TRANSFORMERS: Darkness Rises

Chapters

Logic Awakens
Grimlock’s Problem
Threats Combined
Adapting to New Surroundings
Grimlock vs Sideways
Nemesis Prime
The Dinobots’ Search
Making Friends
Terror Rises
A Dark Nightmare
Dinobot Battle and Reunion
Plotting in the Shadows
New Help Arrives
Grimlock vs. Nemesis Prime
Much to Explain
The Darkest Hour
The Final Battle part 1: Insecticon Fight
The Final Battle part 2: United as One
The Final Battle part 3: Darkness Ends
The Epilogue
“A Long Way to Go”

Logic Awakens

TWO YEARS LATER

Two years of peace and tranquility after the defeat of Grogar were the greatest years that all of Equestria had ever had. Every single day that passed, everypony was grateful to see another day without having to deal with the ancient evil ram or with the deadly Decepticons. With Twilight Sparkle as their new ruler and Optimus Prime and the Autobots protecting them, they felt that they would forevermore have the continual peace that will be with them.

While they had their luck, the surviving Decepticons did not forsake their lust for conquest despite their aimless wandering in outer space searching for any planet to conquer. The ‘Cons also were at a mighty disadvantage due to the loss of their army and their leaders; with no leader to dictate their next move or plan, all that they had to do was search for any planet to seize its energy.

In the midst of space, the Nemesis flew by with no determined destination. Within, nine Decepticons were storing all the remaining energon they had left...including the dark energon. They were bitter and moody because they couldn’t beat the Autobots or the ponies. They couldn’t even believe that they were that close to permanent victory but still lost the battle.

“Ahhhhhh!! I’m so bored!!” whined Brawl. “I hate sitting around doing nothing! Killing and blowing things up keep me energized!”

“Will you be quiet?! I’m sick of hearing you whine every ten minutes!!” Swindle snapped.

“Oh yeah? Well, you can just get out of my face instead of sitting around lazily!!” Brawl angrily snapped back.

“LAZILY?! I’ll show you ‘lazily’!!” Swindle challenged before the Combaticon leader jumped between his two comrades.

“Brawl, Swindle, enough!! If you two keep fighting, we’ll never be able to conquer or destroy anything in a united effort!!” Onslaught ordered.

Brawl and Swindle reluctantly backed off from each other as they calmed themselves down. “I...guess you’re right. I’m just bored. That’s all.” Brawl sighed.

“Go help Blast Off and Vortex organize our energon cubes and weaponry we have. That’ll keep you occupied for the time being.” ordered Onslaught.

“Ugh...fine. On it.” Brawl hesitantly obeyed.

After Brawl left, Onslaught received a call from Thundercracker through the com link. “Commander Onslaught, there is something that you and the rest should see! But it’s best if I show you guys in the ship.” the Seeker reported.

“Very well. We’ll let you in.” Onslaught said before turning to Skywarp. “Open the portal.” Skywarp did so. The purple portal opened up before them as Thundercracker walked out and rejoined his brethren. Onslaught gathered Brawl, Vortex, Swindle, Barricade, Skywarp, Breakdown, and Blast Off as Thundercraker brought the news to them.

“Fellow Decepticons, I bring great news that will help us to regain the victory that was taken away from us!” the Seeker enthusiastically reported.

“We are in desperate need of new resources. If you have something that is of competent use, than show us.” Onslaught said.

“I both have something and someone.” said Thundercracker as he started to stand by. The rest of the Decepticons looked on as they then witnessed a figure approaching them. As the figure drew closer and closer, they began to slowly recognize its features and model until they backed away while gasping in shock and surprise.

The figure stood before them with a large cannon on his left arm to their right. He has a glowing purple optic, purple color scheme, and lighter purple lights on his chest, arms, and legs. He also has wings on his back, and two short antennas on both sides of his head. He menacingly stood before them all. The others could barely believe their visors and optics.

“He...lives!” Skywarp cried.

“I thought he was dead!” Barricade added.

“I don’t believe it! He’s here!” Breakdown added.

“Greetings, Decepticons. Your years of humiliation and idle wandering have finally come to an end.” the Decepticon emotionlessly spoke.

“Shockwave!! This is quite an unexpected turn! We thought you perished on Cybertron.” Onslaught said.

“The rumors of my death were...premature. It is true that I suffered critical injuries from Grimlock, but I nonetheless survived the massive explosion of that tower. That explains why I replaced my torn arm with my arm cannon here. I spent over a millennia gathering all the resources needed to accomplish my project that I am currently working on. Very soon, the treasures that this universe has to offer will be ours for the taking.” Shockwave said with his glowing optic.

“That’s great to hear! The Autobots won’t stand a chance this time!” Barricade said proudly. The others shouted in agreement.

“But I do not come here alone.” said Shockwave. This caught the ‘Cons except Thundercracker off guard. “Allow me to reintroduce to you my accomplices.”

He stood by as the portal was still open. Emerging from it came three yellow and purple insect-like mechanical figures while carrying more dark energon in their claws. This surprised the rest of the group while Thubdercracker chuckled to himself as he looked at their reactions.

“Hello there, fellow Decepticons!! Did you miss us, us, us?!!” Kickback excitedly welcomed.

“The Insecticons are back! Thank you for repairing us, master!” Sharpshot thanked the Decepticon scientist.

“Yeah! It’s time that we give the Auto-bums a taste of their own medicine!” Hardshell said.

The Decepticons loudly groaned in annoyance as they disliked the Insecticons for their scavenging and for their personality. “Ughhh, Insecticons?? Seriously? Do we really need these... revolting scavengers among us?” Swindle loudly objected.

“They have their uses, Swindle. But do not worry. Their firm allegiance to the Decepticon cause will keep them in line. Plus, I have personal authority over them. They do whatever I command them to do.” Shockwave affirmed.

“If you say so, Shockwave.” Swindle said.

Suddenly, the last figure approached. This one was the only one that completely threw off the Decepticons in complete shock way more than when Shockwave arrived. The Seeker was red, white, and blue all over and had his iconic sinister smirk on his face as he stood before them.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my oldest friends. What a pleasant surprise.” the Seeker welcomed with heavy sarcasm.

“STARSCREAM?!?!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?! WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?!?!” Onslaught screamed in full rage.

Thundercracker nervously giggled as he slowly backed away into an empty hall to not be a part of the commotion lest the others tear him to pieces for bringing Starscream along.

“Starscream and I made a deal after the fall of Cybertron. I offered him a chance to redeem himself by collaborating with me on my project that can be utilized to destroy the Autobots and seize control of one planet I have targeted recently. It would be logical to settle our differences and unite together to annihilate our adversaries.” Shockwave informed.

“Yes! What better way to succeed than to stop behaving like immature fools and start acting like intelligent Decepticons?” Starscream snarky remarked.

“Are you kidding us?! He attempted to destroy Megatron after he came back from death! How can you trust a traitor?!” Brawl complained.

“Exactly! We should execute him right now!” Blast Off suggested. The others readily agreed as they drew their weapons until Shockwave silenced them.

“ENOUGH! Starscream will help us accomplish our objective. If anyone of you dares to lay hold on him will either answer to me or my Insecticons. Do I make myself logically clear?” Shockwave intimidatingly threatened with his cannon pointing at them. The others gulped in fear.

“Yeah, you better know your place or else Kickback here will have a feast with his friends.” Starscream sadistically added.

“As...you wish, Shockwave.” Onslaught conceded while ignoring Starscream.

“Excellent. Now, allow us to get to work, shall we?” Shockwave said. “We have much to accomplish before the whole universe trembles at our feet, remembering the name of...the Decepticons.”

Author's Note

So here it is, guys...the final part of this series. We will go on another epic ride as Shockwave will bring a new threat to our heroes. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Stay tuned for the next and have a great night!

Grimlock’s Problem

Back in Equestria, the Autobots were in Canterlot as they mingled with the ponies there for their second anniversary of Grogar’s defeat. Optimus Prime himself entered into the redesigned throne room to have a meeting with Twilight as she requested earlier that day. Both of them had gotten to know each other ever since Optimus rescued her and the other alicorns from Grogar’s spell. They had so much in common.

“Greetings, Princess Twilight.” Optimus greeted her. “You requested my presence?”

“Yes. And you don’t have to address my title. We’re close friends after all.” Twilight said waving her hoof. “But it’s great to see you here!”

“Likewise. Is there anything that you wish to talk about?” asked Optimus.

“I only called you here because there is a warrior of yours who has been causing some trouble around here. I believe his name was...Grimlock?” Twilight said.

“Yes, I’ve been hearing rumors about him.” Optimus confirmed.

“Okay, so I thought that we can talk about his behavior. Grimlock hasn’t been getting along with a lot of ponies, and he’s always condescending to those who are mean to him.” Twilight informed. “I don’t know if he’s always been like this when he’s around you guys but I seriously think that he needs some readjustment.”

“Grimlock is a no-nonsense tough Dinobot when it comes to socializing with other beings. I’ve known him for a long time. This is why I’m always concerned for his wellbeing and his actions. I apologize for all that happened to the ponies of Canterlot.” Optimus said with a tone of sadness.

“No need to apologize. But I can’t imagine what it was like for you and the Autobots on Cybertron. Was there ever a time in which he was actually kind and tender to others?” Twilight asked.

“Rarely, I’m afraid. He is well-known as a stubborn and headstrong Autobot; often times, he would either disobey or openly disregard my orders, especially in the heat of battle.” recalled Prime. “One time, I appealed to him to unite with the rest of us to stop Megatron and the Decepticons but he refused. He went solo to fight against the enemy which resulted in our long-time separation. I feared for the worst. I hoped that he miraculously survived the war on Cybertron.”

“I’m sorry. I’m genuinely sorry that happened.” Twilight said with heavy sorrow in her tone. “Do you think you can talk to him?”

“Yes. I’ll reason with him and convince him to readjust his behavior.” Optimus said. “I appreciate your help and concern, Twilight.”

“What are friends for?” Twilight smiled.
Optimus departed from the throne room leaving Twilight sitting on her throne.

The Dinobot Commander was in the EverFree Forest in his T-Rex mode waltzing around in the woods. All the creatures that beheld the monstrous metal beast fled with great fear. He then transformed into his robot mode. He saw the Ark up in a distance. He slowly walked toward it as he was contemplating everything that happened to him over the past two years in Equestria, what happened to him and his comrades on Cybertron, and also recently in Canterlot. He thought on how he was rude, mean, and condescending to everyone whom he had a strong dislike for.

He remembered how he often had a fight with Sideswipe and Perceptor every time he would mess things up before he was turned to a Dinobot. He also remembered how he often disobeyed Optimus’s orders and was too arrogant to accept his help or the help of the other Autobots. He then remembered all the harsh words the ponies of Canterlot said to him whenever he did something wrong. He often retaliated by angrily roaring at them in his Dino mode or stomping his feet to intimidate them.

As he thought on all those unkind memories, he could not resist the memory of the most traumatizing experience he ever had—being painfully experimented on by Shockwave which made him the way he was.

He clenched his right fist in anger and punched the door of the Ark as soon as he reached to it. “What is wrong with me?! Why am I such a monster?! Me Grimlock can’t get along with anyone here!!” he bellowed.

No sooner did he say this than when Optimus arrived at the ship and transformed into robot mode. Grimlock looked back and saw the Autobot leader approaching him. He did not utter a word to him as he was too depressed and ashamed to speak to him.

“Grimlock, I’ve heard of everything that you have done in Canterlot. I thought that we can talk about this candidly.” Optimus spoke with the utmost kindness to not upset him further.

“No, please, you don’t need to lecture me on what I did or said wrong. I knew what I’ve done wrong, ok? It’s just that I don’t have the capacity to get along with everyone here. Those yaks seem to like me more but that’s just it!” Grimlock whined.

“I’m glad that you’re aware of your situation. That’s a great start. But I must tell you that you do have the capacity to make friends with all the creatures here. Your friendship with the yaks you mentioned is proof of that fact.” said Optimus. “You just need to understand what ponies expect of you when you try to make peace with them.”

“BUT HOW?! Why is it that every time I do something that represents who I am, the ponies and the Autobots get angry at me! What makes it even worse is that I get angrier and lash at them!! I don’t make things even better. I’ve always been like this even back on Cybertron!!” Grimlock screamed.

“Grimlock, if you keep chastising yourself for the mistakes you’ve made in the past with no plan on how to improve, you will only continue on making matters even worse than ever. Your anger and depression will only cloud your judgement.” Optimus patiently lectured. He was unwilling to give up on him. “You need to relax and think on how you can make up for your mistakes.”

His advice calmed Grimlock but only slightly. He deeply sighed as he silently meditated on what Prime said to him. Trying to be a better bot to the Autobots and ponies to make up for all the grave mistakes he made would be very hard to accomplish. But it would be worth a shot, he thought.

After a moment, he looked at Prime, “I guess you’re right, Prime. It’s going to be very hard to pull it off, but I’ll give it a fair shot.” he said.

“I’m happy to hear that.” Optimus replied.

“Would you mind if I have a moment to recollect and relax my processer?” Grimlock asked.

“I don’t mind. Feel free to rejoin us in Canterlot.” Prime replied before he transformed to his vehicle mode and drove off.

Grimlock was once again all alone. He stood up from the ground and idly wandered in the forest again thinking about what he can do to be in good terms with the ponies. “Hmmm, what should I do? What can I possibly do to be better?” he thought out loud.

After he said this, something caught his visor. He saw something glowing up in a distance. He ran toward the glowing sight for several miles. His curiosity got the better of him. He thought that it was some sort of energon that was overlooked for many years. He intended to find out what it was exactly.

As he arrived at the targeted location, he beheld a giant rocky hill that had a huge glowing circle in the center. The circle also appeared to be a portal. He walked toward it and attempted to touch it. “What is this? Is it energon of some kind? How come neither I, Optimus, nor any of the other Autobots discovered this before?” he wondered.

As soon as he touched it, the circle glowed brightly and started to pull Grimlock into it. He tried to resist the gravitational pull with all his might, but his strength was unable to assist him. He was pulled into the golden-colored circle/portal while he yelled.

Grimlock awoke in a small island where the portal took him. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by trees. He got on his feet and rushed toward the ocean. As he fixed his sight on the ocean and noticing the boats in a distance and the strange bipedal creatures, with no fur, riding on them. He then realized he was not in Equestria anymore. He was in a different planet.

“WHERE, IN THE NAME OF PRIMUS, AM I?!” Grimlock shouted in shock.

Threats Combined

In Canterlot High School, Sunset Shimmer and her friends were having lunch in the cafeteria along with the rest of the students. They had plenty of things to converse about ever since the major incident that occurred not too long ago that almost costed their lives. Rainbow Dash was the most incessant of the subject matter.

“Can you guys believe it?! I was right all along!!” Rainbow gloated. “I knew that there was evil magic! I guess next time that something like this happens, you better believe me when I’ll say there’s evil magic.”

“Ugh, we get it, Rainbow Dash, you were right, we should’ve listened.” Applejack groaned while rolling her eyes in annoyance.

“I guess we’ll never rest from any future threat of Equestrian magic, huh?” Sunset said. “I thought that our time in our spring cruise would give us some refreshment and peace from everything that happened to us before.”

“Yeah, it feels like we’re just going to keep this up for like...forever!” human Twilight/Sci-Twi added.

“But on the bright side, we got to see all those pretty ponies!!” Pinkie said smiling. “We were ponified, we saw our counterparts even though they didn’t see us since we were hiding, and we saw that nice-looking castle!! Hmmm, I could’ve sworn the other me saw me through those bushes and randomly waved at me, but yeah!” Pinkie speedily uttered.

“Speaking of which, those adorable little critters saw me pass by while they were standing by the pony that looked like me, especially that little bunny that appears exactly like Angel. Awww, they were so cute.” Fluttershy recalled blushing. “Of course, they were confused seeing two of us.”

“Indeed. And I must say that mare who looked like me was fabulous! Ohh, I wished I could have acquainted myself with her and talk about fashion!” Rarity said.

“I can definitely say the same for the others that came us. I can imagine the faces they made when they saw their counterparts in pony forms.” Sunset said before chuckling. The rest of the group joined in laughter. After several minutes of laughter, they eventually stopped and finished their lunch.

“So, you guys have any plans after school?” Rainbow asked.

“Not much. Got plenty of homework to do.” Twilight replied.

“I got some animals to take care of before I do anything else.” Fluttershy said.

“And I got farm work to accomplish along with my family.” Applejack also replied.

“Fashion designers must always be timely with their work. Thus, I’ll be busy throughout most of the day.” Rarity said.

“Not much plans either. I got plenty of baking to do.” Pinkie said.

“What about you, Sunset?” Rainbow asked her.

“I was planning to go on a nature walk after school. I always wanted to just relax my mind and have fun in nature, you know?” Sunset replied.

“All right then. See you guys later!” Rainbow said before dashing off. After school was done for the day, the students left to return to their homes while the Main Seven parted ways saying their goodbyes until tomorrow. Sunset herself started to walk home on the sidewalk while listening to her music with headphones. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon.

But after she left the school premises, there was a strange sports car with dark red windows and windshield parked right behind her in the left side of the street. No one was in the car. After she passed by the car, the vehicle lowered its front left window; out of it flew a tiny tracker that latched unto her book bag without her noticing it. The window then closed.

“Commander Shockwave, there was a human girl passing by.” the car spoke through its radio. “My sensors picked up a strange energy signal from her. I just ejected a tracking device on her just in case she is up to something.”

“Excellent, Sideways. She might the key for Cybertron’s salvation. Follow her to her home to see what she is up to. Do not do anything else until further orders. Understood?” Shockwave commanded via com link.

“Crystal.” Sideways complied.

The Decepticon scout then turned its engines on and drove through the same path that Sunset walked in.

IN THE NEMESIS

Shockwave sat on his throne while Starscream stood next to him. They watched the other Decepticons carry the dark energon and large coffins of dead Cybertronians one by one in the laboratory. However, the Combaticons were having a beef with the Insecticons while performing their duties but Shockwave’s piercing gaze kept them in line.

“I must admit, Shockwave, that your plan to destroy the Autobots is...brilliant. At least yours is actually ‘logical’ as you say unlike the half-baked plans that half-wit Megatron made before.” Starscream complemented.

“Indeed. Megatron never had the competence to actually get things accomplished in the most logical way possible. This plan I constructed for a millennia will save Cybertron and wipe out our enemies. Planet earth is the perfect medium through which our home planet will be revitalized.” Shockwave said.

“But how exactly are we going to deal with the Autobots? You heard what Skywarp reported. Those fools are now protectors of this...Equestria or whatever it is?” Starscream questioned.

“Pardon me, Commanders, but you might want to see what I wanted to show you earlier.” Thundercracker said running to them.

“Ahh, yes, you did say you had something of use. What is it?” Shockwave asked with interest.

“It had better be useful, Thundercracker!” Starscream uttered with scorn.

“Behold, the ancient artifact!” Thundercracker shouted before opening his hand revealing the Orb Ruby.

“What is that??” Starscream asked.

“This is the Orb Ruby. It has the magical power of turning any being into evil, and it can lure anyone into a trap since it has mesmerizing abilities.” Thundercracker explained.

“Where did you get that?” Shockwave asked.

“I retrieved it after the Autobots defeated us in Equestria.” Thundercracker replied. He purposely left out Grogar so he wouldn’t receive any verbal chastising from Starscream knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the knowledge that the ‘Cons were led by a mere ram albeit a powerful one.

Shockwave took hold of the Orb Ruby and gazed upon it. After contemplating what the Seeker explained and how they should deal with the Autobots, an idea sparked in his head. His optic glowed brightly as he then looked upon the two Seekers. “This is logically perfect. I know just the way how to deal with Optimus Prime and his troops.” Shockwave darkly spoke.

Adapting to New Surroundings

Grimlock took his precious time to process what was happening before him. He just went through a hidden portal in a forest and thus found himself in a world with new, different creatures he’s never seen before. “This world appears to be the same as Equestria but with...no ponies?” he mused. He walked toward the ocean to see how deep it was; he needed to find a way out of the island.

He thought of returning to Equestria through the same hidden portal that brought him on earth, but his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to discover what the strange world had to offer. With that, he dived into the ocean and saw various kinds of fish floating around. He was amazed at the natural sight but he wasted no time in gazing at everything that was around him. He swam across the ocean to search for land and civilization.

5 HOURS LATER

As Grimlock continued swimming underneath the ocean, he spotted land not far ahead of him. He snuck his head slightly above the water surface to get a clearer look. His hope came true. He discovered the beach where there were people packing up there chairs, towels, supplies, and belongings to depart from the beach. He then noticed that the sun was setting.

Grimlock knew he had to wait till all the humans had left the whole area so he would not cause a panic among them of seeing a giant alien robot. It took about half an hour for them to leave. It was then 8:00pm. The full moon shone brightly in the night sky.

