Chapter 6 Natural Insight
Starscream awoke with a groan, his eyes flickering due to the new experience from the sun in the eyes that it offered with the unplanned transformation to an organic creature. While his sight was still focusing, he looked around the room before last night’s ‘session’ kicked in. After his sight was completely focused he smirked at the idea that he actually remembered being a pony more so than the events last night.
He noticed the red rather large male pony lying in front of him and the sky blue pegasus with a rainbow mane lying to right of him though was a few feet further away. Silently as he could he got up and lied back on the wall in a sitting position, but he was currently keeping his eyes on the pegasus more so than the stallion.
All the inflicted injures made him think back to their fight. Flying, shooting, punching, missiles, all of it he could remember, this only confirmed to him that this was in fact reality and not a really long dream.
He chuckled darkly at the thought. “Dreams…”
He kept his attention on the pegasus however. Despite the bandages and splinted wings, she still seemed to have the same appeal of beauty she had when he first laid his then optics at her, a lively, courageous, and colorful pony. Even though he’d been punched several times by this particular pony, she seemed to keep the ex-seeker’s attention, a certain appeal he himself wasn’t quite sure of.
He shook his head, there was no time him to be a scientist, he’d been doing too much of that as of late. Again, quietly as he could, he got up and slowly got to his hoofs, which was awkward for him since he was either on two legs, in the air, or was on a rare occasion on wheels. But ether way, it was still rudimentary and he was would be able to get used to this like he would anything else.
Quietly, he moved past the stallion resting in front of him and slowly made his way to the door. But before he made it, he took a quick look at the pegasus once again, who was merely resting and the only movement was from her breathing in and out slowly. He shook his again, what was wrong with him?
He finally made it to the door once he torn his now-eyes from her and went to open the door. He lifted his hoof to touch the door.
“Nnnope.”
Starscream turned to see the red stallion standing tall and watching him. The silver stallion growled and backed away from the door before turning his full attention to the red stallion. “So I suppose we are waiting for Rainbow Dash to wake?” he spat with annoyance.
“Eeyup.” He answered as if he were having a conversation with any other pony.
He turned back to the female pony with a glare but it was at that point she awoke. She groaned, awaking from the hard floor. Being used to clouds made it a bit harder for the mare to sleep on hard surfaces. She groaned before looking around till her mind finally registered the silver legs in front of her.
“Starscream!” she immediately got to her hoofs in a flash, shocking both stallions at her sudden speed. “Get back or-”
“No need to be hostel Miss Dash. He an’t causin no trouble.” Macintosh said to calm her down.
“We were waiting for you to complete your recharge.” Starscream added with sneer. While he was still trailing on his thoughts from earlier, his character was something that was hard to change.
“If you mean sleeping, than thank you.” She said with a huff. She started her way to the door before she turned back to him “Just watch your back. I’m keeping my eyes on you…” and then left the room though she kept the door open.
Starscream smirked before turning back to Big Macintosh, who was merely keeping a close eye on him, and then exited the room himself with the large red stallion following him. The three of them made their way to the kitchen to be greeted with Twilight and Applejack already there, to which Starscream groaned at this sight.
“Good, you’re awake. Rainbow, Macintosh” Twilight began before turning her full attention to Starscream “Starscream.” She then faced their general direction “I think its best we keep this between ourselves.”
“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash questioned.
“About Starscream. Everyone is still in panic and freaked about yesterday, last thing we need is them worrying about him.” Starscream only smirked, turning away from her.
“But don’t you think they should know?” Rainbow strained but tried to keep her voice down, knowing everyone else was asleep “I mean we can’t exactly trust him.”
“Sorry Dash, but Ah’m with Twilight on this one. Between the four of us we’ll keep him in check.” Applejack said walking by the table going to Twilight’s side.
Rainbow smirked at thought turning her head slowly at the silver pegasus who only seemed to be glaring at the wall, obviously not keeping full attention to their conversation, probably from the anger being generated just from the situation itself. “I don’t like the idea of him being out in the open.”
“We have no place to put him. Besides, like I said earlier, I don’t want the others panicking.” The unicorn explained putting her gaze to the pegasus in question then turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash.
“I’m going to assume I have no say in this matter.” Starscream stated to no particular.
