“I am Optimus Prime, leader of the free Cybertronians, and I send this warning to any foe hiding within the multi-verse, plotting against peace. I only allow you to know one thing: the Autobots will defend the ponies living here. We will defend the peace and honor this world holds until the bitter end. We will defend…our home.”
The message on the hologram fizzled out with an annoying pop. Alongside the pop was the light that the message displayed from the hologram. It faded as the message died, the darkness slowly creeping back into the towering, black room.
In that black room, several kings sat silently, eyeing the dark hologram with eyes filled with pure malice. The kings remained motionless, their heavy breaths spewing fog and slime into the void that filled their bodies, entrenching them forever in their kingdom with not a soul to rule.
None of that mattered to the kings. Arrogance was their life’s blood, ambition was their food and drink, but most of all, hubris was the air they breathed, the air that filled the throne room of their forgotten kingdom.
The eldest sat forward, his fingers curling under his chin in signs of thought and processing. He replayed and reviewed the message, the warning within his shattered husk of a mind, the bits and pieces coming together to form the bigger picture. Soon enough, the eldest grew a wicked smile, his grin spreading like a virus to his brothers.
The cackles of the Creators were soon to follow, filling the darkness of the throne room with renewed life once again.
The Badlands.
Equestria’s personal hell.
Even Princess Celestia’s sunset could not pierce the heavy storm clouds overhead the forgotten valley. No Pegasus dared to control the clouds, no pony even dared to enter the demonic lands and the horrors that filled legends. The clouds hung over the dead valleys, giving off an eerie, green tint to the land. The green color was not uncommon, having appeared multiple times in the Badlands. Sadly, nopony was there to observe them closer to understand why they turned green.
It mattered none. Whatever life existed in the Badlands, it was far too preoccupied with trying to survive than trying to understand the land. That didn’t mean they tried to. Little critters, scorpions and rattlesnakes, slithered and crawled across the sea-like desert the Badlands represented, moving hill to hill, searching for a meal.
Whatever life there was, it scattered in fear once a silhouetted being clawed his way to the top of the nearest hill.
With a grunt of effort, the being pushed himself up, standing high and mighty in the Badlands with not another living soul in his presence. They were all too afraid, frantically abandoning the hill as the creature stared out into nothing.
Let them be afraid.
Let them fear him.
Let them forever scatter from his shadow.
The storm clouds completely blocked out the sun, thunder rocking the heavens with the storm soon to follow. The silhouetted being slowly began to turn, placing his palm against his abdomen in a sign of pain with the action. Once he was fully around, the being stared passed the dark skies and watched the mountain city with his glowing, green eyes. It was barely there, the top of one of its many towers just slightly visible on the side of the black mountain.
Lockdown clenched his fist, a hungry look in his Cybertronian eyes.
His mission was so clear. His hunt was simple enough. Autobots were always worth the effort. For reasons he was still trying to come to conclusion with, the power from the indigenous species that inhabited the world he stood on was far beyond that of Cybertronian technology, or even his technology. It was a weapon that nearly killed him, a weapon that had wiped out armies in the thousands with the blink of an eye.
It was them that had caused him to fail, that had caused him to lose his ship and thus trapping him on the accursed mud ball he stood on. For many similar to him, they would’ve given in and let the horrors of the world take them and do what it shall please.
They were weak. He would never give up. He would have his vengeance on these creatures that kept him grounded on this filthy world. The hunt was still far from over.
For Lockdown…the hunt had only just begun.