WHAT I'VE DONE

Chapters

There's no blood, there's no alibi
'Cause I've drawn regret
From the truth of a thousand lies
So let mercy come and wash away
What I've done
I'll face myself
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done
Put to rest
What you thought of me
While I clean this slate
With the hands of uncertainty
So let mercy come and wash away...
What I've done!
I'll face myself to cross out what I've become
Erase myself and let go of what I've done
In this farewell
To cross out what I've become

There's no blood, there's no alibi

Author's Note

Barricade is voiced by Steve Blum.

There's no blood, there's no alibi

The very next day, in another corner of Equestria, a much younger member of Equestrian royalty was preparing to send two of her best friends on an important journey. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, the recently crowned princess of friendship, and she was both excited and disappointed by the fact that her friends Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were going on a friendship mission to Griffonstone, the very heart of the griffon kingdom. While she was sad about not being able to go with them on this fascinating trip, she was nonetheless happy that they were given this great opportunity. Besides, she was confident that Rainbow and Pinkie were more than ready to deal with any challenge there.

She and her trustworthy dragon assistant/friend were now at the Ponyville train station, seeing them off and giving them a few additional tips.

"Remember, the mountains there are very rough and a bit cold. So, be sure to purchase lots of warm clothes and climbing gear once you get there."

Pinkie pulled out a notebook and a pen from her mane, and wrote down this advice.

"Extra warm clothes and climbing gear for mountains. Okie-dokie-lokie!"

"Great. Also, don't forget to be as polite and respectful as you can possibly be to the griffons. They haven't been around ponies for a very long time, so it's important to leave a good impression without-"

"Ugh! We get it, Twilight!", groaned Rainbow. "Solve the friendship problem, don't be jerks to griffons, and come back as soon as they're happy again. Right?"

Twilight smiled nervously.

"Um, yeah, right."

Just then, their train arrived and several ponies either got off or boarded. Twilight let out a small sigh before hugging her friends.

"Well, good luck and safe travels. I simply can't wait to hear all about your adventure once you get back."

Pinkie exclaimed, "Aw, thanks, Twilight! We promise to get back before you can say 'chocolate-chipped cupcake with lemon frosting'! Right, Dashie?"

"Yeah, sure. Hopefully.", she said with an uncertain tone.

They let Twilight go and boarded the train. It soon began moving and disappeared into the horizon in a handful of seconds. Twilight, meanwhile, let out another sigh that was deeper than the first one. Spike noticed this and put his claw on her shoulder.

"Uh, you okay?"

Twilight turned to her with a nervous smile on her face.

"Me? Of course! I mean, they're just going to THE most majestic kingdom of all the land, while I'm busy dealing with important princessy stuff. There's no reason to annoyed. No reason at all!"

She nervously giggled a bit.

"Now, come on. Let's get back to the castle and try to get those duties done before noon."

Spike rolled his eyes before following her. However, just a handful of few seconds later, the royal train from the Crystal Empire arrived, and both he and Twilight became really surprised by this.

"Uh, Twilight, were Cadence and Shining Armor supposed to visit us today?"

"I don't think so. If my memory serves me right, it was we who were supposed to be doing the visiting, but not for another couple of weeks."

"Then, what's this all about?"

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this. Come on, let's find out."

They quickly headed towards the train and when they reached it, the first thing they noticed was the miserable look of the royal guards. Their armors were covered in dents and scorch marks, and their overall mood was terrible at best. While Twilight and Spike were surprised by this, their curiosity instantly turned into pure horror when Shining and Cadence emerged from the train. They looked even more damaged than the guards, there were serious wounds in nearly all over their bodies, and every step they took (no matter how small) seemed to cause them great pain.

Upon seeing them in this horrible state, Twilight immediately trotted towards them and embraced them with great concern.

"Shining Armor! Cadence! What happened to you guys?! Are you alright?!"

Shining weakly replied, "N-no, Twiliy, we're not. We... we were attacked last night."

"Attacked? By what?", asked Twilight curiously.

Cadence clarified, "He... he called himself 'Brawl'. H-he was a giant metal warrior who destroyed nearly the whole empire by himself."

At that point, both Twilight and Spike looked at the couple with extremely shocked expressions before shouting, "WHAT??!!"

Then, Twilight exclaimed, "How is that possible?! I've never seen or heard of a being like this. Where did he even come from?!"

"That's the crazy thing, Twilight", Shining replied. "He came from outer space."

Twilight gasped in extreme shock before Cadence elaborated, "It's true. Shining and I witnessed a few very large objects fall from the sky last night. They turned out to be a means of transportation for Brawl and his companions. Though we don't know where exactly the others might have gone, Brawl himself went straight for the empire and began demolishing everything in sight with his terrifying arsenal while we were busy evacuating the citizens. Once everypony got out we engaged him with our magic, but his weapons proved to be too powerful. Even with our shields, we barely managed to survive his attacks. Before leaving, he told us that this was just a fraction of his kind's true power and that, they could bring about the end of our world if they wanted to."

By the end of this story, Twilight was both awed and terrified at the same time.

"Sweet Celestia! I... I never thought meeting a being from another planet would be like this. I always imagined that a group of peaceful creatures would visit us someday, but I guess real life is much scarier than fantasy."

Shining put one of his hooves on Twilight's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Twily. I wish it was what happened too."

She let out one more sigh in disappointment.

"Well, I guess there's no point in moping. What's done is done. Did this 'Brawl' say anything else?"

"That's actually why we came here. During the attack, he interrogated Shining about the location of an artifact that’s apparently connected to somepony from your family line. When he couldn’t get an answer from Shining, he decided to come after you instead. Now, both you and Ponyville are in grave danger. “

Twilight and Spike once again shouted, “WHAT??!!” before Twilight exclaimed, “But, I don’t anything about this artifact either! Even learning its name should take weeks of research! By the time I do, he’ll surely wreck the whole place ten times over! Oh, no! What are gonna do?! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!”

She began to breathe so heavilly that Spike had to quickly run to the train station, buy a bag of muffins, eat the muffins themselves without chewing, and give the bag to Twilight in order to help with her breathing. Fortunately, she managed to calm down after ten seconds of breathing into the bag.

“Thank you so much, Spike. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Oh, please! I just helped you get over your two hundred thousandth mental breakdown so that you can think of a way to protect Ponyville from giant metal aliens. No biggie at all.”

They both giggled a bit before Twilight declared, “ I guess you’re right. Now, let’s think of what we can do against this new threat. Since they can defeat even alicorn magic, the most sensible strategy is to evacuate the entire town as soon as Brawl or one his friends comes. For that to go smoothly, we need to increase the number of sirens in the town and maybe place a pair for every street corner. As for the artifact, I need to retreat to a safe place to conduct extensive research in order to find out what it is, where it is, and how it’s connected to my family. In terms of security and available resources, the best choice seems to be Canterlot.”

“Good idea”, replied Shining Armor. “The city has been on high alert ever since the attack. The empire’s citizens were moved there and Princess Celestia had cast a magical barrier around the city. Relatively speaking, it’s currently the most secure place in Equestria. You should be safe there.”

Twilight stated, “If you say so, BBBF. You and Cadence should now get yourselves to a doctor while Spike and I alert the townspeople about-“

“TWILIGHT!!!!”

All four of them were instantly jolted by that ear-piercing scream. When they turned towards its direction, they were confronted by Twilight’s other three best friends Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. All three of these terrified ponies trotted towards them at high speed before stopping right in front of their friend.

“Did you what happened to Crystal Empire?!”, exclaimed Applejack.

“It’s a disaster! An absolute disaster!”, shouted Rarity.

“Oh my goodness! What are we going to?!”, asked Fluttershy.

Just then, they noticed Shining and Cadence, and said “Ooohh!” in unison.

Then, an unamused Spike stated, “Yep. We pretty much know exactly what happened.”

Twilight asked his friends, “But, how did YOU learn about this?”

“The ENTIRE TOWN knows about it, Twi” replied Applejack. “Do not tell me you didn’t read this.” She handed her the newest newspaper. On the front page, there was an article about the last night’s attack along with a slightly blurry image of Brawl mowing down the buildings with his assault rifle.

“What in the name of Celestia is that thing?!”, inquired Rarity. “What is it doing in Equestria?!”

Fluttershy then asked, “And why is it attacking us? Did somepony do something to make it angry?”

Soon, they all began to talk at the same time and overwhelmed Twilight with so many questions that she was forced to shout “ENOUGH!!!” in order to silence them.

“Girls, please calm down. Just give me a minute and I’ll tell you exactly what we need to do.”

She immediately teleported away before coming back five seconds later with a checklist of things to do.

“Fluttershy, Rarity; take my brother and Cadence to Nurse Redheart and stay with them until their recovery. Applejack, I want you to build and put a pair of sirens for every street corner in Ponyville as part of a new alarm system. Spike, you’re with me. We’re gonna go to the castle and scour the entire library for every single book that contains information about ancient artifacts collected before, during, and after the founding of Equestria. We'll be taking with them to study during the train ride to Canterlot."

Cadence stated, “You’re more than welcome to travel with our train if you want. It will take you to Canterlot in no time.”

“Thanks, Cadence", Twilight replied. "We certainly will.”

She then turned to her friends with a determined look on her face.

“We all know your jobs. So, let’s get down to business and stop wasting any more time. Everypony move out!”

After this order, they all went to their seperate ways to complete their jobs.

However, unbeknowst to them, the whole conversation had been monitored by another mechanical warrior hiding behind a large hill in his vehicle form five miles away from the train station. Once the ponies left, he transmitted a message written in his native dialect:

“Primary target preparing to change location. Initiating pursuit in a few megacycles. Interception and interrogation expected to be smooth. The results will be sent soon. Barricade out.”

Approximately two hours later; Twilight and Spike were riding the crystal train from Ponyville to Canterlot. They had collected nearly thirty books from the castle library and now, Twilight was meticulously searching every single one of them for any sort of information or clue that could lead her one step closer to solving the mystery behind the alien artifact. Sadly, her efforts were apparently futile as she had already gone through fifteen books in half an hour and none of them had contained anything close to what she was looking for.

Eventually, once she had finished the twentieth book, she decided to take a break as her concentration had become very difficult to manage due to the amount of questions in her head: Which part of the universe did these giant metal warrior come from? Why did they want this artifact so badly? How did this thing even find its way to Equestria? What were its true capabilities? Were all these aliens evil or were there also good ones?

These were only a fraction of the questions that she was thinking about during that time and right then, she realized the only logical thing for her to do was putting away the research for a while and getting some rest.

Unfortunately, just as she was about to close her eyes, Spike came running towards her and shook her a bit roughly.

"Twilight! Twilight! We have huge a problem! You've got to see this!"

He then ran to the nearest window and a very confused Twilight followed him to find out what was the trouble. However, as soon as she peek through it, she was shocked beyond belief.

Right outside the train was the vehicle mode of Barricade moving incredibly fast. While it was a bit smaller than Brawl's vehicle mode, it still looked like a formidable piece of machinery. Needless to say, what Barricade lacked in size, he more than made up for it in terms of speed and agility.

Before Twilight could even figure out his intentions, he took a sharp turn towards the train. Then, he fired twin machine guns mounted on each of its sides to a wagon right behind Twilight and Spike, partially demolishing the wagon before smashing right through it. Right after that, he did the exact same thing to the wagon that was right in front of Twilight and Spike, destroying it as well and leaving their wagon isolated from the rest of the train. Finally, he rammed its rear side to this wagon, causing it to roll over and potentially destroying everything inside.

Luckily, Twilight had managed to teleport both Spike and herself away before the attack. They were several feet above the train tracks and were now preparing to fly for the rest of their trip. However, Barricade had seen through this trick due to his thermal vision and just when his targets were about to fly away, he fired at them with his machine guns and one of the blasts hit Twilight's wings, causing her and Spike to fall down hard.

The moment they made contact with the ground, Barricade drove right towards them. Even though Twilight desperately conjured up a shield to defend both herself and an unconscious Spike, the machine gun blasts took all her concentration to deflect and the sheer impact of the ramming instantly disintegrated the shield, which made her fall backwards.

Before she could even get a chance to recover, Barricade transformed into his fifteen foot long robot mode and looked at her with an extremely intimidating glare. Understandably terrified, she instantly picked up Spike and began trotting away as fast as she possibly could while the mechanical monster pursued her relentlessly. A handful of seconds of this chase later, he smacked her upwards, causing her to land on the isolated back section of the train.

After that, he walked up to a completely beaten up and defenseless Twilight, and violently shook the wagon she landed on a few times before speaking in a very threatening voice.

"Are you the alicorn princess, Twilight Sparkle?!"

"I... I don't understand..."

"ARE YOU THE ALICORN PRINCESS, TWILIGHT SPARKLE?!"

"Uh, yes..."

"Where is the artifact that your ancestor stole from us?! Where is the Cube?!"

"I... I don't know. I swear..."

Enraged by her answer, Barricade knocked over the wagons, which made Twilight fall down once again.

"Stop wasting my time, vermin! We both know that he took something that's rightfully ours. The question is, which part of this miserable excuse of a planet did he take it?"

"Look, I'm telling you the truth! I don't know anything about this either! I haven't even found a simple clue in my research! But, if you could just give me a few days, I might find something!"

"Oh, so you wish to play it THAT way, huh? Very well."

He turned his right hand into an assault rifle similar to that of Brawl and began shooting at one of the wagons, completely obliterating it in five seconds flat. Then, he took aim at Spike, who was still unconscious and was lying a couple of feet away from them.

"If I don't hear a solid answer by the time I finish counting to three, what happened to that thing will happen to your companion over there."

"What?! No, don't it!"

"1!"

"Please! Leave him out of this!"

"2!"

"I don't know anything! Please, you have to believe me!"

"3! Say your good-byes!"

"NOOOO!!!"

Ignoring her tearful screams, Barricade cocked his gun and was this close to pulling the trigger. However, he was suddenly hit by a pair of small rockets, which caused him to stumble a bit. Then, out of nowhere, a rather large vehicle with red and blue color scheme rammed into him and he was sent flying several feet backwards.

While he struggled to get back on his feet, the vehicle transformed into a thirty foot robot with rectangular horns, a face mask for a mouth, a pair of large wheels on his back, and a rapid-fire ion blaster for his right arm. He proceeded to cock this powerful weapon and point it right towards Barricade in a threatening way.

Even though Twilight couldn't exactly tell what his true expressions were due to him not having a normal mouth; she could understand from his design, stature, and recent actions that he was a bold and selfless warrior who wasn't afraid to do the right thing and help others in need no matter the cost.

She could finally answer one of the questions lingering in her head: There were good aliens too.

'Cause I've drawn regret

Author's Note

Optimus Prime is voiced by Peter Cullen.

Bumblebee is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch.

Ratchet is voiced by Jeffrey Combs.

'Cause I've drawn regret

"Stand down, Barricade. You are overmatched."

Upon hearing that voice, Barricade immediately recovered and looked at his opponent with both fear and great contempt.

“Oh, the mighty Optimus Prime. Haven’t seen you since the Battle of Kalis. Lord Megatron had me put together an entire battalion for your termination.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“That may be, but my orders to terminate you still stand.”

“Is this ancient war still worth fighting for when so many comrades on both sides have been lost? If your master wishes to be a true leader, then he must stray from his current path and lead the Decepticons towards peace.”

Barricade responded with a dry chuckle.

“Well, you’re in luck, then. He’s actually willing to negotiate a truce. If you and your allies agree to bow before him, that is.”

Optimus let out a heavy sigh.

“We both now that I can never agree to something like this.”

“Then, the fighting must continue. A shame. We could have really used your help in locating our prize.”

He secretly reached towards his back and retrieved something that looked like a grenade.

“Barricade, this is a new era on another world. Side with the Autobots and help me end this conflict once and for all.”

“I will never side with a cowardly Prime!”

Just after he said that, he threw his grenade right towards Twilight. Luckily, Optimus managed to catch it right before it reached her. Then, he threw the grenade upwards before shooting and destroying it.

Unfortunately, Barricade seized his opportunity to transform into his vehicle mode and escape. Before he could disappear, though, Optimus noticed his escape and quickly threw a small device that looked like a tracker to his rear end. The device stuck to him like a magnet and he continued to drive away unconcerned.

Once he disapeared into the horizon, Optimus looked down upon a startled and wounded Twilight. Upon seeing her miserable condition, he gently bent his knee and offered his hand to her.

“It’s alright. You are safe now.”

Twilight reluctantly accepted his help and he carefully pulled her upward. Once she was back on her hooves, she wiped away a few drops of tear from her face.

"Is... Is he going to be back?"

"Perhaps. But, you have nothing to worry about. From this moment on, I will protect you with the very best of my abilities. You have my word."

Twilight gave him a small smile.

"Thank you. Um, Optimus Prime, was it?"

"You may call me, Optimus, if you prefer.”

"Oh. Then, uh, thank you, Optimus."

"You are most welcome, Twilight."

Twilight's eyes widened a bit.

"You know my name? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you do. Every giant metal alien in Equestria is looking for either me or my family, anyway. You're after that artifact too, I suppose?"

"Yes, but not for the same reason as the ones who attacked you."

"Really? How so?"

Before he could answer that, however, they were both distracted by a painful groan from a now-conscious Spike. Twilight immediately rushed to his side, followed closely by Optimus.

"Spike! Can you hear me? Spike?! Oh, for Celestia's sake, please say something!"

Thankfully, a few seconds later, he coughed a bit and managed to say a few words.

"Wow... You look... really terrible."

Twilight tearfully chuckled when he said that.

"Speak for yourself, bonehead! You've got to be the luckiest baby dragon in the entire Equestria to survive a fall like that!"

"Really? Well, then imagine the kinds of things I can survive when I become a FULL-GROWN dragon."

They both giggled at that as Optimus came closer to them. As soon as Spike noticed him, he let out an extremely loud scream out of horror before Twilight covered his mouth.

“It’s okay, Spike. He saved us from that monster. He’s here to help us. I’m sure of it.”

Though he calmed down a couple of seconds after she said that, he was still a bit terrified of Optimus’ size. Nevertheless, Twilight pulled her hoof from his mouth and proceeded with the introductions.

“Spike, this is Optimus. He’s one of the good aliens. He’s looking for the artifact too, but he saved our lives from that evil alien and he seems very nice. So, I’m sure we can trust him. Optimus, this is Spike. He’s been my most trustworty assistant and friend since I was just a filly.”

Spike nervously laughed a bit.

“Um, pleasure to, uh, meet you, sir.”

“The pleasure is all mine, little one. As a friend of Twilight, you shall also benefit from my protection.”

“Oh. Uh, thanks. Really... appreciate it.”

He once again let out a nervous chuckle and Optimus gave him a warm look. He then pressed something near his left horn and began speaking to it.

"Optimus to Ratchet. Requesting emergency medical aid in my position. Make sure to adjust your Energon Repair Ray to the organics setting."

A second later, another much older voice was heard.

"Roger that Optimus. Bumblebee and I are on our way. We'll be there in approximately five cycles."

"Glad to hear it, old friend. I await your arrival with anticipation."

He turned back to Twilight and Spike.

"Help is on the way. Just sit tight and preserve your energy."

Twilight curiously asked, "Help? What kind of help?"

"I have just contacted my team and they will arrive here shortly to heal your wounds."

Spike then nervously asked, "Your team? You mean there's even more aliens in Equestria?"

"I assure you, Spike, not all of us are here to wreak havoc on your planet."

Twilight cleared her throat and said, "I think what Spike means to say is that this whole alien situation has frightened and confused all of Equestria at this point, and we need a bit more information in order to understand what's really going on."

Optimus thought about this for a moment before replying, "Hmmm... You are correct. The more you know about the situation, the better you can prepare yourselves."

He once again bent his knee and started explaining, "My team and I are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots. For eons, we have been locked in a brutal civil war with a rival faction called, Decepticons. They are the ones who attacked you and your family, and are led by the most ruthless warrior Cybertron has ever known: Megatron."

Both Twilight and Spike instantly became startled by that name as Optimus continued, "He sought to conquer the entire planet no matter the cost and nearly destroyed everyone who refused to submit to his will. Even though, me and my brothers fought valiantly against his forces, the war completely ravaged Cybertron and left it unable to sustain any form of life. So, now, both sides are spread throghout the entire universe, searching for an energy source that could bring our home back to its former glory."

A fascinated Twilight replied, "Wow! That does sound both epic and tragic at the same time. You guys must've been through a lot."

"We have and will, no doubt, go through a lot more. But, we have recently come across something that strengthened our hope for victory.”

His hand went to his back and he retrieved something that greatly surprised Twilight and Spike.

“Is that what I think it is?”, asked Spike.

“Affirmative. A deceased Cybertronian that transformed into some sort of equipment unique to Equestria. We found it drifting at the edge of your solar system.”

Twilight carefully inspected the crushed small robot and declared, “It looks like it used to turn into a microscope, but this model hasn’t been used in centuries.”

“Yes, we determined that it’s eleven hundred years old, to be exact. Moreover, its exterior contained small samples of equine DNA.”

Twilight's eyes widened a bit.

"It was my ancestor's DNA, wasn't it? That's why the Decepticons came after me and my brother!"

Spike then asked, "But, why is this little thing so important?"

Optimus replied, "Because, the only power in the universe that can create a new Cybertronian is the power of the AllSpark. It was sent away from Cybertron by my mentor, Zeta Prime, in order to keep it safe from Megatron's hands. Seems that it found its way to your planet only to be found and examined by your ancestor before one of its unintentional creations was cast out into space.”

Twilight and Spike gave each other confused looks before Spike looked back at Optimus and asked, “And what is this AllSpark, exactly?”

“AllSpark is one of our most sacred treasures in existence. Its energy can either create new Cybertronian life from any machienery or bring fallen Cybertronians back to life. If we can retrieve it before the Decepticons do, then our home can finally return to its golden age. However, if Megatron finds it first, he will use its power to not just restore Cybertron and rule it with an iron fist, but also conquer every single planet he can find, starting with yours.”

While Spike was shaking with terror from hearing this, Twilight was instead thinking really hard about this piece of information.

"Hmmm. It seems that this 'AllSpark' is the artifact the Decepticons are looking for, but why did Barricade call it the 'Cube' when he interrogated me?"

"I think it has something to do with the fact that the artifact itself is cube-shaped."

Her expression then changed from curious to unamused.

"Really? THAT'S the whole reason it's nicknamed the 'Cube'? Just because it's SHAPED like a cube?! This is as ridiculous as nicknaming my Element of Harmony the 'Tiara' and my friends' Elements of Harmony the 'necklaces'!"

Optimus let out a small chuckle.

"I have no idea what these 'Elements of Harmony' are, but you have a good point. Giving something this sacred a name like that is rather inappropriate."

"Thank you! I'm really glad that someone like you understands this. I mean, no offense, but most warriors or soldiers I know usually don't-"

"ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS!", shouted Spike. "The entire universe is being threatened by a giant warmongering mechanical tyrant and you're discussing artifact nicknames?!"

Twilight nervously giggled a bit.

"Sorry, Spike. You're right. We shouldn't be focusing on that. What matters right now is finding the AllSpark, keeping it away from the Decepticons, and beating Megatron."

She turned back to Optimus with a determined look on her face.

"How can we help?"

Optimus responded by saying, "For now, we must wait for my team to arrive and mend your injuries. Then, we can discuss a plan to search for both the AllSpark and the Decepticons."

Just then, he heard familiar engine sounds and turned his head towards right. Twilight and Spike looked at the same direction to find out what piqued his interest and they were met with the sight of two additional giant vehicles. Although they were still far away from them, they were nonetheless approaching their position in high speed. One of them was smaller than the other, was moving a bit faster, and had a mostly yellow color scheme.

The larger one, on the other hand, had a red and white color scheme, and did not appear to be designed primarily for combat missions.

Optimus then stood up and walked towards the vehicles and they transformed into bipedal warriors as soon as they arrived about ten seconds later, with the larger one being nearly the same height as Brawl and the smaller one being about the same height as Barricade. Also, the smaller being looked a lot younger than Optimus while his larger companion appeared to be much older than both of them.

"Alright, where is the patient?", asked the elder warrior.

Optimus replied, "You actually have two patients, Ratchet, and they are right here."

He stepped away to reveal Twilight and Spike. As a result, the younger robot became shocked by their appearance and took a few steps backwards.

“Whoa! What happened to these guys? They look like they’ve been hit with a Thermo Rocket Launcher.”

“Dude, relax”, replied Spike. “I don’t know what that is, but I don’t think getting beaten up by a Decepticon named Barricade is as bad as that.”

Upon hearing that, the Autobot moved closer to them and even bent his knee.

“You ran into Barricade? Wow! You are so lucky to have survived that! He’s usually a ‘take no prisoners’ kind of bot and even I can’t really beat him without sustaining a few kinda serious injuries.”

A smug smile appeared on Spike’s face.

“Well, he sorta ambushed us, so I’ll give him that. But, I’d love to see the look on his face when he gets a taste of my fire!”

“Ha! I like the way you think, little guy. I’ve got a score to settle with that scrapheap too. What do you say we team up and make him very sorry for ever crossing us?”

“Are you kiddin’? I am so in!”

“Awesome! Put it right here, then!”

He made his right hand into a fist and Spike happily fist-bumped him.

“Name’s Bumblebee, the very best scout in the entire Autobot faction. My friends call me Bee, though.”

“Nice to meet you, Bee. My name is Spike. I’m the brave and glorious assistant slash friend of Princess Twilight Sparkle here.”

Bumblebee suddenly became a little bit concerned and whispered something into Spike’s ear.

“Princess? You mean she’s royalty?! Do I have to bow before her?”

“Dude, it’s cool! She’s not THAT kind of a princess!”

“Really? Oh, okay.”

He stopped whispering and turned his attention to Twilight.

“Sorry for that, Miss. I just had to clarify something. As I told Spike here, my name is Bumblebee and I’m ready to help you in any way I can.”

Twilight gave him a smile.

“Nice to meet you too, Bumblebee. I really appreciate the help and don’t worry. The whole whispering thing was no trouble at all.”

“Great! I’m glad we sorted that out.”

He turned to Ratchet and nudged him a bit.

“Come on, Ratch! Why don’t you introduce yourself to our new friends? You don’t want to be rude, right?”

Ratchet replied, “I’ll do that once they’re fully healed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must focus on my work.”

Bumblebee got out of his way and let out a heavy sigh at the same time.”

“Y’know, I’m starting to think that they never taught you bedside manner during your medical training.”

Ratchet ignored him and turned his right hand into some sort of clawed ray gun. Then, the gun emitted a blue energy beam towards Twilight and Spike, and this operation continued for five seconds. In the end, both patients were amazed to discover that all of their wounds had healed. Twilight even managed to stretch her wings and became extremely happy when she could not find a single hole or broken part on them.

“Oh my gosh!”, exclaimed Twilight. “That was amazing! Thank you so much, Ratchet!”

He responded with, “You’re welcome, Miss Sparkle.”

He then turned back to Bumblebee and said, “Looks like introductions aren’t really necessary.”

Bumblebee facepalmed upon hearing that while Optimus put his hand on Ratchet’s shoulder.

“Great work, old friend. I had full confidence in your medical skills and once again, you performed admirably. Now that our new allies are fully functional again, we can finally put together a plan to both save our home and defeat Megatron once and for all.”

Right after hearing that, all four of them gathered around him and began discussing their next move.

From the truth of a thousand lies

Author's Note

Feel free to listen to this music during the fight scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi1FiJ-JkLU

From the truth of a thousand lies

Barricade was casually driving towards east in order to regroup with his comrades. The sun had not even begun to set, the landscape he was driving through was full of green, and the meeting spot was classified as the "Foal Mountain." All three of these facts were making him so furious that, if he had the time and ammunition for it, he could scream towards the sky in pure agony and scorch the entire land (along with every living creature currently residing on it).

First of all, he had just been beaten and forced to retreat by an Autobot scum. Even though this opponent was the leader of the entire Autobot faction, the fact that his defeat took place in a beautiful day like this was irritating at best. On top of that, he wasn't really accustomed to sunny skies. His former residence, Kaon (the capital city of Decepticons on Cybertron), was always rainy and covered in storm clouds. Therefore, he was unable to immediately adapt to the brightness of this planet's sun and it was already starting to mess with his sensors.

Second, while he was not complaining about the color of the landscape, the surprising fertility of the land itself only served as a sad reminder of his home planet's miserable condition. He did remember the time when Cybertron's surface was rich with life like this and encountering an area with the same level of prosperity was causing his rage towards the Autobots to increase exponentially. If they had just surrendered without any fuss and accepted Megatron's rule, then every bot could still have a home to return to.

Finally, the name of the meeting place was plain stupid. In fact, the names of every single hill, mountain, lake, town, and city sounded incredibly stupid. What pathetic excuses for life forms came up with these idiotic names, anyway? The pair of alicorn princesses in charge of ruling the kingdom? In that case, he would go directly towards the capital after the meeting in order to teach those pretentious fools a lesson about naming places. Actually, Lord Megatron was already planning to colonize the planet and enslave its population after retrieving the AllSpark, anyway. So, maybe punishing those alicorns would not be really necessary after all.

With all those thoughts in his head, he headed towards the mountain at full speed and, soon enough, entered a large cave before transforming back to his robot form. Right after that, he noticed the presence of his old friend Brawl who approached him with curiosity.

"What happened? You said you were going to send the results soon. Where are they?"

"The interrogation was interrupted."

"Oh. Autobots?"

"Worse. Prime himself is here and I'm pretty sure he didn't come alone."

"What? How's that even possible? I thought Lugnut was in charge of destroying all the remaining escape pods."

"He was and it's not really like him to leave any job unfinished. The Autobots most likely finished him off before he could wreck the rest of those pods."

Brawl became silent for a handful of seconds before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"That's a real shame. He was a fine soldier and always good for a laugh or two. I'm going to miss that old sucker."

"Me too, but we have more important things to worry about right now. If the Autobots manage to ally themselves with this planet's inhabitants, we'll be in real trouble."

"Relax! I just demolished an entire empire of ponies all by myself and we have a whole legion of Decepticon troops at our disposal. So, who cares if Prime teams up with those weaklings. What we SHOULD worry about, on the other hand, is Lord Megatron. I imagine he won't be happy to learn that a bunch of Autobot stowaways escaped from the Nemesis and reached this planet in order to spoil our plans."

"Hmmm. You could be right. He is not going to like these news and will definitely take his anger out on something. That 'something' will probably be us right after we deliver the news."

Brawl once again sighed in frustration.

"I won't argue with you. After all, you know him much better than I do. I mean, you were one of the very first bots to join his cause, right?"

"Yes, besides Soundwave and Lugnut. Well, just Soundwave now that Lugnut is axed off. Speaking of Soundwave, where in the name of Primus is he, anyway? We could really use an assistance by him or one his minions."

"Didn't you hear? He went to assist the Stunticons on a mission to hunt down that huge troublemaker, Ironhide. Their last report came only two megacycles ago and it stated that they nearly cornered him in Caminus. I highly doubt that they can come here to help us any time soon."

"Ugh! Great! Just great! How exactly are we going to solve our problems, then! We are so screwed!"

