//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Good News, but Mostly Bad News // Story: My Little Pony: Transformers Prime // by LibbytheKautz //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie sat at the edge of Ponyville, watching for the Autobots, Rarity and Twilight. She squinted her eyes. Was that them? No... Oh! That's gotta be them! No, never mind. She sighed. What's taking them so long? Her pinkie sense was tingling in a way it never had before. A dust cloud billowing up in the distance caused her to look up. It has to be them this time! she thought excitedly. As it drew closer, it proved to be the Autobots. "Yepeee!" she exclaimed as she jumped up into the air and did a little dance. But the grim look around them as they grew closer stopped her. They pulled to stop and Rarity stepped out. Pinkie looked at her in confusion. "Where's Twilight?" Pinkie asked. Rarity looked at her and bit her lip. Pinkie looked up as Optimus Prime opened his door and three ponies she did not know stepped out. They turned to look at Pinkie. No one spoke. "Will someone please tell me what is going on!?" Pinkie yelled. The silence was overbearing. She needed to know what was going on! Rarity cleared her throat. "We have a bit of a... problem." "A problem? What sort of problem?" Pinkie pressed. "It's Discord. He doesn't seem to remember us. He sent Twilight somewhere and replaced her with them," Rarity said, motioning towards the three newcomers, "whom the Autobots seem to know..." "What!?!" Pinkie Pie said in shock, "How could Discord betray us? Especially after the Tirek incident? Are we in danger? Ahhh! I need to sing my Welcome to Ponyville Song!" she took a deep breath, but was interrupted by Rarity's hoof. "I'm afraid we have bigger problems than singing your song right now, Pinkie Pie. Yes, we are all in danger. With Discord on the loose again with no memory of our friendship, and without Twilight to activate the Elements of Harmony or our Rainbow Power, we have no way to protect ourselves. We need to tell the others-" "And all of Ponyville!" Pinkie Pie interrupted again. "PONYVILLE! DISCORD IS ON THE LOOSE! WE ARE ALL IN DANGER!!!" she ran off screaming towards Ponyville. Rarity daintily facehoofed. "Pinkie Pie! Get back here this instant!" Pinkie stopped in her tracks, then zipped back. "Yes Rarity?" she asked. "Instead of scaring everyone, would you be a dear and invite them all to town hall? We have some explaining to do." "Okey-dokey lokey!" Pinkie quipped, them turned bounced back towards Ponyville yelling, "PONYVILLE!!! COME TO TOWN HALL! WE HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!!!" ----- As ponies settled in to the hall, the three new ponies sat backstage and tried to figure out what was going on. The first, an orange unicorn colt with a brown spiky mane and a computer and mouse for a cutie mark looked back at his hooves. "I still can't get over the fact that we're ponies." "It's just, like, totally awesome!" said the second, a lavender-coloured pegasus with a pink mane tied into two messy buns and an electric guitar cutie mark. "I have wings!" she exclaimed, flapping them rapidly then falling on her face. She popped her face off the ground and rested her chin in her hooves. "I just wish I knew how to use them." "'Kay, guys, why aren't you freaking out?! We should all be freaking out! We should be getting out of here as fast as we can! We're magical multi-coloured talking ponies for goodness sakes!" The third, a light blue earth pony with a darker blue mane said as he huddled into a ball, trying to make sense of it all. "And why don't I have a butt tattoo?" he whimpered. "Jack, snap out of it. Aren't you supposed to be the calm and collected one?" asked the pegasus, waving her hoof in his face. "As for the butt tattoo, you'll just have to ask the other ponies, 'cause I have no idea." Pinkie Pie bounced in, interrupting their talk. "You guys can come out now!" she said with another bounce. The three ponies got up and followed Pinkie on stage. All the other ponies gathered looked at them with interest and whispered amongst each other. The walk to the other ponies in the middle of the stage seemed excruciatingly long. When they finally arrived, they nervously turned to face the crowd. "Hey everypony! This is Raf Miko and Jack!" Pinkie shouted, gesturing towards them. "They are from the world that the Autobots are from, in fact they are actually humans! Bet you didn't know that! And Raf is the unicorn and his cutie mark represents computuring and such and the pegasus is Miko and her cutie mark is an electric guitar and the earth pony is Jack and he doesn't have a cutie mark!" she finished breathlessly. "Blank flank," giggled two voices from the crowd. Pinkie didn't seem to notice and Rarity stepped forward. "You're probably wondering why they're here and Twilight isn't." she stated. Many heads nodded in agreement. Rarity took a deep breath. "Well there is good news, but mostly bad news. The good news is that we found energon and Twilight's spell worked. The bad news is..." she sighed. "Discord doesn't seem to remember us and is, well, on the loose again and he sent Twilight to another world and replaced her with them so we can't use the Elements of Harmony, or our Rainbow Power..." Rarity hung her head. The hall was silent. Everypony waited for somepony to say something. Some started to whisper among themselves. Others turned to study Raf, Miko and Jack again. Raf slightly waved his hoof, Miko grinned nervously, and Jack just looked ahead stone-faced. "Before we all start freaking out, please tell us that you're just kidding." a pony asked hopefully from the crowd. "Hate to break it to y'all, but we're not kidding. This is the truth. We are all in danger and have no way to protect ourselves." Applejack confirmed. "Well, not no way..." Fluttershy whispered. "We have the Autobots, but we don't know if they'll stay to help." Applejack continued. "Yes, but we still could..." "We could ask for the princesses' help, but even they could only defeat Discord with the Elements of Harmony." "Maybe we could try being the..." "And who knows what Discord has in plan?" "Power Ponies!" Fluttershy half-yelled, half-squeaked as she threw hooves in the air, then huddled into a ball. "I mean, if you wanted too..." Fluttershy shook her head and boldly stood up. "I mean, becoming the Power Ponies just might work to defeat Discord, or, fix whatever is wrong with him, I wouldn't dream of doing anything mean to him..." The rest of the mane five considered her words. "Power Ponies?" Rarity asked, restating Fluttershy's idea. "If we could figure out how to become them not in an enchanted comic book... it could work." pondered Applejack. "We could try," Rarity added, "but we had trouble defeating the Maniac with those powers, and Discord is much, much more powerful." "But if the Autobots stay to help, we'll have this in the bag." Rainbow Dash said, crossing her hooves. "Ehh, maybe." Pinkie shrugged. The other four turned to look at her. "What?" she asked, "even the magic of four alicorns couldn't equal to the Magic of Friendship." "Oh, we all know that," Fluttershy said, "but this is our best bet. It's worth a shot." "Yeah, I guess you're right. Power Ponies it is! Or is it it are? We are?" Pinkie Pie wondered out loud. The other four nodded in agreement and Rarity turned to face the crowd as they paid her their attention. She cleared her throat. "A little while ago we entered a comic book of Spike's and became the superheroes known as the Power Ponies, as some of you you may know. We believe that becoming them again, somehow, is our best bet to defeat Discord." The crowd murmured and waves of different emotions swept through the the crowd. Eyebrows were raised and opinions shared, some shouted and others argued with a neighbour. "How do you plan on being characters from a comic book in the real world?" One brown stallion shouted, "They're fiction and this is life! Science-" "Oh, don't worry," interupted Pinkie Pie, and those who heard her stopped talking to listen, "I think I know just how to do it. Good thing at least I can understand Twilight's ramblings!"