Transformers Multi-Versal: Pony for your Thoughts

Ka-thump.

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes popped open at the sound. It was the dead of night and she had been sleeping peacefully. She figured Spike had gone for a midnight snack and accidentally dropped something, waking her up.

This idea was quickly shot down by the sound of the baby dragon’s soft snoring coming from his basket-bed on the floor.

Quietly, the purple unicorn slipped out from under her blankets and tip-toed to the door. She opened it slowly, cringing at the steady creek the hinges made. She made a mental note to oil them later.

Using her glowing horn as a flashlight, Twilight carefully crept down the stairs to the main section of the library. Ordinarily such a task would be painless, but the thought of another pony breaking into her home at night made her jump at every shadow she saw.
Nervously, she angled her head so that the light from her horn travelled around the room. At last she found the source of the disturbance- a fairly large history book lying on the ground.
Twilight rolled her eyes, remembering the countless times she had instructed Spike to not let books hang over the edge of the shelf or- guess what? They fall!
The unicorn refocused her magic on picking up the book and placing it in its proper place on the shelf. She then started back up the stairs, chuckling to herself for being so afraid of nothing. The door to her room closed behind her with a click.

A second after said noise, a pair of eyes opened behind the bookshelf. But these were not pony eyes- they were primarily a glowing blue, with square, white pupils in the middle. The eyes glanced around, making sure the coast was clear before a metal hand reached out and pulled a book off the shelf- the very book Twilight Sparkle had placed there a moment ago.

The bipedal being slipped the book into a compartment on its back before sneaking quietly out the front door.

**********

“I’m telling you, Twilight, I never even TOUCHED any history books yesterday!” the baby dragon argued.

The unicorn yawned- a result of her inability to get back to sleep after the disturbance last night.

“Really?” Twilight finally replied. “Then why did I find THIS book-” Twilight attempted to use her magic to pull the book off the shelf, but to her surprise, nothing happened. Glancing back at the bookshelf, she saw an empty slot where the history book once was. “Alright, Spike, what did you do with it?”

“Do with WHAT?” the dragon asked curiously.

“The BOOK, Spike,” Twilight said, annoyed. “Hiding it won’t make things right.”

“I didn’t hide it! Honest!” Spike’s eyes grew wide in a pleading manner. “I… I know I’ve messed up and lied in the past, but... this time I’m really innocent.”

Twilight studied his face carefully before drawing the dragon closer in a hug. “Oh, I’m sorry, Spike. I’m just a bit irritable since I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

Spike noted her half-shut eyelids and tangled mess of a mane. “Yeah, I… noticed.” His cheeks suddenly puffed up ah he let you a large BELCH. A scroll materialized from his fiery breath and smacked Twilight in the face. “Whoop, heh, sorry…”

Twilight laughed. “No trouble. I needed that to help me wake up anyway.”

Spike picked up the scroll, unrolled it, and began reading. “’Dearest Twilight Sparkle- It has recently come to my attention that it has been far too long since I have had the chance to meet with you face-to-face. With this in mind, I would like to personally invite you and your friends to a little get-together this afternoon here in Canterlot. I await your response, Princess Celestia.”

When Spike lowered the scroll, he saw a big grin on Twilight’s face.

“Ohmigosh, this is so awesome!” the unicorn gushed. “It HAS been forever since I’ve gotten the chance to speak with the Princess. And she wants ALL of us to come!”

“Yeah-ah!” Spike’s smile dropped. “Wait, I get to go along, too, right?”

Twilight laughed. “Well, yeah!”

“Yeah!” Spike repeated. “I’ll get everything ready!”

“I’ll go tell everyone the news,” Twilight said as she headed out the door. As she did, something popped into her mind- the fact that she now had a total of SIX friends to take to Canterlot.

**********

Legatron stared at the history book in front of him, carefully reading every scrap of information displayed on the fragile paper pages. He recalled his nearly being caught while “borrowing” the books.” Now he was carefully searching them for any sort of information that might tell him what that energy blast was.