He proceeded to punch one of the cave walls, causing a small shake. A worried Brawl immediately grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey! The last thing we need right now is getting buried alive inside a mountain. So, you’ll do well to calm down a bit and... What’s that thing on your back?”

Surprised by that question, Barricade quickly looked at his back and was shocked to discover a small device planted there. He instantly picked up the device and started examining it.

"Oh, scrap! This is one of those new tracking devices invented by that blasted Autobot engineer Wheeljack. Prime must have thrown it to my vehicle form's rear during my retreat. It becomes online fifteen cycles after it's planted and sends a signal directly to him when the target is located around a maximum range of sixty miles. It's already been five cycles since my escape and we're only forty miles away from that area. We have to crush this thing immediately!"

"Wait! Not yet!"

"What are you talking about? If we don't get rid of it as soon as possible, Prime will surely use it to hunt us down and turn us into scrap!"

"I know, but there's a way we can use it to our advantage."

Barricade gave him an incredulous look.

"How so?"

"Think about it. That device will lead both the Autobots AND Princess Twilight right to us, right? We can go to a place she cares about, ambush them as soon as they arrive, and force her to tell us the location of the AllSpark. It will be the perfect trap! What do you say?"

Barricade thought hard about this plan before a sadistic grin appeared on his face.

"Not a bad idea and I know the perfect place to spring this trap. Good thinking, brother. For a bot who adores blasting things, you're quite the strategist."

"Heh! Lord Megatron didn't make me the commander of his ground forces for nothing. Once we find the AllSpark and present it to him, he'll declare us heroes and we'll finally have that long-overdue break."

"No kidding. I'm pretty much tired from all this fighting. My servos should've used a vacation ages ago."

"Yeah, as much as I like blasting stuff, I admit that this war has taken its toll on me. Luckily, the AllSpark will put a stop to it for good and those pesky Autobots will have no choice but to surrender."

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's cause a little more destruction and set up that ambush!"

"Lead the way, little brother!”

They both transformed into their vehicle forms and headed out of the mountain at maximum speed.

Meanwhile, the discussion between Twilight and the Autobots was still ongoing. They had been talking for nearly ten minutes and haven't come to a solid conclusion yet. Even though Twilight preferred to get to know the Autobots a little better and ask questions about their culture, she eventually realized that it was not the right time. Spike, on the other hand, was silently observing them in awe. Their bold and colorful designs made them appear very heroic, in his opinion. Also, he thought that they could be great inspirations for an action figure series. More importantly, though, he simply could not wait to see the looks on the faces of the CMC when they get a good look at these multi-colored heroes.

"I know our original plan was to locate the AllSpark by exercising discretion", Optimus declared. "However, Twilight's suggestion convinced me to follow the opposite approach. We must contact Equestria's rulers directly and warn them about the imminent danger. The future of their land and people depends on it."

"I don't know about this, Optimus", replied Bumblebee. "Even if they listen to us, what happens if they also decide to rally their armies against the Decepticons? We'd be endangering countless lives and maybe leading them to their demise."

"Bumblebee has a valid point, old friend", added Ratchet. "Besides, they will most likely choose to melt us down or subject us to some unethical experiment before deciding to hear us out. Trust me, intelligent life forms always immediately fear and try to destroy beings from a planet other than their own."

Optimus countered, "This plan may carry great risk, Autobots, but we have little choice. The inhabitants of this world need to know how they can prepare for an imminent threat to their very lives and they can only accomplish this by knowing exactly what is coming to them.”

Bumblebee thought hard about this for a moment before responding with, “Well, when you put it that way, I guess it could be worth a shot.”

"Oh, and how exactly do you propose we do that?", Ratchet asked. "Simply climb up to the capital city and knock on the castle doors? Because, that sounds like a truly terrible idea, if you ask me."

Twilight elaborated, "I hate to admit it, Optimus, but your overly pessimistic friend here is kinda right about this. Every pony in Equestria is on edge now and the princesses are prepared to do anything in their power to keep the citizens safe from an alien attack."

"But we aren’t gonna do anything of the sort, stated Bumblebee. “We'll just introduce ourselves as peacekeepers and explain to them how they can prepare against the real bad bots. Simple as that. Besides, we don't look anything like those Decepticon jerks. We'll be just fine."

Spike noted, "Uh, Bee, you do realize that both you and the Decepticons are giant metal aliens, right? I really don’t think Celestia and Luna will make a distinction.”

Bumblebee’s whole face fell as soon as he heard that.

“Oh. Right. So, what do we do, then? I don’t suppose your civilization has invented radio communication yet?”

“Nope, but we could use smoke signal if you want.”

“Come on! That will never work!”

“Hey, it was just a suggestion! If you have a better one, I’d love to hear it!”

As this discussion continued, Twilight decided to think of a solution on her own. While she evaluated all the possible outcomes in her mind, she also took notice of the nearly wrecked train carts. Suddenly, a brilliant idea formed in her head and she quickly flew towards the middle of the conversation between her companions.

“Guys, I figured it out! Actions always speak louder than words and you can prove yourselves to be the good aliens by doing something nice for the ponies of Canterlot. For example, those carts over there are supposed to be attached to a train headed for the city. If you could restore them to their former glory and deliver them there in one piece, then I’m sure Celestia and Luna would agree to hear you out.”

All three Autobots looked at each other in confusion for a while before Ratchet inquired, “Are you seriously suggesting that the key to getting inside the city is repairing these primitive means of transportation and presenting them to your rulers as some kind of a donation?”

Twilight gave him an unamused look.

“Seriously? What do you have to lose, anyway?”

“Well, our dignity, for one!”

Bumblebee quickly got in front of him to face Twilight.

“I think Ratchet is trying to say that none of us really know how to fix up this kind of stuff. He’s a medical officer, Optimus is a commander, and though I worked as a construction worker before the war, it was more on space bridges and less on public transportation. I mean, we do have an engineer friend, but he’s currently several light years away from here.”

Twilight’s expression turned to bewildered as soon as she heard that.

“Are you kidding me?! NONE of you know how to repair a couple of train carts?!”

“I do”, replied Optimus and this surprised everyone around him. “I had conducted some research about Equestria before our arrival and one particularly interesting subject I came across was the mechanics of these trains. I believe I can partially restore these carts, but I might need some help in completing the process due to their crystal structure.”

Everyone kept looking at him in confusion until Twilight eventually broke the silence with enthusiasm.

“I’ll help you! I’ve learned a great deal about these crystals since my first visit to the Crystal Empire. Just ask me anything you want to know and I’ll answer it in a second.”

“Then, it’s settled”, Optimus declared. “Twilight and I will repair the carts and deliver them to Canterlot in order to gain the trust of Equestria's leaders. Ratchet, I want you to continue the search for the AllSpark in the meantime.”

Ratchet nodded in agreement.

“Good luck, Optimus. You’ll need it.”

He transformed into his vehicle form and drove off towards the west. Just then, Optimus's blue eyes began to blink repeatedly. He pressed something on one of his horns and his eyes immediately projected a couple of lasers that created a holographic map of Equestria. After Twilight stared at it in awe for a bit, she noticed a small blinking red dot on it.

"Why is this map pointing towards Ponyville?"

Optimus replied, "Because the signal of the tracker I placed on Barricade is coming from there. Therefore, that must be his current location."

Both Twilight and Spike gasped in horror and yelled in unison, "Oh, no! Our friends!"

"Hey, don’t worry, guys!", interrupted Bumblebee. "I'll just drive up to that town, get your friends out of trouble, and knock that rust bucket senseless. Easier done than said!"

"This seems like a rash course of action, Bumblebee", Optimus stated. "Barricade is a rather challenging opponent and it's unlikely that he will be there alone. Besides, you still have to get the civilians out of danger. You cannot accomplish all of these tasks by yourself."

"Hmmm. You're kinda right, actually. They ARE a bit too much for me to handle on my own. Wait, I got it! How about Spike joins me on this mission? He can help me evacuate the town and get everyone to safety. What do you say, Spike?"

At that moment, Spike became really excited by this proposal.

"A mission with you that involves saving Ponyville from Barricade? Of course, I say yes!"

"Spike, no!", exclaimed Twilight. "You barely survived our last encounter with Barricade. I simply can't put you at risk a second time."

"He won't be anywhere near Barricade", Bumblebee clarified. "He'll just be there to help with the town's evacuation and calm everybody down. It's not a very big role, but an important one, nonetheless."

Spike nodded in agreement and turned to Twilight once again.

"You can relax, Twilight. I'll find Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy as soon as we get to Ponyville. They'll keep me safe and help me get everything under control while Bee deals with the bad guys. It'll be totally fine."

Twilight let out a big nervous sigh.

"Alright, but stick close to them at all times. Also, make sure to check on Shining Armor and Cadence to see if they're feeling better."

"Will do! Hey, Bee, I think you should fight off the Decepticons AFTER we clear out the town. You know, to avoid accidental injuries. Do you have some sort of machine I can use to let you know when you can go into battle?"

"Way ahead of you, little buddy! Here, take this earpiece. It will establish clear communication between us throghout the entire operation."

Spike put the device on his ear and, after running a few tests, confirmed that he could hear Bumblebee loud and clear. Right before they headed out, Optimus approached the dutiful scout.

"You can call for backup any time you want, but if you remember to focus on the task ahead of you, I am confident that you will succeed. We both know that you accomplished more challenging missions than this one.”

"Thanks, boss bot. I will not let you down.”

“You never have and never will, old friend. Now, I believe you and your new partner have a town full of ponies to save.”

“Yes, sir! We’re on it! Come on, Spike! Let’s roll out!”

He picked up Spike, transformed into his vehicle form, and drove off towards Ponyville at his top speed. As they disappeared into the horizon, Optimus let out a small groan, which earned him a curious look from Twilight.

“That is usually my line.”

in hindsight, there was not much of a difference between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire in terms of destruction. Every single building was on fire, there were screaming ponies running in every direction, and the ground was shaking from the footsteps of a gigantic invader. Well, TWO gigantic invaders, this time around. While their combined power could have demolished the entire town in a couple of minutes, they were instead taking their time and waiting for their mortal enemies to come to their ambush.

"Good thing we smashed all those ultrasonic sentries first", commented Brawl. "I thought my audio sensors would actually explode after a few cycles of exposure."

"Yeah, so did I", Barricade replied. "Looks like these insects are actually smarter than we originally thought."

"Ha! Too bad they didn't think of a backup plan in case this one failed!"

"Right!"

They both laughed and resumed their destructive activities. A couple of minutes later, they reached an area full of apple trees and Barricade heard a combination of screams coming from a treehouse ahead of him. He looked at the treehouse with his thermal vision and saw heat signatures coming from three younger ponies.

"You alright?", asked Brawl inquisitively.

Barricade replied, "I'm gonna check out that little wooden house. You go ahead and smash that red building over there."

Brawl responded with "Whatever you say" before moving towards the farmhouse with his hammer.

Barricade, meanwhile, retrieved an Energon dagger from his back and approached the treehouse with a malicious intent. He was certain that Princess Twilight would not wish for younger ponies to be hurt and so, he decided to use these fillies as bargaining chips in order to learn the AllSpark's location as quickly as possible.”

When he finally reached the treehouse, he took a quick peek through the window and saw exactly what he expected to find: Three little extremely terrified fillies hugging each other. Though Barricade found this scene kind of adorable, he knew that he had no time to waste as Princess Twilight and the Autobots could arrive any minute. So, he proceeded to shake the tree with a kick to get the attention of the fillies.

“You three! Come down here this instant!”

“P-p-please!”, pleaded the white-coated unicorn. “W-w-we don’t want any trouble! J-j-just go away!”

“If you think that little display of cuteness will be enough to change my mind, you’re sadly mistaken. Now, for the last time, get down here immediately!”

The fillies remained silent, but also became even more scared than before. This situation greatly annoyed Barricade and readied his dagger to chop down the tree.

“If you don’t come out of there by the time I finish counting to five, I shall bring your entire house down with you inside it!”

“Are you crazy?!”, exclaimed an orange pegasus with a purple mane. “You’ll doom us all!”

“Please, be reasonable!”, begged the remaining pony who had a yellow coat and a pink bow attached to her red mane.

“One! Two! Thr-“

“Hey, Decepticreep! Why not pick on someone your own size?!”

Barricade turned around to find the source of that shout and was surprised to discover the infamous Autobot scout Bumblebee being brave enough to stand up to him. He was also quite amused by this scenario and decided give his full attention to it for now.

“Talking big is easy, Bumbler. The tricky part is backing it up.”

Though Bumblebee became confused at first, he was suddenly startled by loud footsteps coming from behind. When he turned towards the cause of these sounds, he was so nervous to find an angry Brawl standing right behind him that he quickly took a few steps away from both Decepticons.

“Oh, Brawl! It’s, uh, great to see you again! How long it’s been? Fifty stellar cycles?”

“Does not matter! You’ve been a thorn in Lord Megatron’s side for far too long, scout! I would’ve tore you apart scrap by scrap if we didn’t have any use for you right now!”

“Use? Ha! You’re clearly delusional if you think I’d do anything for you rust buckets!”

“Oh, but we beg to differ”, replied Barricade. “At this very moment, we have three young ponies as hostages and unless you bring both your Autobot friends and Princess Twilight here in one megacycle, I’m afraid their lifespan will have to be cut short.”

While the Decepticons were laughing at that statement, Bumblebee was observing the fillies who had poked their heads through the window. They looked really desperate for help and he could see that there were tiny drops of tear on their eyes. Then, he took a glance at his opponents and realized that they would destroy these children whether or not he did as they instructed. Right at that second, something snapped inside him and his expression turned extremely furious before pressing something on the left side of his head.

"Spike, I found the kids you mentioned being missing. Are you sure every remaining pony made it out of the town?"

"Yep, every pony else is right here. Are you okay? You kinda sound mad at something."

"I'm fine. Just keep the other ponies calm and out of town. I'll be back soon with the kids. Bee out."

Immediately after he said that, he pulled out a medieval-style Energon sword from his back, puzzling both of his opponents.

"Whoa!", exclaimed Brawl. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"You have a major malfunction or something?", Barricade asked. "This is not the time to play hero."

"Yes, it is!", yelled Bumblebee. "You disgusting Cons have always harassed and oppressed those who are either weaker or smaller than you. In fact, the whole reason why this war began in the first place was your crazy obsession with rising above every single bot on Cybertron. I thought it was bad back then, but now... Even I can't believe you've stooped low enough to threaten the lives of innocent children who aren't even the tenth of your size! I've had enough of your superiority complex! You hear me? I'VE HAD ENOUGH! You monsters will have to blow me into a million pieces before touching one strand of their hair!"

The Decepticons looked at each other before nodding in agreement. Then, they turned back towards Bumblebee and Barricade declared, "Challenge accepted, Autobot scum."

He ran towards Bumblebee and tried to slash him a few times with his dagger. However, Bumblebee deflected all the attacks with his sword, punched him in the face, kicked him in the knee, and downed him with another kick to the face. Brawl then tried to hit him with his hammer, but he managed dodge every single assault, slashed both of his knees with his sword, and knocked him down with a dropkick to the face.

Right after that , he was grabbed and put in a headlock by Barricade who began to taunt him with "Now, you'll get to feel what so many of your insignificant friends felt during their final moments!"

As he struggled, Brawl got up and ran up towards them in order to hit him again with the hammer. Just as he was about to do so, however, Bumblebee managed to break himself free by stepping on Barricade's foot and elbowing him in the chest. He then immediately moved out of the way, which led to Brawl hitting Barricade instead. Seizing the opportunity, Bumblebee jumped on to Brawl's back and started stabbing him continuously. Even though Brawl managed to grab him by the head and threw him from his back, he transformed into his vehicle form before he hit the ground, drove back to him, transformed back to his robot form, and hit him in the face with a jump punch, pummeling him once again.

A furious Barricade then attempted to repeatedly attack Bumblebee with his dagger and Bumblebee avoided all of them before knocking the dagger from his opponent's hand with a kick. Barricade then ferociously threw a series of punches and kicks at the Autobot and while Bumblebee managed to counter most of them, the last few hit him really hard. When Barricade tried to deliver another kick, though, he grabbed it and threw the Decepticon ten yards away. Despite Barricade running back that distance to throw a punch, Bumblebee simply caught it in the air, twisted counterclockwise, headbutted him, and delivered three heavy punches to the face, seemingly knocking him out.

Brawl then assaulted Bumblebee with his gigantic fists and though Bumblebee dodged the first few attacks, the last one connected with his chest and sent him flying a dozen yards away. While he was trying to recover from that, Brawl quickly ran back the distance and attempted to crush him with a brutal stomp, which forced Bumblebee to hold back his foot with immense struggle. A handful of seconds later, however, he noticed the cuts he made earlier to Brawl’s knee and hit him on that spot, which caused Brawl to back away in pain and gave Bumblebee enough time to deliver a shoryuken (a.k.a. spinning uppercut).

Brawl, though dazed, let out a frustrated scream, transformed into his vehicle form, and fired a pair of huge lasers from the cannons, which Bumblebee barely managed to dodge. As Brawl prepared to release another pair of lasers, he also transformed into his vehicle form, drove towards Brawl while avoiding the lasers at the same time, jumped upwards in his robot form that had a plasma cannon for a right arm, and fired six plasma shots to Brawl's rear end, which forced him to transform back to his robot form. After Bumblebee landed on beside Brawl's back, he fired one fully charged shot to the spot that contained most of Brawl's previous stab wounds, taking him down for good this time.

Just after Bumblebee walked in front of his defeated enemy, a recently awoken Barricade sprinted towards him while letting out a rage-filled scream and made one last attempt to slice the Autobot with his dagger. Unfortunately, Bumblebee instantly parried the attack with his sword, kneed Barricade in the chest, lifted him up, threw him towards Brawl, and even shot him with his plasma cannon in order to make the impact occur a lot earlier.

Once the two Decepticons were rounded up in one position, Bumblebee pointed his weapon at them and asked, "Not bad for a bumbler, huh?"

Both of his fallen enemies groaned in pain and Brawl said to Barricade, "I cannot believe we were bested by a tiny Autobot scout in physical combat! What will Lord Megatron say if he learns about this?!"

Barricade replied. "We can't worry about that now. We're both heavily damaged and need to fall back immediately."

"Oh, you think?!", exclaimed Brawl and the two quickly transformed into their vehicle forms before driving away as fast as they could from Ponyville.

Bumblebee shouted behind them, "Yeah, you insensitive cowards better run! Don't forget to tell Megatron that he's got a much better shot at taming Unicron than beating us to the AllSpark!"

Once they disappeared into the horizon, he let out a relieved sigh took a moment to observe his surroundings. Obviously, he became a little disturbed by the amount of fire and destruction around him.

"Oops! I guess that's partially my fault", he nervously thought out loud. "It's okay. Nothing's impossible to fix. I can probably clear everything up in three cycles at most, right? Except that I don't know anything about construction besides space bridges. Not to mention that all of my space bridge construction days was about five million stellar cycles ago, so I've most likely forgotten even the most basic stuff. Primus, I'm dumb!"

"That's alright!", said a small female voice behind him. "We can help you out if you want."

He turned towards the direction where the voice came from and encountered one of the fillies he was trying to save. It was the Earth pony with a yellow coat, amaranth mane, and a light crimson bow attached to it.

"You can?", he asked while kneeling in front of the filly.

"Absolutely!", exclaimed another filly to his left who was the unicorn with a white coat. "I mean, it's probably the least we could do to thank you for saving us from those monsters."

"By the way, your fighting style was totally awesome!", declared the pegasus to his right. "How did you learn to fight like that? Is there any way you can teach us some of those super cool moves?"

"Well, I actually taught those techniques to myself, but I don’t really think I have the time to show you any of them”, Bumblebee stated.

This resulted in the girls enlargening their eyes and over-enthusiastic expressions appearing on their faces.

“PLEASE!”, pleaded the Earth pony. “We’ll do anything! We’ll even talk the mayor into building a statue of you in the town square!”

This whole situation had put Bumblebee in a corner. He did not want to disappoint the girls and sincerely wanted their help in restoring the town. However, he and his fellow Autobots were in a race against time to find their sacred artifact. Any delay could cost them big time. On the other hand, their eons-long civil war with the Decepticons did cause the destruction around him and it was only fair that he helped fix it.

"Just hold on for a bit. I'll have to talk to someone about this."

He proceeded to press something on his head.

"Hey, Spike! Mission accomplished! The fillies are safe and the bad guys just got their rear-ends handed to them!"

"Awesome! Does that mean I can tell every pony it's safe to go back into the town? They just can't wait to begin fixing up the place."

"Yeah, about that..."

"Oh. That bad, huh?"

"Actually, it's kinda worse. I think we need to stay for a while and help with the repairs."

"You think Optimus would be okay with that?"

"Probably, but I think it's best if I ask him about it first."

"Good idea. Let me know about his answer to that soon."

"Will do, buddy. Bee out."

He pressed another button on his head.

"Bumblebee to Optimus. The mission is a success. The town is secure, and both Barricade and Brawl are driven away."

"Excellent work, old friend. Once again you have exceeded my expectations. Are you and Spike ready to return?"

"Uh, not exactly. A lot of the buildings here have suffered heavy damage and so, we were thinking that we should remain here for a little longer and help the ponies in restoring their home."

"Hmmm. Alright, but do not go anywhere else without permission from either me or Ratchet. Our true mission is not yet accomplished and I fear that the Decepticons you encountered were not the only ones currently located on this planet."

"Roger that, boss bot. Has Ratchet called in yet?"

"No, but I expect to hear from him soon. If he does not report in one megacycle, I shall send you to his last known location. For now, you and Spike will assist the citizens in restoring their town and await further instructions afterwards. Twilight and I are halfway done with our work and will be heading for Canterlot soon."

"Understood. Best of luck with the negotiations. Bumblebee out.”

He turned his attention back to the fillies.

"Well, it looks like we'll get to spend some time together, after all."

All three of them loudly cheered and began hopping around like bunnies as soon as they heard this, making Bumblebee even more nervous. He was just baffled by the fact that these little creatures contained even more energy than he ever did.

"Alright, alright! Settle down, please! How about we start with some introductions. Uh, what was that phrase? 'Ladies first' or 'mares first'?"

The Earth pony replied, "Sure thing! My name's Apple Bloom."

"Sweetie Belle!", exclaimed the unicorn.

"And I'm Scootaloo!", the pegasus stated.

"Great pleasure to meet all of you. I'm Bumblebee, but you can just call me 'Bee' if you want. All my friends do."

"Are we really friends?", asked Apple Bloom enthusiastically.

"Of course!”, Bumblebee happily declared. “Do you think I would’ve talked my commander into staying here with you guys if we weren’t friends? Now, come on! Spike is waiting for us at the train station.”

He offered his hand to them, and they eagerly climbed on to it. He then placed them on his back, but they proceeded to go to his head and shoulders, instead. Apple Bloom sat on his right shoulder, Sweetie Belle on his left one, and Scootaloo literally on top of his head. Rather than being frustrated, though, he actually chuckled and gave a warm smile to the girls who, in turn, smiled back. After that, he stood up and began to casually walk towards his destination.

So let mercy come and wash away

Author's Note

Just to avoid confusion;
1 cycle = 1 minute
1 mega cycle = 1 hour
1 solar cycle = 1 day
1 stellar cycle = 1 year

So let mercy come and wash away

Meanwhile, Optimus and Twilight were meticulously working on making the train carts operational again. Although this job was a bit tiresome, they had made great progress by exchanging useful information between them. Optimus had supplied Twilight with his surprisingly extensive knowledge about train mechanics and she, in turn, had taught him pretty much everything there is to know about the crystals in Equestria. Now that their overall work had been significantly reduced, and that she had recently been notified of Spike's complete safety, Twilight realized this was the perfect time to ask the Autobot leader some questions regarding their world and culture.

"So, how come you're from a different planet and yet, understand our language so well?"

"Our audio receptors and vocal processors are equipped with universal translators. In this way, we are able to hear your words in our language and speak in yours."

"Wow! That's so cool! Where can I get one of those?"

"I am sure Ratchet has brought a spare in case one of ours got damaged. You may ask him when he returns from his search. Hopefully, he will bring the AllSpark with him."

"What's his deal, anyway? He seems so cranky all the time. Was he always like this?"

"I would not worry about it too much. His behavior is mostly a result of his experiences during the war. Besides, I imagine any bot who has reached sixty million Equestrian years of age can have a bit of a negative attitude."

Right after she heard that fact, Twilight's eyes widened exponentially.

"WHAT?! Sixty million years?! You guys can live THAT long?!"

"Eventually. We may be mortal, but are also made of metal, cogs, and circuitry. Therefore, our cybernetic nature allows us to live much longer than organic beings."

"Oh! So, you're basically living machines. Wait, if that's so, what do you use to power yourselves?"

To answer that question, Optimus opened his chest plate to reveal glowing and beating orb of pure energy. Twilight could not help but stare at it for a handful of seconds in admiration while her giant mechanical friend laid out more exposition.

"I believe you call this a 'heart'. We call it a 'spark'. It is the life force that is possessed by every functional Cybertronian in the universe. We keep them beating by supplying ourselves with Energon, a resource that was once plentiful on our planet. Until pride and a lust for power divided us. Now, we are forced to scour entire galaxies to find alternate energy sources, and fight enemies who were once our brothers."

"Whoa. That's really messed up. I assume this whole war began just because Megatron wanted all the Energon to himself."

"More or less. He and his top lieutenants were initially built as a new generation of elite warriors in charge of maintaining Cybertron's security. Unfortunately, they became dissatisfied with their status and rebelled against the very system they swore to uphold in order to gain more power. In time, they recruited hundreds of warriors sympathetic to their cause and our once-majestic home was drawn to the brink of collapse."

He somberly closed his chest and tried to concentrate on his work. A few seconds later, though, he sensed a presence on his shoulder and discovered an equally sad Twilight sitting on it.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. Watching your own people destroy each other could not have been easy to stomach. But, I promise you, my friends and I will do anything in our power to help you find the AllSpark and bring an end to this war."

Optimus silently pondered about that for a little while before managing to give her a warm look.

"Thank you, Twilight. Your courage and determination is very admirable."

She giggled a bit and warmly smiled back at him.

"Don't mention it, big guy. Just glad to be helpful to a friend. Speaking of friends, how did you meet Bumblebee and Ratchet in the first place? Did you run into each other during a battle or were you already close before the war began?"

"Actually, you are correct and incorrect on both occasions. I first encountered Bumblebee during the final battles on Cybertron. He was a valiant and extremely driven fighter, but he was also arrogant and impulsive. I had to save him from an entire squadron of Decepticon soldiers that he had decided to take on all by himself. Throghout the next few millennia he spent under my service, I mentored him on the importance of discipline, patience, and teamwork. Even though he still struggles to rein back his emotions, I am proud to say that he has managed to greatly hone his combat and social skills. As for Ratchet, he has been a close friend of mine long before the Decepticon uprising. I would often visit his office to either check my systems or ask him some questions regarding medical science. Also, during these visits, we would discuss our planet's current situation. I admit, politics was never a subject I found particularly interesting, but his opinions on our government officials were always fascinating to listen to."

While Twilight's expression was intrigued during Bumblebee's story, it switched to confused as soon as Optimus began talking about his visits to Ratchet.

"Um, why would a soldier like you be so interested to know about medical science?"

"Well, I was not always a soldier. Prior to the war's inception, I worked at a hall of records in our capital city of Iacon as a data clerk. When I realized our archives did not contain sufficient information about medical science, I decided to consult a professional on it and every bot I spoke to recommended Ratchet."

Instantly, Twilight's eyes greatly widened once again and she let out giant excited gasp.

"SWEET CELESTIA! You mean you were once a librarian?! What a coincidence! So was I! You've got to tell me all about your experiences! Was it working there fun or boring? Were the books you read there enlightening or dated and inaccurate? Did the visitors come for knowledge or to just get away from the loud suburban environment?"

Though he was certainly bewildered by her extreme enthusiasm, Optimus succeeded in keeping his expressions as calm as possible during this freak-out. However, he also let out a deep depressed sigh by the end of it.

"I appreciate your interest in my former occupation, but I am afraid it no longer carries any significance."

"What are you talking about? Of course, it does! Being in charge of preserving and organizing these gold mines of useful information is always a noble profession."

"Perhaps, but I completely left that old life of searching information and enriching my wisdom behind me. It was before Megatron. Before I became a Prime."

"Huh? Wait, so, 'Prime' isn't really a part of your name, but rather a title?"

"Yes, it is given to those who are entrusted by the Cybertronian Council to lead and protect our people during times of both peace and war. After Zeta Prime was terminated by Megatron himself, the council chose me as the new leader due to my substantial contribution to the war effort and the amount of lives I saved during the battles."

"Really? Oh, wow! I think the number of similarities between us has just multiplied, because earning this title sounds a lot like becoming an Equestrian princess like me. The only difference is that I had to learn tons of lessons about friendship and complete an ancient friendship spell left behind by a really wise wizard who just happens to be my childhood hero."

"Then, it seems you were considerably more fortunate than I was. My path towards leadership brought me to nothing but pain and suffering. Even though I gained many friends during the war, I bore witness to many more perishing at the hands of either Megatron or his forces. It pleases me to learn that you have earned a leadership position without experiencing any sort of tragedy at all."

Although she was pretty stunned by this statement, Twilight still managed to give a nervous smile to Optimus.

"Um, you're welcome, I guess."

"Now, let us focus on finishing our work and reach your capital before the sun sets."

With that, they continued on repairing the train. However, a grim feeling had begun to eat away Twilight from the inside. She was thinking about how surprisingly similar she and Optimus were, and this was causing her to ask herself one ominous question: How would she have turned out if she had gone through the same experiences as he did?

Her efforts to find an answer to this question was making her imagine all kinds of scenarios where she would be in the middle of a war that was tearing her civilization apart and causing her to lose nearly all of her friends. She had begun to ponder how these circumstances would affect her personality and whether or not she would remain sane by the end of them. Needless to say, the more she searched for answers, the more scared she was becoming.
Moreover, due to these horrible thoughts, she could not concentrate on her duties as much as she wanted to. Luckily, though, Optimus was more than willing to assist her with anything she was struggling with and so, their work was not delayed at all. In fact, it only took them about ten to fifteen minutes to wrap everything up and when they were finally done, both of them were really pleased with each other's effort.

"Before we head to Canterlot, I would like to ask you something", said Optimus.

"Sure!", Twilight replied. "What's up?"

"I am actually curious about the history of your people. If it's not too much trouble, would you be interested in briefly recounting how your civilization first came to be?

"Trouble? Pfft! Please! I can recount the whole history in my sleep! Well, that's technically impossible, but you know what I mean, right?"

"I do and I simply cannot wait to hear this story."

They sat down beside the carts and Twilight cleared her throat.

"Once upon a time, there were three pony tribes: Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi…"

What I've done

Author's Note

Happy 4th of July! :pinkiehappy:

What I've done

As much as Bumblebee hated to admit it, fixing up Ponyville was not an easy task for him. Compared to the town's residents, he was a mechanical giant as tall as the buildings and at least ten times larger than an average pony. So, naturally, he had a really hard time picking up tools and bricks without accidentally breaking them, let alone using them to repair damaged buildings.