Seeing the coast was entirely clear, he jumped out of the ocean and landed on the sand. He looked around to make sure there was no one around. Seeing he was alone, he turned on his com link to contact his Dinobot comrades, “Swoop, do you read me? Swoop?! Can you hear me?”

With no answer, he moved on, “Snarl, do you copy? Snarl? SNARL!!”

“Slag, do you hear my voice? Slag!” Grimlock said as the com link still went static. “Scrap.”

“Perhaps the signal cannot reach my comrades considering I’m in a different planet. If I can’t reach them, I won’t be able to reach Optimus or the other Autobots.” Grimlock said to himself. “Hmmm, luckily for me, there are none of those flesh creatures around. But I have to be quite to not disturb their sleep.”

As he said this, he slowly walked out of the beach and walked on the streets to look for someplace where he can settle for the night and discover more about earth. However, keeping a low profile would be very difficult during the day. He would have to figure out how to make it easier.

As he continued walking on the roads and passing by several buildings and houses as quietly as possible, he spotted a huge warehouse. He drew closer and noticed that the warehouse was abandoned. Glad that he could finally settle in a hidden place, he snuck inside and rested his metal body on the hard ground. After making himself comfortable, he lowered his head and powered down to rest for the night.

MEANWHILE IN EQUESTRIA

“Grimlock!! Grimlock!! Where are you?!” Swoop called out.

“Boss!! Where are you? You’ve been gone all day!!” Slag shouted as all three Dinobots were looking for their commander all day in Canterlot and in the forest. They began to be very worried for him.

“Where has he been? The last time we saw him was in the Everfree Forest! How is it he’s missing?!” Snarl stated with a tone of worry.

“I don’t know, Snarl. But we have to keep looking for him! We’ll find him!” Swoop encouraged.

“I sure hope we do! Optimus and the Autobots were worried about him!” Slag said.

“Yeah, especially Optimus since he told us he had flashbacks when Grimlock abandoned his post on Cybertron. He didn’t want Grimlock to go through that experience again.” Swoop recalled.

“Speaking of which, I feel...really sorry for our leader. He’s had rough days with the ponies because he didn’t get along with them really well like he thought he would. He’s really a tough hard-sparked guy if you ask me.” Snarl said with sadness in his voice.

“Indeed. He’s been through much worse than all three of us had been. (Sigh) I wish things would’ve been easier for him.” Swoop sighed.

“But the thing is, life is rough. The hard lessons we learn in life are there to prune and refine our character and life experience so that we can be better in what we do and say.” Slag said. The other Dinobots looked at him awkwardly as he said this.

“What?” Slag asked confused from the stares.

“Ugh, Slag, when did you learn that?” Snarl asked.

“Oh, Applejack told me all of that. I thought it would be relevant for Grimlock’s situation.” he honestly replied.

“Ah-huh... interesting.” Swoop muttered. All three of them resumed their search of Grimlock. They were unwilling to give up on their continual search for him. It was already nighttime in Equestria with Luna’s moon shining bright in the night sky.

As they were searching, they spotted the same glowing circle on the rock hill in front of them. It caught their attention immediately and decided to investigate it.

“What is that? Is it some kind of energon or something?” Snarl asked.

“I don’t think so. I’ve never seen energon that is golden or yellow. It could be something else though. But we’re going to find out.” Swoop answered. He transformed to pterodactyl mode and flew ahead of his friends. Snarl and Slag likewise transformed into stegosaurus and triceratops modes respectively and ran ahead to catch up with Swoop.

They both rejoined together as they stood before the glowing medium on the rock. Slag stepped closer to touch it with his horns. But as soon as he touched it, the portal opened itself and started to pull the three Dinobots in a gravitational pull. Unable to resist the pull, they were sucked into the portal before it closed again.

BACK ON EARTH

The sun slowly rose in the horizon as the morning commenced. Grimlock’s systems came back online. His visor lit up before he got on his feet and peeked outside the warehouse. He noticed the sun was rising. He realized that once he would step out to the outside world in broad daylight, he would be discovered by the humans and cause massive panic among them. Therefore, keeping a low profile was a necessity.

“Ahhhh, hello morning! Let’s see what this world has to offer and find out if it’s better than Equestria or not. I hope those flesh creatures are more respectful and considerate unlike those annoying ponies...well except for Fluttershy. At least she’s decent.” Grimlock said. “But I must find a disguise first if there’s any. Don’t want to get caught and cause fear among them.”

He exited the warehouse and walked behind several buildings where he wouldn’t be seen by the humans. He then saw a golden and gray semi truck with its trailer driving in a distance. He was hiding in a alleyway between two large buildings. “Hmmm, that’s a good looking vehicle right there. Might as well become a triple-changer.” he said. He scanned the truck. After looking both ways making sure there were no vehicles incoming and no human bystanders around, he jumped out of the alleyway and transformed into his new third disguise: a semi truck although with no trailer.

“Ahhh, yes, I look fabulous as Rarity would say! Nice! Now, time to discover more things.” Grimlock marked as he drove away.

Sunset Shimmer rose from her bed as she started to brush her teeth and have breakfast. After she finished eating, she took a shower, got dressed, then packed her school supplies to prepare for school. She closed and locked her front door and started her walk to school. She paid no heed to the same sports car from yesterday once again tracking her moves.

“I have the girl on sight. What should I do?” Sideways asked Shockwave via com link.

“Follow her. Do not by any means lose sight of her. I’ll give the order for you to capture her when the opportunity presents itself.” Shockwave ordered.

“As you wish.” Sideways complied.

Sunset arrived at the school and greeted her friends that were there already. They prepared themselves to have their classes for the day as usual. Sideways waited on the street which was in front of the school, waiting for the right opportunity.

Grimlock kept driving endlessly almost all morning as he beheld every building he passed by such as the restaurants, stores, skyscrapers, hospitals, and malls. He sure was having an amusing time. He was tempted with the idea to forget about returning back home in Equestria and even the ponies and Autobots. He thought that he would have a more pleasant experience and enjoyable time in solitude than to be told what to do by Optimus, Twilight or anyone else. He would rather do whatever he wished without having to be scolded for his actions every time.

His train of thought was completely derailed when his scanner on his radio beeped loudly. The GPS revealed a Decepticon energy signal which caught him by surprise. “Decepticons?! Here?! How is that possible?!” Grimlock shouted.

“When will these Decepticons learn to stop touching every planet that is not theirs to take?!” Grimlock groaned in anger and annoyance. “Fine! I’ll find whoever that Decepticon is and scrap him!” he said as he turned right to accomplish his new objective.

Several hours went by until it was recess time. Sunset and her friends stepped outside the front doors to hang out together. “I hope you guys did great on your history tests. That was a tough one.” Sunset said. The rest of the girls groaned as she mentioned the difficulty of their exams.

“Tell me about it! Learning all those history people is just challenging sometimes! Knowing all the dates, their names, their works, everything!” Rainbow added.

“That’s because you’re always sleeping during class.” Applejack frowned. “Can’t you just stay awake and pay attention for once?”

“Always sleeping?! Of course I pay attention! What are you talking about?” Rainbow denied. Applejack then glared at her.

“Okay, maybe I do sleep in class...sometimes.” Rainbow said blushing. The girls continued giving that ‘yeah right’ look at her. Rainbow then gave up her pride.

“Okay fine!! You win! I’m just tired all the time! No big deal!” she excused.

Sideways listened to their conversation while still in vehicle mode. “The female is outside with her friends. They’re right in front of me.” he reported.

“Now is the time. Capture her. If her friends intervene to save her...kill them.” ordered Shockwave.

“With pleasure.” Sideways said with eagerness in his voice.

“Look, I know that these subjects are hard to grasp, but you got to admit that they are interesting and very important to know.” Sunset said. “I’m learning a lot to be honest.”

Before any of the girls would further speak, Sideways drove right unto the sidewalk. This caught the girls attention. To their surprise, the car transformed into robot mode. The shape-shifting, changing gears, metal parts moving from and connecting to each other shocked them beyond words. Never have they seen a vehicle that transformed before until now.

Sideways stood before them as he chuckled wickedly. “Hello there, fleshlings. Mind if I interrupt the conversation?”

“WHAT THE?! What is that?!” Rarity screamed.

“What in tarnation is that?!” Applejack yelled.

“That’s cool!! An alien robot! Let me take a picture of you!!” Pinkie said while taking snapshots of Sideways. The Decepticon snatched her phone away and crushed it with his fingers. This shocked Pinkie.

“Enough!! Bring me the girl with the red and yellow hair...NOW. I’ll spare your lives if you comply.” he threatened with his blaster pointing at them.

“Sunset? Never! Whoever you are, we won’t let you take her!!” Twilight said glaring. The rest protected Sunset by covering her. They ponified themselves as they were ready to fight.

“Ahhhh, you have magical powers! So Sunset isn’t the only one then. I guess I’ll take you all!” Sideways said. He fired his blasts at them but they deflected every shot with their powers.

Applejack ran up to the Decepticon and punched him on the leg. He yelled in pain as he faltered. He tried to grab her but Rainbow Dash dashed by and carried her friend away before he can seize her. Sunset and the other girls sent their magical blasts at Sideways. He took every hit unprepared. He was sent flying in the air and crashed on the ground. The other students that saw the battle were amazed. Others cheered while others ran away for fear of the Decepticon.

“That’ll keep him down! Nice work, girls!” Twilight said. The rest celebrated their success. But it was premature.

Sideways got back up and stood before them. His armor bore no sign of damage whatsoever. It was as if they were nothing to him. This surprised the girls when they saw him seemingly unharmed.

“Hahaha!! Did you really think I’ll be beaten that easily? That hit I received on my leg was ineffective. I pretended to be hurt to increase your false confidence. Your magic has no effect on cybertronian armor!” he said gloating. “Now, your powers shall belong to the Decepticons!!”

“SIDEWAYS!!!” a familiar voice called out.

Sideways turned around to see a semi truck approaching them. It transformed into a bigger robot twice his size. He immediately recognized the Dinobot. The girls and the other students were once again astonished to see another robotic being before them. Grimlock stood before his opponent. “Leave these creatures alone!! Pick on someone your own size!” Grimlock told him.

“Grimlock! Well, well, I didn’t expect to see you here. I haven’t fought an Autobot for like forever. But I can finally kill an Autobot at last.” Sideways said activating his chainsaws.

“I like to see you try, Decepticon.” Grimlock challenged him while unsheathing his energon sword.

Grimlock vs Sideways

Grimlock and Sideways charged at each other while giving their battle cries. Grimlock’s sword and Sideways’ chainsaws clashed with each other creating large amounts of sparks. They released each other as they prepared to swipe at each other. Grimlock swung his sword at Sideways but the latter ducked under the swipe and thrusted his chainsaw at the former’s leg. He groaned in pain as he punched the Con off of him and threw him on the other side of the road. Sideways landed with a hard hit.

“You’ll pay for that, Autobot!!” Sideways shouted. He reloaded his blasters with new ammunition and fired shots at Grimlock. The latter deflected the blasts with his shield and drew closer to him while doing so. Just as he got closer, he sliced his blaster to two. Without giving the Decepticon time to react, he grabbed his leg and slammed him on the concrete repeatedly. After two minutes of body slamming him, he stopped and dropped him on the ground.

“Puny Decepticon.” Grimlock insulted. He turned around and sheathed his sword. The girls that were watching were still blown away at the brutal fight scene.

“That...was...AWESOME!!” Rainbow praised.

“Robot fights are cool!” Pinkie added.

Before Grimlock could comment, Sideways got up on his feet and ran up to the Dinobot with his chainsaw activated.

“Behind you!!” Twilight warned.

Grimlock immediately turned and saw Sideways sprinting at him in a final attempt to kill him. He quickly took his sword and impaled Sideways the moment he got close to him. “It ends now, Sideways!!” he said. He then cut his body in half and ripped off his head, spilling his energon on the ground.

“Oh my!! What brutality!!” Rarity said with disgust and shock in her tone. The rest of the students that witnessed the whole scene cheered for the Dinobot. Grimlock was suprised to see the reaction of the humans. He honestly didn’t expect them to give a positive reaction to what he did.

“Those fleshlings are actually cheering for me? That’s unexpected.” he thought.

“Thank you for saving us. Uhhh, Grimlock, is it?” Sunset asked since they heard the Con mention his name.

“Yes, my name is Grimlock. I’m originally from the planet Cybertron.” Grimlock replied.

“That’s a cool name! I’m Sunset Shimmer and these are my friends.” she said pointing to friends.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle!”

“Applejack!”

“Pinkie Pie!”

“Rarity.”

“Fluttershy.”

“And Rainbow Dash!” each of the girls said with her personal style of introduction. Hearing those names threw off Grimlock completely. Those names were familiar to him except for Sunset’s.

“Wait a minute...those names are very familiar.” he said. Then it clicked in his mind. “Aha! Those are the names of the six ponies that live in Equestria!”

“You...you’ve been in Equestria?!” Sunset screamed.

“Yes! Additionally, that is my new home along with the rest of the Autobots.” Grimlock replied.

“Auto-what now?” Applejack said cocking her head in confusion.

“That’s the name of my faction. We are autonomous robotic organisms from Cybertron but we’re called Autobots for short.” he elaborated.

“Autobots huh? That sounds cool!” Pinkie said. “So who was that evil robot that tried to take Sunset?”

“Speaking of which, why did he want Sunset? What was his plan? Was he working for someone?” Twilight asked with high curiosity.

“That was Sideways, a Decepticon scout. I’m not sure why he wanted to take Sunset but I know for sure he was after your powers which I witnessed arriving here. So are you those ponies’ counterparts or something?” Grimlock asked.

“Ehhh, pretty much.” Twilight replied. The other girls expressed similar sentiments in agreement.

“That’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard in the whole universe. What kind of creatures are you anyways?” asked Grimlock.

“You can call us humans...well...except for me.” Sunset said blushing in embarrassment.

“What do you mean?” Grimlock asked cocking his head.

“Ummm, it’s complicated. But I’ll explain later. But thanks for saving our lives. You arrived at the most perfect time.” Sunset said with gratitude.

“Indeed. We’re truly in your debt, sir Grimlock.” Rarity thanked with a bow.

“Uhhh, you’re welcome?” Grimlock said still not used to being thanked this much.

“Hey Grimlock, can you transform into your semi-truck again? It looks awesome!” one of the other girls being Scootaloo shouted alongside Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

“Wow, those girls look exactly like those little Cutie Mark Crusaders from Equestria. Scootaloo said those exact words to me at one time except wanting to see me in Dino mode. Ughh, here we go again.” Grimlock thought. He transformed into his semi-truck mode and honked his horns.

“COOL!! Imagine if we had merchandise of transforming robot toys in our stores! That would be amazing!” Apple Bloom mused in excitement.

“Please don’t give the other humans any ideas.” Grimlock said in his head.

“Grimlock? I was just thinking...would you mind taking us back home? Principal Celestia just cancelled the school because of this incident. I don’t think the others will take kindly a giant alien robot in their midst.” Fluttershy meekly asked. Grimlock thought it over.

“Well, I guess I could since I don’t have anything else left to do.” he replied with a small hint of hesitancy. The girls got into his truck and they drove off the school premises. Unbeknownst to them all, the tracking device Sideways implanted on Sunset’s book bag earlier was still intact giving the signal back to the Nemesis.

BACK IN THE NEMESIS

“The target is still on the loose. How is this possible? How is it that Sideways let our target escape? She is the very means of Cybertron’s restoration!” Shockwave shouted with anger and disappointment. Then he started to recompose himself and returned to his usual tone of calm and collectiveness.

“At least he made sure that the fleshling is under our watch. Sideways, return to the ship at once. Sideways? Sideways!” he called to him via com link but it went static. “Impossible. How is it that he’s not responding? This is illogical.” After a moment of silence, he decided his next course of action.

“No time to waste. The Autobots and the ponies must be dwelt with immediately, and I know just the exact bots who will eliminate loose ends.” Shockwave finished while looking at the Orb Ruby.

Nemesis Prime

Back in Equestria, Optimus, Wheeljack, and Ratchet were in the throne room before Twilight. It’s been a day since the disappearance of Grimlock. “Optimus, when was the last time you spoke with Grimlock?” Twilight asked.

“Since yesterday. Like I told you, I spoke to him and reasoned with him to readjust his behavior. Apparently, he took my advice to heart and asked me if I give him some alone time to refresh his mind and attitude since he went through much heat lately. That was the last time I’ve heard from him.” Optimus answered.

“Grimlock can be very rough on the outside, but on the inside, he’s a good-sparked Autobot.” Wheeljack added. “I feel really sorry that he couldn’t get along with some of the ponies.”

“I feel the same way, Wheeljack.” Ratchet said. “I wish I was there with Prime to help Grimlock.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Ratchet. I’m so sorry that you couldn’t find Grimlock. But no need to worry. I sent my Royal Guard to search for him everywhere in Equestria. The Crystal Empire is on a look out for him as well. We will find him. You have my word as a princess.” Twilight replied with confiding assurance.

“I truly appreciate your consolation and optimism, Twilight. That’s the attitude we all need to have.” Optimus commended. “I do hope that all is well with our old friend.”

“Speaking of friends, have you heard word from the three other Dinobots, Swoop, Snarl, and Slag?” Wheeljack asked Prime.

“Unfortunately, I have not. They were to report their progress to me by last night. I don’t know what’s taking them so long.” Optimus said.

“Hopefully, they’ll respond soon. It’ll be a shame if they went missing too...again.” Ratchet said.

Suddenly, the front doors swiftly opened. Hound ran to the three Autobots and Twilight, “Guys, you might wanna see this! Come outside!” The Bots and Twilight looked at each other confused. Thinking it was something important, all four figures exited the throne room out of the castle and saw all the rest of the Autobots and ponies gathered. They wondered as to what it was all about.

Up in the air were five glowing orbs floating towards the crowd; even though the crowd was gazing on the orbs, the former was not the target. Jazz and Cliffjumper were the first victims of the spell as they closely followed the path of two of the orbs while beholding them non-stop. Afterwards, Ironhide was the third to fall prey to the dark influence.

Twilight immediately recognized the dark orbs. It was the same dark spell she fell victim to two years ago. “NO! GUYS!! STOP!! Resist the spell!” she shouted. But it was too late. The two last orbs finally took Ratchet and Prime. She tried to blast the orbs, but it was no use.

Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, Jazz, and Cliffjumper struggled to free themselves from the black tendrils that bound their arms and legs. Suddenly, the five orbs that bound them united into one orb and turned into a large mirror that displayed the head of Shockwave. He evilly chuckled.

“SHOCKWAVE!!” Cliffjumper screamed in terror. “You’re the one behind this?!”

“Indeed. And I can’t thank you enough for being the right instruments to execute my will for the Decepticons.” Shockwave answered. All the Autobots and ponies were shocked to see the Decepticon scientist via the mirror. “Optimus, you and four of your most trusted warriors will now take orders from me and you five will join me in my conquest of planet...earth.”

“Never, Shockwave!! As long as my spark functions, we’ll never join the Decepticons in harming the innocent and taking what’s not theirs!” Optimus defied.

“Oh, but you will.” Shockwave shot back with malice. The mirror then turned back into black orbs and all five of them completely engulfed the five Autobots while they screamed in pain. It took a whole minute for them to fully transform and corrupt their sparks: their color scheme turned to colors black, purple, gray, and turquoise, their optics turned red, and their voices were slightly deeper. The black ooze wore off as the five bots rose on their feet. The other Autobots and ponies beheld them with terrified looks on their faces.

“There’s no escape from death and destruction.” The dark-colored Optimus said. “For I am...NEMESIS PRIME!”

“MoltenIron will destroy all these fleshlings! I will bring them down!!” the dark version of Ironhide spoke.

Nemesis Prime unsheathed his sword and impaled an Autobot soldier through his head and severed his head from his body. “Decepticons, ATTACK!!!” Nemesis ordered. MoltenIron, Hatchet, Cliffhanger, and Jinx released their weapons and began the onslaught.

“Watch out!! Take cover!!” Warpath shouted as he and the others retreated from Nemesis and the others...or at least tried to. Several other Autobots and the Royal Guard had to defend themselves against the strong firepower of the corrupted Bots. Nemesis shot dozens of the guards, grabbed one and ripped off his head with his spine hanging out dripping out blood, decapitated several other ponies with his sword, and punched another guard with his palm on the ground so hard he broke his skull fatally.

MoltenIron was confronted by the Aerialbots. They fired their missiles at him but he dodged every single one and assaulted them with his rust cannon. He blasted Fireflight and Skydive in their chests before they could touch him. They fell on the ground screaming in agony as their body parts rusted away along with their sparks. MoltenIron then unsheathed his dark energon axe before slicing Slingshot in half vertically; his energon spilled on the ground as his optics turned black. He then grabbed Air Raid’s blaster and forced him to blast Silverbolt’s right leg off. After his leg exploded, he beheaded Air Raid with his axe. Finally, he stood before the wounded Silverbolt.