“You got that right!” The female pegasus growled now facing the him once again “If it were my way, you’d be locked up and your wings clipped!”
“Rainbow!” Applejack intervened.
Starscream only weakened his smirk at the threat, looking straight into her magenta eyes he and strengthened it “Really? I’ve been through worse I’m sure…pony or not.”
Rainbow didn’t expect that reaction but she didn’t let it phase her and she turned away “Whatever. Who’s going to watch over him?”
“Alternate.” Macintosh said suddenly, which caught the girls off guard due to complete silence through the whole conversation.
“Great idea.” Applejack said agreeing with her brother “We’ll take turns. Who wants the first watch?”
“I will.” Twilight volunteered before walking in front of the ex-transformer “There are quite a few things I’d like to know about him.”
“The feeling is mutual. Miss…” Starscream answered but stumped at her name.
“Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.” She answered but tried to keep her tone with him professional “I know that we’re not on even terms, but I think I speak for both of us when I say we should keep your previous self and actions a secret for now.”
Starscream didn’t argue, mostly because he didn’t have much of an argument to make. If anything he agreed with her completely. Blurting out that he was one of the ones who attacked the town would not gain him any kind of advantage, if anything it would be a rather big disadvantage. If anything he should be counting his blessings, so far only one of them has punched him across the face…multiple times.
On that note, co-operating was probably the only way he was going to get out of this alive. As far as he was concerned, Megatron thought he was dead, which meant he technically was no longer was affiliated with the Decepticons. Unless of course he wanted to rekindle those ties…which didn’t seem anymore appealing than his current state.
He merely nodded “Fair enough.”
“Morning Everpony!” Pinkie Pie yelled through hall greeting everyone in room. She trotted through like usual and then noticed the silver stallion for the first time. “Oooh! Are you that stallion that Applejack brought home?”
“Um…yes.” Starscream struggled to answer as the hipper active, bouncing pink pony in front of him.
“Oh, I see. What’s your name? My name’s Pinkie Pie, But you can just Pinkie.”
Now he was backing away a bit “Um…” for a moment tried to think of a more ‘organic’ name if that made sense but nothing came up “…Starscream.”
“Starscream? That’s a cool name! I bet you dad named you wanted to be a star and screamed a lot! How’d you get your cutie mark? How is-”
While Rainbow Dash was enjoying seeing him feel uncomfortable from the brigade of questions Starscream couldn’t possibly answer, she knew that it would probably end badly, considering his actions so far. “Alright Pinkie, leave him alone, he’s still a little groggy from the last night.”
Starscream turned his attention to her with a glare to which she smirked at his reaction. “Sure, let’s go with that…”
“Okie dokie lokie!” And with that went to Applejack who was currently getting Breakfast started.
Starscream would probably thank her for her intrusion but after bring up what happened last night, he had no desire to.
The morning continued with everyone waking one by one. All entering in one by one to have a simple breakfast provide via Granny Smith and Applejack. Surprisingly, Starscream’s presence wasn’t much of a distraction. If anything he was like another Macintosh except more to himself and gave anyone a random look when facing his direction.
Starscream himself however, was learning all sorts of new sensations. For one thing he seemed to notice his voiced changed a bit. The cracking raspy voice was hardly noticeable. Also touch, not that he couldn’t feel things before when he was a transformer, the touch sensors were fairly accurate, but there was something different bout when being organic. Also taste, which another thing that wasn’t totally unheard of as a transformer but was very different since there was more variety it tastes unlike in Energon where there was only about four different kinds.
To add to that, Starscream actually kind of enjoyed these new sensations. He’d be lying (Which wouldn’t be a problem for him) if he said he didn’t find some kind of enjoyment out of it. If anything, as a scientist, this would have been very beneficial, but even then, he still wanted his Cybertronian body back.
Eventually, the crowd of them left to help repair Ponyville and assist in guards in anyway possible, except for Rainbow Dash who was currently barely able to walk much less be much help and Twilight who stated she wanted to study the invaders or do some kind of research in hoping to find out why magic was so ineffective against them. Which really wasn’t a lie; she did have plenty of questions for their ‘prisoner’.
After they left it was merely Granny Smith who was resting in the living room chair, Rainbow Dash was practically forced by her friends to take it easy and just let her rest. Which really isn’t the easiest task for the pegasus to follow but did what they asked, however, she gave herself a second task, watch Starscream.
