BACK TO LIFE

Chapters

Our love's enough
Transcending us through space and time
It's holding up
It keeps you and me intertwined
What's a heartbreak if you ain't crying all through it?
What's a sunset if you ain't riding into it?
Let's drive into it
'Cause I'm bringing you back
To life
And I know that you're gone
But I swear that you're here
It's a feeling that won't disappear
And you're bringing me back to life
I was looking for something that I couldn't find
It's a feeling you give me inside
'Cause I'm bringing you back to life
What's a pipe dream if you ain't trying to do it?

Our love's enough

As soon as the girls came through the other side of the portal and got out of the cars, they looked at everything in sight with complete awe.

They were in a giant building that looked a lot like a military base inside a mountain as every single one of the walls appeared to be made out of reinforced concrete and the only one corner that was pure stone had a tunnel going through it.

At the center of the room, there was a platform with multiple stages with the top stage connected to a cylindrical elevator shaft. Right next to the platform itself, there was what seemed like a computer console tall enough for a giant robot to use and there were three green-colored monitors right above it.

Finally, at the northwest corner of the room, there was a cylindrical area much larger than the elevator and the inside of the area looked very similar to a medical facility.

As the girls started walking around and exploring the base, the Autobots tranformed back into their robot modes and went after them to make sure they did not break anything. Suddenly, the portal closed and everyone heard a slow clapping sound coming from behind and echoing throughout the room.

They all turned around and were met with another Autobot slightly taller than both Cliffjumper and Bumblebee standing near the console with a smug expression on his face. His optics were blue like his comrades, and his color scheme was a combination of white, red, and green.

A few seconds after he was spotted, he stopped clapping, crossed his arms, and said with a voice that sounded older than that of Cliffjumper, "Well, congratulations, rookies. You have officially broken Prime's number one rule regarding humans. Just as I said you would. When he or doc finds out about this, both of you are going to be in so much trouble."

While Bumblebee nervously scratched his head, Cliffjumper let out a dry chuckle and announced, "Funny you should say that, Wheeljack. We actually want them to know about this, because it might very well be a clue to an upcoming Decepticon plot. So, um, would you happen to know where they went off to?"

Upon hearing this, Wheeljack's facial expression changed from smug to confused and he even raised an eyebrow before replying, "A clue to a Decepticon plot, huh? Well, for your sake, I do hope you're right about this. As for where they went off to, doc is in the storage bay making an inventory count and Prime is- "

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE ALLSPARK IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Both the girls and the Autobots immediately looked at the direction that yell had come from and saw yet another Autobot about the same height as Wheeljack standing at the entrance of a hallway near the medical facility. He had an orange and white color scheme, the same optic color as the other Autobots, wheels on his elbows, big shoulders knee pads, the markings of an ambulance on his arms, and an extremely stern expression on his face. From his overall appearance, it was clear that he was the doctor that Wheeljack and Cliffjumper had spoken of, and when he yelled once again, his voice sounded even older than that of Wheeljack.

"Bumblebee! Cliffjumper! Explain yourselves at once! What made you even think that bringing humans to the base, let alone interacting with them, and violating a law essential to maintaining our presence on this planet a secret was a good idea?"

Before the young Autobots could provide a proper explanation, the girls walked in front of them and Sunset announced, "We were attacked on the road by a group of Decepticons led by Breakdown. They were after our magical geodes and they surely would've killed us all if Cliffjumper and Bumblebee hadn't shown up. After they beat Breakdown's soldiers and forced him to retreat, they offered to take us here so that your leader could explain why we were attacked in the first place."

As the doc stared at her in silence and tried to comprehend her story, Wheeljack commented, "Hmmm... Gotta say, that's actually not the most outlandish story I've ever heard. The rookies might be right, after all, Ratchet. This could be the key to uncovering what the Cons had been up to for the past few weeks."

Ratchet then took a deep breath and declared, "Even so, I would've appreciated if they had told us about this event before taking such a rash action. Secrecy and discretion have always been our primary methods of survival ever since we came to this planet. Throwing them away just like that does not sit right with me."

Right after that, Cliffjumper stepped forward and said, "With all due respect, doc, the Decepticons were the ones who threw those methods away first without any hesitation. All this are clear proof of them planning something big and the only way to stop them is figuring out what use could they have for the 'geodes' these humans are carrying with them. Now, can we please find out where the commander is so that he can give us a clear answer?"

"Well, he's actually not here at the moment", Ratchet replied. "He went to investigate a recently discovered Decepticon mining operation about an hour ago. However, I suspect he'll be back in a short while."

As if on cue, the sound of a large truck came from the tunnel and, shortly afterwards, there came big rig truck with a red and blue color scheme, and no trailer.

Upon emerging from the tunnel, it stopped right in front of the entrance and began transforming into a robot much larger than all the Autobots in the room. The girls watched all this with utter shock on their faces and, as the transformation neared its completion, they became more and more awestruck by what they were seeing.

The Autobot before them was at least thirty feet tall, had a gray face with a blue helmet and three antennas on each side (two blue, the others grey), heavily detailed and designed with multiple plates and layers of pieces on top of each other. He also had two sphere-shaped bases for his antennas with dark blue coloring around it, a red chest with windows from his vehicle mode, and a dark grey strip on both of his ribs. On top of all that, he was equipped with big shoulders that overlaped his arms. two wheels at the back held by his smokestacks, and four wheels are at the back of his legs.

Upon fully transforming into his robot mode, he curiously gazed at the girls for a few moments while they continued to stare at him with their shocked facial expressions. Then, Sunset very sheepishly announced, "Uhhh... H-hello there, sir. I-I'm Sunset Shimmer a-and these are my friends Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity."

After the girls nervously waved hello at him, the newly arrived Autobot turned towards Ratchet, and said with a deep and commanding voice, "I was not aware we were having guests today."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call them guests, Optimus", replied Ratchet. "They're more like Decepticon targets that require temporary shelter and an explanation for why they were attacked. By the way, you can thank the youngsters for allowing the humans here without telling any of us."

"Hey, it's not like we had much of a choice at the moment!", Cliffjumper exclaimed. "Besides, it was technically Bumblebee's idea to bring them here in the first place."

Bumblebee immediately started making angry-sounding buzzing noises, continued to do so for several seconds, and even raised his fist up with the intention of punching Cliffjumper in the face until Optimus gestured for him to cease and be silent with one hand. Then, he declared, "The identity of the one responsible for bringing these humans here is of no concern to me. What is really important is the fact that they have went through an undoubtedly terrifying experience, and we must provide them with an explanation for what they have seen so that their fear and confusion could be alleviated."

"Well, I'd love to stay and join the discussion, but sadly I've got some work to do outside", Wheeljack revealed. "I need to do a perimeter check and make sure all our defenses are fully operational. Now, before anyone tells me for the hundredth time to make some upgrades or modifications to them, let me tell you this: they haven't broken down yet and there's no point in altering or improving something that's not broken. That is my final word on this matter. If anyone's interested in lending me some assistance out there, you're more than welcome to do so."

Upon hearing that, Bumblebee looked first at Wheeljack, then at Optimus, and finally at Wheeljack again before shrugging his shoulders and following his mechanic friend through the tunnel leading to outside. Even though Cliffjumper attempted to go with them, Ratchet stopped him by grabbing his shoulder and declared, "No, no, no. You are not going back outside just yet. Your chassis is covered in dents and bruises, and you've been leaking Energon ever since you came back from your most recent misadventure. So, now, you're coming with me to the medical center and you'll be staying there until I finish patching up all your injuries. Understood?"

Even though Cliffjumper let out a frustrated sigh at this, he nevertheless nodded in approval and allowed Ratchet to escort him to the medical center. As they walked towards their destination, Ratchet announced to both Optimus and the girls, "Sorry about that. You'll just have to carry on without us. We won't be back for a while, I'm afraid."

A few moments later, they went inside the medical center and Ratchet began examining Cliffjumper's wounds. Their commander then sighed with some sorrow, kneeled before the girls, and began to explain, "My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron."

"Cybertron? That's a pretty strange name for a planet", Twilight commented. "Where exactly is it located, may I ask?"

"Approximately three hundred million light years removed from Earth", Optimus promptly replied.

"WHOA! Is it really that far away?", asked Twilight. "Then, how did you and the Decepticons manage to come to Earth in the first place?"

"We used a piece of ancient technology designated as a 'Space Bridge'. It transports matter through time and space, and it can be used by all Cybertronians to travel between entire galaxies in an instant."

"Um... Hate to break it to you, Optimus Prime sir, but that kind of technology does not obey the laws of physics at all."

"Then, you should keep in mind, Twilight Sparkle, that this technology was designed by the legendary Sentinel Zeta Prime, the Autobot leader before me and one of the greatest scientific minds in the entire history of Cybertron."

"Well, is there any way I can take a look at his research? I would absolutely love to find out how exactly he got this 'technology' to teleport matter through space and time while also violating every single one of the UNIVERSAL laws of physics. Can you show me how to talk to him or do you store the copies of his equations somewhere in this base or- "

"CAN WE PLEASE FOCUS ON WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT HERE?!"

Upon hearing that shout, all the eyes in the room became focused on Sunset, who had apparently become extremely annoyed by what Twilight had been discussing with Optimus. Immediately afterwards, she took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down and said, "So sorry. It's just that we've all been through a lot in the past few hours and we really do need to talk about something relevant to the things that happened to us. So, instead of HOW the Autobots and Decepticons came to Earth, let's talk about WHY they came to Earth."

"A fair question, Sunset Shimmer", declared Optimus. "My team and I came to Earth so that we could stop the Decepticons from harming its inhabitants and draining its resources. As for why did they decide to come here, I unfortunately do not have a definitive answer to that. However, I can tell you this: Both factions were forced to abandon Cybertron in order to scour other planets for new sources of Energon, which is the fuel and life-blood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike. For countless centuries, we battled each other for the control of Cybertron's entire supply of Energon, which sadly led to our once-majestic home to be ravaged and eventually become completely uninhabitable."

While the others were visibly saddened by this story, Rarity started to think really hard about what Optimus had just said and, after several seconds of deep contemplation, she revealed, "I think I figured it all out. Those brutish Decepticons came here, because there are some reserves of Energon on this planet, right?"

Even though her friends looked at her with suprised expressions on their faces, Optimus remarked with admiration, "You are very inquisitive, Rarity. Yes, there are indeed several reserves of Energon on Earth. During the final chapters of the civil war, both factions attempted to hide their Energon supplies on remote planets such as this one. It appears our enemy has already found more than a few stashes deep underground and is conducting mining operations in order to extract every last piece of Energon. Although we have been trying to disrupt these operations and take the Energon for ourselves, we are often overmatched by not just legions Decepticon troopers, but also their immensely powerful commanding officers. Even when we succeed in conquering a site, they immediately bomb it and leave us with only a fraction of the original supply."

"Hmmm... Maybe they got tired of you interrupting their operations and wanted to use our geodes as some kind of alternate energy source?", Fluttershy asked.

This prompted Optimus to take a closer look at those geodes, and carefully examine them with both his optics and scanners. After completing the inspection in a matter of seconds, he announced, "Your suspicions could actually be true, Fluttershy. However, we cannot be certain without a more thorough analysis. Which is why, I strongly suggest that you and your friends remain here until its completion. Now, if you will excuse me, I must speak with Ratchet regarding this matter."

He rose back up and was just about to head towards the medical center when he suddenly stopped, looked back at the girls and said with a grim tone, "As for your earlier question, Twilight Sparkle, we do have copies of Sentinel's equations in our database. Unfortunately, there is no longer any possible way for you to converse with him. He was brutally murdered during the earliest days of the war for Cybertron by a truly ruthless warrior I once considered a brother in arms. He is now the supreme leader of the entire Decepticon faction: Megatron."

The name immeadiately struck terror into the very hearts of the girls.

Transcending us through space and time

Author's Note

Happy Labor Day, everyone! :pinkiehappy:

Transcending us through space and time

Breakdown was slowly walking along the dimly lit corridors of the Decepticon vessel, the Nemesis. His entire chassis was covered in dents from the battle he had earlier with the Autobots and every time he took a step, he grunted in agony. Even though many of the soldiers saluted him along the way, he did not salute any of them back, because at those moments, he was not concerned at all about whether those troops respected him or not. All he could think of was the fact that he had failed a mission personally given to him by his master and he had no doubt that he was going to be severely punished for it.

Lord Megatron was not known for his forgiveness and there was no real way to tell how cruel his punishments were going to be beforehand.

With those thoughts in mind, Breakdown regretfully continued onwards to the bridge of the ship where he was supposed to debrief his master regarding the outcome of his mission. Once he finally reached his destination, he found the bridge exactly as he had left it earlier that day: soldiers were looking at the images on the monitors around the room while two senior officers were standing beside a throne that was occupied by the lord and master of all Decepticons.

The officer on the left had a mostly gray color scheme, a body as slick as a regular trooper, a smug expression on his face, extremely long and thin claws for hands, missiles attached to his arms, and high heels on his feet. Also, the two jet wings on his back clearly indicated that he transformed into an aerial vehicle. The one on the right, meanwhile, had a mostly purple color scheme, a body as bulky as that of Breakdown, a huge laser cannon for a left arm, one large optic sensor, and an ammunition belt attached from his back to his cannon. While it was clear that he transformed into some kind of tank, it was also clear that the said tank was not Earth-based at all. On top of all that, his overall appearance was very spooky, mainly due to his single red optic that did not seem to reveal any emotions or expressions.

As for the supreme leader sitting on the throne, Breakdown was unable to make out what expression was on his face as he was seeing only the rear side of the throne. The only parts of the occupant that he could see was his left hand, which looked very much like a giant razor-sharp claw.

"Ah, Breakdown! So glad that you could make it!", greasily declared the sleeker-looking officer upon Breakdown's arrival to the bridge. "We were beginning to wonder if you were going to show up at all, but now that you're here, you can finally tell us about what happened during your latest assignment."

In response, Breakdown slightly growled at his fellow commander before looking back at the throne, kneeling before it, and revealing, "I am truly sorry, my lord. I have failed the critical mission you had given me. My troops and I ambushed the humans on an empty road, but then we were attacked by Cliffjumper and Bumblebee. Despite our best efforts, they neutralized my soldiers and I barely escaped with my life. There is little doubt that the humans have allied themselves with the Autobots by now and that they are currently in the secret Autobot outpost that we have been unable to locate ever since we arrived on Earth. I accept whatever punishment you deem necessary."

To Breakdown's surprise, Megatron did not say anything for a handful of seconds seconds and the silence was only broken when the slimy commander from earlier clapped his long claws a few times. He then moved closer to his fellow commander while announcing, "An inspiring explanation, Breakdown. Very well done. You truly are an expert in crafting these. As for your fighting skills, though..."

Suddenly, he slashed Breakdown's face with his claws and knocked him to the ground by delivering a kick to the spot where his right optic once was. Then, he placed his right foot on Breakdown's neck, aimed the missile attached to his right arm directly at Breakdown's face, and shouted, "You are an utterly pathetic excuse for a Decepticon! Not only you got some of your best troopers killed, but you were also thwarted by a couple of puny Autobots! GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON NOT TO ANNIHILATE YOU THIS INSTANT!"

"Because, if you do that, Starscream, I will make sure that you share his fate."

Everyone in the room immediately became silent upon hearing that voice, and started gazing at the occupant of the throne. A few seconds later, the said occupant stood up and turned around to look at his officers, with a very fierce expression on his face. He easily dwarfed every single Decepticon with his size, which was practically the same as that of Optimus Prime. His feet were large with three claw-like toes; two in front and one at the heel. He had a silver colour scheme underneath a dark purple colour, a bloodfull red hue optics, a rather long and flat head, and two blade-like parts that went around the sides of his cheeks. His face had visible scars, on his shoulders were two pads with spikes potruding, his right arm had a powerful fusion cannon and a long hidden blade, and right at the center his chest was the Decepticon emblem.

As soon as he laid his glowing crimson optics at Starscream, he removed his foot from Breakdown's neck, kneeled before his leader, and tried to explain while trembling with immense fear, "F-forgive me, Lord Megatron. I... I overstepped my boundaries for a moment."

In response, Megatron walked directly towards him and when he was close enough, he looked down on the cowering air commander and said with a very menacing tone, "Indeed. You have failed to remember the rule that states only I have the right to dispose of a high-ranking Decepticon like Breakdown. Forget it again, Starscream, and I shall use your chassis as target practice. Do I make myself clear?"

Starscream let out a small frustrated sigh and replied, "Yes, my lord. I completely understand. However, I still firmly believe that Breakdown should be punished for his shameful defeat."

Megatron took one look at Breakdown, who was struggling to rise back up, and then declared, "I think he has suffered quite enough for one day. Besides, as disgraceful as his failure was, it is inconsequential in the long run. During the battle with the Autobots, I sent Soundwave to monitor everything, including the ground bridge that opened up in the aftermath of the battle. Thanks to the modification he had recently equipped Laserbeak with, I expect he will have no trouble analyzing that ground bridge and acquiring the coordinates of its source."

Upon hearing this news, Starscream chuckled with utter delight, stood back up, and exclaimed, "A most brilliant strategy, master! Just say the word and I shall lead a truly devastating air strike to the Autobot outpost!"

"That would not be a logical course of action", suddenly announced the purple-colored Decepticon with a singular red optic. "The construction of our new project is not yet finished and when we do finish it, we are going to require a source of energy powerful enough to sustain it for an indefinite amount of time. That is why both the humans and their gemstones must remain unharmed at all costs."

While Starscream let out a loud groan at that statement, Megatron commented, "I agree with this plan, Shockwave. How long before the construction is complete?"

"Two Earth days at the most, my lord", Shockwave promptly replied. "I shall do whatever I can to accelerate the process."

"Very well. Continue your work, then", commanded Megatron. "As for you, Starscream, I shall give you the order to attack the outpost as soon as Shockwave is finished building the project. In the meantime, you will take Breakdown to the infirmary and help him treat his wounds."

When Starscream was just about to object to this order, he decided at the last second that it was in his best interest not to enrage Megatron further than he already had. Therefore, he walked towards the severely injured but still standing Breakdown and started pushing him to the exit.

After witnessing both of his commanders leave the bridge, Megatron took a quick look at the room and noticed that all of the soldiers were staring at both him and Shockwave. This caused him to yell, "WHO ORDERED YOU TO CEASE WORKING?!", and all of the soldiers immediately continued their monitor duties.

The frustrated Decepticon leader then proceeded to sit back at his throne and start contemplating on how to prepare himself for the inevitable final confrontation with his archrival, Optimus Prime. He had been attempting to destroy Prime for eons and so far, all of their battles had resulted in them being evenly matched. So, for their next and hopefully last fight, he had to quickly come up with a strategy that would culminate in a decisive victory.

While he was in deep thought regarding this matter, a ground bridge opened right in front of him and there emerged a Decepticon who sported stifle-jointed legs and wings that double as arms, making them (along with his fingers) very thin. Also, his face was a visor that functioned like a computer screen and he wore a surveillance drone on his chest.

A few seconds after he appeared, the portal closed behind him and Megatron noticed his arrival. He stood up and excitedly said, "Ah, Soundwave! Glad you finally arrived. Your mission was a success, I presume?"

Soundwave responded by giving a small nod and ejecting the folded bird attached to his chest. Once the bird was hovering in the air, it projected a holographic image of the planet with a small Autobot insignia appearing on a spot somewhere on the southwestern part of North America.

Seeing this spot caused Megatron to both let out a menacing chuckle and say, "Victory is nearly ours, old friend. Not only will the Autobot resistance be vanquished forever, but also our once-majestic home will finally be filled with life once again. At last, we shall become the conquerers we were always meant to be!"

The maniacal laughter that followed was heard across the entire vessel.

Meanwhile, back at the Autobot base, the girls were patiently waiting for Optimus to come back from the medical center. Though they started wandering around the base and taking a better look at their surroundings, they soon became bored as there was nothing really that interesting or memorable about the contents of the room they were currently in. Everything was made of either concrete or steel, the words on the monitors were written in a language that neither of them could understand, and there was not even a proper spot to just sit down and rest. Worse, Applejack and Sunset tried looking at their phones, but instantly became disappointed to find out that they were not getting any signal. As for Rainbow, while she did think about using her speed to look around the other rooms for a while, she quickly realized that it would be a bad idea as she and her friends had no idea what to expect from a base inhabited by alien robots.

Thankfully, about ten minutes later, Wheeljack and Bumblebee appeared inside the tunnel, and the girls quickly rushed towards the entrance in order to greet them. Once the Autobots reached the inside of the room, Bumblebee crouched in front of the girls and waved hello at them while making happy buzzing sounds.

"Hey there, Bee", said Fluttershy. "How was your mission with Wheeljack?"

Bumblebee began to explain by using both buzzing sounds and hand gestures. As he did so, Rainbow noticed something on Wheeljack's back she had not noticed before that actually piqued her curiosity. Therefore, she immediately ran between his legs to take a better look at it and upon doing so, she let out an especially loud gasp.

"Oh... My... GOSH!", she then excitedly exclaimed. "You have swords?! That is AWESOME! You're an actual robot ninja!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, those things", Wheeljack somberly said while turning around to face Rainbow. "They're fine weapons, but I don't use 'em anymore. Quit fighting a long time ago. Now, I just repair the equipment, fill up the team's ammunition, and fix their paint jobs from time to time."

"WHAT?! What do you mean you quit?", asked Rainbow. "You look and sound like a legendary warrior. Besides, you've got a pair of swords for crying out loud! I bet your team can always use the skills of a ninja like you."

"I agree with Rainbow Dash", interjected Rarity. "You certainly look like a fierce fighter and you have, by far, the best color scheme out of any that Autobot I've ever seen. Well, maybe besides Optimus. Have you ever thought about adding blue to either your chassis or ear thingies?"

Upon hearing that, Wheeljack both facepalmed and let out a very loud groan. Thankfully, a few seconds later, he heard the door of the medical center opening up, and was relieved to see Optimus, Ratchet, and Cliffjumper walking towards him.

"Hey, check me out, everyone!", Cliffjumper happily exclaimed. "I'm all healed up and looking as handsome as ever!"

"Aw, yeah!", shouted Pinkie while raising her fist up in the air. "This definitely calls for a swift recovery party!"

Right after saying that, she pulled out a party cannon from her hair, and fired a bunch of streamers and baloons, leaving all of the Autobots (especially, Cliffjumper) extremely shocked.

Applejack then let out a deep sigh and announced, "It's Pinkie Pie. Best not to question it. Speaking of questions, may I ask why none of our phones have been getting any signal since we got here?"

"The exterior of the base is shielded from any radio signals", Optimus explained. "Both an impressive feat of human engineering and an extra precaution against a Decepticon attack."

"That's mighty impressive and all, but I promised my granny that I'd call her right about this hour", declared Applejack. "She'll be worried sick if I don't do that in the next five minutes or so."

"Yeah, same here", Twilight interjected. "I'm supposed to call my parents, my brother, and my boyfirend Timber ASAP."

"My parents are also expecting me to call soon", said Fluttershy.

"Yeah, mine too", agreed Rainbow.

"Mine too", Rarity announced.

"Wow, you guys are so lucky!", suddenly exclaimed Pinkie . "I have to call my parents AND all three of my sisters!"

"Well, actually, I'm the only one here wihout any parents or siblings", Sunset sheepishly declared. "With that said, I'd really love to have internet access again some time soon."

Upon hearing all this, Optimus began to think on a solution to their latest problem and said, "Hmmm... Human customs. Something I have failed to take into account."

Then, after several seconds of pondering, he announced to the girls, "Very well. You may temporarily leave the base, but only after the analysis of your geodes is complete. Ratchet, can you make this happen in a few minutes?"

"Very unlikely", Ratchet promptly replied. "With the equipment we currently possess, it should take approximately a couple of Earth days."

"I see", Optimus said before contemplating for another few seconds. Then, he asked to the girls, "How do you feel about leaving your geodes here until Ratchet is finished analyzing them?"

"What? No way!", Rainbow exclaimed. "Their magic gives us incredible superpowers. Without them, we can't possibly defend ourselves from those Decepticreeps!"

Cliffjumper then commented, "Magical superpowers, huh? Now, that's something you don't hear every day. How about you give us a little demonstration, then? We gotta see if you actually got what it takes to defend yourselves from a Con."

He punched his left hand with his right fist immediately after saying that, causing the girls to form a circle and start coming up with a plan via whispering to one another. Shortly afterwards, they broke the circle and turned to face their oncoming sparring partner.

As for Cliffjumper himself, he tried to grab Rainbow (who was the one nearest to him), but right before he reached her, she dodged his hand and started running circles around him as a distraction. Then, Pinkie and Rarity began to attack him with explosive sprinkles to the face and diamonds to the top of his head, forcing the Autobot to take a few steps backwards. Immediately after that, Applejack lifted his right foot with her bare hands and Twilight lifted his left foot with her telekinesis, which caused Cliffjumper to fall on his face, and both Wheeljack and Bumblebee to guffaw.

As he get back on his servos with some difficulty, Cliffjumper managed to say, "Alright... You've made your point... I guess you CAN defend yourselves with those geodes."

Although the girls began cheering for their victory, Sunset soon noticed that Optimus' optics were entirely focused on her and Fluttershy (who was right next to her). Then, she realized that they had not shown their abilities yet, facepalmed for forgetting that fact, and quickly whispered something to Fluttershy's ear. She, in turn, happily nodded in approval and gathered a swarm of ants around her with only a few kind words. Shortly after that, Sunset touched Fluttershy's arm and delved into her memories.

A few seconds later, she let go of the arm and confidently declared, "Ah-ha! I knew you were the one who ate the last slice of apple pie in the bus."

As Fluttershy let out a nervous giggle, Optimus announced "Well, it seems that there is much more to these geodes than meets the eye. They might actually be effective weapons against the Decepticons and depriving you of them will undoubtedly make you very vulnerable."

"However, we do need to analyze them as soon as possible", Ratchet interjected. "The survival of your race and ours depends on it."

"Hmmm... Then, how about this?", Optimus began. "I will assign each of our team members as a guardian to the humans while they are outside and without their geodes."

"Um, that's a great plan and all, Prime, but there are a couple problems", Wheeljack pointed out. "One, I'm retired from field work. Two, there are seven humans and only three of us. Well, besides you and Ratchet."

"I am fully aware of this, Wheeljack", replied Optimus. "That is why I am assigning one Autobot guardian for two humans. For example, your retiremement is suspended, and your assignment is to watch over Rarity and Rainbow Dash."

"SWEET!", excitedly shouted Rainbow and Rarity right after hearing this news while Wheeljack simply let out a sigh.

"Bumblebee", Optimus continued. "I want you to look after Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy."

Bumblebee gave him a salute upon hearing the mission, while Fluttershy and Twilight both gasped in excitement and gave each other high fives.

"Cliffjumper, you will be going with Pinkie Pie and Applejack", commanded Optimus.

While Cliffjumper's mouth was left hanging open, Applejack and Pinkie Pie both exclaimed, "YES!", at the same time.

Then, Optimus concluded, "And... as for Sunset Shimmer... I shall be her Autobot guardian."

"WHAT?!", everyone in the room yelled immediately after hearing that.

"Optimus, you cannot possibly be serious about this!", Ratchet argued. "You're risking your very life for a mere human child. Why exactly is that?"

"Because she requires more protection than her friends", explained Optimus. "Her abilities, while quite impressive, will not be enough to protect her from a highly trained Decepticon soldier, let alone an entire squadron of soldiers. Simply put, she needs an amount of strength that only I possess."

Both the Autobots and the girls began to silently contemplate on Optimus' words and while Sunset gave him a smile, Ratchet took a deep breath and admitted, "You make valid points, as always. However, I still think being out in the open like this is rather reckless for a bot like you."

In response, Optimus put his right hand on Ratchet's left shoulder and said with an assuring tone, "Perhaps so, old friend, but we have little choice. We are significantly low on numbers and I think we both know that three humans would be too much for any Autobot to watch over."

Ratchet took a few more seconds to consider what Optimus had said and eventually, he nodded in approval. Optimus then nodded back, removed his hand from Ratchet's shoulder, turned back towards the girls, and announced, "It is settled. You will leave the base with your respective Autobot guardians and we will watch over you without interfering with your personal lives. However, you must notify us where you are headed every time you step out of your homes. Also, I do not recommend that you meet up in one spot for the next couple of days. It would most certainly make all of us easy targets for the Decepticons. Now, please, tell us the coordinates of your city and give your geodes to Ratchet. He will analyze them, keep them safe, and return them to you as soon as possible."

The girls then promptly handed their geodes over to Ratchet and Twilight gave him the coordinates to Canterlot City before he entered them to the computer and pulled the nearby lever to activate the ground bridge.

As soon as the bridge came online, Optimus commanded, "Autobots, TRANSFORM!", and upon hearing that order; Bumblebee, Wheeljack, and Cliffjumper turned into their vehicle modes (with Wheeljack transforming into a white, green, and red Lancia Stratos.

Optimus followed suit shortly afterwards and when his transformation was complete, the girls all boarded their respective Autobot guardians with great excitement. Sunset was especially ecstatic, because not only she had never been in a truck before, not only the truck she was in was a gigantic alien robot in disguise, but also the alien robot himself was the leader of an entire faction of heroic alien robots. It did not get any cooler than this.

As soon as all of the girls got into the vehicles, Optimus announced, "ROLL OUT!", which prompted everyone to enter the portal and disapperar from sight upon its closure, leaving Ratchet with the peace and quiet he needed to focus on his work.

It's holding up

In the middle of a dimly lit and mostly empty room of the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis, Shockwave was busy constructing a gigantic circular structure made entirely of metal. He was using the huge laser beam being emitted from his arm cannon to weld the parts together before rapidly entering several lines of code written in Cybertronian language with his one and only hand to the monitor attached to the right side of the structure.

Just as the chief scientist of the Decepticons finished writing those codes and was about to weld another piece to the structure, he heard the automatic door behind him open and another Decepticon enter the room. Even though he did not turn his head to see the identity of his visitor, he did hear the familiar sound of the footsteps coming closer to him and thus, he let out a sigh in utter frustration.

"What exactly is the reason behind your presence in my private workshop, Starscream? I thought you were ordered by Lord Megatron to assist with the treatment of Breakdown's battle wounds," he said with the same monotone tone he used in every single conversation.

"Oh, don't you worry about him, Shockwave. He's as good as new right now," Starscream replied as he continued walking towards his comrade. "Anyway, since the orders from our master also prevent me from attacking the Autobot base until your little science project is complete, I decided to take a look at your progress so far. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

Shockwave thought about this suggestion for a few seconds before finally answering, "As long as you refrain yourself from making a physical contact with it."

"Yes, of course," declared Starscream in a rather bored tone.

Immediately afterwards, he began to carefully examine the structure as he walked around it. He then stopped right beside Shockwave and commented, "So, this is what you've been working on ever since we arrived on this backwater planet. A complete replica of the Space Bridge back on Cybertron."

"I can assure you, it is not a replica," replied Shockwave as he started welding together another section of the structure. "I am building a modified version based on the designs of the original structure, as well as my own knowledge on the subject of Space Bridge technology. Once its construction is finished, it shall be at least fifty percent more efficient than the one we went through to reach this solar system."

"Ah, I see," Starcream said in a far more interested tone. "And exactly what purpose will you be using this ancient but powerful technology for once you're done with building the bridge itself?"

"That information is currently classified for all military personnel," Shockwave promptly replied.

When he finally finished welding and started moving towards the monitor, Starcream quickly followed behind him and frantically asked, "WHAT?! Hold just a moment there! Have you forgotten that I am Megatron's first lieutenant?! This means I deserve to know as much as you and our master do!"

"Then, it appears that you once again forget your place," announced Shockwave as he stopped near the monitor. "You may be Lord Megatron's second in command in charge of all military operations, but I share that rank with you in all scientific endeavors. Additionally, I have been ordered by the master himself to disclose the information you seek to the military personnel only after the Space Bridge is fully operational."

Then, he started entering several more lines of code to the monitor and Starscream briefly growled in pure rage before an idea suddenly came to his mind. Immediately after that, he calmed down, a devilish smile appeared on his face, and he asked, "Have you ever given some thought to the possibility that this plan of yours may never really work? After all, a Space Bridge requires a significant amount of Energon to become fully operational and we're already using a significant amount just to keep this ship afloat in the air. Of course, we will be using those 'magical artifacts' that Breakdown's targets are in possession of for some extra power, but who knows? They might turn out to be an unstable power source and the whole plan could go sideways in an instant."

"I have already come up with a contingency plan in case the scenario you describe does become reality," Shockwave revealed as he continued to write codes with his hand.

"You did? Excellent work! You truly are the most brilliant scientist in the entire history of Cybertron," joyously declared Starscream. "That being said, a number of soldiers might not actually give you the chance to implement it. You see, as Lord Megatron's second in command in charge of all military operations, I've been watching them pretty closely, and I can certainly tell that most of them are tired of all the failed plans you and Megatron have come up with since the very beginning of the Decepticon uprising. There is a strong possibility that they'll start a mutiny and even demand a new leader if this Space Bridge fails to function properly. Who better to lead them than their exalted military commander who can save our glorious cause with your contingency plan? Of couse, he cannot actually do that without knowing what exactly this contingency plan is, now can he?"

Right after hearing all this, Shockwave stopped writing codes, turned his attention right towards Starscream, focused his singular crimson optic directly at the commander's face, and began to explain with a small amount of anger in his normally monotone voice, "I am sorry to say that your argument does not contain one shred of logic, Starscream."

"First of all, you exaggerate about the success rate of the plans that Lord Megatron and I have crafted over the course of our war with the Autobots. So far, ninety eight percent of them have culminated in complete success and the remaining two percent were a direct result of either our enemy utilizing seemingly illogical tactics or Lord Megatron allowing his negative emotions cloud his judgement."

"Second, I have also closely monitored the soldiers thanks to some assistance from Soundwave and my discoveries indicate that their loyalty to our master remains strong as ever. They still believe that our victory is near and there are absolutely no signs of them planning a rebellion against him any time soon."

"Finally, even if they do start a mutiny and demand a new leader, none of them would ever elect a bot as inept, unintelligent, and cowardly as you, Starscream."

By the time this explanation came to an end, Starscream's facial expression had become extremely shocked due to how difficult it was for him to process all this. Even after Shockwave finished speaking, he stared at the scientist in shock for a handful of seconds before he finally came to his senses by shaking his head a few times. He then stammered a bit, cleared his throat, and eventually managed to say, "Well... um... I suppose it would be best if I leave you to your work, Shockwave. Please, forget we ever had this conversation."

"Do not worry. I already have," Shockwave promptly replied without a hint of rage in his voice. He then watched as Starscream quickly walk away from him and as soon as he exited the room, he proceeded to weld together another section of his project.

