually Predacons?"

Paragon frowned, his ears falling downward.  "Do we look like Predacons to you? What do we have to do to show that we're not the bad guys here?"

Celestia pondered this question for a moment before answering, "Surrender over any and all weapons you may wield, and telling us everything that you know about this enemy would be a start."

"That and allowing our guards to have you under constant surveillance for the time being." Luna added on.

"What?!  Are you kiddin' me?!" Paragon griped.

Just how much assurance did these ponies need anyway?

"Paragon, this is their planet... let's just ease their suspicions and we'll get our stuff back when they can trust us." Blitz assured, hoping to keep his companion moderately level-headed.  "We'll do it, just give us a cycle. We'll need to transform, in order to disarm."

"Transform?" Twilight felt some minor discomfort at the term.

"You'll see," Blitz looked up at the ceiling. "I’m pretty sure that there's enough room in here.  Blitz Streak, Maximize!'

"Paragon, Maximize!"

Both animals changed within seconds, their robot modes towering above most of the equines in the room. There was a large gasp from just about everyone as they saw the transformation.  Zecora took multiple steps backward, Fluttershy curled into a small ball on the floor, Spike’s mouth dropped, Rarity let out a loud gasp, and Applejack’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.  Before the two could even open their mouths to speak, they felt themselves being surrounded by a bright-colored, transparent aura.  Celestia, Luna, and Twilight concentrated their horns to keep the barrier around the massive extraterrestrials.

"Drop all the weapons you have on the floor!  Put them down nice and slow.  And please be careful!" Twilight stressed.

Blitz and Paragon held up their hands.

"Okay, okay, just cool it, lady!" Paragon frowned. "No need to go crazy.”

Blitz took out his blaster, turning the safety on before he set the gun on the floor.  He backed away from the weapon as Paragon did the same with his own gun.  As he withdrew from his blaster, Paragon looked to Blitz, but only found the young Maximal glaring at him.

"What?"

"All of your weapons, Paragon." Blitz narrowed his eyes.

Paragon let out a resigned sigh as he took off his explosives, setting them down on the floor.

Twilight and the Princesses shrunk the barrier, allowing the magical boundary to pass over the utilities, allowing Applejack and Rainbow Dash to cautiously confiscate the weapons.

"Alright we're all clear, sugar cube!" Applejack nodded to Twilight, who released the magical spell, Celestia and Luna following suit.

"Good. Now you two will-," Celestia started before getting interrupted.

"Pinks, don't touch that!" Paragon yelled at Pinkie, who was examining his explosive charges, getting a little too close for comfort.

"What? I just wanted to see it!" Pinkie argued.

"Do you want to explode?!" He fired back, instilling alarm in the entire treehouse.  Pinkie got the memo and zipped several feet away from the charges.

Luna, with quick precision, levitated the weapons with her magic.  "I'll take care of these." She conjured up a chest, placed the Maximals’ arsenal within it, and locked it.  "All clear.”

The two Maximals reverted back to Beast mode.

"Sorry for the whole scare," Blitz said, shifting his forehoof.  This wasn’t turning out the way he’d thought it would.

"Just… give us more of a heads up next time when you do that, darling." Rarity said, followed by mumbles of agreement from the others.

"You mean the aliens part and Pinkie's description wasn't warning enough?" Paragon snorted.

Blitz delivered a hard punch to Paragon's ribs, gaining a pained grunt from the diamond dog.

"Sorry, he's a bit abrasive.  Now that we've gotten the awkward part out of the way, mind if we get your names, now that you know who and what we are?"

"Well, since you've been cooperative, I don't think that's too much to ask for." Celestia said. "I am Princess Celestia."

"Princess Luna," was all the night monarch said.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"Uh… I'm Spike."

"Howdy. Name’s Applejack."

"I'm Rarity.”

"Zecora is my name.  Potion brewing and helping others when needed is my game."

"I-I'm… Fluttershy…” the meek pegasus looked away, her voice trailing off into a quiet whisper.

"Huh?  What's that?" Paragon placed a paw to his ear.

"I-I'm… Fluttershy…" she repeated, though this was hardly an improvement.

"Okay, you really gotta speak up, lady." Paragon stated bluntly, extorting a small whimper from Fluttershy. "I can hardly hear ya."

"I'm… F-Flutter… shy…" she repeated yet again, but her voice was still barely audible.

"... Nope.  Still can't hear ya.” Paragon rolled his eyes.

"Fluttershy.  Her name’s Fluttershy.” Rainbow said.

Blitz cleared his throat. “I suppose you deserve a better and more detailed explanation."

"Proceed." Celestia urged.

Blitz took in a breath.  "We're from the planet Cybertron; we call ourselves Maximals and we live alongside a war mongering faction called the Predacons. We established a peaceful age while the Predacons just want to conquer the planet and make it into a war-like empire. In basic terms, Predacons are no good. We're the crew of the Axalon, an exploration ship we flew.  There's four of us in total, Optimus Primal being our leader.  We got word of a few Predacon punks stealing this ancient relic called the Golden Disk, which would lead us to a planet yielding an abundant supply of Energon, which is essentially our energy.  The head honcho of the whole thing being Megatron.  We were told to pursue his cruiser and get the Disk back, but we entered a transwarp portal during the fight.  Our ships are badly damaged and we crash landed on your planet. Ever since, we've been waking up all over the place.  I met Rainbow at the academy and Paragon has apparently been surviving in the jungle for days."

