Location: Universal Stream Rangerous 902.2 Alpha

It had started out like any other Space Ranger mission. Investigate reports of pirates stealing spaceship parts. What Buzz Lightyear and his crew hadn't expected was the pirates' utterly massive spaceship being equipped with a tractor beam and capturing their ship.

"Well, a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into this time," a blue-skinned, redhead female Space Ranger muttered from inside the jail cell she was locked in.

"This isn't the time for complaining, Mira," Buzz Lightyear said from another cell as he fiddled with a bracelet-like 'armor inhibitor' the pirates had placed on his arm to prevent his space suit from operating.

"Don't worry, guys, I'm sure XR will be able to get us out of here," a massive red alien ranger named Booster said. "I don’t even want to think about what kind of horrible things those space pirates are doing to him right now..."

**********

"Oh, now THIS is completely unfair!" XR, a short robot Space ranger, exclaimed as he examined the maid's outfit that the pirates had attached to him.

"Quit yer bellyachin' and fetch me a drink, lassie!" A muscular, four-eyed pirate ordered.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a GUY!" XR shouted as he headed for the tavern.

"Ay, yer a robot!" Another pirate, this one a yellow slug-like creature, pounded his fist on a table. "Ye don't exactly be havin' much in the way of gender!" The rest of the pirates in the room burst out in hearty laughter.

"Oh yeah, well..." XR trailed off as he entered the tavern. "Oh man, he has a point..."

Still thinking about the awkwardness of the situation, the three-foot robot rolled on his tank-tread like feet past several barrels of liquor.

The robot paused for a moment, then back up. Had he just seen a...

His cylindrical head turned to a face of joy when he noticed a computer console behind one of the barrels.

Whistling innocently, he started preparing a drink with his right hand while a cable extended from his left and clicked into the access port on the console.

Schematics of the ship's systems and build flashed across the small robot's vision. Quickly, he hacked the controls of the jail cells his friends were trapped in, simultaneously rigging a number of doors to open. This would allow them to escape to the weapon storage room. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to get any communications out to Star Command.

"Perfect!" Beaming, the robot pumped his left fist into the air as the cable retracted. "Buzz is gonna be so proud!"

The feeling of liquid pooling around his feet drew XR's attention to the cup he was filling. The goblet was overflowing, causing the foul liquor to spill over the floor.

"Darn!" XR made a sour face as he inspected his new clothing. "I got beer on my apron!"

**********

Click.

Buzz looked up from his fiddling with his wrist device to see his cell door swinging open.

"Huh, guess we're on parole," Mira joked as she stepped out of her cell.

"This has to be XR's doing!" Booster exclaimed as he squeezed through the three-sizes-too-small doorway.

An access hatch whooshed open to their left. Buzz expected a horde of pirates to stream through, but to his surprise, all that was visible was the hallway.

"Come on, team," he waved as they hurried through the open door.

"Now what?" Booster asked, glancing down the hallway in either direction.

The sound of another door opening drew their attention to the left.

"Let's move!" Buzz pointed before darting through the opened walkway.

Suddenly, a glass dome with arms and legs appeared in their way.

"XR!" Booster exclaimed, running up to the stubby robot. "Oh, boy are we glad to see- uh, what are you wearing?"

XR grunted. "Space pirates have no sense of decency."

"We can talk about the pirates' sense of fashion later," Buzz said. "Right now we have to find a way out of here."

"Gotcha' covered," XR said with an overconfident expression. "I rigged the doors in this place to open in a way that will lead us right to the weapons stash!"

"The weapons stash?" Mira asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why not the docking bay? I mean, we haven't seen any pirates so far, so chances are we don't actually need to fight our way out."

XR's smile dropped like a meteor. "Well... I... was kinda rushed..."

"Never mind that." Buzz motioned to an open door. "Let's just get to the guns and go from there."

Moving as swiftly and silently as possible (which wasn't too well in Booster's case), the four armor-clad Rangers found the weapons stash.

XR let out a long whistle as he examined the expansive array of blasters, crossbows, grenades and spears laid out before them.

"Careful, now," Buzz ordered as he picked up and inspected a bulky laser pistol. "One wrong move and this place'll go up like alcohol-based hand sanitizers in a campfire."

"Hey, I got an idea!" XR said as he reached for a laser staff. He carefully waved it towards Booster's wrist, frying the armor inhibitor.

