Chapters Several bright rays of sunlight trickled into Fluttershy’s bedroom, shining its golden light onto the yellow pegasus’ face. Fluttershy’s eyes crinkled up before slowly fluttering open, taking a good look at the bedroom in front of them. Sitting up from her prone position, Fluttershy let out a small yawn before rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A small bunny the color of snow jumped on Fluttershy’s bed and hugged the pink-maned pegasus with a little smile on his face.
“Good morning, Angel. I see you slept well last night.” Fluttershy said with a giggle. She slid off of the bed and trotted towards the kitchen with Angel on her back. As she began brewing coffee, Fluffershy looked out the window and noticed a certain hot-pink Earth pony hopping around gleefully while handing party invitations to passerby residents. Fluttershy walked out of the cottage and walked towards the ecstatic pink equine.
“Good morning, Pinkie. What’s the occasion for giving out invitations?” Fluttershy asked.
“Oh, hi Fluttershy! It’s the Cupcake twins’ birthday in two days! I’m going to host a party for them. I just started handing out invitations and I already invited the other girls, you’re more than welcome to come!” Pinkie Pie replied with a grin.
“Oh, of course. I’ll definitely be there. It has been a while since we all got to spend quality time together.” Fluttershy said.
“Great! The party’s going to be at my place. See you there!” Pinkie said, hopping away. Fluttershy smiled to herself as she headed towards the Ponyville marketplace.
It’s going to be a nice party for sure.
***
Darting through the thick trees of a ancient forest far from Ponyville, a large yellow mech raced past the towering wooden monoliths with the grace of a panicking hippo. The mech craned his head around just enough to witness a speeding red and silver F4 Phantom dive towards the Autobot and fire a volley of missiles at him. The Autobot yelped as he was sent flying into the brown dirt by the following explosion. The young Autobot rolled out of the way of more incoming missiles as he converted into a compact 1984 Volkswagen Beetle before racing off ahead of the enraged aircraft. The jet increased the power of its thrusters as it soared right above the treeline, setting the speeding car in its sight. Within mere moments, the jet hastily converted into a huge winged mech. The silver, red, and black Decepticon smashed into the ground right in front of the Volkswagen, creating a small shockwave that flipped the vehicle over on its hood.
“I knew you couldn’t run from me forever, little Autobot. Now, let’s see how many circuits I can rip out of your chassis before I reach the precious cargo you stole from me.” The Decepticon said, reaching out a servo towards the downed Autobot’s mid-section. Without so much as a warning, a thick trail of oil shot out of a exhaust port near the car’s rear right into the Decepticon’s crimson optics.
“AGH! MY OPTICS! I CAN’T SEE!!” The Decepticon wailed. The smaller Autobot managed to flip himself over and drive towards the blinded mech, the left side of his vehicle mode convertint into his left arm and knocking the Decepticon over on his face. After reforming back into a complete vehicle mode, the little Autobot quickly sped off while leaving the angry Decepticon to flail about madly in the dirt.
“NOBODY SHOOTS OIL IN THE MIGHTY STARSCREAM’S FACEPLATE AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!” Starscream yelled, getting up and wiping the oil out of his optics. He activated the built-in thrusters sitting under his peds, propelling the Seeker into the air. Starscream’s servos converted into duel open-barrelled Null-Ray blasters as he closed in on the smaller mech, opening fire on the Autobot. The yellow mech swerved to the right right as a burning stream of violet plasma incinerated the ground next to him. The Autobot continued dodging the projectiles with ease until a stray blast of plasma struck his hood, sending the Volkswagen spiraling out of control. The Autobot didn’t get time to brake as he was valted off the edge of a cliff. The yellow Volkswagen violently tumbled downhill until he disappeared into the canopy below. Starscream landed on the edge of the cliff, scowling with fury after losing his target once again.
“Gah! That’s the second time Bumblebee has escaped from my grasp!!” Starscream yelled. The growl of a vehicle’s engine turned the Seeker’s attention to a sleek police cruiser driving towards him. Starscream glared at the black and white vehicle as it parked a inch from his peds.
“It would’ve been nice if you showed up sooner, Barricade.” Starscream retorted with venom laced in his voice.
“Don’t twist your circuits, I ran into heavy traffic on the way here.” Barricade replied as he converted into robot mode.
“That’s what you get for choosing a car as an alternate mode. Maybe if you had scanned a vehicle that possessed flight capabilities, such as a jet, converging on my coordinates would be a lot faster and easier.” Starscream said. Barricade rolled his optics in annoyance.
“I will never understand your disgust for ground-based vehicles. Anyway, where did you say the bug ran off too?”
“Down there. But I highly doubt any of us will have a good chance locating the Autobot with ease down there. And the encryption codes he stole from us would be no good if he’s offline.” Starscream said.
“Then let Dropkick and Shatter search for him. They’ve done a decent job hunting down stray Autobots before.”
“For Primus’ sake, no. They are unruly, horribly uncoordinated, and barely listen to my orders! I called you in because you are exceptionally skilled at hunting Autobots and go about your job with professionalism. They are not as skilled or professional.”