As soon as Rainbow Dash woke up the next morning in her bed, she began wondering whether or not everything she had experienced the other day were just parts of a dream. After all, she had seen absolutely crazy stuff like gigantic sentient robots that could turn into cars and trucks, and even claimed themselves to be an alien species from a faraway planet called, Cybertron. Considering the fact that she frequently dreamt about going on exotic adventures as Daring Do and also the fact that she was a big fan of sci-fi action movies, she would not have been surprised to find out that she actually dreamt the whole thing.

With those thoughts in her mind, she got up and started walking towards her bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Once she did both, she headed for her closet in order to get changed. However, just as she opened the closet, she realized how slow she had been moving ever since she got out of bed. Normally, she would use her super speed to get ready for the day as quickly as possible, but for some reason, she was unable to access it that morning.

Then, her answers came in the form of a horrifying realization as she touched her neck and discovered that the necklace holding her geode was missing. In a surge of panic, she started searching the entire room for it, but after nearly a whole minute of turning the place upside down, she came up empty handed.

Now more frantic than ever, she ran downstairs and began to look around in the first floor of her house. Luckily, she did not have to worry about making noise as her parents were out of town for their wedding anniversary celebration at that moment and would not be coming home for at least another week. With that in mind, she quickly proceeded to turn first the living room, and then the kitchen, upside down. She gave no thought to the mess she was making as she knew that it would take her less than half a minute to clean it all up once she found the geode.

Then, just as she had begun looking around the kitchen sink, she was suddenly startled by the sound of a car engine coming from outside. Curious about the identity of its driver, she went back to the living room, opened the front door, and was immediately taken aback by what she saw.

It was a brand new Lancia Stratos with a red, white, and green color scheme parked right outside her front lawn with no driver and Rarity of all people at the passenger seat. Just the mere sight of this image flooded her mind with not just memories of the previous day, but also answers to every single question she had been asking herself ever since waking up:

The car was actually the vehicle mode of an alien robot named Wheeljack who had been assigned to protect both her and Rarity while her geode was being studied by the other robots.

Processing all this had nearly fried Rainbow's brain and she only snapped out of it when she heard Rarity calling out her name. Thus, she began approacing the car and when she was right beside it, she said, "Morning, Rare. Didn't expect to see you and Wheeljack here this early in the morning. What you guys been up to until now?"

"Oh, nothing much, darling," she explained. "I woke up about an hour ago, had breakfast, and worked on the design of a brand new dress for a bit before Wheeljack arrived to pick me up. Apparently, he had been driving through and around the city ever since he dropped you off here last night to search for possible Decepticon activity. So, he decided that it would be best if you and I stick together for the rest of the day. You know, I do wonder if these robots ever feel the need to sleep. Anyway, after he came to my house, I asked if he coud help me drop off Sweetie Belle at Scootaloo's house since they're preparing something for their club meeting at school tomorrow. Right after that-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Rainbow suddenly interrupted. "Before you go on, I gotta know something. How the heck did you explain to Sweetie Belle and your parents the out-of-nowhere arrival of a sports car this fancy with no driver?"

In response, Rarity let out a nervous giggle before revealing, "Well, my parents are on another exotic vacation right now and they won't be back for another few days or so. As for Sweetie Belle... well... she can always tell when I'm lying about something. So, I asked Wheeljack to transform into his normal self for a little while and once he did... um... "

"The kid started screamed so loud that my audio receptors nearly broke," Wheeljack interjected, which caused Rainbow to both facepalm and groan loudly.

Once she stopped doing those things, she asked, "So, now what? Your entire neighborhood knows about our secret too?"

"No, not exactly," Rarity replied. "Right after Wheeljack came to my house, Sweetie Belle rapidly asked questions about where the car came from and why there wasn't anyone on the driver seat. So, I told her to get in and promised to explain everything in an isolated area. She reluctantly agreed and then, Wheeljack brought us to an abandoned toy factory near the city limits where he revealed himself. It took quite the effort to calm her down, but once I did, she actually started getting along with Wheeljack pretty well. Isn't that right?"

"Yep, we talked about lots of stuff on our way to her friend's house," Wheeljack added. "The kid may have an unbearable scream, but she is pretty smart for her age and does engage in quite a few interesting activities. I do imagine her having a successful career in an artistic department when she grows up."

"I sure hope so," Rarity declared. "So, what about you, Rainbow? What have you done since you woke up this morning? And why are you still wearing your pijamas? Didn't you get enough sleep last night?"

Upon hearing that, Rainbow quickly looked at what she was wearing and she was visibly shocked to find out that during the surge of panic she had experienced earlier, she had indeed forgotten to change. Even though, her cheeks immediately turned red from utter embarrassment, she managed to utter, "Um... not exactly. You see... When I woke up, I thought everything that happened yesterday was a dream, and when I couldn't find my geode on my neck, I freaked out and started looking for it everywhere. Also, during this whole commotion, I somehow forgot to change."

Although Rarity stared at her for several seconds in total confusion, she eventually got a brilliant idea and gasped in excitement immediately afterwards. Then, she exclaimed, "I know exactly what we're gonna do today! We'll pick up some supplies from my house and then, go to the school's art studio to try out all the new designs I've created this week. That way, you'll have something amazing to wear and we can use the science lab to finish our project for the remainder of the day. What do you say?"

It took Rainbow nealy half a minute to come to a definitive decision. On one hand, she really did not want to go through yet another one of Rarity's fashion trials. On the other, she had been looking for something a lot cooler to wear than what was in her closet for quite some time and they did need to complete their project for the science fair as soon as possible.

With those pros and cons in mind, she eventually took a deep breath and declared, "Fine. I'll go grab my coat."

Rarity nodded in agreement and watched as Rainbow ran towards the house. Right after she entered the house and closed the door behind her, Wheeljack asked, "And what exactly am I supposed to do while you two are working?"

Rarity thought about the answer to that question for a short while before answering, "Hmmm... If you want, you can drive around the campus until we're done. Or maybe just wait in the parking lot. We won't be gone for long, anyways."

Wheeljack responded by sighing deeply and admitting, "One can only hope."

Needless to say, both girls were completely exhausted from everything they had done since arriving at their school. Rarity's tryouts had lasted nearly three hours, during which Rainbow had tried almost two dozen different dresses, ranging from tuxedos to gowns. Although she had utterly despised almost every second of it, she nevertheless went through it without voicing any complaints whatsoever. She not only held on hope that Rarity would have something actually cool for her to wear, but also wanted to give her friend the opportunity to test everything she had been working on since the start of the week. While she had little to no knowledge on the inner workings of fasion, she did know effort when she saw it and judging from how fancy Rarity's designs were, she clearly saw that Rarity had invested a whole lot of effort in crafting those dresses.

She had absolutely no intention to let any amount of that effort go to waste.

After approximately three hours of trying dresses, Rainbow finally settled on a combination of a black leather jacket, a dark blue t-shirt, and amber trousers. Shortly after that, they headed towards the science lab (which was thankfully still open) and started working on their project with the help of the advices that Twilight had provided them with the other day.

Unfortunately, even after two hours of research and development, they had not yet accomplished anything. None of the potential topics that they had noted during their conversation with Twilight seemed even remotely interesting or easy to implement. Even though they had conducted extensive research about each one of those topics and tried to come up with new topics on their own, they were still at a complete and utter loss. Moreover, they had thought about calling Twilight and inviting her to the lab so that she could help them out, but then they remembered that she and Fluttershy also had an Autobot guardian, and that the Autobot leader Optimus Prime had warned them about how dangerous it would be for multiple humans and Autobots to be at one spot.

Then, just when they were about to call it quits and head home, a brilliant plan began to take shape inside Rainbow's mind:

What if they asked for assistance from their own Autobot guardian who was an expert in working with machines?

With that in mind, she started running towards the front entrance of the school while an utterly confused Rarity tried extremely hard to catch up to her. Once both of them were outside the building, they began searching the parking lot for any signs of Wheeljack, but much to their shock and disappointment, he was nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, fate soon smiled upon their faces as they heard the familiar sound of a sports car engine coming closer to them in high speed. When they looked at the direction it was coming from, they saw Wheeljack driving alongside the left side of the building before they started waving at him with great excitement.

In response, Wheeljack increased his speed in order to reach them more quickly and stopped right in front of them upon doing so before asking, "Are you guys finally done? I had to drive in circles around the campus every half an hour just to keep myself from getting too bored."

"Well... Not exactly," Rainbow revealed. "We have a science exhibit that needs to be finished in two days and we haven't even decided on which topic it should be. Since you're really good that fixing machines, we were hoping that you could help us out a little."

Wheeljack remained silent for a handful of seconds and then announced, "Fixing up machines and building them from scratch are not the same thing, kid. I suggest you ask someone more qualified to provide you with assistance."

Then, Rarity admitted, "Tthere is no one else to get help from, though. The only other qualified person out there is Twilight, but as Optimus said, it's too dangerous for multiple Autobots to be at one spot for too long. Please, you're our only hope."

"Sorry, but I can't. I gave up building stuff a long time ago," declared Wheeljack. "If you're so desperate, find a human engineer or scientist."

"And how are we supposed to do that exactly?", a visibly irritated Rainbow asked as she crossed her arms. "Look up online for engineers and scientists who give tips about projects for free? Just so you know, we've researched nearly every topic related to science and engineering imaginable, and none of them seem easy for us to understand."

"Then, I suggest keep digging. You're bound to come across a topic that meets your standards sooner or later," an equally irritated Wheeljack retorted. "Besides, both of you are almost at the same age as an adult. You need to be able to figure these things out on your own."

"But that doesn't mean we don't have the right to ask for help from time to time," Rarity stated. "Please, you are our Autobot guardian. Your job is to help us in times of need."

"No, my job is to keep you safe from Decepticons," replied Wheeljack. "That's the only thing I can help you with. Anything else is out of the question, especially if it involves the construction of a mechanical device. Also, I'm only on this mission because my commander ordered me so. If he hadn't, I would've been more than happy to just stay at the base and continue repairing stuff instead of protecting two adult-sized infants."

Upon hearing that last sentence, both girls gasped in pure shock and Rainbow angrily brought both of her fists down on Wheeljack's hood. Even though it hurt like hell, she fought through the pain and shouted, "INFANTS, HUH?! Well, let me tell you something, bud! The only one around here who's acting like an infant is YOU! We only ask a little bit of input from you and you can't even give that? I mean, what the hell happened to you, man?! You were an inventor AND a swordmaster. What happened that made you give up on those awesome careers?!"

Wheeljack responded by remaining silent for several seconds before suddenly transforming into his robot mode, causing Rainbow to fall on her butt. Once his transformation was complete, the Autobot began glaring at the humans and revealed, "You really wanna know what happened, kid?! Well, I'll tell you what happened, then. THE WAR HAPPENED! I have fought in hundreds of battles and in each one, I watched countless comrades perish at the hands of those disgusting Cons. Every single one of my closest friends are now offline and there is nothing in this entire universe that can bring them back."

"What's worse is that they were all equipped the very weapons and gadgets I had personally designed to protect them in their missions. And did those machines do their jobs properly? NO! They certainly did not."

"The Cons have always designed far better and deadlier weapons than I ever could, and with them, they slaughtered pretty much everyone I ever cared about. Do you know what that makes me? Obsolete. Useless. A complete and utter failure!"

Upon saying all that, he started to breathe very heavily in an effort to calm himself down and then collapsed on both of his knees with his head hanging down in shame. A few seconds of silence later, he continued, "I do not deserve to be your protector. In fact, I do not deserve to be anyone's protector. Everyone I tried to help with either my inventions or my fighting skills have perished. So, I made a vow to never get myself involved in inventing or fighting again. Besides, even if I did, what good would that do? The Cons have basically won the war. It's only a matter of time before they find where we're hiding and wipe us out."

Even though he was physically incapable of shedding any tears, his face did resemble that of someone about to cry. Upon seeing that, both Rainbow and Rarity felt immense pity for him, and Rainbow even walked closer to him before placing a hand on one of his arms. This caused the depressed Autobot to look at her with curiosity and see that she had become nearly as sad as he was.

"I... I'm so sorry to hear all this," she said. "I shouldn't have said those mean things about you. Please, forgive me."

Wheeljack responded by letting out a deep sigh and admitting, "There's no need to apologize, kid. If anything, I should be thanking you. You and Rarity are the first ones to ever hear my frustrations. And you know what? Venting them like this actually helped me feel a bit better. So, yeah, thanks so much for helping me release them."

Rainbow slightly chuckled upon hearing that and then said, "Anytime, pal. I stay loyal to anyone who's got my back when the going gets rough and I'm pretty sure deep down, you feel the same. I mean, all of your remaining comrades, especially your leader Optimus, look like they'd do anything to help you out when you're sad or in trouble. Isn't it unfair to just leave them hanging when they need help? Sure, repairing broken stuff is important, but I think we both know that you're capable of doing so much more."

Right after she said all that, Rarity came right beside her and added, "You'd benefit greatly from listening to Rainbow about this. She may be cocky and undisciplined most of the time, but she does know a great deal about loyalty to friends. We can always count on her to get us out of tough situations and in return, we always got her back when she faces a problem of her own. That's what loyalty really means and if you're not living by that rule, then you're doing a disservice to not just your cause, but also the memory of your lost friends."

Wheeljack started thinking really hard about what the girls had just said to him and shortly afterwards, he let out another deep sigh and finally found the will to stand on his servos again. Then, he declared, "You guys got a point. My friends who have become one with the AllSpark would definitely want me to keep on fighting and helping no matter how hopeless the odds may seem. That's what they always did anyway and I suppose it's only fair that I do the same."

"WOOHOO!", Rainbow suddenly exclaimed while throwing her fists up in the air. "Alright, that's what I'm talking about! Does this mean you'll go back out there and start battling Cons with your awesome swords again?"

Wheeljack chuckled at that question and explained, "Only when Prime orders me so. Until then, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Such as your project. I'll try helping you out with the best of my abilities, but like I said, it's been a long time since I last practiced being creative with any machinery."

Shortly after she heard that, Rarity got another brilliant idea and suggested, "Wait right here. I'll go get all the clothes Rainbow tried on today and she'll try them on again at the base. That should get your creative juices flowing right away."

Even though Rainbow both facepalmed and groaned very loudly, Wheeljack replied, "Hmmm... Sounds like a plan."

It keeps you and me intertwined

When the sun was close to reaching its peak position in the blue cloudless sky, a veteran Autobot scout named Bumblebee was waiting in front of a popular bakery called, "Sugarcube Corner", for his human companions Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle to exit.

Since he was given a direct order to watch over these girls during the next few days, he had spent the previous night inside Fluttershy's garage while she and Twilight had a sleepover, and in the morning, he had suggested taking the girls on a city-wide tour. That way, he could both keep an eye on them and stretch his tires for a bit. The girls, in turn, had readily accepted this proposal, since it was a great opportunity for them to get to know their Autobot guardian better and for him to learn more about their culture.

Shortly after the trio had set out to begin their tour, however, the girls wanted to make a quick stop at the Sugarcube Corner to pick up coffee and pastries so that they could "begin their day", so to speak. Bumblebee had granted their wish and, therefore, was currently waiting for them to complete their purchase while remaining in his car mode just outside the said bakery.

Unfortunately, the girls were standing in a long line inside the building and the line itself was moving very slowly. After observing that his companions were only taking a couple steps per minute, the Autobot scout realized that he would have to maintain his position for a good long while. Therefore, in order to pass the time, he decided to partake in one of his favorite hobbies:

Listening to popular human music on his radio.

Specifically, he started listening to the songs made by the Rainbooms; the very same band that Twilight and Fluttershy were in. He had become a big admirer of their music since arriving on Earth and acquiring his alternate mode, and his favorite song happened to be a certain solo number from Fluttershy.

Coincidentally, that same song was playing in one of the channels at that moment and listening to it filled him with so much joy that he started dancing to it by swinging left and right. This caused the nearby pedestrians to give him brief confused looks and a certain cross-eyed teenage girl with yellow hair even stared at him in disgust for a few seconds before quickly walking away.

However, once Bumblebee noticed that his companions were finally exiting the bakery, he immediately stopped dancing, turned off the radio, and continued to wait for them in silence. Shortly afterwards, the girls did exit the building and made their way towards Bumblebee before getting inside his car mode (with Fluttershy sitting at the driver seat and Twilight sitting right next to her).

As they started taking sips from their cups, Twilight asked, "So, Bee, which part of the city would you like to visit next?"

Bumblebee responded by making a series of buzzing noises and Fluttershy translated them to Twilight, "He doesn't really have a preference. Since we've been living here a lot longer than he has, he thinks it only makes sense that... Wait a minute. How do you know I have an amazing singing voice?"

In response, the Autobot scout began searching through various radio channels until he found one that was playing the same song he was listening to earlier and once Fluttershy heard it, a cringed expression appeared on her face and she also covered her face with both hands before letting out a small groan.

On the other hand, Twilight had a big smile on her face and shortly after Fluttershy's groan, she happily exclaimed, "WOW! They're already playing your song on the radio? It's been less than a week since you sent that recording to the studio."

Upon hearing that, Fluttershy removed her hands from her face, and replied with a worried tone, "You know, I actually kinda regret letting Vinyl talk me into doing that. I mean, this isn't even my best singing, anyway."

Immediately afterwards, Bumblebee made another series of buzzing sounds, causing Fluttershy's eyes to widen and her jaw to drop. Then, she asked, "Really? This is you favorite song of all time?"

The Autobot scout responded by making buzzing noises that sounded a lot happier than the previous ones, which made Fluttershy happy in return and even caused her to gently stroke the dashboard before saying, "Awww... Thanks for that compliment, Bee! I promise, the next time I sing a solo number with 'the sweetest voice you've ever heard', you'll be the first to hear it."

Bumblebee's response was even more happy-sounding buzzing noises and after Twlight watched all of this with a big smile on her face, she heard a text message arrive to her phone. Upon opening it, she let out a gasp and announced, "It's from Sour Sweet. She's practicing archery at Crystal Prep and wants to meet up there."

"Isn't that the Crystal Prep girl who was really mean to you during the Friendship Games?" asked Fluttershy.

"Well, yeah, but ever since the music video we did with her and the other Crystal Prep girls, she's been a lot nicer," Twilight revealed. "In fact, I asked her to look after Spike during the weekend, since my brother was busy planning his wedding with Cadance and our parents are on a cruise ship at the moment. Anyway, I told her last night that we had to cut our trip short because of a flat tire making us late to the concert, and she said I could pick Spike up whenever and wherever she would be available today. Guess that means we have to make a quick stop at Crystal Prep."

Then, she turned towards the dashboard and asked, "What do you say, Bee? Wanna take a look at my old school, and meet both my dog and a new friend of mine?"

In response, Bumblebee made buzzing noises that sounded like an approval and started his engine before driving towards their next destination.

Upon arriving at Crystal Prep, the Autobot scout parked himself in a completely empty parking lot that was situated right beside an equally empty track and field stadium. Then, Twilight and Fluttershy got out of the vehicle, and began walking towards the entrance of the stadium and once they went through it, they saw a girl standing in the rectangular grass field located at the very center of the stadium, holding a bow with both hands, carrying a quiver with at least a dozen arrows on her back, and repeatedly shooting arrows at three spinning targets directly in front of her.

She had pale, light grayish gold skin, moderate indigo eyes with grayish aquamarine eyeshadow, and moderate rose hair with lighter moderate rose and grayish aquamarine streaks. Moreover, she was wearing a reddish-purple vest over a light blue t-shirt, a dark-blue bow tie, black shoes, a reddish-purple tartan skirt, and indigo knee socks.

After repeatedly hitting each of the targets right in their centers five times and emptying her quiver, she took a moment to wipe some sweat from her brow and drank an entire bottle of water next to her. Just as she was about walk towards the targets and retrieve her arrows, she noticed Twilight and Fluttershy coming closer to her.

Therefore, she happily waved at them and exclaimed, "Hey, girls! Over here! Wanna practice with me before you go? I've brought a spare bow with me."

"No, thanks, Sour Sweet," Twilight replied. "If you don't mind, we're just gonna pick up Spike and be on our way. Also, thank you so much for looking after him yesterday. I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

"Oh, no trouble at all," revealed Sour Sweet. "I mean, sure, him talking was disturbing at first, but we got along quite well."

"Yep, we sure did," a voice coming from the ground told them and once the girls looked down, they saw a purple dog with green eyes, green hair, and green underbelly staring at them and wiggling his tail. Upon taking one look at him, Twilight excitedly grabbed him with both hands and gave him a big hug while he started licking her face.

"Spike! It's so great to see you again!" she exclaimed. "Did you have a good time with Sour Sweet?"

"Oh, you bet I did," replied Spike. "I can't wait to tell you guys all the fun stuff we did yesterday."

"Well, we have so much to tell you too, actually," Twilight explained. "So, let's go home quickly and exchange some stories."

Spike responded with a nod of approval and Twilight started carrying him outside the stadium, with Fluttershy and Sour Sweet following them from behind. Once they walked through the entrance and started heading towards the Camaro only a few feet away from them, a confused expression appeared on Spike's face and he asked, "Um, since when do you or Fluttershy have a car as fancy as this? Or does it belong to a new friend you made in Baltimore?"

Upon hearing that, Sour Sweet let out a loud gasp and exclaimed, "Oh, my gosh, Twilight! Did you meet a celebrity there? Who was it? A movie star? A pop singer?"

Twilight and Fluttershy both stammered a bit, but before they could give a proper explanation, Bumblebee started its engine, tranformed into his robot mode, and pointed one of his fingers directly towards Spike while making buzzing noises that sounded both excited and concerned at the same time. Sour Sweet and Spike began screaming in pure terror at this sight, with being Sour Sweet frozen still and Spike jumping off of Twilight's arms before hiding behind Sour Sweet's legs. Meanwhile, the remaining girls held out theirs hands in front of Bumblebee in a desperate effort to calm him down.

"WHOA! Bee, please calm down!", Twilight frantically shouted. "Fluttershy, what's wrong with him? What is he saying?"

"He's asking how could a dog be able to talk when none of the animals on this planet are intelligent enough to do so," Fluttershy replied. "He also wants to know if what made Spike talk in the first place could help him talk normally too."

Upon hearing all that, a shocked expression briefly appeared on Twilight's face before she started thinking about what she should say to her Autobot friend. After several seconds of deep contemplation, she took a deep breath and asked, "Bee, what exactly do you mean by 'talking normally?' Did you lose your original voice some time ago?"

The second she said that, Bumblebee's optics widened exponentially and he stared at Twilight in complete silence for a few seconds. Then, he looked away from her and his facial expression visibly saddened while he started scratching his head.

Seeing him like this made Twilight walk closer to him, touch his right leg, and softly say, "Hey, it's okay. We're your friends. You can tell us anything."

The Autobot scout stared at her for a few more seconds before he took a deep breath, kneeled before her, and started making a long series of buzzing noises while Fluttershy translated each sentence.

"It happened during the final chapters of the war on Cybertron," she began. "He was on a scouting mission in a ruined settlement called, 'Tyger Pax'. While sneaking into a secret Decepticon outpost there, he was spotted and captured by soldiers, who brought before their leader, Megatron. He interrogated Bee for information and when Bee refused to do so, Megatron became furious and..."

Suddenly, she let out a horrified gasp, covered her mouth with both hands, and even started shedding tears. A concerned Twilight then placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and asked, "Fluttershy, what is it? What happened next?"

Fluttershy turned her tear-soaked face directly towards her, removed her hands from her mouth, and revealed, "He... He ripped out Bee's voice box... and left him for dead. Sometime later, the Autobot leader Optimus Prime led a raid on the outpost, rescued Bee, and brought him to Ratchet for treatment. Although Ratchet healed his wounds, he couldn't do anything about his voice. It's... been like this ever since that day."

Upon being finished translating this tragic tale, Fluttershy continued to sob and Twilight gave her a hug in order to calm her down while also shedding a few tears herself.

She then looked directly at Bumblebee's equally saddened face and managed to explain, "I... I'm so sorry to hear that, Bee. I can't possibly imagine how painful this experience must've been for you. If there was anyhting I could do to help you regain your voice... Believe me, I would start working on it in a hearbeat. Sadly, I know next to nothing about Cybertronian biology and learning everything there is to know about it could easily take several years. Also, Spike gained the ability to speak through an accident involving Equestrian magic and even if we successfully recreate that accident, we have no idea how magic will affect your body. It could very well tear you apart. I'm sorry. I truly am."

Bumblebee listened to all this very carefully and when Twilight finally finished talking, he hung his head in defeat and nodded a few times, indicating that although he was sad that Twilight was unable to help him, he did understand the reasons for it.

Twilight tried to think of something comforting to say to him and eventually came up with, "Hey, come on. I know this really sucks, but it's not the worst thing in the universe. I mean, the other Autobots can understand you clearly, right?"

Hearing this question caused the Autobot scout to contemplate on Twilight's words before gently touching his throat and making another series of buzzing noises full of sorrow. When he was finished, Fluttershy slowly let go of Twilight and tearfully translated, "All the other Autobots do understand him, but Bee still misses the sound of his own voice. When he first tried to speak without his voice box, he felt like a piece of his identity had been stolen from him."

That revelation made Twilight first widen her eyes and open her mouth in pure shock and then hang her head in remorse while managing to say, "Oh... I see... "

Shortly afterwards, she felt something touching her right shoulder and when she looked to see who or what it was, she came across Sour Sweet, who also had a sorrowful expression on her face. She handed Fluttershy a pair of napkins and as her friend blew her nose on them, she stated, "But, Twi, you are the smartest person I've ever met. Can't you just figure out something that can help this poor thing speak with actual words? Heck, there's an even entire song about you inventing stuff like that."

The second Bumblebee heard that remark, he remembered the song Sour Sweet was talking about. Then, he started searching through the radio channels to find it and when he finally did, he played the part with the lyrics:

"Here I go, not looking back
Working hard and right on track
It's meant to be, all will see
It fits together perfectly"

However, it only caused Twilight to facepalm and exclaim with great annoyance in her voice, "Okay, stop! Both of you, please stop! First of all, I may have an IQ score higher than everyone in both Crystal Prep and CHS, but I am not smart enough to invent stuff like alien voice boxes or sentient robot dogs overnight. Secondly, you cannot justify this claim by playing a generic pop song that I- "

Just then, she was silenced by a sudden realization dawned on her mind and she remained completely siilent for at least a couple of seconds while a huge smile formed on her face. It was only after Sour Sweet asked, "Um, you okay, Twilight?", that she regained her senses.

Then, she declared, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. I just had an idea that's a bit crazy, but there is a possibility that it could work. Bee, let's say I'm about to study for a really hard exam. What would you say to motivate me to study harder?"

Though he was rather surprised by that question, Bumblebee thought about its answer for a few moments before an idea popped up in his mind, and he once again began to search through various radio channels until he found and started playing a particular song Twilight had sung while she and her friends were studying for their finals last year.

"Yes, that's it!", Twilight joyfully exclaimed. "Now, try to tell us your name and where you came from by using the words you hear on the radio."

Bumblebee initially looked at her with some unsurety, but he eventually nodded in approval and began to do what she had asked. Using the words uttered by various people on the radio, he formed the sentence, "My name is Bumblebee. I come from a distant and desolate world IN SPAAAACE!"

Hearing this made all three of the girls gasp in pure excitement and Twilight exclaimed, "Yes, yes, YES! You did it, Bee! You just formed a full sentence by speaking through the radio!"

Just then, Bumblebee's optics widened with realization and he touched his throat once again before stood back up, jumped up in the air while raising both of his fists and shouting, "I can talk! I can talk! I CAN SIIIIIING!"

Although the ground shook a little from his jumping and made it difficult for the girls to maintain their balance, they still continued to smile at this miracle and he eventually stopped jumping. Unfortunately, he then grabbed Twilight and Fluttershy with his hands, and began hugging them while he repeatedly said, "Thank you!", six times. It was only after he heard their painful winces and the sound of a few bones breaking that he finally realized he was close to crushing them, and frantlcally placed them back on the ground. He even tried to tidy up their hair in an effort to make it up to them.

After the girls corrected their backs, Fluttershy stated, "Well, Bee, it's wonderful to see you learn to talk in a way that everyone understands. Do you think it's a good substitute until you get your original voice back?"

Bumblebee replied, "Well... Yes, I think it is. I still miss the real deal. But this suits me just fine for now."

Then, Twilight added, "Well, I really am glad we were able to help you."

In response, the Autobot scout gave her a thumbs up, transformed into his vehicle mode, and opened all four of his doors before he started playing a song with the lyrics,

"Looking forward to some fun
Knowing all our friends will come
'Cause we're here to spend the day
Everybody come and play"

Upon seeing this, all three of the girls and Spike looked at each other before they all nodded in approval at the same time and quickly got on the car (with Twilight and Fluttershy sitting at their original seats, and Sour Sweet and Spike sitting at the back). Once they were all inside, Bumblebee closed its doors and started driving away from Crystal Prep, intent on taking his new friends to wherever they preferred and spending the rest of the day doing fun activities with them.

What's a heartbreak if you ain't crying all through it?

Early in the morning, when Sunset Shimmer had excitedly agreed to patrol the streets of Canterlot City with the leader of a cybernetic alien faction who all had the capability of transforming into various types of vehicles, she would have never imagined that this mission would be one of the most tedious and boring ones that she had ever been a part of.

She and her Autobot guardian Optimus Prime had been driving through the said streets in his semi truck mode for well over two hours and they had already covered the entire city almost three times by that point. So far, the Autobot leader's sensors had not detected any Decepticon energy signatures and there was no unusual activity whatsoever. It was just a regular Sunday morning with people going from place to place, hanging out with one another, and generally having fun.

The only one who was having no fun at all was Sunset who had become extremely tired of staring at the city she had been living in for several years and being unable to notice anything out of the ordinary. Not helping matters was the fact that her new companion from a world completely different from both Earth and Equestria had not uttered a single word since the start of their patrol, not even when Sunset had turned on the radio at the end of the first hour and begun listening to not only some music, but also the local news in order to prevent herself from losing her mind out of boredom.

Unfortunately, this attempt only proved to be successful for about an hour and a half before Sunset turned off the said radio and decided to start a conversation with the Autobot leader in an effort to break the ice a bit. Therefore, after a few moments of thinking about the topics she could discuss with him, she proceeded to ask, "Sooo... ummm... You think that's enough patrolling for one day? What do you say we go back to either my place or yours? We can always go on another patrol tomorrrow morning or maybe this afternoon."

"I believe we should perform one more sweep across the city just to be safe," replied Optimus.

This caused Sunset to loudly groan in annoyance and proclaim, "Are you serious right now?! We've already covered the entire area three freaking times, man! If there were any Decepticons planning to ambush us, I bet they would've done so by now. Also, do you actually do nothing but work all day? Even when you're not commanding an army?"

"I no longer command an army, Sunset Shimmer. Only a very small team consisting of five Autobots are under my leadership at the moment," Optimus clarified. "Even when I am not leading them to battle, my duties as a soldier almost always prevent me from enjoying privileges like resting or 'hanging out with friends' as you call it. So, to answer your question, yes; I do nothing but train, strategize, and go on patrols when I am not leading my Autobots during missions."

"Oh... I see," Sunset replied with a surprised tone of voice. "And what exactly were you doing before you became a soldier and a leader?"

"I am sorry, but that information is not something I am comfortable sharing with you or any of your human friends," declared Optimus.

"What? What's that supposed to mean?", asked Sunset incredulously. "It's not like I'm not asking you to tell me about your entire life's story. I just wish to know what you used to do before the start of your war with the Decepticons."

"I understand your curiosity in this matter all too well," Optimus explained. "However, the details of my past is only known to a few select individuals and I would very much like to keep it that way."

Upon hearing that, Sunset let out a deep sigh and explained, "Look, if you're worried that I can't keep a secret, please don't be. Between yesterday afternoon and this morning, I talked to at least a dozen of my friends from both school and the sushi restaurant I work at, and not once have I mentioned anything about giant sentient robots from outer space who can turn themselves into vehicles. You can absolutely trust me to keep important secrets."

"I am truly grateful for what you have done for us," replied Optimus. "Unfortunately, this is not at all related to your ability to withold crucial information from your peers. If I start speaking about the part of my past you are requesting to learn about, you may not be able to comprehend any of the events that I would describe."

At that very moment, a flabbergasted expression appeared on Sunset's face before she furiously exclaimed, "WHAT?! Just... Just hold on a minute, mister! What the heck do you mean by I can't understand what you have to say? Is it because you did some shady or downright evil stuff before becoming a heroic leader? Well, guess what, I've been through the exact same thing! I did tons of things I'm not proud of before becoming friends with those other girls you met yesterday and it took a whole lot of effort to gain not just their trust, but also the trust of everyone else at school. So, if there's anyone in this city who could understand what you've been through, I bet that person is me."

After remaining silent for a few moments, Optimus finally stated, "I sincerely doubt that our respective experiences are even remotely similar to one other. Therefore, I find it difficult to trust your claim that you can actually understand what I have been through."

Hearing this caused Sunset's eye to twitch a few times and she even loudly growled in pure rage before opening the door next to her and shouting, "Pull over!"

Optimus could only say, "Excuse me?" before Sunset once again yelled, "I SAID PULL OVER! As in, 'move to the side of the road so that I may get off'. If you don't that, then I'm jumping off of you and into the traffic right now! Your choice!"

In response, the Autobot leader complied and drove towards a nearby junkyard that appeared to be abandoned. Once they were deep inside the said junkyard and away from the sight of the road, the truck came to a halt and Sunset quickly got off before walking towards the front of the truck and angrily declaring, "Okay, I've had just about enough of your attitude, Prime! You clearly have a whole lot of trust issues and the only way to solve them is to see what exactly happened before the war on your planet started. Since you're so adamant in not sharing the information I need with me, the only way I can help you is if I look into that information with my magic."

As she walked closer to the nose of the truck, Optimus asked with concern in his voice, "What are you planning on doing?"

"Something I thought I'd never have to do," Sunset revealed. "I'm going to use my power on an Autobot."

Immediately after saying that, she touched the nose of the truck and started exploring the memories of the Autobot leader.

What's a sunset if you ain't riding into it?

1st Memory Sequence

At the center of a giant coliseum packed with robots of all shapes, sizes, and color schemes stood a bot closely resembling Megatron on top of a humongous metal creature covered in razor-sharp spikes. Unlike Megatron, however, his optics were colored blue, his hands had normal fingers instead of claws, and the Decepticon emblem was missing from his chest. With that said, he still had his iconic fusion cannon with a hidden blade attached to his right arm and he had triumphantly raised it towards the sky. Even though nearly his entire body was covered in scars and dents from his recent battle with the beast, a wide smile appeared on his face upon hearing the crowd cheer for his victory by repeatedly chanting, "MEGATRONUS!"

As the gladiator basked in the praises given to him by the audience, he decided to address the bots shouting his name and began, "Though this victory may mark the end of my days as the champion of this arena, I am proud to announce the beginning of a new and much more significant carreer of mine."

"As of today, I have begun a political campaign that will directly challenge the authority of our oppressive government and, with your help, will bring about a brand new age for Cybertron. No longer will we be divided into castes and fight each other to death for Energon. Instead, each and every one of us will be treated as an equal!"