After everyone left, Starscream and Twilight were over by the field in the orchard area, that was still was fairly close to the Apple Household but was still in the area of apple trees that surrounded them. However, both Starscream and Twilight were unaware of Rainbow Dash’s intrusion by hiding behind a large tree nearby, lying down.
Both Starscream and Twilight were lying down on their legs facing each other. Starscream was struggling to get his new wings out of a cramp from the tie that Twilight put on last night as the lavender unicorn was using her magic to hold both a notepad and inked feather.
“Okay, Starscream.” Twilight began looking at her notebook “How about we start with something simple. What are you, or rather who were you?” Despite being calm and kind like she usually was, she was holding back her urge to hoof him across the face.
“What are you talking about? If you mean what race was I? I was a Transformer. A Cybertronian.” Starscream answered with a light smug expression.
“Transformer? Oh, because you could turn into those different things right?”
“Sure, whatever.”
“Okay, where did you come from?”
“Cybertron.”
“Where’s that? I can’t say I’ve heard of that town.”
“It’s another planet.”
“Oh…” she was stumped, all this time she was talking to an alien, also she felt kind of stupid, she felt that if such a race existed on their planet, she would have heard of them “Um…okay.”
“How about I ask a question?” Starscream asked with a smirk. “After all I think I deserved to know a few things as well.”
‘I beg to differ’ Rainbow thought from a distance with a smug expression.
“Um…sure…what would you like to know?” Twilight asked politely.
“This entity.” He pointed at the notebook and pen, which have yet to be used once.
“Oh, you mean magic.” Twilight inquired “Oh, it’s a special ability that we ponies have, depending on our species. Since I’m a unicorn, I can use it to produce spells and other things like that. Pegasus like you also posses a kind of magic, such as being able to walk on clouds.”
“Hmph. Magic.” He said silently. Magic was such a broad term, and after going to many different planets, and experiences with the Decepticons, magic was something he’s heard many times, an element of power which could not be explained. As a scientist, he was able to work in the factors but just couldn’t put it together, if he’d stayed a scientist, he probably would’ve figured it out, but…he lived a different life.
“Okay so Star…you mind if I call you Star?”
Starscream only crooked his neck “It’s better than Screamer I guess.” Screamer didn’t really bring up good memories.
“Alright.” Twilight looked into her notebook and then stopped and put it down. “Um just a side question, um, what does your cutie mark stand for?”
“My Cutie what?”
“Your Cutie Mark.” She repeated and pointed her hoof at his side.
He looked back and saw the mark which he somehow missed before. It was an active red jet engine crossed with a chemical test tube. “I don’t know! I don’t even now how I got it!”
“Calm down!” Twilight stressed “I’ll explain.” He only shrugged doing as she asked “You see, we ponies, when we learn about what our special talent is, we get a mark on our side called a Cutie Mark.”
“Hmm…” Starscream actually did notice all the different marks on their flanks but never dwelled on it simply because he was still trying to register all that has happened in the last 48 hours.
“So um…what were you good at when you were…um…a transformer?” she asked knowing that probably he still was thinking all this over.
Starscream gave a smirk in pride standing on all fours “I, Starscream was the only superior Decepticon Air Commander and Second-in-Command. Under my leadership, I was the one who lead all successful air combats against the Autobots. Also I was a brilliant scientist! My great knowledge has been recognized greatly on Cybertron!”
Twilight got little chuckle at Starscream’s little glory speech but at least it made sense how he got his Cutie Mark, in a way, it was like he had two in one. “Interesting” she said who actually was genuinely interested but didn’t forget who was by any means “But I have many more questions.”
“I bet.” Starscream said annoyed lying back down.
‘A scientist and an air commander?’ Rainbow Dash thought for a second. Wasn’t something she expected at all. She thought back to their fight yesterday, he certainly did know how to maneuver in the air, and considering the size and shape he was, was pretty impressive to her, considering he was restricted to things she could do, although he could get around this weakness by transforming to robot mode.
“Hmm…”
--Nemesis 2--
“We are sending in the Decepticons you requested Megatron.” A purple octagon shaped head and a single yellow glowing light said to Megatron via video feed. “They should arrive in six orbital cycles.”
“Excellent Shockwave.” Megatron said with a smirk.