Even navigating through the streets was a real challenge. He had to watch every single one of his steps in order to avoid stepping on any pony and there had been a couple of incidents where he had fallen through a newly restored house while trying not to squash a nearby bystander. Needless to say, this job was certainly one of the toughest ones he had ever taken in his entire life.

Fortunately, there was at least a silver lining in all this misery and frustration. The townspeople (especially the CMC and their respective sisters) had really warmed up to his presence. While they were initially pretty scared of him due to their previous experiences with giant robots, his victory against the Decepticons, the fact that he single handedly rescued the CMC from certain doom, and Spike's verbal skills convinced them that he was no threat. Even though he was still a little clumsy while moving around their town and assisting them with repairs, they were responding to his efforts with empathy and had accepted him as a friend. Even Shining Armor and Cadence, who were initially the most reluctant ones to trust him, were really impressed by his down to earth nature, undying loyalty, and constant willingness to help everyone around him.

However, the ponies that connected with Bumblebee the most were, unsurprisingly, the CMC. They played a huge part in helping him adjust to his new surroundings and teaching him how to pick up stuff without accidentally damaging anything. Thus, he became a lot better at assisting the restoration efforts and walking around Ponyville.

Moreover, they were a great company to be around. They frequently told him about the adventures they had during their quest to discover their true talents, and he found nearly all of them both exciting and hilarious. In fact, some of them actually reminded him of the stunts he pulled during his youth and remembering those times did put a smile to his face. The days he foolishly spent trying to perform dangerous tricks to impress his friends belonged to a time when Cybertron was truly a paradise and he really had to thank the girls for bringing those memories back to life.

He was about halfway done with fixing up the Apple family barn when they were recounting their adventure involving a pony named Trouble Shoes. While it was not particularly thrilling or funny, he did find the story quite interesting.

"Wait, so, let me get this straight," he said. "You ventured into a creepy forest in the middle of a dark and stormy night in order to find a giant stallion living in an equally creepy-looking cabin in the woods? And you did all of that without any adult supervision whatsoever?"

The fillies nodded in unison.

"Holy scrap!", he exclaimed "You three are even bolder than I thought! I probably wouldn't have made five meters into it before running back screaming."

Once they heard that statement, the CMC looked at each other in confusion before bursting out laughing.

"Oh, don't be so modest, Bee!", Apple Bloom replied. "I mean, you're a metal giant who uses a sword for pony's sake!"

"Yeah, and besides, you took down two other metal giants all by yourself", added Sweetie Belle.

"Don't forget that one of them was a lot bigger and meaner than you", Scootaloo pointed out. "The way we see it, you're one of the bravest friends we've ever had!"

Hearing that made Bumblebee both humbled and a little bit sad at the same time.

"Oh, yeah?", he replied. "Well, what if I told you I wasn't always like this?"

Upon hearing this question, the CMC's facial expressions changed from happy to puzzled and each of the girls let out a "Huh?" in unison, making Bumblebee slightly chuckle.

"It's true", he clarified. "Back when I was young and my people were still tearing each other apart for the control of our home planet, I was a lowly scout whom everyone assumed to be a coward due to my relatively small size. Sure, I had friends who supported me, but most of them were in the same situation as I was. Bigger stronger bots almost always pushed us to the sidelines, because they feared we would endanger their missions by running away at the first sign of trouble. It wasn't long before we realized that we had to do something in order to prove ourselves to be just as competent and fearless as our comrades. So, we decided to take on the scrapheap partner of that big unfriendly giant you mentioned, thinking that he would go down with no trouble at all due to him being nearly the same size as us. How do you think that turned out?"

The intrigued fillies thought about it for a few seconds before Apple Bloom suggested, "I reckon it went badly?"

Bumblebee let out a heavy sigh and replied, "No, it was worse. Way worse. For one, he didn't even bother fighting us. He just fired a few shots at us and then, drove off into a series of underground tunnels. Following him was probably the worst and definitely the last mistake we've ever made as a team. The chase led us through a rugged and booby-trapped route that cost me my entire team. I alone managed to survive with a few serious injuries while all of my friends at the time were lost. Crosshairs, Drift, Hound...”

He covered his saddened face with his hand and let out an even heavier sigh. Just then, he felt something touching his foot and looked down to see an equally sad Sweetie Belle placing her hoof on him.

"We're really sorry, Bee. Are you okay? Is there anything we can do to help?"

Bumblebee quickly cleared her throat and gave them a small embarrassed smile.

"Nothing's wrong, guys. I'm okay. It's just that nostalgia can make me a little emotional sometimes, but it's nothing to worry about," he explained. "Anyway, after that traumatizing experience, our leader Zeta Prime demoted me to the messenger rank and I was indefinitely banned from engaging the enemy in any of the missions. Of course, that didn't stop me from secretly wasting every single Decepticon on my path during these messenger missions. I just couldn't get over the fact that my friends never got to prove themselves as brave warriors. So, it only made sense to me that achieving this dream myself would be the best way to honor their memory."

"And you did it, right?", an extremely curious Scootaloo asked.

"Well, not at first, actually", Bumblebee replied. "The Cons soon became tired of the devastation I was bringing to their ranks and so, they sent a small army to set up an ambush for me. I fell right into their trap and would've surely been turned into a scrap pile if it weren't for the impeccable timing of our newest commander, Optimus. He saved me from the ambush all by himself and right after that, he took on the role as my mentor in order to show me the error of my ways."

"What do you mean 'the error of your ways'?", inquired Apple Bloom. "Were you making a mistake up until that point?"

"Yeah, a big stupid mistake", Bumblebee answered. "You see, the big guy showed me that being brave isn't really about defeating your enemies with raw strength, but rather standing up for those you care about against impossible odds. Up until that point, what me and my friends were displaying had nothing to with bravery. It was just pride and anger to hide our fear of rejection. Optimus was the truly brave bot when he risked his life to save mine from a barrage of enemy fire. From that moment on, I pledged to him my unwavering allegiance and dedicated the rest of my life to being as brave as him. It took practically forever, but I think I finally got the hang of it. What do you think?"

"Are you kidding?!", Sweetie Belle happily exclaimed. "You put your own life at risk to save both us and the entire town from those monsters. If that's not true bravery, I don't know what it is!"

"It's what Rainbow Dash does all the time!", Scootaloo added. "Let me tell you, she's pretty much the staple of bravery and loyalty around here."

An obviously touched Bumblebee replied, "Really? Well, then, I guess all the trouble I went through during the past few millennia was totally worth it. Also, this 'Rainbow Dash' does sound like someone I'd probably be honored to meet at some point. Where is she right now?"

Apple Bloom answered, "I heard she and Pinkie Pie went to a far away land to solve a friendship problem, but I'm sure she'll be back here by tomorrow. Hey! I just had a great idea! What if our special talent is being brave like you and her?! I mean, you did say were pretty bold when we traveled through that dark creepy forest to find Trouble Shoes."

"Um, I hate to break it to you guys, but being brave and being bold aren't exactly the same thing", Bumblebee clarified. "In fact, I think the word I should've chosen is 'persistent', which isn't really enough for true bravery. In other words, being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble."

The girls unanimously let out "Oh" in disappointment and hung their heads in embarrassment, causing Bumblebee to kneel beside them and gently stroke their manes.

"Aw, chin up!", he said. "You know that doesn't necessarily mean you haven't yet done or won't ever do anything truly brave, right? Tell me, have you ever stood up for someone against impossible odds? "

They thought about it for a moment before Sweetie Belle suggested, "Well, after we met Trouble Shoes, we learned that he was just an unlucky colt who wanted to be a rodeo star more than anything. So, we defended him against the whole town and convinced them of his innocence. Does that count?"

"Absolutely!", Bumblebee happily declared. "See? You're getting the hang of it at such a young age. Imagine what you can do when you get older!"

Scootaloo asked, "That's awesome and all, but doing that didn't get us any closer to getting our cutie marks. If true bravery isn't our special talent, then what is it?"

Bumblebee replied, "I really don't have a definite answer at the moment, but I can safely say that you're on the right track on finding it. Besides, just like how Optimus helped me on my journey in learning how to be a truly brave soldier, I'm positive you'll help one another on your journey in getting your marks. Whatever they may end up be, you'll find them together."

With their spirits restored after hearing that, the CMC smiled to him and gave each other one big hug.

"Thanks, Bee!", Apple Bloom cheerfully said. "You're really good at giving helpful advice, you know."

"Yeah, just like how Zecora does it all the time", Sweetie Belle added.

"Hey, how about we introduce you to her?", Scootaloo suggested. "I'm sure she'd be thrilled to meet you."

"Oh, my gosh! You're right!", exclaimed Apple Bloom. "Come on! Let's go ask Applejack about it!"

They quickly ran off towards the town while Bumblebee watched their departure with pride. Just then, Spike came along to check on the barn, which was more or less fully repaired.

"Oh, hey, Spike!", Bumblebee greeted him. "How goes the town's repairs? Is everything completely fixed?"

"Yeah, pretty much", replied Spike. "Thanks for all your help. We wouldn't have probably wrapped up everything in such short time without you."

"It's nothing", Bumblebee clarified. "I'm just trying to clean up the mess I made, that's all."

"Well, the crusaders did convince the mayor into building your statue afterwards", Spike added. "By the way, is it true that you promised them to teach your fighting moves?"

"What can I say? I can't really refuse someone as adorable as them", Bumblebee jokingly replied. "Come to think of it, maybe you could some of them too. After all, you'll need all the help you can get during your upcoming showdown with Barricade. What do you say?"

Spike briefly pondered about it and, soon enough, smug smile appeared on his face.

"I say, sign me up, coach!"

"Alright, then! Give me the best punch you got!"

Bumblebee held out his hand and Spike punched it as hard as he could. Unfortunately, he felt immense pain afterwards. Just as they were about to move on to something else, the CMC arrived with excited expressions on their faces.

“Rarity and Applejack said yes!”, declared Sweetie Belle. “So, let’s go already!”

“Do you wanna come with us, Spike?”, Scootaloo asked. “We’re going to introduce Bee to Zecora.”

“Well, uh, I was supposed to oversee the remaining repairs, but since pretty much everything’s been wrapped up, I guess I can take a little break”, he replied. “So, yeah, let’s go already.”

“Very well”, Bumblebee declared. “You girls mentioned Zecora lives somewhere between Ponyville and the middle of Everfree Forest. That shouldn’t be too hard to find. Besides, we can go there and come back much faster in my vehicle form, compared to going on foot. Well, ‘on hoof’, in your case.”

He gently grabbed both the CMC and Spike before happily asking them, “So, who’s ready to go on the greatest ride of all time with everyone’s favorite Autobot?”

As soon as all of them cheerfully yelled “Aye!”, he transformed into his vehicle form and drove off into the forest. As predicted, the enjoyable ride only lasted a few minutes, but it didn’t end because they reached their destination. Instead, it ended when abruptly transformed back into his robot form and looked at a holographic map of the forest that was being projected from his arm.

On both the upper and lower parts of the map was a blinking dot. The one located on the lower part represented Bumblebee himself and the one on the upper part represented an energy signatıre coming from an unusual source that was Cybertronian in nature. If it was what Bumblebee thought it could be, then he had to go to the location of the source and conduct an investigation. Though Optimus ordered him to stay close to Ponyville, he couldn’t ignore this discovery.

When he asked the CMC and Spike what lied in the direction the signal was coming from, their answer did puzzle him a bit:

The Castle of the Two Sisters.

I'll face myself

As Ratchet was swiftly driving through the forests of western Equestria, he could not help but admire the scenery he was observing during his journey. So far, this section of the planet had contained nothing but beautiful green forests, clear blue skies, and more than a few species of animals with interesting appearances. According to his navigational system, he was currently moving through a place called, "White Tail Woods". If he did not change his current course, he would arrive to a landscape designated as "Smokey Mountains". Despite his research indicating that the civilization situated there was primitive even compared to the rest of this world, he could still gain valuable information from the locals about the terrain. Therefore, his chances of locating and retrieving the Cube before the Decepticons do.

Even though Ratchet had originally wished for his interactions with ponies of Equestria to be as minimal as possible, he eventually realized that his team's chances of saving their people were extremely slim without any assistance from these creatures. Besides, they actually were not nearly as bad as he initially assumed them to be. It was perfectly normal for them to be fearful of him and his comrades, due to their gigantic size and unnatural features. Moreover, he was not going to make this situation any easier if he continued to be prideful and moody all the time. Perhaps, it was time to let go of his vanity for once and start working on his-

KABOOM!!!

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the very earth he was driving on exploded due to an incredibly powerful blast. This caused him to transform back into his robot form, fly ten feet upwards, and hit the ground extremely hard. Before he could get a chance to recover from the attack and get back on his servos, he found himself surrounded by a squadron of pegasi who were wearing lavender-colored armor and pointing their spears towards him.

Things got even stranger when an alicorn with dark blue coat, moderate cyan eyes, and moderate sapphire blue mane landed right in front of Ratchet. She was obviously the leader of this pegasi squadron and one of the two princesses who ruled Equestria. Her horn was fiercely glowing with moderate cobalt blue magic and she was giving a glare so intense that even Unicron, the Planet Eater himself, would certainly tremble before it.

"STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, METAL INVADER FROM OUTER SPACE!", she ordered Ratchet with a booming voice. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR THE CRIMES OF TRESSPASSING INTO EQUESTRIA AND ATTEMPTING TO ERADICATE OUR ENTIRE CIVILIZATION!"

Ratchet thought about getting up and explaining the situation, but after briefly considering what had happened a few moments ago and the unexpectedly powerful tone of the alicorn princess, he decided that it would be best to speak while laying on the ground and not provoke another attack.

"I assume you were the one who hit me with that highly concentrated blast of magic", he began his explanation. "I assure you, your highness, there was no need for such a rash course of action. Me and my comrades may have arrived to your world without permission, but we are not here to destroy it. We're simply searching for an artifact that holds the power to bring our people and planet back to life."

"So you say", countered the princess. "Yet, I find this claim very hard to believe. Your kind has brought nothing but pain and misery to our citizens since you first arrived here. Just look at what happened after that. An entire empire is demolished and the ponies living there are left homeless because of your actions. Also, there have been reports that Ponyville recently came under attack. How do you respond to these facts?"

"You're right", Ratchet replied. "These assaults on your people were, indeed, launched by mine. However, there is still one fact you're currently unaware of. The ones responsible for the attacks belong to a faction that has a centuries-long rivalry with the one me and my team belong to. Our war has reduced our world into little more than a lifeless husk, and will undoubtedly do the same to yours unless I help my team put a stop to it as soon as possible by defeating those blasted renegades you mentioned. So, believe me when I say I have nothing in common with their ilk and I despise all of them with every beat of my spark."

Right after he said that, the alicorn's facial expression changed from furious to confused and her horn stopped glowing.

"A civil war among a mechanical alien race?", she pondered. "That is a most unexpected development. Unfortunately, it does not fully convince me of your innocence. How do I know that everything you just told me is nothing but a deception and you are actually one of the invaders that arrived here last night on peculiar transports? If this IS the case, then I have no choice but to take you as my prisoner, and deliver you to our top scientists so that they can dissect your body and find a way to wipe out your curse of a kin once and for all!"

Though he became a little frightened by this declaration, Ratchet calmly thought about how he could counter the accusations and eventually came up with a brilliant idea. He drew the Decepticon symbol on the ground with his finger and asked, "Both the invaders and the transports they used to come here had this symbol on their exterior, correct?"

"Yes, according to Prince Shining Armor's recount of the events", the princess confirmed. "But, how does that answer my question?"

"The members of the renegade faction I mentioned are called 'Decepticons' and this is their insignia. As my team and I are members of the Autobot faction, here is OUR insignia."

He pointed to his chest, on which there was a symbol which looked considerably less intimidating and much more heroic than the one drawn on the ground.

"If that's not enough to change your opinion of me, then don't worry. There are still a few more facts to consider," he continued. "First of all, if I was really a Decepticon or an enemy of your people, then I would not have wasted any time negotiating with you while laying on the ground and instead, I would've immediately proceeded to turn every single one of you into a pile of ash. Secondly, I highly recommend that you go to the place called 'Ponyville' and ask about the latest developments. The ponies there should be saying something about another Cybertronian with the Autobot insignia on his exterior fending off the invaders."

The princess briefly contemplated doing what he said and finally declared, "Alright, then. I shall go and see the current situation with my own eyes. Pray that both what I will see and what the citizens will say align with your claims. If not, then you have just made your final request."

Right after she said that, she flew off towards west, leaving Ratchet alone with her guards who were still glaring and pointing their spears towards him. Though he thought about telling them that their weapons would do very little to penetrate his chassis, he quickly decided not to do it as he knew that this would not make the situation any better. So, he decided to maintain his current position and wait for the princess to come back.

After about fifteen minutes of everything remaining the same, the princess returned with an apologetic look on her face.

"I observed the state of the town and questioned the residents about what happened. It appears you were telling the truth all along. My subjects confirmed that while two Decepticons brutally attacked the place, another Cybertronian with yellow armor and your faction's insignia forced both of them after defeating them in physical combat. He then helped the citizens with repairing the town and is currently visiting an old friend of mine with a group of fillies."

A surprised Ratchet then asked, "So, Optimus sent Bumblebee on this mission? And it was a success? Huh! Would you look at that! The kid really stepped up this time."

"Indeed", the princess added. "It appears you and the Autobots really ARE our friends, and it is the Decepticons who are the true enemy. You are hereby cleared of all charges."

She motioned her guards to lower their spears and they immediately did so. This finally gave Ratchet the opportunity to get back on his servos.

"Splendid. Now that we've cleared that up, I believe some introductions are in order", he declared. "My name is Ratchet, the decorated medical officer of the Autobot faction."

"And I am Princess Luna, the ruler of Equestria alongside my elder sister, Princess Celestia, and the protector of ponies during their dreams", she introduced herself. "I am terribly sorry about my initial reaction to your presence. I was only concerned about the safety of my subjects. I hope you can understand."

"I do", Ratchet replied. "Fear and prejudice often make us take actions we deeply regret later. I learned this lesson the hard during the war on our planet."

"Really?", Luna curiously inquired. "Well, I'm sure it's a story that I'd be delighted to listen to someday. However, it seems there are more pressing matters we need to attend to."

"You're right", agreed Ratchet. "The most concerning one is the arrival of these three Decepticons. You said they arrived here on 'peculiar transports'. These must be escape pods launched from their ship. If that's the case, then none of them have the capability of flight. Were there any tracks like the ones behind me near the pods?"

"Yes, actually", Luna began. "Shining Armor reported three set of tracks leaving the pods. One of them was smaller than yours, another one was nearly the same size, and the last one was considerably larger."

"Hmmm... The smaller must belong to Barricade and the middle one quite possibly belongs to Brawl", pondered Ratchet. "Even so, there is still one more Decepticon we haven't yet encountered. You said it's larger than both Barricade and Brawl, but the only Cybertronian that I know of who fits this description is either my leader Optimus Prime or-"

A horrified expression suddenly appeared on his face, which deeply concerned Luna.

"What is it? What's wrong?", she asked.

"Dear Primus, we were right!", he fearfully spoke to himself. "He IS here!"

"Who, Ratchet?", an even more worried Luna inquired. "Who are you talking about?!"

That exclamation finally caused Ratchet to snap out of it and he cleared his throat before talking again.

"Your highness, I regret to inform you that you and your subjects are about face a threat even greater than what has come so far", he began. "You need the help of someone with both skill and experience in order to survive this upcoming ordeal. Right now, that 'someone' is me."

"Wait, you just introduced yourself as a medical officer", questioned Luna. "You know claim to be proficient in battle strategy as well?"

"Proficient in battle strategy? Please! That duty is reserved for bots like Optimus and Ironhide", clarified Ratchet. "I, meanwhile, am considered a true expert when it comes to subjects like medical science and Cybertronian biology. Therefore, I know the full anatomy of a Decepticon like the back of my hand and can provide you with crucial information on how to defeat DOZENS of them with minimal collateral damage."

Both Luna and her guards were very intrigued by this new piece of information.

"Very well", Luna stated. "Then, let us head to Canterlot straight away. There, we shall meet my sister and you will tell us about your strategy against these villains. I just hope we're not too-"

CRRRACKKKOOOMMM!

As soon as everyone heard that sound, they lifted their heads towards the sky and saw three more pods heading towards the surface extremely fast. Luna gave a worried look at Ratchet and he proceeded to observe the pods in greater detail with his zooming in his optics on them. A few seconds later he noticed the Decepticon symbol painted on them and quickly began to calculate the coordinates they were going to hit according to their trajectory.

"Well, what do you see?", inquired Luna. "Are they carrying more Autobots?"

"No, just the opposite, I'm afraid", replied Ratchet. "Based on their trajectory and acceleration, they're about to impact a location fifty miles north of here. Is that place near a populated area?"

"GREAT HEAVENS!", a horrified Luna screamed. "The city of Vanhoover is there and it's home to more than six hundred thousand ponies! We have to do something immediately!"

As soon as he heard that, Ratchet turned his right hand into a Neutron Assault Rifle and tried to shoot down the pods while Luna did the same with the magic blasts coming from her horn. However, neither of the attacks could damage the armor surrounding the pods and the impacts shortly occurred nonetheless, creating three huge explosions on their target area. Luna first became extremely shocked by what she saw and then, she almost burst into tears.

"Why are they doing this?", she asked Ratchet with a cracking voice.

"Megatron, the Decepticon leader, must be getting impatient with the search for the artifact", he explained. "That's why he called for reinforcements. He wants to speed up the search by any means necessary and he has no care for the innocent lives he's putting at risk."

Upon hearing this, Luna wiped away the little drops of tear from her face and her expression suddenly changed from sorrowful to enraged.

"He must pay for this atrocity!", she menacingly declared.

"Patience, your highness", Ratchet replied. "Megatron does deserve the most severe punishment imaginable for his crimes, but we still have no idea where he is. Even if we do find him, he's too powerful of an opponent to take head on all by ourselves. Besides, he can wait for now. Our top priority is helping the survivors of his carnage and eliminating those who came to assist him."

It took nearly half a minute for Luna to calm down and when she did, she let out a deep sigh and looked back at Ratchet with great determination on her face.

"Then, let us move out already", she stated. "I'm sure your medical skills will be quite useful in this situation.

"My thoughts exactly", said Ratchet with an equally determined tone. "Also, you may require additional protection when dealing with an unknown number of Decepticons."

Luna nodded in agreement and promptly began flying towards the city, followed closely by both her guards and Ratchet in his vehicle form. Even at their top speed, it still took them about twenty minutes to reach their destination and the instant they arrived, they were met with a truly devastating sight.

There was a gigantic crater in the middle of the city, surrounded by dozens of severely injured ponies and several demolished buildings. The ponies that remained uninjured, on the other hand, were immensely saddened by the destruction of their homes. While Luna and her guards immediately began to help out the wounded, she motioned him to check the inside of the pods. Though he did so, he was not able to find a single Decepticon and his scanners could not pick up any energy signatures in the surrounding area. Therefore, he deduced that they must have gotten out and dispersed as soon as the pods landed. Disappointed, he reported his search results to Luna, who requested that he provides medical assistance to the citizens before going out to search for the escapees. He agreed, but decided to contact his leader and tell him what had happened first.

"Optimus, can you hear me? This is Ratchet", he started after pressing a button on the right corner of his head. "I had just made the acquaintance of one of the royal alicorns and we're now assisting the residents of a city that had recently suffered a Decepticon attack. Though there are no signs of the Decepticons right now, the number of ponies injured by the attack is high. If you're finished with repairing those train carts, then I suggest that you bring them here so that we can transport the homeless ones somewhere safe."

"Thanks for the heads-up, Ratchet. Twilight and I did finish the repairs and will roll out to your location immediately", Optimus replied. "Keep the citizens safe and tend to their wounds until we arrive."

"Will do, old friend", agreed Ratchet. "Safe travels to both you and Twilight. Ratchet out."

Right after the conversation ended, he changed his weapon into an Energon Repair Ray set to affect organics and hurried towards a group of injured ponies the guards had managed to gather up. He then emitted the same blue energy beam that previously healed Twilight and Spike, and the results were the same as before. Every pony caught in the beam instantly became completely normal and all their wounds disappeared.

Though the ponies were very grateful for Ratchet’s medical assistance, he just said to them “You’re welcome” and moved on to another group in need of healing. He did the exact same thing to them, said a simple “You’re welcome”, went to heal the next batch of injured ponies. He repeated this process for two more times, before Luna blocked his path with a disapproving look on her face.

"Forgive me, your majesty, but I have no time to talk right now", he said. "There are still a few dozen more patients I should tend to."

"And did you not forget about something while tending to the previous ones?", Luna asked while raising an eyebrow.

"No, I certainly did not", he argued. "I saved the patients by restoring them back to their uninjured states. I'm sure you know that this is the primary objective of a medical officer like me."

"I know that, but you did miss a very important duty that any experienced medical officer should fulfill after providing treatment to his or her patients", countered Luna. "You forgot to give them moral support by telling them in an encouraging manner that they will be alright from now on. In other words, you neglected your bedside manners."

Ratchet groaned at that statement, but managed to maintain his calm demeanor, nonetheless.

"So, let me guess", he began. "You will not let me provide treatment to the next group of patients unless I improve my bedside manners."

"Pretty much", Luna confirmed while speaking in a softer tone. "As important as restoring them back to health is, giving them the hope that they will become healthier and stronger later on is equally crucial. After all, you can never be truly better if you do not have the will and courage to be better."

Ratchet let out a frustrated sigh and replied, "Alright, then. I'll do my best to keep them hopeful."

Luna smiled and allowed him to pass. Ratchet then not only followed the exact same routine three more times, but he also told the patients emotionally supportive words like "You'll be alright", "Stay strong", and "You're much more durable than you realize". The ponies, in return, really appreciated this kindness and one of the filly patients even offered a flower she found in the rubble. Ratchet, though touched by this gesture, knew that he could not pick it up without crushing it. So, not wanting to hurt her feelings, he simply told her that she needed it more than he did. The filly understood what he meant, gave him a smile, and ran off to join her parents. Ratchet then went back to Luna who had been observing his process and was very impressed by his improved bedside manners.

"That wasn't so bad, now, was it?", she asked in a teasing manner.

"No, far from it, actually", he somberly explained. "The problem is that I haven't really done this in a very long time."

Upon hearing that, Luna became incredibly confused and inquired, "Why would a professional like you suddenly neglect to fulfill such an important responsibility?"

"I have nothing to blame but the eons-long war between Autobots and Decepticons", he replied. "As I mentioned earlier, the battles that took place on my world were so fierce that the entire planet eventually became completely lifeless. Even though I lost so many of my friends during that period, I had no time to grieve for them due to being so busy rushing between battlegrounds to heal the wounded. Of course, I learned bedside manners during my medical training and did remember to apply it during the first few battles. However, as the war progressed and the number of our casualties grew exponentially, it just seemed more and more pointless to practice it. I mean, what's the real point of telling a wounded soldier that he's going to be alright when he's in danger of being blown off or shot at later on? I hate to break it to you, your highness, but these things are mostly inevitable during a war."

Luna was deeply moved by this speech, but she also knew that there was something wrong in Ratchet's viewpoint. So, in order to correct it, she deeply sighed and said, "I do realize that I'm relatively new to warfare, but I also know that you cannot always save everyone during a battle. Even so, that is no excuse for ceasing to lifting the spirits of your comrades. Yes, they may not survive the battle, but they may also emerge victorious if they remain hopeful for the future and devoted to their cause. That can only happen if someone like you keeps them strong both physically and emotionally."

Ratchet briefly pondered what she said and eventually realized that she had a point. If he and his team were going to win this war, they needed a strong will to win and that he could be the one to provide them this strong will. However, there was still one question that lingered in his mind.

"How do you know all this?", he asked Luna. "Were you also a medic before becoming a princess?"

"Well, not exactly", she nervously explained. "You see, I've been recently suffering some, uh, mental health problems and visiting several doctors for treatment. While they haven't provided a conclusive solution yet, every single one of them have remembered their bedside manners and advised me to never stop believing that everything is going to be alright eventually. So, even though I'm not fully healed, I feel that I AM getting better each day, because I follow their advice."

"I see", replied Ratchet. "I do hope you get fully healed soon, your highness. Also, thank you. My fellow Autobots have been complaining that my medical skills haven't been as good as they once were and this could be the reason. I'll be sure to improve my bedside manners from this moment on."

"You're most welcome, my good friend", she responded while smiling. "Oh, and please do call me ‘Luna’ from now on."

He also smiled and said, “I certainly will, Luna. By the way, you’re a good friend too.”

Luna almost blushed at that compliment when suddenly, a handful of white-coated pegasi with yellow armor arrived. Their captain stepped forward and saluted her.

“A pleasure to see you unharmed, Princess Luna”, he began. “Princess Celestia was concerned that you might’ve been injured during the attack here, but it’s clear that this isn't the case. Is this alien with you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“That is correct, Captain”, she confirmed. “This soldier, along with the rest of his comrades who bear the symbol on his chest, is here to help us defeat the villains attacking our cities and towns. Isn’t that right, Ratchet?”

“Yes and no”, he replied. “Defending your people against the Decepticons IS our duty. However, our main priority is retrieving a cube-shaped artifact called, the ‘AllSpark’. If we can find it before the Decepticons do, then our civilization can flourish once again. Do any of you know where it might be located?”

"Forgive us, honorable warrior, but we're just as clueless as you are", replied the captain. "This is the first time any of us have ever heard of this 'AllSpark' and we certainly have no idea where it could be hidden."

“Actually, I do”, she said, which drew the attention of not just Ratchet, but the guards as well. “My sister will never let me hear the end of it, but since our entire world faces complete destruction, I cannot keep this secret any longer. Celestia and I buried it deep beneath our old castle a thousand years ago. It was one of the last decisions we made together before my banishment to the Moon.”

“Princess, if you don’t mind, my squadron and I are going to make a perimeter sweep to make sure there aren’t any remaining intruders around here”, the captain requested.

Luna motioned them to go and Ratchet kneeled beside her, eager to hear the full details of the story. While they weren’t looking, the guards spread around the city and their captain headed inside a demolished building. Once there, his entire exterior dissolved, revealing a purple mechanic pony who then transformed into a small Decepticon about a quarter of Ratchet’s size.

He pushed a few buttons on his right arm before pushing another button on the left side of his head and talking to it in his native language.

“The Cube has been located, my lord. Sending you the coordinates now. This is the perfect time to finally take it.”

Right after he said that, he heard the most menacing and sadistic laugh imaginable coming from the other end.

Author's Note

Sorry, I couldn’t find a good image of a Decepticon Cloaker. Just imagine that the guy on the picture has a purple exterior, red optics, and a Decepticon symbol on his torso.

Erase myself

Author's Note

Megatron is voiced by the one and only Frank Welker. If you have a different choice, then it's totally fine. You can imagine that actor delivering Megatron's lines, instead.