"So says Megatron, the champion of both Kaon and... THE PEOPLE!"

Immediately after hearing those words, the entire crowd stood up and erupted into even louder cheers and began chanting the new name the former gladiator has chosen for himself. The only one who was not saying anything, however, was a bot who looked very similar to Optimus Prime, with the only differences being his smaller size and the absence of any truck parts on his body.

Unlike the rest of the audience, he simply stayed in his seat and stared at Megatron with a curious expression on his face, which soon transformed into a small smile.

2nd Memory Sequence

The said bot was later walking inside what appeared to be a high-tech pub also populated by other bots of all sizes, shapes, and color schemes. From his facial expression and the way he moved, it was clear that he had become immensely tired and frustrated since the time he visited the arena. As he was making his way towards the bar, he spotted Megatron sitting at one of the corner booths on his own with two flasks of liquid Energon in front of him.

Upon noticing him, the bot initially became a little surprised, but soon composed himself and took a deep breath before walking towards the corner booth. Then, when he was right next to Megatron, he proceeded to say, "Um, excuse me, sir. Sorry to interrupt your evening, but- "

"If you are here for an autograph, you are wasting both my time and yours," Megatron interrupted without looking at the bot. "Have you not heard that I am now a retired gladiator?"

As he took a long sip from one of the flasks, the bot replied, "Well, yes, I have, actually. In fact, I listened to your entire speech after your last fight in Kaon and it's those claims you made in that speech that I wish to discuss with you."

Hearing this did cause Megatron to look the bot in the optics and ask, "Oh? And why is that? The only ones I can think of who would have questions for me regarding this matter would be the authorities, but I have never seen them visit Maccadam's before and you look much too short to be a member of the guard. So, who exactly are you?"

"My name is Orion Pax," the bot answered. "I work as a file clerk in the Iacon Hall of Records. For some time, I've been studying Cybertron's history and I've become deeply concerned about the corruption that has taken place among the higher social class. This is most certainly a direct result of the inequality among the masses that has been omnipresent ever since the end of the Golden Age."

"The higher classes continue to squander more and more Energon for themselves while leaving other bots with very little to share between themselves. This naturally results in conflicts between our people for every scrap of Energon they can find and, given how violent those conflicts can become somtimes, I want to see them end as much as you do."

As he said all this, an intrigued expression began to form around Megatron's face and soon after Orion finished his explanation, he stated, "Hmmm... On second thought, this conversation may not be a waste of time for us after all. Come and take a seat so that we can discuss these topics further. Oh, and please feel free to drink that flask of Energon I have not yet touched. It is my treat."

In response, Orion promptly sat opposite to Megatron and took a small sip of the said flask. Immediately afterwards, he declared, "Thank you so much for your generosity, sir. I guess 'the champion of the people' is a title that does suit you."

"Please, there is really no need for formalities," Megatron replied. "I shall allow you to call me Megatron if you allow me to call you Orion in return."

"Of course, um, Megatron," Orion said. "Anyway, what I really want to ask you is how are you planning on getting your message of equality accross everyone on the planet."

"That is an excellent question," declared Megatron. "The truth is I am not exactly sure as to how my campaign is going to accomplish this task. So far, I have gathered many supporters from the lower classes, including a few of my fellow gladiators. However, the rest of the population seem content with how the current system works and insist that the changes I wish to bring are unnecessary. We need hard evidence to convince them otherwise and I have been unable to acquire that thus far. That is, until I met you."

An incredibly confused expression apperared on Orion's face as he inquired, "I'm sorry, I don't follow. How would I be helpful in acquiring the hard evidence you need?"

"Well, think about it," Megatron began. "You organize the files at the archives, which is closed to the public. This means you have access to historical records that other bots, including the higher classes, have no knowledge of. You can integrate what you have learned into speeches and I can deliver them in the upcoming public rallies, thus enlightening our people on just how corrupt the caste system has become. What do you say?"

Upon hearing this proposal, Orion took a few moments to think about it before taking a deep breath and answering, "Very well, Megatron. I accept your offer, but I do have a condition."

"I must be beside you to present the information I've gathered to avoid suspicion and doubts from the public. I sincerely believe it would be easier to persuade the people if they know that the proof is provided by a bot who actually worked at the hall of records."

"If you accept this, I promise to support your campaign in any way that I can and I'll stand by your side as long as you fight for the betterment of all Cybertronians."

Even though it was visible from his face that Megatron was a bit irritated by this condition, he nevertheless happily exclaimed, "Splendid! I knew this discussion would not be a waste of time at all. In fact, I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful parnership."

He then raised his flask and declared, "To a new Golden Age."

In turn, Orion raised his flask and said, "Where every bot can live as an equal."

Immediately afterwards, they clinked their flasks.

3rd Memory Sequence

Directly in front of what looked like a gigantic plaza filled with skyscrapers and a large number of robots was a podium where Megatron was standing with Soundwave and Shockwave on his left, and Orion on his right. Around them were several banners with the Decepticon insignia on them.

"HEAR ME, CYBERTRON!" Megatron began his latest speech. "For eons, I have fought for your entertainment in the gladitorial arena. Now, I wish to fight for your rights in the political arena!"

"The time has come for us to start dictating our own destinies. I see a future where all of our people can thrive without any social classes whatsoever! Let us all stand together and help usher in this new era!"

"TIL ALL ARE ONE!"

The entire crowd loudly cheered upon hearing those words and began chanting his name. In response, he proudly smiled upon the audience and even raised his right fist in a triumphant manner, which only caused the crowd to cheer even louder. He then looked towards Orion, who was smiling proudly back at him.

"Looks like the strategy has worked better than either of us expected" he stated. "It won't be too long before the High Council take notice of this and invite you to their chambers so that you could explain your cause to them."

Megatron slightly chuckled at this and placed his left hand on Orion's right shoulder before declaring, "I think you mean our cause, my friend. I could not have gathered so much support without you. This makes your contribution, by far, the most important one and for that, I am eternally grateful. When the council finally requests my presence in their chambers, I want you to be there by my side."

Orion responded by placing his right hand on Megatron's left shoulder and said, "Like always, my friend."

The two bots then softly smiled at each other.

4th Memory Sequence

The said council chamber was a large circular room with a platform containing seven council members situated several dozen feet above the circle both Megatron and Orion were standing on. While it was nearly impossible to make out their actual shapes and color schemes due to the light emanating from the huge window behind them, the glowing red lights on their bodies and their blue optics were fairly visible. Also, all of them appeared to be about the same as Megatron's height and the one in the middle was holding a long staff shaped like a spear, indicating that he was the leader of the council.

"There seems to be a contradiction between your words and your actions, Megatron" the leader stated with a rather deep voice. "You profess your desire to bring about a new age of prosperity for all Cybertronians, yet the things your followers have done recently do not indicate that at all. There are reports of several riots and bombings carried out by your supporters coming from all over the planet. In addition, Sentinel Zeta Prime is reported to have been kidnapped by his own Seeker bodyguards. If the rumors are to be believed, their commander Starscream has proclaimed allegiance to your cause. How do you respond to these allegations?"

"I had no prior knowledge of these crimes until you brought them up just now," Megatron revealed. "I can assure you that these are merely the actions of a handful of the more radical members of my party and that the said radicals will soon be dealt with for their reckless behavior. What they have done is certainly not the way I wish to reform Cybertron."

"So you say", declared the council leader. "May we ask what is the actual way you are planning to reform Cybertron?"

In response, Megatron let out a slight menacing chuckle before replying, "By becoming the next Prime, of course."

Hearing these words caused the entire council to break out into arguments with one another. Even Orion had a look of shock and confusion on his face. However, a few moments later, the council leader banged his staff on the floor half a dozen times, which helped him silence his fellow members.

Then, everyone turned their attention back towards Megatron and the leader asked, "And what qualities do you have that would count as proof that you are worthy of being the leader of Cybertron? Adopting the name of a former Prime and gathering a large number of followers to start a revolution hardly qualify you as a worthy candidate, Megatron."

"The answer is actually quite obvious", Megatron stated. "Only I possess the strength and willpower necessary to maintain order throughout the entire planet. Once you bestow my rightful title upon me, I will be able to keep all the promises I have made to my people during my campaign. Every single Cybetronian will become an equal under my leadership and everyone besides me will receive the same amount of Energon."

"On top of all that, I shall decimate the whollly corrupt old guard and establish a new elite security force led by the former gladiators I knew from Kaon. Anyone who would dare to disrupt the peace and prosperity I am about to bring to Cybertron will be severely punished. Especially the members of the soon to be formerly high class, who made everyone else suffer with their greed for centuries!"

While the council members were visibly disturbed from what they had heard, Orion had a look of utter disgust on his face. As the said members deliberated among themselves more quietly than last time, he interrupted them by firmly declaring, "No, Megatron. Everything you just said is morally wrong. What you seek is not equality, but power."

"I've spent many nights in the archives studying Cybertron's history and according to what I've read, true Primes never saw themselves superior to their subjects nor enforced their will in such brutal fashion. Instead, they all respected the ability of their people to choose their own destinies and become autonomous bots; or 'Autobots' as the term is pronounced."

"I respect that notion with all my spark, but it seems you have no respect for it at all. I now see that you have no desire to fight for the betterment of our people after all and thus, I no longer wish to follow you."

Upon hearing all that, a furious expression appeared on Megatron's face and he looked Orion square in the optics as he stated, "Thread carefully, my friend. I am willing to do this with or without your assistance. If you will not stand with me, then you stand against me."

"I will never stand with you on this", Orion replied.

"THEN, YOU ARE AN IMBECILE WITH A DEATH WISH!", shouted Megatron as he prepared to punch Orion in the face.

However, he stopped when the council leader proclaimed, "On the contrary, Megatron, he has spoken very wisely. In fact, he seems to be more wise than you could ever hope to be. We all share this opinion and we have made our decision. For the first time since the Golden Age, here stands someone worthy of being a Prime."

"Orion Pax, you are hereby chosen as the next leader of the autonomous people of Cybertron. Henceworth, you shall be known as 'Optimus Prime' and your first assignment is to obtain the long lost Matrix of Leadership, so that your new title could be officialized."

While the entire council started clapping for this announcement, both Orion and Megatron had completely shocked expressions on their faces. Unfortunately, the rage on Megatron's face soon returned and as soon as his eyes turned red, he grabbed Orion by the neck and started crushing his throat.

"This has always been your endgame!", he yelled. "You took advantage of our friendship and stole what is rightfully mine!"

As Orion started shaking his head in denial, the council leader exclaimed, "Stand down, Megatron! Let him go and we promise not to press any charges!"

"YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A PACK OF FOOLS! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU IS PART OF THE PROBLEM!", replied Megatron before blasting every single one of them with his fusion cannon and throwing Orion right towards a nearby wall.

As his former friend struggled to stand back up, he turned towards the exit at the other end of the room and said without looking at Orion, "Tomorrow is the beginning of the end for you and your ilk, 'Optimus Prime'. The next time we see each other, it shall be in a battle over the fate of our entire planet. I hope you will be ready for that fight, because I am not planning on being as merciful as I am today. Farewell for now, old friend."

As he casually began to walk away from Orion and towards the exit, he pressed on left side of his head and ordered, "Do it."

Immediately afterwards, the sound of several explosions started coming from outside. By the time Megatron had reached the exit, Orion had just managed to regain enough of his strength to get back up and walk again. When his former friend was out of sight, he hastily limped towards the exit and became horrified upon looking at the state of the city they were in.

All he could do was to whimper a regretful "No" at the sight of complete devastation with several crumbling buildings and entire streets covered in flames, as well as the agonized cries of hundreds of innocent Cybertronians.

As soon as Sunset was finished with viewing these memories, she collapsed on the ground and tears began to form around her eyes. As she continued sobbing, she looked at the truck in front of her and managed to say, "Prime... I... I'm so sorry!"

Upon hearing that, the truck transformed back into Optimus Prime, who proceeded to kneel before her and ask with a tone of voice that was both stern and full of concern at the same time, "What exactly did you see?"

"I... I saw your home before the war," Sunset began to explain. "I saw you and Megatron being friends. I saw how you became enemies. How the war started! It was so awful!"

A sad expression appeared on Optimus' face when he heard this and he looked away from Sunset before stating, "Then, you know I am to blame for the war as much as Megatron is."

Sunset immediately became confused by these words and replied, "What? No... No, that's not true! I saw into your memories. You did nothing wrong. It was all Megatron's fault. He was the one wh- "

"Do you not understand, young one?", Optimus interrupted. "If I had not opposed Megatron and become a Prime, the war may not have begun in the first place. Cybertron may not have become barren wasteland it is today. We would have probably still had a world to live in, even though it would have been a far from ideal one."

"Instead, I fueled my old friend's anger and drove him mad enough to slaughter countless innocent lives and start a conflict that not only decimated our planet, but also threatens the existence of this one. Or perhaps the darkness in his spark was always there and I was too late to realize it. In any case, he and I share the blame in bringing ruin to our entire civilization, and he will not rest until I pay for everything I have done to him with my life."

"Quite frankly, I no longer believe this is a bad idea at this point. Considering all the Autobot lives that were lost under my leadership and Primus knows how many human lives that will be lost in the upcoming battles, my spark could be a necessary sacrifice to restore peace to this planet."

By the time he had finished speaking, Sunset's eyes had widened exponentially and a completely shocked expression had formed on her face. She continued to stare at the Autobot leader for a handful of additional seconds before she looked at the ground for bit in sorrow.

Then, she let out a deep sigh and said, "Yeah, I get what you mean. Screwing up so royally that you feel the entire world would be better off without you living in it."

Hearing this caused Optimus to turn towards Sunset in curiousity as she continued, "Like I said earlier, I did things I'm not proud of at all in the past. I betrayed the trust of my mentor, stole a magical artifact I hadn't earned, ruined several friendships, and even enslaved my entire school so that I could conquer the world I originally come from. In some ways, I was no better than you nor Megatron."

"When I was finally defeated and realized just how terrible my crimes were, I was given a chance to redeem myself through making friends. Sadly, most of the students were too angry at me for what I did to even try to befriend me, and I honestly don't blame them. But then, my current friends came to my aid when I needed them the most and saw that I genuinely wanted to change for the better. They've stuck by my side ever since that fateful day and though we sometimes argue over the silliest things, we've always had each other's backs in tough situations."

"So, if you ever feel like you've screwed up or made a tiny mistake, remember that it's always okay to depend on your friends for help. You may feel like nobody would be willing to be your friend, but who knows? Sometimes, friendships could be found in the unlikeliest of sources."

After she finished her speech, Optimus took a few moments to contemplate what she had said before stating, "Hmmm... Your words do have some merit, Sunset Shimmer. Unfortunately, those I would normally consider friends may have already lost their trust in me for how poorly I have served as their leader on both Cybertron and Earth."

Sunset turned towards him in confusion as he elaborated, "I have lost dozens of battles I took part in, sacrificed the lives of so many brave comrades, and failed to save our home from annihilation. Although we have taken refuge in this planet, our situation grows more dire each day as the Decepticons relentlessly continue to hunt us down and our Energon reserves dry up at an exponential rate."

"As the commander of what remains of the Autobot faction, I should be held accountable for these circumstances and I can feel that most of the team is very much dissatisfied with the way I have been leading them since the beginning of the war. How can I possibly hope to regain their trust at this point?"

Soon after she finished explaining, a warm smile formed around Sunset's face and she walked directly towards the Autobot leader before placing a hand on his right leg and saying, "Well, I can speak from experience that it's gonna be really tough. Probably the toughest fight of your life. But before you get started, you should accept a simple fact: that who you were in the past is not who you are today."

"The past may be unchangable, but you sure as Tartarus ain't. If you have a genuine desire to change for the better, then you have to show it to your team. Only then can they start to forgive you. If there's one thing I've learned since coming to this world, it's that someone can only be redeemed if they want to be redeemed. That may or may not be the case for Megatron, but I think it's definitely the case for you, Prime. What do you think?"

Optimus once again took some time to ponder on Sunset's words and a handful of seconds later, he gave the girl a warm look. Even though his mouth was covered by a face plate, his optics did give the impression that he was smiling. Soon afterwards, he replied, "I think you are wise enough to be considered a candidate for becoming a Prime, my friend. Also, you may call me Optimus if you wish."

Sunset responded by letting out a dry chuckle and revealing, "Well, I wouldn't really go that far, Optimus. I can't exactly live for millions of years like you Cybertronians and besides, becoming a Prime sounds a lot like becoming a princess in my world and I kinda missed my shot in earning that title a long time ago."

Upon hearing that, the Autobot leader gently stroked her hair with one of his fingers for a bit before stating, "Age has never been used to measure one's worthiness for that title. In addition, the future still remains a mystery and, unlike the past, it is always changable."

Those words actually caused Sunset to shed a few more tears and she even hugged the finger Optimus was stroking her hair with. He slightly chuckled at this, but the girl soon let go of the finger when she heard the sound of a text message arriving to her phone. As she looked at it, her eyes widened with shock and her cheeks turned red from blushing.

After finally reading the message, she turned to Optimus with a nervous expression on her face and explained, "Sooo... There's this boy from school that I like. Not as a boyfriend or anything, but as a refgular friend. Anyway, he's asked me out on a date tonight in a drive-in movie theater and I really wanna go. Of course, I can't really ditch our patrol and- "

"I believe both of us could use a little rest at this point", Optimus interjected. "If you enjoy the company of your friend, then it would be wrong of me to prevent you from spending time with him. Besides, this would be a good opportunity for me to learn more about the culture of this planet."

"We shall go straight to your residence so that you could have enough time to prepare for the evening. I know that it takes a long while for females such as yourself to get everything ready for these kinds of events."

Hearing this caused Sunset to stare at Optimus with dumbfounded facial expression as she asked, "H-hold on... You actually have some experience in dating?"

Optimus once again slightly chuckled before admitting, "To put it bluntly, those memories you saw earlier showed only a fraction of my former life as Orion Pax. I promise to give you more details on the road. In return, I expect you to elaborate on your former life in the world you originally hail from the next day."

After Sunset gave him a thumbs up and said, "Deal," the Autobot leader tranformed into his truck mode. Then, as soon as Sunset entered the said truck, it drove out of the junkyard and sped off towards their next destination.

Later that night, in the bridge of The Nemesis, Megatron was silently looking at the Earth below the ship from the window in front of his throne and contemplating the same memories that Sunset had viewed, becoming visibly more enraged with each flashback. Shockwave and Starscream then entered the bridge and upon both of them kneeling before their master, Shockwave announced, "Lord Megatron, all tests are complete. The space bridge is now fully operational."

This revelation caused Megatron to turn to his servants and say, "At long last."

He then proceeded to walk directly towards the said servants before stopping a couple feet in front of them and declaring, "Gather your forces, Starscream. The time has come to put an end to this senseless war."

Right after that, he clenched his fist extremely hard, held it close to his chest, and as his crimson red optics started glowing brighter than ever, he added, "Once and for all."

Let's drive into it

The next day, inside the secret Autobot base on Earth, medical officer Ratchet was wearing a pair of protective goggles and standing beside a metal table in the middle of the command center with all seven of the geodes, a flask full of liquid Energon, and a pair of tweezers on it. He proceeded to pick up one of the geodes (Rarity's geode, specifically) with the tweezers and drop it in the flask before starting to observe the resulting reaction.

Much to his surprise, dozens of bubbles were released from the geode, made their way towards the surface of the Energon, and the Energon itself started to change color, turning yellow in a matter of seconds. Ratchet took a moment to process what had just happened and then carefully picked up the geode once again with the tweezers. However, his hand accidentally touched the Energon in the process and as he started to examine the geode, he also noticed a significant change on his hand: the tiny cracks on his fingers that he got during the war were rapidly healing on their own.

As soon as he noticed this change, he dropped both the geode and the twizzlers on the table out of pure shock, and began to inspect his hand while also staring at it in awe. He was having so much trouble comprehending what he had just witnessed, as this was something he had never encountered or even heard of in his entire life. The only thing he could think of that was remotely similar to it was a series of myths and legends he had read in his youth about Cybertronian artifacts containing the power of regeneration. Unfortunately, he had become a much older and experienced bot since then, and learned that it is not wise to believe every story out there.

Then again, he also knew that all stories are based on something that had happened in real life and thus, he began to contemplate on whether or not the phenomenon he had just seen was the inspiration for any of the stories he knew of.

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted, however, when he heard a familiar voice in his commlink that said, "Hello? Are you there, Ratchet? This is Twilight Sparkle. If you're hearing this, can you lock on to our coordinates and open a ground bridge, please?"

Upon hearing this, the medic let out a small sigh and replied, "I'll get to it momentarily, but first, tell me how in the name of the AllSpark did a human like you manage to access this frequency."

"Oh, it wasn't too hard, actually," Twilight admitted. "After all, I learned how to hack into cell phones when I was still in third grade. That's what we humans normally use as long distance communication devices, by the way."

Ratchet was about to say something snappy as a retort, but stopped himself at the last second upon considering Twilight's words and instead, slightly chuckled before saying, "Not bad at all. Please, stand by for the ground bridge."

Immediately afterwards, he turned around, walked towards his computer console, pushed several buttons on it, and finally activated the ground bridge by pulling a nearby lever. As soon as the said bridge came online, Bumblebee arrived inside the base in his vehicle mode, and both Twilight and Fluttershy got out of the car. However, Bumblebee himself only transformed back into his robot mode after another girl and a dog got out, which caused an extremely shocked expression to appear on Ratchet's face.

"What?! What do you think you're doing?!", he frantically asked. "You can't just bring every human or animal you see on the street to this secret outpost. The last thing we need is more exposure."

"Whoa, easy there, doc bot," Twilight began. "Spike has been part of my family since middle school, and Sour Sweet is a really good friend of both mine and Fluttershy's. You can absolutely trust them to keep your existence on Earth a secret."

In response, Ratchet took a quick look at the said visitors (who were visibly awed by everything around them), let out a deep sigh, and said, "Since you and Fluttershy haven't really done anything to break my trust in you, I will let this slide for now. If I see a single photograph of an Autobot or a Decepticon on your worldwide web, however, there will be extremely severe conseqences. Understood?"

Twilight responded by nodding and then announcing, "So, um, I think a quick introduction is in order. Spike, Sour Sweet, this is Ratchet. He's the medical officer of the Autobots. Ratchet, this is my dog Spike and my old friend from Crystal Prep, Sour Sweet. Crystal Prep is where I went to school before Canterlot High, by the way."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir," Spike said while wiggling his tail.

"Yeah, same," added Sour Sweet while nervously waving at the medic, due to the fact that she was a bit intimidated by his size being even larger than that of Bumblebee.

However, upon seeing the geodes on the table right next to Ratchet, she pointed at them and asked, "Hey, aren't those the same gems that give Twilight and the others their magical superpowers?"

"Hm?", asked Ratchet before turning towards the direction Sour Sweet was pointing towards and noticing the geodes. "Oh. Yes. I've been running some experiments on them in order to learn more about how exactly this so-called 'magic' works."

"Experiments?", Fluttershy inquired with a concerned tone of voice. "Oh, my! I really hope they're not broken. I can't ever imagine losing the ability to talk to my friends at the animal shelter."

"Please, have no worries," Ratchet replied as he placed her and Twilight's geodes on his left palm with his twizzlers. "As far as I can tell, they remain completely undamaged. With that said, I strongly recommend that you test them out before making assumptions."

Right afterwards, he crouched and extended his palm towards the girls so that they could pick up their respective geodes. Once they placed them on their necks, Twilight used her magic to lift Bumblebee's entire body a couple feet off the ground (much to the Autobot scout's shock) and Fluttershy managed to gather a huge swarm of ants around her with just a few kind words, making Ratchet sigh in relief.

After putting Bumblebee back on the ground, Twilight gave Ratchet a content smile and said, "Well, you're absolutely right. There seems to be no problems with our magic whatsoever. Were you able to discover to learn anything useful from the experiments?"

"Oh, I did discover something useful, alright," revealed Ratchet. "However, I'm not entirely sure about the reason behind its occurence. I must consult with Optimus when he returns here. Speaking of which... "

He then pressed on the left side of his head to activate his commlink and said, "Autobot outpost Omega One to Optimus Prime. Can you hear me, Optimus?"

"Loud and clear, Ratchet," responded Optimus. "I was just about to contact you to request a ground bridge near my coordinates. What is your status?"

"Bumblebee and his human partners have just arrived here, along with a couple more guests," Ratchet began. "They've brought another human and a pet animal with them, though Twilight insists that they can be trusted with our secret and I want to believe her. Also, I've made a significant discovery regarding the geodes and would like to hear your opinion on it."

"Understood, old friend," Optimus confirmed. "I shall return as soon as you activate the ground bridge. Optimus Prime out."

Immediately after hearing that, Ratchet promptly carried out his orders and watched as his leader arrive to the base in his vehicle mode. However, he once again became extremely shocked when he saw not just Sunset Shimmer, but also a male human about her age get out of the truck before Optimus transformed back into his robot mode.

"Miss us, doc bot?", Sunset asked.

Upon noticing Ratchet's widened optics and mouth hanging open, however, she facepalmed and said, "Oh, where are my manners?! I should introduce you two!"

She then grabbed the left arm of the boy (who was admiring everything around him), pulled him close to herself, and announced, "Flash, this is Ratchet. He's the medical officer of the team. Ratchet, this is Flash Sentry, a good friend of mine from school."

"Hi there, sir," Flash said as he waved towards the medic. "Real pleasure to meet you."

Ratchet, meanwhile, finally managed to compose himself when he heard those words and though he stammered a bit, he managed to reply, "Um, same here. Forgive me, but I've noticed that, unlike Sour Sweet over there, you don't seem very intimidated by my appearance."

"Yeah, the thing is, I already saw a much bigger and scarier Autobot yesterday," admitted Flash while gesturing towards Optimus. "No offense, but compared to him, you honestly don't look all that imposing."

"I see," Ratchet said a he nodded a few times.

Then, he turned to Optimus and asked, "Is it alright if I have a quick word with you in private?"

"Of course," Optimus replied.

He then turned to his left and said, "Bumblebee, could you please give our guests a tour of our base in the meantime?"

The Autobot scout silently saluted him in response and motioned the humans to follow him towards a room at the other side of the command center. As soon as they were out of sight, Ratchet began to explain, "I have always respected your skills as both a warrior and a leader. However, you of all bots should have realized that revealing our existence to this many humans will put all of us at great risk. I have studied their entire history, Optimus, and believe me, they almost always try to destroy anything they see as different from themselves. Yes, the humans we have met so far seem friendly and kind, but what about the rest of their species? Do you really think none of them will try to exterminate us when our existence on this planet is revealed, even by accident?"

After hearing all this, Optimus took a few moments to process Ratchet's words before taking a deep breath and saying, "Were we so different? They are a young species and they have much to learn, but I have seen goodness in them. Much like us, they are capable of not just great violence, but also great compassion. In fact, one of them in particular has helped me realize something I should have realized a long time ago. That we cannot allow our past to dictate who we are today and that we must be willing to change if we truly want to atone for our past mistakes."

A surprised expression once again dawned on Ratchet's face when he heard his leader's words and after taking a handful of seconds to think hard on them, his facial expression became solemn and he placed his left hand on Prime's right shoulder as he replied, "Never mourn the past, young warrior. Thanks to you, our race has survived this long and I have no doubt that it shall be you who will lead us to victory. Like I said, I have tremendous respect for your leadership skills, but I also urge you to not let your personal opinion of merely a few humans to influence your judgment on the rest of their species. Most of them could be just like them, but it's entirely possible that the rest are the complete opposite."

Optimus once again took some time to ponder on what Ratchet had just said before placing his right hand on the medic's left shoulder and announcing, "I promise to carefully consider your words, old friend. As always, I am truly grateful for your honesty and counsel."

In response, Ratchet gave him a warm smile and said, "My pleasure, Optimus. Now, I think it's time I showed you what I've discovered so far about the geodes."

Optimus nodded in approval and followed Ratchet to the table near the computer console. Once they reached it, Ratchet grabbed the flask containing the altered liquid Energon and revealed, "I had been conducting an experiment to study the effects of the magic inside the geodes on Energon and the results are fascinating to say the least. When a geode is exposed to liquid Energon, the proceeding reaction causes the Energon to change both color and properties. I have run the same experiment seven times and though I used a different volume of liquid Energon each time, the result hasn't changed at all."

"With that said, the most interesting part of this discovery is the change in the properties of Energon. When I inserted the first six products into test engines, they not only worked, but also worked much better than before. Then, when I accidentally touched the seventh product, it quickly erased every trace of the damage my right hand had sustained during the war on Cybertron. It seems that this new type of Energon has some kind of regenerative abilites, but I have no idea on how to explain the reason behind it."

Right after Ratchet finished his explanation, Optimus began to stare at the flask with great interest while also pondering the mystery behind the new properties of the Energon it contained. A few moments later, he motioned Ratchet to give the flask to him and once he complied, he started taking a closer look at the product and continuing his mental contemplation.

Then, after several seconds of complete silence, he finally said, "Perhaps, there is a connection between our world and the one these geodes hail from. It could be a shared history or something much deeper. Whatever the case may be, I suggest we figure it out as soon as possible. It could very well be holding the key to restoring our civilization."

"Agreed," Ratchet replied as he nodded in approval. "I'll be running more tests for the next few days. If I don't discover anything solid in the meantime, then maybe we should- "

Before he could finish his sentence, the computer started beeping, and when he ran towards it in order to see what is going on, he saw a rather large purple dot on the southeastern part of North America. Upon seeing this, his eyes widened with horror and he managed to say, "No... This cannot be... According to these readings, our scanners are picking up a small concentration of... of... "

"Dark Energon," Optimus finished that sentence as he came close to Ratchet.

The medic then turned towards his leader with a bewildered expression on his face and asked, "How is that possible? We haven't detected a single trace of Dark Energon since we arrived to this planet."

"That may be so, but it is possible that some outside force has brought a sample here," declared Optimus. "I have a feeling that Megatron is the one responsible for this, but I cannot be certain until I see it for myself."

He then pressed the left side of his head and spoke to his commlink, "Wheeljack, this is Optimus. We have discovered a potential clue to a Decepticon scheme. I need your help in the investigation."

"Roger that, Prime," Wheeljack responded. "Sending my coordinates now. You can transport me back to base whenever you're ready."

"Very well," stated Optimus. "Stand by for ground bridge. Optimus Prime out."

Immediately after he said that, he pressed some buttons on the console and pulled the neaby level to activate the ground bridge, allowing Wheeljack to enter the base in his vehicle mode. Right before the said mechanic transformed back into his robot mode, Rainbow Dash and Rarity got out of the car, and started happily waving at the two Autobots before them.

"What's up, doc?", asked Rainbow during Wheeljack's transformation, which caused Ratchet to let out a slight groan.

"Aren't you humans supposed to be at school today?", he inquired.

Rarity replied, "Oh, we were, darling, but our classes are over for the day. We were on our way to Rainbow's house to finish up our science project when Wheeljack received your call."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Wheeljack said as he crossed his arms. "So, what exactly is this 'potential clue' you've found? Better be somethin' big."

"It appears to be so," revealed Optimus. "We do not yet know what exactly we have detected, but we do suspect that Megatron has something do with its appearance on Earth. That is why I want you to accompany me to its location and use your devices to determine its exact designation."

"I see," replied Wheeljack as he pondered this information for a few moments. "I'll make sure to gear up for the mission. My swords might also come in handy in case we run into either old Megs or one of his cronies."

Upon hearing this, Optimus and Ratchet briefly looked at each other in confusion before Optimus inquired, "I thought you were retired from combat. Have you changed your mind, by any chance?"

Wheeljack responded by giving a warm smile to Rainbow and Rarity (who were smiling back at him), and then declaring, "Well, let's just say, I've been recently reminded that I need to stay loyal to this team in more ways than one and that my generosity shouldn't be so limited."

Right after he said that, both Rarity and Rainbow started cheering for him while Ratchet once again gave a confused look to Optimus, who had started contemplating Wheeljack's words. A handful of seconds later, the Autobot leader stated, "Very well. You may bring any weapon you wish. However, since you have not been in a combat mission for almost a millennium, you may require some assistance in case you are injured."

He then called out to the room at the other side of the command center, "Bumblebee, come over here at once. We are going on a mission with Wheeljack."

As soon as he said that, the Autobot scout started running towards his leader with the humans and Spike not far behind. Once he reached Optimus, the two Autobots saluted one another before the aforementioned organics arrived at the scene.

"Hey, Sour Sweet!", exclaimed Rarity upon seeing them. "Long time no see. What have you been up to since last year's music video contest?"

"Oh, nothing much, Rarity," Sour Sweet replied. "I participated in a few archery tournaments, but only managed to win second place at best. There's another tournament next week and I'm training really hard to win that one right now."

"Well, best of luck to you with that. I am fully confident that you'll win the gold medal this time," Rarity assured as she placed her right hand on Sour Sweet's left shoulder, which caused the Crystal Prep girl to blush a bit.

"Thanks, Rare. Really appreciate it," she said. "Oh, and more thing. I don't usually brag, but I also can't help but feel pride for being someone who played a big role in helping Bumblebee finding his voice again. Isn't that right, Bee?"

The Autobot's optics widened with shock when he heard that and he even started scratching his head when all the eyes in the room were directed at himself. A few moments of silence later, he managed to use songs playing on his radio to state,

"Hey, hey, everybody
We've got something to say

(Look...) Look how we've all come together
(Things...) Things are only just starting to get better

When I put my hand out
And I thought I would fall
You knew what I needed
And you came around to fix it all!"

Utterly flabbergasted expressions appeared on everyone's faces (except those of Twilight, Fluttershy, Sour Sweet, and Spike, who were all smiling innocently) as soon as they heard these lyrics and the silence that followed continued for a handul of seconds before Rainbow broke it by asking, "Um, why is he playing the parts of our songs?"

"Well, that's actually how he's trying to talk to us," Twilight explained. "You see, he's using the words spoken on his radio to form sentences, including song lyrics. Of course, this is just a temporary solution to his voice problem until we can find a permanent one, but it's definitely an improvement over using buzzing noises to talk, don't you think?"

Then, much to everyone's surprise, Ratchet started laughing with pure joy, picked up Twilight with his right hand, and started hugging her while also exclaiming, "GENIUS! ABSOLUTELY GENIUS! PRIMUS BLESS YOU, HUMAN!"

Twilight, meanwhile, was literally being crushed by Ratchet's hug and soon started banging on his left shoulder in a desperate effort to make him release her. Thankfully, a few moments later, Ratchet noticed this and hastily put her back on the floor and as Twilight began to cough really hard, he nervously said, "Uh, my sincere apologies. It's just that I got a bit excited upon seeing one of my former patients make a giant leap towards recovery. I hope you can understand."

As she continued to cough, Twilight managed to smile at Ratchet and give him a thumbs up, which caused the medic to sigh in relief. Wheeljack, on the other hand, still had an utterly puzzled expression on his face and thus, he admitted, "I think my brain module has short-circuited a bit. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go drink some Energon and gear up for the mission."

