Every pony and creature residing in the majestic city of Canterlot was fast asleep. They were all extremely tired of attending to their daily businesses and interacting with friends from different races. Thus, they were comfortably resting on their beds under the beautiful night sky provided by their benevolent alicorn ruler; Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Ever since she inherited the throne from her predecessors Celestia and Luna many moons ago, every creature from every land had been living in complete harmony with each other. She and her friends had saved their kingdom from various threats for years, and even taught the other races the meaning of friendship. Inspired by her teachings, they had all banded together in a final battle against the most dangerous villains their world had ever seen, and in the end, emerged victorious.
As for the villains who had nearly succeeded in dismantling the trust among the entire pony kind, they were punished by being turned into a stone statue. Having been moved to the sculpture garden in the grounds of the Canterlot Castle, the said staue had reminded countless visiting creatures that friendship is the most powerful magic in existence. As a result, they were sleeping very soundly each and every night, strongly believing that no villain can ever threaten their lives as long as they have friends by their sides, and that the three imprisoned villains have no possible way of escaping from their predicament to cause chaos and destruction once again.
Little did they know that at least one of their assumptions was about to be proven false.
As the full moon was shining brightly upon the capital city of Equestria, nearly everything at the sculpture garden was absolutely quiet. In fact, the only things that were making any sound were the hoofsteps of the royal guards patrolling both the garden and the nearby hedge maze. While they were fully aware that Princess Twilight had given them this duty in order to keep a close eye on the villains, they were starting to think of their job as a pretty tedious one due to how many years it had passed without any incident whatsoever. Because of this, almost all of them had frustrated expressions on their faces and they were just casually walking without paying much attention to anything.
However, just as the giant clock near the top of the palace struck three o'clock, a large green-colored portal opened at the exact center of the hedge maze and a pony-sized object closely resemling a large mechanical bird of prey flew out of it.
It then proceeded to fly in circles directly above the guards a few times without making much noise before quickly flying back to the portal and entering it. Shortly afterwards, a pair of giant metal tentacles with purple lights and razor-sharp claws emerged from the portal and stealthily made their way towards the guards. Whenever they got close to a guard, they used their claws to emit an electric shock upon touching them, which resulted in every single one of the guards being knocked out in less than a minute. Once that was done, the tentacles grabbled the statue of the imprisoned villains and brought them towards the portal, which closed the second the staue went through it.
On the other side of the portal was a gigantic dimly lit room made of metal and standing inside the room was a twenty feet tall bipedal robot of whom the tentacles belonged to. It sported stifle-jointed legs, it had wings that doubled as arms (making them, along with his fingers, very thin), and its face was a visor that functioned like a computer screen. On top of all that, the mechanical bird was attached to its chest and there was an ominous-looking symbol engraved on its left shoulder.
As soon as his tentacles brought the statue and placed it right in front of him, it extended its right hand towards the portal to close it, retracted the tentacles back to its body, kneeled before the statue, and several sets of data written in an alien language appeared on his visor. A few seconds later, it started emitting a high frequency sound from its body, which created several cracks on the surface of the statue before completely shattering the statue itself and setting the villains free.
While extremely dizzy at first, the villains managed to regain their senses and stand on their hooves in a handful of seconds. Once they did so, however, they noticed the robot staring at them and immediately let out utterly terrified screams in unison before taking several steps backwards.
"Oh, golly! What in Tartarus is that hideous thing?!", Cozy Glow exclaimed. "Have either of you guys seen anything like this during one of your conquests?"
Tirek nervously replied, "Trust me, I have seen plenty of bizarre creatures in the years I spent stealing magic from ponies, but I have never encountered anything even remotely similar this metal monstrosity."
Chrysalis, meanwhile, continued to stare at the robot for a few more seconds before angrily turning to her comrades and saying, "So, what if it's big and intimidating? I have brought down foes far scaries than this and I will not simply submit to it just because it's the size of a tree!"