Also, feel free to listen to this song during the fight scene.

Erase myself

"Well, no wonder he's their leader!", cried Sweetie Belle. "He's so huge!"

"And so scary!", added Scootaloo while quivering with fear.

"And so dreadfully colored!", Apple Bloom commented, which caused the other CMCs to give her incredulous looks.

"What? He is", she countered and they only continued to stare at her incredulously.

"Oh, come on, girls! Can y'all really look at color scheme and tell me with a straight face it's- Whoa!"

Before she could finish her sentence, Bumblebee grabbed her, the other girls, and the AllSpark before bringing them all to Spike, who had just managed to get back on his feet.

"Spike, listen to me carefully", he began. "Take the Cube and the girls, and run to Ponyville as fast as you can. DO NOT stop at anything. Once you get there, hide the Cube somewhere safe and send a letter to Twilight. Tell her and Optimus EVERYTHING that's happened. Do you understand?"

"Got it, Bee, but what about you?", asked Spike.

Bumblebee replied, "I'm gonna hold off Megatron and buy you guys some time. Then, hopefully, I'll meet you back in town. If I don't show up at all... then you should know that I really am glad to have met you four. You've been truly great friends."

"Wait, what that supposed to mean?", a confused and concerned Spike inquired.

"No time to explain", Bumblebee replied. "Just go! NOW!"

Upon hearing that, Spike and the CMC looked at each other with great worry, but nevertheless, did as Bumblebee ordered and began to run through the forest as fast they could. Once they had disappeared, Bumblebee turned to face Megatron, who was rather amused by the recent turn of events. He retrieved a battle mace with purple spikes from his back, and took up a gladiator-style fighting stance. In response, Bumblebee charged up his plasma cannon and tried to shoot Megatron six times before recharging. Unfortunately, Megatron used his mace to deflect all those blasts and even sent the sixth one right back to his opponent, which resulted in the blast hitting the very weapon it was fired from, disabling it.

Realizing that he needed to change tactics, Bumblebee retrieved his sword from his back, ran towards Megatron, and began to attack him with the sword. However, the Decepticon leader proceeded to dodge the first half of the strikes and parry the second half with his mace. Then, just before the seventh strike could reach him, he grabbed the sword with his right hand, promptly broke it in two, and used his mace to deliver a massive blow to Bumblebee, creating a huge dent on the Autobot scout's chassis and sending him flying at least thirty feet away.

Seeing that his little adversary is down and vulnerable, Megatron activated his feet boosters and began hovering in the air. He then flew towards Bumblebee (who as struggling to get up and yelling in agony in the process) and as soon as he was directly above him, he came down to deliver the finishing blow with his mace. Once it was done, however, he became surprised to see that the Autobot had vanished. While he briefly looked around to find where he went, Bumblebee came up behind him, drop kicked him in the face, slashed one of his knees with one of the sword pieces, and delivered another kick to the wound, which forced Megatron to bend on only one knee.

Right after that, Bumblebee began to rapidly punch him in the face in order to finally bring down the tyrant he had feared and hated since the beginning of their war. He was finally in a vulnerable state, and Bumblebee was pouring out eons of resentment on the one responsible for torturing and murdering so many of his friends. By the time he finished delivering the eighth punch, Megatron had become extremely dazed by all the previous blows and would have been taken down with only one last hit. So, Bumblebee gathered all of his remaining strength and attempted to deliver the finishing blow in the form of a heavy punch.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Megatron shook off his dizziness and headbutted the punch, which nearly broke Bumblebee's left hand and caused him to back away in pain. Right after that, the enraged warmonger aimed his fusion cannon directly at Bumblebee's right thigh and obliterated it with a single shot. As a result, the poor scout fell down with even bigger pain. Then, Megatron stood up, returned his mace to his back, grabbed Bumblebee by his remaining leg, and started pounding the ground with him. With each vicious hit, the severity of the helpless Autobot's injuries increased exponentially and by the time he hit the ground the fourth time, he had large cracks and dents covering his entire body, and he was also leaking a sizable amount of tiny white crystals (a.k.a "Energon Shards") from his cracks.

As he continued to be mercilessly slammed into to the ground, he was certain that there was no way he could survive this ordeal. In fact, he was concerned not for himself, but for Spike and the girls. He was wondering if they had managed to reach Ponyville without running into trouble. He could never forgive himself if they got hurt or killed while following his instructions. However, he was confident that their skills and resourcefulness would help them overcome any challenge in their way. He never believed for a second that they could let him down.

Three minutes ago

Spike was running through the Everfree Forest as fast as his feet could carry him while tightly holding the AllSpark close to his chest and the CMC were struggling to keep up with him. While he felt terrible about leaving Bumblebee to face Megatron all alone, he was nonetheless determined to accomplish the task Bumblebee had given him. Also, he had no intention of saving Bumblebee's life by giving the AllSpark to Megatron. He had read enough comic-books to know that these kinds of deals always end in villains refusing to fulfill their end of the bargain and escaping with the desired object. Therefore, he refused to take this kind of risk and decided to just focus on the mission at hand.

However, just when Zecora's hut was in sight, Scootaloo shouted from behind, "Spike, stop for a second!"

He obliged and the rest of the CMC did the same. He then asked, "What happened? Please, say it quick, because we can't stay put for too long. We have to hide the AllSpark in Ponyville and contact Twilight, as Bumblebee. Plus, the creatures of this forest usually come out of their dens at this time of the day."

Scootaloo replied, "I think we should go back and help Bee. Maybe... Maybe we should give the Cube to that big scary Decepticon so that he leaves Bee alone."

"WHAT?! Are you crazy?!", exclaimed Spike. "If we do that, he'll just take the Cube and blast Bee into oblivion before leaving. Then, he'll invade the entire Equestria with his army and eventually, he'll conquer the entire universe. This is exactly what happens in nearly every comic-book I've ever read."

"But, it's not right to just leave him there with that monster, either!", Scootaloo angrily replied while shedding a few tears. "Rainbow Dash would never abandon his friends and... and neither can I!"

A concerned Sweetie Belle placed her hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder and said, "He's my friend too, but I think Spike is right about this. That cube is the only thing those evil robots want and they don't care about anything or anyone else. Don't you think it's very unlikely their LEADER will keep his word if we try to trade it for Bumblebee's life? He's a villain and villains always break their promises to get what they want."

"But, what about Tirek?", asked Scootaloo. "He's a villain too and yet, he promised to release Rainbow Dash and the others in exchange for Twilight's magic. He kept that promise, remember? What's the difference between him and Megatron?"

Just before Spike could counter that argument with recounting Tirek's actions after the bargain, all four of them heard a loud pained scream coming from the direction they were running from. None of them had any doubt that it was Bumblebee who was screaming and that, he was in serious trouble. Before anyone could even react, a pair of small yellow hooves quickly snatched the AllSpark from Spike's claws and the owner of those hooves started running towards Bumblebee. Spike noticed this too late and was shocked beyond belief when he saw the culprit in question.

"APPLE BLOOM, STOP!", he desperately yelled. "COME BACK HERE! WHAT YOU'RE THINKING WON'T WORK!"

When she continued to run, Spike turned to Sweetie Belle and said, "Try lifting the AllSpark with your magic!"

She tried to do so, but just after she could lift it a single inch, a series of electric sparks began forming around her horn and she was forced to discontinue casting the spell due to a sudden severe headache. Realizing that this was not going to work, Spike motioned the remaining girls to follow his lead and together, they started chasing after Apple Bloom, hoping to stop her before she could made a terrible mistake.

Present time

Finally, after slamming Bumblebee to the ground for the ninth time, Megatron threw his utterly miserable-looking enemy right towards the Everfree Forest, causing the scout to hit and knock down nearly half a dozen trees before reaching the forest floor with a heavy landing. Satisfied with the outcome of the battle, Megatron let out a slight menacing chuckle as he began walking towards his defeated and nearly offline opponent.

"I must admit, Autobot, your fighting skills are quite impressive", he stated. "On top of that, you seem to possess the will and determination of a true warrior. No wonder Prime decided to send you on this particularly important mission."

He then picked up Bumblebee by the head and continued, "How unfortunate that you have, nevertheless, made the fatal mistake of believing that you could actually take on the lord of Kaon all by yourself. Do not despair, though. I promise to give you the end you deserve. I sincerely hope that your comrades remember your unrelenting loyalty to their doomed cause."

Just then, he began to squeeze Bumblebee's head extremely hard and a few seconds later, he started crushing it. Even though Bumblebee tried to free himself from Megatron's grip as much as he could, the fight had completely drained his strength. Therefore, all he could do was scream in utmost agony as the Decepticon leader continued to finish him off in this brutal fashion. As for Megatron himself, he was enjoying every single second of it as he was currently performing his absolute favorite method of executing his enemies.

"Just a little bit more pain", he whispered to his victim. "Then, I am off to-"

"WAIT!"

The second he heard that combination of shouts, Megatron stopped crushing Bumblebee's head and turned his head towards the direction those voices came from. To his surprise, he saw that little yellow filly from earlier walking towards him while carrying the AllSpark with her hooves.

"We'll make you a deal", she began while speaking in a truly desperate tone. "Spare Bee's life and I'll give you the Cube."

Megatron briefly pondered this proposal before promptly dropping Bumblebee to the ground. The critically injured Autobot rubbed his head for a little while and looked at his friend with absolute shock.

"AB... What are you doing?", he asked while coughing heavily. "He'll destroy us all either w- AAARGH!"

Megatron prevented him from finishing his sentence by slightly stepping on him and proceeded to move closer to Apple Bloom before bending his knee only a couple feet away from her.

"I accept your terms", he declared. "Now, hand it over."

He extended his hand to Apple Bloom, opened his palm, and Apple Bloom, with a little hesitation, placed the AllSpark on it. Right after that, Megatron grabbed his prize and took a deep breath as the artifact's energy began coursing through his entire body. Just then, Spike and the rest of the CMC arrived and stared at what was going on in absolute horror, while realizing that they were already too late.

As Megatron stood up, he noticed that all the wounds he had sustained from the battles he fought in were healing very rapidly. In only a handful of seconds, his chassis was completely devoid of any cracks, dents, burns, or scars, whatsoever. Amazed by the Cube's capabilities and realizing that the legends surrounding it were really true, he let out a loud maniacal laughter.

"Yes! YES!", he exclaimed. "Cybertron's most powerful treasure and the key to building the greatest empire in existence are now MINE! The universe shall hear my name and TREMBLE!"

Once he was done, he turned to face the now-frightened Apple Bloom and said, "You have made a most wise decision, dear child. In return, you have my gratitude and your world will have my mercy."

"Really?", asked a surprised Sweetie Belle. "You'll actually show us mercy?"

Megatron replied, "Of course! My original plan was to conquer this planet and enslave its inhabitants. However, your friend's actions have convinced me that none of you deserve such cruelty. Therefore, I have decided to spare your world of further misery and instead, obliterate it with one swift strike."

"WHAT??!!", all four of them shouted.

"You said you'll give us mercy", Apple Bloom argued. "Where in horse apples is the mercy in this new plan?"

"I will be providing your people with a quick and painless demise", explained Megatron. "If you do not see this as mercy, compared to what I had initially planned, then I feel sorry for you."

He then looked down at Bumblebee, who was struggling really hard to stay online, and said, "I suppose I should thank you as well, Autobot. Because of your friendship with these creatures, I am now one step closer to achieving ultimate victory."

Right after saying that, he placed the AllSpark on Bumblebee's chest and its energy started doing exactly what it previously did to Megatron. It took only a few seconds for the young scout's severe injuries to completely heal and its missing limb to fully regrow. His friends were both astounded and relieved by this sight, and even Bumblebee himself could not believe that he was no longer damaged at all. Moreover, his weapons were also restored. His He was just about to get up and leap into the sky with joy when-

CRAAAACK!!!!

Megatron brought his gigantic foot on to his chest and made a huge crack with one devastating stomp. His friends screamed with horror and immediately rushed to his side. Once they saw that he was once again heavily wounded, they all looked at Megatron with both contempt and despair.

"You monster!", exclaimed a nearly tearful Scootaloo. "How could you? You said you were gonna thank him."

"Trust me, this is an improvement over his previous condition", Megatron countered. "Besides, did you honestly believe that I would leave him fully functional, knowing that he is skilled enough to defeat two of my best lieutenants and even come close to besting me in physical combat? If so, then you are even more naïve than I originally thought. Then again, you are still very young to understand this. So, let this be a lesson for you to remember in the future."

Then, he pressed a button on the right side of his head to activate his commlink and said, "Attention, all Cloakers. The AllSpark is finally in my possession. If you are still in the Vanhoover area, then immediately terminate both the Autobots and their equine allies. Report back to me once you have finished the job."

Upon hearing that, Bumblebee screamed, "No! NO! You are not getting away with this!"

However, Megatron turned his attention towards the castle and replied without looking, "I would save my energy if I were you. After all, you have merely a couple of megacycles remaining, at best. Even if your friends could survive the ambush, they cannot hope to achieve victory against the Decepticon army I am about to bring here soon. If you ever see Prime again, tell him that I shall be marching towards the capital by sunrise tomorrow. Oh, and just in case you are still doubtful about my chances of success, then let me show you a glimpse of the power I command."

He put the AllSpark to his back, opened both of his palms, and at least a dozen purple lightning streaks instantly started appeared on them. Then, he extended his arms towards the castle and suddenly, a large beam of purple energy was emitted from his hands. As soon as it struck its target, it began generating a series of sharp purple crystals all over the castle. In just a handful of seconds, the entire structure containing the library and the throne room collapsed, and was replaced by a humongous mass of those crystals, much to the shock everyone besides Megatron.

He turned his head back towards Bumblebee and his friends, and stated, "I assume it is now clear to you that my victory is inevitable. Resistance will only hasten the end and those who refuse to submit to my will are all destined to become one with oblivion. Now, if you have no more doubts about my superiority, then I must take my leave. I have an assault to plan, after all. Enjoy this world while you still can. Tomorrow, it will be no more."

With that, he transformed into his vehicle mode and drove away towards north. Once he completely disappeared, an enraged Sweetie Belle walked up towards Apple Bloom and smacked him in the back of her head before shouting, "What in the name of Celestia were you thinking?! You just gave the all-powerful artifact to the ultimate evil!"

"I... I just wanted to save Bee...", countered Apple Bloom while trying to hold back tears.

Spike then shouted, "Just look at what happened! Not only your short-sighted plan didn't work, but you've doomed pretty much the entire universe! Now, what do you have to say for yourself, huh?"

Apple Bloom was just about to cry when everyone heard Bumblebee letting out a painful groan for failing to get up. Right after they turned their attention towards him, Scootaloo announced to the group, "We should talk about this later."

Her friends nodded in agreement and they all rushed to Bumblebee's side. Bumblebee then tried two more times to get up, but to no avail. Seeing that everyone was looking at him in sadness and worry, he attempted to ease their concerns with a small smile. Apple Bloom then stepped forward while hanging her head in shame and said, "I'm so sorry, Bee. I... I thought I could save your life by giving up the AllSpark. Instead, I made things even worse. Can ya ever forgive me?"

"Hey, it's okay, AB. Really", he assured her. "None of this is your fault. It's mine, actually. I never should've tried taking on Megatron all by myself. Heck, we never should've come here in the first place. I made a bad call, but you didn't. You did exactly what anyone would've done in a situation like this. So, you got nothing to apologize for. The only one to blame here is me. Guess heroes don't always make the right decisions, after all, huh?"

They both let out small chuckles before Bumblebee began coughing heavily and even vomited one more Energon Shard. In response, Apple Bloom held his left index finger tightly with her hooves and the rest of her friend began holding his remaining left fingers. However, as soon as he was done coughing, he thought of a plan.

"Hey, Spike, you can send messages to Twilight with your breath, right?", he asked.

"Of course", Spike replied. "Why?"

"Great! I want you to send her a really important message", declared Bumblebee with great determination. "It's something she and Optimus really needs to hear before it's too late."

Meanwhile, in the northern parts of Equestria, Megatron was driving at top speed towards the now-ruined Crystal Empire. He had not only significant news for his soldiers, Barricade and Brawl, but also an assault plan he needed to discuss with them. Despite the fact that both of them had miserably failed to retrieve the AllSpark's location and eliminate the Autobots earlier, he still required them to carry out his orders in order to secure ultimate victory. Besides, their failures had proven to be inconsequential in the long run, as he was now the wielder of the artifact that could make him the emperor of all he saw.

With these thoughts in his head, he entered the empire. As he drove through the desolate streets, he could not help but admire the devastation that Brawl had left behind, even though his interrogation was unsuccessful. Soon enough, he spotted him and Barricade standing right in front of the royal palace. He stopped only a couple feet away from them and transformed back to his robot mode. His minions, meanwhile, promptly knelt before him.

"Greetings and salutations, Lord Megatron", said Barricade. "I imagine your mission was a success?"

Megatron silently retrieved the AllSpark from his back and showed it to his soldiers, who gazed at the artifact in great admiration.

"Amazing!". Brawl exclaimed. "It looks even more magnificent than the legends said it would be. Is it true, my lord? Does it really contain a power beyond our comprehension?"

"Does my new appearance not count as proof to this theory, Brawl?", asked Megatron. "Remember that I was covered in countless battle injuries when we last saw each other. Look at me now. By simply touching this cube, I look as if I came fresh out of an assembly line! Do you realize what this means, Decepticons? It means our dreams of restoring Cybertron, crushing what's left of those pathetic Autobots, and conquering the entirety of the known universe will finally become reality!"

Barricade instantly stood up and excitedly declared, "Excellent strategy, my lord! Finally, the war will end in our victory and no bot or organic will be able to stand up to us!"

Then, Brawl also stood up and exclaimed, "Just tell us what needs to be done, master! We would be honored to help you carry out this brilliant plan of yours!"

"Your devotion pleases me greatly", replied Megatron. "Although you did fail in your attempts to find the location of this treasure, your attack on Ponyville helped forge a bond between an Autobot and a few organics that allowed me to retrieve the treasure itself. For that, I shall grant each of you with a reward."

He pointed the AllSpark towards them and the energy it released quickly healed the injuries they had received from not just the war on Cybertron, but also their battle with Bumblebee. As they began to admire their repaired and improved armor, Megatron swiftly placed the AllSpark to his back.

"Ah, thank you so much, Lord Megatron", Barricade stated. "How can we ever repay such generosity?"

Megatron replied, "Assisting me until the war is won will do just fine. Brawl, what is the status of our troops?"

"Five battalions are ready to be deployed as soon as you give the order, my liege", declared Brawl. "As for your other lieutenants... well... they are currently unavailable. Starscream is still continuing the attack on the Autobot outpost on Velocitron, Soundwave is still assisting the Stunticons on Caminus in capturing the Autobot Ironhide, and, as I'm sure you're aware, Shockwave hasn't left Cybertron ever since the planet went dark."

Upon hearing that, Megatron roared in rage and blasted the palace balcony with his fusion cannon, completely destroying it. He then took several deep breaths in order to calm himself and during all that, both Barricade and Brawl took a few steps back in fear. Finally, nearly a dozen deep breaths later, their leader managed to calm down.

"It appears you two will command my army after all", he declared. "Contact the Nemesis and request a shuttle to take us there. I shall oversee the assault preparations myself and by tomorrow morning, the capital city of those parasitic equines will share the same fate as this place."

"At once, master", replied Brawl. "What would you have us do until the shuttle arrives?"

"I CARE NOT! Just do not bother me until then!"

And let go of what I've done

Author's Note

Happy Veterans Day, everyone! :twilightsmile:

And let go of what I've done

By the time, Ratchet finished narrating the story that Luna had previously told him, both Twilight Sparkle and Optimus Prime had become completely speechless. They just could not believe that their respective races could be connected to each other by such a tragic event. While Twilight was contemplating why this had to happen to her ancestor of all ponies, Optimus was beginning to doubt the AllSpark could still be the key to ending the war.

Even if it had the capability of healing the entire Cybertron and resurrecting its civilization, it was also capable of causing death and destruction wherever it was present. Considering all the damage the Decepticons had caused and all the innocent lives they had endangered just so they could get their hands on this cube, perhaps obtaining it was not the way to ensure the safety of this world, after all. Optimus had no idea how he was going to explain this to his fellow Autobots and how they would react to it if he did. So, for now, he had to concentrate on retrieving the AllSpark and decide what to do with it only after this objective was complete.

Twilight, meanwhile, was determined to find the AllSpark now more than ever. She had to know exactly what it was capable of doing. Optimus may had said that it had the ability to give life and restore civilizations, but after hearing that story regarding her ancestor's encounter with it and what the Decepticons had done to Equestria since they first arrived in order to obtain it, she now knew that this cube could also bring so much damage to everything and everyone around it. It was not that she distrusted Optimus or anything. It was just that she had to be sure that it could really be a force of good in the hands of the Autobots.

"I know this is all too much to take in all at once", Ratchet said, which snapped them out of their deep thoughts. "However, I strongly suggest that we re-focus our efforts on retrieving the AllSpark. The more time we spend here, the more probable it will be for the Decepticons to acquire it before we do."

"Agreed", Optimus and Twilight said at the same time, which caused them to briefly look at each other in confusion.

"Uhhh... Alright, then", replied Ratchet in an equally confused manner. "We leave as soon as Luna returns."

As if on cue, Princess Luna arrived only seconds after he finished his sentence.

"It is done", she declared. "The train carts are completely full of refugees. However, since there is not enough space in them to take every single one in the city, we have to come back here to pick up those who remain after we take the Cube. So, let us go while- AAARGH!!!"

Suddenly, a spear launched from a distance hit her in the back and caused her to fall down. However, Ratchet caught her before she hit the ground and gently removed the spear.

"This belongs to the royal guard", he said with a shocked expression on his face. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would they attack a princess?"

"Perhaps, we should ask them", Optimus said while pointing to something in front of him. When Ratchet and Twilight looked at that direction, they saw that a dozen of Princess Celestia's guards had taken a stand against them and were all glaring at them. Twilight then decided to confront them about this and proceeded to come right between them and the Autobots.

"What in the whole wide world of Equestria do you think you're doing?!", she shouted. "You just shot down the Princess of the Night for crying out loud! When Princess Celestia hears about this, you'll all be in big trouble. Now, I order you to stand down and offer an explanation for this offense!"

Just then, their captain stepped forward and said, "We do not take orders from repulsive organics like you. The only one worthy enough to command us is Lord Megatron!"

While Twilight and the Autobots were taken aback by this statement, the guards quickly shed their disguises off and transformed into a squadron of Decepticon Cloakers. As soon as that happened, Optimus and Ratchet drew their weapons and Twilight made her horn so that she could get ready to blast them with her magic. In response, the Cloakers transformed turned their right hands into plasma cannons and pointed them at the trio.

As the stand-off continued for a handful of seconds, Ratchet carefully placed Luna on the ground and said to Optimus, "At least now we know what was in those escape pods that hit this city. But, how is it possible that these Decepticons could disguise themselves as ponies?"

"My guess is that our old friend Shockwave played a role in their creation", replied Optimus. "However, I do not recall seeing him aboard the Nemesis during our visit there last night."

The Cloakers then snickered and their captain spat, "You Autobots are laughably short-sighted! Shockwave gave us the ability to scan and transform into organic lifeforms shortly before we left Cybertron in case Lord Megatron needed us to infiltrate planets such as this one. It seems that his genius truly knows no bounds. I mean, just look at what we managed to in the span of one megacycle or so! We succeeded where Commander Brawl and Sergeant Barricade failed. Wanna know what we did? We learned the Cube's location and transmitted it to Lord Megatron himself!"

Both Twilight and the Autobots gasped in horror upon hearing that while the Cloakers sinisterly giggled. The captain then continued, "Yes, you should definitely be scared! Lord Megatron has already acquired it and as soon as he did, he ordered us to annihilate you. A shame, really. You will not be able to see his glorious vision coming to life."

Just then, Optimus stepped forward and stated, "There is nothing glorious about his vision. He intends to make the entire universe submit to his will and destroy anything that stands in his way. As long as my spark keeps beating, I will not allow such darkness to befall to this or any planet!"

Right after delivering that speech, he fired his ion blaster at the Cloakers, who immediately dispersed and turned invisible. Though Optimus activated his scanners to find them, they were simply nowhere to be seen. Then, Ratchet worriedly asked, "I assume you have a plan, old friend?"

"Yes. Destroy these Cloakers, and regroup with Bumblebee and Spike in Ponyville", replied Optimus. "What is Princess Luna's condition?"

Ratchet carefully examined her before stating, "Thank Primus, her wound isn't very serious. I don't have to use my Energon Repair Ray, but I still need some cover in order to work properly."

"Understood", Optimus replied while reloading his weapon. "Twilight, you're with me. We need to protect Ratchet while he provides treatment for Princess Luna."

"Got it, but how exactly are we gonna find and defeat these Decepticons when they're invisible?", Twilight asked and her answer came in the form of a ball of pure plasma, which she deflected with her magic shield at the last second. When she looked at the direction that ball came from, she saw another ball smaller than the previous one but glowing brighter and growing bigger with each second. Just before it was fired, she sent a magic blast to its location, which hit and decloaked a Cloaker. Then, she immediately sent a much more powerful blast to the same spot and this one ripped a hole in the Cloaker's chest, killing him instantly.

"Um, forget I said anything", she said to Optimus while giving him a small nervous smile. He responded with a nod and the two began to take care of the rest of the Cloakers in the area. It turned out to be a rather easy battle as the Cloakers were immediately spotted when they charged up their plasma cannons, giving Twilight and Optimus the opportunity to take them down by shooting at them. Of course, since the Cloakers had spread out, they were able to fire from nearly all directions, causing the Autobot leader and the alicorn princess to barely dodge their attacks. In fact, Optimus had already taken three direct hits to his back and Twilight would have almost taken a direct hit to her back if Optimus had not pulled her out of the way. So, they decided to change tactics and started taking on the Cloakers back-to-back. In this way, they could shoot at their enemies from both sides, protect each other from plasma shots, and defeat them much more efficiently. Indeed, this strategy worked like a charm and in a few minutes, the entire squadron of Cloakers were in pieces.

The dynamic duo panted heavily for a handful of seconds before looking at each other with gratitude and determination. Optimus then made his left hand a fist and extended it to Twilight before she promptly bumped her right hoof into it.

"Wow! You were amazing back there!", she exclaimed. "But, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since you've been in the fighting business for a few million years or so."

"That is correct", replied Optimus with a chuckle. "However, you also fought valiantly. Have you had any previous combat experience, by any chance?"

Twilight sheepishly replied, "Well, I did fight an army of Changeling invaders with my friends, a magic-sucking centaur all by myself while I had the power of three other alicorn princesses, as well as all sorts of strange creatures and monsters in a just a couple of years or so. That should be plenty of experience, if you ask me."

"Agreed", Optimus stated. "Yet again, I find a similarity between us, Twilight. We are both experienced combatants who only resort to violence in order to protect the innocent lives around us. I may have seen much more violence than you did, but I fight this war with the sole purpose of ensuring my people's survival. While peace and harmony are the most valuable virtues in existence, there will be times when they will be threatened. During these times, we must do what must be done and struggle against insurmountable odds in order to preserve them. Would you agree to that sentiment?"

Twilight quickly flew up to his shoulder and happily said, "Couldn't agree more."

"Good", warmly replied Optimus. "I knew I could count on you."

Right after saying that, he did something no one expected him to do: He gently stroked Twilight's mane. While she did not try to get away from it or anything, she also could not help but ask, "Um, what are you doing?"

Optimus instantly stopped and said, "Forgive me. I, uh, could not help myself. It's just... I did not realize until now how, um, adorable you really are."

Though initially surprised to hear that, Twilight eventually giggled and said, "That's okay. After all, we're friends now, right?"

"Yes, I believe so", Optimus replied with a little sadness. "It has been really pleasant conversing with you for these past few megacycles. You have taught me many fascinating things about your planet, including its history and current state. I must admit, it seems like a far more peaceful and prosperous world than Cybertron ever was. For eons, I fought and sacrificed many of my kind so that our world could live again. However, learning about the astonishing features of this world and reflecting on the events that has transpired today makes me wonder... Perhaps, Cybertron itself is not exactly what we should be fighting for, after all."

As soon as he said these things, Twilight promptly put her hoof on his face mask and determinedly said, "Hey, don't talk like that. You WILL see your planet come back to life. I'll make sure of it. If things don't exactly work out, though, you and your Autobots are more than welcome to stay in Equestria until you find another way."

This statement lifted Optimus' spirits a bit and he turned to Twilight before replying, "I... appreciate that."

Upon hearing that, Twilight managed to give him a small smile, in return. However, this sweet moment between them was suddenly interrupted when a letter appeared out of thin air above Twilight's head and once she read it, she let out a gasp out of pure horror.

"It's from Spike and Bumblebee!", she began to explain. "They found the AllSpark, but also ran into Megatron himself! It seems Megatron took the Cube and... and seriously injured Bumblebee in the process?! They're right beside the Castle of the Two Sisters! We must go there at once or he'll become offline!"

Right after hearing all that, Optimus' facial expression changed from confused to fiercely determined and he said, "Ratchet, we have to make haste! Bumblebee is in grave danger! What's your status?"

"Luna is completely healed", replied Ratchet. "She is able to fly, but I wouldn't recommend her straining herself too much."

"We have no other choice", Optimus firmly declared. "It is imperative that we reach Ponyville as soon as possible. TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!"

Twilight flew away from his shoulder as he and Ratchet simultaneously transformed into their vehicle modes, and once Luna was in the air again, all four of them went to the location of the train carts. Twilight quickly attached the carts to Optimus' rear and right after that, the group began heading towards Ponyville at top speed.

For ten minutes, the Autobots drove and the princesses flew in complete silence. They were all focused on reaching their destination and did not want to waste a single second talking to each other. All except Twilight, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable about the silence and worried about Optimus' new attitude. She had already seen that anger and frustration could lead to rash and dangerous actions, and she was afraid that Optimus would do something like taking on the entire Decepticon army all by himself just to avenge Bumblebee, and maybe get killed in the process. He could be a highly skilled warrior, but that did not mean that he was invincible.

When they were halfway to Ponyville, she decided to fly at a lower altitude in order to talk to him about this, but just as she was about to do so, Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder and sadly shook her head. Twilight immediately understood what that meant, nodded her head in equal sadness, and continued to fly at the original altitude while maintaining her silence, no matter how much she disliked it.

After ten overbearing minutes full of tension and discomfort, they finally reached the borders of Ponyville. At that point, the group split up with Ratchet and Luna going to the Castle of Two Sisters in order to heal Bumblebee, while Optimus and Twilight heading to the train station in order to drop off the homeless citizens of Vanhoover. As soon as they did that, Twilight decided to check on her friends and family to make sure they were safe, and Optimus gave her permission to do so while he continued towards the castle.

Meanwhile, Luna and Ratchet had already reached there and both of them were horrified by the sight before them. Bumblebee was laying heavily damaged around a pool of small white crystals with the CMC and Spike holding his fingers right beside a castle surrounded by giant mass of sharp purple crystals. Ratchet quickly rushed to Bumblebee's side while Luna fearfully stared at the condition of her former home.