While he started walking towards the same room that Bumblebee, the humans, and Spike had been in earlier, Optimus turned towards Ratchet and declared, "Though it pleases me to see that our valiant scout has managed to overcome his greatest obstacle, we still have one more problem to deal with. We need to find someone who can help you watch over the humans during our absence. Any ideas?"

As the two started pondering this, Flash suddenly interrupted their train of thought by asking, "Um, you guys do know that we're not kids, right?"

"Yeah, we're nearly adults!" Rainbow added. "We can take care of ourselves!"

Ratchet then sternly replied, "That may be true, but it still doesn't chgange the fact that seven humans and a dog are way too much for me to keep track of by myself. I need an extra set of optics to make sure you don't wander into a potentially hazardous section of the base and get yourselves hurt or worse."

Even though the organics were about to protest to that statement, they all realized at the last second that Ratchet had a point and thus, decided not to say anything. After a few seconds of contemplating who should be the one to help him out, Sunset explained, "Well, looks like the only Autobot available right now is Cliffjumper. Before you say anything, yes, we all know he can be really thick-headed and braggy sometimes, but he does seem to have a good heart and since he's paired up with Applejack, I bet he's learned a great deal about responsibility and honesty in the last two days."

Despite everyone around her visibly agreeing with her, Ratchet simply scoffed at these claims and said, "Please, the day he learns to be responsible is the same day Soundwave defects to the Autobots. Besides, even if what you say is true, bringing him here will also add two more humans to the base, making our job even harder than before."

In response, Optimus once again placed his right hand on Ratchet's left shoulder and replied with an comforting tone, "No sacrifice, no victory, old friend. I promise, we will try to come back as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, the medic took a few seconds to consider his leader's words before turning towards him and nodding in approval. Immediately afterwards, Wheeljack came near them with swords on his back and some gadgets attached to his waist, and revealed, "Alright, I've got everything we need. Now, let's go and see what you've found before it gets dark."

"Go get 'em, Jackie!", Rainbow exclaimed, which prompted the engineer to crouch before her and extend her fist towards her, motioning her to fist bump himself.

After she proceeded to do just that, he stood back up, started walking towards the ground bridge, and declared, "I'll do my very best, kiddo. Who knows? I might even bring you and Rarity a souvenir when I return."

"Really?! AWESOME!", shouted Rainbow, which caused Rarity to giggle at her friend's childish but undeniably cute behavior.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee was crouching in front of Fluttershy and Twilight, as the former said, "Good luck, Bee. I really hope you come back in one piece."

The Autobot scout then responded by using some song lyrics to say,

"Ya better believe I got tricks up my sleeve
See me dominate 'cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!"

Fluttershy giggled at that while Twilight and Sour Sweet high fived Bumblebee before he began to follow after Wheeljack.

While all this was happening, Sunset was asking to a crouched Optimus, You know, I'm kinda bummed that I won't be able to see you in action, but this mission really is too dangerous for humans, right?"

"I am afraid so", admitted Optimus. "Try not to worry, though. I shall tell you and your friends about every single part of the mission as soon as we return."

Sunset responded by giving Optimus a thumbs up before he turned towards Flash and asked, "Flash Sentry, can I trust you to watch over Sunset Shimmer during my absence?"

"Oh, absolutely, sir," declared Flash. "Also, technically, she's the one who saved my life on more than one occassion in the past. So, I think she'll be just fine on her own."

As Sunset blushed at that statement, Optimus gave the boy a nod in approval and proceeded to join his comrades near the ground bridge. Once all three of them were right in front of the said bridge, Ratchet activated it and announced, "I shall contact Cliffjumper as soon as you pass through. Good luck to you all."

"I doubt we will need it today, old friend, but thank you regardless," replied Optimus. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"

Immediately after hearing that order, both the soldiers and their commander transformed into their vehicle modes and drove through the portal in mere seconds. As soon as the trio disappeared, Ratchet turned off the ground bridge, but just as he was about to press the left side of his head to activate his commlink and contact Cliffjumper, he heard Spike ask, "So, uh, Mr. Ratchet... I heard you're the oldest and the most experienced Autobot around here."

In response, Ratchet gave him a somewhat irritated look and replied, "Yes, that's true. What about it?"

"Well, I just thought you'd have a lot of cool stories about the war on your planet and was wondering if you could tell some of them," Spike admitted.

The expression on Ratchet's face turned curious upon hearing this suggestion and he proceeded to inquire, "You want me to tell you about what I've been through during the war for Cybertron?"

Then, when everyone nodded at the same time, a smirk appeared on his face.

Meanwhile, inside a large and desolate canyon, a ground bridge popped up before Optimus, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack emerged from it in their vehicle modes. As soon as the portal closed behind them, the three Autobots transformed back into their robot modes and started walking along the canyon, while also activating the headlights on their chests so that they could see better in the cloudy and darkened afternoon sky.

While they continued onwards, they could not help but notice several limbs and other kinds of body parts of Cybertronians sticking out of the ground they were walking on. Every single one of them seemed to have gone offline a long time ago, since none of their optics were glowing and their entire bodies were covered in rust. In fact, all of them had agonized and/or horrified expressions on their faces, implying that they were all slain in battle.

As for the still-funtioning Cybertronians walking through this graveyard, Bumblebee and Wheeljack were both visibly disturbed by the corpses around them while Optimus had a much more somber facial expression. After nearly half a minute of marching forward and observing the graveyard, Wheeljack asked to his teammates, "Dear Primus. What happened here?"

Though Bumblebee responded with a simple shrug, Optimus explained shortly afterwards with a solemn tone of voice, "The most fierce battle between Autobots and Decepticons that has ever taken place in this galaxy."

Hearing this caused his subordinates to pause their march and look at each other in extreme shock and confusion for a short while before running to catch up to Optimus, who had already gone at least a few dozen feet ahead of them. Once they both reached him, Wheeljack curiously inquired, "Why would the bucket-head's plan involve this of all places?"

"I do have a theory, but I am also hoping for it to be proven wrong," Optimus replied with a hint of dread in his voice.

"Oh... That bad, huh?", asked Wheeljack.

However, before Optimus could answer that question, they all heard the sound of an aerieal vehicle coming from behind and turned around to investigate. Immediately afterwards, they ducked for cover as a gigantic Cybertronian jet flew past them at incredible speed before moving upwards and transforming in mid-air, revealing itself to be the vehicle mode of none other than Megatron.

Soon after the Decepticon leader completed his transformation back into his robot mode, he starting falling towards the ground and landed on top of a dead end in front of the Autobots without a scratch.

As his enemies began to stand back up, they saw that his normally crimson optics were now glowing purple and a devilish smirk appeared on his face before he proudly announced, "Welcome to your legacy, Optimus. It has been quite some time since we met face to face. I must admit, I have missed you."

"I wish I could share that sentiment, Megatron," the Autobot leader replied. "What are your intentions towards the burial ground of our fallen brothers and sisters?"

His nemesis responded by letting out a menacing chuckle and revealing, "I think we both know the answer to that question, old friend. You and your comrades will soon witness the incredible power of Dark Energon, or as the legends call it- "

"The blood of Unicron," Optimus finished the sentence as a horrified expression dawned on his face.

"Wait, you mean Unicron the Chaos Bringer?", asked a frightened Wheeljack. "I thought he was nothing more than a myth."

In response, Megatron retrieved a small shard of purple-colored Energon from his back and as his purple optics glowed brighter than ever, he stated, "Oh, he is very real, Wheeljack. His blood is now coursing through my veins. I can even hear his very thoughts in my mind."

Even though Bumblebee gestured to his teammates that their greatest enemy has gone crazy, the Decepticon leader continued, "I finally possess the key to achieving the triumph I have sought for eons. Now, it is time to give you a glimpse of both the power I command and the destruction I will soon bring upon this world!"

Right after saying that, he threw the Dark Energon shard towards the valley floor and as the energy emitting from the shard spread throughout the said floor, the corpses of the deceased Cybertronians began glowing purple and rise from their graves. On top of all that, they started growling like a bunch of wild animals and slowly advanced towards the Autobots with their arms stretched out in their direction, similar to how a starved or dehydrated person would act upon seeing food or water for the first time in an immenstely long time.

As they continued their advance, Megatron's entire body started glowing purple and he shouted, "ARISE MY LEGION! DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU SEE!", while the Autobots converted their arms into blasters and formed a small circle in an attempt to defend themselves.

"Are those what I think they are?", Wheeljack asked.

Optimus promptly replied, "Yes, I am afraid so. Megatron is using Dark Energon to bring the bodies of both our soldiers and his own back to life as mindless creatures bent on destruction."

While the said creatures got closer and closer, the Autobots started firing on them, but unfortunately, their shots did little to no damage on the re-animated corpses. In fact, the only real effect they were having on the undead Cybertronians was making them stagger a bit.

"Well, if all they care about is destruction, why aren't they climbing up the valley and attacking Megs?!", an extremely worried Wheeljack frantically asked.

"He must have established some kind of connection between himself and the horde by introducing Dark Energon into his body some time ago!", Optimus explained. "He will pay dearly for dessecrating the resting place of these brave soldiers!"

"Agreed, but we've got bigger problems to worry about right now!", Wheeljack exclaimed before one of the undead tried to grab him and he started struggling against it. "Blaster shots are barely slowing these things down! At this rate, they'll tear us apart in a matter of moments!"

Upon hearing that, Optimus turned his blasters back into fists, and started punching and kicking the oncoming undead while also shouting, "They cannot be invincible! Try looking for another angle!"

Wheeljack nodded in agreement, and knocked the undead he was struggling with both a headbutt and a front kick. He then retrieved the swords from his back and started slicing the oncoming undead into several pieces. Much to his relief, all of those pieces stopped glowing and moving upon falling to the ground.

"I've figured it out!", he announced. "Splitting the bodies into multiple parts should nullify the corruption for good! Smaller the pieces the better!"

As soon as he heard this, Optimus turned his hands into swords and doing as his engineer friend had instructed, soon achieving the same result.

"Excellent thinking, Wheeljack!", he declared. "We just might survive this ordeal after all!"

While he continued implementing the plan, Bumblebee was completely surrounded by the undead. Even though he was punching and kicking them away as quickly as he could, a number of them soon grabbed him from all sides, and started piling on top of him, clawing and biting his chassis in the process. As he struggled extremely hard to get them off of himself, Wheeljack suddenly came to his rescue by slicing up a handful of the undead with his swords and grabbing Bumblebee's left hand before pulling him out of the pile. Despite the fact that nearly the entirety of the Autobot scout's body was covered in scratches and dents, he was otherwise alive and well.

Wheeljack then gave his friend one of his swords and placed a hand on his shoulder while also saying, "See you on the other side."

Bumblebee responded with a nod of approval and the two of them started slicing up the undead together, even fighting back-to-back in an effort to repel dozens of them coming from all directions. As they, along with Optimus, continued their struggle against the horde, Megatron was watching everything from his spot at the top of the valley. As soon as he saw all three of his enemies start using blades to hold off his new army, a smirk full of confidence appeared on his face and he even let out a small chuckle, making it clear that he was finding what he was seeing very enjoyable.

Right afterwards, he pressed on the left side of his head to activate his commlink and declared, "They are distracted. Commence attack."

Back at the base, all the humans were sitting on the floor and their attention was entirely focused on Ratchet, who was standing before them full of pride.

"And then, as Optimus and Bulkhead held off the oncoming Decepticon soldiers, I carried Bumblebee all the way outside the stronghold and together, we boarded a transport that took us back to headquarters," he explained. "Though I couldn't restore his voice box, I did heal every single one of his injuries and saved him from becoming another causalty in our gruesome civil war."

Upon finishing that story, the entire audience clapped and cheered while the Autobot medic took a bow in front of them.

"WOW! That was an awesome story!", exclaimed Rainbow. "You're an actual war hero, doc!"

"Indubitably", Rarity agreed. "You really deserve all the praise and recognition you got in your world."

Fluttershy added, "We owe you many thanks for saving Bee's life. Without you, we would've never had the pleasure of being friends with him."

"I completely agree with Fluttershy," declared Twilight. "Your knowledge on Cybertron's medical science and technology must be quite extensive if you were able to heal all those injuries. If you don't mind me asking, could you please share some details on the kind of tools and techniques you used on this operation?"

While this got a lot of groans from the rest of the audience, she nevertheless retorted with some annoyance, "What?! I wish to learn as much as I can about this strange new world and medicine is a honestly a great subject to start with."

As for Ratchet, he started grinning like an idiot as soon as Twilight brought up medical knowledge and it was clear that he was really eager to share with her all he knew about the said topic. It was as if he had been waiting his entire life to talk about his knowledge and experience with a like-minded individual, and the opportunity to do so had just arrived.

Right after Twilight proclaimed her desire to learn as much she could about it, he declared, "Well, in that case, I would be honored go into great detail about the medical science and technology I studied back on Cybertron."

The second Twilight heard that, a gigantic smile appeared on her face, and she quickly pulled out both a small note book and a pen from her backpack (which was right beside her) and prepared herself to take notes as soon as Ratchet would continue talking.

Upon seeing this, Ratchet let out a small chuckle, cleared his throat, and began, "So, the first thing you should know about our medical practices is that- "

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring across the room and Ratchet quickly ran towards the computer to see what was going on outside. The moment he activated it, however, he became utterly horrified by what he saw:

A General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was flying right towards the base at incredible speed and even breaking the sound barrier in the process. When the humans came beside Ratchet and looked at the screen in front of him, Sunset asked, "What's the Air Force doing here?"

Ratchet replied with a voice full of dread, "That is not the Air Force," which caused distress among the group.

Then, as soon as he saw the jet arming each of its wings with dual missiles that had the Decepticon insignia on them, he shouted at the humans, "RUN!", before the said jet took aim at the top of the base and opened fire on it. Though the missiles failed to do much damage to their target, they did cause the inside of the base to shake a bit. To make matters worse, the jet increased its speed and once it was right on top of the base, it dropped a handful of bombs on it, causing an even bigger tremor inside.

In response, Ratchet quickly typed something on the computer and pulled the nearby lever to activate the ground bridge. Then, he ran towards the operating table, carefully placed all the geodes on his right palm, and handed them to the humans while exclaiming, "Quick! Take these and get out of here! I'm right behind you!"

They, in turn, immediately grabbed their respective geodes (with Sour Sweet and Flash grabbing Applejack's and Pinkie Pie's geodes respectively) and made a run for the ground bridge. However, they all suddenly stopped upon seeing a figure as tall as Ratchet emerge from it. When the said figure did come through the bridge, the entire group became immensely terrified by its appearance and began to slowly back away from it.

"You?! But how?!", asked an equally frightened Ratchet upon taking a good look at the new intruder:

Soundwave.

'Cause I'm bringing you back

Even though she had become extremely shocked by the sudden appearance of the Decepticon communications officer just like everyone else was, it only took a few moments for Rainbow Dash to regain her composure. As soon as she did so, the terrified expression on her face was replaced with a determined one, and she then quickly snatched the necklace holding her geode before placing it on her neck and exclaiming at her friends, "Guys, make a break for the ground bridge ASAP! I got you covered!"

Even though Sunset attempted to grab her shoulder in order to stop Rainbow, it was already too late as she used her super speed to get right in front of Soundwave and hold the geode for him to see while shouting, "Hey, tin man! You want this so badly?! Come and get it, then!"

In response, Soundwave extended one of the claws attached to his chest right towards her like a tentacle, but Rainbow once again used her speed to quickly get away from it. The same sequence then repeated for a handful of times, during which Rainbow's friends did not move a single muscle as they were all unable to choose between helping her out and doing what she had told them to do. Despite the fact that they all knew that she could keep Soundwave busy for a long time if she kept doing what she had been doing so far, they also had no idea what exactly this Decepticon was capable of and whether or not it possessed the ability to find a way around Rainbow's speed. As such, they did not like the idea of leaving her with Soundwave one bit, but they also could not help but think that they had to get themselves out of the base and into safety before more Decepticons (such as the one who transformed into the jet just outside) could show up.

After several seconds of contemplating this in silence, however, Rarity suddenly put her necklace on and started running towards Soundwave. Once she stopped right in front of him (and at least a dozen feet to Rainbow's left), she trew a couple of diamonds at the Decepticon's head, which unfortunately got deflected by a second claw that was extended like a tentacle. Immediately afterwards, she exclaimed at Soundwave while summoning a couple more diamonds with her hands, "Listen well, you faceless fiend! If you wish harm Rainbow or any of my friends, then you need to go through me first!"

While the Decepticon responded to this declaration by silently staring at her, a confused expression appeared on Rainbow's face and she turned around to see that none of her friends had done what she had told them to do. As a result, her facial expression turned from confused to utterly furious and she even yelled at them, "Are you freaking kidding me?! What are you guys still standing around for?! GO!! NOW!!! GET TO THE PORTAL!!!!!"

Upon hearing this, every single one of them started running towards the portal, thinking that Rainbow would stand a much better chance of distracting Soundwave with Rarity by her side. Thus, the moment Rainbow saw her friends moving, she nodded at Rarity with determination, to which Rarity responded by nodding back and continuing to throw several diamonds at Soundwave's head. As the Decepticon successfully deflected each and every one of these diamonds with a single claw, he extended his other claw in an attempt to grab Rainbow, but she once again managed to avoid it with her speed.

The same sequence repeated for a short while, but as the group went behind Soundwave's back and headed for the ground bridge, his head followed their movements and turned with each step they took. Ratchet, who had been trying to find someplace to store the flask of the new type of Energon he had created this whole time, finally came to the decision that ensuring the safety of his friends was far more important than saving his new discovery. Therefore, he smashed the flask into countless pieces by throwing it to a stone wall across the room, transformed both of his hands into blades, and charged directly towards Soundwave, intending to finish him off once and for all while he was seemingly distracted.

Unfortunately, when he was merely a couple feet in front of his intended target, the Decepticon communications officer turned his head around to face him and began emitting sonic waves from his body at such a high frequency that they caused everyone besides himself to cover their ears and scream in agony. Eventually, they were all forced on their knees and after a handful of additional seconds of this torture, they were knocked unconscious, with Ratchet (whose blades were turned back into hands) being the only one still trying to resist the sonic attack. Just then, the sound of a huge explosion came from the ceiling and when Soundwave looked up, he saw several rocks and a fairly large amount of dust falling down, reminding him of what he had to do next:

It was finally time to let the air commander in.

So, he stopped his assault on the Autobot medic and ejected Laserbeak from his chest, who proceeded to fly upwards and start blasting the edges of the ceiling. After completing two full rotations around the said ceiling, he flew back down and attached himself back to Soundwave's chest, who walked towards the ground bridge controls and pushed the lever up to close the portal. Then, just as Ratchet was beginning to recover from the attack on his audio receptors and stand back up, another huge explosion was heard and this time, the entire ceiling not only shattered, but also collapsed on to the floor, creating both a gigantic pile of rubble and a gigantic cloud of dust.

As the medical officer of the Autobots tried to shield his optics with his hands and even coughed a few times, the jet that had caused all this mess in the first place transformed into Starscream while passing through and dropped on to the floor. As soon as he saw Ratchet (who had nearly recovered his full eyesight), he pounced on the medic like a leopard, stabbed him in the chest with his claws, and pinned him to the ground.

As his latest victim grunted in immense pain, the Decepticon air commander yelled in pure unadulterated rage, "DID YOU THINK YOU COULD HIDE FROM ME?!"

In response, Ratchet grabbed his head with both hands, delivered a headbutt, and then, with the help of his legs, flipped Starscream over his head and threw him right towards a nearby stone wall. Upon quickly standing back up, he transformed his hands back into blades and tried to swing them at his opponent a few times, but the nimble Decepticon avoided all these attacks before slashing his legs from behind and forcing him to stand on one knee. He then delivered a powerful kick to Ratchet's face and knocked him against the same stone wall that he was thrown into.

As he turned his left claw into a blaster, he declared, "Now, you'll die screaming, just like all your weak and pathetic frie-"

Just before he could finish that sentence, Ratchet struck him with a shoulder charge and once he was knocked down, he turned his blades back into hands, grabbed Starscream by his legs, smashed him against the floor a few times, and then threw him to the stone wall that was right across the room.

While his opponent tried to recover from this devastating attack and stand back up, Ratchet decided to seize his opportunity and charged directly at Starscream with his blades. Unfortunately, the Decepticon air commander reacted more quickly and fired several shots from his blaster at him, severely injuring the old medic and forced him on his knees. Then, upon noticing that his opponent was not laying on the ground as he had expected and still trying to stand back up, Starscream proceeded to fire the rocket on his right arm right towards Ratchet, causing a rather large explosion on the Autobot's chest and sending him flying several dozen feet away.

He landed back on the ground with a heavy thud and after Starscream waited for a few seconds to see if he would get back up, he confirmed that the medic had lost consciousness and would not be moving any time soon. Therefore, he started walking towards the body while chuckling menacingly and once he was standing right beside his head, he stated, "Yet another one of Optimus Prime's most devoted followers has fallen. Lord Megatron made a very wise decision when he personally assigned me to lead this mission. Otherwise, it would've most certainly failed, given how much of a fight this Autobot has put up. He may be old, but he's far from obsolete. I suppose, I should also commend our master on his generosity. After all, he gave me the opportunity to strike a huge blow to the morale of our enemies and extinguish the spark of an undoubtedly worthy opponent."

As soon as he said that, he turned his blaster back into his left arm and aimed the rocket attached on it directly at Ratchet's head. However, after a handful of seconds of contemplation, he lowered his arm and declared, "Actually, now that I think about it, he's as good as offline, anyway. Considering the severity of his wounds, I am positive that his systems will shut down from Energon loss in less than a mega cycle. Besides, I've spent enough ammuniton during this assignment already and we have far more important duties to focus on."

He then turned towards his silent partner in crime and said, "Alright, Soundwave, it's time to bring forth the rest of our little squad, don't you think?"

In response, Soundwave gave a nod of approval and opened a ground bridge behind his air commander before seven Decepticon foot soldiers emerged from the said bridge, with the rightmost one holding a small cube-shaped box. Right afterwards, Starscream turned around to look at the new arrivals and pointed a finger at two on the far right while announcing, "You two, carefully gather the geodes and put them in the Energon Container. The rest of you will pillage and plunder this place from top to bottom. Bring me every single piece of technology and Energon the Autobots have hoarded for themselves!"

The soldiers saluted him in response and as they went off to fulfill their assignments, Starscream once again turned his attention towards Soundwave and said, "As for you, Soundwave, perhaps it would be best if you access the computer and salvage all the data you can find. After all, learning what our enemy knows would no doubt give us a significant advantage in terms of battle strategy."

Soundwave once again nodded in approval and extended his claws to connect himself to the computer. As he started downloading a large number of files from it, his air commander looked around the room for a short while and as he observed his troops carry out his orders, he put his claws on hips and smirked in satisfaction. A few seconds later, he pressed on the left side of his head and stated, "Lord Megatron, the mission has been a complete success. My forces and I have defeated the outpost's inhabitants and acquired our main objective. I expect we will make our way back to the Nemesis in short order."

"Excellent news, Starscream. Perhaps, you are not as useless as I once thought. Report back to me as soon as you return to the ship. Megatron out," replied the Decepticon leader as he continued to watch the ongoing battle between his undead army and the Autobot team consisting of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack.

While it was clear that the sheer number of his minions were beginning to wear the Autobots down, the trio were remarkably continuing to stand their ground, cover each other's backs, and slice down any and all resurrected soldier on their path. Even when one of them was grabbed, bitten, piled on by several of the undead, another member of the team would come to his rescue before he could get seriously injured. Even though he hated to admit it, Megatron did feel a certain admiration for the way his enemies were working together to defeat the legion under the control of his newfound power. It was most certainly a far cry from how they used to fight during their first few battles on this planet.

That being said, it would also make their crushing defeat in the end all the more satisfying.

After about half a minute of watching the battle unfold, he witnessed the Autobot warriors dissecting the last few of his zombified soldiers and thus, emerging victorious. Although all three of them were utterly exhausted and their entire bodies were covered in dents, they were still able to stand on their servos and hold on to the swords they had used to cut down the undead army.

Much to their collective surprise, however, observing all this had been quite entertaining for the Decepticon leader and so, he expressed his enjoyment by applauding, sneering, and also exclaiming, "An outstanding spectacle, Optimus! It pleases me to see that our war over the eons has not diminished your warrior spirit at all. Unfortunately, I must confess that your struggle, no matter how admirable and entertaining it proved to be, has also been utterly pointless. You and your comrades may have survived the prelude, but an inevitable defeat still awaits you in the main event."

Hearing all this caused the Autobots to look at each other in confusion for a bit before they all turned back towards Megatron and Optimus asked, "What do you mean by that, Megatron? How is your pursuit of the geodes related to the re-animation of these brave soldiers who gave their lives protecting our Energon supplies?"

In response, Megatron let out a very menacing chuckle and declared, "I can assure you, old friend, all will be made clear in due time. Besides, I believe you have far more urgent matters to attend to. Perhaps, you should start with returning to your base and seeing if you have lost anyone or anything."

"Wait, what? What's he talking about?", asked a visibly concerned Wheeljack to Bumblebee, who just shrugged in response.

The Autobot engineer then pointed one of his swords at Megatron and shouted, "You better start making some sense, bucket-head, or I'll come over there and wipe that smile off your face! Do you hear me?!"

"Calm yourself, Wheeljack. There is no need for further violence at this point," Megatron replied while also raising one of his claws and continuing to sneer. "If you wish to learn the truth so badly, then I suggest you do what I say and go back to your base. In fact, I shall see if I can expedite your return. Wait just a moment."

He then pressed on the left side of his head and asked with fake courtesy in his tone of voice, "Soundwave, if you are all finished up there, would you be so kind as to open a ground bridge so that our 'champions' could return home? They are currently about two klicks north of my position."

Only a handful of seconds after he said that, a ground bridge opened up right in front of the trio, causing them to glare at Megatron in suspicion for a few moments before they cautiously started walking towards the portal. As they were about to enter it, Optimus stated, "Stay vigilant, Autobots. This could very well be a trap."

His teammates nodded in agreement and they slowly but surely made their way through the ground bridge. Just after they entered it, the portal closed behind them and as soon as he saw that happen, a cocky smirk appeared on Megatron's face. He then transformed into his jet mode and flew away at astonishing speed, breaking the sound barrier in the process.

Meanwhile, back at the Autobot outpost, Optimus and his team finally arrived there, and once they exited the ground bridge, they became completely horrified at what they saw. The whole base was in ruins, the ceiling had collapsed on to the floor, and all the organics were lying on the ground unconscious right in front of them. Optimus only managed utter a simple "No!" before he and his teammates rushed beside their respective human friends in order to make sure they had not been hurt in any way.

In the Autobot leader's case, he kneeled right next to Sunset, gently grabbed her with one hand, and brought her closer to his face so that he could scan her body. The results of the scan showed no serious damage whatsoever and although this made him let out a sigh in relief, he also said with an immensely sad tone in his voice, "Sunset... I... I am so sorry. I should never have abandoned you like this. Please, forgive me."

He looked at the ground for a few seconds in sorrow, but then looked back at his friend when she suddenly groaned and started to wake up. Immediately afterwards, she partially opened her eyes and managed to say, "Optimus... Is that you? Thank... Celestia. We tried to get out... but the Decepticon... he knocked us out... with sound."

Even though he became slightly furious upon hearing this, the Autobot leader neverhteless replied, "Shhh... It's quite alright. Just rest and try not to speak. You have all been through enough for one day and you need time to restore your energy."

Sunset did as he asked and closed her eyes to sleep. After Optimus carefully placed her back on the ground, he took a good look at the destruction that had been caused during his absence. Then, as he gazed upon the fallen debris at the center of the room, he noticed Ratchet's severely injured body and immediately rushed to his side to check up on him.

"RATCHET!", he frantically shouted as he came right beside him.

Upon crouching right next to the medic and holding his hand, he said, "Come on, old friend! Stay with me! Please!"

Unfortunately, Ratchet remained unresponsive and when Optimus scanned him, he saw that the medic had not only lost too much Energon, but also entered stasis lock. The Autobot leader once again looked at the ground in immense sadness for a few seconds and then, he let out what could only be described as an epic yell of pure rage and frustration that was so powerful, forceful, and loud that it could even be heard echoing across the entire planet:

"MEGATROOOOOON!!!!!!"

To life

"What do you call the places where rocks sleep? Bedrocks," said Maud Pie in front of a microphone with his usual monotone voice, causing nearly the entire garage to burst into laughter.

Her audience consisted of her sisters Pinkie, Limestone, and Marble, as well as their distant relative Applejack and new Autobot friend Cliffjumper. They had all gathered inside the garage of the Pie family house after school and at the moment, they were sitting in front of Maud while listening to some of the jokes she was thinking about telling during her stand-up routine. Even though her sisters and Cliffjumper were highly entertained by these jokes, Applejack was visibly confused by them and was rather unsure of why the rest of the group would consider them to be funny in the first place.

"Alright, I've got one more for you", Maud continued. "Why are sedimentary rock collections always so cheap? Because, they're always on shale."

Once again, everyone except Applejack began laughing extremely hard and she looked at her fellow audience members with an utterly dumbfounded expression on her face. A handful of seconds later, the laughter finally died down and Cliffjumper exclaimed, "Sweet Primus! I haven't heard jokes this funny in a million stellar-cycles!"

"See? I told you my big sis was a certified genius in comedy!", Pinkie said with a gigantic smile on her face. "Don't you think so, Applejack?"

Immediately upon hearing that question, Applejack's facial expression turned to utter shock and as she began sweating, she nervously managed to reply, "Uhhh... Y-yeah... Darn tootin' she is. Real talent for cracking jokes she's got there. Hehehe..."

Even though Limestone raised an eyebrow at this answer in suspicion, Maud nevertheless announced, "Well, I really appreciate the overall positive feedback, but I have to go now. I need to be at the club in about one hour for my stand-up."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Maud," Cliffjumper interjected. "I can drive you there myself if you want."

"Thanks, Cliff, but there is no need," replied Maud. "My boyfriend will come to pick me up in a few minutes. It was really nice to meet you, by the way."

"Yeah, you're easily the coolest new friend that Pinkie has brought here in a long while," Limestone admitted. "Isn't that right, Marble?"

"Mm-hmm," Marble simply uttered as Maud opened the garage door, walked towards the front of the house, and started waiting for her boyfriend to arrive.

Cliffjumper then stood back up and declared, "Well, you're also a really cool family to hang out with and it's been a real pleasure to meet all of you. I gotta take AJ home before it gets dark, but we can most certainly meet here again tomorrow after school if you're up for it."

Both Limestone and Marble excitedly stood back up upon hearing this offer, and Limestone even held out a fist as she exclaimed, "Deal!"

In response, Cliffjumper gently fistbumped her and when Marble also held out her fist, he did the same, albeit in an even more gently fashion. Then, he transformed into his vehicle mode and opened the driver's door so that Applejack could get in. However, as soon as she took her seat, the radio started emitting a static sound on its own and shortly afterwards, Wheeljack's voice was heard coming from it.

"Cliffjumper, are you there?" he frantically asked. "If you can hear this, respond immediately! It's an emergency situation!"

Cliffjumper then replied, "Whoa, slow down a notch, Wheeljack! I can here you just fine. Tell me what happened."

"Oh, thank Primus you're alright!" began Wheeljack. "The base has been attacked. It's sustained heavy damage and the Energon stocks are completely empty. The humans are a bit shaken, but they're otherwise alright. As for Ratchet... well..."

While an expression full of terror took shape on Applejack's face, Cliffjumper asked with an equal amount of concern in his voice, "What? What happened to him? Wheeljack, what's going on?! Answer me!"

In response, Wheeljack let out a deep sigh and revealed, "It's best if you come here and see for yourself. Transmit your coordinates and I'll open the bridge ASAP. Wheeljack out."

Immediately after the transmission ended, an extremely worried Applejack asked, "What in tarnation is goin' on, Cliff?"

"I haven't the slightest clue, but we gotta get back to the others and find out," her Autobot guardian declared. "Transmitting our coordinates now. Let's hope the ground bridge isn't too damaged."

The moment he said that, a green portal opened up right in front of the car and Cliffjumper opened his other front door so that Pinkie could get in. Fortunately, she quickly figured out what that meant and hopped in the car before Cliffjumper closed the door and sped off towards the ground bridge. As soon as they entered, the portal closed behind them, leaving Limestone and Marble to stare with widened eyes at the spot where the said phenomenon that had just occurred.

"You saw that too, right?" Limestone asked.

Her sister promptly replied, "Mm-hmm."

"Oh, good," Limestone then said. "For a second there, I thought I'd have to pay my shrink extra for the session this week."

When Cliffjumper and his human friends finally emerged from the ground bridge, they found the base exactly as Wheeljack had described earlier.

There was indeed heavy damage all around them and the ceiling was almost completely demolished. The rest of the humans were gathered at the center of the room, and all of them were rubbing their heads and slightly groaning in pain. However, by far, the most horrifying part of the scene before them was what everyone (including all the other Autobots) was gathered around: Ratchet laying motionless on a giant operating table, his entire chassis full of holes and dents, and his chest being connected via a tube to what looked like a ventilator used in ER rooms. Instead of pumping breathable air, the machine was pumping liquid Energon into his body.

After several seconds of staring at the results of the events that had transpired during their absence, the trio started running towards the others. As Cliffjumper reunited with his comrades, Applejack and Pinkie were embraced by their friends, who nearly bursted into tears upon seeing them. They all hugged for what seemed like eternity before finally letting each other go and Applejack then asked, "Is everyone doin' alright?"

"We're all fine, darling," Rarity replied. "There's still a bit of a ringing in our ears, but besides that, we're okay. Can't exactly say the same for Ratchet, though."

"Why? What's happened to him?" Pinkie asked with an unusually solemn tone of voice.

An equally solemn Flash Sentry then explained, "Two Decepticons named Starscream and Soundwave attacked. While the former opened fire on the ceiling, the latter suddenly came out of a ground bridge that Ratchet had opened to help us escape. They must've known about this location for some time and been waiting for the right moment to strike. Anyway, as we tried to get away from Soundwave, he unleashed some kind of sonic attack and knocked us all out."

As Applejack and Pinkie winced upon hearing this news, Sour Sweet continued, "When we came to, both Ratchet and the room were like this, and Optimus, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack were checking up on us. They said that Megatron raised an army of undead robots with something called 'Dark Energon'. They beat the army, but it was meant to distract Optimus so that the Decepticons could get inside the base. What's worse, Megatron apparently claimed this was all just a preview for the main event. Whatever that is, it doesn't sound pretty at all and what we just went through will most likely be less than nothing compared to it."

Utterly horrified expressions dawned on everyone's faces when she finished the last sentence and as they tried to process all that information, Wheeljack came beside them and announced, "Well, the good news is that doc's not offline just yet. The Cons may have taken the entire Energon supply, but I had a secret stash hidden somewhere in storage just in case something like this ever happened. It should keep him stable for a day or two."