“Ironhide, it’s me...your brother-in-arms!! You can’t do this!! You must...” Silverbolt begged before cut off by MoltenIron’s shot from his rust cannon.

“Die.” He finished for him. He walked away from Silverbolt’s rusting corpse.

Hatchet faced off Sideswipe and Bluestreak as well as Dragon Lord Ember and her dragons. They released all their firepower (and fire breath) on the evil Ratchet. However, their fire had no effect on his armor. He grabbed one of them named Garble and activated his hand to be fully heated. “Let me go! Please! Let me—ahhhhh!!!” he uttered an excruciating painful yelp as the intense heat overwhelmed his dragon skin. Suddenly, his entire skin melted off of his skeleton. His flesh peeled off while in flames.

“Ratchet, snap out of it!! This isn’t like you!! You’re an Autobot like us!” Sideswipe pleaded with him.

“I know you’re still alive in there somewhere!” Bluestreak added.

Unfortunately, their pleas were all in vain. Hatchet deflected their shots and pointed his heat blasters right at both of them. After three seconds, Sideswipe and Bluestreak exploded to a million pieces. He did the same for the rest of the dragons.

Cliffhanger kept shooting his large arm-mounted cannons at the civilian ponies. Big Mac rushed forward and grabbed Apple Bloom and Granny Smith away from the blasts. He took them and escaped Canterlot. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Bulk Biceps, Derpy, and many others escaped as well unharmed. Others were unlucky.

As he reloaded his cannons, he was shot at by three large Autobots. They fired missiles at him but he grabbed one of them with his bare hand threw it at two incoming missiles, causing a massive explosion. The three Autobots covered their visors from the bright sight. After the dust settled, they looked back and Cliffhanger disappeared. Confused, they looked around to find him. Surprisingly, Cliffhanger jumped from the roof of the castle and implanted three grenades on their backs. He jumped off of each of them after he finished. They prepared to fire again but suddenly exploded while they screamed in agony.

“Too easy.” he said smugly. He transformed into his vehicle form and drove past their corpses.

Jinx activated his blades and stabbed every single pony guard he encountered. He impaled the skull of one, beheaded another, sliced another, and bashed his fists into their bodies, splattering their carcass all over the pavement. He evilly laughed while doing so.

“STOP!!” cried a familiar voice.

Jinx turned to see Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, and Trixie standing defensively with their igniting horns. “Jazz, I know this isn’t who you are!! You got to fight Shockwave’s influence!!” Starlight pleaded.

“The only thing I’m fighting...is you pests.” Jinx spoke with scorn. He fired his electric shots at the three ponies but Starlight used her magical shield to deflect his shots. The more he fired, the weaker the shield became. Eventually, the heavy barrage of firepower destroyed the shield. Jinx approached them menacingly. All three used every spell in the book to bring him down but it was no use. Magic had no harmful effect on his armor.

“Now it’s my turn.” Jinx uttered before releasing his maces to kill them with. He swung wildly at them but they kept teleporting every time he landed a strike on where they were prior to teleportation. At the end, they escaped his onslaught, knowing they couldn’t beat him.

Nemesis Prime faced off Perceptor, Wheeljack, Jetfire, Warpath, and dozens of Autobots troops. His main goal was to kill anyone who stood against him. Thus, he carried out his goal. He grabbed his dark energon sword and sliced each trooper that came near him. He impaled another Autobot and tore off his face. He then faced Wheeljack and Perceptor. “GIVE ME YOUR FACE!!!” Nemesis demanded.

“Optimus please, listen to us!! We’re your friends! Your family! You can’t do this! What would Zeta Prime say if he saw you like this?” Wheeljack pleaded with him. As if his words didn’t mean a thing to him, Nemesis sliced Wheeljack in half and crushed his head under his feet.

“I DON’T CARE.” Nemesis said defiantly. He proceeded to kill both Perceptor and Warpath by taking off their faces and peeling off their sparks then crushing them in his hands. “I rise, YOU FALL!”

Wasting no time, Jetfire rushed to the palace and found the Mane Six and Spike taking cover behind the throne. “Princess Twilight, over here!” he called out to them.

They saw Jetfire at the doors’ entrance. They quickly rushed to him to figure out how to escape. “I have to take you guys away from Canterlot. Everypony needs to stay away from this city until we figure out how we can bring Optimus and the others back to normal!” Jetfire said.

“Yeah! Come on, y’all! Let’s get out of here!” Applejack said. Jetfire transformed in his jet mode and opened his doors for them to come in. Spike and the others entered in...except for Twilight.

“I’m going to face him.” Twilight said boldly.

“What?! He’ll kill you! You can’t—!” Spike objected until interrupted.

“That’s the risk I’m willing to take. You guys can go but I’ll deal with Optimus. No sacrifice, no victory.” Twilight said.

“Twilight...please...I don’t want to loose you too.” Fluttershy said with tears. “Discord and Bumblebee were enough. I don’t want you to die too.”

“I’ll miss you guys. If I don’t make it, I just want to let you know that you’re the best friends I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you all.” said Twilight as she was tearing up. Her friends started to cry as well. They all had a group hug while crying.

“You got this, Twilight. I believe in you!” Pinkie said wiping off her tears.

“You got the touch and the power!” Rainbow rooted.

“Go get ‘em, darling!” Rarity said.

“Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten, Twilight.” Jetfire said. They all boarded in Jetfire’s plane mode and left Canterlot with the rest of the survivors. Twilight was all alone until Nemesis Prime burst through the doors while carrying the blood-stained heads of Thorax, Ember, Grandpa Gruff, and Pharynx. He crushed their heads under his metal feet.

“One shall stand, the rest shall fall.” he sinisterly spoke facing Twilight.

The Dinobots’ Search

BACK ON EARTH

“Ughhhh, where are we?” groaned Snarl.

“Ow, my head...did we just enter through a portal or something?” asked Swoop.

“Yeah...I think we did.” replied Slag as he looked around him.

“What is this place?” Swoop asked as he too beheld his surroundings. As the three Dinobots noticed the trees surrounding them, there was a large plant monster that saw the three metal creatures who were ten times its size and roared at them. The Dinobots looked down and saw the plant creature hissing at them.

“Whoa, what is that thing?” Snarl asked.

“It looks like a plant creature of some sort.” Swoop replied. “We must’ve disturbed its peace.”

“Can we talk to it or something?” Slag asked. “It looks a little cute.”

“I guess we can give it a try. It’ll probably tell us where we are.” Swoop said. Swoop lowered himself down to reach the level of the plant creature. “Hey there, little fella. Can you tell us where we are?”

The creature again hissed at him out of fear. Swoop was taken back by its response. He then realized it was fearful of their large presence. “This creature is afraid of us. We need to maintain a friendly demeanor toward it to make a good impression.” Swoop advised.

“Good idea, Swoop!” Snarl commended.

“Hey, listen, where’re not here to hurt you, ok? We just need to know where we are. I’m sorry if we disturbed you.” Swoop calmly spoke.

The creature then relaxed and stopped hissing at them. It came closer and cuddled itself around Swoop’s right leg while purring. Swoop smiled at the creature’s warm acceptance. “Thanks for the love. Now, can you tell us?” he asked.

The plant creature then spoke its own language. It made roar and growl-like mutters that neither Snarl nor Slag understood except Swoop. He understood clearly what the creature was communicating as evidenced by his nods and saying ‘mmm-hmmm’s.

After it finished talking with Swoop, the creature licked Swoop’s face as a sign of an affectionate goodbye and crawled away from their area to rest again in his territory. Swoop stood up and faced his companions.

“She told me that we are in a planet called earth and that we are currently on in island belonging to the Atlantic Ocean.” Swoop reported.

“Wait, it’s a female?” Slag asked, tilting his head in confusion. “And you understood what it said?”

“Yes, she is. Also, I’ve been communicating with creatures on Cybertron for years. That’s my special ability. Anyway, she also said that this is where another creature who looks like us first arrived. She couldn’t talk to him because of his aggressive attitude and massive size. That has to be Grimlock!” Swoop finished.

“So that’s why we couldn’t find him in the Everfree Forest or Canterlot!” Slag said in full realization.

“Yeah, it makes perfect sense now! We got to find him and bring him back! Who knows what will happen to Grimlock if we don’t search for him sooner?” Snarl said.

“You’re right, Snarl! There’s no time to waste! Come on, boys!” Swoop ordered. The Dinobots went throughout the whole island until they arrived at the seashore. They noticed how extensive the ocean was and how they need to find land somewhere.

“Hmmm, the two of you would have to swim across this ocean. You think you can manage that, guys?” Swoop asked.

“I’ll be all right.” Slag answered.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I love swimming.” Snarl replied.

“All right then. Dinobots, swim out!” Swoop commanded as he transformed into pterodactyl and flew ahead of them.

Snarl and Slag transformed to stegosaurus and triceratops respectively, dived into the water, and swam across the ocean in search for land and Grimlock.

Making Friends

Grimlock and the girls drove around town to bring them to their homes earlier because of the Decepticon incident from earlier. While he was driving in his semi-truck mode, the girls were very curious about his origin, Cybertron, and wanted to get to know him more. Pinkie was incessantly asking Grimlock a barrage of questions including random ones.

“Do you have cakes on Cybertron? Parties? Do you love parties? What is your favorite color? Ohh, and do you like dinosaurs? Do you watch movies? Transformers-related? Or—“ Pinkie kept asking none stop which exceedingly annoyed Grimlock. He could not stand her jubilant behavior.

“Oh dear Primus, please just shut up already!! You’re annoying me already!!” he internally whined.

“Pinkie! Stop bombarding him with questions!” Twilight scolded.

“Finally! Thank you!” Grimlock said in his head relieved.

“What?? I’m just asking!” Pinkie innocently replied.

“Anyway, I’m honestly wandering though. How long have you been at war with those Decepticons you speak of? What are they like?” Twilight asked as she always was the studious one.

“(Sigh) Well, I guess I’ll tell you. Roughly four million years ago, we used to be peaceful sentient beings on Cybertron—“ Grimlock began before interrupted.

“Wait, FOUR MILLION YEARS?! Are you that old?!” Pinkie shouted. The other girls glared at her for interrupting. “Oops, hehehe...sorry. Carry on.” Pinkie nervously giggled.

“Ughhh. Anyway, we used to be a peaceful race on our home world. That was before the terms ‘Autobot’ and ‘Decepticon’ even existed. However, the courts of Cybertron including the Council were corrupt to the core; they made laws and rules that were against our freedom and morality. So two prominent opposers arose. They were Megatronous and Orion Pax respectively. They fought against the corrupt courts with all the resources and wisdom they had. But then, things began to go south. Megatronous had a desire to be a prime. He was no better then those rulers they fought against.” Grimlock said.

“One day, Orion Pax was chosen to be a prime. That angered Megatronous to no end. Because unlike him, Orion was a wiser and compassionate leader; his diligent effort to bring peace and trust between us made him above his brother. Also, Megatronous’ ideas were centered on war, power, and total dictatorship. That’s what separated him from Orion.”

“Wow! That’s really interesting.” Sunset commented.

“Eventually, he shortened his name to ‘Megatron’ and formed his faction called ‘Decepticons’. Orion Pax later became Optimus Prime as he formed his band the Autobots. We were in war for over a millennium which drained Cybertron of its energon since we used all our energon and resources to destroy our enemies. I was the leader of the Lightning Strike Coalition Force.” Grimlock said.

“Man...how can you guys fight against each other for so many years! It’s unbelievable!” Applejack said.

“Unbelievable, you say? Well, guess what? It’s real. It happened. That’s how we survived. Any more questions?” Grimlock impatiently asked.

“Well, I’m wondering how you even got to Equestria?” Sunset asked. She really wanted to know how this strange alien robot arrived in a land full of ponies.

“I just crash-landed on Equestrian soil and was offline for I don’t know how long. Don’t ask me how that happened.” he firmly told her, not willing to mention the traumatic experience and encounter he had with Shockwave. He didn’t even want to mention him.

“Ok. I understand.” Sunset said.

“Good. Now, if there are no more questions, tell me where your home is.” Grimlock said. He didn’t want to have any further conversation with the girls considering how tired he was of answering their questions, not to mention being constantly irritated by Pinkie’s idle questions. He wanted to just drop them off and leave.

“It’s just ten minutes from us. Right over the bridge. I’ll tell you the directions.” Twilight answered.

“Very well.” Grimlock replied.

Twilight gave him the directions as he was driving down the bridge. After ten minutes of driving, they arrived at their homes. “Thanks for the ride, Grimlock. I wish we can hang out more but you don’t want to get noticed as a robot. Quite tough, huh?” Sunset said.

“You can say that again.” Grimlock agreed. The rest of the girls said their good byes as they left through the right door. However, Sunset remained in the driver seat. This confused Grimlock. “Aren’t you getting into your house?” he asked.

“Yes, but I really want to know you more. I thought that maybe we can be...friends?” Sunset nervously asked while blushing. Grimlock was surprised at her words.

“Friends? You want to be friends with me? Why?” Grimlock asked.

“Because you saved my life and my friends’ lives. I think I really owe you much by offering you my friendship. We can even learn from each other.” Sunset said. Grimlock still had to process what she just said. She out of all creatures desired to be his friend. The only friends he considered close were the other Dinobots including Sludge before his death. Another one was Optimus despite all the rebellious sentiments he expressed to Prime during all these years ago; he still had, at least, respect for him and and firmly believed in what he stood for and against. Everyone else such as most Autobots didn’t want to associate themselves with a brutal beast of fiery rage like him. Even most of the ponies didn’t respect him that much like how they treated Discord as an annoyance.

“I— don’t know what to say about that. It’s quite...surprising that you want me to be your friend. All I can say is...thanks. For a human, you’re actually not that bad as I initially thought you would be.” Grimlock said.

“Thanks for the compliment.” Sunset said.

“So for starters, not only am I an Autobot but also a Dinobot.” Grimlock said.

“What’s a Dinobot?” she asked. “Is it like a robot dinosaur?”

“Pretty much. They are the strongest subgroups of the Autobots. Their sheer brute strength and firepower such as their fire breath will wipe out the Decepticons in seconds. I’m the leader of that group.” Grimlock explained.

“That’s pretty cool! Do you like being an Autobot or Dinobot more?” she asked curiously.

“To be honest...as a Dinobot more. Fighting side-by-side with Optimus and the Autobots is great and all but being myself and following my own instincts instead of following orders is my preferred taste. That’s how I am who I am.” Grimlock replied.

“Hmmm, I see.” Sunset commented.

“Would you like to tell me your story?” Grimlock asked.

“Well, sure! I was a—“ Sunset said before her phone started ringing. As she saw the notification, she gasped. “I have a dentist appointment this afternoon! I have to get ready. But I really thank you for your time with me. I hope we get to know each other more in the future. Can we meet tomorrow morning? I’ll tell you my story then.” Sunset asked her as she packed her stuff.

“Tomorrow morning would be convenient.” he answered.

“Great! See you tomorrow and welcome to earth!” she waved goodbye as she exited the truck and entered her house.

“She’s not so bad. I’m starting to like her already. Why do I have a feeling that I’ll like this planet more than Equestria?” Grimlock thought. I sure hope Optimus and Twilight are doing all right though.”

Terror Rises

BACK IN CANTERLOT

The entire castle of Canterlot was engulfed in an inferno. Smoke covered the sky and blocked the sun rays. Hound and several surviving Autobot troopers gathered the rest of the ponies and creatures out of Canterlot to safety. They followed Jetfire’s lead.

Meanwhile within the castle, Twilight and Nemesis Prime were duking it out with fierce strength and raw power. They dodged each other’s attacks and tried to strike at each other’s weak spots. Still, neither gained the advantage over the other.

“Optimus, it’s me Twilight!! Why aren’t you listening to me?! This isn’t you!!” Twilight begged with tears.

“I am Nemesis Prime!! You are nothing!!” Nemesis shouted with scornful hate and pride. He swung at her with his sword before she shielded herself from the attack. He struck again with more force. Because her shield refused to bulge, he grabbed his dark energon axe and forcefully swung at her shield once more, breaking it into smithereens.

“You’re mine now.” Prime said as he raised his sword to kill her.

“Optimus, please!! Listen to me!! I don’t want to fight you anymore! Don’t you remember me? Remember you said that freedom is the right of all sentient beings and that they should choose for themselves? You’re the hero of Cybertron. You would never become like your archenemy Megatron, right? Please, you’re better than this.” she reminded him. Nemesis lowered his sword as he listened.

“I am Twilight Sparkle, your close friend. Optimus, I would lay down my life for you.” she finished as she started to cry again. Nemesis was silent for a few seconds until he screamed in rage. He dropped his sword and pounded on the ground. He lifted his head and shot at Twilight with the hardest glare he could ever give.

“FRIENDSHIP IS NOTHING BUT SLAVERY AND IMPRISONMENT!! I’LL NEVER BE ONE WITH THAT!!” he bellowed in agonizing wrath.

“What? What are you talking about?” she asked confused until a magical mirror appeared above them both. Shockwave revealed himself through it.

“The dark energon. That’s what. Did you actually think that Optimus would succumb to emotional manipulation? What an illogical ignoramus you are. Thanks to Skywarp’s information on how well it went with those evil alicorn creatures that existed due to the Orb Ruby’s spell, I managed to inject a smidgen of dark energon into the Ruby in order to make the spell—how should I say it—long lasting.” the evil scientist explained.

“No...no, no, no!! You did not!!” Twilight yelled in defeat.

“I could have you executed right now...but you’re more useful to me alive. Nemesis, take her into my ship as our prisoner. She would be a great contributor for Cybertron’s restoration.” Shockwave ordered.

“As you command, master.” Nemesis complied. He took Twilight in his grasp, transformed into vehicle mode, and drove out of the burning castle. As soon as he left, the castle collapsed and exploded. A portal opened for him and the rest of the corrupted Autobots; the latter finished their slaughtering of the Royal Guard. All five of them entered the portal before it closed behind them. Thus, Canterlot was once again a place of death and desolation; all the ponies would now have to evacuate their homes once more to avoid the same fate their past loved ones met two years ago.

IN THE NEMESIS

The portal opened out of which came Nemesis, Cliffhanger, MoltenIron, Hatchet, and Jinx. Prime still held Twilight in his grasp despite her resistance. They stood before Shockwave and Starscream.

“Excellent work, my minions. With this equine in our hands, Cybertron will be born anew. Of course, she will not be the only one to bring this into reality.” Shockwave spoke before signaling Onslaught, Swindle, and Brawl to bring in three more alicorns whom they held in cylinder transparent canisters. As Twilight looked behind her, she was shocked to see Celestia, Luna, and Cadence caged therein.

“Celestia?! Luna?! Cadence?! No!!” Twilight cried.

“Their magic will be drained out of them to restore our home planet before we feed those flesh bags to the Insecticons. Oh, how pleasant will that be!” Starscream added while evilly smirking.

“NO!! Let them go, you monsters!! The other Autobots will find a way to defeat you all no matter how strong you may be!” Twilight defied with courage.

The Decepticons laughed at her. Kickback loomed over her while staring at her, “You little fleshy, you fail to realize that we are constructing a new army to vaporize the rest of our enemies and your friends, friends, friends!”

“Yes, we even have new cooperatives with us!” Sharpshot added.

“I introduce to you, the Terrorcons!” Hardshell shouted before stepping aside to reveal three figures that terrified Twilight as she beheld them. They appeared to be zombies except that they are sentient rather than mindless. One was silver and violet with stripes of yellow, the other was fatter with blue and white colors, and the last was green and orange. They had some beast-like parts on their chassis. They stood before the group.

“Ahhhh, is it finally time for...dinner?” one of them asked as purple saliva drooled from his mouth.

“Yeah, time for dinner ‘cause I’m starving!” the other said.

“This creature looks yummy! I wonder if—whoa!!” the third said until he slipped on the floor with his own lubricants and fell down.

“Not yet, my friends. Your time will come. Nemesis, take the equines away to their cells. We have a final target to catch.” Shockwave commanded. Nemesis obeyed as he and his crew took the alicorns away while the latter cried for help. The ‘Cons chucked at their desperation.

“Pitiful fleshings. There will be more cries of mercy when we tear planet earth apart and take what should be ours!!” Starscream boasted with raised arms. “The surviving Autobots won’t stand a chance.”

“Indeed. Hun-Garr, report your progress.” Shockwave said.

“The only thing I’m reporting is our hunger!! You promised us a great deal of food if we give you what you want. So where is it?!” Hun-Garr impatiently demanded.

“Yeah! Terrorcons have our needs too, you know!” Blot added.