"Bumblebee, are you alright?!", an extremely concerned Ratchet asked before taking a quick look at Bumblebee's injuries and then asking the CMC and Spike, "What in the name of Primus happened here?"

Spike worriedly replied, "Megatron brutally stomped right on his chest. He's been leaking those white crystals for several minutes now. Please... Please, tell me you can save him."

Ratchet then examined the wounds more closely and declared, "I believe so, but I need some space to work. So, please, take a few steps back."

Spike and the girls did as he asked and he turned his right hand into his Energon Repair Ray before speaking to Bumblebee in a firm tone, "Don't you dare give up now, soldier. I know there is still some fight left in you. Use it!"

Bumblebee giggled at that and said, "Well... it's nice to see you've improved... your bedside manners."

"Heh! You'd be surprised how much these ponies rub off on you", replied Ratchet. "Now, hold still and shut up."

"Just what I thought", Bumblebee muttered before doing as Ratchet instructed.

As Ratchet began his work, Spike and the CMC walked towards Luna, who was still gazing at the new condition of her old castle and trying to figure out what could be the cause of those ominous, Then, she heard the group calling out to her and shifted her attention towards them.

"Spike. Crusaders. Care to explain your presence here?", she inquired.

Spike nervously replied, "Well... Bumblebee was driving us to Zecora's, but then, he picked up a strange energy signature and it led us right here. We searched the castle and found the AllSpark at the bottom of a pit. Just after we got out, Megatron attacked us. Bumblebee tried to distract him to buy us enough time to escape, but... You can clearly see how that turned out. As for the AllSpark... Megatron took it. Now, he and his goons are somewhere in Equestria planning an invasion on Canterlot. After that, they'll destroy the whole planet before moving on to conquering the rest of the universe. We do have a plan to stop them, right? Because, if not, we're all pretty much doomed."

While Luna was trying to comprehend everything Spike was saying, she noticed that Apple Bloom was especially sad and nervous. In fact, she was looking down as if she was ashamed of something. Luna knew that expression all too well. It was the same one she had all the time when interacting with the staff of Canterlot Castle during the first few days after her reformation. Celestia had encouraged her to open up about these issues and it had really helped boost her confidence in herself. Now, she realized that she must remember her sister's methods and do the same thing for this child.

"Apple Bloom? You seem upset over something? What is it?", she calmly asked.

Apple Bloom became even more nervous and could only reply, "Well... Uhhh… I don't think..."

In response, Luna held her chin up and kindly said, "It's quite alright, child. You can tell me. There is nothing to be ashamed of."

Apple Bloom then took a deep breath and tearfully replied, "It... It was all my fault, Princess Luna. I gave the AllSpark to Megatron. I saw how much he was hurting Bee and thought I could save his life by giving up the Cube. Megatron agreed to the trade and even used the Cube to heal Bee's wounds. But then, he crushed his chest by stepping on it, created all those crystals around your castle, and left to begin his invasion. Bee said he was to blame for trying to fight Megatron all by himself, but I know he was just trying to protect us. I'm the guilty one here. I'm the one who caused all this mess! NOW, THE WHOLE UNIVERSE WILL BE HURT FROM WHAT I DID!"

Right after saying that, she laid her head on the ground and started sobbing heavily. She was not expecting anyone to forgive her for her actions, least of all, Princess Luna. In fact, she knew very well that the princess would punish her for such an offense and she had no problem with it, whatsoever. In her opinion, her friends, family, and the rest of Equestria had every reason to be mad at her, and that, she fully deserved to be punished for her stupid mistake. Therefore, she continued sobbing and prepared for the wrath she expected Princess Luna to unleash upon her.

However, what happened next was something she was not expecting to happen at all. Instead of getting angry and yelling, Luna gently stroked the crying filly's mane, instead. Then, the completely perplexed Apple Bloom looked up and saw that Luna did not have a single indication of rage on her face and that, she was actually softly smiling at her.

"Shhhh… It's alright, my dear", she said. "You have nothing to worry about. I completely understand."

"You... do?", asked Apple Bloom very curiously.

Luna gave her a small nod and replied, "Most certainly. I did many things in the past I am not proud of. However, the difference between my mistakes and yours is that I did them due to my pride and ambition. You, on the other hoof, did what you did in order to save the life of someone other than yourself. Someone you genuinely cared about. If anything, your selflessness should make you a hero, not a villain like I was."

Apple Bloom briefly contemplated what Luna said before asking, "But... But, what about Equestria and the rest of the universe? I basically doomed both of them by giving up the AllSpark. If I hadn't, none of this would've happened."

"Perhaps", Luna calmly began. "However, let us not forget that our fight with Megatron is far from over. We still have a chance to defeat both him and his vile Decepticon army with the help of our new Autobot friends. If we lose faith in ourselves at this critical hour, though, then we will truly lose."

Apple Bloom wiped a some tears away from her face and said, "I reckon we'll lose either way, Princess Luna. Megatron's way too strong for any of us to bring down."

"On our own, no, we cannot bring him down", Luna promptly replied while her smile disappeared. "If we work together as one, however, there is not a single challenge we cannot overcome. I have seen more than a few times how unity and friendship between ponies triumph over the forces of darkness. In my opinion, this circumstance is no different. All we have to do is have faith in both ourselves and our friends. So, what do you say? Will you just stay and drown yourself in despair, or will you take a stand against the Decepticon tyranny alongside your friends?"

Applebloom thought really hard about this for several seconds and in the end, she took a deep breath and determinedly declared, "I'm willing to do everything I can to make things right. A few metal bullies from outer space can't just destroy everything I care about simply because they see us as pest. Bee was right. They're all a bunch of insensitive cowards and I wanna show 'em that there's a lot more to us than meets the eye."

Luna began smiling again and said, "That's the spirit, dear. I promise that I will do everything in my power to help you on this endeavor." She then put her hoof on the filly's shoulder and continued, "We WILL get through this crisis. Together."

Applebloom began smiling and replied, "Thank you, princess. I'm... really glad you still believe in me", before giving Luna an unexpected hug. Though Luna was initially a bit confused by this, she nevertheless returned the hug.

Suddenly, to everyone's shock, Optimus burst through the woods in his vehicle mode, swiftly transformed back into his robot mode, and rushed towards Bumblebee in great concern. However, Ratchet stopped him from reaching Bumblebee by placing a hand on his chest and slowly shaking his head. From this motion, Optimus quickly understood that Ratchet needed more time to complete the healing process and so, he slowly took a few steps back and Ratchet got back to his work. Once Optimus was about a hundred inches away from his comrades, he fell to his knees and hung his head in sorrow. He even muttered to himself, "I am sorry, old friend. I should have been here."

Then, Luna flew to a spot directly above him and said, "Optimus Prime, thank goodness you're here. I have to show you something really important. I think it's- Wait, where is Twilight Sparkle?"

Optimus slightly looked up and replied, "After we dropped off the refugees at the train station, she stayed in Ponyville to check up on her family. She will arrive shortly, though."

Sighing in relief upon hearing that, Luna continued, "I see. Well, in any case, you must see what I intend to show you. This way, to my old castle."

Despite his overall sadness and concern for Bumblebee's survival, Optimus managed to stand up and followed Luna, who brought him near the chaotic mass of purple crystals. As he continued walking, the Crusaders could not help but be awed by his size and appearance. However, he paid no attention to them due to having too many thoughts in his head. Upon seeing the current state of he castle, his facial expression changed from sad to frustrated while Luna continued to be worried from the sight before them. She then asked Optimus, "Do you have any clue regarding the cause of this phenomenon?"

Optimus somberly explained, "I do. In fact, I know this all too well. It is called, 'Dark Energon'. An unstable and highly destructive form of energy that had caused the decimation of my home world in the first place. Megatron harnessed its power during the final chapters of the war on Cybertron and introduced it into the planet's very core. As a result, the entire world became corrupted by this substance, which forced us to initiate a mass exodus to the stars. Megatron is the only Cybertronian in existence who have mastered Dark Energon and he had undoubtedly conjured up these crystals before us with his bare hands. Simply put, the power of Dark Energon is polar opposite to that of the AllSpark and in Megatron's possession, it is the most dan-"

He left his sentence unfinished as he came to a stunning realization. Luna, who was slightly spooked from his narration, became puzzled by the sudden change in his facial expression. She could not help but ask, "Are you alright? Is something wrong?"

Optimus turned his attention to her and replied, "I now understand what must be done. If what I am about to suggest works, then we can put a stop to this senseless conflict once and for all. We can finally create peace between our peoples."

Becoming even more confused than before, Luna inquired, "Really? What is this new plan, then?"

"I shall explain everything as soon as Twilight arrives", answered Optimus. As if on cue, Twilight suddenly came out of the forest while sweating and heavily panting. Once she managed to calm down and catch her breath in a handful of seconds, she gasped in horror at the sight of the Dark Energon crystals.

"Please don't tell me Megatron found a way to bring back King Sombra and that they've teamed up to conquer Equestria!", she said to Optimus and Luna, who proceeded to briefly look at each other in puzzled expressions.

Optimus then turned back to Twilight and replied, "What you see is entirely Megatron's doing. He most likely sought to demonstrate the full extent of his Dark Energon abilities in order to intimidate us. However, he did not realize that this had actually taught us how to strip him of his power. Now that you are here, I can explain our new strategy. Ratchet, have you finished healing Bumblebee?"

"Well, he still needs to rest for a few additional megacycles, but he should be strong enough to get back on his servos, at least", declared Ratchet. Then, he stood up and helped Bumblebee do the same. Though Bumblebee had to lean on Ratchet at first, he eventually managed to stand upright and walk towards Optimus, who sighed in relief and placed his hand on his young friend's shoulder.

"How are you feeling, soldier?", he asked.

Bumblebee sadly replied, "Some of my parts still hurt, but I'll be fine. At least, that's what doc told me. Anyway, that's not the real problem here. Our worst fear's been realized, Optimus, and it's all my fault. I should've obeyed your orders and stayed put in Ponyville. Instead, I ventured on my own and the result was catastrophe. I deserve every bit of punishment you deem necessary."

"That will not be necessary", stated Optimus, much to Bumblebee's confusion. "The injuries you have sustained during your fight with Megatron should count as more than enough punishment for your recklessness. Besides, I cannot exactly punish a soldier like you for making an effort to speed up our search for the AllSpark. Just remember to report directly to me anything unusual you come across from now on. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely, boss bot", Bumblebee declared before saluting his commander who then saluted back. "Now, what's this new strategy I heard you talking about earlier?"

"Gather our friends beside the Dark Energon crystals and I shall answer", Optimus replied and Bumblebee immediately proceeded to carry out his order. Soon enough, everyone was standing right in front of the crystals, impatiently waiting to hear what Optimus had to say. Optimus then cleared his throat and began to speak in a very serious tone.

"You are all aware of the danger we will soon face", he began. "Megatron and his vast army are coming bring about the end of this world. Although me and my Autobot brothers have sworn to never let another planet fall to his evil, I doubt we can keep our promise this time. We are severely outnumbered and unable to contact our allies hiding across the galaxy. To make matters worse, Megatron has the AllSpark in his possession and will, no doubt, use its power to make the upcoming battle even harder for us. In short, this is going to be a battle we may not win."

Though he noticed everyone's facial expressions turning sad and hopeless, he nevertheless continued, "However, we still have one glimmer of hope. You may find it radical and irrational, but this new strategy of mine could be the only way we can defeat the Decepticons and restore peace to this world."

When he saw that everyone was looking at him in great intrigue, he knew that he had their full attention. He then took a really deep breath and announced, "We must destroy the Cube."

Needless to say, they all gasped in pure shock.

Put to rest

Ratchet immediately stepped forward and exclaimed, "Optimus, you cannot be serious about this! That cube is the only thing in the whole universe that can bring back everything we lost during the war. Our home, our friends, our brothers and sisters... We can't just turn our backs on all these. I mean, how can we even live with ourselves if we don't honor the sacrifices our comrades made on the battlefield? They gave their lives so that we could return Cybertron to a time when peace and harmony reigned supreme. If we do what you suggest, we'd be disgracing their memory."

Bumblebee then came between Optimus and Ratchet, and stated, "Whoa! Take it easy there, Ratch. Let me handle this one for you, okay?". He then turned to Optimus and said, "As much as I respect and support your decisions, boss bot, I have to agree with doc on this one. We'd basically be throwing our one chance to bring back both our home and our loved ones to life if we go through with this plan. All three of us have lost so many Autobots we cared about. So, why are we not taking our chances with the AllSpark and using it to restore all of them, plus our entire civilization?"

Then, Luna landed on Ratchet's left shoulder and added, "Even if you do agree to utilize this new strategy, how will you be able to destroy the Cube, anyway? I tried to use the most powerful destruction spells in existence and none of them had any effect on it, whatsoever."

Optimus confidently replied, "As I stated before, the power of Dark Energon is polar opposite to that of the AllSpark. The former is the ultimate weapon of destruction, while the latter is the ultimate weapon of creation. If I can put the Cube to Megatron's chest, the resulting reaction should not only destroy it, but also cancel out the Dark Energon within him and thus, make him weak enough for me to deliver the finishing blow. With their leader defeated and their greatest ambition eliminated, the Decepticons will retreat to the stars and it will be a good long while before their possible return. Of course, they will be severely weakened by Megatron's absence and the one who would most likely replace him as the new leader is very incompetent when it comes to strategy."

Bumblebee briefly contemplated this before stating, "That... actually might work. I mean, like you said, the powers of creation and destruction could balance each other, which would leave Megatron powerless. Well, not completely powerless, since he would still be able to use his combat skills, but I'm certain you can finish him, regardless. With him gone, Starscream would definitely become the new leader and we all know how terrible he is at planning things out. Remember the time when he almost got an entire battalion of Decepticon soldiers massacred because he didn't count for the fact that we had automated sentry guns on an Energon transport?"

He laughed at himself for a bit while Ratchet let out a frustrated sigh and countered Optimus by saying, "It doesn't matter whether your plan will work or not. We can't go through with it. We can't just abandon our millennia-long quest to restore our home, people, and civilization. Why would a selfless and rational bot like you even consider such a strategy?"

"Because, I now understand the folly of our quest", determinedly replied Optimus. "I realize that ever since the AllSpark came to this planet, it has brought nothing but chaos and destruction with it. All those assaults initiated to find this elusive treasure had only resulted in the decimation of cities and slaughter of innocents. We can allow this no more. From now on, we start acting like the protectors we claim to be. That means we eliminate the motivation behind these Decepticon attacks and help the planet's inhabitants defend their home. It is the only way we can finally put an end to this senseless conflict that has already claimed so many innocent lives. Do you understand?"

Upon hearing those words, Ratchet considered them for a while before taking a deep breath and sadly stating, "All I have ever wanted was the survival of our race."

In response, Optimus placed his hand and on his right shoulder and said, "As do I, old friend. Who knows? We may still find another way to make this dream come true. However, we must follow a path that does not cause the loss of innocents."

"Well... when you put it that way... I guess, you have a point", Ratchet admitted. After taking another deep breath, he regained his confidence and declared, "Alright, I'm in, but we WILL find another way to restore our people after this is over."

"You have my word", replied Optimus while nodding in agreement. "Bumblebee, what do you say? Will you join us?"

"I'm... uhhh... still a bit skeptical about how we can find an alternative source of energy, to be honest", he nervously stated. "But, I actually do realize that sacrificing the Cube is the right thing to do. I mean, what's even the point of trying to fulfill a quest to save our civilization while those we've sworn to protect and... grown to care about get hurt along the way, right? I'm pretty sure the friends we've lost back on Cybertron would think the same way. So, yeah, count me in."

"Glad to hear that", Optimus said before turning his attention to Princess Luna. "I know I am asking a bit too much, your majesty, but you and Princess Celestia need to provide assistance for us in the upcoming battle. We simply cannot win without it. The fate of not just your world, but also all other worlds hangs in the balance."

Luna immediately flew upwards and began hovering only a few inches above the Autobot leader while declaring, "Fear not, Optimus Prime. I am on my way to Canterlot right now to discuss the war preparations with my sister. We will never allow an army of tyrannical outsiders to invade our kingdom and endanger the lives of our subjects. Not in a million moons!"

She then began flying towards Canterlot as fast as her wings could carry her, leaving the Autobots astonished that she still had this much strength, considering the fact that she was hit with a spear to the back not long ago. Ratchet's optics suddenly widened with realization and he remarked to Optimus, "I should probably go with her. I promised that I would teach her soldiers how they can exploit the weaknesses in the Decepticon anatomy and it's most likely that her sister would refuse to send those soldiers into battle without this kind of knowledge."

Optimus gave him a quick nod as permission to go, and watched as his old medic friend transform into his vehicle mode and drive towards Canterlot at his top speed before vanishing in the horizon. Then, he noticed that Twilight was looking both a little sad and a little disappointed at the same time. So, he proceeded to kneel before her and asked, "You do not seem too pleased with our new strategy. Why is that? Is it because you do not fully understand why it is necessary?"

"No, no! I do understand!", she hastily replied before talking in a more somber tone. "It's just that I've really wanted to get my hooves on the AllSpark and obtain the answer to questions that I've been asking to myself for a good long while. I mean, why did it decide to transfer all that knowledge and a small portion of its power to my ancestor in the first place? What exactly is the full extent of its abilities? Can it only create evil robots or is it able to create good robots too? These questions have been driving me crazy ever since I listened to Princess Luna's story and I think examining the Cube is the only way to answer them."

In response, Optimus let out a rather sad sigh and said, "You know that I understand your desire for knowledge all too well, Twilight. As you already know, I was once as hungry for information as you are now. However, what we are about to do is a necessary sacrifice to restore peace and harmony to this world. We simply cannot allow your people to suffer any further for our mistakes."

These words made Twilight contemplate them for several seconds. In the end, a very determined look appeared on her face and she asked, "What's the plan, then?"

Glad that he had bolstered her confidence, Optimus replied, "We await word from your fellow princesses. Their armies will be critical in holding off Megatron's forces until you and I can reach him. Once we do, you will help me getting the AllSpark off of Megatron's grasp and I shall plunge it into his chest. The ensuing reaction between its energy and that of the Dark Energon flowing through Megatron's body should cause both powers to be canceled out and make Megatron weak enough for me to take him down. His army will fall back as soon as they see his defeat and will not return to Equestria any time soon. I ask that you do not engage Megatron under any circumstance. Just help me get a hold on the Cube and I will take care of him. Any questions?"

"Is there there really no way to do this other than an all-out battle?", she curiously inquired.

"I hate it as much as you do, Twilight, but we have no alternative options right now", firmly replied Optimus. "The only other way we can accomplish our objective is sneaking into Megatron's warship, the Nemesis, which is currently hovering just a few meters above the clouds. Unfortunately, this approach is out of the question. We cannot reach there and even if we could, the Decepticons have undoubtedly increased their security ever since we infiltrated the warship last night. So, yes, there is no way to do this other than an all-out battle. Any other questions?"

"Yeah, um, why did you sneak abroad their ship in the first place?", she asked in a slightly fearful tone.

"Shortly after we found that little creation of the AllSpark I showed you earlier, a Decepticon spy learned of our discovery and delivered the information to Megatron. He and his forces then made their way here and we chased them across the solar system. Finally, we caught up and attempted to infiltrate the ship, intending to stop Megatron before he could reach the surface. Unfortunately, he, along with Brawl and Barricade, managed to slip away from our assault and we were forced to follow them in the same type of escape pods they used to come here. While they landed near the Crystal Empire, we made our landing in a region you call the 'San Palomino Desert'. Since those escape pods do not possess the capability of propelling themselves to outer space and also because the resources of this planet are severely limited compared to our own, it is virtually impossible for us to reach the Nemesis, let alone infiltrate it a second time. Are you finished asking questions?"

"One more. Where exactly is the Decepticon army supposed to strike first?"

While Optimus thought about the answer to this question, Spike came near them and pointed out, "I know where they're gonna attack, actually."

Both the Autobot leader and the alicorn princess looked at him in complete puzzlement as he continued, "Right after Megatron covered the entire castle with Dark Energon crystals, he gloated that he and his army will stage an attack on Canterlot first thing in the morning. After that, they're gonna burn the whole planet to cinders."

Twilight looked back at Optimus with great concern and he determinedly announced, "Very well. It seems we need to regroup with Ratchet and Princess Luna. TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!"

What you thought of me

Exactly twelve hours later, every pony and Autobot was finally ready for battle.

As soon as Ratchet and Princess Luna reached Canterlot, they began to form a plan on how to hold off the upcoming Decepticon attack. This process consisted of Ratchet giving the royal guard an extensive lesson on Cybertronian anatomy and different types of Decepticon soldiers. While there were a few yawns in the audience, the guards generally received a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each enemy type, and exactly where to strike them in order to take them down as swiftly as possible.

Shortly after the lesson ended, Optimus Prime and the others arrived to warn them of what they had learned about the assault. Learning that Megatron intends to invade Canterlot with everything at his disposal, Luna convinced Celestia to declare a state of emergency and evacuate the entire city. Both the residents and the refugees from the Crystal Empire were instructed to travel to either Manehattan and Baltimare, and remain there until the battle was over. Also, though Celestia was a bit uneasy around the Autobots when they first arrived to Canterlot, she eventually warmed up to them as they planned out a tactic to push the Decepticon assault back from Equestria. She especially got along well with Optimus as the two aged and wise leaders of their respective races exchanged their respective knowledge on battle strategy. On top of that, Twilight was extremely happy to see her mentor working together with their new mechanical friends.

Unfortunately, her anxiety had grown exponentially by the time the entire royal guard was assembled at the front gates of Canterlot the next morning with her being right in front of them along with the Autobots and her fellow princesses. She was never in a real battle before and the fact that she was about to lead an army to fight numerous hostile aliens was more enough to terrify her. She was thinking about not just the probability of not making through the battle, but also the probability of this experience making her go through a dramatic change if she did survive. Would she suffer the same fate as Optimus and lose all interest in researching new things? Would she become more stoic and violent as a result? How would this affect her relationships with her friends and family? Though she knew that it was not time to dwell on these questions and concentrate on the conflict ahead, but she just could not help herself.

Luckily, something that made her snap out of all her current thoughts finally happened. As soon as Celestia raised the sun, a giant spaceship entered the atmosphere and flew straight towards their location.

It landed about a hundred feet away from that and shortly after its doors opened up, only three Decepticons came out: Brawl, Barricade, and Lord Megatron. Immediately after that, the ship flew back towards space and the cunning Decepticon leader let out a loud chuckle.

"Optimus Prime!", he began. "How wonderful it is to see you here on this glorious day!"

In response, Optimus took a few steps towards him and somberly said, "I wish I could share your excitement, Megatron."

Megatron then sighed with sadness and replied, "You should have realized by now, Prime, that our fight is truly pointless. After all, we both seek the same outcome: the restoration of our home and the betterment of our people. If anything, we should become allies in order to accomplish this common goal. There is much we can benefit from each other."

"I agree", Optimus said, which resulted in everyone standing behind him gasp in shock. "You and I should, indeed, join forces to save Cybertron. However, you must promise me a few things. I ask that you leave other planets alone and treat everyone in our planet as an equal. Only then can i entrust you with the leadership of our people."

Brawl and Barricade started laughing as soon as they heard this, but a furious look from Megatron convinced them to remain quiet. Megatron then turned his attention back to Optimus and replied, "A noble sentiment, Prime, but also a very naive one. Our people will need a strong and dedicated leader to keep them in order and maintain the peace. That is a task that cannot be achieved with what you propose. Only through order and control can we hope to achieve true harmony, and this is one of the truths that the entire universe should embrace. That is why we shall be introducing these ideals to every planet we travel to as we expand our civilization across the stars. No one will be able to stand in our path to fulfilling our destiny of becoming the most powerful beings in existence!"

Upon hearing all these, Brawl and Barricade began cheering while Optimus let out a sigh in disappointment. He then asked, "And what happens when the inhabitants of these planets do not recognize our supposed superiority?"

Brawl and Barricade immediately stopped cheering, and an extremely angry expression appeared on Megatron's face as he explained, "They suffer our wrath, of course! The weak are meant to serve the strong and those who defy this law should be punished for their rebellious actions! Just like the inhabitants of THIS PLANET!"

"But these creatures did nothing wrong to us", argued Optimus. "If anyone who should be punished, it is you and your Decepticons. You are the ones who invaded their home and slaughtered their citizens. And for what? An artifact that could grant you the power to rule Cybertron and conquer all other planets in existence? You must answer for your crimes."

As soon as he heard this, Megatron became even more furious than ever and yelled, "IT IS THESE PESTS WHO ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS! They foolishly kept the AllSpark to themselves instead of returning it to its rightful owners! TO US! Thus, they caused the resurrection of our people to be delayed for an entire millennia! This criminal act will not go unpunished! JUSTICE SHALL BE SERVED!"

He pressed a button on the left side of his head and said, "Decepticons, mobilize at my position!"

The second he gave that order, five spaceships of the same type that brought him and his companions to the surface entered the atmosphere and flew towards their position. Once they landed only a couple feet in front of them, a huge number of Decepticon troopers emerged from each of the ships. Each ship was carrying a different type of soldier.

100 Drones:

50 Brutes:

25 Titans:

20 Rocketeers:

And 5 Destroyers:

Megatron proudly took a look at his forces who were all raising their fists up to the air and shouting his name. He then looked back at Optimus who, along with everyone else behind him, were staring at the vast Decepticon army with both shock and fear. They were clearly outnumbered as there had only a hundred royal guards to fight with them (50 of them were Celestial and the other 50 was Lunar). Therefore, Optimus was now contemplating whether or not they will even stand a chance in this fight.

However, he was immediately snapped out of these thoughts when Megatron shouted, "One final offer for you and your Autobots, Prime! Join me in returning our home to its golden age or be decimated for protecting these revolting insects! YOU HAVE ONE CYCLE TO DECIDE!"

Right after hearing that, Optimus looked behind at him to see the faces of everyone who had come to fight with him. While Celestia and her guards looked fearful and worried, Luna, her guards, and his fellow Autobots appeared rather defiant and ready to fight. Twilight, meanwhile, was looking at him with a facial expression that said, "Is there any chance we can win?"

Upon interpreting the meaning of that face, Optimus looked down for a while to ponder and a handful of seconds later, he looked back at Twilight and gave her a determined nod. This caused Twilight to not just smile and respond with another determined nod, but also flew towards the Autobot leader's shoulder and igniting her horn with magic upon landing. In response, Optimus shifted his attention to Megatron and retrieved a giant double-bladed axe from his back. The moment he grabbed a hold of that axe, it began glowing red and forming small red streaks of red lighting around itself.

He then pointed it towards a now-confused Megatron and declared, "One shall stand, one shall fall."

In response, Megatron angrily asked, "Why throw away your life so carelessly?"

"That is a question you should ask yourself, Megatron", Optimus confidently replied.

Megatron became even more agitated upon hearing that and shouted, "No! I will crush you with my bare hands! Decepticons, commence the attack! ANNIHILATE THESE TRAITORS TO CYBERTRON!"

As soon as receiving that order, every single Decepticon soldier began running towards the front gates of Canterlot, intending to destroy everything and everyone who stood in their path.

Author's Note

Merry Christmas and let the final battle begin! :yay:

While I clean this slate

Ratchet was running faster than he had ever run in his entire life. The cause of this was neither pure panic nor pure excitement. It was actually a combination of the two. Since he was well over sixty million years of age and was considered an elderly member of his race, running at that speed was not good for his health. The only times he had to run or drive extremely fast was when one of his fellow Autobots was injured and required immediate medical assistance. This was definitely one of those times and as he was running through the battlefield right in front of Canterlot City, and blasting Decepticon soldiers left and right with his Neutron Assault Rifle, he could not help but feel two different emotions at the same time: Pride and Fear.

He was proud of not just himself, but of the royal guard ponies all around him, instead, So far, they had clearly shown that they had understood everything he had taught them about Cybertronian anatomy and the aspects different enemy types. It was filling him in immense pride to see them putting what they had learned to good use and exploiting the weaknesses of their opponents. They were throwing spears at the Decepticons' optics, blinding them, and causing them to shoot their comrades in pain and panic. Since the Titans had formed the first line of attack, they were the first ones to be blinded, which caused them to accidentally mow down a quarter of the Drones and nearly all the Rocketeers with their mini guns. This had allowed Optimus to cut down the Titans in half with his axe and Bumblebee destroying another quarter of the Drones after picking up one of the mini guns. While the Brutes were able to protect their optics with their hand-held shields, the guards had managed to run past them and throw their spears at the square-shaped fuel cells attached to their backs, which were making them literally blow up in smokes. All in all, it was suffice to say that Ratchet was proud of both the royal guard ponies for making a huge contribution to the fight and himself for being very effecting in teaching the guards how to fight Decepticons.

At the same time, however, he was extremely fearful for the safety of one particular pony who might have bitten more than what she could chew: Luna. That was the main why he was running so fast. She was flying through the battlefield, blinding every single Decepticon on her path, and was now heading straight towards the Destroyers. In spite of them being the toughest and the most heavily armed enemy type, she was more than determined to take them all on in order to put a quick end to the battle. By the time she had finally reached them, Ratchet was only halfway to her position and his servos were about to malfunction. However, he knew that he absolutely needed to keep going so that Luna could be safe. She was not just a friend. She was the first and so far, the only real friend he had made in this world. Losing her after spending so little time with her would be truly devastating to. Therefore, he simply had to push on. No matter the cost.

Luna, meanwhile, had only just begun to realize her own overconfidence. The Destroyers were firing at her with everything they got and though they had not yet managed to hit her, she was barely able to dodge their laser beams. Despite firing her magic at them, she could not get a clear shot at their optics due to her constant need to dodge oncoming attacks. After a full minute of this, however, she finally managed to shoot one of them in the optics, which unsurprisingly caused the panicking Destroyer to blindly emit laser beams to everything around him in pain, including his fellow Destroyers and other types of Decepticon soldiers. While the other Destroyers were firing at their blinded comrade to end his misery and put a stop to his chaotic rampage, Luna took a moment to catch her breath when suddenly...

BOOOOM!!!!

She was knocked out of the sky with a powerful shock wave generated by none other than Brawl, who was laughing very maniacally at her situation. After falling down to the ground really hard, Luna tried her very best to get back on her hooves. Unfortunately, by the time she accomplished that, Brawl had already reached her location, and he proceeded to grab her by the horn and lift her up towards right in front of his face.

"In all my stellar cycles, I've never a species as annoying and pathetic as you ponies", he said. "You're so petty and tiny. Yet, you refuse to give up even in the face of certain doom. I will gladly help Lord Megatron make sure that not a single member of your race is left alive in any planet whatsoever!"

While Luna struggled to free herself from his grip, she replied, "You, your master, and all the other Decepticons are the ones that are truly pathetic. You intimidate the other species into submission with your power and actually expect them to live in peace under your oppression. Tell me, do you honestly believe that Megatron creates harmony everywhere he invades and conquers? From what I've seen, he only creates chaos and devastation with his actions."