He slammed the book shut. “Well, this has been no help. I doubt that energy signal came from this far back in time anyway,” he said, referring one of the laws of the Multiverse: By the time an energy signal from universe A can be detected in universe B, several years may have passed in universe A.

Suddenly, Legatron heard a knock at the front door. “Coming!” he answered, cringing at the metallic reverb in his robot voice that would be impossible for a pony to make.

As he hid the history books, he caught a glimpse of his robot mode in a cracked mirror. His pony-mode head rested on his back, while his mane was on his robot head. His pegasus wings had morphed into jet-like robot wings, and his tail ended up… well, where a tail is always located.

He sneered at the cracked reflection, hating what his new pony mode had done to his robot form. Remembering the knock on the door, he quickly morphed into Leon Tronnix and answered it.

He found himself face-to-face with a familiar purple unicorn. “Oh, hi, Twilight.”

“Hi, Leon!” twilight replied. “Listen, the Princess invited me and my friends to a get-together later today, and I wanted to know if you were interested in attending.”

“You want me to go to a formal gathering?” Leon asked, confused.

“No, I want you to come to an informal gathering, with only my six friends and the Princess.”

Leon considered. “Exactly where is this gathering?”

Twilight extended a hoof. “Canterlot.” Leon looked where she was pointing. In the distance was a tall, steep mountain. Jutting out of one side was a large white castle-like structure.

Leon considered her offer. Canterlot was supposedly the capitol of “Equestria”, meaning that it would be the most likely place for the energy signal that Leon was trying to trace.

“Alright, I’ll give it a shot,” Leon said.

“Great!” Twilight replied enthusiaticly. “I’ll tell the others. Trust me; this is going to be a blast.”

As she trotted away, Leon got a strange feeling that this trip to Canterlot would be far from and ordinary journey to a capitol city. “A blast, indeed.”

**********

The train ride to Canterlot was uneventful. However, Leon had to give the ponies credit- steam-powered trains were far from the most technologically advanced machines, but it was still MUCH more advanced that he figured ponies were capable of achieving.

At last, they reached the castle.

The guard at the door smiled at her. "Ah, Twilight Sparkle. Nice to see you again. Go ahead, the Princess is expecting you.”

As they walked through many hallways, the ponies noted the superior architecture and decorations. The castle was a masterpiece among pony-built structures. Especially considering their primitive building methods, Leon thought.

Finally, they entered a large open room. In front of them was a large staircase. At the top was Princess Celestia.

The ponies bowed, Leon’s being somewhat half-hearted.

“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student,” Celestia said as she descended the staircase, “It’s so nice to see you and your friends again.”

“Likewise, your highness,” Twilight replied.

“And I see you’ve made a new friend.”

“Oh, yes! This is Leon Tronnix,” Twilight said.

“Oh, uh, hi…” Leon stammered.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Celestia said.

“Uh, same here,” Leon responded.

Celestia turned and walked to a large table filled with what seemed like every type of food known to pony kind. “Please, won’t you all join me to eat?”

Pinkie Pie licked her lips with an impossible large tongue. “So many treats…”

Beside her, Spike was drooling. “I know, right?”

Leon was about to take a lace at the table when a warning went off in his head. “Oh, slag…”

Celestia frowned. “Is something wrong?”

“You ponies like friends,” Leon started, “Well, we’re about to have unwanted company!”

Without warning, the entire roof exploded, sending chunks of ceiling rained down from the sky. Celestia focused her powerful magic and used it to prevent the debris from crushing the ponies.

However, she wasn’t the only one to react. Leon suddenly morphed into a bipedal being and started blasting energy at the falling pieces of building.

The ponies stood gaping at Leon’s new form- but what they saw next was even more shocking.

When the smoke cleared, they could see three massive, bipedal beings that appeared to be made of metal hovering over the gap in the ceiling. The first one was the shortest. He had fairly wide shoulders and a medium blue and white color scheme with various bits of navy blue and light gray. His emotionless face sported a goatee.