"The bad news is that we gotta refill our stocks soon and I can't be sure of exactly how much Energon we'll need to help him recover. On top of all that, we've got Megatron's new master plan to foil and like you said, it's shaping up to be the fight of our lives. We may all end up like doc in the end, but hey, we've been at this war for a very long time. To be honest, I'm actually kinda surprised that it took this long for something like this to happen to one of us. I always thought it would happen to Prime or Cliffjumper, but I guess life truly is full of surprises."

Right after saying all that, he hung his head in sorrow and soon enough, all the humans except Fluttershy did the same. She, meanwhile, walked towards Optimus, who was still staring at Ratchet's body with a blank expression, and once she was right beside him, she took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry, Optimus. What happened to Ratchet was our fault. We should've stood by his side and tried to fight Soundwave instead of running away."

Even though Optimus remained silent and did not say anything, Wheeljack had heard Fluttershy's words and thus, he countered, "Don't beat yourself up over it. From what've heard, there really wasn't much you could've done. None of you are used to fighting Cons, and Soundwave is among the toughest out there."

As soon as Fluttershy heard this, her facial expression changed from sad to annoyed and upon turning back to Wheeljack, she exclaimed, "What we are used to is fighting monsters and other evil beings! Sure, not all of us were present during the attack, but we still could've used some of our magic to make a stand! You Autobots keep risking your lives to protect us, so the least we could do is to prove that we're not a bunch of helpless kids!"

Wheeljack then replied with a slightly raised tone, "Look, none of us think you're helpless, alright? You just need a little bit of experience in fighting regular troopers before you move on to heavy hitters. Besides, if anyone's to blame around here, it's Ratchet himself. If he had contacted Cliffjumper's group and brought 'em here as Prime told him to, you could've stood a better chance of holding the Cons at bay before my squad and I showed up."

"Then, why in tarnation didn't he call Cliff?!" a tearful Applejack asked as she came beside Fluttershy. "I mean, I know he's not the strongest or the most caring among y'all, but I've seen him grow a whole lot in the last couple days. If any bot's qualified to help Ratchet out, it's Cliff!"

In response, Wheeljack let out a deep sigh and admitted, "I dunno. Maybe doc thought he could keep an eye on you by himself my squad and I left the base. Or maybe he didn't wanna endanger more lives when the Cons attacked. Or maybe-"

"ENOUGH!!!"

Hearing that loud yell from Optimus caused everyone in the room to stop talking and turn their attention towards the Autobot leader, who had also raised his right hand in the air. After a few seconds of silence, he proceeded to lower the said hand and firmly declare, "Blaming ourselves for this tragedy will not benefit us in any way. Right now, we must focus on fulfilling two main objectives at the same time: healing our friend and stopping the Decepticons from annihilating all life on this planet."

As both humans and his fellow Autobots stared at him in confusion, Rainbow Dash inquired, "Uhhh... I'm sorry, but how do these missions tie into one another, exactly?"

"Allow me to explain," Optimus began. "Megatron is in possession of geodes that can be used to create a more powerful version of Energon. It contains the ability to improve the efficiency of machines and heal the wounds of any Cybertronian. Though we may not know how Dark Energon factors into this plan, it is clear that Megatron needs the geodes for the plan to work properly. That is why we must retrieve them, as well as some Energon, from his warship before combining them together and using the product to revive Ratchet."

As soon as he was finished with this explanation, everyone started discussing what they had just heard in the form of whispers. Several seconds later, Twilight asked, "So, how are we gonna get inside the warship in the first place? In fact, how can we even find a warship that's constantly flying above the clouds without being detected by anyone on the surface?"

"Actually, I have found them," Wheeljack revealed, drawing everyone's attention to himself in the process. "When we got back here, I did a whole sweep of the place and picked up traces of a ground bridge with an energy signature different from ours. I traced it back to its source and the said source is indeed moving and above the clouds. That being said, we can only remain locked on it as long as it stays in a limited range, and judging from its current speed and course, it's gonna be out of range in a couple megacycles. So, if we really wanna transport ourselves there or open communications, I suggest we do it soon."

Once he uttered that last sentence, everyone except him and Optimus once again started whispering with each other and discussed the situation amongst themselves. As for Optimus, he pondered on what he should do in complete silence and a handful of seconds later, he let out a deep sigh, turned back towards Wheeljack, and said, "Then, contact the warship. I have a message to deliver."

Wheeljack responded by giving him a nod and then pressing a few buttons on the console right next to himself. Soon enough, he gave Optimus a thumbs up and the Autobot leader walked towards the console before stopping right in front of it and stating, "Autobot Outpost Omega One to the Decepticon Vessel Nemesis. We seek an audience with Lord Megatron as soon as possible."

However, when all they heard in response was static, he said with a slightly raised tone of voice, "Megatron, can you hear me? This is Optimus! I have a proposition for you!"

Then, after a few more seconds of static, he finally heard Megatron's voice replying, "A proposition you say, old friend? A most surprising development, but a welcome one nonetheless. Let me hear your terms, then."

"Return the geodes you have taken from us and I shall surrender myself to your custody," Optimus declared, causing the entire room to loudly gasp in complete shock.

"Hmmm... A tempting offer," Megatron said in response. "Tell me, what exactly is the catalyst behind this bold sacrifice of yours? Is it the critical condition of your long-time ally or the realization of your inevitable defeat?"

"Both, actually," Optimus firmly answered. "I have indeed realized that this is a war the Autobots cannot hope to win. Therefore, I have decided that we should spend the little time we have left in doing as many good deeds as we can. The geodes are an essential part of our new human friends and we can also use them to revive a comrade who is very dear to all of us. So, what do you say, Megatron? Are my terms acceptable or not?"

While the humans were all in tears after hearing this, Megatron eventually let out a sinister chuckle and replied, "Ever the hero of the weak and helpless. Very well, Optimus. I accept your terms. Hovever, I have a condition of my own: the humans you speak of must come to the ship alongside you. I wish to give them their precious geodes in person and show them a little... demonstration."

As everyone looked at Optimus in concern, he took a moment to think about about what he was going to say and then announced, "I accept," which caused another uproar of gasps from those around him.

"Excellent," Megatron then stated. "I shall send a squad to escort you here momentarily. Megatron out."

The transmission then finally ended and immediately afterwards, a visibly enraged Sunset ran towards Optimus before kicking him in the right foot and (despite the incredible amount of pain she received as a result) shouting, "What in the name of Celestia were you thinking?! You know as well as everyone else here that he's going to double-cross and kill us all in the end! So, why in Tartarus would you make such a stupid deal instead of figuring out a way to defeat him?!"

As she started breathing heavily in order to calm herself, Optimus took a knee in front of her and gently wiped the tears off her face as he explained, "Because I remembered something you told me yesterday, Sunset: that I should trust my friends and allies to have my back during a tough situation. You and I both know that I am partially responsible for this war, and I cannot atone for my sins without help from those closest to me. That is why the plan I have in mind will require all of us to play a part. Besides, you do not have to worry too much about what Megatron might do to you and your friends. Knowing him, I can already suspect what his 'demonstration' will be like and I promise that none of you will be harmed as long as you follow my lead. Do you understand?"

As he said all this to Sunset, her facial expression changed from angry to genuinely surprised and after taking a moment to consider what she had just heard, she both smiled and nodded at Optimus, who nodded back in response. He then stood back up, turned towards his comrades, and declared, "Autobots, I know the road that brought us here has been a long and painful one. We have all lost so much during the war and I realize that I have not been the best leader you could have asked for. That being said, our darkest hour will soon be upon us, and I ask each and every one of you to trust in me one more time. We are now in Situation Alpha and you all know what to do, but if any of you wish to depart, do so immediately."

The three Autobots all looked at each other for a short while and then turned back towards their leader to salute him. Even though his optics widened a bit upon seeing this, Optimus nevertheless saluted them back and even heard Bumblebee say,

"And hope shines eternal
And friends are all I need (All I need)
And hope shines eternal (Shines eternal)
And the future is always bri-i-i-ight
When you're here with me!"

Although all the humans immediately cheered upon hearing these lyrics, they were soon silenced by the sight of a ground bridge opening up near them and four Decepticon troopers, along with Breakdown, coming out of it. While his soldiers all pointed their blasters at Optimus, Breakdown took a quick look around the room and upon spotting the humans hiding behind their respective Autobot guardians, he gave them a vicious smile and asked, "How's it goin'? Did y'all miss me?"

In response, they all glared at him, and Spike even started growling and barking. However, he ignored all that and walked towards Optimus before stopping just a couple feet in front of him and declaring, "Alright, you know the drill. Hands above your head and no sudden moves. Else, you get shot. Understood?"

Optimus responded by doing what he had said without uttering a single word and right after Breakdown smirked at this, he went behind the Autobot leader, placed giant cuffs on his hands, and pushed him towards the ground bridge. Though this caused Optimus to grunt and stumble a bit, he calmly began to walk towards the portal and shortly afterwards, Breakdown gestured the Mane 7 to do the same, which they nervously complied. Soon enough, they were all gathered at the edge of the ground bridge and after giving one final glance at the remaining Autobots and humans (as well as Spike), they proceeded to enter the bridge, with the Decepticons following suit. Once they were all inside, the portal finally closed.

Author's Note

Happy New Year, everyone! :pinkiehappy:

Only four chapters left to go! :raritywink:

And I know that you're gone

As soon as Optimus and the Mane 7 stepped out of the Ground Bridge and entered the Nemesis, they were greeted by a long line of Decepticon soldiers at each side of the corridor, all booing and throwing insults at them as they walked along the said corridor:

"You're history, Prime!"

"Lord Megatron's gonna give you what you deserve!"

"I'd be looking forward to my time in the scrapyard if I were you!"

"Mind if I put your swords on my wall?"

"This is what you get for befriending pests!"

"Really wish I could squish one of 'em right now!"

While his human friends were all trembling with fear as they continued to walk, Optimus remained calm and collected, and did not give one look the crowd, which actually started clapping and cheering when they saw Breakdown and his soldiers stepping out of the ground bridge with their blasters pointed at the prisoners. They all kept walking for about half a minute before they reached the end of the corridor and entered a very large room, which contained two things that made eveyone's eyes widen from utter shock:

A Space Bridge that looked like a giant metal circle with a hole at the center and, right beside it, a huge chunk of Dark Energon encased in a tube.

Also, right in front of the bridge, there was a gathering of the remaining high-ranking Decepticons in the ship (including Megatron) and they all looked at the direction of Breakdown's prisoners shortly aftered they entered the room. Then, once they were all standing before him, Megatron smirked in confidence and said, "Ahhh... Long have I had visions of this moment. I would have savored it for eternity if not for our tight schedule."

Upon hearing that last sentence, Soundwave and Shockwave began moving towards the Dark Energon and the Space Bridge, respectively. As the former pressed some buttons on the tube to open the tube, the latter started entering codes on a console near his project to turn it on. As soon as the portal opened, the two Decepticons took position at each side of the prisoners (Sounwave at the right and Shockwave at the left) and then heard their leader declare, "Breakdown, order your troops to leave, then carry the load. The rest of you, keep your weapons aimed at our guests."

"Yes, master," Breakdown replied and then gestured the soldiers to exit the room by pointing at the door, who, in turn, saluted him before doing as ordered. Right afterwards, he saw his comrades all pointing their blasters at the prisoners (in Soundwave's case, he ejected Laserbeak from his chest, who pointed his own blaster at the Mane 7) as he walked towards the Dark Energon, lifted it with both hands, and began holding it on his back.

Once that was taken care of, Megatron turned his attention back to his arch-nemesis and stated, "Go ahead, Optimus. Put your brilliant mind to work and try deducing the next stage."

In response, Optimus started darting his optics around the room and processing the information that has been given to him thus far. A handful of seconds later, he finally said, "You are going to infect the entirety of Cybertron with Dark Energon and invade Earth with your new undead army."

While the Mane 7 all gasped at this revelation, Megatron let out a sinister chuckle and further explained, "Precisely. I shall have a legion millions of times larger than the one you fought earlier and purge this world of organic life. Once they all become extinct, I will extract every last shard of Energon and, in combination with the so-called 'magic' of the geodes, use them to finally revitalize Cybertron. Our home will sustain life once again and, under my leadership, our civilization will prosper for eternity!"

He raised a fist to the air as he exclaimed that last sentence and in response, all his officers also raised their fists while repeatedly shouting, "ALL HAIL MEGATRON!" (with Soundwave remaining silent and instead playing back the recording of a crowd doing the chant).

As this cheering session continued, Megatron once again sneered at Optimus, who kept glaring at his former friend without saying a single word. However, their stand-off lasted only a few seconds before they both heard Sunset exclaim, "No, this isn't right! You're better than this!"

Right at that moment, the entire room became silent and everyone started looking at her with puzzled expressions on their faces. The resulting awkward moment lasted for a handful of seconds before Megatron crouched in front of Sunset and asked, "Oh? What makes you say that, human? How do you know this action is out of character for me?"

"I've seen who you once were," replied Sunset. "I used my geode to look into the memories of a bot you used to call 'friend'. I learned that there was a time you fought for freedom instead of tyranny. You may think it's too late for you to change back into that heroic figure, but I know first-hand that it's not. I was once a power-hungry tyrant too, but my friends helped me realize my mistakes and atone for them. You can do the same if you want and I can help you find a better path."

As she gave Megatron a warm smile, her friends looked at him with both concerned and nervous expressions. Also, while the rest of the Decepticon looked at each other in utterly dumbfounded expressions (with Shockwave slightly tilting his head and multiple question marks appearing on Soundwave's visor), their leader simply stroked his chin for a short while before declaring, "Hmmm... You make an interesting argument, human. I shall consider your proposal if you grant me a simple request: look into my memories and observe the life I had before meeting Optimus."

Upon hearing these words, Soundwaves opened a ground bridge and extended one of his claws into it. Then, a few seconds later, he brought out a beaker containing all seven geodes and selected the one belonging to Sunset. Right afterwards, he returned the beaker to the other side of the portal, closed the portal, and used his other claw to deliver the said geode to its bearer, who took it with some hesitation before seeing Megatron extending a finger towards her. Thus, she proceeded to nervously grab the finger and as soon as she did, her eyes flashed white for a couple seconds.

Once those seconds were up, however, her eyes returned to normal and she almost collapsed on to the floor before Applejack and Rainbow Dash managed to catch her. As the rest of her friends gathered around her with worried looks on their faces, her own facial expression became one full of dread and despair, and she even started hyperventilating. Then, she stood back up with some assistance, looked at Megatron with the aforementioned expression, and uttered, "No... No, it can't be! It's... It's much worse than I thought!"

"Indeed," the Decepticon leader began to explain. "Under our oppressive caste system, the only way for nameless Energon miners like myself to gain recognition was to compete in the gladitorial arena. I climbed my way to the top, conquered the Pits of Kaon, and annihilated countless opponents without mercy. My people finally showed me the respect I was craving for so long and I gained the power to destroy the system that had enslaved so many of us since the end of our Golden Age. All was going well, until Optimus challenged my vision for a peaceful society. I would not have even considered declaring war if he had remained by my side!"

Immediately after he shouted that last sentence, he uppercutted Optimus so hard that the Autobot leader was sent flying to the other side of the room, with a terrified Sunset shouting his name in the process. Although he grunted and struggled a bit, he managed to stand back up, only to see the high-ranking Decepticons (minus Breakdown) once again circling him and their leader stalking towards him.

"We could have created the perfect world together, old friend," declared Megatron as he came closer. "Instead, you chose to defy me and in doing so, doomed millions of our brothers and sisters. It is high time you paid for your crimes and we are most eager to deliver the punishment you deserve."

Once he stopped merely a couple feet in front of Optimus, Sunset tried to run towards him, but her friends grabbed her just in time in order to stop her from doing anything foolish. As she struggled pry herself free from their grasp, she furiously yelled, "It wasn't entirely his fault! He's only fighting to stop your tyranny! He never once believed violence could bring peace and justice!"

All the Decepticons once again turned their attention towards her upon hearing these words and their leader asked, "Why would a human such as yourself defend his actions? Is it because he has sworn to protect your race or is there a more personal reason?"

Sunset stopped struggling when she heard that question and as she thought about what to say in response, she could not help but avert her eyes from Megatron, which he immediately took notice of. Then, after observing the nervous look on her face for a short while, he finally figured out the truth and said, "Oh, I see. Then, perhaps, you need to be taught a lesson about the dangers of bonding with Autobots."

Right after he said that, he gave a quick nod to Shockwave, who responded by nodding back before shooting Optimus in the back. As the Autobot leader screamed in agony and was brought to his knees, Sunset also screamed, "NOOOO!!!!", while struggling to reach him once again.

She then saw Breakdown's cannon emerging from his shoulder and sending a missile towards Prime's chest. Subsequently, he was knocked down with a loud grunt, her eyes started filling up with tears and she yelled at her friend's torturers, "STOP IT, YOU'RE KILLING HIM!!!"

In response, Sounwave attached his claws to the Autobot leader's head and electrocuted him for several seconds. As he once again let out painful cries, Sunset also cried, "I'M BEGGING YOU, PLEASE, JUST STOP!!!!"

Even though he did pulls his claws back and Optimus started getting back up with a lot of struggle, Starscream began rapidly shooting his blasters at virtually every part of the Autobot leader's body while also cackling maniacally and exclaiming, "FALL!!!! FALL!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"

No matter how hard Optimus tried standing on his servos, he slowly but surely started falling back down and wailing in utter anguish, which in turn, caused Sunset to sob in despair and her equally saddened friends to try to comfort her with a hug. Thankfully, a short while later, Starscream saw Megatron raising a claw and consequetly, ceased his onslaught. Immediately afterwards, Optimus finally collapsed back on the ground out of exhaustion and as Megatron slowly walked towards his fallen nemesis, he admitted, "I believe he has suffered quite enough. Time to end his pain."

As soon as he was right on top of Optimus, he pulled out his hidden blade from his right arm and pointed it right at the Autobot leader's face, who immediately took notice. He then briefly looked at the Mane 7 (who were all unable to watch what was about to happen and thus, averting their eyes) before gazing directly at Megatron's optics and stating, "You... used to be an honorable warrior. I... remember a time... when you would refuse to finish off an opponent... without a fair fight. Tell me... What happened... to your honor?"

In response, the Decepticon leader raised his blade up in preparation for the killing blow and replied, "It died, along with our brotherhood. To protect Cybertron, I shall eliminate everyone and everything that forced me into this war, by any means necessary. Farewell, old friend."

Then, just as he was about to swing his blade to decapitate Optimus, the entire vessel shook with a loud rumbling and everyone felt as if they are slowly descending towards the ground. As his officers all looked at each other in confusion, Megatron pressed on the left side of his head and shouted, "What is going on over there?!"

"My lord, there's been an explosion in the Energon storage unit!" a soldier at the other end replied. "The ship's engines have sustained critical damage!"

"WHAT?!" an incredulous Megatron asked. "How could this be hap-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he came to a sudden realization and as he turned back towards Optimus with an absolutely furious expression on his face, he yelled, "YOU! This was your plan all along!"

Optimus then responded by letting out a small chuckle and revealing, "It seems my Autobots are far more versatile and resourceful than you realize... old friend."

Right afterwards, he blinked at the Mane 7, which caused huge smiles to appear on each of their faces. On the other hand, Megatron roared in pure unadulterated rage and started barking orders at this officers, "Shockwave, Soundwave, repair the engines and keep us afloat! Breakdown, finish the operation and watch over the prisoners! Starscream, you're with me! We will find these intruders and make them regret the day they evolved from Protoforms! AM I UNDERSTOOD?!"

"YES, LORD MEGATRON!" the officers all said in unison and proceeded to fulfill their respective orders. While the others quickly exited the room (with Laserbeak returning to Soundwave's chest), Breakdown stayed behind to throw the Dark Energon he had been carrying this whole time through the Space Bridge before walking towards his prisoners and standing guard beside them with his right hand turned into a hammer.

Then, once the rest of the Decepticons had left the room, the Mane 7 began moving closer to Optimus and Sunset even touched his faceplate as she asked, "Thank Celestia, you're alive. Can you walk?"

"I do not think so," replied Optimus. "Not without some assistance. Rescue is coming, but it will be a while before they reach us. Until then, I suggest we stay put."

Sunset then looked to her friends and together, they silently considered this plan for a few seconds before nodding to each other in agreement. After nodding back at Optimus, Sunset let out a deep sigh and said, "I'm so sorry. I thought I could actually convince Megatron to change for the better and help you two become friends again. Turns out, he started turning into a monster way before you met him. I hate to say this, but he's not the kind of bot you save. He's the kind you stop."

Upon hearing this, Optimus took a moment to ponder on her words and then declared, "Hmmm... I think you are only half correct. It is true that you and I cannot convince him to change, and right now, he must be stopped no matter the cost. However, that does not necessarily mean there is no one in the universe who can redeem him. Perhaps, we are simply yet to meet the individual capable of doing so."

Sunset became visibly confused by this explanation and subsequently asked, "What? W-what do you mean by that?"

"I shall explain further once everyone is safe," replied Optimus. "For now, all I can say is that strong bonds between friends can have lasting effects on both sides. Such is the case with the one forged between us, even though I am not quite certain on what it is exactly. Is it simply friendship or, as Megatron suspects, something much deeper?"

Hearing that question caused Sunset to briefly look away from the Autobot leader and think about what she should say to him. After several seconds of contemplation, she finally let out another deep sigh and admitted, "He was right. You've been more than just a friend to me, Optimus. You've been a guardian, a mentor... and..."

She was unable to hold herself any longer and so, she once again bursted into tears and hugged the faceplate before declaring, "And the closest thing I ever had to a father!"

Needless to say, this sudden revelation caused everyone to become extremely shocked, especially Optimus, who remained speechless and with widened optics for almost half a minute. He then managed to ask, "Father? You refer to the term that describes male paternal figures for organic life forms? If so, does that mean you never had such a figure in your life before meeting me?"

Soon after he made this inquiry, Sunset let go of the hug, wiped away the tears in her eyes, and replied, "No. No, I didn't. I spent my entire childhood as an orphan before Princess Celestia took me in as her student. I never found my actual parents and the orphanage I stayed at was run by a cranky old mare who never showed me any love whatsoever. Celestia was the very first person, or I should say pony, who treated me with kindness and respect. I guess, in a way, she was the first and only real mother I ever had."

"I see," Optimus said as he pondered on this story. "Well, I would very much like to meet her at some point. Perhaps, we can arrange a visit to your world after this crisis is resolved."

Sunset could not help but chuckle at that suggestion before stating, "We sure can. I'll write her a letter about it. I'm sure the two of you would get along really well."

Optimus also gave a small chuckle and replied, "I am certain of that as well."

The two then happily gazed at each other in complete silence for a few seconds until Optimus suddenly grunted in pain when Breakdown stepped on his back and exclaimed in rather a sarcastic tone, "Aw, boo-hoo! I'm shedding lubricant!"

As he pretended to wipe his good optic with his left hand, everyone started glaring at him and upon noticing this, he added, "In all seriousness, I'm glad you get a happy memory. Y'know, before you perish along with everyone else on the planet's surface. By the way, according to my calculations, we have about three cycles before Lord Megatron's undead army comes charging through that portal over there. Lucky for me, I'll inform him of their arrival at the end of the first cycle and by the time he returns here to tame those beasts, I'll be at a completely safe distance from the exit."

"Of course, there's a small chance that your Autobot friends will stall him long enough to make him come back here late and the undead army destroys everyone on the ship, but let's face it, that's a VERY small chance. I mean, who would be stupid enough to think our almighty lord and master can't handle a couple of pathetic little wannabe warriors?"

He then started snickering at what he had just said, the entirety of the Mane 7 gritted their teeth in anger and Pinkie Pie even pulled out a fairly large sledgehammer from her hair before throwing it at Breakdown's head (which actually made him wince a bit and turn his head towards her) and shouting, "Hey, don't you dare talk about them like that, you big meanie-pants! They may be smaller than you, but each and every one is way more than a hundred thousand times the bot you're ever gonna be!"

When he saw all the other girls and even Optimus nodding in agreement of this statement, Breakdown let out a dry laughter, removed his servo from the Autobot leader's back, and replied, "Then, why aren't they here now, huh? If they're so strong and amazing as you claim they are, then why haven't they come here to save you already? Are they simply running a bit late, or are they too scared to face me and my comrades like real Autobots? Don't know about you, but I'm strongly suspecting the latter is true and the only way I'll be convinced otherwise is if they actually barge in here right this moment and- AAARGH!!!"

Just before he could finish his sentence, he was knocked down by a blue laser blast to his damaged optic, and when Optimus and the Mane 7 looked toward the direction that blast had come from, they all became overjoyed to see Cliffjumper standing by the door with Flash Sentry and Sour Sweet beside him. As the Decepticon brute struggled to get back on his servos, he heard Cliffjumper say, "Oh, sorry, ma'am. Didn't see you there. Were you about to say something important or dramatic?"

This made Breakdown extremely furious and as soon as he was standing upright again, he aimed his shoulder cannon at the red Autobot and exclaimed, "Miserable wretch! Insignificant speck of feculent scum! HOW DARE YOU!"

However, just as the cannon was charging, Sour Sweet shot an arrow at the barrel, causing the entire gun to blow up and Breakdown himself to be knocked back a couple feet. She then declared, "Stings, doesn't it? Wheeljack made them right before we came here for the rescue mission. They may be last-minute prototypes, but they still pack quite a punch."

As soon as she was finished with that explanation, she saw red laser blasts flying near Cliffjumper's head and turned around to see at least a dozen Decepticon soldiers running towards them. She quickly started blowing up their heads with arrows and once Cliffjumper became aware of the situation they were currently in, he turned to the other human beside him and said, "Flash, I'm heading for the Space Bridge controls. You know what to do."

"Yes, sir!" the boy replied while also giving a salute to his Autobot partner.

He then shouted at the Mane 7, "Hey, girls! I've brought presents for all of you! Hope you like 'em!"

Right afterwards, he threw several objects at them and as they each caught one of the said objects, they turned out to be their geodes. The girls all happily put them back on their necks and then proceeded to go through their respective magical transformations, before confronting Breakdown together as a team.

"Aw, yeah! Time to kick some metal butt!" declared Rainbow Dash with great determination.

She then moved right in front of Breakdown and made some funny faces to him, which in turn, caused the angered Decepticon to bring his hammer down upon her. Fortunately, she used her super speed to avoid these strikes, resulting in Breakdown becoming more and more annoyed, and even screaming in pure frustration.

At the same time, this distraction allowed Pinkie and Rarity to throw explosive sprinkles and diamond shields, respectively, at his face several times and once he shielded his face with his left hand, Twilight used her telekinesis to lift him several feet up in the air. As he helplessly struggled to free himself of her grasp, Rarity created several diamond shields and stacked them up like stairs between the floor and Breakdown, which Applejack started climbing by jumping forward. Then, right after she reached the last one, she jumped right at Breakdown's body and punched him in the chest so hard that it not only created a sizable dent, but also sent him flying towards the Space Bridge.

As a result, the once-proud commander of the Decepticon ground forces was transported to the orbit of his home planet, where he was grabbed and viciously torn apart by a massive horde of reanimated Cybertronians flying from the surface of the said planet. Thankfully, just before the horde could reach the portal, it was closed off from the other side, leaving every single one of them stranded in space.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the Space Bridge, Cliffjumper managed to shut it down by entering a code to the control console. Right after he did so, he let out a sigh of relief and gave a thumbs up to the Mane 7 while also happily announcing, "Earth is closed today."

Hearing this caused all the humans to both loudly cheer and hug each other (two particular hugs being between Sunset and Flash, and between Rarity and Sour Sweet), while Optimus briefly closed his optics and sighed in pure contentment. He then felt Cliffjumper helping him stand back up and heard him say, "Come on, sir. As a certain human expression goes, 'we're not out of the woods just yet'. So, we gotta keep moving."

"Understood, soldier," Optimus replied as he struggled to walk with Cliffjumper towards the exit. "Any word from Wheeljack or Bumblebee?"

In response, Cliffjumper shook his head and revealed, "Last I heard, they were heading to disable the ship's engines. Since that's already happened, I'm guessing they're still distracting Megatron and his goons. We were supposed to meet up just outside this room so that the Ground Bridge could lock on to our energy signatures better."

"We cannot wait for them much longer," declared Optimus. "Contact the Ground Bridge Operator and tell him to bring us back to base immediately. We will get them out the moment we arrive."

Cliffjumper nodded in agreement, but just as he was about to fulfill his commander's orders, he saw Twilight raise a hand and ask, "Excuse me, but if all the Autobots besides Ratchet are here, then who exactly is in charge of operating the bridge?"

Hearing that question caused Cliffjumper to scratch his head in nervousness and Flash to utter, "Weeellllll..."

But I swear that you're here

While all that was happening, in another part of the ship, Wheeljack and Bumblebee were busy taking on an entire legion of Decepticon soldiers charging at them. Despite their far greater numbers, however, they were being utterly decimated by the Autobots' superior teamwork and comradery. In fact, the said Autobots were working together as efficiently as they did against Megatron's undead army, with the only difference being the fact that they were using blasters, punches, and kicks against the troopers instead of swords. Even when one of them was grabbed or piled on by these troopers, the other would come to his rescue, get him out of that tough situation, and resume fighting with him against their attackers.

Eventually, in spite of numerous minor wounds on their bodies, the two managed to overcome seemingly impossible odds and forced the surviving Decepticons to retreat. However, instead of going after them, the Autobots just stood there and started breathing very rapidly out of exhaustion before they looked at one another and Wheeljack asked, "How much longer do we have to wait before Megs finally notices us?"

Right after Bumblebee gave a simple shrug, he was suddenly shot by a large laser blast came out of nowhere and flown several feet backwards. Wheeljack immediately went to check up on his friend and when he discovered that the blast had caused a sizable dent on his chassis, he angrily turned his head towards the direction the blast had come from and his glare only intensified when he took a good look at the shooter.

There stood Megatron with the fusion cannon on his right arm aimed directly at the Autobots and smoke coming out of it. Right beside him was Starscream with a sinister grin on his face and getting ready to pounce at the duo with his razor sharp claws the first chance he could get. The two Decepticons silently stood at their positions for a few seconds before Megatron broke the silence by asking, "And who is this 'Megs' you speak of?"

Wheeljack then responded by standing back up and ragefully declaring, "Here's a hint: an oversized piece of scrap who's in desperate need of manners!"

Megatron's subsequent response was lowering his cannon, letting out a dark chuckle, and stating, "Defiant to the end. Something I have always respected you for, Wheeljack. A shame I did not have the opportunity to battle you during the war on Cybertron. It would have been an honor to see you in your prime testing your might against mine."

"Oh, trust me, I haven't rusted one bit since we left Cybetron," replied Wheeljack as he drew his swords from his back. "Besides, even if I did, I'm pretty sure fighting the cannon fodder you call soldiers has cleaned all the rust away."

Upon hearing this, the wicked smile on Megatron's face grew even wider and he drew the hidden blade on his right arm as he said, "How wonderful to hear that."

He then briefly looked at Starscream and ordered, "No interventions whatsoever. Take care of the scout and finish what I started with his voice box."

Starscream simply nodded in approval and after watching him stalk towards Bumblebee for a short while (who was getting back up to fight again), Megatron turned his attention back towards Wheeljack and the two combatants let out battle cries before charging at each other for the fight they had both been dreaming of for a pretty long time.

Their respective blades eventually clashed with one another and as they continued traded blows, Wheeljack was slowly but surely being pushed back by his larger opponent. Even though his sword strikes were quick and aggressive, so was Megatron's and he was easily countering every single one of the Autobot's attacks while also hitting back twice as hard. Wheeljack was doing his very best to block or dodge the attacks heading his way, but it was clear that the former champion of Kaon's gladitorial pits was far stronger, faster, and more experienced than him. Thus, he was using all these advantages to overwhelm Wheeljack further and further.

Then, just as his opponent took his tenth step backwards, Megatron struck a blow so hard that both swords were flown away before Wheeljack lost his balance and fell on his back. Just as he prepared his blasters and took aim, Megatron stabbed him in the left leg and as the Autobot engineer cried out in agony, the Decepticon leader pulled his blade out and squeezed the wound with his left claw, causing Wheeljack to scream even louder. Then, he threw his helpless opponent towards Bumblebee, who was busy blocking several claw strikes from Starscream with his arms and even managed to land a punch on the air commander's face right before Wheeljack's body collided with his own.

While the two Autobots slowly recovered from this collision and Bumblebee helped Wheeljack stand back up, Megatron walked up to the duo and when he was standing only a couple feet away from them, he stated, "You have both fought valiantly, despite the inevitable outcome. For that, you have earned my respect and I will ensure that you are remembered fondly by the new society I am intending to create."

Immediately afterwards, both him and Starscream aimed their cannons at the Autobots, but as they braced for their demise, they heard Cliffjumper's voice in their commlinks exclaiming, "Guys, I've got Optimus and the girls! We've just returned to the base!"

Hearing this news brought a cocky smirk to Wheeljack's face and in response, he pressed on the left side of his head and said, "Well, what are you waiting for kid? Beam us up already!"

The said response caused both Decepticons to briefly look at each other in confusion before Wheeljack declared, "Sorry, Megs, but we'll have to cut our visit short. After all, distractions are supposed to be temporary, right?"

Bumblebee then started playing a song on his radio that had the following lyrics:

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell

Right after that, a Ground Bridge appeared under the Autobots and they both fell into it. Even though the Decepticons blasted at them several times, all of the shots missed their targets and the portal closed before the said targets could get hit. As a result, an utterly dumbfounded expression soon appeared on Starscream's face and the face itself was then punched by Megatron, who was literally grinding his teeth at that moment.

"Why, master?! What did I do to deserve your wrath this time?!", Starscream asked after he was knocked on the floor.

Megatron simply ignored him and pressed the left side of his head before speaking to it, "Shockwave, status report!"

"Lord Megatron, we have received critical damage," Shockwave explained. "The ship's engines have been irreversibly compromised and the navigation system is offline. Crash landing is imminent."

Upon hearing this news, the Decepticon leader once again growled in rage, grabbed his air commander by the head, and tossed him at a nearby wall. He then took heavy breaths to calm himself and pressed on the left side of his head again to reply, "Understood. Begin the landing procedure and tell Soundwave, as well as every flier available, to meet us at the docking bay. We all have some unfinished business to attend to."

"As you command, master," Shockwave confirmed, and right after the transmission was ended, Megatron walked up to Starscream, who was still recovering from his impact against the wall and became immensely frightened upon seeing his leader right on top of himself.

"Get up, Starscream," commanded Megatron as his optics started burning bright crimson. "Our old friends have been interfering with our plans for far too long. It is past time we removed them from the equation. PERMANENTLY!"

Right after he exclaimed that last word, he drew his blade once again and the terrified expression on Starscream's face was replaced with a sadistic smirk.