"Doesn't matter what you and I think!", argued Brawl. "He's the strongest and bravest of us all. He had the will to stand up to the entire Cybertronian government, he destroys everything that poses a challenge to him, and he’s never been defeated in combat. The only smart thing to do when you encounter him is to submit and follow his orders. You and your precious little subjects, however, will pay the price for your idiotic rebellion."

"Those who force others into submission with power and intimidation can never prosper", countered Luna. "One day, their tyranny finally falls apart and the ones that made this happen are not foolish. Instead, they are more intelligent and courageous than the tyrants can ever hope to be. Believe me, this is all first-hoof experience for me."

"Well, I would love to stay and hear the whole story, but frankly, you're really starting to bore me to stasis", Brawl announced. "So, how about we wrap this up here and now, huh?"

Right after saying that, he threw Luna up towards the sky and as she continued to ascend, he prepared to smash her into countless pieces with his fist as she felled down. Unfortunately, seconds after Luna began to plummet towards the earth, he took a dozen direct hits from a Neutron Assault Rifle and the princess of the night was caught right before she hit the ground. The one who caught her was none other than Ratchet.

As Brawl was recovering from the attack, Ratchet gently placed Luna on the ground and jokingly asked, "Why is it that I always have to risk my spark and servos out for you?"

In response, Luna let out a little chuckle and said, "I admit, I can be a bit careless and stubborn at times. So, how about we fight side by side this time? That way, we can look out for each other much more efficiently."

Ratchet responded by retrieving a smaller version of Optimus' axe from his back and declaring, "Couldn't agree more".

They gave each other determined nods and advanced towards a fully recovered Brawl, who had also equipped himself with his war hammer. He snickered maliciously for a few seconds before saying, “So, Optimus Prime’s beloved medic is friends with royalty, it seems. Yet another reason why friendship is nothing but a weakness. Because of your bond, I now get to smash two targets with one big hammer! Come to think of it, maybe I should instead make one of you watch as the other one perishes. That would be even more fun!”

He came towards the two with a whirlwind attack and while they got out of his way, Ratchet turned his assault title into his Energon Repair Ray and fired at the spinning Decepticon. Instead of healing Brawl, the weapon’s beam began to drain his energy and half a minute later, he became too tried to spin any longer.

Seizing the opportunity, Ratchet attempted to strike Brawl with his axe. Unfortunately, the enraged Decepticon blocked the attack with his arm and responded with both a headbutt and a punch to the face. A dazed Ratchet was then hit extremely hard by the hammer, which caused a huge dent in his chest and sent him flying ten feet away.

Just as he was about to run up to Ratchet and smash his head in, Luna fired a few magic blasts at him, succeeding in getting his attention and trying as best as she could to avoid the oncoming hammer strikes. Then, immediately after she managed to dodge all five of those swings, Ratchet threw his axe right at Brawl's head and ripped out his spinal chord attached to his head while retrieving the axe, spilling Energon shards everywhere and causing the now-headless Brawl to fall down.

The malicious-looking yellow optics of the Decepticon warrior quickly faded away. Ratchet pulled out the head from the axe before placing both it and the hammer beside the body, and saying "May Primus have mercy on your spark, brother". He then motioned a slightly confused Luna to follow him and the two quickly proceeded to rejoin the battle.

Author's Note

Last chapter of 2019, everyone! See you next year! :scootangel:

With the hands of uncertainty

Author's Note

Onslaught is voiced by Travis Willingham

Shockwave is voiced by Corey Burton

With the hands of uncertainty

Barricade could not believe what he had witnessed a minute ago. Brawl, his dear friend whom he had fought with side by side for all these eons, was decimated right before his optics. Even though the Autobot who took his life was honorable enough to pay his respects afterwards, that did not change the fact that he had brutalized his comrade without mercy. And for what? To protect a royal member of a species made up of tiny organic pests? That was unacceptable. He, the princess, and everyone they cared about had to be punished in the most severe way possible for this.

Barricade had now realized that Lord Megatron's plan to destroy the planet and exterminate its inhabitants was far too merciful. They had to suffer just as he was suffering right now. They had to feel every ounce of pain he was feeling at the moment every single day for the rest of their lives. He did not care whether or not Megatron would support this plan. He was planning to carry it out alone if he had to and he was not going to let anything stand in his way. The loss of his friend simply had to be avenged, and if he was to go through both Optimus Prime and Megatron to accomplish it, then so-

"AAARGH!!!"

He was so lost in his thoughts of vengeance that he did not notice a big ball of plasma being fired on him. It hit him right in the left shoulder and knocked him to the ground. The one who fired it soon came running towards him and it was revealed to be none other than Bumblebee, who proceeded to fire a couple more shots at the enraged Decepticon interrogator lying on the ground. Unfortunately, he quickly got back on his servos and managed to dodge all those shots before jumping to the air and attempting to cut the Autobot scout down with his dagger. Although Bumblebee got out of the way and avoided five more dagger attacks Barricade tried to land on him, he was not fast enough to avoid the sixth one, which resulted in his torso to be sliced and him taking a few steps backwards in pain. When his opponent tried to deliver the finishing blow, however, he blocked the attacked with his right arm before landing first a punch to the gut with his left fist, then an uppercut to the jaw with his right fist, and then a drop kick to the face with both of his feet.

These attacks caused Barricade to fall to the ground a second time and as he attempted to get back up, Bumblebee proceeded to hold him at gunpoint to prevent him from making any wrong moves. When the Decepticon was finally standing on his two servos, he spat an Energon shard to the ground and spitefully said, "I should hurt every single one of your friends for what happened to my comrade. However, we both know that physical pain only goes so far. The only permanent pain in existence is the emotional kind and I know the perfect way to inflict it on you. Those little organic friends of yours are probably hiding in that small town me and Brawl attacked yesterday. Perhaps, I should pay them a visit."

Even though Bumblebee began charging up his plasma canon to full power immediately after hearing Barricade's threat, the vengeful Decepticon interrogator quickly threw a grenade at him and the surprised Autobot scout was forced to cancel the plasma shot and kick the grenade to a nearby Destroyer's head, blowing it up in the process. When he turned around to see Barricade driving away in his vehicle mode, he transformed into his vehicle mode too and started chasing after him.

The chase was a very lengthy one. Both vehicles were headed directly towards Ponyville at full speed, completely ignoring the brutal battle that was taking place behind them. Neither of them were even thinking about slowing down, because they had no intention of giving each other an advantage. On top of that, they were unable gain an advantage on their own. Barricade had tried to leave a trail of dust behind him, but Bumblebee was equipped with headlights and sensors that allowed him to stay on track, He tried to shoot the Decepticon's tires with the machine guns mounted on each of his vehicle mode, but Barricade was a target too fast to land a direct hit on. They went on like this for three solid minutes before they were only two miles away from Ponyville.

At that point, Bumblebee realized he would not be able to prevent Barricade from reaching the town. So, he decided to call up Spike and warn him about Barricade's impending arrival. He quickly contacted Spike's commlink and said, "Hey, Spike, I've got bad news, buddy. Barricade's headed your way. You gotta get everyone out of town ASAP. I'm chasing him, but I don't think I can stop him before he gets there."

"Don't worry, Bee", replied Spike. "Just lead him towards the town square and hold him there for a few minutes. The girls and I will take care of the rest."

A flabbergasted Bumblebee then asked, "What do you mean you'll take care of the rest? You have something that can take him down? What is it?"

"No time to explain", Spike answered. "Just do as I say, okay?"

Though Bumblebee was extremely confused by this, he nevertheless decided to trust Spike and replied, "Alright, then. I hope you guys know what you're doing. Bee out."

He hung up and noticed that he was only a single mile away from Ponyville. Wasting no time, he continued to aim at Barricade's tires and began unloading everything he had on them. Finally, when they had just entered the town borders, he managed to take out one of the tires, causing Barricade to lose control and crashing into Bumblebee's half-complete statue right in the middle of the seemingly abandoned town square.

Transforming back into his robot mode, Bumblebee attempted to strike Barricade with his sword, but the Decepticon immediately got back up and parried the attack with his dagger. He then proceeded to attack the Autobot as quickly as he could with his dagger while Bumblebee tried his hardest to deflect each strike and hold him in the town square. Six strikes later, Barricade headbutted the Autobot and delivered a front kick to the cut on his torso, knocking him down. Just as he was about to stab him with the dagger, however, Bumblebee rolled out of the way, got back up, and punched the Decepticon in his shoulder wound, making him back away in intense pain.

Then, the combatants attacked each other at the same time, with their weapons clashing with each other in mid-air. Despite both of them struggling to break the stalemate, they nevertheless continued to struggle for about fifteen seconds before Bumblebee called Spike and said, "Spike, I can't hold him here forever, y’know. Please tell me you and the girls are ready to put that plan of yours in motion."

"We're on it, Bee". Spike replied. "Just be ready to move of the way in 3... 2... 1... NOW!"

Bumblebee immediately did what he asked and as soon as he did, he saw a two-tonne boulder being launched towards Barricade's face and hitting him in the right optic, partially blinding him. As the Decepticon screamed in agony, Bumblebee saw Spike being launched as well and landing right beside Barricade's remaining optic. The little dragon then proceeded to unleash his fiery breath on the optic, burning through it and blinding Barricade completely. As a result, Barricade screamed and shook in even greater agony, and his erratic movements caused Spike to be thrown off his face. Luckily, Bumblebee was able to catch him and gently brought him to the ground. He then placed his sword to his back, and began attacking the blind and suffering Decepticon while shouting the names of his lost friends.

"This is for Hound!"

Right cross

"This is for Crosshairs!"

Left cross

"This is for Drift!"

Uppercut

That last strike was so strong that it managed to knock Barricade to the ground once again. As he struggled to get up, Bumblebee went behind his downed opponent, retrieved his sword, and prepared to make one last declaration.

"And this... THIS IS FOR PONYVILLE!"

Upon saying that, he plunged his sword through Barricade's back and then dragged it towards his head, slicing through the upper body and the entire head in the process, and spilling Energon shards everywhere. Satisfied with what he had accomplished, he returned the sword to his back and took a moment to catch his breath.

"That was so amazing!", called out a small female voice from behind.

When Bumblebee turned around to see who it was, he saw Apple Bloom in front of the remaining Crusaders, Spike, and the rest of the townsfolk slowly coming out of their boarded up houses. They were all smiling to him and standing a few feet away from a big wooden mechanism that looked similar to a catapult. It took him only a few seconds to realize what had just transpired.

"Holy Primus, guys!", he happily exclaimed. "You built that giant weapon thing all by yourselves?"

Scootaloo enthusiastically replied, "Yep! Well, Rarity and Applejack helped a little, but aside from that, yeah, we built it all by ourselves. Do you like it?"

"You kidding me? I LOVE it!", declared Bumblebee. "You guys did an awesome job making it and I couldn't thank you enough for your help. One question, though. Where’d you find that rock?"

Sweetie Belle sheepishly answered, "Uhhh... That belonged to Rarity once and.... There's a really funny story behind it. You see-"

Before she could explain any further, Spike suddenly put his claw on her mouth and said, "We'll tell you all about it later. Right now, you gotta go help Twilight and the others win the battle."

Bumblebee smacked his own head and replied, "Oh, yeah, right! They need my help back there. I'll come back later to listen to the whole thing, I promise. By the way, sorry about the statue. You won't mind rebuilding it just a little bit bigger than before, right? I think it's only fair if it's at least as tall as I am."

"Will do", stated Apple Bloom. "Just go and be careful, alright?"

"Absolutely", Bumblebee said while giving them a determined nod. "I'll see you all in about one megacycle. Thanks again for your help!"
lo
Right after that, he transformed into his vehicle mode and speedily drove towards the battlefield with the townsfolk cheering behind him and a couple of earth-ponies discussing what to do with Barricade's body.

Meanwhile, in outer space, a gigantic spaceship was making its way to Equestria. Its crew consisted of the exact same types of Decepticon soldiers that Megatron's ship, the Nemesis, was carrying. However, since the new ship was only a quarter of the Nemesis in terms of size, it could house a much lower number of troops:

When the ship finally reached Equestria's orbit, it took the Drones at the bridge only a second to notice the Nemesis floating near the ship's front glass window. As soon as they did, they were pretty much in complete awe of its appearance. They had not caught a glimpse of it for several millennia and seeing it in a fully operational state was a sight to behold. After all, it was the flagship of the entire Decepticon army and it was only logical that it was the most magnificent spacecraft in the galaxy:

While the Drones were observing the Nemesis in full admiration, their first mate broke off from the group and headed towards a chair behind him in order to report to the captain sitting on it. The first mate was a soldier roughly the same size as Brawl and had a color scheme similar to him, as well. One might assume that him and Brawl were brothers, that would not actually be far from the truth:

"We've reached the target planet, sir", he said to the captain while bowing his head in respect. "Awaiting your orders."

The captain responded by standing up and cocking the laser cannon he had for a left arm. This action caused the first mate to get out of his path in fear and as the captain made his way to the center of the group of Drones staring at the Nemesis, everyone did the same as the first mate. Sensing the terror they were feeling in their sparks, the captain briefly looked around before addressing his soldiers by declaring, "Lord Megatron requires our immediate assistance. It is only logical if we eliminate the Autobots and their parasitic equine allies as soon as possible before securing the AllSpark. Prepare the shuttles. The battalion must be fully prepared to engage the enemy in fifteen cycles. On a side note, I require a random specimen from the equines. To use in my experiments, of course. Now, let us go save both our leader and the future of our people."

So let mercy come and wash away...

Twilight Sparkle was currently experiencing both the most exciting and the most terrifying moments of her entire life. On one hoof, she was afraid beyond belief as the sounds of gunfire and explosions were booming from all directions. Everywhere she looked, she either saw a Decepticon blowing up into pieces and spreading dozens of Energon shards everywhere or a royal guard being shredded into pieces and spilling gallons of blood everywhere. Needless to say, the battlefield as a whole was a truly horrifying sight to behold and Twilight had now realized how naive she was. This was not as bad as she had imagined it to be.

It was worse. Way, way worse.

On the other hoof, though, she was not flying across this extremely violent are at top speed all by herself. In fact, she was accompanied by her new interstellar friend Optimus Prime, who was slicing and dicing every single Decepticon soldier in front of him without hesitation as they traveled towards their main objective:

Retrieving the immensely powerful AllSpark cube from the clutches of the malicious Decepticon leader, Megatron.

No matter how many times she had seen it, Twilight was continuously puzzled by Optimus' complete lack of reluctance to tear his enemies apart no matter how big or small they were, compared to him. He was a soldier through and through. He did not have a slightest indication of fear on his face. He was prepared to do whatever it took to achieve victory. Though she could not explain it, Twilight was certain about sensing an aura of courage emanating from the Autobot leader and it was somehow making her slightly less afraid of the carnage taking place all around her. In fact, her confidence had risen exponentially ever since the battle started nearly twenty minutes ago. While she was utterly horrified by the carnage and was on the verge of completely freaking out at the battle's inception, she was now sending magic blasts at the optics of the Decepticons attempting to attack Optimus from behind or either sides without much reluctance. True, she was still terrified of her brutal surroundings, but she had learned to suppress that fear and she really had to thank Optimus at the end of this battle for inspiring her to do so. That is, if they could actually make it out alive.

As they came near the edge of the battlefield, they encountered a sight most shocking: Twilight's beloved mentor, Princess Celestia, was taking Megatron head on by flying around him and trying to shoot him with her magic while avoiding blasts from his fusion cannon. Although she was succeeding in landing direct hits at Megatron's chassis, her attacks were only causing tiny burns on the armor and Megatron was merely flinching as he was hit. Soon enough, he became so annoyed by this that he screamed in pure rage and clapped his hands hard enough to create a shock wave, which not only stunned Celestia, but also knocked her back a bit. Seizing the opportunity, Megatron sent a blast from her fusion cannon directly at her and though, she tried to deflect it with a sphere-shaped magical shield around her, it was annihilated with a single hit and the impact of its destruction knocked her out of the sky, causing her to plummet to the earth.

While Twilight was gasping with pure terror, Optimus was scowling at Megatron with pure rage. Before they could anything to save Celestia, however, a Destroyer came near them and emitted highly concentrated laser blasts from his gigantic cannon, This made the duo to dodge the attack as quickly as they could and once they were in the clear, Optimus began slicing the Destroyer's legs with his axe. Knowing full well that Optimus could defeat this behemoth on his own, Twilight immediately flew away to save her mentor.

Meanwhile, Megatron was standing on top of a heavily wounded Celestia who was trying extremely hard to get back on her hooves. However, she eventually failed to do so and Megatron exclaimed, "Pathetic! This is all the creature who controls the sun has to offer? Your devotion to insignificant notions like friendship, kindness, and peace has made you so weak that you could not even stand one cycle against me!"

Though she was in agonizing pain from her wounds, Celestia managed to glare at Megatron and said, "Do you think your method is better in any way? If I had tried it, I would've been corrupted by the same evil that once befell on my sister and become a tyrant that every single one of my subjects feared. This is the LAST thing I want to be!"

Upon hearing that, Megatron let out a sadistic chuckle and replied, "Fear is how you control subjects. Fear is how you keep order! FEAR IS HOW YOU CREATE HARMONY! You're either too naive or too foolish to realize this universal truth!"

Right after saying that, he raised his fist up to the air and prepared to crush Celestia with it. Before he could do so, however, a purple magical aura surrounded the princess and dragged her out of the way. A confused Megatron looked at the direction she was headed and saw Twilight using her magic to lift Celestia and flying away as fast as she could. he once again screamed in anger and touched the left side of his head before saying, "Barricade, intercept the two alicorns flying towards the front gates. Barricade? Barricade, do you hear me? This is Megatron!"

When he heard nothing, he became extremely confused. Barricade was one of his most loyal soldiers and he would always answer calls from him, no matter the circumstance. The only logical reason he was not answering at that moment was that he could be... offline.

A sudden surge of concern swept over Megatron and he touched the left side of his head again before frantically saying, "Brawl, do you hear me? Tell me you have a visual on Barricade. Brawl, come in! BRAWL!"

It was at this moment that the Decepticon leader realized that something was terribly wrong. Both of his lieutenants could not possibly be offline. There just had to be another reason for this lack of communication. However, as he gazed upon the battlefield before him, he realized that his original theory could be true after all. Everywhere he looked, he saw his soldiers being blinded by equine weapons and decimating each other in a chaotic manner. The ponies had known about their weak spots all along and had been using that knowledge to their advantage from the very start of the battle. Now, there were only about half a dozen Drones, two brutes, and only one Destroyer remaining, while the number of remaining pony soldiers was well over thirty.

Megatron's facial expression had now turned into pure shock and he just stood there pondering several questions buzzing in his head: Could this actually be possible? Are these tiny insects actually capable of eliminating a huge chunk of the legion while also defeating both Brawl and Barricade? Was it a mistake to underestimate them?

He was so distracted by these questions that he did not see the severed head of a Destroyer flying towards him until it hit him in the chest and caused him to fall to the ground. As he lifted the head off his body and got back up, he saw his mortal enemy Optimus Prime standing beside the now-headless Destroyer and holding his axe with both of his hands, ready for a fight. Deciding to give him what he wished for, Megatron tore the head in half with his bare hands and threw the pieces to Optimus. Right after the Autobot leader sliced both pieces, Megatron shot him in the torso and gleefully watched as the blast sent his opponent flying a dozen feet backwards. He then grabbed his mace from his back and charged at Optimus before viciously attacking him several times with the mace. Luckily, Optimus managed to deflect all of these attacks with his axe and finally, as both weapons struck each other, both combatants were locked in a stalemate.

"Even with all your power, you'll never be able to defeat me by yourself, Prime!", Megatron exclaimed while trying to push forward.

In response, Optimus began pushing back and asked, "Who said I was alone?"

He then quickly dashed to the left and immediately after that, Twilight appeared in his place before shooting Megatron in the left optic. The blast completely destroyed the optic and as Megatron yelled in agony, Optimus seized the opportunity to strike him with his axe so hard that it caused a huge cut on his chassis and sent him flying at least fifty feet backwards.

Twilight bumped his hoof into Optimus' fist and the two heroes started walking towards their defeated enemy, who was grievously wounded and was also leaking half a dozen Energon shards each second. Soon enough they were standing right in front of him and Optimus pointed at him with his axe before declaring, "It's over, Megatron. Your forces are on the verge of defeat. Surrender the AllSpark and I’ll convince the princesses to give you a fair trial."

As soon as he said that, a sudden realization dawned on Megatron. He then let out a dry chuckle and retrieved the cube from his back. As he showed it to them, he replied, "Very well. Victory is yours."

Optimus put his axe to his back and carefully tried to grab the AllSpark. However, only a second before he could touch it, Megatron immediately smashed it into the ground. While the impact did not destroy the cube, it caused it to emanate a blue wave of energy that spread to every corner of the battlefield. What was worse was the fact that the energy was bringing the pieces of the fallen Decepticons together and about half a minute later, the entire legion was back online.

As Optimus and Twilight looked at the sight before them in pure horror, a fully repaired Megatron stood up and shouted, "You should've realized by now! Against the power of this cube, THERE CAN BE NO VICTORY!"

Author's Note

Hope you're ready for round two! :pinkiecrazy:

What I've done!

Author's Note

Happy Chinese New Year! :pinkiehappy:

What I've done!

The battle had now taken a complete one eighty turn. As soon as the Decepticon soldiers got reassembled by the power of the AllSpark, they opened heavy fire on the remaining royal guard ponies, mowing down a dozen of them in a matter of seconds. For these ponies, the only logical option was to retreat as the Decepticons now easily outnumbered them six to one. Therefore, a recently healed Princess Celestia soon gave the retreat order and all the royal guards (both celestial and lunar), began running towards the front gates of Canterlot with Princess Luna and Ratchet providing them cover fire, hoping to set a trap for the enemy inside the city.

While his troops started to chase the ponies to the gates, Megatron himself had no intention of moving from his current position. Instead, he had decided to engage his persistent nemesis, Optimus Prime, and end his miserable life once and for all. With that in mind, he began wildly swinging his mace towards the Autobot leader, but after Optimus deflected all of these strikes with his axe, their weapons were once again locked in a stalemate. A few seconds later, however, Twilight attempted to break that stalemate by emitting a beam of magic from her horn to Megatron's face and though Megatron was successfully blocking that beam with his left arm (which also had the hand he was holding the AllSpark with), the attack was distracting him enough for Optimus to slowly but surely push through. In fact, Megatron had already taken two steps backwards in the first ten seconds and was using every last ounce of his strength to block his opponent's axe with just one hand at the handle of his mace.

Luckily, help came rather soon as just when he was about to take a third step backwards, a Brute came charging towards Optimus and pushed him aside with his gigantic shield and then attempted to strike the knocked down Autobot leader with his hammer. Even though Optimus rolled out of the way and tried to fight back after standing up, he was hit from behind by the hammer of a second Brute. Soon enough, two more Brutes arrived and began attacking him from all directions while he did his best to counter each attack.

"Optimus!", cried Twilight in terror, but as she stopped emitting magic and tried to fly towards his Autobot friend to help him out, she was struck from behind by Megatron who had placed his mace to his back during the commotion and swatted the purple alicorn with his now-free right hand like a fly. As a result, she was hit in the back pretty hard and was now lying on the ground severely injured and struggling to get back on her hooves. Megatron casually walked towards her before grabbing her by the wings with his right hand (he was still holding the AllSpark with his left hand), lifted her towards a position right in front of his face, and maliciously sneered at her.

"Foolish child", he said. "Your hero is on the verge of being decimated and yet, you risk sharing his fate in order to rescue him. Why is that?"

Twilight responded by giving him a defiant glare and declaring, "That's because he's not my hero. He's my friend and true friends always help each other out no matter the cost. I'm absolutely certain he would've done the same for me."

Upon hearing that, Megatron chuckled and replied, "Of course he would. He always tries his hardest to protect the weak and the defenseless from annihilation. Ultimately, it's his greatest flaw, because he has never understood where true power comes from or how the universe actually works. One can only hope to become stronger by forcing those weaker than him into submission and using fear to control their every action. Concepts like friendship and love are merely alternative words used to describe weakness. It's taken me a lifetime to understand this and I have no intention of disregarding it simply because a na- AAARGH!!!"

Before he could finished his speech, Twilight sent a magic blast to the hand Megatron was holding her wings with, causing him to let go of his grip and her to fly towards his other hand. Once she was near that hand, she blasted it as well, which caused Megatron to drop the AllSpark and this gave Twilight enough time to grab it in mid-air. Then, she teleported to a spot right in front of Megatron's utterly puzzled face and, with a smirk on her face, she proudly declared, "Caught you monologuing!"

In response, Megatron growled with intense rage and attempted to grab her again. Even though, Twilight managed to teleport to his right and started to fly away as fast as she could, Megatron quickly transformed into his vehicle mode and began chasing her across the battlefield. During the chase, he even resorted to shooting at her using the humongous cannon of his tank form, with Twilight barely managing to avoid the incoming blasts. After failing to hit her five times, Megatron finally locked on to her, charged up his cannon, and was about to deliver the killing blow when-

CRASH!

Ratchet (in his vehicle mode) slammed right into Megatron and caused him to miss his shot. Though he was dazed by that attack, he soon recovered and transformed back into his robot mode, with his Autobot opponent immediately following suit and emitted the energy absorption beam of his Energon Repair Ray at him. Unfortunately, it barely had any effect on Megatron as he charged towards Ratchet and knocked him down with one left hook before crushing his chest plate with a single stomp from his right leg. Even though Ratchet's spark was still intact, he still screamed in extreme agony as he struggled to move Megatron's leg. Megatron, however, paid no attention to his struggle and began charging his fusion cannon in preparation for blowing up Ratchet's entire face.

Just then, he felt as though he was being shot at from behind and turned around to see Bumblebee driving towards him while shooting him with machine guns attached to each side of his vehicle mode. While he was more than resistant to this type of attack, it irritated him very quickly. When Bumblebee transformed back into his robot mode and jumped to the air in order to deliver a punch, Megatron removed his leg from Ratchet's chest, grabbed him by the head with his right hand, and threw right at Bumblebee, resulting in the Autobots colliding with each other in mid-air and Bumblebee getting stuck under Ratchet's severely injured body. As the scout tried as hard as he could to free himself, Megatron walked towards him and prepared to smash his head in with his left fist when-

"NOOO!!!"

As soon as Megatron heard that scream, he was hit in the back of his head by a blast of alicorn magic. Upon looking at the direction the blast came from, he discovered that the source of the blast was none other than an extremely furious Princess Luna hovering in the air. She then charged up her horn with magic once again and exclaimed, "I will not allow you to destroy another innocent life, monster!"

Immediately after that, she unleashed a gigantic beam of magic right towards Megatron's face. Despite the intensity of the beam, however, Megatron managed to block it with his right palm and continued to do so for fifteen seconds before Luna stopped emitting the beam due to exhaustion. Seizing the opportunity, Megatron stopped blocking and punched the ground with his left fist so hard that the resulting shock wave caused Luna to lose her balance and be knocked down once again. He then picked her up by her horn and threw her beside Bumblebee and Ratchet before shouting at them, "Look at you miserable fools! You claim yourselves to be the defenders of this world, yet you can't even defend yourselves. You are all hypocrites who need to be taught a lesson in strength and devotion. Well, I shall gladly teach you these lessons by making you watch as I burn down this planet you hold so dearly and spread my wrath to every other planet who would dare to defy me. In time, you will realize that I've become the strongest there is by never questioning the righteousness of my cause and that there is no point in res-"

Before he could finished that sentence, however, he was tackled to the ground by Optimus Prime himself. As the tow leaders rolled several times across the battlefield, they threw punches at one another with each of them succeeding in landing solid blows. Eventually, they came to a stop near the Decepticon forces almost breaking through the front gates of Canterlot and Optimus managed to throw Megatron off of him. As they recovered, the Decepticons noticed them and decided to watch the incoming fight rather than going into the city.

Megatron wiped some dust off his chassis and said, "Your little insect companion was right. I really should stop monologuing when I'm in a battlefield. By the way, where has she flown off to? I hope you haven't accidentally scared her off with one of your 'inspiring' speeches."

In response, Optimus retrieved his axe from his back and declared, "She is far more courageous than you realize. She saved me from your Brutes and even insisted that I rescue Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Luna while she took care of a few more Brutes that had recently arrived. Besides, this is going to be the very last battlefield you'll ever see."

"Ha! Then, you've finally decided to terminate me, I assume?", asked Megatron. "A noble strategy, indeed, but whether or not you can actually succeed in executing it remains unclear."

"The only way to save the innocents of the planet and stop this battle here and now is to remove the head of the invading army", Optimus confidently replied. "A sacrifice worth making in the service of the greater good."

"Oh, please! If you had truly cared about the greater good, then you would have taken this course of action eons ago!", Megatron exclaimed. "You were given countless opportunities to finish me off during the war on Cybertron and you took none of it, because you had some misguided hope that you could convince me to change my ways. Well, I have some news for you, Prime! I have absolutely no desire to change and every time you tried to persuade me otherwise, you lost many friends in the process! This means every single one of them perished because of you and you are just as evil as everyone claims me to be. So, let me ask you something. Who is the real villain here? Because, the way I see it, you are no better than I am!

Upon hearing all this, Optimus screamed in rage and ran towards Megatron while preparing to cut off his head with one slice of his axe. However, purple streaks of lightning began to form around Megatron's hands and just as Optimus was about to strike, he extended his hands right towards him and the purple beam of energy emitted from the hands caused the creation of several Dark Energon spikes protruding from the arms, legs, and chest of the Autobot leader. As a result, an ailing Optimus promptly fell to the ground and the Decepticons around him loudly cheered upon seeing this.

Megatron subsequently began laughing maniacally and declared to his soldiers, "I know I said I should stop delivering monologues, but it seems they have great advantages, after all!"

The crowd immediately cheered louder than before and even began shouting his name while Optimus was lying helplessly on the ground, not having even the slightest energy to get back up. Soon enough, Megatron came beside him and said, "Ahhh... I would have waited an eternity for this! It's over, Prime."

Breathing heavily, Optimus replied, "Never. Even if you destroy me, Megatron, others will rise to defeat your tyranny."

In response, Megatron began charging his fusion cannon and aimed directly at the fallen Autobot leader's head before exclaiming, "Then, I'll just have to destroy you all! STARTING WITH YOU!"

Just as he was about to shoot Optimus right in the face, however, he heard someone screaming, "STOP!", and looked up to see Twilight hovering above him while still holding the AllSpark with her hooves. Sensing an opportunity, a sinister smirk appeared on his face as he stopped charging his cannon and said, "He tells me you saved his life, child. I can give you the chance to do so again. Surrender that cube immediately and you shall have my permission to use it to heal him before I take it. Otherwise, I will finish him with a single shot. Better make your decision quick. His life is literally in your hooves."

Upon hearing all this, Twilight's entire body began trembling with fear as she tried to evaluate her options. Unfortunately, she soon realized that neither of them could lead to desirable outcomes. If she gave up the AllSpark, Optimus would live, but Megatron would annihilate the entire planet afterwards. If she held on to the AllSpark, then Megatron would certainly terminate her new friend without mercy. She had to find a third option that could save everyone, but as hard as she contemplated and tried to find a solution, she ultimately failed. Tears began flowing down her cheeks as she came to terms with the fact that a third option was just not possible and that she had no choice but to make a sacrifice in order to get herself out of this predicament.