Barricade simply glanced at his commander before turning away with a humph.
“You want those codes so bad? Dropkick and Shatter will get them. Period.” Barricade said, converting to vehicle mode and driving off. Starscream stared at the area where Bumblebee fell, wearing a grimace on his faceplate.
“Just my luck. I lost the ecryption codes and now I have to work alongside two of the worst Decepticons on the face of this cursed rock...!” Starscream groaned. He leaped into the air and converted into jet mode, blasting off into the sky.
Fluttershy walked towards the Everfree Forest with Angel in tow, watching a couple of birds fly by. As she went deeper, Fluttershy could see massive trees covered in overhanging vines, multi-colored mushrooms growing on felled trees, several different species of beautiful and exotic wildflowers growing on the mossy ground, and hundreds of different animals running about. The Everfree would have been a amazing place to spend countless hours studying the wildlife if it wasn’t for the occasional run-in with a tempermental Cockatrice or a ravenous Cragadile. Fluttershy planned to visit the forest’s resident zebra Zecora and head back home. The forest was unnaturally quiet, bar from the occassional squeak of a squirrel and the chilling screech of a Barn Owl. Fluttershy looked around, suddenly getting a uneasy feeling in her stomach.
“This is... odd. The forest isn’t usually so quiet...” Fluttershy said, mostly to herself. She was about to turn around and leave when she spotted something casting a unnatural glint of sunlight in the corner of her eye.
“What is that?” Fluttershy wondered, cautiously approaching the object. Upon closer inspection, the pegasus could see the rusty hood of the inactive Volkswagen hiding in the underbrush.
“Oh my, who left this here? It must’ve been sitting in the forest for days.” Fluttershy said in a appalled tone. At that very moment, Fluttershy’s attention was turned to a cyan pegasus sporting a rainbow-colored mane flying overhead. The pegasus immediately noticed Fluttershy on the ground and skidded to a halt, diving towards the forest floor. With a audible thud, the cyan pegasus landed right in front of Fluttershy.
“Yo, Flutters! What the heck are you doing all the way here?” She asked.
“Rainbow Dash, I found this car sitting behind this bush and I think someone left it here.” Fluttershy replied.
“Really?” Rainbow asked, glancing at the vehicle. “This is definitely a car. A Volkswagen in fact. You don’t see a lot of these things since only the richest ponies own them. Now who would leave a decent car lying around in a forest?”
“I don’t really know.”
“Hey, don’t sweat it. I can help you push this thing back to your place.”
Fluttershy and Rainbow planted their hooves on the Volkswagen’s rear and began pushing with all their might, managing to shove the vehicle out of the forest.
***
“Thanks a lot, Rainbow. Your help is very much appreciated.” Fluttershy said.
“Ah, It was nothing. I gotta dash, why don’t you take a look at the car? There might be something cool inside.” Rainbow replied, bolting into the sky at near super-sonic speeds. Fluttershy glanced at the yellow Volkswagen sitting lifelessly in the center of her backyard. Cocking her head to the side, Fluttershy began to inspect the car a little more closely. She immediately noticed the huge, smoky dent on the back of the vehicle’s roof.
“My Faust, what happened to you...?” Fluttershy murmured as she flew up to get a better look at the damage. It didn’t look too bad, all things considering. Maybe Fluttershy will ask Twilight to help repair the damage.
She may be a gigantic book worm and science nerd, but that didn’t mean Twilight couldn’t be knowledgeable in mechanics,
Fluttershy was about to head to the alicorn’s castle when a sudden creaking from the car’s underside grabbed her attention. Strangely enough, several pieces of metal fell out of the vehicle’s underside, landing on the floor with audible clanking.
Now this was getting weird.
Fluttershy approached the vehicle with caution, looking at the underside closely. She bent down, craning her head upwards to take a better look.
“You’re much more damaged than I thought...” Fluttershy muttered. She noticed something odd about the car’s undercarriage. From where she lay, Fluttershy could see what appeared to be some sort of metal face hiding among the pipes and gears.
“What the...” Was the only thing Fluttershy said before witnessing the face’s eyes light up with a ocean-blue color. Immediately, the Volkswagen began to shift itself around into it reformed into the somewhat large, yellow Autobot that was known as Bumblebee. Bumblebee looked around his new surroundings before setting his optics on the terrified pegasus. Almost immediately, the young mech yelped as he jumped back in terror, instantly coming back to his senses. Before he could realize, Bumblebee obliviously backed up into a hill and found himself tumbling backwards downhill.
“Oh!!” Fluttershy exclaimed while racing down the hill to catch the tumbling Autobot. Bumblebee’s fall was halted by a large tree, finally stopping the mech from tumbling any further. Bumblebee groaned as he sat up, shaking his head dizzilly before eyeing the dull-yellow pegasus approach him. Bumblebee fearfully inched back from Fluttershy, curling up into a little ball by holding his legs close to his chestplate. He let out something of a low-pitched whine as Fluttershy got closer. Fluttershy had immediately saw the fear in the Autobot’s eyes and slowly raised her hooves in the air towards him.