“You will have your reward with all the resources the earth has to offer. Once your Terrorcon brethren are resurrected, we will utilize you all to plunder earth and use what energy it contains in combination with the alicorns’ magic to bring our home world back to life.” Shockwave said. “Starscream, you know what to do, correct?”

“Of course I do! This little girl won’t escape my grasp once I catch her!” Starscream gloated.

“Good. In the meantime, I do want to satisfy the hunger of my three Terrorcons.” said Shockwave as he motioned an Autobot prisoner to be brought forward. Skywarp threw him before Hun-Garr, Blot, and Sinnertwin. The prisoner looked upon them with complete fear and trembled.

“Mmmm-mmm, now this should serve as a good appetizer.” Sinnertwin muttered while smacking his lips.

“I love appetizers. Their energon is a good dessert.” Blot said.

“Dig in, boys.” Hun-Garr ordered as the three lunged at the prisoner, mauled him while he screamed in agony, and devoured his torn chassis.

A Dark Nightmare

At midnight, Sunset was in her bed sleeping...or trying to sleep peacefully rather. As she was asleep, she had a terrifying nightmare. In her dream, she was in the middle of a burning city where it was filled with dead bodies, human and transformer. She ran across the street in search of her friends and Grimlock in high hopes they would be all right.

She passed by every burning building, house, and blood-stained corpse that filled the sidewalks and streets. She kept calling for her friends, “Twilight! Pinkie! Where are you guys?!”. She received no answer. Desperate, she again ran across the street and decided to go to Canterlot High School to see if her friends were there. She wished that the school would be in good condition.

But as soon as she arrived at the school, she wished she did not look upon it. The whole school was engulfed in inferno. Filled with intense fear for her friends’ safety, she kicked the front doors upon, covered her mouth and nose, and tried to find a clear path to find her friends. She did all in her power to avoid the smoke in the air; thus, she had to bent down and run. However, as she was searching, her high hopes shattered to pieces. This was the worst she had ever seen.

The bodies of the Main Six lied on the burning floor with no sign of life seen in them. They were nothing but scorched corpses with half-opened eyes. “NO!! Twilight!! Pinkie!! Rainbow!! Girls, please wake up!!” Sunset cried with tears on her eyes. “This can’t be happening!! This can’t be true!!”. She then wailed her heart out and cried with a stream of tears. Never in her life, either in earth or in Equestria, had she ever thought this would happen to her and her friends. She really wished she would have the power to resurrect them to reunite herself with them but she can’t. This was too much for her to bear.

As she was crying, a monstrous roar snapped her out of her sorrowful thoughts. Within that moment, the entire burning ceiling was ripped from the school by a giant metal hand. Sunset recognized the figure as Grimlock. Tears of joy replaced her tears of sorrow; she was happy and grateful to see her hero intervene to save her, but she was not happy that he was too late to save the others.

“Grimlock, you came for me! But why didn’t you save my friends?! You could’ve saved them!” Sunset chided with sorrow mixed with joy and anger.

“Oh, I didn’t come to save your worthless life; I’ve come for your timely death.” Grimlock darkly uttered. This completely shocked Sunset. She did not expect this kind of evil response from her supposed protector.

“Timely death? What are you saving?! I thought we were friends!” she pleaded with watery eyes.

“Friendship is...illogical. And Grimlock is not here. He is dead. So will all the humans and Autobots that dare cross us.” Grimlock said with a monotone voice. After he said this, the Dinobot morphed into a cyclops with a cannon on his left arm, wings on his back, an intimidating insignia on his chest, white short antennas on both sides of his head, and a purple color scheme.

Sunset was bewildered by this strange transformation. She had never seen this Cybertronian before or even heard of him. “What—who are you?!” she cried out in confusion and shock.

“You may call me...Shockwave.” he replied. “It is time to join with the rest of your friends in death. Earth is now ours for the taking, and Cybertron shall live again in all of its glory.” He then turned back and said, “Kill her.”

Suddenly, she was surrounded by three shadowy figures. The more they drew closer to her, the more she became terrified of them. She tried to run between their legs but they immediately closed. The entire scorching environment disappeared from her view. She was then in the middle of darkness still surrounded by the figures. They revealed themselves as Hun-Garr, Sinnertwin, and Blot.

“Now this is a meal I’ve waited my whole life for: to eat a flesh creature like yourself!” Hun-Garr uttered smacking his chops.

“Nowhere to run, little dinner.” Sinnertwin added with a perverse smirk on his face.

“No one can save you now. Grimlock was just a common supper. But you are on the top menu!” Blot enthusiastically addded while drooling.

Sunset screamed in horror as the Terrorcons bent down and lunged at her to devour her. As soon as their teeth made contact with her flesh, she jumped out of her bed sweating and gasping for air. It was just a dream...a very bad dream...no...a nightmare. She looked around her and discovered that she was safe and sound in her own house.

She touched her own skin to see if there was any sign of open wounds or blood. Relieved to see none, she grabbed her phone and checked the time. It was 1:30 in the morning. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“That was legit the most terrifying dream I ever had (sigh). Why? Why did I have this dream? Will this ever happen to me and my friends?” she asked herself. “I hope to Celestia that never happens. EVER.” She sat on her bed and thought on what she needed to do next. “(Sigh) I need to have a midnight snack or something. I need something to relax my thoughts so l can sleep better.”

She got out of her bed, walked down the stairs, and went to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and looked to see if any of the treats would be appropriate for her to eat to cool her down. She looked at the eggs, milk, chocolate, cheese, and other products.

Finding nothing satisfactory, she closed the fridge and went over to the cabinets to check for other food. She opened one of them that had chips and crackers. Looking at the graham crackers, she thought that those would do. Finally able to get something to eat, she grabbed a bowl and filled it with graham crackers. She sat down on the table and ate her midnight snack. She just wanted to forget she ever had the dream and was not willing in the slightest to share or tell to her friends of her nightmare.

However, she thought about Grimlock while eating the crackers. Would Grimlock be willing enough to support her and actually protect her from those Decepticons like the one he fought yesterday? How would he respond to her nightmare she had?

“I really hope Grimlock would be kind enough to be my protector. But will he protect me all the way? I don’t want anything to happen to my friends! Please let it be just a bad dream!!” Sunset distressingly thought. It was one thing to have a nightmare, but to experience a living nightmare was more dreadful.

After finishing her snack, she rinsed her bowl in the dish sink, went back upstairs, brushed her teeth, and covered herself with blankets on her bed as she resumed to get a proper night rest. This was a night she would never forget. “Shockwave? Whoever Shockwave is, he is bad news.” she said.

Dinobot Battle and Reunion

“Hey, guys, I see land in a distance!” Swoop called out to Snarl and Slag. “Follow me!”

“Hey slow down, Swoop! I can’t swim fast enough, you know!” Snarl whined.

“Yeah, me neither.” Slag concurred.

“Hold on a second...what are those creatures?” Swoop asked as he beheld the humans swimming and sunbathing on the beach miles away.

“Wait...there’s civilization in this planet? I thought this world was just all water with little land.” Slag said.

“Hmm, we probably should just check if these creatures are friendly or not.” Swoop suggested.

“Do you think they’ll listen like that plant creature did?” Snarl asked.

“I’m sure they will, Snarl. It’s always best to give a good impression so that they’ll be open to us.” said Swoop.

“I wish Grimlock would adhere to that (sigh).” said Slag.

“Come on guys.” Swoop said leading his comrades to the beach coast for several more miles. They were swimming and flying to the beach until they saw a flying object swiftly fly up in a distance. “What was that?”

The humans were having a great time together with their families and friends. The children were playing together and making sand castles, the women were sunbathing while lying on their towels, and the men were playing ball on ether side of the net. Other people were floating and swimming in the water. The afternoon sun was high in the sky in its hot temperature and humidity.

It was all fun and games until strange sounds of aircraft were heard in a far distance. The sounds came nearer and nearer until the strange flying object was seen in the horizon. The people stopped playing as they saw the object come closer to their level.

Then to their absolute amazement and shock, the object suddenly transformed into a huge metal figure of a bright and loud color scheme. The figure laughed maniacally as he stood before the humans menacingly. “Pathetic creatures! I, Starscream, am now your maker of DOOM!! Hahahahaha!!!” the egotistical Seeker shouted in pride. He loaded his null ray blasters and shot at the humans. They ran in fear of the titan while screaming in terror.

The majority of the people escaped Starscream’s onslaught while the others did not make it alive. Those victims were instantly vaporized until they were nothing but blood and bones. Starscream evilly laughed once again as he made his presence known. “Run, flesh bags, run!! None of you can stand against the might of the great and powerful Starscream!!” he bragged while lifting his arms in triumph.

Suddenly, several roars were heard behind him. Before Starscream would have time to investigate the noises, Snarl and Slag jumped out of the water, transformed in midair, and landed a powerful kick on the Seeker. “What the—?!” he yelled as he fell down.

“Starscream!! Leave these creatures alone!” Snarl shouted.

“Yeah! And what are you doing here?!” Slag demanded with a glare.

“To initiate the conquest of this planet, of course! It also appears that you Dinobots survived the massacre on Canterlot City of Equestria.” Starscream said with a sadistic smirk. This shocked the Dinobots completely.

“WHAT?! What do you mean?!” Swoop demanded.

“Your precious Optimus Prime along with four of his lackeys terminated nearly all of your weak friends. Now, they belong to us to conquer this world and reclaim what is rightfully ours!!” Starscream said.

“What? Optimus? No...no, it cannot be true!! You’re lying!” Snarl said with shock and fear in his tone.

“Optimus would never turn against us! NEVER!!” Slag shouted in sheer anger.

“Whatever you are planning, we will stop you!” Swoop spoke.

“Not if I destroy you three buffoons first!!” Starscream yelled as he began to fire on them at once. The Dinobots dodged his blasts and ran toward him. They tackled him on the sand and pounded on him very hard. But the Seeker transformed to Cybertronian jet mode and flew above them to avoid more of their assaults. “You can’t destroy me that easily, Dino-fools!”

“Take cover!” Swoop ordered as Starscream fired missiles on the Dinobots. They transformed to their respective dinosaur modes and breathed fireballs on the missiles. The missiles exploded on impact. Starscream flew over them and fired again. This time, he fired heat-seeking missiles.

The Dinobots fled the beach and ran across the city. The cars drove out of the way of the beasts and the pedestrians ran in fear away from them as well. The eight heat-seekers still followed their targets in hot pursuit.

Two of them chased Swoop around several skyscrapers until he reached to a taller one. At a split-second, he swiftly turned around and fired his own two missiles on them and they exploded on impact.

Snarl ran as fast as he could from three other heat-seekers. Just before he could go any further, he was blocked by the crowded road filled with cars and trucks. He looked behind him and saw the three missiles coming closer in seconds. Quickly thinking, he turned around and breathed fire on the two, destroying them in the process, and catching the third one in his mouth, swallowing it whole. It exploded, causing him to belch. “Excuse me...” he said.

Slag also ran as much as possible from the last three heat-seeking missiles. The missiles came closer to Slag. “Come on, Slag, think, think!” he said to himself. Then he remembered something. “Oh wait, I forgot! My own tail!” He stopped running, lifted his tail, and swatted the last three missiles, making them explode on impact. The explosion made no damage on his tail or armor. “Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” he rhetorically asked.

“You think you pathetic beasts of burden have won?! Ha! There’s plenty more of that where it came from!” Starscream boasted as he reloaded his arsenal. But before he could fire, a loud honk interrupted his focus. “Who dares interrupts my worthy fight?!” Starscream demanded as he turned around.

The golden semi-truck drove up to the four metallic combatants and immediately transformed before them. The truck then revealed itself as Grimlock in his T-Rex mode. Starscream was shocked and astonished to see the infamously mighty Dinobot commander standing directly before him. He then got flashbacks where he attempted to woo Grimlock to join his side in order to release the Dinobot from Shockwave’s laboratory. He also remembered how Grimlock aggressively refused his offer and threw him against the controls that freed the prisoner.

“No...this cannot be...GRIMLOCK?! HERE?!” Starscream screamed in utter horror. “NO!! No please!! Leave me alone!!”

“You leave my friends alone, Starscream!! I’ll be more than happy to give you the same treatment I gave you back on Cybertron!!” Grimlock intimidatingly challenged. “It’s either fly away or fight.” Without a single word or mutter, Starscream transformed and flew away from the reunited Dinobots.

“Grimlock!! You’re okay!!” Swoop happily shouted.

“You found us! We were just looking for you!” Snarl added.

“Yeah! We really missed you!” Slag added. All three Dinobots tackled their leader in a tight group hug. Grimlock didn’t expect that type of affectionate welcome and reunion but he nonetheless accepted it.

“I missed you guys too.” Grimlock admitted. “I’m sorry for being gone for quite a while. But I’m happy that I found you guys here. You came through that portal in the island, I presume?”

“Yep! It was so weird!” Slag said.

“What is this place? Is this the opposite of Equestria or something?” Snarl asked.

“You could say that. These creatures are called humans, and this world is called earth.” Grimlock explained. “And the vehicle form you saw me in is my semi-truck mode.”

“A semi-truck? That’s...interesting, I guess.” Swoop said confused. “Hmmm, humans and earth...very interesting indeed.”

“So does that mean we have to pick disguises for ourselves to blend in?” Snarl asked.

“Pretty much. Since you exposed yourselves as Dinobots, it’s best if you disguise yourself as these earthly forms to keep a low profile.” Grimlock advised. “Trust me, it’s more efficient that way.”

“Hmm, that makes sense. I guess we’ll have to become triple-changers then.” said Swoop. “And also call ourselves ‘robots in disguise’ maybe?”

“Indeed, come let me help you.” Grimlock said. The three Dinobots eventually chose their new earthly forms: Swoop chose a fighter jet; Snarl chose a dump truck, and Slag chose a tank.

“Wow, these forms look awesome! Very impressive! I’m starting to like earth already!” Snarl said gazing his new vehicle mode.

“Indeed. I think it would be a good opportunity to meet the humans—(cough) a human I’ve befriended during my stay here. Would you be interested?” Grimlock offered.

“A human you befriended? Hmmm, sure why not?” Slag said shrugging.

All Dinobots travelled in their earth forms and were lead by Grimlock to Canterlot High School not far from the city.

Plotting in the Shadows

BACK IN THE NEMESIS

Sinnertwin and Blot were in the laboratory by themselves just finishing their work in filling every container with the liquidized dark energon. They had nothing else left to do besides idling around, awaiting for Shockwave’s orders.

“Um, Blot? Your lubricants are reaching to my legs.” Sinnertwin warned.

“Oh, sorry. I’ll just move over.” Blot replied as he did so. He slightly slipped on the floor in the process but did not fall.

“It’s been days and Shockwave’s done nothing!” Sinnertwin complained. “My circuitry cannot endure long-lasting hunger!”

“What’s the point? It’s not like any of those Decepticons care about us anyway...not even me.” Blot said with a depressed tone. “I’m useless here.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Blot. You are the strongest and most dedicated Terrorcon, you know. That’s why Hun-Garr respects you very much.” Sinnertwin encouraged.

“Thanks, brother. I needed to hear that.” Blot said, feeling better.

“Terrorcons! I have received new orders from Shockwave!” Hun-Garr announced while entering the room. The two other Terrorcons listened attentively to their leader in response.

“We are finally going to revive our dead Terrorcon brethren with the dark energon we grounded to liquid! We are to start now!” he eagerly informed them.

“YES! Finally, we shall have our army again! And we all shall have our abundant food for ourselves! Mmmm-mmm!!” Sinnertwin rejoiced while licking his chops.

“Yeah! Our enemies will crumble before us!” Blot added. “...before we eat them all!” All three Terrorcons wickedly laughed together.

“Come on. Let’s get to work, shall we?” said Hun-Garr.

Nemesis Prime and his crew were guarding Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence in the dungeon. They tried to blast the bars to pieces but they were magic-resistant. All that they could do was sitting there in utter helplessness. Twilight was quietly sobbing over the death of her other friends such as Thorax, Ember, and several others. She had high hopes that her closest friends were safe and sound with Jetfire.

The other alicorns did all in their power to set themselves free from their bonds, but the more they struggled to free themselves the more exhausted they became. They lowered themselves as they needed to rest from their fierce attempts. “Struggle all you want, princesses. You will only manage to exhaust yourselves even more.” the evil scientist spoke while approaching the cells.

“You won’t get away with this, Shockwave. The Autobots will defeat you all just as Grogar was defeated.” Celestia defied with a glare. Luna and Cadence nodded in agreement while also glaring at the Decepticon cyclops.

“Your courage is admirable but illogical.” said Shockwave. “You see, we Decepticons need Cybertron to be reborn again, and it cannot be revitalized if it doesn’t have the required energy to make that possible. It would be logical if you four alicorns were to fulfill that task for us by releasing all of your magic so that we may combine it with earth’s energy.”

“We will NEVER take orders from you, Decepticon!” Luna angrily shouted.

“We would rather sacrifice ourselves for our friends than to succumb to your evil plots!” Cadence added.

“Such a pity. Here I thought creatures like you were more willing and considerate. How illogical of me.” Shockwave said, disappointed. “I’ll just have to take your magic...through experimentation.”

“No! Leave us alone! Don’t hurt them!” Twilight begged.

“Do not worry, child. You will do a great service to the Decepticon cause. After all, Cadence did say you four would rather sacrifice yourselves, did she not?” Shockwave mockingly taunted.

Cadence mentally slapped herself for uttering those words. Shockwave then turned his back on them and faced the Orb Ruby he had in his hand.

“Nemesis and his team have proven themselves to be a powerful force. With them on our side, our Autobot foes won’t stand a chance against us.” said Shockwave. Suddenly, the doors of the dungeon opened, revealing Starscream. The scientist noticed that the Seeker did not have Sunset Shimmer by hand.

“Starscream, I notice that you failed to retrieve the human girl. What happened?” Shockwave demanded.

“GRIMLOCK!! That’s what happened!! I was looking for her until those insufferable Dinobots showed up and ruined everything!” Starscream complained. If Shockwave had a face, he would’ve displayed a look of shock and surprise. The alicorns, however, were exceedingly happy to hear of Grimlock and the Dinobots again after being gone from Equestria for some time.

“Grimlock? Dinobots? On earth? How is that possible?” he questioned.

“How am I supposed to know?! All I know is that they kicked my tailpipe! Surely, they’ll all pay after humiliating me like that!” Starscream yelled.

“If Grimlock and the Dinobots are protecting the human girl, there will be no way for us to get past them. You know how powerful Grimlock is; he is ten times stronger than any of us.” Shockwave said.

“Ughh, please don’t remind me. I still have trauma from the way he held me in his firm grasp many years ago.” Starscream said while internally cringing. He did not want to keep that image in his processor.

“Wait...I almost forgot.” Shockwave uttered before facing Nemesis Prime and his lackeys once again. “Nemesis, because you and your team have proven yourselves to be more powerful than the Autobots, your new objective is to hunt down Grimlock and his friends, eviscerate them, and bring this girl to me.” he commanded while holding a hologram of Sunset Shimmer in his grasp.

“As you command, master, so it shall be done.” Nemesis said while kneeling in compliance. He and the four others left the dungeon hall.

“NO! Leave them alone! And don’t you dare hurt Sunset Shimmer! She’s my friend!!” Twilight cried out. Her name caught Shockwave’s attention.

“Sunset Shimmer? So that’s her name then...an intriguing name at that.” commented Shockwave. “It’s logical considering that the sun of a new age will be shimmering over Cybertron and the sun of doom will be forever set, never more to rise.”

“You want her magic too?! Why is it that every evil being wants our magic?! Is it like an addiction or something?!” Luna shouted in irritation. Shockwave ignored her and left the dungeon. Starscream went with him. But before he left, he stored the Orb Ruby in a glass container just in front of the alicorns’ cages.

“I got to figure out a way to destroy that Ruby! It might turn Optimus and the others back to normal! But how will I get past those anti-magic bars?” Twilight thought as she tried to create a plan.

“Our Terrorcon army will send an atmosphere of darkness in all of planet earth. The creatures shall know and worship the name of Decepticon; for the age of darkness and death in the earth shall be our source of strength and light. If our world must live, theirs must die.” monologued Shockwave.

New Help Arrives

MEANWHILE IN EQUESTRIA

Jetfire and Hound lead the survivors, including the Mane 5 and Spike, right into the very cave which the ponies hid in during Grogar’s reign of terror two years ago. They hid there to protect themselves from the wrath of Nemesis Prime and his crew. For the Equestrians, hiding in the same cave immediately brought horrifying memories of the terrifying invasion that nearly destroyed their beloved home.

Jetfire and Hound internally grieved the losses of Wheeljack, Warpath, Perceptor, and so many others. It was painful for them to yet lose more warriors who fought side by side with them against the Decepticons for many years. Likewise with the ponies and creatures who openly mourned the losses of Thorax, Pharynx, Ember, and even Grandpa Gruff.