"Awesome!" Booster exclaimed as his suit's electrical systems came back online.

XR nodded as he repeated the action on his other two friends.

"Alright, Rangers, let's move out!" Buzz barked, stashing a pair of laser pistols on his hips and picking up a concussion rifle.

Mira followed, storing twin laser staffs on her back and selecting a plasma sniper rifle for long-range.

"Aw yeah!" Booster said as he raised a massive rocket launcher onto his shoulder.
XR then rolled up, having sprouted several secondary arms, all of which wielded a variety of firearms. "Alright, let's show these humiliating pirates who's boss!"

"Uh, XR, couldn't you just use the weapons already worked into your frame?" Mira pointed out.

"What, and miss the chance to use all these puppies?" A sinister smile crept across the stubby robot's face. "I don't think so."
The blue-skinned female rolled her eyes as she darted out the door, followed closely by Booster and XR.

"OK, according to my map of the ship, the docking bay is that way!" XR pointed one of his rifles to the left.

"Wait, you've had a map this whole time?" Mira questioned.

"Not important!" The robot Ranger insisted and he began rolling down the hall.

After a few minutes of twisting and turning, Booster spoke up. "Where are all the space pirates? We haven't seen any of them!"

"Big ship, few pirates," XR explained as he lead them down another corridor. "Besides, with the way they were partying earlier, I doubt we'll be seeing ANY of them."

"Hey, you!" A group of space pirates called from behind them. "Stop!"

"On second thought, nevermind." The Space Rangers then whipped around and fired a variety of projectiles that quickly dispatched the offending pirates.

"No time for stealth now!" Buzz took off at a run. "Let's MOVE!"
They took off down the corridors, blasting any and all pirates that got in their way.

"The hanger's right down there!" XR announced as they rounded a corner.
Buzz attempted to open the final door, to no avail. "They've already started locking down the ship!"

"I think this calls for the big guns." Booster smiled mischievously as he raised his rocket launcher and proceeded to reduce the door to molten metal.

"Good work, Ranger," Buzz complemented. "Now let's get us a space ship!"

Swiftly, the Space Rangers proceeded into the hanger.

An insect-like pirate noticed them and shouted something in an alien language before leaping up and attempting to fry the Space Rangers with a plasma pistol. However, his efforts were cut short when Mira used her ghosting abilities to appear out of a crate in front of him and blast him.

“Over here!” XR shouted as he took out another two pirates. “This ship should be large enough to hold us, but small enough for us to break out of here and get help!”

“All right, you heard XR!” Buzz said as he finished sealing the door to the hanger shut with his laser, in order to prevent any more pirates from making their way into the room.

Quickly, the four Rangers piled into the cockpit and fired up the small shuttle’s engines.

“So, what do we do about the giant doorway blocking us from the outside?” Booster questioned.

“Wait for it...” XR rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Outside, a freshly-blasted control panel triggered the door mechanism, causing the massive door to slide open. “There we go.”

“And AWAY we go!” Buzz said as he gunned the engines of the shuttle, sending it rocketing out of the space pirate’s ship.

“Well, that was easier than I thought it would be,” Mira commented, glancing back at the massive space pirate ship.

“Most of the pirates were hammered pretty hard.” XR tapped his fingers together as a smirk crossed his face. “I may or may not have put a little extra... KICK in their drinks.”

Even Buzz got a laugh out of that.

“Hey, that’s what they get for making me wear that PATHETIC outfit!” the dome-shaped robot spat.

“What, you mean the one you’re still wearing?” Mira pointed out.

“QUIET!” XR barked as he turned to one of the shuttle’s computer screens. “OK, Setting a course for Star Command and- hey, what’s that?” He pointed a stubby purple finger at the screen.

Buzz leaned over to glance at where the robot was pointing. “Don’t know. Never seen energy reading like that.”
The entire ship suddenly shuddered.

“I get the feeling that's not good,” Booster whimpered.

The ship lurched again, this time more violently.

“XR, exactly how far are we from that energy reading?” Buzz inquired.

“Let’s see...” XR clicked a few buttons on the interface module. “Huh, that’s weird...”

Mira was almost thrown out of her seat by the next tremor. “What now?”

“According to this readout,” XR started. “We are negative 137 yards from the energy.”