Meanwhile, back at the Autobot outpost, Wheeljack and Bumblebee came flying out of the Ground Bridge and ended up landing on the floor with heavy thuds. As they slowly began to stand back up, they found themselves surrounded by both the girls in their magical forms and Cliffjumper holding a heavily wounded Optimus with an arm around his back, similar to how Bumblebee was holding Wheeljack at hat moment.

"Guys! Thank goodness you're back!", Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "I was so worried you weren't gonna make it!"

Wheeljack let out a painful chuckle and replied, "Don't beat yourself up, RD. We're both fine. Speaking of fine, you and your friends are way more than that actually. Gotta say, your new outfits are definitely improvements over the normal ones."

Even though that compliment made Rainbow blush a bit, Rarity noticed the stab wound on his leg before loudly gasping and shouting, "Darling, how could you be fine in this state?! Your leg is so badly injured! We've got to treat it immediately!"

"There's no time for that," Wheeljack declared. "Right now, Ratchet's the one who needs help the most. I managed to grab an Energon cube before Bee and I blew up the storage unit, but it will take a while to synthesize it."

Hearing this caused Cliffjumper to nod in understanding and say, "And we don't have long before the Cons get their act together and come after us in retaliation. The crash landing of their ship may eliminate the majority of their forces and I did upload Wheeljack's virus to the Space Bridge controls in case it survived the crash, but Megatron and his officers are much tougher to take out. They'll be here in less than ten cycles, so we gotta prepare for one heck of a battle."

"But, Cliff, your teammates are in no condition to fight," Twilight pointed out. "They're all badly wounded, and even with our magic and other skills, the girls and I can only take down one Decepticon officer at a time while working together."

Then, Sour Sweet let out a deep sigh and added, "And as much as I hate to admit it, I ran out of arrows during our escape and I doubt we can make more during the time we have. Not to mention, Flash over here doesn't have any gadgets on him."

"Hey, I'm not gonna let that stop me, you know!", Flash chimed in. "I'm ready to fight these evil robots every bit of strength I've got, even if I have to use my bare hands to do so!"

While everyone else in the room was astounded by that declaration and Sunset even blushed a little, Optimus then stated, "I admire your determination and selflessness, Flash Sentry, but you and your friends must realize that if you stay here, then you will most certainly perish. Your only option is to leave as soon as possible and contact our liason with your world's leaders. I am certain that the power they command is enough to eliminate the Decepticons in their weakened state. My Autobots and I could buy you enough time to escape. So, please, hurry. We will make our final stand as long as we are able, but it cannot last for too long."

All the humans solemnly looked at one another and silently contemplated on whether or not they should do as Optimus had asked them to do. Shortly afterwards, however, Applejack let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Are y'all serious right now? How can we even think about leavin' at a time like this?" If they're standin' for us, then we gotta stand with 'em! We've all spent too much time around these new friends from outer space to just let 'em die like that. They're willin' to do their part in protectin' our planet, so we gotta be willin' to do ours too. I mean, it's not like we haven't faced impossible odds and came out on top before. So, let's put our heads together again and figure out a way out of this mess before it's too late!"

Right after hearing this speech, her friends all gave detemined smiles and nods to each other and then, Pinkie Pie literally brought their heads together before exclaiming, "Come on, guys! Think! Think!! THINK!!!"

Although they were somewhat annoyed by this gesture, they nevertheless started pondering on what they should to solve their current problems, with the Autobots leaning in to better hear what they would figure out as long as they could do so. Soon enough, a realization dawned on Sunset's mind and thus, she excitedly declared, "Guys, I've got it! You gotta lend me your power RIGHT NOW! Trust me on this!"

"Wait, what are you-" Twilight asked before his sentence was cut off by a sudden understanding of Sunset's request and her eyes widened with horror. "No... No way! You don't know what that will do to you. What if you turn into a monster again, just like I did?"

"Trust me, that won't happen ever again," declared Sunset. "Last time it did, I didn't quite understand the power I was wielding and allowed the magic create a manifestation of my darkest desires. I won't let that happen this time. Besides, if I could turn into the complete opposite of demon form once, who's to say I can't do it again?"

"Buuuuuut... Didn't you use magic from five of us to turn into that angel thing?" Pinkie asked. "And now, you're going to take energy from six of us, which is exactly how Twilight became Midnight Sparkle. So, what if the same thing happens to you this time?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Pinkie's got a point," added Twilight while placing a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "These circumstances can very well turn you into a demon again. Maybe something even worse than Midnight. As much as I like taking risks as a scientist, I think this is one experiment where the risks outweigh the benefits. I'm sorry."

As she pondered on her friend's words, Sunset let out a deep sigh and replied, "You're right. We'd be taking a huge risk with this, but it's way better than having no plan at all. Twilight, you heard what Applejack just said. If the Autobots are willing to make a final stand to protect our world from being destroyed, then we have to stand with them. Just like them, I come from another world and if they're prepared to risk their lives for its defense, then so am I. So, please, help me at least TRY to save my new home. What do you say?"

Her friends briefly looked at each other in concern before determinedly nodding at her and joining their hands to fulfill her request. As the magic in their geodes started flowing into that of Sunset, the excess amount of magic stored within her geode started transforming her into Daydream Shimmer. Then, right after her transformation was complete and while the Autobots were gazing at her in complete awe, she blasted each of them (including Ratchet) with beams of purified magic and as the said magic reacted with the Energon inside their bodies, the injuries on the outside of their bodies started healing rapidly.

In mere seconds, every single one of them came to look like they were fresh off the assembly line, and while the others were astounded by their new and improved appearances, Ratchet slowly began to wake up and his groans attracted the attention of pretty much everyone in the room and caused them to circle around him and cheer in immense excitement.

"Ratchet, you're back!", Fluttershy exclaimed. "You're really back! IT'S A MIRACLE!"

"What? Do I hear a Fuzor in need of a voice box repair?", Ratchet muttered like a drunken man. "I am able! Just ask Bantor! He was all man-drill before I... put a tiger in his tank..."

As he passed out once again, the humans responded to what had just happened with extreme confusion while the Autobots did so with laughter. Wheeljack even hollered, "Good Primus! Haven't heard the doc speak like this in eons!"

Then, Ratchet apruptly awakened a second time with a gasp and began to frantically look around while asking in his normal voice, "Where am I?! What happened?! Is everyone alright?!"

At that moment, Optimus placed a hand on his left shoulder to calm him down and explained, "Quite so, old friend. We are all relieved to have you back with us again. However, the time for celebration needs to come later. Our enemies will return here in short order and we must prepare for their arrival in the time we have left."

Upon hearing this news, Ratchet took a moment to consider them before letting out a deep sigh and stating, "Let me guess. Their numbers far exceed our own and the odds are stacked against us."

Then, after seeing Optimus give a single nod in response, he immediately leaped out of the table he was sitting on, salute his leader, and proclaim, "Medical Officer Ratchet reporting for duty!"

While everyone else warmly smiled at this gesture, Optimus saluted back and revealed, "Your exceptional skills as a medic are always appreciated and would indeed be useful in this battle. That being said, I was thinking you could aid us in a different way this time."

As Ratchet looked at him in confusion, the Autobot leader looked at Sunset hovering in the air beside him. Although she was initially just as confused as Ratchet was at that moment, she eventually figured out what Optimus had meant by his statement and the expression on her face changed from puzzlement to realization before finally becoming a cocky smirk.

Several minutes later, a Ground Bridge appeared on the plateau that the Autobot outpost was overlooking, and out of it emerged a large Cybertronian tank with a single cannon and a mostly purple color scheme, which soon transformed into Shockwave. As the portal closed behind him, the Decepticon scientist continued walking towards the said outpost before stopping to see another Ground Bridge opening right in front of him and the Autobot engineer Wheeljack walking out of it. Along with him were his human friends, Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who were standing on his shoulders and had determined looks on their faces, while their Autobot guardian had a cocky smile across his own face.

Upon the closure of the second Ground Bridge, the two robots began staring each other down, but the subsequent silence lasted for only a handful of seconds before Wheeljack said, "Well, look who it is. How you doing, Shocker. It's been a while."

In response, Shockwave continued staring at both Wheeljack and the humans for a few more before finally replying with his regular monotone voice, "Based on your significantly improved status, the short time span between now and the skirmish inside the Nemesis, as well as the dramatic change in the appearance of your human allies, I am assuming all three of you were exposed to the so-called 'Equestrian magic' very recently."

"Your assume correctly, darling," Rarity stated. "And am I correct to assume you've arrived here to negotiate our surrender to you and your master?"

The Decepticon scientist took a moment to process her question, and then replied, "You are admittedly perceptive, for a mere human."

"Um, thanks, I guess," a slightly confused Rarity said before clearing her throat. "Sadly, flattery won't get you anywhere at this point."

"That's because it's you who should be thinking about surrender right now!" Rainbow declared. "Your master wants a war? We're more than happy to give him one!"

As she proceeded to crack her knuckles, Shockwave shook her head a couple times in disappointment and revealed, "The historical ingenuity of your species is only matched by its ever-growing collective arrogance. Even though our forces have suffered a significant loss in numbers, the probability of your survival against the combined might of our remaining troops is approximately point zero one percent. In addition, Lord Megatron still possesses the ability to revive our fallen comrades with his supply of Dark Energon at any given time. Simply put, your victory is higly illogical."

Although his human friends were visibly intimidated by this threat, Wheeljack did not flinch one bit and instead, gave a small chuckle before calmly explaining, "Y'know, Shocker, you and I are two of the smartest bots in our respective factions and if we could just put our scientific minds together, who knows what wonders we could achieve. Unfortunately, we're motivated by two different things: you by logic and me by emotion. Yet, even when I was at my lowest, I got to experience things that not even logic can explain, and became way stronger than before, both physically and mentally. I can give you the chance to experience them as well. That is, if you're brave enough to take it."

Shockwave once again remained silent for a few moments and pondered on Wheeljack's offer. He then replied, "You certainly have a point about the exceptional results our combined efforts could create. Unfortunately, it is your rejection of logic that has led you and your comrades being outnumbered and overmatched in nearly every battle. You may have achieved victory in some instances, but at your current rate of success, you cannot hope to defeat us any time soon."

Upon hearing this response, Wheeljack sighed in disappointment and said, "Well, don't say I didn't warn you, pal. For what it's worth, I have another proposal in mind. If my side does win in the end, what do you say all four of us explore the city the girls are from, as well as its surroundings. No better way to learn more about the human culture and society than with a first-hand experience. For research purposes, of course."

Yet again, the Decepticon scientist silently contemplated on the words of his intellectual rival for a short while before finally answering, "I find your proposal... logical."

That response caused a satisfied smirk to appear on Wheeljack's face, and himself to ask, "What do you say, girls? Should we invite him on a trip through and around Canterlot City?"

"Hmmm..." Rarity began as she pondered on this. "Well, as long as he promises not to hurt anyone, I suppose he can come with us. Besides, I'm curious about how a lighter shade of purple or dark gray for a color scheme might look on him."

As she giggled at this thought, Rainbow rolled her eyes and declared, "I guess I can agree with what she said, but I don't really know if we can trust him to not hurt anyone. I mean, he and his buddies are literally called Decepticons. If that doesn't raise any red flags, I don't know what does."

"Interesting," stated Shockwave. "You humans keep surprising me with your perceptiveness. There just might be a chance of you earning my respect, after all. If you manage to illustrate the fault in my logic by defeating Megatron, I give you my word that I will not harm any member of your species while we study your planet's culture and societal structure together. If I somehow do, then you have my permission to terminate me on the spot."

The three friends looked at each other in confusion for a short while before looking back at the Decepticon scientist and nodding in approval. However, they then heard the sounds of three flying vehicles approaching them and looked up to see Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave flying in their direction at top speed. In less than half a minute, they arrived at their destination, transformed into their robot modes, and began walking towards Shockwave, who turned around to greet them.

Once they were merely a couple feet away from the Decepticon scientist, Megatron inquired, "Shockwave, may I ask why you are conversing with the Autobot and his human companions, instead of simply blowing them to bits like you were ordered to?"

"My apologies, Master," replied Shockwave. "I was simply attempting to convince my intellectual equal of the logic behind his faction's inevitable defeat. Needless to say, he is much too stubborn to see reason."

Upon hearing this, Starscream shot him a suspicious look and asked, "Why do I get the feeling that there is more to this 'discussion' than what you claim?"

"Are you questioning my sincerity, Starscream?" his fellow first lieutenant demanded.

"Only your loyalty to Lord Megatron's cause," the air commander responded.

Shockwave then asked with a twinge of anger in his voice, "How illogical is that this is coming from a bot who is so ambitious that he continuously develops schemes to seize our master's throne."

Starscream was visibly taken aback by this accusations and he proceeded to exclaim, "W-What?! How dare you! You have the nerve to insinuate that I seek to dispute our lordship's long and prosperous rule? You self-righteous, arrogant, pompous-"

"ENOUGH!!!" Megatron suddenly roared, causing both of his subordinates to fall silent and turn their complete attention towards him.

"Your petty squabbles are less than trivial at this point," the Decepticon leader continued. "The only thing that matters right now is to ensure that the Autobots and their human allies do not interfere with our plans ever again."

Hearing that caused Starscream to become immensely excited, step forward, and proclaim, "A brilliant plan as always, my liege. I volunteer to be the one to help you complete its first stage by eliminating this Autobot here, and his little pets too."

However, Megatron let out a dark chuckle in response and then questioned, "You, Starscream? My supposedly loyal second in command in all military operations, who neglected to finish every single one of these pets off when they were unconscious, which resulted in the loss of both Breakdown and over half our remaining troops? Oh, this is good comedy."

As his master continued to speak, an expression full of terror appeared on Starscream's face and shortly after Megatron was finished, he tried to speak, "B-but I completed the mission you gave me! I... I followed your orders to the letter!"

Just when he uttered that last word, Megatron grabbed him by the throat and pulled him in close to his face as he struggled to break free before furiously declaring, "A word of advice to the not so bright: competent leaders take initative every once in a while."

He then threw Starscream back to his original spot, and as the Decepticon air commander stood back up while coughing really hard, an immensely sad expression dawned on his face. Even Rarity and Rainbow could not help but feel sorry for him upon seeing how much abuse he was taking. However, they were soon snapped out of their thoughts when Megatron turned his attention towards both them and Wheeljack, and then announced, "As for you three, I am done taking my chances with both of your ilks. Once we are finished with your execution, we shall do the same to not just the Autobot resistance, but also the entirety of the human race. Any last words before you reunite with your deceased loved ones?"

As he aimed his cannon at them, his officers did the same with their own weapons, while Soundwave ejected Laserbeak from his chest and had him aim blasters at their targets instead. In response, Wheeljack and the girls looked at each other for a few seconds and then nodded in determination before turning back to the Decepticons and shouting, "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC!!!!!"

While the Decepticons became utterly dumbfounded by this phrase, a Ground Bridge opened right behind them. Immediately afterwards, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper came running out of the said bridge along with their respective human friends, and started shooting at the Decepticons with blasters and Pinkie's explosive sprinkles. Although these blasts and explosions caused minimal damage to their targets, they still got the attention of the Decepticons and Cliffjumper even managed to shoot off Shockwave's right ear.

He and his comrades then proceeded to return fire and as the Autobots quickly transformed into their vehicle modes and drove away with the humans, Wheeljack and Rarity attacked from behind with their blasters and diamond shields. One of the blasts even managed to hit and disable Laserbeak before the Decepticons and returned fire once again, causing Wheeljack transform into his vehicle mode and drive away with his human friends as well.

Upon seeing the Autobots going in different directions, Starscream transformed into his own vehicle mode, shouted "AFTER THEM!", and started to fly in the same direction that Bumblebee was going. Upon hearing the order, his fellow officers also transformed into their respective vehicle modes and went after the remaining two Autobots, with Shockwave pursuing Cliffjumper and Soundwave pursuing Wheeljack.

Even though Megatron shouted after them, "NO! Stop, you fools! It's a trap!", they all ignored this command and continued their pursuits, causing the Decepticon leader to roar in immense rage and charge towards the still open Ground Bridge. However, when he was just about to enter it, he was hit in the face by a metal fist that came out of the portal and was knocked several feet away. As he landed on the ground with a heavy thud, he looked back at the Ground Bridge in confusion and then became incredibly surprised to see Optimus Prime walking out of it by himself.

When the portal finally closed behind him, the Autobot leader came to a halt and declared, "Megatron, today you answer for your crimes against both Cybertron and humanity."

Upon hearing this, the Decepticon leader started to get back up and let out a small chuckle before asking, "And who will be the one to deliver my punishment, Optimus? You? Please! You could not beat me by yourself even once during our battles on Cybertron."

"Nor could you defeat me by yourself," Optimus replied. "So, now, this battle will determine the true victor of our long and excruciating conflict. I intend to end it as soon as possible, so that no more life forms will suffer from it."

"Hmmm... Your resolve is impressive, old friend," stated Megatron. "Unfortunately, you forget that even if you defeat me today, my subordianates can still wipe out your rebels and their little organic friends in a matter of cycles. Not to mention the fact that what remains of my Seeker Armada is on its way to exterminate anyone who stands inside your base. Speaking of which..."

Right at that moment, Optimus looked up to see dozens Decepticon jets flying towards the Autobot outpost at incredible speed and as they came closer to the structure, they transformed into their robot forms in mid-air and swiftly dropped towards the floor of the roofless outpost.

Soon enough, the sounds of blasters being fired started echoing throughout the plateau and although Megatron initially smirked in satisfaction, he then became utterly shocked to hear the screams of his own soldiers coming from the base. Therefore, he pressed the left side of his head and frantically asked, "What is happening up there?!"

"Lord Megatron, help us!" a trooper screamed in response. "They're completely insane! We're being cut to pieces and- AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!"

Upon hearing these sounds, the expression on Megatron's face turned into a completely horrified one and he asked Optimus, "What have you done?"

The Autobot leader remained silent for a short while before pressing on the left side of his own head and asking, "Sunset, everything is going well, I presume?"

At the other end of the line, Sunset was still in her Daydream Shimmer form and was continuously emitting magical beams from her hands towards Ratchet, who was glowing red and had become impervious to laser blasts as a result. Using this invulnerability, he was repeatedly charging at the oncoming Decepticon troopers and literally tearing them to pieces with his arm blades. Needless to say, he had become a one bot army with this new magical enhancement and the number of enemies on his path was exponentially reducing by the second.

As for Sunset, she was busy charging up the Autobot medic with magic while also dodging enemy fire in mid air with her wings. The moment when Optimus called in to check up on her and Ratchet's progress, she ducked under an oncoming laser blast and hastily spoke to the communicator on her ear, "Um, yeah, we're doing pretty great, Optimus. Sure, the Cons keep coming, but it's nothing we can't handle. How are you doing?"

"Just about to engage Megatron," the Autobot leader replied. "You and Ratchet should hold on tight. I am coming over there to assist you as soon as the battle is over."

"What? No!" Sunset exclaimed. "You shouldn't- WHOA!!!!"

She suddenly interrupted and forced to dodge the giant operating table being thrown at her. While she barely managed to avoid getting hit by it, the table getting smashed upon its impact with the nearby wall did get Ratchet's attention and upon finding the Decepticon trooper who threw it in the first place, he furiously yelled, "You fool! I needed that!"

He then proceeded to attack and slice up the said trooper, and as he did so, Sunset let out a deep sigh and explained, "Trust me, we'll be alright. You should focus on taking Megatron down as soon as possible. If you still think he can be redeemed by meeting the right person who understands him, then I believe you. But until that person arrives, we need to make sure that he can't harm a single soul for a long time. The only person who can do that right now is you. So, please, trust us, and more importantly, trust yourself. Now, let's end this war once and for all."

Upon hearing these words, Optimus took a few moments to consider them and right after doing so, he let out a deep sigh as well and declared, "Very well. Together, we shall light our darkest hour."

He then turned off his communicator, turned his attention back to Megatron, and saw him clenching his fists while also announcing, "If my destiny is to fight you by myself to the bitter end, then so be it. What was that phrase you always say before our battles begin, Optimus? One shall stand..."

"And one shall fall," the Autobot leader finished as he clenched his own fists.

The two metal titans then charged at each other while letting out battle cries before their respective punches clashed, signalling the start of their final battle.

It's a feeling that won't disappear

Shockwave was hot on the trail of Cliffjumper and his human friends, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, relentlessly pursuing them in his vehicle mode while they drove away in the Autobot's own vehicle mode. What's more, he was repeatedly shooting at his prey with his cannon and though he was still missing each time he did so, the shots were nevertheless getting closer to their intended target. In fact, his last shot managed to hit a stop right next to Cliffjumper and caused him to swerve violently for a few seconds in order to balance himself, which was enough time for Shockwave to catch up to the Autobot and bump into his rear.

This caused to the entirety of the car to shake and the passengers to hit their heads to the windows nearby. As they both yelped in pain, they heard the sound of the cannon being aimed towards them and when they looked behind the car, they became horrified to see the cannon slowly charging for an undoubtedly powerful blast at point blank range.

Just then, however, Cliffjumper frantically exclaimed, "Guys, I've got a plan! You are not going to like it, though!"

"What?" Applejack incredulously asked. "What in tarnation do you mean by- WHOA!!!!"

Right before she could finish that sentence, both her and Pinkie Pie were thrown outside by their own Autobot guardian, who proceeded to transform into his robot mode, grabbed the cannon, swung himself upwards in the air, causing Shockwave to miss the shot. His opponent then landed at the top of the tank and began to repeatedly shoot at it with his own blasters while shouting, "Come on, Decepticon punk!"

However, none of the shots managed make a dent and Shockwave soon transformed into his robot mode as well before grabbing Cliffjumper by the head and throwing the little nuisance off his back. Fortunately, the Autobot transformed back into his vehicle mode just as he landed on the ground, drove right back to Shockwave, and then, once he was close enough to his target, transformed back into his robot mode as he leaped towards his nemesis before delivering a punch to the face.

The resulting hit knocked Shockwave flat on the ground and just as he started getting back up, he saw Cliffjumper smirking with utter confidence and aiming both blasters right at his head. Realizing that he would not be able to get himself out of this situation with brute force alone, the logical chief scientist of the Decepticons curiously inquired, "You are willing to engage me in combat all by yourself in order to protect your human companions from harm. Tell me, do you genuinely care about their safety or are they merely substitutes for your partner?"

Upon hearing that question, Cliffjumper's facial expression changed into a furious scowl and he stomped on Shockwave's head while still aiming his blasters at it. Then, he shouted, "Don't you dare mention her, you one-eyed freak! You should be regretting the fact that you chose to butcher her instead of me! She would've wanted you to be simply defeated and kept prisoner until the end of the war. Me? I just want you to suffer as much as she did! In fact, I wish it was you who got torn to shreds by Megatron's undead army!"

Unfortunately, during this rant, he failed to notice Shockwave's cannon aimed at his back and as soon as he finished his last sentence, his not-so-helpless opponent shot with him a blast so powerful that it caused him to not only cry in immense agony, but also send him flying several dozen feet away. After watching him tumble on the desert a few times and finally land face first one the ground with a heavy thud, Shockwave promptly stood back up and started walking towards the completely helpless Cliffjumper. Despite the injured Autobot's best efforts to lift himself off the ground while also groaning in intense pain, the Decepticon genius proceeded to grab him by the leg upon getting close enough, hoist him up, and then, repeatedly smash him against the ground.

After doing so half a dozen times, he threw Cliffjumper another several feet away and as he walked towards his heavily damaged and barely alive opponent, he explained, "How easily your illogical emotions can be exploited. You claim that I should be regretful for choosing to eliminate Arcee instead of you. However, based on the strength of the relationship between the two of you was, I can come to the logical conclusion that the outcome of this battle would not change regardless of who went offline first. My sole regret is not doing the same to both of you that day. If I had done so, I would not be wasting my time dealing with a completely illogical being bent on my termination and the disruption of my work."

Immediately afterwards, he aimed his cannon at Cliffjumper's face and charged it up for a shot that would finish the Autobot off once and for all. In response, Cliffjumper closed his optics and prepared himself for his imminent death, feeling a bit happy that he would get to be one with the AllSpark and reunite with Arcee in the Matrix.

However, the cannon suddenly stopped charging, and he opened his optics upon both him and Shockwave hearing a familiar voice asking, "Um, excuse me? Could you please help me out here?"

They both turned to the direction of the voice and saw Pinkie Pie standing only about a couple feet away from them. Upon seeing her, Cliffjumper became extremely worried for her safety and exclaimed, "Pinkie, what are you doing?! Get out of here! He's gonna kill you!"

"Trust me, Cliff. I've totally got this!" Pinkie declared with determination before retrieving two cupcakes from her hair (one of them chocolate-frosted and the other vanilla-frosted) and presented them to Shockwave. "So, here's the thing. My sister Marble's birthday is coming up and I just can't decide on what flavor her birthday cake should be. I mean, her favorite has always been vanilla, but I'm thinking about surprising her this year with a completely different and yet equally amazing flavor like chocolate. What do you guys think? I know you don't have every tradition that we do here on Earth, but you were at least doing something to celebrate the day you were created back on Cybertron, right?"

Shockwave simply stared at her in complete silence for a few seconds and then, blasted the spot she was standing on, causing Cliffjumper to scream in despair, "NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

However, as soon as the resulting dust settled, Pinkie appeared on the left side of Shockwave's head and asked, "Sooo... Does that mean you never celebrated something similar to birthdays on Cybertron or you just don't like the flavors I showed you a second ago? If it's the latter, I've got lots of other flavors to choose from, like strawberry and banana."

As she retrieved two more cupcakes from her hair that were frosted with the aforementioned flavors, Shockwave once again stared at her for a few seconds and said, "What? How is what you are doing even possible? It is completely illogical."

He then tried to grab her, but when he opened his palm afterwards, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. That is, until he heard her voice coming from his right shoulder saying, "Hey, if you really wanted to taste these cupcakes, you could've just asked and I would've given them to you! Though, I honestly don't know how you can eat anything since, you know, you don't exactly have a mouth. At least, not one I can see."

Right after the Decepticon scientist hear the still alive girl say all this and see her sitting on his shoulder, he started rambling, "What is going on? I am... unable to comprehend how you are unharmed and... able to transport yourself across great distances in an instant. There is absolutely no sign of logic in your nature. Error... Error... Unable to process the data on your abilities. Only logical conclusion: you must be wiped from existence."

So, he continued to try grabbing Pinkie, but every time he did so, she effortlessly dodged before appearing on a different part of his body and asking about his thoughts on two more flavors. While all that was going on, an equally confused Cliffjumper was also trying to process what Pinkie's endgame was. However, he soon felt himself being lifted from the ground and looked down to see a grunting Applejack using her super strength in an effort to help him get back up.

"AJ? What in the name of Primus is going on? What are you and Pinkie up to?" he incredulously asked.

Then, once he was finally back on his servos, the girl who had assisted him in accomplishing this in the first place took a short while to catch her breath before sternly replying, "What do you think we're tryin' to do? We figured you needed some time to get back up and we're givin' it to you whether you want our help or not! Look, you might be pushin' us away to keep us safe, but that's not what partners do. They stick together no matter what and that's exactly what you, me, and Pinkie are supposed to do. So, what do ya say, Cliff? Parners?"

She then stretched out her right hand and after Cliffjumper stared at it for a handful of seconds while silently contemplating on the points she had just made, he eventually shook her hand with his right index finger and declared with a smile on his face, "Partners."

Applejack smiled at this as well and stated, "Glad to hear it. Now, we've a plan to bring down the big boy here, but I'm warnin' ya, you ain't gonna like it."

Even though a confused expression soon appeared on Cliffjumper's face, he nevertheless let out a sigh and said, "Can't be any worse than me throwing you guys out during a high speed chase. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Nah, it's fine," admitted Applejack. "Pinkie and I only have tiny bruises on our arms and elbows. Speaking of Pinkie..."

She proceeded to give a whistle so loud that Pinkie heard it from at least a dozen feet away and smirked with determination before appearing right in front of Shockwave and repeatedly throwing explosive sprinkles at him. Although the bulky Decepticon reacted quick enough to block all these attacks with his right arm and even began charging his cannon for a counter-attack, Pinkie suddenly threw a large batch of sprinkles to the cannon itself, resulting in a huge explosion that knocked Shockwave back several steps and made him scream in agony.

Despite the loss of his limb, he furiously walked back towards Pinkie and once he was close enough, he exclaimed, "YOU INSOLENT PEST! I will grind you into nothingness for this!"

Upon seeing her friend about to be stomped on, Applejack yelled at Cliffjumper, "Quick! Throw me!"

"WHAT?!" the shocked Autobot asked. "Are you insane?!"

"Just do it! Trust me!" retorted his human friend.

Although he groaned at this, he nevertheless did as Applejack asked and as soon as she reached Shockwave's head, she delivered one powerful punch to his optic, completely shattering it and causing him to fall on his back with a heavy thud. She then landed safely on the ground, and shared a hug with Pinkie and Cliffjumper, all three of them cheering for their epic victory.

"We did it, guys! We really did it!" the Autobot happily declared. "I can't thank you enough for this. Partnering up with you is truly an honor and easily the best decision I've made in a long while."

"Awww... You're welcome, Cliff! We feel exactly the same about you!" revealed Pinkie.

"Darn tootin'. Glad to have met you in the first place, partner," Applejack added. "By the way, what are we supposed to do with that big hunk of junk over there?"

After looking at the unconscious, blind, and mutilated body of his nemesis for a few seconds, Cliffjumper finally let out a deep sigh and announced, "That's enough punishment for what he's done. In this state, he can't hurt anyone or even find his way back to his comrades, who all have their hands full with our friends. Speaking of our friends, how about we go help them win the day already?"

Both girls nodded in approval and hopped on to his vehicle mode as soon as he tranformed into it. Cliffjumper then started driving away from his defeated nemesis, satisfied that he was finally able to bring the murderer of his previous partner and sister figure to justice.

And you're bringing me back to life

Meanwhile, in another part of the same desert, the renowned Autobot engineer Wheeljack, along with his human friends Rarity and Rainbow Dash, was driving as fast as he could to get away from the Decepticon communications officer Soundwave, who was relentlessly pursuing the trio in his drone alternate mode for the damage they had caused to his long time partner Laserbeak.

In spite of Wheeljack's best efforts to avoid the incoming laser blasts, Soundwave had already caught up with him and was rapidly firing at every single spot near his adversary, causing the said adversary to violently sverwe in quick succession, and his human passengers to be continuously thrown from one side to another in the process.

"This brute needs some serious help in anger management," Rarity commented. "Can't you go any faster, Wheeljack?"

"Much as I hate to say it, Rare, he can't," revealed Rainbow. "This model can only go about two hundred miles per hour at most and the drone that's chasing us can reach speeds up to three hundred miles per hour. In other words, there's no way we can outrun this thing."

Upon hearing that information, Rarity looked at her friend with utter bewilderment and asked, "How do you know all this?"

Rainbow responded by giving her a simple shrug and saying, "What? I look up info on sports cars and military aircraft sometimes. No big deal."

"Well, it sure looks like the info you just mentioned isn't wrong at all, kid," Wheeljack interjected. "This blasted vehicle mode of Sounwave's is clearly faster than mine and if we don't do something soon, he'll most definitely blows us all to bits."

"Then, what can we do?" nervously asked Rainbow. "Don't you have any weapons that you can use while driving?"

Her Autobot guardian thought very hard on these questions for a few moments before coming up with a plan and announcing, "No, I don't, but one of you does."

While both she and Rainbow initially became confused by this answer, Rarity eventually realized what he had meant by it and exclaimed with widened eyes, "ME?! B-but how?! You know how tough Soundwave is. It's going to take a whole lot of diamonds just to pierce his armor and creating all those diamonds will no doubt give him plenty of time to finish us off."

"That's why we'll have to take only shot to bring him down," explained Wheeljack. "On my mark, I'll slow down and get behind Soundwave, where we'll have a clear view of his rear engine. A well-aimed lob of one of your diamonds should cause enough damage to make him crash, but you'll have to hit it the second we see the target. Otherwise, he'll come back to dish out some more blaster fire and take measures to protect his only weak spot. Do you understand?"

In response, Rarity looked down in self-doubt and nervously considered Wheeljack's words before finally managing to say, "I... I'm not sure I can do it. I-I-I know our lives depend on this shot, but I've never thrown a diamond this high in the air before. What if I miss? Do we even have a back-up plan for this possibility? I've been under pressure plenty of times in the past, but this is a whole new kind of pressure and I have absolutely no idea if I-"

Before she could finish that sentence, she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to her left to see Rainbow giving her a smile full of determination. She then heard her friend say, "Don't worry. I've got your back. We're all in this together, right?"

Shortly after hearing these words, Rarity's originally confused facially expression turned into a determined smile, as well, and she declared, "Right. Let's do this!"

She proceeded to create two diamonds with her magic and after giving one to Rainbow, they both took took positions by poking their bodies up to their waists out of the nearby windows. Immediately afterwards, their Autobot guardian began slowing down and and as soon as the rear engine of the drone became visible, he shouted, "NOW!!!"

The moment they heard that command, the girls threw their respective diamonds at the target, both managing to hit it and causing Soundwave to lose control of his flight systems before crashing down several dozen feet in front of his opponents. The said opponents then stopped moving upon seeing the crash and the girls got out of the car while the Autobot transformed back into his robot mode.

"You think he's finished?" Rainbow curiously inquired.

In response, Wheeljack shook his head in denial and said, "Unlikely. He's always been one of the toughest Cons there is and I've seen him survive a lot worse than this. So, we better stick together and stay vigilant from now on. Got it?"

As he turned his hands into blasters, both girls nodded in approval, and followed him towards the large crater that was formed as a result of of the crash and surrounded by a large cloud of dust, with Rarity conjuring up a few more diamonds and Rainbow holding up her fists to get ready for an attack.

Then, just as they had all taken their tenth step dowards the crater, a tentacle suddenly emerged from the dust cloud and grabbed Wheeljack by the throat before pulling him closer to the crater. Despite the Autobot engineer shooting at random directions in order to free herself from getting strangled, the tentacle around his neck was so strong that it began to repeatedly smash his body against the ground, damaging it further and further in the process.

Meanwhile, the girls were initally shocked by this sudden turn of events, they quickly snapped out of it upon seeing their friend in grave danger and quickly started taking action to get him out of this predicament. Rainbow ran so fast around the dust cloud that it soon dissipated and exposed Soundwave for all to see. Realizing that he had lost the element of surprise, the Decepticon communications officer stopped attacking Wheeljack, tossed him aside, and deflected several diamonds thrown by Rarity with both of his tentacles before engaging all three of his opponents with a sonic attack.

While the said attack did cause some serious damage to the girls' ears and make them scream in agony like before, Wheeljack managed to resist the effects long enough to stand back up with some difficulty and shoot at Soundwave's chest several times, causing the faceless Decepticon to stagger backwards and cease emitting high frequency waves. The Autobot engineer then retrieved dual swords from his back and charged straight at his adversary with a battle cry, but as soon as he finally reached and attacked Soundwave, the silent but deadly Decepticon swiftly dodged several of these strikes and even blocked the rest with his arms in quick succession before delivering a powerful kick to Wheeljack's torso, making him fall several feet backwards and drop the swords in his hands.