“This is so bad... really bad!” Fluttershy whined sorrowfully.

“Ah can’t believe that one-eyed freak turned Optimus and the others evil!” Applejack said. “Especially Ironhide!!”

“What are we going to do now?” Pinkie worriedly asked.

“We need to stay here away from Canterlot and Optimus...or ‘Nemesis Prime’ as he called himself.” said Jetfire. “I won’t risk the safety of any of us.”

“Are you sure about that, Jetfire? What if Optimus and the other four of our friends left through a space bridge portal to the Nemesis or something?” asked Hound.

“That’s a possibility, but my decision still stands.” Jetfire firmly ordered. “No one leaves this cave.”

“Aw come on!! Seriously, Jetfire? We’re just going to sit here and do nothing while Optimus rampages else where?!” Rainbow shouted.

“Nemesis is far too powerful to take on!! He’ll kill us all if we go out there!!” Jetfire snapped.

“We can just create a plan to defeat him! We can’t give up now!” argued Rainbow.

“WE. STAY. HERE. This is not up for a discussion!” Jetfire sternly ordered.

“This is unlike you, Jetfire! I thought you were courageous enough to take on Decepticons. Guess you’re not a true Autobot after all.” said Rainbow with a glare.

Incensed at her words, he swiftly turned to face her, “OKAY, LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE—“ his words of retaliation were interrupted by another voice.

“ENOUGH!!!” Fluttershy screamed.

Jetfire and Rainbow were started by her angered voice and turned to her like a child would to its parent when he or she did something wrong.

“Both of you need to stop fighting this instant!! It will get us nowhere if you keep arguing and hurting each other’s feelings!” she sternly spoke. Jetfire and Rainbow lowered their heads in shame and were silent for a moment.

“Sorry, Rainbow.” Jetfire apologized.

“I’m sorry too, pal. I get fed up too easily.” Dash confessed.

“All right then. Let’s focus on the important matter here.” Hound reminded. “We as Autobots need to remember that being idle while evil threatens the safety of sentient beings is unacceptable. If we are to survive, we must bravely make our stand and put an end to the Decepticon reign of terror for good.”

“How can we fight?” Sandbar spoke. “Without the Royal Guard or the strongest Autobots with us, we’re no match for them!”

“Plus, we don’t even have the strongest weapons in Equestria to battle with.” Gallus added.

“Speaking of strongest, what happened to Celestia, Luna, and Cadence?” Rarity asked. Everypony looked around just as they were mentioned. Fear sized their hearts after discovering their absence.

“No, no, no, no, no! Not again!” shouted Spike. “It’s just like when Grogar ponynapped the princesses and used them for evil! They might have been captured!”

“What about Twilight? She hasn’t returned yet! What happened to her?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know. I really hope she’s okay.” Rarity replied.

“Right now, we are Equestria’s only hope if we are to end this war. Shockwave will allow nothing to stand in his way. Neither should we.” Jetfire encouraged.

“But how? Do you have a good plan to stop him?” Rainbow asked with doubt. Jetfire was about to answer but could not since he hadn’t really thought about it. Suddenly, a new voice outside the cave arrested their attention.

“I can be of great assistance.” the voice spoke.

“Who said that?!” Rainbow called out. Jetfire and the other few Autobots raised their blasters, ready to fight. But Hound, however, recognized the voice and drew closer to its source.

“Hold your fire!” he ordered the troops. They lowered their weapons in compliance but still had them loaded just in case.

“Is that you, buddy? You can come in now.” Hound said. After he said this, the new figure made his physical appearance. The warrior entered the cave right before all the ponies, creatures, and the Autobots. They all gasped in surprise as they beheld him. The figure was black and blue all around his chassis, had the appearance of a samurai, had two long samurai swords and two short ones mounted on his back, and had a golden yellow face with blue optics.

“Greetings, old friend. It’s been a long time since the fall of Cybertron.” said the new Autobot.

“Drift! It’s great to see you again!!” Hound happily welcomed before hugging him tightly.

“Ughh!! Thanks...you can let go...now...too tight...!” Drift managed to say while being squeezed.

“Oh sorry!” Hound said, releasing him.

“You know him?” Jetfire asked.

“Of course! We were best buddies on Iacon City! That was, of course, before the war on Cybertron.” Hound explained.

“Indeed. My name is Drift. Ex-Decepticon now Autobot.” he introduced with a bow.

“My, what a gentleman.” Rarity complemented, pleased by his politeness.

“Wait...you used to be a Decepticon?!” Rainbow shouted.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Drift replied with a sad tone. “That was one of the worst experiences of my life as a Cybertronian. At that time, my old name was Deadlock.”

“Really? What made you change and see the light?” Pinkie asked.

“I realized that the Decepticons only lived for oppression, suffering, and destruction. They never truly cared what was right and what was wrong. I never wanted that. I was misled into thinking that being a Decepticon would grant me freedom and power over everything that stands in my way. But when I saw how the evil tyrant Megatron treated his own people and his own army, that was when it clicked: Megatron and the Decepticons live for tyranny, not for freedom. Peace through tyranny as he said.” Drift explained.

“Wow! That sounds awful having to live that horrible life, Drift.” Starlight said. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“Thank you. That was when I defected from my former faction. The way how Optimus and the Autobots treated their people on Cybertron was amazing. It moved me to turn my back on the Decepticons. Never again would I experience the union of evil. Hence, my new name Drift. Drifting away from the wrong path to the right one.” said the ex-Decepticon.

“Amazing. Wait...so does that mean the Decepticons can change too?! Just like how we changlings reformed?” Ocellus asked while pointing to herself and the other changlings behind her.

“Every sentient being has the capacity for redemption. However, not all will accept this offer. While other Decepticons are not spark-hardened to the core, there are still others, like Shockwave, who refuse the good till the end no matter what.” Drift replied.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Applejack concurred.

“But there’s no time to waste! I can help you stop the Decepticons with all the resources stored and prepared, thanks to the assistance from another friend of mine, to help you defeat the enemy for good.” said Drift.

“Did you hear that?! He’s going to help us!!” Pinkie shouted while blowing her party cannon. “We’re gonna save Equestria!!” Everyone else shouted in joy.

“Actually, Equestria is not the target.” Drift clarified. This confused the ponies and the Autobots. “A planet called earth is in imminent danger. Shockwave is raising a new army of Terrorcons to take that planet’s energy along with the alicorns’ magic to restore Cybertron. They are going to also annihilate the inhabitants of earth forever.”

“He has the princesses?! He’s gonna take their magic?!” Rainbow shouted in shock.

“How do you know about this?” Hound asked.

“I overheard Shockwave’s plan when I infiltrated their warship earlier. This is what he said:

FLASHBACK

Drift saw, while hiding in the shadows of the empty halls, Twilight and other alicorns inprisoned; he also saw Nemesis Prime and his lackeys departing from the ship to engage Grimlock and the Dinobots.

“I got to find help.” he muttered. He silently exited the ship through a window with no one around and transformed into helicopter mode to fly back to an underwater base underneath the city. Traveling through the tunnels, he located the hidden base and transformed back to robot mode. Another Autobot greeted him.

“Well, that went quicker than expected.” Crosshairs said. “What did you find?”

“Shockwave is planning a Terrorcon invasion of earth to suck its energy dry and kill all the humans. We cannot let that happen!” said Drift.

“If only we had ‘Mr. Leader of the Free Galaxy’ with us along with ALL the Autobots, yeah! Do you know where they are?” Crosshairs asked.

“My cross-dimensional map reveals their location in a world called...Equestria?” Drift said confused as he looked at the map. “Intriguing place...I’ll take a look.”

“Sure, you do that while I finish my work on the ammunition and armory, then get Grimlock and the Dinobots. He will need our help.” Crosshairs said.

“If he is willing to. His stubbornness can get the better of him often.” Drift said before he activated the map to open a portal. He transformed to Bugatti car mode and entered the portal before it closed.

FLASHBACK ENDED

“Wow! So that scientist ruffian got Twilight too! I knew we shouldn’t have left her! She’s needs our help!!” Rarity said.

“Do ya think Grimlock can take on Optimus—or, um, Nemesis?” Applejack asked.

“I hope so.” Drift replied. “All of you come with me! Crosshairs and I shall train you for war that is soon to come on earth! Follow me!”

He opened the portal once again with his map. They all entered in before it closed behind them.

Grimlock vs. Nemesis Prime

BACK ON EARTH

“Sunset, this is Swoop, Snarl, and Slag; they’re my Dinobot warriors and friends.” Grimlock introduced his comrades to her.

“Hello, there!” Swoop greeted.

“Hiya!” Snarl waved.

“Hi, Sunset.” said Slag.

“Hi, guys! It’s a pleasure meeting you three! I never thought there would be more Dinobots out there.” Sunset said. “Welcome to earth!”

“Thanks. I must admit that although this planet is somewhat...primitive, it is starting to grow on me.” said Swoop.

“Yeah, I really like the vehicle modes your planet offers. They look...impressive.” added Snarl while he looked at the cars that drove by.

“Are your friends here?” Grimlock asked her.

“Yes, they’re just finishing up school for the week. Since it’s Friday afternoon, I thought we would hang out more if that’s okay with you.” replied Sunset.

“Oh, you have friends? I’m looking forward to meeting them.” Slag said.

“Just one thing, Sunset. PLEASE, for the love of Primus, keep that pink girl from asking a huge load of questions that irritate my processor!! I can’t stand her!!” Grimlock angrily admonished. While he found the other girls besides Sunset to be okay to some degree, Pinkie Pie was the only one he had a strong dislike for due to her hyper and enthusiastic personality.

“Hey, don’t worry! I’ll let her know that. Also, Pinkie isn’t really that bad; the more you get to know her, the more you’ll get used to her. Trust me.” said Sunset as she winked.

“I seriously doubt that but whatever.” thought Grimlock while grumbling.

“Hey, Sunset! Hey, Grimlock!” Twilight greeted as she and the others exited the front school doors after the bells rang.

“Hey, Twilight!” Sunset waved back.

“How’s everything going with—“ Twilight said before looking up at three new transformers standing before her.

“Hello there, creature. I’m Swoop. What is yours?” greeted Swoop. Twilight was briefly stunned at their appearance but quickly shook it off after Swoop greeted her politely.

“Umm, hi, uh Swoop. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” she uttered, regaining her composure.

“I’m Snarl.” he added.

“And I’m Slag.” he also added.

“THIS IS GREAT!! There’s now three new alien guests with us!” Pinkie shouted while jumping up and down. She grabbed Rarity’s phone (since hers was destroyed by Sideways) and took several photos of Swoop, Snarl, and Slag standing together.

The three Dinobots were puzzled by her enthusiasm; Grimlock, on the other hand, was groaning aloud in annoyance while covering his head with his hands.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, humans. May the rest of you introduce yourselves?” Swoop asked.

“Greetings. I’m Rarity.” she welcomed with a bow.

“Pinkie Pie!”

“The one and only Rainbow Dash!”

“Applejack!”

“Fluttershy.” the rest of the girls introduced.

“So you guys are from Cybertron, huh?” Twilight asked.

“Yep. It’s been so many years since the war...wait, how did you know of our planet?” Snarl asked.

“Grimlock told us of almost everything. I can’t imagine what you guys went through during your war!” Rainbow said. “I bet it was so awesome!!”

“I wouldn’t say ‘awesome’ but rather painful and severe for lack of better terms.” Grimlock said. “It would be best if none of you humans go through that experience.”

“Being in a war? Ha! We fight against villains with Equestrian magic all the time!” said Applejack.

“Yeah! We’re like superheroes! Saving earth for like a thousand times!” Rainbow added.

“That may be so, but remember how you couldn’t defeat Sideways which was why I stepped up.” Grimlock argued. “Without me, you would’ve been dead in two seconds.”

“Oh...right.” Rainbow admitted before blushing. “Speaking of which, that fight was quite cool.”

“Anyway, I was thinking that maybe we should all just—“ Grimlock was cut off by an explosion that shook the ground they were standing on. They immediately turned around and saw five Cybertronian dark vehicles approaching them. “Dinobots, lock and load!” Grimlock ordered. The three Dinobots complied as they drew their weapons in preparation to fight. The girls hid behind their gigantic metal legs for protection.

The vehicles then transformed into their respective robot modes. Jinx, MoltenIron, Hatchet, and Cliffhanger menacingly stood before their opponents with their blasters pointing at them. Nemesis Prime got in front of them with his drawn sword. “Time to meet your demise, Dinobots.” Nemesis spoke.

“Optimus, is that YOU?!” Swoop yelled. “What happened to you guys?!”. He and the other Dinobots were shocked to see their own friends in the form of Decepticons. The girls were puzzled once they heard his name.

“I am NEMESIS PRIME!! Optimus is dead and so will you!!” Nemesis angrily declared.

“Optimus, it’s me, Grimlock! You got to listen to me! Whatever happened to you, we will fix it!” Grimlock pleaded. Once he said this, he was surprised with himself for actually pleading with Prime. “Did I just plead with Optimus? I don’t usually do that!” he thought.

“That’s supposed to be your friend, Grimlock?! He’s looks like a sadistic ruffian!” Rarity yelled.

“He also looks so...mean! Just like those other guys!” Fluttershy added.

“ENOUGH! Prepare for extinction!!” Nemesis shouted right before he pulled his blaster and shot at Grimlock. Grimlock swatted the shot away with his shield and unsheathed his energon sword.

“Dinobots, ATTACK!!” Grimlock commanded. “Protect the humans!” Grimlock and Nemesis charged at each other and clashed their swords together.

“We got to help Grimlock!” Twilight said.

“We can’t! Our magic is powerless against their armor, remember?” Sunset reminded.

“What do we do now?!” Pinkie shouted.

“Follow me! I’ll get you to safety!” Swoop said while transforming to pterodactyl mode and let the girls climb to his back. They took off to some place safe.

“Please make it out alive, Grimlock.” whispered Sunset. She was hoping her previous nightmare would not come true.

Snarl fought MoltenIron whereas Slag was fighting Hatchet. Jinx and Cliffhanger aided Nemesis in battling Grimlock. Nemesis swung his sword at the Dinobot leader before the latter dodged the deadly swipe and punched him on the face. Nemesis staggered from the sudden punch. He then drop kicked Jinx and blasted Cliffhanger away before they could even touch him.

Grimlock swung his own sword at Prime and left a scratch on his chest. Nemesis looked upon his scratch and roared in full wrath. “You will pay for that!!” Prime screamed.

“That’s the wounded pride speaking. But you know, from learning from my friend Sunset, that scratch is necessary to awaken the reality of the prideful one. That’s what I went through in Equestria when I was having difficult times with those ponies.” Grimlock lectured. “By the Allspark, I’m lecturing now! Am I not being myself?!” he internally said.

Nemesis lunged at him with his vicious swipes but Grimlock kept blocking his attacks with his shield. “Prime! Snap out of it! This isn’t who you are!” he again pleaded.

“I DON’T CARE! YOU DIE!!” Nemesis vengefully shouted. He ripped his shield from his right arm and repeatedly beat him with it. After several hits, he tossed it aside and delivered a very powerful uppercut on Grimlock’s chin, forcing him to drop his sword. The Dinobot flew in the air until he landed a hard hit on the ground.

MEANWHILE IN THE NEMESIS

Twilight Sparkle tried every spell in the book to break the bars of her cage but they would not break at all. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence had no luck either. “It’s no use! I tried every spell I know of, but the bars of this cage won’t budge!” Twilight cried.

“These bars are magic-proof! No matter what type of spell we use, it won’t work! We have to think of something else!” Cadence said.

Twilight examined the room to see if anything in the dungeon would be useful for their escape. She knew she had to be quick before Shockwave would check on them. After looking around, she saw a switch that was labeled ‘anti magic’ on the handle; it had control of all the bars on the cages. Smirking, she lowered her head in between the bars and blasted the switch to pieces. The bars lost their power once they were electrified out of control. The princesses shielded themselves with their magic before the bars exploded to smithereens.

Once the smoke was cleared, the alicorns flew up to the container that held the Orb Ruby. They lifted the container off and directed their focus on the Ruby. Twilight shot at the Ruby but it didn’t break. She then noticed a dark energon shard penetrating it.

“That dark energon shard is protecting the Ruby. We must destroy both of them to save our friends from its spell. But we need to combine our magic to complete this task.” Celestia advised.

“Right. But we must hurry! Time is short!” Luna reminded. Shockwave heard the explosion from outside the dungeon and ran to it to check what was going on.

All the alicorns combined their magic and sent a huge wave of magic right at the shard and the Orb Ruby. The blast disintegrated the shard and shattered the Orb Ruby . The blast also destroyed the doors of the dungeon which sent Shockwave flying in the air. The alicorns flew out of the dungeon and flew right towards the open windows of the ship.

“How is this possible? How did they escape?!” Shockwave shouted right before beholding the shattered remains of the Ruby. “No...this is illogical. This cannot be!”

ON EARTH

Nemesis evilly chuckled as he stepped on Grimlock with his sword in his grasp. “Today...you perish from the face of the universe.” Nemesis declared as he raised his sword to finish him forever. Grimlock awaited his incoming death as he kept silent. Death did not arrive. Nemesis’ optics started to flicker constantly. They changed from purple to blue. His entire body was surrounded in a white light and floated in the air; likewise with MoltenIron, Hatchet, Jinx, and Cliffhanger. All five of them screamed in pain for several seconds until they stopped. They dropped on the ground in their original color schemes.

“(Groan), wha-what happened? Where am I?” Optimus questioned.

“Ow, my aching chassis...” Ironhide muttered.

“Where are we?” Cliffjumper asked as he recognized their surroundings.

“Grimlock! Are you all right?” Ratchet called out as he lifted him up.

“I’m—I’m fine. But I’m glad you guys are back.” Grimlock said. Swoop, Snarl, and Slag gathered around the reunited Autobots.

“Welcome back, guys! We missed you!” Swoop exclaimed.

“We are released from that evil spell? How? And how did we get here?” Optimus asked.

“We are the answer to your first question!” a familiar voice called out from above.

The Autobots looked up and saw Twilight and the princesses fly down and land at their feet. “Welcome back to the family, Optimus Prime.” Twilight greeted with tears in her eyes.

“Twilight...you returned for me—for us. Thank you for your tremendous work.” Optimus thanked.

IN THE NEMESIS

“I told you we should’ve drained them of their magic, you fool! Now look at what happened! Thanks to your ‘logical’ decision, they all escaped!” Starscream berated Shockwave.

“SILENCE! Remember our deal, Starscream. As long as you collaborate with me, you will get your reward at the end. Otherwise...” Shockwave said before Hun-Garr, Sinnertwin, and Blot appeared behind him. “... you will not live to get that reward. Understood?”

Starscream gulped in fear. “Ye-yes! Of course...Commander.” he muttered.

“Excellent. Hun-Garr, status report.” Shockwave ordered.

“Our army is ready for battle! The dark energon is working greatly while flowing through their veins! Victory will be ours!” the Terrorcon leader exulted.

“Wonderful. The earth is ours for the taking. We may have lost Nemesis Prime and the others now that the Orb Ruby is destroyed. But it is no loss for any of us. With you Terrorcons by our side, it will be logical for us to win this war and restore Cybertron once and for all.” Shockwave spoke with a glowing purple optic.

Much to Explain

Swoop and the girls returned back to Optimus, Grimlock, the alicorns, and the other Autobots. After he landed to have them get off of his back, he transformed back to robot mode and rejoined the group. The girls marveled at the sight of the reunited Autobots; never in their life have they ever thought that they would behold aliens and talk to them face to face. It was just flabbergasting for them.

“Sunset, girls, I introduce to you Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. The hero of Cybertron, the defender and protector of Equestria, and the Last Prime.” Grimlock introduced him to the girls.

“It is my pleasure in meeting you all.” Optimus warmly greeted. “I deeply apologize for the damage we’ve caused to your town. I hope you forgive us.”

“There’s no need to apologize. We realized you were under that spell from Equestria. I’m glad you guys are back to normal.” Sci-Twi said.

“How many are you guys?! Are there like hundreds of you? Thousands? Millions? This is so amazing!!” Pinkie squealed. “Oh, I’m Pinkie Pie by the way! Great to meet you!!”. She then took more pictures of them standing together. Optimus was caught off guard by the sound effect of the camera. He looked at Grimlock in genuine confusion.

“She’s does that a lot. (Groan) She’s always like this.” Grimlock groaned in annoyance.

“The name’s Ironhide! Weapons Specialist of the Autobots!” Ironhide spoke.

“Medical officer Ratchet.”

“Jazz!”

“And Cliffjumper!” the three other Autobots introduced as well.