“Negative?” Booster asked, trying to keep his balance in the rapidly accelerating jerks of the shuttle. “What kind of faulty readout is that?”

“I think it’s supposed to mean we’re already INSIDE then energy!” Mira exclaimed.

“What makes you say that?” XR questioned.

The robot’s jaw almost fell off from shock as he glanced out the ship’s viewscreen.

They were in some kind of tunnel made of clouds, lightning momentarily sprouting from the walls at random intervals.

“Call it a hunch...” Mira finished as a bright flash of light appeared around them.

**********

Location: universal stream Equine 612.9 Iota

A flock of birds gracefully soared through the sky over the Sierra Canterlot, the largest mountain range in Equestria.

Despite flying by this formation regularly, the birds noticed something odd this particular day- a giant, swirling blue light hovering near the largest mountain.

Without warning, the light flared up and spat out a massive, smooth metal object. The birds squawked in surprise as they narrowly avoided being reduced to smudges against the object’s hull.

Inside the ship, things weren’t any less chaotic.

“Status report!” Buzz ordered as he pulled on the ship’s steering module, desperately trying to keep it airborne.

“Two of the four thrusters are burned out!” XR shouted as a shower of sparks rained down from the ceiling.

“We’ve materialized within the atmosphere of a planet, our exact elevation is-!” Booster was cut short as the monitor in front of him shattered in a shower of sparks. “... unknown, sir.”

“Landing systems have been disabled!” Mira screamed while the dashboard in front of her emitted enough blinking lights and miniature explosions to give an untrained person a headache.

“In that case, hang on, Rangers,” Buzz ordered. “We’re going to be making an unscheduled landing.”

The Space ranger operative then tried to steer the ship away from a rapidly approaching mountain range, to no avail. “Blast! Steering systems are going out!”

“Sir, our current trajectory is going to crash us right into an unknown ground vehicle!” Mira shouted.

Buzz peered into the distance and saw what she was referring to- a large, boxy red ground vehicle making its way up the mountain. Sure enough, they were headed straight for it.

Acting fast, Buzz yanked the steering controls to the side. Unfortunately, due to the damages the ship had taken, it stayed on its current, disastrous course.

**********

"HANG ON TIGHT!" Optimus Prime screamed as the spaceship barreled down on him. His steering wheel then started rapidly rotating to the right as his brakes slammed on.

"WHAT THE [censored] IS GOING ON?!" Dan cursed as he desperately clung onto Rarity.

"Kindly remove yourself from my person!" the white unicorn shouted at him as she wrapped her hooves around Optimus' ladder to avoid being thrown off.

Fluttershy shrieked as she was almost catapulted off the roof, only to be caught by a rope slipping around her midsection.

"Gotcha!" AJ muttered as she clamped her jaws tighter on her lasso, simultaneously latching her hooves into indents in Optimus's truck mode.

"GAAAAH!" Spike screamed as he clamped his sharp claws onto the ladder.

"WHEEEEEEEEE!" Pinkie exclaimed as she was thrown off the truck.

"Woah, there!" Rainbow Dash, already flying, shot downwards in time to catch Pinkie before she hit the ground.

"WOOO!" Pinkie threw her hooves in the air and beamed. "That was fun! Do it again!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Optimus suddenly turning around and barrelling down the mountain. The ship touched down on the mountain path a mere hundred yards in behind the Autobot, prompting him to activate the rockets mounted on the rear of his vehicle form.

The passengers on the roof shrieked as Optimus' speed neared two hundred miles an hour. Despite the excessive speed, the still-moving ship was gaining on them.

Then came a new problem- a sharp turn in the path. At his current speed, there was no possible way The Prime could stop himself in time.

"Everybody hang on!" the Autobot ordered as he continued to accelerate.

"Twilight! OUT!" Legatron shouted.

"Are you insane?!" the purple unicorn retorted.

Legatron cracked open the driver's side door. "This cab isn't going to exist for much longer!" He explained, having caught on to Optimus' plan.

Twilight glanced nervously put the windshield to see they had run out of path.

Gulping, she leapt out the door with Legatron, who converted into his jet mode. Twilight shrieked, clinging to his jet form for dear life.

Meanwhile, screams from Optimus' remaining passengers increased as he launched over the edge of the cliff. In one fluid motion, he detached his cab from his trailer, transformed both components, then latched back together in his massive robot form. He banked to the right, away from the ship, careful not to throw off the ponies and single human that were still clinging to his ladder.