Then, just as Wheeljack began to get back up, Soundwave extended both tentacles towards him and once they were attached to his chassis, they started sending and electric shock with immensely high voltage to his entire body, causing the Autobot to scream in agony, as well. In the meantime, the supposedly mute Decepticon finally spoke in a both gravely and modulated tone of voice, "Soundwave, superior. Autobots, inferior."

However, a few seconds after he uttered these words, he was suddenly struck in the face by a diamond, which created a small crack on his visor and made Soundwave himself to retract his claws from Wheeljack's body before turning towards the direction the diamond had come from in the first place. Upon doing so, he saw Rarity with a few more diamonds floating near each of her hands and heard her say with utter determination, "You won't touch him again."

In response, he began extending the tentacles towards her this time, but he was once again interrupted when another diamond struck his face, resulting in his visor getting damaged further and his head to turn towards the direction the second diamond had come from, only to see Rainbow getting ready to run with a cocky smirk on her face and hear her declare, "We've got a score to settle here, rust-for-brains! So, I hope you've become a lot faster than the last time you chased after me! Ready... Set... GO!!"

Immediately after that, she started running all around Soundwave and the now partially blind Decepticon responded by extending his tentacles in both the direction she was running and the opposite direction an effort to corner her from each side. Unfortunately, he soon came to the stunning realization that this was actually a trap meant for himself, as the girl had used the tentacles chasing after her as a means to wrap him up like a mummy.

Even though he tried his hardest to free himself from this contraption of his own making, he then realized that during all this time fighting the humans, he had failed to notice that their wounded but still functional Autobot guardian was already back on his servos and charging directly towards him once again. Thus, he was utterly helpless to stop Wheeljack from jumping into the air and delivering a flying kick to his face that was so powerful, it completely shattered his visor and knocked him out cold.

As for Wheeljack himself, he immediately fell down on one knee after performing such an exhausting stunt due to the severity of his injuries, but still smiled with satisfaction after seeing Soundwave's unconscious body laying on the ground. When his human friends rushed to his side with concerned looks on their faces, he gave that smile to them, as well, and said, "That was some fine teamwork right there, kids. Never doubted you for a moment. Thanks so much for not gving up on me either."

They responded by smiling back and sharing a group hug with him before helping him get back up once again. The trio then walked towards the body of their defeated enemy and once they were standing right beside him, Rarity inquired, "So, now what? What exactly are we supposed to do with him?"

"Hmmm... Well, considering all the atrocities he committed under Megatron's orders during the war on Cybertron and the fact that he caused the termination of countless brothers-in-arms of mine in the process, my first instinct would be to pay him back in full," Wheeljack explained as he turned his hands into blasters, aimed right at Soundwave's chassis, and began charging the said blasters.

While both Rarity and Rainbow were visibly shocked by this revelation, they quickly came to understand the reasons behind Wheeljack's new course of action and silently waited for him to finish off the Decepticon who had caused him so much pain in the past. However, much to their further shock, Wheeljack soon stopped charging his blasters, turned them back into his hands, and admitted "Nah, he's not worth the Energon. Besides, taking his life won't bring back the ones he's taken from us. Guess we all gotta move on and keep marching forward at some point, right?"

The girls took a moment to understand the meaning behind those words before giving Wheeljack both warm smiles and another hug. Then, Rainbow declared, "Well, let's go help the friends who still need us, then!"

Wheeljack nodded in approval and right after his transformation, the trio drove off to do just that.

I was looking for something that I couldn't find

While all that was happening, in a completely different part of the very same desert, Bumblebee was driving as fast as he could in order to escape the constant bombardment of jet missiles sent by the alternate mode of the Decepticon air commander Starscream, while also trying to protect his human friends, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, from being harmed in any way by the said missiles. The humans themselves, in the meantime, were holding on to their dear lives as a result of being violently shaken by the all the sharp turns that their Autobot guardian was forced to make so that they would not get blown up by their air-borne adversary.

As for the air-borne adversary in question, he was very clearly having a ball with all this as he was maniacally laughing all the way through during his release of seemingly infinite supply of missiles. Eventually, he even went as far as merrily announcing to his prey, "Run, run, run as fast as you can! You can't escape me! I can do whatever Megatron can!"

Hearing this poem then prompted Twilight to poke her head out from her window, look back at Starscream with a stern expression on her face, and reply, "Hey, those lyrics belong to two different songs! You can't just mash two completely separate things together without any regard for their respective context!"

Starscream responded by sending another missile near her and after it resulted in her fearfully retreating back inside the car, he proceeded to add, "SILENCE! This is my very first attempt at poetry and I absolutely love it! In fact, I love it as much as the thought of vaporizing all three of you this very instant! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

Immediately after declaring that, he sent another missile at those he was hunting, but instead of hitting the rear or either side of Bumblebee's alternate mode, the said missile hit a spot right in front of the car and caused it to spin out of control for a few seconds, which was more than enough time for Starscream to get a clear shot and send yet another missile that sent all three of his targets flying in the air, with Bumblebee forcibly transforming back into his robot mode as a result of being hit by the missile.

Fortunately, as soon as the trio started falling back on the ground, the young Autobot scout grabbed both of his human friends and then, transformed back into his vehicle mode just before they made contact with the ground, leading to a bumpy landing that still resulted in all three of them surviving in the end. As the humans heavy breaths in an effort to calm themselves after this terrifying experience, their Autobot guardian made some buzzing noises that sounded like a question and Fluttershy managed to answer, "We're okay, Bee. We're okay. Scared, but okay. Thank you so much for catching us in the nick of time."

"I agree, but let's just never go through something like this again," Twilight added.

In response, Bumblebee made some more buzzing noises and Fluttershy translated, "He wants the same thing, but he can't promise anything while Starscream keeps firing on us. If we don't fight back in some way, we'll surely be blown to bits in a matter of minutes."

Whilst an extremely worried expression appeared on Fluttershy's face and she even tightly held on to her hair while trembling in fear, Twilight began thinking about ways they could get out of this situation alive and after a several seconds of contemplation, her face suddenly lit up confidence as a brilliant idea came to her mind. So, in order to execute her latest plan, she once again poked her head out of the nearby window, and proceeded to yell at the Decepticon hunting her and her friends, "Hey, ugly! Was that missile supposed to finish us off? As you can see, we're all unharmed and very unimpressed by your so-called attack."

"Oh, you want more pain, then?!" Starscream shouted back. "I have plenty of ammunition to go around! How about you try a bunch of them all at once?!"

Immediately afterwards, he came right on top of Bumblebee and started dropping a series of bombs in order to eliminate all of his opponents with one savage strike. However, just before those bombs hit their intended target, Twilight managed to halt every single one of them in mid-air with her magic before sending them right back at Starscream, severely damaging the Decepticon air commander and blowing him dozens of feet away in the process. As his crash created a large crater in the process, Bumblebee hit the brakes and after letting the humans out, transformed back into his robot mode before cautiously walking towards the said crater alongside his friends.

However, just when they were only a dozen feet away from the crash site, Starscream suddenly rose back up and started firing at them with both blasters while screaming in pure unadulterated rage. In response, Bumblebee quickly shielded the girls from those blasts with his back and despite making buzzing noises that sounded like screams of agony, he managed to stand his ground for several seconds. Horrified by the torture her friend was going through, Fluttershy used her magic to summon a flock of vultures to attack Starscream, who became immensely annoyed by them pecking at his head and tried to swat them away long enough for Bumblebee to recover.

Then, just as the vultures flew away from Starscream, he was tackled to the ground and got repeatedly punched in the face by Bumblebee. It was only by firing the rockets on his arms at the Autobot's chest that he managed get his opponent off of himself and once he got back up, he pounced on Bumblebee laying on the ground in order to stab him with his claws. Unfortunately, the young Autobot scout managed to roll away quickly enough to make Starscream stab the ground and get his claws stuck, instead. As he tried his hardest to pull them out, Bumblebee grapped him by the wings, lifted him upward, and then slammed him against the ground. Unfortunately, when he attempted to shoot at him with his blasters to finish him off, Starscream reacted quickly enough to dodge the blasts and even got close enough to slash at Bumblebee with his now free claws, who managed to block this attack with his arms like the last time they fought.

After blocking several more of these slashes with his arms, however, Starscream managed to knock him down with a leg sweep and tried to stab him once again. Fortunately, he grabbed the Decepticon's arms just before he could puncture his body, and succeeded at throwing him off of himself with both a headbutt and a kick to the chest. Just as he got back on his servos and prepared to deliver a punch to Starscream's face, however, his sneaky opponent kicked him face so hard that the strike itself made him take several steps backwards and give Starscream time to take aim with his blasters. Once he had done so, he once again proceeded to rapidly fire at Bumblebee and as the Autobot scout desperately tried to block the shots with his arms but still kept getting damaged in the process, Starscream could not help but manically laugh at his opponent's predicament.

"I shall tear you into shreds and finish what Megatron started with your voicebox!" he exclaimed as he continued to fire. "For once, I get to succeed at something he failed at!"

However, immediately after uttering those words, he was knocked back a bit by what looked like a dust storm that had formed out of nowhere. Even though this was making it nearly impossible to see what was going on around him, his optics did manage to make out Twilight using her magic to blow all the sands of the desert in an effort to buy Bumblebee enough time to recover, which only infuriated him even more than he was before and prompted him take a few steps forwards with extreme diffiulty so that he could finish the girl off once and for all. Just as he had managed to take those few steps, however, Bumblebee charged straight at him and kneed him in the face hard enough to send him flying several feet back.

Then, just as he rose back up and attempted to fire his blasters at the Autobot (who was still running towards him), he felt his blasters being forcefully pointed at his chest by Twilight's magic and only managed to let out a simple "Oh, scrap," before his opponent delivered an uppercut to his jaw that was so powerful, it flung him at least a few dozen feet upwards. Then, as he kept rising in the air, the said opponent jumped towards him and grabbed him by the legs before both of them fell back on the ground and he was slammed against it once again, even bouncing a few times in the process.

Nevertheless, he got back up with lots of struggle and groans, and after glancing at the severity of the injuries he had sustained, he glared daggers at the ones responsible for those injuries in the first place and declared, "You may have won this battle, pests, but the war is far from over! When I return, I will have so much power at my command that even Megatron will have no choice but to bow before my might! All worlds will tremble before Starscream, the one true leader of the Decepticons and emperor of des-"

"Oh, will you be quiet already?! You're making less sense with each word that comes out of your mouth!" a voice coming from an unknown source nearby interrupted his speech and he turned to his left to see Fluttershy hovering in the air, as well as looking at him with a stern expression that actually looked really intimidating to him and immediately prompted him to do as she had said.

"Good. Now, listen up, mister!" she continued. "If you think being needlessly mean to everyone around you is gonna do you any favors to you in the future, then you're sadly mistaken! I mean, who in the right mind would even consider following a leader who only thinks of himself and constantly takes advantage of other people's suffering? If you really wanna be a leader who deserves respect, then I suggest you take a good look at yourself and start thinking of ways to become a better person first! GOT IT?!"

By the end of this little pep talk, Starscream had become absolutely terrified of Fluttershy and only managed to utter in response, "Um... Yes... Yes, of course, ma'am. T-thank you for your advice. I... I should be going now. H-hope to see you again soon."

Immediately afterwards, he transformed into his vehicle and flew away as fas he could, even though his engine stopped working a few times and released a rather large amount of smoke in the process. As he went farther and farther away, Fluttershy proceeded to land on the ground before turning around to give both a wink and a smile to her friends, who were both flabbergasted by what she had done earlier. Upon seeing their faces, she became a little concerned and asked, "Oh, dear. Do you think I acted too mean?"

They both responded by quickly shaking her head to get rid of the shocked expression on their faces and Twilight revealed, "No, not at all! That was fantastic, actually! I never would've guessed you could be this brave when confronting a Con like Starscream, but you were truly astonishing out there! Right, Bee?"

The Autobot scout's response was nodding a few times and playing a song on his radio that had the following lyrics:

We are all together
(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)
Now it's better than ever
(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)
You can feel it, we are back (You... can... feel... it...)
And I'm so glad that we're better
Better than ever
Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Oh yeah, we're better than ever
Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Fluttershy could not help but blush at all these compliments and replied, "Oh, thanks, guys. I was actually pretty terrified when standing up to Starscream, but I just couldn't let him hurt two of my closest friends, as well as himself. Besides, even if I was scared to during all that, I knew you two would be there to help me out no matter how dangerous things would get."

The trio then happily came together for a group hug with Bumblebee even making buzzing noises that sounded like he was full of joy. After they separated, Twilight asked, "So, what do we do now?"

"Hmmm... I think we should go help out our friends fight off the remaining Cons, but Bee looks pretty beat up right and I really don't want him to be damaged further if he can't take it anymore," stated Fluttershy.

Bumblebee, however, responded by raising a fist in the air and play another song on his radio that had the following lyrics:

Let's have a battle, we'll go all in it
Let's have a battle, battle, battle
Battle of the bands!

"Well, it looks like he's more than ready to take on even more Cons and you know what, so am I," Twilight declared with determination. "We need to end this war as soon as possible to protect not just our world, but also countless others from harm. The only way to do that is to keep fighting no matter what. Right?"

Upon hearing these words, Fluttershy thought on them for a short while before smiling with confidence and raising her fist while shouting, "Right! Once more to battle, then!"

Immediately afterwards, Bumblebee transformed back into his vehicle mode, and drove off with his best friends to exciting new adventures.

It's a feeling you give me inside

Shortly after two titanic leaders of rival Cybertronian factions charged right at each other for their final confrontation, the clash of their respective fists created a shock wave so poweful that it caused both combatants to be pushed at least a dozen feet backwards. Immediately afterwards, Megatron aimed his Fusion Cannon at Optimus Prime and tried to blast him several times before the Autobot leader turned his left hand into a sword and deflected every single one of these shots as he started running towards Megatron once again.

Then, he used his sword to redirect the sixth shot towards Megatron's left shoulder, and the resulting hit caused the Decepticon leader to both yelp in pain and stumble a few steps backwards just as he was firing the seventh shot. While he placed his right claw on his injured shoulder, Optimus avoided his oncoming shot by jumping over Megatron, turning his right hand into blaster, and shooting at both his opponent's chest and his back several times, finally knocking him down as he safely landed right behind him.

As the wounded Decepticon leader struggled to get back up and managed to stand on one knee, his archnemesis attempted to finish him off with his sword, but he successfully blocked the attack with his hidden blade coming out of the underside of his Fusion Cannon and slashed at Optimus in the left side of his abdomen with his left claw, tearing it deep enough to expose some circuits with sparks flying out and forcing the Autobot commander grunting in pain to take a few steps backwards, which gave Megatron enough time to get back on his servos with the help of his blade. As he began charging at Optimus once again, he blocked his opponent's blaster shots with his left arm and countered another sword strike with his blade before exploiting the resulting opening by stabbing Optimus in the right side of his abdomen, causing him to scream even louder in agony. He then retracted his blade, used it to slice Prime's back, and delivered a point blank shot to the chest, sending his mortal enemy flying several dozen feet away in the process.

While the severely injured Autobot leader attempted get back on his servos with much struggle, his opponent jumped high in the air and then started falling down towards him with the intention of bisecting him in half. However, just before he could do so, Optimus delivered an uppercut to his jaw and knocked him away in the process. Then, he turned his blaster into a second sword and both blades subsequently clashed several times with Megatron's own blade. When all three blades were eventually locked together, Megatron tried to grab Prime's head with his left claw, but the Autobot leader quickly turned his right sword into a hand again and stopped the claw from reaching his face at the last possible second.

As both combatants struggled with each other for a bit, Megatron furiously exclaimed, "I WILL TEAR OUT YOUR OPTICS!!!"

Right after hearing this, Optimus used every bit of strength he had left in himself to toss his archenemy over his shoulder and as soon as Megatron hit the ground with a heavy thud, he turned both of his hands into blasters and began to repeatedly shoot at the Decepticon leader. Upon being hit by these blasts a handful of times, Megatron proceeded to retreat and transform into his vehicle mode with Optimus continuing his shooting even as his opponent became airborn and started avoiding the blasts. The said opponent then came around and started sending his own blaster fire at the Autobot leader, who responded by transforming into his own vehicle mode and driving at top speed in an effort to avoid getting shredded by this incoming attack. After being pursued and shot at by Megatron for a short while, Optimus stopped moving forward and instead, began doing donuts in the middle of the desert and creating a huge dust cloud in the process.

This caused Megatron to not only lose sight of his prey, but also momentarily lose control of its navigation system due to the significant amount of dust that had damaged his sensors, forcing him to descend towards the ground for a landing as a result. However, this was just what Optimus had been counting on and once his friend turned rival was close enough, he came up behind the jet, transformed back into robot, and grabbed on to the said jet's wings by jumping right towards it. In response, Megatron immediately ascended back up and attempted to shake Optimus off of himself by spinning violently.

Fortunately, the Autobot leader managed to continue holding on to the wings despite all this and even stabbed the engines by turning his left hand back into a sword, causing Megatron to completely lose control of his flight systems, crash into the top of a nearby mountain, and transform back into his robot mode in the process. As the two titans began tumbling down, Optimus stabbed the mountainside in a desperate effort to slow down his descent and eventually, he came to a complete stop at the halfway point of the mountain.

Unfortunately, as Megatron was falling nearby, he grabbed Prime's right leg with his left claw and dragged the Autobot leader down a bit in the process, Optimus nevertheless struggled to hold on to the mountainside with his swords and even though he only descended a couple feet before managing to stop himself from going down any further, he then looked down to see Megatron taking aim at him with the Fusion Cannon.

"Start climbing," the Decepticon leader ordered. "We shall finish our battle once we are both safe at the top. Otherwise, we fall to our doom together. After all, if I am to become one with the AllSpark today, I would be more than willing to take you with me to the Matrix. Your choice, Optimus."

Upon hearing that threat, Optimus momentarily looked away from his mortal enemy and began thinking about his options on how to get out of this predicament, as well as the good and bad outcomes of choosing either option. After spending a handful of seconds contemplating on this, he looked back at Megatron and announced with utter determination, "Then, I choose this."

Immediately afterwards, he turned his right hand back into its blaster mode, aimed it right at the face of a completely shocked Megatron, and added, "Farewell... brother."

He then shot the Decepticon leader in his right optic and watched him fall towards the ground, screaming all the way with pure rage and agony. Optimus once again looked away and, after taking a deep breath, remorsefully pondered if there ever was another way to end the war and protect the inhabitants of the planet. However, his optics eventually widened with shock as his thoughts turned to Sunset Shimmer and her friends, So, he turned his blaster back into his right hand, activated his commlink by pressing the right side of his head, and frantically spoke, "Ratchet, this is Optimus. Do you copy?"

"Affirmative, Optimus," Ratchet's voice replied. "We can hear you loud and clear. The Decepticons have all been neutralized and everyone is safely back at the base. Our fellow Autobots all looked pretty beat up after coming back from their battles, but luckily, Sunset used her magic to heal every single one of them in no time. What is your status?"

In response, Optimus let out a sigh in relief and declared, "Wounded, but not fatally so. More importantly, Megatron has just been defeated, as well. I repeat, Megatron is down."

As soon as he made that announcement, he heard both his Autobots and their human friends loudly cheer for this long-awaited news, and then heard Ratchet say, "That's very good to hear, old friend. I've never doubted you for a moment. The Ground Bridge is locked on to your coordinates and ready to bring you back to base whenever you wish."

Optimus then looked at the spot where he had stabbed the mountain and upon feeling his blade slipping a bit, he replied, "Actually, it would be best if you open the bridge one klick south of my position."

"South?" inquired Ratchet with utter confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"Trust me, old friend," Optimus assured him. "You shall see what I mean soon enough."

Then, a few seconds after their transmission ended, a green portal opened short distance behind Optimus and he proceeded to pull his sword back, turn it back into his left hand, and push himself away from the mountain as hard as he could in order to reach the said portal. Once he emerged from the other side, he promptly fell on his back due to essentially flying backwards, and found himself surrounded by both his fellow Autobots and their human friends (as well as Flash Sentry, Sour Sweet, and Spike), who had all run towards him in concern upon his exit from the Ground Bridge in such a bizzarre fashion.

"Optimus!" he heard Sunset Shimmer exclaim nearby. "What happened? Are you okay?"

He turned his head to the right to see her still in the Daydream Shimmer form standing over him with an extremely worried look on her face. Then, he started gently stroking her hair with his right hand and said, "Do not worry, Sunset. I am quite alright. Injured, but still very much functional. Believe it or not, seeing you here in one piece has actually made me feel even better than I was earlier."

His words caused a warm smile to appear on Sunset's face and even made her shed a few tears of joy before she hugged his faceplate once again and he continued to stroke her hair, with the magical energy emanating from her hands gradually healing his injuries and eveyone gathered around them watching the scene with equally warm smiles on their faces. Nearly half a minute later, they finally let go of each other and he stood back up with some assistance from Wheeljack and Bumblebee, before turning towards the audience in front of him and announcing, "You have all fought valiantly and with honor today. The road that we have traveled to get this far was indeed a long one and required each of us to make many sacrifices along the way, but we can all rest easy now, knowing that the Decepticon threat is over for now and the people of this world remain safe from their tyranny. My fellow Autobots and I would have never accomplished any of this without the help of our respective human allies and friends, and whether it was fated to be so, the way I paired us up with these humans was the wisest decision I have made in a long while."

The said humans and their respective Autobot guardians then smiled at each other as Optimus continued, "They helped us overcome the physical and mental problems that we have been facing for a long time, allowing us to not only bring an end to our senseless conflict, but also allow us to become stronger than ever before. While our defeated enemies may one day come back with a vengeance, we will no doubt grow strong enough to end their threat once again. That being said, even if they return to terrorize this planet many more times, we must hold on to the hope that its inhabitants will help them in the same way that our new friends helped us and make them see the error of their ways."

Even though everyone else in the room became confused by the notion of the Decepticons ever learning to become good again, the Autobots and their organic friends looked back at one another, and thought back to how the Autobots went through a significant change ever since they encountered and bonded with the humans under their care, eventually realizing that it is also possible for the bots on the opposite side improving a lot after meeting other humans, especially considering their weakened and vulnerable state at the time. Thus, after spending a several seconds contemplating this possibility, they all nodded at Optimus with appproval and he elaborated, "Now, despite the end of the war, this location is still compromised and the Decepticons may stage another attack on it at any given time. Therefore, I suggest we all leave as soon as possible and continue our stay on this planet by hiding in plain sight, secretly watching over and protecting its inhabitants. However, before we go, there is one more announcement that I wish to make."

Upon saying that, he pulled out what looked like a silver key with engravings that glowed bright blue. While it was as big as his hand at first, it quickly transformed into the size of a regular human hand and as soon as it did so, Optimus kneeled down to give the object to Sunset, who took it with great curiosity.

As she began to examine the object, she heard Optimus say, "Sunset Shimmer, you have demonstrated all the qualities a good leader should possess during these past few days: wisdom, courage, decisiveness, determination, and compassion. You have also helped me face and overcome my demons, rallied your friends to make a stand against the Decepticons despite your physical disadvantages, and defended this world as if it was your own, just like we Autobots did. Therefore, you have earned the right to carry the key to Vector Sigma; the repository of the collective wisdom of the Primes."

While the other Autobots gasped in awe in response to this announcement, Sunset became both shocked and puzzled by it. After taking another look at the key in her hands, she asked, "Um, thanks, but what does this mean, exactly? I'm like the gatekeeper of a library or something?"

"Vector Sigma and the key that opens it are among the most sacred relics in the history of Cybertron," Optimus explained. "The key itself can only be wielded by either a Prime or a being chosen by a Prime. Since I entrust it to you now, it has been imprinted with your own unique bio-signature."

Hearing this explanation caused an utterly stunned expression to appear on Sunset's face and she almost collapsed on to the floor before Flash and Sour Sweet caught her by the arms. She then took a handful of seconds to collect her thoughts and finally managed to say, "H-hold up. Y-you're saying I'm... I'm now a P-prime like you?!"

"Well, more like an honorary Prime," replied Optimus. "Besides, I seem to recall that the function of the so-called princesses in your world is to lead and protect its inhabitants, which is very similar to how Primes like myself have done ever since the inception of Cybertron."

All the organics in the room gasped in shock upon hearing that statement and as Sunset's friends gathered around her to cheer for this momentous occasion and congratulate her for being granted such a great honor, she stared at the key in both confusion and disbelief for a handful of seconds, trying to comprehend what she had just heard and convince herself that it was all true. Then, just as a few drops of tear formed on her eyes and traveled down her cheeks, she looked back at Optimus with a small smile on her face and stammered, "I... I don't know what to say. T-thank you... Thank you so much!"

Optimus gave her a nod of approval in response and happily watched as she joined her friends in a group hug and even let out a chuckle when Twilight asked her, "Looks like our lives won't be lacking any color or excitement any time soon, huh?"

His thoughts were then interrupted when Ratchet placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "I admit, I would have most certainly objected to the idea of entrusting an artifact as sacred as this to a mere human. Alas, these humans have demonstrated an extraordinary strength of character and spirit ever since we first met them. Plus, you have never once let us down during your leadership of the Autobots and you were exactly the kind of commander we needed to win the war. So, if you truly believe that one of these humans deserves to wield the key to Vector Sigma, then you shall have my full support once again and I strongly suspect that the rest of our troops are of the same opinion."

He then turned around to see the remaining Autobots nodding in approval of the decision and after he nodded back, he looked back at Optimus and the two nodded at each other in unison. Right afterwards, the old medical officer turned his gaze towards the organics, loudly cleared his throat in order to get their attention, and declared, "I know this is a great moment at all, but you can get on with the celebrations much later. First, we must focus on evacuating this base and transporting all of our important materials to a secure location. So, how about we all quit standing around and help with our relocation already?"

Everyone in the room just looked at him in complete silence with blank expressions on their faces. The resulting awkwardness was only interrupted when Wheeljack suddenly facepalmed and said, "Oh, I just remembered something! Rarity and Rainbow's science fair project is due tomorrow, and we really should go and add some finishing touches on it. Sorry for not being able to help with the clean-up, but this is equally important and I hope you can all understand."

He quickly proceeded to enter the coordinates for Rarity's house on the Ground Bridge computer, activate the said bridge, and transform into his vehicle mode while also opening his doors so that the girls could get in. As soon as he finished doing all that, both girls ran towards the car and just before they got in, Rainbow exclaimed, "See you later, guys!"

"Don't forget to stop by our booth tomorrow! It's going to be simply fantabulous!" Rarity added as she took her seat alongside Rainbow and their Autobot guardian drove towards the Ground Bridge at full speed before disappearing from sight with the closing of the portal.

Immediately afterwards, Cliffjumper announced, "Um, you know what, I remembered something important too. Pinkie mentioned earlier that her sister's birthday is drawing near and we really should go back to her house in order to start preparing the party as soon as possible. Isn't that right, Pinkie?"

"Yep," she replied. "Marble's birthday is in two days and if you, me, and Applejack all start working on preparing party tonight, we'll most likely be done in twelve hours."

Even though a slightly worried expression appeared on Cliffjumper's face upon hearing this and he even let out a nervous chuckle, he nevertheless managed to say to everyone else in the room, "Uh, yeah, exactly. As you can see, we're a bit behind schedule and it's best if we leave right now."

He quickly typed in the coordinates of Pinkie's house to the computer and transformed into his vehicle mode as the Ground Bridge opened right in front of him. Just before both of the girls entered the car, Applejack waved good-bye to her friends and said, "See y'all tomorrow at school!"

"And don't worry! We'll bring you some cupcakes for taste testing!" Pinkie added with another shout, and upon her and Applejack getting in the car, their own Autobot guardian drove into the Ground Bridge as fast it could before the portal closed behind them.

Right after that, Fluttershy chimed in, "Um, I know this is probably not the best time to mention this, but I do need to go to the animal shelter for a bit and see if any of our residents need anything."

"Oh, can I come too?" Sour Sweet asked with great excitement in her voice. "I really like animals and not to brag or anything, but since you did say that I've done a pretty good job taking care of Spike, I do feel like I have a natural gift for this kind of duty. Well, I have a natural gift for archery too, but I can still be great at two things, right?"

Fluttershy and Twilight both nodded in approval of this statement and Bumblebee even gave her a thumbs up before entering the coordinates of the animal shelter to the computer, activating the Ground Bridge, and transforming into his vehicle mode. Also, while he did all this, he played a song on his radio that had the following lyrics:

Time to get this show on the road
Turn on the lights (the lights)
Make 'em shine bright (bright)
Light up our dreams (dreams)
Bright as the sun (sun)
Shining like gold (gold)
Let's get this show (show) on the road

By the time he was done with his transformation, the girls had already arrived beside the car and all three of them waved good-bye at their remaining friends as they got in. Then, the young Autobot scout began driving towards the portal at full speed and the portal closed behind him shortly after he entered it.

Shortly after their departure, Ratchet let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Great. Just great. Looks like I'll have to dismantle and transport every single item by myself. That's simply wonderful."

"Um, would you like some company in the meantime?" a voice coming from behind asked and Ratchet turned around to see that it belonged to Spike, who was just sitting there all by himself.

"Shouldn't you have left with your master, little one?," the Autobot medic inquired.

"Well, yeah, but I hid from her, because I wanted to stay with you for a little longer," Spike explained. "I'm really interested in learning more about your world and listening to all the war stories you haven't told us yet."

Ratchet thought hard about this proposal for a few seconds before declaring, "Hmmm... Very well, then. I am going to contact Twilight and let her know you'll be staying here for a while longer. Then, you can listen to the rest of my experiences during the war while I work. Also, since I have heard that you were the one who successfully operated the Ground Bridge while I was out, I would be more than happy to teach you about its full capabilities and the history surrounding the technology itself."

"Oh... Ummm... N-no, thanks. War stories would do just fine," Spike nervously replied. "Besides, I didn't really do anything except following Wheeljack's instructions on how to operate the Ground Bridge and all that technical stuff are Twilight's thing, anyway. Also, I never really pay attention when she talks about them."

In response, Ratchet let out another sigh full of exasperation and even muttered to himself, "As always, only a few bright spots in every new generation."

He then solemnly walked towards the inner sections of the base with Spike closely following behind, leaving only Optimus, Sunset, and Flash remaining in the room. Once they were no longer able to hear Ratchet's footsteps, Sunset noticed that Flash was in deep thought and placed a hand on his shoulder as she asked, "Hey, is everything alright?"

Thus, she snapped him out of his contemplation and caused him to say, "Hm? What? Oh, um, yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. It's just, well, I've been thinking about what we've been through today and also wondering if there's something even bigger in store for us later down the line. I mean, you what the Equestrian magic did to the Autobots. It somehow reacted with the Energon in their bodies and healed them in no time. I know this sounds crazy, but what if the two substances are related in some way? What if there's some kind of ancient connection between Equestria and Cybertron?"

Hearing those questions made both Sunset and Optimus deeply ponder them for a short while before the latter replied, "I do not yet possess the answers you seek, Flash Sentry, but I do know for a fact that we can uncover them over time if we all work together. It is indeed clear that my world and the one that Sunset originates from are connected somehow, and we shall no doubt strive to discover what exactly is this connection. For now, though, I believe we have all earned a bit of rest and it is best if we leave that search for another day."

Even though Flash initially looked unsure about this offer, a smile soon formed on his face and he said, "Yeah, I think you're right. After all, we literally saved the world today and anyone who does something like that definitely deserves a break. Besides, Sunset and I don't really have any homework due tomorrow and we still have a few hours to kill before bedtime."

He then turned to the girl next to him and asked, "If you want, we can go to that drive-in theatre we went last night. I've heard there's a pretty good romantic comedy playing there tonight and if we hurry, we can still make it in time before the movie starts. What do you say?"

Sunset both smiled and blushed at this proposal. while Optimus let out a small chuckle. As the two humans planned their evening together, the Autobot leader stood back up, walked towards the computer, and typed something on the keyboard before speaking at the monitor in front of himself, "Without a means of leaving this world, we Autobots take strength in the bonds we have forged with our young human friends. True warriors, if not in body, then in spirit.

"My name is Optimus Prime and I send this message. Though we did not choose to be of Earth, it would seem that we are here to stay."

"If you approach this planet with hostile intent, know this: We will defend ourselves."

"We will defend humanity."

"We will defend our home."

Author's Note

Special thanks to everyone who has criticized and assisted me throughout this journey. Without your well-appreciated comments and support, this passion project of mine wouldn't be nearly as good as it is today.

I also thank everyone who has read this story from beginning to end. Hope you check out the other projects that I'm developing at the moment.

As always; take care, stay safe, and remember:

Friendship is magic and will light our darkest hour. :twilightsmile:

'Cause I'm bringing you back to life

Sunset Shimmer was almost out of breath.

She had been running non-stop for the last ten minutes or so and she had no intention of slowing down even for a second. She was extremely late for the meeting with her best friends just outside their school, Canterlot High, and this was not just any meeting. It was going to be the meeting that could change all of their lives.

About two weeks ago, Sunset herself had made arrangements for their band, The Rainbooms, to play in a fully booked concert annually held at the heart of Baltimore. This was a great opportunity for them to not just play in front of a crowd much bigger than the ones in Canterlot, but also be noticed by people who could enable them to play in front of even bigger crowds in cities such as Philadelphia and Manhattan. While her friends were initially very excited about all this, as the day of their trip drew near, they somehow lost their enthusiasm and some of them even suggested finding another concert to play at that would be held at a much later date. However, Sunset disagreed and reiterated the fact the concert in Baltimore could open the door to immense fame in the entire country for them, and that this could be a one-time opportunity. Shortly after considering this, they decided to go along with the original plan and started making preparations for their trip.

At last, the day they were supposed to head out for Baltimore came, ever single member of the band was packed and ready to go. They were to meet up near the tour bus that was parked right in front of Canterlot High at exactly eight o'clock in the morning and all of them arrived there on time along with their suitcases and instruments.

Well, ALMOST all of them.

As mentioned before, Sunset was nearly ten minutes late to the meeting. While she had finished all her packing the night before and her alarm clock was, as always, set to ring at seven in the morning, she had unfortunately snoozed it before going back to sleep, drowsily assuming that it was just a regular Saturday morning. However, about an hour later, she woke up to a call from Twilight Sparkle who, along with the rest of the band, was wondering where exactly Sunset was, since the meeting time had already come. Sunset became extremely horrified to hear this and immediately started changing and putting two slices of bread to her toaster for a quick breakfast. Once she was fully dressed, she grabbed her bags, phone, wallet, both toasts (with her mouth), and finally, her magical geode, before heading out the front door of her apartment and running as fast as she could towards the CHS parking lot.