The second behind was slightly taller and skinnier. His dark purple and gray colors portrayed gloom, as did his face. He seemed to have tall, gray ears.

The third being was much larger than the other two. He was incredibly bulky, with tall shoulder pads. His color scheme was a neutral shade of purple and light gray. Massive orange tube-like objects were mounted on each of his forearms. Unlike his comrades, his mouth was twisted into a sneer.

“Well, well,” The third being said in a low, growly voice. “Whatever is going on here? A party? I’m quite the party crasher myself, as you’ll soon find out.”

The three beings descended though the gaping hole in the roof. The Celestia stepped between them and the other ponies. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“Galvatron?!” Leon said in disbelief.

“Yes,” the tallest of the three mechanical monsters replied. “Indeed. Do I know you?”

The small robot clenched his teeth. “I’m Legatron. You almost killed me in Detroit.”

“Ah, yes, now I remember,” Galvatron said. “You were taller then.”

“I can fix that.”Leon retorted as he smiled mischievously and tapped the side of his head, sending a wireless signal to the T.R.E.E.H.O.U.S.E.T.R.O.N.

Galvatron laughed. “I hardly see how that’s possible.” He turned to the ponies. “As for you-”

The door to the room suddenly burst open. Several guard rushed through, spears and staffs ready. Their leader was a white male unicorn.

“Intruders,” Shining Armor said, seemingly unfazed by the fact that he was talking to 4-story robots, “You have five seconds to leave the premises immediately, or we will FORCE you to leave!”

At first, the massive metal beings didn’t respond. Then Galvatron and the smarter blue one burst out laughing. The other robot just rolled his eyes.

Galvatron suddenly aimed one of the orange barrels on his arm at the guards. A massive laser blast erupted from the weapon. Time seemed to slow down as the place where the guards once were erupted into a spray of broken floor tiles and fire.

“SHINING ARMOR!!!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in desperation as she burst into tears, staring at the flaming hole in the floor where her brother one stood. “Shining Armor…” she muttered as her friends gathered around her.
Celestia glared at the monstrous machines. “Oh, NOW you’ve done it!” she snarled in the most aggressive tone she’d ever spoken. To Galvatron’s surprise, the long, cone-shaped protrusion on Celestia’s head began to glow. A massive burst of magic erupted from the glowing horn, heading straight for Galvatron.

Galvatron felt his chest armor heating up- but it wasn’t from the magic. No, the magic wasn’t even touching him- peering closer, he saw that the magic energy was being deflected from him inches away from his armor plating. The heat he felt was the Dark Energon inside him reacting- and repelling- the magic, keeping him out of harm’s way.

The mechanical tyrant sneered. Surprised, Celestia ceased her onslaught of energy. Instead, she attempted to teleport the ponies out of the building, to no avail.

“It appears that Dark Energon interferes with your abilities.” Galvatron then aimed his cannon at her- but before it could fire another deadly laser blast, he heard the whoosh of rockets above him. Looking up, he saw a green fighter jet circling above the castle.

Leon suddenly took to the air. “That’s my cue!”

Galvatron roared in anger. “Cyclonus! TERMINATE HIM!”

Legatron laughed as he rocketed toward the hole in the ceiling. “Yah gotta catch me first!” With that, he folded into a compact, flying… THING, and took off through the roof.

Cyclonus, the lanky purple robot, followed suit, changing into… the ponies didn’t know what. It had a pointy front, and a wide back with forward-swept wings. The strange flyer roared after Legatron.

Legatron was leading Cyclonus straight up. The Decepticon was gaining on him, but that was all part of his plan. When Cyclonus was close enough, Legatron converted to robot form and hurled one of his laser swords at the Decepticon.