Everyone looked back at the ship just in time to see it slow to a halt, a third of it hanging precariously over the cliff face.

Legatron let out a long breath- an impressive feat, seeing how he was still in his jet mode. "Well, that was an adventure."

The response was a few whimpers from teary-eyed unicorn.

"You alright?" the green jet asked, concerned.

It was a moment before Twilight responded in a barely audible whisper.

"Can we land now?"

*********

*

"Hellooooo? Can yah hear me?"

Buzz's eyes slowly pried themselves open. When his vision cleared, he saw he was face-to-face with what appeared to be a green and gray robot.

"Oooohhhh," was all Buzz could say as he reached for his head, which was suddenly aching.

"I'll take that as a yes," the robot said. His voice was young and upbeat, but still conveyed a hint of maturity and concern.

"What... Happened?" Buzz muttered.

"Your ship was sucked into an inter-dimensional portal and deposited in this universe," the robot exclaimed. "It crashed into a mountain, nearly flattening me and my friends."

Buzz sat up, now noticing he was still bent over the ship's fried control panel. "Yeah, sorry about that."

The robot waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. These portals are highly unstable- shorted out your ship as soon as you entered it." He extended the same hand he had waved to Buzz. "Name's Legatron- Keeper of the AllSpark, mulitverse traveller and protector of the innocent."

Buzz accepted the handshake. "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Me and my partners were-" A look of fear crossed his face. "My partners!"

"Are fine," Legatron said as he motioned behind Buzz. Looking back, the Space Ranger saw several brightly colored quadrupeds tending to his troops, who were also waking up.

He raised an eyebrow. "Are those-"

"Ponies, yes," Legatron finished. "They are the primary inhabitants of this land."

"Fascinating," Buzz said as he bent down to examine an orange pony with a stetson.

"Well howdy!" Applejack greeted.

Buzz's eyes widened. "They talk, too?"

"Yeah, why WOULDN'T they talk?" Any answer Legatron might have received was cut off by a long, low creak from the ships' frame. "Oh, yeah, this thing is kinda hanging over a cliff edge. But don't worry, we have a giant robot holding it up. We should have plenty of time before the cliff gives way."

The green robot's comlink crackled. "Legatron!" Optimus' voice said. "I can't hold it much longer! The cliffside is crumbling too fast!"

"OK, scratch that," Legatron said. "RUN!"

The Space Rangers, ponies and robots then scrambled out of the ship, tripping over eachother, as well as broken bits of metal.

Seconds after they had cleared out, the edge of the cliff crumbled. Optimus had no choice but to let the ship go. Moments later, a sickening metallic crunch echoed through the mountain range.

For a minute, no one spoke.

Legatron broke the silence. "Alrighty then. Buzz Lightyear, it is an honor," he said, shaking the Ranger's hand. "And yes, I've heard of you and your friends." Spinning around, he faced the ponies, Optimus and Dan. "Guys, this is Buzz Lightyear, and his partners, XR, Mira, and Booster. They're Space Rangers- intergalactic peace keepers." Again, he span, this time to face the Space Rangers. "Space Rangers, these are a special group of ponies called the Elements of Harmony. They're Twilight Sparkle and her dragon assistant, Spike, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. The obnoxious human is Dan, and the massive transforming robot is Optimus Prime." He clanked his hand against his chest. "And finally, I'm Legatron. Any questions?"

It was a moment before anyone responded, seeing how they were still slightly surprised at Legatron's sudden burst of information.

XR finally spoke. “Exactly where are we?”

"Earth, in the country of-" Legatron paused when he got a look at the shorter mech. "What the heck are you wearing?"

Confused, XR looked down and saw that the maid's outfit had somehow survived the crash. "It's not important!" He barked, mechanical eyebrows meshing into a furious V-shape.

Legatron shrugged. "Whatev's. You guys are on a parallel version of planet Earth inhabited by mythical creatures. This country is known as Equestria, and as the name implies, is inhabited primarily by these sentient ponies. We are on our way to the capital city of Canterlot to visit the ponies' leader, Princess Celestia, about closing the seemingly inter-universe wormholes that are bringing random residents of other universes here." He took a deep breath. "Any other exposition you'd like me to recite, or can we focus on eliminating the threat to thousands of innocent lives?"