Just then, however, she heard something. It was a very faint sound and when she looked down to see no one paying attention to it, she realized that it was in her head. Although she could not exactly make out what it meant, she figured it was almost like a call or signal and that it seemed to become louder every time she turned her head towards the AllSpark.
It was at this moment that she finally understood that the AllSpark was causing the sound and that it was trying to tell her something. She also remembered the story that Princess Luna had told her and asked herself, "If this cube could transfer its entire knowledge and a fraction of its power to my ancestor, I wonder what it could do to me?"

Unable to stop herself from finding the answer to this question, she promptly placed the AllSpark on her horn and as soon as she did that, her eyes glowed blue. Subsequently, the AllSpark glowed blue as well and its metal surface began to peel off, revealing a cube made out of pure blue energy, which was then completely absorbed into Twilight's horn. Right after that, Twilight's entire body began glowing blue and suddenly released an enormous wave of energy that swept over the entire area. It caused every single Decepticon soldier to be torn into pieces, and both Megatron and the Autobots to be sent flying at least fifty feet backwards. On top of that, it removed the Dark Energon spikes on Optimus' body, and completely healed the injuries of Bumblebee and Ratchet, who were the first ones to recover and look at their new conditions in awe.

"We're still alive?", asked Bumblebee before noticing the pieces of the nearby Decepticons. "Wait, how come we're alive and they're not?"

"I'm wondering that myself", Ratchet replied. "Perhaps, the resulting explosion of life energy was too much for them to handle and they blew up from being overloaded with it."

Bumblebee thought about this for a few seconds before saying, "Well... I guess that makes sense."

Just then, they both noticed the unconscious bodies of Twilight and Optimus, and immediately gasped in horror. While Bumblebee ran towards Twilight in order to check up on her, Ratchet rushed to Optimus' side with the same intention. Unbeknownst to them, however, Megatron had also recovered and when he saw the current situation of his forces, his crimson optics glowed brighter than ever before.

I'll face myself to cross out what I've become

The first thing Twilight Sparkle felt as she regained her consciousness was an extremely severe headache. It was caused by not just the impact of her body hitting the ground, but also the immense magnitude of information now stored in her brain. It was as if she knew everything there was to know about the history of Cybertron: How it first came to be, what happened during its golden age, why the civil war began in the first place, and exactly what caused the degradation of the entire planet. She was in possession of all this knowledge and it was really beginning to hurt her head as she opened her eyes.

Though her vision was blurry at first, it eventually became much more clear in a couple of seconds and the first thing she was able to make out was a crouched Bumblebee with a concerned look on his face. Once he saw that she was awake, he sighed in relief and said, "Thank Primus, you're alright. You gave us all a great deal of scare back there."

As he gently held Twilight's right hoof to help her get back up, she drowsily asked, "What happened? Did we win?"

"I guess so", replied Bumblebee. "I mean, whatever you did, it made a huge wave of energy that tore apart the entire Decepticon army, and patched up me and doc real good. It's almost like I'm fresh off the assembly line. Sure, the AllSpark is pretty much gone right now, but hey, we saved the universe, right? That should be enough reason for celebration."

Suddenly, Twilight's eyes widened with fear and she worriedly asked, "Wait! Where is Optimus? Is he okay? I didn't hurt him in any way, did I?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy!". Bumblebee exclaimed as he tried to calm her down. "Everything's okay. The boss bot is gonna be fine. Ratchet's got him. In fact, he's helping him get up as we speak. I'm sure both of them want to congratulate you for that stunt you pulled. Why don't we go and see if that's the case. Do you have enough strength to flap your wings right now?"

Twilight managed to calm herself and replied, "I don't think so. Both what I just did and the fall afterwards really took their toll on me. I'm afraid I'm too tired and injured to fly at this point."

"That's okay", Bumblebee said with a soft smile on his face. "We can just walk there. I can help you, if you want."

Upon hearing that, Twilight smiled too and responded with a nod as she began to take her first few steps since waking up, with Bumblebee carefully observing her every move.

Then, out of nowhere, a huge blast of energy hit the unsuspecting Autobot in the torso and sent him flying nearly forty feet backwards. Twilight could only scream "NOOO!" in both shock and despair before the source of the blast immediately came near her, and revealed itself to be none other than Megatron in his vehicle mode.

He quickly transformed back into his robot mode and punched the ground right beside Twilight in pure rage, causing her to lose her balance and fall down. He then shouted with a voice that shook the earth, "What have you done?! JUST WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! I can no longer feel the Dark Energon inside me, which means you have completely eradicated it and taken half of my strength from me! What is worse, you have destroyed the only thing in the whole universe that could allow my people to not just be reborn, but also expand to places we only heard in legends! Now, all because of you, they will never live again and my glorious new empire will never come to fruition! I hope you're very proud of what you've accomplished, because I am about to crush that pride, ALONG WITH EVERY SINGLE PART OF YOUR PATHETIC BODY!"

Immediately after that, he raised his right leg and prepared stomp on the defenseless Twilight. As she cowered in immense terror, however, Megatron took some machine gun fire to his left shoulder, and this made him lose his balance and fall to the right. As Twilight opened her eyes and looked around to see what just happened, she became overjoyed to discover the identity of her savior: Optimus Prime with his ion blaster on his right arm, a very determined look on his face, and without a single Dark Energon crystal on his chassis.

"Megatron, this is your first and only warning", he said as his opponent was recovering from the attack. "Get away from my friend, Twilight Sparkle."

As Megatron got back on his servos, he exclaimed, "What madness is this?! After the heinous crime she committed against our people, you still consider her a friend?! YOU BRING SHAME UPON US ALL, PRIME!"

"On the contrary, she just saved everyone in the universe from your wrath", Optimus confidently replied. "Yes, our world may not be revived right now, but that does not mean we cannot find another way to do that. Besides, every other world is now free from oppression and it's all thanks to a little equine I've grown close to these past few days. She may not be as physically strong as you or me, but she more than makes up for that with the strength in her heart. I am proud to call any bot or creature with that kind of strength my friend."

As Twilight was shedding tears of joy upon hearing all this, Megatron screamed in rage and exclaimed, "ENOUGH! I will not stand for such insolence! If you still side with her and her fellow insects, then you shall join them in extinction!"

As soon as he finished that sentence, he charged towards Optimus while firing several shots from his fusion cannon. However, Optimus rolled towards left and transformed into his vehicle mode before driving towards Megatron and rammed into his left leg, knocking him down once again. Before Megatron could get a chance to get back up, he transformed back into his robot mode, grabbed Megatron's head with his left hand, and began to repeatedly punch him in the face with his right fist. After delivering seven punches, he lifted Megatron's entire body with both hands and threw him a good twenty feet away.

Megatron had just gotten back up and was struggling to maintain his balance when Optimus came running towards him while shooting at him with his ion blaster, which nearly shredded his armor and made it even harder for him to keep standing. Once he was close enough, Optimus first kneed and then side kicked his opponent in the chest, knocking him down yet again. Right after that, he transformed his ion blaster back to his right hand, used both of his hands to grab Megatron's right leg, spun him around in the air four times, and finally threw him another twenty feet away.

As he struggled as hard as he could to get back on his servos, Megatron realized that he was not going to win this fight. He was severely damaged, and Optimus was fighting with a surprisingly huge amount of willpower. However, he was not about to just surrender and let these revolting pests take him as their prisoner. If he was destined to fall this day, then he was going to fall fighting for his dear life. Therefore, he took a fighting stance and prepared for the next attack.

Suddenly, his hopes for victory grew exponentially as he heard an unexpected transmission that said, "Lord Megatron, can you hear me? This is Shockwave. I have brought reinforcements to assist you in battle. We are going to land shortly."

He quickly pressed the button on the left side of his head and replied, "Very glad to hear that, Shockwave. Make your landing as soon as possible. I am injured and surrounded by the enemy."

"Understood, my lord. Just hold tight and preserve your remaining energy. Shockwave out."

As the transmission ended, Megatron saw Optimus slowly advancing towards him and pretended to be afraid by saying, "No more, Optimus Prime! Grant me mercy! I beg of you!"

"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?", asked a confused Optimus. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff."

Then, he noticed something in the sky and immediately recognized the Decepticon ship Shockwave was in command of. He knew that he could not allow this ship to land and release enough soldiers to turn Equestria into ashes. So, he began to contemplate as hard as he could in order to come up with a solution and during that time, Megatron snickered and declared, "It appears you have only delayed the inevitable, Prime. Dozens more of my loyal followers are about to help me decimate the planet once and for all!"

Finally, Optimus found a solution that was rather risky, but could potentially work. Therefore, he clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and replied with great determination, "Then, let us give them something to remember this world by."

As soon as he finished his sentence, he charged towards Megatron and once he was close enough, he uppercutted the Decepticon leader so hard that he flew upwards and landed right on the windshield of the Decepticon ship, causing every single on the ship to gasp in utter shock. A handful of seconds later, he fell down and made an extremely heavy landing on the ground, creating a crater in the process. While the soldiers were trying to comprehend what just happened, Shockwave was silently staring at his fallen leader until Onslaught came beside him and asked, "What should we do, sir? Shall I send a gunship to retrieve him?"

In response, Shockwave turned to the soldiers and announced, "There will be no rescue operation. Megatron has once again underestimated his enemies and this time, his overconfidence cost us the AllSpark, which is the very thing we require to revitalize Cybertron. I will tolerate this no more. Return to your posts. We ascend and return to space immediately."

"Ascend? What about Lord Megatron?", asked Onslaught. "We can't just leave him here."

"We can and we will", Shockwave replied. "He is no longer qualified to lead us to victory against the Autobots. Therefore, it is only logical that I take his place. Contact the rest of our forces. Let them know that I am now their new leader."

"But, sir, we both know that Megatron is known to have come back from a lot worse than this. When he does, he will not be happy about this new chain of command. Besides, even if he doesn't come back, you still have Starscream and Soundwave to deal with. They'll, no doubt, be furious over this news."

"Indeed. That is exactly why we are setting a course to Velocitron. We shall help Starscream capture the Autobot outpost and convince him to accept me as the new supreme leader of the Decepticon faction. Soundwave will fall in line shortly after that. Now, the crew must soon prepare for evacuation. Once we reach the planet's exosphere, we will set this ship to self-destruct so that Optimus Prime cannot use it for space travel. Then, we fly to Velocitron aboard the Nemesis."

As Shockwave walked back to his chair, Onslaught sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "Primus help us all."

Author's Note

Only one more chapter to go! See you next week! :scootangel:

Erase myself and let go of what I've done

Although Megatron could barely keep his optics open due to the severity of his injuries, he could still see the Decepticon ship ascending towards the clouds. It was a most soul-crushing sight for him as he was being betrayed by one of his most trusted disciples. Though he struggled a lot, he managed to lift his right arm towards the ship, extended his hand as if he was trying to grab it and said in a very weak tone, "No... D-don't l-leave me... Shockwave..."

Once the ship disappeared into the clouds, however, he realized that all hope was lost and let his arm fell to the ground. A handful of seconds later, he saw Optimus with his ion blaster on his right arm looking down on him and let out a frustrated sigh before stating, "If you still intend to finish me off, be quick about it. I am wounded both physically and emotionally. I want the pain to end as soon as possible."

Soon enough, Optimus aimed his weapon at Megatron's face and the fallen Decepticon leader closed his optics, ready to be reunited with his lost followers. However, instead of hearing the weapon going off, he heard a transformation sound and opened his optics to see Optimus extending his hand towards him. Extremely confused by this action, he asked, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Even bitter enemies must show respect to one another from time to time", replied Optimus.

In response, Megatron hesitatingly grabbed the hand and allowed Optimus to pull himself upward. Once he was able to stand upright, he curiously asked, "I do not understand. You had every intention to terminate me a while ago. Why change your mind so suddenly?"

"Even if I take your life right now, it will not make a single difference", Optimus replied. "Your forces have deserted you and will undoubtedly fight each other in order to claim your throne. Therefore, the in-fighting between your ranks will allow my Autobots to take advantage of the situation and, eventually, end this senseless war once and for all. In other words, you are no longer a king, Megatron, and your former kingdom has now begun to crumble."

Upon hearing all this, Megatron remained silent for a few seconds before screaming at the air in rage, firing towards the clouds with his fusion cannon three times until he ran out of ammunition, and then breathing heavily to calm himself down. Once he was calm enough, he stated, "As much as I hate to admit it, Prime, you are correct. My reign is at an end and I can do nothing to save it. So, what am I to be from now on if I am no longer a king?"

In response, Optimus put his right hand on Megatron's left shoulder and declared, "I cannot answer that question for you, Megatron. You must find the answer on your own. Until you do, however, you shall answer for the crimes you committed against the inhabitants of this world."

Although Megatron let out an irritated sigh, he still replied, "I have nothing left to lose, anyway."

Right after that, the two mortal enemies began walking towards the front gates of Canterlot and soon enough, they were met by the rest of the survivors of the recent battle. Ratchet was carrying an injured Bumblebee with both hands, Princesses Celestia and Luna were standing on his right shoulder, Twilight was standing on his left one, the remaining pegasus guards were hovering in the air around him, and all the other royal guards were walking beside him.

They were all scowling at Megatron, and once he and Optimus was close enough to them, Celestia, Luna, and the pegasi began flying towards him while the other guards trotted. The princesses stopped just a couple feet above Megatron's head, the guards pointed their spears right at his optics, and Celestia declared, "Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, for the crimes of invading our world, wreaking havoc on our land, and slaughtering our people without mercy, you are hereby sentenced to three hundred thousand moons of imprisonment in Tartarus."

Upon finishing that sentence her horn began glowing and she cast a spell that opened a portal to what seemed like a dark cavern filled with caged monsters. She then asked, "Do you have anything to say before your punishment begins?"

When Megatron silently glared at them for a while, she announced, "I see. Guards, take him away."

Right after that, the guards motioned the prisoner to move and he did so without hesitation. When they finally passed through the portal and disappeared, Celestia turned to Luna and said, "I need to prepare his prison cell. I'll see you back at the castle in an hour or so."

"Understood. I can handle the repairs to the city myself during that time", Luna replied. "Once you’re done, meet me in the throne room. There are some topics I’ve been meaning to discuss with you for quite some time."

Celestia responded with a nod and the second she passed through the portal, it closed behind her. However, Optimus began to silently stare at the spot it once was and when Twilight noticed this, she flew towards his right shoulder (with some difficulty) and once she landed, she curiously asked, "Are you alright?"

Optimus replied in a solemn tone, "I will be, Twilight. It's just that I am having some difficulty believing that the war is practically over. Without Megatron, the Decepticons cannot hope to win and by the time they realize this, it will be too late. My Autobots will achieve victory and there will be peace once again. This should be a time for celebration. Yet, I feel uneasy. I have been a warrior for such a long time that I do not know if I can ever adjust to peace."

Shortly after he finished that sentence, Twilight placed her left hoof on his face plate and said, "It's okay. I can help you with that. You know you can always count on me. It's what friends are for."

Optimus briefly contemplated this before he softly replied, "You are once again correct, Twilight. I do know I can trust you at all times. In fact, I owe you my life and we're all in your debt for what you did today."

“Well, thanks, but, aren’t you a little bit mad at me about what I did?”, a confused Twilight asked. “I mean, I basically destroyed something that could’ve restored your home. Doesn’t that bother you?"

“Like I said before, there could still be another way we can bring back Cybertron”, Optımus confidently replied. “Besides, home is not defined by a place. We carry its memory in our sparks. So, no matter where we go, it will always be with us.”

Twilight briefly pondered this statement before she came to understand its meaning and a smile appeared on her face. She then declared, “Okay, that was a bit too sappy for my taste, but I think I get what you mean. Thanks for making me feel a little better about my radical decision.”

“You are most welcome, my friend”, replied Optimus. “Come on, let's see how Bumblebee is doing."

He then walked towards Ratchet, who had placed Bumblebee to the ground and was treating his wound. When he noticed that Optimus and Twilight were right beside him, he stated, "He'll be alright. However, due to the severity of the injury, I would say it will be a few weeks before he’s fully healed."

"A few weeks?!", exclaimed Bumblebee. "Come on, doc! I promised both Spike and the Crusaders that I would teach them some of my moves. I can't just let them down."

"I'm sorry, Bumblebee, but both you and those children will just have to be patient about this", Ratchet replied, which caused Bumblebee to grumble rather loudly.

Suddenly, Twilight's horn began to glow blue and she felt some invisible pulling her towards Bumblebee. Unable to resist this force, she flew towards the direction it was pulling her to and soon found herself right on top of the wounded scout's body. She then began looking around to find the source of the invisible force and eventually discovered that the pull was getting stronger every time her head was near the Autobot logo located at the center of Bumblebee's chest. So, she moved her head closer to it and the logo instantly transformed into a hole that her horn could fit into. Though she was afraid of what might happen. she nevertheless decided to trust her instincts and moved her horn into the hole.

What happened next was a sight everyone was extremely shocked to see. The moment Twilight inserted her horn into the hole, Bumblebee's entire body began glowing blue and the wound on his chest started to close on its own. In just a matter of seconds, the wound completely disappeared and the rest of Bumblebee's body stopped glowing. Twilight then pulled her horn from the hole, which transformed back into the Autobot logo, and Bumblebee rose up with little to no difficulty before starting to admire the clearly visible improvement on his chassis.

"Holy Primus! Check me out!", he happily exclaimed. "I feel even better than the time I was hit by the energy wave Twilight created when she blew up the AllSpark. How the heck did this happen?"

"It appears the AllSpark is not exactly destroyed". Optimus announced. "Instead, its energy has been transferred into Twilight's body and so, she now possesses its ability to repair damaged Cybertronians. Who knows? She might also be in possession of abilities such as giving life to a machine or even resurrecting a deceased Cybertronian."

"Yes, that all sounds fascinating, but why me?", curiously asked Twilight. "Why would the AllSpark decree that me and the members of my family are worthy enough to carry its knowledge and abilities?"

"I do not have a definitive answer for you, Twilight", replied Optimus. "However, it might have something to do with what you have told me about the adventures you had with your friends. You have led them through various challenges, and you saved your world several times mainly because of your exceptional perseverance and leadership skills. On top of all that, you represent the element of magic, which from what I've heard, is the strongest of all the elements and the key to unleashing the full extent of their power. The AllSpark somehow knew all this and thus, it chose you as a worthy bearer of its power and wisdom. Your family members may also be able to receive those in small portions, but ultimately, you are the one true heir of the AllSpark."

"Oh... I guess that makes sense", a surprised Twilight managed to say.

Ratchet then became really excited and declared, "Optimus, if what you say is true, then what we have here is a truly unprecedented phenomenon. In fact, this could be the REAL KEY to restoring Cybertron. I strongly recommend we begin researching and observing Twilight's new abilities as soon as possible. Also, we must run numerous experiments to make sure we're not missing anything."

Optimus responded by putting his left hand on Ratchet's right shoulder and saying, "I agree, old friend. However, I think Twilight is more than capable of taking care of all that by herself. After all, she has a strong addiction to discovering new things and is as studious as I was before the war."

"Oh, yes, I remember", replied Ratchet. "So, if she's going to handle the things I mentioned by herself, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? There must be something we can occupy ourselves with besides fighting Decepticons."

Then, Bumblebee merrily announced, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'll soon be on my way back to Ponyville. I promised my new friends that I would be teaching them a few of my fighting techniques and you all know that I NEVER break a promise."

"Very well, Bumblebee", Optimus replied. "You may go whenever you want. Just make sure to bring Twilight back to her home in the process."

Twilight became a bit confused upon hearing that and asked, "Wait. You're not coming with us?"

"Not for a while", explained Optimus. "In fact, I have decided to travel around Equestria and see if it is as magnificent as you claim it to be. Since we will be spending an unspecified amount of time here, it only makes sense that I see as much of this world as I can and learn about all the secrets it holds."

As he wrapped up this explanation, Twilight's facial expression shifted from confused to happy and she excitedly replied, "Well, look at you! Looks like you'll adjust to peace in not time at all."

Optimus responded with a warm chuckle and Ratchet declared, "Well, that does sound like a logical course of action. Therefore, there's no point in questioning it. However, there remains one unresolved issue. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? I mean, my primary responsibility is to provide medical assistance to my friends and allies, and I have no idea how I'm going to do that when each of us are heading in separate directions for a time."

Suddenly, Luna (who had been quietly listening to the entire conversation right above them) landed on Ratchet's left shoulder and stated, "I may have a few ideas about that, my friend. If you would just follow me to Canterlot, I shall explain everything once we arrive.”

Ratchet proceeded to let out a deep sigh and say, "This should be interesting. Alright, let's go. Take care, Autobots, and please try not to get into too much trouble during my absence."

He waved his comrades good-bye, they waved back, and he began walking towards Canterlot with Luna flying right beside him. As they entered the city through the nearly demolished front gates, Bumblebee turned to Twilight and asked, "So, uh, where would you want me to drop you off, your majesty?"

Twilight giggled at the question and replied, "Come on, Bee, just because I now have the AllSpark inside me, doesn't mean you can't address me by my actual name. We're still friends, you know. As for your question, I'd be delighted if you drop me off near the Ponyville train station. Two of my best friends, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, are coming from their friendship mission in Griffonstone today and I'm sure they would love to meet you."

"Well, in that case, we have no time to lose! Hop on my shoulder and let's roll!", Bumblebee excitedly stated. After Twilight did what he asked, he turned to Optimus and said, "Take care, boss bot. Hope you come visit soon."

Optimus responded by waving them good-bye and after they waved back, Bumblebee transformed into his vehicle mode and drove away at top speed, leaving Optimus completely alone in the empty field. He began to ponder where he should go first and eventually decided to travel to the place Twilight had mentioned earlier: Griffonstone. Though the name sounded a bit strange, he nevertheless figured it could be a good place to start his Equestria-wide journey.

So, he accessed his data banks and discovered not only which direction he should travel towards, but also something quite unexpected: His long-range transmission system was back online for the first time since he sustained a critical injury during the final battle on Cybertron. Subsequently, he transformed into his vehicle mode and as he drove, he began transmitting a message towards the edges of the galaxy:

"With the AllSpark gone, we cannot return life to our planet at this moment. Yet, fate has yielded an unexpected reward: a new world to call home."

"We live among its people now, without the need to hide, but still watching over them in secret, waiting, protecting. I have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there is more to them than meets the eye.

"I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars."

"We are here."

"We are waiting."

Author's Note

Special thanks to everyone who assisted and supported me throughout this epic journey:

Stay awesome, guys. I hope you all check out my future stories as well.

In this farewell

Author's Note

Brawl is voiced by Nolan North.

In this farewell

A beautiful full moon was shining over the equally gorgeous-looking Crystal Empire. Every pony (except for the royal guards) had already retreated to their homes, sleeping peacefully and having pleasant dreams. Even those who had unpleasant dreams were considered lucky as they had the opportunity to meet and receive guidance from Luna, the benevolent princess of the night. Needless to say, everything and everyone was at peace that night.

Or so it seemed.

The only pony who had difficulty sleeping that night was Princess Cadence, the co-ruler of the empire alongside her husband, Prince Shining Armor. She had been standing on the palace balcony for two full hours, watching the night sky and searching for anything interesting to see. Unfortunately, her efforts had proved to be fruitless so far. She was also contemplating about whether or not continuing for another hour and had just decided to do so when her husband suddenly showed up.

"Honey? What are you doing here at this time of night?"

"Oh, sorry to worry you dear. I was just distracted by the beauty of the sky."

Out of curiosity, he also started looking at it.

"Well, it does indeed look gorgeous, but is that really the only thing distracting you?"

"Um, no, actually. I've also been thinking about something."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Okay, uh, I know this is sounds a bit silly, but I've been thinking about life in other planets."

He then gave her a confused look.

"Life in other planets, huh? Do you really think it's possible?"

"Look, I know it doesn't really make much sense, but if there are indeed creatures in other dimensions, why not in other planets? After all, we can't really be alone in this vast universe, right?"

"Um, hate to break it to you hon, but Twilight tried to solve that mystery about a decade ago and she was left empty-hoofed."

"Really? What did she do?"

"Well, I don't really remember much due to the whole experiment being VERY complicated and confusing, but I do remember her looking at every star she could find in a night sky as clear as this one and writing a gigantic math equation."

Cadence chuckled a bit.

"Oh, wow! Her room must've been a real mess that day!"

Shining chuckled too.

"You have no idea! It took nearly three hours to clean it all up and that's not including the dust!"

They both laughed for a short while before Cadence spoke again.

"So, what was the result?"

"I think the word she used to describe it was 'inconclusive'."

She thought about this for a few seconds.

"Oh. Well, um, that doesn't really mean that life is non-existent throughout the rest of the universe, right?"

"Uh, no, but I don't think it's something to be that excited about. I mean, what if these other life forms turn out to be evil?"

A small smile appeared on her face.

"Aw, come on, dear! We both know that pessimism won't bring anything good."

He instantly became nervous.

"What? No, I'm not being pessimistic! I'm just evaluating the possible outcomes and these creatures turning out to be bad guys is a very real possibility. We must be ready to deal with it when the time comes."

She was not fazed by this.

"Is that what you think? Well, I believe that as long as we establish good communication and maintain a healthy collaboration with them, they can be very friendly."

Before Shining could respond, three ginormous meteors appeared on the horizon and suddenly hit an area only five miles away from the empire. Not only their overall impact on the empire was a small earthquake, but also both Cadence and Shining noticed their crash and were extremely shocked by the event.

"What in Equestria were those?!", Cadence asked and Shining replied, "I don't know, but they seem to have come from outer space and I don't think they looked like regular meteors."

"Does that mean..."

"Yes, it seems to be our first potential contact with alien life. I need to go and rally the troops for an investigation."

Right before he left, Cadence held his hoof and gave him a kiss.

"Please, be careful and only use violence as a last resort."

"Will do. Just stay here and keep the citizens from panicking."

"Sure thing. Good luck."

He gave her a slight nod before heading out.

About fifteen minutes later, Shining Armor and a small squadron of guards arrived at the crash site and began looking for clues regarding the location or the appearance of their visitors. Although they were initially unable to find anything significant, they did discover that the crashed objects were not actually meteors, but rather giant metal escape pods that were opened from the inside. While there was practically nothing inside these pods, on their outer surface was a strange symbol that looked rather ominous.

A short while later, they discovered something even more shocking. There were a number of oddly shaped craters around the pods and while the guards initially did not know what to make of them, Shining soon realized that they were actually the footprints of the visitors. Although he followed them for a handful of seconds, they eventually disappeared and were replaced by endless straight lines that looked like carriage tracks. Just like the footprints that preceded them, they were varied in terms of size and were going towards three separate directions. The biggest one was headed west (towards Luna Bay), the smallest one was headed south (towards Neighagra Falls), and while the last one initially seemed to be heading east, one of the Pegasus guards soon noticed that it had changed direction and was instead going to the last place Shining wanted it to be: the Crystal Empire.

Upon learning this, he immediately pulled its troops back from the crash site and together, they began trotting towards the empire as fast as they could. Although they were able reach it in just under fifteen minutes, they were instantly greeted by something too frightening for them to comprehend.

Right outside the empire's gateway was a humongous green-colored vehicle made of metal with two long cylinders attached to its top. The same symbol that was on the pods was also present on the front end of the vehicle.

Surrounding it were a whole swarm of ponies all awakened by the crash and were now curiously inspecting it in order to find out what it was supposed to be. While Shining Armor and the guards tried their best to hold these civilians back, Cadence arrived and began to approach it slowly and cautiously. Though her husband initially wanted to stop her, he remembered her advice on using violence as a last resort and instead, decided to carefully observe the situation.

About half a minute later, Cadence was only three feet away from the vehicle and determined that it was the right time to speak to their visitor.

"Greetings, traveler from outer space. I am Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire and it is my great honor to welcome you to our beautiful land of Equestria. We sincerely hope that you accept our most generous offer of friendship and make yourself at home during your stay."

Although nothing happened during the next ten seconds, the cylinders eventually pointed towards Cadence and began to glow. Fearing for the worst, Shining quickly pulled her out of the way before a pair of huge laser beams emerged from the cylinders and obliterated a small portion of the street.

As a result of that, every single pony began running to their homes screaming and Shining ordered the guards to attack the hostile alien. Unfortunately, their efforts soon proved to be useless as its armor was too strong to be pierced by arrows, swords, or spears. After two whole minutes of failing to damage the intruder, the guards eventually became tired and gave up on their weapons. Before they could think of another way to solve their problem, however, they witnessed something even more mind-blowing:

The enemy vehicle moved and altered a good number of its parts, and in just a few seconds, transformed into a twenty foot long robot with an equally intimidating appearance.

As the ponies tried to comprehend what just happened, he spoke with an earth-shattering voice:

"YOU CALL THAT AN 'ATTACK'?! I'LL SHOW YOU AN ATTACK!!!"

His purple-colored parts began to glow and Shining ordered a full retreat. They managed to escape and avoid being harmed just in the nick of time, as the robot emitted an extremely powerful shockwave that destroyed several buildings in the surrounding area and shook the entire empire to its core. Right after that, his right arm turned into an assault rifle and he started shooting at the rest of the buildings with rapid neutron blasts.

Soon enough, he had begun to tear the whole place apart crystal by crystal, and there was pure chaos everywhere. The civilians were running without direction due to panic while the guards (along with Shining Armor and Cadence) were desperately trying to both contain the destruction and evacuate as many ponies as they could.

The robot, on the other hand, was enthusiastically shooting at everything he saw while maniacally laughing at the whole spectacle. He simply had no sympathy for the innocent lives he was endangering and in his eyes (or more appropriately, optics). all the destruction he was causing was just an enjoyable part of his job. Even though his weapon ran out of ammo in a few minutes, he instantly turned it into a rocket launcher, which caused even more mayhem.

And when that weapon also ran out of ammo in a short while, he pulled out a giant spiky hammer from his back, and performed some kind of whirlwind attack that demolished another good number of houses before he spotted Shining, who was busy saving a foal from a burning building. As soon he returned the foal to his parents, the robot promptly grabbed him and brought him right in front of his optics.

"WHERE IS IT?!"

"Whe- Where's what?"

"The artifact! The one your ancestor stole it from us! Where in the name of Primus did he hide it?!"

"I... I don't know what you're talking about."

Right after he said that, his face was brutally pressed against the sidewalk.

"LIES!!!!"

"I... I swear! I have no idea where or what this artifact is!"

"Are you absolutely certain?!"

"YES! I'm telling you the honest truth!"

He instantly released him

"FINE! If you won't spill it, then perhaps your sibling will. This signifies the official end of your usefulness."

"What? NO! Stay away from her!"

"You have no say in this, insect! In fact, I believe the nonsense you just uttered were your last words."