She promptly flew towards the robot and started hovering in the air just a few inches above its visor. Immediately afterwards, she shouted, "Listen here, you... well... whatever you are! While I do appreciate that fact that you've freed me and my associates from our cruel imprisonment, we demand that you tell us who you are, what you are, and why exactly did you bring us here RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"
Upon hearing all this, Cozy Glow gasped in pure shock and even covered her mouth with her hooves while Tirek facepalmed with both hands. The robot, meanwhile, remained silent for several seconds before rising back to its feet and pointing towards a gigantic metal door at the other side of the room. Shortly afterwards, it gestured the villains to follow and started walking towards the door.
While all three of the villains were extremely confused by this at first, Cozy and Tirek eventually shrugged at each other, before doing as the robot had instructed them. When Chrysalis noticed this, she landed right beside them and whispered, "What do you two bone heads think you're doing?! Have you not suspected that it could be leading us to a deadly trap?!"
"Highly unlikely", Tirek whispered back. "It didn't threaten us in any way and if it really wanted to end our lives, he would've simply crushed our statue by stepping on it. My guess is that it's leading us to its master, who wants have a word with us."
Then, Cozy added, "As much as I hate to admit it, Tirek does have a point. This thing doesn't look like the talkative type and I don't think it could gain anything from our demise."
Right after she heard all that, Chrysalis took a deep breath to calm herself and then declared, "Alright. We'll hear what this master will say, but keep your eyes peeled for even the smallest sign of a trap. My instincts are telling me that there's more to this scenario than meets the eye and we need to figure out if they're right. Understand?1
Her comrades nodded in approval and proceeded to follow after the robot. After Cozy and Chrysalis started flying, Tirek voiced his frustrations by shouting, "HEY! A LITTLE HELP, PLEASE?!"
Chrysalis responded by using her telekinesis magic to lift him upwards and saying, "Oh, will you stop being a big baby, already! I swear, NONE of my offspring have ever cried as much as you."
As Cozy giggled at that remark, Tirek briefly growled before crossing his arms. Right after that, the villains continued flying towards the robot who was almost at the door. As they caught up to the robot, the door automatically opened with their presence and allowed all four of them pass through and enter a hallway filled with purple lights and dozens of other robots. Each and every one of them had slick thin bodies with a purple color scheme, wheels on the side of both shoulders, chrome-colored heads with a red optic visor, and the same ominous-looking symbol on their chests.
As they continued walking along the hallway, each robot they passed by stared at the villains for a handful of seconds before moving on. While it was impossible to deduce their facial expressions, it was clear that they were immensely confused by the appearances of their guests.
Approximately half a minute later, the said guests (along with their chaperone) arrived at another large metal door and once they went through it, they came across a room that, unlike the previous one, was not empty at all. It included at least a dozen of the same robots from the hallway working on individual computers at each side of the room, a large window at the other end of the room that showed millions of stars on what appeared to be a clear night sky, and a thirty feet tall heavily armored robot at the exact center of the room.
His feet were large with three claw-like toes; two in front and one at the heel. He had a chrome colour scheme underneath a dark purple colour. His eyes were bloodfull red hue, and his head was rather long and flat. Two blade-like parts went around the sides of his cheeks. His face had visible scars and a sinister smile. On his shoulders were pads with potruding spikes. His right arm had a powerful fusion cannon, as well as a long hidden blade.
While the villainous trio were visibly intimidated by the said robot's overall appearance, they nevertheless continued to follow the robot who had brought them there in the first place, and watched as it went closer to the larger one and even kneeled before him, confirming their suspicion that he is the great master who had summoned them there.
Shortly afterwards, the master turned towards the kneeling robot and said with a rather gravely voice, "Ah, Soundwave! You have finally returned from your mission. I can see that it was, as always, a complete success. You never cease to live up to my expectations, old friend. Now, if you will excuse me, I wish to speak with our guests alone. In fact, I believe a certain incompetent fool named Starscream has requested your assistance on an urgent matter."