"We'll take 'saving the innocents' for two-hundred, please," Mira responded in her best game-show voice.

"Alrighty then!" Legatron clapped his hands together. "Finally, we're getting somewhere!"

Optimus took the cue and shifted back into his firetruck form.

"Woah!" Booster's eyes widened. "Why can't YOU do that, XR?"

"Hey, I can so transform!" XR's legs then retracted into his can-shaped body, before popping back out with his treaded feet replaced with mop heads. "See?"

"Yeah," Legatron laughed, "That'll sweep them off their... their..." His face assumed a pained expression. "Augh, I can't do it! It's too obvious!" Without another word, he climbed back into Prime's cab.

"So, where do we ride?" Booster inquired, catching on that the Autobot's truck mode wouldn't take his massive weight.

The driver's side window rolled down. "Well, you have jetpacks, right?" Legatron pointed out.

"He's right, Rangers," Buzz started. "This vehicle was obviously not built for transporting large quantities of lifeforms." With that he punched a large red button on his armor's chestplate, activating the wings and rockets of his backpack.

"Coooool!" Rainbow exclaimed as the Space Rangers took to the sky.

"If everyone's ready," Legatron started, window still rolled down, "Then let's roll out!"

Optimus responded with a sigh.

Legatron snickered. "Sorry, couldn't resist."

**********

High above the travellers, a dark shape hovered in clouds.

Shiftech's blood red eyes narrowed as he brought his hand to the side of his head and clicked on his comlink.

"Teridax," he stated simply.

"What is it, Shiftech?" came the reply.

"Our enemies are slowly gaining momentum and numbers," the dark Herald of Unicron reported. "How are things going with the portal device?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," Teridax sighed. "We have yet to pinpoint the exact cause of the malfunction, or how to fix it."

"In that case, I'm sending you all to intercept the Keeper of the AllSpark and his friends.”

There was a pause before Teridax responded. “What?”

“You heard me. I will tend to the portal device while you hold them off,” Shiftech explained.

“But why? The Keeper of the AllSpark is YOUR enemy!” Teridax argued. “Besides, GLaDOS would be MUCH more useful staying behind and working on the device!”

“I have my reasons,” Shiftech stated simply.

After another pause, teridax spoke. “Very well then.”

With a click, the communication ended. Slowly, Shiftech averted his gaze to the sky.

“I know you’re coming,” he spat. “And when you do, I’m going to give you heck.”

**********

“Are we there yet?” XR whined for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“Nearly,” Twilight responded. “I can see the city gate up ahead-”

“HALT!”

The group of assorted travelers glanced skyward to see a large group of armored pegasi hovering above them.

“Aw, crap, more pony cops!” Dan said. “Pinky thing, hide me!” He then lifted Pinkie Pie in front of himself in a miserable attempt to shield his face from the guards.

The mass of guards slowly touched down, forming a large circle around the travellers. A half dozen remained in the sky keeping tabs on the still hovering Space Rangers.

“I’ll handle this,” Twilight said as she exited Optimus’ cab and approached who she presumed was the leader of the group of guards. ”I am Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia. These others are refugees that have been... DISPLACED from their homes, and I am taking them to the Princess to see what she can do about solving this problem.” She finished by motioning Spike over, who hopped off of Prime and handed the guard the note from the Princess.

The guard looked it over carefully. “OK, they’re clear,” he informed his men. “But we’ll have to escort you through the city in order to avoid any other panics.”

“‘Other’ panics?” Twilight repeated. ‘As in, there have been panics recently?”

“Why do you think we closed off the city?” the guard replied. “First a flaming metal triangle crashed near the city and exploded, then a metal box full of strange monkey-looking things appeared out of nowhere!”

“Monkey-looking things?” the purple unicorn inquired. “Did they happen to look similar to the being on the roof of our vehicle that's hiding behind the pink pony?”

The guard glanced past Twilight and caught sight of Dan. “Yes, they look like the same species.”

Twilight sighed before turning back to the firetruck. “In that case, we better get moving. I have a feeling our sessions of rounding up aliens are far from over.”

Author's Note

Went with a slightly different format for this chapter, with more story about how the characters ended up in the pony universe. Don't worry, they'll still have plenty of time to interact with the other characters in future chapters.