The sword stuck deep in Cyclonus’ left rocket, causing it to fail. With a cry of surprise, the Decepticon began to spin out of control.
Quickly, Legatron reached the green jet. The jet’s cockpit opened and the small robot climbed in. However, rather than get in the seat, he morphed into an “interface module” and combined with the jet’s controls. The jet then morphed into a massive robot as tall as Cyclonus. “Now we’re talking!” Legatron said.

Galvatron saw that Legatron had achieved a larger form. “Scourge, you and Cyclonus take care of the ponies!” he ordered the blue robot. “Green-boy is mine!” With that, a cage-like faceplate slid into place in front of the Herald on Unicron’s mouth as he rocketed into the sky to face his challenger.

Meanwhile, Scourge began taking shots at the ponies. However, he underestimated their speed and the strength of their magic-generated force-fields. The laser blasts ended up creating a large hole in the wall to the outside- a perfect escape.

“RUN!” Celestia shouted to her subjects.
They took off as fast as they could, Rainbow Dash naturally leading the pack, and Spike riding on Twilight.

Out of nowhere, one of Cyclonus’ swords stuck down between the ponies and their escape. Rainbow Dash, however, had gotten far enough ahead that the blade landed behind her.

In a panic, Twilight’s unicorn horn began to glow. She suddenly vanished in a burst of energy. A moment later she appeared outside the hole in the wall. She hesitated; her friends were still in there.

Cyclonus’ massive foot slammed down in front of the hole.

There was nothing she could do now but run. Panting hard, she tried to distance herself from the battle that was taking place. Or had taken place; she was pretty sure her side had lost by now.

Finally, she couldn’t run anymore. Gasping for breath, she came to a stop, tears running down her cheeks. She collapsed on the ground, sobbing. Spiked rolled of her back, tears streaming down his cheeks as well. They had been forced to leave four of their best friends and their Princess to the mercy of those mechanical monsters.

“Twilight!” Looking up, she saw Rainbow Dash landing on front of her. “We... we gotta…” Twilight could tell she was trying hard to restrain her tears.

She broke. To Twilight, seeing Rainbow Dash cry was like a dagger of hate being shoved into your heart. Only an event as tragic as the one they had just been a part of could break such a strong pony.

For all they knew, their friends could be dead.

For awhile, they just cried. Small puddles formed in the rocky ground below them.

Finally, Rainbow found her voice. “W-what do we do?”

They suddenly heard the sounds of lasers and clanging metal coming from above them. Looking up, they saw Legatron and Galvatron locked in combat.

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye. “We wait… and hope for the best.”

**********

Legatron blocked another blow from one of Galvatron’s swords. The green had thought this would be easy- he’d had much more training since the last time he faced Galvatron. But he wasn’t expecting Galvatron to have SWORDS- that was new.

Behind his faceplate, Galvatron sneered. He could tell his opponent was a skilled warrior- but that was still nothing against the centuries of experience Galvatron had.

Legatron brought his right sword down toward Galvatron’s head, but the purple mech quickly blocked it with one of his own swords.

The purple robot suddenly crashed his foot into Legatron’s midsection, taking him by surprise. Seizing the opportunity, Galvatron pointed both of his arm-cannons at the green robot and blasted him.

Legatron cried out in pain and surprise as he hurdled through the air, traveling far away from Canterlot.

Satisfied, Galvatron descended through the hole in the castle roof. He saw four of the ponies huddled in a corner of the room and Princess Celestia standing be herself several yards to their right. Scourge and Cyclonus had their weapons trained on the tall, white alicorn.

Galvatron laughed. “Excellent work you two. Now, let’s see what for information we can… COAX from out little white friend here…”

**********

With a painful smash, Legatron crashed down at the base of Canterlot Mountain. For a few minutes he could do nothing but lay there as his systems slowly repaired themselves.

The sound of helicopter blades drew his attention to the skies.

“Scrap, not now,” he muttered as the helicopter morphed into a familiar blocky figure.

“Well, what do we have here?” Shiftech said in an amused tone. “I see Galvatron has been well worth the effort of his revival.”