He lifted his foot upwards and was just about to squash Shining like a cockroach when a high-concentrated blast of magic hit his leg, causing him to stumble backwards. Soon after that, Cadence showed up and help her husband to get back on his hooves.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

"A little, but I'm fine. Impeccable timing, by the way. Though, it could've come a bit earlier."

"Sorry, the evacuation took a bit longer than expected. But, I can now assure you that every pony is away from danger."

"Good. Our first priority is done, then. Now, let's deal with the next one. Are you ready?"

"Born ready."

They gave each other determined nods and turned to face the mechanical monster who had become even more furious than ever.

"YOU INSOLENT PESTS! You dare challenge Brawl, the commander of the Decepticon ground forces and a most loyal follower of Lord Megatron?! Then, prepare to be sent to oblivion."

He transformed into his vehicle form and fired another pair of huge laser beams at the royal couple, who responded with beams of magic. While theses opposing beams initially seemed to be equal in strength, Brawl's attack eventually proved to be much stronger and the beams he emitted came dangerously close to the royal couple. Just before they were hit, however, they quickly conjured up a magical shield that only barely managed to protect them. The resulting explosion left them alive, but also severely injured.

Satisfied with this outcome, Brawl transformed back into its robot form and picked them in order to have one last talk while Shining managed to give the merciless warrior a small glare.

"What's the matter? Not brave enough to finish what you started?"

"Shut it. You two put up a decent fight for a couple of insects. This is one of the only two reasons I spare your miserable lives. The second one is the fact that you're going to deliver a message to your fellow royals from our leader: Consider this as a small glimpse of our true power and return what is rightfully ours as soon as possible. If not, the doom of your entire species will rain from the sky."

After saying all this, he dropped them to the sidewalk and departed in his vehicle form, leaving the grievously wounded royal couple to recover and gaze upon the utterly horrific destruction all around them.

To cross out what I've become

Author's Note

Page Turner is voiced by Troy Baker.

Cloakers are all voiced by Scott McNeil.

To cross out what I've become

"So, what exactly are we looking for in this place?", a slightly nervous Scootaloo asked as she and her friends walked around the partially demolished halls of the abandoned Castle of the Two Sisters, which was once the majestic residence of the two royal alicorns who ruled Equestria side by side. In present day, however, there was nothing really majestic about it, despite the recent restoration attempts by Princess Twilight. The walls were torn apart, there was rubble and dust everywhere, and the intact corners were now home to spiders. Despite the fact that Scootaloo, the other Crusaders, and Spike being utterly disgusted by the castle's current state, they all knew there was a good reason why they came here in the first place.

In response to her question, their Autobot guardian/friend Bumblebee said in a relatively calm tone, "I'm not entirely sure myself, Scoots. Like I said, my sensors only picked up the LOCATION of a weird energy signature, not its full description. Despite that, I have a pretty good feeling that we're about to finally retrieve the AllSpark; a long lost artifact capable of restoring my world to its former glory, and ending the long and brutal war with the Decepticons."

As a result of this statement, the Crusaders became very confused and Applebloom asked, "Uh-huh... Is there any way you can translate everything you just said to Ponish?"

Bumblebee became embarrassed of himself upon hearing that and let out a nervous chuckle before replying, "Sorry. I kinda sounded like Optimus just then. Anyway, what I'm really trying to say is that I believe we're about to find a cube, which is nearly your size and has strange ancient symbols all over it. Believe it or not, this little cube has enough power to bring my entire home planet back to life."

"Really?!", asked Sweetie Belle excitedly. "WOW! We better find it soon then, Bee. I can't wait to see this thing with my own eyes. Hey, do you think we'll get to see your home after it's fixed? I mean, giant metal aliens are cool and all, but just imagine how much cooler an ENTIRE WORLD of giant metal aliens would be!"

Bumblebee slightly chuckled after he heard that and replied, "Calm down, Sweetie. I'm excited to find the AllSpark too and, yeah, maybe I'll show you guys my planet someday. The truth is, though, we still don't know if it's really the source of this strange energy I'm tracking right now. So, there's a chance that my instincts are wrong."

"Don't worry about it, buddy. I have complete faith in you", Spike said in an encouraging tone. "I mean, I've never seen you making a bad call like, at all."

"Um, Spike, you do know that you've known me for only five Equestrian hours, right?", Bumblebee asked. "Besides, by going on this little adventure, I'm pretty much disobeying direct orders from Optimus to stay put in Ponyville and await further instructions. I'll be in very serious trouble if we run into a dead end and come back empty-handed."

Spike shrugged at that statement and replied, "Doesn't matter. Ever since we've met, you've always made the right decisions no matter how dire the situation was. So, I'm one hundred percent sure you have the right instincts on this too."

"Me too!", agreed Scootaloo. "I mean, all you've done for us so far makes you a great hero. Heroes always make the good calls, right?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's not quite how it works, but thanks for your support anyway, guys. Joining me on this quest could get you in a lot of trouble too and yet, you're totally fine with it", Bumblebee replied. "I can tell, without a doubt, that you're all truly caring and dependable friends."

"Aw, no problem at all, Bee. We're always happy to help a friend in need", declared Applebloom.

Sweetie Belle added, "Yeah, and we're more than willing to stick with you until we find this super powerful cube thing, whether it's really here or not. Speaking of which, are we close to that weird 'energy signature' you mentioned?"

To answer that question, Bumblebee glanced at first the holographic map projected from his right arm and then, a structure right in front of him. He repeated this process two more times before groaning in frustration.

"Well, the good news is we're very close to it", he began to explain. "The bad news is, though, it's behind that thick stone door and from the looks of it, this door has remained sealed for centuries."

All three of the Crusaders also groaned in frustration upon hearing that while Spike nonchalantly walked towards the door. After carefully examining it, he excitedly exclaimed, "Wait a minute! I remember this door!"

He quickly ran towards a dusty bookshelf right behind Bumblebee and pulled a book with a mechanism attached to it. The mechanism immediately caused the stone door to be slid open, both the Crusaders and Bumblebee to be utterly shocked.

"Holy Primus, Spike! That was amazing!", Bumblebee exclaimed. "How did you know about this miracle?"

In response, Spike let out a nervous giggle and said, "Well, let's just say, I took part in a... rather unfortunate event related to this secret passage. The less you know the better."

"Oh... Um, okay, then. Let's get going", declared Bumblebee.

However, Scootaloo then asked him, "Quick question. Why didn't you just use one of your fancy weapons to demolish the door in the first place?"

"Well... I wanted to preserve the, uh, charm of this historic site?", Bumblebee tried to explain, which inadvertently made the Crusaders slightly confused.

After a brief silence, however, Applebloom happily stated, "Makes sense to me."

"Yeah, me too", agreed Sweetie Belle. "Come on, guys! Let's go find our prize!"

While everyone else proceeded to do as she said, Scootaloo just stood there for a moment before saying to herself, "I... still have some questions."

Nevertheless, she quickly caught up with the rest of the group, who had already entered into the passage (Bumblebee had also removed the metal bars around the passage in order to fit through it) and were now standing on the edge of a cliff. Below them was an extremely dark and seemingly bottomless pit and right above them was an ominous green light. Although it was bright, it was simply not bright enough to illuminate the pit below.

"What do we do now?", asked Spike and Bumblebee took another glance at his map, which showed that the energy signature was located at the bottom of the pit. He briefly pondered how they could go down there unharmed before coming up with a brilliant plan. He took out his sword and carefully put his friends on his shoulders.

"Hold on to me tight, guys. This is gonna be a really bumpy ride", he declared and they did as he said. Then, he proceeded to jump from the cliff and drop right on to the bottom, much to his friends' horror. As they continued to scream in pure terror during the fall, Bumblebee checked his map and changed a settings a bit so that it could display the exact amount of distance between him and the energy signature. In only a handful of seconds, the distance became close enough and he swiftly stabbed the wall with his sword and placed his feet on it in order to slow down his descent. He eventually stopped falling and by the time he did, there was merely a couple of feet between him and the bottom.

He promptly landed on the ground, retrieved his sword, and carefully placed his friends on the ground, who had all become extremely dizzy as a result of this truly bumpy ride.

"Can we please not do this again?", Scootaloo weakly asked.

Bumblebee replied, "Yeah, sure. Sorry about that, by the way. It's just that desperate times means desperate measures."

He patiently waited a few minutes for his friends to fully recover. Once they did, he illuminated the room with his headlights and began to look around. A few seconds later, he finally saw it. There, right at the center of the room, was the treasure his people had been searching for over a millenia: the magnificent AllSpark.

It looked just like how the legends described it to be. Shaped just like a cube, made from the purest Cybertronian metal in existence, and covered in strange symbols dating back to the beginning of the planet itself. For Bumblebee, it really was a sight to behold and he knew very well that this could be the definitive answer to all their problems.

Even when he grabbed it with his left hand, he felt a strange surge of energy entering his body. As odd as it was, it was also rather comforting and he had begun to feel the injuries he had sustained from the numerous battles he took part in were rapidly healing. In fact, just a couple of seconds later, he became pretty much a completely undamaged bot and started to admire his new look greatly. He probably would have continued it for hours if not for Spike reminding him that they were still on the bottom of a dark creepy pit. Thankfully, this was enough to make him come to his senses and he immediately proceeded to take out his sword and carefully placed his friends on his shoulders once more. Then, he began to scale the wall by stabbing it with his sword and using the sword to lift himself up before stabbing the wall once again. During all this, he was still holding the AllSpark with his left hand.

While this action was not nearly as terrifying for his friends, it was rather extremely boring, and they expressed that pretty clearly to him a while later with their deep sighs and groans. Therefore, he tried to come up with something that could help them pass the time. After a brief contemplation, he finally found one.

"Hey, Spike. Wanna tell us about how you found that secret passage in the first place?", he teasingly asked.

In response, Spike's eyes widened with intense fear and he replied, "Come on, dude! I told you it's not something I should be telling you about!"

"Yeah, you did, but I simply can't hold my curiosity back any longer", Bumblebee admitted. "It just sounds like a really exciting story to listen to."

"Oh, I love listening to exciting stories!", Scootaloo happily exclaimed. "You've got to tell us, Spike! Please?!"

"Besides, it'll be way more exciting than just waiting for Bee to take us to the top", Applebloom added.

Spike thought really hard about this before letting out a defeated sigh and saying, "Alright. Here goes. Remember that Filly and Foal Fair a few weeks back?"

"You mean the one where Rarity made a lavish puppet theater as some sort of contribution?", asked Sweetie Belle.

Spike replied, "Yep. That's the one. Let's just say, that contribution really didn't go as she planned..."

As he continued to narrate this story to his friends, Bumblebee was busy doing five things all at the same time. He was holding on to the most powerful artifact in Cybertron's history with just one hand, carrying all four of his new organic friends on his shoulders, climbing a very steep stone wall with his sword, trying to listen to Spike's story with great enthusiasm, and also pondering a question:

How, in the name of Primus, did the AllSpark end up at the bottom of this nearly destroyed castle in the first place?

The Castle of the Two Sisters
One Month Before Nightmare Moon's Banishment

"I am not so sure about this plan. You know it could very well give way to disaster", said Luna to her elder sister Celestia who was sitting on the throne right next to hers. The difference between these two royal alicorns, in terms of color, could not be any more apparent. In contrast to Luna's much darker color scheme, Princess Celestia had pale, light grayish magenta eyes, pale heliotrope mane, and pure white coat. She was also much bigger than Luna, in terms of size, and when she spoke, her tone came off as both regal and commanding at the same time.

"I'm aware of the risks as much as you are, sister, but considering how much our kingdom and our subjects can benefit from this endeavor, I say we should at least give it a try."

Luna groaned upon hearing this and thought, "Why do I even bother disagreeing with her? She NEVER takes my opinions seriously."

Celestia ignored her groan, took a deep breath, and suggested, "Shall we go down and take a look at the progress?"

"Sure. Why not?", replied Luna in a deadpanned tone and both of them got up from their thrones before walking towards the library. Once there, they motioned the guards to leave them be and the second they left, Luna opened the door leading to the secret passage. They entered the passage and came across the chamber that housed the Inspiration Manifestation book. Celestia then lit up her horn to illuminate their path and both alicorns began flying downwards to the bottom of the pit.

It took them nearly a minute to reach the bottom and as they became close to it, they encountered a series of lanterns and torches attached to the walls in order to brighten the room. Soon enough, they landed and walked towards a wooden table filled with parchment, ink, quill, laboratory equipment, and tons of notes. Right beside the table was a middle-aged unicorn stallion wearing a lab coat and goggles while also holding a metal cube covered in strange symbols with his magic aura. He had a dark magenta coat, frazzled light azure mane with moderate raspberry and brilliant purple streaks, and tired pale green eyes. A gigantic nervous smile crossed his face as soon as he noticed the presence of the princesses.

"Ah, your majesties! You honor me with your arrival!", he began. "I assume you're here to check on my work on this peculiar artifact?'

"Yes, Page Turner, that is precisely why we came", declared Celestia. "So, what do you have to report?"

"Well, uh, not much. Properly examining this cube has certainly been an agonizing task", the now-calm doctor explained while showing the cube to the princesses. "For one, the material it's made out of is easily the strongest metal I've ever encountered, so it's impossible for me to take a sample for further analysis. In fact, I don't really think it's ANY of the Equestrian metals whatsoever."

The princesses looked at each other in confusion before they turned back to Page Turner and Celestia asked, "Would you please elaborate on that?"

"That actually brings us to the second concern", the doctor continued. "The symbols on the cube's surface are nearly impossible to translate. I've studied the languages and culture of every single ancient civilization in the history of Equestria. None of them have ever used these symbols. By the way, I said 'nearly impossible to translate', because carbon dating shows that the cube itself has been on this planet for approximately six hundred thousand years. This officially confirms my hypothesis that it belongs to a civilization much older than our own and that this civilization is most likely not centered around anywhere near Equestria."

It took Celestia a handful of seconds to comprehend all this information. Then, she took a deep breath and asked, "What do you suggest we do next?"

"You won't like it, but I recommend that we immediately stop tampering with this artifact any further", Page Turner replied. "We still don't know what exactly it does, how it came to our world in the first place, and how advanced the civilization it belongs to is."

"I agree with him", stated a concerned Luna. "If this cube had, indeed, come from an alien planet, then there is surely a possibility that its inhabitants can arrive here in the near future to take it back. When that happens, who knows if they'll be friendly or not. The worst case scenario, they launch a full-scale of invasion at Equestria and we'll be powerless to protect our subjects from it. So, I suggest that we heed the doctor's advice and send this cube back to space before it causes any irreparable harm to our world."

Upon hearing this, Celestia let out a slightly irritated sigh and replied, "I do know this is a risk, sister, but can you imagine what we can learn from such an artifact? If we could just unlock its secrets, it could help us advance our society to a level beyond our dreams. Who knows? Perhaps, these new advances may also assist us in repelling this 'invasion' you speak of."

Right at that point, Luna's facial expression shifted from worried to plain angry and she countered, "You forget that we are still unable to discover its functions and quite possibly never will. Do you not see, sister? We are not meant to understand this cube and even if we can, our people is not yet ready for the changes it may bring. You have to realize this."

Celestia then retorted, "What I realize, Luna, is that you always play everything safe and are too afraid to take any sort of chance. To be honest, I'm beginning to get very tired of it."

"I am simply trying to protect our subjects from total devastation!", shouted Luna. "It is high time you did the same!"

As the two sisters continued to argue, Page Turner put the cube back on the table and began to contemplate what he was going to do next. If history was any indication, Princess Celestia was most likely going to win this argument and after that, he would be forced to examine the cube for another few weeks. To be more precise, that was a few more weeks he would have to spend away from his family, which consisted of his beloved wife and newborn daughter. How was he going to explain this situation? Since this was a top secret project, he had lie to his wife and told her that he was employed as a substitute geology professor at the Equestrian Institute of Rockology. There were two things he hated doing the most in his life: lying to his loved ones and spending a long time away from them.

He now wished that he never found this stupid artifact during his recent expedition to Yakyakistan. While the purpose of that trip was to better understand the yak culture, the princesses found what he had discovered on a crater near the snow-covered mountain range significantly more intriguing than anything he had learned from the yaks themselves. So, now, he was slaving at the bottom of the royal castle trying uncover the secrets of his discovery without any clue about how to do so. Moreover, due to the project's current status as a top secret one, he was not allowed to work in a standard research laboratory with actually good lighting. He genuinely prayed that Princess Luna won the argument, because the only thing he wanted to do right now was to return home and spend as much time with her family as possible. However, deep down, he knew that this would not come to pass.

Realizing that he should not get his hopes up too much, he decided to take another look at his numerous notes, instead. He wanted to make sure he did not miss any important details that might assist him in his upcoming research. Then, while going over these notes, his horn accidentally touched the cube and instantly began to glow white. A moment later, his eyes did the same and the entire recorded history of Cybertron instantly began flowing into his brain in a matter of seconds. This included the depiction of important events such as the eons-long battle between Primus and Unicron, the creation of the original thirteen Primes, Unicron's ultimate defeat, Primus becoming Cybertron's core, the planet's Golden Age, and finally, its ruination by the civil war between Autobots and Decepticons.

When the transfer of information finally ended, Page Turner's eyes and horn also stopped glowing, and while trying to recover from a sudden agonizing headache, he noticed the shocked expressions of the princesses who had witnessed the whole thing. As soon as the headache stopped a few seconds later, an enormous grin appeared on Page Turner's face and he shouted, "I KNOW EVERYTHING!"

Right after that, he grabbed his remaining parchments, ink, and quill, and began to rapidly take note of everything the cube had just showed him. In addition to writing these notes, he also started drawing symbols similar to the ones covering the surface of the cube. While he was very excited during all this, the princesses were giving each other worried looks and contemplating whether they should stop him or tell him to slow down a bit.

Then, about half a minute later, Page Turner's rapid note-taking caused him to accidentally knock the microscope beside him down to the floor. He noticed this and used his magic to bring it back to its original place before continuing to take notes and drawing symbols. However, only a couple of seconds after that, the microscope began shaking violently, made an otherworldly sound, and right after that, turned into a creepy little robot with goggles.

The mean little sucker took a moment to observe his surroundings before lunging towards Page Turner's throat and using his entire body to pierce right through it. The poor doctor instantly dropped dead with the blood spilling from his neck forming a pool around the body. Though his killer was also covered in blood, he nevertheless began running straight at the princesses, intending to terminate them too. Both Celestia and Luna attempted to destroy the creature with their magic blasts, it managed to dodge every single one of their hits and even made a leap towards Celestia's face. However, right before it could hurt her in any way, Luna kicked it away with her back hooves, turned one of the nearby lanterns into a small boulder with her magic, and crushed the little monstrosity with that boulder. Even though she was completely out of breath and a little bit terrified, she eventually calmed down and turned her attention to her sister, who was even more scared than she was.

"Are you alright?", she asked Celestia who, after taking a couple of deep breaths, replied in a saddened tone, "I'm fine. Thank you for asking. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Page Turner. I've made a terrible mistake and he paid the price with his life. It seems there was merit to your concerns, after all. Forgive me for not listening."

Luna let out an equally sad sigh and asked, "What is our current course of action?"

"You'll destroy every single one of those notes, dispose of that tiny abomination, and give the good doctor a proper burial", declared Celestia. "In the meantime, I'll go console his family."

"And what shall be done with the cube?", Luna inquired and Celestia bluntly replied, "Destroy it too and if nothing works, then leave it here. It's far too dangerous to ever see the light of day."

Luna nodded in agreement and watched her sister immediately took off at top speed, leaving her to clean up the mess all by herself. She began this task by using her magic to set the entire table on fire and move the partially demolished creature (which still had a little bit of pony blood on its exterior) close to her face. Glaring at it with great disgust and hatred, she quietly said, "Your creator may stay here, but you will not be anywhere near it. In fact, you will not be near any pony ever again!". Right after that, only for a second, her pupils became so thin that they resembled those of a snake.

City of Vanhoover
Present Day

"...and soon after that, I teleported that thing to the deep cold space and took care of Page Turner's funeral arrangements. Celestia explained his cause of death to his family as best as she could and even though they were very saddened by it, they understood how important his real job was. The funeral came and went rather quickly. It wasn't long before Celestia and I began to continue arguing about every trivial matter imaginable, which eventually resulted in me turning into a monster named, Nightmare Moon, and almost decimating my own sister. She had no choice but to banish me to the moon for a thousand years and when I returned, I was only reformed thanks to the efforts of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Ever since then, I try to be a better ruler and pony than I was before, and also keep my ambitions in check as much as I can. So, any questions?

By the time Luna was finished telling all this to Ratchet, he was left both amazed and a little bit confused at the same time.

"I admit, this is a genuinely fascinating story", he said. "However, I do have a few questions. First of all, why did the AllSpark just sent the ENTIRE Cybertronian history to the mind of a pony scientist when his horn merely touched its surface and second, how come it gave life to that device without any physical contact whatsoever?"

"Believe me, I wondered the same answers for a long time", replied Luna. "Unfortunately, I came up with nothing but dead ends and since I burned all of Page Turner's notes on the information he received from the cube, I fear we may never understand what really happened that day."

"Hmmm... Now that I think about it, I may actually have a theory on this", contemplated Ratchet.

"Really?", an intrigued Luna asked. "Well, what is it?"

Ratchet explained, "Well, my best guess is that when Page Turner's horn touched the AllSpark, it served as an access point from which the Cube could enter his brain and see into his mind. As a result, it must've decided that he was a worthy candidate and thus, bestowed upon him both the rich history it contained and a small fraction of its power. This might explain why his equipment came to life shortly after he used his magic to lift it up, since his biology, and thus, his magic was imbued with the Cube's power. Unfortunately, it still doesn't explain what the AllSpark saw in him that influenced this action. What's even more curious is the fact that, a transfer like this hasn't occurred since the age of the original Primes."

A now-confused Luna then asked, "You speak as though this artifact has a mind of its own. How is that possible?"

"Why not? It's a source of energy and sentience for all machines, after all", replied Ratchet. "So, is it really that hard to imagine it having sentience of its own?"

Luna briefly pondered this for a moment before answering, "I suppose you're right. As for your theory, it might be a bit too far-fetched, but it's still more plausible than anything I came up with."

"Oh? What were those?", Ratchet inquired.

"Well... I really shouldn't say", nervously replied Luna. "You may think that I had gone mental at that time or something."

A smirk then appeared on Ratchet's face and he said, "Try me."

Upon hearing that, Luna became even more nervous than before, but still managed to smile and asked, "Alright, uh, how about I tell you all about it when the Decepticon threat is no more?"

"Heh, I wouldn't have it any other way" declared Ratchet and extended her hand to Luna, who shook his index finger with both of her hooves.

Just then, they heard the sound of an incoming vehicle from behind and turned around to see whether it was a friend or foe. To Ratchet's delight, it turned out to be Optimus bringing the train carts attached to his vehicle form's rear, as he promised. Right behind him was Twilight Sparkle who was nearly out of breath and desperately trying catch up to the Autobot leader. Thankfully, as soon as they entered the city a handful of seconds later, he finally came to a halt and transformed back into his robot form, giving Twilight the opportunity to stop and get the rest she desperately needed.

"Goodness!", she exclaimed while panting heavily. "For such a huge being... carrying two crystal carts... you sure are fast!"

Optimus carefully put her on his shoulder before she could fall to the ground from exhaustion and said, "My apologies. I heard we needed to get here as fast as we could due to an emergency."

"No, no! It's perfectly fine!", replied a still-panting Twilight. "Besides... I really needed... the exercise."

Optimus chuckled at that and declared, "Well, in that case, it seems my increased speed had even more benefits than I originally thought. Now, let us gather the wounded ponies here and transport them to a safe location. Do you have any suggestions regarding where that might be?"

Twilight finally calmed down and began contemplating the answer to that question. Fortunately it did not take her very long to figure it out.

"Hmmm... Considering that the Crystal Empire is in ruins and that Canterlot is already packed with crystal pony refugees, the most logical choice seems to be Ponyville."

"Agreed. Bumblebee did inform me that it was close to being fully rebuilt after the recent Decepticon assault, so I imagine all the repairs will be finished by the time we arrive. Good thinking, Twilight. Once again, you prove yourself as a most intelligent member of your species."

Twilight nervously giggled and even blushed upon hearing that compliment before replying, "Oh, um, thanks, big guy. Shall we, uh, start rounding up the citizens?"

"With pleasure. Lead the way", Optimus said and the two began walking towards the center of the town. It was not long before they ran into Ratchet and Luna who were excitedly coming towards them.

"Optimus, you've made it! Just in time too!", Ratchet exclaimed while he and Optimus greeted each other with a fist bump.

"You know me, Ratchet. I always make haste to assist someone", declared Optimus before he noticed the dark-colored alicorn right beside Ratchet.

Thus, he promptly kneeled before her and said, "You must be one of the rulers of Equestria Ratchet mentioned. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. It is a real honor to make your acquaintance."

Luna responded by letting out a warm chuckle and replying, "The honor is all mine, Optimus Prime. I am Luna, the princess of the night and protector of ponies during their dreams. I can see you have already become friends with Twilight Sparkle here. Very good. I have feeling that both of you will play an important role in our upcoming efforts to drive the Decepticon invaders from our world."

Twilight then smiled with determination, stepped forward, and declared, "We're more than ready to take on whatever those monsters throw at us!"

"A most noble sentiment, Twilight. However, you must remember that our primary concern should always be ensuring the safety of our people", clarified Luna.

"Very true, your majesty", Optimus agreed. "That is the exact reason why we came in the first place. We are here to transport the ponies who were wounded during the latest Decepticon attack to Ponyville, where they can take shelter until this city is fully repaired. With your permission, of course."

"Permission already granted", Luna stated. "However, before you go, there is a story both of you need to hear..."

Then, Ratchet interrupted the conversation by saying, "Wait a moment, Luna. If you're thinking about telling them that story, maybe it would be better if I tell it instead."

Luna looked at him with confusion and suspicion before asking, "And why is that?"

Ratchet replied, "It's just that you've already told it once and you might tire yourself telling it a second time. Since I know it all too well, I can take care of the narration just fine while you do a less tiring but equally important job. We need the injured citizens gather near the train carts as soon as possible and I believe you're more qualified to handle this than I am."

By the time he was finished with this explanation, Luna's suspicion had completely vanished as she had realized that Ratchet was right. She then said, "Oh, I see... Alright, then. I shall get right to it. See you later."

She promptly flew away to complete her duty, Ratchet briefly pondered which part of the story he should tell first. After quickly deciding to start at the very beginning, he turned around to see a surprised Optimus and an extremely shocked Twilight.

"Did you... did you just tell Princess Luna what to do?!", exclaimed Twilight. "Do you have any idea what happens when somepony tells her what to do?!"

"No, but you forget that I am no pony", Ratchet smugly replied, causing Twilight's facial expression to change from shocked to irritated.

Attempting to reduce the tension, Optimus said, "I think Twilight means that Princess Luna's behavior just then was... unexpected. I imagine she normally dislikes being told to do something."

"Point taken", Ratchet declared. "Still, I don't really think there is an issue here. After all, Luna and I are good friends now."

Upon hearing that, Optimus and Twilight looked at each other in confusion before giving the exact same looks to Ratchet.

"It's a long story, but I'll tell you about it some other time", he explained. "Right now, there is a much more important story you need to listen to."

As if on cue, their puzzled expressions disappeared and they moved closer to hear what he had to say. Unbeknownst to them, the squadron of Decepticon Cloakers disguised as royal guards were watching their every move from a distance. One of them turned to their captain and said, "We must eliminate them while we have the chance."

The captain then replied, "Not yet. We must await word from the master. No need to worry, though. He shall soon reclaim the Cube. Then, we can destroy both the Autobots and their insect friends at our leisure."

They all laughed sadistically at that and continued to observe their fully unaware enemies from their secret posts.

While all that was happening, Bumblebee, Spike, and the Crusaders had already finished climbing up to the cliff they jumped from and were now walking out of the castle. During the climb itself, they had listened to Spike's entire story about how he accidentally found a spellbook in the secret passage, brought it to Rarity in order to help her get through a state of depression, and caused a whole lot of trouble for Ponyville in the process. While he was narrating all this to Bumblebee and the Crusaders, they could stop themselves from neither laughing nor gasping in terror during different parts of the story.

For example, when during the part where Rarity turned one of Fluttershy's bird houses into a bird mansion, Bumblebee laughed so hard that he almost dropped the AllSpark from his hand. Also, during the part where Rarity turned the town's gazebo into solid walls with two ponies trapped inside its walls, Apple Bloom screamed in horror so loudly that she almost caused a rock avalanche. All in all, they were both greatly amused and greatly frightened by this story, and had a great time listening to it until they reached the cliff and got out of the secret passage.

Before they headed for the castle's exit, however, Bumblebee remembered to put the metal bars back on the secret passage in order to "maintain the castle's charm", which was something Scootaloo still did not fully understand. Nevertheless, she was very happy that they were finally heading home. This whole place had done nothing but creep her out ever since they arrived.

As soon as they got out, Bumblebee put both his friends and the AllSpark on the ground, and attempted to contact his teammates via his commlink. While he was doing that, Sweetie Belle could not help but examine the AllSpark in admiration. There was just something about its overall design and the strange symbols on it that really intrigued her. She also wondered if she could convince her sister to design her a dress in this style. Yes, it was a long shot, but she was willing to give it a try. After all, Rarity could never resist her big innocent eyes.

Bumblebee, meanwhile, had become very frustrated. So far, his efforts to contact Optimus and Ratchet were fruitless and he would very much like to know what was the source of this problem. Perhaps, it was the castle's structure causing an interference? He had to be sure of that. So, he took one step away from the front entrance and-

BOOOOM!!!

A gigantic laser blast shot from afar suddenly blew up the entire entrance in spectacular fashion, sending everyone flying at least thirty feet away from it. They landed really hard on the edge of the Everfree Forest, but aside from a few bruises they sustained during the explosion and landing, as well as their ringing ears, they were actually fine. Also, Bumblebee was relieved to discover that the AllSpark had flown with them when he saw it lying on the ground near a tree a couple feet away. While his friends tried to recover, he motioned them to stay put as he turned his right hand into a plasma cannon and began to look around the surrounding area for the cause of the explosion.

Much to his utter horror, his answer soon arrived in the form of a huge white, red, and purple tank equipped with a single big cannon from which clouds of black smoke was coming out. It sped towards the group, stopped five feet away from them, and instantly transformed into the thirty feet long Decepticon that every Autobot had been dreading ever since the war for Cybertron first began all those millennia ago. Although his armor was covered in burns and his color scheme had mostly faded, Bumblebee still recognized him from his purely evil crimson optics, hellish glare, and iconic fusion cannon.

Just then, the Crusaders managed to get back on their hooves and when they saw Bumblebee's fearsome opponent, all three of them gasped in terror and cowered behind their Autobot friend. Scootaloo then exclaimed, "Sweet Celestia! That's easily the biggest and meanest Decepticon there is!"

Bumblebee clarified, "Um, guys, this isn't just a Decepticon. This is Megatron! The LEADER of the Decepticons!"

"WHAT??!!", all three fillies shouted and fearfully looked back at Megatron, who now had a devilish grin on his face.