(Music starts)

The battle was over. The Autobots have emerged victorious, but at a terrible cost. They've lost so many of their own, another casualty in his final moments. However, the only good news is that a few of their own had survived. It wasn't a battle... it was a massacre. We find ourselves in Autobot city, inside of a hospital for Autobots, where we see a microscope examining the wounds of a familiar red and blue robot on his deathbed. The microscope examines the wounds of the red and blue biped before reforming into a biped himself.

"Perceptor? How... how is he? Will he recover."

"It's not good, Ultra Magnus. I fear the wounds are... fatal. There's nothing I can do to save him." Perceptor says, unsure of how to help his fallen leader.

"There's gotta be something you can do to help him! P-Prime, you can't die!" Daniel says, tears streaking down his face, holding on to the hand of Optimus Prime.

The robot in question turns his head to face the young boy and says in a shaky voice, "D-Do not grieve. Soon...I shall be one with the Matrix."

"Prime..."

Optimus starts coughing up a yellowish-goldish liquid, the lifeblood of all Cybertronians. "Ultra Magnus... I-It is to you, old friend, that I shall pass the Matrix of Leadership... as it was passed to me."

"But Prime... I'm...I'm just a soldier. I'm not worthy."

"N-Nor was I." He starts coughing up energon more violently than before, splattering it on the floor of the hospital. "But one day...an Autobot shall rise from our ranks... and use the power of the Matrix...to light...our darkest hour. He then opens his chest compartment to reveal the Matrix. Awed, the Autobots take a step back.

"U-Until that day...'til all are one." Optimus tries to give the Matrix to Ultra Magnus, but his grip on it slips and it falls until Hot Rod catches it. Hot Rod gives the Matrix to Ultra Magnus, right before Optimus dies.

The monitor starts to flat-line until finally, the lights in the last of the Primes' optics flickers for a brief moment before finally going out. Daniel starts sobbing so hard he had to be taken out of the room to be consoled by Hot Rod and Arcee. Optimus' body turns a dull grey, his head turning back over on its side, one last time. Finally, his body crumbled to dust.

Optimus Prime was no more. He was dead. Or was he?

(Music ends)

"Perceptor?" Hot Rod asks. "I.. is he..." the next thing he knew, he was on the floor with a fractured faceplate.

"Optimus Prime is DEAD HOT ROD!" said Perceptor. "DO YOU HEAR ME?!?! He is DEAD! I couldn't save him. AND THIS. IS. ALL. YOUR. FAULT!!!!"

Optimus woke up and found himself floating in an endless pale white void. He looked at himself... to his astonishment, he was completely healed.

"Arise... Optimus Prime. Your time is nigh. It is not to be, my child" said a booming ethereal voice, who for all he knew could have been omniscient.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Matrix, and I'm sending you to another world. Your destiny begins. NOW!!!!!!!!!!!" the Matrix thundered. Then, it was all black.

:REACTIVATING OPTICAL SENSORS:

Optimus Prime woke up in an unfamiliar landscape. He looked into a nearby lake to make sure he was not dreaming. To his shock, not that he'd show it, he was indeed, alive and well. The landscape opened up around him, it was a glorious view of trees and shrubs. A quick look in a nearby lake confirmed this.

He did a few test waves with my hand to see if he was right, and the mirror image did the same.

He decided to do a systems check of himself. This is what it showed:

:ENERGON LEVELS: 100%
:ARMOR INTEGRITY: 100%
:SYSTEMS: NOMINAL
:T-COG: ONLINE
:WEAPONS: FULLY FUNCTIONAL
:OPTICAL SENSORS: ONLINE

Optimus Prime brought out his ion blaster and tested it, and sure enough, it was in perfect working order. He looked around to search for his trailer, only for him to be disappointed when he couldn't see it. He trudged around the forest with no particular destination in mind. In fact, he thought to himself, he had no idea why the Matrix sent him here of all places. Was this the Matrix's idea of a sick joke? The last Prime had no idea.

"Where is here?" he wondered aloud to himself. "And... I'm talking to myself. Again."

He stopped his trek and decided to rest upon a boulder. Yep. Prime thought to himself. The Matrix had done it. Optimus Prime lives once again. A high pitched scream of terror shook him from his brief rest. Time for him to play the hero once more.

Author's Note

There's my first chapter. Wow. One of the things that really saddened me was Optimus' death. As a kid, his death hit me hard. It killed me writing this. As for his body crumbling to dust, in the original draft of the movie, his body was supposed to turn to dust, but it was cut out of the movie.

Next Chapter: Optimus meets the inhabitants of Ponyville, the main six, the Princesses discover his presence via the dreamscape.