Soundwave responded by nodding to his master, standing back up, and walking towards the door, all without uttering a single word. Once he exited the room, the master turned to the villains and announced, "Welcome to the Nemesis. I am Lord Megatron from the planet Cybertron. I am both the commanding officer of this vessel and the leader of the entire Decepticon faction. I have asked my most loyal servant to bring you here so that we could discuss the future of your world. You see, some time ago, we detected a massive surge of energy coming from this space sector and decided to investigate. Turns out, it had come from the immensely powerful blast that caused your defeat. I was so impressed by this phenomenon that I ordered my troops to montior the planet and they have been doing so ever since that fateful day. Suffice to say, what they have discovered so far has really piqued my interest. Its natural resources are quite fascinating and have the potential of being a great contribution to my cause. That is the very reason I brought you here in the first place. With my vast army and your collective knowledge, we can reach the outcome we all greatly desire: the conquest of the entirety of Equestria."
The trio looked at each other in puzzlement for a few seconds before Tirek asked, "And how do you plan on using these resources you speak of? More importantly, what is your cause, anyway?"
Megatron replied, "I shall divulge the details of my plan another time. As for my cause, it is quite simple, actually: to revive my now-desolate world and take my rightful place as its supreme ruler. My people will recognize me as a true hero and gratefully obey my every command. In return, I shall give them order and security. No one will ever threaten the peace again and our civilization will prosper for the next hundred millennia. Any other questions?"
"Um, yeah, actually", Cozy Glow said while raising her right hoof. "I'm all for contributing to the creation of a tyrannical regime, but what do we gain after we help you take over Equestria and collect its resources?"
"The spoils of the war, of course", revealed Megatron. "Once the captial of Equestria is captured and its monarch obliterated, I shall give each of you a territory to rule over. You will remain as their absolute authority while reporting directly to Soundwave, who will serve as the governor of the planet and manage the collection of its resources. Now, if there are no further questions, we must- "
"UNACCEPTABLE!!!!"
As soon as Chrysalis shouted that word, everyone in the room (including the Decepticon soldiers at the computers) became silent and turned their attention towards her. While both Tirek and Cozy gave the former Changeling queen flabbergasted facial expressions, Megatron simply raised an eyebrow at her. She then flew directly to Megatron's face and stopped just a few inches in front of it before exclaiming, "After all the misery Twilight Sparkle and her friends put me through, there is none who deserves to eliminate them more than I do! Also, if you seriously think I'll answer to anyone other than myself, then you have another thing coming, mister!"
At that very moment, both her teammates and every single Decepticon soldier in the room gasped in pure shock and even collectively facepalmed. The only one who performed neither of those actions was Megatron, who silently glared at Chrysalis for a short while before letting out a menacing chuckle.
"Now, this is an amusing sight", he then declared. "A tiny insect actually believes she's in a position to make demands. Well, I strongly recommend that she takes a good look around herself. I am in command of an entire army of highly trained Decepticon soldiers, who are at least ten times bigger and at least a hundred times stronger than an average pony. We have all been through a planet-wide civil war that lasted millions of years and I was the champion of Cybertron's gladiatorial arena long before the war first began. In other words, fighting us would be an absolutely fatal error. As for escape... well... look out the window and see where you really are at this moment."
Chrysalis responded by letting out a frustrated groan, dropping Tirek to the floor, and flying towards the window in order to find out what exactly Megatron had meant by his words. However, as soon as she did so, what she saw instantly caused her jaw to drop.
Underneath where she was standing was a gigantic planet with blue oceans, white clouds, and several continents covered in both green forests and orange deserts. On top of all that, there was a moon was right next to the planet and she could even see make out the birght rays of a sun at the far side of the planet.
Utterly terrified by what she had seen, she slowly started flying to the spot where she had dropped Tirek and once she landed there, she looked up towards a smirking Megatron and managed to utter, "W-we're in space. T-that planet is the one we're from, right?"
Megatron once again chuckled very menacingly and replied, "Indeed. As you can see, you can neither fight my army nor escape from my ship. The only sensible option is co-operation."
Chrysalis looked at Tirek and Cozy (who was hovering beside Tirek), and they both nodded with determination. She then asked Megatron, "How can we help?"
In response, he kneeled before them and declared, "Tell me of your final defeat. Leave nothing out."