"Your planet was barely redeemed by its food." Paragon quipped.

"I believe we must take this sudden development back to Canterlot.” Celestia proclaimed.

"After you." Paragon ushered.

“Twilight, we do urge that you and your friends accompany us.” Luna said.

Twilight nodded. “Of course, Princess.”

"What do we need to bring them all with us for anyway?" Paragon asked. "Are they some kind of special guests or something?"

"It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with." Luna stated candidly.

"Jeez, you ask a question and get the blunt denial." Paragon grumbled.

"Paragon, we're not in the best position to ask questions at the moment when we’re the ones intruding on their planet.” Blitz said.

This didn't lessen the diamond dog’s curiosity.  The best assumption Paragon could come up with was that these ponies were some kind of important group.  Or they're just a favorite of these Princesses.

The term ‘princess’ then made Paragon bring up one question, "So, uh, where's the queen?"

All the ponies, Spike, and Zecora looked at Paragon, then gestured to Celestia and Luna.

Paragon raised an eye brow at this, "But... they're princesses.  Queen comes after Princess.  So who’s the queen?"

"Paragon, they are the rulers of Equestria," Blitz said. "We told you this already.”

"All you told me was that they were high up the Royal food chain!  Ya didn't tell me they ruled the dang place!" Paragon said to Blitz before turning back to the monarchs, "Why don't you use the term queen?"

"We have no obligation to answer you.” Luna retorted, sternly.

"It is fine sister, be calm.” Celestia said to her sister, then looked back at Paragon.  "While, yes, a queen does come after a princess, the word queen, unfortunately, carries with it a large amount of negative response due to past events.  So we use the term princess, instead. It may sound silly but we wish for our subjects to see us as something not to be feared, and if it means not using a certain title, then my sister and I will not use it."

Paragon gave the two alicorns a long stare of sheer confusion, to the point where one of his optics started twitching.

“I’m still not following.”

Blitz sighed. “Forgive him, Princess.  He’s like this sometimes.”

"It's quite alright," Celestia replied. "No harm done.”

Though the looks on everypony else said otherwise.  Rainbow and Pinkie looked about ready to facehoof themselves while the rest gave Paragon unfavorable glares.

"You need to teach your friend about showing others respect," Luna huffed.  She could already tell that whether they were good or bad, she wasn’t going to like this Paragon fellow.

Not one bit.  As if to punctuate her point, she had caught glimpses of Paragon making yapping gestures to himself with his paw, moving his tongue in sync with her's.

"I'm technically under him, in terms of rank..." Blitz conceded.

"If that's not pitiful, I don't know what is." Luna sneered.

"The kid joined our crew not too long ago, for your information.  So, pardon him for not exactly getting that far up the chain of command.  Not all of us are born into a high and mighty position, ya know." Paragon returned the cold daggers.

"I was referring to the fact that this youth shows more respect and dignity than thee. And if thou are his senior officer, it makes me wonder if your positions of rank should be inverted."

"You think so, Princess?" Blitz said, beaming at the thought.  A hard glare from Paragon was quick to change his train of thought.  "Uh, I mean, Paragon has his good spots."

Luna scoffed. "Then, perhaps he should start showing these alleged ‘good spots’.  Otherwise, he'll be getting upstaged by a ‘kid’ as he labels thee.”

"That's enough." Celestia cut down the argument.  "We've wasted enough time as it is. We must be going.  Gather around, everypony.  It's time to take our leave"

"But Princess what if that bug creature Zecora encountered finds its way towards Ponyville?” Twilight asked, a hint of worry evident in her voice.

"Do not fret, Twilight," Celestia replied. "I'll have the guards survey the area in case of an emergency.”

Meanwhile, Pinkie had wrapped Blitz and Paragon into a warm hug.  "Don't you worry, guys!  I'm sure everything will work out A-Okay!"

While Blitz didn't mind the gesture, even finding it reassuring, Paragon was having flashback episodes of getting hugged by this very same pony in the past.  He leaned over to Luna.

"Look, I'll do whatever ya ask, just please make it so that she's as far away from me as possible!"

Luna stayed silent for a moment, then turned to Celestia.  "Sister, if you wouldn't mind, I think it would be best for Pinkie and Rainbow to keep these Maximals company for the time being as it would appear that they have grown fond of them.  It would also be beneficial for them to continue their friendships, as we encourage such practices.”

That declaration, coupled with the mocking grin Luna shot him afterward just added weight to the dread flooding Paragon’s spark.

Please, say no.

"You’re right, Luna.  It's best to not have them worry." Celestia nodded with a smile.

“It works for me.” Rainbow concurred.

"Yay!" Pinkie cheered with a bounce.

“Why does life hate me so much?” Paragon murmured as the gang was coated in a flash of light.