“Magnificent names! I must say...your designs look absolutely splendid! Full of vivid life and uniqueness!” Rarity praised. “Whoever designed and created you has excellent taste in beauty.”

“Hey, didn’t our Rarity say the exact same thing before?” Snarl thought.

“Thank you for those kind words.” Optimus thanked. “What are your names?”

“The name’s Rarity, sir Optimus.” she said bowing.

“Applejack!”

“Fluttershy.”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Twilight Sparkle!” the human one said.

“And Sunset Shimmer!” the rest of the girls said.

“That’s strange. Our pony friends have similar names! Are you the same ones in human form or actually different people with the same names?” Ironhide asked.

“The latter. Those ponies are actually our counterparts. Very weird, huh?” Sci-Twi replied.

“Very weird and unheard of. This is...beyond logic and science!” Ratchet exclaimed.

“It’s a long story.” said Applejack.

“Thank you all for your kindness and presence here. I believe that our friends Grimlock, Swoop, Snarl, and Slag have proven themselves to be great helpers and assistance for this planet so far, yes?” Optimus said. The girls nodded their heads.

“Grimlock, my Autobots, Twilight Sparkle, and I have been worried about you and your well-being ever since you disappeared from Equestria. While I am glad that you are in good condition and have saved us from Shockwave’s spell, you know better than to abandon your own family. We’ve been worried sick for days.” Optimus scolded.

“Why would you leave your own home, Grimlock? Don’t you like us anymore?” Pony Twilight asked.

“It’s not like that!” Grimlock defended as he explained. “I just spotted that glowing portal thingy over that hill in the Everfree Forest. That was by accident! I literally thought it was energon. I never thought it would be a portal that brought me here.”

“A portal? Wait...that same one I and Twilight went through during our spring vacation?!” Sunset shouted. She remembered that portal under the quicksand that lead both of them to Equestria.

“Yes, that same one. You’ve been there before?” Grimlock asked.

“Yes. Remember when I said in the first day we met at my school that this was a long story?” Sunset asked. The Dinobot nodded in response. “Well, the thing is...I’m not totally a human. I’m a unicorn from Equestria.”

“Wait WHAT?! You are?!” Grimlock yelled in shock.

“How is that possible? How did you turn into a human then?” Swoop asked.

“That’s because of the mirror at my Friendship Castle that she and I use whenever we meet.” Pony Twilight answered. “Whoever crosses through that mirror turns into a human in this world and turns into a pony in my world in like manner.”

“Okay, now you lost me.” Cliffjumper said.

“Very interesting details.” Optimus muttered.

“Everyone, we must not forget the very important matter here! With Shockwave on the loose, everything will be at stake! We need to figure out what he’s planning and how we can stop him!” Grimlock reminded.

“Agreed, old friend. However, we’ll need to reunite with the rest of our friends in Equestria so we can strategize together.” Optimus added.

“Even though Equestria is no longer the Decepticons’ target thankfully, we cannot let them take earth either!” Princess Celestia added.

“That’s right. As always Optimus says, freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” Princess Cadence said.

“Everypony, behind you!” Princess Luna warned. They all turned to see an incoming green car driving in the same road they were standing on. Suddenly, the car transformed into robot mode. He had a trench coat-like cape on his back that served as car doors and roof in vehicle mode, a pair of goggles on his head, and a beard on his silver face. The Autobots recognized him.

“Wow, I was expecting just the Dinobots but not the whole squad!” Crosshairs shouted.

“Crosshairs? Is that you? How did you get here from Cybertron?” Cliffjumper asked.

“I’ll explain later! Right now, the Autobots and your pony friends from...Equestria or whatever need you! We have them in our base! We’re going to stop Shockwave together! Follow me!” the sharpshooter shouted before transforming and taking off.

“Our friends are here?! Come, let’s follow him!” Princess Twilight said as she flew with the other alicorns while following Crosshairs. The Autobots looked at each other in confusion before shrugging it off.

“Autobots, transform and roll out!” Optimus ordered. They all transformed, boarded the girls inside their passenger seats, and followed with the rest of the group. The Dinobots departed with them as well.

The Darkest Hour

A whole army of Terrorcons were lined up in the meeting hall of the Nemesis. Skywarp, Thundercracker, Barricade, Breakdown, and the Combaticons were both stunned and disgusted at the sight of the revitalized army of undead Cybertronians; however, they barely resisted their presence for fear of being torn to pieces by the leading Terrorcons Hun-Garr, Sinnertwin, and Blot.

Shockwave and Starscream stood on the platform of the hall where the whole ferocious army faced them. “Attention, Decepticons. This is your commander, Shockwave, speaking. Today is the day we take what is rightfully ours and seize control of this primitive planet.” Shockwave began his speech. The Terrorcons roared in excitement and joy as they attentively listened.

“My greatest disappointment is that we were unable to save Cybertron from the Autobots who forcibly took away our hope for a brighter future for our cause. Fortunately, it was only a temporary setback. The war on Cybertron might have waylaid our past conquest, but now that the enemy is few in number and weakened by their recent massacre, it will be logical for our victory to be permanently secured.” he continued.

“Yes, yes, yes, we will finally win at last. Can we just go already?!?” Blot whined before he slipped on the floor due to his leaking lubricants from his chassis. The Decepticons laughed at his clumsiness. Shockwave fired his cannon at the ceiling to silence them.

“Patience is the logical key to victory, Blot. Now, if you are done whining, allow me to show you our first target.” said Shockwave as he turned to the monitor to locate the first place of their attack. “This city is where we will all strike first.”

“Ahh, yes, that very city where that girl lives. But wouldn’t it be easier to get that girl first before we destroy the rest of those worthless insects?” Starscream asked. “After all, she still is our main target.”

“Don’t you see, Starscream?” replied Shockwave. “Attacking her beloved home city will provoke her to save her miserable friends; then once she is in a vulnerable and exposed position in the process, we will catch her.”

“Ohh, I...see.” grumbled Starscream hating the fact that Shockwave gave a smarter strategy.

“What’s the matter, Screamy? Hate it when Shockwave is smarter than you?” taunted Onslaught.

“SILENCE, ONSLAUGHT!! I refuse to let you insult my intelligence!!” Starscream yelled angrily. Onslaught chuckled at his triggered reaction.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Starscream. I wasn’t aware that I was talking to Megatron’s idiotic punching bag and cowardly dog. I’ll practice my courtesy next time.” Onslaught sarcastically mocked. This infuriated the leading Seeker while the rest of the Decepticons roared in hysterical laughter.

“How dare you?! I’m Starscream the Great and no one shall—“ he screamed until silenced.

“SILENCE!!!” Shockwave shouted in an authoritative manner. The whole army including Starscream and Onslaught instantly stepped back as they were startled by his voice.

“Very good.” the evil scientist said after moments of silence. “As I was saying, this city will be our first target of our invasion. There, we will catch the human girl; for with her magic, and the all of earth’s life energy, Cybertron shall be reborn in all of its glory.”

“What about us? You also promised us abundant energon for us to feed!” Sinnertwin reminded.

“Surely, you will give us what we want, right?” Hun-Garr asked.

“Of course, my friends. You will be abundantly rewarded for your services.” Shockwave said.

“I can taste the defeat of the Autobots already!” Blot said while smaking his chops.

“There is no time to waste. Terrorcons, you are to attack the city! Kill everything that stands in your way! Show no mercy! Dominate the entire population!” Hun-Garr ordered to the hundreds of Terrorcons assembled. They all roared once again while shouting their battle cries. They all transformed into their zombie-like beast forms and took off from the warship to commence their attack.

After the Terrorcons left, Starscream turned to face Shockwave. “Shockwave, you’re not actually going to give them their promised reward, are you?” he asked with full doubt in his tone.

“Of course not, they are only the means to gain access to this planet’s core energy. Once they served their purpose, I will extinguish them with this object.” he answered while showing the green stinking item in his grasp.

“Once the Tox-En eradicates them, we will get all the energy to convert to energon to save Cybertron. Those Terrorcon fools don’t care about our home, they care more about their hunger. If there’s one thing I learned from Megatron, it’s the logic that the fittest will survive and maintain the cause. I’ll have Optimus Prime’s head as a sure reward and living testimony of that truth.” Shockwave finished.

IN DRIFT’S BASE

“No way! Those weapons look 20% cooler!!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“I knew you would approve them.” Drift replied with a smile. “These are the advanced weapons of mass destruction I’ve gathered over a millennia. If utilized for the good and the protection of the innocent, it can be very useful for all of us, even for non-Cybertronians.”

“That’s exactly what we need to do. Our magic may be insufficient against alien armor, but we can use stronger methods!” Pony Twilight said.

“Speaking of stronger methods, allow me to show you some of the weapons we got.” Crosshairs said as he looked over the equipment. He grabbed one of them. “This one is called the Phase-Shifter! It will make you go through any inanimate object with no harm at all, such as a wall for instance. Give it a try!” he said before tossing it to Swoop. The Dinobot took it and attached it on his wrist.

“So I can go through any object or wall with no problem?” he asked.

“Yep! Give it a shot!” Crosshairs replied.

“Okay. I have a bad feeling about this.” he muttered until he activated it, giving a vibrating sound effect. He put his claw through the floor flawlessly. Surprised, he took his claw out of the floor. He turned to the left wall of the base and his head went through it with no scratch. He then took it out and turned it off. “This is amazing! It really does work!”

“I knew you would like it! Let me show you the next thing!” Crosshairs said as got another gadget. “I introduce to you...the Apex Armor! This relic will give any being the ability to have immense strength and durability once the armor increases in size!” he said before he handed it to Applejack. “Since you love to kick enemy butt with your strength, why don’t you try?”

“Me? Uhhh, sure! Ah think this could work.” she said as she stepped on the button of the armor. The armor activated itself and increased in size by shape-shifting all around Applejack. She nervously looked around at first but then noticed the clear helmet over her head and saw the huge feet and legs her grown armor gave her. After she gazed at her large arms and intimidating height, she made a large smirk on her face.

“Ye-haw!! Now we’re talkin’!!” the farm pony shouted.

“So all of these gadgets and relics will be efficient enough to take down the Decepticons, Drift?” Grimlock questioned. “What if Shockwave’s Terrorcon army unexpectedly overwhelm us and take us all down regardless?”

“Don’t worry, Grimlock. We will defeat the Decepticons no matter the cost.” Drift said comfortingly.

“Indeed. You helped us defeat Grogar and the Decepticons two years ago in Equestria. Shockwave will be no different in this second time around.” Celestia said. Luna, Cadence, and Twilight nodded in agreement. Grimlock thought on their words of encouragement.

“Hmmm, that’s true except that Grogar was not a Decepticon even though he was their ruler. Shockwave’s logic makes him even more dangerous than most villains I know. We should never underestimate him or his power as mush as I hate to admit it.” Grimlock said.

Suddenly, an explosion was heard from above the ground. Several more explosions were heard that shook the whole underground base. “What’s going on outside?!” Sunset yelled.

Drift turned to his monitor to see what was happening. The screen displayed a large scene were the whole city was under attacked by the Terrorcons. The humans were seen running for their lives while screaming in horror. The warship flowed in the air above the buildings. Dark clouds and fire appeared as well. The Autobots and ponies were shocked to see the Decepticons in action.

“The humans are in danger! Now is our time to act and stand up against the evil that threatens the safety and well-being of this planet! If we are to triumph for the last time, we must ensure that the Decepticons never rise up ever again! The time to fight for freedom is now! DINOBOTS, AUTOBOTS, AND PONIES, DESTROY!!” Grimlock commanded while transforming in T-Rex mode and roaring thunderously.

The Final Battle part 1: Insecticon Fight

The whole city was intensely invaded. All the Terrorcons attacked everyone and everything they saw; the humans fled for their lives from the invaders. Unfortunately, not everyone survived the Decepticon massacre. The zombie/beast-like titans fired upon the fleeing humans with their arm-mounted cannons and blasters, killing them instantly.

“Run, fleshies, run!! We, Terrorcons, rule this city now!!” Hun-Garr intimidatingly declared. He grabbed two humans and smelled their scent. “Mmmm, anybody ready for...an appetizer?”

“Count me in, brother!” Blot eagerly replied.

“I’ve always wondered what a flesh creature tastes like.” Sinnertwin uttered while smacking his chops. The two humans screamed in horror as they were eaten alive by the hungry Terrorcons.

Starscream flew high in the sky with Skywarp and Thundercracker by his side. They shot dozens of missiles at every building they targeted and shot at the civilians who were attempting to escape through the windows. Fires erupted throughout the whole city sending pillars of smoke to darken the sky. The sun also was setting to commence the night time.

The Combaticons transformed into the five body parts to combine into Bruticus. He menacingly stepped on the concrete ground hard enough to scare the human bystanders away from his presence. He then closed his fists and pounded them together in triumphant pride. “BRUTICUS ONLINE! READY FOR COMBAT!” he shouted. He raised his spinning motor blades and flamethrower; he ignited every truck and car that stood in his way on fire. Luckily, the drivers immediately exited their vehicles before he destroyed them.

The Insecticons flew over the burning skyscrapers and apartments while firing on the other fleeing victims. Once they shot them dead, they laughed in sadistic satisfaction. “Hahaha, look at how these pitiful fleshlings run away from us, us, us!!” Kickback gloated. “None of them shall stand a chance against us!”

“Yeah, we Decepticons will rule over this pathetic planet. Too bad the Autobots aren’t here to save these worthless creatures.” Sharpshot boasted.

“Indeed. We will finally prevail! Nothing will ever be able to stop us!” Hardshell added.

Shockwave stood on top of the floating warship where he had a whole view of the entire city. His optic glowed more brightly than before as he envisioned the ultimate goal he always desired to fulfill ever since the fall of Cybertron—their home world reborn in all of its glory.

“Are you sure that human girl will take the bait, Commander Shockwave?” Breakdown asked.

“Of course, Breakdown. It is logical that she
would look after the safety of her friends and home where we can ambush her and take her by force.” Shockwave answered. “Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, and Cliffjumper won’t stand a chance against the overwhelming might of the Terrorcons.”

“But what if the Autobots beat them one by one? What if they persevere?!” panicked Breakdown.

“Do not worry. I have a special weapon of mass destruction that will surely take care of them.” Shockwave replied.

The Insecticons continued to terrorize the fleeing citizens as they again fired on them. They spotted a gasoline truck passing by. As soon as the truck driver saw the hovering metal beasts, he exited the truck while screaming in horror. Hardshell transformed to robot mode and lifted the truck up on his shoulders. “Hey, fleshbags, you want to play fetch?! Fetch then!” he mocked before throwing the truck in the air right towards a group of police officers who fired on the ‘Cons with their guns.

The officers covered their faces as they braced for their instant death. But they remained untouched and unharmed. They looked up and saw a large T-Rex holding the truck with his back and tail. “Go! Go! Seek for shelter now!!” Grimlock ordered. Even though they were stunned by a metallic T-Rex talking to them, they wasted no time in doing what he said. The Dinobot Commander gently placed the truck on the ground and faced the Insecticons with an angry growl.

“Impossible!!! How can this be?! Grimlock...here?!” Harshell yelled in fear.

“Nothing in the universe can stop me...Grimlock!!” the Dinobot shouted. “I am the strongest there is!!”

“Not for long, Dinobot fool!!” Kickback snapped. “Sharpshot! Hardshell! Rip him apart!!”

“Dinobots, DESTROY!!” Grimlock commanded. The Insecticons and Dinobots clashed against each other in their beast modes. They clawed, bit, shot, and fired on each other ferociously with determination to destroy the other. Since Swoop, Snarl, and Swoop couldn’t fight against the Insecticons back on Cybertron due to being captured by them in the first place and weakened, they felt more alive and powerful enough to endure the hard blows their opponents gave them.

Swoop and Snarl repeatedly slashed and breathed fire on Sharpshot. Despite the scratches they received in the process, they didn’t give up. Swoop pecked on Sharpshot’s head which caused him to divert his attention from Snarl unto him. “You won’t get away that easily, Swoop! I will destroy you both!” the Insecticon yelled angrily.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Swoop replied.

Without warning, Sharpshot was pounded on the pavement by Snarl. He tried to get up but Snarl kept pounding on his body until he exploded with his sticky green energon flying everywhere. “That was for me and Swoop when you tortured us in Shockwave’s lab.” Snarl said.

“Give up, Autobot! Shockwave will win! Not even your precious Optimus Prime and Grimlock can stop him!” Hardshell taunted.

“Are you sure about that, Insecticon creep?” Slag asked.

Suddenly, Hardshell received a hard punch in the jaw, causing him to fly in the air. He roughly landed on the road with his jaw completely broken. “Who did thaaaaat?!!” he screamed while drooling energon from his broken jaw. As he looked up, a giant metal figure stood before him. She had a smug grin on her face.

“Do ah answer ya question, bug?” Applejack boasted.

“I gotta try that Apex Armor some time.” Slag muttered to himself.

Seething in rage, Hardshell charged at the new challenger but Applejack was ready for him. She closed her metal fist and uppercut the Insecticon, disorientating him completely. Both she and Slag gave blow after blow on Hardshell until they both smashed their fists on his face at the same time, crushing his head. His body fell on the ground offline. “Nice, goin’, partner!” Applejack complemented.

“Don’t mention it. You really gave him a good bucking, huh?” Slag said.

“Yep! It feels good to use some other means to do buckin’ besides my fore-hooves, ah guess.” Applejack said blushing.

Grimlock swung at Kickback constantly with his energon sword but with no success. The latter was too fast for him and for his deadly swings. “Hahaha, stupid Dinobot! You are too slow to catch me, me, me!!” he taunted.

“Shut up, you dumb Insecticon!! I am slow for nothing and no one!!” Grimlock angrily replied. Just as he swung again at the Insecticon, Kickback took hold of his sword with his mandibles and snatched it from his grasp. He transformed to robot mode and smote Grimlock with the sword’s handle on his chest twice. He staggered from the blows until his opponent shot sticky goo on his feet to immobilize him.

Grimlock struggled to move his feet but it was no use. Kickback sadistically laughed as he dropped his sword and transformed back to grasshopper mode. “Now you’re mine, Grimlock!!” He flew down to Grimlock to munch on his chassis.

Before he could end Grimlock, he was tackled by Applejack; the farm pony used every strength she had with the Apex Armor to keep him down. The three Dinobots breathed fire on the goo to set him free. Grimlock grabbed his sword and approached the last Insecticon. Applejack stepped aside. “He’s all yours, Grimlock.”

Nodding in acknowledgment, he raised his sword and shouted to the heavens, “THIS IS FOR US AND FOR SLUDGE!!!” With that, he impaled Kickback right on his chest. He then sliced his body in half and tore apart what was left of him. He stomped the pieces of his corpse on the ground constantly.

“We did it!! We destroyed the Insecticons for good!!” Swoop shouted. The other Dinobots and Applejack shouted in victory. But their celebration was cut short as they saw the approaching warship above them. They also saw the Terrorcons charging at them in full speed. The other ponies, Optimus, Twilight, Sunset, and the Autobots rejoined them.

“Autobots! Ponies! The battle for freedom and justice is now! It has been an honor serving with you all and fighting by your side.” Optimus said.

“Agreed. This world depends on our success. We cannot afford to fail!” Twilight added.

“AUTOBOTS AND PONIES, ATTACK!!” Both Grimlock and Optimus ordered. The heroes charged at the Terrorcons in full force with their weapons brandished. Grimlock and the Dinobots attacked one side of the Terrorcons; Twilight Sparkle, the Mane 5, the Main 7, and the rest of the ponies and creatures charged on the center; and Optimus Prime and the Autobots fought the other side of the army.

As the battle commenced, Shockwave observed everything from on top of the Nemesis. “Ahh, so Grimlock and his Dinobot friends have joined the game along with those fleshlings. Just as I planned, the human girl is among them. She will be in for a big surprise.” Shockwave said.

The Final Battle part 2: United as One

The Autobots and the Decepticons went hard on each other during battle. The Terrorcons used every firepower they possessed to terminate the heroes; however, due to the dark energon belittling their intelligence, the Autobots and ponies got the upper hand.

Optimus, Drift, Crosshairs, and the others attacked a quarter of the army. Prime grabbed his energon axe and shield before he sliced through several Terrorcons that came in his way. He impaled one that almost scratched his face, decapitated another one with one swing, and body slammed another ‘Con before blasting his face off. “Crosshairs, get those civilians to safety now!! We cannot afford to lose any innocent lives at the hands of the Decepticons!! Drift and I will hold them off!!” Optimus ordered as he spotted several humans caught in between the crossfire.

“You got it, Prime!” Crosshairs complied before transforming to car mode and drove off. He ran over five Terrorcons that were standing in his path. Just as he got close to the humans, he opened his doors to them to let them in. “Get inside! I’ll get you folks to safety!” he urged. Without hesitation, they got in. But as they entered into the passenger seats, they saw no driver in the front seat. The sharpshooter noticed their confusion. “Yeah, we are...robots in disguise, if you will. But fasten your seatbelts...cause’ I’m gonna lay some hate.” he said darkly.