It took her approximately ten minutes to reach her destination and when she finally did, she dropped her bags, fell on her knees, and began breathing very heavily due to her immense exhaustion. It was not helped by the fact that she had eaten her toasts on the way and that, eating them really fast while running really fast was making her stomach churn. A few moments later, however, she managed catch her breath, get back on her feet, and say, "I'm here! I'm here! Sorry I'm late. My alarm clock didn't ring at all. I think it ran out of batteries last night. So, anyways, are we all ready? Who else is excited for the band tour of our lives, huh?"

Unfortunately, none of her friends seemed as excited as she was. In fact, they all gave each other nervous looks before Applejack let out a deep sigh and declared, "I know I said this before, sugercube, but I'm gonna say it again. We all have too much work to do in the coming days, and it wouldn't be right for us to just ditch them and spend the whole darn weekend playing at that concert."

"Yeah, AJ's got a point there", added Rainbow Dash. "I mean, Rarity and I are supposed to submit our project for the science fair this Tuesday, and we haven't even decided what it's gonna be about! I asked Twilight to help us out, but she said she had some other things to take care of on Monday AND Tuesday."

"I'm really sorry, guys, but I just don't have the time to help you on those days", Twilight revealed. "Fluttershy asked me to assist her with taking care of the animals at the shelter due to a lot of them getting sick with flu. Even though I asked Pinkie Pie to cover my shift, she and Applejack are apparently busy with something else on both days."

"Hey, if you think baking three hundred apple pies for the annual Apple Family Reunion is easy, then you've got another thing coming, sister!", exclaimed Pinkie. "Applejack said she needed all the help she could get for this job, and since everyone else is too busy with other stuff, I'm the only one who's got the time for baking all those pies."

Soon enough, they all started arguing with one another at the same time, creating an incomprehensible mixture of words and leaving Sunset incredibly confused. About ten seconds later, however, she finally became unable to tolerate it any longer and shouted, "Guys! Calm down! Please!"

Upon hearing that, they stopped speaking altogether and turned their attention back to Sunset who, after taking a deep breath, explained to her friends, "Look, I know this doesn't seem the right time to go on a concert, but this could very well be the one and only chance for our band to become famous across the country. Maybe even across the world. Besides, during the tour, we can surely come up with a plan to get all of our scheduling issues sorted out. After all, we always figure out the solution to a difficult problem when we put our heads together. How does that sound?"

Her friends simultaneously began contemplating on this proposal and a few moments later, they all smiled and nodded at Sunset with approval before grabbing their bags and boarded the tour bus. They then placed their bags at the back of the bus and took their seats. Sunset took the wheel, Twilight and Fluttershy sat at the seats right behind her, while the rest of the band quickly grabbed the remaining seats and fastened their seatbelts. Just before Sunset started the engine, however, the conversations that her friends were having in the back suddenly caught her ear. After listening to them a bit more, she realized that they were talking about neither the city of Baltimore nor the concert they were going to play at that night. Instead, Twilight was discussing potential science project topics with Rarity and Rainbow, while the remaining girls were discussing how they were going to finish their jobs during the small amount of free time they would have after their return to Canterlot City.

Listening to all this made Sunset feel a little bit guilty about dragging them all the way to Baltimore and significantly reducing the already short time they were planning to spend on other duties. In fact, she briefly hung her head in shame and even let out a small regretful sigh.

Nevertheless, she came to the realization that there was no turning back from this at the moment and proceeded to turning the ignition key. As soon as the engine started, she hit the gas pedal and speedily began making her way out of Canterlot City, never once noticing four identical sports cars with black and purple color schemes emerging from various street corners, and following the tour bus while also making sure to keep their distance so that they would not arouse suspicion.

Approximately half an hour later, the band was almost halfway between their point of origin and their destination. Upon arrival, they were planning to check-in to a hotel, leave their belongings in their rooms, go to the concert stage with their instruments, practice until the start of the concert, and finally, play in front of the huge crowd for several hours. The day after that, they were going to drive back to Canterlot City right after breakfast so that all of them would have a little more time to complete their assignments.

As her friends continued to discuss this plan, Sunset continued driving the bus and looking at the road ahead with a twinge of sadness. Even though there was a beautiful lush forest on both sides of the road, it was still not enough to alleviate her guilt. Just as she passed a sign saying that there was still sixty five miles to Baltimore, she felt someone nudging her left shoulder and looked behind to see Twilight looking at her with a concerned expression.

"Hey, are you alright?", she asked. "You haven't smiled or uttered a single word ever since we hit the road. Is something bothering you?"

Sunset responded by sighing with frustration and declaring, "This might sound a bit crazy, Twi, but I'm actually thinking maybe this whole trip was a bad idea from the start. I mean, Applejack did make a good point about everyone having other jobs to take care of and the concert reducing what little time they have for finishing those jobs."

"Um, weren't you the one who arranged for us to go and play at this concert in the first place?", Twilight asked with confusion. "Also, you constantly said that everything was gonna be fine and that the concert would spark massive popularity across the nation for us."

"Yes, I know, but I might've lost sight of what's important during these past few weeks", replied Sunset before letting out yet another sigh. "The truth is, I was mostly thinking about myself rather than the band when I signed us up for the concert. I was struggling with something and my mind wasn't exactly clear at the time. If you're wondering what could I possibly be struggling with... well... it was the fact that my life had gotten pretty stale and uneventful as of late. I go to school, do my homework, take exams, go to work, meet up with you guys at the mall for either shopping or movies, and that's about it. Sure, I get to fight a new magical threat every couple of weeks or so, but even those battles have lost their appeal, in my opinion. Therefore, I wanted to try something different and exciting, and that concert seemed to have everything I wanted at the time. A chance to go on a brand-new adventure where I could meet new and exciting people, explore an unfamiliar environment, show my talents to a crowd much bigger than the ones in Canterlot City, and maybe even battle an evil who has no connection to Equestrian magic whatsoever. To put it simply, I wanted to have an adventure that could add more color and excitement to my life, and I also wanted to open a door that could lead to even more adventures like this."

"Um, you're not going to burst into a musical number, right?", a suddenly concerned Twilight asked.

Upon hearing this, Sunset gave her a confused look and said, "No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

Then, a nervous smile appeared on Twilight's face and she revealed, "Well, it's just that, you kinda sounded like a princess from a cartoon just a second ago."

Sunset responded by letting out a small chuckle and explaining, "Funny you should say that. If I hadn't disobeyed my teacher's instructions and gotten myself expelled from her tutelage, I most likely would've become a princess like her and gone on several dozen epic quests by now. Hmmm...Now that I think about, I guess those would also become pretty boring after a while. What do you think?"

Twilight did ponder on this for a few moments and in the end, she gave Sunset a warm smile and said, "You know what I think? I think you're taking this whole adventure stuff way too seriously. I mean, just take a look at what you already have. You're a member of an amazing band, your friends care so much about your well-being, you get to go to easily the best school in the entire world, and on top of all that, your geode gives you the ability to see into people's memories and understand their feelings. Sounds to me, your life is already pretty colorful and exciting. Don't you think so?"

Sunset took a moment to consider Twilight's words and eventually, she started smiling back at Twilight and replied, "Thank you so much, Twilight. I really needed to hear that."

In response, Twilight delivered a light punch to his shoulder and happily declared, "Anytime, pal."

The two girls started laughing, but they were suddenly interrupted by something hitting the bus on the left, creating an impact that caused both the bus and everyone inside to be pushed to the right. As Sunset tried to regain control of the wheel that was rapidly spinning clockwise, Applejack frantically asked from behind, "What in tarnation is goin' on?! Did we hit somethin' or what?!"

"No, I don't think so!", announced Sunset. "More likely something hit US!"

As her friends gave each other extremely worried looks, she took a look at the side mirror on her left, and saw that they were being followed by two scary-looking sports cars that were right beside the bus and riding on the opposite lane. Before she could comprehend what exactly was going on, the bus was hit once again from behind, which nearly caused Sunset to hit her head on the wheel. She then looked at the other side mirror and saw that there were two more of those cars right behind the bus and this instantly filled her with immense dread. While she did think for a brief moment about pulling over and trying to reason with the drivers of those cars, she eventually decided against it as the fact that they were attempting to hit the bus and force it out of the road was a clear indication that they had no good intentions whatsoever, and that they would most likely end the lives of both her and her friends if given the chance.

So, she came to the conclusion that the only logical thing to do was to drive faster and try to outrun the cars. Then, she turned towards her friends and shouted, "HOLD ON TIGHT, EVERYBODY!", before hitting the gas pedal as hard as she could. The bus started going faster than it had ever gone before and when Sunset looked at both of the side mirrors again, it did seem like they were going to lose their pursuers. While this lifted her spirits for a short while, her hope was soon obliterated upon seeing what looked like laser cannons appearing on both sides of the two cars that were in front of the other two.

Indeed, they instantly started rapid blasts of crimson laser towards the rear wheels of the bus and a handful of shots later, they destroyed both of them and caused the bus to drag on the road while creating an enormous amount of sparks. It also began to slow down and ultimately, it came to a full stop, allowing the cars to surround it from the front, the back, and the left, and trapping the girls inside. Just when they thought that things could not get any more terrifying, they were then met with a sight they were never expecting to see in a million years.

All four of the cars (one in front of the bus, one at the back, and the remaining two on the left) started turning and shifting their parts, and eventually transformed into twenty three feet tall humanoid robots with a sinister-looking insignia on their chests. Each of them also had a slick thin body with a purple color scheme, wheels on the sides of their shoulders, and a chrome-colored head with a red optic visor. While the girls all gasped in horror from seeing these things, the robots turned their right arms into laser cannons that closely resembled triangular prisms, charged them up, and pointed them right towards the bus before the one in front of the vehicle announced with a menacing voice, "Everyone outside. We will not ask a second time."

Upon hearing this, Sunset immediately opened the doors and she, along with all six of her friends, hurriedly exited the bus. Once they were outside, they walked very slowly towards the robots, with their entire bodies violently shaking from utter dread. In fact, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were so scared that they were actually walking while also hugging each other very tightly.

Once they were merely a couple feet away from the robots, Rarity briefly gulped and mustered up enough courage to ask, "W-what are you? W-what do you want with us?"

In response, the robot that had spoken earlier looked directly at her face and replied, "We seek the gemstones around your necks. Surrender them to us and we shall let you go without any harm. Should you refuse to comply, however, every single one of you will be obliterated."

As soon as he finished his sentence, he and his comrades pointed their weapons towards the girls, making them even more terrified than ever and prompting them to give extremely uncertain expressions to each other. Even though their very lives were being threatened at that moment, they all knew that there was no guarantee that these monsters would let them live if they gave them their geodes. Besides, considering the malicious nature of the robots, there was no doubt among the group that they were intending use the magic inside the geodes for a nefarious scheme that could doom the entire world. Since they could not possibly let that happen, they spent a good long while exchanging looks with one another and silently discussing what exactly they could do to both save their lives and prevent the geodes from falling into the wrong hands.

The robots, meanwhile, were growing very impatient with each passing second and soon enough, the one who had threatened the girls with termination actually gestured to his comrades to open fire on the group. Just before they could do so, however, they were interrupted by the sound of a nearby car engine. Both they and the girls turned around to look at the direction the sound was coming from, and were shocked to see a heavily modified red 1970 Dodge Challenger with two horns on the front of the hood and zoomie style side exhaust on both sides was speedily coming right towards them. In just a few seconds, however, the robots realized what that car really was and promptly started shooting at it with their weapons.

The car then responded by dodging every single one of those blasts and, as a result, came closer and closer to its attackers. When it was approximately a dozen feet away from them, it also began transforming into a giant sentient robot, much to the additional surprise of the girls. In contrast to the other robots, this one had a red color scheme, two white horns on his head, and a couple feet shorter but also much bulkier body. Also, his eyes were blue and the middle of his body had a black belt through it, which contained his headlights.

The second his transformation was complete, the new robot jumped to the air, turned his hands into three-barreled cannons, and stated emitting blue-colored lasers right towards the heads of his enemies. Sure enough, he cracked open three of the heads with his lasers before delivering a powerful kick the last one, causing it to be thrown off the head it was attached to. By the time he landed back on the ground, all four of the evil robots had been utterly terminated and all four of the bodies fell down one by one.

The victorious robot took a quick look at his work before raising one of his fists up in the air and exclaiming, "AW, YEAH! Tenth kill of the week! A new record for the fabulous Cliffjumper! Try to beat THAT, Bumblebee!"

As he continued to look proudly at the enemies he had defeated, however, he eventually noticed the girls staring at him with both shock and confusion. Therefore, he immediately stopped cheering for himself and a very awkward expression appeared on his face. As he tried to find the right words to say to the group, he could not help but let out a small nervous chuckle and he even scratched his head a few times.

A few seconds later, the awkward silence was finally broken when Pinkie managed to say, "That... was... AMAZING! I mean, we almost died just a while ago, but still... AMAZING!"

Applejack then added, "Yeah, I agree. We really do owe you an awful lot of thanks for saving our lives, kind sir. Also, the way you beat up those no-good brutes was pretty darn epic. Where'd you learn to do all that?"

In response, Cliffjumper blinked a few times before explaining, "Well, you see... I had this partner who showed a lot of those cool moves you saw just now and- "

Just before he could finish his sentence, however, he saw something in the distance and as soon as he looked at it harder, his optics widened with immense fear. It was a blue-colored jeep that was headed straight towards them and it even had a larger version of the laser cannons his previous opponents were using attached to its roof.

Cliffjumper knew exactly what that jeep really was and so quickly came right in between the girls and their bus before shouting, "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Unfortunately, as soon as he said that, the jeep's cannon fired a missile that hit the bus and created a giant explosion powerful enough to blow up the entire vehicle and send Cliffjumper flying a couple dozen feet away. It also caused the girls to be pushed to the ground and they were all absolutely horrified once they saw what had become of their beloved transport. Even Rainbow could not stop herself from shedding some tears.

Right after that, the jeep drove right through the flaming wreckage and began transforming into yet another giant sentient robot. Unlike the previous ones, this robot had a blue and grey color scheme, orange-colored face, menacing yellow eyes, and a rocket launcher attached to his left shoulder. He was also way bulkier and taller than Cliffjumper, standing at least twenty six feet tall. On top of all that, every time he took a step forward, the ground shook a little.

He stood right on top of the girls, looked right at their frightened faces, and a smirk appeared on his face. He then announced with a gruff voice, "Greetings, young humans. Apologies for destroying your mode of transportation, but it was in my way and I do get a little trigger-happy when something is in my way. I'm sure you understand. Oh, where are my manners? I am Breakdown, the esteemed commander of the Decepticon ground forces. The soldiers you encountered a while ago was under my command and I'm gonna tell you about a slight variation of the deal they tried to make with you. Surrender those gems around your necks and you'll be able to save not just your lives, but also the life of that pathetic Autobot behind you. What do you say?"

Before the girls could give Breakdown a proper answer, Cliffjumper managed to rise back up with some grunting and yelled, "Get away from them, Decepticreep! You seriously think they're dumb enough to make a deal with a backstabbing scrapheap like you?"

Breakdown responded by letting out a little chuckle and saying, "You're right. The only one who's dumb around here is you. You and your ilk are always fighting to protect primitive and insignificant life forms like these humans, even though they have absolutely no hope for survival."

Upon hearing that, Cliffjumper turned both of his hands into laser cannons, aimed them directly at Breakdown, and retorted, "It's called, 'sympathy'. You and your master really should practice it sometime. Oh, wait! I forgot. You'll never practice it, because your entire faction consists of genocidal psychopaths."

In response, Breakdown turned his right hand into a giant hammer and declared, "We'll never practice it, because it's simply another word for weakness and we NEVER allow weaknesses in our ranks. That is the sole reason why you're on the losing side and I'm gonna give you one last chance to join the winning side. Do not make the same mistake as your partner did."

As soon as that sentence was complete, Cliffjumper charged towards his enemy while repeatedly shooting at him and screaming with pure unadulterated rage. Unfortunately, Breakdown's armor managed to deflect every single one of those blasts and once Cliffjumper was close enough, he knocked the Autobot to the ground with a single headbutt. He then grabbed Cliffjumper by the neck, threw him upwards, shot him with the rocket launcher while he was still ascending, and just before the Autobot could hit the ground, he struck him in the chest with the hammer so hard that he was sent flying dozens of feet away.

As Cliffjumper struggled very hard to rise back up, Breakdown started running towards him, intending to finish him off with the hammer. A few seconds later, however, Cliffjumper came up with a brilliant idea and just as Breakdown came withing the swinging distance of his weapon, he shot the Decepticon straight in the left knee, causing him to feel a significant amount of pain and fall on his back. Quickly seizing the opportunity, the Autobot began to rapidly punch Breakdown in the face, never giving him a moment to recover.

However, Breakdown eventually mustered up enough strength to lift his hammer and hit Cliffjumper in the head a second time, knocking the Autobot off of himself and buying himself some time to get back up. Even though his opponent did the same and even tried to hit him with a jump kick, he grabbed the leg in mid-air, slammed the entire body to the ground four times, threw it upwards once again, jumped to the air, knocked Cliffjumper back to the ground with one sing of his hammer, and finished his combo attack with a brutal people's elbow.

Satisfied with a job well-done, the Decepticon commander briefly gazed upon the severely damaged Autobot before lifting him by his head, letting out a dry chuckle, and saying, "I was honestly expecting more of a challenge from you. Then again, we ever so rarely get what we want these days, don't we?"

Right after that, he started squeezing Cliffjumper's entire head with his left hand, creating small cracks around the head that soon began to grow larger and causing the Autobot to scream in pure agony. Breakdown merely sneered at this sight and kept crushing the head even harder for a few more seconds. Then, out of nowhere, a green portal appeared behind him and a yellow Chevrolet Camaro with black stripes came out of it.

A few seconds later, the portal closed behind the said Camaro, and the car itself started transforming into yet another giant sentient robot who had a mostly yellow-colored body with several rims of black, the same height and optic color as Cliffjumper, a face plate covering his entire mouth, and car doors on his back that looked like wings.

Immediately after completing his transformation, he jumped to the air, and delivered a powerful punch to Breakdown's face, destroying his right optic and sending him flying half a dozen feet away. Upon landing, twin cannons appeared on each of the yellow robot's arms and he sent a barrage of laser blasts to Breakdown who was still in the process of rising back up. Unlike those of Cliffjumper, the blasts emitted by the yellow robot's weapons actually began making small dents on Breakdown's armor and even succeeded in damaging his knee, forcing him to stand solely on the other knee. This made the Decepticon realize that he was in no condition to continue the fight and so, he transformed into his jeep mode and started to drive away from both the Autobots and the humans who had been watching the entire ordeal by hiding among the nearby bushes.

Once his opponent disappeared in the distance, the yellow robot deactivated his cannons and proceeded to help Cliffjumper get back up. However, the moment Cliffjumper started standing on his servos again, he pushed his companion away and said, "I had it completely under control, Bee. Also, how'd you know I was in the middle of a fight, anyway?"

The yellow Autobot responded by making a series of incomprehensible buzzing noises and once Cliffjumper heard them, he asked, "Doc's monitoring the vital signs of the entire team from his computer? Whoa... Didn't know he was this caring."

Then, both robots noticed that the humans had already come out of their hiding places and were pretty much standing right beside them. While his companion became as nervous as he was a while ago, Cliffjumper actually crouched in front of them and inquired, "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're doin' alright", replied Applejack. "Thanks again for savin' our lives... Um... Cliffjumper, was it?"

"Yep, that's me. The handsomest Autobot on this side of the galaxy", proudly declared Cliffjumper.

Upon hearing that, Bee made a noise that closely resembled a groan and then made more noises, which sounded like an irritated ranting. As soon as he was done with that, Fluttershy commented, "Really? Oh, WOW! That does sound rather irresponsible and dangerous. Kinda reminds me of the things my brother does every few weeks or so."

Right after she said this, both her friends and the Autobots began staring at her with immense confusion and the silence continued for a handful of seconds until Rarity asked, "Uh, Fluttershy dear, are you seriously able to understand what that robot is talking about?"

"Well, yes, actually", Fluttershy revealed. "All those noises he's making do sound like the buzzing of a bumblebee."

The moment she announced that, the robot in question crouched right in front of Fluttershy while also buzzing with great excitement. Fluttershy listened to everything he was saying and as a result, became just as excited as he was before saying, "Oh, your name is really Bumblebee? That's so sweet! I'm Fluttershy. It's so wonderful to meet you."

She extended her hand towards Bumblebee and he gently shook it with just two fingers. After slightly giggling at that gesture, she asked, "Would you like to meet my friends, as well? There's Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer."

In response, Bumblebee waved his left hand at the rest of the group and they happily waved back. Then, Twilight came closer to the Autobot, took a good look at his entire body, and said, "Whoa! He looks way more advanced than any robot I've ever seen in my entire life. I wonder where he came from and who or what built him."

Bumblebee started buzzing in an effort to answer the question and Fluttershy translated, "He says he's from a planet far away from ours and that he was brought to life by something called the 'Well of All Sparks' millions of Earth years ago."

Hearing all this made Twilight extremely ecstatic and she started exclaiming, "OH, MY GOSH! These alien robot are not only sentient and capable of turning into vehicles, but also millions of years old?! What an amazing discovery! I have so many other questions to ask! Where is this robot planet located? Is it in this galaxy or is it several light years away? How did Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and the evil robots we just saw manage to get here? How long did it take for them to get here? How long have they been on Earth? How are they able to turn their bodies into vehicles? Can they also turn into- "

As she continued to spew out questions, Sunset came beside her and covered her mouth with her hand. She then turned to Bumblebee and announced, "I think all those questions can wait. Right now, the most important thing we should know is why Breakdown and his cronies are after our geodes."

Bumblebee thought hard about how to answer this question and a few seconds later, he gave his reply and Fluttershy announced, "He doesn't know the answer either, but he thinks someone else does. He offers to take us to his base and meet his leader so that he can tell us everything we need to know."

While her friends started thinking about whether or not they should accept this offer, Cliffjumper nudged Bumblebee's shouder and whispered, "Do you have a major malfunction or something? We have no idea how he's gonna react if we bring them to the base. Need I remind you that he was the one who ordered us not to interact with a human in any way?"

Bumblebee responded by making a long series of angry buzzing noises and when he was finished, Cliffjumper let out a deep sigh and said, "Alright, fine, but if he gives us a severe punishment for doing this, I will never forgive you."

Both of them rose back up and just a second later, the girls finished their discussion. They then looked up towards the Autobots and Sunset declared, "Okay, we're in. Take us to your base."

"More specifically... TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER!", Pinkie excitedly shouted, which resulted in the rest of the group glaring at her. Upon noticing this, she nervously asked, "Too soon?"

Cliffjumper let out another sigh, pressed something on the left side of his head, and said, "Cliffjumper here. Requesting emergency ground bridge."

A few seconds later, another green portal opened behind the Autobots, they transformed into their car modes, and opened their doors. The girls then swiftly entered the cars with Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow boarding Bumblebee, and the others boarding Cliffjumper. Once everyone was inside, the cars closed their doors and started driving through the portal. The portal closed the moment they entered it.

Unbeknownst to both the Autobots and the girls, the entirety of this incident had been monitored by a mechanical bird with paper-thin wings and the appearance of an origami sculpture that was hovering hundreds of feet up in the air. The second the portal closed, it performed an analysis of it and a series of numbers that looked like coordinates sequentially appeared on its heads-up display.

It then ascended further and eventually found a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper flying around the scene. Immediately after the bird attached itself into the UAV's lower section, the said UAV made a sharp right turn and flew away at its top speed.

What's a pipe dream if you ain't trying to do it?

Applejack slowly entered the pretty dusty but also rustically charming barn on her family's apple orchard. One of her hands was holding a plate with two slices of apple pie and a fork on it, while the other was holding a wooden tankard full of apple cider. Inside the barn, there was a a heavily modified red 1970 Dodge Challenger with two horns on the front of the hood and zoomie style side exhaust on both sides. It had arrived there with her the previous day and just happened to be the alternate form of her new extraterrestrial friend Cliffjumper. Also, there was an immensely loud mixture of laughter, cheers, and arguments coming from just outside the barn, which indicated a pretty large gathering of friends or family members.

Upon entering through the front door and moving closer to the car, Applejack sat down on a nearby bail of hay and placed the items on her hands right beside her. Then, she took a sip from the cider and asked, "Howdy, Cliff? You doin' okay here?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm great here," Cliffjumper replied. "I mean, sure, the place is a lot more dusty and primitive compared to the base, but it's still pretty comfy. In fact, I think I can even fit here in my normal form."

Immediately after saying that, he started transforming back into his robot mode. However, as he stood up, the horns on his head got stuck on the ceiling of the barn and while he struggled to remove them without causing any damage to the said ceiling, Applejack noticed his plight and started climbing on his back in order to help him out.

After reaching the top of Cliffjumper's head and some assistance from her super strength, she finally managed to free the horns with little to no damage to the ceiling. As she jumped back on the ground, her new friend crouched in front of her and sheepishly admitted, "Well, I can ALMOST fit here in my robot mode."

Applejack chuckled at that statement before proceeding to sit back on the bail of hay. She then grabbed the plate with two slices of apple pie on it and inquired, "You sure you don't wanna come outside and join the Apple Family Reunion? I'm sure all of my relatives would be thrilled to meet someone like you. Besides, even if you can't eat all the tasty treats, you can still have fun in a couple of activities we got goin' on outside."

As she started eating a piece from one of the pies, an extremely nervous expression appeared on Cliffjumper's face. He started scratching his head and his optics even began shifting back and forth before he managed to say, "Um... Maybe it's best if I stay here. We may both know that your siblings and grandmother got used to me fairly quick, but let's not forget that seeing me for the first time in this form was a bit of shock for them. Can't risk the same thing happening to an even larger crowd, now can we?"

As soon as she heard this explanation, Applejack stopped eating her pie and gave a very suspicious look to Cliffjumper before asking, "Is that that really the reason you don't wanna go outside and spend time with my family? Or is there somethin' else goin' on here?"

"Uhhh... Yes... Yes, that's the whole reason," Cliffjumper declared with a nervous tone. "Why would you even think there's something else?"

"Let's just say super strength ain't the only special ability I've got," revealed Applejack. "I can also tell whenever someone's tellin' a lie or a half-truth and you, sir, are definitely tellin' me a half-truth right now."

"Yeah? Well... What if I am?" Cliffjumper tried to retort. "What if there are ugly parts about my past that I'm not at all comfortable with explaining to any bot or human?"

Hearing this caused a shocked expression to appear on Applejack's face. The said expression soon turned sad and she curiously inquired, "Sooo... You don't like spendin' time with other people 'cause of somethin' bad that happened in your past? Did you lose someone close to you?"

Immediately after she asked that question, Cliffjumper gasped in pure terror and even hit his own head with a fist before yelling, "STUPID! STUPID! Why in the name of Primus did I say that?!"

He then quickly transformed back into his vehicle mode and declare, "If you'll excue me, I'm going back to sleep. Wake me up when the Decepticons come knocking."

Even though he tried to fool Applejack by making snoring noises, she let out a deep sigh and proceeded to sit right next to the car while leaning back against the left door. Then, she began to explain, "Look, Cliff, I get why you don't wanna talk about the one you lost. You're thinkin' a human teenager like me would never understand somethin' like that, but believe me, I do understand what that's like. I've also lost people I cared about and loved with all my heart."

As soon as he heard that, Cliffjumper stopped snoring and began to listen more intently to what Applejack had to say. So, she somberly continued, "Both of my parents died when I was about Applebloom's age. I know that must be an unfamiliar term for you Cybertronians, but it basically means the humans who give birth to and care for new humans. Anyway, I lost mine about ten years ago and shortly afterwards, things didn't look so good for our family. Granny Smith became so sad that she wouldn't move from her chair, Applebloom was barely a couple months old, and the only ones left to take care of the farm were me and Big Mac. Though both of us were really sad about what happened, we also knew we couldn't do nothin' to survive."

"So, while Big Mac took over the job of harvestin' apples, I took it upon myself to raise Applebloom. Well, at least for a while. After a few close calls, I finally decided to get in touch with a whole bunch of relatives and ask for their help in how to properly raise a kid. Gotta tell ya, they were real life savers. They gave me and my brother solid advice, answered every question we had, and didn't ask anything in return. That's family for ya. They might be a bit overbearin' and drive you crazy sometimes, but you can always count on their love and support when you need it the most."

"I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that although I did lose two people I really loved, I had a lot more people I really loved to help me, my brother, my sister, and my granny get through the difficult times that followed and move on from our loss. I still miss my parents every day, but I'm also mighty thankful for the support we got from the other members of my family. In a way, this loss helped us become a lot closer and made our bond stronger than ever."

As she said all this, several drops of tear began running down her cheeks and upon hearing her sniffle, Cliffjumper transformed back into his robot mode and proceeded to gently wipe the tears from her eyes with a finger while also giving her a warm smile. Then, he said, "Well, I guess Applebloom is really lucky to have a sister like you. Kinda like the one I had."

Hearing that caused Applejack's eyes to be widened with shock and herself to ask, "Wait, you're sayin' you lost your sister?"

"Well, not my actual sister, but she was the closest thing I ever had to one," Cliffjumper began to explain. "Her name was Arcee and she was my partner. We went on dozens of combat and sabotage missions during the war, and completed every single one of them with success. Sure, we didn't get along that well at first because of our differing personalities, but we eventually warmed up to one another and even became pretty much inseperable. Then, shortly after the final battle in our capital city of Iacon, we both traveled to this planet in order to meet up with Prime's team and although we were actually successful in our first few missions here, the last one we went on together sadly resulted in complete failure."

"We were attacking an Energon mine infested with Decepticreeps, hoping to drive them away and take the Energon for ourselves. However, we soon realized that the place wasn't just a mine. It was also a hidden research facility run by Shockwave; the incredibly spooky chief scientist of the Cons. As you might imagine, he wasn't happy at all to see us and started attacking us while using the large number of troopers by his side to seperate me from Arcee. I was surrounded by an entire legion of Cons, and she was outmatched by Shockwave's insane durability and firepower. I could do nothing but watch as he tore her apart limb from limb... and then took her parts with him on his way out. No doubt, he's using them for one of his unholy experiments as we speak."

As he started talking about Shockwave, both his facial expression and the tone of his voice became significantly angrier, and he even began to clench his right fist extremely hard. Applejack soon heard the sound of grinding metal coming from that fist and proceeded to place her left hand on it, causing the Autobot to stop clenching his fist and look at the farm girl in confusion, who gave him a very concerned look in response.

Upon seeing her face, he let out a deep sigh and continued to speak with a much more sorrowful tone in his voice, "I would've most certainly met the same fate as her if Optimus and Bee hadn't shown up a few seconds later. They managed to fight off the entire legion and carried me back to the base so that doc could fix me up. Though my physical wounds completely healed in a matter of days, the emotional one still haven't."

"Ever since that horrible day, I decided to roll solo in any future missions and refused to work with any bot, because I simply can't bear the pain of losing another partner. I also never opened up to the team about any of this. They all have enough problems of their own and I just didn't want to trouble them with mine."

"After listening to your story, however, I've actually begun to think that I might've been wrong to do so. Family is a notion as sacred to Cybertronians as it is to humans and though our team is far from a traditional family, we've all been through so much together in both our planet and this one. Besides, no matter how much they irritate me at times, they're still the only bots left in the whole universe who actually care about my well-being. It would be stupid of me to not seek their help in coping with the loss of someone who also mattered a lot to them, right?"

When he finally stopped talking, he gave another warm smile to Applejack, who both smiled back and gave him a nod of approval. However, her smile soon turned into a nervous expression before she asked, "Um, I really hate to ask you this, but that Breakdown fella said Arcee made the mistake of refusing to join the Cons. What exactly did he mean by that?"

Upon hearing that question, Cliffjumper let out another deep sigh and revealed, "Well, like I just said, I was surrounded by a huge number of soldiers at the same time she was fighting Shockwave, but I did manage to hear bits and pieces of the conversation they had when he finally beat her to the ground. He tried to convince her that 'joining the winning side is the most logical choice' and every time she said no... he blasted off one of her limbs. For a cold and calculating genius solely motivated by logic, torture always seems to be his favorite method of manipulation... and if it doesn't get him the results he wants... he has absolutely no qualms about blowing the heads of his victims to pieces."

Immediately after saying that, he covered his face with his left hand, as Applejack began to stare at him with a completely horrified expression on her face. It took her nearly half a minute to process everything Cliffjumper had told her and once she had done so, the expression on her face turned into a determined one and she even declared, "Don't you fret, Cliff. Next time we come across Shockwave, we'll make him pay for everything he's done to you and Arcee. That's a promise right there and any one of my friends or relatives would tell you that I always keep my promises."

Hearing this caused Cliffjumper to remove his hands from his face, let out a dry chuckle, and say, "Really appreciate the spirit, kid, but you should know that my partner was one of the very best fighters in the entire Autobot army. In fact, the only Autobot I know who could ever best her in combat was the boss bot himself, which means she's a way better fighter than you and I combined. If she couldn't take down Shockwave, what chance do we have?"

At that point, Applejack actually gave him a smirk and revealed, "Oh, I wasn't talking about just you and me when I said 'we'. In case you forgot, there's one more member in our little team and I have a pretty good feeling that she's gonna burst through the front door right about..."

"HELLOOOO!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she did exactly what Applejack had just said.

Although this captured the attention of both her and Cliffjumper, she quickly turned back towards the Autobot and confidently said, "Now. Told ya."

As he looked back at her with an incredulous expression, Pinkie merrily skipped towards the two while asking, "WHOA! Haven't you guys noticed how dusty and cramped this place is? How could anyone possibly have fun being here?"

"Well, let's just say we haven't exactly been havin' fun here, Pinkie," Applejack began to explain. "Cliff was just tellin' me about some of the ugly parts of his past and I reckon he's gonna need some cheerin' up after that mighty depressin' story. Say, is your family at home, by any chance?"

"Hmmm... Let's see," Pinkie began to think. "My parents are out visiting my nana today, but my sisters are all at home and I'm absolutely certain they would love to meet you, Cliff. By the way, I wouldn't be too depressed if I were you. You'll most definitely be alive by the end of this story, since nearly all the fans are tired of you constantly dying during the last decade."

Immediately after she said all that, a completely flabbergasted Cliffjumper began repeately looking back and forth between her and Applejack before the farm girl asked, "Hey, don't you remember what I said about her?"

Hearing that question caused the Autobot to stop moving her head, let out a loud groan, and reply, "It's Pinkie Pie. Don't question it."

"Exactly," declared Applejack while nodding in approval. "I know she looks like she's a few apples short of a bushel sometimes, but just like me and the rest of my friends, she's always there for when you need help. Plus, she's technically part of my family (kinda) and I can say without one shred of doubt that she's exactly the kind of help we need to bring down Shockwave for good."

Cliffjumper thought for a few moments about what she had said and then, a smile formed on his face before he asked, "Well, if you're as honest as everyone says, I don't really have any reason not to trust you, now do I?"

Shortly after Applejack smiled back, he transformed into his vehicle mode and opened both of his doors upon doing so. Then, the two girls very excitely hopped into the car and the said car started driving out of the barn and towards the residence of another branch of the Apple family.