“Don’t be afraid.... I’m not going to hurt you, okay? You’re safe here.” Fluttershy said with a calm, soothing tone. Bumblebee looked at the pegasus warily before slowly moving towards her. He got close enough for Fluttershy to softly lay her hooves on his faceplate. She gently rubbed the young Autobot’s faceplate, giving the mech a small smile. Bumblebee seemed to calm down a little more after Fluttershy had began to comfort him.
“There you go... You see? You’re safe. Do you want me to find someone to fix your wounds?” Fluttershy asked soothingly. Bumblebee simply nodded in response.
“Okay, you have to stay here. I’ll be back for help.”
Twilight sat in her massive library, burrowing her snout into a large purple book containing countless information on alchemy. She had just turned a page when a obnoxiously loud series of sneezes blasted into her ears from upstairs. The lavendar alicorn turned around to see a very dreary Spike stumble downstairs. Had he not been holding on to the rails, the little dragon would’ve tumbled downstairs like a falling ragdoll.
“The soup’s not working on your cold, is it? Maybe I should have warmed it up longer...” Twilight said while giving a concerned look for her ailing little brother.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it, Twi. It’s not your soup’s fault this dumb cold is too... ACHOO! aggressive. Now I can’t even lie down without having my... ACHOOO! sinuses act up...” Spike groaned. Twilight sighed before turning her attention to her doorbell. Twilight trotted towards the castle’s front doors and opened it, meeting Fluttershy at the entrance.
“Fluttershy, what a surprise! How are you?” Twilight asked.
“I’m doing good. Twilight, I need to talk to you about a little situation. Rainbow Dash and I found a Volkswagen Beetle in the Everfree forest.”
“A Volkswagen Beetle? But don’t manufactorers only make cars for rich ponies? What was it doing in the Everfree?”
“I’m not completely sure how it ended up in the Everfree in the first place, but something... unique happened. I need you to come see for yourself.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion as she looked at her friend.
“Um, sure....?”
***
Bumblebee walked, or rather, crawled around Fluttershy’s living room as he looked at the odd yet interesting decorations Fluttershy placed in her cottage. Bumblebee was lucky he wasn’t so big. The little Autobot had initially feared to go inside the cottage believing he would be too big for it and break something important to the pegasus. But fortunately Bumblebee was small enough to be able to sit upright without smashing a hole in the roof. Bumblebee noticed a camera sitting on a high-strung shelf. Having curiosity get the best of him, Bumblebee picked up the device in his right servo and held it close to his faceplate, inspecting it closely.
~ What is this thing? ~
Bumblebee noticed their was a small button at the top of the camera. He placed a digit on the button, pressing it gently. The Autobot yelped when the camera made a sharp clicking sound followed by a blinding flash of light that momentarily stunned Bumblebee. Bumblebee immediately let go of the camera, instantly realizing his mistake as he fumbled the device in his servos as he tried to catch it. His effort was for naught as the camera slipped between Bumblebee’s servos and smashed on the wooden floor, shattering into several pieces.
Uh oh.
Bumblebee placed his servos on the sides of his helm as he began panicking over the broken camera, trying his hardest to piece it back together. It was no use, the camera was too damaged. Bumblebee let out a audible groan as he flailed his arms hopelessly.
~The nice pony’s gonna be so mad I broke her flashy box thing...~
The sound of a wooden door opening ripped Bumblebee’s attention away from the shattered camera, alarming the Autobot. Without much thought, Bumblebee shoved the pieces underneath the shelf, turning around to see Fluttershy and Twilight walk in the living room.
“Fluttershy, how did you manage to bring the car inside-“ Twilight said, cutting off her sentence the second she laid her eyes on Bumblebee. For a few long moments, a bewildered Twilight stood still as she stared at Bumblebee in shock.
“That’s.... That’s the Volkswagen I told you about.”
“Oh...”
Bumblebee inched away from Twilight before looking at Fluttershy for guidance.
“It’s okay. She’s a friend.” Fluttershy said. Twilight slowly approached the Autobot with a expression of disbelief on her face.
“I can’t believe it. A technologically advanced mech is standing in Fluttershy’s living room. Look at it, I never seen any tech like his. I wonder how the mech’s creator even pulled it off!” Twilight said with excitement.
“Twilight, if I may ask, do you think you can help fix some of Mister.... Um.... I’m sorry, were you given a name?” Fluttershy asked, looking at Bumblebee. The yellow mech looked at her for a moment before reaching his servos around his frame. Bumblebee let out a small groan as he dug under his grill until he pulled out a small car freshener molded in the shape of a bee. Bumblebee handed the freshener to Fluttershy, watching the pegasus look at the object. Fluttershy noticed a white tag hanging under the edge of the freshener that read “Bumblebee”.
“Oh, so your name is “Bumblebee” then?” Fluttershy asked. Bumblebee gave her a simple nod before turning his gaze back to the lavendar alicorn.
“It’s nice to meet you, Bumblebee. Now, what were you going to ask me, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.
“Bumblebee was wounded when I found him. Do you think you can repair the damage?” Fluttershy responded.
“Certainly.”