Crosshairs drove in full speed that frightened the passengers. “Who are you?! And what are you?!” they cried out.

“You can call me Crosshairs! I’m Cybertron’s best sharpshooter that exists! When I deal with Decepticons, I don’t play around. So hold on!!” he replied. He transformed to robot mode with the humans tied on his back, brandished his rifles, and shot at every Terrorcon before him while leaping in the air. Their heads were blown on impact. He landed on top of their bodies. The humans stared in awe at his work. “That’s what I call a...mind blowing experience.” he joked while blowing smoke off of one of his rifles.

Drift fought two other Terrorcons. Armed with his samurai swords, he twirled in the air throwing one of his swords at the first Terrorcon’s head, killing him. He landed on the second one’s back and back flipped to retrieve his sword. He then kicked his visor to blind him. He back flipped again high enough to land a hard slice through him in half. His body fell apart along with his dark energon shard as it extinguished. He rejoined Optimus in his battle with the several others.

The ponies were armed with several high-tech weapons to gain advantage over their enemies. The Mane Six united themselves with their human counterparts, the Main Six along with Sunset Shimmer. Twilight joined Sci-Twi and Sunset, Pinkie with the human Pinkie, Rarity with her human self, Applejack with the human Applejack, Fluttershy with her human self, and Rainbow Dash with her human counterpart riding on her back. “This is gonna be so awesome!!” human Rainbow exclaimed.

“My thoughts exactly, me!!” pony Rainbow concurred with a huge smile. They both flew off as they distracted several Terrorcons in a zigzag manner. The ‘Cons fires their blasts at the two heroines.

“Can’t catch us, Decepti-creeps!” pony Rainbow boasted.

“Yeah! Catch us if you can!” human Rainbow taunted before blowing raspberries at them. The Terrorcons chased them through the city relentlessly. They fired missiles at them, but the Rainbows speedily dodged every one of them.

“This. Is. AWESOME!!!” the human Rainbow shouted with excitement.

The Rarities used their magical diamond-shaped shields to deflect the shots of the other Terrorcons. The blasts bounced off of their shields and struck back at them, blowing their heads off. “My, these ruffians don’t know when to stop, now do they, darling?” pony Rarity asked.

“Indeed, they don’t, darling. Perhaps they need some...rehabilitation!” the human Rarity shouted. She used a relic that appeared as an iron spear but with a four short pointers at the end. She shot a blast at them one by one. Once the blast touched them, they immediately stopped moving. Not a single inch of their chassis moved afterwards.

“This Immobilizer will definitely come in handy for future use.” she said with a smirk.

“Oh, I’m sure. These ruffians now have peace of mind.” pony Rarity sarcastically remarked. “We all need that everyday of course.”

The Applejacks faced off much more Terrorcons than the others did. Some of them were even bigger than the others. “Ya sure ya can handle that...hammer or whatever it’s called?” Applejack in the Apex Armor asked before punching two of their attackers in the face.

“Of course, me! Ah think this is called the...Forge of Solus Prime or something from what Drift mentioned.” human Applejack replied. Though she was not a prime, she had her own magical strength she needed to utilize the Forge her way. “This giant mallet should do the trick!” she said.

She lifted the Forge with all her might and smote three large Terrorcons so hard they flew high in the air until they landed on an unmanned gasoline truck. The truck exploded which wiped out those Terrorcons. Both Applejacks were surprised at what had happened. They looked upon each other until they smirked as they thought of an idea. The farm pony lifted her human self with her armor’s hands and threw her right at the charging Terrorcons.

The farm girl raised the Forge and swung at every one of them. She smacked and smashed them while the farm pony fought the others backing up her friend. Then they joined their might in bashing the larger Terrorcons together. They looked upon the carnage around them with satisfactory grins. “As the sayin’ goes, ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall.’ Ah’m startin’ to like this now!” human Applejack said.

“Yeah! This is just as refreshin’ as apple buckin’! Definitely gonna remember this!” the farm pony added.

The Fluttershies were surrounded by five towering Terrorcons. The human version was holding her pony self as they both panicked. “Hold on, me...we’re gonna be f-fine. I p-promise.” the human one whispered to the pony’s ears.

“Oh, o-okay. Just—just think of something fast!” pony Fluttershy whispered out loud. The Terrorcons unsheathed their claws as they prepared to end the lives of them both. Quickly thinking, human Fluttershy took the Phase Shifter, put it on her wrist, activated it, and held the pony tight. The monsters slashed at them directly but their claws failed to penetrate their flesh. Unscathed, the human type ponied up and lifted herself in the air with her wings flapping while holding her pony self in her arms still.

Two of those Terrorcons fired on them but their blasts went through them and fatally shot the other three. The heroines then flew in between the remaining two. The last two shot at each other dead point blank as their shots again passed through the Fluttershies without harming them.

“That was a close call. Thanks, me.” pony Fluttershy thanked.

“Thank you. I should keep this Phase Shifter in case I get attacked in the future.” human Fluttershy replied as she gazed at it. “I’m glad Drift was kind enough to give a human-sized one as the other one he showed only fitted robots.”

“Can I have one of those? I really need one too.” pony Fluttershy asked. “If...that’s okay with Drift.”

“I’m sure he’ll give you one.” she replied smiling.

“Have there, Terrorcon fellas!! Do any of you want to PARTY?!?” pony Pinkie shouted.

“Or even get a free cake!? It’s good!!” human Pinkie added. “Step right up to get a free energon cake!!” she finished as she pointed to humongous energon filled cakes behind them. The Terrorcons immediately dropped their weapons and rushed toward the cakes as they hungered for energon-based substance. They greedily munched on the cakes with no breaks.

But before they could even finish them, the half-eaten cakes revealed grenades that were detonated to blow up. Too late for reaction or retreat, the grenades exploded while wiping out the tens of hundreds of Terrorcons that fed on them. The Pinkie Pies blew the confettis in celebration and high-fived each other.

“Nice work, you two! I’m glad this worked out with my grenades! But how did you girls make those huge cakes with minimum time?” Cliffjumper asked.

“We just do it! We’re good at this, you know.” pony Pinkie replied with a shrug.

“Yeah! I bet they tasted so good they had a mind-blowing experience—wait wasn’t this pun used already?” human Pinkie asked while looking at the sky.

“What?” Cliffjumper asked.

“Never mind!” she replied back smiling.

Both Twilights, Sunset, Spike, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence shot their blasts of magic and fire at the attacking Terrorcons. Their blasts bounced off their armor. Thus, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence had to shield themselves and the rest from their shots of dark energon. However, they couldn’t last for much longer. “We don't have much time! Twilight! Sunset! Any ideas you may have?!” Celestia grunted under the pressure.

“Well...we have this relic Drift gave us! I’m sure it will work!” Sunset said.

“But we have to hurry! The princesses won’t hold them off for much longer! We need to work fast!” Sci-Twi urged. Nodding to each other, Twilight, Sci-Twi, Spike, and Sunset held on the circular-shaped object. They all threw the object with their magical boost through the shields, and it landed right in front of the assaulting Terrorcons. They stared on the object in confusion until the relic sent a blue wave that struck all of them surrounding it. All the dark energon was sucked out of them and retrieved it back inside the relic. The ‘Cons fell dead on the concrete.

The three alicorns disabled their shields and exhaled their exhaustion. “Good work, you three. I only honestly wasn’t expecting the Spark Extractor to be that powerful.” acknowledged Luna.

“Neither was I. These Cybertronians truly do have advanced technology.” Cadence added. “Color me impressed.”

“Well, that relic really did a great job of impressing all of us in saving us like that.” Twilight said.

“PREPARE TO PERISH, FLESH BAGS!!” Starscream called out. The Seeker transformed into robot mode and stood before the seven. “You pathetic creatures think you can defeat us all?! Ha! Those fools were weak but I, Starscream, am the strongest of them all!! No one can defeat me!”

“Oh yeah? Well say hello to our friends the Rainbow Dashes!!” Spike announced.

Suddenly, a blue stream struck Starscream on the head. Angered, he glared at the two dashers with his null rays pointed at them. “You dare strike me?!? I’ll make you suffer for this!!!” Starscream bellowed in rage.

“Pfff, yeah right! Bet you can’t catch us, Screamer!” human Rainbow boasted smugly. They both flew off provoking Starscream to chase after them.

“Skywarp! Thundercracker! To me!” he called out. Once the two other Seekers rejoined him, they flew after the dashers across the ravaged city. The five flyers flew around several burning skyscrapers while the dashers dodged every missile skillfully.

“Hold till so we can shoot you, ya pests!!” Skywarp shouted.

“Yeah, really motivating!” pony Rainbow sarcastically mocked. They still missed every shot they projected since the dashers were more agile and too fast for them. Then they all faced a tall building that remained untouched by the onslaught.

“DIE, FLESH CREATURES!!” Thundercracker yelled as he and his brothers prepared to fire their missiles at the two targets.

“Two lasts words though...” human Rainbow said.

“SEE YA!!” pony Rainbow finished before they quickly dived down to the ground. The Seekers were immediately struck by heat seeking missiles. The three crashed on the ground. Jetfire beheld his work as he hovered over their bodies.

“I’m sorry, Starscream...but you left me no choice...especially after your betrayal on Cybertron.” he said before transforming to jet mode and flew away.

Starscream slowly arose from the wreckage and observed his surroundings. He turned to his right side seeing Thundercracker lying dead on the ground with half of his head and chest gone. He then turned to his left side seeing Skywarp also dead and barely unrecognizable as his color scheme and face were extremely scorched. He looked upon himself and saw his right arm missing. “Huh...at least I still function.” he bragged.

Suddenly, the Combaticons approached him. Beaming with hope, he raised his remaining arm. “Combaticons, help me! We need to defeat the Autobots before they triumph!” he said. The Combaticons didn’t respond verbally except crossing their arms in defiance. Shocked at their attitude, he pounded his fist on the pavement in desperation, “Didn’t you hear me, you fools?! ASSIST YOUR COMMANDER!!” he yelled.

Onslaught stepped forward and glared hard on Starscream. After a few seconds of silence, he stomped on Starscream’s remaining hand earning him a wail of pain. “Want some help? Here, let me give you a hand.” he darkly taunted. He activated his rust cannon and shot Starscream point blank. The dying Seeker groaned in agony as his body parts fell apart little by little in deadly rust. Lastly, his head disintegrated to rusted smithereens.

“Long overdue. After everything you did to us over the years, this is what you deserve.” Onslaught said to his rusty corpse. He then turned to his squad who cheered for him. “Let’s go, guys. Shockwave requires our assistance.”

Grimlock and the Dinobots reunited with Sunset and her friends after they destroyed the majority of the Terrorcon army. “Excellent work, everyone. The more we work together, the more we will win. We need to find Shockwave and stop him once and for all!” Grimlock spoke. The rest of the heroes shouted in agreement.

Suddenly, Sunset was floating in the air though her magic was not involved. “Wha—what’s happening to me?!” she screamed. The others gasped in fear. She was then pulled by a magnetic force towards the grasp of the purple cyclops who evilly chuckled.

“I am happening.” Shockwave replied. Sunset looked upon him in complete fear and bewilderment. He was the exact same titan from her nightmare. She then fearfully realized that her nightmare was slowly becoming a reality; the more she thought on it, the more she feared for the worst.

“SHOCKWAVE?! Release her now!!” Grimlock demanded angrily with clenched fists as he was ready to fight.

“I will release her in due time...after I seize her magic. She is a logical choice for an experimentation after all.” Shockwave taunted as Sunset struggled to escape from his grasp.

“Let me go, you monster!!” Sunset defied.

“Make one move, Grimlock, and your cute little pet is no more.” Shockwave threatened with his cannon pointed at her head. As much as Grimlock hated being threatened by a Decepticon, he had to yield as he was considering the safety of his close human friend. He dropped his sword. Then he thought of a plan.

“Grimlock, no!” Swoop cried.

“Stand down! I don’t want Sunset to get hurt. Just follow my lead. Trust me.” Grimlock ordered. Reluctantly, the Autobots and ponies stood down.

“That’s more like it. Let’s finish this up, shall we?” Shockwave said. As if on cue, thunderous footsteps were heard. The heroes looked around in confusion. After Shockwave transformed and flew off with Sunset into the warship, a new being emerged from the ground with purple soulless optics. He was the same size as Bruticus but was a Terrorcon combiner. The heroes beheld him with shocked and fearful looks.

“TIME TO FACE THE WRATH OF...ABOMINUS!!!” the combiner bellowed.

The Final Battle part 3: Darkness Ends

Abominus towered over his Autobot and pony foes while wickedly laughing. “Once I kill all of you, I will devour your dead bodies for dinner!!” he boasted.

“Autobots, I need to rescue Sunset before it’s too late! I need you all to distract him away from me while I head right into the warship! Swoop, you will take me there.” Grimlock ordered.

“Do I have to do this again?!” Swoop whined. A stern glare from Grimlock was affirmative enough to tell him there was no other option. He transformed to pterodactyl mode and carried Grimlock while flapping his wings away from Abominus’s assaults.

“Everyone, take cover!!” Optimus commanded. They took cover behind several damaged trucks and houses before opening fire on the Terrorcon combiner.

Swoop flew Grimlock over the burning buildings upwards toward the warship that was hovering over the entire city. While he was flying, a missile nearly struck his wing. Startled by the sudden attack, he turned to see Bruticus aiming his back-mounted cannons directly at him. Once he fired again, Swoop ducked under the missile and flew faster away from him.

“There’s no time to engage Bruticus, Swoop! We need to get to Sunset as soon as possible and stop Shockwave from whatever he is planning to do to her!” Grimlock urged.

“Okay, I will try! Hold on!” Swoop replied.

“You cannot escape the might of Bruticus!!” the Combaticon combiner bragged. He ran in the direction of the two Dinobots in an attempt to prevent them from reaching the Nemesis. “You think you can get away from me?! Well, I have a surprise for ya!” he yelled. His activated his thrusters on his legs and propelled toward the air. After he slowly rose from the ground, he flew off in pursuit.

The Dinobots were shocked at what they saw. “What?! Bruticus can fly?! How is that possible?!” Grimlock bellowed in astonishment.

“It must be Shockwave’s invention or something!” Swoop flapped his wings harder to avoid the deadly blasts of the sadistic combiner. The Combaticon then fired eight heat-seeking missiles on the targets. The Dinobots desperately flew away from the missiles while zigzagging around the city to confuse the heat seekers.

After several minutes of zigzagging around the battlefield, they looked and saw the heat seekers still in hot pursuit. “Do those things know when to give up?!” Grimlock rhetorically asked.

IN THE WARSHIP

“Let me go!! Please, let me go!! Please!!!” Sunset begged while tied on a bed in the laboratory. The evil scientist and the Terrorcon trio stood in front of her while the latter smacked their chops greedily.

“This human looks so delicious. Please, Shockwave, let me eat this fleshing!” Hun-Garr said.

“No, let me have it! I have a thing for appetizers, you know!” Sinnertwin angrily demanded.

“Nah, I’ll have this little dinner. All mine!” urged Blot.

“Enough!! This human will not be snuffed until I have extracted all the required magic she possesses so that I—we can restore Cybertron with the earth’s energy.” said Shockwave. “Once that is accomplished, you three can have her.”

“Uggghhh, come on!! I was so ready to devour this creature!” Blot pouted in disappointment.

“Me too!” Sinnertwin and Hun-Garr said at the same time. Shockwave ignored their complaints and grabbed an empty jar, set it on the table filled with tools, and held an injection needle and syringe as he was preparing for the operation.

“You three guard the inner gates of this ship. I have some work to do.” he darkly ordered. Sunset began to have tears on her eyes as she contemplated her upcoming fate and the fate of her friends.

OUTSIDE

The Autobots and ponies could not get an advantage over Abominus. Applejack tried to pound on him with her Apex Armor but the durability of the combiner’s armor was vastly superior due to having excessive surplus of dark energon unlike the warrior type Terrorcons whom they easily destroyed. Human Rarity tried to stop him with the Immobilizer but it only stopped him for five seconds. Afterwards, he would mobilize again and resume his attack.

“We tried everything!! What does it take to get this guy down?!” Twilight shouted in frustration.

“Way more than your futile attempts, pony!!” Abominus taunted before slamming his clenched fist on the ground, causing an earthquake. Several buildings fell down as a result of the forceful attack and crumbled to dust and ashes. Several Autobot troops shot at him but he quickly snatched them by hand and squeezed them in his grasp. He squeezed them so hard they exploded; he then devoured their spilled energon and their burnt chassis.

“We got to stop him! We can’t let him win!” pony Rainbow Dash said. The Pinkie Pies started to think of an idea. After a moment, a literal light bulb appeared on top of their heads. They whispered in each other’s ears and nodded in agreement.

“Hold on! We got an idea!” human Pinkie shouted happily.

After Abominus finished eating his meal, the Pinkies appeared right in front of his face with wide grins. “Hey there, Abominus! We have a special treat for you!!” pony Pinkie said.

“A special treat? What is it?!” the intrigued combiner demanded.

“AN ENERGON CUPCAKE!!!” both Pinkies shouted as they pointed to the house-sized cupcake filled with green energon.

“ENERGON!! YES!!” Abominus screamed as his greed once again dominated his processor. He ran toward it and immediately munched on the giant cupcake. This threw the Autobots and ponies off guard except for Cliffjumper and Ratchet.

“Pinkies, what are you two doing?” Twilight asked.

“Wait for it...” human Pinkie said with a mischievous look on her face. The party pony had the same devilish look. After several moments of devouring the treat, the combiner started to slow down until he stopped eating completely. His arms and legs started to shake violently. He groaned in pain as he held unto his chest.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ABOMINUS?!” he bellowed in pain. He screamed to the heavens until he exploded to a million pieces. His body parts flew all over the place along with the dark energon liquid. The Autobots and ponies were surprised at the unexpected sight. After the silence, they cheered and praised the Pinkies for their success.

“You did it, you two! You defeated Abominus!!” Twilight thanked.

“Aww, it was nothing...” the party pony blushed.

“How did you destroy him?” Optimus asked.

“Simple! Thanks to Ratchet’s synthetic energon, it helped overload Abominus’s system when it intermingled with dark energon. With those two together, it will overreact and BOOM...the party’s over!” human Pinkie explained.

“Very impressive work. Thank you both for your bravery and effort.” Celestia thanked.

After the cheering was done, Twilight flapped her wings and flew in the air. “I’m going to help Grimlock stop Shockwave and save Sunset from harm.” she said. This shocked the Mane Five, Spike, Starlight, and the rest of the group.

“What?! But you can’t, darling! That ruffian Shockwave will kill you!” Rarity pleaded.

“Grimlock’s got this, Twilight! You don’t have to go!” Fluttershy added.

“Remember how Optimus, when he was Nemesis Prime, almost killed you! We don’t want to lose you!” Spike pleaded with watery eyes.

“Don’t you remember that friends must always be there for each other no matter what? Just as Optimus is a great influence and inspiring friend to me, so is Grimlock! He might not have gotten along well with some of you guys and been arrogant and rude in some ways, but I still appreciate him for what he is and what he fights for. Even if I do not make it out alive, like I told you before in Equestria, remember that you are the best friends I can ever have in my life and I wouldn’t be the pony and ruler of Equestria I am right now if it weren’t for you and the Autobots.” Twilight said as she too teared up. The rest of the ponies sobbed after she finished speaking. They all hugged her warmly.

“We believe in ya, Twilight.” Applejack said, smiling.

“You got this, Twilight. We’ll always support you in every way.” Starlight added.

“Kick Shockwave’s sorry butt!” Rainbow encouraged.

Nodding, she flew in the air to help Grimlock and Swoop. Optimus looked on as she flew off to the warship. “Till all are one, Twilight Sparkle.” he muttered.

“He’s still on our tail!” Grimlock warned.

“Don’t worry, boss! We’re almost there to the ship!” Swoop replied. They were almost close to the ship’s entrance whereas the heat seekers and Bruticus followed behind.

“Ha! You two are finally mine!!” Bruticus exulted. “Any last words, Dino-freaks?!”

“Yeah, my little pony is on your way!” Grimlock announced.

Puzzled by his statement, he turned his head around only to meet a bright purple beam of magic to the face. He was disoriented from the blast. Twilight flew past Bruticus and focused her aim on the missiles. She shot her spell on the eight heat seekers seconds before they would touch the Dinobots. The missiles suddenly turned in the opposite direction and thrusted themselves at Bruticus instead of the Dinobots. After regaining his vision, he saw the missiles coming directly at him. Too late for retreat, the missiles struck him and destroyed his combined form completely on impact.