Legatron sat up. “I still don’t see how that’s possible. Galvatron was completely obliterated by a blast of AllSpark energy-”

Shiftech’s chuckling cut him off. “But that’s the thing- he WASN’T completely obliterated. Yes, his body was, but his Spark survived. Or a piece of it, at least. And thanks to one of the locals, that piece is now whole again.”

Now it was Legatron’s turn to laugh. “There’s no possibly way that these goodie-goodie ponies would help a being as corrupted as YOU.”

If Shiftech had a mouth, he would’ve sneered about now. “This universe is MUCH darker than you realize…”

A mouthplate slid over Legatron’s face as he picked up his laser swords. “And it’s about to become dirtied with you decapitated-”

Out of nowhere, a blur of black and orange slammed into Legatron. When he opened his eyes, he saw a bot looming over him that he’d never seen before. He was about as tall as Shiftech- maybe taller- but much skinnier. He was primarily black with light gray and orange detailing. A good part of his face was covered by an orange mouthplate that sat below twp triangular red optics.

“Damn it, Noizemaze, this is MY fight!” Shiftech shouted.

Legatron cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, Noizemaze?”

“He’s better known as ‘Sideways,’ but he changed his name with his most recent ‘upgrade,’” Shiftech explained.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Legatron replied. “If you have a name that everybody knows, why would you bother changing it?”

“His changes are more than physical,” Shiftech said.

“ENOUGH!” Noizemaze replied. “I am the superior officer here, and I say that this is MY fight now!”

Shiftech approached the second bot. “So you think you can just BARGE IN and take over?!”

Noizemaze drew his head closer to Shiftech’s. “That is EXACTLY what I think.”

Before the two could exchange blows a purple energy field formed around them. The Heralds of Unicron screamed in pain as the energy shocked their systems. Finally, the energy stopped, and the two robots collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

Legatron’s jaw dropped as he saw source of the mysterious purple energy. “B-but I thought your magic was repelled by Dark Energon!” he stammered.

Twilight Sparkle took a moment to catch her breath as her horn cooled down. “Alicorn magic is… much different from… unicorn magic….” She panted.

Legatron was about to ask how she had gotten down the mountain so fast when Rainbow Dash flew up next to him, Spike riding on her back.

“So what do we do now?” the cyan pegasus asked.

Legatron turned his gaze to the castle on top of the mountain. “Come on, girls- we have some ponies to save.”

*********

“I’m going to ask you one more time before I get physical,” Galvatron threatened. “There are several objects in this universe that give off massive amounts of energy. Where. Are. They.”

Celestia stared at Galvatron, not intimidated by the hulking robot’s gaze. “I will never tell an evil being like you were power is to be found.”

Galvatron drew back. “And what makes you think I won’t get physical?”

Celestia smiled triumphantly. “Because I’m your only source of information.”

Galvatron smiled in a way that could’ve given darkness itself shivers. “What makes you think I’m going to harm you?”

Celestia’s face fell.

Galvatron turned to his subordinates. At their feet cowered the four ponies that had failed to escape. “Scourge. Eliminate them.”

“Gladly,” he replied.

Celestia gasped. “No! Don’t! I’ll tell you anything you want! Just don’t harm them!”

“Too late,” Galvatron replied sadistically.

Celestia attempted to use her magic to stop Scourge, but a well-placed energy bolt from Galvatron ceased her attack. His Dark Energon power source was still working wonders on suppressing her magical abilities.

Scourge reached into his back compartment and withdrew his gun. Making sure it was at full power, he aimed it at the ponies. Fluttershy cowered on the ground, crying silently. Pinkie Pie looked on in disbelief, while Applejack’s expression suggested no hope.

Rarity, however, was bawling loudly. “BUT THERE’S SO MANY THINGS IN LIFE I HAVEN’T GOTTEN TO DO YET!!!

As Scourge’s gun charged, his face twisted into a rare moment of showing emotion.
Satisfaction.
He pulled the trigger.

To Be Continued…