The wounded Combaticons fell down in the air. Vortex and Blast Off tried to rescue their injured brethren, but Grimlock shot them down with his lava cannon. The lava burned through the spark chambers of Onslaught and his crew until their visors flickered off. Their corpses crashed into the ocean.

“I thought I told you to help the Autobots to keep Abominus busy.” Grimlock scolded.

“I did. We destroyed Abominus. Now I’m here to help you defeat Shockwave and save Sunset.” Twilight replied with determination. Grimlock was surprised to hear of their success, but he wasn’t pleased with the idea of defeating Shockwave with an ally’s help.

“NO!! Shockwave is mine!! If you want to help, you can rescue Sunset but I’ll deal with him myself!!” Grimlock asserted.

“Grimlock, we have to do this together.You can’t do this on your own. If we work together as a team, we will defeat him.” said Twilight.

“The last time I confronted him, I defeated him all by myself. I didn’t need help then. So what’s your point?” Grimlock scoffed.

“Actually, not only did you fight the enemy alone but also lost your spark at that tower when it exploded! That’s why it is unwise to fight the adversary solo. She’s got a point, boss. You can’t do this alone.” Swoop added. Grimlock thought on what they said. After considering their advice, he exhaled his hesitation.

“Okay, fine. But we don’t have much time! The faster we work together, the sooner we retrieve Sunset and defeat Shockwave.” Grimlock said. Swoop and Twilight smiled at him. Three of them blasted the windows open and snuck inside the warship.

Barricade and Breakdown saw them as they were guarding the outside gates. “It’s Grimlock! We got to alert Commander Shockwave!” the latter yelled in fear.

“No, we will destroy them here! Fire on them!” Barricade ordered. Both of them fired on the Dinobots and Twilight but the latter shielded themselves from the shots. Twilight casted a blinding spell on the two Decepticons. While they were struggling, Grimlock rushed forward and sliced Barricade in half. Swoop also rushed forward and blasted Breakdown in the head, killing him.

Grimlock tore off the gates doors and transformed to semi-truck mode. The trio traveled all the way down the hall in search for Shockwave and Sunset. While in motion, they heard screams of pain in a distance. They instantly recognized the voice. “It’s Sunset! We need to get there fast!” Swoop urged.

“Follow me!” said Grimlock as he drove faster with Twilight and Swoop following behind.

“AHHHHHH!!!!! STOP!!!” cried Sunset as she was in deep pain. Shockwave was electrocuting her and drawing her blood and magic through the shots to test her power and capabilities.

“Do not worry, Sunset Shimmer. I am almost done with my operation. However, it is unlikely that you will survive this procedure. But fear not; for your contribution to the Decepticons will be remembered. Once this is done, my Terrorcons will be fed with your lifeless husk.” Shockwave said.

“Please...my magic...you—you cannot—“ Sunset muttered weakly.

“And now that I have all of your magic, it’s time to finish this operation.” the scientist spoke before he activated a saw. Sunset looked in terror as the titan’s saw came close to her to end her life painfully. She closed her eyes and awaited death’s touch.

“SHOCKWAVE!!!!” a familiar gruff voice interrupted. The doors of the laboratory burst open, revealing the heroic trio. Shockwave turned around and beheld his opponents.

“Grimlock, I’m a little surprised to see you...alive.” he said with unemotional hate in his tone.

“Release Sunset now, Shockwave!! You’re finished here!” Twilight demanded with an angry look on her face.

“Fine. Since I got what I needed, I suppose you can have her.” Shockwave conceded, releasing Sunset from her bonds. Twilight flew over to Sunset and teleported both of them back to the Dinobots’ position.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip you apart.” Grimlock growled in seething anger.

“Correction, I have one logical reason: Sunset’s power is now mine to command!” Shockwave declared before he took the syringe full of Sunset’s magic and injected himself with it. All of her magic flowed through his circuitry and gave him magical powers. His optic and purple lights turned orange but still kept his color scheme. The trio looked in awe of what happened. Hun-Garr, Sinnertwin, and Blot observed the sight from outside the laboratory.

“Swoop, get Sunset to safety! Twilight and I will handle Shockwave!” Grimlock ordered. Swoop nodded, gently took Sunset, and flew away to safety.

“Face my power!” Shockwave challenged. He fired his fiery ball at the Dinobot but the latter unsheathed his sword and shield and swatted the ball away. Twilight shot her wave of magic at the mad scientist but he grabbed the blast and crushed it with ease like it was nothing. He loaded his cannon and shot several fire beams at the duo. They ran across the laboratory to avoid the deadly blasts while accidentally destroying the equipment in the process.

Grimlock rushed forward and slashed at his nemesis several times. Shockwave did grunt from the hard blows but he otherwise appeared unharmed. He punched Grimlock in the face so hard he flew across the room and crashed against the wall.

Twilight came forward and blasted a blinding spell on Shockwave like she did for Bruticus, Breakdown, and Barricade. Instead this time, the spell had no effect on him. She blasted him on his chest but it did barely any damage. He grabbed her and threw her across the room. She smashed against another wall with enough force to break her right wing. She winced at the pain.

Shockwave beheld his defeated foes. “How pathetic. The love and Magic of Friendship has proven to be your biggest weakness. A fitting end to your illogical story.” he said before aiming his cannon at Grimlock’s head.

“NO!!” cried Twilight. After he fired his shot, she teleported right in front of Grimlock and took the blast right in the chest. She flew against the wall and fell down on the floor. Grimlock rose from the ground and stared at the sight. At that very moment, his rage and seething anger boiled to the highest level. His entire body engulfed itself flames and glared at his foe.

“ME GRIMLOCK SMASH SHOCKWAVE!!!!!!” Grimlock bellowed in rage before he punched his arms to the ground and transformed to T-Rex mode. He roared in full volume. He grabbed Shockwave by his cannon and slammed him over and over on the ground while the latter yelled in pain. Shockwave’s chest began to slightly crack open.

After he finished slamming him, Shockwave lied on the floor while Sunset’s magic slipped out of him and flew across the ship. The Terrorcon trio looked in awe at everything that happened. Swoop saw the magic reach Sunset in his arms and revitalize her completely, healing her wounds.

Grimlock turned back to robot mode and threw the weakened Shockwave against the wall. “You’re done.” Grimlock growled.

“Grimlock, please, have mercy. I beg you.” Shockwave begged.

“You don’t deserve to live.” Grimlock said.

“But you can’t blame me for this! It is those revolting scavengers who are the real enemy. It was their idea. I was planning on killing them all.” Shockwave excused, not noticing the angry scowls of the trio once they heard his betrayal. Grimlock noticed it.

“Why should I believe you? You killed Sludge, injured Twilight, hurt Sunset, almost destroyed the whole city, and tried to kill us Autobots! You have no excuse for what you have done.” Grimlock said, holding his sword in hand.

“Surely, you wouldn’t kill me now that I’m defenseless, would you?” Shockwave said before activating a timer. “You have 60 seconds to decide: die together or kill me first. Which will it be?” Grimlock saw the red digit numbers on the screen that signified the self-destruction of the ship.

“NEITHER!” Grimlock said before he knocked down his foe before he transformed and drove off with Twilight in his driver seat. “Hold on, Twilight! We’re getting out of here!” he said. Twilight groaned in pain as she was in critical condition.

Shockwave got on his feet and saw he was surrounded by Hun-Garr, Sinnertwin, and Blot. “Ahh, my friends!” he said with a false hope of safety.

“Friends, huh? I thought you said we were revolting scavengers?” Sinnertwin snorted.

“Yeah! That you wanted to kill us!” Blot angrily added.

“What?! No! Let me explain! I was trying to fool him! We will rule together!” Shockwave said with fear soaking his voice.

“At least we have our last meal together! A logical type...” Hun-Garr sadistically uttered.

Shockwave fearfully turned around as the three slowly approach him and extend their claws. Then they tackled him, mauled him to death, and devoured his carcass after he uttered his agonizing screams.

Grimlock, Twilight, Sunset, and Swoop managed to escape the warship before the ship completely exploded high in the air, the loud explosion coloring the sky.

The Epilogue

The entire city was under heavy care. The fires on the standing buildings were put out by the firefighters. The police and ambulance were everywhere on the streets assisting the dead and injured. Hundreds of survivors were hugging their families while crying and rejoicing that they made it out alive. Others had to cry for the losses of their loved ones who were slaughtered by the Decepticons.

Despite all that happened, everyone was surrounding the heroes and heroines of the day while celebrating and praising their courage and heroism. The Autobots and ponies along with the Main Six waved their hands and hooves in acknowledgement of their gratitude. Except for the Main Six, the Autobots and ponies got flashbacks when they defeated Grogar and Soundwave two years ago in Equestria. All the heartaches they went through, the challenges they faced—they helped developed their character and see for themselves who they really are and what they are capable of. What they experienced there on earth felt like Grogar’s reign of terror all over again.

Suddenly, two large figures were seen up in the sky. They attracted the attention of both the heroes and the civilians. Grimlock and Swoop landed softly on the ground. Swoop held a revitalized Sunset Shimmer while Grimlock held the critically wounded Twilight Sparkle. Shocked and horrified at Twilight’s condition, the Mane Six, Spike, Shining Armor, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight’s parents rushed forward to assist their loved one and ruler. The Main Six came forward to embrace Sunset. They sobbed in joy as they reunited.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” human Pinkie said, wiping off tears.

“We were so worried about ya, Sunset!” human Applejack added.

“Thank you, girls. I’m so happy to be with you all again. It was terrifying being in that laboratory!” Sunset said while cringing. She no longer had to worry about the nightmare she had recently. It will just be a bad memory. She then turned to her friend. “Is Twilight okay?” Sunset asked, concerned.

“She’s wounded! She’s bleeding on her chest!” pony Rainbow exclaimed.

“Twilight! Twilight! Can you hear us? Please answer!” Twilight Velvet cried.

“Look! She’s opening her eyes!” Night Light said.

Twilight opened her eyes and saw her parents and their tears on their eyes and the rest of her friends. She still lied on Grimlock’s palm as she still groaned in pain. “She’s needs medical attention now! Ratchet!” Grimlock commanded. He then laid her on a bed which belonged to an ambulance.

Ratchet came forward and examined her condition. While he was working, Grimlock and Swoop came forward and reunited with Snarl, Slag, and the others. They celebrated the destruction of the Decepticons and what they had accomplished. Optimus walked toward Grimlock and shook his hand.

“I must say, Grimlock, what you have accomplished for this city and us is highly admirable. You have done something which I would’ve never thought you would do in a millennia: putting the safety of others first before yours. You cared more for their wellbeing than your own. Your leadership skills are almost on par with mine, not that I despise that. For your sacrifice and selflessness, I give you this medal of recognition.” Optimus thanked as he handed the medal to him. “After everything you have learned, I am now confident more than ever that you will be a worthy prime and leader of the Autobots one day if Primus wills.”

If Grimlock had a clear face with no visor and faceplate, he would’ve been blushing. “Umm...I—stop it! You’re embarrassing me!” he uttered. The Autobots chuckled at his reaction. “I did what I needed to do. Honestly, I feel bad for being an arrogant bot to those ponies and the Autobots...especially you, Prime. Will you forgive me?”

“All is forgiven, old friend. Remember, wisdom cannot be granted. It must be earned...sometimes at a cost.” Optimus lectured.

“I guess you’re right.” Grimlock said.

“Everyone, listen up. Twilight Sparkle will live, but will have to stay at a hospital in Equestria for a period of time until she’s whole again. Right now, she can neither fly nor use her magic properly.” Ratchet informed. Everyone was relieved to hear the good news that Twilight will live.

“Thank you, Ratchet. I appreciate your help today.” Celestia warmly said. Ratchet nodded in acknowledgment.

“Autobots and ponies, I thank each and every one of you for your bravery and steadfastness this day. Just as we have faithfully battled against Grogar, so likewise we all did today. Thanks to our combined teamwork, the Decepticons are no more!” Optimus spoke. Everyone cheered in victory.

“But we must all thank our dear friend Grimlock for his courage and leadership. If it weren’t for him and the Lightning Strike Coalition Force, we would’ve never defeated the Decepticons.” Optimus continued while pointing to Grimlock.

Sunset approached her Dinobot friend. “Thank you, Grimlock, for all you have done. I couldn’t have asked for a more powerful friend than you. You showed me what it means to be brave and steadfast no matter what challenges we may face. For that, I’m eternally grateful. You saved my life.” she said with a smile and tears on her eyes. She hugged Grimlock’s leg.

“You’re—you’re welcome, Sunset Shimmer.” Grimlock said. “You taught me a lot a things as well. I still have much to learn but I’ll get the hang of them.”

“So, Grimlock, do you wish to come with us back to Equestria or stay here with Sunset and her friends?” Luna asked. Grimlock faced the humans and the ponies thoughtfully. After a moment, he made his decision.

“Honestly, I feel more at home here. But that doesn’t mean I won’t visit you once in a while. I believe Sunset and her friends will show me much more things I need to learn in the future.” Grimlock said. The ponies smiled at his decision, especially Twilight.

“We will miss you, big guy. I hope you enjoy this planet more.” Twilight said as she rested on Optimus’s palm.

“Yeah! I wish you can join our “Thank you for saving us” party!!!” pony Pinkie said.

“Don’t worry! We’ll have one here!” human Pinkie replied. This time, Grimlock smiled at their attitude though slightly irritated still.

“You two Pinkies are now starting to grow on me.” Grimlock thought.

Drift opened a portal to Equestria with his map. “We shall meet again, Grimlock. Farewell.” he said.

“We will keep in touch!” said Crosshairs. All the ponies and creatures waved goodbye to Grimlock and the Dinobots before they all entered the portal with the Autobots. Optimus was the last to enter.

“Till all are one.” Optimus said as he entered last before the portal closed.

“As long as we have each other, the union of evil will not exist ever again. We must always remember that friendship is indeed magic.” Grimlock said to his friends. They hugged each other as the sun set.

Author's Note

Thank you all for this amazing journey. Also, no sequel to this. It is the last installment. Stay tuned for more stories. Till all are one!!

“A Long Way to Go”

It was now early in the morning. As the sun rose on the horizon with its rays beaming bright, Sunset’s alarm clock rang. She awoke from her sleep and turned the alarm off. She stretched her arms out as she yawned. She also looked on her phone and saw that it was 8:00am. Realizing that the school starts in thirty minutes, she got up from her bed and began her morning preliminaries. After she finished her preliminaries, got her book bag and headed for the door.

But as soon as she locked the door, she saw Grimlock in his semi-truck mode. He opened his front door and honked his horn. Surprised that he was active at this time of the morning, she got in the driver seat and closed the door.

“Good morning, Grimlock! I didn’t expect you to be up at this hour. You stayed here all night?” Sunset asked.

“Since we had a decent start of our relationship, I figured that I could just stay here and be closer to your place. So yeah. Also, I hate being in that stupid warehouse. I can’t stand all those little creatures that make all those squeals or whatever.” Grimlock replied.

“I can imagine that.” Sunset muttered knowing what he was referring to. “Anyway, my school starts at 8:30am. Can you take me there?” Sunset asked.

“Hmmmm...sure, I guess.” Grimlock said with hesitation. “But I can’t stay there for long.” Wasting no time, he drove off to their destination. While driving, he remembered that he wanted to hear Sunset’s story.
“Hey, Sunset?”

“Yes, Grimlock?” Sunset replied.

“You said you wanted to tell me your story, right?” he reminded.

“Oh yes! I did say that!” she said before clearing her throat. “Well, my story is kinda messed up but hear it is.” She then inhaled as she began.

“A long time ago, I first was a student of Princess Celestia’s school. I wanted the power of alicorn magic so bad that I decided to betray her and abandon her as I hungered for power.” she said with sadness and remorse.

“Wait...so you ARE from Equestria! No wonder you were surprised that I was in that world!” Grimlock realized.

“Yeah, that’s strange, isn’t it? So, eventually, I discovered a mirror back in Canterlot that can travel in many dimensions; that was where I found myself here on earth.” she continued.

“Was that how you turned into a human?” Grimlock asked.

“Yes.” she replied.

“That’s interesting.” he said.

“Yep, so one day, I stole Twilight’s crown and took it with me to the Canterlot High School; once I discovered that she was in the school to track me down and retrieve her crown, I did everything in my power to discourage her from getting her crown. Additionally, I was well-known as a bully in my school. I was very mean, rude, and disrespectful to everyone there. I was...(sniff)...such a jerk!!” she then broke down crying.

Grimlock was surprised at what he heard. This girl was a bully at her school and was a betrayer of Celestia and tried to usurp Twilight? He couldn’t even imagine how Celestia must have felt. He somehow started to feel bad for her. “Wow. So what made you change? How did you become the human you are today?” he curiously asked.

“After Twilight and her friends defeated me when I turned into my super-demon version and turned the students into mind-controlled minions, she offered me friendship, seeing how remorseful I was of my actions at that moment.” she replied. “So I learned about the Magic of Friendship from that day forward from them. I learned so much from them. Even to this day, I’m very grateful for what they taught me; otherwise, I would not be the person I am now.” she finished. “So what do you think?”

Grimlock was honestly flabbergasted at her story, specifically at the reformation part. Never in the history of Cybertron or Equestria has he ever heard of a sentient creature that has done bad (or even horrible) things before and received no punishment whatsoever. He then started to imagine what it would be like if Megatron had repented of all his wicked tyrannical crimes that he committed during all those millions of years on Cybertron and got no punishment from the Autobots. To him, that process was questionable and mind-blowing at best.

“I honestly don’t even know what to say.” Grimlock replied after moments of silence. “So, Twilight didn’t punish you for what you had done?”

“No, because she wanted to give me a second chance.” Sunset said. “I mean, we all deserve a second chance, right?”

“A second chance?! So you mean to tell me that the Decepticons deserve a second chance?!” Grimlock shouted. “No! I don’t buy this stupid forgiveness stuff!”

“Decepticons? Look, I admit that I don’t know much about them, except, remembering what happened yesterday, they seek for our destruction, but haven’t you ever thought about giving them a second chance?” Sunset asked.

“A second chance at what?! Killing the rest of the Autobots?! For your information, I find mercy to be weak and useless. I am a tough Dinobot that means business! I don’t give second chances to Decepticons!” Grimlock spoke with anger.

“Grimlock, you have to understand that no matter how evil anyone can be, they have the capacity for change. You must see that!” Sunset admonished. But the more she lectured him, the more annoyed and angry he got.

“I didn’t see YOU complaining when I killed Sideways! Where was your protest then, huh?!” Grimlock called out. This silenced Sunset.

“How would YOU feel if someone threatened to kill you or your friends? Would you say, ‘oh please be a good person blah blah blah’ or would you do something to protect yourself and your friends?” Grimlock questioned.

Sunset then remembered the nightmare she had last night. Shockwave, the Terrorcons, the destruction...the death of her friends. While knowing that Grimlock still had a lot to learn and understand, she knew Grimlock was somewhat right. While there are some villains that can change depending on their backstory, there are others that just cannot change no matter how many times a hero may try. Not once has she met a villain that was hardcore and evil by nature. This was just an unimaginable stretch for her to grasp.

“You know, Grimlock, you might be right. In fact, I had a terrible nightmare last night now that you’ve brought it up.” Sunset said.

“Really? What was the nightmare?” Grimlock asked.

“I dreamt of the city’s destruction. There was...so much death and fire everywhere I went. I was looking for you and my friends until I arrived at the school. That’s where I saw my friends...dead.” she choked while sobbing. “Then I saw you tear away the roof and said that you were going to kill me.”

“WHAT?!?” Grimlock shouted in shock.

“That was when you morphed into this strange robot who called himself Shockwave.” she said. Grimlock then immediately stopped driving as soon as she mentioned the name of his worse nemesis.

“SHOCKWAVE?! How?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?!” screamed the bewildered Dinobot.

“I don’t know! It just happened!” Sunset yelled in fear. She was intimidated by Grimlock’s sudden anger. After moments of dead silence, Grimlock calmed himself down and resumed back in motion.

“I apologize for my outburst. It’s just that I have a history with Shockwave. A horrible history and experience precisely.” Grimlock calmly confessed.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” Sunset asked.

“I’ll tell you that later today. We just arrived at the school.” Grimlock replied just as he arrived at the school. Sunset looked through her window and saw the school. She got her book bag and opened the door to head out.

“Thanks for the ride, Grimlock.” Sunset thanked.

“Don’t mention it.” Grimlock replied.

“I guess we have a lot to think about, huh?” said Sunset.

“Yeah, plenty. See you later.” said Grimlock.

Just as Sunset left the truck and entered the school, Grimlock began to ponder in thought. “Looks like Sunset and I have a long way to go. How did she ever had a dream of Shockwave? Ehhh, who cares? I got to protect her no matter what happens. Speaking of friends, I really miss my Dinobots. I wish they were here.”